Latest / The Scene Projects / Teresa Aker on Podcasting's Power, Overcoming Adversity, and Building Community

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Teresa Aker on Podcasting's Power, Overcoming Adversity, and Building Community · The Scene Projects

• 0:01
  Today on the show, we have Teresa Aker, the powerhouse behind success diaries with Teresa
• 0:06
  Aker, where she's on a mission to prove that ordinary people do extraordinary things.
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  Let's get into the show.
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  This program is part of the Scene Projects podcast network.
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  Scene Project features interviews with independent musicians, comedians, and artists
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  from across the Midwest.
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  Become part of our community and support local art wherever you are.
• 0:43
  Well, welcome in to another exciting episode of the scene.
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  I'm your host, Bubba Starts, and with me today is my friend, Teresa Acre.
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  Teresa, welcome to the show.
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  Bubba, it's my pleasure to be back to talk to you again.
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  You are such wonderful person.
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  You're doing great things, and I'm always thrilled to see you.
• 1:00
  Yeah.
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  And it's been a little while, and we have both been busy little bees, producing a ton of
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  podcasts.
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  I see yours popping up on my YouTube feed all of the time, and I'm sure the same for you with
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  our show as we continue to roll out more and more shows and episodes.
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  The scene projects just recently passed a thousand uploads and a quarter million views,
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  and it's just been crazy.
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  I think when I was on your show, we maybe had, like, a thousand views.
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  So it's Yeah.
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  It's been quite the ride.
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  But, you know, before we get into what we're doing now, I would love to give you the floor
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  and just have you tell us a little bit of your back story and and some about your show.
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  Absolutely, Bubba.
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  Thanks for having me on your show, first of all.
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  It's always my pleasure.
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  I truly mean that, Bubba.
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  I started Success Diaries with Theresa Aker.
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  The reason I did that was because I had overcome some losses in life.
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  I had lost my husband and lost my daughter and in a three year span.
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  So it I felt like grief was constant.
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  And I came from a background of sales and motivational speaking.
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  I've been a manager.
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  I've led a team of people.
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  I have extensive background on helping people grow their businesses, feel positive about
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  life.
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  I'm always genuinely a positive person.
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  However, during that time, I certainly had some struggles and some heartache and it was very
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  difficult to get through.
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  So I had met up with a wonderful lady.
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  She had written a book and was doing courses on grief, counseling and was amazing.
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  And I went through her course.
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  Her name was Heather Stang, and she did such a great job.
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  I thought people should hear about her.
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  And she had a story of her own to tell.
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  So I had been thinking about doing a podcast, wasn't quite sure how I was gonna do it, but I
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  thought she would be a perfect guest to start with.
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  So I asked Heather, would you be interested in coming on as a guest if I started a podcast to
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  help other people.
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  And she was so great.
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  She said, absolutely.
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  I'd love to do that.
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  So, Bubba, as you know, I'm not all techy.
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  I said to Heather, well, let's see how it goes.
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  I don't know how it's gonna turn out, but we'll see.
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  Well, Baba, she came on.
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  Everyone just loved her.
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  She's just was amazing, and she's so calm and caring.
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  And what I found from that was I was on the right track.
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  I wanted people to know that they could overcome adversity.
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  Now it didn't matter if it was grief, if it was financial, love loss, all kinds of people go
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  through grief.
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  Sometimes it's a job.
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  Sometimes it's, you know, losing a pet.
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  Everybody has different forms of grief.
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  And I was able to find guests like yourself, Bubba, who had gone through adversity and
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  became successful.
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  So I thought, what a great thing.
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  I can bring everyday people, my neighbors, people across the world, people across
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  everywhere and bring their stories forward.
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  And the thread that I found was, Bubba, every person has a story.
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  And I've had a lot of viewers say thank you for bringing them on because it helped me get
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  through that.
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  So that's how it started.
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  And I also because I have motivational background, I do do some motivational clips,
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  some videos on how to overcome adversity, things that I've learned along the way.
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  I'm a proponent of people who achieve successes including biographies.
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  So I do follow those as well and bring those tips and ideas to my viewers.
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  So it's a combination of those things.
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  So that's how it went, papa.
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  I I know that you had lost your husband, but I didn't realize you'd lost your daughter in that
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  short span of time.
