Celebrating 4 Years: Podcast Milestones, Growth, and Future Plans

What if your favorite Wednesday night ritual included not only a drink in hand but also a deep dive into the podcasting world? This special anniversary episode is a cheers-worthy celebration of our growth, from humble beginnings recording in a closet to reaching an incredible 48,000 downloads spread across 265 episodes. We also explore the ever-important role of RSS in podcasting, through a fun and educational acronym challenge.

As we celebrate this fourth anniversary, we reflect on the passion and community support that have fueled our success, spotlighting the impressive engagement statistics from platforms like TikTok, YouTube, and LinkedIn. Get excited for the future as we preview upcoming episodes and interviews with fantastic guests like Bree Murphy on wireless topics and Christopher Hobbs on his Bixie Training Rooms tour. Plus, we're thrilled to announce a new training platform that offers both free and paid classes, aiming to enhance your podcast experience and support our show's sustainability. Join us for this special episode as we look back, celebrate, and eagerly anticipate what's next!

Chapters

• 0:00 After Hours Podcast Anniversary Celebration
• 3:48 Podcast Milestones and Future Plans
• 17:07 Podcast Growth and Future Plans

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Wednesday night 6 pm. You know that can only mean one thing live after hours with your favorite RCDD. You know that's me your favorite RCDD. We get to ask questions about installation, certification, design, project management, estimation, cover the whole gamut of all kinds of things. So I appreciate everybody being here tonight. We got a special show lined up for tonight. Special show, right?

Speaker 1: 0:44

Anthony's in the house, hey, anthony. So you know we always start off every episode with what are you drinking? Chuck is drinking water, water. I'm not even doing Zevia soda right now. Put in the chat box what are you drinking. What are you drinking? You might be wondering, chuck, why are you drinking water? Because I started the carnivore diet this week. Carnivore diet, nothing but meat. And that's easy because I live on my own farm so we grow a lot of our own meat. So look at that. Shotzi's in the house, check this. Shots rcdd tech, love it, love it. Yes, shotsy, you know, I was wondering why you didn't update your linkedin profile to say rcdd. So there you go. Yeah, after hours you can drink anything you want, but I'm drinking water, um, because this is what I like to drink and I'm and I'm doing carnivore, carnivore, carnivore.

Speaker 1: 1:47

So let's do the acronym challenge next, because we've got to get these two things out of the way. So the acronym challenge this week has something to do with tonight's show. It does the acronym for tonight's show. Now, some cable guys might not get this one. The acronym is RSS, rss. What does that mean? What does that acronym, rss? It's not necessarily a cable acronym, but it has subject for tonight's show Going. Okay, give everybody five seconds to type in their answers. Let me see anybody typing them in. Okay, nobody's typing none there.

Speaker 1: 2:34

That acronym stands for Really Simple Syndication. Really Simple Syndication. What is that? It's a tool that I use to keep people updated on new content from my podcast and my website. And when you see, when you subscribe to an RSS feed, it automatically sends the latest episodes and articles to one spot. So I don't have to do that individually. It's already set up to do that, right, and what it does is it keeps me from having to check my site continuously all the time. Do that with all my stuff. So RSS, it's a podcast term.

Speaker 1: 3:04

Now you might be wondering why am I talking about a podcast term on the live stream tonight? Because, oops, wrong one, go away. There we go, because tonight's show, today's a very special day. It's a very, very special day. It's a very, very special day because on this day on August 28th 2020, I published the first episode to the podcast the very first. So the podcast is officially four years old today. Happy birthday, happy birthday podcast. Yes, it is four years old.

Speaker 1: 3:48

You know, most podcasters don't make it past six episodes. I'm well beyond six episodes. And you know funny thing, I tell people all the time because when people ask me questions about podcasting and the secrets of podcasting and stuff, I tell them pick a subject that you are passionate about. Pick a subject that you are passionate about, because if you're in it just for the money, you will burn out long before you even make it anywhere. So yeah, four years ago the podcast started. So what can you expect for the next show? I'm going to do a little recap, some milestones that we hit on the podcast. I'm going to give you some highlights on some of the most popular episodes. I'm going to talk about some future episodes and then some special announcements coming up for that.

