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300 Episodes: Did we make a difference? - Ep 300
290 Plays20 days ago
As we record episode 300 we reflect on the last 299 episodes and 11 years of podcasting. Did we make a difference in anyone’s career? Was it all worth it? Should we keep going? We go deep on this one. Here’s to 300 more and good luck to Heather at the helm of the next chapter of the CRM Archaeology Podcast.
Transcripts
- For rough transcripts of this episode go to https://www.archpodnet.com/crmarchpodcast/300
Blogs and Resources:
- Bill White: Succinct Research
- Doug Rocks-MacQueen: Doug’s Archaeology
- Chris Webster: DIGTECH LLC
- Andrew Kinkella
Kinkella Teaches Archaeology (Youtube)
Blog: Kinkella Teaches Archaeology
ArchPodNet
- APN Website: https://www.archpodnet.com
- APN on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/archpodnet
- APN on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/archpodnet
- APN on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/archpodnet
- Tee Public Store: https://www.teepublic.com/stores/archaeology-podcast-network?ref_id=5724
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Transcript
Introduction to the CRM Archaeology Podcast
00:00:01
Speaker
You're listening to the Archaeology Podcast Network. This is the Serum Archaeology Podcast. It's the show where we pull back the veil of cultural resources management archaeology and discuss the issues that everyone is concerned about. Welcome to the podcast.
Celebrating 300 Episodes and Hosting Transition
00:00:22
Speaker
Hello, and welcome to the CRM archaeology podcast episode 300 for October 30th, 2024. I'm your host, Chris Webster. On today's show, we talk about the past 300 episodes. Did we make a difference? So get out your Kleenex because you're going to miss me. And the CRM archaeology podcast starts right now.
00:00:50
Speaker
Welcome to the show, everyone. Joining me today is Heather in Southern California. Hi, everyone. Bill in. We're going to call it Northern California still because it's my last time I can do whatever I want. They call it Northern California. It's halfway up. Yeah, we're not going to have this conversation again.
00:01:09
Speaker
And Andrew also in Southern California. What's up, party people? And Doug in Scotland. Man, do I really have to follow Andrew with that? Yeah, do. You do. it's like god um ah I to talk to my agent. I actually did building at least before Andrew. Dude, your brand is your brand is being destroyed.
00:01:35
Speaker
association man yeah taking my career down yes All
History and Evolution of the Podcast
00:01:42
Speaker
right. Well, this is episode 300. And to be honest, we haven't really celebrated big numbers before on the podcast. I mean, we've talked about like the past when we hit like a hundred, 200 things like that. But on most of our shows, we just kind of let big numbers go by. I don't know why we just don't really do much about it. But I thought,
00:02:01
Speaker
Just because my circumstances have been changing over the last few years, I just have been thinking over the last probably six months, and we've mentioned this in the last couple episodes, that 300 would be a good time for me to kind of hand over primary hosting duties of this show. It's not to say that I probably won't be on future episodes occasionally. I'm more than happy to come back as ah is ah like a co-host or a guest co-host or something like that, as the as the case is. But I've been posting this show since the beginning. I've been on almost every episode. yeahp there's the one of the Again, one of the reasons why it would be good for me to to give over primary hosting duties is because a lot of what we do, Rachel and I, I simply can't make the recordings on the Sundays that we're doing this. So it's ah it's a good opportunity for me to take off and leave the primary hosting duties in the hands of somebody else. And that's going to be Heather. so
00:02:51
Speaker
this episode 300 seemed like a really good opportunity to do that. So on today's episode, we thought we would just kind of take a look back at the past 300 episodes and see, kind of look back to the beginning and then also just just kind of look back at those 300 episodes and the last almost 12 years, it'll be 12 years this February of podcasting and see, just kind of see what we've done you know and feel like we've made a difference. But I did want to just kind of call out the first few episodes, because i I went back this morning actually, so it was fresh in my head, just to see you know what those first few were like. And if you want to go back yourself, you can go to arcpodnet.com forward slash CRM archaeology, or just go to arcpodnet.com and there's icons on the front page there. And you can click on the CRM Arc Podcast
00:03:39
Speaker
logo and on any one of our shows actually when you click on the logo it takes you to the show page and you see the most current episode. If you look on the right hand side of the page and you scroll down there's a catalog of every single show in order listed by year and you can just scroll down and if you scroll all the way to the bottom you'll get to episode one for any show.
00:04:00
Speaker
It's kind of a cool little listing, a little catalog. And I went back February 11th, 2013 was the first episode. Now I listened to the first bit of it. I actually had a different show and I've mentioned this on the show before, but i I had a different show before this and i I sort of rolled the same feed into this show, but I renumbered the episode numbers because I wanted this to be a completely different show. So I mentioned that and I kind of forgot I did that.
00:04:26
Speaker
But I mentioned that on the first episode of this show as a new podcast because it was a completely different format with co-hosts and you know just a panel style show. And I forgot that i I didn't start it over as a completely new show. I just kind of reused the feed. so So the old show was ah just me reading news articles and it was completely boring and I hated it. And I did it for like a year. Then I took a several month break from December to February where I kind of retooled the show, found some new co-hosts and this is what was born. And on the first episode, it was about and just under an hour. I think it was 52, 53 minutes long.
00:05:01
Speaker
came out February 11th, 2013, and it was me and Sarah Head, who I got her last name wrong because she had a different last name she used online, but didn't let me know that. That comes out in the first two minutes. And then Doug Rocks McQueen on episode number one.
00:05:17
Speaker
And we just basically talked about a few news articles. We introduced them. It was a little dry. I didn't do very good editing. I don't think I did any editing to be honest with you. but I didn't know anything about it and I didn't have a very good microphone and I'm not even sure if I had a microphone to be honest with you. It was just, it was really bad. um It wasn't terrible.
00:05:36
Speaker
but over skype Oh yeah, we did everything over Skype for like six years. yeah no Before there was any kind of Zoom, before there was Zencaster, it was us and Skype. I forgot about all that. We didn't have multiple tracks. Yeah, it was all in one track.
00:05:50
Speaker
we did We did some technical stuff where at first it was just Skype and then I remember we downloaded some sort of, I'm not sure what we call it extension plugin or something like that, but we could then record on Skype locally and we emailed that over to Chris. and Yeah, man, there was there was a lot of different things we tried to do.
