#277 – 2024 Spun Today Wrap-Up Show
Welcome to Episode 277 of Spun Today, your creative sanctuary where writing meets inspiration! I’m your host, Tony Ortiz, and today’s episode is a special year-in-review recap of 2024, packed with reflections, achievements, and lessons learned. We'll revisit some of the most monumental deals in the creative world, like Issa Rae turning down a multi-million dollar offer to ultimately secure a better deal for her successful career, Kobe Bryant's incredible investment in Body Armor that paid off big time, and the $15+ million Stitcher deal landed by the "Your Mom’s House" podcast network.
We'll break down the top five episodes from Spun Today in 2024, including writing sessions, book reviews, and popular discussions about shows like "Black Mirror" and "Jack Ryan." I’ll share personal milestones, like the challenging journey through my wife’s breast cancer battle. Plus, we’ll dive into the highlights and lowlights of tracking listener engagement, social media expansion efforts, and my aspirations for 2025.
Join me as we celebrate the wins, analyze the setbacks, and set the course for a more consistent and productive year ahead. Whether you’re a writer, a creative professional, or simply looking for a dose of inspiration, this episode is crafted just for you. Let’s jump in and wrap up 2024 with insights and motivation to fuel your creative journey into 2025!
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Links referenced in this episode:
Episode 255 Links: https://www.spuntoday.com/podcast/255
Episode 253 Links: https://www.spuntoday.com/podcast/253
Episode 256 Links: https://www.spuntoday.com/podcast/256
Episode 252 Links: https://www.spuntoday.com/podcast/252
Episode 254 Links: https://www.spuntoday.com/podcast/254
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transcript
Tony Ortiz [00:00:19]:
What's up folks? What's going on? Welcome to the Spun Today Podcast, the only podcast that is anchored in writing but unlimited in scope. I'm your host, Tony Ortiz, and I appreciate you listening. This is episode 277. It is the first episode of 2025 and is the official 2024 Spun Today wrap up show. In this episode, I'm going to reflect on the top five spun episodes of 2024 in terms of listenership and I also share some of my writing and podcasting goals for 2025, as well as look back on the goals that I set last year for 2024 so I can beat myself up a little bit on all the shit that I did not achieve. Stick around for all that good stuff. But first I wanted to share a quick way that you can help support this podcast. If you so choose.
Tony Ortiz [00:01:15]:
Your support means a ton. It's very motivating, much appreciated. And there's a bunch of different ways that you can help support not just financially if you want to go that route, but by rating and reviewing either my books or my podcast. And there's a bunch of different shopping discounts that you get, maybe for something that you're already looking for. And I benefit from that by you using my affiliate links. All this can be found on my website Sponsored a comm forward slash support. That's where you'll find all my merch, all the links to discount codes, my affiliate links, donation links, so on and so forth. But here is just one of those ways you can help support and then we'll jump right into the show.
Tony Ortiz [00:01:58]:
The Sponsor Day newsletter is available to each and every one of my listeners absolutely for free. All you have to do is go to spunterday.com subscribe and drop in your email address. What I'm gonna do is brighten up everybody's least favorite day of the week by delivering five curated things within my weekly newsletter. Every Monday at noon, you're going to receive a Photo of the Week, a recommended Podcast of the Week. I listen to tons of podcasts from an array of varied interests. I cherry pick the very best ones so that you can check them out. I also share a Video of the Week, which can be anything from a tasty recipe to a dope rap battle to an enlightening TED Talk. I also share a Quote of the Week and finally, for my fellow wordsmiths out there, a Word of the Week so that you can step up your vocab again.
Tony Ortiz [00:02:50]:
This curated list is yours absolutely free by going to spun.com subscribe and dropping in your email address and you can unsubscribe at any time. Again, go to spun.com subscribe drop in your email address and you'll get the very next one.
Tony Ortiz [00:03:10]:
And now let's recap the top five most listened to episodes of the Spun Today podcast in 2024. Starting off at the fifth spot is episode 255. Jose de la Rosa, Golden Gloves champ, firefighter and fitness aficionado. Shout out to Jose and this episode which was a bit of a surprise for me because it was a re released episode. This year's actual top five has a few surprises in it, but it's a re release episode. An episode that I initially released the prior year I want to say in 2023 or maybe even 2022 when we released the original. But sometimes on a either like around the holidays or for whatever reason I can't record a brand new episode while I do is is kind of like remaster and re release a prior episode prior released episode or if it's fitting for for whatever reason like I do yearly. For example with the 911 episode that I recorded where I interviewed close friends and family, all of which were around and affected here in New York during 9 11.