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  So my heart absolutely goes out to you.
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  So tough.
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  And would you say that podcasting kind of I mean, in a way, has has saved you from that
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  grief, has allowed you by sharing other people's stories to, you know, kind of deal
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  with your own grief?
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  Bubba, excellent question.
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  And as always, we kind of are in sync with each other.
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  Absolutely.
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  It it absolutely helped heal me.
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  It takes a long time with grief and especially and I can honestly tell you my husband and I,
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  he was the best plus one.
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  I mean, and I honestly mean that.
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  We had a wonderful marriage of so many years to all of a sudden lose him and it was sudden.
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  It was devastating.
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  But let me add and compound that with losing a child is even worse than that.
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  So we're supposed to not bury our children and unfortunately I had to go through that.
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  And so the pain was unbelievable.
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  Now I do have a wonderful family still.
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  Have a daughter and a son who are wonderful and four granddaughters and in laws, my
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  daughter-in-law and son-in-law, they're all wonderful.
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  They support me.
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  My friends are over the moon as well.
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  So it's not that I didn't have support, but I will say, Bubba, the podcast, the talk show, if
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  you will, absolutely help me realize I'm not alone.
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  And it for the viewers, I actually did watch some YouTube channels just like yourself,
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  Bubba, because I wanted to see how other people, if they had gone through it, how they
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  got through it.
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  So I thought, why not?
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  I can bring those very people to my audience, and it seems to be working.
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  Well, and it's no it's no surprise, and it's not a you know, it's well known that talk
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  therapy works for a reason.
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  Right?
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  And that's kind of what both of our shows have become.
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  Obviously, mine focuses more on music and musicians, but, you know, I I started a whole
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  other program called get better together because just getting on with, at first my
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  friend Sarah and then later with Jamie, just sharing our shit helped me feel better.
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  Right?
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  And and now we've continued to do that.
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  We had a great episode of our show, Love Noise, last night with a young lady named Fire White.
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  And, same thing.
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  Just just being able to let go of our trauma and to share that out there.
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  And and, you know, our medium for the most part has been music and using that as an outlet, but
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  there's no reason that these podcasts in any form couldn't be that.
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  The motivational messages, the the talk show, any of it.
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  It's how I say it's how God is healing the world.
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  It's how we're healing ourselves, you know, without being overly religious about it.
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  But getting all of these things out of us is what's making us better.
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  You heal yourself.
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  You heal the world.
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  And I don't know if there's a better example of that than you yourself, Teresa, and what you've
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  built with your podcast, your talk show, and how you've allowed others to come on and to
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  heal themselves.
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  Even if they are people who have built success off of that, there's still small parts of us
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  inside that are that are healed from sharing our story over and over again.
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  Absolutely, Bubba.
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  And you are right.
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  Some of the stories are painful and deep, and they get a chance to not only bring their story
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  forward, they get heard.
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  And that's important because when we go through grief or anything, it does and when I say
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  grief, I actually bring stories just so you know, Bubba, on the positive side and and grief
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  is positive when you get through it.
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  But I will say, just like yourself, I brought musicians on, authors.
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  Now I don't have a niche like yourself, but I definitely have brought authors, actors,
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  directors, producers, people trying also to go through their steps in life and they've had
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  adversity on their way to success.
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  So I'm all about helping them reach the goals they want to reach.
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  So if my talk show can help them get there, that brings me joy.
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  Again, that's the healing side.
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  It's what what I really believe this, Bubba, and you touched on it to your point.
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  You can call it God, source, the universe.
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  We are all in this together.
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  And as you know, I won't go too deep, but honestly, we are in this together.
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  I truly feel that.
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  And if we help each other through and and right now we are all all over the globe going through
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  some difficult times.
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  So if we can help each other just a little bit and just be a little bit empathetic and
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  understand that we can help each other, we'll move mountains.
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  We'll move all those people with struggles and with issues.
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  We can help each other get through it.
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  Does that make sense to me?
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  Yeah.
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  Well and podcasts are just the perfect encapsulation of that.
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  Nobody has conversations anymore.
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  Our our life is all chopped up into short bits, text messages, and you you we we feel like we
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  don't have the time.
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  And what it is is that we don't make the time to sit and have especially difficult
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  conversations.