Speaker 1: 4:32

So tonight's show is all about the birthday for the podcast. It truly is. But first, before we get too much for long, even though I'm passionate about this. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you, the audience. You know I probably, even though I'm passionate about cabling, I probably still would have burned out a long time ago, because just sitting there talking to a computer is just it's draining, draining. And that's what I do. When I'm doing a podcast, I'm talking to a computer. Right, it's absolutely draining. But when I get messages from you guys like how I improved your life, like Shotzi, right, shotzi's been a longtime follower of this show and because he's been following the show, he got his RCDD, that is wind beneath my wings. Anthony says he learns something new every episode and that's exactly why I do this, because I'm impacting people's lives. That's exactly why I'm trying to do it. So the first show aired August 28, 2020.

Speaker 1: 5:37

That's four years to the day, to the day it aired and it's called Podcast Introduction. It was only about 18 minutes long. I'd play some of it for you now, but I cringe when I listen to that episode. I truly do. Um, I've improved a lot since that first episode four years ago. Can I still improve? Absolutely, I can still improve, um, but you know, four years ago, that's when I published. I'll tell you something else. I don't tell people too often that first show, that first episode, I recorded in my closet because that was the best soundproof room that I had. So I was in my room with my laptop on my computer, with my notes in front of me and my microphone my audio mixer sitting on the shelf in there, holding the microphone in a closet. So now here I am in this podcast studio and I'm working to move up to the new podcast studio, which we'll talk about a little later.

Speaker 1: 6:44

So let's talk about some key statistics. There are a couple of things, right. So, like, if you look at just the audio part of the podcast, over the four years we put out 265 episodes. 265 episodes. I started off doing just weekly on Mondays, but now I do Mondays and then I put the audio out for the live stream. So there's two episodes coming out every week, 265 episodes.

Speaker 1: 7:14

And since the beginning, just on the audio stuff, I've had 48,000 downloads. 48,000 downloads. Again, that's just one platform, one platform, right. So just to kind of give you an example, let me pull up this graphic, because I have a graphic for tonight's show design and then graphic. Where are you? Graphic, is that? Yeah, that's it. Right there, I'm not only just audio podcast, right, I am in all kinds of things, all different kinds of platforms, right? So just looking at, I just got bad news, my girlfriend got braces. My kids are now behind bars, okay, all right. Whatever, I don't understand that. So that's just one. So when you look at some of my others example, let's say, look at TikTok. Tiktok last month I hit 67,000 views TikTok alone and gained 130, 129 subs. Youtube in the last 28 days, I had 8,100 views and gained 65 subs.

Speaker 1: 8:24

Linkedin LinkedIn you know, linkedin is a lot of people are shy away from it. If you are a technician, you are an installer or whatever, you need to get your profile on LinkedIn. We just talked about that in the last episode. I did an episode on how to get past the recruiter when you're submitting a resume, and one of the things we talked about was you really need to be on LinkedIn. You absolutely need to be on LinkedIn. So, linkedin I had 80, no, sorry, there's 32,000 views, all right, and I gained 58 subscribers. Instagram 8,600. X I don't really push X too much, but I do post to it 102 views. Facebook 233 views. Clapper that's the newest platform that I added 4,500 views. 4,500 views so, but you know these numbers are. It's kind of funny. It's like a snowball. For the first six, eight months, maybe first year, maybe even, there was very little, very little movement and now it seems to be like a snowball rolling downhill, gaining more and more and more, more people subscribing and listening to the show.

Speaker 1: 9:38

When you look at, when I look at my YouTube lifetime numbers and again I am by no means viral like some of the real famous TikTokers, I'm not just niche, I'm super niche, okay, super niche. So since a lifetime on YouTube, I've had 1.5 million impressions. 1.5 million impressions with a 3.3% click-through rate, which means of that 1.5 million, 3.3% actually click through the thumbnail to watch the video. And when they watch my video, the average view time is seven minutes. Seven minutes I think. The average right now for most YouTube channels is three, I think, or last time I looked at it was three. But the reason I think that number is really good you can probably think most of my episodes are 30 minutes, so that's not very good, but it actually is good because I also put out a lot of YouTube shorts. So it's averaging the YouTube shorts with the long-form content and it's still at seven minutes and so it's just. The podcast is growing. I calculate and this is only an estimate right now I am at probably about 15,000 followers across all the platforms 15,000 followers.

