Today we’d like to introduce you to Abbey Graves.
Hi Abbey, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Starting a podcast as well as a podcast production business was not in my long-term plans, but I am so happy it is where I am today.
As far back as I remember the only job, I ever wanted was to be a radio DJ. I would spend hours on end listening to the radio and dreaming of what it would be like to be the voice coming through boombox speakers. When I graduated from high school, the “ten-year plan” was to be a DJ for 93x in Minneapolis.
Coming from the small town of Long Prairie, I thought that would just be the coolest thing I could ever do in this life. So right after high school, I went to college at Brown College in Mendota Heights and graduated 9 months later with an Associate of Applied Science in Radio Broadcasting, and a job at 93x. I was part of the promotions team, and DJing the overnight shift. I couldn’t be happier, I had somehow reached my 10-year plan right out of college.
As I soon found out, passions don’t pay the bills, and working part-time at my dream station wasn’t sustainable. I also realized that living in the cities wasn’t exactly my speed. I missed the small town community I grew up in, and when an opportunity for a full-time position at a radio station in St. Cloud appeared, I jumped at it.
I spent the next 7 years working for Townsquare Media in St. Cloud, MN as a DJ on Mix 94.9, 98.1 Minnesota’s New Country, and 96.7 The River. It was magical. I got to connect with the community, share stories, and live the dream I had had since I was a kid.
But the lesson I had learned years before came back. Passion doesn’t always pay, and a new opportunity arose at Stearns County. I took the job, knowing that radio would always be there, and it was time to try new things and challenge myself in a different sector. Little did I know that taking this county position would open the door to a new passion in life: podcasting.
I started my podcast right after leaving radio, The Small Town Tourist Podcast. The Small Town Tourist was a blog and Instagram I had started years prior, but I thought a podcast would be a great companion piece to go along with it and keep my “radio skills” sharp with this break I was taking from the industry. It is all about highlighting interesting things happening in small towns. Being from a small town myself I know that great things happen in them every day, but the people and communities never get the spotlight they deserve. I wanted to change that, and creating this podcast has been so rewarding for me and put me in contact with some truly amazing people.
About a month into running my podcast, my friend Liz had the idea for her podcast as well, so I began producing The Sunny Mary Meadow Podcast for her. That then blossomed into more with Liz now hosting three total podcasts that I produce for her.
Fast forward about five months, and I suddenly have two more people looking to start their journeys in the podcast world, and I start producing “The Heart of Rural America” podcast as well as “The Megan May Podcast”. A month later, I began working with retailer Baby’s on Broadway to create their podcast called “Rolling in the Deep.”
I went from a passion project to keep my skills up, to running a full-blown production business in less than a year, and it has lit a fire in me that I didn’t know could exist. Helping these people share their stories, build their audiences, and grow their speaking skills has been so rewarding. I never saw this coming, and I am so glad that it happened.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
The biggest challenge that I have faced along this path has been missing the world of radio. Podcasting has so many upsides to it, and I wouldn’t trade the platform for the world. But radio was my entire life for over a decade.
It was my main focus at all times, so to give that part of me up has been the hardest part of the journey. When I first quit it felt like someone had taken a vital organ out of my body and I now had to learn how to function without it. I have learned, and I found this new passion in life which has helped tremendously.
I miss the live aspect of a show, it is exhilarating, and it’s an element that doesn’t come with the podcast territory because everything can be edited to sound perfect. Which is great, but a live radio show is something that I miss. Plus the people that work in radio are like family, so not being with them every day has been a challenging transition, but we stay in touch as much as we can.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am the Abbey in “Abbey Graves Productions”. It is a team of one so I am running this ship all by myself and I am proud of how much I have been able to accomplish for my podcast clients in the past year.
I specialize in podcast production, everything from setting up recording gear to editing the audio and video and distributing it out to all the major streaming platforms.
I think what I am most proud of is the growth my clients have had. Not just with the numbers they are turning out for the podcasts themselves, but with the personal growth they have all had in such a short time. I have a client who was a nurse practitioner who now has three podcasts. She didn’t have a speaking or media background and now she has three weekly shows! I have a client who just started her boutique and was scared to death to even start a podcast but knew she wanted to do it.
She now has this confident sparkle in her eyes every time we record, and her voice has improved beyond measure. I have a client who is a professional speaker and is using this new podcast to expand her platform and reach people beyond the in-person events. Every one of my clients is growing and learning with every episode I couldn’t be more proud of them.
Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
The most important lesson I have learned has been that great new beginnings can come from a hard ending.
I didn’t want to leave the world of radio, like I mentioned it was my entire life. But if I hadn’t left, I would have never been able to start my podcast which would lead to so many other podcasts.
Maybe my clients would have found other ways to share their stories, but because I had my hard ending with radio, their stories are now being shared across the country and world, and I am so grateful for that. Great new beginnings come from hard endings.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://thesmalltowntourist.com/
- Instagram: @thesmalltowntourist
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100090155300776
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDnRVRAL4dVBtYisujLIJxQ
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@abbeyminke?lang=en
Image Credits
Raw Moments – Morgan Heuer
