Aug. 10, 2024
Looking Back on Two Years - Diversity Report and Giveaway Announcement
I've been bringing characters without stories and the creators who made them to the table for TWO YEARS! It felt like a good time to get reflective and talk about something I've been working on - diversifying my guests and the games we talk about.
I also did a two year anniversary giveaway - tune in to find out who won!
Cover art by The Curiographer
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Thanks for listening, and may all your characters find their stories!
00:00 - Intro
02:07 - Diversity
08:30 - What's next?
10:44 - Giveaway announcement
WEBVTT
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.959
Hello, friends.
00:00:01.000 --> 00:00:03.459
Welcome to Characters Without Stories.
00:00:03.459 --> 00:00:06.400
Last month, I hit a huge milestone.
00:00:06.629 --> 00:00:08.539
Two years of podcasting.
00:00:08.939 --> 00:00:17.719
It's been immensely rewarding to connect with you, my listeners, my guests, and other podcasts and creators in the tabletop role playing game space.
00:00:18.163 --> 00:00:20.312
I held a giveaway to celebrate two years.
00:00:20.533 --> 00:00:22.542
Watch to the end to find out who won.
00:00:28.914 --> 00:00:36.863
Before moving to Oregon, just before the COVID pandemic hit, I was creating art collaboratively with a few friends in Oakland, California.
00:00:37.499 --> 00:00:42.429
But the move and the increasing pressures of parenthood meant that we couldn't continue.
00:00:42.918 --> 00:00:44.579
I got depressed.
00:00:45.249 --> 00:00:47.908
I didn't realize how much I needed to have a creative outlet.
00:00:48.668 --> 00:00:55.429
And then, out of the blue, probably while looking at my own list of unplayed characters, it hit me.
00:00:55.999 --> 00:00:59.908
I'm probably not the only one who has a list of characters they want to play.
00:01:00.588 --> 00:01:02.829
I bet those people would want to talk about them.
00:01:03.488 --> 00:01:05.438
It was one of those ideas you can't ignore.
00:01:05.989 --> 00:01:11.118
And for me, when an idea like that strikes, I have to act on it as soon as possible.
00:01:11.569 --> 00:01:15.569
I needed to get something out there, at least a proof of concept.
00:01:16.058 --> 00:01:17.748
Did this idea have wings?
00:01:18.259 --> 00:01:20.069
Would it be interesting to anyone else?
00:01:20.689 --> 00:01:21.909
I didn't have a plan in mind.
00:01:22.329 --> 00:01:28.430
I had just finished devouring NADD Pod and The Adventure Zone, and I was new to even listening to podcasts.
00:01:28.796 --> 00:01:39.246
I went to my friend Andrew with my idea, a list of questions and an intro script and a $50 Amazon basics microphone, and we hopped on discord and we recorded it.
00:01:39.626 --> 00:01:42.356
I watched a couple of Adobe audition tutorials.
00:01:42.689 --> 00:01:48.459
I read some blogs about podcasting and I jumped in with no expectations.
00:01:49.073 --> 00:01:53.504
It took a lot of persistence and a lot of learning to get here.
00:01:54.284 --> 00:01:57.563
And I have other podcasters to thank for most of that learning.
00:01:58.144 --> 00:02:01.394
Thank you to everyone who has given advice or feedback.
00:02:07.668 --> 00:02:15.098
It became clear to me very early on that what was interesting about the podcast was not the stats of the characters, but the themes.
00:02:15.506 --> 00:02:19.225
What are the guests bringing to the table outside of the character sheet?
00:02:19.735 --> 00:02:22.806
What of ourselves do we bring to our characters, and why?
00:02:23.556 --> 00:02:27.485
Why do people build characters and play games the way that they do?
00:02:28.045 --> 00:02:30.205
And what kind of stories do we want to tell?
00:02:30.915 --> 00:02:34.506
Why do we even play tabletop role playing games?
00:02:35.062 --> 00:02:42.912
To continue to have interesting conversations about these questions, I needed to bring a diversity of players and a diversity of games to the table.
00:02:43.461 --> 00:02:53.401
I set out to diversify my games and my guests, and I want to hold myself accountable by sharing where I started, where I've made progress, and where I need to do more work.
00:02:53.782 --> 00:02:54.972
So I did some research.
