In this episode, I share my decade-long journey in the world of podcasting, starting from his initial venture into audiobook recording in 2012 to my current role as the founder of a podcast production company.
You'll hear about the key figures who inspired me to get into the craft, experiences and experiments with various podcast shows through the years, successes, challenges, and the lessons learned along the way.
We close with the most important thing I've learned about doing a podcast. (And if you're thinking of getting into the podcasting craft, I've got a project in the works that might be of interest to you. Just listen in and get all the details!)
Episode highlights:
00:29 First Steps into Audiobook Recording
01:46 Discovering the World of Podcasting
03:30 Launching My First Podcast
04:38 Finding My Niche with Trumpet Dynamics
06:04 The Musicpreneur Experiment
08:57 Transition to Producing Shows for Others
13:24 The most important lesson I've learned
The devil doesn't want you to listen to this!
Napoleon Hill's Outwitting the Devil is now available in audiobook format, narrated by Yours Truly.
Visit my website, jamesdnewcomb.com to get instant access to the audios!
(upbeat music) Conscious Living in a Zunktout World. You're listening to "Bavosh Done" with James D. Newcomb, brought to you by Grandma Petruo. (upbeat music) - My podcast and career actually began in 2012. I had just read a wonderful novel by the title "Hire Cause", the author was John Hunt. And I loved the book so much that I reached out to him, John, personally, and said, "Do you have an audio version of your book?" And he said, "No, I don't." And I replied, "Would you like one?" This was 2012. He asked me to send a sample of me recording his book. And he didn't say no. And so thus began a brand new career. Recording audiobooks, this book itself was very long, very lengthy, and I poured my heart and my soul into it. And when it was all said and done, the performance was crappy, it was terrible. It was cringe-worthy to go back and listen to my performance of that book is truly awful. But that's the way things are with anything that you begin for the very first time. You inevitably get better at it. You have to get better at it. You have no choice when you practice something. Even if you practice it the wrong way, you're going to get better just through sheer repetition. And so I got better at it. This is 2012, and I hooked up with a book club that they produced audiobooks, and they hired me to do a couple of audiobooks. And I was enjoying it, and I was getting paid really well to do it. And I thought this is something that I can see myself getting into. Let's fast forward a couple of years. It is late 2014, and there was a podcast that I listened to at the time. My friend and someone that I've learned a lot from as a podcaster, Tom Woods, interviewed this fellow by the name of John Lee Dumas. This is late 2014, and if you've heard of John Lee Dumas of Entrepreneur on Fire, this is when he was just getting started, meaning he had just started two years earlier. He was on Tom's show and talking about how much fun he was having with it and how much money he was making with it. And I thought, you know what? I have experience using my voice in this type of setting, not necessarily podcasts, audiobooks. But I thought I could do that. I could have a podcast. I could get started and interview people. And John was making a lot of money back then. And I thought I might not be able to make that kind of money, but it's proof that it can be done. I thought, I can do this. In January of 2015, I joined John's flagship program called Podcaster's Paradise. Of which I'm still a member, and I'm still in close contact with John and his now wife, Kate, and business partner. By the way, I did release an episode with John Dumas on this podcast, Nukem with Love. Just search for it, it's there. Listen to it, good content that was shared on that. And that was my introduction to podcasts. My first podcast was called Outside the Music Box. I was still in the military at the time, this is 2015. And I still had about a year left of the military, and I knew that my time was getting short, and I wanted this to be my career, how I was gonna make money and support my family, was with this medium called podcasts. The very first show that I did was called Outside the Music Box. I did not have a clear-cut mission or purpose for the show. In hindsight, it was good practice, but it wasn't, I didn't have any chance of really generating any traction as far as building an audience. Certainly not gonna make any money if you don't have a real solid audience of people who believe in you as a person, and they believe in the mission that you're spreading or sharing with your show. That's really the secret sauce of podcasting is building community, gathering people together. That's how you make money with podcasts. But it was good practice. 2016, I started a show called Trumpet Dynamics. I mentioned in great detail in yesterday's episode that I'm a trumpet player and still am an active trumpet player, and I wanted to niche down. I wanted to do a show that was focused on something that I was really good at and passionate about, and this had a better chance of succeeding as far as building an audience within a very focused niche. And succeeded did. That first year, I had something along the lines of 55,000 downloads, which is pretty good. Now, June of 2016, I traveled to Puerto Rico and spent an entire day with John Lee Dumas. So you can see that John has been an important figure in my podcasting career. Still is in many ways, but I spent an entire week with him, excuse me, an entire day with John, and a little bit of time with Kate, but mostly with John. And we came up with a plan for a show that would be focused on entrepreneurship for musicians. It looked like eo-fire, like entrepreneurs on fire for musicians, very roughly, very rough description, but that was what it was. It was gonna be a podcast as the centerpiece product, and then with that was gonna build a community. It was called Music Pranur. Music Pranur never really took off. And here's the reason why. I did it for two years, and it never really gained any traction. And the reason for this is that it never really, truly resonated with me inside. There was always some apprehension with doing it. Just talking about making money, making music. That was just, it just never quite settled in my spirit inside. And although I continued to develop my skills as an interviewer and as a podcaster, it never, I just never was able to really grasp, get grabbed onto this particular topic of making money with music. I became familiar with some other people who were doing really well with teaching this idea of entrepreneurship for musicians. And I looked at them who were doing fine and they were doing well, and I looked at their offerings. And it just did not seem like something that I could do long term. And that's an important lesson that I have learned is you have to envision yourself doing something. And speaking directly about podcasts, if you're considering starting a podcast, ask yourself, do you see yourself passionate about this a year from now? Two years from now, five years from now. And if not, then I think that you should think twice about even starting it to begin with, especially one year, can do anything for a year. But if you can't imagine yourself still at it a year from now, then I think you