Beyond The Threshold: Black Voices in Media
Beyond the Threshold is a bi-weekly podcast hosted by award winning sound editor & producer, Sidney Evans.
This show is dedicated to interviewing black professionals in the media space in variety of roles, highlighting the lessons and experiences it takes to achieve success in the field.
The goal is to build a platform that connects and supports those established in media, while also inspiring those looking to break into the industry.
Beyond The Threshold: Black Voices in Media
Ep.9 : From Soccer Field to Sound Booth w/ Walter Gainer II
Text Beyond the Threshold w/ your thoughts or questions!
In this episode of Beyond the Threshold, host Sidney Evans is joined by Walter Gainer II, a digital content producer and social media manager at Urban One.
Walter's journey started from his early content creation on Snapchat to founding Boss Locks—a platform dedicated to advancing Black professionals and promoting racial equity in the workplace.
In this episode they discuss.
- How college journalism classes inspired Walter’s entry into podcasting.
- Walter’s personal experiences with hairstyle discrimination.
- Supporting Black professionals through the "Working While Black Show."
- Strategies for building connections for both extroverts and introverts.
- His current role as a producer for a major agency.
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Before college I had two moments where people were kind of like my locks. Having locks was like potentially jeopardizing potential of having a job. One was I knew that I could get a job without cutting it but I just didn't really understand how to do it in that corporate environment.
Speaker 2:Tune in as we give flowers to black men and women making waves in the audio industry. I'm your host, Sidney Evans, and this is Beyond the Threshold. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Beyond the Threshold. I'm your host, Sidney Evans, an award-winning audio editor, mixer and producer. For those of you who don't know, on this show I interview Black men and women working in the audio industry to highlight the lessons and experiences it takes to achieve success in the field. We have another great episode in store for today.
Speaker 2:Before I introduce the guest, I'd like to give a little bit of a background of the connection point and what led to them actually being on the show. So, if you listen to Jahi Whitehead's episode, we had a great conversation. But once the episode ends and right before we go our separate ways, I like to ask who they think would be a perfect fit for the show to have on um, not only as far as their contributions to audio, but their personality. Their personality, uh, just being a good, solid person and but having an engaging conversation. So this is someone who he recommended, highly recommended. So, um and I got recommended to him from Dante Hodge, who I previously worked with um at Frequency Media. So, uh, we're already kind of creating a uh, a community of of uh black people in audio to where we just keep making these connection points and keep uh building those relationships and growing the show.
Speaker 2:So, uh, to introduce the guest. After recognizing his passion for storytelling centered around the black community, he pivoted from the e-commerce industry to dive deep into podcast production, which led him to becoming a digital content producer and social media manager at the urban one partner at the urban one pack at the urban one podcast. He's also the founder and creator of Boss Locks, a platform created by Boss Locks Media that aims to educate, empower and create opportunities for Black people to access resources and grow in their journey. The mission is to raise the bar for racial equality. The mission is to raise the bar for racial equity and the way people are respected in professional environments. So, without further ado, I'd like to introduce Walter Gaynor II to the show.
Speaker 1:Hey, it is great to have you Shout out to Jahi just for recommending me. He's a super, super producer. It's really cool working with him and I was excited to be on this show. This is really, really dope. I feel like podcasting is something that went from like what is that? To like oh, that's what it is like really quickly. Well, it feels like really quickly, but yeah, so it's kind of cool. This is happening because there's a lot of people in this space who are doing some really dope stuff.
Speaker 2:And I'm excited to be on that list of people. So thank you, I appreciate, I really do appreciate the invite. Thank you, no problem, man, I'm excited to that. You don't actually know and asked to you know, take time out of your day to you know, come on their platform and kind of chop it up with them. So I appreciate you being super open and willing to just, you know, hop on and share your experience. I guess we'll just jump into the show man and kind of get a little bit of background on you, where you're from. I know you have an interesting story as far as jumping from one field to another to get to the point where you were working in audio. So, yeah, just tell the listeners a little bit of background about yourself and where it led up to that journey and then, once we get to the audio piece, we'll start diving in deeper.
Speaker 1:Okay, cool, yeah. Piece will start start diving in deeper. Okay, cool, yeah. Um, I originally charleston, south carolina, my hometown, born and raised in that area.
