What I've Learned From 2 Years of Podcasting

“It’s a never-ending process of absorbing new things and refining the approach. And that’s what Feeding Curiosity is about.” — ERICH WENZEL

Hello everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Feeding Curiosity, and today's episode is going to be a little bit different. I've been thinking about two years of Feeding Curiosity. We passed that point on February 9th I'm recording this on February 17th. So it's been a little while since then, and I wanted to get this podcast out sooner, obviously, but you know, life happens, and sometimes reflection takes time to do it right.

And I wanted to do this justice and possibly pull in friends who have been behind this thing from the beginning. Needless to say, that has not happened yet. And instead of spending a lot of time thinking about the perfect way to say it or the perfect way to talk about it. I thought I would go back to why Feeding Curiosity started in the first place, which is I wanted to get in front of my microphone and talk about the ideas that are in my head and the journey that committing to doing this thing.

And this thing that is Feeding Curiosity has evolved into over the last two years. That being said, this has been the craziest journey I've ever put myself in. I'm in the driver's seat of a thing that is wholly my own. It allows me to choose scratch all of my itches. However, I see fit. I don't know how I've given myself.

The ability to do such a thing I have to be careful because when you start doing your own thing, and people say, Oh, you do this, they think you're a business or that they think you want to sell something to somebody. And with that, I really want to put it out there for everybody involved is, I don't intend this to be a business before it is ready.

Or mature enough to be a business. First and foremost, this is an intellectual journey, one in which I get to pick and choose. And you know, people can come to me that I want to talk to and share ideas with. It is not to sell something to someone else. I want to learn from the stories authentically from another person.

I don't want to sugarcoat it. I don't want to plug things unless that is the thing this person has to say, and that's totally fine, but this is not a business. This is something I choose to do because I get fulfillment by doing it, and don't get me wrong. I would love for it to one day pay my bills so that I don't have to work a full-time job.

But alas that. It's not true yet, but that's not why we're here. What I'm here is to talk about what I've learned in the last two years of podcasting, first and foremost, by choosing to do this job. I have learned so much personally. I have learned Photoshop; I have learned audio. I've learned a little bit of video and a little bit of photography as well.

I've learned so much about how to craft images and how to craft stories and how to understand how people do and why they do and how to ask questions. You know, in the podcasts themselves, I've become this person who absorbs questions, and I find how to ask people interesting things that they haven't been asked before.

You know we all have these top five questions that everybody asks us about, you know, what do you do for your job? Do you have any hobbies? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Let's not go there. Let's go to question 20 that you never get asked. You know, what? What has shaped your life? Or do you have a favorite failure?

Do you have a favorite book, and why do you love that book? It is my job to tease out these little ideas from people that they don't get to talk about those things that they're normally like; I'm not really comfortable with sharing this with people because I think they are not that interested.

And my whole thing is, no, no, no. Those are the things that everybody wants you to talk about. The things that you won't shut up about. I want people to be able to hit that curiosity thing, whatever that is, that they can't get out of their head and just go after it. That's what this has been about for me.

But again, it wasn't supposed to be that. This is initially just a story of me and my friends sitting in front of a microphone talking about the things that we cared about, and slowly but surely, that turned into something much bigger and greater than I could have ever thought possible. Two years later, I've talked to everybody from a janitor, my best friends to CEOs and Olympians all across the board, and all the while I'm like, how old the freak is this happening?

Because I'm just curious enough to ask these people about who they are. And say, would you want to talk to me? That's really what I do. There's no magic to what I'm doing. I'm just curious enough to be interested in another person, to share who they are authentically. And that feels so strange to say.

That's all I do because maybe I'm selling myself short, but again, I don't know. And as I'm recording this, I just got home from a kind of a long day. It was a day of hiking on president's day here and, we were enjoying the weather even though it was snowy and rainy.

So. I mean, not many people would enjoy that, but I found it enjoyable nonetheless because we made most of it and walking around in nature. I took the camera along and captured photos that I hope to use eventually. And if I don't use them, well, I got to exercise some creativity here. But what I'm saying is that sometimes we need to disconnect from the busy - busy-ness of the things that we feel like we should be doing, or the things that.

May feel like a waste of time when it's those ideas and those things that recharge you to come back and be creative and do this because it's those experiences with people in those that you care about that invigorates why it is that you do. 

And I would say that in 2019 I really put a lot of effort into understanding. What Feeding Curiosity is, or at least what its vision could be. Right. And that sounds really strange to say that because it makes it look like a brand, and I really don't like brands, or at least how they're envisioned. Because again, it goes to this idea of business. I'm not a business, if anything, I am a business in ideas.

And how do you monetize an idea? Well, it's really a book, but our book is audio, and our book is free for everybody. I mean, what we're doing is trying to give access to information, to ideas so others can make or tell us if the ideas are wrong. What I do is just aggregate these things to allow people to share what has worked for them.

You know? And that's really what our vision is, or my vision is for that matter. It's the ability to provide blueprints for others to learn and lead a more fulfilling life. And that sounds really, really highbrow. And in reality, what it comes down to is a little bit more selfish than that. 

It is my first layer. I want to know this for myself. I truly do. I want to know how to be a better human, not only personally, but in my relationships, in my job, at the gym. How do I eat healthier? All of the above. It's a never-ending struggle to be better, and no matter how good I feel today, there's always one area I can push.

