Down To The Wire Podcast

[Edward]

Every episode of the Out on the Wire podcast is packed full of insight from the best in narrative nonfiction radio, comics, and writing, and every episode ends with a challenge that will get you developing and even completing a narrative project over the course of the podcast.

"Whether Jessica Abel means it to be or not, but Out on the Wire is a master class in how to tell a story--something that anyone can benefit from. The thing I love most is that there's homework in this podcast and they actually review people's work on in-between episodes. The fact that this is free and not a paid workshop like everyone in the world does now is awesome. Take advantage of it!"

"Out on the Wire walks you through exactly what you need to know to turn your fiction or non-fiction idea into a living, breathing story that readers or listeners can't put down. And then, author Jessica Abel and crew do themselves one better by offering a free, online workshop where you can post your homework from each episode, get feedback, and even possibly get featured on the next podcast. Can't beat that with a stick!"

Because bonsai are often planted in course soil mixes, it takes little pressure to knock an unsecured bonsai out of the pot. Large trees with undeveloped roots can even blow over in the wind when not properly secured.

Because there is only one hole, all tie-down wires will pass through it. As the pot in this example is round, measure the circumference of the pot to determine the length of the tie-down wires. Prepare two wires at this length.

First, determine which side of the pot will be the front. Next, determine if the tree leans to the left or right. If the tree leans to the right, the hole with two wires should be on the right. If the tree leans to the left, the hole with two wires should be on the left. The pot below is wired for a bonsai that leans to the left.

The above tree-hole approach can lead to some confusion when it comes to figuring out which holes should get one or two wires. One way to overcome this is with some practice. Another approach is to repot your tree with a more experienced practitioner. I can add to this a single tip.

At this point, there are a couple of options. The simple option is to follow a modified version of the two-hole approach that uses the corner holes instead of the drainage holes in the middle of the pot. This approach can be good for trees with solid rootballs.

Like the three-hole approach, this approach may take some getting used to. Practicing with a block of wood or getting 1-1 instruction during a workshop can help. With enough repetition, this approach can become natural.

Would you like to see some examples using real trees? Here are step-by-step shots of the process with a trident maple, with a young black pine, and with a Sawara cypress. These articles, particularly the trident maple article, will also provide an overview of the basic repotting process.

Jonas, this is truly the best step-by-step demo on how to apply tie-down wires in one-, two-, three- and four-hole pots which all bonsai lovers will enjoy. Boon was recently at the Morikami Museum & Japanese Gardens in Delray Beach, FL where I watched him demonstrate each of these steps so I was amazed to see your blog come out today to give me a photographic record I can keep handy for the future. Many thanks!

If you review Kevin Jones\u2019s resume on LinkedIn, it\u2019s easy to see why he ended up founding a sports podcast network. He\u2019s worked in virtually every sector of the sports media industry, from creating content for pro football teams to reporting for traditional radio stations to writing for sports news sites. He also launched Striking Gold, a 49ers-focused podcast that eventually accrued several thousand listeners.

But Kevin wasn\u2019t content with simply being a podcast personality. Back in 2018, he began to notice that there were a lot of people like him \u2014 podcasters with extremely passionate fan bases but no way to convert that fandom into actual revenue. So he began pitching them one by one on joining Blue Wire Podcasts, a network that would help them produce their shows and sell advertising in exchange for a cut of the revenue.

Flash forward two years, and Blue Wire has since taken on several million dollars in investment, is now producing narrative documentary podcasts, and recently signed a huge deal with one of Las Vegas\u2019 biggest hotels.

To listen to the interview, subscribe to The Business of Content on your favorite podcast player. If you scroll down you\u2019ll also find some transcribed highlights from the interview.

