How A Kinky Podcaster Turned Networking Nerves Into Momentum | S4 EP112

Ever leave a convention both fired up and a little overwhelmed? That’s where we start: freezing Florida nights, a SeaWorld-adjacent hotel, and a whirlwind schedule that turned volunteering, panels, and hallway chats into a crash course on what this show can become. We get real about networking as an introvert with a loud voice, how a simple notebook saved dozens of names, and why clear show identities make connections stick long after the app notifications fade.

From there, we dig into the craft. On the comedy panel, the biggest lesson wasn’t a trick or a template—it was honesty. Forced jokes flop; truthful stories travel. We break down how to add humor without derailing your message, how to practice until your delivery matches your personality, and how to edit for pace so the laughs and insights land together. If you’ve ever wondered how to sound funny without trying too hard, this segment gives you a grounded path forward.

The episode also lays out a concrete plan to grow a taboo-friendly podcast the smart way. We talk sponsorships that fit adult-adjacent content without selling out, platform-safe language that avoids shadow bans, and session ideas for a full taboo track next year: content warnings that inform, guest screening that protects the room, ethical monetization, and live moderation that keeps it spicy yet safe. Along the way, we share the weekly cadence we’re committing to—new audio every Thursday, video on Friday—and how social strategy and simple systems will help a one-person show scale without losing the messy, human core.

If you’re building a show that lives on the fringe, or if you just want sharper storytelling and honest laughs, pull up a chair at the campfire. Subscribe, share this with a creator friend who needs a boost, and drop your dream taboo-session idea—we might build it with you next year.

