Episode Transcript
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0:00
Hey
0:00
everyone, Robert M. Lamb
0:02
here, creator of 7Lamb to
0:04
give some updates on upcoming projects.
0:08
We are posting this message to all
0:10
our feeds so people can get a better understanding
0:12
of where we're at as a company and
0:14
what's going on behind the scenes. Now
0:17
the stuff we talk about here won't be anything
0:19
new to people who follow us on Facebook, Instagram,
0:22
and Twitter, but we realized that we needed
0:24
to reach our entire audience. Although
0:27
real quick if you aren't already, follow us on
0:29
all those platforms at 7Lamb Podcasts.
0:32
If you know 7Lamb, you'll know that we just
0:34
became a true business a year ago,
0:36
but we've been releasing podcasts since 2017.
0:40
It took us that long to finally make
0:42
enough money that I could quit my day job and
0:45
do this full time. Last year was my
0:47
first year just working on podcasts.
0:49
Before that, I worked multiple jobs
0:51
and did the podcasting on the side. Most
0:54
of the money I made
0:55
working those two part-time jobs went
0:57
to funding the podcast.
0:59
I spent thousands upon thousands of dollars
1:01
to get this business going because I was serious
1:03
about doing this full time.
1:05
So it took a little over five years of working 15
1:08
hours a day and thousands of dollars
1:10
to finally
1:11
build up enough of a following to make enough
1:14
money through advertisers that I could quit.
1:16
By the way, when I say I worked 15 hours every day, that's
1:19
not an exaggeration. I worked every
1:21
single day, Monday through Sunday, usually 8
1:24
a.m. till about midnight, sometimes
1:26
later. Usually it was about five hours
1:28
a day at the day job, sometimes eight, and
1:30
then the rest went towards podcasting. The
1:33
only breaks being travel time to and from
1:35
work or when I ate breakfast, lunch, or dinner,
1:37
and sometimes an afternoon power nap. I
1:40
probably realistically only took about 60
1:42
days off in those five years. It
1:44
was rough, but I was determined and
1:47
now I'm happy to say that I'm full time.
1:49
But that being said, I'm the only one
1:51
who is. Other people who are part
1:53
of this business, like Jack Austin, voice
1:55
of a ton of characters, has been helping me
1:57
along the way. But Jack works a full time job.
3:59
episodes of one show in a row.
4:02
I need breaks.
4:03
I hit writer's block. One day I can
4:05
wake up and want to write horror the next day
4:07
comedy. I feel the worst episodes I've
4:09
written are the ones that I force myself to write to keep
4:12
up with demand. I don't want to
4:14
do that anymore. Oh also there's
4:16
an issue with writing multiple seasons of shows.
4:18
It gets harder as it goes on.
4:20
The story expands, the cast lists get
4:22
larger, and
4:23
since we've been adding mid-rolls, ads in the middle
4:26
of our shows, we're trying to make episodes longer
4:28
for our fans.
4:29
The first season of End of All Hope was way
4:32
easier to create than season five.
4:34
There's other aspects as well that have slowed production.
4:37
Ad revenue is not always consistent
4:39
and sometimes we have to take on other
4:41
contract jobs to make up the money. That
4:44
takes time away from our shows but helps us
4:46
fund them.
4:47
Also ad revenue is not so great right now.
4:49
We've heard that from multiple podcast producers
4:52
and we've seen it firsthand.
4:53
Basically we have to be more strategic now
4:56
more than ever because this is my full-time
4:58
job. The moment we don't make enough money then
5:00
I'm gonna have to get a part-time job and
5:02
we're stuck releasing even less and that's
5:05
something we don't want to do. We don't want to move backwards.
5:08
Some of you may say why not release a ton every
5:10
month? Like just release podcasts?
5:12
Well we would love to but like
5:14
previously stated I already work 10 to 12 hours
5:17
a day.
5:18
One episode can take 50 hours sometimes
5:20
up to 80 hours to complete.
5:22
I know it only takes 20 minutes or 30 minutes
5:24
to listen to but I mean it really
5:26
is 50 to 80 hours
5:28
and some of our longer episodes like the finales
5:31
can take over a hundred hours to produce.
5:34
So it's just not possible for us to release
5:36
more right now but trust us
5:39
nothing would make us happier than releasing weekly
5:41
which hopefully we can get to at some point.
5:44
So right now when people ask when is a specific
5:47
show coming out we
5:49
really don't know and that's the honest answer.
5:52
We're trying to produce as much as possible
5:54
write, edit, record
5:57
but there's a lot of other stuff that comes along
5:59
with running a business, so it's just been
6:01
pretty hectic. And like I said, I'm the
6:03
only one who's full time.
6:05
We use to post schedules, but they're
6:07
always hard to keep up with. So we've backed off of that
6:10
a little bit right now. Most of the time
6:12
we aren't sure.
