354 Scott Johnson - Incredible Stories & Heartbreaking Confessions

Harry Duran

0:00 - 0:04

So, Scott Johnson, host of what was that like? Thank you so much for joining me on podcast junkies.

Scott Johnson

0:04 - 0:08

I am delighted to be here, Scott.

Harry Duran

0:08 - 0:24

We're testing out a new format, and in the interest of making the show more engaging for listeners and people, that might be just finding us for the first time. Because this is a show where we talk to podcasters about podcasting, I thought it might be helpful to ask you what's the biggest impact that podcasting has made in your life?

Scott Johnson

0:25 - 1:33

Well, aside from just now being able to be a full time podcaster, that's a nice thing in itself. But I would have to say it's gratification, the gratification of seeing the effect the show has on other people and guests and listeners. I've had many guests tell me that it's been so therapeutic for them to tell their story from beginning to end in detail to someone who is really interested in hearing it. And I've had a few people say, you know, this happened a little while ago, and they're worried about forgetting the details. And so now they've got all the details recorded and it's there forever. They don't have to worry about trying to keep that all in their head, you know, so. And I've had some listeners as well. Early on, I did an interview with a man who donated a kidney to a stranger, and that was like one of my first ten episodes, and that was six years ago. And I've had several listeners say, you know, I heard that I'm going to go donate a kidney. So. So I just love seeing, you know, how the podcast can benefit people.

Harry Duran

1:33 - 2:05

So we got reconnected at podcast movement. As of this recording, it's September 2024, and I was speaking at podcast movement. I think it was about my third or fourth time. So shout out to the team. That event has just been getting bigger and bigger. And I remember ten years ago attending my first podcast movement. It was in a smaller hotel. I think it was just two days, but it's amazing to see, you know, kudos to Dan and Jared and the team for what they've done. I think at this point they've got a bigger company that's moved in. I'm wondering what your experience has been like over the years with the conference.

Scott Johnson

2:06 - 2:56

I have gone to several podcast movements, both the evolutions and the other one, you know, the industry oriented one as well as Podfest. I really like that one. And they kind of serve different, different functions. You know, the podcast movement's more, you know, networks and industry people and Podfest is more like a family, sort of, with indie creators and everything. And I like both. And you know, when I first started going, I'm definitely a planner. I would plan, you know, I'd look at the speaker schedule and say, okay, I'm going to be here this time, here this one, and then Wednesday and then Thursday. And now I don't, I mean, I still attend some of the sessions, but the real value is meeting people and you see people, other podcasters you can collaborate with. And I've found some guests at podcasting conferences, and I think that's the real big takeaway from those things.

Harry Duran

2:56 - 2:59

Have you been able to speak yet on any of the stages about the show?

Scott Johnson

3:00 - 3:17

I have. I've spoken at Podfest. I've never really applied to speak at podcast movement. I don't mind. And I'll probably. Well, I put in to speak at Podfest this coming January, so we'll see. But yeah, it's. I can take it or leave it. I'm not a. I don't get too excited about public speaking, but I'll do it.

Harry Duran

3:17 - 3:27

So we've been in the same circles for a while, and I know we've run into the treat to each other in passing and past conferences. So how far back does podcasting go for you?

Scott Johnson

3:27 - 4:02

I started podcasting in 2012, and that was not the podcast I'm doing now. I had a computer business, and so I would do like a weekly computer tip or trick or something for non techie people. And really it was just designed to get me more computer clients. And so I did probably three or 400 weekly episodes of that. And then I just had to stop because my new show's just taken too much time. And honestly, I'm kind of trying to get away from my. I still have my computer business, but it's kind of fading into the background while my podcasting takes the front seat.

Harry Duran

4:03 - 4:05

Is that what you studied, computers? Is that your background?

Scott Johnson

4:06 - 4:07

No, I'm completely self taught.

Harry Duran

4:07 - 4:08

Okay.

Scott Johnson

4:08 - 4:39

Yeah, I started my computer business when we lived up north in Maine. I walked into a print shop and there was a little note on the counter that said, I need someone to help me learn Microsoft Word. And so I thought, well, I know how to use Microsoft Word. So I contacted that woman. And so I thought after spending a couple of hours with her, I said I could do this as kind of a side gig. And so I started a business that called it the computer tutor. And I started, and it just, you know, that was more than 20 years ago. And so it's been my full time income for quite some time.

Harry Duran

4:40 - 4:45

What's your earliest memory of computers or tech? Do you remember the first one you ever had?

Scott Johnson

4:45 - 4:51

Oh, man. I remember my first computer PC was Windows 95.

Harry Duran

4:51 - 4:52

Oh, yeah. Okay.

Scott Johnson

4:52 - 4:56

Way back then. Yeah, it was amazing. Back then.

Harry Duran

4:56 - 5:33

I got lucky because my dad was into computer repairs, and he brought home one of the first, like, electronic typewriters. Used to work at Exxon when they were doing. They had that division called Quiks QYX, and it was this behemoth of a typewriter that probably weighed 50 to 60 pounds. And it had one little lcd, like, strip that was like the digital screen. And so you would type, you could type out one line of, like, text and then correct it if you needed to. And then you hit return it, go. And it typed the one line. So it was like the first, you know, electronic. And then, um, early days of that tandy 1000, Texas Instruments probably was the.

Scott Johnson

5:33 - 5:36

First one because I had one of those.

Harry Duran

5:36 - 5:38

The cassette recorder was my memory.

Scott Johnson

5:39 - 5:42

Mm hmm. Did you ever have a radio shack TRS 80?

Harry Duran

5:42 - 5:55

I didn't have the TRS 80. I did that. I think I went straight. I had the. Oh, wait, I did. I think I did. Yeah, I think I did have a TRS 80. The timing is a little off because I know there was a Texas instruments. There was a TRS 80. I never got the Commodore 64 I always wanted.

Scott Johnson

5:55 - 5:58

Oh, I was big on the Commodore 64. Yeah, for sure.

Harry Duran

5:58 - 6:00

My friend had one of those that go over his house and play with.

Scott Johnson

6:00 - 6:16

I remember spending hours. You get the monthly Commodore 64 magazine, and it would have pages and pages of code. And in order to run a program, you'd have to type in all that code. And then to save it was a cassette player, and, oh, man, how far we've come.

Harry Duran

6:16 - 6:20

And then the, the floppy disks and then the, and then the modems.

Scott Johnson

6:20 - 6:22

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Harry Duran

6:22 - 6:27

And the 2400 bit modem. And you would get like, a 9600 bit modem was like, super fast.

Scott Johnson

6:27 - 6:30

Oh, yeah. Supersonic speed there.

