Saturday, June 04, 2011

The Future Will Be Visualized

I have to say that the time I've had since ending Talking 80s Music has really given me a chance to step back and look at things.  The OCD spiral of news writing and hosting the show had to come to an end.  It was either going to be clean or messy.  One of the things that I've concluded is that my future with podcasts may be minimal.

I remember sitting in a conference room listening to a great keynote speech by Gary Vaynerchuk a few years back.  Of the many nuggets I got from him was in the form of a question, "Why aren't you doing video?"  If you are honest, personable and have a working knowledge of your subject, people would like to see you.  That thought sat in the back of my mind for years.

Recently, I started thinking about the future of 'the show' and know that it will never be back in that same form.  It was an amazing time and an unforgettable journey.  Yet, if CNN or USAToday ran a poll asking people what a 'podcast' was... it'd stump 80% of the readers.  Of the 20%, not all of them are regular listeners and many focus on niche markets.  Even as I type this, the word 'podcast' is showing up in my spellcheck as an error.  Heck, the word has been around for 7 years... get with it people.

So, I ask myself, why try to push into an area that is self-limiting.  Sure, changing the terminology from podcast to talkcast or blogcast can affect the numbers but we are innately visual beings.  During the last few months, I've been tinkering with video projects and in the future... it very well could be the path for a new show.  I can see it clearly but I have another goal in sight and I expect to talk about it next month.  Back to work for me.

No comments: