I'm Investing in a Podcast

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Starting a podcast is the ultimate career hack.

I've done 33 episodes with founders, venture capitalists, writers, and artists. I'll tell you a secret. I've looked at the # of listens maybe 3 times in 6 months and I've made $0 in ads.

But out of the 33 podcasts, 10% of the guests have gone on to become clients for my content-writing business. Many more have gone on to become good friends. I didn't expect this to happen. I just wanted an excuse to talk to cool people on the internet.

When I find a cool person online I want to talk to, I just ask them to be on my podcast. Instead of selfishly asking to pick their brain for 30 minutes, I give them a platform to share their thoughts for 30 minutes. It's a win-win.

When you have a podcast, you have something to offer smart people: distribution.

In the beginning, you won't have distribution. That's fine. My first podcast guests were my friends from high school and Twitter. I had great convos and got some practice under my belt. I learned that yea I do like this podcasting thing.

After I nailed the recording/editing process, I started asking people with bigger audiences to hop on the podcast. Only once has someone asked how many listens the podcast got. It's <5,000 views/listens across platforms, but it's something.

Smart people want to share their thoughts. Help them do it.

No no no.

"No one will listen," you'll say to yourself. This was me for months.

"Who does he think he is?" "Cringe." "Weird." I was scared of what people would think.

But after I went on a friend's podcast, I realized that it wasn't about the people listening. It's about having fun chats and and making new friends. Who was I trying to impress?

I tossed around the idea of starting a pod to friends. "There doesn't need to be anymore podcasts. There's millions of them," people told me. Fuck that.

Should we have stopped writing books once there were millions of them? Everyone has their own unique perspective to share. Every conversation is unique in itself.

"But still, no one will listen."

Podcasts are about the long haul. I'm creating an entire binge bank for people to listen to. If you're like me and signed up to the great online game for life, then the best time to start a podcast was yesterday.

There's always demand for unique content creators.

I've slowly accepted that there's a demand for my voice, for what I have to offer to the world. The biggest influences in my life have been tech founders and rappers. Dreamers, rebels, and doers. Since I was a kid, I've been doing shit my way.

When you're in school, the ROI of being weird, disobedient, or different is negative. You get bullied or fail classed. When you're a content creator, being weird, disobedient, and different has an exponential ROI. So it's time to invest.

Investing in a Podcast

Thus far, I've spent $50 on a mic and that's about it. I use my Mom's old Bose headphones, Zoom for recording, and Anchor.fm for editing and distribution. Considering I've made $5,000+ working with my guests post-podcast, I'd say that's a solid ROI.

But like I said, I've looked at the # of listens maybe 3 times in 6 months. I just haven't been focused on that. I've been focused on growing my newsletter and using the podcast to meet dope people and become a better conversationalist.

Now is the time I'm turning up the fire on my podcast.

A grand total of $6.99 on GoDaddy later and I'm rocking. I bought cyberpatterns.media and set up a linktree to direct people to 2 options: this newsletter or my podcast.

The biggest expense is paying an editor, but I'm betting I'll have a solid ROI in the long run. I'm now posting podcast edits and goofy sketches across TikTok and Instagram on top of Twitter/LinkedIn. It's time to bring Cyber Patterns everywhere.

Whatever creative endeavor you're afraid of, go do it. Go make some cool shit today.

P.S. Listen to Cyber Patterns on Spotify and Apple.