Tony Ortiz [00:04:30]:
Never released that every year, but it's one of those like re release episodes so I wouldn't expect it to have garnered so much listenership, but super happy that it did. Shout out again to Jose and it's a dope episode. You guys should definitely go back and listen if you haven't. Jose is a friend of mine from junior high and high school that we went to together. He went off to become a Golden Gloves champion. He also won the Silver Gloves. For those who don't know, it's a prestigious boxing title to achieve. He's also a New York City firefighter and he's super into fitness.
Tony Ortiz [00:05:04]:
He's always posting like videos on on his workouts and and recommended workouts and ever since that episode we're always saying we're gonna link up again to do another episode because they had like so much more to his story to to to speak on and it was just a great episode. So definitely one of the the goals I want to circle back to later this year and I'll link to Jose's page in the episode notes so you guys can go check him out as well. The fourth most listened episode of the Spontane podcast in 2024 was episode 253 of the Spun Today podcast. Yet another Surprise on the list. It was technically not a re release, although some of the content is. But I was actually very happy to see this on the list because episode number 253 is the goats doing goat mashup number one. So there's a segment that I started doing, I want to say a year, maybe, maybe even like a year and a half, two years ago, but it's where I wanted to highlight folks that are goats within their respective fields, greatest of all time, that go above and beyond in a certain way that they didn't have to. And I want to give that type of mentality and action.
Tony Ortiz [00:06:20]:
I want to give that in and of itself, it's flowers, just people doing dope, whether morally or in some sort of financial space that I think deserves much more attention. So I created this segment called Goats Doing Goat for that purpose and what episode 253 is because I usually have like a go per episode, but I want to make it per episode, which is another again 2025 goal. But every, I usually have one goat mentioned during an episode. And this is every single episode. It could be every, you know, other or every two or three episodes. But what I did was create this episode 253, which is a mashup of a bunch of different, these, if you will, into the spun Goats Doing Goat Shit list. So if you've missed any of the prior episodes and you're interested in just this type of content, you can obviously listen to this episode, which is a mashup of a bunch of them. Not all of them, but a bunch of them, which included in this episode, Conor, just to give you guys an idea of what it is, but Conor McGregor, who's, you know, double UFC champ, UFC superstar, he went off to do a great spirit steal with his whiskey Proper 12 and wound up doubling his net worth in the process, which was already impressive after he made something like 100 million or something like that after fighting Floyd Mayweather in a crossover boxing match.
Tony Ortiz [00:07:50]:
So really impressive financial move. So I added him to to the list. I also broke down Joe Rogan versus Carlos Mencia. So this is when Joe went out of his way to stand up to Carlos Mencia, which was a bigger act at the time because Carlos was stealing jokes from allegedly from fellow comedians that were within Rogan's orbit, like some of his boys, but, you know, lower on the totem pole in terms of stand up comedy. So Carlos would just get away with it because he was such a big name and a big act and they were scared to like speak up for themselves. So Rogan took it upon himself to stand up to Carlos in a very public fashion in the middle of a comedy club on stage, and the rest is history. I also added Rory and Malls in this episode. Rory and Mall's initial Stitcher deal, which has since run its course.
Tony Ortiz [00:08:41]:
It was a licensing deal and now they have a new licensing deal, which is why I always harp on, you know, maybe one day, knock on wood, I'll be in a position to do so. But just even like with your writing, with podcasting, with music, with any creative work, shoot for owning your ip, because folks, you know, might get like, wide eyed and take the short bag, take the short money and just, you know, sell something that they created, give all the rights away, essentially, because they say, you know, here's a million dollars, but if you want to keep your, your IP, then it's, it's, you know, 50 grand or 100 grand or something like that. Take the 100 grand, take the 50 grand, because what you can do, instead of taking the million or, you know, whatever it is, hypothetical numbers, obviously, but similar to how Rory Mall did. They got their money from the Stitcher deal. It was a licensing deal. They still own their podcast and their ip, their intellectual property, and now they're in another licensing deal. So they resold it again. And as long as you keep the ownership of what you create, you can keep doing that forever in perpetuity.