Harry Duran

6:30 - 6:50

I'm sure I'm bringing back some fond memories for you, especially in the computer, because at that time it's really new tech and obviously new tech now. You think about AI and stuff like that, but back then, like, teaching people to use, like, a computer and just, even, just word or even dos prompt stuff, like, was like, really futuristic stuff at the time. You know, we were in that transitionary phase.

Scott Johnson

6:50 - 6:58

It was amazing back then. I remember on the Commodore 64 getting on local bulletin boards, and that's how we would communicate with people, you know?

Harry Duran

6:58 - 7:02

Yeah. So and so are you Mac or PC now?

Scott Johnson

7:02 - 7:03

I'm all PC.

Harry Duran

7:03 - 7:04

Okay.

Scott Johnson

7:04 - 7:15

Yeah. Yeah. I can stay busy enough doing PC repairs, and I don't really have to do Macs. And I'm not a. Not a huge fan of Macs just because I just always use windows, and it works fine.

Harry Duran

7:15 - 7:24

So what made you start a podcast for the computer? Stuff like, what were you listening to? What was your foray? I'm just always curious how people hear about it for the first time.

Scott Johnson

7:24 - 7:30

Well, I started listening to podcasts just before that, like 2010 or 2011, and.

Harry Duran

7:30 - 7:32

Which wasn't easy to do back then.

Scott Johnson

7:32 - 8:04

Right. Yeah, you download it and you got your mp3 player, you got to transfer over and all that stuff. But I was listening, and, you know, it just occurred to me that I should have a podcast. Anybody can do this. And not that there was a ton of people listening to podcasts at that time, but just, you know, I already put out a weekly newsletter by email, and so I really just took that content that I was already writing and putting together and just verbalized it into a podcast and just started going that way, sort of.

Harry Duran

8:04 - 8:17

And who were you, like, would you get guidance from at that point? Because nowadays we just take it for granted. Just go to YouTube and look up anything you need to back then. So, you know, there's probably some ogs back then and not a lot of people teaching. I think you were just probably following, leading, following by example, I guess.

Scott Johnson

8:17 - 8:31

Yeah. The one that was available back then was Dave Jackson School of podcasting. So, yeah, he said he helped me set up the first podcast, and, you know, that's how it rolled because I had no idea how to do it. But. But he does.

Harry Duran

8:32 - 8:40

Yeah. Total true podcast OG. And it's always good to see him in podcast movement, and he's such a. It's almost like a respected elder statesman at this point.

Scott Johnson

8:42 - 8:44

Like, we need to kiss the ring or something here. Right.

Harry Duran

8:44 - 8:48

It's so great to see that he partnered up with Brendan over at pod page.

Scott Johnson

8:48 - 8:51

Yeah. Yeah. That's a perfect match, I think.

Harry Duran

8:51 - 9:08

Yeah, he loves education. He's an educator. You know, that's his background. He loves teaching. And I'm sure he did some good things at Lipson, but I feels like he's in a sweet spot now and working with podcasters, just getting started, helping start their show. And I think there's now even, like, an ask Dave Corner in the newsletter or something like that for on the website.

Scott Johnson

9:08 - 9:11

Okay. I haven't seen that yet. That's.

Harry Duran

9:12 - 9:20

So when you were finishing up this or you were thinking, like, this computer show was winding down. Talk to me about the origin story for what was that like?

Scott Johnson

9:20 - 10:23

Well, I found myself listening to other podcasts, and I really liked the episodes that I liked the best are where somebody's telling a story, and, I mean, there's such power in that, you know, you can hold people's attention if you know how to tell a story anyway, and especially if it was a true story. And I found that there was no other show doing it, like, at least not the way I would do it. And so I thought, well, I'm already doing a podcast. I know how to do a podcast. I can just start another one. And so that's what it was. And I got really lucky on the. With my guesthouse. The very first episode. It was a woman who accidentally killed someone, and she came on and told that whole story in detail. And I even had, when it was a motorcycle that hit her car when she pulled into an intersection, and she was in the road with him calling 911. And I have that 911 recording and included that. And, yeah, I mean, it was a home run right from episode one, that really caught people's attention.

Harry Duran

10:23 - 10:45

And I'm always curious because we have folks that are been podcasting for a while that might be even thinking about a new show or may just be interested in podcasting and getting ideas for a show themselves. How do you go about, or what was the process for going about thinking of that show topic? And then did you just go on your socials and say, hey, I'm gonna start a show. This is what it's gonna call, and I'm looking for people to tell stories?

Scott Johnson

10:46 - 11:21

Well, I did that. Yes. There was multiple research processes, I think, and one, just practically speaking, is the domain name was available. What was that, like.com. so, you know, that makes it. That's a big advantage right there. But, yeah, I mean, people love hearing these crazy stories, and that's what we do. You know, I talk to people who've been attacked by grizzly bears or in a mass shooting or in a plane crash. I've done a few plane crashes, and we do fun ones, too. You know, I have somebody that goes on the price is right and wins the showcase or, you know, stuff like that. People love hearing the behind the scenes, all the details, you know?

Harry Duran

11:21 - 11:28

Yeah. And so as you started getting momentum, was it you were finding easier and easier for people to just submit stories to you?

Scott Johnson

11:29 - 12:12

When I first started, of course, you don't have an audience when you start. So I made a list of people or stories that I would like to have come on the show, you know, like somebody that got struck by lightning or. I know, I don't know, somebody got stung by yellowjackets and, or whatever, you know, and then I just went online and started looking for those stories and trying to contact people. And, you know, that's when you see a story like that and you really want to talk to someone, it's, you really hope they have an unusual name, you know, because when you go on Facebook and look for John Smith, no, I'm not going to find that person. So, yeah, so I started, I just started contacting people and, and saying, hey, you want to tell your story? Come on the show.

Harry Duran

12:13 - 12:34

So you mentioned it's a bit of a skill to tell a good story. What were you doing? And if anything has maybe changed over the years, like, how do you prep people to tell a good story? You know, are there things that you tell them to do prior to coming on the show? Or maybe some examples you can give them so that otherwise they'll just give you the facts and you've got 15 minutes of the show used up and then like, it's over.

