We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ocho . We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ocho below.

Hi Ocho, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

The biggest risk I ever took was in 2009, when I quit my day job to become a full-time, self-employed entertainer. I’m taking the second biggest risk of my life right now, I think, by switching my focus from live entertainment to podcasting.

I’ve been extremely contented for the past 13 years as a resident musician / DJ / sound tech / event coordinator / MC in Southern Minnesota. My career has grown as cozy as my old couch. I know all the comfortable positions. Why would I trade it for anything now?

To be clear, the couch is staying. I’m keeping it for as long as my wife lets me. But many people are surprised to hear that I haven’t been booking any live shows for the fall and winter. Instead, I’ve been recording and producing my new podcast, “I Don’t Do That.” It’s a series of interviews with all kinds of people about one thing that they DON’T do. The guests can (and do) choose to talk about anything they want, as long as they don’t do it.

My first three episodes are “I Don’t Eat Soup,” “I Don’t Clap My Hands,” and “I Don’t Use Social Media.” My goal is to entertain listeners while learning about a variety of human experiences. The episodes vary in length and in the depth of subject matter. For example, someone who doesn’t talk to a family member might have more to say about it than someone who doesn’t cook.

As the host, I try to celebrate people’s differences, and let them tell their own stories from their own perspective. It’s not a soapbox; I don’t push an agenda, and I don’t allow guests to do so either. I write questions from a place of curiosity: I am intrigued by the things people don’t do, which are so often hidden. So I record and showcase them.

Ocho, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Since I became self-sufficient as an entertainer, I’ve always been a generalist. In a standard morning, I might be making a set list, emailing a band about their sound needs for an upcoming event, promoting another event online, writing a song, texting someone who wants a guitar lesson, and reading a manual for a piece of studio gear. I like using a variety of skills, and the money has always been better when I can do more than one job. But I am at a point in my life now where I realize that I don’t need to do so many things. Maybe this is why I’m now spending my time talking to people about things they don’t do.

All of this multitasking has given me a background in audio engineering, hosting shows, storytelling and composing music–a lot of crucial elements for a podcast. Not to mention the master’s degree I got in psychology, and the few years I spent as a therapist. That probably made me a better interviewer.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

As I mentioned, this program celebrates people’s differences. In order to do that, I look forward to reaching out to a variety of different people. I’m off to a good start, I think. My first three interviews alone represent three different generations, two different geographic regions, two different racial designations, and three different gender identities. I hope to include people from different classes of income, disability statuses, nations, languages, sexual orientations, beliefs, mental health statuses, IQs, sizes, etc. So the diversity goal is pretty lofty. I honestly don’t know how successful I’ll be in that regard, but I have a plan, and I’m going to do my best. One thing is for sure: everyone involved will get to teach us something by telling us a story of one thing they don’t do. That angle keeps it simple and interesting.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

So what made me dial back a fun, rewarding career in live entertainment to take on podcasting? Part of it is my love of podcasts. I started listening to WTF With Marc Maron a few years ago. I like the interview-style podcast, and Maron is a fantastic interviewer. When covid hit, I had a lot of time on my hands, so I started listening to a lot of different podcasts. Now I don’t go for a walk, wash the dishes or take a shower without listening to a podcast.

Covid also had me underemployed for a couple of years. After that, I had the option of trying to go back to the way it was, but I felt inspired to spice things up a bit. I still love getting on stage, but I don’t need to do it six times a week. I wanted something else, but I didn’t know what.

I started thinking about it when I was on a road trip with my wife. As we were driving and talking about life, an interesting contrast occurred to me: I do A LOT of different tasks. Chiefly, I perform on a stage, which most people do NOT do. In contrast, I also DON’T do a lot of things that are pretty normal: I don’t eat fast food, own a microwave or a TV, go to church, drink alcohol, gamble, have kids, work for someone else, play competitive games, and on and on. This puts me on the outside a lot. And I have a strong desire to tell the story of being on the outside. When that idea struck me, I immediately knew what my podcast was going to be.

This was last spring, right before my performance schedule takes off nonstop though the summer. So I’ve just been working on it in my spare time: recording interviews, editing, creating theme music, working on the website. I am proud to announce that “I Don’t Do That” is live now at idontdothatpodcast.com, and wherever you listen to podcasts. And we have a lot more coming!

Contact Info:

• Website: idontdothatpodcast.com
• Instagram: @ochomeans8
• Facebook: facebook.com/ochotunes
• Twitter: @ochomeans8
• Youtube: youtube.com/ochotunes
• Other: exclusive content at: ko-fi.com/ocho

Image Credits
Betty