29/12/2023
91 pages.
1.5 line-spacing, 12-pt Playfair Display font.
That's how many pages I've written over the last two weeks. At this pace, 2024 might be the biggest year yet for a podcast that I humbly report has:
- reached 79,900 total listens (and rising by the hundreds every day)
- over 1,300 Spotify-specific Subscribers (no data on the other platforms)
- and is nearing financial sustainability (hey, books cost a lot, not to mention the time I'm still volunteering to get it all done).
The idea of a history podcast is a silly one, I admit. The time, the mental gymnastics needed to tie the whole thing together, and the ever-growing home library being amassed as we speak...but I've learned that a single-minded focus on something you're passionate about -- as silly as others may find it -- is precisely what each one of us needs.
Beyond family and friends, it's tough to find purpose and meaning in a world hell-bent on blurring the lines in our personal lives. I've always wanted to be a writer -- as silly as it sounds to others -- and this podcast has been a three-year journey to getting me to just...write. Not to speak. To write. Who knows if it turns into something bigger, but it's getting me to regularly focus on my passion. And I'm seeing myself notice meaning in other things in my life, too.
I encourage everyone to find something they're passionate about -- as silly as it sounds to others -- and...just do it. Do it with a focus you may not put into most other things in your life, and you'll find yourself cutting out the things you're not necessarily wanting to do in the first place. Essentially, you'll be separating the wheat from the chaff, burning away the deadwood that we all accumulate from time to time in our lives. I've found writing about silly things happening a thousand years ago helps me focus on other things that mean the most to me. I still have so far to go still, but over the last three years and more than 110 episodes (about 95 hours of recording, each episode average 17 pages of writing) -- not to mention the 15 Patreon-Only episodes for supporting listeners -- I've noticed myself developing renewed interest in things that matter most.
So, is this podcast really what I'm after in my life (obviously, besides healthy family and friend relationships)? Or am I subconsciously manifesting something bigger that I'm currently not aware of quite yet? Who knows...but, for now, it's writing this little history podcast and sharing our Western narrative in new ways with folks around the world that I'm focusing on when I'm not with my family and friends, or teaching my community's young ones. Literally. I never thought I'd reach folks around these United States, as well as places like the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Germany, Australia, Spain, Israel, Canada and Norway, not to mention the few listeners from places like C'ote d'Ivoire, India, Singapore, Morocco, Japan, Fiji, and Russia.
It just goes to show that if you devote yourself to something you find valuable, others will find it and they will tune in to what you have to say. You'll manifest people of like mind and you will indirectly interact with them and their thinking. You'll spread your passion to others, even if they do nothing with it but listen to your voice. The work you put into yourself will surely impact others, and you just never know how much and how far your voice will make an impact. I still have no idea how my podcast is affecting my listeners, but the fact that the vast majority of people continue to listen and that the podcast continues to grow with each passing week...well, something is clicking. And I feel good about that, whatever "it" really is.
I've decided "it" is worth the effort. This silly little history podcast is worth it. And I've decided that 2024 will be it's biggest year yet. Stay tuned! We're ramping up for big things in the future on the podcast...and maybe beyond. Again, who knows? And I've decided to be patient and just keep doing what I'm doing.