shouldn't do it. That's my opinion. And as the host of the show, I am entitled to share my opinion on the show. Getting back to this show about entrepreneurship for musicians, I looked at others who were doing it and were doing well with it. And I just thought, this is not me. This is not something that I want to be. And I was also going through some personal issues with my first marriage, which was dissolving and it was we were going through a divorce. And it was just time to let it go. I'd kept the musicpreneur.com domain for several years after that. And finally, I just let it go. I paid a lot of money for that domain. But sometimes you just have to let go. It's called the sunk cost fallacy of just holding onto something just because you've have a lot invested in it. But it was just time to go. Now we're in 2018. And this is when I got into the business of producing shows for other people. And this is something that I really love doing to this day here in 2024. I love being the idea man, the person who gives consultation to people who have their own shows. And I'm the person behind the scenes, giving advice, giving maybe a little bit of motivation when it's needed to just get the work done. Being the person behind the scenes appeals to me. I enjoy it. I came across a man by the name of Ben Greenfield who is really well known in the realm of health and fitness and has since branched out into things like parenting, spirituality, Christianity, things like that. But I had never heard of him. And I responded to what amounts to a classified ad on Facebook saying this business is looking for an audio editor. And I put my hat in the ring and I got the job. And I was very happy to get the job because money was a little short at the time. And I took that show and I treated it as though it were my very own. And I really did a really excellent job with it. I did that. I was in that position for four years until July of 2022. And I say in all humility that I really did a really good job with it. By the time I left, I had established myself not just within that organization and then have a very deep level of trust with the core people within that organization. I had also been able to advertise my services to other podcasters and I had what you would call a thriving podcast business, production business. This is 2022. In the intervening time, the clientele has dissipated somewhat. I'm building it back up. I have been in contact with several who are about to start new shows, which is always good. But that has been my business of producing shows for people. And it's something that I love. It's something that really lights my fire inside. And it's odd to say that because we often think that we need to be in the spotlight and the ego tells us that you're not successful unless you are the alpha behind, in this case, a podcast. And that's not necessarily true. You can have just as much satisfaction being behind the scenes and providing valuable advice and input for another person as you can, doing the same thing for yourself. And that brings us to 2024, the year that we are in now and we are recording this podcast here in July of 2024. I had continued the trumpet dynamics show and it was more or less a hobby. It was really something that kept me interested in music. And I can honestly say that had I not continued that podcast, I probably would have stopped playing trumpet and just I would have lost interest in it. I would have got busy with things and because I had a lot of things going on. And I probably, I truly believe that had I not continued that podcast, I would have lost interest and just quit entirely. So I credit my continuing to be a musician, a performing active performer to the podcast and it didn't make any money. It didn't really have that much of a following that I could discern. Although with almost no promotion, people were listening to it. I would get a pretty good size audience for each episode and I literally did no promotion for it. So that brings me here to 2024 and I have started this show Nukem with Love. And this leads me to the most important thing that I have learned in my podcast and career, which is going on 10 years now. And the most important thing is this, you have to make your show about you. The show needs to be centered around you. And this sounds a little bit odd. It sounds narcissistic to even say it. But when you think about it, it makes a lot of sense. You want the show to be centered around the thing that really lights your fire. The problem in this world that has to be solved and this is why you had to start this podcast. Now, the show being about you doesn't mean that the show has to be quote all about you, unquote. It's not that you're going to dominate the interview. If you have a guest, you're just gonna dominate and make it all about you and be a narcissist. That's not what that means. It means that you have this mission, this calling and you have to get this message out into the world. And you feel so strongly about this that you had to do this podcast. If that is you, then you have done it for the right reason. And you have a chance. I'm not gonna say that it's going to work, but then and only then do you have a chance of building an audience because people can smell a phony from a mile away and they will not listen to longer than 30 seconds if they sense that you are not 100% invested in this message that you're sharing on this podcast. So that is what I have learned. It, when I was formulating this show Nukem with Love is the result of many botched attempts at making a show that suits my own interests and my own unique personality outside of being a musician. Of course, music is gonna be discussed on this show, but there's a lot of things that make up James Nukem than just being a musician. And that is where we are. That is the most important thing that I have learned about podcasts. I've actually got a book in the works that is gonna be focused on how to start a podcast. If you're interested in starting a podcast and you wanna know more about it, the best way to be kept apprised of the progress and when the book is released is to join my email list. Just go to jamesdenukem.com and there's a subscribe form prominently displayed on the homepage and when you subscribe you'll also be given access to a number of audio books that I've recorded. Outwitting the devil, the go getter, obvious atoms. Has a man thinketh and there's a couple others. But just go to jamesdenukem.com and enter your email address, get those free gifts and I stay in close contact with my email subscribers and I'll of course give updates as to when this book, name to be announced, but it's a good one. We'll be released. That's all I've got to say on this topic. It's always more to say, but I don't wanna make this show all about me. You know what I mean? Thank you for listening. - Grammar Petrelow is your go-to full service publishing and marketing firm. Specializing in podcasts, copywriting, email marketing, website design, course creation and much more. If it involves clicking a button that says publish, we're here to help. Let us handle the technical side of things while you focus on creating and delivering value for your audience. With Grammar Petrelow, your vision becomes reality shared with grace, mercy and peace in truth and love. Discover the Grammar Petrelow difference today. Visit GMPTL.org and receive a free gift just for checking us out. That's GM as in Mary, PTL.org.
