It struck me recently, I’ve hit a milestone with my podcast! - 1000 subscribers on Youtube. This was a pleasant and very welcome surprise. If you’ve been following along, I’ve been tinkering with the podcast to scratch my creative itch and purely for fun. Over the course of 12 episodes, I’ve learned more about the expected stuff like asking better questions , doing more research, creating the right flow, sound etc. I’ve also learned some unexpected things like figuring out lighting, editing for attention, so on and so forth.

Now streaming on all major platforms.

My main takeaways are:

It’s fun! (for the most part)

Like any activity, there are things I enjoy and there are things I don’t. I love finding and inviting guests to the show, I absolutely love talking to and getting to know them. I don’t love editing episodes and cutting reels and shorts. I do it anyway because how else will I drive attention to the long-form content?

It’s easier than you think

From a technical perspective, there are plenty free and paid resources depending on your preferences to get started. I use Riverside and it’s super easy. Not super expensive either at $25 USD/month. Some folks start with Zoom(Recording) and Imovie (Editing) so it’s free. There are some real value-for-money mics for under $100. Honestly, the MacBook mic is also pretty fire to get started. It’s never been easier! Do it!

Experiment

You could spend months researching the right format, the right technical details and get zero episodes out. Or you could just start and figure it out later. Episode 1 looks and sounds very different than episode 12. That is just plain old progress from trying things out. I’d like to think I’m getting better at making reels and shorts that hold attention. Now that I’ve done a decent volume of episodes online, I will record more in-person episodes. I recorded one in-person episode with my closest friends. I’ll likely never publish it but it was so fun and being in-person makes for a more real conversation. It helps me scratch my late-night show host itch. Who knows maybe this will be a stepping stone to it! Stories with Shomik on PRIMETIME! If this does play out in reality, someone will dig this blog post out and people will have a field day with it (One can dream okay)

People are awesome

Most folks I’ve reached out to have been super nice and responded. A decent number of them have said yes and those that couldn’t have said not yet (I’m hopeful!) Be real with them, I have never pretended this is a huge show with millions of listeners. I’ve stated clearly it’s a passion project driven by curiosity. All my guests are amazing and I am very grateful to them for giving me their time and insights.

Quality vs Quantity

Not gonna lie, it will be AWESOME when an episode hits 1 million views. However, that is not a metric I am optimizing for. Right now, my focus is on the craft. Timothee Chalamet made an amazing speech, he says he wants to be the greatest without any hubris. It’s a matter of fact. That’s what I want to do. Right now my focus is on producing the best possible interview. Shooting them in-person will get me one step closer to unlocking the authenticity I need to win.

Thousand subscribers is a nice and welcome milestone, I’m grateful to everyone that chose to hit the subscribe button. The plan is to keep producing awesome episodes with amazing guests and the next time I write another post it’ll be at 10k subscribers!

Now streaming on all major platforms.