Tony Ortiz [00:09:46]:
Alternatively, you sell it for the million bucks and then that company that buys that IP from you, they're going to do that, they're going to keep selling it perpetuity and make the money off of you forever. So I wanted to shout them out for, for that deal. I also added Issa Rae for her Issa Rae Warner Media deal. Great. Incredible. Content creator. Not even content creator. She's a showrunner, movie star, writer.
Tony Ortiz [00:10:12]:
I've taken her master class, which is great. Created the, the HBO like, big series Insecure, which was spawned from her Awkward Black Girl YouTube series that she was creating herself. Creating, directing, and acting in herself. That led to the Insecure HBO deal, which ultimately led to this Issa Rae Warner Media deal for multiple millions. And I think if I remember correctly, I shouted out specifically for. There was like some sort of like 10 or 2015 or 20 million dollar offer that they offered her for the deal, which she turned down. And most, most folks were like, what, are you fucking crazy? How do you turn down $20 million? And from her perspective, essentially, she was like, because I know my worth. I know what I have to sell is not worth 20, it's worth a lot more.
Tony Ortiz [00:10:59]:
You know, from the outside looking it's like 20 million. Take that. But again, sticking to your guns, knowing what it is that you're selling, owning your ip. And she wanted getting, you know, multiple times that when they came back around. So shout out to Issa Ray. And in this episode, two more goats doing goat segments that I mashed together here. Second to last being the Kobe body armor deal. Rip to the goat.
Tony Ortiz [00:11:24]:
Kobe Bryant who invested in a company called Body Armor, which is a competitor or within the same space, smaller market share, but within the same space of Gatorade, you know, one of these sports drink beverages. And he invested $6 million into the company when they were in its infancy, in very nascent stages for a 10 stake in the company. Coca Cola wound up acquiring that company and that 10% stake turned into a 400 million dollar payout for Kobe and his family. Now it's family. So $6 million investment saw the opportunity there with just a lion's share of the market that Gatorade owned. So the, a competing company had a very small percentage of that market share. He invested in that company because thought it was a wise investment to do so, I would imagine. And you know, good tasting beverages, you know, very similar stuff.
Tony Ortiz [00:12:24]:
And they had a chance to be acquired by a company that wanted to either buy them, for example to, so that they can own even more of the market share. If it's the same company that, that if Coca Cola owns Gatorade, I'm not sure. Or if it's Pepsi maybe like those parent companies, they're just like conglomerates and own, own everything. But it's a, it's a smart play because it could go one of two ways. Either that same company will buy you so that you know, they can own even more of the market and just sell, sell you two seemingly different things, you know, Gatorade, Powerade body armor and meanwhile the same company owns it and they're just making money and you think you're buying different things or an actual competing company will buy them out to gain market share against Gatorade. And essentially either which way it went, that six million dollar investment turned into $400 million. Again, shout out to Kobe the goat and Rip. And last but certainly not least, the last goats doing goat that I added to this specific mashup episode was the YMH stitcher deal.
Tony Ortiz [00:13:40]:
YMH for those who don't know, is your mom's house. It's become a podcast network. It's initially a podcast soul podcast by hosts the hilarious Tom Segura stand comic and the hilarious Christina Pazicki his wife. They have a podcast together. They both stand up comics and super popular. They, they innovated within the field doing like pay per view style podcast for certain events. Ever a pretty popular cult following started got this stitcher deal. I think it was like a 10 or 15 million dollar deal for the podcast.
Tony Ortiz [00:14:21]:
And you know, started putting out other podcasts under their YMH umbrella. Like Ari Shafir's new UB Tripping podcast is under there. Danny Brown's podcast is on there. Two Bears One Cave which is Tom and Bird's podcast is on there, so on and so forth. So that was a pretty dope deal. Pretty cool to see especially if you know them and follow them from, you know, early on in their careers when famously for example, Tom Segura didn't even know what a podcast was. He's one of these comics in like Rogan's orbit when Rogan was first starting his podcast and he would go on there and be like, what is this? Who's listening to this? How does this what? And then you know, fast forward to him having his own podcast network including his flagship show and garnering, you know, tens of millions of dollars in the process. The number three most listened to episode of the Spun Today podcast in 2024 was episode two titled Mastering the Myth, Navigating Imposter Syndrome and Cultivating Created Creative Currency.
