And joining us in the PBJ Spotlight today is Jemmy Lagagnier.
Jemmy, thank you so much for coming on.
We appreciate your time.
Oh, thank you so much for inviting me.
It's a true honor to be on your show.
So tell us who Jemmy is.
Oh my gosh, there's just, how much time do you have?
Plenty.
I am a multifaceted woman, so buckle up.
Let's see.
But number one, I'm a mother.
I have a son.
He's 6 and 1 half.
I'm going to be 7 going on 17 here in another month.
So that's number one.
He's my pride and joy.
But aside from that, I'm also the founder and owner of Flintstone Media, which is a
podcast and website production house.
And I am the founder of Florida Podcast Network.
I am the former host of the Curve the Cube podcast and a current host of the Finding
Florida podcast with some more shows in development currently.
We're going to be starting a Florida podcasting news show soon.
So we're excited about that.
But that's who I am in a quick nutshell.
Great.
So give us some more detail on how you got into podcasting from the beginning.
Oh my gosh.
So that's a pretty interesting story.
I spent about 15 years in a totally different career as many of us in podcasting have done.
I was a data analyst and fell in love with that kind of work.
Gosh, since I was a kid, I've loved computers and data and stuff like that.
I've been a nerd my whole life.
So I was a data analyst for a long time.
And then I would sit at my cubicle listening to radio shows and podcasts and stuff like
that.
And one of my favorite shows was this radio show, local radio show called the KVJ Show.
I love them, listen to them all the time.
And they started having a little bit of trouble on their side.
They're getting kind of kicked off the air.
And I didn't like that at all.
And so I decided to start a campaign to get them back on the air.
And it just ended up exploding into this whole huge national campaign where I had a great
partner by my side, Carla.
And we ended up having thousands of people behind us.
And it was really great.
So at the end of that, I picked up the marketing bug.
So I started my marketing company Flintstone Media.
And then as that was kind of just barely starting to churn, the radio show that I had helped
out, they called me and said that they might have a producer job for me when they get back
on the air.
And I said, probably the dumbest thing you could possibly say when someone calls you
with your dream job on a silver platter.
And I said, you know, I've never produced anything in my life, right?
I have no production experience whatsoever.
But they really liked my chutzpah and my drive and my attention to their content and all
that.
So anyways, I decided, you know, I was listening to podcasts already.
I thought, well, why don't I start one and maybe get a little bit of experience that
way.
So I fell in love with Curve the Cube and, you know, that the radio gig didn't end up
panning out.
But what was great was I caught the podcasting bug and really fell in love with Curve the
Cube and being able to sit down in front of someone new every week and find out who they
were, what made them tick, what made them struggle, what made them successful, what
drove them.
All of that was just, I loved it.
And the show's concept was all about getting people to tell me how did they follow their
dreams and end up doing something they love for a living that they were passionate about.
And in doing that show and discovering what I was passionate about and turning it into
finding my own, you know, a living for my own.
So I'm curving my own cube and doing that show.
It was a pretty exciting experience.
And then I went to Podfest a couple of years ago and it just completely changed my life
and, you know, just been immersed in the podcasting scene ever since.
So back to that radio show for a second, what market was that in and, you know, what was
the result of trying to get them back on the air?
Sure.
So they were originally in the Palm Beach County market and they're on one station
that they had been on for I think like 15 years or something crazy.
I don't remember exactly why that contract was coming to a close, but they were being
bought by a station, Miami.
So they went there briefly for a little bit of time and that station just started to slowly
dismantle the show.
And then that's when the campaign started and then the show just completely got kicked
off the air.
So the drive really was to get them back into the Palm Beach County market.
So we got them back on WRMF.
They picked them up and they've, I think they've been now on there for just over three, four
years.
So it's been solid.
Yeah.
They're doing great.
So you, you have a problem with local radio these days though, don't you?
Tell us about that.
Oh man.
So yeah, that was really my first taste of corporate conglomeration and how the creativity
process can be stifled because the great thing about that show is on the first station they
were on, they were given free reign to be as goofy and crazy and as sentimental and
sweet as they wanted to be.
And it was just such an authentic and wonderful show.
And to see that being put through a filter was just horrible.
And then you see things like, so jumping a little bit from radio to television, you know,
you might remember the issue that happened last year where every local news station seemed
to be forced to read the same script.
And it was almost became like this video meme where they were showing the dozens and dozens
and hundreds of news stations around the world all doing the same thing.
So something was happening to local content outlets, you know, radio and television.
And I just have always been a proponent of local.
There's something about it that just feels different from anything else that you can
get.
And unfortunately, radio is becoming so much more syndicated.
And you know, one of the most syndicated shows out there is the Elvis Durian show.
And to his credit, when the campaign was going on, the show that actually had replaced them
on that original station was the Elvis Durian show.