Speaker 1:I grew up, um, you know, actually a couple pivots in my life because at one point actually was on a path or wanted to become on the team the US Men's National Team for soccer to bring home the World Cup, the FIFA World Cup. I ended up playing soccer just happened to end up on a team, so I was kind of curious about what people were playing that I saw. Ended up playing through elementary high school and got a scholarship to go to college, went there and immediately realized that everyone who was good in high school was in college. So it was a whole nother playing field. Did well, held my own, but I think, around like junior year, realized that, okay, you know what this is like. I could go a little harder in this, but I'm not sure if I love it in the same way as I did before when I was just doing it for fun and for the love of the game type of thing. So I kind of stepped down from the team and really just started pursuing other things I enjoy, just like creating content when I was in school, it was around Snapchat. It got really big and I was just going around and creating just content or interviewing random people just to do it for fun and stuff like that at parties and just everyday life.
Speaker 1:I ended up doing things like interviewing the president of my college for this journalism class. So I just started to get more into content seriously and really understanding that world at school and really understanding that world at school. But still wasn't like something where I was like, okay, yeah, I'm about to drop everything and become like a YouTuber or a podcaster tomorrow. It was just like, oh, I like doing this stuff, this is fun, but I don't really know what to do with it. Like I was just experimenting in different things from going live on Facebook because I was like the first thing you could go live on, just continue with Snapchat stuff, getting into this and that, but was just doing it randomly for fun type of thing.
Speaker 1:Um, but what got me into audio? It was, um, it took me a long time actually to get into it because I wasn't very familiar with the world. I would, uh, started to become a little bit more familiar into podcasting when I was going on long trips from Charleston to where I went to school in Virginia, but it was still kind of foreign to me. I was only a few podcasts that I listened to and it was just for fun. When I thought about content, I was thinking about YouTube and stuff like that. So, yeah, it took me a minute to make that pivot and I think it was really just more so, like I, creating audio was more accessible to me at the time than video okay.
Speaker 2:So, uh like your journey with the audio going from, you know, general content creation to zeroing in on audio itself, was it the podcast space in particular that you decided to pursue? And, if so, like what was the moment where you maybe were introduced to another podcast or something within the realm where you were like, oh yeah, I can do this? Like this is cause it seems like you already you had the bug to create something for your own, or seemed like you had a passion and love for media before, but it didn't. It didn't make sense for you, practically about, okay, how can I uh like pursue this in a way that I'll be fulfilled, I'm doing what I want to do, but also it's like, okay, I can make a living off this, this is something that I could do sustainably and kind of youably and still be able to do the things that I want to do. So when was that moment for you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, good question. That moment where I was like I could do this for real, for real, actually, you know what? The same journalism class, actually, where I was doing things like interviewing the president of the college. Doing things like interviewing the president of the college, one of the assignments we had was to create a podcast and at the time I was listening to podcasts. I listened to a podcast called Startup by Good Media and I was very, very impressed with it but didn't think it was something that I could do at all, but really just kind of showed us how simple uh, creating a podcast could be, using something like iMovie, um, as like the beginning stages, and at that point it just kind of clicked like oh okay, yeah, there is like different levels to this game, but it really can be as simple as just recording something, even if it is like using um. I was using an iPad to record just the, the regular apple camera thing to record stuff, didn't even have a microphone, but, um, just doing that and then editing it in imovie and just exporting as audio only could be as simple. It could be that that, that that simple using the free music from youtube's um audio library I don't know what they call it now. But yeah, youtube's like free, royalty-free audio library. Adding that in there and just boom, it was just real. I was very surprised by how simple it could be. So that was while I was in college, but as sustainable, I think that came way, way later, after I started jumping into it.
Speaker 1:After school, I wanted to create a YouTube channel around social media marketing. So I was watching Hello Gary Vee and I was like, yeah, I could be the black Gary Vee, I'm out here, but I just wasn't really connecting with it. So what I ended up doing instead was just creating a podcast around proving that natural hair and professionalism could coexist, and interviewing black people with locks in different professional environments to learn how they navigated professional environments while staying true to themselves and not cutting their hair. Because at the time I was looking for jobs and was kind of nervous about being able to get hired even though I had locks, because everyone was saying, no, you got to cut them to get a job. So I ended up creating that as a podcast, interviewing people with audio, because I was more comfortable with the audio than putting my video stuff out there and I wasn't as familiar with video editing for a podcast. So I was like, okay, I could do the audio part, get it out there.
Speaker 1:Sounded terrible first was, but the content was really good. Content was good but it wasn't until 2021, when I was in this group and this man named Rob Conlon ended up getting a job at this podcast agency. We ended up meeting Jahi where I was like, okay, okay, fine, I see like a way for it to become an actual profession for real. So it was like 2021, ended up getting a job as a podcast producer, left the e-commerce and marketing field, did a hard pivot into it and at the time my only experience was producing for myself, helping just some other people I knew with production for myself, helping just some other people I knew with production, and just I just was really good with account management and marketing.