Tony Ortiz [00:15:22]:
This was a free writing session episode. For those of you don't know, one of the types of episodes that I do on this podcast, which are honestly one of my favorite types to do because it's very, very writing centric. You know, this is after all a mainly writing podcast, right? Like I touch on, you know, current events and, and topical things and you know, just break down like movies and TV shows. But I always try to do it from the lens of a writer or an aspiring writer if you will. But these free writing session episodes specifically are a lot more in the weeds of writing. So it's more like writing inside baseball and they're some of my favorites to do. And in this episode specifically, and the general format of it is that I share a writing tip for fellow writers out there, usually one in this episode I actually share two, one from Kevin Smith and another one from K.M. weiland.
Tony Ortiz [00:16:18]:
And just like great anecdotal, little, you know, pieces of advice related to writing and just like creative motivation in general that I want to share put out there, I also share My writing stats, you know, let you guys know how much I've been writing over the past, you know, month or two. That's more so for, you know, just keeping myself honest for my tracking purposes so that I can see, you know, I have a goal of X, for example, to like write a book by the end of the year. But then I can reflect on these specific writing stats and see, you know, instead of wondering at the end of the year, oh man, why didn't I write the book? I could look at these writing stats and be like, okay, that's why I wrote, you know, 10 of the days in April. I wrote, you know, 15 of the days of March, so on and so forth. With the low numbers like that, obviously it's not going to yield good results. So it's kind of like a way for me to like, track and try to motivate myself to write more. So I share those writing stats, I share what I've been reading and I break down a book, for example, once I finish it. And I share my, like, my favorite takeaways from that book in these episodes, this one specifically, I shared the Daily dad by Ryan Holiday.
Tony Ortiz [00:17:29]:
And I tell you guys a little bit of what that's about. And I also shared in this episode, Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl. And last but not least, what I do in these free writing session episodes is I share a piece of my own writing, usually a piece of free writing, which is a practice that, that I like to do often. And you know, it could be something that I wrote, you know, three, four, five, eight years ago, just a paragraph or two on anything. And I just share with you guys, I reflect on it myself and yeah, that's pretty much the format for these freewriting session episodes. And that One was episode 256, which again was the third most listened to episode of 2024. The second most listened to episode of the Spontane podcast in 2024, this one was definitely a surprise for me because it was the 2023 Spun wrap up show.
Tony Ortiz [00:18:20]:
So this specific show that I'm doing right now, which is the wrap up of 2024, the 2023 wrap up show was the second most listened to episode of 2024, which surprising, I guess, but yeah, it was surprising to me. But yeah, thank you folks for listening. And last but certainly not least, the number one most listened to episode of the Spun Today podcast in all of 2024 was just pretend you're hearing a drum roll right now. Episode 254 of the Spun Today podcast, which was Black Mirror, the Jack Ryan finale, American Fiction and Joe Rogan's renewed Spotify deal. Shout out to the number one episode. This was one of those pretty like self explanatory episodes in terms of if you're following the title. I broke down watching recent season of Black Mirror, which is was season six of Black Mirror. Great TV show on Netflix, super creative.
Tony Ortiz [00:19:29]:
Each episode is like its own little movie. Very, very, very much so recommend it. I tell you guys who the writers are. I share the official synopsis, I break down certain episodes, I tell you guys what my favorite parts of each episode were. And they definitely do have spoilers when I do these little breakdowns. So beware if you don't want to hear any. I also spoke about the Jack Ryan finale, final season, the series finale where again to a TV show. It's on Amazon.
