Module 3 Week 2

Module 3, Week 2

It has become obvious to me throughout my progression of the course that my venture needs a business team. With this blog post, I’ve decided to look at who I currently have in my business team. In addition, I will discuss who else I would like to add to my team to make it a “perfect” team.

For this podcast venture, I will need a three or four partners.  Specifically, the partners I pick will need to share my vision and determination of promoting small “independent” comic books as well as writers of fiction who are looking for a different way of getting their work out into the world through an oral format. The three partners that I have already chosen fit the criteria nicely.

My Partners:

Scott and April: Owners of “A Hero’s Legacy”: Without the “Independent Rack” section of their store, I would not be able to have easy access to the kinds of comics I want to discuss on the podcast. In addition, to sharing my vision and determination of introducing readers to books not published by DC or Marvel, they inspire me to broaden my horizons as a comic book reader in regards to the kinds of stories I read, the characters and fictional worlds they interact in.

Stacey: Much like Scott and April, Stacey’s creative writing skills and the story she has produced through those skills has inspired me to broaden my horizons as a reader of fiction in general through the story she has written. Plus, her confidence in her skills as a writer to put her story in a public forum where people can listen to it and critique it; (like my podcast) provides another source of inspiration for me to take my thoughts about the comics I am reading and share them with my listeners as opposed to keeping them to myself or sharing only with close friends.

If I had my way and could make a “perfect” team, one other person I’d bring into the fold is Aubrey Sitterson. His sword and sorcery serial I listen to called “Skald” was the main inspiration for why I decided to have this podcast focus on oral storytelling in addition to comic books. Speaking of comic books, Aubrey is a published comic book writer. His most recent work for IDW publishing; “Street Fighter Vs G.I. Joe” is a series I read regularly and enjoy very much. His knowledge of working in the comic industry would make a great interview topic for a future episode of my podcast if I could get him on. It would help listeners who are creative writers with getting advice about crafting characters/worlds, how to keep the story arc flowing smoothly, ways of getting their work more visibility and published.

http://skald.podomatic.com/ (This link takes you to the “Skald” podcast I mentioned. Here, listeners can jump right into the latest installment, or go back and listen to previous episodes. It will hopefully give my fellow classmates some things to comment on as to what to do, and what not to do in trying to make an enjoyable audio experience that they would listen to weekly.)

Module 3 Week 1

Module 3; Week 1

I decided to write this blog post about a podcast I listened to called “Startup School Radio”. The episode I listened to was an interview with Weebly founder David Rusenko. Below are my three takeaways from this podcast: 

Two of the hardest problems an entrepreneur faces are building a team and product market fit.

This is a challenge that I can relate to during my progression of this course, specifically, when it came to building my team. It was not difficult to find comic book readers/fans to bring onto the team to have as guests/co-hosts, what was difficult are finding comic book readers who read stuff outside of DC and Marvel. I spoke with lots of great people who are comic book fans only to find out that they only read stuff from DC and/or Marvel. As a result, I did not bring them onto my team because reading/discussing non-mainstream comics is what I will do to stand out from the other comic book podcasts that already discuss DC and Marvel comics. Another issue I faced when talking with these individuals was that some were only a fan of one company or the other; (If they were a DC fan, they only read DC Comics. If they were a Marvel fan, they only read Marvel comics.) This mindset of “brand loyalty” in comics is something I have never agreed with. I the reason why I disagree with this mindset is it limits a reader’s horizons since they are only reading stuff from one company and never giving any other comics/comic publishers a chance. This prevents the reader from discovering new characters/teams to invest in emotionally and new storylines to follow. My conversations with these individuals also followed a similar pattern when I asked how they got into comics. The majority of people I spoke to had begun reading comics only after watching certain comic book based movies. An example of this is an individual who began reading Batman comic books, but only after watching the “Dark Knight Trilogy” (“Batman Begins”, “The Dark Knight” and “The Dark Knight Rises”) or, someone reading comics about the “X-Men” or “the Avengers”, but only after seeing movies based off these characters. 

While getting feedback on your product is critical to making sure you are solving the customer’s problems, if you let customer feedback dictate every move you make in developing your product/service, you’ll stray from your original vision and the end product may not be something you and your target customer like.