Speaker 2:So I kind of stood out, okay. So when you so, when you created the podcast about locks, like I know, you briefly touched on, like that was something that you were kind of apprehensive about as far as pursuing jobs and thinking that that may have been an obstacle for you. Um, it's funny you say that because I, uh, I remember a particular episode of a living single back in the day when kyle was. You know, he like him and max were like the two most ambitious ones and I think he was, I think he worked for like wall street or something dealing with finances, financial services or something like that, and, um, I think he was going up for a promotion or or a partner or a deal or something, and somebody had, I guess, in in a slight of, in a slighting kind of way, kind of mentioned it that he wouldn't get the job because of that and he was very um on the fence about whether he should cut it or he should. He should stand his ground and and you know, make it a point to be known like this is part of my heritage, this is a part of who I am and stand his ground.
Speaker 2:He ultimately ended up doing that and the response was like, okay, and you know, I don't know what, what was the, the, the apprehension about, uh, mentioning that? But you were going to get the job anyway. So, um, even though in that particular, even though in that particular moment it wasn't um, there was no validity to well, it didn't prevent the opportunity. But that's something, as black people, that we potentially would have to face, that, you know, maybe other races don't even have to, you know, think twice about that type of thing, about how they present themselves. So was it just all kind of in your mind, or knowing the possibility of it happening, or maybe someone else it happened to, or is it something, or was it a direct experience that you had that kind of put it?
Speaker 1:in the forefront of your mind. Yeah, it was honestly everything and I love that reference, by the way, shout out to the team at Living Single. It was a wide range of things I had had locks for at that point, maybe like almost 10 years or and I was, you know, they were kind of long and everything in my whole life. You know people always admired them and stuff like that. But I, before college, I had two moments where people were kind of like my locks having locks was like potentially jeopardizing potential of having a job. One was just at a career fair. I was looking for stuff and someone asked like how important are the locks to me? And at the time, like I wasn't even real sure if I really wanted to work there. So I just kind of told them like oh, it's just hair. I mean it was kind of a lie, but I was like I mean I'll just say whatever, it's an interview.
Speaker 1:And then the other time I was working at Jimmy John's and they wanted to train me to become a manager and take over the store. I had luck and no one had a problem with it. But they would have this like like at these retail places if y'all haven't worked in retail before. You know, they always have, like some corporate inspector come through, they work at the company and they go through everything. They check to see how dirty the place is, are you up to code, are you handling things properly, and in food, you know, there's a whole bunch of other stuff there too. So they like, at the store I worked at, they did very well, very well, but they got some points taken off for grooming and the only thing they could think of was like, oh Walt, he has locks. And it was basically it was against their like policy to have hair that was long, for men, to have long hair. So basically, the next time they kind of knew that God was coming, they asked me to kind of just like they weren't like telling me to cut them, but they're like I just just hang in the back for a little bit and wait till after he leaves and they come in.
Speaker 1:So but those two moments also taught me like that, that moment, even though they really didn't have to like, you know, hide me or whatever, it did kind of show that yeah, they, they did hire me anyways to work there and everything, even though it was against policy. So I knew that I could get a job without cutting it, but I just didn't really understand how to do it in that um corporate environment. And then also, on top of that, I was just kind of insecure and discouraged about the whole process. And then, on top of top of all of that, that same year I left college, for the same year that these, like there was this huge um case, um, and it ended up like going to like higher courts and courts and stuff like that, and they've ruled that companies can't, uh, uh, basically dismiss a job applicant for their hairstyle. Basically they could not hire someone simply just because of their hair, and that was one of the things that sparked off the whole crown movement and everything as well. I mean, that happened later, but that was one of the cases they always talked about and as a way for, like, this isn't necessarily right, the hair doesn't, you know, just shouldn't disqualify someone from uh working or uh experiencing any form of discrimination. So so, yeah, so all of that.
Speaker 1:And then also, I personally just wanted to prove to really to black people more than anything, that we don't have to change who we are or conform for real, like if we really wanted to.
Speaker 1:There's people out here who are doing the work, like, yes, they're going to face certain things that won't always be accepted in every environment, but we shouldn't have to change ourselves, you know. We shouldn't have to tolerate things like someone being upset at me for having locks because they hate my locks and they're likely just to not really like me because I'm black as well. So that was a lot of inspiration for that show, and then that ended up leading into this new show that actually launched this year, but I was creating content for it before, during this like accelerator program I was in with LinkedIn called the Working While Black Show, and that was all around just career growth and entrepreneurship advice for black people, black professionals, whether you, you know, you know, in retail, in corporate, wherever, exploring entrepreneurship just just conversations with just geared towards black professionals who want to grow, win and all that stuff. So so yeah, that was a motivation. Help, help our people out.