Tony Ortiz [00:20:00]:
I like bumped into the show on accident, watched one episode years ago and just got completely roped in. It's a great action Mission Impossible type of series. John Krasinski, who plays Jim from the Office is the lead in this dramatic series which was like interesting juxtaposition from what we're used to seeing him acting in or at least me. And he knocked it out of the park. He plays Jack Ryan, which is like a CIA, you know, like smart desk guy, but he has this like military background of being just a badass on the field also, but nobody like really knows about it. And he chases down terrorists and it's a, it's a dope series. And the final season, which is what I break down in this episode, definitely did not disappoint. Then I also broke down American Fiction, the movie which was amazing, starring Jeffrey Wright, Tracy Ellis Ross, John Ortiz, Issa Ray's in it, which I mentioned earlier.
Tony Ortiz [00:20:58]:
Erica Alexander. It was a great, great movie that I definitely highly recommend folks watching. I broke that down in this episode and the last thing I spoke about in that episode was another addition to the goats doing goat segment. And in this instance it was Joe Rogan's second segment Spotify deal after his first. Again going back to the whole licensing deal concept. Instead of him like selling his podcast rights to some company for $100 million, which folks would have probably done. He licensed it specifically for three years for that 100 million. You know, if somebody wanted to buy it outright, you know, maybe they would have offered him, you know, like two or three.
Tony Ortiz [00:21:39]:
But he took 100 million and it was just for three years. Then everything goes back to normal. He keeps his 100 million. He owns his podcast, Continue, you know, has continued doing it throughout. And at the end of the 100 years, it was such a lucrative deal from like a, a stock share, share price vantage point for Spotify that they wound up his licensing deal for more than double what they gave him the first time. So the second time around it was 250 million. And he was also allowed to go wide, which meaning that not just exclusively to Spotify like the first deal was for the first three years. Now you can listen to JRE on every single platform.
Tony Ortiz [00:22:20]:
And because of that deal, again, where I like to highlight goats that do goat shit, I added Joe Mr. Rogan to the list once again. And that, folks, was the number one most listened to episode of 2024. Episode 254. Thanks again to each and every one of you who take the time to listen. It is much, much, much appreciated. So now let's reflect on goals. When I do these year end wrap ups, I like to reflect on the goals that I set for myself in the prior year.
Tony Ortiz [00:22:59]:
So in this case 2024, analyze if achieved or not, and then also establish my goals for 2025 moving forward so that when I do the 2025 recap next year and kind of follow suit and you know, reflect and take inventory, if you will, on what was achieved, what wasn't achieved. And these are, you know, like high level goals for the year. Right. So I'm going to do that for both my writing goals and my podcasting goals, which are obviously intertwined in a sense. Start off with the writing. So in 2024 I set out two specific writing goals for myself for the year. I like toned it down a notch from 2023, if I remember correctly, where I had just like a shitload of goals. Unrealistic.
Tony Ortiz [00:23:47]:
So I scaled it back in an effort to now overwhelm myself in terms of the specific writing goals, but also, you know, to have something more, more manageable, more doable. Now if you're a listener to the pod, you know that this year went through a very tough time from a family perspective with my wife battling breast cancer. And that obviously took a toll and warranted much more attention on that and her and getting through that period and actually did an episode with her for the podcast all about it, just to spread awareness on the topic and just to share her story on what she went through. And I say that not as an excuse, but just to. Because I don't, how do I say it? I'm a firm believer that everybody has everybody's dealing with their own. And everybody gets the same amount of time. Everybody gets 24 hours in a day, regardless of who you are. So it's not an excuse, but I did want to highlight that a lot of time was obviously the majority, the rightfully so time was spent in dealing with that situation.
Tony Ortiz [00:24:54]:
So circling back to the goals that I actually set for myself in the beginning of the year was to submit a draft of Fractal 2 for editing and or at least finish the first draft of Fractal 2. Fractale for those who may not know, is my novel. It's my science fiction time travel novel available now. The book one is all the links you can find that spun .com books search on Amazon or wherever it is that you get your books. And this is a deeper series. That's the first novel that I published a few years back and my goal was to finalize the at least the first draft of the second in the series. That goal was not achieved. I did work on it a bit more.