00:02:55.331 --> 00:02:57.201
And here's where I get into the results.
00:02:57.681 --> 00:02:59.581
Feel free to skip this section.
00:02:59.581 --> 00:03:03.562
If you're not a fan of statistics, first, some caveats.
00:03:03.912 --> 00:03:06.222
I only have 11 episodes in my first season.
00:03:06.412 --> 00:03:11.401
I have 23 in my second season, and I'm only about halfway through my third season.
00:03:12.051 --> 00:03:21.741
I'm also only working with the information that I have or can reasonably assume, especially when it comes to things like disability or membership in the alphabet mafia.
00:03:22.295 --> 00:03:27.145
Rather than assigning gender into categories, I used the pronouns that my guests gave me.
00:03:27.645 --> 00:03:34.066
I recently added a question to my intake form about how my guests identify, so moving forward I'll have better data to share.
00:03:34.549 --> 00:03:39.188
None of the guests for my published episodes used that form yet, so I'm just going with what I have.
00:03:39.848 --> 00:03:42.179
With all that out of the way, let's dive in.
00:03:42.769 --> 00:03:46.188
I'll start with diversity of games because that's the easiest to measure.
00:03:46.812 --> 00:03:54.632
In my first season, 73% of my episodes were about Dungeons and Dragons, with only three about characters from other games.
00:03:54.901 --> 00:03:56.842
I wanted to talk about different games.
00:03:56.882 --> 00:03:58.701
I figured my audience would as well.
00:03:59.072 --> 00:04:09.149
Also, several Wizards of the Coast scandals happened in a very short timeframe, leading a lot of us in the community to reconsider talking about, or even playing D&D anymore.
00:04:09.605 --> 00:04:18.656
Personally, I made the decision to stop buying WOTC products, and I cancelled my subscription to D&D Beyond, but I still talk about D&D on the podcast, and I still play it.
00:04:19.238 --> 00:04:30.048
You can listen to the episodes Why I'm Still Talking About D&D and Capitalism is the BBEG if you want to hear more of my perspective on these events and how they relate to my podcast.
00:04:30.749 --> 00:04:36.939
Knowing that I wanted to make this change, I made efforts to diversify my episodes and those efforts have paid off.
00:04:37.619 --> 00:04:41.649
My second season featured only 26% D&D episodes.
00:04:41.908 --> 00:04:48.199
My third season so far has featured 38%, but that number will go down once the full season is released.
00:04:48.699 --> 00:04:52.699
I'm happy with where I am now, and I will probably maintain this ratio.
00:04:53.399 --> 00:04:56.819
If you submitted a D&D character and you haven't heard from me.
00:04:57.428 --> 00:04:58.358
That's probably why.
00:04:59.059 --> 00:05:05.788
It's important to me to consider racial diversity when bringing on guests, and that was clearly an issue when I looked back at season one.
00:05:06.338 --> 00:05:11.129
In my first season, 82 percent of my guests were white, one was Asian, and one was Black.
00:05:11.619 --> 00:05:13.348
In season two, I did much better.
00:05:13.668 --> 00:05:17.759
70 percent of my guests were white, the rest were Asian, Latine, or Indigenous.
00:05:18.048 --> 00:05:19.949
However, I had no Black guests.
00:05:20.324 --> 00:05:24.184
So, for Season 3, I made a special effort at reaching out to Black creators.
00:05:24.483 --> 00:05:29.843
I have had two Black guests so far this season, and then we'll have two more, at least, in the episodes to come.
00:05:29.894 --> 00:05:35.923
However, I have not yet had any Asian or Indigenous guests this season, and I will work to remedy that.
00:05:36.624 --> 00:05:41.074
Measuring gender is where I have the data, but it's a lot more complex.
00:05:41.744 --> 00:05:48.463
In season one, 27% of my guests identified as he/him, 18% identified as she/her.
00:05:49.033 --> 00:05:54.704
I had three transgender guests and the remainder had some combination of he, she, they, and any.
00:05:55.310 --> 00:06:01.896
In Season 2, 22% of my guests were he/him, 33% were she/her, and 2 were trans.
00:06:02.357 --> 00:06:08.276
In Season 3 so far, I've had a large jump in guests that identified as he/him, up to 46%.
00:06:08.737 --> 00:06:12.927
23% identified as she/her, and none of my guests this season have been trans.