And when he got word of our campaign to bring them back, he was a huge supporter of it because
he's like, there needs to be a local voice down there.
I almost was floored when I heard that.
So yeah, local voices are so important.
And that is why, you know, I'm just so motivated to build the Florida Podcast Network and bring
those local voices back for our communities.
So talk about how you launched the Florida Podcast Network and how you and Glenn the
geek came together.
Oh, my gosh.
So I am not one who's shy.
As anyone who meets me will figure that out pretty quickly.
And so when I went to my very first Podfest convention a few years ago, and I went there
with my show, Curve the Cube, and I decided I'm going to make this into an episode.
You know, I interview people all the time, actors, artists, musicians, business entrepreneurs,
etc., about how they find their passion.
Well, here's an opportunity for me to interview a bunch of podcasters.
So I decided to do that and weave it into one episode.
Well, at that year, Glenn won an award.
And he won it at the same time as our friend, Gabe, won his award.
And they're both coming off stage.
And I ran up to them and I said, can I please interview you for my show?
You know, I knew Glenn was a big deal.
He was the opening keynote speaker and all this.
So I thought I'll give it a shot.
And they both said yes.
And so I interviewed them.
And I've never been so mad at myself for turning recorder off as this moment, because after
I was done interviewing them and I turned my recorder off, they then turned to each
other and started talking about how good I was.
I couldn't believe it.
It's like, oh, man, I didn't get that recorded.
But anyway, so Glenn offered to mentor me, which I just couldn't believe.
I mean, it's kind of like being a local reporter and having Oprah say, you know, I take you
under my wing.
It's like, what?
So yeah, so we became fast friends and he started mentoring me.
So I had had this idea.
I really wanted to build a network and I wasn't quite sure exactly what I wanted to do.
So we were having a conversation one day digging into the different niches that I could possibly
explore because he is he's a big proponent of a lot of things.
A lot of philosophy is when it comes to podcasting.
And one of them is to niche your show, which is absolutely true.
So we started thinking about niches and, you know, can we reach the African-American audience?
Can we reach the Caribbean-American audience?
You know, what is it?
What is it?
And when I finally said, you know, I just I love Florida.
I keep coming back here.
I've lived in other states and there's just something unique here.
There's all different kinds of people in Florida.
And I want to meet them all and talk about all of them.
And he loved the idea.
So that was kind of the original germ for the Florida Podcast Network.
And we've been building it ever since we started off with our pilot show, our flagship
show, Finding Florida.
And the idea was to take that show and use it to become known.
You know, Glenn is known in the horse world.
Glenn is known in the podcasting world.
I'm known locally and in my little corner of Florida in the podcasting space.
But for us to get known for what we want to do a Florida Podcast Network, we had to get
known in the travel space and the tourism space and then in the podcasting space in
all of Florida.
So that was what the show was used for.
You know, we traveled around.
We're still doing it.
I don't know.
I'm talking past tense.
We're still traveling around and we're working with different visitors bureaus.
And through that, we've made so many great connections.
And now with 2019, the network's starting to really grow.
So what is your goal with the network?
If anybody's heard of Glenn the Geek and heard that previous episode with him, you know that
he's the founder of the Horse Radio Network.
And that network has been around for over a decade and has about just under 20 shows
all about horses.
And so we're basically taking the foundational work that he did with that network and applying
it to growing Florida Podcast Network.
So the vision with Florida Podcast Network is to grow it to, again, about 20 shows that
are all about celebrating something with Florida.
So that can be basically one of two types.
You're either celebrating an area of Florida, so you know, a Tampa Bay show or Miami show
or Sarasota show, etc.
Or you can be celebrating something about Florida, like a certain industry.
So the craft beer industry or like what we do, the travel and tourism industry.
So the idea is that not only can we help encourage and do our part in propelling Florida's economy
and the travel and tourism and all of that stuff forward, but then we really are interested
in working with a lot of local brands and getting more local brands that increase exposure
through our ad work or through working with our hosts on shows and contributing content
and stuff like that.
So we've had a lot of fun doing that with Finding Florida and having different brands
highlighted and featured in all kinds of creative ways on our show.
So we're so excited to see all the different ways that we can do that with all the other
shows we're going to put on the network.
So do you want people in Florida that are podcasters to reach out to you?
Yeah, absolutely.
So Florida is becoming such a hotbed for podcasting.
It's kind of an incredible industry.
We have the Florida Podcast Association here, which was founded by Chris Kermitso's, a buddy
of ours.
He also founded Podfest Multimedia Expo, which happens here every year, which everyone needs
to go to who's an independent podcaster.
And so yeah, absolutely.
There's so many people who are creating great shows here in Florida, but particularly if
you have a show that is about Florida, we have a program on the network for people who
have those local shows already established to join the network.