Speaker 1: 10:59

So what were some of the best shows? Hey, if you've been listening to the podcast for a while, put in the comments. Put in the comments what was your most favorite show over the last four years, and I'll give you a shout out. Um, so it depends on which platform you you talked talk about on buzzsprout, my, the audio podcast platform, the. The best, most listened to episode is an episode called Certifications. Are they worth the time and money? Worth the time and money? That was the most popular one On YouTube. The most popular one was a video I did called Milwaukee packout versus um. Milwaukee park versus Klein my box. That you know. I got to finish that episode. It's supposed to be a challenge between Klein my box and packouts. I did the first episode. Milwaukee won't come on the show and interview me or won't come on the show. Let me interview them, but I will still do the video where I'm going to run them through the paces and compare them and give you my thoughts. Anthony says his favorite episode had to be the one that I invited him on Wired, for Egglands is back in the house, right.

Speaker 1: 12:10

And then on LinkedIn, the best post I've had so far, and it happened just recently. I did a video on what kind of technician are you. I did a video on what kind of technician are you, what kind of a technician are you. That post last time I looked at it it was like 60,000 views, just that one post. Just to kind of give you a comparison last month you just saw the graphics. So last month I had 123,000 views across all platforms. Last month, views across all platforms last month. This month, linkedin alone I'm at 130,000 views, not counting all the other platforms. So it's going to spike up for this month's report. I have a feeling it's going to drop the next month, but hey, it is, it truly is.

Speaker 1: 12:57

Now. Those are my favorite shows. Now, what about my favorite guests? Favorite guests? Well, obviously, anthony. Anthony would be one of them, right, Anthony? I think what we talked about was dressing Cable, right, how to dress a Cable. I think that was the one that you and I did, but there are some other ones too. Kalen's in the house. Thomas Pate yes, he's the house. Thomas Pates yes, uh, he's been on twice, I think twice. So, um, but um, it's a notable guest, I think the one that I like the most. It hasn't been published yet. Hasn't been published yet but uh, it was with Chris Hobbs from B bixie and we did a tour through the bixie training uh rooms and stuff. It's gonna come out in a few weeks, but it's it's. It's gonna be one of my favorite and uh live events.

Speaker 1: 13:52

I love doing the live events. I really want to do more of these. Um, the problem is time. You know I'm already. I already got a full-time job and the podcast and the farm and my wife and I we like to go camping. It's kind of hard to do all that kind of stuff, but maybe what I might start doing Tell me if you'd be interested in this Start doing lives at lunchtime. Lives at lunchtime. Let me know in the chat box if that's something you would watch if I did a live stream at lunchtime.

Speaker 1: 14:24

I got asked on TikTok do a live at the fall conference. I got invited to go to the fall conference. I can't do it because of scheduling conflicts, unfortunately, but I've already made sure that I will not book anything for the winter conference and I might do a live there. I might do a live there. I would love to do that, absolutely love to do that, and I'm looking for suggestions and people who want to come on the podcast. So if you've got something that you think the industry needs to hear, shoot me a message, get on, let's talk about it.

Speaker 1: 15:03

Here's how the process works, just so everybody knows when I, when, when they come on the show unless you're a repeat person or somebody, I know you already. If I don't know you, I'll bring you on first and what I call the, the pre-show call, the pre-show call we get on. We and I'm doing a couple of things on that call. First I'm checking your audio, your video and your internet. Once I'm satisfied with all that, then we'll start talking about the subject, whether I came with the subject or if you have a subject, and we'll just have a regular conversation and then we'll pick a date to actually do the recording.

Speaker 1: 15:35

A lot of people when I ask them to come on the show I've only had one person tell me no when I've invited them to come on the show. I've only had one person tell me no when I've invited him to come on the podcast. Most everybody says yes, I've had a lot of people hesitant because they're afraid oh my God, I don't want to come on the podcast, I can't talk, I can't do public speaking. Here's the thing If I bring you on the show, 99% of the time I'm recording it and then I'm going to edit it, polish it and I'll put it out later. If you've ever done a Zoom meeting call, you can do a podcast call with me, because it's the same thing. Actually, it might be a little more entertaining because you're on live with me, right? So that's how that works.

Speaker 1: 16:19

I'm always looking for collaborations. You're on live with me, right? So that's how that works. I'm always looking for collaborations. I'm always looking for, you know, series and episodes to do Like right now.