1/6/26

1/6/26

Transcript

Hotel, Logistics, And Volunteering Gaps

New Connections And Name Challenges

Social App Friction And Identity

Time Management And Content Goals

Money, Sponsorships, And Growth Plan

SPEAKER_00 0:51

Welcome back everybody to the podcast that is kinky in all things kink tabo taboo on the fringe alternative we'll say that this is the alternative podcast around the kinky campfire. This is your host HH Julius Marquise or just Julius if you're feeling less fancy and I have another episode for you because I've gone to a place and back it's only like 30 minutes for me, but you've gone to a place in a convention, and it's called Podfest 2026. Yes, you know I like to recap the podcast the podcast convention every year after I go, well, any convention really, and talk to y'all about my experience and how I I've grown. I'll say that now. I've grown over the years. Every every year I try to add a little something. This year was trying to get my networking social skills up. Y'all know how I like to work on my social skills, and I've been working on them hopefully somewhat successfully. Um sure, totally. That's that's what I've been trying to do, and I I did that. I I exchanged business cards and I got names, and I had to relearn names because I forget names. So I had to relearn names again. And I would say that hopefully it's gonna stick for next year, but it's probably not, so we'll see how it goes. But then I I have a book now, so I had a little notebook and I uh wrote the names down in there. So hopefully I remember and took some notes, and once again I had I learned something new that I was not expecting. Kind of not I wasn't I was half expecting it. I was expecting to learn something new, I just wasn't expecting to learn what I wanted, but then also I was kind of trying to tailor my classes that I went to or had time to go to outside of volunteering and uh learn something from those classes and hopefully take a skill slash habits and work on it over the year or over the next this coming year again before the next convention. And yeah, it's just man, long story short, it always flies by. You got them few months when you start getting the emails about buying tickets and it's coming around the corner, and then you jump into the town halls and the zoom meetings, and those weeks fly by, and all of a sudden it's the week of, and like the Monday before, Tuesday before, before you're getting ready to go to the convention, you're like, okay, getting getting all packed up and ready to go, get the game plan going, get the Woova app all updated with all your agenda, even though I still have to re-check and add stuff every day or every morning of the convention, and sometimes afternoon as well. So it's great. Podfest convention festival, Podfest convention. Yeah, that always threw me off. Anyways, I went in there and got my volunteer times and then worked my classes out and then reconnected with people and made new friends and tried to get the taboo, taboo track. Should be an alternate alternative track. Yeah, we keep it uh simplified for the vanilla people taboo. That's what we are. We're the taboo track. Um so yeah, I'm gonna talk about the rest of that in detail. But first, before we do, I do have a a drinky drink here, and y'all know what time it is. It's the ASMR 10 seconds, five seconds, one second, all the above. We'll see how long it goes. Because it is cold, and it's also a school night, so I don't have a lot in here, but we have the once again unsponsored Swalza, tequila, uh, Blanco, Reposado, something. I don't even know all the words that are on there. The Swalza Tequila unsponsored. Here we go. ASMR uh three two one so cold. So cold. Oh goodness. So cold. Okay, before I run out of time, let me get let me get to the the main points here. I actually have notes. I got notes. Okay. First of all, we were in the same hotel as last time. We were in a different area, which was very interesting. Most of y'all probably don't really care about that part, but it was uh a different section of the hotel. We were on the other side. Much more um uh separated from the rest of the hotel, which was good. We were way in the back, and then also everything was well for the most part was in one space. There was like a couple of classes that were off in a different section because we didn't have enough room for everything, but it was it was that part was fine too. At least we were having like a section off a place where people were trying to sit and then trying to come across without their badges, all the different kinds of stuff. So it's a great hotel right there by SeaWorld. Fantastical hotel, and I know where to get free parking, and it's only like a block away, so I park my car, walk over there nonchalantly, even though it's freezing cold, which was some bullshit. This is Florida. Why am I having to wear like a parka outside and see my breath? I should not see my breath in Florida, ridiculous. Anyways, that was great. Nice hotel. Really, I really do like that hotel. One of these days I need to go ahead and uh get a uh room in there and see how it's really like. But I I see I've seen the pool from afar in the area, and it's like, oh, that's pretty nice. And we did have uh like half the volunteers didn't show up, which was great. Uh I need some explanations from some of y'all people. It was like, why are y'all not there? So had to make do with the volunteers that we had, and that was great. I would like to say we, like, I'm not officially part of the team as of yet. I'm I'm slowly getting promoted to like room monitor, quote unquote. I'll just keep it simple. That's