Reflecting on 2024: The Pros and Cons of Bamby Media's Journey
As I sit down to reflect on my company, Bamby Media's 2024 journey, I find myself sifting through a mix of challenges and “woohoo” moments. I personally love reflections from founders, so I though it was about time I did one of my own.
Today I’m breaking down the pros and cons of the year that was 2024. If you haven’t taken the time to reflect on the previous year yet yourself, I highly encourage you to do so. You’ll have a clearer picture of what you want 2025 to look like, and you’ll feel more grounded in your decisions.
PROS OF 2024
The Rise of the AI Robots
One of Bamby Media’s standout positives this year has been the integration of AI into our processes. While it’s very clear the impact that AI is having on the workforce and creating redundancies, for us, it’s been a an asset to what we’re able to offer our clients. It has mitigated that initial brainstorming block, sparking creativity and efficiency in content creation. AI has empowered us to deliver even higher-quality products to our clients, elevating our service standard.
Calm Among Chaos
This year marked a shift towards calmness in our operations. Thanks to well-established processes and boundaries, I personally had a much calmer year. As I near a decade working in podcasting, the business runs like a well-oiled machine. There’s less need to reinvent the wheel or rush to solve unexpected issues, allowing for a serene working environment most of the time—something I’ve cherished amid the typical year-end hustle.
Starting a YouTube Channel
2024 was the year we launched our YouTube channel properly, and what a rewarding journey it has been! The channel has become a platform for community building and client engagement, contributing to our revenue stream without even being technically monetised yet. We’ve reached new people, made deeper connections and built partnerships with brands that we love.
Travelling Interstate
One of the most exciting aspects of 2024 was the opportunity to travel beyond the confines of our studio walls and engage with clients and projects across different states in Australia. As someone who thrives on new experiences, these trips were an exhilarating change of pace. Travelling not only allowed me to break the monotony of daily routines but also provided a refreshing environment in which creativity could flourish. Meeting clients in their own spaces, running studio setups, and collaborating on-site offered a nuanced perspective that virtual meetings simply can't capture.
Aligned Clients
As Bamby Media continues to evolve, aligning ourselves with clients who share our vision and enthusiasm has become a vital component of our success. This year, we were fortunate enough to welcome clients who not only understand the value of comprehensive packages but also share our passion for impactful storytelling and genuine interaction. These partnerships have not only been financially rewarding but also deeply fulfilling, as they allow us to immerse fully in our clients' projects, from conception to creation. Having the opportunity to contribute significantly to their success stories has not only strengthened our ties but has enriched the Bamby Media ecosystem.
Launching our Free Podcast Audit
Introducing the free podcast audit was another highlight for 2024. Allowing us to connect with new creators and offer strategic feedback, this initiative has been both rewarding and growth-inducing, often leading to new clients. It has also allowed me time to listen to independent shows that I wouldn’t normally listen to, and I find that to be so much fun.
Collaborations that Matter
Another hallmark of 2024 was a few key brand collaborations that came our way. These collaborations provided not just tools but trust and recognition in our niche field. Testing and sharing our evaluations of these products has been an enriching experience and a dream come true. The process has allowed us to not only inform others of industry-quality equipment but also to contribute to a community that is just as passionate about high-quality sound as we are. It's rewarding to witness our expertise being sought after and appreciated by brands we admire.
Cultivating Talent
I have focused on equipping our team with diverse skills in 2024, and watching their talent blossom has been a fulfilling experience. Having a skilled, versatile crew is invaluable for delivering exceptional service and investing in their growth directly enriches Bamby Media. I believe that in order to run a small team, they need to be multi-skilled. Gone are the days when you can hire an “audio editor” and that is all they do in the business. For diversity in both the job (to keep our team engaged) and to allow us to offer more interesting services, upskilling is important.
CONS of 2024
Software Shortcomings
Amidst the highs, we faced tech-related hurdles. Existing software didn’t always meet our needs, which at times hampered productivity. There’s a dire need for tailored solutions, and while developing our own feels daunting, it's a prospect I’m keeping in mind for the future. In our business, we have a number of key software tools that we use every day, and when these tools don’t live up to expectations this causes significant delays. It has been frustrating no doubt.