Speaker 1: 16:27

In a couple of weeks the live stream won't be live. It'll actually be a recording, but it's going to be. It's going to be a show on residential installers versus commercial installers who is better? Can't wait for that one to come out. I'm going to be recording that one week and then it'll come out on that live stream for that week. Can't do the live stream live on that. It's in two weeks, on that particular week, because I'm going to be at corporate and I'm going to be three-time and I can't get off at three o'clock to go do a live stream because my day job and my podcast are two separate things and I keep them in separate things. That's why I do this after hours, after hours.

Speaker 1: 17:07

So what are some upcoming commercial? Oh man, I don't know about that TJ. We might have to have a conversation about that one. So what are some upcoming? I already told you about the residential versus commercial TGI. We might have to have a conversation about that one. So what are some of my upcoming? I already told you about the residential versus commercial and I got another idea for another one. It's going to be commercial versus security installer. I just got to talk to the guests and see if they're interested in doing it and if they are, that's going to be one. That's going to be one. So what are my plans for growing the podcast on?

Speaker 1: 17:42

Are on new social media platforms. I'm already on the major ones, right, I'm already on all of them. The only one I'm really not doing well is twitter or x, and I'm not well, number one. I can't go, I can't do live on Twitter unless I pay them a monthly fee. I'm sorry, I'm not going to do that, not going to do that, and my platform that I use to put out my social media posts, which is Publer. I can't put out posts that are substantially similar. If you're on LinkedIn and you see my posts, you see there's a theme and it doesn't like that. So that's what I'm lacking on, I'm not sure. Hey, in the chat box, is there a social media platform that you think I should be on? If it is, let me know.

Speaker 1: 18:37

Let's talk about some upcoming shows. I got an interview set up with Bree Murphy. Bree Murphy works for Oberon. She's going to come on. We're going to do two episodes. One of them is going to be actually they'll both be on wireless. We're going to go through all that. I already told you about. The other one coming up, christopher Hobbs, where we do the tour through the Bixie Training Rooms Another episode coming up, and these couple here are already recorded.

Speaker 1: 19:07

Another one with Jeff Silvera. We're going to talk about how are standards created. How are standards created? And this episode. I think this episode is going to do really well too. I just got to finish recording it. It's called Going Beyond 100 Meters. Going Beyond 100 Meters we're going to talk about the copper options. We'll talk about game changer cable how do you test that game changer cable, right? And then we're going to talk about the hybrid fiber options. So we're going to cover all three of those. I just got to record the last session and then that'll come. So that'll be a good show too, because I see that a lot of times.

Speaker 1: 19:43

One of the biggest arguments that you'll see on the internet in low voltage forums is people say well, yeah, yeah, yeah, use fiber. Fiber is great, don't get me wrong, but it's not the answer to every single question, the beard of knowledge. We're not. Am I following you on Instagram? Because I'm already there? I'm already there. So Kaylin recommends Rumble R-U-M-B-L. Hmm, I'll have to look into that one. I'll have to look into that one.

Speaker 1: 20:14

So one of my big initiatives that I planned out in the beginning of this year and I got to admit I haven't really done much work on it, but I've made it one of my goals to get it done by the end of this year. So I only have like a couple months. I'm going to launch a training platform, a training platform. Dave is in the house. The training platform is going to have several classes. The first class that I'm going to record, and it's going to be free. The first class that I'm going to record, and it's going to be free, it's going to be how to become an RCDD, because that's that's the most common question that I get. I'm going to talk about the benefits of being an RCDD no-transcript, the three ways you can qualify to sit for the RCDD. I'm going to talk about study techniques. I'm going to talk about resources. I'm going to talk about what happens after you get your RCDD, and that one will be free. I do have three classes recognized for CECs fire stopping, copper clad, aluminum cabling and codes versus standards, versus best practices. I will record those and I will put those on teachables. Those will be paid classes.

Speaker 1: 21:28

Okay, now, I know you're used to my platform always giving away information, but here's why I'm doing this. I got to get money into the podcast. I got invited to go do several things and I can't do it because there's no money in the podcast right now. I'm still pretty much almost footing this out of my wallet. So I got to get money coming in the podcast to do that.

