We recently connected with Mister Miles and have shared our conversation below.

Mister, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?

“13th Grade Productions” sounds like a clever play on the idea of high school continuing past the usual 12 grades-maybe implying an extra level of learning, creativity, or rebellion. It gives off an independent, almost underground vibe, like a space where people keep growing and experimenting beyond the norm.
Think back to how much fun you had your 12th grade year in school. The 13th grade would be even more fun. Right? So like we always say, “Let’s have some fun!”

“A Fifth of Something Podcast- AFOS” could have a few different inspirations. It might reference a bottle of liquor (a fifth), hinting at something intoxicating or potent. Or maybe it’s about being a fraction of a whole—like an incomplete puzzle or a mystery that invites curiosity. In our case, it’s a mixture of both. We are very intoxicating and sometimes extremely potent, but at the end of the day “We don’t know a lot about a few things, we know a little bit about everything.” AFOS, the only podcast where we mix business with chaos, stir in some resilience, and serve it with a side of WTF just happened.

Mister, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

A hero creating history. 💪🏽
Too busy to be upset. 😡
Proves everyone wrong. 👎🏽
His biggest competition. 🏆

Being a lover of music and fashion my entire life, I was destined to be an entertainer. Intrigued with talking and learning from others. I believe knowledge is like underwear, something that’s needed, but no need to always show it off. Being raised in a very tight family, I have a natural tendency to take care of all those around me. My ultimate goal is to make the world laugh for 30 minutes a day. I could tell a chemistry joke, but I know it wouldn’t get a reaction. So I dig deep into my creative brain pulling something out of left field that would put you on your ass from laughter.

With that being said, I decided to start A 13th Grade Production. A 13th Grade Production houses a hand full of shows that I produce and a few I host including; the oldest child A Fifth of Something, followed by 91st Day, Sunday Vibes, and lastly, Pull Up A Chair. Being an award winning Creative Director in the marketing world, I have figured out the special sauce and anything I touch turns to gold. Sometime plated gold because things don’t always workout. 

I’ve been a Dallas resident my whole life, other than the times I moved up north on both coasts, I’ve always made my way back home. When I’m not recording, producing, or content creating, I’m spending my time with those I love and care about, mainly my dog Mildred.

Miles o.T. is not special, I’m a limited edition.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

“If you’ve ever wondered how this beautiful disaster of a show came to be, today’s episode is for you.
Spoiler: It involves bad ideas, worse execution, technical disasters, and a shocking amount of accidental success.” LOL. I’m are always in show mode.

Grab a drink or don’t, but you’ll want one, and let’s dive into the wildly unplanned journey of how we made this podcast a thing and some of the issues we had to over come.

Let’s start out by talking about the idea that shouldn’t have worked. It all started like most great ideas do at brunch, slightly hungover, and right before the mimosas started flowing and a few other bad ideas were thrown out there, Miles and Cowboy Blue decided to start a podcast together.

The thought process went something like this:

“Hey man, we should start a podcast.”
“What about?”
“No idea. But it will be funny, over the top, and gotta make people question things.”
“Cool. What are we going to call it?”
“A Fifth of Something?”
“Cool. What does it mean?”
“It means we know a little about everything.”
“Say less. Let’s go.”

Boom. A podcast was born. Except. We had no plan or experience, but did that stop us? Not at all.

Episode #1: AKA Absolute Chaos. Recording an episode should be easy, right? WRONG. Here’s what actually happened:

Attempt #1: Forgot to hit record. Talked for an hour. Pure comedy gold. Gone forever.

Attempt #2: Mic picked up everything, except us. But it did catch every single car that drove by our studio for 47 minutes. Blue’s camera was fuzzy and made him look itchy. Miles looked perfect.

Attempt #3: Thought we nailed it. Listened back. Realized someone was chewing gum directly into the mic the whole time.

Attempt #4: Finally got a semi-decent take and then the system crashed. At this point, we questioned everything. Was this a sign from the universe? Were we destined to fail? Should we just start an ASMR gum chewing podcast instead? But no. Resilience, baby. Finally, the glorious mess goes live.

After technical disasters, existential crises, and an unhealthy amount of jellybeans and chocolate covered raisins, we finally had something semi-listenable. So, naturally, we all had any self-respecting podcasters would do, upload it without checking for mistakes. Told exactly three people. Hoped for the best and then something weird happened, people actually liked it. Somehow, our chaotic, unscripted nonsense clicked. People laughed. People messaged us saying, “What the hell did I just listen to? I love it!”. When he says, “Let me ask you a question”, hold on to your seat.. “I can’t wait to hear the next question they are going to ask.” We even had someone who left a review that just said: “I don’t know what this is, but I can’t stop listening. Send help.’

Success, but the issues we never expected were the editing nightmares and technical failures. Ever tried cutting out 20 minutes of laughter because someone had the hicups? We have. One of our first live test run ended when our guest kicked the power cord, it unplugged and everything shut off mid-sentence. Also, we’re 95% sure one of our early recordings just vanished into the void. It exists somewhere. Somehow, we’re still growing

Through every issue, we kept going. And now?
We’ve got listeners. (Still not sure why, but hey, we love you.)
We’ve got episodes that don’t sound like they were recorded in a bathroom.
We’ve got a segments that’s actually, kind of a thing?!

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

Making a podcast is only 50% of the job. The other 50%? Telling people about it without annoying them so much they block you. You have to promote like a maniac (social media, emails, flying pigeons— whatever works) Nobody cares about your first episode. You gotta make them care. Friends & family are not your audience. We love them, but they’re not gonna boost your stats.

We thought if the podcast was good, people would magically find it. Like some podcast fairy would sprinkle it across the internet. Wrong. You have to get out there and market, a lot!!!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @afifthofsomething
• Facebook: the4real5th
• Youtube: @afifthofsomething

Image Credits

na