We were lucky to catch up with Jerome Barkley recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Jerome thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Almost all entrepreneurs have had to decide whether to start now or later? There are always pros and cons for waiting and so we’d love to hear what you think about your decision in retrospect. If you could go back in time, would you have started your business sooner, later or at the exact time you started?

I had the idea for the Columbus Podcast Awards in 2018, then we officially launched in 2019 and have the first awards ceremony the following year of 2020. Looking back i would’ve have waited about another year or 2 to official launch. The reason is because the year of the 1st award ceremony we were hit by Covid which put a great deal of restrictions on what we can do making it challenging to organize, but the event was still a success.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’d be happy to give the readers of this wonderful publication a brief story of how i got into the genre of podcating which would lead into creating the Columbus Podcast Awards. While in college at Wilberforce University, i had the opportunity to be on our college radio station as personality, enjoy it so much shortly after graduating i purchased some recording equipment and got into podcasting. After a couple years podcasting, realizing the level of dedication that is required i wanted to acknowledge and highlight those who were doing the same in Columbus, Ohio.

The Columbus Podcast Awards is a annual awards ceremony where fans vote on who are the best podcasts in their respective categories. The most rewarding part about the awards ceremony is bringing the columbus podcasts community together and celebrating everyone’s platforms! Seeing the smiles and networking throughout the evening is truly rewarding.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

For those who aren’t in the creative space may find it difficult or hard to understand that a creative person’s life can be very unpredictable and always changing. Creatives like to have freedom to create and with that comes with living a lifestyle that is free of restriction, it may look chaotic and unproductive to the untrained eye but to the creative, it’s exactly where they want to be.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

Being that the type of platform i have, the Columbus Podcasts Awards didn’t qualify for any grants. However, I believed in the idea that i funding it myself. I was fortunate enough to meet a few others who ran similar organizations who also believed in the idea and helped me with resources or pointed me in direction to those who would express in collaboration, which would save me money or use that money for aspects of operation cost.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/columbuspodawards614/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/columbuspodcastawards/

Image Credits

Dj Durl