My very first Podcast with the illustrious name of ‘Out of the Fishbowl’ has reached the halfway mark of Season I. 

Episode IV is dropping this morning at around 10 which will tip us over that mark as we head towards the 7 in this season.

And so far Out of the Fishbowl has been really well received! 

If you somehow missed the fact that i even had a Podcast then you can catch yourself up on the journey over here. Followed by a whole  post that was basically comments from people who had really nice things to say about it.

What i loved about the feedback was how specific it was. This didn’t feel like friends trying to say nice things about that bad piece of art you created that everyone was feeling awkward about [that would be my book!] Here people were commenting on particular parts of the episode that had challenged or inspired them or simply given them a different perspective. And it continued with episode II.

This week i decided to create an Out of the Fishbowl Twitterer account to try and at least in time reduce the Codcast spam on my own timeline and have a dedicated space to grow an audience. So @FishbowlCodcast was born. Considering a Facebook Group cos it would be nice to have a space where people can engage around the episodes, but i’m not sure we are there yet.

A Solid Start

With close to 400 listens across the 3 episodes so far, i realised that i am pretty happy with results so far. Obviously a million listens would have been better and i would love some more consistency between episodes. But i figure an average of 100 people listening to an episode at the start of a new thing is not bad going. So just 24 people listening to Episode IV which is titled ‘Thinking is Critical’ will get us there, and hopefully the episode will have a lot more than that.

One of my favourite pieces of feedback came this week from a mate of mine D, who i was hanging out with. He listened to the latest Out of the Fishbowl episode, You Can’t Handle the Truth, which had spoken directly to a conversation that had been going on in another Whatsapp group he thought i was part of. So he thought i had created the episode as a direct response to the group. Which of coourse wasn’t true because the episodes were recorded a few months ago. When he found out that i wasn’t even part of that group he had a mind-blown kind of moment and his words to me were something like: Wow, that’s even more impressive! 

Some more that i really enjoyed came from my Twitterer friend L, who had somehow missed the fact that i had a Podcast and so binged all three Out of the Fishbowl episodes this weekend. She said she really appreciated the different perspectives and found them to be food for thought.

What this has all done is given me encouragement and inspiration for Out of the Fishbowl Season II. i, for no specific reason, settled on the number 7 for Season I and planned and recorded the episodes and uploaded them ready to be dropped off each week. While we still have three of those after today, i have already been plotting out some themes and ideas and quotes for the next Season. And some of them i am VERY excited about and looking forward to.

Onwards and Upwards

 i have already got a few episode titles and a few notes scribbled for the next Season. And this week i have three days of substitute teaching where i generally have time to sit and write and so am hoping that a lot of the Season will shape up.

One thing i am hoping to do is from a technical/production point of view, at least make some small steps forward in Season II. i am obviously not a Pro at this and so it will continue to have a homegrown feel, but i can only imagine that upping the quality will help bring in some more listeners. A friend of mine who works in Sound is taking a listen to Season I episodes and hopefully going to make some recommends.

In the meantime, we look forward to Episode IV arriving on the scene, and while you wait, if there are any you have missed out on, here is your chance:

Episode I: Pineapple on Pizza – Brett Fish investigates the possibility of appreciating or even celebrating something you hate [that doesn’t matter] that someone else loves.

Episode II: Diverse vs Divers – Stories of near-drownings lead to a story of an incredible magical underwater adventure that segways into an easy way to turn our reading into a magical new world.

Episode III: You can’t handle the Truth – Brett Fish explores the best places to have the conversations about the things that matter without them being hijacked by people who don’t really care.

Please Share with your friends who you think might enjoy the listen and especially with those who are listeners of Podcasts… would love to see 1000 listens by the end of the Season and i think we are close to that.