Speaker 2:OK, so you started the podcast, so which which came first? I feel like I'm asking like, which came first, like the chicken or the egg? But what came first? Boss Lost, the podcast or the entire media platform to you mentioned? You have other shows like under the umbrella, so I would assume that the podcast came first and you were like, okay, this is something, something I want to expand upon and, if so, you know, like kind of what went, what went into and what was the process for like, getting pop the boss locks podcast to a certain point?
Speaker 1:um, that you were confident in and then wanted to expand out into producing other shows man, so that the key word in all this, I think, is a confidence, because I didn't have that at all. Um, in addition to just feeling discouraged and insecure about job prospects, I was also very insecure about creating content, even though I had done it previously. But it was just for fun, it wasn't serious to me, I just enjoyed it and this was so. I was just very nervous about it. The very first interview I did, my voice was shaky, um, so technically, the podcast came first, but no one saw it. It wasn't published until after I did a whole bunch of other stuff.
Speaker 1:So the first thing that people saw was I started an Instagram page where I was just highlighting people with locks who are doing something either impactful for a community or have had some type of achievement or in professional environments, and so just people I would just find just being just on the Internet would kind of write up some type of profile piece on them, publish it, tag them, and that's when they found out about it and they would share it, and so really, the first thing that was shown was just an Instagram page.
Speaker 1:And then I started doing these written interviews. So I'd like send questions to people they've replied and I put in an article. So that came next and then after that I eventually launched the podcast during the pandemic, when everything was kind of stripped away. I had a contract that was dope and it kind of ended because they're like we can't, we can't do this pandemic. I was like, shoot, all I got is a podcast now. So, yeah, basically launched it. So the podcast was like the last thing in a way, but it really was the beginning of it all.
Speaker 2:Okay, and you also mentioned earlier that I guess a lot of this conversation goes back to like confidence and you being confident about who you are with their locks, you being confident enough so, even though recording the podcast, having the confidence to put it out, but eventually that confidence did come.
Speaker 2:Then you also mentioned that, excuse me. You also mentioned that, after producing content for yourself, that the opportunity to produce for other people and, um, working at you know, urban, one podcast network presented itself and obviously there's another level of confidence that comes from, okay, I'm not just doing this for myself, so I'm kind of being you know, when you're, when you're producing it for yourself or on your own, like there's no, there's kind of no one. You know, when you're producing it for yourself or on your own, like there's no, there's kind of no one over your shoulder, there's no. Another layer of accountability to kind of meet a certain standard outside the one that you provide for yourself. So what was that transition like to producing and being in a room with other people and kind of the somewhat pressure that goes into having someone who's like critique your work and giving you feedback?
Speaker 1:yeah, um also just want to say you're really good at this, you're good at this man. Um, appreciate it. Yeah, so yeah, absolutely. I feel like I should probably write a book called like the 50 stages of confidence or something like that, because it is like a whole evolution of just everything. So, yes, I think that my journey post college was all tied together having Lux, just understanding myself more and also podcasting.
Speaker 1:I think each of these is, as they continue to grow, I just learn more about myself and just had like a greater level of trust. I know I got to be a part of a accelerator program that LinkedIn ran. It was this whole campaign they were doing and I was part of their first class and that was a huge like moment of confidence, because previously, with my podcast, I was highlighting other people and I was just kind of there, but that was the first time where I was front and center. So that was interesting because I was in a program with people that I followed and I was like, oh, I'm here with the big dogs. This is crazy Imposter syndrome, all of that. So that was one level. So that was one level. And then, yeah, working as a producer for an agency, where I was kind of responsible for the production of podcasts for these, like, really big businesses had to have a lot of trust there. So I think, really, working in this field, I think I really started to understand anxiety a lot more as well.
Speaker 1:Because a different type of pressure. Like you said, you're not just doing it for yourself. Well, because it's a different type of pressure. Like you said, you're not just doing it for yourself. If you mess up, that sucks, but it's like I'm doing for myself and like I have a crazy huge following. That's only so many people gonna find it, but doing for other people you mess something up and you know there's certain uh, just it could be a domino effect to like maybe someone else in leadership being like, nah, we're not doing this anymore, kill the trash at this, at this. Or just be like, yeah, you're not the one Go skedaddle, go down to the playground, you're not with the big dogs anymore. So I think, different levels of that. So I think the biggest thing for me is just developing a sense of trust and also just knowing to just what I'm responsible for and how to improve, where my weak points are and strengths and all that. So okay.
Speaker 2:So, uh, I'm glad you said that, because I'm curious to know, like, what were the actual like once you got in that environment, like, what were the skills where you were like okay, this is my bread and butter, I'm really really strong, really strong in this area. And then what were the skills that were like okay, I have some room to improve and grow, and so, if I really want to be in the top tier of what I'm doing, these are the steps that I need to take, this is what I need to improve on, while also not forgetting that barriers, where you're strong, are things that you got to emphasize as well yeah, that's a good question too.