00:06:15
Speaker
It was, it was, uh, it was definitely rough. Again, I didn't really know what I was doing. I was using garage band because I didn't have any other programs. Plus I was a poor serum archeologist, so I didn't really want to buy any other programs. Garage band came with my computer, right? So that's what I was using and.
00:06:32
Speaker
Yeah, it was, you know, we, we made do with what we had. So it was interesting. Bill, I think you, I'm not even sure you, I think you had a master's degree or you were maybe finishing that up or something, but you had like only one kid or something. Yeah. You had fewer degrees and fewer children. I fed one pizza after midnight one day and then it multiplied into another. have another one just Yeah. Same thing with you, Doug.
00:06:58
Speaker
Yeah, Doug had fewer degrees and fewer children. No children. Yeah, no children, man. That's a fairly recent thing-ish. Yeah. You weren't even a resident of Scotland yet. No, I was. ah yeah i'd moved out Yeah, I I don't know if you had your like full like citizen, or whatever you call it, of Scotland yet, though, the UK.
00:07:21
Speaker
Well, it's a yeah residency. i That took 10 years. No, I definitely did not have that at that time. but yeah I remember like because so I was at Enver Uni and they had a tiny room in the top floor.
00:07:38
Speaker
which basically was a converted closet, yeah which was where they kept, cause I was doing GIS stuff and that's where they had the computers, like two computers with the specialist software. So I got access to that room cause I was like the one of the only people doing yeah GIS. And that's, that's where I like did the first couple of years of the podcast was basically a closet and a top four.
00:08:02
Speaker
Yeah, because I was like, Bill, you you basically, I mean, you just hid in the closet in your home, didn't you? Yeah, there was a closet I used to hide into and it was Arizona. It had like no UC or anything. I just closed the door and hide in this, you know, a little furnace and record in there.
00:08:20
Speaker
Wasn't it like a closet under stairs or something totally Harry Potter style or something? No, it wasn't under stairs. The key thing was because then my wife also had to like corral and rodeo clown our kids so that they would do something else besides scream or be like, open the door. I want to talk to you. yeah So, you know, ah we'd have to coordinate together and she'd find some activity.
00:08:43
Speaker
man yeah For a while there like your catchphrase Bill was like, Oh man, the kids are knocking on the door. Like you said that so many times. I can't respond now. They think I'm in here. Yeah. Yeah. Well, our second episode is where we introduced Bill and we actually had our first guest as well, Eric Conzo.
00:09:03
Speaker
Eric Kanza and actually his wife, Sarah Kanza, they joined us on several episodes of not only the CRMR podcast, but the Archeotech podcast as well later on. um But they're from Open Context and they, so he joined us on episode two where we also had Sarah Head. Russell Allian-Williams joined as a co-host then and Russell was on not as many, but a number of those early episodes for the first, but I would say the first number of years we were on.
00:09:30
Speaker
But then Russell and I split off the Archaeotech podcast when we started the Archaeology Podcast Network in December of 2014. Incidentally, the APN is going to have its 10-year anniversary this December 1st. So we started the APN just a couple of years. Well,
00:09:47
Speaker
Geez, we started this podcast in 2013. I guess we started the APN just a year later, 2014, on December 1st,
Network Expansion and New Shows
00:09:56
Speaker
2014. So anyway, Russell was on that first episode, the second episode, Bill was on episode two, and then Doug was also on episode two. But that episode, I looked at it online, was an hour and 40 minutes. That's before we had any breaks. There were no no segments, no anything. We just talked. And that's what I like cut it down to and with a very light editing. We probably recorded for probably two hours. We just would go and go and go with no structure whatsoever. but Just talking. Oh man. and We had some longer ones too. That wasn't probably the longest one we ever had. I don't know what the longest one we ever had was, but we would just never stop. I don't remember those long episode days guys. Yeah. It seemed like we had something to say back then.
00:10:40
Speaker
I think discovery. Yeah. I say that now, man. Like if we didn't have Chris at minute 25 in our final segment, being like, guys, that's it. I'm cutting you off. I'm cutting you off. I'm muting you all. Like, you know, we would easily hit like two hours on these episodes. I know. Well, that was, that was back when I only had one podcast to edit. Now there's 15. Yeah.
00:11:10
Speaker
So episode three, and this is where I stopped kind of looking this morning, was where we introduced our final co-host that stayed with us for a really long time, and that was Steven Wagner. And on that episode, we had Bill and Doug Russell and Sarah didn't join us, but we had Bill, Doug, and Steven Wagner on. And he was a CRM archaeologist, a project manager, crew chief from Wisconsin. And that was really what I was shooting for with this new show.
00:11:35
Speaker
was having people on from you know different backgrounds, different locations, but people to talk about CRM from around the country. right People with different again different experience levels, different backgrounds to just really talk about stuff. And in that episode, we talked about CRM wages. i mean How many times have we talked about pay in CRM on this show? It has to be hundreds.
00:11:57
Speaker
fourthrow Right. It's gotta be. Yeah. And that topic comes up just so many times and it's, it's crazy. In fact, I didn't look at the articles we linked to. We actually linked to several articles in that, uh, in those show notes. I'd be interesting to go back and see if a, if those links even still work and be, uh, how accurate they are from 2013. So I'm sure they came from you, Doug, um, probably some articles that you'd like to, but anyway,
00:12:24
Speaker
Yeah, those are some topics we've discussed over the years, quite a few times. I can't remember when did Heather and Andrew join us? It's been a couple of years, has it, guys? I've just always been here. I've just always been in the background. Yeah. Yeah. finally Allowed him to start talking. last Now, Heather, why don't you go first? Heather, when did you start? Boy, um Chris, I think it was I was it was a guest.