basically what it is. I'll be checking the stuff next year. So be looking forward to that as we go into PodFest 2027. Oh god, years are flying by. This is like year 12 of Podfest. I missed a few years. I was there at like eight, I think that was the first one I was at. But oh my god, yeah, this is this is growing, getting bigger and bigger. Um, and I'm getting into promotions slightly, but we'll see. Um we'll see how that goes. And it was it was a good time, even though we didn't have enough people. Uh, I tried to add some more shifts and stuff on my on my thing, try to be helpful, but they really didn't need me. So congratulations to the whole leader the management leaders of the uh volunteer side of things, because yeah, they'd be knocking it out every single year. And uh I don't think a lot of people had very many compliments. I would love to see what the uh I would love to see what the um suggestion box, whatever you want to call it, comment box looks like. And uh seeing people from the past and then coming back again and checking in with everybody, so that's great. Uh oh man, I still need to I still need I still have more homework to do. Uh I just thought of a couple people I still have not connected with on the app and need to check in with. Okay, then we had a lot of newbies. Newbies are always great. Newbies to podcasting, newbies to um volunteering, and everybody being very helpful, everybody's very nice, uh, even though they may not have known what they were doing, but it's still great. And getting to chat with them and also chatting to the people and the vendors and the speakers and everything that uh have been coming over the years and coming back over the years, so great. And getting to be a speaker this time on the panel and jump up ahead on that information, but I'll talk about that in a little bit. Yeah, I I had to get my notebook. I said that before. I was like, I'm gonna pack me a notebook because trying to remember everybody's names is just silly. I don't know how people do it. I can't do it. Julius cannot do that, okay? That's just not how it how it works out. Gotta remember people. And it's people I haven't seen in a year. I already have trouble remembering people from last weekend. So imagine me trying to remember people from a year ago. Yeah, I remember faces though. I still remember the faces, but yeah, I'm so glad at conventions you have a name badge, or you're supposed to have your name badge on so people can see it. Fantastic. Need a badge for everything. There should be just badges for people to carry around for all different kinds of events. I just had me a merchandising idea in my head, and I need to like write it down and make a note of it for next time. Yep, this will be great. Oh man, ribbons didn't have them this year. Gotta have them next year. Okay, so yeah, remembering people's names. Uh I think I just I just gotta start telling people. I'm sorry. I don't I know you, but I don't remember your name. I guess you put your badge on, and uh, I can remember your name if you remember to wear your badge. Y'all driving me crazy not wearing your badges, as you can see. It's a thing. Okay. So remembering names and connecting with people. Also, I wish there was a way that I know there's the okay, so there's an app. Pretty much every convention has an app. This one for PodFest is Hoover, Hoover, Hoovha, Wova, however you want to say it. W-H-O-B-A. Hoo, the, hoo va, who, who vil, hoo-va. And it is uh helpful getting connected that way and putting faces on uh to names is good, it's good when people put their faces on their profiles. Thank you very much, it's very helpful. But I feel like I still miss people, and it's hard to um connect because people see your information on there and then uh hit you up, and it's like out of context because it's like exchange contact information about what, and then you know, sometimes you're trying to be unique with your name or your podcast, and it's like that's great, unless you specifically say, I'm a woman of divorce talking to other women of divorce. It's like okay, now I know what your podcast is about. And I'm speaking to myself around the kinky campfire. I mean, you kind of understand what's going on. If I put a fireplace in the logo, it's like, okay, well, not a fireplace, a fire pit in the logo. They're just going around and having rather lighthearted conversation about a very alternative topics. So that's a thing. Yeah, that's that's what we do. And I'm getting old. Wrist is hurting. Okay, so yeah, we you know, and getting connected with people. I wish there was something else we could do, but I'm horrible at uh too much information. People hit me up, it's like, oh, we connect. I'm like, I don't know. So over the next couple weeks, you know, my y'all might hear me complain about this because I'm still like catching up on all the things. I I still need to contact people and like look into researching people and all this stuff. Plus, I had a couple people email me to be like a guest on the show before the convention. I still haven't gotten to those people, so I need to I need to get on that and see how that works out. So you might hear some interesting guests, and hopefully I don't make it awkward because it's like they're boring and I can't wash my face. Y'all don't know this, but I make faces. I've been doing it since the beginning, and now that we have video, there's not been too many video on there. But yeah, um, I don't know if I'm gonna hide my face. We'll see how that goes. Uh, that'd be funny. We'll see how that goes. Okay. I'm frightening the future already. It hasn't even happened yet. But