Speaker 1:So some of them were technical producer skills and other things were kind of self-management and communication, like I mentioned before. Like I was working in roles previously where I was like doing some type of account management or communication. So I was, I was really good at building relationships with people I was working for whether it was clients or talent and just really understanding what their needs were and just kind tight schedule. It's like a bigger emphasis on time management within production. So it's like having to get faster and find ways to be more efficient with the editing, um, starting to learn like previously I was doing all, all editing and, like davinci resolve within premiere. So I still kind of new to the ad world.
Speaker 1:So learning Premiere and then also Adobe Audition and then, if I'm being very, very honest, just figuring out what I could get away with uh, just doing in Premiere and not Audition and thank God to Adobe. You know, uh, I wish I was sponsored by Adobe but just adding more features to it so I could, like uh, do enough to get by, while also still learning all the tools that I needed to learn. Communicating weak points to my managers and kind of just trusting they could kind of guide me in areas as well. Yeah, I'd probably go on and on and on, but did that answer your question?
Speaker 2:It actually prompted another question, so we're going to dive a little bit deeper. So I want you to talk about how you actually got that opportunity because, honestly, I've been through it. I'm sure a lot of people have been through it and, to be honest, I'm kind of going through it right now with pursuing opportunities of my own to where you know, the advertised job or the position that you may be interested in has like a wide variety of skills that you have to have. And it kind of goes to the question that I just asked you.
Speaker 2:Like you may see, you know half of the skills you're like okay, I'm really strong in this area, I have a lot of experience. I can do this in my sleep. I have no reservation about being able to deliver on this. But then it might be the second half of the skillset You're kind of like oh, I've only done a little bit of this, I haven't done that much of that. Cause in in, for the most part, jobs like you, there's there's a training aspect to it. Like you have to learn certain things.
Speaker 2:Like even if you know how to do it you may have to learn how they like to do it or a more efficient way to do it, or you may not have the ability to do it that great at all, but you can learn if you're a hard worker and you're curious. So, in that role, how did you end up getting that opportunity, even though later on you realized or maybe you even realized upfront that, okay, I may not be very strong in the entire skillset, but I know these particular skills will get me in the door, and the other stuff I can just learn if I'm willing to put in the effort.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, that's a good one, shout out to everyone who's on the job hunt right now.
Speaker 1:So, all right. So when I first pivoted from e-commerce and marketing to podcast producer because that was a big, big, big one, because previously I was just doing things for myself and a few things for other people. But, um, I think what stood out to the and this was not at urban one, that's which but previously at an agency and what stood out was, I think, some other skill sets that I had, and editing and stuff wasn't at the beginning, it wasn't like the main thing that I was doing in that role. Um, at the agency it was more so like managing the whole production process. So they had other people to do the editing, but needed someone to truly understood the podcast, understood what clients wanted and what the deliverables were, and could manage the whole process, get it done on time and could also help people to learn about podcasting as a whole, and so I could do all of that. I just wasn't very strong as an editing, so like I was able to just lean on things that I could do well, which was customer service, account management, managing projects. So I had done all of those things in other roles I was in, and also the e-commerce role I was in was also marketing as well, and part of what they wanted is someone who could help their clients with taking the podcast and turning it into other types of content they could use to grow the show and grow their brand. So I was able to lean in on like those things that I did well and also show that I have done some editing. I might not be my strongest skill point at right now, but you know, just communicating what I can do, my weak points in areas I can learn and for them. Actually, I'll be honest with you. I didn't get the job. Um, I don't know what happened to whoever they offered it to, but they called me back like a few weeks later. It's like, hey, you want that job still. So, um, that was that for me.
Speaker 1:And, and really what also helped was somebody I knew. I was in this accountability podcast group with other podcasters who were looking to grow their own show. So we're all just kind of sharing what we're learning and how we're going about things, and so one of the people in that group his name was Rob Conlon he got the job and then he was telling us about it. So luckily I had a relationship with him which helped to make me look a little bit better, because he was doing very, very good at the role and I was just during the interview and I suck at interviews, y'all but during the job interview me and the hiring manager we just kind of got along very well. So that helped as well. So each time I've gotten something it's been because of some sort of relationship by the relationship I had previously. That just helped to make me look better. It wasn't like a oh, you know him, you're good, or you know her, you're good, it was just more so. Oh, okay, yeah. So this person told us about you type of thing, us about you type of thing.
