 Kuuuqtอm zi. And what is it evolving to? This is the conversation that we are going have today. I am joined by one amazing podcaster by the name Kallab Chalo who runs the Blind Eye podcast. Karim? Ka leb? Glad to have you with us. You are here. Tuanziwa api lemi? Lemi have you introduce yourself the best way you are? I will introduce you but yes. The head. First of all I am a child of god. That is how I introduce myself now is... But I am a full-time podcaster and I work in a church. You work in a church? Yes, as one of the podcast managers. You run the podcast for my church and your church. Oh, that's cool. And my podcast too. Do people hire you to run theirs or set up a podcast? It's interesting. The kind of set up that I have is we normally go to record... One of my friends, his name is Yusembe, has a full set of podcast microphones and everything. And cameras and everything. So yeah, that's why I go record my podcast. And the church has its own set up similar like this. Okay. So when you talk about set up, we're talking about the physical set up. The physical set up. Microphones or the seats. You've been comfortable and everything. Yeah. Okay. All right. So where do we start? Let's start with your podcast. Before we talk about podcasts in general. Yeah. When did you start your podcast and why did you say the need to have a podcast? So mine I started around 2020 during COVID. Oh, during COVID? Yeah. I really had a passion about talking about a lot of things. One of my friends used to encourage me like, I know you talk about a lot this and this. Why can't you start a podcast about it? So I asked him what is a podcast because I didn't know what a podcast is back then. Like I didn't know at all. He introduced me to it, show me the ropes. Then he decided to sponsor me and bought me two microphones which I started with. And it's been a journey since then. Okay. First of all, I think I need friends like that. I'm changing my cycle of friends. Yeah. That's really nice. We should help you out. Because if they see someone who sees something in you and then helps you tap into that potential that you have in you to explore it. I think that's really nice. So your podcast, tell us about it. What do you talk about? So my first season I talked about mental health issues. I realized during COVID a lot of mental health issues were rising because the people were at home doing nothing. And parents were at home. So children and deserve issues, they came up during that time. So I saw the need of talking about mental health issues and educating my... I was a teen back then and the younger youth about mental health issues. So yeah, that's what I did in my first season. It went to ten episodes. I did ten episodes. So you do your podcast in seasons. Yes, seasons. I think most people do it in seasons. So for that particular one, the first one you did in ten episodes? I did ten episodes. Just mental health issues and because I had friends who were in that place. Some of them are committed suicide. So I was like, eh, enough is enough. We need to have a conversation about this thing. Let's talk about that a little bit because that's also something that you were talking about with my co-host just earlier on on mental health and it's something that everyone's talking about now. So what is your take as a youth yourself and something that was close to you? So what were you talking about in that particular podcast with friends? We talked about gas lighting. We talked about how depression in high school, how teachers can make you feel bad about yourself especially when they tell you you won't do anything, you're not enough and everything. And then bullying and everything. So even the politics in Kenya how sometimes it affects our mental state and the kind of things that we engage ourselves in. So that's one of the things I used to talk about. And I had a friend who did psychology, his name is Nick. So he came on board with me. So he started talking about how to surpass and get help and he actually organized different people who help. Like these are money, counseling. They kind of place institutions that you can get help from. So it was really interesting to see people actually tuning in and listening and even people engaging in the conversation. I like that. I was actually coming to that. How was the response? How do you get feedback from a podcast by the way? How was the reception life? The feedback. When you use Spotify for podcasters there's normally a place where you can allow people to comment. So from the comments you get the response or Instagram. I used to post on Instagram. I have a page on Instagram. So I used to post and post questions on Instagram and people would respond. So it got more attraction through that. Like especially Instagram. I got a lot of feedback from Instagram mostly. And my WhatsApp too of course. Alright. I love it. So it's podcast. It's on Spotify yes. But you use multiple platforms to sell it and people consume it differently because if I'm more on Spotify then I can get it on Instagram. Then I have your number. So one or the other I still consume your content. I think that's the beauty of multimedia now. The digital media. There are so many different ways of you getting content. Tell us about podcasts. A podcaster's journey. How is it fast for someone to start a podcast? Someone who's interested in podcasting. What do they need to do? How do they need to go about it? Do you go live? Is it usually required there? Give us the details of it. So for example, my friend bought me microphones. So after him bought me the microphones. I didn't know like I didn't do my full research on podcasting. But later on I realized this is something