AI Podcasts
On the flip side of AI advancements, there was an unwelcome surge of AI-generated podcasts, cluttering platforms and muddying the waters of authentic content. This trend is concerning, and I hope clearer distinctions will emerge as the medium evolves. I have a couple of articles where I review the AI podcasting landscape and my initial delight which turned to horror.
Seeking Bigger Challenges
Professionally, I’m yearning for larger, more complex projects. While 2024 was calming overall with hundreds of great projects, my ambition seeks next-level endeavours to match our growing capabilities. I would like to work with founders of larger brands in 2025 and help them grow their impact further.
Goal Setting
Despite our achievements, uncertainty remains on our next strategic leaps forward. The evolving landscape of media and technology presents countless opportunities. Yet, pinpointing our precise direction is harder to ascertain than it has been in previous years. With all the advancements in the podcasting space, it can feel a little bit like your goals are on moving targets. This is one of the things I love about podcasting, but my direction hasn’t been as clear in 2024 as a result.
Too Much Time In The Office
Lastly, I’ve spent more time seated at my desk this year than any previous year, a concern for creativity and well-being. My studio is quite small in our current space too which has felt a little stifling at times. We are moving into a new space in the second half of 2025 which I’m so excited for. This will bring with it new opportunities to setup a fresh space, there will be a lot more natural light and it will be more conducive to creative expression.
2024 was quite a big year as I take the time to reflect back on it now. There have been a decent array of pros and cons, but all in all it was a fantastic year. Profit has been steady, client relationships are strong and team morale has been high. I carry these lessons with me, eager for new challenges and opportunities in 2025.
Transcript:
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[00:00:00] Brianna: So I recorded an episode at the end of last year, where I told everybody not to take a break from podcasting over the Christmas and January period. And then. I had batched all this content. It was all ready to go. It was all ready to be edited. I had a production schedule that I was working through for our podcast as well.
[00:00:21] And I had all this stuff that was coming out over the Christmas period. And you know what? We couldn't physically get to the editing of our own stuff. We actually landed a musical that we had to edit in the last, like two weeks before we were going to go on holidays. And then that just meant that everything else that we had planned for our own stuff to actually get our editing done.
[00:00:46] Completely got thrown out the window because we had to get this other thing done. It was a project that, uh, it had been with us technically since August, but we had been waiting on other people to get the things to us that we needed in order to finalize it. And then they just didn't get it to us. It was really frustrating.
[00:01:05] They didn't get it to us until the very last moment we were hounding them. There was emails back and forth. Anyway. It was very frustrating in the end and it just meant that as a production company, we weren't able to get to the stuff that we wanted to get to for our own show prior to going on holidays.
[00:01:23] And then of course we didn't want to do it in our holidays as well. So yeah. This means that this episode today is something that should have been released before the end of the year, hence the name Behind the Scenes of Bambi Media in 2024. I'm going through my reflections of what 2024 was like, and you know, it's still relevant, of course, I'm still going to release it, but I just wanted to say at the front of this episode, Hey, I know this probably would have made more sense if you listened to it a couple of weeks ago, but we just couldn't get to it.
[00:01:52] So I hope you still find value. I hope it's a nice little sneak peek, sticky beak into what Bamboo Media is like as a company and [00:02:00] what our pros and cons were for the year. So yeah, let's just get straight into it and thanks for being here.
[00:02:05] Welcome to my recap of 2024. I'm going to go through some pros, and then I'm going to go through some cons. The biggest pro I have to talk about, and it's probably also a con, but we're going to put it in the pro column as well, is AI.
[00:02:28] AI has been a massive pro here for us at Bambi because it's really just helped us do our job a lot better. You know, people talk about AI taking their jobs and things, and that's definitely happening. That's a huge deal for a lot of people. But for us in the industry that we're in, especially at this time anyway, who knows the future, it really has just helped us deliver better.
