The Real Life of a Podcaster: Struggles and Successes

Behind the Scenes at Whiskey and Wisdom Podcast: Our Journey and Future Goals

In this podcast episode of 'Whiskey and Wisdom,' Tyler and Chris welcome listeners to their relocated setup at the Azalea Station, discuss their favorite whiskeys and future plans for the show. They share their experiences over the two years of podcasting, their struggles, and lessons learned. The episode also delves into the details of their regular recording schedule, their current choice of Crown Royal Salted Caramel whiskey, a potential new development with Azalea Station, and their interest in listener feedback. They touch on their passion for podcasting, the investment in good equipment, and their dedication to creating a successful and engaging show.

Transcript

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Welcome back to the Whiskey and Wisdom podcast, everybody. We have a new setup today. We are actually in the Azalea Station. New cocktail bar that's in here. We're also serving coffee during the weekdays from I believe 8 until 1pm, which is one of my new favorite coffee shops. Yep. It just has such a beautiful background that if there wasn't anyone in here today, we decided to take advantage of it. Ha ha ha. Thank you, Billy. pretty good reason. Yes. Ha ha. But this episode, it's just me and Tyler. We're gonna do... A little quick one talk about some of the stuff we've gone over on the podcast over the past two years struggles, and also the ADD and HD brands that we have, what we have coming up, and yeah, some other fun stuff, and Let's talk about what we're sipping on now because you're going to see a lot more of this brand in the future. So we picked up a bottle of the Crown Royal Salted Caramel. It's one of their like holiday themed versions. Like I said, it only comes out around Christmas. The bottle's kind of like classic Crown. But it does have a little sleeve. That comes with it is orange, which is like my third favorite color, so I'll take it. Behind which two? Well, green's number two right now and technically midnight blue's number one. Gotcha. So, what you got over there for the notes? I don't have anything about notes on here, other than I can probably assume that salted caramel is probably going to be one of the main flavors coming out of this one. What I was reading, actually, is to make the caramel apple, the ingredients are 3 quarters ounce of the salted caramel flavored whiskey. One ounce of the crown royal regal apple flavored whiskey. Half ounce of lemon juice, four ounces of ginger ale, and fresh apple slices. Yeah. Cheers. That is sugary. That's called a hangover. Yeah. Don't drink too much of this, guys. This would taste amazing with, um, like apple cider. Like mulled cider. I saw something about that the other day. We threw a party a couple weeks ago. And, like, if you're making spiced cider, make sure you throw in a little bit of apple cider. Lemon, because it like, makes the pop. That added a little bit of citrus. It was really kind of nice. But yeah You can taste the caramel though. Yeah, it's very strong caramel. A little bit of salt. Very sweet. I'm gonna have to, like, I've always been curious as like, how they add flavors into whiskey. So, I'd love for us to go for that. Go somewhere figuring it out one of these days, maybe for 2024. How in 2023 I went down to Charleston? Yes. To go to all the distilleries, go to crown Royal and a few of the other ones that are close by and ask those questions. Crown is not local. Well, it's Canadian. I know, but I'm saying maybe not 2024, but 2026. 2024, I'm thinking we should probably do like, the Whiskey Trail. I was gonna shoot for 2025, do the Whiskey Trail. And then 2024, do a North Carolina visit. Ooh, I like that, yeah. Like Southern Star? Yes. That'd do too. Yeah. So, keep an eye out. We'll be doing some new travels. Checking it out.

