Episode-459- Two Years of The Survival Podcast
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Hard to believe isn’t it? Two years ago I climbed into my VW Jetta Diesel TDI and began this journey with our very first episode, An Introduction to The Survival Podcast, on that day one person listened, me. Over the next few weeks we got into iTunes, I put a few episodes of the show into “Stumble Upon” and a few other social media sites and just began working my ass off.
I had a full time job back than, actually more than one, I was the owner of one company and in that capacity worked as effectively the Director of Marketing for three others. My days were long, often the nights were as well, business dinners, recruiting events, etc. Some nights I got home at 10-12 at night and would begin the outline for the next show at that point, climb into bed, get up and do it all again. Hell even my wife didn’t know I was doing TSP until about two months into it.
I worked like a mad man and it wasn’t really so I could build TSP into the business it has become it was because at last I was living my true passion, teaching people. During that first month we grew from one listener to about twelve, really just twelve! But in the next month it grew to a few hundred, we set a goal (the early listeners did it with me) grow to 1,000 regular listeners by the end of the year, we hit 1,000 in November of 2008, I gave a free iPod to one of the listeners that was inscribed, “Be an Ant, Not a Grasshopper”. Today more than 14,000 people a day download or stream TSP and about 11-12 thousand are direct consumers via our feed. In fact the show has been downloaded in total now over 2.2 Million Times, and that is only counting via our feed!
Despite my maniac like work ethics that is not really what grew the show though, you did it! The community around the show built it. The forum is a classic example, I wanted no forum. I was known in several forums and didn’t want to appear to be a “forum pirate” (one who sets up a new forum to siphon users from others that are already established, to me these people rank with spammers and phishers as scum of the internet). I wanted TSP to be built on its own merits.
In the fall of 2008 I was actually informed by several members of the audience that I had no choice about a TSP Forum. Seriously! It was basically a threat, you will give us a forum, we need one we will even run it for you but, you are going to do it. So I did it, I installed the forum, I set up the initial boards, recruited about 7 moderators to help the 4 “thugs” that extorted a forum from me and stepped back. The results?
- Over 5100 Real Members (spammers, inactives, etc are terminated by the Mod Squad)
- Over 16 Thousand topics of discussion on the forum so far
- More than 1.9 MILLION posts, I think we will break 2 million today
- My moderators became my “Ad Council” creating the only advertising program I know of where the audience approves sponsors
- I have made friends that I wold trust my life with, yes I mean that
- I met Tiffany and Rich Rockwell as moderators and out Gear Shop was born
Those folks are just highlights. Now every day I wake up and I thank all of you, I honestly say it to all of you verbally generally as I walk my garden and prepare for the day’s show. I try to do each show with an outflow of gratitude and a sincere desire that every day at least one person fundamentally takes at least one step to towards a better life based on something I say on that day.
Last year on the anniversary we had an amazing episode that if you have never heard you should listen to. (Episode 224) Listeners called in and told others what the show had meant to them, what they had changed, the debts they had paid off and the freedom they were feeling. That show changed me, I actually felt the change I was causing, more accurately the change WE WERE CAUSING together across the nation even across the world.
Prior to launching the show there were a few days I looked at my nation and as a former solider and true patriot shed a tear or two for America. These were tears of despair, the nation I loved, the people I loved were dying right in front of me. Their spirits were broken, they began to believe the lie that the answer was outside of themselves. My response was “damn it no!” in fact, “hell no, not while I can still shout to someone, to anyone that this is not our path!, We are still free men and woman, we still are in charge of how we live.” I wondered if anyone would even listen.
People listened, they did a hell of a lot more, they shouted back, they cried out, “I am here, lots of us are here, we are not gone, we will not go away, we are with you”. Something even bigger began to happen other voices cried out, “we are awake now, we were asleep, we believed the lies that told us we couldn’t do it on our own, now we know it is bullshit and we are with you too and WE ARE TELLING OTHERS”.
This year as the anniversary approached I considered doing another call in show with people just saying what they have done, (we will do one don’t worry), but something else happened. Enter Greg Yows of RevolutionRockAndRoll.com who worked with me to create a new song called “The Revolution is You” and this time I asked you guys to send me pictures of you living the new revolution. Gardening, fishing, hunting, building, bee keeping, shooting, teaching, camping, etc. anything that was linked to preserving lost skills and creating self sufficiency and independence.