[00:02:51] product, like a better service to all our clients. AI is really helping us achieve better results when we get given audio, that kind of sucks, also helping us just like reframe things, write better, develop better content ideas, help us with strategies and things like that. It, you know, it only does a small amount of what we do, but it gets us over that hurdle, that first step that can sometimes be half an hour or an hour, just trying to.
[00:03:18] Brainstorm things. If you've got AI helping you, it definitely reduces the amount of brainstorming time. And it often triggers those creative ideas. Just having a robot to bounce off of, it seems weird to say that it is true. So the first pro is AI. I've also found that it's been a much calmer year and a lot of people have seen that as a negative, as far as, you know, maybe reduced revenue, people not buying as much, all that sort of thing.
[00:03:45] We haven't seen that in our business. Uh, it's been a great year as far as revenue is concerned, but I've just found that It's actually just karma because I think the processes that we have are so good. The systems that we have are [00:04:00] so good. The boundaries that we set are so good. And so it's meant that there has been less things that go wrong.
[00:04:07] I'm now in this business. almost 10 years. And I've had employees now for probably five, maybe five of those years. And every year it gets less ridiculous as in like, Oh crap, now we need a process for this. Oh, Oh no, we've never encountered that before. Like, how do we fix that? How do we change that? How do we evolve?
[00:04:27] There's been less of that that's needed because the structure and how we run everything is so like, You know, it's so like concrete that it's made it calmer. I'm not constantly trying to reinvent the wheel or think of new things or think of how we're going to do this thing because a lot of it has been set up in a really great way.
[00:04:47] That's been a real positive. It's definitely meant that there has been. been just a calmer vibe. So that's just, let's just take a pause on that calm for a minute and just remember that because at this time of year, it is not calm at all. And, uh, as much as I love that, I like reflecting on the fact that overall it has been really calm.
[00:05:06] Piggybacking off of that, it's also meant that there has been no, or I would have to count maybe on one hand, the amount of times that I've personally had to work nights or weekends. For so many years in my business, that has been the case. So from when it first started, you know, I was working in between nap times of children and I was working nights and yeah, I was working weekends and I was just working whenever I could because there was so many things, so many distractions, so many ways that I was being pulled in all these directions that I just I had to finally, I don't have to, if I want to, I can, there's always more things that I can do.
[00:05:48] Sometimes I really feel like working on something and it's at nighttime, but that's so rare. And so it's meant that I've been reading way more, I've read way more books, I've been writing songs again, I've been like sitting at [00:06:00] my piano more and just, oh, there's just all that stuff has been so much better this year.
[00:06:06] And also, as I said. In, uh, an episode that I released kind of towards the end of last year, I got an Apple watch and that completely, like literally, I'm not even joking. It literally changed my life because I went from having a phone that I was always using to not needing a phone and not scrolling social media or checking my emails or doing all the things.
[00:06:31] I didn't do any of that. I just have this and I check my emails and things when it's appropriate to do so. So my mental health has absolutely improved because of this Apple Watch and having systems in place that I don't have to work so hard. I don't have to work so hard anymore. I just have a much nicer.
[00:06:53] We also really started our YouTube channel at the beginning of 2024. That has been such a massive pro. I have loved it. I'm here on video as well. I just love it so much because the comments that we get, like the feedback, the community that we're building, we're going to be monetized really soon, which is, I mean, that's cool.
[00:07:12] Like that's a fun little thing to work towards to get that thousand subscribers, to get that 4, 000 watch hours. And that, yeah. Has been really cool to track the analytics behind that. Also the income that's being generated from YouTube, the YouTube channel isn't monetized. That's from people engaging with our services after watching us on YouTube or after seeing some snippets that we've shared on LinkedIn, that all is repurposed stuff from the YouTube channel, from the podcast.
[00:07:39] We've made thousands of dollars from YouTube so far without brand deals, without anything, without being monetized because we have a channel that We already have offerings. We already have ways that people can, can reach us, can work with us. And so that was something I knew coming into YouTube because I've worked on enough shows to know [00:08:00] that already, that that may be the case.
