► Tell us about you and your podcast
My background: I retired after 30-years as an award-winning major market morning radio host. Realizing I missed the art of conversation, I built The Fuzzy Mic to fill that professional void.
Podcast Focus: Mental health discussions and true crime episodes. Occasionally, I'll talk about music and sports with celebrity guests.
Audience: Primary listeners are people who can benefit from mental illness discussions and true crime fans.
► Why & how did you start this podcast?
Why: To fill professional voids of conversation and creativity after retiring from morning radio. I don't listen to podcasts because I don't want to know how many shows are better than mine. Ignorance is bliss.
Goals: Initial goals were to meet interesting people and highlight their lives. Now, my goals are more audience serving and less self serving. To open more dialogue about mental illness from a personal perspective and to introduce new true crime stories.
Start Date: My first episode was posted in 2017, but I took a break to focus on my voice acting business. I recommitted to the podcast with consistency in 2023.
First episode: Starting the podcast while I was actively working in country radio, I released my first episode immediately after recording it. I had the studio access and the artist access, so I didn't have to struggle or work very hard to get guests or record quality audio.
► How'd you find the time and funding to do this podcast?
Frequency: I release a new episode each week, on Tuesday. Time commitment varies. The audio only portion I can get done fairly quickly, within 24-hours of the interview. I also post the episodes on YouTube and those take a considerable amount of time. Some can take an entire week.
Find time: Initially the podcast was an extension of my day job and I'd commit about 15 hours per week to it. Now, it's my sole focus which is about 60 hours per week.
Funding: I host, edit and produce all of my own content. I fund the podcast myself, paying for hosting the site, all editing software and subscriptions, marketing ads and any other costs incurred.
► What do you gain from podcasting?
Sponsorship: I don't have any sponsors, but am certainly open to sponsorship. I haven't made a penny from the podcast.
Total downloads: I don't know how many total downloads I have per month. My guess is that it's low. I know my YouTube videos average about 300 views per episode.
Benefits: Podcasting benefits me because it's an outlet for my creativity, introduces me to fascinating people who are experts in their field and gives me a purpose in life.
► How does your podcasting process look like?
Tools: I record in my soundproof studio using a Rode NT1-A microphone, Audient iD interface and dbx 286s compressor. Audio editing via Audacity and iZotope and video editing with Cyberlink Powerdirector 365.
Right now, I'm just booking guests that I know personally and have their phone number and email address. I make inquiries through podcastguests.com, LinkedIn, Twitter and I look for mental health and true crime bestsellers on Amazon and Barnes & Noble for potential guests whom I don't have a personal connection with.
Prep: I'm a prep-a-holic. For one episode, I'm easily 12+ hours of prep. For authors, I read their latest book (or a portion of it to at least get myself versed). For all guests, I scour the internet for content and background; YouTube for previous interviews they may have done, Google search to find any news stories, articles or videos of them, I look at social media pages, check out wikipedia and brush up on current events pertaining to the topic of discussion.
I interview guests via Zoom, predominantly.
► How do you market your show?
Well, according to the numbers, listeners aren't finding my show :)
We are available on my website, YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, iHeart, TuneIn Alexa, Amazon Music, Podcast Index, Podcast Addict, Listen Notes, Podchaser, Deezer, Pocket Casts, Player Fm, Overcast, Castro, Castbox, Podfriend & Goodpods. The majority of listeners come from YouTube, Apple and Spotify.
Marketing Channels: We use social media sites. Don't see much benefit anymore from Facebook. Instagram and X are where we see the most interaction
► What advice would you share with aspiring (new) podcasters?
Lessons: It's hard to build an audience, like really hard. You'll spend more time marketing and promoting your podcast to build that audience than you will creating content and booking guests. You need to be an ardent self-promoter, truly believe in your show / ability, have an abundance of patience and have unwavering support from a cheerleader or two in your corner.
Resources: reddit, listen notes, buzzsprout, castos, podcasts guests