Latest / Murders to Music: Crime Scene to Music Scene (Streamline Events and Entertainment) / At a Crossroads: The Future of the Murders to Music Podcast
Transcript
- 0:22SPEAKER_00: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to a Murders to Music podcast.
- 0:25SPEAKER_00: My name is Aaron.
- 0:26SPEAKER_00: I'm your host.
- 0:27SPEAKER_00: Thank you guys so much for coming back.
- 0:29SPEAKER_00: If you guys noticed, we missed last week.
- 0:32SPEAKER_00: Last week is the first week in two and a half years that I have just not released an episode.
- 0:39SPEAKER_00: And it was intentional, you know?
- 0:41SPEAKER_00: And I'll talk to you about why I didn't release an episode in a few minutes, and hopefully you understand and I put some context around that.
- 0:48SPEAKER_00: So thank you guys for coming back for this show.
- 0:52SPEAKER_00: Before we get into the real life, the real emotion and really the stuff this show was born on.
- 1:01SPEAKER_00: This show was born through a darker period where I shared my real life with people, where I shared what was going on every single day.
- 1:12SPEAKER_00: And in doing so, I created an audience that was coming back for more and more and more, and they wanted to hear the next episode.
- 1:21SPEAKER_00: Every week of my life seemed like a cliffhanger to the next show.
- 1:26SPEAKER_00: Or there was a life lesson, or there was a topic of conversation that I felt really impacted people, and they could gather something and learn something from that.
- 1:35SPEAKER_00: And that is really what got all the listeners to this show.
- 1:39SPEAKER_00: And this show is heard worldwide.
- 1:42SPEAKER_00: And that is what brought people in, and I think what made people stay and stick around.
- 1:48SPEAKER_00: It was the honesty, the rawness, the no fluff, the no BS, just real life, real feelings, real emotion, real impact conversations that we were having with me and my guests.
- 2:01SPEAKER_00: And that is where this show started.
- 2:05SPEAKER_00: That is going to come back up in a moment when I talk about why we didn't release a show last week.
- 2:10SPEAKER_00: But before we get there, something occurred this week, and it's been occurring quite a bit recently, and I'm not 100% sure why.
- 2:18SPEAKER_00: You know, when I was in law enforcement, we didn't feel, and I've said this before on the show, we didn't have feelings or emotions.
- 2:28SPEAKER_00: I didn't, at least.
- 2:29SPEAKER_00: And for me to cry was pretty abnormal.
- 2:32SPEAKER_00: For me to actually be able to feel the impact of things happening around me or things that I was seeing or things that I was experiencing in a way where I would have an outward show of emotion or display of emotion or cry or even happiness sometimes was almost non existent.
- 2:49SPEAKER_00: And that has a lot to do with the way my nervous system was working at the time and just being in a fight-flight-free state and numb to the emotions in the world around me.
- 3:00SPEAKER_00: And during my period in law enforcement, that was a protective mechanism that my brain was doing due to its incongruent nature, due to its dysfunction, where it was protecting me from what I was seeing and what I was involved with every single day.
- 3:19SPEAKER_00: But now that I'm out of law enforcement and now that I've had time to heal, I can tell you that it's not the same.
- 3:26SPEAKER_00: If the wind changes directions, I get emotional.
- 3:29SPEAKER_00: And it's sometimes, I don't want to say it's embarrassing.
- 3:32SPEAKER_00: I'll never apologize for my emotions or for crying or something like that, but it's just a world that I'm not used to.
- 3:39SPEAKER_00: And I really think as men, we find ourselves, I find myself in a situation where it's in sometimes it's embarrassing to cry or embarrassing to show emotions, or we choke back those tears and those feelings that we have.
- 3:54SPEAKER_00: And it shouldn't be that way.
- 3:56SPEAKER_00: There shouldn't be that stigma on emotion or the display of emotion.
- 4:01SPEAKER_00: However, here the last eight weeks or so, I've been traveling for work and been going all over the place, all over the nation, Alaska to Chicago to Oklahoma City, all over the place.
- 4:14SPEAKER_00: And in doing so, I obviously find myself on an airplane.