00:12:53
Speaker
Yeah. Talk to me afterwards. I think it's been four years or a three and a half years, something like that. Yeah. It was at least 2021, 2020 some timeframe like that. Yeah, you're right. And then And then we had Andrew on as a guest. I invited Andrew as a guest. And then he, you know, just stuck around. Can I just force myself on onto this podcast? Yeah, Heather, I feel like you were on it a long time before me, but I could be wrong. I feel like you've been on even longer just because I remember hearing
00:13:29
Speaker
episodes with you in it, you know, like just as a fan. And I feel like I heard those for a long time before I, you know, became a part of this or something. But yeah, and I think I've been ah a part maybe three years. I know for the pseudo archaeology podcast, it's been like over two, you know, two and a half or something. Oh, yeah. OK. You know, that's a sign of getting old.
00:13:52
Speaker
Well, we had, we had also before you Heather, we had Sonia Huttmacher on as a, as a host for a long time as well. She was, she was with us for, I don't know, several years. She was a little bit more inconsistent, I would say, because she was so busy with her business that she was running. I mean, she runs a CRM firm out of Utah and is, uh, I mean, very successful, has a lot of work. And so she just joined us when she could, but she had so many good things to say. And, and just like I said, joined us when she could. So still I'm seeing.
00:14:21
Speaker
Yeah, she yeah, she contributes quite a bit online to different Facebook groups, always has valuable to say. I'm seeing here August 11th, 2021, we have an episode called Teaching CRM with Dr. Andrew Kinkela. So Heather, you were on before that. oh Yeah. do Oh, maybe actually like 2019 or something. Yeah. my Yeah. Because that's my first one. I was a guest, right? Because I i didn't come on like the next you know afternoon after being a guest. Like I was a guest, some time passed, you know.
00:14:54
Speaker
And then then, yeah, we had to get over that first and then, uh, forget about it. yeah that's a lot of pants so Yeah. Right. All right. Well, now we have to get over that all over again. So let's take a break. And on the upside, we'll talk about, we'll talk about the the last episodes, the last 12 years, and then, uh, you know, we'll just keep doing this. So, all right, back in a minute.
00:15:16
Speaker
All right. Welcome back to the CRM archaeology podcast episode 300. And we're just talking about, well, the 300 and a little reference there. And yeah, we're just talking about, so we were talking over the break about some of the other hosts we've had that, you know, maybe came on and and maybe didn't last as long, but they were hosts for a little while. One of those was Bill Octor. He was on, he's actually,
00:15:42
Speaker
been big in some of the other digital media circles. But Bill Octor was on for a little while and I actually met him. You know how I met Bill? He was he reached out, I think on LinkedIn one time, looking for s CRM companies that did stuff. And I did some cell tower work, my company did, for his company.
00:15:59
Speaker
because he was looking for people to do cell tower work in like California or something. And I did a few cell tower projects for him. that We just started talking. And then I met him, you know, we just met that way. And then, you know, ah eventually he came on as a co-host. And then there was Ashley, Doug, that you mentioned Ashley. I don't remember Ashley's last name. What was Ashley's last name? Ashley Morton. Morton. essential war in arizona Yeah.
00:16:22
Speaker
Yeah. Didn't she ended up at a museum somewhere in like, I don't know, Idaho or Washington or something? Uh, last I heard. Yeah. Walla Walla. Yup. Yeah. Yeah. yeah her's at Idaho. And no, she's still in Washington. Yeah. Yeah. So, and then who else was there? Sonya. Sonya, Sonya Hoomacher. That's right. I can't remember if we mentioned on the show or in the break, Sonya Hoomacher, who has been on the show lots of times and she had lots of great advice to give as, as a CRM firm owner and lots of good things to say. And she's still,
00:16:49
Speaker
still going strong with their company over in Utah, still doing lots of projects. Who else has been on the show? let's see well and a was um The Women in Archaeology podcast actually started on this show because we did kind of a takeover and I'll forget all the names, but the hosts of the Women in Archaeology podcast, a couple of them came on as guests, and then we let it and we just gave them the show for like a couple of episodes where they did a Women in Archaeology feature, CRM Archaeology based, and then just spun that off into a show that went for several years.
Innovative Ideas and Listener Engagement
00:17:22
Speaker
And then, I don't know if they're actually still doing a show,
00:17:25
Speaker
But they had a Women in Archaeology show for a while on the APN and then spun it off into kind of doing their own thing, took it off the APN. But that actually started here for a few episodes, which was kind of cool. so Which incidentally, if anybody's listening to this, we could do another Women in Archaeology show. The feed's still alive. So if anybody wants to just do that as its own show, I mean, yeah, we're always looking for stuff like that. so Anybody else we can think of? That is that has been a more than one episode co-host of this show? I don't know. Not more than...
00:18:00
Speaker
now more than i guess Yeah. yeah that' one a guess think that's pretty much it yeah yeah it does sound like it's it yeah You know, one thing I've always wanted to do with this show too, and I've just never really had the energy for it. and Maybe you guys can kick this off in the next 300 episodes is I've always wanted to have a feature or maybe ah a regular a regular guest co-host where they come on for you know maybe a season maybe even a year or something like that I don't know but you know maybe a number of episodes but bring on a field tech.
00:18:30
Speaker
A field tech of maybe even a new field tech or a field tech. It doesn't have to be a field tech of a certain length of time or something like that, but somebody who's definitely field technician by job description. right Somebody who's not a crew chief necessarily. Well, crew chief wouldn't be that big a deal because crew chiefs are still basically field techs in a lot of places. but But somebody who is a field technician, because to be frank, most of us are not field techs. Most of us are are up are above field techs, right? And we always have been on this show. and it's ah But to have that perspective as not just a guest, but somebody who can just come in and bring that perspective, but rotate them through and say, you know okay, so now our field tech of the quarter you know is this person or something like that.
00:19:17
Speaker
and you know put something out on archaeo field techs or something and say who wants to be the the field tech co-host for this next quarter or for the field season or something like that. You might have to have a few of them that rotate through because just like host of the show, the reason I wanted a number of hosts of this show is because of the nature of CRM archaeology. right Not everybody could make the recording every single time.