that I need to do for research on. So after having the microphones and everything you definitely need the microphones. The microphones are the key. They had to be. Yeah, the key. And for the microphone, I can advise you to buy a lapel mic because some of my friends started lapel mics because the audio quality is supposed to be... Key. Because people are just listening. People are just listening. So if the sound is bad, then I'm not consuming your content. Definitely. Alright. What types of mics are best? Rod microphones. Rod microphones. What they're quite expensive. That's one. That's one microphone. One. So you need money. You need a lot of money and funding. But that's what I'm saying. If you can't afford, then start with a lapel microphone because a lapel microphone is easier to access nowadays. And if you have a good phone, then you're good to go. Because if you have a good phone. And then a room that is not noisy. Yeah, is eco-friendly. And then you're set. Another thing, if you have people who can help you out. Like if you have friends or in the media sector. They can help you to set up how you can go about it. Because most of my friends are in media. So they help me out. Now we have good networks. We're talking about networks. It helped me a lot. Like having friends even coming on board to help me out. Alright. So the journey, it's not easy. I can tell you for a fact. You won't get paid easily. Especially with Spotify. I think in Africa they are not much invested yet. But we have a lot of investors right now in Kenya. Baraza Media Lab. There is... Like the African podcasters who are making it happen for us right now. Especially Baraza Media Lab. So how are they helping you exactly? How are they helping podcasters? They have a huge space. A mass space of all types of equipments. Cameras. And all you need to is just to get a membership card. And then that's it. You can record for a whole year. And they do your editing for your video and your audio. Like the best right now. I know they are really big Baraza Media Lab. But the membership is around 12,000. Yeah 12,000. I think that's affordable. If you can't afford... And we are not advertising or sponsoring. So if you can't buy your equipments, you just go there and you get everything that you need. Which is quite nice. So that helps. And if you have friends like me. Of course. They can help you. So it's a good space to be around. Especially the moment I entered in the podcasting world. So following Adele and Mantalk. You see those kind of people help me throughout to navigate my own space. The kind of contact they are producing is not the kind of contact. But we are in the same space. So the more we engage together the more we help each other out to navigate this space together. By engaging you mean you are listening into them. Yeah listening to the audio. Or do you actually are in contact with them? One Adele. She is helping me out with some few things. But her kind of podcasting is storytelling. Which is so interesting. Mine is being my friend Toki. Inviting other friends to come on board and talk with us. Like having a chat. That's quite interesting. So you have learned. I am getting the aspect of also just learning from those that are already there. For a starter if you are just starting then you need to engage with others. The content of others and learn from them. That helps you. And getting a listenership now for podcasting. How do you go about it? For Spotify for podcasters. It helps you spread your content in different platforms. So there is Apple Music. There is Deezer. And all those listening platforms. So it helps you spread your content there. But if you want to grow your listenership you have to be consistent. That consistency is good. So a lot of people will post once. And then they see they have two listeners. Then they give up. Me is the first time I had two listeners. Myself and my friend. Two listeners. But it grew from two. Right now I am at 100k listeners. Look at that. So I was like I didn't see that coming for myself. I had to keep on posting. Keep on posting. And telling my friend to repost. When my friend reposts. So it gets more attraction towards it. So that's how you grow your listenership. By spreading your content out. Because if you keep it to yourself. Then how is it growing first of all. And how your marketing strategy. Right now I am looking at starting my website for the podcast. So that we start going live. There is another platform called Rambo. Which is a very good platform. Especially for young guys. If you want to go live stream and get paid. At the same time. Spotify doesn't give the opportunity to go live. You can actually go live when you are recording. So there is no space for editing. If you are a person who wants to edit your content. There is no space for editing. So everything goes. Whatever you say goes live. Clear. So it depends on your preference. Exactly. So you can pre-record then edit it. Then post on Spotify. Because it has a space for posting directly. Okay. So now you are looking to expand yourself. You are looking to get your website. And then go to the website. And then start going live. To get more traction at the same time. Because when you go live you get paid for. Is it the numbers? Yeah. That's my goal now. That's what I'm heading towards too. All right. So now currently. Does it pay Spotify with your 100k viewers? Do you get paid for it? Certainly not yet. In him can you think Spotify is not quite invested yet. In Africa. Yeah, in Africa. But that's what I'm saying. Other people who are sharing as much as to make it possible for Africans to get paid for their content. But how am I getting paid? My job and myself. You