All Play w/ Ryan Hefner

In this episode I dig into why I decided to build a custom site for this podcast vs. using one of the templated sites that TransistorFM offers. Part of it is based on some of my ideas about utilizing platforms to push traffic back to sites that you own. The other part of it was I just had an idea of what I wanted the site to look like, and how I wanted it to function, and I couldn’t suppress the urge from just building it myself.
I also explain how I plan to add a newsletter to the site as well, and you can sign up for at allplay.fm. I am currently using Resend to capture the subscribers, and will be using them for the newsletter delivery, but have some plans about how I will be doing that in a later episode.

In addition to the site, I get into some thoughts I am having about expanding the reach of the podcast—and really just personal stuff in general—and how potentially replicating that across a number of sites that all point back at the sites you own either help or hurt your own sites performance, or really where do people find it and when do they drop off?

And, I geek out about some of the Web Audio API and Audio Buffer stuff I am using on the site to use for audio playback and will be publishing the library I am using for that at a later time, and will have an episode about that when it happens.

References

• TransistorFM
• Nx
• Contentlayer
• allplay.transistor.fm
• Resend

To follow along, you can find me at ryanhefner.com, follow me on Twitter @ryanhefner, and keep up with the show on allplay.fm and @allplayfm.

Help yourself, while supporting the show, by trying some of the services that I use, and highly recommend:
Transistor FM
Fathom Analytics

As I have been working on building Transmits, I started reading Rob Walling’s (@robwalling) book, Start Small, Stay Small. I was originally reading his latest book, The SaaS Playbook, but like he suggests in there, if your business is not at a certain monthly recurring revenue (MRR) you might be better off going back and reading his first book, so I did.

While reading it I realized I was breaking the cardinal sin numero uno, no marketing, nor testing the market to see if people would actually pay for what I am building. Granted, this is definitely a scratch my own itch project, and I know I will be using it regardless if I am able to get others to pay for it. But, at the same time, I am definitely investing a good amount of time trying to make what I am building really nice, both for myself and to wow some potential future users into being paying customers.

Thinking about what I could do to start building some initial marketing efforts I realized that the quickest thing I could do was repurpose the Transmits-specific episodes from this podcast, and re-package them into a Transmits-only podcast that I could start publishing, and include on the transmits.io site.

Reasons why making a Transmits-only podcast makes sense, now and into the future:

• SEO: By publishing the episodes and including those within a /podcast area of the marketing site, I am hoping that both the show notes and podcast transcriptions will feed the Google/search engine machines and start to get Transmits ranking for a few key terms
• Backlinks + SEO: Since I will be publishing the podcast, I hoping that the feeds and episodes will help to build up a good amount of backlinks to the site, driving more traffic and helping boost key word rankings
• Connection: There’s really no better way to understand what someone is trying to do than to listen to them. I am an avid podcast listener and am definitely more motivated to support people that I am listening to, than those who I have no direct connection with (even though that connection is mostly a one-way from my podcast app to my ears, but it still a remarkably personal one, even being one-way).
• Build Listeners + Subscribers: From the start of thinking about Transmits, I have always envisioned the product having a podcast where I would bring people on to discuss tools for thought, or podcasting, or whatever else might be interesting to discuss that could be tied back to either the underlying tech or goal for the platform, so why not start to get that wheel spinning and try to pick-up a few early subscribers along the way.
• Flywheels: Since I am already podcasting about Transmits, why not repurpose that content and effort and apply it to kickstart and support future efforts
• And, finally, it just sounded fun and was a good excuse to tinker on some site stuff!

With all that said, and without further ado, I am happy to say that the Transmits: The Podcast is live! Check it out, subscribe, and all that jazz. I have re-packaged some previous episodes from this podcast, and will probably do the same with this episode. And, from this point forward, I am going to have to come up with a nice way to introduce the episode without necessarily having to record a custom intro per pod, or maybe I’ll just drop the intros and get right to the meat, to keep it easy.

If you want to get early access to start playing around, please join the mailing list here: https://www.transmits.io

To follow along, you can find me at ryanhefner.com, follow me on Twitter @ryanhefner, and keep up with the show on allplay.fm and @allplayfm.

Help yourself, while supporting the show, by trying some of the services that I use, and highly recommend:
Transistor FM
Fathom Analytics

During my run this morning I was thinking about all the different projects I have up in the air, and how some of those can help to provide a foundation, or utility, to the other projects that I am working on, but at the same time can feel like a waste of time to work on in the moment. Then, out of no where, I started to think about the construction of a spiral staircase.

At the start of the project, you have the choice to either build up, or build down. Building up seems like a world of endless possibilities and freedom—very positive. Or, you can build down, trying to tackle some of the hairier issues people face in the world, simplifying the overly complicated, or unifying the scattered or incomplete information in the world. Every decision offers a choice, and every choice has a starting point.

So, back to spiral staircases, whether you decide to build up or build down, you also have the opportunity to build a very tight spiral staircase that does its job, getting you to the next level or two in a nice confined space. Or, you could build out, going wide and building a staircase that takes you on a journey. A grand structure that is circling your idea, while not confining it. The wider the structure, the more materials and time it’s going to take to build, and the longer it will take you to complete the initial spiral. Each type, either tight or wide, provide their own set of pros and cons.

