[buzzsprout episode=’3767582′ player=’true’]
Seth Godin says each of us has the opportunity to be a media company*. With just a phone and an Internet connection, we can reach billions of people via social media, vlogging, blogging and of course, podcasting.
However, like all things, there are challenges and prizes, winners and losers, starters and quitters. Lots of people want to start things, but few persist long enough to prevail. It doesn’t matter how passionate we are in the beginning, the dip arrives sooner or later.
Five years ago, I faced my own dip as the realities of my financial collapse driven by the GFC and my subsequent divorce manifested as a classic midlife crisis. My solution was simple:
a) Get my sh*t together.
b) Start a blog.
The website, MidlifeTribe.com was the result, and I’m proud to say it not only helped me in a cathartic kind of way but many others, too.
Then in September 2017, with my crisp Powerup Podcasting certificate in hand, I recorded my first podcast episode. For the 12th one, I interviewed industry expert, Tom Schwab, followed by a handful of other guests here and there. The trouble was, doing remote podcast interviews was a major pain in the butt. Chief among the challenges was getting decent audio and engaging with my guests, none of whom I’d met before.
I tried different hardware and software to solve the problems, but after skinning many cats, I decided it was all too hard and went back to a solo show.
That all changed in March this year when I discovered something called SquadCast, and instantly, I was hooked. For the first time, I could schedule guests from one tool that sent them a simple link to join in, and everything just worked. Better still, I could see my guests, check their internet connection, check their levels (and mine), and record amazing quality audio all at the same time. And if I forgot to hit record (guilty, twice), I could pull down automatic backups!
It’s not often I rave about a product, but SquadCast is a gamechanger in an industry that’s exploding right now. So after recording five interviews on the trot, I decided two things:
- I love doing interviews.
- I had to get the man who conceived SquadCast onto this show.
So that’s exactly what I did, and as luck would have it, I got a lot more than I bargained for. As you’ll discover, Zachariah Moreno is so much more than just a clever geek who cracked the podcasting conundrum.
A Mission to Connect Creatives
He’s a young guy with a great attitude who finds himself at the pointy end of a global phenomenon. In just a few short years (which, as any startup entrepreneur will tell you feels like decades), he and his longtime friend and co-founder, Rockwell Felder, along with his brother and dad (Vince Jnr & Snr), are now getting attention from lots of the right people.
Zach says his mission is to connect creatives, and as an artist himself, SquadCast is an exciting way to realise that dream. As he says, “I paint in pixels, now.”
If you’ve ever wanted to scratch a creative itch, if you’ve wondered why no one’s solved a problem that begs to be solved, Zach’s story makes for compelling listening.
In it, you’ll hear about his path from accomplished painter and sculptor, to software engineer, to co-founder of an ascending tech company. You’ll learn how, in less time than I’ve been blogging, he managed to attract powerful advisors to his cause like Jordan Harbinger (one of the biggest podcasters in the world), Pat Flynn (ditto, and then some), Espree Devora (online business and startup guru), and many more.
Zach’s perspective on issues like workplace culture, building something remarkable, and doing great work will leave you humbled and inspired. It’s almost like Godin himself threw Tribes, The Dip, Purple Cow, and This is Marketing into a transcoder and out popped Zach.
He’s a hell of a nice guy with strong family values who believed in himself long enough to be proven right. I think you’ll love this conversation.
See you again next week.
PS. Zach and I recorded this episode from opposite sides of the planet (Victoria, Australia and California, USA), yet you’d swear we were in the same room together. That’s all thanks to SquadCast, and the audio in this episode is exactly as it came off the SquadCast servers. Amazing.
*Many shouldn’t.
More on SquadCast and Zac
SquadCast Website
Between 2 mics (SquadCast)
Between 2 Mics Podcast (SimpleCast)
Between 2 mics (Apple)
Zachariah Moreno Twitter
Zachariah Moreno LinkedIn
Tools Mentioned
Libsyn, SimpleCast, Basecamp, Slack, Zoom, Skype, Superhuman, Google Hangouts
.
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