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But, to get us started why are we solo dolo on this podcast today? We are solo today because we had a cancellation today. This is the honest reason why. But other than that, we thought it would be fun to jump on here just us two and talk about some of the struggles as podcasters that we have. Some of the updates that we're doing. And just the real life of a podcaster. Yes. I know everyone hears podcasts, hear the Am I the Asshole ones, and all the trivia questions, which we would love to do as a separate podcast one of these days. And by we, I mean Chris would love to. So keep an eye out for that. But being a podcaster is fun, but... Stressful, I guess. Yeah. From the get go, it was a lot. I mean, it's a lot of editing. I know Tyler does like 99% of it, say 99.6 And so I know it takes up a lot, bit, a lot of time. And I, I'm not saying that to dissuade anybody from starting a podcast. I want people to realize, look, it's not just the, Hey, click show up, disappear. Yeah, that's one of the reasons too. I sent something out on the Carpenter Studios Instagram the other day. Where, if you just show up 21 times on a podcast, you've already beat out 99 percent of podcasts. Which is crazy. Yeah. And, and the reason for that is exactly what Chris was saying, is there, there's a lot of time and effort that comes up in the front, or money. So, in order to be successful at this, we either have a lot of time or have a lot of money. Yes. And what we decided to do is kind of meet somewhere in between. Yep. So, we invested in... Relatively nice equipment, especially a for novices, because that's part of the Cargo District Studios point, is bring people in that don't have the massive crew behind them, they can come in, start up, and just click record and go. So that, that's kind of how the setup came about. And then when it comes to editing, you can either... Turn GarageBand on and learn the skills from zero to a hundred. And this is where the money part comes in for us. Is, we've done a lot and a lot of research and a lot of trial and error. Of finding out what, I guess AI is probably one of the best ways to put it. There's a lot of AI that's involved. There's a lot of software that's self learning. So, when we put it in, it does a lot of the editing for you, especially for the, the quality that we're looking to put out. Yeah. So, you don't need to spend six hours for a one hour podcast editing all of it. Well, and, I think that's the, the thing, is... You just need to start spending money, or spending some time, like we do at the Carver District Studios, just showing up to record and you, we, we started out from the get go, like, hey, we want to do this, this length of podcast and it, that didn't work, until we had to make changes, and then we changed to a different time, time frame, and we're like, nope, we don't like that, so, I don't think you ever need to be 100%, When it comes to starting your podcast, you just need to have an idea. Because you can always pivot. Like you said, if you show up 21 times, you're doing better than most people. And then at 21 times, think about it. If you do three episode arcs, you can do, like, seven different pivots. If the first six episodes you're like, well, I tried this and I didn't love it, or I wasn't catching traction, you know, what about that? Episode 7 that you put out, totally different angles, different vibe. You could be getting something totally new. Yeah, I agree with that completely. Even what we've been doing, it's not necessarily been on purpose, but it's just the way that it's kind of fallen. Is, it's about a, after every 12 episodes, It's about once a quarter, we're doing something that should change it up. So now we decided to invest in an actual video camera, start with the YouTube process a little bit more difficult than I was expecting heading into it but I'm glad we're doing it. We're getting a new listener base from it, which is pretty cool. You get a whole lot more data analytics, which I love. It's been interesting kind of putting it all together. The video aspect, adding that extra dynamic is a lot of fun. And quite honestly, I like something challenging in my off time.

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And so, just doing the editing process, like, late at night with a whiskey right next to me, and going back and forth. Oh, Tyler's talking? Chris is talking. And the cool thing, too, is, I mean, we set it up, and we have our own cameras and all this stuff. And Tyler's editing the footage. Full, long form episodes, and then we did partner, and have Swage Creations set us up. Yeah. And they've, they've been amazing helping us with like our short form content, which has definitely added another layer. Obviously not everyone can afford it, or needs it, but keeping out, like we always have promos going on. And that's the best time to get something, like, if anything is worth buying, you should definitely try to buy it on sale. So... Yeah, especially these things that are more expensive on the long run, the ones that are actually good at it are typically able to offer a discount. So, we can offer a discount as Parker District Studios. For the few things that we're doing, Sway Creations is able to offer a few discounts on the shorter form side for what they're doing. Give us a try, either Sway or ourselves or whatever the case may be. And if it works, awesome, we got in pretty, pretty cheap. If it doesn't work, you tried it pretty cheap. Thanks. I mean, combined using car distribution studios and doing them. Quick, like, short form series with some recreations. You're out way less money than if you had waited and waited and bought all of your own. Because, I mean, I'd much rather be out, like, 100 to 200 than be out, you know, 600 and not, like, anything. Right, yeah. You'd be like, hey, you know what, this podcast thing wasn't for me, and now you're out a few hundred. Or, if you start a brand new studio, 10, 000. Yes. Ooh, that was... Yes, it's big out there. Okay. I will say I think a studio for us is actually really nice because it gave us the opportunity to expand a little bit more and not have to like, set up in our, like in our offices at the house.'cause not everyone had an office space. And it kind of gave us the ability to like leave our house and set up and do something a little bit different. And we've. You'll notice if you've been with us for a year, I mean, you, you'll see some of the older videos showing up on our YouTube channel, like the the evolution of a podcast studio Yeah. Has been really fun. And it, it'll always be changing. We're never like, we're people who always pushing something new, coming up with a new idea, and we're always trying to add something to the studio. Like you said, we added a camera which is a nice investment because I know a lot of people want visual. I didn't realize that was a thing, uh, for a long time. I'm like, it's a podcast, I'm going to listen to it. But apparently a lot of people watch it on video. So, I'm going to have to launch you guys to do that. Thank you. Helps a lot. Yeah, just change and go into the video form too. Thanks Joe Rogan for starting that trend. That made it harder on everyone else. But it also shows who's really dedicated to it, who's actually serious about what they're doing. They're not, like, if you're investing the equipment in for video and editing to show up, like, you're probably going to do it. The person that's just kind of throwing something together that may last one, two, three episodes and then realize, ah, you know what, this wasn't Yeah. And I think that's something that us as Cargo District Studios, we do really well too, is anyone who starts with us typically stays around a lot, just because before we let you into the podcast, you're going to sit with us for an hour or two, develop the actual business plan for the podcast, and people get scared by the word business plan, right? Gosh, it's just a hobby. Well, you don't need to make money with a business plan, but you need to have an idea and a trajectory where you're going. If you want it to be successful, or if you do want it to be around a while, it, it definitely is huge to sit down with someone who's been there, done that, and helped other podcasts, to sit down and kind of create the roadway and the framework to make those right steps. That you're not making all of the crazy mistakes that we did in the past.