Scott Johnson

12:34 - 14:26

I've had that happen. One of the things that I tell them ahead of time is this has to be a story that going to take 45 minutes to an hour and sometimes longer to tell. And I actually had a guy who was at home with his little boy, feeding him breakfast and a plane crashed into their house, starting it on fire and all that. He told that story in 15 minutes. How do you do that? You know? Yeah, so, but that was one of the early ones. But yeah, now I do a pre chat with every single guest because the people that I talk to don't normally get interviewed. They're not public speakers. They're nervous about coming on. And if we can do a pre chat where, you know, it's just like you and I are sitting here talking, they know exactly what to expect and they're going to be able to see me. And it's just a conversation between two people. And I tell them, you know, this is not live, it's recorded. I'm going to, if you mess up or if you need to take a drink or pause, how to answer a question or something, you know, it all gets edited and you're going to sound wonderful. And I learned something from Tim Ferriss. He said, it's good. I mean, you want people to be vulnerable with you when they're telling their story. So the way you do that is you be vulnerable with them first. So what I usually say is, you know, sometimes I'm going to ask you a question and I'm just going to completely screw it up. So what I do then is I just back up and I say, okay, we're going to ask that question again. And then we go from there. So they know, you know, even if I screw up, it doesn't matter. They're going to screw up. And. But honestly, from a practical standpoint, once people get in, like, that's after the first five or ten minutes of telling this story, it's just you and me and the guest, and they don't even, they're not nervous anymore. So, and I try to make them sound as good as possible in the editing process.

Harry Duran

14:27 - 15:29

So I'm curious, like, how you can create that safe space. Because I've been in situations just by virtue of, like, me having long form conversations with my guests, you know, and every once in a while, they'll mention something, I'll pull that thread, and before you know it, they're revealing something, like, really personal. And I found over the years, it's this idea of being comfortable with silence. Right? You ask an open ended question, and a lot of times this is why I was doing video from day one. Like, I want to see the body language. I want to see the reaction. Because you ask sometimes a tough question, you can see them, like, sort of tense up. Maybe their eyes start to water up a little bit or they were just triggered in a way where they realized, oh, like, then they're trying to figure out, am I going to tell, like, the easy answer or the true answer? And they know in their mind that the true answer is going to take some time and it's going to be challenging and it's going to be emotional. And they're processing that within seconds. Right. You're watching this in their facial reactions, and they're just like. And they're thinking, do I really want to go here? And so I'm curious, you know, as you've seen, these moments evolve, how you've gotten better about, like, managing that energy.

Scott Johnson

15:29 - 16:18

Yes. Oh, I love when that happens. And the advantage that I have now is I've got, like, 190 episodes, so people that I don't have to go contacting people anymore. The audience brings me their stories. Some of them I use, some of them I don't. Most of them I don't. But they have already heard how I handle those vulnerable moments. And so I've had so many of them say, you know, this is going to be a tough thing for me to talk about, but I know how you do it, and I trust you completely. And that it's an incredible honor for me, you know, to bring people these stories. And I've had many guests that are. That have cried, you know, openly while they're telling their story, you know, which is understandable. And that's what makes gripping content.

Harry Duran

16:19 - 16:41

What guidance would you give for a host that's looking to create a show, you know, storytelling show, possibly emotional stories, you know, how have you learned to be better? Maybe a better listener, a better holder of, like, space, you know? And I'm sure you've gotten better at this over the years, but, like, what guidance would you give someone, like, to hone that skillset, man?

Scott Johnson

16:41 - 17:14

I have gotten better at it for sure, because now if I go back and listen to my early episodes, it's like, scott, shut up and let him answer. You know, I just talked too much. So now, yeah, I try to just kind of get out of the way, let them tell the story. I, you know, I. It's not all them. I intervene sometimes with a clarifying question or something like that, but the listeners are there to hear their story, not me. And I don't know where I was going with that, but that's. That's what I really just.

Harry Duran

17:14 - 17:18

You were saying? Just being a better listen, just learning how to be a better listener and just coaxing the story out of them.

Scott Johnson

17:18 - 17:36

Yes. Yes. And just. And silence is fine. There's nothing wrong with silence. If it goes too long, you can always edit it later on. But what I'll do sometimes is depending on how I ask a question or depending on how they answer a question, I'll just edit out my question completely.

Harry Duran

17:36 - 17:36

Oh, yeah.

Scott Johnson

17:37 - 17:45

If it sounds like it's a continuous thought that they're having, and that's, you know, it, again, it makes them sound like a really good storyteller.

Harry Duran

17:45 - 17:46

Yeah.

Scott Johnson

17:46 - 17:48

Because they're just. They're just going, you know.

Harry Duran

17:48 - 18:44

Yeah. We had a previous guest on Natalie Jennings, who's my partner, but she's got a show she originally did called a face project, and she did long form interviews, but she'd do the interview, and then she'd edit herself completely out. So she's a photographer also, so she would take pictures, and she printed some hardcover books of, like, the sessions. But I always thought it was interesting to listen to them because to your point, if it's a. The editing has done really well. The person just sounds like a natural storyteller, and everything is flowing well, and it's just like, oh, they're pulling you through the story and it's making sense and it's in order. When you have a story that's a bit complicated, that has a lot of moving parts, I imagine you're conscious of it maybe from the pre talk that there's certain key elements in the story that you want to make sure are included. You know, have there been situations where you can sense that they're giving you the shortened version and there's other pieces that, you know, maybe in the pre talk they talked about but that they're leaving out and you're trying to find a nice way to, like, pull those back in.

Scott Johnson

18:44 - 19:50

Fortunately, when someone submits a story, they can go to my website and submit their story, and I tell them right on the, on that page that when you're sending the story, the more details you can give me, the better because I use what they send me to create my own show notes are not show notes, but my notes for the conversation. And so I have usually two or three pages of single space notes of their whole story, kind of the way they told it. But also, you know, I want to maybe dig into this thing, like, what were you thinking when that happened? What's going through your mind? You know? And I also tell people it's good to have bullet points in front of you just so that you remember all the details. You know, I've had a couple of guests who, we went through the whole thing, and a couple of days later, they contacted me saying, you know, I forgot to say this one thing. And, you know, I really wanted to say that and can we just do it again? And so we recorded again, and the second time, oh, beautiful. They had their notes. They were ready with all the stuff. So. Yeah, so I learned from that. It's good to have people with, you know, have their notes in front of them.

Harry Duran

19:51 - 19:57

So it'd be obviously with a show titled what was that like with so many stories? I think you said over 190.

Scott Johnson

19:58 - 19:59

Something like that now. Yeah.

Harry Duran

19:59 - 20:17

So do you have, there's got to be some that stand out. And I know it's hard. Every podcaster hates this question, what's your favorite cast or what's your favorite episode? So I've been on the receiving end of those, so I know what that feeling is like. But are there some memorable ones that, you know, sometimes you hear a story and it hits, you know, it hits you and it stays with you for a while.

