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SOLO EPISODE: THE RAMP UP TO. EPISODE 150 · Caught on the Mike...

• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: Four score, and many, many, many months ago, I used to record solo episodes on a pretty regular basis.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: And let me explain how that would come about.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: Generally, it was the result of a cancellation or a reschedule of a guest, and I wanted to keep the consistency machine going for the sake of making sure I was always releasing a new podcast episode for my listeners.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: About a year ago, I started listening back to some of them, and I decided that I did not want this platform to be my own personal therapist, so I scrubbed a lot of them away.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it was the right decision.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: It was definitely the right decision at the time.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: I just recently dropped episode 149, so I'm gonna call this solo episode my first in a long time 149.5 because I have something cool planned for episode 150.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, I've had several cool things planned for episode 150.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: I have been bitten by the cancellation and reschedule bug a few times in the past week, if I may be completely honest.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: But I thought that maybe I would try something a little different.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: This is the first time I've ever expelled one of these monologues in my new YouTube format that will also be available on all the podcasting platforms, and share what's been going on in my life and with the podcast, and uh I'm pretty excited.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: So, um it's October, actually it's November.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh, it's already November.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, Halloween has come and gone.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: As you can tell, Halloween is my favorite holiday, but it never felt like Halloween season to me.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: I think Old Lady Summer was holding on for far too long, so it made it really hard to get in the spirit of fall.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: I know the day after Halloween, I was happy that it was time for Mariah Carey to thaw out and Christmas season to begin and get the hell out of here with the what about Thanksgiving shit?
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I get it.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: Thanksgiving's a holiday in the middle, but I don't know, man.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: If it brings people joy, who is anybody else to shit on it for real?
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: Like if people want to set up their Christmas trees the day after Halloween, more power to them.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: There is enough things in this world dividing people and things that people are nitpicking about that you don't need to get on somebody's case about a fucking Christmas tree.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: For real.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: Anyways, 2024 has been a much more enjoyable year than what 2023 was.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, another year older, another phase of new experiences, another phase of helping myself get a little bit smarter, a little bit wiser, and then trying to pass on that wisdom to my kids, to my coworkers, to anybody that will listen, and also to be a sponge myself and watch myself grow.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, that's something that I think has been beneficial for me as I've been doing this podcast for four years.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: That's right, as of September 27th, 2024.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: Caught on the mic, turned four years old, and it has been a fast four years.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: Now I am recording this on the eve of the election, and I have to be honest, I am fatigued.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: I am ready for this whole election cycle to be over.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um if your guy or gal won, congratulations.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: You see how that's done.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't need to be an asshole about it.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: I say congratulations if your person won.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: I think the thing that we have lost as a society at large is this sense of community.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: We are so beholden to tribalism, and if somebody doesn't agree with you, they're your enemy, which is just not the truth by any way, shape, or form or any stretch of the imagination.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: As far as the podcast goes, in April I went to video for the first time, and it was something that I had been wanting to do since I started the show.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: And there was a lot of hesitation because for me it was all about quality.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: It was making sure that the end result had the production value, that I could stand behind, that um it just didn't look like I was recording a Zoom call and then throwing it online.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's still not where I want it to be, but it's much better than what it would have been had I started even as soon as a year ago.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: So April was the time where I made that transition, and it's kind of fun watching the show grow through YouTube and being able to create video clips now and shareable items because we are an algorithm world and I am just an algorithm girl guy, girl, guy.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm a dude.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, it's hard out there for a pimp to quote 36 Mafia.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know why I decided to say that, but I digress.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: Anyways, I've had some of the best episodes that I think I've ever recorded this last year.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: So if you are a late adopter to Caught on the Mic and the Caught on the Mic ecosystem, welcome.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um I'm glad to have you here.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I think it's an interesting journey.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: So go back to Spotify, go back to Apple Podcasts, listen to the origin stories, listen to some of the early episodes, and then go to YouTube and watch some of the more recent episodes just to see how the show has grown and how the format has changed.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: When I started this thing four years ago, I had no idea.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: I like to pretend like I did, but I had no idea what the format was going to be.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I was caught up in the podcaster whirlwind just like everybody else in the heat of the pandemic, and thought, hey, I want to do something creative, so why don't I start a podcast?