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Um, so, transition, what is one mistake, quote unquote that really was just a lesson that helped you grow in the podcast industry? Taking too much time to educate. I think that set us behind a little bit, not that I think we're behind by any means, but I think we've taken too long to get the podcast up and running to what we probably should have been. To get the camera that we got. We spent a lot of time researching that too. Yes. Yes we did. And I, so you need to do some research, but you don't want to do what I do a lot, which is paralysis analysis. So, just getting paralyzed over everything that you could do. So if you go on YouTube, watch months worth of YouTube videos on how to start a podcast, then someone's going to tell you something different every single time. Oh, 100%. And you're just going to have to find the person, Hey, you know what? This is a podcast I really like. They did something based on what I want to do. And then just take it and go with it. Because really there's no... Real wrong way to start a podcast, other than not doing it. So find someone that you like, whether that's us or anyone else. Find something, model that, and go after it. Actually, I think the wrong way to start a podcast would be to scream into the microphone to start everyone. I feel like that'd be the worst way to start one. If I'm listening to music, and I switch over to a podcast and I just hear like a pterodactyl screech, that'd be so bad. Unless you're a pterodactyl, find a podcast. So what was one lesson that you've learned over the past almost two years? That's a great question. I, I agree with you that paralysis analysis is definitely a big thing. I feel like the biggest move that we learned was... Because sometimes it's just a lot to do on top of, like, your main job, because we love the podcast, but it unfortunately doesn't pay us enough to put our main jobs. Now if one day, you know, someone wants to support us, you know, invest in the podcast, you know, we do have ad spots. We would love that. But, I think that's one of the things that's just... And the other thing too is, at least the people we've run into, everyone's been super helpful. Anytime we need help with anything, just reaching out and saying, Hey, you know what, like, this is the issue that I'm having. Like, is there something that you can do to help us out? Is there, is this something you've experienced before? What can we trade with you to have that give and take? And the relationships that we've built off of that, I think, is something else that's been huge. I think even, even beyond the success of the podcast has, has numbers wise, just the relationships that have been built off of it. I think that's a really good thing, is like, just building relationships. I mean, our podcast is mainly us chit chatting and interviewing people, but even if you have a podcast that's just you and your best friend doing, reading off Reddit or asking stupid questions and ranking stuff, which, yes, those are my favorite things to do you still make connections with people. Woohoo. So just because you're not interviewing people doesn't mean you're not making connection. Like, someone's gonna see your stuff and be like, Oh, haha, I love that. And then you could randomly have like, T Pain like a video, and you're like, well, I wonder if he'll answer your question. And he does actually answer a bunch of random stuff like this. And that's another thing too, like podcasting is still a relatively small industry right now. Especially when you compare it to YouTube, and there's new YouTubers popping off every day. There's billions of hours that are being consumed just on YouTube alone, not even considering all of the audio podcasts. There's, there's a niche out there for you. So if you're listening to this and you're thinking, ah, I've wanted to start a podcast, but I don't know on what, like, what makes you passionate? Like, what do you, Like, a lot to talk about.