I have to be a producer as well as talking to y'all and taking notes to do shows and everything. So I have to like do a Google Calendar meet thing with these people and figure out if we're cool to do an episode with. Yay, fun background stuff that y'all may or may not care about. But guess what? I'm gonna tell you anyway, because I get to rant to y'all and y'all here. So, you know what? Why are you still listening to episodes if you didn't want to hear about this? But I'm gonna tell you anyways. Yeah, that's great. Yay, social stuff. Ugh, good lord. Um speaking of not doing much, um, I I I only had a few shifts volunteering, and I feel like I really didn't do anything. But they want to promote me next year anyway. Give me more responsibility. I welcome it. Please and thank you. I'm looking forward to it. I'm excited what I'm gonna be doing. Um, but yeah, I was I uh it felt like man, the time just flew. Got there at like 10 a.m. most days, left at like 8 p.m. ish, and yeah, the time just flew by. I didn't I didn't feel it didn't feel like 12 hours, and uh caught some classes, I missed some classes I wanted to do, but I got some notes that I still need to work on. So hopefully y'all will see in the future. Julius get his game right. And if y'all are on the socials, I apologize now because I'm gonna have to do that. That is a step that needs to be done. Y'all are gonna be seeing more of me on there with the assistance of some artificialists, but still, I am a business of one. I keep saying business now because that's what we're working on. So that's what's happening. And if y'all have sponsorships or something, and you need something, if you need somebody to push your product, let me know. Send me an emails. Y'all know the email address because I put it in the intro and outro and in the socials. You can meet DM me on there. I am a sponsor whore. I've done a couple practice sponsor reads, um, unofficially, not sponsored. Y'all let me know how that goes, and uh, I'll be a whore for y'all pushing your shit. Let me get an adult store somewhere, that'd be fucking great. You tell me right now, you got some dildos and some butt plugs you need to pedal the people. I will 100% give it to me. I took a class on how to get a sponsorship, so y'all are gonna hear y'all gonna see this now. I was starting this thing as like a hobby and a little ranting thing in the beginning a few years ago, but things changed over the years, and bottom line is if I get some money, I'm going to more conventions. Y'all are gonna hear more of these convention wrap-ups, hopefully get out of Florida to go to more conventions. I want to host and put on shows and all that kind of stuff. So that is where the money is going to uh for the most part. And there's might be some back end uh stuff that I might need to do, but I'm going to be stepping it up. I'm saying this right now, this is my commitment to y'all in the middle of this recap, stepping up, trying to make this more of a business, trying to be more professional, uh, starting here and all my things. So, if y'all on the socials, be ready to see more of this, and hopefully it'll be funny. But on that note, too, uh yeah, I don't know how much backstory y'all want, but I'm not gonna be super serious with this, okay? I'm getting tired of all these educators, and it's like, okay, everybody's got like a helpful start to your day, and all these pro tips to have a meaningful life, and like, yeah, cool. I am not that positive. I'm way more pessimistic than that. Anyways, y'all are gonna get more lightheartedness from me, Julius, okay. I've mentioned it before, I am an improver as well, so I believe in all things comedy, and I am not an expert. I'll say all the stuff that experts say on here, regurgitate the information, but I am trying to be more entertaining to me that is more emotional, more vulnerable, and more comedic. So that is what I'm trying to get to y'all. So don't come on here. If this is your first episode specifically, and you're longtime campsters, what I've been calling y'all, don't be expecting some hoity-toidy fancy stuff. If y'all sitting here thinking it uh agreeing with me, and y'all ain't chuckled to yourself at like every five minutes or so, that's a problem. Not really, I'm not being 100%, it doesn't have to be five hundred five minutes, but my point is I'm not gonna be like a super serious, I ain't gonna be super dry. I'm gonna give you information because I am an educator, but y'all are going into get it in an entertaining way. I'm telling y'all right now, because that's how it's gonna be. So says the Julius. Okay. So speaking of comedy, this is the enlightenment I had from being on the comedy panel. Comedy panel was great. We got great questions. Up I was up there with entertaining people, people all fans of comedy, and I like that we had a diversity for the most part. Two women, three guys. Wasn't just a big sausage fest, which was great. Everybody got in the joke, everybody knew the bits and stuff like that. We actually had one question for somebody about a comedian comedy book. I really wanted to be like, you know how many comedy books are out there? How many classes I've taken? Good Lord Almighty, man. You mentioned one book out of one, one book out of many, and then I couldn't think of the book the one I actually read about comedy in the back. Oh, I was gonna pull out my phone, but that was too much. But yeah, I just made a joke about how I don't read in general, and that you know, I kind of said, man, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, I'm getting good at this stuff. I'll pat myself on the back. That was a