We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Adam Greenfield. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Adam below.

Adam, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

In 2011, a few years shy of 40 years old, I discovered podcasts. They opened up worlds of humor, storytelling, deep insight, and a look into the lives of people we never really used to have. I was hooked and thought, how cool would it be to make a podcast? My next thought was that I have no clue how to do anything audio related, let alone know how audio works. So I lived with that podcast itch until the following year when I was presented the opportunity to make a podcast.

Not knowing a thing, I took one Audio 101 course at a community college and dove headfirst into what I call YouTube University. I watched videos, I read articles, I read equipment reviews, I asked people in audio about audio. Whatever I could do to learn how to record audio and make podcasts I did except go back to school full-time to learn audio. Quitting my day job wasn’t feasible. Yet. Because in 2016, I did just that. And it was a failure but I learned so much about how to build a business.

I’ve often wondered what I could’ve done to speed up the process of getting to where I’m at, and even where I want to go. But I’ve learned and accepted —at times more painful than I like— that the process is the process. How well we can learn from mistakes or missteps equals how fast we’ll find success the next time around.

Adam, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

When people ask what I do for a living, I say I’m an author and podcast producer. And while each can be a storyteller, how I got into each are two very different stories yet still driven by the same level of curiosity.

As the story goes, when I was three years old I taught myself how to read. Obviously I had some help but I just wanted the basics, then I’d figure out the rest on my own. At seven years old I was reading “Clan of the Cave Bear” by Jane Auel, not understanding a damn thing about what was truly happening but nonetheless engrossed with… something. My mother, a lover of books and knowledge, allowed me the space to discover my own love of the written word. I wrote my first short story when I was 11 years old. Poetry came during my teenage years, as it tends to do in everyone’s lives. Since then I’ve continued to write stories and poetry for not just my own pleasure but hopefully there’s joy in others reading it, too. In 2015 my first ever book, “Regarding the Monkey,” a collection of poetry, was published by Puna Press and I currently have plans for several more books.

Podcast engineering, producing, and hosting came about later in life. After I discovered podcasts in 2011 and taught myself how to record and engineer audio (sound familiar?), I made my own and also tried to make a living with it. By the time 2017 rolled around, I was an independent contractor doing audio work for others and making my own podcasts. whether they were passion projects or educational tools for my budding podcasting career. These days I make a living making podcasts for others, I teach classes about making podcasts, and remain amazed at the doors a little chance and luck and hard work will open.

I may have gotten off to a late start with starting a new career as a podcast producer out of thin air in my 40’s or plan to be a full-time author, even though next year I turn 50. But I’m pretty damn proud to say I’m an author and a podcast producer.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

One of the more rewarding aspects of being an artist and creative individual is how the joy of art is distributed between the artist and the individual consuming the art. The more joy I see in others reading my poetry or my stories or listening to my podcast, the more joy I feel. I don’t view wanting validation from others as a bad thing, especially when our art can be so vulnerable. Knowing someone finds joy or compassion or connection in the art I put out there is oftentimes as motivating as figuring out how to make a living with my art.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

When I was a kid, I had two goals in life, and I would’ve been happy with either one. The first goal was to be a commercial artist with my own advertising company, and I’d drive a Jeep and live in a nice house on a cliff and I’d have a dog. The other was to be a writer and sit in a room by a window and type out my novels and stories on a typewriter (I’m not too old but I’m old enough to have a typewriter in my life goals). Well, over time I’ve come to believe Jeeps aren’t the safest thing with the way I drive and I’m not afraid to say cats are much better than dogs.

But then I stepped away from both of those paths and did things just for a paycheck and a savings account and, if I was lucky, retirement. The entire time I was miserable. I wasn’t on the right path and I felt it.

The moment I stepped back on a creative path with my writing and newfound joy of making podcasts, my life significantly improved. What drives me is someday fulfilling the goal of writing novels and stories by a window. And a laptop will be just fine. No need for a typewriter.

Contact Info:

• Website: thewrittenscene.transistor.fm / iamadamgreenfield.com
• Instagram: @thewrittenscenepodcast / @adam92102