Today we’d like to introduce you to Trevor J. Brown
Hi Trevor, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I grew up with a variety of interests…
I remember being a kid and my parents having a kitchen radio and it was always tuned to the oldies station. When I was young, I didn’t know the music was old, I just knew it was good. So I grew up listening to the best stuff… stuff like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Buddy Holly and The Everly Brothers. As I grew older, I found other genres and artists too and started rocking out to stuff like The Clash, Prince, Blink-182, Radiohead, Coldplay and Sufjan Stevens (just to name a few favs). I was in band and choir in middle and high school. I played in a crappy band. I was into journalists like Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings and Dan Rather. They struck me as men with high integrity, and they were on television every night so I thought of them to be trustworthy. I enjoyed watching good television shows like Seinfeld and The Wonder Years and good films like Schindler’s List and Jurassic Park. It still blows my mind that he, Steven Spielberg, worked on both of these films at the same time and they came out during the same year of 1993. I remember being in high school and listening to the old Loveline radio program with Adam Carolla and Dr. Drew. I wasn’t very good at sports, but enjoyed being around them, so naturally I enjoyed listening to good play-by-play announcers and eventually started doing that at my local high school on game nights. So in terms of how my company Inherent Dream started, this is it! All of my loves and all of my interests under one roof, and continuing to evolve on a daily basis. Inherent Dream is a world dedicated to artistic exploration, through the production of podcasts, music, art, photography, books, art and eventually major motion pictures. Some of our projects you will see very soon, others may not develop for years and years. But the concept of Inherent Dream is simple and as I like to tell people, you don’t need anyone’s permission to chase your dream, meaning if you want to write a book, write a book. If you want to make a record, make a record. If you want to start a podcast, start a podcast. Go all in, all the damn time!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It has absolutely not been a smooth road. But anything worth doing in life will have it’s challenges along the way. It took me a solid decade after college to even contemplate starting my own company, and many years after that to make it official. For many years, my company was just a side-hustle. I would work a normal 9-5 and then with whatever time was leftover with the day, that’s the time I had for my company. It takes time to try to figure it all out, in terms of projects, priorities and financing it all. It requires, for me, strong attention to detail and very strong, concise communication with my teams and advisors. And I think that is something that sets me apart is my communication and attention to detail. It’s aligning yourself with your values and remembering it is ok to say no sometimes. I knew very early on in the process of Inherent Dream no longer being a side-hustle that you had to be authentic. You can see fake people and fake initiatives all along the way, and those companies come and they go. But the people who are true to themselves, those are the people that have lasting impact on their communities. I am trying, with whatever I do, whether it’d be a podcast interview, a song, a photograph or whatever, I am trying to have a positive impact on the world. But you also have to remember along the way, not everyone will be a fan. In fact, some people that you think will be supportive may not be, and vice versa. If you are a fan of what we do, thank you for coming along for part of this journey. If you don’t much care for what we do, that’s ok too and we wish you well.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
One aspect of my company Inherent Dream is our podcast network. On The Inherent Dream Podcast Network we currently produce two podcasts, including a show called 763 The Local Morning Show. This show airs weekday mornings and features some news, weather, sports and community event information for central Minnesota. The other program is called The Trevor J. Brown Show and this show airs on Friday evenings and features longer-form interviews, discussions on music, film, current events and commentary on life. With this program, some form of it has been around since 2015. When I started Inherent Dream as a side-hustle in 2015, this podcast was originally called Another Round. I remember recording after work or doing a football picks segment with some work buddies in the parking lot at work during our lunch hour, and uploading the segment that evening and having 40-50 of our work friends tune in. Since then, and some work on technique and craft, the show evolved into The Trevor J. Brown Show. We still have football picks, fun and some great discussions. I take great pride in my interview technique on this program. The main thing that I feel sets me a part here is the art of listening and also the art of a good follow-up question. I have had the opportunity to talk with New York Times Bestselling Authors, Emmy Winners, Juno Award Nominees, other rock and roll musicians, mentors in business, fellow podcasters and so many more interesting people. And slowly and surely, that audience of 40-50 co-workers morphed into 150-200, then 500, then more and more. Now The Inherent Dream Podcast Network generates thousands of streams per month across a variety of platforms including Spotify, iHEART and our website inherentdream.com and we continue to grow and grow. It’s pretty wild to see where some of the streams come from. As friends have moved away, we’ve had streams in Chicago, D.C, L.A and even places like Israel.
In terms of interviews, you have to be genuinely interested. If you aren’t interested in the topic or person you are interviewing, it comes across that way and then it’s a big waste of your time (and the listener HAHA)
Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
Inherent Dream may be based in central Minnesota, but we are truly a global entity. And when I say that, I say that with all due respect to where we are from. We love Minnesota and are glad to be from here, but today technology knows no bounds. And what is cool about that is, for example, our podcast network is available everywhere in the world. That’s what makes podcasts cool is you don’t have to rely on a radio tower with a signal that will eventually fade. Back in the day with releasing an album of music, the artist or label rep had to go around town to town and radio station to radio station to drop off tapes and cd’s and try to get some exposure. Yes, you still need to promote yourself and your projects and that can be a challenge, but nowadays you do not need to be restricted to a tiny little town or area on a map. Anything is possible, anywhere in the world! This is something I truly like about our company, we are not restricted.
In terms of a dislike, with podcasts, there is a lot of noise… meaning, there is lots of competition everywhere. Everyone has an opinion and anyone can do a podcast. So how do you know which ones are good, which ones are decent and which ones are a waste of your time, in terms of content and production value? It’s tough to say. So with that said, find yourself and figure out what lane you want to go down. You can branch out but have something you are really good at. With podcasts, does that mean you do a really good interview or you talk about certain subjects? Ask yourself, whether doing podcasts or music or art or whatever, what sets you apart? How will you evolve? And then go for it!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.inherentdream.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/inherentdream
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trevor-j-brown-11b8bb1b2
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@inherentdream
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/show/2EVeiihuFxKbaF0Jgjmd6b?si=9e59d34e04e84a99
