Chloe Shih & I shoot a lifestyle pod on weekends in our spare time. It just got ranked as one of Spotify's top 10 breakout pods of 2024 - along with Haliey's Talk Tuah pod 😉 A few thoughts: 1. Anyone can make content now. Part of why I started Karat Financial with Will Kim was because I deeply wanted to work *with* creators and never expected that I was good enough to make content myself. But Chloe Shih's story is an inspiration. Despite building accolades as a product manager at Meta / TikTok / Discord - she also shared her life & advice online and built a community of hundreds of thousands. And when Discord laid her off, she fully focused on her content and thrived. When she asked me to cohost the Joy of Missing Out pod with her, I was skeptical anyone would care enough to tune in - but creating it with her has been a joy. You'll notice that every other pod Spotify lists below has a production company or sponsor behind it - but our podcast is just produced by us 🥺 2. Building a creator business is still hard. As a brand new podcast, we hit over 50K views/ download per episode. But scrapping it together was still *difficult*. We found our own freelance editors (thank you Jayna Benito) - as there still isn't a clear pipeline yet (shoutout to Sina Sahami Sherry Wong working on this). We only took one brand deal because sourcing/ negotiating took so much time. We didn't incorporate & set up a shared bank account (but we're launching this soon at Karat Financial! DM me for details) And - a huge part of our success was being lucky enough to work with Trace Gaynor at Spotify - we're very aware of how fortunate we are. Anyone can *make* content but building a business around it isn't easy. 3. You can do content on the side - and still benefit your main gig. Chloe Shih and I truly do our pod as a side quest. That's why we took a season break - we literally ran out of episodes to post! it's been creatively fueling to work on something on the weekends that's so expressive - *and* it's also helped business. When we hired our chief of staff at Karat recently, multiple top notch interview candidates came from watching the pod. I've built relationships with top creator platforms thanks to it. Other creators that Karat wants to work with also watch the pod and reach out to *me* because of it. In 2024 - if you've ever had a passion you wanted to explore more and share with others online- you can do it. Thank you Chloe Shih for exploring this with me on the pod - and to Will Kim for our partnership on Karat.
Eric Wei, I have lost count of how many people I have recommended to tune in to your and Chloe Shih's JOMO podcast. It made me feel heard, seen and also surprised on occasions. Taught me things I didn't know and reassured me of things I doubted myself on. It also made me feel that while I always suffered an imposter feeling of being outdated as a millennial, I am far from it. I have seen some of the episodes on repeated occasions. Can't wait for Season 2. PS. Also a fellow member of the Chlocommunity, so will continue to cheer you folks either way.
This is incredible and the success is well deserved! Your show is killer! If you ever need anyone to talk about launching and scaling a creator podcast, feel free to send me a DM as I launched and scaled The Editing Podcast. I have experience with everything from filming, producing, building a fan community on social media channels, booking guests, and ordering orange chicken for when that edit isn't just hitting right. Would love to talk more, and again congratulations!
Two things that make Jomo special: 1: You, Chloe and Kira clear have so much fun which I believe is a key to enjoying the process and it makes it so enjoyable for the viewers. 2: You guys were so transparent and that hooked me to the podcast and I bet it hooked others as well. You guys are amazing and I'm excited for Season 2!!
truly one of my favorite things I found this year! so deserved!!
Loved every single episode 🤎 so greatful YT recommended me it one day. Waiting for the next chapter 🙌🏆
Love this Journey Eric Wei and hearing more about your story on Lauren (LaurDIY) Riihimaki's pod! Excited to see how your adventures continue!
Congrats on all your success Eric Wei and Chloe Shih! I've been following the podcast since it launched and have been impressed with how high quality it's been from the beginning. We can definitely help with brand deals at Gumball if you'd like to connect! Our business was actually created by podcasters who quickly realized how meticulous of a process it is to secure sponsors.
jomo is easily one of the best podcasts around!!!
Cofounder at Karat- helping creators w money
3wyou can follow Karat Financial's journey at https://www.instagram.com/trykarat/ - and the Joy of Missing Out podcast at https://www.youtube.com/@jomopod!