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Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday. My name is Darrell Darnell, I have now hosted over 750 podcast episodes, and I believe that if you aren’t learning, you aren’t living. In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I share some of the reasons why I’m thankful for the Golden Spiral Media team.
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What I Learned Yesterday:
In the summer of 2008 a couple of co-workers and I decided to start a podcast about a new JJ Abrams show called Fringe. Fringe turned out to be an incredibly rewarding adventure that spanned 5 seasons. We had much more success than we ever imagined and it opened my eyes to see a whole new world of possibilities and opportunities.
When those two co-workers decided to drop out of the podcast in the middle of the second season, I really wasn’t sure what to do. From nearly the very beginning of our podcast we had been a team of four. The fourth member was a sciency friend of mine named Clint. So Clint and I decided to keep moving forward and do the best we could with just the two of us.
Over the next year Clint and I started a second podcast, and then we started three more. At that point, Golden Spiral Media was born. Clint and I have now been podcasting together for over 6 years and I don’t see any signs of us stopping. The shows we podcast about may change, but team Clint and Darrell will still remain.
Clint and I had regular meetings to talk about our vision for Golden Spiral Media. Clint is also a very creative person so we’ve never lacked for ideas or vision. About 4 years ago at one of our meetings, Clint shared an idea that we both fell in love with.
The idea was to turn Golden Spiral Media into a network of podcasts with hosts all across the US, maybe even the world. We talked about it for quite a while that day and came up with a list of standards and guidelines that would need to be in place. For example, each podcast would have to have the same professional quality sound and production that we had in our podcasts. The hosts would need to understand the importance of engaging and including the audience. The shows would share same long form, in-depth style that our podcasts had established.
After some careful thought we decided to table the idea. Neither of us had the time necessary to build a large podcast network, and neither of us had the money that it would take to make sure everyone had the proper equipment.
Then I met a guy named Stuart.
Two years ago this month I was introduced to Stuart via a mutual friend, Cliff Ravenscraft. Stuart had a vision for a large podcast network about TV shows. After my first meeting with Stuart I knew that I had to be a part of it. Stuart’s vision for his network, TV Talk, was very similar to the vision that Clint and I had discussed a few years prior. Stuart’s model was definitely different, with the most noticeable difference being the length of the episodes. Originally, Stuart wanted his episodes to be no longer than 15 minutes. We later expanded that to 20 minutes.
Stuart hired me to produce shows, design artwork, help create music, find hosts, make sure each host had the right audio equipment, and quite a few other things along the way. It was great!
Stuart put a lot of time and a lot of money into TV Talk. His plan was to recoup his investment by earning advertising partners. However, those partners were never able to get secured, and when Stuart’s investment funding ran out, TV Talk shut down.
To say that all of us that were working with TV Talk were disappointed is an understatement. However, it turned out to be a great thing for Golden Spiral Media.
I had been doing a podcast about Falling Skies for TV Talk. I spoke with my co-host Emilee (aka Ms. Ice) and we decided to bring our show over to Golden Spiral Media. I was also doing a show for Person of Interest for TV Talk, and my co-host Doug and I decided to also bring that show to Golden Spiral Media.
Then something happened that I didn’t see coming.
Doug was also doing a TV Talk show for Under the Dome. He reached out to his co-host, Karen, and they decided to bring that show over to Golden Spiral Media. Once that happened, things kind of snowballed. It opened my eyes to more possibilities, and it opened the eyes of some of the TV Talk gang that were looking for a place to keep doing what they love.
Now, 18 podcasts and 28 hosts later, Golden Spiral Media has taken an unpredicted and unexpected path that has brought us to the point we dreamed about a few years ago. And I really love this team.
Our team currently consists of Aaron Peterson, Addy Saucedo, Brian Kane, Brian Meloche, Clint Wichert, Cory Metcalfe, Dave Vitagliano, David Ward, Doug Payton, Emilee O’Leary, Jamie Parrish, Jeremy Hunt, Joe Zettelmaier, Karen Lindsay, Kari Darnell, Kevin Bachelder, Mandy Wichert, Mark Des Cotes, Mike Ahr, Ruthie Rink, Ryan Boyles, Tim Arthur, Tony Caselli, Travis Moorhouse, Trina Baclig, and Troy Heinritz. I still consider Derek an important member of the team that has brought us to this point.
Here’s what I’ve learned.
Dream. Dream big. Imagine the path that can take you to that dream, but understand that the path that actually gets you there will be different than what you imagine.
Surround yourself with people who are smarter, faster, more creative, and better than you are. They will bring you up to a new level.
My former boss often told us that his prayer each day was that God would send him the right people that would be needed to take the company into the future. My prayer has been the same for Golden Spiral Media. The truth is that if Golden Spiral Media was just me, we would would never be able to achieve our goals and reach our dreams.
This team is wonderfully creative, energetic, passionate, and fun. They funnel their creativity, energy, and passion into their podcasts and into this podcast network.
The reality is that we’re just getting started. 2015 will not only bring new hosts and new podcasts to Golden Spiral Media, it will bring new categories of podcasts. We’re making plans for the next community meetup and I’m incredibly excited about it. I wish I could tell you more, but I can’t just yet.
This team is awesome. I wouldn’t trade any of them and I truly can’t wait to see what mountains we climb in 2015. Thank you for being a part of the Golden Spiral Media community. You are the reason we do what we do and we love doing it.
I’m Darrell Darnell and this has been stuff I learned yesterday.
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