Scott Johnson

20:18 - 23:11

Oh, man, I've got a few like that. Yeah, the one for a lot of my listeners, they will say, I've listened to every one of your episodes, but there's one episode that some people say, there's just that one I can't listen to. And it's always the same one. And it's a guy who. He and his friends would hang out and talk and just ask crazy questions. And one of the questions that they asked themselves one time is, if you had the opportunity to taste human flesh and it was legal and ethical and maybe even healthy, would you do it? And they said, yeah, sure, I'd try that, knowing it would never happen, of course. Well, sometime after that, that guy had a motorcycle. He was in a motorcycle accident, and he had to have his foot amputated. And when he was leaving the hospital, he said, hey, can I have my foot? And so they had him sign some disclaimers and liability papers and all that, but he took his foot home. Then he started calling his friends, saying, okay, hey, remember that conversation we had? And they were up for it. He had, like, ten friends over. They called it foot tacos. And one of his friends is a chef, so. And he's got pictures of all this, too. You know, they're putting in the peppers and spices and, you know, so each of them got, like, a two inch square, you know, piece of foot. And so that was. That's one. But, I mean, as far as stories that really, really. I mean, I've had so many that people say, man, I heard that, and I am never going to forget that story. There was one with a guest named Courtney, and her mom had terminal cancer. And this was in Canada. And in Canada, they have a thing called maid. M a I d. Medical assistance in death. And so her mom knew she was going to die, and she wanted to do that on her own terms. And she told that whole story. And, yeah, you'll be crying when you hear that one. And Courtney was crying, too. But, yeah, I've got so many like that. I mean, these are stories that. Of people that have experienced something really traumatic. And in a lot of cases, when they tell that story in detail, they're reliving that day. And, yeah, sometimes the worst day of their life. And that's why I just. I can't say how grateful I am to these people who are willing to do this. And the reason a lot of them are willing to is because they now have a cause. They want to promote something, promote awareness of something so that what happened to them doesn't happen to other people. And so that's when we talk about that at the end. So even though we're all crying, you know, we kind of end on a positive note many times do you have.

Harry Duran

23:11 - 23:23

Some guests that end up making that almost like their life's work or their mission because of what happened to them, that it was so impactful that they've gone on to, like, start a charity or build an organization that supports that cause?

Scott Johnson

23:23 - 24:17

I. Yeah, yeah, I sure have several of them. There's a friend of mine named Laura. She was, I think, episode 151, and she and her husband had a little child, a year and a half old. Her husband's name was Aaron. Her son's name was Anderson. Laura worked from home. Aaron worked in an office. And so he took Andersen one day. Their schedule was off. And anyway, he was taking Andersen to drop him off at daycare and then go on to work. And Laura didn't hear from the daycare to say, okay, how's the baby doing? So she called daycare and they said he didn't show up today. And that's when she called Aaron. And Aaron went out to his car and realized that he had left the baby in the car. And Anderson did not survive. And so the rest of that story is that Aaron couldn't live with that. He took his own life the same day.

Harry Duran

24:18 - 24:18

God.

Scott Johnson

24:19 - 25:07

Yeah. And so, yeah, Laura lost her husband and her son without any warning on the same day. Well, that was more than, more than two years ago. And now she started a nonprofit called Anderson's alert. And she works with an organization called kids and cars, and they promote car safety. And she's really working on getting laws changed as far as backseat technology, you know, so people can't just forget, you know, because it's easy to do. It can happen to anyone. And they were the best parents in the world. Laura's a good friend of mine now since we've done this episode. And so I know her very well, and she was the best mom. And so it can happen to anybody. But that's. Yeah, that's her mission now. She's looking to change things.

Harry Duran

25:07 - 25:21

I mean, you sort of alluded to it a little bit there, but how has the show changed you personally? Like, you know, you hear 190 of these stories. I'm wondering how it's affected you in your day to day life or into your interactions with your own family.

Scott Johnson

25:22 - 25:51

It's made me think none of us should judge anyone because we don't know. We don't have any idea what they've been through. So many people have been through trauma, and, you know, you're just walking by somebody and, you know, maybe they, you're in a car and they cut you off in traffic or you're, they, you know, they do something in a store, ticks you off or whatever. I've really worked hard on giving people the benefit of the doubt, you know, and stuff like that.

Harry Duran

25:51 - 26:14

So as the show has gotten popular, you alluded to it, taking it more of your time. Now, I saw that you now have patrons for the show, so talk a little bit about the, you know, logistically kind of peak behind the curtain, like how the show has been for you from a production schedule. And when you started to think that this is actually going to be something that might end up being more of a full time job for you, I.

Scott Johnson

26:14 - 27:23

Had that thought in the back of my mind right when I started it, just because I know the power of a story. And with stories like this, I don't, I didn't see any way it could not be a big show. And so, but, you know, you start with no audience, and obviously, if you're going to get sponsors, you got to have an audience. And so I went the first three years before I even started thinking about having any sponsors on because I wanted the audience to be big enough that it would be worthwhile, you know, I don't want to play an ad and annoy everyone with an ad and make $50 from it or something, you know. So that's when I did start Patreon, earlier than that. But that wasn't, I didn't even withdraw the Patreon money for, you know, until it got up to where it was substantial. It just sat there. But, yeah, after three years, I joined and worked with an ad agency and they started looking for sponsors. And now I'm with Glassbox Media. I've been with them almost two years. Super happy with them. If you've got a. If you've got a decent sized show and you're looking to monetize it, I would highly recommend it.

Harry Duran

27:23 - 27:26

So how, what aspects of the show does Glassbox help with?

Scott Johnson

27:27 - 27:28

They find the sponsors.

Harry Duran

27:28 - 27:29

Okay.

Scott Johnson

27:29 - 27:35

And they handle all of that. And, you know, with the. As far as collecting the money and everything. And they take a percentage, of course.

Harry Duran

27:35 - 27:36

Yeah, of course. Yeah.

Scott Johnson

27:36 - 28:07

And they have set me up on Apple podcast subscriptions. So I had been planning to do that anyway. But, you know, Apple has all these hoops you got to jump through. And I just, I said, okay, I'll do that sometime. Just not. So when I went with classbox, I said, okay, let's get that set up. And it's done and the same thing with supporting cast. So for people that use Android, and I still have my Patreon as well. So, you know, multiple sources of income and they also bring in dynamic programmatic ads as well.

Harry Duran

28:08 - 28:21

And have you developed, you mentioned obviously you've building some relationships up with the guests on the show, the listeners. You said you've got people that have been listening to a majority of the back catalog. Have you started to develop a community around the listeners as well?