00:19:38
Speaker
And you know as long as we had at least you know three, maybe four people on, i wanted I wanted to have a pool of people to pull from. So at least three or four people could make every single recording because you know you're in the field, you're doing stuff and you know we wanted to have enough people to make a panel. so I think that'd be great. I've always wanted to do that, but I just never really pulled it together. So yeah. I like that. Yeah. Well, there you go. What is your favorite? but Just looking back, what, what has been your, what do you think was your favorite episode or episodes of your view? I'm sure. Yeah. i You know, and I think my favorite do not say when Andrew joined our show, just,
00:20:20
Speaker
Yeah. Don't tell the truth. Don't tell the truth. Right. Right. guys It's going to be shocking, but Chris is basically going to tell you as soon as I started messing up the outros, that's his favorite episode. Right. He's got Mark down on his calendar. It's basically like, and that's when the shenanigans with Doug started. Yeah.
00:20:40
Speaker
Oh, man. Oh, my god. I'll tell you what. We've done so many. I don't know if I can pick a topic or an actual episode number is my favorite. But I can tell you, who my favorite types of episodes are. and Because you know we have a lot of episodes where, and there's nothing wrong with this. I'm not saying that. But we have a lot of episodes where, as the editor, when you look at the tracks and there's four or five of us on there, there's there's these solid chunks where one person talks and another person talks and another person talks, right where we have our opinions and we say stuff. right And those are fine. And we need those types of episodes where we have our, you know, we get our thoughts and opinions out there, right? But the episodes where like most of us are, are unmuted and we're just, we're having this really lively discussion, right? And we getting in there, especially when we really disagree with each other.
00:21:25
Speaker
And it was like, you just can't wait to speak. You know what I mean? And you're just like, yeah how do you know? And, and, and when Doug really gets in there and says, Chris, I just, uh, I got to disagree with you, man. And, uh, well, I've heard that quite a bit over the years, actually. And yeah i was just say the second place episode, Chris, the second favorite is, is the one a couple of, about a year ago. And I was like, I actually agree with Chris on this. but again the once square calendar he knows what chriss so that was
00:21:57
Speaker
and appreciate chris got tattooed on like his arm right there right and that's a bit ask to see that tattoo is like mes chris I completely agree with you. The date and everything. All right.
00:22:12
Speaker
But those one thing where we i know those ones where we where we really have so like really lively discussions, I really enjoy those. I really got into those because i think I think those are the ones that probably listeners enjoy the most as well. You know what i mean i think I mean? The other ones are very informative and that's what kind of the point of a podcast is. But I also think having the the ones where maybe it's a little more levity and not even that, but just a little more, just where we're just a little bit more excited, you know, and a little bit more into the conversation is a little more conversational style, I guess, is the one I really get into. So like I like those a lot, those, those style of episodes. I think I had a lot of fun doing when, because we've done, we haven't done a lot of these in the past. We've done a number of them, but but like the, the holiday gift idea episodes, I feel like we really get into those three. I like Christmas episodes too. yeah too
00:23:01
Speaker
Yeah. So those are fun. Those are fun when we all all bring our ideas to that. So those are my, what about you guys? I like the ones where we have guests, you know, it's nice. I could, you know, I like being on the podcast just in general cause it's especially episode 300. It's pretty cool to have been part of something this long. I mean, I can't think of any other, I'm trying to think of another archeology organization I've been part of for this long, but I like when there's guests cause they have a different perspective and you know, it's cool to have other people on here too. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's and it's neat it's neat. I think
00:23:39
Speaker
I think one of the one of the neat things about this too, and you guys, ah probably all of you have experienced this at this point, but I'll never forget the first time the first time this happened. It was Russell and I actually standing in line at a convenience store in Waikiki at the first SAAs we went to after starting the podcast, which I think was probably that April of 2013.
00:24:03
Speaker
if I had to guess, I guess probably it could have been the next year, I'm not really sure, but it was whatever SAAs was in Hawaii after we started the podcast, we were so we
Listener Impact and Community Building
00:24:13
Speaker
were at a hotel and we were we just stopped for like a water or something and there were was a line of people in the in this convenience store and him and I were sitting there talking and somebody in front of us turned around and said, are you guys on the CRM archaeology podcast? Just they recognized our voices and I was like, are you kidding me? Like we've done like six episodes.
00:24:33
Speaker
yeah it was Yeah. I think that's a, that should, let's talk about that. I'm curious. Cause I've actually had some instances where people are like, I listened to the pod, you know, like where I've run into them in one way or another. And they've shared that they're a regular, regular listener of the of the podcast. So that'd be kind of fun to hear those stories.
00:24:57
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, i heard I heard at some point in the past where, you know, and I just don't know if this is still true, you know, are podcasts still, you know, are people still listening to stuff like this? Because I heard years ago, somebody tell me, somebody in archaeology tell me that whether whether they were actually a subscriber or a listener or not, they'd either heard the podcast or heard it in a field truck or something like that. Cause somebody put it on a, somebody put it on the radio or something driving out to a site or something like that. Right. Um, so they'd heard about it and you know, whether they actually listened to it or not, Andrew, you can go ahead and mute your microphone. We know you're famous and everybody just going down the street. So dude, I know. And then if they actually recognize me from this, I'm like, no, no, no, no, I don't do that. You know, destroy what I built. You know, it's so funny for me. Yes. Yesterday was archaeology day here in Southern California. And like the Park Service does this whole thing at like King Gillette Ranch. And I went there and I actually wore I actually have it on right now. I wore my APN t-shirt. You know, just nice. Just for fun. And and I I was shocked how many people actually had listened to the show. You know, like, like I did not expect.
00:26:08
Speaker
Well, because I would start to explain, you know, I'd be like, Andrew, was it two? Was it two people? allll shock number No, no, just as i it's like it's like a booth situation, you know, where you have booth by booth and it's very like a CRM company or it'll be, you know, a school or whatever. And I'm just going going through the booths and I would talk to the people and I'd be like, yeah, I'm on I'm on the CRM archaeology podcast and they would cut me off and they go, oh, no, we know we listen. And I was like, wow.
00:26:37
Speaker
you know that happened again and again and it you know i want to say oh it's all about me but it's not of course it's it's the crm podcast as the entity it is so we i know as we do this week by week sometimes we feel like uh what are we doing and should we continue what's happening but A huge percentage of the CRM world listens to it, and I think it's it's a really cool thing that, Chris, you like that you've built over the years. i think I think it's even more important than you think. h It does kind of feel like you're talking into the void. I know, but you're not.