Speaker 1:And then with Urban One, that was once again just I had kind of networked and someone else had joined and they just knew what I had done previously, kind of saw I was able to be a part of the creator program and so they kind of trusted that I understood content and podcasting, and at the time podcasting was something that everyone already had, but they wanted to really have a stronger emphasis on it by creating a whole network.
Speaker 1:So they wanted to bring in people who were in the podcast space. So for that one it was just me knowing a great deal about podcasting, production, what's needed, and the area that I needed to kind of prove in there was like the video editing side of things. I had done it before but just didn't have a huge portfolio of projects because all the other stuff at the previous agency was mostly audio and some other types of content. So I just had to once again. They just trust that I could do what they wanted me to do and help with the other sides of podcasting and everything and just deliver value. So I think each time I've had to, I never actually thought about this until you asked for real, because, honestly, when it comes to interviewing, I'm like I don't know, I don't know nothing, but there's always been something that I wasn't necessarily as strong at, but I'm just I'm an obsessive learner type of thing, so just learning what I need to do and just showing, I guess, potential.
Speaker 2:Cool. So you, I'm glad you touched on like the building relationships and networking piece and we're going to dive a little bit more into that. But before um, so you're the first guest that I had who kind of has a background in audio and video and, honestly, like I've been seeing a lot of like job opportunities and postings, so where it's like a podcast producer, but you, uh, the requirement is that you have to be strong in audio and video. So I'm kind of envisioning that as, like companies kind of consolidate roles and they may not have as big of budgets for podcasts or shows in general that they're kind of absolving them into the same role. So I know this is an audio focused podcast, but I've kind of already came to this realization on my own that in order to supplement your skill in audio whether it be recording, editing, mixing etc that develop a strong skill set in video editing, because those things are kind of meshing together and if you want to get the best opportunities, the top opportunities, you want to do a lot of the top tier stuff with you know, these larger companies, these bigger companies, then I think that's a skill set that you should definitely emphasize. And I feel like if someone who likes to create content in general, it's kind of a natural process because you may start off just doing audio, but then you want to, may add a video component to your podcast, whether you want to do YouTube, like, you may make videos talking about audio, but you're actually going to have to edit the videos on your own. And then, as you continue to do it and do it and want to increase the quality of your videos and your productions in general, that's a skill set that you've become really strong in and I don't think you should set that to the side just because you say, like, oh, I'm an audio engineer or my, I produce podcasts just for audio only. Like, if you, if you can be able to cover the full spectrum, um, it'll lead to opportunity, a lot of opportunity. So I just wanted to touch on that. Um, and as far as your like mindset, uh, we're going to get into the building, building relationships portion. Um, as far as doing that, like I know and I mentioned this on other episodes and this is how I feel that it can kind of be like a daunting task if you think about it in a traditional sense of like going to these events and shaking hands and being buttoned up and handing out business cards and 20, maybe even 10 years ago, like that, was kind of the norm.
Speaker 2:But with, I guess, the popularity of social media and people just have more access to you, you can find a lot more points of relatability to someone, whether it's just shooting a message on LinkedIn or following them on Instagram or Twitter, and you can kind of see their interest and maybe that be a conversation starter.
Speaker 2:That can you know. That is organic in the moment but that could build a relationship that over time is beneficial from a career standpoint. Or you could just be, you know, have an opportunity. That's simply from through the Internet or through social media but for like in person, if you come across someone who you may be, you know, working on something introduced to somebody, I kind of just hit it off like y'all, y'all get along and the relationship grows and then later you find out how you know the relationship can be mutually beneficial from a career standpoint. You can kind of go one of two ways. So, as far as the relationships that you built that led to the opportunities that you had or have or will have, what do you think is the thing that allows you to build these relationships that last, that turn into things down the road that turn into things down the road.
Speaker 1:Um, I am just like, I just am an introvert. I do extroverted things occasionally. Um, so when I'm at networking events, I'm not the person going up to everyone, be like, hey, what's up? Just start conversation with random people. Not that person at all. I when I go, and it took me a while to get comfortable with this. But now when I'm at events I don't even try to talk to everyone, like I'm more comfortable just chilling in one area by the food and just like whoever I happen to talk to is who I talk to. So I think because of that I do miss out on certain opportunities to meet people. But I think for me when it does work, because the people I do network with I think there's like an energy exchange type of thing. It's like people we kind of have a similar vibe or just something. It's just kind of like a deeper type of connection. So while some people can walk away with 30 contacts contacts I have three, but those three I'm still reach out to and speak to for like the next 30 years type of thing.