Scott Johnson

28:21 - 29:04

Oh, I sure have. And I know all of my listeners. See, my audience is probably 75% women, roughly between the ages of 25 and 30 or up, you know, up to like 50, 60. And they are on Facebook. So that's where our community is. We've got a podcast listener, Facebook group of about 8000 people. So. And I've enjoyed interacting with them there. Not just, you know, hanging out and chatting with them, but it's also a great sounding board. You know, if I think a story might be interesting, well, I don't want to do it if it's just, I think that's interesting. I want to find out, you know, do you guys want to hear this? So I'll do a poll and, you know, if it's more than 90% yes, then yeah, we'll bring that guest on.

Harry Duran

29:04 - 29:09

Have you ever had the tables turned on you for you to share your. What was like that story?

Scott Johnson

29:10 - 29:22

I don't actually have a story like that. That not, that would qualify for the show anyway. You know, I usually tell people you really don't want to have something happen to you that qualifies you to be a guest on my show.

Harry Duran

29:22 - 29:28

That's true. Well, there's a couple of fun ones and, you know, have you had any lottery winners that blew it all?

Scott Johnson

29:28 - 30:00

No, I've, I'm looking for a lottery winner, actually, there's some lottery winners that will do. Ama's on Reddit and so I've contacted a few of them. One of them said, why would I want to come on a show? People are just going to be contacting me for money and, you know, but they can be anonymous. I have to verify, I verify each story, but they can still be anonymous, so nobody really knows who they are. But I, I do want to do a lottery winner, but I want it to be multi millions that they've won and be at least a year or two after they get the money because, you know, how did they handle it? And are they broke again like a lot of people are?

Harry Duran

30:00 - 30:26

I think the majority of them are because the people that play the lotto are people who usually like, you know, really desperate for the money, and they're not in the best financial situation and probably not in the best, you know, living situation. And you can just see all the family and friends coming out of the woodwork and them trying to be super generous. And, like, I think it's a high number. 70, 80% of those people, like, they've usually blown it all within length. Five years, which is crazy.

Scott Johnson

30:26 - 30:27

It's bad. Yeah.

Harry Duran

30:28 - 30:33

But do you find that yourself when you're amongst friends or with family, that you're now a better storyteller?

Scott Johnson

30:34 - 30:59

I think so, yeah. I mean, I try to avoid crutch words, and I'm okay with pauses while I think how to say something. And I try to kind of structure the story. If I'm telling a story, you know, you want to have it, there's a way to do it. And, yeah, I think I'm better at it, but honestly, with this show, I'm not really telling the story, I'm just facilitating.

Harry Duran

31:00 - 32:23

But what's fascinating, what I've learned, is, because I've had friends in my life, and I've come across people that you hear them speak or you see them in a public setting, and they are masterful storytellers. Like, everyone is like, whether it's a campfire or just, you're in a backyard barbecue, everyone is glued to them, like, and they're just, like, you know, hanging on every word, and. But then you start to unpack, like, what they're doing. And to your point, like, when it's done well, because you could tell the facts about what happened. I went there, hit my car, got out, the mds came, and. But if you set up, like, the context of, like, it was a really tough day for me. This was happening mindset where I was, what the temperature was, it was sunny outside. You're painting this picture, right, you know, and it's, again, the storytelling, the theater of the mind stuff, especially now, yours is just audio, so that's probably even more people thinking, you know, it happens when you read a good book. I read a good Stephen King book, and I wake up the next day, and I think about the characters. In a way. I'm like, oh, no, that was the book. I'm thinking about these characters whose lives were painted so vividly for me. And so with good storytelling, it's all the pieces and all the things that are on the periphery that most people just disregard. But when you tell them, you realize, like, oh, that was important. And that was important. And you made a left there because of, like, some other thing that happened. And it's this start to think about all these sliding doors moments in your life, right? You make these minute decisions, and before you know it, you end up with the stories that end up on your show.

Scott Johnson

32:23 - 33:08

And sometimes the details that you tell in the beginning may not seem relevant, but then, you know, later on, you call back to that and you realize, oh, that's, I needed to know that, you know, so I had someone send in a story. I end each episode with what I call a listener story. It's just a five to ten minute story that a listener sends in, and we just play the audio of it and I put it right at the end because people love that and it keeps them listening all the way to the end. So. But I just had someone send in a story and she recorded it and said, okay, I'm gonna. This is the story of when my husband wrecked his motorcycle and went to the hospital and he broke this particular bone. And then a month later, I wrecked the motorcycle and I broke the same bone and we saw the same doctor. And then she starts telling the story. Well, she's already told the story.

Harry Duran

33:08 - 33:11

You know, that's the story. There's not much else to tell. Right.

Scott Johnson

33:11 - 33:22

Why do people need to keep listening? So I told her that. I said, you know, you could say there were a lot of coincidences and then just go into telling the story and then kind of sum it up at the end. You know, there's just a way of doing it.

Harry Duran

33:22 - 33:35

Yeah. Because you have to have, like a cliffhanger or an open loop or something for people to listen through to the, that's, there's an art to that as well. Right. Because if you give it all the way at the beginning, they're like, okay, thanks for that. 32nd story.

Scott Johnson

33:35 - 34:05

Right. That's what, you know, I hear people playing interview clips at the very opening of an episode, and there's a real art to that. You can't go too long because, I mean, people would assume, okay, what I'm hearing is this, like, this 1 minute clip of the best part of the episode, of the conversation. So I've already heard it. I can, you know, I've got ten episodes waiting for me. I can skip this one. So you just gotta, it's gotta be the right level of tease versus advanced information.

Harry Duran

34:05 - 34:08

Have you given any thought to live performances?

Scott Johnson

34:09 - 34:45

I have thought about it, but I just don't think, I don't even do video because my guests do not want to be, they're nervous enough being on audio. And if, you know, if they were on video now, they're worried about how they look. And is their room behind them messy? As you can see behind me, I don't care because nobody sees that anyway. But, yeah, I'd be open to a live performance, but I, you know, when somebody's up on stage talking about, you know, I don't know, when they got attacked by, or bitten by a rattlesnake or something, it's. Trauma is not necessarily good live entertainment.

Harry Duran

34:45 - 34:48

No. It probably. They'd have to be happy ending stories, I think.

Scott Johnson

34:48 - 34:49

Yes. Yes.

Harry Duran

34:50 - 34:59

And so how do you think about the future of the show? And do you, you know, where are there opportunities for you to grow or for it to get more visibility? Is it just bigger guests with bigger stories?

Scott Johnson

35:00 - 35:06

Yeah, I'm always looking for new stories. Matter of fact, let me. I'll pull up my list here. There's a few that I'm looking for.

Harry Duran

35:06 - 35:07

Put the call out now on the show.

Scott Johnson

35:09 - 35:23

Yeah, I'm looking, actually, since the beginning of the show, I've been looking for someone who has survived falling off a cruise ship while it was underway. That would be a good one. A passenger on a train that went over a cliff. Let's see.

