Third time was indeed a charm

FASTER THAN THE WORLD is the third podcast I’ve started over the better part of a decade and it’s been the most successful thus far.

It’s a weird thing to admit to because my former co-host and friend, Corey and I came into the podcast game relatively early on. We started our pop culture show, PRIZE INSIDE, in 2009, then we moved on to doing MOON WAFFLES in 2010–11. For the latter, we started to get a lot more creative. We started making up characters to host the show, we created video content, and we had silly bits like the “Mad Lion Minute (featuring an annoying clips of rapper Mad Lion saying some ad-libbed gibberish). If there was a time for us to have become a podcasting force, it should have been those fruitful years of 2010 and 2011.

When I decided to start the FTTW podcast over a year ago, I was incredibly hesitant since the market is oversaturated. I didn’t want to be another random podcast lost in a sea of many others — most of whom have sponsors and budgets. But I said, “Fuck it, “ and did it anyway.

Creating content for PRIZE INSIDE and MOON WAFFLES were some of the most creatively fulfilling times in my life. For one thing, the podcast landscape was relatively new, so Corey and I got to try a lot of different types of material that popped in our heads. We didn’t have to worry about losing sponsors or checking metrics. We were just doing shit to do it.

This was a unique experience inasmuch as it became the DIY Podcasting School for us. We learned how to edit audio and video, we would brainstorm and executes ideas, and it certainly evolved the creative aspect of our relationship — something that was rooted in hip-hop before going into comedy, and the millions of projects that we have between us now.

On occasion, I’ll field questions about making a podcast and I tend to shy away from giving answers because, as it stands, FTTW is still very much in a growing period. I still feel like a new kid on the block, but that’s not really true. I have many lessons that I’ve taken with me from the last seven years of podcasting; there are practical ones, such as production and content creation, but there are others such as building an audience and being consistent.

Admittedly, I’m a stubborn man, so I’m quick to say that the continued run of FTTW is more of a testament that I’m unwilling to die than my creative fortitude. Then again, I also have a great partner in the Soundcasting Network, and I still show Corey all the wacky things I’m doing because he’s still very much a person whose creative input I value.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that don’t give up. For as much content as we had, Corey and I had a small handful of listeners, which wasn’t bad for a couple of plucky young writers with funny shit to say. I still have some funny shit to say, it’s just part of a much bigger message of the struggles and successes of being a creative or business person, and maintaining the hope of never giving up.

*cue John Cena’s theme song