Rallen's Rant : The inside scoop

I've been thinking of writing about my podcast for several months now. Not to boast or look for attention, but for me to have a think about why I do it and what challenges I have faced since I started. It's been 20 months, over 100,000 listens and 25 episodes since my very first episode which was with my co-worker at the time Brian O'Meara. Over the past 20 months I have faced many challenges that I've overcome, while also having my own share of failures.

It's funny how the idea was originally a joke made by a friend. "Richie you talk so much shit you should start your own podcast" and right then and there I replied "you know what, maybe I will to shut you up." Fast forward 3 weeks and I was sitting down to do my first episode with former pro-rugby player Brian O'Meara(https://soundcloud.com/richie-allen-3/rallens-rant-episode-1-bombs-away). I took the stance that if it was a complete failure that I'd pack it in, but I'd rather give it a go and fail rather than not doing it. By doing the first episode with a friend and co-worker, made the whole situation much easier. For the first episode I wrote down a lot of information, along with a lot of questions to ask. Little did I know that this technique would prove to be my downfall in later episodes. The first episode went well, and had over 2,500 listens in the first week. The feedback was mostly positive which led me to think I could gain more from it and create more episodes down the line.

So with positive momentum behind me I needed to decide on a theme for the podcast. Since I was working in St. Michael's College full-time I thought it would be a good idea to have past-pupils or current employees on the podcast as there'd be a lot of guests I could avail of while also having a core group of listeners. I then turned my attention to Tom Gleeson, the owner of Bunsen. Bunsen had quickly become one of the most popular places to eat in Dublin and was opening new eatery's all over the country at a rapid rate.

Getting Tom on the show allowed me to get out of my comfort zone. I reached out over Facebook messenger. At first, I thought it wasn't a runner as Tom saw my message but didn't respond at first. 3 days later Tom responded and seemed up for coming on the show. Sorting out a date and time was an issue as Tom had a hectic schedule as Bunsen was opening up new eatery's in Galway and Cork at that time, but we found time and got it done. Prior to doing the episode I faced huge anxiety and nerves as I kept presuming there'd be an issue with the microphones, or what if the memory card was full or what if I needed to go to the toilet during the podcast. Tom's story was really interesting and many listeners found it useful with regards to gaining insights into starting a company and also travelling the world in order to gain more knowledge that perhaps isn't available to you in Ireland.

"Others would say it's just catering to the jaded palettes of rich people" - Tom Gleeson during his appearance on Rallen's Rant

Tom also spent time working in Heston Blumenthal's restaurant and described it above in the quotations in a hilarious way(https://soundcloud.com/richie-allen-3/ep-1). The podcast was successful with regards to listens and the feedback I got, so that made my mind up and I decided to fully go after it and make the podcast work.

The weeks that followed

The next 6 episodes all included past pupils from St. Michael's College. Peter Burke came on to talk about his life story, highlights being his time in Norway coaching the national rugby team and then coming home to help start CrossFit 353(https://soundcloud.com/richie-allen-3/episode-three-the-wodcast-wpeter-burke). Next up was Joe Cummiskey, who worked in Facebook and invited me to do the podcast in their Dublin building which was a really cool experience along with a junket as I went to town on all the free vit-hits in the kitchen(https://soundcloud.com/richie-allen-3/episode-four-not-your-average-joe-joe-cummiskey). To keep with the theme of past-pupils while trying to keep it different each week with my guests, I invited Ronan Mahon(https://soundcloud.com/richie-allen-3/episode-five-no-man-is-an-island-wronan-mahon) and chef and restaurant owner Jules Mac(https://soundcloud.com/richie-allen-3/episode-six-jule-in-the-crown-wjulian-mac) on for my next two episodes. It was during these episodes that I realised that something was going to have to change. My listeners were dropping, feedback was becoming rare and it was quite clear my podcast was becoming stale and was experience very little growth outside of the St. Michael's community.

"There's only so many past pupils you can interview that will be interesting. There will reach a point where you will find yourself interviewing people with nothing interesting to say and will more than likely be completely insane" - St. Michael's Teacher

I can make it work!!! This is all I thought for the next while, and even though deep down I knew I'd have to change, I didn't want to accept it. I wanted to make sure my next guests would get plenty of listens and coverage to re-boost the podcast over social media. It was the Summer and people needed an injection. What do people love from St. Michael's College ? Rugby. So I asked former team-mate and Irish international Dan Leavy onto the podcast and he agreed to come on. Dan had experienced a rollercoaster year with Leinster and Ireland, and gave many interesting insights(https://soundcloud.com/richie-allen-3/episode-seven-the-open-side-wdan-leavy). Not to mention the first public appearance of Cathal Marsh's new nickname, 'The Clamper' and this episode proved to be the most listened to episode out of the first 7 episodes.