- 4:19SPEAKER_00: And sometimes I work, sometimes I knock out things for the office or emails.
- 4:24SPEAKER_00: Other times I just find myself with my AirPods in, scrolling Instagram.
- 4:30SPEAKER_00: The one thing I don't do is talk very much.
- 4:33SPEAKER_00: I don't talk to the people beside me.
- 4:35SPEAKER_00: I don't know why, not that I'm not personal.
- 4:38SPEAKER_00: I just don't like talking to people on the planes.
- 4:42SPEAKER_00: Every now and then there's a rare exception.
- 4:44SPEAKER_00: So as I'm scrolling these Instagram reels, and there's something about Instagram and me and an airplane that it like knows how to find my heart.
- 4:54SPEAKER_00: And I don't understand how Instagram reels and algorithms work.
- 4:58SPEAKER_00: But I can tell you that as I'm scrolling these things, I find myself, you know, getting into music reels or songs or Bible verses or stuff that just tugs at my heartstrings.
- 5:13SPEAKER_00: And before you know it, I I'm I'm having these, you know, memories or these thoughts, or thinking about my family or whatever it may be, or my walk with God.
- 5:23SPEAKER_00: And I find myself starting one tier and then two.
- 5:26SPEAKER_00: And before you know it, every reel that comes on, I'm crying harder and harder.
- 5:30SPEAKER_00: And that little paper napkin they give you for your drink is now dabbed up and soaking wet with tears.
- 5:37SPEAKER_00: That's where I find myself.
- 5:38SPEAKER_00: And I think the people sitting next to me probably think that I'm crazy.
- 5:42SPEAKER_00: They have this dude sitting next to him who is crying and slowly wiping these tears away.
- 5:48SPEAKER_00: And as I watch these things, I realize that my heart is huge and it's sensitive and it's soft.
- 5:55SPEAKER_00: And God put me in this world to help people and to provide for my family.
- 6:01SPEAKER_00: And I don't know what God's plan is for me in this world.
- 6:06SPEAKER_00: I don't know where He's going to have me to go.
- 6:08SPEAKER_00: I don't know what tomorrow looks like.
- 6:10SPEAKER_00: But what I do know is I feel this need just to listen to whatever is going on in those moments, to listen to that internal voice, that internal dialogue that I have.
- 6:20SPEAKER_00: And I'm just put here to help people and take care of my family.
- 6:24SPEAKER_00: And that's really what I want to do.
- 6:26SPEAKER_00: I want to connect with people at a level, and I want to help them at a level that is defined by God and divine and defined by just being a good human, you know.
- 6:40SPEAKER_00: And I think this podcast has something to do with that.
- 6:43SPEAKER_00: I helped people so long in law enforcement.
- 6:45SPEAKER_00: And this podcast, like I said a moment ago, cut its teeth on helping people get through things and helping reassure them they were not alone in their darkest times.
- 6:56SPEAKER_00: But frankly, I'm tired of living in that darkness.
- 6:59SPEAKER_00: And that's why season three was going to be about thriving, not surviving.
- 7:05SPEAKER_00: But as I get into season three, I'll be honest, I don't feel like sometimes I feel like a round peg and a square hole.
- 7:15SPEAKER_00: It's so easy to tell my story and where I've been and my real life experiences.
- 7:22SPEAKER_00: And make those sound or twist those in such a way that I could relay the message where other people can gain something from that and come out better on the other side.
- 7:33SPEAKER_00: They can hear my stories, hear the path God has put me, my experiences, use my pain for a purpose, and maybe grow or help somebody around them grow.
- 7:43SPEAKER_00: But my story up until this point has been told.
- 7:50SPEAKER_00: And as I look towards the future of the Murders to Music podcast, I really struggle with where I want it to go.
- 7:58SPEAKER_00: And I season three, I launched and I told you guys about the thriving, not surviving, and we're still going to go there.
- 8:06SPEAKER_00: But the problem I have is I feel like maybe it's not a relevant conversation.
- 8:12SPEAKER_00: And this is where I'm starting to be honest with you guys.
- 8:15SPEAKER_00: I I feel like maybe it's a not a relevant conversation to be having.
