As I’m sitting here trying to come up with something to say about the 10th anniversary of Matt’s Basement Workshop Podcast I’m finding myself entirely at a loss for words. For those of you who know me, that never happens!
I’ve told the story a thousand times, but the show was never meant to last this long. My intent from the very beginning was to demonstrate it was possible to create a woodworking podcast, then wait for someone to come along, show me up and then I could sit back, listen/watch, and enjoy the experience.
As you all know from podcasting history, at the same time I was launching Matt’s Basement Workshop my good friend (dare I say BEST friend) Marc Spagnuolo launched The Wood Whisperer, and from that point forward what we know as an entire genre of Woodworking podcasts was born.
Photoshop Magic!
Actually I’ll take it one step further and say, in my opinion, we were pioneers on the digital end of the Maker’s Movement in the sense of creating online content, and over those first few years we had the pleasure (and pain in some situations) of helping others create content and share it with the world.
But what happened with them more often than not, was that the reality of creating a show would catch up and they’d fade away. Sadly some of them were shows I really loved and looked forward too.
If you’ve been consuming online woodworking content over the past decade you’ve experienced several cycles of rapid growth followed by just as rapid a decline.
Starting first with blogs, than podcasts, and eventually into the ever-expanding world of YouTube channels, which today is easily the biggest resource for woodworking videos online.
In fact the term YouTuber, or notion that YouTube is the ONLY SOURCE of online content is so popular that when I refer to myself as having a podcast the usual response is “so you’re a YouTuber?” To which I usually respond “sure…”
I don’t want this to come across as I’m saying YouTubers aren’t important content creators or that they don’t contribute to the knowledge base of today’s woodworkers, because they do!
The underlying difference between Podcasters and self-identified YouTubers is the extent to which their content is available.
Both make their content available to the general public, and many podcasters (myself included) make their content available on YouTube also, it’s just that podcasters make their content available to be downloaded to devices for watching off-line. That’s the only difference!
So coming back to the original intent of this post, which isn’t to be pontificating about content creators and where or how the audience sees their content, the underlying idea behind this post is to emphasize the importance that content is being created at all.
The number one rule of content creation is consistency. Be consistent in sharing your experiences, be consistent in learning and explaining where you came up short if you did, and be consistent in presenting content to the audience.
And consistency doesn’t mean you have to be creating content every day, every week or on any kind of regular schedule. It simply means don’t promise the audience everything and then disappoint them by failing to follow through time and time again.
Trust me, I know the lure of wanting to be everything to everyone and then burning yourself out trying. Thankfully I discovered this very early!
So in the end, thank you for allowing me to come into your lives and share my projects and experiences. I’m more grateful this opportunity than you could ever know.
What’s in the future?
As for the future of the show, just like the cycles of rapid growth and decline we’ve seen in the past, Matt’s Basement Workshop is currently in a state of flux. But it’s not going away just yet. I have too much learning left to do, and I want to share it with all of you.
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