Today we’d like to introduce you to Blake Johnson.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Blake. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I moved to Atlanta in June of 2016 to be a teacher. After suffering from serious mental health challenges and a few other reasons, I had to leave my career. After leaving, I spent almost an entire year trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life and how I was going to overcome the challenges I was facing. I left Atlanta in search of healing in December 2018 and spent the next 6-7 months battling depression and suicidal ideation. Nothing felt like home and I ended up returning to Atlanta in June of 2019.
In August of 2019, I started working at Slutty Vegan. The good energy, positive vibes brought me out of deep depression and gave me the courage to continue in life and make away with what I had. Things slowly got better until October of that same year. I became very ill. I almost lost my life and the depression I was working my way out of relapsed and got worse. It was during the recovery process I started my podcast, Diary of a Mad Black Man, to have a safe space to express myself.
I had been listening to podcasts for about a year before I started my own. It was listening to podcasts like Let’s Talk Bruh and The Roommates Podcast that inspired me to open up on my podcast, which became my saving grace. Hearing black men be honest, transparent and vulnerable about their mental health challenges confirmed, I was not alone. Podcasting and listening to podcasts became the encouragement I needed to seek healing through therapy, again, but to also share my experiences with others. I knew if I wanted to heal, I had to be more honest, vulnerable and transparent with myself than I ever had in my entire life.
After being laid off in April due to COVID-19, I knew I had to quickly find something to occupy my mind. It was in the days after, at the height of the pandemic, I decided to start podcasting full time, become a full time creative and entrepreneur, and find a way to sustain my life. If nothing but for the time being during the pandemic. After a few weeks of collaborating with others in podcasting, I discovered that I needed help! Although I had been podcasting for several months, I needed help and the Facebook groups were not as helpful with going to the next level that I wanted to. I made a Facebook post in a podcast group I was part of, expressing my interest in starting a podcast network.
On May 20th, 2020, The Black Podcast Club was created. It started as just a GroupMe chat with about 14 black podcasters and creatives. We began to share and exchange knowledge almost daily, which not only helped me grow as a podcaster but it helped everyone in the group.
After watching Killer Mike on the new press conference during the first night of protests here in Atlanta, I knew I had to seriously “plot and plan” on what my next move was. I was passionate about podcasting but I knew I had to make money from it, beyond this pandemic, beyond this year, and into the future, somehow, some way. I shared my vision with my club members and a few of them were down to help turn it into a business. I soon after joined Building Better Brands with Chris Ward Jr. to help building a business and a sustainable brand. Fast forward to today, we have a live website and offer several services for podcasters, a lifestyle brand for podcasting with apparel, accessories and home decor. The club is growing everyday and I am constantly fine tuning and making it better. Now, we have a live website and offer several services for podcasters, a lifestyle brand for podcasting with apparel, accessories and home decor. The club is growing everyday. It now has several membership levels, a global reach, and is growing daily.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
For the most part, it has been a smooth journey. However, financially, it has been extremely difficult, especially for me as the founder. We are trying to fundraise and generate revenue but it is tough times for everyone. My executive team has put in many hours to help get to this point, essentially as interns working for free. We are working daily to keep things afloat between business expenses, subscriptions for services and trying to buy new equipment to make all of our content better, but money is very tight for the company at the moment.
We’d love to hear more about your work.
The Black Podcast Club is a safe space for all creatives. We believe in reinforcing our power and amplifying our voice through diverse unity, mutual-mentorship and exchanging knowledge. We are an international network of creatives, creating a safe space for enhancing our creativity, speaking truth and making the world a better place, one podcast at a time. We help creatives become their own boss. It’s more than a club, it’s a lifestyle.
We offer services in audio engineering, graphic design, social media and marketing, monetization strategy development, video editing and production. As well as podcast therapy, individual and group, to help enhance the skills of club members as well as take some of the workloads away from creatives so they can focus on just being dope, creative podcasters. We are known for being better than your average club. We have versatile events, discussions and truly support each other. Of course, like many other clubs, we like to turn up and have fun too. Yet we can also have a healthy, tough or even taboo discussion on just about any topic you can think of.
We are most proud of simply getting started. If someone told me in April of this year, I’d have my own company in six months. I would have never believed them. I am proud to simply be getting started and look forward to growing globally, creating dope content and learning along the way. What sets us apart from others is the club members and the vibes and energy we have together. We don’t pretend to be anything other than who we are. We don’t need to get dressed up to go to this club, we just come as we are and have a great time. Often by having deep intellectual conversations.
What were you like growing up?
I grew up in the Chicago area and we moved around almost every 1-2 years, so living in one part of the city was not my experience. Growing up, I was a misunderstood child who was very rebellious at times. I did not like to follow the rules and this often landed me in a lot of trouble. My father was murdered when I was one years old and I was raised mostly by my mom and grandmother.
At my core, I was very adventurous. I’ve always loved playing outdoors, being in the woods and anything involving water. I never really got into sports I wanted to. I always loved to read and was always a smart kid. I loved art, and doing ceramics and making clay projects were some of my favorite memories from school. Basically anything using my creativity.
Pricing:
- The pricing of the services offered by The Black Podcast Club vary based on what is needed by the creative. We offer services ranging from as low as $15 ad slots to $500+ for service packages that include a variety of services, depending on what the creatives wants.
- Membership to the club starts at only $19.99 per month which comes with a 24/7 group support network and a variety of other perks such as free or discounted event access and discounts on services.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.theblackpodcastclub.com
- Email: bpc@theblackpodcastclub.com
- Instagram: @theblackpodcastclub
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/theblackpodcastclub
- Twitter: @theblackpodclub
- Podcast: @diaryofambm
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