job and yourself? I'm making sure that I invest as much as I can in myself to make content out instead of waiting for other people to pay me for it. So yeah. I have to be with myself first. So you have a job that you do apart from podcasting. Okay, investing in yourself. I love that. Apart from Spotify what other streaming platforms would you recommend for podcasters? Podcasters. I don't know. I forgot the name but it's one platform. But it's upcoming. Send your content there. What is it name? I forgot the name of this platform. I think Sema Box. Sema Box they're coming up with their own platform. It's coming up. I'm not sure when but they're opening an app for Africans to stream live their content and get paid for it. That's what I'm saying. There are people who are actually investing in this. So it's a space that's actually growing and there's potential in it for payment and making money in the creative economy. Because this is a creative economy. So there's potential. A lot of potential in it, right? So now I'm talking about diversifying your content. So we've seen podcasts that are live on other digital platforms like it would be it's just the mics you and your YouTube. So how do we differentiate podcasting from vlogging again? How would you define differentiating? I don't know. With this current generation it's just the people who want to see video people who want to listen to just audio so you have to go with the kind of trend that is going through. For example right now in Kenya people live the live visual like they love seeing rather than listening. So most people YouTube when I'm doing my own setup I'll have to have cameras around so that people actually see me as I talk and at the same time the same content that I've created I put it on audio but for me I'm kind of old fashioned nowadays I prefer audio rather than visual because with audio there's more storyline like the kind of authentic it is like people listening it's just amazing it's different, it's a very different experience listening to music when I'm cooking or when I'm doing my own things in the car there's traffic instead of watching I just listen you can just have your earphones on and listen exactly rather than having something to watch but the kind of generation that we're in right now people want to see Who is this voice behind this voice but to me I'm trying I didn't post a lot of videos on YouTube I don't know why I think you're sure I have a lot of videos pending that you have to post but all of the contents it's in Spotify already I don't know when you get it when you are ready for YouTube and the video there are some people it's the same for journalists with TV and radio some just prefer radio you're very authentic and I get that bit but now because I know with audio you have to be very descriptive for TV I can just move my hands and you can just see my face but for audio you need extra how do you give this extra the good thing I have a good co-host and my manager he is very quite loud his name is Jerry this guy is the director when you have a conversation there is that kind of freedom that we have we as friends we can talk about anything so the moment we start talking we haven't seen each other we see each other on a daily but at the same time when we meet and sit down and have a conversation about things there is something different that happens it's just magical I can see the word just magical because the kind of conversations people are tapping into right now it's different and nice at the same time I will tell young guys if you want to invest or want to join the audio space please join the audio space rather than visual because audio everything that's for you to decide which friend do you prefer my co-host would agree with you because he loves radio a lot but for some reason I prefer visuals myself but I wouldn't mind both so anyway now to content creation coming up with something that you want to talk about because you also need to know how do you come up with content that will bring traction to your podcast that will impact or what's your aim when you come up with content is it impact, is it entertainment what exactly do you aim at I aim mostly in impact because impact is everything one day I can share this one day I was just randomly walking and then somebody approached me and told me I've been listening to your podcast actually it's helping me out and she told me I get you, I understand you I was like ooh so that's the kind of thing that makes me want to continue producing the content I have friends who are actually good people on coming up with content they script everything from A to Z directly so this is what we are talking about and this is how we should go about it expressing myself as an individual I love that, tell me about it so you have a team I have a team, I don't work alone you don't work alone so you have a team and then they script so before you actually go and just people just don't go and talk so you decide before hand what you want to talk about you script by scripting I know it's not one to one but it's sort of an outline of what you want to talk about exactly so for example my second season which I did, I finished last year we were talking about finding God so my manager decided there is a conversation especially young people are trying to find something in their lives so we decided because personally I was struggling with my Christian work so I was like oh we should talk about actually finding God in different spaces that are going through and then we talk about adulting adulting is very hard right now complicated at the same time finding God in that space of growing as an individual so when he came up he was like oh this is