00:06:13.336 --> 00:06:17.937
It's clear that my gender diversity has backslid, and that's something that I want to remedy.
00:06:18.637 --> 00:06:28.213
It gets a little tricky to measure whether or not my guests are members of the LGBTQIA+ community, because many of them did not self identify.
00:06:28.826 --> 00:06:31.197
In those instances, I counted them as unknown.
00:06:31.776 --> 00:06:41.266
In Season 1, 64% identified as LGBTQIA+ There is a general downward trend to 31% in Season 3.
00:06:41.516 --> 00:06:47.396
However, there is a corresponding upward trend in unknowns from 9% to 46%.
00:06:47.947 --> 00:06:56.269
With all the unknowns, I don't think it's clear enough to truly make a statement , but I'll be keeping my eye on it as I have more information self identified by my guests.
00:06:56.516 --> 00:07:01.375
Disability is another topic where there could be guests with disabilities that aren't apparent.
00:07:01.375 --> 00:07:05.966
In this case, I only included as disabled, anyone who explicitly stated that.
00:07:06.675 --> 00:07:09.295
In season one, I had two disabled guests.
00:07:09.524 --> 00:07:14.973
In season two, I had three disabled guests, and I have not yet had a disabled guest this season.
00:07:15.180 --> 00:07:17.310
Obviously, that's something I'd like to work on too.
00:07:17.980 --> 00:07:22.940
Looking back, I realize that there are other measures that I should consider and have added them to my form.
00:07:23.440 --> 00:07:25.091
One is neurodiversity.
00:07:25.600 --> 00:07:31.540
Many of my guests have talked about having ADHD or being autistic, and I've appreciated hearing their points of view.
00:07:32.047 --> 00:07:36.927
As I'm starting to make more video content, another thing I want to be aware of is body size.
00:07:37.357 --> 00:07:41.357
If you have any thoughts about things I maybe haven't considered, I'd love to hear them.
00:07:42.487 --> 00:07:43.737
So what are my takeaways?
00:07:44.576 --> 00:07:47.817
Diving deep into my guest diversity data has been enlightening.
00:07:48.817 --> 00:07:52.596
It's clear I've made some progress, but I still have much to do.
00:07:53.416 --> 00:08:01.237
It's also clear that as I make progress in one area, I should be careful not to backslide in the progress I've made in other areas.
00:08:01.956 --> 00:08:06.536
Anecdotally, about 80 percent of my submissions are from white people.
00:08:07.021 --> 00:08:10.920
Most of my non white or disabled guests have been actively recruited.
00:08:11.286 --> 00:08:16.047
I'll keep reaching out to creators I love who can bring unique perspectives to the table.
00:08:16.434 --> 00:08:23.524
I'm also putting out a call to you, my listeners, to introduce me to any amazing creators I should meet or to submit yourself.
00:08:30.240 --> 00:08:36.461
One of the things that most podcasters do, especially in the beginning, is to look obsessively at their download numbers.
00:08:37.071 --> 00:08:38.211
I was not immune.
00:08:38.770 --> 00:08:44.410
But as overnight success was clearly not in the cards, I began to set smaller, more achievable goals.
00:08:44.870 --> 00:08:52.000
First 50 downloads, then 100, then 500, and I am now just past 2,500 downloads.
00:08:52.413 --> 00:08:56.104
I also want to continue to build on my audience on social media platforms.
00:08:56.374 --> 00:08:58.964
At this point, I'm on pretty much all of them.
00:08:58.964 --> 00:09:02.254
I also want to increase my YouTube views and subscribers.
00:09:02.490 --> 00:09:09.270
I have numbers I'd like to hit on all the platforms, at least for the time being, and if you're interested, maybe I'll do another video or episode about it.
00:09:09.813 --> 00:09:13.114
So what are my plans for the future of Characters Without Stories?
00:09:13.625 --> 00:09:17.926
First and foremost, to talk about fascinating characters with fascinating creators.
00:09:18.375 --> 00:09:19.416
That won't change.
00:09:19.892 --> 00:09:23.272
I'm always looking to feature a diversity of games and guests.
00:09:23.841 --> 00:09:27.381
I've also been enjoying being a guest on others podcasts and platforms.