Tony Ortiz [00:25:41]:
Definitely not anything, not in any amount that I'm proud of. Feel like I could have done more, but definitely considering that goal of failure. The second goal, which I thought the second and last goal actually that I established for myself for 2024 was to record the audiobook of my short story series that I did publish last year, Melted Cold. That book also available sponsor.com books forward/ melted Cold. You find all the links of where you can purchase there. I definitely thought I was gonna have more time to focus on that or to achieve that. I felt it was a less of a heavy lift for whatever reason, but also a failure and not an achieved goal. Now looking forward to 2025, I'm definitely carrying both of those goals forward to achieve them for 2025, but actually adding this year a couple more kind of as like a bit of a catch up for myself.
Tony Ortiz [00:26:43]:
First and foremost, consistency. Just like an overall foundational stick to a writing schedule consistency. I've done that in spurts throughout my writing quote unquote career. Obviously I've yielded much more results when I have stuck to a schedule. A lot of it since has been just more sporadic. Whenever I can find time, you know, juggling family and kids and work and you know, just life in general. When you leave it up to just like write whenever it is that you think you have some free time, you want to, you wind up not doing it. So definitely want to firm up and stick to a consistent schedule.
Tony Ortiz [00:27:21]:
That's goal number one. Goal number two would be recording the audiobook for Melted Cold, a short story series. Goal number three would be finishing the first draft of Fractale 2 2. That's a working title by the way, as well as submitting both Fractal one and Fractal two for editing. Because what I want to do is re release the first book in the series after getting it professionally edited the way I did with my short story series Melted Cold and re put it out when I re put out a fractal too. So that's kind of like a dual goal there within that fractal series. And last but not least, revisit and finish writing and publishing Make Way for your. En Espanol Make Way for your is the first book that I ever wrote.
Tony Ortiz [00:28:10]:
It's a nonfiction. I call it the Poor Man's War of Art by Steven Pressfield. And I've written probably around 30 or 40%. I've translated myself into Spanish and I would like to finish that off to put that out. Something that I started doing, I dropped. I started doing close to like right after publishing it honestly and just like dropped it. Never, never picked it back up or that's a lie. I picked it up here and there, translated a passage or two.
Tony Ortiz [00:28:42]:
Just haven't followed through with finishing it. So that is. That would be the fourth and final goal I'm setting for myself from a writing perspective for 2025. So in 2024, now speaking to podcast goals, my podcast goals for 2024, I set an overall arching goal to increase my listenership by 50%. And that was definitely not achieved. It actually dropped year over year specific downloads just from podcatchers itself by 64%. That deserves another. And overall, a year over year drop, factoring in just complete views like with shorts and, and clip videos and stuff like that, which I did successfully track this year, which was a sub goal, which I'll get to that dropped as well by about 57%.
Tony Ortiz [00:29:39]:
So yeah, a lot of womp, womp, womp, womps there. So that's how he failed on that goal, which again I attributed to just trying to be objective to, you know, not being as consistent as I have been in, you know, the last nine years prior with re. With releasing episodes every other Thursday on the dot. I started slipping with that towards like the latter half of last year. And there were a lot more RE release episodes this past year as well just because, you know, time constraints with being able to record and edit so on and so forth. So I'm not terribly surprised by the drop in in listenership There now. I also wanted to set a goal for myself last year to track year over year, not just the downloads, which is what I was doing for many years, but also the YouTube videos as well as the shorts and having a total across the board, year over year, grand total, which I did do successfully, so kind of achieved that sub goal. I also set a goal for myself of being more creative with posts and more consistent with posting podcast clips and posts on Instagram, Twitter, et cetera.
Tony Ortiz [00:30:50]:
And I wanted to also start posting on LinkedIn and TikTok just to like expand the base there a bit. And I successfully did so. So I started leveraging this tool called Author Social Assistant, which was great for. And I recommend, I. I think I actually have a. An affiliate link in my support page that you guys can check out for, you know, fellow writers or creatives out there that may be interested. It gives you like posts like little like mini reels and, and just like memes and the opportunity to like add your book to some stock imaging that looks really good and professional and it gives you like a sample blurb to add as well, literally for like each day of, of a month. And you can add your branding to it.
Tony Ortiz [00:31:38]:
So I have like the Spontane Today logo on them and you could choose to remove it for ones that you want to remove it from. You can, you know, customize the, the text obviously and, and edit it how you want. Just like a great starting template. And I've been using that and it's, you know, really increase. Helped increase like engagement on like IG and Twitter and stuff like that for those specific posts. And I've honed in on specific and consistent clip formats for the podcast just visually in the way it looks. And that's all been going well. I've been pretty consistent with that.
