Setting Intentions: Insights from the Empowered Podcast Conference

Create art podcast and find a podcast about combo episode. Hey friends, this is Timothy Kimo, Brian head instigator for create art podcast and your guide to the pod verse for find a podcast about. So this is going to be a interesting thing because I'm putting this out on both of my main podcasts.

And I'm I just recently attended a podcast conference called Empowered Podcast, and that was up in North Carolina, Charlotte, North Carolina. And I thought, you know what? The things that I learned there, I wanted to talk to you about, let you know what's going on with both shows and just kind of, you know, have a little chat here with you. And discuss all these things that are going on. So this is going to be brand new for me.

And I hope that both my sets of audiences will be happy to hear this stuff and, you know, maybe you are a listener of find a podcast about, and you're like, Hey, you know, Tim runs that other one. Let's take a listen to it. Or maybe vice versa. You listen to create our podcast and, you know, you need a. Podcast that gives you something to listen to while you're creating art. So that's what we're going to do here.

So as some of you know, maybe you don't, I am a member of a group called pod match. And what that is, it's it helps. Guests and hosts get together in a common space and find each other. I've been using pod match now for quite some time, and you can go to pod match. com to get all the details on it. But what happens with pod match is, is I create a profile as a host, and then we have guests that create a profile. And we match up with each other.

A lot of times things are suggested other times, you know, people just find me out of the blue. So that's what I mainly do for the create art podcast. That's where I usually get a lot of my guests from there. And you've heard many of these guests on the show. And I find it really great because.

Instead of just going to Facebook and being a part of all those groups where everyone's promoting their own podcast in pod match, we get to, you know, discuss our wins with podcasting, our losses with podcasting, what we're struggling with, what we're doing really good on. And one of the things that I really like about it is it kind of gives us a little bit of news of what's going on in the podcast industry. Oh, maybe a month or two ago.

I got a message from there from Alex Sanfilippo, who I actually got to meet at this conference in person. I've been talking with him offline or online for a while now, but got a message from him about this new podcast conference called empowered podcast conference. And. There was a 20 percent discount on the tickets. And I thought, well, Hey, let's, let's do that. Because usually the conferences I attend here, there's the Indy pod conference up in New Jersey.

And there used to be a DC pod fest many years ago. Unfortunately, it is no longer with us. But I've been attending conferences like that. And of course, PodFest, I did that online, but this one was about a five and a half hour drive away. And I thought, yeah, I can do that. That's not a problem. And you know, Hey, North Carolina is our neighboring state. So it's not that far. And so I went ahead and bought tickets for it using the discount code.

And that's great thing that you can do when you are in these podcast groups. Now, a lot of times you can get discounts to to conferences or services or stuff like that. So I went and it was a nice drive, you know, about five and a half hours, you know, nice weather and all that good stuff. A lot got to listen to a lot of podcasts on the way down and, I got into North Carolina and I got to the hotel, got all checked in and, you know, I had all my bags packed and everything was good to go.

And it was just, it was nice to, you know, get away from the day job which I do here in my man cave studio. And just, you know, to get around people that love the same thing I do, which is podcasting, which is, you know, communicating with you.

So I got to the hotel, got all my bags undone, and I went down to the second floor and there were people talking about podcasting at this communal table. The second floor had a bar, had all the conference rooms and had a restaurant right there with a big communal table. And I heard somebody say the word podcast. So immediately I go over and I go, are you guys part of the conference? And they're like, yeah.

And I got to meet, you know, the the founder of the pod of the conference and some of the other podcasters. And we just, it was like we were old friends. We immediately went to what we knew. And it's fantastic. Now, yes, I do love my family and I do love my friends here, but I understand they get tired of me saying the word podcast. I think right now I've already said it about eight or 10 times. So I know my family, they, they love what I do.

They love that brings me joy, but they're not into it and that's okay. That's, that's not a problem. But being around people that are really into podcasting, That's, that, that's a special treat that I get maybe one or two times a year to be around podcasters. So we were, you know, talking for a while there, there was a party the first night I did not go to. Just because I was tired, you know, it did five and a half hours of driving. I'm of a certain age and I was good to go.