Harry Duran

35:23 - 35:24

Is that a thing?

Scott Johnson

35:25 - 35:33

Someone who's not an airplane pilot but was on a flight where the pilot had a problem and you had to land the plane? That happens every once in a while.

Harry Duran

35:34 - 35:37

That plane that went into the Hudson River, Scully.

Scott Johnson

35:37 - 35:38

Yeah.

Harry Duran

35:38 - 35:55

I worked at one of my last jobs in nine to five, was within an agency, and one of the reps there was on that plane, and he was on the plane. He was talking about how he was, like, he had his shoes off and he was all relaxed. And then, like, you know, if you see the video footage of it, like, everyone had to get out and he had to get on a wing on the plane.

Scott Johnson

35:55 - 35:57

Right. They're standing on the wing while it's floating. Yeah.

Harry Duran

35:57 - 35:59

Have you ever spoken to anyone from that flight?

Scott Johnson

35:59 - 36:01

No, but if you can connect me.

Harry Duran

36:01 - 36:21

With that person, I got to dig into that. Yeah. Because I'm sure he could tell that firsthand experience of what it was like to. I've never, you know, everyone's been through turbulence, but to feel like, is this going to plane gonna make it? And then you're, like, flying through the canyons of New York City, like, as this plane is trying to touch down into the Hudson River, I can only imagine what goes through people's minds at that point.

Scott Johnson

36:21 - 36:57

There is a guy that was on that plane, he was the last one off. And he has turned that experience into, I mean, he's a full time keynote speaker. He's written a book and. But honestly, I'd rather hear from the average guy and just tell me what happened. You know, I tell people ahead of time for people that, I mean, several of my guests have written a book, but I tell them ahead of time, you know, I don't want you to tell the story like this happened. And then I learned these three things from that, you know, and it just sounds like a pre, like the same speech they give everywhere, you know? Yeah. So, but yeah, your guy that you talked about that might, he might be a good guest?

Harry Duran

36:57 - 37:14

Yeah, he might be good. So I'm curious, when you go to these conferences, is it more to just engage with just fellow podcasters? Are you looking for ideas that you can do? Like where are there tweaks, you think, in your show or in the process where you could maybe improve any aspect of it?

Scott Johnson

37:15 - 38:22

I would love to just streamline the process itself. I edit the show myself and I don't think I could outsource that editing only because I know kind of the mindset that the guest was in and I know how I want it to sound overall at the end, the whole story. And an editor, yeah, they can take stuff out, they can move stuff around and everything, but they're not really going to have necessarily the same vision that I have for it. I think what I'm planning to do, though, is hire an editor to just do a first pass and take out the ums and, you knows, and, you know, clean it up some just to save me some time when I do the actual editing. But when I go to conferences, I'm just going there to meet people. You know, I do promo trades with other shows, especially true crime shows. My show is not necessarily true crime. Some episodes are, but everybody in my audience loves true crime. So yeah, we do promo trades, full episode swaps, looking for guests or like when we met, I'm looking to guest on other shows, too.

Harry Duran

38:22 - 39:04

So I mean, I always remind podcasters that are just getting started, like just to use every single aspect. And I think one of my points in my talk was this idea of guerrilla marketing. Like, you have to do these things that don't own scale. And I remember when I would go to conferences that were podcast conferences, I would sit next to the aisle seat where the microphone was because, you know, back in the day, they put the microphone out and getting ready for like the q and a part, right. And so I said, this is where the mic is. I'm going to sit next to it. And then when they say, q and a is ready, I would start heading up to the mic, and half the time I wouldn't even know what I was going to say. It was like, I'm just going to. I was pushing myself out of my comfort zone. It was so uncomfortable. But I, you know, we talk about being in uncomfortable situations.

Scott Johnson

39:04 - 39:05

That's amazing.

Harry Duran

39:05 - 39:10

Everyone hates speaking in public, and I, thankfully, I took some classes, so I got a little better. And then.

Scott Johnson

39:10 - 39:13

But if you're walking to the mic, you got no choice. You got to think something.

Harry Duran

39:13 - 39:43

But the first thing I would say is like, hey, Harry Duran, host of podcast junkies. Like, I would just. And then everyone's listening, right? And then there's like, oh. Like, oh, hey, Harry. Because they wouldn't know because I don't have, you know, a lot of my photos on the shows. But it's just like, again, it's to your point of going out, meeting people in person, and sometimes you have to do this thing. And I'm curious, when you think about the work you've done to promote the episodes, you know, putting on your marketing hat for a while, like, what do you do now? And are there aspects of it that you could, you know, enhance there?

Scott Johnson

39:43 - 41:10

I have. Ever since I started the show, I've kept track of every marketing strategy that I've tried, and I'm going to write a book about it. I've got, I'm up to, like, 140 different tactics now. And it's not everybody's thinking, I just need this big break. I need for Joe Rogan to mention my show or have it written up in the New York Times or something like that. That's just not how it happens. Those things are great if they do happen. But what you do, instead of getting one big thing, you have to try out 100 little things, and they each bring in a few listeners each time, and you just keep doing that. That's what I've been doing for six years. I've got a checklist. Every time a new episode comes out of, you know, I post it on Facebook. I posted in about 60 different Facebook groups. I don't do that. I have somebody that does that for me now. But it's on Instagram. It's on Reddit. I have my own subreddit for, you know, on Reddit for the show. And, you know, and of course, if it's a true crime episode, then I'll post it in the true crime groups as well. But yeah, you gotta like what you said, you got to think outside the box to get your name out there in front of people. There was a, here in my little town, I live in Safety Harbor, Florida. It's population about 18,000 and it's right in the Tampa Bay area. And, you know, the city commission has a meeting every month and anybody can go and anybody gets three minutes to speak. Well, guess what I talk about.

Harry Duran

41:12 - 41:13

What's your three minute pitch there?

Scott Johnson

41:14 - 41:44

Well, it's basically, I just say, look, I've got a podcast. It's made right here in the little town of Safety harbor, and it goes to, you know, 160 countries worldwide, and I've got over 12 million downloads now. And so I just say, look, it's a show that I talk to people who've been through something really unusual, like a plane crash or an animal attack or, you know, something like that, and they just come on the show and tell what happened. And I give the website, and, you know, it's more detailed than that because it, because you get three minutes, you might as well take the whole three minutes, right.

