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Bonus Episode: Thank you for a GREAT first month!

Summary

In this special bonus episode, host Jonathan Cottrell celebrates the first month of Developer Tea. He expresses his gratitude to the listeners, revealing that the podcast has been downloaded nearly 100,000 times in its first month, with listeners in over 120 countries and a new download occurring every 30 seconds. He confirms the show’s release schedule will continue on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and thanks listeners for their direct feedback on aspects like audio levels and interview formats.

Cottrell shares the origin story of the podcast, explaining he started it with no prior podcasting experience to fill a need for short, digestible content during a tea break. He emphasizes that the show’s short format allows listeners to skip episodes without missing major continuity, giving him freedom to experiment with different content types like interviews.

The core of the episode becomes a motivational message to aspiring creators. Cottrell encourages listeners who are considering starting a podcast, blog, YouTube channel, book, or development company to simply take the first step. He stresses that starting is the most important part and that one doesn’t need extensive experience or special equipment to begin creating valuable content.

He advises new creators to immediately surround themselves with smart, challenging people who are better at what they want to do, as this is the quickest path to growth. Using a metaphor about gravity and chairs, he illustrates that being around people who challenge you is essential for improvement, both as a professional and as a human being.

Cottrell passionately argues that every developer has a valuable voice worth sharing, regardless of their background, age, or experience level. He asserts that people want to hear what others have to say precisely because they are human beings with unique perspectives. The episode concludes with an invitation for listeners to support the show through donations and a reaffirmation of the show’s purpose: to provide valuable content during short breaks.

Topic Timeline

  • 00:00:00 — Introduction and celebration of the first month — Jonathan Cottrell introduces this special episode dedicated to reflecting on Developer Tea’s first month. He explains this isn’t a regular interview or topic episode but a thank you to listeners. He shares his initial motivation for creating the podcast: to fill the need for a short show to listen to during a tea break.
  • 00:01:10 — Revealing impressive first-month listener statistics — Cottrell shares the overwhelming response to the podcast. He reveals that on the day of recording, over 7,600 people listened, and in the first month, there have been nearly 100,000 downloads. He gives credit for this success entirely to the listeners and expresses his sincere gratitude.
  • 00:02:18 — Future plans and release schedule confirmation — Cottrell confirms his plans to continue the show and announces he has locked in a release schedule of Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. He mentions that episodes will be available on podcast apps and directly on developertea.com. He also addresses listener feedback about audio levels and interview preferences, stating he’ll trust his gut while acknowledging listeners can skip episodes they’re not interested in.
  • 00:04:36 — Encouragement for aspiring creators to take the first step — This becomes the central message of the episode. Cottrell directly addresses listeners who are considering starting any creative project—a podcast, blog, YouTube channel, or company. He strongly encourages them to take the first step, emphasizing that starting is the most important part. He uses his own lack of podcasting experience as proof that anyone can begin.
  • 00:05:48 — The importance of surrounding yourself with challenging people — Cottrell advises that after taking the first step, creators should immediately surround themselves with smart people who are better than them at what they want to do. He explains this is the quickest way to learn and grow. He uses a chair and gravity metaphor to illustrate that being around people who challenge you pulls you upward, essential for becoming a better programmer and human being.
  • 00:08:03 — Affirming that every developer’s voice is valuable — Cottrell passionately counters feelings of inferiority that might hold potential creators back. He states unequivocally that what every developer has to say is valuable, and people want to hear it. He argues that value doesn’t come from massive experience, successful startups, or published books, but from one’s unique human perspective. He encourages sharing knowledge even if one feels unqualified.
  • 00:10:04 — Final inspiring statistics and call to action — Cottrell shares more staggering stats: a new person downloads the show every 30 seconds, and there are listeners in over 120 countries. He reiterates that he shares this not to brag, but to demonstrate that anyone can create something worth consuming. His final challenge is for listeners to start creating and sharing their knowledge today, doing things they feel unqualified to do.
  • 00:11:16 — Closing thanks and donation information — Cottrell thanks listeners for their time and hopes they continue listening. He mentions a new way to support the show through monthly donations starting at 99 cents via developertea.com/donate. He expresses sincere appreciation for any support, as it makes a huge difference for the show, and signs off with the show’s signature closing.

Episode Info

  • Podcast: Developer Tea
  • Author: Jonathan Cutrell
  • Category: Technology Business Careers Society & Culture
  • Published: 2015-02-07T04:10:00Z
  • Duration: 00:12:08

References

Podcast Info

Transcript

[00:00:00] Hey everyone, and welcome to Developer Tea. My name is Jonathan Cottrell, and today I’m

[00:00:06] not interviewing anyone, and I’m not talking about a specific topic. This is actually just

[00:00:12] a special episode to talk about the last month, the first month of Developer Tea. It has been

[00:00:21] just an awesome, awesome experience getting this podcast started up, and I wanted to talk

[00:00:27] to you guys about how everything has gone, and maybe just talk a little bit about the

[00:00:33] plans for this podcast. I didn’t have a plan for this podcast when I first started out.