6:13
And since we aren't able to pay our friends a ton of
6:15
money voicing characters, we don't rush
6:17
them. Same with the editors. If an
6:19
editor for Paralize says they need more time,
6:21
we give it to them, even if it's a month or two. Because
6:25
if it's not our friends doing the work, it's someone
6:27
we outsource to, and we still aren't able to pay
6:29
a ton.
6:30
Like I said, ad revenue fluctuates,
6:32
and right now it's not so good. We do
6:34
have several editors helping us out right now, but
6:37
that's not always the case. And for nearly two
6:39
years, I was doing majority of the editing. I
6:41
still do a lot of the editing. I edited every
6:43
episode of Tower 4.
6:45
But when I'm editing, I'm not writing, and that's
6:47
when we get behind.
6:49
It's a vicious cycle. We're trying to work
6:51
on it.
6:51
And this is not a message to scold anyone
6:54
who's complained about our releases. This is
6:56
also not a woe is me post. I'm
6:59
lucky to be able to do this full-time right
7:01
now, and I love doing it. We're
7:04
not looking for pity.
7:05
That's not what we're trying to do with this message.
7:08
The fact that people want more means
7:10
we're doing something right.
7:12
We just wanted to make this message so people can
7:14
get a little glimpse of what goes on
7:16
behind the scenes.
7:18
And everything I discussed so far was based in
7:20
production and ad sales, but
7:22
there have been other issues as well. Along
7:24
with contract jobs, we've had voice actors
7:26
get married, take vacations,
7:29
there's Zoom calls and answering emails. Jack
7:32
just had a baby.
7:34
Amber got a promotion at her job where
7:36
now she works more. Hope just moved.
7:38
I just moved in with my girlfriend. We got
7:41
hit with a hurricane six months
7:43
ago. Studio equipment has died.
7:45
We fixed up our studio, which is a two-car
7:47
garage we work out of. We have business
7:49
taxes now to keep track of, and
7:52
plenty of us have gotten COVID or the flu.
7:55
It rains a lot in Florida, and when it rains, we
7:57
can't record. There's just a lot of issues
7:59
that come up. along with producing this content.
8:02
Basically, we just want to say thank
8:04
you for everyone who listens. We understand
8:06
the concerns. We've been getting a lot of emails
8:09
asking when the next shows are coming. Most
8:11
people are cordial about it, which is nice, but
8:14
we have not stopped working on any of
8:16
our shows, even Cheris swords and cop doctors.
8:18
We just need some time to get things in order and regroup,
8:21
but we think people will be happy with the longer episodes
8:23
when we finally do get them out.
8:25
And remember, everything we release is free. And
8:28
if Stranger Things can take 3 years to make a
8:30
new season, when they have a huge budget,
8:32
multiple writers, and Netflix charges $16
8:36
to $20 a month, we just ask people
8:38
to be a little easy on us.
8:40
One full timer with some friends working
8:42
out of a 2 car garage. That's how
8:44
we operate.
8:45
While I hate posting schedules, I will say this,
8:47
our aim is to have new Paralice and Tower 4
8:50
out before August. Again, that's
8:52
tentative, but that's what we're aiming for. We're
8:55
also working on a couple more side stories for
8:57
Patreon. We really want to push our Patreon.
9:00
By no means does anyone have to donate,
9:02
but we do have a Patreon where you can donate as little
9:05
as a dollar a month, and it really does help us out. In
9:07
fact, we have such a great following and
9:09
so many listeners that if everyone who listened
9:12
to our shows donated $1 for
9:14
the entire year, just $1 per
9:16
person for the year, we would make
9:19
enough money to fund the next couple of years of shows
9:21
easily.
9:22
Just to put things in perspective.
9:24
We have a ton of fans, but ad revenue makes it
9:26
so we make just enough right now so I can remain
9:29
full time and still pay all of our expenses.
9:32
Hopefully that doesn't change, but who knows?
9:34
Again, no one has to donate. We just care
9:36
that you listen. I remember talking to Jack
9:38
a little while ago about wanting to make sure we
9:41
are as transparent as we can be with
9:43
our business and production, and that's why I decided to
9:45
finally post this message. Hopefully
9:47
it helps people understand our struggles, and
9:49
if not, if there's still some people who are really
9:51
upset with us and how we release, we're
9:54
sorry, but we're operating at our
9:56
full capacity right now, and until we get
9:58
more people on the payroll and more people on the payroll,
9:59
people are able to do this full time, we're
10:02
just not going to be able to release faster. But
10:05
we are trying and hopefully
10:08
we can. Hopefully we can release longer
10:10
episodes quicker and
10:12
get more seasons out of
10:15
all your favorites.
10:16
Thank you to everyone who
10:18
does listen, everyone who follows, everyone
10:20
who's listening to this right now, everyone who's
10:22
given us a good review and everyone who has reached
10:25
out with something nice to say. It's really
10:27
nice to get good emails of
10:30
people who understand how much work this stuff
10:32
takes.
10:33
We appreciate you all, we appreciate you listening
10:36
and hopefully we will have some new content
10:38
out
10:39
real soon.
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