I found this surprising. The reason why I say this is that I have always heard the old tag line; “The customer is always right.” As a provider of a product, (a podcast) I need to “listen to the audience” and adjust my product according to what the listeners are telling me after hearing my podcast. However, this interview has taught me that I should know what the podcast is going into the launch so that I stay true to my original vision and try not to let every bit of feedback affect the podcast. This is why I think working on the business model canvas as much as I did was necessary. The canvas helped me layout/organize my vision for what the podcast will be going into the launch on “Free Comic Book Day” and I can take feedback from listeners and see if it helps improve any of the blocks on my canvas. What I also fond surprising is David’s comment about only needing feedback from 3 to 5 people. An example for my venture would be to get 3 to 5 people to listen to an episode of my podcast on “Free Comic Book Day” and get feedback from their comments but also their facial expressions when they listen to the show. Is the listener smiling/laughing because they are enjoying the content? Are they expressing a more focused expression because they are having a difficult time hearing what my co-host(s) and I are saying indicating issues with sound quality? 

Contrary to what many people think, people actually want to pay for stuff. The question becomes how you “fairly” price your product/service. Do you do “Freemium” or a “Pay to Play/Listen” system?

I had originally developed in my “Plan of Attack” a one-hour format of a single episode of my podcast. However, after listening to this interview I think that a better change would be to take this one hour format and break it into two (roughly) thirty-minute podcasts. This would combine aspects of both the “Freemium” and “Pay to Play/Listen” methods. To elaborate, the comic book discussion on a single issue or trade paperback would always be free. Since it is ultimately an opinion piece, (much like a review in an on-line newspaper or column on a website, but delivered in an oral format.) The other part of my podcast in which I read stories written by other people on-air would be free at first, but after a set “trial period”, the user would then have to pay to continue listening to the story. The idea is the listener becomes engaged and emotionally invested in the character(s) when I am reading the story that the “What happens next?” feeling is strong enough to where they would be willing to pay to hear the next installment. The hope extends to my friend Stacey and anyone else I bring onto my in the future who writes fiction. The hope is that they will push themselves as a writer and experiment with new writing styles, introduce new characters, plot twists etc. to up the quality level of this part of my podcast that in turn makes the listener want to continue paying for this product. 

Module 2, Week 4; Part 2

With this final blog post for Module 2, I decided to look at who I have in my “team of experts.”

Scott and April: Owners of “A Hero’s Legacy”: Without there store (Specifically, the “Independent Rack”) I would not be able to have easy access to the kinds of comics I want to discuss on the podcast. I would have fallen into the same pitfall that most comic book podcasts fall into which is discussing only DC and Marvel Comics since those are the “Big Two” in the comic industry. In terms of relating this to my Business Model Canvas; Scott, April and the store itself help me fill in the “Key Resources”, “Key Partners” and “Channels” blocks in the canvas. That’s one-third of my entire business model being connected to them, so it is critical to the success of my podcast that they stay within this team.

Stacey: Much like Scott and April, Stacey is a close friend of mine who helps me fill in the “Key Resources”, and “Key Partners” blocks of my Business Model Canvas. Her creative writing skills and the story she has produced through those skills provides content for me to use on the podcast. In return for allowing me to use her story as a source of content on my podcast, I am helping a friend solve a problem of getting their work out to a larger audience. My podcast will be a platform to get constructive criticism for the story that will help make it better, which in turn help improve the quality of the content in my podcast.

I will set aside time this week and revise my “startup schedule” yet again, with the goal of looking for at two other people to bring into my “team of experts.” The first person I will be looking for is someone who has written their own story and would be comfortable with having it read out loud on my podcast. The second person I will look for is some who has experience working with the technology involved in creating this podcast. From microphones to headsets to editing software. The goal of having in person with this technical know-how in the team is to help navigate technical problems I encounter. In addition, this person will a source for recommendations of any specific brands/product that will help improve the sound-quality of the podcast and the efficiency in producing it.

    

Module 2, Week 4

With this blog post I wanted to respond to an e-mail I got from Professor Noble in response to my submissions for the Business Model Canvas, Startup Schedule and “Plan of Attack”

“Also, final email. Your work is far better than you have ever done before. It’s the first time I’ve seen you approach your potential.

Tell me what happened please?”

Regarding what happened in terms of the quality of my work I think there has been an improvement because I started to be more social and start more conversations with people with the goal of building a connection that would be beneficial in this course (looking for people to bring into my “team of experts” for the podcast I will launch). An example of this is my conversations with the owners of the local comic book store I go to. One day, after I picked out and paid for the comics I wanted like usual, I noticed a poster one of the owners put up advertising the most recent Avengers movie called “Age of Ultron” I asked one of the store owners “Have you seen the most recent trailer for “Age of Ultron?” while pointing at the poster. From there, we went on for a good hour talking about all of the movies that make up the “Marvel Cinematic Universe”, the ones we liked, disliked and which characters or story arcs we think would make for good superhero movies.