00:27:16
Speaker
I really, I think the one the one service that that this podcast provides, among others, but the one that to to me that stands out is that we, I think, not all the time, but we answer questions that maybe some people beginning in their career or even mid-career are too afraid to ask on their own.
00:27:39
Speaker
So they listen to the podcast, they get some of this inside understanding. um And I think that that, to me, as is one of the big... positives of this, of this, of this podcast. And I think it's, you know, we, you see it on social media, people kind of joke around, like I've actually seen on strings where like going, oh, yes, this, this is definitely going to be the next episode yeah on and podcast. Like people actually comment, oh yeah, this definitely the same podcast is going to cover this. right And I think, you know, staying relevant and they may, it may be funny, but
00:28:18
Speaker
I mean, when I'm looking for for ah subject matter, I definitely look on social media because I want us to be talking about something that is relevant and helpful to people. Over the time that I've been on, it's happened more and more as I've been on here longer.
00:28:38
Speaker
But I and especially now that I'm working across the country and I'm running into new people, I'm shocked. There's there's people all over the country that are listening to this. And it's happened several times where I get on the phone, I have some connection for one reason or another. Sometimes it's a ship o office. Sometimes it's another, you know, a company owner or whatever. And they start out the conversation because before we start off, I have to tell you, I listen to your podcast.
00:29:08
Speaker
CRM podcast and it's, it is shocking. So sometimes, you know, we're sitting here, we're recording into, you know, we're just talking amongst ourselves. It's hard to, to really imagine how many people are listening, but yeah, it's nice to know that. ye Yeah. Yeah. It is nice to know. I mentioned it in class about the podcast and then they were like, Oh God, everybody's got a podcast. I was shaking my head like, well, if you want to get an A, you might want to tune in.
00:29:41
Speaker
andation Chris, don't you have the stats, though? I mean like i know you've changed platforms like over the years. We've bounced around a couple of different things. Don't don't you have the stats going back, at least to like when it was on iTunes, those ones going back? ah Or no?
00:30:02
Speaker
like well As we change platforms, those get wiped out, so I can't see that. What I can tell you is you know we can look at the like downloads per per month kind of thing. and It's interesting because as I look at those through the years, i mean the downloads, it's kind of a it's kind of a and commentary on the industry, really, because the downloads per month for this show have but always kind of stayed the same over the last probably, I would say seven or eight years, um give or take, as they, you know, they kind of went up a bit as people started to know about the podcast, but then they kind of leveled off and plateaued and have never really gone up. And it's, it stays around. I think the last time I looked, I can't actually look right now because of the way we're actually recording this. I can't look at the stats. but yeah it's And you can't actually either, Heather, the way that we're doing this, because you'll get out of it you'll get out of the thing. but
00:30:55
Speaker
it was my No, no, no. Neither of us could actually. it's It's just the way that we're in here. But the stats, it it stays around probably seven or 8,000 downloads a month. And that covers not only current episodes, but the entire back catalog as well. so But that's you know that's kind of a commentary on the industry as well. right And how many how many people see it, how many people are in the industry. Because I wouldn't imagine people outside of CRM are... Unless unless you're a former CRM archaeologist, and you still want to listen to this. But I can't imagine people outside the industry are downloading the show. It's a very niche topic, right? And that's how it's designed. to Except, you know, there's probably people looking to learn like a software and you know customer relationship management and have gotten super disappointed every time they open one of our yeah episodes.
00:31:41
Speaker
I have no doubt. Yeah, absolutely. but yeah so it's it's never like I never expected this podcast to hit the the huge numbers. you know Our per episode download numbers have never reached over like a thousand in the first in the first few months, you know unlike some of the other other episodes that do.
00:31:59
Speaker
just because That's not how it works. You know what I mean? That's not how a niche podcast actually works. But when you look at the back catalog, that's what's impressive about this show is back catalog numbers are pretty high, you know, several thousand downloads per episode because people go searching for a topic.
00:32:16
Speaker
And then, you know, they find it and then they listen to it. It might be a show from seven, eight years ago or six, seven years ago, or, you know, a year ago or something like that, but it's still relevant. Right. For the most part, it's still relevant and they'll go listen to it. And that's why it's one of the reasons I started the archeology podcast network. I actually talked about that during ah Rachel and I's Instagram live that we did for the day of archeology yesterday. Andrew did one for the day of archaeology with our social media coordinator Tilly on Friday. And I watched that. That was pretty good. The two parts he did because, you know, the social media.
00:32:49
Speaker
his Instagram kind of screwed up a little bit. No, it was technological glitches. I mean, it was just the feed would just drop. oh You know, ours didn't even work. I had i actually had to take over our pod net and then bring Tilly in because ours didn't even ours wouldn't even joints. No, it wasn't just you. I still don't know what why, you know, but it's all weird. That's part of it. Yeah.
00:33:10
Speaker
But if you want to see those recordings, go to arc pod net on Instagram and you can watch the lives. Uh, Tristan did one as well and they're all, they're all pretty good. So anyway, where was I going with that? Probably totally lost my train of thought. Consistency of download oh yeah i know yeah pass of downloads. yeah. Yeah. But anyway, uh, if you, oh, that's right. That's why I started the APN was my, my intent with the APN was always to have a,
00:33:33
Speaker
Like an encyclopedia. Like you look at it like ah like an encyclopedia set because we we talk about archaeology. This is an evergreen podcast because of that, an evergreen network in that nothing ever really goes out of out of style. nothing Nothing ever becomes old information. It's old information by nature. yeah So you can just, you know, we have like 20 podcasts in the archive. If you go to our main page and you just scroll to the bottom, you see all the old shows that are no longer producing anymore, but we keep them alive. We keep them active because it's still searchable, good information, right? So, yeah you know, you go into the back catalogs of the current shows, you go to the old shows so and they're still good. So I think with that, let's take a break and then we'll wrap up this 300 episode on the other side back in a minute.