00:09:27.652 --> 00:09:37.192
Being a part of D&D Denial's Moonstone Matriarchy stream has been a blast, and I love the opportunity to turn the tables and guest on other podcasts as well.
00:09:37.792 --> 00:09:42.292
I also enjoyed doing a voiceover for my friend Blerdy Disposition's YouTube channel.
00:09:42.922 --> 00:09:47.532
If you want a guest on your podcast or actual play a voiceover, hit me up.
00:09:47.552 --> 00:09:47.961
Who knows?
00:09:47.991 --> 00:09:49.172
Maybe we can work together.
00:09:49.599 --> 00:09:54.178
Building a community with other podcasters has been incredibly rewarding.
00:09:54.731 --> 00:09:58.922
I love listening to and watching all your podcasts and streams.
00:09:59.601 --> 00:10:03.402
I wish I had 24 more hours in the day just to listen to other people's podcasts.
00:10:04.086 --> 00:10:14.216
Reviewing others' podcasts, featuring other podcasts in my episode outros, and doing ad swaps is part of my commitment to lifting up the work of other creators.
00:10:14.395 --> 00:10:16.676
If you're interested in doing an ad swap, let me know.
00:10:17.231 --> 00:10:26.322
Speaking of lifting up others' work, I wanna give a special shout out to The Curiographer for giving me their beautiful cover art for my podcast.
00:10:26.418 --> 00:10:32.658
Please go check out their Instagram at @TheCuriographer and go buy their merch on Inked gaming and Redbubble.
00:10:33.089 --> 00:10:39.028
My deepest gratitude to all of you who were with me from day one and those of you who have just discovered my podcast.
00:10:39.261 --> 00:10:44.192
And to the people recommending the podcast to their friends or writing reviews, you're beautiful and I love you.
00:10:44.666 --> 00:10:45.666
On to the giveaway.
00:10:45.765 --> 00:10:50.686
Congratulations to Tales from the Fandom who won the grand prize of a one minute voiceover.
00:10:50.871 --> 00:10:54.772
The second prize went to Dave Clark, a Curiographer inked gaming mat.
00:10:55.339 --> 00:11:05.288
Third prize went to Of Gods and Game Masters, a Curiographer dice bag, and finally these people are getting stickers, baldbeasty, snakewich, and VindicaSean.
00:11:05.615 --> 00:11:08.270
If I haven't contacted you yet, Please reach out.
00:11:08.703 --> 00:11:10.073
Here's to the years ahead.
00:11:10.476 --> 00:11:14.116
Thank you, and may all your characters find their stories.
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.959
Hello, friends.
00:00:01.000 --> 00:00:03.459
Welcome to Characters Without Stories.
00:00:03.459 --> 00:00:06.400
Last month, I hit a huge milestone.
00:00:06.629 --> 00:00:08.539
Two years of podcasting.
00:00:08.939 --> 00:00:17.719
It's been immensely rewarding to connect with you, my listeners, my guests, and other podcasts and creators in the tabletop role playing game space.
00:00:18.163 --> 00:00:20.312
I held a giveaway to celebrate two years.
00:00:20.533 --> 00:00:22.542
Watch to the end to find out who won.
00:00:28.914 --> 00:00:36.863
Before moving to Oregon, just before the COVID pandemic hit, I was creating art collaboratively with a few friends in Oakland, California.
00:00:37.499 --> 00:00:42.429
But the move and the increasing pressures of parenthood meant that we couldn't continue.
00:00:42.918 --> 00:00:44.579
I got depressed.
00:00:45.249 --> 00:00:47.908
I didn't realize how much I needed to have a creative outlet.
00:00:48.668 --> 00:00:55.429
And then, out of the blue, probably while looking at my own list of unplayed characters, it hit me.
00:00:55.999 --> 00:00:59.908
I'm probably not the only one who has a list of characters they want to play.
00:01:00.588 --> 00:01:02.829
I bet those people would want to talk about them.
00:01:03.488 --> 00:01:05.438
It was one of those ideas you can't ignore.
00:01:05.989 --> 00:01:11.118
And for me, when an idea like that strikes, I have to act on it as soon as possible.
00:01:11.569 --> 00:01:15.569
I needed to get something out there, at least a proof of concept.
00:01:16.058 --> 00:01:17.748
Did this idea have wings?