Shortly after this episode I contacted former St. Michaels teacher and coach, Greg McWilliams. Having stayed in touch with Greg I thought having him on would be perfect, especially since he had recently started coaching the USA Rugby team as Backs Coach. Greg's podcast went down well(https://soundcloud.com/richie-allen-3/season-2-episode-eight-the-wind-out-of-his-yales-wgreg-mcwilliams), even though Greg had his doubts initially. With 8 episodes successfully done and dusted, I decided to take a break and enjoy my Summer without having to worry about uploading or editing podcasts.

Time to quit, or a change ?

During my break, I wondered about what would happen if I kept doing the same podcasts with the same themes. Feedback became more or less the same, the same people kept listening to the podcasts and to be honest, I was fed up with hearing the same formats. I spent a lot of time listening to Nerdist podcast and Joe Rogan, it got me thinking and imagining the scenario where I could interview a Hollywood star, a UFC fighter, a singer or somebody I grew up idolising.

It was time to step away from the St. Michael's connection and look to develop the podcast and try to interest people all over the country and in Europe and the US. I started to look into how I could go about contacting celebrities or big name sports-stars and like most people I started with google. I will never forget the first thing I typed into google : "George Clooney Email." Perhaps it was too much too soon and obviously no such email could be found online. Then I lowered by expectations and during this whole process I was listening to Joe Rogan's podcast and he was talking about Ken Shamrock on his show. Ken had been a former WWF wrestler and one in which I knew about. Seeing as I was messing around on google, I thought why not ? So I type into google the following : "Ken Shamrock contact" and within a few seconds I found an email address. I sent off a poorly written e-mail about how much I would love to speak to Ken on the podcast. I must of sounded desperate. Well, maybe because I was. That night I genuinely was close to calling it quits. I can recall going to bed thinking, who on earth actually would want to hear me talk and ask questions ? Negativity swamped me, and whenever someone asked when I'd start doing podcasts soon again I always lied and said "oh yeah, I will upload a new one shortly" even though I was set on stopping.

It was November 28th, 2017, several months since my last podcast and I was finally ready to type into Twitter that the podcast journey was done. To be honest, nobody cared if I kept going or not, people still had Instagram and Netflix. I remember looking through my junk mail and was about to clear it when I noticed a particular email. It was regarding my podcast with Ken Shamrock. Bare in mind I sent my initial e-mail to his agent in October so I'd forgotten all about it. I opened it and all it said was the following : "Hi Richie. Sorry for the delay but Ken has been busy as of late. If it suits, he can do the podcast on Saturday at 11am (Vegas time) and can talk for an hour. Thanks, Kesha." Wow. A former UFC and WWF champion had agreed to come on my show. Hundreds of thousands of followers on social media and an incredible life story. 76 hours separated me from interviewing Ken and also 68 hours separated me from a 3,000 word essay that was due for a lecturer in DCU. A bit of a shit show I won't lie, but I crammed for both. In the lead up to the podcast with Ken, I never had been so nervous in my life. I've played music in front of 2,000 people, rugby matches in front of 15,000, sitting a Leaving Cert after sitting on my arse all year slagging teachers and found myself in hospital fearing the worst for my health but in the end it was type 1 diabetes but still, an interview with some stranger had me shaking, sweating and in a state of panic like never before. I probably resembled a football manager in the mist of a relegation dogfight scrapping for confidence and hope.

"Hindsight is always 50/50" - Ken Shamrock during his appearance on Rallen's Rant

Funny how after 3 minutes, all the nerves vanished and my podcast with Ken flew by. His life story was engaging and was like nothing I had heard ever before(https://soundcloud.com/richie-allen-3/episode-nine-the-lions-ken-shamrock). The podcast was back from the dead and after 5 days, Ken's episode had over 16,000 listens which trebled any previous amount of listens on a single episode.

In the months that followed, I had many famous guests on. Ranging from internet sensation Rebecca Black(https://soundcloud.com/richie-allen-3/rebecca-black-episode-14) to the famous American comedian Shane Mauss(https://soundcloud.com/richie-allen-3/shane-mauss). Many of my guests had appeared on Joe Rogan, or many other world famous podcasts. Now I am not saying I was on par with Rogan's podcast, but by having the same calibre of guest on made me feel pretty good. By building up contacts in the music business or even in the film industry, it allowed me access to top agents, PA's and even celebrities themselves. People from all over the world were listening to my podcast, and I'd get the odd message on Facebook from a complete stranger saying how they enjoyed my latest episode. Rebecca Black's episode still remains as my most listened to episode of all time, but a funny bit of information on that is that we had to do that podcast twice as the first one's audio got damaged due to Rebecca's agent taking a phone call during the first episode and it destroyed the frequency.

