Starting a podcast is a pretty simple. Staying committed, inspired and consistent in publishing your podcast is a whole other matter.
In our Podcasting Luminary Series, we share the voices of podcasters that have been podcasting for 5 or more years and have them impart some of their best podcasting wisdom grounded in experience.
Today we feature the crew from Sibling Rivalry. We hope you find their journey as inspiring as we did!
How long have you been podcasting? What is your podcast about?
We started in 2005 and over time the show evolved. My brother and I were both political/news junkies so the show began with a lot of our thoughts on news and politics.
Eventually we realized how boring it was and made it more about us and the stories from our lives that we’d share with friends anyway. From there it sort of bloomed into a comedy/personality based show that eventually included our friend Stacy who keeps us both in check and adds a hilarious female voice to the show.
In my mind it sounds like a bizarre mix of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Seinfeld.
Fun, Fame or Profit? Why are you doing the show?
Fun is #1. We are always looking for ways to bring fame and profit into it if only to give us more time and more interaction with our audience because it really is a passion project for us.
We do it because we love it. With a few bucks and a bigger and actively engaged audience we think it could be even better.
What is your most memorable feedback from a listener?
A few years ago we got an email from a listener named Jen in New Mexico. She was writing to thank us for doing the show because she was caring for her mother in her final days and it required literally all of her time.
She was missing out on time with friends and had almost no relief from the stress of that situation. She randomly discovered us and described the relationship she had developed with us as as being like the Sunday, backyard BBQ with friends she couldn’t really have.
We were all she had to laugh about. That email drives us to keep going for her and people like her. Her situation has since changed but if we can help make the world a little less lonely and a little more funny for a few people then that’s all that really matters.
How has or has podcasting helped create opportunities for you?
I think our answer is similar to a lot of podcasters that do something like what we do.
We’ve been able to sit across the table or talk on the phone with some of our childhood heroes and people we greatly admire.
We’ve spoken with people like comedians Andy Kindler and Jimmy Pardo, Hall of Fame rock DJ Marco Collins, Musicians like Shawn Smith and Carrie Akre and many up and coming bands in Seattle that the world will soon hear about.
Those are memories we’ll always have and we only have them because of this hobby we started almost 10 years ago.
If you charge for access to your podcasts or premium, how did your audience react when you started doing this? How did you handle this?
We do offer a premium subscription service that comes with some perks. In general the response has been really positive from the few folks that have subscribed.
In fact we haven’t heard a single complaint. The listeners that have signed up did so because they just wanted a way to support the show they love. That really means a lot to us.
If you want to stay in contact with Sibling Rivalry here’s where to go:
And of course…Subscribe!