[00:08:03] So it's cool that that actually has come to light as well. It's a lot of work. Don't get me wrong, it's a lot of work to have a YouTube channel. I'm fortunate, we're fortunate, because we are a podcast and video production company. It's all in house here, so it does cost money still, but not in the same way.
[00:08:21] Also really happily launched our free podcast audit. That's been just really great to see people taking advantage of. You can submit your show for free, and it allows me or someone from my team to discover a new show. To listen to a new show and to get strategic around what we think they could do, to do better.
[00:08:39] And it's not our full consults. It's not a big strategy, but it's a free audit. And it's been a really nice way to get people in to be like, Hey, it's okay. Like just we'll give you some feedback and you can grow from there. So that has been really good for that. It's also generated income as well, where people do the free audit, and then they sign up to work with us.
[00:09:01] That's really cool. And not, Actually something I was focused on at all. I really just wanted to listen to more shows and I wanted to give people feedback. That's a happy by product of something that we wanted to do anyway. So that's been really good. A pro has also been training team in new skills. This has been a pro and also a necessity.
[00:09:19] We can't just do the same things that we were doing before. I can't have a team that's not diverse because we operate a small team and I have no interest in operating a large team. I need people that work in BAMU Media that are intelligent, creative, and willing to learn new skills. And it's not like you can go to uni and get a BAMU.
[00:09:40] Podcast editing degree, like you can get an audio editing degree, but there's nuance in podcasting. And so people that come to me, people that work with me often don't have the skills. They don't have all the skills that I need them to have, but they need to be ready. They need to be willing. They need to be the kind of personality that will Learn that wants to learn that [00:10:00] wants to grow that wants to experience new things that wants to be challenged And so i've really enjoyed that this year where i've thrown things at them and be like you got to learn this. You got to learn how to do this and they've been yeah, cool, we'll learn it and it sucks for a while because you know, they're not good at it straight away and No one's good at anything straight away.
[00:10:22] It's it's Something that is hard to do. So I've enjoyed giving them more things to do, training them in new things and seeing them develop the skills. Because I know that more skills is always a good thing, no matter where you go, no matter what you do, no matter who you work for next. If you happen to leave, you have skills that you can use.
[00:10:43] So that has been. Awesome. We also welcomed a heap of fantastic new clients this year. Ones that are really aligned, ones that are on packages that allow us to do a lot more for them. It used to be that all I was doing, all we were doing was audio editing. We were just editing things and just putting them up on podcast platforms, which is very satisfying.
[00:11:06] Like it's, it's much easier to do, but the fact that we have clients and so many of them that package things up, that want us to help them repurpose, that want us to do video snippets, that want us to write really good articles, want us to share things on LinkedIn for them, for YouTube, for all these things, it just means that we're allowed to be more invested.
[00:11:27] In what they're doing and the outcomes that they're receiving and I personally really value that We don't take on heaps of clients again. I want to keep this team small. I want to keep like the this the sphere of People that we're working with to a to a manageable level to a level where we can really be More hands on and so when we do get clients that I feel like really work They want to improve And we're able to help them improve because they're on packages that allow us to do that.
[00:11:58] So that has been a [00:12:00] definite plus. And then in the same way, also a plus, a pro is that we've lost clients that aren't like that, that have, you know, teeny tiny budgets and that need to scrimp and save and can't. You know, invest. And I get that massively. I understand that people have to leave, that people's, you know, needs shift, that the way they need to do things shifts, that maybe they bring a VA in house and then they think they'll just get the VA to do things.
[00:12:27] All of this is valid. All of this is completely fine for us as a business. It's just nice that that transition is best for everybody, I think, is what I'm trying to say there. So the pro there has been really good. We've been able to fly interstate this year and help with podcast, setting up recording.
[00:12:45] We've been able to go to studios in different cities and, you know, be creative director. We've been able to go to clients houses, set up all their equipment, showcase things for them, record tutorials. The travel element of this year has been really fun. I sit. here almost every day, all day. Okay. When I get a chance to go outside, like to go somewhere and meet clients and help them with this stuff in person and get paid to do it.
