-Kent Student Radio-hosting multiple types of shows, mostly music but filling in on some talk types of shows
-WJCU-doing a ‘Unsigned band’ show. Did artist interviews and collect unsigned material-…didn’t have the engineering background so it was difficult to adjust to the technology side-was kinda thrown into it because I was traveling and scouting bands on the weekends.
tried to start podcasting 2009/2010 but it never really grabbed ahold.
my band started a podcast around 2011 and did a few episodes, I appear on one but never really followed through on “doing my own”
AMERICANROCKSTAR Podcast w/Scott Sykora
-by this time I was becoming engrossed in podcasts. I spent a lot of time traveling and driving and needed to cleans my palate from music—-I wanted to expand my mind, learn about things, explore things I had always been interested in but never searched out.
Some podcasts that I subscribed to at this time were:
Podcast Ufo-w/ Martin Willis
The Kate Valentine UFO Show-w/ Kate Valentine
Random Alien Brain Droppings-w/ Suzanne Chancellor
The Unexplained with Howard Huges
The Other Side of Truth-w/ Paul Kimball
Radio Misterioso-w/ Greg Bishop
Binnall of America-w/Tim Binnall
Open Minds UFO Radio-w/ Alejandro Rojas
The Paracast-w/ Gene Steinberg and Christopher O’Brien
Hidden Experience-w/ Mike Clelland
The Gralien Report-w/ Micah Hanks
As I listened to all this content I felt like I was becoming an expert myself of the topics of UFO’s and alien abduction. All of these podcasts I found because of any of the ones I listened to before, They are all interconnected and have a lot of the same guests. After listening to the same content over and over, I needed new blood. I then discovered new content providers, and kinda traveled off the paranormal track and widened my horizons and explored a few other podcasts such as:
SasWhat: A Podcast about Bigfoot- w/ Seth Breedlove
Into The Fray w/ Shannon, Ryan, and Sam
Where Did the Road Go w/Seriah Azkath
The Rogue Planet Podcast w/ Jason, Maureen, Ryan, and Caleb
I needed to find some other stuff to listen to, the paranormal world was starting to depress me…I could never find any answers!!! I started looking into music, another passion. I listened to a whole bunch of different podcasts about the music industry but only 2 stuck…
The Jasta Show w/ Jamie Jasta
Music Business Facts w/ Rodney Holder
By this point I knew I needed to podcast, but what about??? I figured I would try my hand at a paranormal podcast, why not-it isn’t over saturated yet??? I made a plan about my content and how I wanted to present the info so now I needed to learn how to podcast. I thought about trying to consume as much information about podcasting as I could, learn everything I could as fast as possible. I found a bunch of podcasts and subscribed and downloaded as many episodes as possible. These are some of the podcast I subscribed to to help me learn about podcasting…
The Podcasters Studio and Podcast Quick Tips w/ Ray Ortega
The Podcasters Roundtable w/ Ray, Daniel J Lewis, and Dave Jackson
The School of Podcasting w/ Dave Jackson
The Podcast Producers w/ Corey Coates and Jessica Rhodes
The Feed w/ Elsie Escobar and Rob Walch
Podcast Method w/ Dan Benjamin
Podcast Talent Coach w/ Erik K. Johnson
podCast411 w/ Rob Walch
The Audacity to Podcast w/ Daniel J Lewis
Speaker Live w/ Rob Greenlee
I learned A LOT from all of these people. Any time I had a question about anything all I needed to do was send an email to any of these people directly and I would get instant answers. Between these people, and their YouTube channels for the visuals, I was able to build the confidence to launch my podcast!
By this point I had come to the conclusion that I didn’t need to be a player in a field that already had tons of podcasts. I needed to focus on something I knew more than anything. I needed to focus on something I didn’t think I knew someone else was doing, a podcast about beards. It wasn’t going to be podcast about the hipster “trend” that has been going on, it was going to be about the real people that grew before the trend and those who would still stand after. It was going to be about the contests they all attended, the brotherhood and sisterhood we all found together. It was going to be about the family we created, the new friends we made all because of something we grew on our faces. It was about something that we take into our everyday lives and just “do” without thinking. It is about the styles, and care, the preparation we make, and take, to grow our facial hair. It was about how we all come together to make differences in or communities, or the communities of our friends. It was about our travels to other cities to compete for bragging rights and the battles we have had. It was going to be about the products we use to look handsome, and the tips from experts on how to look the best and take care of ourselves. It was going to be about all the adventures we have…everyday. I knew that having a beard, that was abnormally long, lead to a different way of living life. It is something that draws other peoples eyes and attentions and constantly had people staring or making some dumb remark. It was a lifestyle that made me feel different and uncomfortable at times all because I chose to grow a beard. Because of my beard I found many other people like me who felt the same and had a lot of the same interests. This is what I knew, this is what my podcast needed to be about.
I came up with the name “The Beardcaster”, bought the domain, built the site and launched January 1st, 2016. I was terrified at first that I was doing everything wrong, that I was going to mess up. After time my confidence built and now 9 months later, 17 episodes, I look back feeling silly. Everything feels much easier to do. Recording episodes is much easier. Editing is much easier. Uploading and posting is much easier. The only thing that isn’t easy is growing an audience. That takes the most work. It takes finding them and getting in their faces, or beards! It takes another type of confidence to not be afraid to get out in the world and talk face to face about your “art” and why you believe in it and why they should listen. The more personal you can become with a person the more likely they may take a listen.
Providing content that is rich and advantageous to a listener is also another challenge a podcaster can find. The word “value” comes up a lot in conversations with podcasters. What is the “value” that you provide to your listeners? The value I try to provide to the people that listen to my podcast is this: learning. I want them to learn about something they may know nothing about. I want them to learn about something they have been a part of for a long time that they just discovered. I want them to learn how to take care of themselves. I want them to learn about people that need help and how those of us in the facial hair world help them out. I want them to learn about being free of public scrutiny and the judgmental eyes of so many people. I want them to learn to do something, to be inspired to try something new. I want them to laugh at everything, to not be so serious and just relax in their own skin; or hair.
Pulpo Beard Oils
Waffen Der Whiskerr Oil
Brutal Beard
Groomed Gorilla
Attack Of The Beards
The Drunken Book Nerd
music by:
Sindust
Chris Donley
Tester