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I had been listening to a lot of podcasts, I had been on this self-improvement journey for some time, and I thought that that's what I wanted my show to be.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: And realistically, I think over time, what it's become is it's become a way to kind of illustrate that we have a lot more in common than we do different, and the true differences that matter are what make us unique.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: I love helping to tell people stories, and some of these people are people you've heard of, people you know, whether they be professional fighters, famous actors, famous musicians, your next door neighbor.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I think everybody's story has a sense of value in the caught-on-the-mic ecosystem.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I will be honest, these days I spend a lot more time turning down episodes than getting excited about putting everybody on the show.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: Vetting has definitely become a much more heavy-handed part of my process and strategy as far as how I want to release certain episodes, who I want to have on, and the order of which I release them.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: And that's because I want to make sure that there's enough diversity that everybody from every interest set is represented, and that you can learn about an interest set that maybe you didn't know about before.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: I have a lot of fighters on my show, and I hear about it more about fighters than any other episode is like, I'm not an MMA guy, I'm not an MMA fan.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I tell people, listen to the episode.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter whether or not you're an MMA fan.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: I think what you have to gain from this is learning about an interesting person's story, and maybe you can become a fan by listening to these stories and becoming invested.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: Even then, it doesn't discount how important a person's journey is to them.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: So, how did they get from point A to point B to point C to where this became the compelling road that they travel?
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: So it's a lot to think about.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: As far as what the future holds for the show, I will tell you that this month, the month of November, I am doing a lot of other people's podcasts.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: So my release schedule might be a little slower uh November going into December, and that's okay.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: I think for me, it's kind of time to put myself out there as a guest on other people's show, so I can kind of, you know, fuel the momentum of my own.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: So I've got three podcasts that I am scheduled to be on as a guest this month.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, November 22nd, I make my debut as the pay-per-view commentator for Dynasty Combat Sports that will be on the Triller app and MMAfutures.com, which is really exciting.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm pretty sure I'm doing the December event as well, as well as scheduling more podcast appearances.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: So I spend a lot of time throughout the day, every day, scrolling Instagram, scrolling TikTok, looking for unique faces to put on the show.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: Now that it is in video format, that's where I want to go with it.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, it's awesome because I have people or I've had conversations with people that I would have never thought of having in a million years.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, some interactions.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: I have made some friends with people that I looked up to when I was younger, um, trade texts with some of these people every single day, and this is all a result of putting my heart into this podcast.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: But I also have to remind myself that this is not my job.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um family comes first, uh, my career comes after that, and you know, this comes somewhere down the line.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: So I take this serious enough to consider it being more than a hobby, but it's not really my job.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: We'll call it my jobby.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: I would love for this to be my career, but uh, you know, I digress.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: Anyways, I thought I would just release a really short episode, real short video clip, kind of tell you what's been going on, what's on the horizon.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: I have a lot of emails out and a lot of interactions out with guests, and uh there's some more cool things coming around the corner.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: It just might be a little bit slower than the pace and velocity that I usually release episodes in.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um I kind of want to keep optimistic about things.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: You know, there's like I said, not to tread backwards on the whole uh political thing because I uh I try and avoid politics like the plague, but uh I want to be optimistic about the the future of the world.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody has somebody that's gonna say something negative about their contribution to society or the way that they live their life.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and the thing is, is you just kind of have to rise above it and you gotta block out that negativity.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: Take the constructive criticism when you can get it, uh, use that constructive criticism to improve yourself, but also know how to separate constructive criticism from people just talking shit for the sake of talking shit.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: Most people that take on this mean-spirited, bully-esque behavior are really unhappy or insecure about something in their own lives, and I cannot believe I'm saying this.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: This is the type of thing that was said to me when I was a kid, and I felt like I was being bullied, but it honest to God is the truth.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, most people are really apt to tell on themselves at some point in time or another.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: Anyways, if you haven't visited my website in a while, please do so.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: www.cotonthemic.com.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: Check me out on all the podcasting platforms.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: Make sure you're giving a follow or a subscribe on the YouTube channel.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: It would mean the world to me as I try and grow this vessel of creativity for myself.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's been an amazing four years.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'm excited to be embarking upon year five and hoping that I'm still doing this five years after that year 10.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, shoot me an email, caught on the mic at gmail.com.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: Shoot me a direct message through social media platforms.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: I love hearing from people.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: Share this or share a past episode with one of your friends.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: We are an algorithm-driven world, like I said before, and the only way to keep things moving forward is to break that wall by uh getting people engaged.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: So have a great rest of the week.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: I hope you enjoyed my long little rambling, and uh there'll be a guest driven episode coming really soon.