00:34:17
Speaker
Welcome back to the CRM archeology podcast episode 300. And that's the, that's the last time I have to irritate Tom King by calling it CRM archeology. If he listens to Anyway, so talking about episode 300 in the past episodes, I literally titled this, did we make a difference? And I think yeah some of the things I wanted to talk about on this were, you know, we've talked about some of our favorite episodes, things like that, but some of my favorite experiences in this are
00:34:53
Speaker
in doing this podcast where obviously we talked about last time just like being recognized and things like that. That's actually really cool. It's a really surreal type of experience when that happens. But it's some of my favorite experiences are you know when you get a message from somebody on usually Facebook or something like that. It's probably the most prominent social media part where you do get some people sending you a message or more likely an email or something like that. I so i would say over the last 10 years, i've had I've had a number of emails and messages of people, and these are probably my favorite ones, where somebody... Well, two two different types that I would get. Either A, I get people sending me their resumes, resumes and CVs saying, hey, could you take a look at this? Because I'm applying for my first CRM job and I'm nervous and I just want to make sure this looks okay.
00:35:45
Speaker
And I listen to the podcast and you know you said, send this send me this and they they actually do it. right and then So I'll take a look at it. I'll give them some pointers and then I'll send it back. you know And then they'll send me a note and say, and hey, I got my first job or something like that. And that's super cool. right And then I've gotten other emails, a shockingly high number.
00:36:04
Speaker
where people said either A, they got out of archaeology at some point in time and then they were out for an you know an undetermined amount of time, a couple of years sometimes, maybe a few months or maybe a longer period of time. And they just listened to the podcast and they got, just after listening to the podcast, they, I don't know, they got nostalgic or they got confidence, one of the two, and they they either went back to school or they just went back into archaeology, right? They went back into CRM because they were listening to the podcast and they they, again, they either gained confidence, they they got inspired or something, and they they just went back into CRM. and i think I think those types of experiences, you know i mean when somebody somebody comes up and tells you that they're a listener, they're a fan or something like that, that's cool because it it lets you know, as we mentioned, that
00:36:54
Speaker
that somebody is listening, right? And then we're not just speaking into the void because it can seem like that sometimes. We don't get a lot of email, we don't get a lot of feedback, but when you get something like that, that's really cool, right? Have you guys had experiences like that that you that you can remember? Not necessarily that as well. I mean, i yes, I have had that happen before where you know, folks reach out and they say, I'm listening to some old episode from 2018 and you know, I totally agree with what you were saying there and you know, great job for being the ones who brought that up. I mean, that's the that's the thing that I think is most like motivating about the podcast because
00:37:34
Speaker
you know, we'll talk about stuff and then it takes years and years for any other archaeology organization, right? Because, you know, I don't know if Doug's already talked about this, but the archaeology organizations are not necessarily designed to do anything besides publish the journal, right? And so we're asking this organization that's a magazine to be a social activist thing because it's a collective of archaeologists. But as someone who's been on these boards and you know, part of these organizations for a few years. Yeah, Doug's exactly right. They're not really designed to like, do anything or move the needle or discuss anything worthwhile. I mean, we'll talk about something and then seriously, seven years later, someone,
00:38:14
Speaker
you know Yeah, we should have a panel. let's Let's get some kind of ad hoc committee that's going to, you know, research this and I'm like, well, first learn listen to this episode because we already covered it like a long time ago and things have moved in a totally different direction. So if you want to pick up where our crumbs hit the ground, go ahead. But, you know, that's the, I think that's the biggest impact of the the podcast that, you know, we're talking about stuff and then archiving it and it's like, you know, in some ways tell the future, right? Because then years later at the SAA, they're like, let's talk about archaeology wages. And I'm shaking my head like, ah dude, that was episode three, you know, let's talk about equity. Yeah. Well, that was like episode 50. We already talked about that.
00:38:56
Speaker
Yeah, I totally agree. I see that, too. We are the tip of the spear on this, you know, and and it's yeah and it's because we come out so fast, too. It's like we record this right now. It comes out in like a week, you know, and then we just and we keep going. So yeah. Hey, good on us.
00:39:13
Speaker
I think another reason is because, at least for me, when you know as people that listen and share know that we all take turns in selecting the subject matter, and i that's my go-to, is just to go to social media. and so Really, we're inspired by the listeners and we're inspired by people that are on the ground, grassroots, doing the work every day.
00:39:37
Speaker
and the things that matter to them, at least that's, I think what most of us are trying to aim for. And so to me, I know Andrew, you'd like to take credit, but I think it's, I think it's the listeners that at least that are ones that are bringing up the subject matter that, that we're inspired to then record on.
00:40:03
Speaker
Yeah, no, I totally agree. I do the same thing. You know, i I think all of us do. We kind of keep our ear to the ground. You know, I listen to like, what are my students talking about? You know, what are there other and older students of mine who are now in CRM? What are kind of the hot topics? And that's where I get, you know, hey, maybe we could talk about this. it's It is based on, you know, what others are saying.
00:40:26
Speaker
And that, I think, you know, that's a, that's an interesting disconnect because I think Chris, you were mentioning or, or Bill that, Bill, that, you know, people that are in these associations or professors or even managers, CRM managers that are not listening to these types of podcasts that, you know, come up with an idea of how we could improve our discipline and you know, years down the road or, you know, way after it's already a hot topic and it's, and something it needs to be dealt with. So yeah, it, I think it's, it shows who listens to the podcast. I think it's primarily technicians. Yeah. Yeah.
00:41:12
Speaker
Although it might be changing. You can be almost guaranteed that professors are not listening to it. No. That's actually my point. They are not thinking in any way about any of this stuff. And that's a terrible fact, but it's true. I think, you know, for me, that's something that we need to we need to call each other on.
00:41:32
Speaker
Because as managers, we should be continually trying to trying to be better and trying to learn and try to understand from the other perspectives how to make our discipline better. And if those of us that have the ability to make things better are not doing that, our discipline can't move forward. Right. Yeah.
00:41:56
Speaker
you know i I do think, you know, as we, as we talk about, yo, is it all worth it? These 300 episodes, did it change anything?
Academic vs. Practical CRM Archaeology
00:42:04
Speaker
I do think that it does bring also a sense of community to the CRM world, which is intrinsically kind of lonely. You guys, you know what I mean? You kind of go job to job, maybe have one or two friends during the job itself. You get other friends and you kind of, you know, enjoy your time together. but overall, there's a lonely, like solitary aspect to CRM. And I think we help give a little bit of community, you know, where in other times there, it wouldn't be there. Yeah. and mean I'm not sure we actually like necessarily are a bit faster than other organizations.