[00:00:38] I just wanted to make a podcast that I talked about in the first episode that fills that

[00:00:45] need for the short podcast that I can listen to on my tea break. I didn’t use the word

[00:00:54] coffee because there’s so many things that already use that word, and quite honestly,

[00:00:57] I wanted you guys to be able to find me a little bit easier. So there’s your marketing

[00:01:02] hack for the day, but we’re going to move on. It’s been incredible because there’s just

[00:01:10] been an overwhelming response from all of you people. There have been nearly 90,000,

[00:01:22] let me look at the numbers. Today, just today, at the time of the recording of this podcast,

[00:01:31] which is one day after the one month marker, just today, I have seen 7,613 of you listen

[00:01:43] to this show. That is an incredible number of people. Over 90,000, nearly 100,000 people

[00:01:51] in this very first month of launching developer tea. I can’t take credit for that because

[00:01:59] I’m not the one who is doing those listens. You are. You guys are the ones who are listening

[00:02:04] to this show. I wanted to make just a dedicated show just to thank you. I know that this is

[00:02:12] a weird day to deliver it on, but I wanted to go ahead and make this show to thank you.

[00:02:18] I also wanted to talk a little bit about the plans for the show. I plan on keeping on doing

[00:02:24] this show. Hopefully you could have guessed that part. I think that I’ve locked in a schedule.

[00:02:31] If you haven’t already noticed, I’ve been releasing these episodes on Monday, Wednesday,

[00:02:36] and Friday. So you can look forward to developer tea being released to your phone, to whatever

[00:02:44] podcast listening application you use. Developer tea will be on that podcast listening application

[00:02:50] on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Unless, of course, like Stitcher recently did, the

[00:02:58] application back end goes down or something like that. At which point you can actually go

[00:03:04] to developertea.com and listen to the episode there just like you would on your podcast

[00:03:12] application. I wanted to just take a few minutes and thank all of the people who have reached out

[00:03:19] to me directly. There’s been people on Twitter. There’s been people to email addresses. There’s

[00:03:26] been people who signed up on the email list, which by the way, if you haven’t signed up for,

[00:03:30] you can go to developertea.com and sign up for the email list there. All of you have given me

[00:03:37] suggestions. You’ve talked about how my voice is too quiet sometimes. I’m taking that into

[00:03:42] account. Somebody said they did like the interviews and somebody else said they didn’t like the

[00:03:47] interviews. So I got to kind of go with my gut on that one. I really enjoy meeting these people.

[00:03:53] I will probably continue doing interviews. But you know what? The cool thing about this show,

[00:03:57] and I think the cool thing for you about this show is that if you miss one, it’s not a big deal.

[00:04:05] The show is so short that you can skip one and in just in two days or at most three days,

[00:04:13] there’s going to be another episode that comes out. So if you don’t want to listen to a particular

[00:04:18] interview, then just skip it. No big deal. My feelings aren’t going to be hurt. Hopefully

[00:04:24] yours won’t be hurt either. So all of that to say, this show has just been the biggest surprise to

[00:04:31] me. When people start out with these kinds of things, and I encourage you, by the way,

[00:04:36] perhaps this is the important part of this particular episode. If you are considering

[00:04:44] doing a podcast or creating a blog or starting a screencast channel on YouTube or writing a book,

[00:04:52] I don’t know. If you’re considering starting a development company, I encourage you to take the

[00:04:59] first step. Just take the first step. I know that you hear this probably a lot if you listen

[00:05:04] to other podcasts. Starting is the most important part, and I can attest to that. I created this

[00:05:11] podcast with no podcasting experience whatsoever. I’m kind of revealing my cards here a little bit,

[00:05:18] but this is the first podcast I’ve ever recorded in my entire life. And you know what? You can do

[00:05:24] the same. You may not have the same equipment that I have. I bought all of this equipment

[00:05:30] because I used to record music. You may not have all of the same experience that I have,

[00:05:36] although it wouldn’t take you long to gain it. I haven’t been in this industry probably much

[00:05:41] longer than most of you. I have been working with a lot of really smart people though. So

[00:05:48] that is the other part of this. If you’re considering starting something, take that first

[00:05:52] step. Go ahead and start as soon as you can, even if it’s just a small step, and immediately

[00:05:59] begin to surround yourself with smart people who are doing what you want to do better than

[00:06:04] you’re doing it yourself. That is the quickest way to learn, is to look around you, realize that

[00:06:11] you are inferior in so many ways, and to just naturally start picking up on ways that you can