actually really nice I didn't see this coming what so who comes up with the question my manager Jerry then you guys now we sit down we go through it first of all and see how we will go about it and then we sit down he gives us the freedom of even opening up and expressing ourselves expressing yourself the best way you can so that it's authentic so it's something you know that you can relate to so when you relate to it then people can also relate to it people relate to it and that's how you get people consuming your content the episodes the seasons that you've had since 20 20 that's a long time ago almost 4 years now 24 will be the 4th so what has been your best season a content that you created and then you tell us why I think I'm not yet in my best season but I can say my season 2 was like the oh moment the ah moment to follow my heart like talking about God because I'm not a lot of young guys talk about God right now people are in different religions and everything but my oh moment I'm saying my ah moment is because we went to that direction because we had a debate do we go in this direction or don't we go in this direction will people listen in or won't people listen in will people stop following us but you know I got a lot of criticism but at the same time oh so you guys actually listen actually listen so it makes me want to produce more of that content because they actually listen I'm not listening but they actually listen okay so even getting criticism means the people are listening in that's feedback okay very interesting and now back to consistency how do you maintain consistency or how before that how many types do you post in like a week or in a month so for us you normally record once every month we record like let's say for example 10 episodes at one day so it's a full day of recording we just block your day and then from that daily every week you post you post you post you post so you post weekly do you have a specific on Fridays you normally post on Fridays or Saturdays depends on if you have the audio edited earlier but you'll find by Friday on Saturdays you normally post okay so there's that you know someone will say oh we don't have time nini nini but just block a day block a day it's very flexible block a day that is flexible and talk about everything now you post it at your own time at your own time to convenience so that's okay that's good so what is it about consistency why should I be consistent why should I not post this week failed to post next week what's the power of consistency the power of consistency is that she will get more people listening and people will be loyal to you because automatically on Fridays I always listen to this type of podcast so on Fridays automatically when I post somebody who has been following me will know oh on Fridays there's something out for me to listen in so they will definitely go and listen in so the more people listen in the more you get traction and you personally will grow as an individual because you want to produce more content for them to listen in and it makes you accountable you know that for your listeners it's like you have been employed I have to deliver people are following me so expecting something from me okay that's something and how do you you've talked about growth so how do you ensure that you're growing yourself so that you just don't come and give people rumors okay you can give I don't post because it can be about anything but you can be a credible source of information how do you ensure you grow know exactly where your source is coming from don't just go there and just talking randomly because people will have different opinions but you have to go research about what you want to talk about research is key so that you can grow as a person because if you don't research about anything then it means you're lacking information so the kind of information that you're giving out is drawn so you have to do your research so that you can give the right information to people alright great so as we finish where do you see the podcasting space going or evolving to oh I see it becoming something big unexpected especially in Africa it's something unexpected I didn't see it becoming a big thing as it is right now but it's the next big thing so I'll tell every young person to invest on it because in the next 5 years trust me people making billions from that thing billions of cash from it so this is the right place this is the right place to invest alright good good enough I think that's a good place to close it unless you want to add something you're good for your podcast especially Spotify, Apple Music Deezer and Instagram of course definitely at the blind eye podcast the blind eye please spell the blind eye because I know it's not the it's the blind eye what it does and underscore in between the eye and the L the N in between the blind like there will have underscore eye people spell it the blind eye but it's the blind eye however you want to as long as you get there ok across all social media platforms all social medias even on twitter on twitter and x xnow this is called x we have moved on ok thank you very much Caleb for coming on board and sharing this amazing insights we will definitely follow your podcast and listen to your content thanks so much alright that has been Caleb Chalo he is the one who runs the blind eye podcast follow him across all platforms, Spotify get him on Instagram and wherever I'm sure when you get to Instagram or Spotify you'll know where the other where the other platforms are so make sure you follow him for that now we get to take a short break and then brand circle will be coming up next with another interesting conversation so stick with us