Speaker 1:One thing, one, one tip actually I would say, because like I think business cards depending on where you're at. They're expected or they're not. But me personally, I just decided I'm not going to carry business cards at all, ever, because I don't like them. They end up in, like, some corner in the desk. I use them as bookmarks, maybe, but they end up in the trash, um, and also you have to pay to make book, uh, business cards. So what I do is I use some of these apps, um, the free apps where you can have your information. People scan. It's a lot more common now. But what's cool about that is that when you hand someone your business card, you're relying on them to actually keep it, take down your information and reach out to you. But when you use some of these apps, they scan it. You got their phone number right away, their email right away. You could text them, call them, so there isn't as much dependency on them hitting you up later. There isn't as much dependency on them hitting you up later. So that's something for sure.
Speaker 1:So really, it's just like just connecting with people that I just feel some type of connection to, and sometimes it is like a immediate, like transactional, but like it's like mutually beneficially transactional, but majority of the time it's like a oh, you seem cool. Yeah, let's, let's talk later type of thing. I connect with more people online than offline LinkedIn. I've just met a lot of really really dope people there and somewhat I was a lot heavier with networking on Instagram previously, but lately it's mostly been LinkedIn for networking, especially in this podcast space. I met a lot of producers via LinkedIn and different like kind of podcast communities. So I guess another thing I'd say is like go where you want to be as far as events. You could pop up at whatever events, but I like to go to places that are kind of concentrated around something that I know about, I'm interested in, and then it's a lot easier to meet people that at at the very least, if you don't necessarily vibe with them, at least you're there for like a similar mission. So that helps too.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, that's all my bad all right, I'm uh, I'm gonna kind of get it in there and kind of give my spiel on what you just touched on. But, um, as far as networking, like, I kind of I kind of like to take the same approach as you. Um, I prefer to do it more online. Just because you can, um, you can only connect with a certain amount of people in person. Like online is is unlimited. You know, essentially, if you take time out of, uh, you know whether it's, you know, 30 minutes a day or it's a certain day, I'm just gonna do networking, like, if you really put in the time to um, like, go in, you know, comment on stuff, share, share things of your own, um, just be interested, just be interesting, comment and do it in an organic way, comment on things that you're actually interested in. You know, if, whether you like make a comment, if you do make a comment may have the comment be your personality, don't, you know, try to be too corporate or um, use all this jargon or kind of seem robotic like you have to do it in your using your natural personality. Um, and as far as in person, myself, I prefer to kind of like, just like, like you said, like not be too pushy. You know, um, there are moments where you know people, just the group, that the like minded people will find each other, that they kind of go off in a group and, you know, do their thing, and you know you make introductions like that and it starts off casual and you can get more into what you do and you know how you can help each other. So that's the approach that I like to take as well. So we're similar in that way as well. So we're similar in that way.
Speaker 2:And then also the thing big thing you mentioned is linkedin. Like I know instagram is like sexy and it's, you know, to me much more superficial, but if you're trying to get your, your career popping for real, you got to be on linkedin. Like I posted, uh, just a teaser for this episode, not for the episode, teaser for the podcast in general, just introducing the podcast and like revealing the cover art and stuff, and I thought it may may have got a few hits, but it kind of well, not kind of it definitely exceeded what I thought it was going to do, not only for people that had already followed me, but I got so many connection requests and messages and comments and things like that just from from and things like that, just from a two minute clip talking about the podcast. So if you're serious about wanting to make connections and progressing your career and taking it seriously, I think you should definitely be on LinkedIn as well. So yeah, man, you you shared a lot.
Speaker 2:Well. So yeah, man, you, you shared, uh, a lot. Um. So we've, you know, we've covered your journey. We've covered, uh, you know, your insecurities and addressing them and overcoming those. We talked about the, the job itself. We talked about building relationships, um, but you are getting into the to the end portion of the show. So I kind of want to end on a lighter note and just kind of get a feel for what you're into. So I got a couple of questions and just answer with the first thing that comes to your mind. So, first off, what is your favorite piece of equipment that you own?
Speaker 1:First thing I can't imagine is my phone equipment that you own.
Speaker 2:First thing I came to mom's my phone, um, but okay, audio related equipment.
Speaker 1:Audio related or content, yeah, okay, okay, first thing, um, all right. So having a roadcaster was was, uh, between the roadcaster and this, uh, the mic is, I'm sure, mb7. Um, the roadcaster always gonna have I could use a Shure, mb7. The Rodecaster always going to have love for it, because that helped me out a lot in the clubhouse days where I wanted to have rooms and record them. And then even when I started doing live streamed events, just playing music and everything or just integrating different sounds, it's just super, super easy on it. It took a minute to really learn it. It had a lot of terrible recordings because I didn't fully understand it. Um, so, yeah, shout out to everyone who had me on as a guest and it was terrible because of the audio. But, um, yeah, the roadcaster for sure, and then this sure mb7 just kind of leveled up a lot of uh, just just the, the sound and everything. So, yeah, tie between those two.
