Deez Interviews: Meet the former Apple Genius who's identified the magic ingredient for great podcasts & video

Happy Friday Deezers! Today’s interview is with Mic’s Abu Zafar, whose career is already the exemplar model for what happens when you raise your hand & get all proactive (but also, having Apple-honed tech skillz don’t hurt either). Enjoy!

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The interviewee: Abu Zafar (follow him on Twitter @abu_zafar!)

The gig: podcast/video producer AND studio technician at Mic

The hustle: I was hired at Mic to manage the video equipment and studios, and train staff how to use that equipment. None of those responsibilities are particularly creative, and I was hungry for an outlet at work where I could flex my creative muscles.

That led to producing Mic’s daily news podcast. There was no formal podcast team at Mic, so I did everything for the show: scripting, hosting, recording, mixing, editing, and publishing.

Ever since podcasts were shut down at Mic, my creative outlet has been producing and editing videos. My two most recent videos were about Atlanta (the show) and the Oscars.

Tell us more about how you got into producing Mic’s daily podcast!

I didn’t start the show, but I took it over very early on. My manager at the time was tasked with recording a daily news update that would be distributed on Amazon Alexa and Google Home. I decided to turn that into a robust daily news podcast that would get our listeners caught up on the news every morning in 3-5 minutes.

We are both huge podcast geeks, and he was very supportive of the idea. He was producing Mic’s other podcast called The Payoff, so when I offered to take the daily show and give it the love and care it deserved, he was more than happy to pass off the responsibility.

I guess the upshot here is to find the thing your boss doesn’t have time to do, offer to do it, and then make it your own.

Before joining Mic, you were an Apple Genius! Can you talk a little bit about how that experience informs what you do now?

I took a detour from my passions for audio and video storytelling to fix people’s iPhones because of a bet. I fixed a friend’s Mac one time, and she jokingly told me to work for Apple. I bet her I wouldn’t even get a callback.

Well, I duped Apple into calling me back and paying me cold hard cash for almost two years. My experience there doesn’t really have much to with what I do now. A lot of basic skills do translate, however. Obsessive organization, attention to detail, and personability are all skills that Apple prioritizes in their Genius teams, and also happen to be skills many employers seek out.

Apple did end up changing my life. I hustled like crazy and used a promotion opportunity to move to New York City, which ultimately led me back to working in media.

Quick sidebar on that, since most of our audience are probably heavy Apple product users. What’s one thing you wish you could just tell ALL the Apple users in the world?

Backup your data. Technology breaks. There are endless cloud services out there. Get yourself to a place where you could completely erase your phone (or drop it onto the subway tracks, or spill your coffee on it, etc. etc. more tragic accidents) right now and get everything back just by logging into iCloud, Dropbox, or Google Drive.

Mic is one of many digital outlets betting heavily on online video; are there lessons that you think online video can learn from the podcasting world, and vice versa?

The recipe for building an audience has three ingredients: authenticity, time, and luck.

You can really only control one of those, and that’s not the most glamorous of pitches to a publisher thinking of investing in video. Platforms like Facebook tricked so many publishers into thinking video was some magic bullet that would lead to endless ad dollars. Gaming the algorithm for traffic doesn’t build a truly engaged and attentive audience that feels connected to your brand. Facebook’s recent algorithms changes prove they realized this.

Podcasts build that brand loyalty through genuine and authentic hosts that are enjoyable to listen to. These people are in your ears during your commutes or while you’re washing dishes. They become people in your life that you get to know in weird one-sided regularly-scheduled conversations.

As podcasts continue grow (slowly and steadily) it’s become clear from recent analytics data that the podcasting ecosystem has potential to become a very attractive space for advertisers. This didn’t happen overnight. Many of the shows gracing the top charts in Apple Podcasts have been around for over a decade, or have branched out from a show that’s been around for much longer.

This got long winded, but in summary: video and podcasts have the same DNA. As a publisher, you have to invest the time and effort to let both your content and audience grow, and the people creating the content have to be genuinely excited about it. It’s not cheap, it’s not easy, and it’s not glamorous. But it can pay off big.

Finally, your experience puts you eons ahead of most people in media when it comes to using tech. In your opinion, what tool should the typical media professional REALLY master?

There’s only one magical tech tool that I think everyone should be investing in. Luckily, all of your readers already are: the internet.

I’m constantly learning more about audio and video storytelling. I’m self-motivated and I’ve always found ways to learn and practice. Almost all of that learning and practice has taken place online. You can learn how to do literally anything from the internet. The internet is responsible, in equal parts, for the most productive and least productive parts of my life.

Ultimately, it comes down to knowing your field. Consume a shit ton of content. Learn from other people’s work and figure out what they’re doing right. And periodically remind yourself that no one has any clue what they’re doing, and people who claim they do are lying to themselves and to their mothers. Always stay hungry, never stop learning, and be your own worst critic.

And when you don’t feel like criticizing yourself, put your stuff online. The internet will be more than happy to smash your hopes and dreams. But it will also give you the tools to put it back together, ideally stronger than before.

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That’s it for this week! Have a great weekend. You’re all going straight home to write up a memo to yr boss about a project you want to take on, right? (whilst backing your life up to iCloud, yes?)

Like Deez Links? Forward to authenticity that sneaky elusive betch.