Dogma Breeds Sterility

For those of us of the Judeo-Christian persuasion and lifestyle, we’re in the midst of some of the most important holidays of our tradition. The folks at the Presbyterian church where I sing in the choir call it “Holy Hell Week” with all the events, services and what not. Not to mention the Jewish Passover…

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Why I Had to Change the Name of My Podcast

This past January, I began a podcast venture I had wanted to do for a very long time. Previously, I had focused primarily on music, interviewing musicians, talking music business, things of that nature. But I always knew I was capable of more than this. There’s more to James Newcomb than trumpet and music, both…

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What Humor DOESN’T Mean

The best advice I’ve ever received in the realm of content creation is that we have to be entertaining. If you’re not entertaining, then you’re wasting your time. I truly believe this, yet I’ve found that a lot of people simply don’t understand what it means to be “entertaining.” They think it means to “break…

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Reason #4326 to not rely on “The Man”

I think in the last 60 days or so I’ve seen at least 3-4 posts on LinkedIn from people who’ve just been laid off their jobs. Now I’m not a huge fan of social media, and don’t rely on it to any degree to build nor sustain my business. When it comes to client work,…

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“Start a podcast,” they said.

“Start a podcast,” they said. “It will be fun!” they said. “You’ll make lots of money!” they said. Yes, there is lots of money to be made in the podcasting craft – and it’s also a terrible reason to get into the craft. Because podcasting ain’t a bed of roses. It’s hard work. You feel…

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What to do when you feel stoppable

A common catchphrase we often hear in pop culture is “Unstoppable!” It denotes a “zone of genius,” a frame of mind or body where you can do no wrong, nothing can get in your way of accomplishing a goal, a project, what have you. While those zones of the mind are real, and they are…

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Easy money

Sharing the information I’m about to share runs the risk of some of my podcast editing clients becoming somewhat disillusioned with the service I provide, but I believe there is a valuable lesson in it, so here goes. Editing a podcast is rather simple. You “give the audio a haircut” as I like to say:…

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The two essential elements of a podcast

Whenever I tell someone in casual conversation I produce podcasts for a living, a lot of questions invariably arise. And for good reason because it’s still kind of an unknown entity in our culture. I’ve also met many people who say they’re interested in starting a podcast and want to pick my brain about it. The enthusiasm is…

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It’s not official ’til the money changes hands

In the last 30 days I’ve had a crash course in sales, namely closing the deal. Spoiler alert: it ended in disappointment, sorrow and a never-ending list of questions of what could have been. A former podcast production (aka PodProd) client reached out to me around October of last year saying she wanted to get…

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If you’re damned if you do, you may as well do

I had an interesting conversation with the manager of the apartment Sana and I moved into last month (January 2023). This is a place I’ve lived before, so at the time it seemed like a good idea to move into a place where I have a bit of a history after being itinerant for 3+…

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