So we have three different types of – I'll just run through our partnerships real quick.
We have three different types.
One, we have our affiliates, and those are going to be local magazines, bloggers, visitors
bureaus, these larger entities that want to create this type of content, and so they pay
us for production of a show.
And then we have our media partners who might not have a full show that they want to contribute,
but they want to contribute a segment on a show or something like that.
So we have those partnerships as well.
So then we have our production partners, and those are independent podcasters who join
the network.
And so what they do is they keep ownership of their show, and they keep the productions
all handled on their side.
But then we board their show onto our network.
We help distribute their episodes, give them great exposure, and all of that.
So we have a relationship package for pretty much any kind of podcaster that's out there,
including the podcaster that hasn't even started podcasting yet and is just thinking
about it.
So overall, do you think that podcasters can make a living out of this, or is it really
a hobby?
I think most podcasters who get into the space, at least the first maybe 10 years of this,
were really doing it as a hobby.
And I think we're slowly moving towards more people thinking about doing it as a way to
make a living.
It's kind of like YouTube, right?
When people started YouTube, no one thought you could make a living being a YouTuber.
Everyone's just doing it for fun, putting videos and stuff up.
But then they started YouTube, really.
It came up with ways for people to make money, and it just started this whole new career
for opportunity for people.
And it's kind of similar with podcasting.
We don't have a YouTube creating the opportunity.
We're creating it ourselves in our industry, but it really depends.
So if you have a show, if you're a host of a show and you're trying to make money
and monetize, I suggest first of all that you try to think about how you can do that
before you start a show so you can start gearing your content to make it attractive towards
advertisers.
You want to figure out what is your niche, who can you really corner, what corner of
the market can you really focus in on that you can get those sponsors to jump on board
for?
Who are the listeners that people want to sell products and services to?
And if you can figure out how to cater to those listeners, then you're also catering
to the potential advertisers.
So there's that.
Are you going to make a ton of money on average?
Probably not, but it can certainly be something that doesn't cost you money if you do it
right.
It can gain exposure for you and other things that you're doing, your business or what
have you.
And then there are people who have podcasting services.
So for example, I have Flintstone Media.
So I do podcast production for other podcasters and I certainly can proudly say I make a decent
living off of that.
So that's certain there.
And I also am a producer for the Horse Radio Network, which granted those kinds of opportunities
are far and few between, but you can look for them and find them.
It's all about networking and making opportunities like that happen.
And then there are of course the people who have the advertising companies, the big, huge
production houses, all those types of entities, the people who do all the swag for podcasters
that are becoming the shirts and mugs and all that.
There's so many fringe little ways to be involved with the podcasting industry that
aren't necessarily as a podcaster that people are figuring out ways to make money.
And it's a really interesting space.
And again, I'm going to say go to a podcast convention to really appreciate what those
opportunities can be in this space to make money.
What is your advice to podcasters or potential podcasters that are thinking, man, I have
a great story to tell.
I think I could do this.
I'm just not 100% sure what to do.
I would say the first thing you should know is that you really need to make your show
unique.
Gosh, Glenn and I, it's almost an ongoing joke at this point.
Many times people come up to us and say, I have a really great idea for the show.
I want to interview this and such people.
I have a really good idea for the show.
I want to inspire people to do this and such.
Okay, that's great.
A million shows have started with that exact same sentence.
So what is going to make yours different?
And so you got to really, really figure that out.
And that can be either the market that you are really focused on selling your show to,
or it could be something about you yourself that is super important.
And I know this came up on his interview because it comes up with any interview with Glenn,
but I'll say it again because it's one of those podcasting philosophies that sticks
because it's just proven.
People come to a show for the content, but they stay for the host.
So if there's something about you that you can really bring to the table and make it
unique and inject that into your show, that needs to be your first focus.
So you need to figure out what are you going to do to make your show unique and stand out
and not be one of a million.
You are one in a million.
Don't make your show one of a million.
How important is the sound quality of a new show?
Well, gone are the days when you can get away with really crappy sound.
When I started podcasting, I affectionately call the first 100 episodes or so of Curve
of the Cube as my album one because it sucks.
I don't know why I had it in my head that I don't need to edit.
I can just let it fly and let it go and whatever.
I don't need to pay attention to sound.
I don't know what was wrong with me back then, but I'm glad I've learned the error of my
way.
Sound is so important, especially because you're getting more and more corporate entities
in the space like NPRs and gimlets and all these other huge people who have massive,
massive budgets.
If your show doesn't sound good, guess what?
A listener is going to pick something else to listen to because if the quality is not
there, it's going to be too annoying.
They're going to check out.
Your sound quality definitely has to be really, really crisp, really clean.
Do the best you can.