A total of 650 plus pictures came in (keep sending them, there will be new versions of the video in the future with more pictures) 120 made the cut for the first edition of the video. I worked like a mad man on this one, when it was finished I again paused and shed a tear or two, this time both of hope for my nation and of gratitude for each of you that found the courage to act, to do something, anything that says, “I will control my own life, I will teach others and my children how powerful we all really are.”
Below is the video we created together, if you sent a picture and I did not include it I apologize, the time constraints of the video meant over 500 could not be included. Like I said more versions will come.
Today’s show will be sort of brief, no sponsors, no house keeping, no announcements. Just me telling all of you what this journey has meant to me and a request that you forward this video to as many people as you can. Thank you, all of you who have understood that the choices are our’s and the revolution is you!
With great appreciation to all,
~ Jack
Awesome video!
Great video, Jack! Congratulations on the best two years ever. We started listening about three months after you got started and went back and listened to all of them at that time! We have always been prepping minded and gardened, but you have given us a lot of information and inspiration to keep going! We prepare and no longer fear the future, whatever it turns out to be!
Linda and Michael
Talk about bringing a tear to your eye! Great job Jack. Semper Fi.
The best thing about that video is how it brings this all home. We are all real people, living real lives doing our best. We are not just a bunch of people on a forum listing to the podcasts.
We ARE a community, and seeing some of our members and the children really puts that into perspective.
Thank you Jack and everyone involved.
Keep that snowball rollin
Doc
Freedom and Liberty the American way. <- The Survival Podcast. 3 Cheers to Jack and the Survival Podcast Family.
Amazing job over the last 2 years. I can hardly belive it’s already been that long! Time flew by but in that time, mostly thanks to you, my husband and I have changed our lives dramatically for the better. Closer to debt freedom that we ever have been, happier than we ever have been, and more focused than we ever have been on living that better life! Thank you for everything you’ve done Jack!!!
Congratulations on the past 2 years and great job on the video!
I can’t begin to tell you how much I’ve learned and how proud that I am to be associated with TSP.
Also, ditto to what Docwatmo said.
Thanks again and keep up the great job! I appreciate your time and hard work!
Thanks for, and congratulations on, a fantastic two years! Once I saw the light in early 2009 and started to look for more of it, I stumbled onto the TSP and realized it was EXACTLY what I was trying to find. Thanks again!!
Jack:
Congrats on the two years! I have loved every minute of it and learned more than I can say. Thank you for spreading the message and sharing your knowledge.
Curt
I’m very proud to say that I was one of your early listeners, just after you got on iTunes. You’ve done an amazing job Jack!
Congrats on Two Years Jack! Been listening since Fall 2008. Its been outstanding.
Thank you for everything you have done to help me help myself.
Great job on the video. Been about a year now for listening to the podcast and I love the forum. I’ve learned so much, shared a bit, and am very proud to say I joined the Member Brigade shortly after I started listening to the podcasts. The pictures prove that your message is being heard and plenty of us are taking action to make our lives better. While I don’t always agree with you, I always respect and admire your passion for what you do.
swoods
Congratulations! You’ve truly earned your success and I hope you get even more of it in the next 2 years.
Suggestion for topic: “how I did it”. Basically, how you formulated a grand strategy for where you wanted to take TSP and how you subsequently executed it. Something tells me you didn’t just wing this thing 🙂
Wow, great video, Jack! I’ve been listening a year now, and caught up on the old ones. It has come in handy a few times! My wife gets tired of hearing “Jack says” around the house, but slowly she’s coming around to the prepper way of thinking! Keep up the great work, and congratulations!!
Norm Hardy
Jack, saw you at Spring Thing 2010 but did not have a face to face meet & greet.
Now that I have listened to a few of your podcasts, wish I had.
You keep on a havin fun. You are a trophy instigator & inspirer.
Ron, “bearbait” on Hoodlum forum & yours.
@Ron if you and I are ever in the same place at the same time again, (and I am sure we will be) just come up and say hello. I am always happy to meet anyone that want to say hi.
Very wonderfully made- it tells our story so well. I’m gaining back faith in America- the people that is, so many with so much dedication. I really love this video- Thank you Jack.
Big congrat’s on the video! Sometimes it’s hard to remember that there are many, MANY of us out there – normal people who just want what’s best for our family and our nation. Thanks for all you’ve done and I look forward to what the future of TSP has to teach!
