No Shameless Self-Promotion

I once lived by the words, “No Shameless Self-Promotion”. Nothing bothered me more than some person holding up a megaphone and shouting, “Look at me, look at me…” My how times have changed; I now have a website, a Twitter feed, a Facebook page, an Instagram page, a Snapchat account, a Blog, and of course a Podcast. Today’s technology provides the opportunity for just about anyone to do just about anything. From the creation of a simple and straightforward podcast to the making of a fairly complex movie, delivering compelling content requires hard work, perseverance and an audience. And so, I now find myself engaged in a full-court press of shameless self-promotion. This is what happens with the democratization of everything — on the Internet we must hold up a megaphone and cut through the noise to have our voices heard.

Case In Point: The WatchGeekTime.com Podcast. My sidekick, Jody, and I have spent several months developing a show dedicated to everything from watches to watches. From answering emails to interviewing world-renown watchmakers, the podcast is wholly focused on the micromechanical world of timepieces. Fact is, providing good, engaging content on a weekly basis is simply not enough if no one knows how to find it. Enter shameless self-promotion, or what I now call “shameful self-promotion”, as practiced by many a rap artist. Now, if I could just make it rain at the local strip club…

Building an audience is the key component to having a successful and viable podcast. This takes hard work, effort, patience and a whole lotta’ self-promotion. We started by sending emails with links to the podcast(s), making sure our friends and family were engaged. We asked for their feedback and made the necessary tweaks, and knew we were onto something when our little show had reached a level where we would actually listen to it in its entirety. It’s not easy to listen to the sound of your own voice — believe me. The podcast is available through multiple outlets, such as iTunes, Blogspot.com and Feedburner.com. It is now our collective job to shamelessly self-promote, and I intend to give it every bit of shamelessness I can muster.

With the WatchGeekTime.com Podcast now available from the iTunes Store — the largest audio and video library in the world — it is incumbent on us to deliver, deliver, deliver. Or as Oscar winner Mathew McConaughey likes to say, “Alright, alright, alright.” Every week we spend several hours developing each WGT episode (filling an hour of time to talk about watches requires approximately 10 hours of work). Makes me wonder how the late night hosts put a show together every day; maybe that’s why they each employ thirty writers. In the world of show business it’s what is fondly referred to as “a budget”; something we do not have. Add to that the necessity of self-promotion and we’ve practically got a full-time job. Monetization is key, and we have started the process of wooing advertisers to the show. It’s a lot like smoking a brisket — the correct approach is to cook low and slow.

In the coming weeks, we will be interviewing living watchmaking legends, such as Kari Voutilainen, F.P. Journe, Ludovic Ballouard and Martin Braun. As the show continues to grow organically, we will be adding segments dedicated to watch buying, providing a weekly interview with Gary Videira, owner of a top-notch click-and-mortar retail store called, Element In Time. Gary will share new offerings, what’s hot — what’s not, and what timepieces strike his fancy. It is always interesting to hear from someone with access to hundreds of watches, and of course we will also want to hear from our listeners as well.

So much for No Shameless Self-Promotion — those days are long gone. The time is now to utilize the world’s biggest public address system and announce our presence. The WatchGeekTime.com Podcast is currently available for download from iTunes, Feedburner.com and Blogspot.com.

We humbly and shamelessly request your subscription.