Beyond those episodes, having the chance to chat to one of my favourite UFC fighters of all time Mark Hunt was an absolute honour(https://soundcloud.com/richie-allen-3/mark-hunt-episode-17) even though he played PlayStation during it. Speaking to my long time friend James Ryan after an incredible 12 months in which he won a 6 Nations, Champions Cup and Pro14(https://soundcloud.com/richie-allen-3/james-ryan-episode-20) was pretty cool to see and hear. While it would be mad not to forget the episode with Nick Yarris in which he openly talked about spending 20+ years on death row(https://soundcloud.com/richie-allen-3/nick-yarris-episode-21) for a crime he didn't commit, I honestly was overwhelmed listening to that. Another enjoyable guest was David Rudolf, the lawyer seen in the hugely successful documentary on Netflix called 'The Staircase' which I absolutely loved. Hearing him talk about the case and giving multiple insights that the television didn't was interesting(https://soundcloud.com/richie-allen-3/david-rudolf-episode-18).

Keep evolving or die

In my most recent change, I decided to create a sports podcast called Rallen's Recap. I felt it would be a good idea to have sports journalists, presenters or former pro to come on and talk about the chosen sport. Thus far I have done Rugby and Golf and the feedback has been great so far. I plan on doing a NFL and Soccer show in the coming weeks. I also have plans to do my first visual podcast with video, I also have plans for a co-host and also my first podcast with multiple guests. Heck, I may even do a live show with a big name if I can ?

"Anyone who uses the word banter, is usually a bit of a dick" - Damian Hughes during his appearance on Rallen's Rant

I have also ditched a question sheet. In my last 5 podcasts I have had no pre-planned questions written out in order to try and let my podcasts flow better. Personally I think it has helped me and the podcast a lot.

How do I contact these people ?

Quite simple really. Go onto a famous person's Instagram or Twitter and you should find an e-mail for their agent. If not, try Facebook. If that fails, try their website. If that doesn't work, dig deeper. And if that doesn't work, ask them personally on social media(that's how I got Mark Hunt on). Sometimes I guess their emails too, but that's only worked twice.

It's also worth noting, for every guest I get on, there are about 25 other guests who tell me they aren't available or interested.

Did you ever do a podcast and not release it for whatever reason ?

Yes. Firstly, I recorded a podcast on my own. Just me, nobody else. I went on a rant, literally a Rallen's Rant, about social media. It was a load of nonsense, but genuinely one day I would like to do one solo when time is right. Another one, was with Gavin McInnes. Gavin is a very interesting character, if you don't believe me then just google his name. He co-founded the company Vice, and also did many other things, which some of them were hugely controversial. I didn't release this podcast as it was nasty. I said things that don't reflect what I believe in, and he said some things that I strongly thought didn't deserve to see the light of day. Apart from that, I can only name a few guests I was scheduled to interview but it didn't happen for many reasons : Al Snow, Robert Whittaker, Adam Alter, Dolores O'Riordan, Kurt Angle, Danny Trejo, Slash, Lisa Ann and Snow Patrol(yes, the entire band).

My Top 5 Rallen's Rant Guests

1. Paddy Gibson - Really enjoyed it from start to finish. Acting, Netflix, shit reviews and decent banter.
2. Rebecca Black - Did two for the price of one. She has millions of followers and had no reason to come on but did. Also did another one after first one screwed up.
3. Brian O'Meara - He did me a huge favour in coming on. If it wasn't for him I wouldn't have a podcast, but don't tell him that....
4. Dan Leavy - We were both hungover doing it, and both seemed to enjoy it.
5. Eoghan Murphy - Going to Custom House. Interviewing him in his own office. Getting to see the real insights into life as a politician was incredible. He also took about 43 phone calls before doing the show.

My Patreon

Recently I have started a patreon page. So far I have 4 patreon's. It's an opportunity for anyone to support the podcast. You can give $1 a month, $5 a month, $10 or $20 a month. It's completely up to you. Each amount entitles you to an award of some sort. What does it go towards ? Well, many guests I couldn't get on the show as they would demand $50-100 in appearance fees. Other times I couldn't afford a flight to London. Other times it's for petrol. Other times it's for software to help me edit the podcast. New microphones, leads, memory cards etc. The patreon page is below :

Now I know many people don't donate, and that's absolutely fine. Just continue to support it in whatever way you can. But please have a think on this : $12 is all it takes. That's what it costs to go to the cinema, it's the cost of two pints, it's the cost of topping up your car, it's the cost of putting on a bet and many other things. $12 goes a long way in helping me. A very long way. I want to do this for years, but I also want it to be better. In the future I want to be able to have videos of my podcast, I also would love to do a live podcast in front on an audience and many other things. So if you have $12 to spare and have 2 minutes to spare, please support the podcast as it will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for reading and feel free to comment,

Richie (or Rallen)