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Transcript

Goodbye 2024! HELLO 2025! · Caught on the Mike...

• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: Ladies and gentlemen, we've made it.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's 2025.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't look at the last year, 2024, with the same sense of disdain that a lot of other people do, but I empathize.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: I understand why people hated last year so much.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: But being the guy that would rather look at things from the optimistic side of life, let's take a step back and look at the year that was 2024 and then move forward.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: It was the year of Chapel Roan, Sabrina Carpenter, and one Charlie XCX determining whether or not something could be brat.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: It was the year of the absolute worst political season of my lifetime.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna own it.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna break one of my golden rules.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna talk politics just for a second and say it was equally bad whether you were on the right or whether you are on the left.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: Personally, there was not a single candidate that I identified with that I could align myself with.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: I am politically purple, I vote based on issues, not based on party lines, and I've decided that anybody that makes their politics their personality profile is fucking gross.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm so sick of it.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm sure a lot of you are as well.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: It was the year of AI, Wicked, Drake versus Kendrick, Kendrick owning Drake, the Costco guys and the Rizzler, Hoctua, and the Podcast Vua.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's right.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: I tried to make a little pun, a little rhyme there.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: But for me personally, it was a year of a lot of growth with Caught on the Mic.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna kind of show you how the sausage is made.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: That's part of my brand.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: I've tried to get better about it, and I'll talk about that here in a few moments.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: But let's talk about where my year was personally and reflect upon this podcast.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: There were two separate occasions where I thought seriously and seriously hard about shuddering it.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: Not because I didn't want to do it anymore, because I am absolutely passionate about the content I create, the episodes I record, and the good that we can put out into this world with this podcast.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's my line.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, what's your advice for making the world a better place?
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: My aim is to do so through positive content, by telling people stories, removing the divisive narratives of things like politics and religion from the story, and just talking about a person's life journeys, highlighting the highs, highlighting the lows, and maybe giving you something that you can take away from that story and apply to your life.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: But there were two occasions over the course of 2024 where I thought about closing it down.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not for any negative reason other than the fact that life outside of the podcast world got really busy for me, and it just became hard to keep up with a few times.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: But two things happened that kind of flipped the script for me.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: Uh last March, I just happened to be shopping around and I found this nice camera, and I'm like, you know what?
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: I got this great deal on this camera.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: It is time to take Caught on the Mic to video.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: I had been doing this podcast for three and a half years up to that point, all audio, audio only.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I knew that I eventually wanted to make it a video podcast as well.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: It was just a matter of timing, deciding when quality would match up in such a way that it would move the needle for the show.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: And what a great decision moving to video was.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: And then I'm glad I waited it out because the next thing I know, I just kind of had a massive windfall of great episodes roll through and finish the year with.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that is the optimal point that anybody that does a creative endeavor wants to be at.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: So let's talk about the blatantly obvious lesson of balance that I've learned in the last year.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: I've had to learn to balance things out without letting myself get stressed out when things fall outside of balance.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: It used to be one of those things where it became a self-defeating concept to where if I would do too many music episodes in a row or too many MMA episodes in a row, or too many, you know, popery type episodes in a row, I'd be like, hey, I need to get back into this cadence.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: To where now I just kind of let things flow organically, and I let basically nature and the world and consequence and whatever fall in my lap as it may organically, and I don't overthink it.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: When I overthink things, that's when things start to fall apart.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I think there's a good lesson in life to be learned and gleaned from that.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: Now, how does that apply to where things are going now?
