Tag: Podcast

June 17, 2022 – Looking for a Quick Win

June 17, 2022 /

I want to start building some rigor into podcasting and unfortunately, the timing is poor with me being in Spain. I thought maybe I would talk about some travel tips today since I have flown quite a bit. In addition, I have flown internationally many more times that I would like and this all fits into what I have up to lately.

At one time, I was a Delta Platinum frequent flyer (back when that was the highest tier) and I even got a Christmas card from a hotel one year. I know a bit about travelling. What I am trying to convey is not the nuts and bolts of travelling or packing tips or how to get the best deals or the most out of travel but best practices.

The Merriam Webster definition of best practices are as follows: a procedure that has been shown by research and experience to produce optimal results and that is established or proposed as a standard suitable for widespread adoption. To be clear, these are most typically opinions from subject matter experts (like myself in this case). There is nothing saying that there are not conflicting opinions labelled as best practices from different sources.

Travelling for business and travelling for vacation are not exactly the same thing but they share a lot in common. Primarily, they are both travel. I think most people in the business world pack and orient toward speed. Meaning ‘How can I get off the plane and get home as fast as possible’? This means no checking bags and keeping things as compact as possible. I am going to let the the podcast speak for itself for the rest of this.

End Your Programming Routine: Bear with me, this is the beginning. I have listened several times and heard the smacks and uh’s too. I mean, I don’t think it is too bad considering these are off the cuff and I don’t have much practice. I anticipate adding some bumper music and working on a more standard intro and exit. But overall, I am pretty happy with what I have here.

June 10, 2022 – Just Do It

June 10, 2022 /

It was 1988 when this slogan came out. Athletes like Bo Jackson and Michael Jordan were in their prime and leading the charge. I was in middle school and of course, it was the coolest thing to emulate or wear certain marketing slogans (like this one). We had no idea what it really implied and we were not the target audience, but it did leave an impression didn’t it?

Truthfully, I haven’t given it much thought in years. I did some quick research on current marketing slogans and I don’t see much that I actually recognize. ‘Just Do It’ is credited with turning Nike into a global apparel juggernaut. I am a little biased I suppose because I grew up in Oregon and it always seemed that way to me, but that is what the experts says. I think that there is something to that motivation. Stop thinking about everything and just try.

Well, I did it. I stopped putting excuses like researching the right host for scalability and just created a free account on castbox.fm. There may be some consequences in the future, but I think I will treat it like I did my earlier WordPress transition. I will build a beta library of podcasts that I will probably divert later. But, if I never get started, I will never get it done.

This podcast was inspired by some real stuff going on. I wanted to speak up, but I didn’t feel like it was going to make a change in the outcome. Plus, my thoughts were not truly organized. I had more to say so I did this podcast.

I am not promising that this is the end all or that I will switch formats but I think that I want to start adding at least a podcast a week. Maybe Fridays are the days to do that? Maybe this will change, but it actually took more work to make this podcast. Just writing the outline probably took as much time as actually writing a post. For now, I am going to just try to get familiar with the technical aspects and see how it goes.

There are still things to do to make this fly and I don’t even know what they all are. There is adding the RSS feed to the popular podcast vendors like Apple, iHeartRadio and Spotify. I should find some bumper music, learn more about editing, etc. But, I am not going to worry about problems that I don’t really have either. I would like to have a small catalog of podcasts before I really look into the distribution.

As an avid listener to podcasts, I am aware of some of the gotchas, especially free services. Maximum posts per month, maximum post size and total catalog limits. Then there is bandwidth throttling and random ad placement. So far, I have seen none of this but we will see what kind of problems come up with this arrangement. I am not opposed to paying, but I want to make sure that it is a business expense, not a personal expense.

End Your Programming Routine: It feels real. It is what I started this endeavor to do in the first place. Honestly, I think writing every day has helped me eliminate some of my fears but it also gave me a crutch not to move forward. I am happy that I finally broke that barrier. Looking forward to podcasting again.