In Meaningful work interviews I talk to people about their area of work and expertise to better understand what they do and why it matters to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An\u017ee Tomi\u010d<\/a> is most known for his podcasts Apparatus pogovori<\/a> and Glave<\/a>. He makes technology and media approachable to people that wouldn’t otherwise care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I wanted to talk to An\u017ee to see if he has any advice for me on how to approach interviews and all the media and brand myths around that. I expected basic tips on how to get started but instead got deep insights on business models and economics of the creator-led industry.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n How do people introduce you?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Tech journalist and podcaster. I\u2019m always kind of amazed that they need to add the podcaster<\/em> part as if it\u2019s something special.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why podcasts?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Short version: I listened to a lot of them and I wanted to make them. The first podcast that I listened to was not a podcast but a radio show on XFM – Ricky Gervais Show<\/a> that was airing every Saturday in London and it lasted about 2 hours. Someone actually recorded the show, cut out all the music so that it\u2019s just the dialogue between hosts, and uploaded it to the internet. It\u2019s at least 90 hours of content and I listened to this at least 8 times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the time I worked at Radio \u0160tudent and started noticing the trend of the radio moving online and decided that I also want to do this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Should this conversation be a podcast and should I start a podcast instead of writing down a summary?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s a good question. I don\u2019t think it really matters as it\u2019s more about providing information. Pick a medium that you\u2019re more comfortable in<\/em>. As far as I know you, it seems that you prefer writing. You\u2019re the one that\u2019s asking questions and you need to be comfortable so that you can create your work. Personally, I can convey more when I\u2019m working with audio compared to text. I want to underline the personal part. Since you asked \u201cif you should\u201d I think the answer is that it depends, yo! (An\u017ee wanted to make sure that the last part made it to the final edit).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Is there anything else I should think about if I\u2019m deciding between text or podcasts?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Not really. I used to advise people to do podcasts because they were new. But now they\u2019re mainstream and it\u2019s just like advising someone to go start a blog. I\u2019m happy that it became so popular as a medium but it\u2019s not special on its own anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I describe it as like going to the cinema. You don\u2019t go watch the movie <\/em>Avengers, you just go watch Avengers<\/em>. There\u2019s no movie anymore. I\u2019m also seeing this with the podcast shows. People now listen to Odbita do bita they don\u2019t listen to podcast<\/em> Odbita do bita. There are many of these kinds of shows now and people know how to interact with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are two additional considerations. Time is definitely a factor. Both text and audio require editing time. With audio, you also need to make sure that the person that you\u2019re interviewing sounds good and can talk coherently. With text, it\u2019s much easier to make them look good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Does that mean that you are a brand now?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n No. I think it\u2019s tied to personality and personal brands. It\u2019s now much easier for someone to move between networks. It used to be that a TV or a radio show was more than just the host. I don\u2019t believe that this is true anymore. That\u2019s why you see so many shows these days that are named after the hosts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It seems that I\u2019m on a path to establish my own personal brand. Do you have any advice for me?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Keep doing what you\u2019re doing. Talk to as many people as you can. That\u2019s the easiest hack to grow your presence. That\u2019s how you ensure that people will know about you since every person that you talk to will bring their people to you. It\u2019s \u201cthe easiest\u201d that still requires a lot of work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Everyone that you talk to has their own audience. They will share your interview with them. People will see you and the more often you do it the more people see you. Rinse and repeat. I really think that this is a good way to do this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s the same model that many international podcasters were following. They started with interviews and only after they\u2019ve built a following they started doing other types of shows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ve made 208 podcast interviews throughout the years. This allowed me to build a really strong network and personal following. When I decided to pause my podcast for now I felt comfortable that I could restart it again later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One more tip is to make sure that you ask people to share. There\u2019s no shame in trying to cut through the noise of social media by explicitly asking your guests to share and tag you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You should also decide if you\u2019re doing this as a hobby or as a job. If you want to make this part of your income you should make sure to ask your audience to support you as soon as possible. Running sponsorship and ads early on is also another way to approach this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Do you think all digital creators should have their own Patreon-like account in 2021?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, definitely. Creating quality content takes time and it\u2019s real work. I think it\u2019s perfectly valid to ask your audience to support you if they like what you are doing. Initially, it feels a bit strange since a lot of our existing economy is supported by Venture Capital and Big Tech. But when you think about it\u2019s also a very simple model. Ask people to support what they like by directly paying for it so that you can continue doing your work. Modern online tools make it really easy to do that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With the Patreon model, how do you ensure that you stay true to the work that you want to keep doing? How do you not <\/strong>sell out<\/em><\/strong> so that you can get a bigger audience?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Is having a large audience really your goal? You don’t need to underestimate niche audiences and what they value. Since you are publishing in English you have access to many more niches. When you\u2019re publishing in large languages you can have very niche topics like 12th Century Classical Composers<\/em> and you can still be successful. <\/p>\n\n\n\n You can think about it in terms of Kevin Kelly\u2019s 1000 true fans. Your business model is to build a core audience of your true fans that support your work so you can create it full time. Unless you decide that you want to have a huge audience because being famous and rich is your goal. Then you\u2019ll probably need to create mainstream content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Do you see any point in creating content in the Slovenian language? Will your next podcast show be in English?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The English language gives you access to more people and there is also much more competition. It becomes more important when you\u2019re creating niche content. When I look at what my friends from the USA are doing I see that it\u2019s quite possible to make a living doing 5 very niche shows. They can do it because they have enough potential English-speaking audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I think you can still accomplish things when producing content in Slovenian and I think I\u2019ll keep my work in Slovenian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Do you think having a strong Eastern European accent is a problem when creating content in English?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I think it\u2019s a huge advantage. It\u2019s what differentiates you from the competition and makes you unique. If you have a good vocabulary and can speak it\u2019s better if you don\u2019t try to hide your accent. I can confirm this based on my personal experience.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n Is there any other advice that you often give to new creators?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n You need to persevere and grow. When you read or listen to your first work after two years you need to be ashamed of it. If you’re happy with it you haven\u2019t accomplished anything. In the beginning, your work will suck. With time you\u2019ll get feedback and you\u2019ll be able to adjust it so it becomes better. We see all these successful people and they seem so polished. What we don\u2019t see is all the work that came before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Who are your heroes that you\u2019re learning from?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Gervais<\/a>, Merchant<\/a>, and Pilkington<\/a> in terms of spoken radio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n John Siracusa<\/a>, and Jason Snell<\/a> in terms of quality tech podcasts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m mostly learning by following the work of people that I admire. Sometimes they\u2019ll also explain their processes and thinking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What I learned from talking with An\u017ee<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n An\u017ee Tomi\u010d is most known for his podcasts Apparatus pogovori and Glave. He makes technology and media approachable to people that wouldn’t otherwise care.<\/p>\n I wanted to talk to An\u017ee to see if he has any advice for me on how to approach interviews and all the media and brand myths around that. I expected basic tips on how to get started but instead got deep insights on business models and economics of the creator-led industry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2395,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[943],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-meaningful-work"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.jurecuhalev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/07-Anze-Tomic.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jurecuhalev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jurecuhalev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jurecuhalev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jurecuhalev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jurecuhalev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2393"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.jurecuhalev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2393\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2542,"href":"https:\/\/www.jurecuhalev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2393\/revisions\/2542"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jurecuhalev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jurecuhalev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jurecuhalev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jurecuhalev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}