So I went ahead and went upstairs to my room had some room service come in and ate dinner and had a hard time sleeping because the room was humid we were staying at the Hyatt in Charlotte, Hyatt Center in Charlotte lovely hotel. The staff there was magnificent just a little humid in the room. And of course, you know, I didn't have my wife there, you know, to sleep next to me and didn't have my fan going on. So that first night was a little bit rough going to bed. I think I woke up like 20 times.

Anyhow, next day get up I go and grab some breakfast at this place called Smelly Cat Coffee. And just wonderful people there. They had my order ready. I was chit chatting with some of the staff there and it was just, wow, this is really cool. This is really nice. So get back to the hotel and register in, get my big old placard, my name on there. And I have to say, I have to backtrack a little bit here.

I was wearing a t shirt that said, I make cute babies the first day when I got to the hotel and everybody loved that shirt. And so I got to be known as the guy that makes cute babies. And that was kind of the running gag throughout the whole time there.

And so the next day you know, in the morning get there, register and we're handed this this journal. Now I had already purchased on Canva a notebook for this 'cause I'd like to do that just so that way I can have something to write on, write notes on and all that kind of good stuff. But they gave us this journal and, on the schedule, it was the opening remarks and all that. And then they were talking about setting intention. And I thought that was a little bit odd.

I was like, well, yeah, I think our intention is pretty clear. We're here to learn more about podcasting and network. But once the opening remarks got done which, yeah, it was a little bit late, but I think that was a hotel issue. It wasn't the organizers issue.

We had a gentleman stand up and talking about setting our intentions and he kind of took us through this visualization of, you know, why we're here, what we want to get out of this and what we're going to do to get what we want out of this experience. And the journal that they gave us, we could write our intentions. There are things that, you know, we want to embrace and things we want to let go of. And a lot of blank pages in there as well.

A lot of information about the conference and how it got started and all that good stuff. And I thought, you know, I've attended a bunch of conferences before and I haven't had, A guided journal like this ever at any other conference. So, you know, for those of you that, you know, run these kinds of conferences, take a lesson from these guys that was magnificent because then it got me in the mindset of what am I here for? What do I want to embrace? What do I want to let go?

So the, you know, the conference gets going and I had my good friend Alex Sanfilippo from PodMatch, he was doing a doing a talk there. And so I got to sit through that and meet up with him and his, and his wife, and I actually gave them t shirts. But the thing that and there was, let me also explain this too. There was three different rooms that you could go to that had talks and that were about a half hour, 45 minutes for each talk. And so.

Met up with Alex and his wife, gave him some t shirts for, for my show they loved it you know, and I was wearing a wild no, it was a black and white Hawaiian shirt button up shirt, which is a inside joke between Alex and myself. So, but everything was, you know, kind of leaning towards what is your intention and authenticity. The the track that I attended was called a growth track. So it was all about how to grow your podcast.

And there's a lot of people talking about being genuine, being authentic. And it really touched me because my intention was to grow community. And. I really was impressed with the way that everything was kind of woven in together and you know, everything's going back to intention. So let me talk about what intention means.

Now the definition for intention is it's a noun and A thing that is intended, an aim, a plan synonyms for it is purpose, intent, objective, object, goal, target, end, design, plan, scheme, resolve, you know, all those great words. Intention actually comes from an old French word intention or from Latin for intention. And that means stretching purpose.

And I thought, wow, you know, what is my intention for create our podcast and find a podcast about, and somebody had to talk about, you know, kind of, you know, getting back to your why. And I was thinking, well, what pain point, what problem am I trying to solve for people that listen to either of the shows?

So let me talk to you a little bit about my intention for create our podcast, and then I'll go into find a podcast about, and I'll let you know, you know, what kind of issues I'm trying to solve.