[00:13:19] Like what? You know, it's, it's so nice. It's really, really a beautiful thing. So going into state and being able to share that time with my partner as well has been really, really good. I've judged and attended the Australian Podcasting Awards, which is always a good time. The awards were fun. As usual, the judging process was great.
[00:13:42] There are challenges with that method, and maybe I'll do that in another episode at some point. But I think being able to highlight podcasters, listen to their shows and Really dive into them has been very rewarding. Like it's such a rewarding thing to be able to give back and judge shows [00:14:00] and give them some constructive feedback.
[00:14:02] So I've really loved that. And then also being able to fly down to Sydney, go to the award ceremony, meet some people again, catch up with clients who were shortlisted. That was all just such a fun time. I have two more pros. One of them being that we've helped clients achieve significant growth. And we have that data because we have certainly the ones that we do a lot for and that are on like our podcoach packages.
[00:14:24] It means that we track everything, like not just their podcast downloads, but we look at what their LinkedIn and what their Instagram and what their YouTube's doing and all these different platforms. And we look at how those things are going over time, the comments that they get on articles, you know, how website traffic, like all this stuff seen significant growth.
[00:14:43] That is so cool. And again, that's why we like working with clients that require bigger packages that want to work with us in a bigger way because we can actually help them do things. So that's been so satisfying. And then the last thing that I was just over the moon about for this year was the fact that I got gifted some microphones.
[00:15:04] Oh my God. Like this one I'm using this SEDCMA that I'm using is my favorite. microphone and it's like a brand that I absolutely adore as well. And the fact that I was able to receive these from the YouTube channel, like for the YouTube channel, the YouTube channel was like teeny tiny at that point too.
[00:15:25] And I still was able to get these beautiful microphones. I have some other things as well that have been supplied, um, for me to review and use and give feedback on, like, that's something that I really want to do. I really want to have that be, this channel is where I go, this is, It's terrible. And this is good.
[00:15:44] Use this. Don't use this. And I know it's only my opinion. Everyone has opinions, just like they have bumholes. For me to be able to go with my 20 years of experience in audio production and help people not spend a [00:16:00] thousand million dollars on things. They don't need to be spending their money on has been awesome.
[00:16:03] And so to get gifted some stuff, which is actually of an extremely high caliber, and I would buy anyway, has been really, really good. So big plug to Essie for this because Essie have just created a beautiful microphone and others in this suite as well. So that's a lot of pros. It's pretty good, isn't it?
[00:16:22] Like that's a lot of things that have, have gone well this year. Now I'm going to get into the cons because when there's pros, there's always cons. You're not going to have like an amazing year the whole time. I want this to be relatable. I want it to be true and I want it to be honest. So let's get into some cons.
[00:16:37] One of the biggest cons that we've had this year is in our business, the software options that we have to produce the content that we want to produce are not good. We've got tools, which I won't name. Okay. Some of them are really falling short in, and I would love to be able to create software that I can.
[00:16:56] We can use that art is for us that we've created that we know is awesome and everything We're relying on other people creating tools and software that we can use in our businesses that work Although a lot of them are good. There's nothing that's right up there. There's nothing that's like yes This works and it works on repeat and it's exactly what we need and it does everything we want it to do That's been a con for me because there's been so many times throughout the year where I've been like, ah, if we just had this, like if we just had this thing, then that would solve a lot of problems and it doesn't exist.
[00:17:31] It doesn't exist. I know you're probably listening to this. Well, why don't you create it? That just seems like a lot of work. It seems like a lot of work. If you are a person that is a software developer, you're looking for a new adventure, then certainly reach out and we can chat. But yeah, that's been a real con, is that we're not currently at the place where I feel like what we use as software is What I want us to use that the all encompassing tools, isn't they're not [00:18:00] quite there.
[00:18:00] And there's a bunch of AI stuff coming out. Most of it's pretty terrible. I know it's going to get better, but there's things that are slowing us down. That could be sped up by specific things. I won't go any further into it, but that has been something that has been annoying me this year. Another con is AI generated podcasts spamming podcast platforms.
