Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Charlie Birney. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Charlie, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Who is your hero and why? What lessons have you learned from them and how have they influenced your journey?

My hero is definitely my father, who led by good instincts, good humor and a whole lot of stories. I was able to work with him for over twenty years and still use his example every day, even in the podcast/media industry, which he never really understood!

He was not afraid of trying something new, even if he had no previous experience in that field. He always told me, “The right tool for the right job” and he was absolutely correct. I really miss him.

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 began podcasting without really knowing a thing about the mechanics of recording and distributing, but I had a gut feeling that it would be huge. Starting out with a digital recorder, some inexpensive microphones and a four track recorder, I proceeded to create and distribute dozens of shows, a few for myself (one with my daughter) and most of them for clients. Those first clients barely knew what a podcast was at the time. However, it was a lot of fun, and now that everything is more complicated, especially with over 50% of our content being video, I miss those days of pure audio!

I am the most proud of my second book, “The Tao of Podcasting”. I had written an earlier book called “Podcasting Made Simple” but due to hardware and software advances, much of what I taught in that book is no longer necessary. So “The Tao of Podcasting” is a book which talks about the philosophy of this form of media: how you approach a session, how you practice listening, how you think about the process outside of the technical aspects. Sometimes I suggest a “pause before the podcast” to remember why we are all here and recording.

The illustrations in the book are all my own, crafted (or doodled!) over the last ten years of recording, editing and producing. They tell a second story about my work in podcasting and with our company Podville Media

How’d you meet your business partner?

I met my business partner, Oscar Zeballos, through radio and podcasting. His “terrestrial radio show” had converted to a podcast as I was just starting out in my journey eleven years ago. I was listening to him and the crew of “The Mike O’Meara Show”, a daily podcast, when I heard him say that he was going to lead a discussion group on podcasting and apps and if anyone was interested they could sign up, So I did!

We met in downtown Washington, DC, at the Reagan Center. There were about thirty people in the audience and he spoke with great eloquence. When it came time to have a breakout session however, he looked at me and said, “You keep asking good questions, you are in my group!”

That is really how it started. We met again a few months later and compared notes on podcasting. Then I had him out to my very simple studio and interviewed him for a podcast that I hosted at the time. Ultimately he called and asked if I would like to partner with him, and Podville Media was born.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I spent 25+ years in Commercial Real Estate as well as the golf industry. After I transitioned out of that job, I was doing some research and using an office in a co-working center, which was a very new concept to me at the time.

I had already been listening to podcasts and one day came up with the idea of doing one for the co-working space: they could put it in their newsletter and share with all the tenants. That way everyone could easily learn what their neighbors were doing. I just had the feeling that podcasting would become a very big new media industry. That was just a case of following my instincts.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.podvillemedia.com
• Instagram: charliebirney
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/charlie.birney
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charliebirney/

Image Credits
These are all my photos! Thanks!