00:01:18.259 --> 00:01:20.069
Would it be interesting to anyone else?
00:01:20.689 --> 00:01:21.909
I didn't have a plan in mind.
00:01:22.329 --> 00:01:28.430
I had just finished devouring NADD Pod and The Adventure Zone, and I was new to even listening to podcasts.
00:01:28.796 --> 00:01:39.246
I went to my friend Andrew with my idea, a list of questions and an intro script and a $50 Amazon basics microphone, and we hopped on discord and we recorded it.
00:01:39.626 --> 00:01:42.356
I watched a couple of Adobe audition tutorials.
00:01:42.689 --> 00:01:48.459
I read some blogs about podcasting and I jumped in with no expectations.
00:01:49.073 --> 00:01:53.504
It took a lot of persistence and a lot of learning to get here.
00:01:54.284 --> 00:01:57.563
And I have other podcasters to thank for most of that learning.
00:01:58.144 --> 00:02:01.394
Thank you to everyone who has given advice or feedback.
00:02:07.668 --> 00:02:15.098
It became clear to me very early on that what was interesting about the podcast was not the stats of the characters, but the themes.
00:02:15.506 --> 00:02:19.225
What are the guests bringing to the table outside of the character sheet?
00:02:19.735 --> 00:02:22.806
What of ourselves do we bring to our characters, and why?
00:02:23.556 --> 00:02:27.485
Why do people build characters and play games the way that they do?
00:02:28.045 --> 00:02:30.205
And what kind of stories do we want to tell?
00:02:30.915 --> 00:02:34.506
Why do we even play tabletop role playing games?
00:02:35.062 --> 00:02:42.912
To continue to have interesting conversations about these questions, I needed to bring a diversity of players and a diversity of games to the table.
00:02:43.461 --> 00:02:53.401
I set out to diversify my games and my guests, and I want to hold myself accountable by sharing where I started, where I've made progress, and where I need to do more work.
00:02:53.782 --> 00:02:54.972
So I did some research.
00:02:55.331 --> 00:02:57.201
And here's where I get into the results.
00:02:57.681 --> 00:02:59.581
Feel free to skip this section.
00:02:59.581 --> 00:03:03.562
If you're not a fan of statistics, first, some caveats.
00:03:03.912 --> 00:03:06.222
I only have 11 episodes in my first season.
00:03:06.412 --> 00:03:11.401
I have 23 in my second season, and I'm only about halfway through my third season.
00:03:12.051 --> 00:03:21.741
I'm also only working with the information that I have or can reasonably assume, especially when it comes to things like disability or membership in the alphabet mafia.
00:03:22.295 --> 00:03:27.145
Rather than assigning gender into categories, I used the pronouns that my guests gave me.
00:03:27.645 --> 00:03:34.066
I recently added a question to my intake form about how my guests identify, so moving forward I'll have better data to share.
00:03:34.549 --> 00:03:39.188
None of the guests for my published episodes used that form yet, so I'm just going with what I have.
00:03:39.848 --> 00:03:42.179
With all that out of the way, let's dive in.
00:03:42.769 --> 00:03:46.188
I'll start with diversity of games because that's the easiest to measure.
00:03:46.812 --> 00:03:54.632
In my first season, 73% of my episodes were about Dungeons and Dragons, with only three about characters from other games.
00:03:54.901 --> 00:03:56.842
I wanted to talk about different games.
00:03:56.882 --> 00:03:58.701
I figured my audience would as well.
00:03:59.072 --> 00:04:09.149
Also, several Wizards of the Coast scandals happened in a very short timeframe, leading a lot of us in the community to reconsider talking about, or even playing D&D anymore.
00:04:09.605 --> 00:04:18.656
Personally, I made the decision to stop buying WOTC products, and I cancelled my subscription to D&D Beyond, but I still talk about D&D on the podcast, and I still play it.
00:04:19.238 --> 00:04:30.048
You can listen to the episodes Why I'm Still Talking About D&D and Capitalism is the BBEG if you want to hear more of my perspective on these events and how they relate to my podcast.
00:04:30.749 --> 00:04:36.939
Knowing that I wanted to make this change, I made efforts to diversify my episodes and those efforts have paid off.
00:04:37.619 --> 00:04:41.649
My second season featured only 26% D&D episodes.
