Your Podcast Playlist | Featuring Podcasts To Enhance Your Listening Experience
2023 | ISSUE 12
Black is America, Herstory
Name: Dominic Randall Lawson
Bio: Dominic Lawson is a 14-time award-winning podcast host, editor, and producer. In 2016, he was the creator & host of The Startup Life Podcast giving our audience the edge it needs in building their businesses and climbing the corporate ladder interviewing Marc Randolph (Co-Founder & First CEO of Netflix), Tom Golisano (Founder & Chairman of Paychex), and others.
On February 1st, 2022, he launched the Black Is America podcast highlighting little-known African American figures and other stories. In 2023 he spoke on a panel ay SXSW and is a member of Academy of Interactive & Visual Arts.
Name of your company? My wife and I started Owls Education Company. The name was inspired by the bird being associated with education and being smart, stoic, and innovative.
What is your mission/goal? Our goal is to present education in a different way. We do this through curriculum writing, training and in-class consulting. One of those ways is through podcasting encouraging teachers to use it as a teaching tool but to also present new ideas through our shows.
Why is a role like your's important to the podcast space? Our goal is to present education in a different way. We do this through curriculum writing, training and in-class consulting. One of those ways is through podcasting encouraging teachers to use it as a teaching tool but to also present new ideas through our shows.
What made you want to work in the podcast industry? My podcasting journey actually started as a blog back in 2015. I wrote a blog for a year about starting a business and other business topics for a year and my wife suggested podcasting. So in November 2016, I launched "The Startup Life" podcast. I was able to interview the co-founder of Netflix and other esteemed business leaders. Over 300 episodes later I ended it in May 2021. However, the RSS feed is still active so I may go back to it one day. I have some new ideas.
What is your occupation outside of podcasting (if any)? Outside of podcasting? There isn't one lol. I tell people podcasting is my main hustle and my side hustle. Due to the success of "The Startup Life" I was asked by one of the leading behavioral health companies in the country, Meadows Behavioral Healthcare, to be the new host of their long-standing series "Beyond Theory" where we take a ripped from the headlines approach speaking with clinicians about the pressing mental health matters in the world.
What podcasts does your business produce or create? Currently, OWLS jewel is the critically acclaimed "Black Is America"
What's it about? "Black Is America" is about highlighting little-known African American people and stories that have helped shape the story of the United States. )
Why is there a need for an organization like yours? The need is just to see education as beyond the textbooks and beyond the classroom to develop real-world learners.
How long have you been in the podcasting space? seven years in podcasting.
What's one thing you wished you'd known about podcasting when you started? It's interesting because, at different phases of my pod career, it's something different. When I first started, it was how much editing was going to be important. Then at another point, it was "You have to have a presence on social media". Then at another level, it's much you want to monetize, when you do, there are even more expectations and requirements outside of just collecting a check. Recently we just won a Webby and so now it's when you reach a certain level of success (and it doesn't have to be mega-success) that many people want a piece of you. "Hey, come speak here, Come be on my podcast, Hey, let me pick your brain, Hey, you have to be on social more, Hey come/you have to blah blah blah" lol. So I think to people who are trying to gain notoriety in this game, once you get there, so many people are going to want you to do the "extra" stuff that they take you from the work. Set those boundaries and say no. But also know that just like monetization, it also comes with a whole new level of expectations and requirements.
In a few sentences tell me briefly, about one of your favorite episodes or interviews from your podcast? My favorite episode of "Black Is America" will always be it's first, "Lt. John Fox: An All-American Hero. It's a story of a soldier that was surrounded by Germans in a battle in WWII and in an effort to save his friends called military fire on himself killing him and 100 Germans. Reading that story on a random Facebook post is why I started the show and it was the proof of concept that said not only can this show work but that I could bring high-level content to people and make them feel affirmed as they listened. That episode kicked off the level of podcast success I enjoy today.
What are some resources or tips you've learned in your podcast journey? 1. Editing is where the magic happens. I know many podcasters loathe it and I get it. However, the end product you are going to be so grateful for and so will your audience. If 2 hours of editing (Lt. John Fox: An All-American Hero) is going to bring me years of podcasting success, I'll take that. 2. Want to make your content stand out? Here is my working model. Either tell me something I have never heard before or tell me something in a way I have never heard it before. Sure, maybe you have heard the story of MLK before. But what if you told the story of his early days gathering support for his movement that started in New England pool halls (true story) and you used sounds of pool hall ambiance and people having a good time while trying to start a revolution? You do that and then you just may have award-winning content. 3. If you are going to use ChatGPT, make sure it’s as an assistant and not a ghostwriter. This tool just like other tools can be of great assistance to the podcaster. But don't let it replace your voice and who you are. That's what we want.
What are your hopes for the future of podcasting? First and foremost to help people. That's why I started in this game. With "The Startup Life" it was to help people with their businesses by bringing in the top experts. With "Black Is America" it's to help tell our stories and to explain that leaving out our stories in Black America makes the story of the United States incomplete...in the face of books being banned and people in their feelings about black history. Secondly, to be one of the best to ever do it. I have never shied away from that. I love podcasting and telling stories across multiple genres. So I think creating critically acclaimed shows across multiple genres is how I would define what that looks like.
What are the names of some of your favorite podcasts and why? I'm partial to non-fiction narrative shows because that's my format so my guy Al Pete does an amazing show "The Tables Might Wobble" that shares a behind-the-scenes look at what it's like to be a DJ. It's so good. I love a show I work on with my mentor Krystal Hill at Black Love called Man to Man which is a wellness series for men.
Black Her Stories
Host: Michaela Ayers
Black Her Stories reshapes Black history through the inspiring stories of women you may never have heard of. Through nourishing conversations with leading writers, artists, and entertainers, we explore what is possible when creativity meets history - when we tap into our creative power to unlock our purpose. If you need to reconnect with your creative courage, then this show is for you
The Lurk Lounge
Host: Summer Burnley
The Lurk Lounge® is a conversational podcast where we discuss the REAL on all things legal, business, & entrepreneur-related. No fluff. No fronting. No BS. We give you the struggle and success of what it's like to be on this beautiful and mostly crazy entrepreneurial journey.