Tony Ortiz [00:32:12]:
So I'll definitely consider that in an achieved goal minus the tick tock thing, which by the way, bam banned me. I have no idea why I just like joined. Just, just start adding like podcast clips and stuff like that and try to reach out and it's like, you know, black box, you know, never get anything back. I also set a goal for myself in 2024 to start customizing clips for the platform that they're going on, which that I haven't done and kind of like don't consider that a goal that I'm gonna be attempting or implementing moving forward. Because the, for example, a. What's it called, like the nine by 16, you know, like the story style clips that when I implement them on like YouTube or LinkedIn and Twitter get like not exactly like widescreen for example on YouTube, but it does like some visual formatting where it gives it like a widescreen background based on like the standard square or or vertical post that you put on. And that's working fine for me I believe just like the cost benefit of the time it would take to do like separate individuals, it just isn't there. I also gave myself a goal, a possible goal of increasing the output of the podcast to weekly from bi weekly that I said then was not feasible and definitely still is not feasible moving forward.
Tony Ortiz [00:33:35]:
And I also had a goal in 2024. The last goal I set for myself for the podcast to do at least three plus interviews, separate interview episodes for the podcast which I also did not achieve. I just did the one that I referenced earlier with my wife Zoila speaking about her battles with the breast cancer. So that is also another not achieved goal. Moving forward and to establish the goals for 2025 I want to again similar to the writing, return to a consistent every other Thursday release which would imply a return to a consistent every other week strict recording time for the pod so then I can hit those Thursday releases. I also want to drastically reduce the re release of episodes. I'm not going to say I'm not going to rerelease any episodes because you know life will be life but definitely don't want to rely on any just due to like laziness or like anything like that. In terms of listenership I want to increase it obviously a million fold but given the trajectory of the past two years of slipping listenership I think if I focus on continue focusing on the quality which I normally do for anything I put out but hone in on the consistency and continue on the like exposure and like posting of episodes which I also really like slacked on.
Tony Ortiz [00:34:56]:
Not good like the self promotion side specific to the podcast. But the goal is once honing in on that stuff to increase listenership by at least 25% year over year. And the last goal for 2025 related to the podcast is to continue and stay consistent with the social posts how I have been doing on the writing side. But to establish that consistency again with the shorts posts on YouTube which really slipped this year and just more video clips as well or video style clips of the podcast episodes as well. And that folks was episode 277 of the Spun Today podcast. The 2024 Spun Today wrap up show. Let me know your thoughts.
Tony Ortiz [00:35:43]:
Let me know if you have any.
Tony Ortiz [00:35:43]:
Tips, advice, things that I can implement on my end that you would like to hear as a listener or if you're a fellow podcaster or writer, things that you think may help me implement the goals that and achieve the goals rather that I want to achieve by the time I do the next Sponsor the Wrap up show with that folks. Keep your head up looking up to a Prosperous and Healthy 2025. Wishing you and yours the same. I'll check you guys out next time. Peace. What's up folks?
Tony Ortiz [00:36:21]:
Tony here. I hope you're enjoying the Spun Today Podcast as much as I enjoy producing it for you. Here are a few ways you can.
Tony Ortiz [00:36:28]:
Help support the show.
Tony Ortiz [00:36:30]:
You can support the Spun Today podcast financially by going to spun.com support. There you will find a couple different ways that you can do just that, some of which will actually not even cost you a dime, such as using my Amazon affiliate link. When you go to spunthoday.com support, you'll see my affiliate link to Amazon. Click on it and it will take you to Amazon's website where you can do your shopping like normal. This will not cost you anything extra, but Amazon will pay me for driving.
Tony Ortiz [00:37:00]:
Traffic to their website. If you'd like to support the podcast.
Tony Ortiz [00:37:04]:
More directly, you can do so by becoming a patron@spun.com support. You'll also find my Patreon link. This is where creators such as myself can be paid directly by patrons like you. You can either make a one time donation or schedule recurring donations if you so choose. There are also different tiers of support and depending on which you decide to go with, you'll also receive some perks in return such as early access to content, free digital copies of my books, free bookmarks, etc. That is again by supporting via my Patreon link available@spuntery.com support similar to Patreon at that same location. You'll also find my Ko Fi link as well as my Buy me a coffee link. They work very similar to Patreon and are different ways that you can help support the show financially.