Speaker 1: 21:51

Right, and this guy is not certified. Oh, I'm certified, I'm certified. You can guarantee that, buddy. Matter of fact, here I'll show you. I love when people challenge me so yeah, not certified. So here's my my RCDD certification. Rcdd certification I can put this thing back on the wall now. And here's my Bixie technician certification. So, yes, I am certified and I'm also certifiable as well too. So it's funny, that's funny. Yeah, no, it's not expired. Nice try, nice try. Trust me, I don't let those things expire at all. Don't let them expire. So, going back to the Teachables platform, so there's going to be one free class and then there's three other classes and I'm not going to charge much for them, probably like 29 bucks, and that's going to help pay for the podcast. So I can start doing things Like, if I get invited to go be, I got invited to go to Vegas to speak at a private event and I told the people I will do it if you pay the travel expenses and pay a speaker fee, so I can get out there and do it right. Oh, thank you, caitlin, for reminding me about that. That's another episode coming up.

Speaker 1: 23:11

I got several episodes coming up on anti-static flooring. Anti-static flooring what is it? What are the different types? How do you bond it to a ground? I'm even going to do an episode on how to install it, because I've got it sitting up in the podcast studio right now.

Speaker 1: 23:28

And somebody said I think it was wire for excellence. He said uh, I know you've done a conduit. How to's have you considered doing wire molding? Oh, ooh, I like that one. I'm going to reach out to, uh, a manufacturer see if they'll donate some stuff so I can do a how-to for wire mold. That's a great. Oh, I got you know me. If I don't write it down doesn't happen, right. So wire mold episode excellent.

Speaker 1: 23:56

This is why I love you guys. You guys come up with the great. People ask me all the time how do I come up with ideas for content? It's you guys, it is you guys. So there's lots of great stuff going on and but. But again, I just want to make sure that you guys know that I'm extremely grateful, extremely humbled, that you guys spend time out of your day and even listen to my podcast, and the fact that my podcast helps you helps you become better. That's just icing on the cake, although I'm doing carnivore, so I can't have cake right now. But here's my call to action for you guys, because we're running down on time. Call to action. So people who come on the show regularly, like the beard of knowledge, wire for actions, kaylin shotzi, you guys are my regulars. I encourage, I encourage you guys, subscribe, leave reviews, put this out on your social media, share it with on your your favorite episodes and moments. Help me get this message out there, because the more people I can get exposure to and help, the better it is.

Speaker 1: 25:06

Now, last final thoughts before I close out the show. This show is probably not going to go past 30 minutes, but final thoughts here for tonight's show is you know, this has been a great journey, don't get me wrong. It's been a lot of work, a lot of work. People. People think that, uh, jonathan mcdonald's in the house, uh, people think, seem to think that podcasting is easy. It's not. It's not having to come up with stuff all the time and be consistent and you know it's, it's, it's not. But the beautiful thing is is is I love what I do. I love the fact that I'm helping improve people's lives and that's what this whole show is about.

Speaker 1: 25:50

I know I'm towards the end of my career. I don't plan on retiring. If I were to win the lottery well, I guess you got to play to win the lottery. But you know, if someone were to give me $10 million, I would retire from my day job. I would not retire from the podcast, because I'm a people person I love, I'm like, I'm like Jonathan McDonald here in the house. Jonathan McDonald, he's a he's a people person. He loves meeting people, he loves talking to people, he loves networking. I'm the same way. I'm absolutely the same way. So I will still keep doing the podcast even after I retire, when I retire, if I ever retire. That's the key, if I ever retire. So, happy birthday to the podcast.

Speaker 1: 26:35

Four years old today, 1.5 million impressions, I think, for a low voltage, you know, structured cabling podcast. I think that's amazing. I think that's absolutely amazing. I will never be a who's. That guy's going to fight Mike Tyson, jake Paul Is that his name? Jake Paul. I'll never be those kinds of numbers, never, never. But you know what, when people come up to me at Bixie conferences this happened just in the winter conference I had a husband and wife team come up to me and they said because of my podcast, their son, who was in low voltage, got back into low voltage because he's listening to my podcast and he wants to get his RCDD Dude. That's what this is about. This is not about me. This is about you and making it, making your life better, helping you to be more efficient, better technician, better rcdd, without having to go through making the mistakes like I did. Learn from my mistakes. That's why I do this show. I absolutely do this show. So until next time, everybody I appreciate everybody being here. Knowledge is power.

Speaker 2: 27:50

That's it for this episode of today's podcast. We hope you were able to learn something. Make sure to subscribe so you don't miss out on future content. Also, leave a rating so we can help even more people learn about telecommunications. Until next time, be safe.