good joke at the time. I'm gonna have to get the video of that because that was yeah, that was that was a fun panel. Everybody's asking great questions. Most of it is about putting comedy into their uh podcasting episodes, and it's like, stop trying to be funny, be genuine, speak your truth. That part is way more entertaining than trying to insert a joke somewhere, especially if you suck at it. No, you you can suck at comedy, but you can always get better, alright? There are people who talk about talent and skill and all that bullshit. If you actually work on it, you can still get better at it. You might not be the best at it, but you can still be better at it. But I would say, especially in podcasting, it's like don't try to be funny. That's not the that's not entertaining, that's bad. You try to insert jokes in there. Be truthful, be honest about it. If I'm a goofy motherfucker and I stick it in the butt instead of the other place or something like that, I just don't see that. Trying to inject funny in there didn't really work at the time. My point is I make mistakes just like that horrible joke that probably nobody laughed at. No, I'm not even laughing. That was terrible. Should just edit that out. Y'all might not even know what I'm talking about. Maybe I'll leave it in just as a point to that it needs to be said. Uh be honest with yourself. I am very self-deprecating, and I hope y'all understand this. I will be injecting more of my actual sarcasm into this thing because it's like, why am I trying to fake the funk? I'm a sarcastic motherfucker. And I hope and pray. I hope that the my future guests come back and watch this part and be like, oh, he said he was gonna be an asshole, and this is where it is. I'm going to be an asshole. Not necessarily on purpose, maybe uh entertaining. Um, not not accidentally, I should say, uh, in an in in an entertaining way, but you know, that's just how it is. Uh goodness. Yeah, it's we'll see how it goes. Uh, and speaking of trying to do something new, again, we did not have a taboo track. It's unfortunate. We did do one taboo meetup. There was like a handful of us that were there, but it was good. And then um some people were like, oh, I missed it, but I want to chat. And I was like, Yeah, what with what time? The podcast flew by. It was very unfortunate. Podcast. Podcast convention flew by. It was unfortunate. I wanted to talk to them specifically, especially if they like made a comment on the um convention thing. Uh, the the convention, the the convention app about the meetup. That so we gotta work on it. I was talking to uh somebody about that taboo track, it's like what can you teach about alternative podcast topics that would make up a whole track? You need like eight of them, and I was like, fuck. What would be a specific for a uh alternative podcast that would be that you could teach at a podcast convention? It's like the words you can't say on certain different social media platforms, it's like okay, hmm. Yeah, it's so much easier to do the improv, but that's kind of uh overloaded now. I didn't even I applied to do that, and it was like okay. A couple people jumped on it before I could and um taught the same thing. So, like, how can I use that? So I teach the the alternative topics, but how would I make that specific for podcasts? So yeah, that's gonna be kind of interesting. So we'll see how that goes. I got a year to plan it, technically less than a year now, but anyway, who's counting? So we'll keep our fingers crossed. Hopefully, we'll have a taboo track for next year, okay? Hopefully now we'll have. I will say I did lead a successful meetup, and it is uh it was big step up for your intro intro my introverted self. It was great. We hit I did it. People came out and that was fun. I participated, and then after that, we had a comedy um section part along with the panel, the classes and meetups and stuff like that. Glad we got to do that. Maybe I'll just help them with that next year. I should probably do that too. Help them with that. Oh, there's so many, there's so much homework. I didn't realize I was gonna have this much homework after a podcast convention. Like what I'm running it through my head is the stuff I forgot that I still need to do. Oh man. Anyways, I got through this homework of doing an episode instead of being like, you know what? I'm just gonna push it off for another week, but then I would have forgot all the stuff I wanted to talk about and tell y'all about Podfest 2026. And it's like, glad I went ahead and did it. Got me an adult beverage and knocked it out. But we'll see how it goes. And I successfully network with people. Thank you very much. Thank you, thank you, and thank you. It was very impressive. Just gonna pat myself on the back. That's all there is to it. And now y'all see video. So we're doing some upgrading, somewhat. Alright. So hopefully we'll keep this going for the rest of the year. Maybe we'll upgrade something else. We'll see how that goes. But that's it for now. Another episode around the kinky campfire. This is your hostess with the most I can't resist. It just rhymes, it works. Anyways, I am HH Julius Marquise, or just Julius if you're less fancy. New episodes every Thursday and video on Friday. Look forward to that being all there and watch out for me on the social medias. It will be up here again in the outro. Y'all hear it on the Instagram and Twitters and the YouTube shorts and all of that. Go and subscribe to the YouTube channel if you ain't on there because this is where the video is. So if you've seen it, then it's gonna be on there. Alright, that's all for now. Hello.