The Bone Brew

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Claimed

►Tell us about you and your podcast

My name is Stacy Harrell. Stage name STACY.the.KID. I was born and raised in Miami Gardens, FL. I am an African American Military Veteran, with a massive love of Story. As long as I can remember I have been enraptured with the fantasy genre. My podcast is a product of that love. As a poet, I have written plenty of my own original stories and still, have more to write. My Podcast Jaunts & Faults is the exploration of play, and tragedy through Story. A collection of some of my most personal works performed and for your listening pleasure.

►Why & how did you start this podcast? 

I have always had a public speakers skill set, being the product of a religious upbringing having to stand and deliver the "word of god" on Sundays has given me a rather strong ability to make my voice heard. I, however, am an introvert oddly enough I do not like being on stage or in front of crowds even with this skillset. Thus a podcast seemed the natural place for me. I can be myself without prying eyes and I can also still tell my stories, using what I have been taught. I do happen to listen to a few podcasts here and there I tend to stick to Live Play shows and Audio Dramas as again there is something about the genre of Fantasy that simply empowers me.

My Initial Motivation for the podcast was simple. Tell the stories I want to hear. Tell the stories from a perspective I've always resonated to. Some may call it the black sheep, or outsiders perspective. But for me, tragedy, melancholy, and somehow finding beauty or joy in that space is rarely conveyed. So I ultimately just wanted to hear those stories and tell them.

The Podcast hasn't been out very long. The very first official episode came out on March 30th of this Year. If I am being forthright it took about a year to release the first episode. You want everything to be perfect and sometimes you just need to do the thing. I kept changing my title, kept trying to make it sound a certain way. Finally, I sat down and did some soul searching and asked the real question. WHY am I doing this? To tell the stories I want to hear. So stop stressing and just tell your stories. It was a hard year.

►How'd you find the time and funding to do this podcast?

I release once a week on Saturday's and it takes about an hour and a half to record and produce my podcast. Simply because I don't focus much on post-production as telling a compelling Story is my goal. I do want to get more time to do this however working a day job is a bit rough. Even more so when you don't have the best podcasting conditions, no professional sound booth for me.

If you love something you make the time you carve it from nothing. You find ways to record even when you don't want to. So I record usually really early mornings to produce my content, If I can't make that happen because my schedule will be packed I do my best to record well in advance of release day.

I stripped everything away in order to get down to the core of telling stories so my setup is really minimal. Funding-wise it was about a solid six hundred and fifty dollar investment, that was honestly mostly the laptop. My microphone cost me twenty bucks and I had a friend help me out with an upgrade (which I barely use) that on the market is about two hundred dollars. So, in reality, the podcast setup is about eight hundred dollars worth of equipment. But that is over the course of well over a year that I accumulated all the things I needed.

►What do you gain from podcasting?        

I would like to have sponsorships but haven't made any money as of yet. Longterm is my goal I am not too worried about the money at the moment I love the craft of storytelling more than anything.

I don't go looking for sponsors I believe that my content will speak for itself. When the time comes to hit my first goal of having a thousand listeners then maybe I'll actively look for a sponsor. That is a big MAYBE.

Overall the podcasting life has forced me to get better at my craft. If there was anything that I could say that I have gained up until this point is that major joy of knowing I am improving at being a better Storyteller.

►How does your podcasting process look like? 

Since I don't have any guest and it's just me. I do a lot of reading and stretching of my voice before I record. Stepping into my characters head and role. Doing my best to bring them to life through voice and words.

I am currently using Anchor.fm to produce and record my podcast. The Mic's I use are Lavalier's and I have a Lenovo Think Pad Laptop. Really bare-bones setup in order to tell the stories I want.

►How do you market your show?

I try my best to use Social media more than anything. As I want to actually have a real connection with listeners. Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram are the main ones I use but I am across a multitude of platforms. Even Reddit.

When it comes to where you can listen to the podcast we are currently eleven different platforms. Itunes, Google Podcast, Breaker, Pocketcast, Castbox, RadioPublic, Podcoin, Swoot, Spotify, Overcast, and lastly Anchor.fm

Our biggest contributions of listeners are from Itunes and Anchor with 44% and 26% percent of our listener base respectively. 18% of our listeners listen elsewhere, and 12% listen on Spotify.

►What advice would you share with aspiring (new) podcasters?

Do it. Get Started don't worry about perfect. Don't worry about getting it "Right". We as people have this really weird notion that it needs to be phenomanal the first time it comes out. When you are learning nothing you do is great the first time. You only get better by doing the thing. You only get better with practice. So find your concept and do the thing. Just figure out what the skeleton looks like first and start adding all the bells and whistles as you grow.

There is one listener I have that has offered me their service because I mentioned in passing that as time goes on I would love to add an intro jingle or an outro jingle or what have you.

If you worry about producing the quality that is genuine you will find the people that are willing to push you to the next level. So my biggest piece of advice is just GO DO IT!

►Where can we learn more about you & your podcasts?

If you want to listen to Jaunts & Faults.

Check us out on anchor.fm/JauntsandFaults

You can also interact with me STACY.the.KID. Across all Social Media just look me up under STACY.the.KID or STACY_the_KID either or usually works to find me pretty easily.