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an average day anyway, but if you put a few microphones in your face and start talking about it and throw it up on Spotify, yeah, buddy. And yes, we do use Spotify and Apple podcast and pretty much anything you could think to listen to your podcast on, we're there, which is kind of cool. Maybe one day. Eventually when we expand the studio, which is always a goal we'll have the ability to do, like, live stream podcasts We're getting there. Eventually. That was the first step of the actual video camera that we got, so. We have the capability to do it, we just don't have the, really the bandwidth ourselves to get that going. We want to build out the community a little bit stronger before starting the live stream. The communities, they are listening over time, but just knowing like, hey, and especially to ask someone like, hey, on a Sunday afternoon, come listen to us for eight hours is a big ask, so we'll have to figure out a new way for the scheduling for that too. But that, that is definitely something on the horizon that we're thinking about and going to do. Another reason why I wanted to do it in Azalea Station today is we have been talking to them to hopefully start another spin off of the podcast to do with Azalea Station. We're thinking about having like a coffee corner and a bourbon corner and bringing in baristas and cocktail artists and other whiskey aficionados and using this amazing space in here because this space just lends itself to all types of creative artistry and so if there's anything that you do outside of what we do if you need a space to, to use hit up Azalea Station. It's, it's beautiful in here. They have an Gold Bar coffee bar and ASD. So much shooting. I know a lot of people have used it for like a mid space. Mm-Hmm. like the girls from What's Up Wilmington have used it a few times. I've dropped in in between recording sessions on people for people and they'll be having, like, they have a fashion show in here one time. Mm-Hmm? That's right. I know that someone was renting it out for like a Christmas party, so like it's a nice open space you can fit. Easy 100 people in here. And there's a lot of like walking space and talking space. And you can kind of see the, kind of the growth that this building has had. With all the co working areas in here. And it's kind of nice. I think it'll be a nice little corner or end cap. To the Cargo District Dimension. Yeah. And the space in general is actually really neat. Just the history of it. So it was the, the post office first, right? Yes. Yes, it was the post office at one point. Then it was the Boys and Girls Club. At some point also. At some point. And now it's a co working space. And it's funny, one of the owners actually kept a scoreboard that was in here. Cause this, believe it or not, used to be a gymnasium where we're sitting right now. And so they kept the the scoreboard up there because Michael Jordan used to play in here. So he knows that MJ puts some points up on that scoreboard. So if you come in, make sure you look for the scoreboard that's in here. Wow, that's sad. And it's like, just having a little bit of history, a little bit of Wilmington, in almost everything we do. Which is kind of fun. Yeah, which is another reason why it's called Azalea Station, is because this was the Azalea Station Post Office. Yeah. Throwback. Yeah. So It was way back when, it might have been before I was around. It's been a minute. Well, if MJ played here, then yes, it was before I was a kid. That is true. Because he left in the 80s. Yeah. So, question, sir. Yeah. And we will, we'll revisit this when we have like another big episode or something like that. But what has been your favorite whiskey this year? I don't know, this year. Think about it now. See, I don't know if you guys like it, but I love putting together like our, uh, Our episodes where we just kind of check off like the things we've done over the years. Like a recap episode. I think my favorite is Sierra.