- 8:20SPEAKER_00: Or I think why would people care, or why would people listen to this?
- 8:26SPEAKER_00: I don't find myself watching the download numbers as much as I did in seasons one and two, and I think that's positive.
- 8:33SPEAKER_00: That's good.
- 8:34SPEAKER_00: But I also wonder am I trying too hard to keep something going that may need to end?
- 8:45SPEAKER_00: Last week I I recorded an episode, and that episode was my final episode.
- 8:54SPEAKER_00: That episode told the story of the Murders to Music podcast, and that episode ended the Murders to Music podcast.
- 9:04SPEAKER_00: It was my final episode.
- 9:06SPEAKER_00: And I uploaded that episode and I walked away in absolute tears and shambles.
- 9:13SPEAKER_00: The Murders to Music podcast is something that I love doing.
- 9:17SPEAKER_00: I love it.
- 9:18SPEAKER_00: I love helping people in this way.
- 9:24SPEAKER_00: But I also don't want what I'm doing to be diluted if I'm trying to fulfill a mission or a mission statement that is not congruent with the original intent of the show.
- 9:40SPEAKER_00: Basically, what I'm saying is I don't want to do something today just to keep it going, to nurture it along, to leave it on life support, to keep it going, to throw out another episode just to throw out an episode if it's not in line with how this podcast started.
- 9:57SPEAKER_00: I personally don't find myself very interesting.
- 10:00SPEAKER_00: So I don't think that people just listening to me talk about my day-to-day and me blabbering away about whatever, I don't think that is interesting to people.
- 10:09SPEAKER_00: That isn't the hook, the mission, the trauma drama that we all get sucked into that makes us want to come back for more.
- 10:18SPEAKER_00: If I have 30 minutes to listen to something, I don't know that I would want to listen to myself ramble on.
- 10:23SPEAKER_00: Then I go back and I look at the last five or six episodes that I recorded.
- 10:28SPEAKER_00: Each one of them is significant, each one of them has meaning, each one of them is real and raw and authentic and intense.
- 10:38SPEAKER_00: None of them are surviving drama or trauma.
- 10:42SPEAKER_00: They're all about a new life, they're all about thriving, not surviving.
- 10:48SPEAKER_00: But I lose sight of that sometimes.
- 10:50SPEAKER_00: And I think, man, why am I doing this?
- 10:52SPEAKER_00: And maybe it's Satan that's got a foothold in me trying to draw me away from this thing that I'm doing that is helping other people.
- 10:59SPEAKER_00: I don't do this for me.
- 11:01SPEAKER_00: There are thousands of hours involved in recording this podcast and publishing it and producing it.
- 11:08SPEAKER_00: I'm making almost zero dollars.
- 11:11SPEAKER_00: I've made one dollar and seventy-two cents since this podcast started.
- 11:16SPEAKER_00: It's not even enough to buy a quarter cup of coffee.
- 11:20SPEAKER_00: So it's not about the money.
- 11:23SPEAKER_00: But I want to keep putting a product out there that people want to listen to, and I'm not sure I'm still doing that.
- 11:31SPEAKER_00: Now, why didn't I put an episode out last week?
- 11:34SPEAKER_00: Because I recorded it, I published it, I put it out on my little server, and then I went upstairs and I sat on the couch and I cried for a long time.
- 11:44SPEAKER_00: And I'm not soft, I'm not weak, I but I'm real, and I'm thinking about quitting something that I love.
- 11:52SPEAKER_00: But why am I doing that?
- 11:53SPEAKER_00: Because when I look at my calendar, it's a rainbow of events, a rainbow of obligations that I have between work and real life and the DJ business and the music world and podcasting and scheduling interviews and everything else.
- 12:09SPEAKER_00: But my calendar doesn't look any different than yours.
- 12:13SPEAKER_00: But as I sit here and I think about all the stuff that I have going on, all of the time that is spent being busy and doing things, I don't have enough time for myself and I feel depleted.
- 12:25SPEAKER_00: I feel like I don't have enough energy to go around.
- 12:29SPEAKER_00: I feel like I don't have enough energy to take care of myself.
- 12:32SPEAKER_00: I'm not getting up in the mornings and reading my Bible anymore and doing my morning Bible study and setting my life up right because I feel like I'm not getting enough rest.
- 12:41SPEAKER_00: I feel like I am drained.
- 12:44SPEAKER_00: I feel like I did when I was in the police department.
- 12:49SPEAKER_00: I just the obligations are different, but the time constraints are not.
- 12:55SPEAKER_00: And somebody out there listening can relate to what I'm saying.
- 12:58SPEAKER_00: When you open up your calendar and you see you don't have a free weekend to hang out with people for the next seven weeks, that is a real feeling.
- 13:06SPEAKER_00: That is a real thing that you and I both deal with.
- 13:10SPEAKER_00: Yet we say yes, yes, yes to everything that comes in.
- 13:13SPEAKER_00: Saying no is important, but but it's so hard to do.
- 13:17SPEAKER_00: So we say yes, yes, yes to everything, including this show, including weddings, including DJ events, including work trips, eight weeks of travel.
- 13:29SPEAKER_00: I have put on over 70,000, just about 70,000 miles of air miles this year for work-related travel.
- 13:38SPEAKER_00: For me, that is a lot.
- 13:40SPEAKER_00: I've missed important dates with my family because of weddings, because of work, because of travel.
- 13:46SPEAKER_00: I've missed significant events, I've missed holidays, I have, I feel like my summer has passed by.
- 13:54SPEAKER_00: And somebody out there listening feels the exact same way.
- 13:58SPEAKER_00: I'm not alone.
- 14:02SPEAKER_00: But what do we give up?
- 14:06SPEAKER_00: What where where does it where does it end?
- 14:08SPEAKER_00: Where does it break?
- 14:10SPEAKER_00: Where I have to take care of myself.
- 14:12SPEAKER_00: I was out to dinner this last week with some friends, and I'm having a conversation similar to this with my buddy, and he says, Aaron, sometimes you have to say no.
- 14:22SPEAKER_00: You have to take time for yourself, and you have to eliminate things out of your life.
- 14:26SPEAKER_00: There's only so much time left, and you have to eliminate things out of your life sometimes, and even though it's hard, it'll open up bandwidth for something else.
- 14:35SPEAKER_00: And in that moment, he talked me into quitting this podcast.
- 14:39SPEAKER_00: That's what I wanted to hear.
- 14:41SPEAKER_00: I wanted to hear that if I say, No, I'm gonna end this, that it's gonna be okay, and that I'm gonna open up bandwidth for something else.
- 14:52SPEAKER_00: But in that moment, the weight and what this podcast means to me was not on the forefront of my mind.
- 15:58SPEAKER_00: The impact that this podcast has had on me was not in the forefront.
- 16:03SPEAKER_00: I was looking for a reason to quit.
- 16:06SPEAKER_00: So why didn't I post it last week?
- 16:08SPEAKER_00: Because I went upstairs, I sat there, I cried, I talked to my wife, and I did not want to put out the podcast and then regret it.
- 16:20SPEAKER_00: So I pulled it off the air.
- 16:23SPEAKER_00: I pulled it off.
- 16:25SPEAKER_00: I didn't I took it off the host so you guys could not hear it.
- 16:30SPEAKER_00: That's why last week's podcast did not go out.
- 16:34SPEAKER_00: Tonight I'm sitting upstairs, and all day long, all I've thought is, okay, I'm gonna publish the last episode and the podcast is over.
- 16:43SPEAKER_00: But then I go and I start thinking about, well, how can I extend this?
- 16:46SPEAKER_00: And I think about these themes.
- 16:47SPEAKER_00: I do a thematic week.
- 16:49SPEAKER_00: So one month, thematic month.
- 16:50SPEAKER_00: I do one month and the theme is marriage, and we talk to somebody's been married 50 years, and the next week we talk to a marriage counselor, and the next week we talk to a pastor about the meaning of marriage and the sanctification of marriage, and then I will give my opinion on the fourth week, and maybe we talk about a job and loving the job too much, and we talk to a businessman that has sunk his life into a job, and we talk to the wife the next week that talks about how she has to establish a family and a relationship, and she has to set boundaries to keep the family healthy and together while the husband is at work and so on and so forth.
