What I’ve Learned in 5 Years of Podcasting

Yesterday marked a very significant occasion for me.  February 17, 2019, marked the five-year anniversary of the “Now Hear This Entertainment” podcast.  I’m proud to say that since its launch in 2014 a new episode has been delivered on-time, every week.  Presently there are 262 episodes and the show has gotten listeners from 141 countries around the world.

At the beginning of this month I was a speaker at a two-day event for entrepreneurs.  My presentation was called “The Power of Podcasting: Strengthen Your Brand and Expand Your Reach.”  Certainly, I was speaking from first-hand experience.

When I launched NHTE five years ago I thought it was just going to be a marketing tool for my business.  To borrow a line from a Kenny Rogers song, “If I knew then what I know now.”

Fast forward to 2019 and I’m walking proof of what this medium can do.  Has it further helped to market my business?  I think if that’s all it did, I would’ve been disappointed.

Instead, it has turned me from business owner, to business owner and podcaster, to business owner, podcaster, author (the podcast spawned a companion eBook series, currently at four volumes), and, as alluded to, speaker.

I’ve learned that podcasting – provided that you do a show in a host/guest format – can get you connected with people you’d otherwise probably not be able to get near.  Consider: Among others, NHTE has gotten guests ranging from the keyboard player for Aerosmith to the lead guitar player for Garth Brooks to the drummer for P!NK to the trumpet player for Billy Joel, plus, two Grammy Award winners, a Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, a Las Vegas headliner, three Emmy Award winners, and even participants from “American Idol,” “The Voice,” “America’s Got Talent,” and “The X Factor.”  I don’t know about you, but I don’t think that I could’ve connected with that kind of list just by being Bruce Wawrzyniak the owner of Now Hear This, Inc.

The success of NHTE also led global audio giant TASCAM to hire me just under two years ago, to produce and host “TASCAM Talkback,” a bi-weekly podcast for podcasters and streamers.  Coupled with what I was already doing with NHTE, that built the value that I could then bring to now not just music industry events but podcasting events, as it relates to being a speaker.

Not to mention that since coming alongside TASCAM I’ve been able to record and edit my shows myself, and even take on clients exclusively for podcasting!

Along the way I’ve been a speaker or attendee at podcasting events in various U.S. cities and have witnessed – with only a few exceptions – this being a community that wants to help one another.  It’s refreshing to see the spirit that I preach so often on NHTE, that the emphasis should be on collaboration and not competition.

To have audiences listen where I go speak and then the global listenership that NHTE has gotten, well, that’s not something that I’ve learned about.  That’s something that I’m grateful for in a way that one blog post could never accurately convey.  Nonetheless, my sincere gratitude to everyone who listens and subscribes, plus all the great guests I’ve talked to in the last five years, and all the others along the way who have played a part in this journey through podcasting – and so much more.

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