We were lucky to catch up with Kody Hughes recently and have shared our conversation below.

Kody, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

Getting into video production was a massive learning curve for me. When I was first starting out I thought that all I had to know was how to edit videos. I was soooo wrong. After thousands of hours researching on YouTube I realized that I needed to learn sound design, social media content strategy, sharpen my photography skills, and learn some new editing tricks in order to get the ball rolling. The absolute best way to learn in this industry is continuous repetitions. I would not be where I am today without continually pushing myself to learn new skills. I truly believe that there is no way to speed the process up other than just continuing to push content out and improving your skills little by little. Each time I made a video I would slightly improve just one aspect of the production. The skills that were most essential to the success of On Tap are really outside of the production. I learned to be much more patient in learning new skills and constantly reminding myself that even if I feel something is perfect, it can ALWAYS be improved. I truly feel that the biggest obstacle that stands in the way of success is complacency.

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 got into video editing and production from skateboarding as a kid. I really enjoyed being able to put together edits of my friends and I learning new tricks and progressing in the sport. I quickly took this love to all other aspects of my life from school projects to making commercials for local businesses in the area. I found out quickly that creative expression through video was something I was really passionate about. Little did I know that when I started On Tap Podcast in 2020 I would really find a new passion with social media specifically. Early 2020 was such a wild time starting with the beginning of the pandemic. With strict lockdowns and most people out of work, a lot of people took to social media platforms like wildfire for their entertainment. Starting out as an excuse to get together with a few friends once a week to record the podcast, the show took on a life of its own. With incredible growth in our first year, we had the opportunity to interview Myles Montplaisir (the YouBetcha guy). This relationship with his team sprouted into a job opportunity that I accepted and moved to Fargo, North Dakota to pursue. I was their head videographer for 9 months but I decided that my real passion was to continue doing On Tap and I left to continue my own legacy. Since then, we’ve had exponential growth in all aspects of our business. The industry standards, content strategy, and skills I learned from YouBetcha have massively contributed to the success of the On Tap Podcast. Now 4 years into this adventure we have multiple facets of the business that each have a life of their own. Our merchandise, Audio podcast, video podcast, and brand integrations are the key pillars of On Tap. Our small studio in Pine City, Minnesota has become a second home to myself and everyone involved with the show.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Throughout the four years of pursuing social media content creation we’ve experienced a lot of ups and downs. The 4 main hosts on the show now are not the same ones that started it and the whole format is entirely different now than what it was when we started in 2020. I learned that when I’m presented with obstacles that seem to be too hard to overcome, the best reaction is to take a step back and analyze everything from an outside perspective. Taking the time to see what you do well and what you don’t do so well can help you decide what aspects you need to double down on and which ones you need to stop putting effort into. While going through a low period at the beginning of 2022 I decided that we needed to double down on podcast episodes and posting frequency in order to keep moving forward. That same month that we changed our content strategy we grew by 10,000 subscribers on YouTube.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Building your reputation in the entertainment industry seems to rely on the expectation that your audience has of you versus what the reality actually is. Throughout my time on the podcast I’ve met a lot of people that have a much different persona in real life that they don’t portray online. I think that’s very normal and completely okay but when reality and online personas contrast each other that’s where you can start to see the difference in reputation. If you are doing something that you are not passionate about it absolutely shows. Maybe not right away, but it certainly will in time. The audience can tell when it’s insincere right away.

Contact Info:

• Website: ontapwiththeboiz.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ontappod/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ontapwiththeboiz
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ontappod
• Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ontappod Snapchat: OnTapOfficial