I have really, really, really missed the public conversations I was having on my Breaking Changes podcast, as well as the private conversations I’ve been having with enterprise folks across different business industries as the Chief Evangelist at Postman, and as the API Evangelist–these conversations are the feedback loop for my storytelling and the nutrients required for my soul.
My ego enjoys the public aspect of having a podcast, but really I just love talking to folks who are doing interesting things with APIs across many different business sectors. Alongside profiling of interesting public APIs for my APIs.io search engine, talking to API producers and consumers about their world is what keeps me interested in the API hustle–this is what I want to do for a living when I grow up.
This round of the podcast I am going to keep things simple and focused on what mattered to me the most with Breaking Changes, while also blending it with the other private conversations I’ve had over the years in my API work–here is the short list I am working from:
- Keep the episode short and sweet, with 10-15 minutes being the sweet spot.
- Ensure I capture the metadata and conversations for each episode.
- Keep production costs low (until I can get some help with the show).
- Focus on having conversations with API producers and consumers.
- Allow guests to choose if they want to on or off the record for the show.
I am going to shoot for a rapid cadence, daily if possible, but no guarantees–it will be whatever flow is coming my way, especially until I can afford some help with the outreach, scheduling, production, and distribution. The production process is low, which means the quality will be low–that is OK, my goals are the conversation, data, and the feedback loop. This is why I’ll call it more conversations than a podcast. At some point I can up the production quality if the podcast is a success, and I generate revenue to help bring in a partner in crime.
I recorded the first two episodes with myself. ;-) They are somewhat awkward and stiff, and don’t flow as well as I’d like–that is fine, I will find a rhythm that works. In addition to video distribution on YouTube and audio distribution to Apple, Spotify and SoundCloud (in progress), I distill down the transcript into YAML data that is viewable via a session page, aggregated by question and industry, but also searchable using a simple search box on the home page of my API Evangelist conversations website.
I am just getting started, and API Evangelist Conversations is intended to become a driver of my API Evangelist stories as well as my new services in September of 2024. I have a suite of tactical and strategy API governance services queued up, and these conversations combined with additional API guidance I am currently working on will all work in concert to support the next phase of API Evangelist–stay tuned. To prime the pump I need to start recording a handful of the first episodes, so I wanted to make sure and soft launch the podcast, and provide the ability for folks to join me for an API Evangelist Conversation. Head over to the site, explore the limited content to get a feel for what I am doing, and then submit the form to join me for a conversation–I look forward to speaking.