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  You know, talking with those that have hurt us and expressing our feelings, and it's just
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  something that's not done in this world.
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  It's been a generation generations now of, you know, especially men, I feel like, get this,
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  but now a lot of women have been told, you know, that it's not okay to share your
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  feelings.
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  And, you know, on both sides for men, it it may make you appear weak.
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  Right?
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  And and you're you're told not to.
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  And for women, they're told, you know, to not share your feelings because men don't like
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  that.
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  You know?
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  If you're gonna find a good man, then you can't be an emotional wreck.
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  And you know what?
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  Sometimes it's okay to not be okay and to share that and to dig into those feelings and express
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  those feelings.
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  Now not in violent ways or not in ways that are going to harm others.
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  Right?
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  I'm not saying it's okay to lash out in anger, but it's okay to pull those feelings out and
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  examine them and ask yourself why are you so angry or why are you so sad?
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  How why has this affected you?
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  And to ask really hard questions of ourselves as well as the rest of society.
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  Absolutely.
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  And I I wanna circle back a bit, Baba, because one thing, I did know statistics have changed
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  dramatically.
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  More and more people are feeling lonely today.
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  And the reason they're feeling lonely is because you're right.
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  The generation that's come behind us or after us rather are now a lot on the Internet, and
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  they are forced to be whether it be through AI, through communication.
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  They're they're they're really on their computers, their cell phones, whatever to reach
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  out.
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  It's a new way.
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  Even dating, they've proven, like, 90% of dates are are online.
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  So when I I'm dating myself, but when I was young, the man picked you up and bought you
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  flowers, took you out for dinner and made me dancing into a show.
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  I know I'm dating myself, but that's what we did.
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  Today, it's a whole new world.
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  They that young people are you know?
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  And it that's what they know, so they're okay with that.
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  They meet online.
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  They, perhaps in time, meet at, you know, a coffee shop, they do their thing.
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  And maybe they date the same way we do.
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  I don't know.
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  I'm not dating anymore, but but that's what they did.
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  Now today, the thing they I really feel they're missing, Bubba, a lot of the young people this
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  generation or perhaps the one just before it, as the Internet took over, they're missing the
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  nuances of being face to face and having a conversation at a table, if that makes sense to
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  you.
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  So we're we're talking here, at least it's better than just texting.
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  K?
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  So I could see you, you can see me, and we can talk.
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  I think that is why our authentic talk shows, Bubba, are gonna be so important in the future.
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  Because if someone's sitting at home alone, they can look and go, oh, Bubba and Teresa both
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  went through something really, know, Bubba's successful in his business, Teresa went through
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  this.
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  They both have a talk show from different things, and they can look and they can feel
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  like they're part of something and not so alone if they wanna get answers or or find out for
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  themselves without feeling under pressure.
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  Would that make sense?
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  Totally.
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  And and my wife is ten years younger than I am, and I really, you know, graduated in 02/2004.
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  So right before, you know, the invention of the iPhone and the connectedness of our world.
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  Right?
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  We had cell phones, and that was such a weird thing because I grew up with landlines still.
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  And I know I'm starting to date myself, but I'm much younger than you are.
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  Not much younger, but I am younger than you.
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  Just a little bit, Teresa.
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  And we we come from a little bit different time.
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  Right?
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  And I'm kind of that generation that had a a foot in the analog world, and I remember pre
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  Internet days.
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  I remember Windows '95, right, coming around at my next door neighbor, all of a sudden having
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  the Internet and not really understanding the repercussions of that connectedness and how it
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  actually severed a lot of ties in our community.
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  Right?
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  You didn't necessarily have to be friends with your neighbor anymore because you could find
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  connection with people that were outside of your neighborhood and across the wide world.
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  And while that has so many benefits, right, without the Internet, we never meet each other.
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  It also has a great many detriments because you're not getting out and communicating face
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  to face with people anymore.
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  And I I think that podcasts are changing that.
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  I think we've seen a lot of that, you know, especially over the last few years, but really
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  building over the last ten years that people crave that connection.
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  People are craving real conversations, and it's why a show like Joe Rogan's I mean, the top of
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  the podcast world are so popular because it's just him and another person sitting down for
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  hours on end having a real conversation.