00:42:50
Speaker
so much as we're louder and that we broadcast. So like, you know, if you look at a lot of like how those organizations, yeah, they're really slow on the uptake, but there's usually like people doing stuff for years, if not decades before. And you know, like Bill, a society of black archeologists, what's, what's the blessing called the, the organization you're a member of is, is it the society of black? Yeah. yeah yeah like I mean, that was existing for what, a decade before 2020 kicks off and i all that stuff, Black Lives. So like that was an organization that basically was doing really good stuff for like an entire decade. And then suddenly like the rest of archaeology woke up and was just like, oh, yeah, you know we should think about this because it was topical. Yeah, you are right about that.
00:43:49
Speaker
Yeah, I think there's a lot of stuff. I think slight difference between us is like we're we're broadcasting. because you You see it all the time in conferences where like people will do 10 years of the same like session of, I don't know, pick any random topic, yeah and they'll do it. And eventually it bubbles up. I think our slight difference is like we' we're the shock jocks of CRM.
00:44:18
Speaker
but Really poor at it, but you know like that's that that I think is slightly the difference. is you know Maybe we are a little quick on the draw to pick up some of this stuff, but I think our big difference is like we're not hiding it, and you know it's out there, anyone anywhere in the world.
00:44:41
Speaker
can download our podcast and be as angry as any other listener at what we said as anyone else in the world. I think that's sort of a big difference probably is is not so much we're ahead. It's just that, you know, we're open. Yeah, I agree with you in some in some regards and I do obviously there's plenty of associations out there that are are creative for the expressed reason of you know, improving one thing or another in our discipline. And that's terrific. And I'm not, you know, trying to minimize that at all. But I do think that there's some of the associations that have been around for a long time and that have, you know, just been considered the height of associations for this, for this discipline.
00:45:34
Speaker
And i I do think that they're behind. i do think I do think that now it seems like some things are changing. We have some association presidents that are starting to speak up about certain issues on behalf of of the discipline. But I think for a long time, it's been more academic.
00:45:52
Speaker
And some of the issues that we're having now are more coming from and challenges are coming from how we conduct CRM across the country and how legislation is changing that. And so I think that as these associations are realizing that they need to have a combination of both academic professionals and CRM professionals in the mix. You know, that's now where some of these more relevant subjects are starting to are st startingring to be addressed. But for a long time, I don't think that was the case. And you know again, I'm not not against academia, but you know if if these associations are hyper focused on the academic scholarly side of archaeology, there's the whole swath of the business that is being ignored.
00:46:39
Speaker
I think we can be against academia a little bit. That's OK. And that's coming from me in academia. That world has decided to double down on their ignorance of a lot of the CRM things. And and what came up earlier of like, well, you know, none none of the professors are listening to this. Exactly. That's the problem. They have no idea, no idea ah about the CRM world. And they have. They've done this doubling down of like, well, that's just so dirty. That's beyond me. I just am going to use my Marxist approach to practice theory, which nobody cares about. You know, instead of actually facing the real problems in archaeology, which are like, hey, man, love it or hate it, CRM is exploding in size, then academia is shrinking. You know, but they just won't, they won't come out of the closet and just be honest.
00:47:27
Speaker
Yeah, I second that. Yeah. we must see Every tower on my campus. And I'll tell you from where I'm at, not a single person is in in any way thinking effectively about how to you know get people prepared for careers. Yes. All right. It just it drives me nuts. But that is absolutely true.
00:47:47
Speaker
Yeah. Well, we've just been doing it for a decade. right All right. Well, i'll go ahead Heather. I was just going to say I was wanting to kind of get back to this is the last time you're going to be on the show in this capacity.
Gratitude and Future Aspirations
00:48:03
Speaker
We're definitely going to be pulling you in quite a bit. But I just wanted to say, you know, thank you for all that you have done. I mean, you really have made a difference. And with this show and with the with the pod, with the network as a whole, it's a whole community now. And it's brought our business into also
00:48:24
Speaker
but like Like Andrew was saying, it's created a community and so we had multifaceted discipline of it can be a community, it can be your work, it's entertainment.
00:48:38
Speaker
Yeah, you've you've done a big thing here. I think it's, you should be applauded. And, and I think you've helped a lot of people that have been frustrated in this, in this business and ah whether you've ushered them or showed them a way that maybe they could go another direction or stay in the business with a a renewed understanding definitely made a difference.
00:49:04
Speaker
Oh, well, thanks. And, yeah you know, that was, that was definitely the, the goal is to, I guess, make a difference and and bring education to the forefront, which is one of the reasons why I wanted to ironically step back from the show was to make a more of a focus on the APN as a whole. You know what I mean? And that's what we've been doing the last probably six months in, in bringing on, we've brought in actually two people that I'm paying now, which is odd. Never done that before. Two people.
00:49:34
Speaker
that I'm paying to do things for us, which is great because that's taken things off my plate. And I'm not editing shows anymore, which is also great. And we've got four new shows that started in the last two months and we've got new things coming out in 2025. And I'm just excited at the directions that we're taking things. So in order to do all that, I just need to free up more of my time and that this is, this is one of those things that's, that's going to help do that. But It's, it's also, you know, we need to take things in, in new directions and we need new, new hosts, new, just new ways to do that. So I'm, I'm excited for new places that this show can go as well with new people coming in. So that's, it's all good things. So
00:50:20
Speaker
i think in the last couple minutes here where would you guys like to see this show go in the next ten years i mean what new things do you think this show should cover in order to stay relevant or what new would you like to see new segments or do you think that what the show is doing and this is perfectly valid is is what the show is doing now like what it should be doing, you know what I mean? Or should the show be doing something different or in addition to what it's doing now, like segment wise or topic wise? I'm just going to point out and give our listeners a bit of background into how these episodes sort of work real quick. So we're at almost minute 18. And if I had done something like this, like throwing an entire new topic at minute 18, Chris would have been like, oh, raging in our little
00:51:11
Speaker
chat box there, wrap it up. I'm shutting this down. Oh, Chris, man, you're like, you just throw it all out there. Just throw it all out there in a half an hour. I've got to be on the road in an hour. And I would have been seconding Chris because I'm his little toad. You know, I've been like, yeah, yeah, shut it down. So.