00:04:41.908 --> 00:04:48.199
My third season so far has featured 38%, but that number will go down once the full season is released.
00:04:48.699 --> 00:04:52.699
I'm happy with where I am now, and I will probably maintain this ratio.
00:04:53.399 --> 00:04:56.819
If you submitted a D&D character and you haven't heard from me.
00:04:57.428 --> 00:04:58.358
That's probably why.
00:04:59.059 --> 00:05:05.788
It's important to me to consider racial diversity when bringing on guests, and that was clearly an issue when I looked back at season one.
00:05:06.338 --> 00:05:11.129
In my first season, 82 percent of my guests were white, one was Asian, and one was Black.
00:05:11.619 --> 00:05:13.348
In season two, I did much better.
00:05:13.668 --> 00:05:17.759
70 percent of my guests were white, the rest were Asian, Latine, or Indigenous.
00:05:18.048 --> 00:05:19.949
However, I had no Black guests.
00:05:20.324 --> 00:05:24.184
So, for Season 3, I made a special effort at reaching out to Black creators.
00:05:24.483 --> 00:05:29.843
I have had two Black guests so far this season, and then we'll have two more, at least, in the episodes to come.
00:05:29.894 --> 00:05:35.923
However, I have not yet had any Asian or Indigenous guests this season, and I will work to remedy that.
00:05:36.624 --> 00:05:41.074
Measuring gender is where I have the data, but it's a lot more complex.
00:05:41.744 --> 00:05:48.463
In season one, 27% of my guests identified as he/him, 18% identified as she/her.
00:05:49.033 --> 00:05:54.704
I had three transgender guests and the remainder had some combination of he, she, they, and any.
00:05:55.310 --> 00:06:01.896
In Season 2, 22% of my guests were he/him, 33% were she/her, and 2 were trans.
00:06:02.357 --> 00:06:08.276
In Season 3 so far, I've had a large jump in guests that identified as he/him, up to 46%.
00:06:08.737 --> 00:06:12.927
23% identified as she/her, and none of my guests this season have been trans.
00:06:13.336 --> 00:06:17.937
It's clear that my gender diversity has backslid, and that's something that I want to remedy.
00:06:18.637 --> 00:06:28.213
It gets a little tricky to measure whether or not my guests are members of the LGBTQIA+ community, because many of them did not self identify.
00:06:28.826 --> 00:06:31.197
In those instances, I counted them as unknown.
00:06:31.776 --> 00:06:41.266
In Season 1, 64% identified as LGBTQIA+ There is a general downward trend to 31% in Season 3.
00:06:41.516 --> 00:06:47.396
However, there is a corresponding upward trend in unknowns from 9% to 46%.
00:06:47.947 --> 00:06:56.269
With all the unknowns, I don't think it's clear enough to truly make a statement , but I'll be keeping my eye on it as I have more information self identified by my guests.
00:06:56.516 --> 00:07:01.375
Disability is another topic where there could be guests with disabilities that aren't apparent.
00:07:01.375 --> 00:07:05.966
In this case, I only included as disabled, anyone who explicitly stated that.
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In season one, I had two disabled guests.
00:07:09.524 --> 00:07:14.973
In season two, I had three disabled guests, and I have not yet had a disabled guest this season.
00:07:15.180 --> 00:07:17.310
Obviously, that's something I'd like to work on too.
00:07:17.980 --> 00:07:22.940
Looking back, I realize that there are other measures that I should consider and have added them to my form.
00:07:23.440 --> 00:07:25.091
One is neurodiversity.
00:07:25.600 --> 00:07:31.540
Many of my guests have talked about having ADHD or being autistic, and I've appreciated hearing their points of view.
00:07:32.047 --> 00:07:36.927
As I'm starting to make more video content, another thing I want to be aware of is body size.
00:07:37.357 --> 00:07:41.357
If you have any thoughts about things I maybe haven't considered, I'd love to hear them.
00:07:42.487 --> 00:07:43.737
So what are my takeaways?
00:07:44.576 --> 00:07:47.817
Diving deep into my guest diversity data has been enlightening.
00:07:48.817 --> 00:07:52.596
It's clear I've made some progress, but I still have much to do.
00:07:53.416 --> 00:08:01.237
It's also clear that as I make progress in one area, I should be careful not to backslide in the progress I've made in other areas.