So for create our podcast, what I'm trying to the problem that I'm trying to address and the people that I'm trying to reach are this. Gets a bad name and a lot of times it's from artists themselves and we get how do I say it? A little hippy dippy. We, we, we, we think more of ourselves than maybe we should. We're not really clear on, you know, what we're trying to do. Sometimes we're really esoteric. So the problem I'm trying to solve here is to remove the mystery behind art.

And, you know, sometimes, yeah, even us artists, we, you know, what is inspiration, what is expression, what can we do, you know, what, what's our right and left limits here. Even for artists, it can be a difficult thing to to create and to know what to do. And then for, you know, our, our audience members for those that appreciate our art, it can be difficult for them to peer into what we're trying to say and do. So what I'm trying to do with create art podcast is to remove that mystery.

I'm trying to encourage people to participate in the arts, not just, you know, a, You know, at first Friday of the month that we have here in Fredericksburg, Virginia, we have the galleries that open up now, just, you know, sit there and look at art, but actually get, get your hands dirty and create some art because I've noticed in my life, what is what art has done for me. It is, it quite literally has kept me alive and I've seen the effect that it's had on other people.

When I used to work for the United States army as a transition coordinator. One of the things that we used was art therapy. When I lived in Chicago, I joined a veteran art group that, you know, was comprised of veterans that were using art therapy and, you know, and that was a way for us to express ourselves for us to kind of deal with and come to terms You know, the experiences that we've had in the world, both in service and out of service.

And I remember there was a a gentleman when I was working for the army that, you know, I'd sit in the smoking area at the time I smoked cigarettes and he was making all these drawings. And he's like, yeah, these are no good. And I'm looking, I'm going, these should be hanging in a gallery.

You can actually sell these, you know, you might want to, you know, look in the graphic arts because, you know, he was doing he was infantry guy, so, you know, he knows how to, you know, fire a weapon and and build a tent and, you know, kill the enemy. But I'm, I'm looking at this art that he's doing. with this art therapy. And I'm like, dude, you could make some money at this. You, this could be your vocation. There's another gentleman that I was one of my one of my folks.

And in his, when he wasn't full time army he worked for a like UPS or something like that. He was one of the guys that drove trucks, but he really got interested in woodworking. And, you know, he would make these beautiful bowls and spoons and pens, and he had a real gift for that. And I told him, I was like, this is something that you should think about. He's like, yeah, but I'm not an artist and I don't want to, you know, do this artsy fartsy crap.

I mean, and I was like, well, do you get enjoyment out of it? And he's like, yeah, it really calms me down. And, you know, I'm, I'm creating something and I'm like, there you go. Because he was getting out of the military anyways, he was being I'm medically retired anyways. And he didn't know what he was going to do with his life. And I said, this could be the next thing for you. This could be the next chapter for you. And he said, well, I haven't gone to art school.

You know, this all just self taught. And I'm like, exactly go for it. That's the people I'm trying to reach. It's the people that, you know, have been told or have believed that they could not do something. And I want to let them know that. You can do this. You can create, you can have that joy in your life that, that I have found.

And you know, I want to take the mystery out of it for you because, you know, a lot of times we're not taught this in school, you know, we're taught about these great artists and not how they got there or, you know, the struggles that they have, you know, usually we just see the end product. And I want people to know that, you know, you can do this now. So that's, that's the main pain points that I'm trying to solve with create our podcast.

So let's flip over to find a podcast about now being a podcaster. I have a unique perspective on this because while I do this stuff this is turned into my art per se. So we find a podcast about finding a podcast to listen to that you're going to enjoy can be difficult using search engines like Google or Apple podcasts, and they're getting better, but they're not quite there yet.

And I noticed when I first started listening to podcasts way back in 2006, there weren't that many podcasts that were out there and it was kind of hit or miss what you're going to get. Luckily I ran into a few good podcasts, but it was, you know, it was a chore to find these podcasts that are out there. And even today here in 2024, it can kind of be a chore and disheartening for people.

So I thought, well, You know, I, I listened to podcasts about podcasts, like as the podcast coach the school podcasting and podcast junkies and the audacity to podcast, listen to all of those. And even podcast rodeo, you know, I appeared on that show a couple of times with my shows. And what I wanted to do was be the voice that says, Hey, this podcast is good, and this is why it's good. Now, again, in my day job. People are always asking me, Hey, is there a podcast on resilience?