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So, the was because I actually got to visit the distilleries was when I went down to Charleston and brought all those whiskeys back. So to be able to actually sit down and try them with Chris and our guests and talk about them that way was very interesting. I was able to actually taste them because when you're there and you're doing it, you kind of taste it one way because you know, you do it where it is, where it's from. Meeting the owners and the distillers, to taking the tour, coming back, having more chit chat, and then also tasting it with them talking to you. It's really interesting, I recommend it 100%. But you don't actually just sit down and really just... take it in, the whiskey itself, until you're sitting down and just fully focusing on that. So that, that was something that was interesting because it kind of opened my eyes back up to what I'd had before. It's also true, mine was not on the podcast, uh, just because I couldn't afford it to have it over here all the time. We, we went by the Starling a couple months ago and they A Macallan Rarecast. Cool. I think it's like a 25 year or something like that. Woo! That sounds good. It was delicious. My wife doesn't really drink whiskey, or scotch, or any of that mess. And she was like, I kind of want some more of this. So, yes, it was a little bit expensive because they're rare bottles and harder to find. But. I think that was one of the few times that I was like, yep, that was worth the port. I don't think I've had that one. I think I've had Macallan 18 before, I believe. Yeah. I've never had 25. It was either 20, 25. It's, if you go into the Starling, it's, it's definitely on like their second shelf. Which, it's one of the few bars where, like, their shelving doesn't, like, equate to anything. It's just because, like, oh, hey, we have room to fit a tall bottle here. Cause I know you go into, like, some bars, and you're like, oh, let me get some top shelf. And there, I've randomly picked off something with a top shelf, and it was, like, 18 bucks. So, I love it, because, I think in general, so... And trying new whiskeys outside of the podcast is fun because I don't know what to expect. Right. Yeah, something that I enjoy doing over and around, actually. So they started a new flight deal. So there's going to be two different flights that they're going to have. It's going to be the same flight for a whole month. So they're going to have a 20 flight in four weeks. So the 20 flight is going to be a little bit cheaper cheaper in the sense of like expensive versions. No, no. We say less expensive. Less expensive. You're right. And the 40 is the higher end whiskeys and bourbons that they're bringing on. So I had my first one for last month, a couple weeks ago. And that's when I tried the Old Raleigh, which we featured on our Instagram as our Whiskey of the Week a couple weeks ago. And that, that was really good too. And so being able to try a few even on the 20 side, some pretty expensive bourbons to give them a try against other ones too, and kind of pick out the flavors, because when you're at that level, you can start telling difference in flavors a little bit more as opposed to like a Jack Daniels or a Jameson. I do have a question for the listeners and viewers. We'd love like your input on things that you would like to see on the podcast. Do you like... a little bit more description about the whiskeys we're doing. Like, would you like a little short form for us to post somewhere else? I mean, as you've already seen, we do kind of have, like, the mini series of, you know, what can I make with our bartenders from around the Parker District and around downtown. Do you like that? We'd love it, like, go ahead, if you like those on Instagram, it kind of showcases and lets us know, like, hey, you know, we should do a few more.

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Cause it's outside of our normal episodes. And if we get enough traction and people kind of like it we'll definitely do more. I mean, we have more planned, but we always want to steer towards stuff that you guys like. Yeah, like a little extra effort on those type of things. And what type of guests do you like when we, when we bring them on too? So it does seem like a lot of you have enjoyed the Holistic Living type of podcast that we've had on over the past 2023, kind of scattered in. Those have done extremely well for us, so it seems like that's something you're interested in. But what else are you guys interested in that you want us to start bringing more people on? That's one other thing that's really interesting now, too, is since we have the viewership, we can reach out to more people, which is great. So if there's someone that, like, hey, you know what, I really wish I could hear this person speak that's around southeast North Carolina, Little Beach area, whatever the case may be. If it's within a decent demographic of us we can probably reach out. And even if it's not, we have some Sway Creations has hooked us up with a few gamers that have been a lot of fun to bring them on. They actually have a few contacts within the NFL, so it doesn't even matter if it is the Brooklyn Central Local. If they're so much interested in us talking to them, that would be our best. Yeah. I mean, now that we're expanding the setup, we do have the opportunity to do more virtual calls. I mean, we like doing it in person, because that way I can see. See your face when you try whiskey you've never had before. But I mean, we're down for everything. Copy. Yeah. sO I mean, this is just a nice quick, short, wanted, do you guys in the loop and give some like, ideas of what a podcast is kind of like, would suggest that you Venmo me or. My birthday is on Thanksgiving this year. So, shoutouts. It's in a couple weeks. If you go to one of my favorite bars, you can buy me a gift card. Or tell them to put it on the tab. I'll send it to them. Sounds good. I think that is a good shoutout. Well, thank you guys so much for listening to us. Hopefully we've... One, inspired you to create your own podcast. Two, learned what it's like behind the scenes of what we're doing here. And three, to see what we believe is success and what we're doing, and what we hope to accomplish over the next year or two. Yeah, thank you guys. Follow us. I'm sure you're doing it already, but check out our social media. Our all of our episodes are on pretty much. Every podcast website, forum you can find on YouTube now. I do have an Instagram, which is like wisdomwatchesandwhiskey. Where I'm posting more watches that I get in at my real job, as well as talking, I'll start talking a little bit more about whiskey and dropping in tidbits from the podcast, which will be kind of fun. Yeah, because we're behind the scenes that way. Well, thank you so much. And if you are subscribed to Apple Podcasts or Spotify right now, you can also go on and subscribe to YouTube. That would be huge to help us out a lot. I do appreciate you on the other podcast apps doing that. That's helped us out a lot in the past. So now with the new push towards YouTube, if you can go and hit that subscribe button, that'd be amazing too. As per usual, like, comment, share, subscribe. Goodbye. Cheers. Cheers.