Okay, time to get real. The last podcast, at best, was mediocre. There is an abundance, and I do mean an abundance, of issues that need to be discussed and addressed. First of all, the team. I’ve been hoping since the beginning of the podcast that we could make this work, but I increasingly see that it cannot. This podcast cannot be run and made by people who have a casual investment in it. It cannot be something that you give attention to only when you have the time. We are all busy. We all have other lives. However, this cannot be a project that we only do half-heartedly. Here’s where I give you a choice. You can either continue on with us to make this podcast the best that it can be or you can opt out. I warn you that I am going to start asking much more of people than just the basics. I will not just call on the entire group for something, but specifically ask on individual people. We need people who will go above and beyond. Who will be handed a task and not only rise to the occasion but take initiative to perhaps make it even better than proposed. We need people who cringe and criticize when we put out subpar work or propose mediocre ideas. We need people who listen to the podcast and don’t just say “That was great” or “We’ll do better next time”. We need people with concrete ideas on how to improve our quality instead of praising the few things we excel at. I honestly don’t blame anyone for the mistakes and mediocre work we’ve been doing so far. We all hoped this was something we could be a part of, but the truth is it’s not cut out for everyone. I understand that we all want to be here but not everyone can do the work that will be required. Everyone needs to evaluate how much time and energy they can contribute to this project as well as if they have the skills to do it. As for the voices, I would like you all to truly evaluate if you should be a voice or if your talents lie elsewhere. To be clear, I will not be throwing anybody off the team, but I will start expecting a lot more from you guys and you need to rise to the challenge. If you cannot, then we will have a problem. On another note, we need to work on the quality of the podcast. I think this will go hand in hand with changing/challenging the team. We need to start doing original content and I believe that we should start doing either bi-weekly (every other week) podcasts or once a month (preferably at the beginning of the month, recapping what happened last month as well as focusing on the upcoming one). We just aren’t ready to do weekly ones at this point. The problem with doing podcasts every week while simultaneously asking for commitment and work from the team is that it then becomes something that you need to devote your life to practically every day to make it quality. With a once a month or bi-weekly podcast, people can set aside the time where they will devote their energy to making quality content. If you guys agree or would like to work on everything I’ve discussed, please let me know. If you think I am being completely unrealistic and do not think this is something the podcast needs I will step down and remove myself from the podcast, not bitterly, but with the hopes that you guys find your footing. Please leave feedback, comments, and questions below.