Speaker 2:Rollcast is winning, though, okay those are, those are two, probably every list that you can think of as far as, like, top, you know, mixer or, and microphones. Those are, those are definitely being a list. So those are, those are some solid, that's some solid gear. Um, next is what's your, what's your favorite album?
Speaker 1:oh, that's not fair. Um, I'm gonna say, 2014, forest hill drives by j cole. Yeah, I'll just stop there.
Speaker 2:I'll stop there okay, sometimes you just gotta, you gotta let things speak for themselves. So I'm, you know, uh say no more. Next is uh who's your favorite movie? Who's your favorite music producer?
Speaker 1:uh, I'm gonna shout out DJ Mustard right now, I don't know. I'm gonna say DJ Mustard, he's had one hell of a year right now and not like us record really just just took. Yeah.
Speaker 2:So shout out to him, oh yeah that's this, he that's has elevated him to legendary status. If he it wasn't, if he wasn't there already, all right. Next, uh favorite film score film score.
Speaker 1:So I would say um the first black panther, because I actually listened to it like the like I was listening to an album for real. Yeah that's a favorite.
Speaker 2:Okay, black Panther solid.
Speaker 1:And last is favorite TV theme song. Okay, this is a tough one Shout out to everyone who makes memorable theme songs. They don't for real. You know what's interesting actually? Um, it's about podcasts and there's like a conversation around like, are intros important anymore? Like, she skipped them, leave them out. And people talk about like listener retention and consumption time and just getting straight to it. And me personally on the mindset of like, do whatever you want, just make. If you do do it, just make sure it's really, really good, because, um, some podcast just kind of skip through to the part I want to start listening to and then eventually I might just stop listening others. I just just love it. So, um, tv intro doing all this to buy time. Um, it's a split between and, uh, it's a split between new Girl, fresh Prince and the Wayans Brothers.
Speaker 2:New Girl, Fresh Prince. I knew the Fresh Prince was going to be in there. It's funny. I hadn't watched the Wayans Brothers in a while and me and my girl was watching it the other night. So it's funny you say that because it's fresh on my mind. And then New Girl. I'm not familiar with New Girl.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's just. I'm a big fan of comedy TV. I'm not familiar with New Girl. Yeah, that's just. I'm a big fan of comedy. Tv shows are just all over. It's a very. But New Girl it just follows these three white people and one black person, but it's a really good. I think it's a really good show. It's a comedy show. It had quite a few seasons and, um, yeah, they're just kind of singing at the beginning every time somebody mentions, for this last portion, something they're not familiar with.
Speaker 2:Uh, make sure I go check it out and see if it you know check it out as far as being at the top of somebody's, list.
Speaker 1:So if you love it, you gotta let everyone know. You gotta put a special, special, special episode out. Just be like yo Walt has the best TV taste ever in all eternity. Now that show isn't for everyone, but I think I think that show deserves a little more credit.
Speaker 2:OK, all right. Oh, I love having you know people to have their own taste. So I'm not, I'm a judge, but not too harshly. But yeah, man, I think that brings us to the end here. You know, definitely want to be cognizant of your time, so you shared a lot. I appreciate it. Man, before we get out of here, where can people find you on social media? I know you say you're super active on LinkedIn, so make sure you share how people connect with you on there and anything else you want to share. Make sure you share how people connect with you on there and anything else you want to share.
Speaker 1:Yeah, if you're listening to it, appreciate y'all's time and yeah, definitely, I don't even just follow, but just reach out to me. I'm all about just relationships and especially if you're listening to this and following me, let me know that you are listening to this podcast. You can find me on LinkedIn, of course, walter Gaynor II, instagram, all the other platforms you can search for. It's the great walt. I t s the great walt on all the platforms. Um, yeah, I'm really excited about um. I've been kind of like quiet for the past two years as I've kind of pivoted into this new world for me as like a professional in the podcast space and now I'm starting to kind of bring back a lot of the content that I had done previously. So I'm just excited to kind of return to that and return to podcast and so if you are following me, I appreciate you. I definitely want to get to know y'all all right, I think we got it, brother.
Speaker 2:I appreciate you and everyone listening. I'll catch you on the next episode. Thank you for joining us on today's episode. Please don't forget to subscribe to the show and leave us a review. If you'd like to work with me or connect, please go to soundbossitcom and schedule a call there. You can also check out the full list of productions I've worked on. If you'd like to connect on social media, my handle is soundbysitcom on Twitter and Instagram and I'm Sidney Evans on LinkedIn. Don't forget to follow Beyond the Threshold on Instagram as well. I'll catch you on the next episode.