With Too Much on My Plate – I Ordered Even More

So there we were. My Austin, Texas based local food podcast The Lone Star Plate appeared to be off the menu on account of the pandemic. 

Or so I thought, but then I made a decision that surprised even me. 

But, wait; let’s start at the beginning. 

Last year I founded TexasRealFood through Ashfount Investments, my RegAg investment vehicle. TexasRealFood is about what it says on the tin, namely, fresh, seasonal, locally produced food from a great state.

In case you didn’t know, the local food movement has been bringing a much-needed shift in food production and consumption for years, and currently is gaining new momentum right across Texas and beyond in the wake of the pandemic. The reason for its success is simple: it’s all about food, nourishing produce that is locally and sustainably farmed.

The TRF website is the Yelp for that movement in Texas. Texans use it to find local family farms, farmers markets, farm to table restaurants and other local food business in Texas. There is also a huge editorial section of blog posts, business reviews, products recs, recipes, videos (and the podcast). The idea is really to apply the idea of regenerative agriculture to everyday life and bring it to a big audience. And perhaps not surprisingly, both website and its podcast, The Lone Star Plate, have found a ready audience. 

Sit, Eat, Chat, Repeat is the strap line for The Lone Star Plate, in which the native Texan and gourmet chef Patrick Scott Armstrong heads out to break bread with all sorts of folks all over Texas. It’s usually recorded in a studio in Austin. Like Patrick, the show is passionate about the enjoyment of food and revels in the community such meals create. There is nothing more human or anything more effective at creating fellowship than sharing a meal. And from the show’s inception we’ve had some fascinating guests and some great exchanges on the podcast. All was sailing along nicely when in the newsfeeds a strange word started to appear: COVID-19. 

So there we sat in March 2020, with The Lone Star Plate not even a year old and looking as if it had been slammed into the wall of the local abattoir. On a call with Patrick in Texas and the show’s London producer, Emmett Glynn, I listened to the various alternatives left to me. Things did not look good. How could a podcast predicated on a convivial shared meal and an even better conversation overcome the challenge of virus induced lockdown?   

I listened long, before saying that thing that surprised even me. 

“Let’s make the show twice weekly.” 

There followed a silence, so I explained further. This was a moment when we could like so many businesses shut up shop and sit this out, or we could throw a curved ball at the virus and the whole sorry mess it had created and take our chances. So I threw the ball. 

As a result we not only increased the number of shows from one a week to two, but we also decided to change the format adapting it to the needs of lockdown. It’s now recorded via Zoom from Patrick’s home in Austin. Alongside this I made another decision, one even more outrageous. We upped our game in terms of guests. 

Through our network of contacts in Texas, many of them clients and partners of Mount Bonnell Advisors, my advisory firm in Austin, we started to reach out to local Texas celebrities and invited them onto the show. And guess what, they have started to say “yes”, “sure,” “no problem”, “when do you want me?”. Recent guests have included Chris Harrison, Mark Henry, Nikki Stringfield and Johnny Mathis.

There is an old saying fortis Fortuna adiuvat - fortune favors the brave. Well, sometimes that seems to be case. Even as I write, I am still pleasantly surprised by how this has turned out. The shows – albeit with the limitations of lockdown – are even more fun than the earlier ones. The guests are more high profile. And the podcast releases are more frequent – we’re now up to Episode 44. 

Like the real food movement, the podcast revolution is gathering pace year on year, month-by-month, and even day after day especially so during this pandemic. Currently The Lone Star Plate is one of three podcasts I have out there, the others being: Move Your Business to the United States (Mount Bonnell Advisors) and Factual America (Alamo Pictures). Each of them is getting traction for their businesses, and attracting an audience for their content – for example, last year across the globe MYBTUS headed up the Apple charts at number one.  

But this is not just about being part of that sound revolution this is very much a considered business strategy. Podcasts remain a great way to connect with audiences, that is stating the obvious. The growth figures for listenership especially in the United States should make every corporate marketing department sit up and take note. What is less well known is how effective podcasts are for meeting anyone in whatever sector you wish. No, really, trust me, if you have the right podcast product people seem more than happy to come on it and shoot the relevant breeze. 

Covid-19 has been and is still a challenge to all businesses across the globe, be they a ‘mom and pop store’ or a global corporation. However, at this time what The Lone Star Plate needed was for me to flip the switch of my entrepreneurial mind. To find a way to stay relevant when it would have been all too easy to tell Patrick and Emmett: “guys, let’s just take a break for a while”. Instead, I looked at the few crumbs still available to us and made a new meal with what was there. And, guess what? Today we are further ahead because of the virus not in spite of it. That took an act of faith: in the product, in my team - hell, in the future - and that act is being repaid. In fact, it is paying dividends.