If you have a sound issue partway through recording, don't be afraid to stop your
guest and say, you know what?
Let me figure this out because they will respect the fact that you did that and so your listeners
will thank you.
We all go through that.
Every single one of us have had those issues at the beginning.
Oh, God.
The beginning, middle, they always find a way to pop up.
I'll say this.
I always have a backup recorder, always, always, always for whatever you're doing.
This story combines both issues into one, having a backup and crappy sound.
We were doing an interview at a croquet center and it was outside.
Normally we can figure out it's not too bad of an issue, but there were some fans going.
The fans were blowing pretty close.
The choppiness of it was basically creating a wind factor on the microphones.
We used our big mega mics for that, which is pretty much guaranteed to come out sounding
really, really good.
Well, I'm an idiot and I don't know what I did wrong, but I apparently didn't start
recording on it.
Unfortunately, we didn't catch that really good high quality sound, but I did start the
backup recorder.
That's lesson number one.
We still did get the interview.
However, normally a backup comes in handy because it might not be quite as good, but
it's still usable.
This one, this is lesson number two, the sound just wasn't very good because this backup
doesn't really do a good job accounting for wind factor.
We really had to cut that interview down quite significantly and it sucks.
You have to learn to just suck it up and make the sacrifice because at the end of the day,
your listeners aren't going to know, number one, what's cut out.
Number two, if you leave in something with really, really bad audio, they're going to
check out.
You just don't want to let that happen.
Right.
It's always a good idea to have extra batteries if you're recording on an H4, an H6 or any
other recorder.
I feel like you're speaking from personal experience.
Yesterday, as a matter of fact.
Oh, no.
How important is it to have a consistent release date for your show and should it be weekly?
Oh, man.
There's a lot to unpack with that question.
When people ask me this, or it's just starting out a podcast, don't do a podcast more than
twice a month or every other week.
At first, to start.
Typically, right.
The reason for that is because there's a lot more that goes into podcasting than you can
anticipate.
If you get boggled down in the pre-production work, the post-production work, then you're
just going to not want to do your show anymore.
You're going to what's called pod fade.
You don't want to let that happen.
We say if you do it every other week or twice a month, then you're more likely to really
give yourself time to get a handle on your show.
Then, if you want to bump it up to once a week, you can do that because your listeners
will be more grateful to have extra content, but you never really want to do it in reverse
because you don't want them to lose out on content.
I actually did that in reverse with Curve the Cube.
I was trying to release every week and it was a challenge because I would go out and
meet my clients where they were.
I was working full-time still.
I was also a full-time mom.
There was a lot.
When I met Glenn and he asked me if I'm consistent, I said no.
He encouraged me to push it back.
That was the best thing I could have done because doing it then instead of once a week
to every other week allowed me time to really clean up my show and make it a better show.
At the end of the day, give my listeners something that's much, much better.
Typically I'd say there's no straight answer, but start every other week or twice a month
and feel out what's right for you.
We have a host starting on our network.
She's going to be rolling out a show soon called People of Palm Beach.
She is a news reporter veteran.
She's been in the content creation game for 20 plus years.
For her, when she said she wanted to do a show every week, we didn't bat an eye.
We did end up landing on every other week for completely separate reasons, but I would
have trusted her to be able to handle that because she knows what she's getting into.
Most people don't.
How can people find you?
How can people listen to your shows?
How can they get in touch with you, follow you?
All the different ways.
If you are interested in podcasts or website production services, you can find all of that
information at flinstonemedia.com.
If you're interested in the Finding Florida podcast specifically, you can go to findingfloridapodcast.com.
Or if you're interested in all the other shows and finding out what else is coming up
for Florida podcast network, you can go to floridapodcastnetwork.com.
That's really going to be exploding with exciting news in the next couple of weeks.
I encourage everyone to go there first and foremost.
You can always email me at jeme, j-a-i-m-e, at floridapodcastnetwork.com.
We'll see you in PodFest as well.
I'm so excited to meet you and Kim in person.
We can't wait.
Will you be speaking at PodFest?
Yeah.
Actually, Glenn and I are going to be opening up the whole thing.
We're going to be on the main stage for the keynote.
That's very exciting.
Wow.
Yeah.
I'm going to be part of a geolocal panel, so talking about doing local podcasting.
I think Glenn is moderating that panel, so that should be interesting.
I think he's also moderating another panel on networks, so he has that going on.
My friend Desmond and I are going to be relaunching Palm Beach Podcasters Association, which is
a meetup group up there.
We're going to be doing that at PodFest.
Then a few days after PodFest, I'll also be a panelist at the Hispanic Radio Conference,
so there's a lot going on.
Yes.
Busy, busy.
All right, Kimmy.
Thanks so much for coming on.
Thanks so much, Ed.
It's been a great pleasure.
Thank you.