Harry Duran

41:44 - 42:26

I love this idea of, like, it not being like one. There's no silver bullet. I keep saying this all the time. There's not. Everyone wants to. What's the one thing that's going to get me? Thousands. And obviously you can take the dirty route and the people who buy the clicks and the listens and like the three second listens, and obviously, like, they trick their sponsors into thinking because they'll show up on your podcast host as listens too. That's the sad part. And then I tried one just, I was testing out stuff and I got like thousands of downloads, downloads in quotes for those who were watching. And I was like, well, I could gamify this and just keep doing this and then keep showing sponsors this number and they're like, okay, you have the downloads. And I'm like, it just felt so icky. I was like, I don't, I can't do that. Like, you know, I'd rather just slow and steady, you know, always feels like.

Scott Johnson

42:26 - 42:39

It wins the race and the sponsor would compare your show with that number of downloads with another show who has legitimate, the same number of downloads. And why is that other show converting so much better? You know, it, it hurts you in the long run. So, yeah, no shortcuts.

Harry Duran

42:39 - 42:47

So given that there's no silver bullets, what are the things that you see, you know, tend to move the needle more when it comes to promotions?

Scott Johnson

42:47 - 43:56

Yeah, I would say definitely promo swaps. So you create a 30 or 62nd trailer or promo for your show and you find another show that has a similar audience and maybe roughly the similar size audience and then say, hey, why don't we just do an ad on each other's show and it helps both. And I've also done probably the thing that made the biggest difference for me. This was, let's see, this was back in, I think it was in 2020, 1st time I did a full episode swap. And you've got to really be careful about that because now you're giving your audience a show that they didn't sign up for. So you got to know for sure it's something that they would want to listen to. And so around that time I was getting, I think maybe like 1500 or 2000 downloads a day and after that swap a couple days later, it doesn't happen immediately, but like two or three days later it went to like 4000 a day and then it went after that to 6000 a day. And that other episode is still live, so. And it's live in my, his episodes live in my show too. So we're still getting new listeners from that, you know, from four years ago, so.

Harry Duran

43:56 - 43:59

And he just basically ran a version of his episode on your show.

Scott Johnson

43:59 - 44:28

Exactly. And I did the same thing on his. And it was, the beautiful thing was, you know, the audience trusts the host. And the way he introduced my show is he said, you know, I get listeners all the time asking me what's another show? His show is called this is actually happening and it's very similar stories. And so he says, I get people asking me what's another show just like this one because I've already listened to all of your episodes, now I've got a show I can tell you about.

Harry Duran

44:28 - 44:29

Oh, that's awesome.

Scott Johnson

44:29 - 44:31

And man, it just, that was a big thing.

Harry Duran

44:32 - 45:14

I did a swap with someone and I feel bad because I forgot his name, but he was, we swapped host roles, so he hosted my show. So when people came on, they heard, hey, you know, and he was the host of my show for that episode and I was the host of his show and he ran on his. It was kind of a similar thing. So it was kind of. But it's your point, I think what, it's just a reminder to everyone that's watching and listening just to experiment, like to try things. You're the producer of the show, like you literally can do anything you want. You can, it's your show, it's your stage, and you can try silly things, fun things, crazy things. And if they don't work, they don't work. But you don't know. And I'm sure that you're finding out with all these notes that you're taking for this book that you're going to publish. Like, you know, you just, sometimes there's things that have been big flops.

Scott Johnson

45:14 - 45:17

Oh, I've had some big flops, but you don't know until you do it.

Harry Duran

45:17 - 45:55

So it's worth it, and it's key to have it. Sounds like you have a process around what happens when an episode goes live, which I think is important. SOme of the stuff we talk ABout with, I own a podcast agency and we've got sops. And so, you know, when client shows comes out, you know, we, there's a certain number of things that we do. And even with my show, my show is like the crash test dummy. So I'm just like, okay, let's Test this. And we test this. And I'm always testing new things out, but it's, I think tHere's no shortage of like, Little way LittLE things you can do. And I think when you find the things that work, I think it sounds like you have a process in place. Like you go to those 40, 50 groups and the Reddit groups and everything. And, and so I imagine there's like a checklist of stuff.

Scott Johnson

45:55 - 46:03

Oh, I live by checklists. Absolutely. Yeah. It's not a paper checklist. I've got it in my, an app called notion.

Harry Duran

46:03 - 46:04

Yeah, notion. I love notion.

Scott Johnson

46:04 - 47:04

Yeah. So, yeah, I've got it all in there. And so anytime new episode comes out, I just go down the list and it's already, I already have the links, so I can just copy and paste. And, you know, the 60 or so Facebook groups that I post in, those are all designed specifically for promoting podcasts. So really they're full of, they're all, they're full, they're full of people promoting podcasts. That's all it is. But I still get listeners from it. But the other thing is there's a local Facebook group probably in every city just talking about what's going on locally. You know, that's like, here locally, there's a thing called a group called Palm Harbor Happenings. It's a city that's near here, and they've got like 25,000 people in there. And on Mondays, businesses can post. So it's on my calendar every Monday. That's, you know, whatever. If I had an episode the previous Friday, Monday morning, it's posted in there and I was out riding my bike one time, and I had somebody wave and say, hey, I'm listening to your podcast right now. And that's how local people find out about it.

Harry Duran

47:05 - 47:24

That's such a great point. And I think it's really just having a discipline and a checklist and, like, okay, we're gonna go. And just. It takes time. I mean, I can't imagine it's not a small task to have the time, you know, probably sounds like hours of, you know, work just to kind of get through all and post it and be consistent and doing it repeatedly over, you know, episode.

Scott Johnson

47:24 - 47:33

But that's what it takes. It's, to me, it's a non negotiable. If I have a new episode coming out, this is a list of stuff I got to do, and it's just, you know, I just have to get it done that day.

Harry Duran

47:33 - 47:41

Awesome. So a couple of questions as we wrap up that we ask every guest. The first one is, what's something that you've changed your mind about recently?

Scott Johnson

47:42 - 48:49

I had to think about this one, but I do have one. I tend to really like creativity, and the reverse of that is for people that just, you know, copied what other people are doing. It's, I don't know, it's just kind of a pet peeve of mine. And so I would be out in, you know, doing whatever, out in traffic or, you know, parking my car, whatever, and I would see a jeep in the parking lot, and it would have all these little rubber duckies along the dashboard. And I kept seeing that over and over, and I thought, what is it with jeep people that they just have to be like everybody else, having all these little rubber duckies lined up? And then. Then I looked it up. You know what it actually is? And it's actually, there's nothing bad about it. It's called jeep ducking. And people give each other these rubber duckies when they're admiring their jeep. And so the more you have, that's, the more people have done an act of kindness. They're appreciating. So, yeah, so that's. I just, you know, I jumped to a conclusion as to what that meant, and obviously I was wrong, so I changed my mind.

Harry Duran

48:49 - 48:57

Yeah, I've noticed that, too. And when you figure out what it's for, I just be curious about, like, how that started those, like, those things like, that start, like, who was the first person to do that?