00:08:01.956 --> 00:08:06.536
Anecdotally, about 80 percent of my submissions are from white people.
00:08:07.021 --> 00:08:10.920
Most of my non white or disabled guests have been actively recruited.
00:08:11.286 --> 00:08:16.047
I'll keep reaching out to creators I love who can bring unique perspectives to the table.
00:08:16.434 --> 00:08:23.524
I'm also putting out a call to you, my listeners, to introduce me to any amazing creators I should meet or to submit yourself.
00:08:30.240 --> 00:08:36.461
One of the things that most podcasters do, especially in the beginning, is to look obsessively at their download numbers.
00:08:37.071 --> 00:08:38.211
I was not immune.
00:08:38.770 --> 00:08:44.410
But as overnight success was clearly not in the cards, I began to set smaller, more achievable goals.
00:08:44.870 --> 00:08:52.000
First 50 downloads, then 100, then 500, and I am now just past 2,500 downloads.
00:08:52.413 --> 00:08:56.104
I also want to continue to build on my audience on social media platforms.
00:08:56.374 --> 00:08:58.964
At this point, I'm on pretty much all of them.
00:08:58.964 --> 00:09:02.254
I also want to increase my YouTube views and subscribers.
00:09:02.490 --> 00:09:09.270
I have numbers I'd like to hit on all the platforms, at least for the time being, and if you're interested, maybe I'll do another video or episode about it.
00:09:09.813 --> 00:09:13.114
So what are my plans for the future of Characters Without Stories?
00:09:13.625 --> 00:09:17.926
First and foremost, to talk about fascinating characters with fascinating creators.
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That won't change.
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I'm always looking to feature a diversity of games and guests.
00:09:23.841 --> 00:09:27.381
I've also been enjoying being a guest on others podcasts and platforms.
00:09:27.652 --> 00:09:37.192
Being a part of D&D Denial's Moonstone Matriarchy stream has been a blast, and I love the opportunity to turn the tables and guest on other podcasts as well.
00:09:37.792 --> 00:09:42.292
I also enjoyed doing a voiceover for my friend Blerdy Disposition's YouTube channel.
00:09:42.922 --> 00:09:47.532
If you want a guest on your podcast or actual play a voiceover, hit me up.
00:09:47.552 --> 00:09:47.961
Who knows?
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Maybe we can work together.
00:09:49.599 --> 00:09:54.178
Building a community with other podcasters has been incredibly rewarding.
00:09:54.731 --> 00:09:58.922
I love listening to and watching all your podcasts and streams.
00:09:59.601 --> 00:10:03.402
I wish I had 24 more hours in the day just to listen to other people's podcasts.
00:10:04.086 --> 00:10:14.216
Reviewing others' podcasts, featuring other podcasts in my episode outros, and doing ad swaps is part of my commitment to lifting up the work of other creators.
00:10:14.395 --> 00:10:16.676
If you're interested in doing an ad swap, let me know.
00:10:17.231 --> 00:10:26.322
Speaking of lifting up others' work, I wanna give a special shout out to The Curiographer for giving me their beautiful cover art for my podcast.
00:10:26.418 --> 00:10:32.658
Please go check out their Instagram at @TheCuriographer and go buy their merch on Inked gaming and Redbubble.
00:10:33.089 --> 00:10:39.028
My deepest gratitude to all of you who were with me from day one and those of you who have just discovered my podcast.
00:10:39.261 --> 00:10:44.192
And to the people recommending the podcast to their friends or writing reviews, you're beautiful and I love you.
00:10:44.666 --> 00:10:45.666
On to the giveaway.
00:10:45.765 --> 00:10:50.686
Congratulations to Tales from the Fandom who won the grand prize of a one minute voiceover.
00:10:50.871 --> 00:10:54.772
The second prize went to Dave Clark, a Curiographer inked gaming mat.
00:10:55.339 --> 00:11:05.288
Third prize went to Of Gods and Game Masters, a Curiographer dice bag, and finally these people are getting stickers, baldbeasty, snakewich, and VindicaSean.
00:11:05.615 --> 00:11:08.270
If I haven't contacted you yet, Please reach out.
00:11:08.703 --> 00:11:10.073
Here's to the years ahead.
00:11:10.476 --> 00:11:14.116
Thank you, and may all your characters find their stories.