- 17:27SPEAKER_00: But in doing this, that almost felt like a self-help podcast, and that's not what this is meant to be.
- 17:32SPEAKER_00: This is meant to be real life.
- 17:35SPEAKER_00: So I struggle as I even record this episode with understanding I don't want, even my wife told me that the last few weeks has been floundering, was her words.
- 17:46SPEAKER_00: Because it feels like there's no direction, there's no path.
- 17:51SPEAKER_00: And that is because what this podcast was built on originally was my passion and my story.
- 17:59SPEAKER_00: And I feel like I've told my story.
- 18:00SPEAKER_00: I feel like I've fulfilled that part of this show.
- 18:04SPEAKER_00: And it's really hard to pivot and turn into the next chapter without making it feel forced, contrived, or just trying to go on to go on.
- 18:15SPEAKER_00: And that is not what I want to do.
- 18:17SPEAKER_00: The last thing I want to do is dilute the meaningfulness of this podcast by just trying to extend it on life support.
- 18:26SPEAKER_00: What in your world have you had to say no to?
- 18:30SPEAKER_00: What in your world have you struggled to quit, even though you love it?
- 18:34SPEAKER_00: Now, this podcast is not bringing anything negative to me, but it is preventing me time with my family.
- 18:40SPEAKER_00: It's preventing me time to do other things, and it's a big obligation.
- 18:46SPEAKER_00: And if I still felt like I was helping people, then I would have no problem doing it.
- 18:51SPEAKER_00: I will die helping somebody.
- 18:54SPEAKER_00: But I don't know that I still am.
- 18:56SPEAKER_00: And I'm really having an internal battle, an internal struggle with what direction to go with this show.
- 19:05SPEAKER_00: You guys have been listening a long, long time.
- 19:08SPEAKER_00: And if this is your first show listening, I'm sorry you had to come into this one.
- 19:11SPEAKER_00: Go ahead and hit stop and go back to one of the earlier ones and listen to it because it's a lot better.
- 19:17SPEAKER_00: But they're all going to be real, and this is real.
- 19:20SPEAKER_00: This is where I'm at.
- 19:21SPEAKER_00: I am your host.
- 19:22SPEAKER_00: I am the one on this side of the microphone speaking through those speakers that you're listening to.
- 19:28SPEAKER_00: And I've been doing it for two and a half years at 170-something episodes.
- 19:34SPEAKER_00: And I'm trying to figure out where to go.
- 19:36SPEAKER_00: If you guys have insight, if you guys reach out to me at murders2music, murders the number two music at gmail.com, give me your insight, give me your perspective.
- 19:47SPEAKER_00: Please.
- 19:48SPEAKER_00: I have I have poured myself into you guys enough.
- 19:51SPEAKER_00: Pour yourself into me.
- 19:52SPEAKER_00: I don't need you to talk me off of a ledge, but just I don't even know what I need, but I need some encouragement or which direction to go.
- 20:01SPEAKER_00: You know, I struggled towards the end of last season about even coming back for a season three because I felt the same way.
- 20:08SPEAKER_00: I felt like putting a square peg in a round hole.
- 20:11SPEAKER_00: And I came back and I love the idea of thriving, not surviving.
- 20:16SPEAKER_00: But on the other side, I don't just want to randomly grab things out of thin air and throw it onto a podcast because there's no direction, there's no meaning, there's no hook, there's no reason for somebody to come back.
- 20:26SPEAKER_00: And it I all of a sudden I feel like a Seinfeld episode, a show about nothing.
- 20:32SPEAKER_00: And that's not what I want.
- 20:34SPEAKER_00: I don't want to be a Seinfeld episode.
- 20:37SPEAKER_00: What I want to be is something that provides education, entertaining, and value to your world.
- 20:42SPEAKER_00: I want to impact you in a way where you walk away thinking, man, I thought I was alone.
- 20:48SPEAKER_00: I can learn from that, and that is something I could implement in my life today to make me better.
- 20:53SPEAKER_00: Or I never thought about it this way.
