Exploration of the physical and mental worlds & life

I'm Luke Eller host of The Back Porch USA ~TBP-USA~ and The Back Porch USA ~BTS~. My background is extensive having worked professionally in mental health care and senior care, a background in security and security services having worked in a maximum security treatment facility, and I am experienced in survival, life, and finding the humor in it all. My listeners look for the strange, bizarre, and weird goings on with a satirical and sardonic twist from around the world every week.

Podcasting for me is not just something I do for the entertainment of others, I use the action of creation and storytelling to help myself work through this crazy world. My initial goals were help people better understand my disability and how it effects myself and those closest to me. I started my podcast a little over a year ago, having only released two episodes at that time I had walked away. A year later, and with great encouragement from my family, I reinvented what my podcast was, it's format, heck the whole darn thing! Not too long after going back on the air I started ~BTS~, a behind the scenes look at my life, my thoughts, and most importantly to raise awareness of Psychogenic Movement Disorder and Psychogenic Non-Epileptic Seizures.

Due to my disability I currently cannot work a regular job so time is nothing more than a fleeting concept that I have two podcast episodes to air weekly, Thursdays at 7pm central time and Fridays at 7pm central time. I've used anchor.fm from the start, the services and deployment they offer sold me in a breath. When I started I was using only my cellphone for the entire production process, yeah that's how good anchor.fm is. It's been almost 3 months since I recreated my podcast and since then have been able to invest in a Behringer Podcastudio 2 USB recording kit and Audacity while slowly building up my studio in the spare room of my house. I swear upon my dog's tail, other than spending a little over $200.00 on my new equipment, I don't spend a dime on the podcast's production. I do it all myself from script writing to researching, recording, and editing. After I'm finished and happy with the episode I upload it, make my final formatting adjustments and anchor.fm does the rest of the footwork for distribution.

Financially I'm pennies, really, I have one listener who is kind enough to donate $0.99 a month and I only have anchor.fm as my current sponsor whom I advertise for. I am more than willing to take on another two sponsors should circumstances grant me the opportunity. Anchor.fm gives a person some pretty decent stat reports, but I know I'm base level $0.15 CPM with their sponsorship. I am looking forward to the day an opportunity to advertise for other sponsors comes along. On the non-financial side it's honestly been a bit of a roller-coaster at many points. Having been disabled for four years now I haven't been able to do a lot for myself, but podcasting has changed that for me, almost like my own personal therapy I conduct myself. The time and energy I put into my podcasts initially put a bit of a strain on my marriage as my wife had to adjust to the fact that I have gained a busier lifestyle now.

I use the Behringer Podcastudio 2 USB kit's Xenyx 302USB Premium 5-Input Mixer with Mic Preamp and USB/Audio Interface, a Zingyou studio condenser microphone, Audacity for recording and editing (including phone interviews) all currently run on a Dell Inspiron 1500 (my new all-in-one desktop computer will be arriving within the week). I don't do many interviews, I've done one in the last two months to be correct. I just so happen to find my guest's abilities and story to be incredible so I steeled my nerves, found his contact info and called to talk to him and inquire if he would do a phone interview. Yemif is a high profile holistic healer and curer of addictions. I have a second phone interview in the works for the end of June 2020. My process for preparation consists of spending hours every day combing through news from around the world looking for the strangest, weirdest, most bizarre happenings going on through the week. I then write out a basic script to help keep me on track and I run production usually the day before the episode airs. For my behind the scenes show I call it a wingnut, I just like the sound of it cause all I'm doing is winging it to be as honest and sincere as possible for my audience.

I literally just finished a certification course for blogging and online marketing. This is my Goliath, my Medusa, my Black Knight. I use social media platforms and word of mouth to advertise. I've created several short video clips that I routinely post onto Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. I also run The Back Porch USA and it's coinciding fan group The Back Porch USA Productions Group on Facebook. PR and Advert isn't my greatest forte and I still have a lot to learn, but I'm not letting that get in my way. I am determined to ensure The Back Porch USA ~TBP-USA~ and ~BTS~ remain the work of only myself, it's my way of proving to myself that I can still do something without help.

I've scoured the net and read almost every bit of advice published From John Doe to Jane Doe. It get's dizzying to say the least. My personal advice comes from experience. Start slow, keep things simple for yourself, and don't jump off into the deep end. Focus on quality not quantity.

facebook.com/groups/thebackporchusa, facebook.com/thebackporchusa, thebackporchusa.wordpress.com is my struggling blog site. For my podcasts and where you can become a Production Support Team Member, and be credited as well are: anchor.fm/TBP-USA and anchor.fm/TBP-USA-BTS. Last, but not least you can contact me personally through my email: thebackporchusa@gmail.com