A W E S O M E !!!
Glad to be apart of your website for the last year!
Keep up the great work man!
Thanks so much,
Jeff
http://www.goberkey.com
The video was great! My kids loved it and watched it over and over, especially since they recognized familiar faces and familiar activities. After watching they ran right out into the garden and said, “Wow! Our garden has grown! Can we grow…one of these…and one of these… from the video? I can do/let’s do …this… from the video!”
Thanks for everything Jack!
This is great production Jack. Keep of the good work!
Jack, Keep it up! Congrats on 2 years worth. I could go on, but it ain’t necessary.
Thanks again and DO NOT QUIT!
Shared with all my facebook freinds. Keep up the good work
Awesome Jack…the video really says it all !!!
Jack-
You have done a great thing here, and I’m proud to be a part of your community. You have encouraged me to make some really positive changes. Keep doing what you’re doing!
-Cody
Jack, from the bottom of my heart. Thank you.
I started listening in late July or early August of 2008. I got a link to the show from the AR15.com survival forum.
In the last 2 years you have honestly changed my life. I am a better person now, and my wife and I are on a path to the life we want.
I do have to say I miss the angry rants you did in late 2008!
Congratulations Jack! You inspired my new Website:
http://produceyourownfood.com
“a guerrilla permaculture blog about food, not flowers!”
Great job, Jack. Sending it out to my contacts. Let’s make it viral!
Jack
Excellent notes of encouragement. I know my personal devotions have been focusing on joy (an attribute independent of circumstances) and happiness (dependant on circumstances) so your exhortations to gratitude were right on the marks.
Your rant about Repubicans and Demoncrats “all being in the same boat and we sink or swim together” missed the mark inasmuch as a sizable cadre of them are drilling holes in the bottom of the boat. In short, they are trying to sink the boat. When “leaders” are apparently purposely working toward the destruction of liberty and prosperity, your call to revolution surely strikes a chord. I believe the tipping point is long passed, so a prepping mindset makes more sense than ever.
Blackfedora
@Chad I can’t wait to see what you do with it.
Happy anniversary Jack! Love the video! Looking forward to another year of great shows!
I’m always late for the comments. Congrats Jack! I love the video and am proud to have had a hand in it. Let’s do it again (workin’ on the one we have discussed as we speak).
Stay true-
Gregg
Gregg – great song!
Jack – Great video. First found you about 18 months ago, and I haven’t missed a podcast since. Thanks for all your hard work. You are making the revolution happen! Keep it up!
Doc K
Jack:
I came in a bit late (Sept ’08) but was “hooked” right away.
Thank you for doing what you are doing. (Can’t believe it’s been 2 years!) Great video!!
The song: “We are Family” comes to mind for some reason. Hmmm……………
vade ad formicam…Lead us as you lead yourself. Thank you for having the guts and compassion to do what you do everyday. It has awakened things in myself, that I have not visited since childhood. I thank you now, and I shall thank you in silence when I am free.
SteveandTracyinKy
AWESOME. Just AWESOME!
Jack, THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU.
Keep on doing what you’re doing. You are truly an inspiration in so many ways, as are a very large number of your listeners.
I’m proud to count myself among them, right from the point you got on iTunes. That video is just AWESOME.
Andy
What a great show. God bless you Jack!
I am moved!!!
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I Love this video!!!!!!!!!!!!
Loved the video Jack & the best part was seeing my precious Granddaughter in it! She’s the one in the cowboy hat riding on the horse.
I can’t wait to see your next video with more of the pictures of my comrades from here at TSP!
Viva La Revolution 🙂
Jack,
You made me cry, your letter of appreciation to your listeners sent tears running down my face. You are an inspiration to my Husband and I, not only in “Prepping” but in living… the shows that go in to how to earn a living and love what you do, business ideas, and alike are just as important to us, if not more important than your “rice & beans” shows. You are truly a inspiration and a revolutionary man! THANK YOU JACK… thank you!
Jack, this is just what I needed to share your site with friends and family. Great Job! I would love to see another 200 photos. I feel like we are family…
Great job, Jack. I,ve been listening since show #9.
A lot has changed for the better since listening. Since turning 50 this year, I’d have to say my favorite is Preparedness as a retirement plan. My daughter is getting married next year and she’s going to be putting most of those plans into action!
Thanks!!!
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