The tighter the staircase, the quicker it is to build, and the faster you can circle around the idea and get to where you want to go. You can go up several flights, with multiple rotations around the center post for each one, to ascend to each floor. It’s an efficient structure, but once you get past the first couple of floors, and then decide you might need to broaden your scope, or the size of the staircase, your initial structure won’t be able to support going very wide without some additional supports being put in place to carry the load. Depending how high you went when the idea was tight, the longer span those supports are going to descend. And, depending on how wide you want to widen the scope, the more supports that will have to be put in place to help this top-heavy structure that is now spiraling out.

On the inverse, deciding to go with a very wide structure, making long, wide swooping loops as you ascend—or descend—to where you are going can be slow to build, requires a lot of material, and you may never complete a single loop. And, depending on whether you choose to tighten or wide the circle as your ideas and feedback push and pull you to new places, it can be harder to quickly tighten that circle once you have decided on the "new" direction to go. Although, unlike the tight structure that can be hard to support expansion later on, your wide idea that is circling this ever pulsing vortex can expand and contract more freely, with a structure to support it, but may never reach its clear center, and is hard to get their quickly.

Along the way, regardless of whether you are going wide or keeping it tight, you have the option to build platforms or landings along the way, that can fork off from that core idea. These can add structure and stability to the initial idea, but also offer a starting point for a structure or journey of their own. Depending on your staircase, the placement of these landings have a different affect as you are walking up the stairs. A very tight staircase could probably only support one–maybe two–along your path to the first floor. But, too many on a very tight structure would no longer be a real staircase. Where, if you were building a very wide staircase, you could potentially have several platforms or landings forking off along your progression of a single rotation. When I think about these landings I equate these to being the side stuff that you build along the way to support your efforts, both now and into the future (ie. packages, services, tools, etc.). They support the core idea, but also have the opportunity to spiral out to be their own thing.

Depending on the decisions you make and where your projects take you can drastically change the scope and shape of these structures. When I start to think about where these can go, my mind instantly drifts to the abstract worlds of Dr. Seuss and how a very tight and tall staircase that later decides to spiral out wider and taller could start to bend and sag over it’s poorly supported structure. Or, the very wide and expansive staircase that slowly then quickly spirals to its conclusive center can come to a sharp point.

I feel like I have been going wide, and building a lot of platforms and structures that I try to convince myself are in support of a grander vision of the future, but not sure if I will run out of materials, or effort, to get those ideas to circle in on a sustainable structure I can support in the future.

So I ask you, what kind of staircase are you building?

To f...

With all the conferences happening over the past couple of months, it has really got me thinking about the lack of socializing I have had since moving down to Atlanta. I wouldn't necessarily say it’s a fear of missing out (FOMO), but more a lack of social interaction, or engagement to make the acronym better, LOSE.

For 2025, I am trying to create some more margins in my life to allow for more room to both socialize more and create more time to share the personal stuff I am working on. The goal is to do that by offsetting client work with income from personal projects. And, I guess we’ll see how that goes!

You can watch Laracon US LIVE on YouTube!

Some conferences I plan on attending next year:

• MicroConf
• RenderATL
• Laracon EU / Laracon US

It would also be cool to checkout some more niche conferences like:

• Local First Conf

I am also hoping that rebooting Jam Sessions, and having some conversations on the Jam Sessions podcast on Ripple.FM will help fill in the gaps between conferences.

And, if anyone is a current Switchyards member let me know! It would be great to hang out. I will probably be dropping into either the Roswell or Chamblee locations, but it would be great to get around to all of them to check out the vibes.

To follow along, you can find me at ryanhefner.com, follow me on Twitter @ryanhefner, and keep up with the show on allplay.fm and @allplayfm.

Help yourself, while supporting the show, by trying some of the services that I use, and highly recommend:
Transistor FM
Fathom Analytics

A milestone has been reached! This is the first episode to be recorded in Transmits!! Obviously, these are early days (the official second recording made in the app was this episode), but recordings are being captured via the web app and stored locally via the File System API in the OPFS (Origin private file system).

The goal is to get this early version of Transmits out so people can start playing with it and capturing their Audio Journals* (*the positioning I am playing with for this initial version of the app. What do you think!?)

I think the idea of audio journals is interesting, and it also seems like some other builders in the bootstrapping/indie maker space–both Peter Suhm [Tweet] (Reform and Out of Beta Podcast) and Brian Casel [Tweet] (Clarity Flow and Bootstrapped Web Podcast)–have started sharing audio/video updates similar to this podcast.

If you want to get early access to start playing around, please join the mailing list here: https://www.transmits.io

To follow along, you can find me at ryanhefner.com, follow me on Twitter @ryanhefner, and keep up with the show on allplay.fm and @allplayfm.

Help yourself, while supporting the show, by trying some of the services that I use, and highly recommend:
Transistor FM
Fathom Analytics