Is there a podcast on, you know, healthier habits? Is there a podcast on suicide prevention? And I was noticing people always, you know, coming to me about that cause I was the podcast guy and I thought, well, you know, I have. Some skin in the game here. I, I have some expertise. So why don't I just start a podcast called find a podcast about really simple title. You know what the show is about. We're finding podcasts about whatever it is you want to find a podcast about.

And I, I broke it up into three sections and it was, it's only, you know, I am only reviewing podcasts that I myself listened to. And I really believe that when you get a recommendation from somebody, and it's been proven by many studies that, you know, the best recommendation is from somebody you know. So I wanted to create an area where people would know me, would know my likes and dislikes and you know, wouldn't be introduced to podcasts that.

I think is worth their time and why it's worth their time. What the podcast is about. Even listen to the little snippets of it. So that is the intention behind find a podcast about that's those are the problems that I'm trying to solve. Now you may be saying to yourself, Hey, Tim, you know, you're 350 episodes into create our podcast. You're 26 episodes into find a podcast about. Aren't you, you know, aren't, aren't your intentions pretty clear on what you're trying to do?

And yes and no, yes and no. I think they're pretty clear, but I just wanted to make it with this episode. I wanted to make it crystal clear. What am I going for? You know, what problems am I trying to solve or try to help you with? But something that came out of this conference that is kind of a basic thing. That podcaster should know, or should do is how can I be of service to you? So I broke that down into four things.

One is consistency. I have changed. The amount of times that I put out an episode multiple times throughout both shows usually with create our podcast, I try to do something every two weeks and with find a podcast about, I'd try to do it once a month. Sometimes I'm good with it. Sometimes I'm not, but the big thing is I want to improve my consistency. So what can I do that to, to get that consistency?

I think just, you know I used to use a lot of project management software and I got away from it for whatever reason, but I think now I'm going to get back into it and that way I can plan things out and you know, another problem with consistency is I do have multiple sclerosis and that can really impact my and it can impact my energy levels. So if I can use those project management tools that I already know and that I've used in the past, then I think my consistency will improve.

And also, you know, getting the ms a little bit more under control with health and diet and moving around more. I think that can help me out tremendously as well. So that's, you know, something I'm going to do. Another topic that was brought up many times during the conference was being genuine, not just necessarily being authentic, but being genuine. This is me. This is what I love to do. You know, love it or hate it. This is me. You're getting a hundred percent Tim right here.

So. I want to find, you know, figure out how can I come across that way? And that's done through the editing process. That's done with, you know, planning the episodes a little bit better than I have in the past. And really, you know, reminding myself of what's my intention and going back to that each and every episode. So that is what I definitely want to do. Another thing that will also improve me being genuine is practicing what I preach. So yes, I'm an artist.

I do poetry, I do art, I do painting I do music and I, especially this year, I really wanted to get back into making more art, so you're, you'll see episodes in the future. For Create Art podcast about me creating art. You know, if I'm asking you to create art and, you know, to create more than you consume, then I need to be doing it as well because I know the benefits art has you know, creating Art has had in my life. So practicing more of what I preach. Also with the Find a Podcast about.

Listening to more podcasts, exploring different more exploring different podcasts, that's what I really want to do. So that's what I'm going to go back to. You know, and I'm going to go through my catalog cause I have, I'm subscribed to about 150 different podcasts, but I want to go back through my catalog and go, okay, which ones am I really binging? Which ones I really want to listen to and then maybe change my listening habits to where I am binging you know, one or two podcasts a week.

And seeing if they resonate with me and then you know, giving the host more time to take a listen to the review that I give them instead of just trying to, you know, ram it in and get it, you know, get a episode out to you in hopes of that, you know, I'm being more consistent. So that's, you know, what I want to do.

