James’ Daily Emails

Something I’ve heard over and over and over from people who’ve forgotten more about running a podcast than I’ll ever learn is this: Be entertaining. If your show is not entertaining, no one is going to listen to it. Truer words were never spoken. But it’s easy to take that advice out of context. When…

As I type this email, on 28 June 2021, my wife Sana and I are waiting… Waiting for her visa to get approved. Actually, just an update on when the application has left the National Visa Center in Vermont and we have her interview scheduled (tentatively due to the pandemic but something is better than…

Every person who hosts a podcast, has a blog, a youtube channel, or basically has any kind of online presence has a struggle. It’s a struggle that 99.999% of people who consume their content will never know about. And that is the balance between the ego and the ego. Allow me to explain. On one…

Every now and then I get approached by people who want themselves or someone they know to be on Ben Greenfield’s podcast. If you’re not familiar with the name, Ben Greenfield is a legit guru in the world of health and fitness, and his show is listened to by tens of thousands of rabid followers…

I’ve been talking a bit about a new social media platform called Social Lair. I’ve distanced myself from social media as of late – although it never really served a good purpose for me in the first place. Then when I began to become aware of the privacy concerns, the addictive nature, how the major…

I just heard about a fellow named Daniel Elder. He’s a composer based in Nashville, TN who caught some heat for an Instagram post. “Caught some heat” doesn’t really do it justice. He was blackballed from his profession – because he essentially said that setting fire to the local courthouse maybe isn’t the best way…

“Tom, don’t let anybody kid you. It’s all personal, every bit of business.” –Michael Corleone I’ve been on a bit of a Godfather kick the last couple of weeks, as my research into a project I’m working on incorporates many themes of the novel/movie into it. Until a week or so ago, I hadn’t read…

I had an interview today that was slightly different from most interviews I do. I was the one being interviewed, and the topic was Bát Tràng, a village near where Sana and I live that has literally hundreds of craft pottery shops, a museum, places to make your own pottery, etc. You should do a Duck Duck…

I recently had a dialogue via Voxer with my colleague, Jim Lambie, who recently took over the hosting duties for the Musicpreneur podcast. Jim recently did an interview with a fellow named Danny Ziemann, who has made a bit of a name for himself as one who specializes in the business side of music. And…

My day job as a podcast editor and producer can be a bit strange at times. Take yesterday, when Mandi “The Show Notes Girl” and I were editing a couple of episodes of a show called “Superhumanize” hosted by my friend Ariane Sommer. The first show was a guy who has made something of a…