[00:18:22] Flippin notebook LM, okay? I did a video on a podcast episode on this, actually a couple of them, uh, a few months ago where, yeah, I was just breaking down like, just there's so many AI podcasts now and they're all terrible. They're all terrible. All the ones I listen to anyway. There would be over 2, 000.
[00:18:39] There's probably 3, 000 of them right now. It's just dampening the whole, the whole spirit of what podcasting is. I don't like it. So I found that to be a con. I think the gimmick is cool. There's a certain purpose for it, but I don't think that it belongs In podcast platforms for people to get confused between it being real and it being a fake person doesn't sit right with me.
[00:19:04] So I haven't enjoyed that. Another con is I would have probably liked to take on one or two even bigger projects this year. So we've worked on some incredible stuff this year. It's a really good, uh, clients. Everything's like working well in that regard, but I kind of want to get to a next level. In that space as well.
[00:19:23] We've been doing this a very long time. I want things that are a little bit more challenging for me at this point, because. I need the challenge too, you know, it's, it's something that I know that is going to happen, but the projects haven't been as big as I'd like in, in this year. Has meant for a calm year though as well.
[00:19:45] So, you know, pro and con there together. Another con, not being a hundred percent clear on our next move. There's so many ways that. This business can go [00:20:00] that sometimes it gets a little bit like, yeah, but where, like, where do we actually want to head next? Where do we want to place ourselves in the industry?
[00:20:09] Who do we want to work with? That evolves over time. And then with the dawn of like AI and all these tools that are coming out to speed things up and for people to do things themselves, there's also that, like, how do we need to evolve? To match. So what's our next move? What do we want to focus on? I'm not 100 percent sure on that yet.
[00:20:29] It's something that I'm still playing with. Like, there's a few different angles. And I know that that's kind of not a con, but I like to have goals. And I don't have my next goal kind of set yet. So yeah, that's been a con. The last one is sitting at my desk too much. I've been sitting at my desk more than I want to sit at my desk.
[00:20:51] I mean, I have a sit stand desk. I stand, but that's not, that's not the problem. I'd like to get out more in 2025. And that's why I did put the call out just on Instagram, even just to say, Hey, if anyone's doing live events, you want someone to come and speak about podcasting, I'm up for it. I. spent a lot of time in this studio this year and I know that this studio is going to be short lived too, like we'll be moving to a new space in probably six to eight months.
[00:21:19] I haven't enjoyed this space all that much just because it's small and I feel quite closed in and although that's really good for content creation. Not much natural light. It doesn't suit my personality being so small, you know, so that's something that I'm looking to change in 2025 to get away from my desk more, to have a different setup.
[00:21:46] That's all going to be a transition phase and I will take you on the journey of setting up the new space when we get there as well. But that's something that's, it's felt like a little bit of a downer this year. That I've been spending so much time in this [00:22:00] room, even though I'm not working nights and weekends, to me, it's still too much.
[00:22:03] It's too much time here. I'd like to be writing music, like playing music, to be performing maybe music. Into 2025, because I feel like my creative juices, my energy is gained from doing those things. And I'm just starting to, like, at this point, really get that. Like, I really understand that that's something that I need to be doing and I haven't been doing enough of it.
[00:22:30] So, like, Yeah, that's been a con this year. It's too much time at the desk, and I'm sure so many people can relate to that as well. Okay, that's my wrap up of behind the scenes of BAMI Media, what's been going on in my head, what have been the pros, what have been the cons working here at BAMI Media. Overall, we've had a fantastic year.
[00:22:49] There's not really any complaints that I can actually make. There's a few cons, there's a bunch of positives, but I think that it's important to be And I hope you've enjoyed it. If you have, please let me know. If you're on Spotify, you can leave a comment. If you are on YouTube, you can leave a comment there.
[00:23:08] Apple hasn't come to the party on that yet. So there's no commenting for you guys, but you can reach out to me on Instagram. and LinkedIn. I will share an article on this on LinkedIn as well. If you want to connect with me over there, I'm also on Medium. Medium has been going very well this year. A lot of our articles have been doing extremely well.
[00:23:26] There's many places that you can reach out and let me know how you're going, what you've enjoyed. And I hope you liked this style.
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