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  And and I hope that in time, we can start to, you know, we found it on the Internet again,
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  but that we can start to get together in in groups again and and to to mingle.
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  And that's one of the things that the scene projects that we hope to build is taking what
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  we've built in this community and take to make a roadshow out of it So we can get out and and
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  we can travel around with our hosts and and visit our guests in their hometowns and meet
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  with fans in those places.
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  I mean, that's really what we're building and hopefully what we're building to to do next
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  summer.
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  I got out and visited a lot of areas this year on tour, and I'm very fortunate to get to play
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  music and to have that to, you know, be a good excuse to find a little bit of gas money in
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  towns across the country.
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  But, what I really wanna do is just connect with people.
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  And whether it's fans or it's guests and new business owners and new people to have on the
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  show, I'm just seeking that connection.
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  And I think as more people see people like us that are seeking out the connection, that they
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  will feel more comfortable in doing that as well.
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  I that's excellent.
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  So congratulations on your future endeavors because I know you're gonna you're you're
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  already doing things.
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  You're gonna go really far.
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  Now I wanna circle back again too.
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  I was talking about the young people and you touched on something.
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  You said I'm gonna go out and travel on the road and meet the guests and so forth.
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  I would also say that as we get older, so between your age and mine, it doesn't matter
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  where the gap is.
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  As we get older, we actually, a lot of people do become retired, Baba.
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  And they tend to their their work environment and their friends and so forth do tend to kind
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  of decrease a bit.
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  And they do tend to stay home more.
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  Now that's not to say there is an active seniors and all of that.
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  I'm not saying there's not.
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  But for the most part, it truly your world does change as you retire.
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  And I think there's also another opening.
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  While you're out meeting and greeting people, there's a lot of people that are now gonna
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  first, they're gonna see us on these talk shows.
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  They're they're gonna say, oh, I know Teresa or I know Bubba.
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  They they did that show and I've been watching them.
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  And then you're right.
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  You get to meet them in the town and they're coming out more.
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  It's not to say that they're shy or can't come out.
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  It's just as our worlds get too small, it's a little more difficult to know where to go to
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  kinda get back into the swing of things.
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  And so this gives them an opportunity online to meet people, to get their stories.
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  They can tell their stories.
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  And I boy, I encourage people, if you're retired or, you know, is thinking about
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  retirement, start your own podcast.
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  You have a wealth of knowledge.
• 17:59
  Oh my goodness.
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  To give to all those people up and coming, you have knowledge.
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  You have you're able to consult.
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  You're able to share your incredible lives and overcoming your own adversity because boy, if
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  you're my age, you've been through something.
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  You're able to bring that forward.
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  Wow, that's such a gift to give to people.
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  So you're what my point to you is, Bubba, you are right.
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  There's a lot of positive that has come out of this.
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  So although there's some negative, there's a lot of upside to this online networking, online
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  podcast.
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  I've met people in Iceland, in UK, in Australia that I would never met.
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  We would never met if it wasn't for this.
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  So there's all kinds of new wonderful ways to connect and to kind of alleviate that
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  disconnect.
• 18:51
  I I know you're you're gonna do great things, Bubba.
• 18:53
  There's no doubt in my mind.
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  I and I thank you for that and your encouragement early on.
• 18:58
  Like I said, I think we did our interview back in February and we were just starting out.
• 19:03
  We we really hadn't you know, we've done a 100 episodes, but that was rather easy for me.
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  I had a fairly large network already built, and I just interviewed all of the, you know, the
• 19:14
  people in my in my phone contacts.
• 19:16
  Right?
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  But when we moved to video and we started to open up our world, you know, onto the web and
• 19:22
  to start to reach out a little bit further, right, than than just our local music scene and
• 19:27
  our regional music scene, that it my eyes really opened to what this could be.
• 19:33
  And it's, the dream I had was always the same.
• 19:37
  It's just the scale increased exponentially as we were we as we opened that door and we
• 19:42
  realized how important all of these conversations are and the connections, the
• 19:47
  network that we're building of all of these beautiful people that we've got to meet.
• 19:52
  And I couldn't agree with you more.
• 19:53
  I encourage everyone I talk to essentially to start a podcast because of the the networking.