Recently, I have brought up the podcast I will launch in my weekly conversations with the owners and they are intrigued by the idea. They especially like that I want to focus specifically on comics form their “independent rack” as well comics from smaller publishers like Image, IDW and Valiant as it will highlight the characters and creative teams that don’t get the same kind of publicity as DC and Marvel comics. I’ve also tried to pitch the idea of co-branding my podcast with their store “A Hero’s Legacy” to bring more customers to their store.

The other main thing that I believed help improve my work is that back during the brainstorming phase when I pitched the idea of a podcast, it allowed me to incorporate what I love (reading and talking about comic books) into the course work. As a result, I take more pride and consideration into the work I do for this class more than I have for almost any other course I have taken during my entire time at UConn. 

Module 2, Week 3

I decided to take up Professor Noble’s suggestion of taking a 30-minute walk at some point over the weekend. During this walk, I tried to free my mind of thinking about any problems I am facing outside of school along with all of the school work that I still need to do to be successful in not just this class, but my other classes as well.

For this walk, I decided to walk to the local comic book store and buy the comics I was excited to read this week. In terms of “imaging the possibilities” a lot of this was centered around “What If?” scenarios in the comics I am reading. Specifically, these “What If?” scenarios were centered on characters/teams and the possible actions they could take after being presented with a “crossroads” kind of moment in their most recent issue.  I had my phone with and plugged my headphones in so I could listen to music as I took my walk, so, I spent a small portion of the 30-minute walk imaging I was a part of a famous band walking out on stage to play in front of a sold out stadium.

Upon returning home from my walk, I felt refreshed and more energized when I sat back down at my computer and when back to work. At the time, I was working on a group project for another course I am taking this semester. (For this class, my team members and I are doing a project centered on how we would train new elderly hires to work with the current staff who are younger.) Within 30 minutes, I was able to get a good portion of my work for the group project completed. That included putting together a budget of the various things we would need to implement the training program and how much it would cost. I was also able to find a couple of YouTube videos to help argue why integrating younger and older employees would be beneficial not just for the employees, but for the company.

This idea of using exercise, specifically going for a simple walk is something that I will try to incorporate into my weekly schedule not just for this semester but moving forward in life. I think going for a walk, then coming back to my work is a great way to clear my head and boost energy/productivity. 

Module 2 Week 2

Considering how far I have come towards launching this podcast venture, there are two things that I will do in this week that can kick start the process and move myself forward quickly. The first thing is to do test recordings using the first chapter of the "fan fiction" that my friend Stacey wrote and test record myself reading the chapter out loud using the microphone on my computer or the voice recorder on my phone. The purpose of this will be to test how far away or how close to the microphone I need to be in order for the listener to hear what I am saying clearly.

Second, I will tell the owners of the local comic book store that I go to about my podcast venture. The purpose of this comes from one of the videos the professor linked to in Module 2 Week 2 titled: “How to find an Angel Investor.” The biggest take away from that video is that I need to tell as many people as possible about this venture. Telling people who own a comic book store about a comic book podcast that I will launch will provide me with new guests to feature in addition to friends as well as new comics to discuss. The owners are extremely friendly and have a vast wealth of knowledge about the comic book industry as well as numerous recommendations of new comics for myself and other customers to discover that are not from the “big two”: DC and Marvel. 

Module 2 Week 1

Something that has come up in the last week that I would consider a pivot point in the development of my venture is with regards to the comic book discussion/comic recommendation part of my podcast venture. In earlier blog posts, my train of thought was discussing comics from all comic publishers: DC, Marvel, Image, IDW, Dark Horse etc. Specifically, which comics I read from each publisher and what I would recommend for others to read. I realize this could be a problem because there are many new comics released each week (usually Wednesday) and it could prove to be extremely difficult to achieve the goal of keeping the episodes between 30-60 minutes while trying to discuss new releases and recommendations from all of the mentioned publishers. In addition, other comic book podcasts that I listen to or have heard of: ‘The Weekly Pull” “Oh, Comics” “Comixology” “This Week in Marvel” typically centers their discussion about the “Big Two” which are DC and Marvel. This is due to the fact that both companies have film universes (DC is looking to get their film universe of and running with the upcoming “Batman VS Superman: Dawn of Justice”) in addition to their comic book universes which create a near unlimited number of discussion points for these podcasts. In order to make my podcast stand out from other comic book podcasts, I should try to focus more on the comics put out by smaller publishers: Image, IDW, and Dark Horse as examples.

Having this pivot can also help me fill in one of the blocks for my business model canvas: Customer Segments. I should go after the customer segment that is not a regular reader of DC and Marvel, but is a regular reader of Image, IDW, and Dark Horse for their stories which are typically written for more mature readers and have more relatable, “down to earth” characters as opposed to the “larger than life, over the top” characters seen in the DC and Marvel Comics.