Kevin was no stranger to sports media prior to launching his own podcast. Over the last decade he\u2019s held multiple jobs producing content for professional teams and broadcast outlets. But by the time he landed a radio job as a 49ers beat reporter in 2016, he was ready for something more. \u201CIt was a wonderful experience for the most part. I saw Kaepernick kneel, I saw the Warriors win titles. I got to go on the radio every day. I created digital content. But I didn't see a path forward for someone like myself. I was 28 years old. I wasn't going to become a radio host. I wasn't going to be on TV.\u201D

He eventually launched a podcast as a way to build his personal brand. \u201CI rolled it out in Cleveland, so I was talking about the Browns at the time. And then I switched it to the 49ers. That's where my credibility really was \u2014 in San Francisco. I gave honest opinions about the 49ers. A lot of the reporters are covering the team, whereas I have more of a strong opinion. I think there's an appetite for that kind of content. My podcast had that more opinionated 49ers content that fans want.\u201D

Kevin eventually built the podcast\u2019s following up to about 5,000 listeners, but he struggled to get advertisers. \u201CI started knocking door to door, going to all the restaurants and all the mom and pop shops in town and being like, \u2018Hey, I'm talking to your audience right here. You want to be a part of this.\u2019 And I realized that's not scalable. That's not sustainable. And I just started talking to people and they were like, \u2018go get more content, go get more impressions. 5,000 listeners is cool. That's an engaged community, but you need to find more people like you.\u2019\u201D

Kevin had over 15,000 followers on Twitter and had built up some credibility within the sports influencer community. \u201CI made two lists: people who already had a podcast and people who I thought would be good at podcasting. I DMed them and asked whether they were making any money doing it. Basically everyone said, \u2018no.\u2019 I was like, \u2018Why don't we join forces together?\u2019 My Twitter DMs have still kind of remained the salesforce of the company. We think that's where creators like to be met. Emails are pretty cold. We\u2019ve been pretty successful at starting conversations on Twitter and then moving into a phone conversation where we can sell people on joining Blue Wire.\u201D

After Kevin had signed on a few podcasts into his network, he began learning how the podcast advertising market worked. He also encouraged the podcasters within the network to promote each other\u2019s shows. \u201CWe try and set up relationships with people who naturally and organically want to promote each other's content. We now had a Yankees pod, a Knicks pod, a Giants pod, and a Rangers pod, and they're all kind of like-minded.\u201D

Eventually, Kevin decided to seek out investors so he could scale the company more quickly. \u201CThe pitch basically was that sports advertising is a multi-billion dollar business, and TV advertising is not effective at reaching young consumers. Radio still attracts billions of advertising dollars, and I think there's going to be billions of dollars shifting faster to podcasting than people realize as more and more celebrities become podcasters full-time.\u201D

Blue Wire ultimately raised close to $10 million and grew to over 150 shows within its network. It\u2019s now moved beyond simply acting as an ad network for other shows and is developing other kinds of in-house IP.

For instance, the company started to work directly with pro athletes to build podcasts around their personal brands. \u201CThere are a lot of sports celebrities. These people have been on television for 10, 15 years. Their names have been tweeted by millions. There's a lot of fan affinity for them. I'm not the only one thinking this way. Athletes are media channels. Now, as the world goes from having a hundred cable channels to hundreds of thousands of channels, athletes are a core part of that pie in sports. And we want Blue Wire to be the place they go to to talk to their fans. What if an athlete announced their retirement through a Blue Wire podcast and we put music on it and ran highlights of his career? What if someone announced they were gay as an athlete on a Blue Wire podcast? We want to create homes for athletes where instead of having a press conference or hitting up the local journalists in the big paper for the story, what if we put it in your voice and you're in control of the story?\u201D

Blue Wire has also invested in longform narrative podcasts, launching a show called American Prodigy last year about the career of a famous soccer athlete named Freddy Adu. \u201CThis is what I'm most excited about. We raised $5 million really with this being the core crux. American Prodigy is our only narrative podcast out right now. It really caught fire for us with very little marketing spend behind it. It became our most listened to podcast, and now we're moving it up the IP chain talking to major Hollywood players. UTA is our agent in our corner.\u201D

Blue Wire has at least a half dozen other shows in the works, and Kevin is excited about all the potential stories there are to tell. \u201CThat's the most exciting part about sports. The schedule stays mostly the same, and sports fans just inherently cater their lives to consuming this content. The season ends, and you get to take a break, or you can go on to following a different sport. There's more optionality for sports fans and because of that there's so much content that can be created.\u201D

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