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

Eric, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Talk to us about building your team? What was it like? What were some of the key challenges and what was your process like?

Beings my business is a small independent podcast employees is a strong word lol beings enough money wasn’t being mad to pay any one but yes I started out with a cohost. Finding and building a team has been the hardest part of the process. Trying to driven individual ready to put in as much work as you to help the platform grow is not an easy task, because everyone wants to sit and talk but nobody wants to put in the leg work to help the show grow. The cohost I started with is no longer apart of the platform, as I had to part ways with them and two other cohost due to lack of effort. My none existing interview process is definitely part of the problem. I wrongfully assume when people say they wanna podcast that they are willing to do the leg work when many does even know what growing a podcast consist of. I give any one the opportunity that says their interested but moving forward I will definitely add a thorough interviewing and training process.

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.

My name is Eric Hicks; I was born and raised in the city of Harrisburg, Pa where i still reside. I am a father of two boys, a huge sports follower, and approaching my fourth year in the podcasting industry. I heard my first podcast in 2015 and my first introduction I knew this industry was for me because I am a motormouth when speaking with a purpose. My podcasts main focus is to promote businesses, entrepreneurs, events, or someone doing good things that needs recognition and to give regular everyday people a platform to express their thoughts. My platform helps those with products or information to spread reach a new demographic. There are plenty of podcasts in my area and all over but my raw unapologetic yet easy going humorous personality helps ease the nervousness many face when being interviewed and helps them be comfortable and open up to speak in depth in a way they might not on other platforms. I am most proud of number and caliber of guests I’ve been able to network with and open my platform up to along with demographics my podcast has grown to in the past 3 years reaching 57 countries, 40 states in the US and 360 cities domestically without having to pour major bucks into marketing. I am also proud to say my podcast has been acknowledged as a Top 100 show ( overall and for its genres ) on a new fast growing streaming platform called Goodpods. We we’re even ranked number 1 in two different genres for independent and mainstream podcasts for a 2 week span. Which was pretty cool to me. I try my best to network with my guests linking them with other guests and I also try to continually promote my guests even way after being a guest. You don’t get too many podcasters giving that much energy to their guests especially once they drop the episode the guest was on. My platform also gives back to its community by having events to give back like our 3rd annual fresh fruits, vegetables, and seeds give away which takes place September, or the healthy Halloween trick or treat snack give away we hold every trick or treat night. We also held our very first back to school supply give away this past August. All which is done to show our people that we can fill the voids in our community ourselves if we come together. These events are funded by my guests, listener’s, the community and myself and has given over $2,200 worth of fresh free produce weighing well over 600 lbs and over $1,500 worth of free healthy snacks for Halloween. We’re big on unity and assisting.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Starting out in this podcast industry without being a celebrity or having a ton of followers can be a brutal fight to get streams. Your fighting to turn a brand new show no one has ever heard to get to the level its worth being a business. Its not about being the most known it’s simply about making it make sense on the financial end if your doing this as a business. While your fighting to get out the shadows life isn’t gonna take mercy on your process. So you to have the resilience and dedication to keep pushing when the streams aren’t hitting numbers you would like them to hit and while life is continually hitting you throwing curve balls your way. I’ve seen many podcast start before mine, around the same time as mine, and after mine. But many of those podcasts have shut down or don’t produce shows consistently. There’s even been a few times I had to pause from recording unexpectedly from health issues, being arrested and jailed for a few weeks, or not even having adequate recording space. But soon as the rain stop I’m back to recording. My motto is just go. If your thinking about starting a podcast just go, start it and figure things out as you go. If you started and had to stop but now feeing uneasy because of your extended lay off just go and start right where you left off no matter how long the lay off.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I built a strong amount of my listeners from social media and I owe a lot of the growth of my show to social media. Its free marketing for everyone with something to promote to the masses. It gives you access to millions of people from all over the world right in the palm of your hand. I use all methods of social media to market my show from posting links of my show on the timeline, or posting links on other viral posts, inboxing links to my followers and those that engage in my comments or posts. You can add money to your post to reach more people than your usual followers for a reasonable price thats well worth it. Making live videos and clips advertising your podcasts and topics also helps majorly with marketing you can’t be shy or afraid to exhaust all avenues of marketing especially the free ones.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @Cuzzinrick
• Facebook: @Eric Hicks
• Twitter: @cuzzinpick4u
• Other: Tik Tok: @cye_on_tik22