And then the last thing is building community. And that was when we were going through this intention visualization. That's the thing that really popped out to me as I wanted to build a community because for me podcasting, I'm putting my voice out in the world. I'm putting myself out there in the world.

And the reason I'm doing that is I want to find other people that, you know, are confused about the same things I'm confused about, or, you know, believe similar things to what I believe or people that are, you know, out there questioning the world. So that's why, you know, I, I want to find others that are like that because I can't be the only one. And I want those people that are out there to know that they aren't the only one.

So basically building the community and seeing what we can all do to contribute to creating art and finding good podcasts. So my next thing is to refocus my inten intentions for cap well, I call it CAP and fpa, but that stands for Create Art Podcast and find a podcast about is how I can be of service to my guests.

And I, I have interviews on both podcasts and I want to make sure that their message is getting out to the audience, you know, that their voice is heard, that people are exposed to these new ideas. And so I want to, you know, kind of double down on that and bring in more guests to the show. to both shows actually. And then after I bring a guest on, I want to maintain that contact and build community. Now, why do I want to do that? Well with find a podcast about, I interviewed a guy Kawasaki.

He sent me a copy of his latest book, which I'm finishing right now. Sent me socks for my kids. And he sent me some seeds to plant in my yard. I want to maintain that contact with him. You know, and for everybody that I have interviewed on the show, I want to make sure that it's not just a one and done, hit it and quit it kind of thing. I want to make sure that, you know, I'm, I'm building my network, so to speak, by maintaining contact with them with create our podcast.

I just got a book from Amy Bernstein, who I interviewed a little while ago. She's a book coach. She sent me her brand new book. Didn't charge me for it. So she, she grabbed my address and then sent me a copy of her, of her brand new book that isn't even out yet. Same thing with Guy Kawasaki. He sent me a book that isn't even out yet. So and I'll be reading it. I'll be reading Amy's book as soon as I'm done with guys, which I've got. Well, today is the 3rd of July.

So I've got about five more pages to go on guy's book. And I read slow. I'll admit it to you. I read slow. So I'll be reading her book and then providing a review for it in Goodreads. And you know, I want to maintain these contacts that I've had. And just recently at this podcast conference, I met somebody who was really interested in you know tarot and spirituality and, and all that stuff I had just interviewed a person Kirsten Rudgrin about that, about putting the spirit back in your art.

So I connected those two together and you know, it's just, that's how you build a community is that, you know, I'll find somebody and I'll keep it in the Rolodex in my brain and I'll do it. I'll try to connect them with somebody that has similar interests that way that they know they're not alone. So basically that's what I want to be is I want to be that conduit that, that, that person, that contact, that connects people. One of my favorite TV shows was mash.

My favorite character on there was radar. Because that hospital could not run without radar couldn't run as well as it did, but what was radar secret? He had all the connections. He knew the people to talk to. And that's what I want to be. You know, I want to be the person that you go to.

If you need to find a new podcast, you're going on a road trip and you want to, you know, binge a podcast while you're on that road trip or, you know, you want to find a new artist to be inspired by, or you want to find a new art art form. To try out for yourself. I want to be that person that can connect you with that. And that's how we build community. And that's how I can be of service to my guests, because I'm of service to you.

And I appreciate you for listening, but I also want to be of service to the guests. That way they're not wasting their time with me. And you know, it, it, again, it's not just a hit it and quit it kind of thing. It's one of those things where we actually build a relationship. Yeah. And I'm finding it you know, the ripe old age of 51 here as I record this, that it's, it's hard to make friends when you're this old and it gets harder.

And I was talking to my wife about this actually a little while ago about, you know, it's tough for me here in Fredericksburg because I don't get out that much because, you know, I'm being a dad, I'm working. And when I was commuting an hour and a half each way every day, it was almost impossible for me to, you know, make friends and, and to be out.

So it helps me to podcasting helps me to reach out to the world that I may not physically be in, but that I can be with in spirit and in communion with that's out there for you and for the guests that come on the show. So that's something that I'm going to be working on and I, hopefully you're going to notice it as I'm working on it and hopefully, you know, it, it isn't that obvious, but I'm hoping that it's obvious enough that I'm going to try to do that. All right.

