Doug, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear the story of how you went from this being just an idea to making it into something real.

Surprisingly to me the podcast that I created when I first began barely resembled the podcast that I had been envisioning while preparing and planning to launch the show. Originally MVAMO podcast was meant to be entirely centered on comedy. I had several local comedians and actors I had planned on working with to create sketches and I had already discussed splitting the rent with a band I knew to use their practice space as my recording studio.
The planning phase all happened actually very quickly. I decided I wanted to work on this project and it was probably about three weeks from that day to the day I recorded the first episode.
I had practically no capital to start with so I did some research for the bare minimum essentials I needed and then obtained most of my gear from a few different pawn shops.
And then, the very first Covid shutdown happened. No one was leaving their homes. My original concept wasn’t really going to work anymore.
But fortunately the whole project’s momentum had been running off of almost exclusively enthusiasm and impulse the entire time so without hesitating I contacted some of the most interesting people I knew, scheduled some zoom calls and the interview style format that became the main staple episode format for the podcast was born.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

Everyone has a story to tell. My Views Are My Own podcast is a place where authors, comedians, adventurers, scientists, and so many other people can come to tell a story. And it’s just kind of like life. Sometimes it’s extremely silly, sometimes it gets pretty serious and almost always there’s something to learn from it.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

This is going to maybe sound silly to some people. But I do say this sincerely. Before I started my podcast I had seriously underestimated the scope of information and help available on certain social media. And I have just a very quick story about that.
About a year after starting the podcast I decided to invest in a brand new laptop. And obviously the laptop developed an audio malfunction immediately after the warranty expired.
I brought the laptop to the repair center of the business that had sold it to me and was told that the repair cost would be close to the price of a new computer and there was no guarantee they could fix it and I would be charged either way if I left it with them.
Obviously I couldn’t accept those terms. Fortunately I had wrongly assumed that computer repair necessarily required a specialist. And through a combination of Reddit and YouTube I was able to repair the laptop myself in a remarkably short amount of time.
And I think there often times when we have the tools to be self sufficient that aren’t immediately apparent to us.

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

Honestly just wanting to see how far I can take this podcast and how many people I can reach is enough fuel to keep me going for the next hundred years.

Contact Info:

• Website: myviewsaremyown.com
• Instagram: myviewsaremyown_podcast
• Facebook: My Views Are My Own podcast
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/doug-mcdonald-32b288245
• Twitter: myviews_podcast