• 19:59
  It's going to bring you so much joy to talk to other human beings and to have a great excuse
• 20:05
  to, have them on because who wouldn't want to share, a little bit of their knowledge or their
• 20:10
  business or their what and then it gives you something to go on and to promote on someone
• 20:16
  else's podcast.
• 20:17
  Right?
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  So it's just in having the simple, thing that, you know, a podcast, a talk show, it can be
• 20:22
  whatever you want it to be.
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  It's a great excuse to meet other human beings at the end of the day.
• 20:28
  Bubba, I would also add, you're helping young artists.
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  That is so huge.
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  Well, all artists.
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  You're really helping in the music world people.
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  It's tough to break out in the world in music, and you're helping them whether they're
• 20:41
  starting out or been there for a while.
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  You're helping encourage a whole network of people on your own.
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  So kudos to you because that's that's huge.
• 20:51
  And that's what we're trying to do here.
• 20:54
  Think both of us, Bubba, in our own way are just helping people achieve the goals or
• 20:59
  overcome whatever it is they're going through and then tell their stories so that they can
• 21:05
  keep going.
• 21:06
  And networking, I would I would say that the networking side, exactly what you said is the
• 21:13
  most important.
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  And have you noticed that even and I'm gonna say about you too, the networker, the the
• 21:20
  podcast group help each other.
• 21:23
  I don't.
• 21:23
  I've been helped by so many podcasters, and I've helped other podcasters to get to where
• 21:29
  they wanna be.
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  I'm so proud of our our group.
• 21:32
  When I say that, all over the world.
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  Podcasters all over the world helping each other.
• 21:37
  I love that.
• 21:39
  Man, I had an opportunity to go to podcast movement down in Dallas this year.
• 21:44
  We got one of their scholarship tickets because, you know, winning the content creator
• 21:48
  of the year award gives you a certain, cachet in the world.
• 21:51
  Thank you very much.
• 21:53
  And, so we got to go down, and I got to meet, some really great people.
• 21:57
  I got to meet Adam Curry, the pod father himself, and, I got to, listen to his talk.
• 22:05
  And his talk was all about you don't need a million followers.
• 22:09
  You don't need to be chasing these CPM models of advertisers.
• 22:13
  Go find your community.
• 22:15
  What community are you already in?
• 22:16
  Do you have a chess club?
• 22:17
  Right?
• 22:18
  Look.
• 22:18
  It doesn't matter what it is.
• 22:20
  I was very fortunate to be in a community of already creative people that made it really
• 22:25
  easy for me to jump start that.
• 22:26
  But everything the man said was exactly what I set out to do as soon as I started my podcast.
• 22:32
  And I, Teresa, I literally listened to it, went, okay.
• 22:35
  Took off my headphones, put them in the bin, and I left the conference.
• 22:39
  Right?
• 22:40
  Because if that's what a lot of these people were paying the ticket price to come and listen
• 22:44
  to, and there were some really great speakers there, you know, talking about the technical
• 22:48
  sides and things.
• 22:49
  And, we have a pretty firm grasp on it because of our background in audio production as
• 22:54
  musicians and and what we already knew from that.
• 22:59
  Once I heard Adam Curry kinda deliver that message, it was like, I I have heard what I
• 23:04
  needed to hear here.
• 23:05
  I had driven fifteen hours from South Dakota to get there, and and I've slept in my truck
• 23:10
  because rooms were 250 a night.
• 23:13
  And I was like, okay.
• 23:14
  I think I'll just sleep in the truck.
• 23:16
  Thank you very much.
• 23:17
  And hit the four hours of the pod or the, you know, the conference and, you know, got to go
• 23:24
  and stay at my friend's place and and to rest up so I could drive fifteen hours home on
• 23:29
  Tuesday.
• 23:29
  And it was just a but it was such a blessing to be there, to be surrounded by other podcasters
• 23:35
  and all the people in the industry.
• 23:37
  Everyone is so gracious and so just so welcoming.
• 23:41
  And everyone wants to support everyone because it's not an easy business to be successful in
• 23:47
  if your your, you know, metric of success is money or fame.
• 23:53
  Right?
• 23:54
  Like, if those are the two things that you're measuring for success, right, that you are
• 24:00
  you're that you may never get there, but the impact you can have.
• 24:04
  And if that's how you're measuring your your success, right, then it's huge.