And learn a row. I can read something new. I could listen to a new podcast; I could go to the gym. I could go on a hike. Everything I do is in the service of living better. And sometimes, in the short term, they might not seem that way. And it's been an insane thing that I get to do what I do. 

You know, in 2019, I spend a lot of my free time taking off days in service of going to record conversations with other people. And as funny as it is to say, take vacation days to record podcasts, that is absolutely what I do. And I'm not going to lie to you. I loved every second of it. And when I do this podcast, even the backend work that I do now.

To create transcripts and create all the imagery that I do to make it visible to everybody else. The nice packaging or wrapper, if you would. I love every second of it because I own it. You know? It's my thing, and it's my responsibility to put it out in the world in a way that makes it enjoyable for everybody else, even though most of the people will not recognize 80% 70% of that work. And that's totally okay because you know what? I know it. 

And for me, it is in service of growing and showing whoever that person is on the other side of that conversation that hasn't done any of the work.

 So for me, it's become this ability to show other people to the world in a way that they've never been shown before or highlighting them in a different way if they have been shown to the world in some way before. I want to let them stand out and stand on their own accord differently. You know? 

And it's so humbling of an experience that I get to listen to all of these conversations and to see the themes that come up in these podcasts about how in many ways, it's we in our twenties as I'm meandering through, as I'm thinking about what the themes are, one of the biggest through lines is that when you're in your twenties, we all feel. And I'm using the Royal we since I am in my twenties that we should have life figured out in some way.

And in reality, that's just not true. Nobody has it ever figured out. The people who have lived more life, who've come on this podcasts our through-line in many ways, is this thing that they just kept saying yes to the interesting things in their life. You know the things that, yeah, that sounds like I could do that, or, yeah, that sounds awesome.

And it captured their attention and they just kept going with it. And then it's when they get a chance to reflect on what they've learned or where they've been, they're like, Holy crap, I did a thing. You know? And I think to some degree, that's what this is kind of all about, it's grasping at the darkness of our lives and feeling it out and saying, here's what I'm working with and working on, and here's where I'm hoping I'm heading towards. I don't know if I'm going there, but I'm going to try to get there. And I think the farther you push that dart out and the bigger that thing is, the more likely you're going to stumble upon something that you didn't think yourself as possible.

And I think if I could impart anything on anyone here, is that doing Feeding Curiosity isn't the fact that I'm special. I'm not an entrepreneur. I'm really not like, I think like, you know, I'm just a free thinker and  I have a willpower in myself that I'm not going to wait around for other people to make things happen.

I'm going to; if something is compelling me to do it, I'm going to figure it out even if I'm not that good. I'm going to trust in the process that I will get better at it, and that I will put the effort in to get better at it. And whatever I'm putting it out in the world is the best that I can make it at this moment.

But it doesn't mean that it will be the best thing I ever put out because who knows where it's going. And I would just implore you to look at the old thumbnails I've posted is on the Instagram page just to see how much the style of this thing has grown, and that's only on the imagery side of this thing.

There's been so much more on the back end as who I am as a person and how I think about the world and my opinions on workout routines or diet or just the information I'm taking in. It's a never-ending process of absorbing new things and refining the approach. And that's what Feeding Curiosity is about.

And I'm not saying you have to do it in a podcast or writing or whatever, but what I'm saying is that if you have something that you're like, damn, I wish I could do that, or I want to do that. Start doing that. Do it right now, tomorrow, whatever. Like to say that next time I have 10 minutes, I'm going to try and do that thing.

You know? It's, it's committing to the fact that you're going to do that thing and just commit to grow through it, you know, investing to be the beginner and absorbing everything you can and say, let's see where it goes. And that's what it does, is all about, you know, it's just seeing where it goes and putting your best foot forward every day.

It didn't intend this to be a motivational thing, but kind of come to that. I don't know, I'm here, and I'm winding down for the night, but I wanted to get this out and get my thoughts.

I talked about the guests and how they have taught me so much, and it wouldn't be complete if I didn't mention my friends who've been behind me from the beginning, you know, Joe Jackowski, Mike Taccoan, Jordan, Criss, Ben Kapolnek, Eric Herrera, Nick Wenzel, my brother, those guys, they have always been behind me. I mentioned my brother lasts because he's the one who helped create the vision. He created the logo that is Feeding Curiosity.

He created a theme that I have now built upon and made my own, and he is probably annoyed at that just because I broke his theme. But that's because he's a graphic designer. And I'm an engineer, and I break things and tried to tinker with things, but, and that's okay. You know, again, back to the process.

But I think for me if I didn't have these people that have shaped me and pushed me, you know, and those are just the names that are here on this website that had been a part of this since day one. There are many more people behind it that see and send me messages. And talk about what I do and I really, I don't know.

It's hard for me to take ownership of something because I just do it, and I don't really know what it looks like on the outside looking in because I'm so close to it.

 But I'm just really honored to have this thing and to see it grow. To have the ability for the world to see these people that have shaped me. These unique individuals are getting after it in life, or helping people or doing all of that are following their dreams and making it work for them.

It's truly awesome. 

You know, and I'm not going anywhere. I'm going to do this until I don't do it anymore. And maybe that means it won't exist as Feeding Curiosity in one time or another. But for right now, Feeding Curiosity is the name we're going with, and that's what we're doing. You know, we're Feeding Curiosity.

And so with that, everyone, I'm going to get off and just thank you for two amazing years and joining along on my personal journey and sharing in the stories of the unique and amazing individuals that I've gotten to interview here on Feeding Curiosity. Thank you for joining me.