Tony Ortiz [00:37:51]:
And last but certainly not least, you have the good old fashioned PayPal donation button. Any which way that you choose to.
Tony Ortiz [00:37:57]:
Support is greatly appreciated.
Tony Ortiz [00:37:59]:
It all helps me do more of what I love, which is writing and podcasting. Again, go to Sponsored a comm forward slash support. You can also support the sponsor the podcast by rating and reviewing the show. Wherever it is that you're listening to.
Tony Ortiz [00:38:14]:
This episode, I'd really appreciate it because it really does help.
Tony Ortiz [00:38:17]:
Also, follow me on all socials. Fun Today on X, formerly known as Twitter, Spun Today on Instagram and spun on YouTube where you'll not only find the full length episodes of the podcast, but also chopped up clips and additional content. And of course you can follow the Facebook page at facebook.com forward/spun . Another way you can help support the Spun Today podcast and also upgrade that stale wardrobe of yours is by going to spun .com support and clicking on the banner for Stitch Fix. Once you do, you'll enjoy a $25 discount to your first purchase. And the way Stitch Fix works is pretty cool. I use it and I've never been disappointed. You'll set up a profile, you'll put in all the sizes for your clothes as well as all the different brands and types of clothes that you like to wear.
Tony Ortiz [00:39:11]:
It's really simple and intuitive to set up. They'll show you pictures and pretty much give you a thumbs up or thumbs down option on if you would wear something or not. And you get to select all the brands that you already are used to wearing. With this information, there are thousands of passionate trend setting stylists will curate a.
Tony Ortiz [00:39:29]:
Stitch Fix box for you.
Tony Ortiz [00:39:31]:
They'll send you five items that you get to preview before they mail it to you and you'll get to select based on the image if you like it or not. If not, they'll replace it with something else and if so, they'll mail it.
Tony Ortiz [00:39:40]:
To you absolutely for free.
Tony Ortiz [00:39:42]:
You can try everything on and you have a few days to send everything back or keep the stuff that you want to keep. Then you can use that $25 credit that I mentioned towards your purchase of those items again. To freshen up your wardrobe and also support the Sponsor Day podcast, go to sponsor day.com forward/support and click on my affiliate link banner for Stitch Fix and enjoy your $25 credit.
Tony Ortiz [00:40:06]:
Do you want to start your own podcast? Have a great show idea that you want to get out into the masses but don't know quite how to get it from your head out into the world? Well, here's how. Use the podcast host Libsyn. That's who I use to bring the Spun Today podcast to you. And now you can use them the same way. Using the promo code Spun S P U N. You can open up your Libsyn account and get two months of free podcast hosting.
Tony Ortiz [00:40:35]:
Here's how it works.
Tony Ortiz [00:40:36]:
Once you record your show, you upload.
Tony Ortiz [00:40:38]:
It to your Libsyn account where you.
Tony Ortiz [00:40:40]:
Can fill in your episode notes, upload your podcast art and schedule when you want your episodes to release. Once you do that, Libsyn will take care of the rest. They'll distribute your show to Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and all the other podcasters.
Tony Ortiz [00:40:56]:
That you choose instantaneously and seamlessly.
Tony Ortiz [00:41:00]:
Again, go to Libsyn.com and use the promo code spun S P U n.
Tony Ortiz [00:41:05]:
To get two months free.
Tony Ortiz [00:41:07]:
Or use the affiliate link that's in the episode notes. Again, that's Libsyn.com promo code SPUN. Take that great podcast idea from out of your head and put it out into the world. And as always, folks, substitute the mysticism with hard work and start taking steps in the general direction of your dreams.
Tony Ortiz [00:41:27]:
Thanks for listening.
Tony Ortiz [00:41:42]:
I love you, Aiden.
Tony Ortiz [00:41:44]:
I love you, Daddy.
Tony Ortiz [00:41:46]:
I love you, Grayson.
Tony Ortiz [00:41:48]:
I love you, Daddy.