• 24:10
  And the impact that we've had, not just on the artists who have come into it, but the impact
• 24:15
  on my own life, the impact on me has been tremendous.
• 24:19
  And I think that's really why I encourage everyone to just, you know, start what
• 24:23
  whatever.
• 24:24
  Whatever you wanna call it, it doesn't matter.
• 24:25
  Whatever your show is, there's so many different formats now that you could try.
• 24:30
  I love to meet new people, so an interview format for me was just easy.
• 24:34
  But there's plenty of people that can fill up an hour just talking by themselves or covering
• 24:39
  a topic and covering the news or anything.
• 24:42
  It's just get out there and do it.
• 24:45
  Right?
• 24:46
  You know, get a get a webcam and hit record and just start going.
• 24:50
  And and I feel in much the same way that, you know, music is an inspired craft, so is
• 24:56
  podcasting.
• 24:57
  You're gonna find the thing that that speaks to you and that allows you to speak your truth,
• 25:02
  and then just don't stop.
• 25:04
  Just keep on going, and it's going to have an impact on the world.
• 25:08
  I promise you that.
• 25:10
  Well said, Bubba, honestly.
• 25:12
  And I would add I know this word gets thrown around a lot lately is authenticity, But I can
• 25:18
  honestly say be yourself if you're gonna do it because it's one thing to have a mentor.
• 25:23
  Like you mentioned, Joe Rogan, great, great person to definitely have a mentor for and see
• 25:28
  where he's going.
• 25:29
  But be careful you don't try to do too much like other people do.
• 25:33
  Just take what you can from it, enhance what you have, and stay authentic.
• 25:38
  And that's gonna keep the distance going.
• 25:40
  People want to know you, Baba.
• 25:43
  They don't wanna know a new form of you.
• 25:45
  They wanna know who's Baba?
• 25:47
  What's he all about?
• 25:48
  How is he helping?
• 25:49
  What's he doing?
• 25:50
  I wanna follow him.
• 25:51
  So they want the real Bubba, you know, if that helps anyone.
• 25:55
  Really I always say stay true to yourself.
• 25:59
  I have been true to myself from the beginning.
• 26:01
  This isn't real.
• 26:02
  This is my guests are real.
• 26:04
  It's from the heart and that was is what resonates with my viewers and I like that.
• 26:10
  I like that they're able to say, you know what?
• 26:13
  It's real.
• 26:13
  I like that.
• 26:14
  And it touches their heart.
• 26:16
  When a guest tells their real story, it touches my viewer's heart.
• 26:21
  And that's what mine is all about.
• 26:22
  And you're helping other people in the music industry getting to where they wanna be and
• 26:27
  you're helping yourself along the way, you are a huge success.
• 26:30
  Well done.
• 26:32
  I thank you so much for that, Teresa.
• 26:35
  I'm gonna let you get out of here because I'm sure you have more interviews to get to of your
• 26:39
  own today, and you're such a busy lady.
• 26:41
  And I appreciate all the work that you're doing for other people out there, allowing them a
• 26:45
  space to tell their story and for having me on your show.
• 26:48
  I think at some point, we're gonna have to catch up and to do to do another episode and to
• 26:55
  update everyone on even more success that we've had.
• 26:58
  Go ahead and plug everything that you're doing and let people know where they can follow you.
• 27:04
  Great.
• 27:04
  So I have my YouTube talk show and podcast, whatever you wanna call it.
• 27:08
  It's Teresa Aker.
• 27:09
  It's Success Diaries with Teresa Aker.
• 27:11
  That's success diaries with Teresa Aker.
• 27:13
  You can go over to YouTube.
• 27:14
  I'm on Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, Instagram.
• 27:18
  You can follow me on social media.
• 27:19
  I'm a social media junkie.
• 27:21
  Connect with me if you're a motivational, person, you need some motivation, or you are a
• 27:26
  motivational person, I'm happy to have you on.
• 27:28
  If you're any any adversity or anything any success story you have that you can help our
• 27:34
  viewers, love to have you on my show.
• 27:36
  And, Bubba, you are welcome anytime to come back.
• 27:39
  Well, I can't wait to do that.
• 27:41
  And, Teresa, I wanna thank you for your time this morning, and I wanna thank you for being
• 27:46
  part of the scene.
• 27:48
  Thank you, my friend.