Discuss the cultural, social, and military life of the Prussian King Frederick the GreatGreat

I am Alec Avdakov, I am from Ohio in the United States, and I am the creator of The Life and Times of Frederick the Great. I created this podcast in May of 2021 as a 20-year-old as a simple summer project. I never thought it would ever grow to be the size it is now. This series is about the human story that was the biography of Frederick the Great. I have heard from a few who have listened to my podcast and they are people who are passionate about history and also have a sense of humor.
 

I started this podcast as a way for me to show a side of history from an era that is often dehumanized. When people think of the 1700s, people tend to mythologize the heroes of the age to a point where they are no longer human. I intend to show that figures we often consider untouchable are just people. Another crucial reason is that Frederick the Great is almost completely unknown outside Germany. I chose a person I consider interesting yet crucial to the age of history I discuss. Being in the center of Europe, Frederick is often at the center of events in his lifetime. I ended up producing this podcast as a way to give more attention to not only Frederick the Great's biography but the times in which he lived.
 

I tend to release episodes whenever I do have the time. Being a college student that tends to be in the winter and summer. However, my ultimate goal is to produce weekly content. Another challenge of being a student is money. I tend not to spend very much if anything on the production of an episode mainly because I am not financially independent yet. However, as time goes on I intend to put more time and money to increase the quality of the production of my podcast.
 

I do have a sponsorship from the platform Anchor. Ever since the war in Ukraine became a full-scale invasion, I have donated half of my money to support the people of Ukraine. This is a very important cause for me because I am of Russian descent and I want to do something to help aid the people caught up in this tragedy. I got my sponsorship from joining that podcast platform after switching from another. Besides Anchor, I have no other sponsors.
 

It takes me a few days to prepare for each episode. I need to research from a few different books with my main three sources being "Iron Kingdom" by Christopher Clark and the two Frederick the Great biographies by Tim Blanning and David Fraser. Those are the main sources, but I also use other sources that are scholarly throughout each episode. It usually takes me a few days to write out a script that I hope is informative with splashes of humor. I then record directly from the Anchor website and upload it through that platform. My goal is to eventually get a few guests to interview on the show such as experts on 1700s history and Frederick the Great.
 

I mainly market my podcast on Instagram and, most recently, Twitter where I try to ask listeners what they would like to learn from my podcast. I try to give my listeners open communication with me so that I can learn how to better my podcast in general. My main source of listenership comes from Apple Podcasts and Spotify with 38% from Apple and 16% of my listeners from Spotify. Different listeners come from around the world and I pride myself on having an international audience. However, the majority of my listeners come from the United States. I mainly let my podcast speak for itself as it is a unique podcast that speaks about a fairly unknown topic.
 

Some advice I would give new podcasters is to choose something that you are passionate about. Essentially find your niche topic that might not be the most popular but it will stand out in a market with a multitude of podcasts out there. There are podcasts on almost every topic, it is important that you find your "voice". As far as history podcasting goes, the library is a great resource, specifically my university library at Bowling Green State University.
 

Website: https://anchor.fm/frederick-the-great
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frederick_the_great_podcast/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/fredthegpodcast
Email: aavdakov01@gmail.com
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-life-and-times-of-frederick-the-great/id1566277737?uo=4