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, I'm recording this on the 5th of January, and obviously, again, let's talk about how time ceases to exist from December twenty fourth until January 5th.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: The reality is the new year really doesn't start until that first Monday after all the holidays are over.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: Tomorrow.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: So I've got a lot of emails out, I've got a lot of feelers out, but everybody is still kind of out for the holidays, and I'm expecting a pretty big windfall in the next week of future guest appearances and episodes, conversations that kind of got started right before the holidays.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: But even myself, I was supposed to record a couple of episodes over the holiday vacation, and I canceled it because I wanted to give things the best attention that I could give them.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: My focus for 2025, I feel like I've always been authentic, but it's to double down the authenticity.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, get better at saying no, because I got really good at saying no in the last quarter of 2024, and it seems to have paid off.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: Now there's a lot of new listeners here, there's a lot of new viewers here, and everything is growing as it should.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: I would definitely love some help growing the show, growing the YouTube channel.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: I think a lot of my focus is moving more towards YouTube and less away from the uh the podcast platforms.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'm always going to release audio only versions on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all of the uh podcasting platforms, but I'm gonna put a larger emphasis and a larger focus on YouTube, and I'm also going to start looking for more people to collaborate with.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: I would love a unique new theme song.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: I would love to work with some video collaborators and doing some like small mini episodes where I travel someplace and I have a sit-down conversation with somebody and it's done in like cinematic, high-quality video.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: But I've got a lot of ideas, but I'm also receptive to some ideas.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: So if you've got ideas for the show and different ways to make it better, reach out to me.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'm pretty accessible.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'm always all ears.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: We might not always agree, but I am all ears.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, some of the things that blew my mind this year was some of the people that I became friends with.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's not hard to look at my episode roster from 2024 and say, damn, you talked to so and so and you talked to so-and-so.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: And the thing is, the thing that I've always been proud about with this show is the um relationship building that comes with it.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: Because once I have a guest on my show, I have invested in them for life.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: They have my investment for life.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: I think I've said this on a million different uh TikTok videos that I've made over time or Instagram reels that I've made over time, where I say the greatest gift that you can give somebody is your time.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: Because once you give someone your time, you don't get that back.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: That is a moment that is forever lost.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: So when I have people on my show, I value that so much because they are giving me their time, and by extension, they're giving you their time, giving the show their time.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: So my way of paying that forward is I tell you what, somebody does my show every time they throw up a post on Instagram, I'm gonna like it.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: Every time they throw up a Instagram story, I'm gonna like it.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna comment on them their stuff.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna be a cheerleader for life.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that again is part of the culture that I'm trying to bake into this podcast through all the goodwill that we create with these guests and with their stories and what have you.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's my steps towards making the world a better place.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: I know I've used the word and said it a few times, but let's reflect on that.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: Culture.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: I think every great piece of art has some sort of culture that surrounds it.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: Every great workplace has a culture involved with it.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: Every sports team, successful sports team, has a culture baked within it.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that is my priority for 2025 is defining what the culture of Caught on the Mic is going to be.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: I want it to be more than just some guy sitting behind a microphone in his basement talking to your favorite musicians, fighters, actors and actresses, chefs or what have you.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: I want it to be something that you listen to, you watch, and then you carry with you throughout the weeks that follow.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe the months that follow, maybe the years that follow.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you find an episode that becomes that cornerstone that you say, hey, you know what?
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: You need to feel inspired.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: Go watch this episode when you're talking to your friends about the things that are happening in their lives or your own.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: So culture is definitely something I'm going to focus a lot more on in 2025 as Caught on the Mic approaches its fifth year anniversary.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: Some other ideas that I have floating around in the ether is inviting some past guests on that were a part of audio only episodes and having them revisit me in this new video format because there are a lot of new eyes and new ears on the show.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: But the big thing is is building that culture and extending that culture forward.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: So I asked this of the few of you that are going to watch this or listen to this, and I say, every time you see me post something, like it, comment on it, share it.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: If you see an episode that catches your eye or catches you your ears or catches your emotions somehow, share it.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: Turn more people onto it because that's how a movement starts.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: And that's how culture gets permeated is when it is shared or when ideas become shared.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: I want to thank all of you that have stuck with me from the beginning in September of 2020 when I started this.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: Those of you that are brand new, maybe you just found me a few weeks ago, thank you for being here.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: I am so glad to have you here.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm so glad to have you a part of the future of the show as things evolve, as things change, and as that culture becomes built into this great thing that we have here.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: As always, I want you all to know and understand that the world is a much better place with you in it.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: There will be more news to come.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: Check out my website, www.cotonThemic.com.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: Happy New Year.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: We've got more exciting episodes on the way.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for taking the time to listen or watch this.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: Have a great week, everybody.