00:51:36
Speaker
yeah you briefly go ahead most of this What I'll say is keep doing what we're doing and continue having the guests and everything but I would like to see some more professors on here and I would like to see some more CRM people with decision-making power on the air committing to X amount of dollars or X amount of hours of doing the you know training people for the next level because but there's always conversation about, oh, yeah, we need to do that in academia, we need to have more field schools oriented towards, ah you know, CRM archaeology. And then it's like, okay, so who's gonna do that? And then all of a sudden, they're like, that was a great show, but they hang up, and they move away. And then I go to conferences and talk to PIs, they're like, oh, man, yeah, we definitely need to have this connection with people. And and we really need to
00:52:24
Speaker
help recruit people from field schools and get them out there. And then when you say, okay, well, you know, how would $5,000 work? There's kind of like, Oh, you know what? I don't really have any kind of, yeah, you know, that's, it's not a good time for me. So I'd like to have some people on here actually committing to all put six weeks of my summer together into doing this. And I'll recruit 15 students and someone else say, yeah, my company and this company will pony up 10 grand a piece to go through whatever university and we're going to get it done in 2025 or 26 or whatever, right? Because at the end of the day
00:52:57
Speaker
the way things are going, it doesn't look so hot for CRM because they're not creating the kind of like environment where there can be functional careers for people and students who now there's fewer of are looking and saying, I can make way more money if I just manage a Panda Express, then I go into archeology. And so, you know, when people are adding those things up, borrowing $90,000 for an undergrad degree, and they're thinking, how am I gonna pay this off?
00:53:25
Speaker
You know, that there's a disconnect and it's not just archaeology, but I'd like to see some people on the air doing that and work through, you know, in 12 months to get it to happen. Yeah. Good call. For example, right here on the air, I teach field school. Give me some CRM companies out here that are going to hire these kids and I'll teach a field school. Six weeks. I'll put it down. I'll do it. All right. There you go. Anyone else?
00:53:52
Speaker
I think obviously I think Bill makes a great point. That's a big thing that should be worked on and improved on as time goes on because it's that aspect of it so far behind. But I would just say beyond that to just keep doing what we're doing. It's like keep pushing that stone, you know, because all of us know behind the scenes week by week sometimes we're like, oh, man, we need a topic. Oh, man, I'm ah tired, you know, but if all of us and the new people who come on to this show just keep pushing the stone because it's totally worth it. You know, we it it is, Chris, you have created this thing that is really, really great and unique. I remember seeing you for the first time when I didn't know you. You were giving some sort of presentation at the essays or something, and this is probably like 2015. And I was I saw you and I was like, that's the guy.
00:54:42
Speaker
And I was and and I want to be serious. Right. I was like, he's doing like the coolest thing. Like, that's so awesome. I wish I could be a part of that man. Maybe someday I could be a part of that. Right. And I'm not I'm not. That's not me joking. You know, I want you to know that in truth. I thought that and I think I came up and I think I intro'd myself to you, but like in one second, you know, but I just remember you giving that talk or you did a panel or something. And I was just like, man, he's doing cool stuff. Good for him. You know, and I thought that in 2015 and like, I just want to reiterate that like you're still there, dude. You do have this.
00:55:23
Speaker
funky throne in like the CRM and even just in the archaeology media world. You're like an entity, you know, like good for you. Indeed. All right. Well, with that, I think we can close out the show. It's already two minutes over 20 minutes, Chris. It's not the time for you to be concerned about the end of the show, Doug. You yo know what? Just so I can get this in one last time, I completely disagree with you, Chris. This is the perfect time for me to start caring about watching the time on our podcast. You know, now that you're leaving, someone's got to do it. Wow. You know, all right. Well, with that, this is, I guess, me signing off for the last time, as least as the official host of the show. Heather's going to be taking the reins as the primary host of the show. And, you know, the show is going to continue on. And again, my original vision for the show was
00:56:26
Speaker
It just has a rotating you know field of hosts and the show just continues on as Serum Archaeology does, much like a company does with a a rotating list of you know seasonal field techs. This show would have a seasonal list of co-hosts throughout the years and decades and just keep going in some way, shape, or form. so That's how I think it will go, you know, probably forever. So, because as long as there's serum archeology, there will probably be a serum archeology podcast. Hopefully, as long as we keep the feed going, I imagine the show will keep going. So here's to another 300 episodes and thanks guys for sticking with it. Thanks Heather for taking over the show for this next chapter and we will see you guys in the field.
00:57:12
Speaker
That's it for another episode of the CRM Archaeology Podcast. Links to some of the items mentioned on the show are in the show notes for this podcast, which can be found at www.arcpodnet.com slash CRMARC Podcast. Please comment and share anywhere you see the show. If you'd like us to answer a question in a future episode, email us. Use the contact form on the website or just email chris at archaeologypodcastnetwork.com. Support the show and the network at arcpodnet.com slash members. Get some swag and extra content while you're there. Send us show suggestions and interview suggestions.
00:57:42
Speaker
We want this to be a resource for field technicians everywhere, and we want to know what you want to know about. Thanks to everyone for joining me this week. Thanks also to the listeners for tuning in, and we'll see you in the field. Goodbye. Goodbye. All right, so we'll keep it rolling. See you guys next time. more oh and i don't we you ruin chris's last outro yeah we can let This is like my Christmas, I got one last time to disagree with Chris I have to ruin the outro like man, this is just just ticking all my boxes right now Thank you for this wonderful send off Chris. it was It's a great gift that you've given to me Rachel, just put all those goodbyes right at the end. Goodbye. We're gonna miss you, Chris. Don't be a stranger.
00:58:37
Speaker
This episode was produced by Chris Webster from his ah RV traveling the United States, Tristan Boyle in Scotland, Dig Tech LLC, Culturo Media, and the Archaeology Podcast Network, and was edited by Rachel Rodin. This has been a presentation of the Archaeology Podcast Network. Visit us on the web for show notes and other podcasts at www.archapodnet.com. Contact us at chrisatarchaeologypodcastnetwork.com.