The 200th Episode: It started with Love, Joy, Peace

We are excited here at Rogue Tulips to celebrate our 200th podcast episode! It’s quite an achievement when you look at the stats: DemandSage reports that "there are over 5 million podcasts." But according to Podcastpage, "there are about 700k active podcasts. The term 'Active' is a little hard to define. If we only look at podcasts that released at least one episode in 2022, the number is about 500,000." 

That’s in line with what podcast marketing expert Serena Gay shared with us in Season 3, Episode 93, March 29, 2021. I asked her if the information I had was correct, that most podcasts don’t last much past 6 months. Her reply was, “No, most podcasts don’t last past 6 episodes.”

Keeping in mind what Serena shared, and reading the data confirms something else I learned from experience: It’s easy to start something but it’s hard to stick with it. Doing one podcast a week for 5 seasons is a lot of effort and commitment, and considering we do it all in-house makes me even prouder of our achievement.

Another fun fact I learned reading data on podcasts is this: While I knew “The Joe Rogan Experience” was the number one podcast in the world, I didn’t know that he only does one episode per week. That’s what we do so we must be on to something! [I know some people don’t like Joe Rogan but some people don’t like me either.]

Bringing it back to the title of this week’s message, it all started with Love, Joy, Peace. We started our podcast as a web series on YouTube because my friend Agnes Amos-Coleman and I would have long, deep, complex conversations about business, society, and how people treat each other. One day I suggested we start recording our conversations to share with the world and that is how it all began: because we both believed that we could bring love, joy, peace to our workplaces and to the world at large.

Agnes has published several books, one of which is “Transforming Business Through Godly Governance.” The book content is presented in 3 sections, and the first section is Love, Joy, Peace. We decided to launch a 3-part series based on her book content.

Our first episode was aired on April 8, 2019, and the title was Transforming Business Part 1: Love, Joy, Peace. The rest, as they say, is history.

Originally the podcast was titled “Chatting with Agnes & Cecilia,” and it was the two of us discussing different topics. After a while, we decided to have one guest per month – that turned into guests every week! Our very first guest was Cathy Pales, Executive Leadership Coach, and her topic was “Gender and Leadership” (Season 1, Episode 4, aired April 29, 2019).

The podcast became more sophisticated over time as we honed our hosting/interview skills, expanded our guest roster, and evolved our brand. The podcast became “Chatting with Agnes & Cecilia: Nonprofit Conversations” to reflect our focus on featuring thought leaders from across the world. Sadly, Agnes decided to leave the podcast in 2022 but for happy things: a new job and to focus on her role as Mom to her little boy. When she left, the podcast became “Nonprofit Conversations.”

We shifted to Radio Free 501c this year to bring the podcast brand “home” to the Rogue Tulips brand as we fully integrated The 501c League education program into the company. Radio Free 501c is also the name of our League blog where we share our weekly messages. Bringing our brand together feels right and like all things are clicking into place.

We are pleased to reach this major milestone of 200 podcast episodes in a year full of milestones: it is the 20th anniversary of when I started consulting, and the 5th anniversary of the founding of Rogue Tulips Consulting.

To celebrate the 200th episode, which airs on Monday, June 19, I invited Michael Butera, Founder of Association ActiVision and host of the Association Futures podcast, to guest host and interview me. It was fun being in the guest chair for a change! Listen and let me know what you think. 

Thanks to everyone who has been part of this journey to 200: Agnes Amos-Coleman, my co-host and friend; Fern Carbonell, my friend and colleague who helps me make it happen; Scott Morris, my friend and colleague who guest hosted a few times when Agnes couldn’t make it; to all my guests, and to all the people who listen and kindly tell me they enjoy it.

This is Radio Free 501c wishing you Love, Joy, Peace. I’m Cecilia Sepp. Thanks for listening!