Today I’m launching a new podcast with my friend Jason Snell called the Free Agents. As the show description explains:
David Sparks and Jason Snell spent their careers working for the establishment. Then one day, they’d had enough. Now they are independent workers, learning what it takes to succeed in the 21st century. They are… free agents.
This show is all about how to pull off being an independent worker in the modern world. Since going out on my own, I discovered I like it … a lot. It is simultaneously exhilarating and terrifying and I love every minute of it.
I enjoy being indie so much so that I spend a lot of time thinking about how to make this work over the long haul and continue supporting myself and my family as an independent worker.
One of my best friends on this journey has been Jason Snell. For years Jason and I would get together for meals while I was working in the law firm and Jason was the editor of Macworld magazine. We shared our experiences and eventually came around to the idea that maybe we’d be better off on our own. For a long time, we would prop each other up give each other a shove in the right direction and then get back to work. Eventually both Jason and I managed to successfully get launched as independent workers. So when the idea started percolating about making a podcast about being an independent worker, it seemed only natural that I would do it with Jason.
So today we launch the Free Agents podcast on the Relay Network. Free Agents is a podcast for people who work independently or are thinking about working independently. The show will be a mixture of topics and guest interviews dealing with the challenges and joys of working independently.
The first show, The Temptation of Yes, deals with the issue of scope. One of the challenges you’ll have working independently is deciding when to say “yes” and when to say “no”. It’s hard. Jason and I share our experiences and advice on how to limit scope while still keeping the lights on. We have a whole list of topics like this and this show will have a lot of useful content. We are also going to do occasional interviews seeking insight from people who have gone independent or are thinking about going independent.
Our goal is to keep the content shows to about 30 minutes and the interview shows to about 45 minutes and we’ll be releasing new episodes every two weeks. It’s been a long time since I launched a new podcast and I hope you’ll subscribe and enjoy the Free Agents.