Ad Infinitum S4E01 - Two Circles: Dallas Taylor on Podcasting, YouTube, and Creative Identity

How does an audiophile thrive in the era of YouTube? How can two circles solve everything? Find out in the first video podcast of Ad Infinitum, featuring the legendary sonic sage Dallas Taylor!

That’s right, the world’s only podcast solely dedicated to audio ads is back, now in video! Today, we present to you Ad Infinitum Season 4, Episode 1: “Two Circles: Dallas Taylor on Podcasting, YouTube, and Creative Identity.”

Host Stew Redwine (Executive Creative Director, Oxford Road) welcomes award-winning sonic guide Dallas Taylor (Host, Twenty Thousand Hertz, and Founder, Defacto Sound) to Headgum Studios for a creative masterclass about achieving great work time and time again.

Stew and Dallas talk: Why the Audience Comes Last, Two Circles, Going Off the Rails, and more. Let’s dig in…

“ I’ve always been a sound designer. I’ve been somebody who wanted to craft and create and celebrate sound, then I use the tools around me to tell everybody about how cool this is. I don’t really have any emotional or identity in the tools. That’s why I don’t say I’m a podcaster.” – Dallas Taylor (Host, Twenty Thousand Hertz, and Founder Defacto Sound)

“The Audience Comes Last” – This Rick Rubin quote brings clarity to all creative work, including for your brand. Take Dallas’s starting place for a project: who he is and what he cares about. If you want to make anything new, anything that will stand out (and marketers, yes, you do), you can’t start with what the audience is asking for. Instead, you need to start with your identity and passions. Then, when you’ve made something to the best of your abilities, see how the audience responds.

Two Circles – 7 months ago, two circles made Dallas believe he’d have to shut down his decade-old podcast. The first was a small circle containing audio-podcast listeners who could love the distinctly sonic Twenty Thousand Hertz. The second, a multi-billion-person circle of TikTok, IG, and YouTube audiences, reachable only via video. But after a chat with Stew and sage James Ingrassia, Dallas saw that he could have both. He drew two new circles: Mindset (how to get on board with the shift) and Workflow (how to do the work). The result? Distinct video stories about audio that complement the podcast, a growing fanbase, and using the available tools to celebrate audio. Again, start with what matters to you and track the audience response.

Go Off the Rails – How do you make great creative work? Build a trusted process… and be ready to abandon it when need be. At the mix stage of Pluribus, Dallas heard stories of Vince Gilligan asking for everyone’s opinions. He invited new elements that could challenge and disrupt what he believed. The lesson? Build a track, get derailed by the unexpected, then integrate the new pieces into your journey. (Kind of like how the best podcast ads come from ad libs, not copy points. #SaveTheLiveReads)

Want more insights on unlocking creativity again and again from two champions of audio creativity? Tune in to the full episode here: