Welcome to a new series, Creating in Public.
Creating in Public is my journey back to the joy of media creation.
You’re probably thinking, “Wait, isn’t media creation typically a public endeavor?” Well, yes, the final product is usually public, but in this series, I’m going to share everything as it happens.
Background
During high school, I was the “AV Geek.” It was a perk of being a member of the AV Club and it occasionally got me out of classes to do stuff that I enjoyed.
In college, I earned a double major: in addition to Marketing, I earned a BA in Media Production.
I had an on-campus job managing AV in the student center and theater and got to experience new technologies that I would otherwise never have access to - things like the LCD projectors that we all take for granted now and wireless audio gear.
And, yes, I was a DJ and radio personality on our college radio station. (Due to FCC regulations, the station was so low-powered that it only covered about 4 square miles. I used to joke on air, “Welcome to WMAR! We’re a big cordless phone!”) Then there was that time that students kept calling in to request Rock Lobster by the B52’s over and over again - so I played it for an hour. (The station manager was not pleased.)
So, in 2005, when podcasting became a thing, I jumped in with both feet, producing a show that had tens of thousands of downloads per month - small numbers by today’s standards, but we were very proud of the worldwide community we built. After a number of life changes by me and my co-hosts - new jobs, cross-country relocation - we finally ended the show. While we all enjoyed producing it, getting everyone to connect at the same time for recording was like herding cats.
In 2012 I started another podcast focused on the niche of event technology for a company that I co-founded. I wanted to meet as many industry trend makers as possible and an interview show was a great way to do that. It was particularly great at conferences where the organizers would provide us with some space to record interviews and capture video. After a couple of years, the organizers used to tout it as a benefit to attendees and sponsors. That came to an end when I left the company in late 2017.
Since then, I’ve been heads down working at a ginormous tech company creating new software partnerships and building new products.
As busy as I’ve been, I really missed the fun of producing media and a few months ago, decided to dive back into the pool.
This series will cover the steps I have been (and will be) taking including:
Creating a show concept based on a topic that I love, that works with my schedule and minimizes post-production
Naming the show
Setting up a new home studio including new audio gear and acoustic treatment
Creating new workflows for the Linux desktop, including DAW’s, Windows Virtual Machines and other nerdy stuff
Utilizing podcast technologies that didn’t exist even a few years ago
Giving up some control to SaaS platforms, instead of self-hosting all my backend and frontend technology
Securing interviews with industry leaders when I currently have zero listeners, using only my reputation and network of friends and colleagues to make connections
Finding and using royalty-free music and sound effects
Adding video (when appropriate)
Marketing and promoting the show
Other Shenanigans
Join Me
If you want to join me on this journey, sign-up for email updates or go ahead and subscribe to my blog in your favorite RSS reader.
This was originally posted on Ad Hoc. Click here to comment.