Scott Johnson

48:58 - 49:00

Right, right. Yeah, it would be interesting.

Harry Duran

49:00 - 49:03

What is the most misunderstood thing about you?

Scott Johnson

49:03 - 49:49

The most misunderstood thing is not necessarily about me specifically, but part of a group that I identify with, and I'm a vegan. And a lot of times you say vegan or veganism, and you picture the PETA group and they're throwing fake blood on somebody with a fur coat or something, or just someone just yammering on and on and on about, don't eat meat. Most vegans that I know aren't like that. I mean, of course there's exceptions to everything, but I, but for the most part, whatever you want to eat, you eat. I'm going to do the same thing, and we're all happy. So, you know, I think vegans in general are kind of get a bad rap. Yeah, yeah.

Harry Duran

49:49 - 49:49

Of course.

Scott Johnson

49:49 - 49:55

There's people listening to this right now saying, oh, no way. I know some are constantly preaching at me, you know, but, and if you're.

Harry Duran

49:55 - 49:58

A vegan and if you got a really interesting story, that'd make for a.

Scott Johnson

49:58 - 50:01

Good conversation on the, oh, man, I've had. Yeah, yeah.

Harry Duran

50:02 - 50:03

The vegan could tell you the first.

Scott Johnson

50:03 - 50:08

Time they ate meat or mistakenly ate meat. Yeah, yeah.

Harry Duran

50:08 - 50:50

Would you be interested in eating the cellular, like, the fish that they're growing from cells? Is that considered, like, you know, because they're now going into, in a lab, they're taking the cells of the protein, whatever they're doing, and they're essentially, like, doing it in a way where they can. It's cultured seafood, but it's grown, but it's made from the cells and the proteins of a actual fish. So it's not like some Frankenstein thing. And then when they give it to, like, these chefs, like, sushi chefs. Now, I've been trying this, like, sushi grade tuna that's been cultured and grown in a lab, and they really cannot tell the difference. So it's not over farming. It's not farming. It's not fishing at all, which I think it's interesting.

Scott Johnson

50:50 - 50:52

So does the fish have to die for them?

Harry Duran

50:52 - 51:24

There's no, no, it's grown from a cell, like, in a dish and so over, and they basically give it life enough, like, whatever nutrients it needs, so that it. And you essentially end up with, like, the protein part of a fish. It was never an actual fish swimming in the ocean. Look it up. I mean, it's interesting because, and they're doing it now with, like, meat too. Like, cultured meat. And I think, in a way, it's solving some of the challenges of, like, you know, food production and factory farming, which is, like, very horrible stuff and.

Scott Johnson

51:24 - 51:25

A lot of bad stuff in that.

Harry Duran

51:25 - 52:03

Yeah, I've grown. I've had more of an awareness of like, you know, taking a look at where my food comes from now that I'm in Minnesota. My partner's family, you know, her dad was a hunter. And there's something about, like, goes fishing and, like, getting the direct contact and having respect and honor for the animal and, like, hunting something that you hunted yourself and you have to like, dress it yourself and going through that entire experience and then, like, there's something different. Having lived in New York City and La, like, you're so disconnected from your food source. So it's never like a black and white discussion, but it's always been interesting to kind of have seen how my views have changed in some of that stuff over the years.

Scott Johnson

52:03 - 52:06

It is an interesting discussion, definitely. Yeah.

Harry Duran

52:06 - 52:15

Well, I appreciate you coming to my talk number one. Thank you so much. It's always nerve wracking to see you don't want to show up and, like, there's no one in the audience there.

Scott Johnson

52:16 - 52:33

Well, honestly, Harry, I mean, come on, you've been around a long time. People know who you are and they're going to want to come and listen to what you, you say as they did. And I have friends that were in that talk, too. And they said, yeah, actually, one of them told me today. They just got an email from you today saying, hey, thanks for coming. Here's the slide deck, or, you know, whatever. Her name's Kiona.

Harry Duran

52:33 - 52:35

Oh, Kiona. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Scott Johnson

52:35 - 52:49

She has a shot. I'll give her a little plug here. She's got a show called birth as we know it where she has people come on and tell their story of giving birth. And it's a wonderful storytelling podcast. I subscribe to it and she's really good at that, too.

Harry Duran

52:49 - 53:37

Yeah, there's a whole subgenre of, like, not necessarily true crime, but like, actual storytelling podcasts, which I'm sure you've probably dialed into all of them. So. Yeah. Well, thanks so much. And it's, I'm always, I go to podcast move and I go to these conferences to connect with folks, and I always come back with, like, people that I want to have on the show. And a lot of times it's just friends. I'm like, like they say, dave, we haven't talked in a while and it's hard to catch up at a conference because there's so much things going on, you think you're going to have a catch up. And so I've got three or four chats coming up on the show from people that were just like friends that I just like. We kind of talk at the conference, but it's usually in a bar and it's very noisy and you get like ten or 15 minutes. But I'm like, let's. I want to focus an hour of my attention on you and tell your story. And that's why I just feel like I'll never give up the platform because it's just I can have on, you know, and have these types of conversations whenever I feel like.

Scott Johnson

53:37 - 53:41

Right. Yeah. There's no other environment where we can do this, really. You know, it's.

Harry Duran

53:41 - 53:45

No, if we had tried to do this at the show, it would have been like a five minute conversation.

Scott Johnson

53:45 - 53:48

Right, right. And you don't go into any depth at all there?

Harry Duran

53:48 - 54:08

No, we don't have our nice mics and our environment. So I really appreciate you, again, you know, coming up and just giving us this opportunity to have this chat, because I learned a lot about, like, what you're doing, and I think it's going to be fascinating for folks to hear all the different flavors of podcasting, but, like, you've definitely got some interesting stories to share from your show. So thanks, Scott.

Scott Johnson

54:08 - 54:15

My pleasure. I appreciate you having me on. And if you ever have anything really unusual happen to you, I want to hear about it.

Harry Duran

54:15 - 54:24

Yeah, I'm not sure if I would want that to happen, but if it's the lottery, if I become a millionaire in the next twelve months, I'll let you know what that's like.

Scott Johnson

54:24 - 54:25

Yeah, sounds good.

Harry Duran

54:25 - 54:27

All right, where's the best place to.

Scott Johnson

54:27 - 54:37

Send folks to learn more these shows on all of the Apple platforms or Spotify or any podcast app, or they can get all the information right at. What was that? Like.com?

Harry Duran

54:37 - 54:40

Okay, I'm left all the links in the show notes as well. Thanks again, Scott.

Scott Johnson

54:40 - 54:41

Cool, thank you.