[00:06:19] become better by the people who are better at what you want to do. It’s very simple. There’s

[00:06:26] a lot of metaphors to describe this phenomenon, but basically think about it like this. You’re

[00:06:31] standing on a chair, and it’s easier to pull someone down from a chair than it is for someone

[00:06:38] on the chair to pull someone up. And that has to do with gravity, so there’s nothing particularly

[00:06:44] profound about that, but the metaphor still holds up that if you are the one who is standing on the

[00:06:50] chair and you’re surrounding yourself with people who are below you, and when I say below you, I

[00:06:55] mean if you aren’t surrounding yourself with people who are going to challenge you, they don’t

[00:07:00] have to be smarter than you to challenge you, right? They don’t have to be a better human being

[00:07:06] to challenge you. If you are not surrounding yourself in a situation where you are challenged,

[00:07:12] let’s put it that way, then how are you going to be challenged, right? Maybe you can

[00:07:18] challenge yourself, but ultimately you need to be surrounding yourself with people who are going

[00:07:23] to challenge you. So take that first step, and then immediately begin, I mean even before you

[00:07:29] take the first step, you can start surrounding yourself with people who are going to constantly

[00:07:34] be pushing you forward and challenging you. At Whiteboard, I have some of the most incredible

[00:07:39] people that I’m working with, and they are challenging me every single day to be a better

[00:07:46] leader, to be a better coder, to be a better human being in general, and that is just essential

[00:07:55] to growth and becoming a better programmer, especially a better human. So yeah, if you are

[00:08:03] considering doing something like what I have done and just stepping out and creating some kind of

[00:08:09] content, especially content creators, if you feel inferior, if you feel like you don’t have a voice,

[00:08:15] if you feel like what you have to say isn’t valuable, I can be the very first person to tell

[00:08:20] you that is absolutely not true. What you have to say is valuable, and the reason why I know that

[00:08:26] is because I want to hear what you have to say. Personally, I want to hear what other developers

[00:08:33] have to say. You have a valuable voice. There is nobody who will tell you otherwise that you

[00:08:42] should be listening to. Your voice is valuable. It doesn’t matter. As I said in a previous episode,

[00:08:49] it doesn’t matter. I guess that episode hasn’t aired yet. It doesn’t matter what background you

[00:08:57] come from. It doesn’t matter how old you are. It doesn’t matter what level of experience you have,

[00:09:02] although people who are more experienced obviously tend to be right more often.

[00:09:09] I guess that’s actually not true. People who are more experienced tend to know when they’re wrong

[00:09:14] more often. That’s probably a better way of putting that. So again, none of that stuff matters. What

[00:09:22] matters is you have something to say, and people want to hear it. And the reason people want to

[00:09:27] hear it is because you’re a human being. You don’t have to have some massive amount of

[00:09:32] experience. You don’t have to have created a million dollar startup. You don’t have to

[00:09:38] have 30 years of experience as a programmer. You don’t have to have written three books,

[00:09:45] or even one book for that matter. And just like me, you don’t have to have had a podcast before.

[00:09:51] You don’t have to have had screencasts before. You can start creating something of value

[00:09:57] immediately. I’m going to share a few stats with you. One new person is downloading this show

[00:10:04] every 30 seconds. That’s an incredible statistic to me. It kind of challenges me. You all are

[00:10:12] challenging me to make sure that I’m putting out a fantastic show. There are people in over 120

[00:10:23] countries, 120 countries that are listening to developer tea. Now I’m saying all this not to

[00:10:30] brag. I don’t have anything to brag about. I’m saying it to tell you, you can step out yourself.

[00:10:37] You can step out and produce something that is worth listening to, that is worth reading.

[00:10:42] That is worth watching. And people will listen. If you care about what you’re saying,

[00:10:50] people will care about what you are saying. So that’s my challenge to you. Step out,

[00:10:55] start creating, start sharing your knowledge with other people. Do the thing that you feel like you

[00:11:02] are totally not qualified to do. Go ahead and start today. Or if you’re about to go to bed,

[00:11:10] start tomorrow. Thank you so much for listening to this show. I can’t tell you how much I

[00:11:16] appreciate your time. And I hope that you continue to listen to this show. If, by the way,

[00:11:22] you are enjoying this show. I released a way of supporting developer tea. If you go to

[00:11:28] developertea.com, front slash donate, there is a way that you can give to me monthly. Now I’ve

[00:11:35] set it up to where you can actually give to me at around 99 cents a month. You can give me 3.99.

[00:11:43] It doesn’t even matter. 99 cents a month. It makes a huge difference for the show. And I would

[00:11:50] sincerely appreciate it. Thank you for listening to the show. And until next time, enjoy your tea.

[00:12:05] Thank you.

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