- 20:56SPEAKER_00: Or, man, that's a different way to consider something.
- 20:59SPEAKER_00: Or that guy's a flaming asshole.
- 21:01SPEAKER_00: I can't believe he would think that way.
- 21:02SPEAKER_00: I don't really care what you think about me.
- 21:05SPEAKER_00: I just want to present a meaningful message.
- 21:12SPEAKER_00: I want to be a meaningful part of your life that you look forward to.
- 21:16SPEAKER_00: I still have last week's episode.
- 21:19SPEAKER_00: I just haven't published it.
- 21:21SPEAKER_00: I may.
- 21:22SPEAKER_00: I may not be here next week.
- 21:24SPEAKER_00: Next week might be the final episode.
- 21:26SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
- 21:28SPEAKER_00: But if you guys have anything to input, anything to say, if you're listening, even a short email, a short text message or a fan mail, anything like that, if you have some words of insight, I am coming to you for some help.
- 21:49SPEAKER_00: If you're still getting something out of this, please let me know.
- 21:53SPEAKER_00: If this is impacting you in a way that you want to see it continue, I'm not looking for attaboys, I'm not looking for kudos, I'm not looking for, you know, you're doing great.
- 22:03SPEAKER_00: Keep it up, Aaron.
- 22:04SPEAKER_00: That's not what I want.
- 22:05SPEAKER_00: I want you're honest to God's input on where you feel this show is.
- 22:09SPEAKER_00: Is the show impacting you in a way or is it noise?
- 22:16SPEAKER_00: I got my first negative review a few weeks ago, and I'm not gonna talk about it here, but I it is on the final episode, and when that plays, you may hear it.
- 22:28SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't about the show, the negative comment was about me personally and the gentleman listened to the second episode ever recorded.
- 22:39SPEAKER_00: He judged me on that and wrote me off.
- 22:43SPEAKER_00: And frankly, if that's where you're at, if you're gonna write me off after the second episode, then you're not the right person for this show anyway.
- 22:55SPEAKER_00: So my struggle, my struggle is should I stay or should I go now?
- 23:00SPEAKER_00: I don't want to be a Seinfeld episode.
- 23:03SPEAKER_00: I want to be something that you look forward to and that I can add value in your life.
- 23:09SPEAKER_00: When I stop adding value, that's when I need to make a decision.
- 23:17SPEAKER_00: If this podcast, if it's guests, if it's messaging still adds value to your life, will you please, please, shoot me an email, murders the number two music at gmail.com, text me 360-567-8007 or shoot me something and let me know if you're still getting value from this.
- 23:47SPEAKER_00: If you open up your calendar and it looks like a rainbow of events, maybe it's time for you to say no to something.
- 23:54SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's time for you to cut back, maybe it's time for you to open up your bandwidth to take care of those around you.
- 24:03SPEAKER_00: When I was at dinner this week with that same buddy, we were talking about my job and we were talking about passion.
- 24:11SPEAKER_00: And I said, you know, I don't know, I don't have the same passion for what I do today that I had for what I did yesterday, and that is a hard place for me to be because I am so used to having a job with passion.
- 24:23SPEAKER_00: And he said, Aaron, think about it this way.
- 24:27SPEAKER_00: Maybe having a job with less passion or no passion gives you the time and space and bandwidth to have passion with your family and for your family.
- 24:42SPEAKER_00: And that is so true.
- 24:45SPEAKER_00: In the last four years, the amount of time and passion, energy, and love I've spent with my family is tenfold, which is why those Instagram reels impact me the way they do, which is why my walk with God impacts me the way that it does, which is why the relationship with my wife impacts me the way that it does.
- 25:05SPEAKER_00: It's why the love is on the Tuesdays impacts me the way that it does.
- 25:10SPEAKER_00: Because I have a passion now.
- 25:12SPEAKER_00: I have room for passion for my family, and I have a job that takes care of me.
- 25:20SPEAKER_00: Ladies and gentlemen, if this podcast is still providing value, adding something to your world, please reach out and let me know.
- 25:29SPEAKER_00: Ladies and gentlemen, this is a Murders to Music podcast.