So at my third major point here that I want to talk to you about, and this is going to be about me. So it's going to be a lot of stuff that I'm going to do and what I'm going to do.

So my overall goal is to start up a network.

For the federal government for their podcasts, that's what I want to do when I grow up And if you would ask me this 10 years ago, I would have been like, yeah No, you're you're smoking really bad dope But that's what I want to do in my quote unquote retirement is I want to you know Set this up so that way people can get information about the United States federal government And you know, they can get it straight from the source instead of, you know, just hearing it on

the news or reading in the paper or, you know, reading some online blog, they can get it straight from the source and they can know what their government is doing. Why are we paying these taxes? Why, why are we voting these people in? What are we doing with the money and the trust that you're, you're putting into us now, how am I going to set up that network? Well, the first thing I do plan on doing is joining a group called air AIR. And that's the association of independence in radio.

They have a, I know it says radio, but they have a lot of podcasters there. I've met them at many podcast conferences and I, I want to join up with them so that way I can learn more about how to run a you know, an independent consulting business. And so that way I can build that network because I can't be everywhere all at once, although I'd like to be, can't be everywhere all at once. So that's one thing I'm going to do.

Next thing is joining the national Association of Government communicators. And that's for, you know that's for I guess anybody, but it's mainly staffed of federal employees that are in the communications business and they share ideas and and whatnot. And I can build my network through them. And back to the conference, one of the talks was about how to submit your show for awards.

Well, the NAGC National Association of government communicators has an awards program and, you know, in the last couple of years, they've had like 250 submissions for different types of media products. And I saw that they had three. And I saw that they had three awards for podcasts or they had three awardees for podcasts. Well, that tells me that, you know, I can make an award, you know, I can do an award that way.

So I'm going to be joining that organization and again, learning better ways of communication and you know, putting myself up for an award, why not? Cause I'm trying to do great work.

Now, the last part of this is what I'm going to do for my personal self and it's a continual self improvement improvement kind of thing with the physical aspect, you know, getting out to the gym, hitting the pool more watching what I eat, exercising more mental continue to see my counselor every every couple of months and you know, find ways to make sure that my mental faculties are really sharp, spiritual, not too sure what I'm going to do with that, but I think,

you know, I'm a big Tao Te Ching fan. So maybe reread through the Tao Te Ching and just get more in touch with my spiritual side. My artistic side, keep on creating and find new ways to create. And keep on pushing myself in those boundaries and educating myself on different forms of artistic expression. And then last thing is my career.

You know, maybe I'll join up with Toastmasters or continue I'm definitely going to continue doing these conferences to do the networking that needs to be done and to do the learning that needs to be done. The reason I bring up Toastmasters is because they're all about public speaking. So can I learn to speak better in public? I think I can. I think you would probably agree with me on that. So that's what I'm going to be doing for myself for my continual self improvement.

All right. Well, I want to thank you so much for listening to me here. Not really a ramble but. More of one of the things that I wanted to do was to just not write everything out in a script, but to, you know, have it in more of an outline form. And that's, you know, to let you know how the sausage was made for this episode. That's how the sausage was made in this episode. You know, I, I made a outline of three major things and then, you know, subcategories and all that kind of jazz.

And I just went with it from point A to point B to point C to point D. So that's what I wanted to do here. And I think I accomplished that. And I want to thank you for coming along on this journey with me, both on find a podcast about and create our podcast again, I am here serving you and I want to do it to the best of my ability. So feel free to reach out to me. Email for create our podcast is Timothy at create our podcast.

com and for find a podcast about it's Timothy at find a podcast about dot X, Y, Z. I look forward to helping you tame that inner critic and create more than you consume and finding those benchworthy podcasts that are out there. Until next time, have a great day and I look forward to hearing what you have to say and to hearing about your pain points and your struggles and hopefully I can help out.

If not, hopefully somebody in my network can help out and I can refer you to them and I'd be happy to do that. Again, thank you so much.