Beyond the Threshold Ep.0: Basketball Dreams to Audio Success

Growing up in a sports-centric family and navigating the highs and lows of a basketball career, I share my story of how failing an audio production course and a bout of depression, help me discover my love for audio production and the pursuit of a career in the field.

After eventually working for companies like FRQNCY Media and Tenderfoot TV, I discuss my calling to host meaningful conversations with Black professionals in the audio industry, resulting in the creation of Beyond the Threshold.

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• Transcript

  [00:00:00] Sidney Evans: Tune in as we give flowers to black men and women making waves in the audio industry. I'm your host Sidney Evans, and this is Beyond the Threshold.

  [00:00:22] Welcome welcome ladies and gentlemen, as you just heard. Welcome to Beyond the Threshold. I'm your host, Sidney Evans, an award winning audio editor, mixer, and producer. And on this show, we interview black men and women working in the audio industry, highlighting the lessons and experiences it takes to achieve success in the field.

  [00:00:44] And Today, the person that we are going to highlight is myself. I'm going to share a little bit about my background and how I got to this point of starting hopefully this, uh, amazing podcast. I've been through a lot of ups and downs, so definitely want to share that with you all, and, uh, I'm not going to delay the process any further.

  [00:01:07] We're going to jump right into it. So about me, I come from. A sports background. That's, that's the foundation of who I am. Come from a sports family, played baseball and basketball growing up throughout my childhood. Eventually started focusing more on basketball because of a major growth spurt. And that led me to the athletic background, uh, gave me the opportunity to go to college.

  [00:01:33] And in college, when I was in junior college, I, my coach, who was also a teacher at the school, taught a communications course that I kind of took a liking to. So that was when I made the decision in my mind that, you know what, I'm going to go to a four year that has. a communications program. I didn't know necessarily what it was going to be at the time, but that was that decision I made.

  [00:01:58] And, and that led me to go to Fayetteville state to continue my basketball career. And they had a really strong communications program there. So that was the basis of my decision. It's actually kind of ironic because I failed auto production when I took it in college. And yet here I am working in the field.

  [00:02:17] It was just something that I didn't take a liking to at the time. And since I was already an athlete, I actually wanted to do sports broadcasting. So I did a couple of internships and got a little bit of experience there, but I didn't take it seriously enough to actually just jump right into it after I graduated.

  [00:02:35] So I graduated from college and I kind of went through that process of trying to figure out what I was going to do. Like once my basketball career was over and haven't always identified with that. It really took me into a depression. Then the only way I was able to dig myself out was by getting in the gym, working out.

  [00:02:59] Um, I had kind of let myself go a little bit because I didn't have the discipline that was built into being on a sports team in college. So I got back in the gym, started listening to a lot of music to fuel my workouts and. And one day while I was in the gym, the light bulb kind of clicked for me. And I was like, man, this music is, is really moving me and it's impactful and it's really helping me get out of this place in my life.

  [00:03:25] So I kind of went down the rabbit hole of like, what goes into making music? Like, what's the process of, you know, becoming an artist. Oh, the artist also has a producer. What do the producers do? And I got introduced to. The whole beat making process and all that stuff. And it kind of just consumed me during that time of my life.

  [00:03:47] So I devoted a lot of spare time into just learning the foundation of audio, learned the foundation of making beats and producing music. And unfortunately the music itself. Did not turn out well, I sucked at it to be honest, but I took a lot out of that experience. And that was around the time that I got introduced to podcasts.

  [00:04:11] The buzz was starting to become greater in regards to it. And I actually had a friend who was still a close friend that he was a professional speaker and he started his own podcast. And I started listening to it and. I realized that the content was great, but the quality of the audio was not good at all.

  [00:04:32] So I realized that may be a niche that I could get into. So I started joining a lot of groups and communities around doing editing for podcast. And I realized then that, okay, this is something that I want to pursue. This is becoming a huge thing. And there's a market out there for people who offer that as a service.

  [00:04:50] So that's what I started doing. I started doing free work for people that I got from joining these communities. By that time I was living in Atlanta, working at DHL. Previously, I was just kind of doing jobs in hospitality, but during that time, um, at DHL, I started listening to the podcast engineering show.

  [00:05:09] I just started. Consuming a lot of content because I was on the road driving. So it afforded me the opportunity. And I remember the first paid gig that I got was for 30. It was for this, uh, company that just outsourced podcast editing for a host of clients. And the first. And the first show that I was put on was a show by a black therapist and I started communicating with her as far as, you know, getting the files and stuff.

  [00:05:40] And she reached out to me and she was like, you know what? I just want to, you know, Cut out the middleman and I just want to cut out the middleman and work with you solely So this is was like my first high playing client at the time It was like 400, but that was the most I ever made So I would literally take my laptop with me when I did my route at DHL I would complete my route as quickly as possible And once I finished it, I would ride the clock, go to a Starbucks edit while still in my uniform with the big DHL truck sitting in the parking lot.

  [00:06:15] I would edit the episodes and then go back to the station and finish my day and go home. So I think that was when I realized that I was extremely dedicated to making a name for myself in this industry, because. I really went above and beyond to practice my craft and to make sure I was getting things done.

  [00:06:35] So that was like the foundation of, of me getting into the podcast industry as far as editing and things of that nature. And then, um, I moved back to North Carolina and this is shortly before COVID. So, um, I was just, you know, get clients here and there. I did a couple of audio books, edited those, but that was, it wasn't a whole, whole lot of work that I got after that.

  [00:06:58] But that was when I really took a leap from like being kind of good to what I was doing, which I thought was really good at the time, but there's a learning curve to where you're introduced to the thing. You go through the, the hard part of not knowing anything to being competent in but then you go to the next level and you realize, Oh, okay.

  [00:07:20] The level that I was previously at wasn't as good as I thought it was, but this is the love that I need to get to, to get to the next level. So that was a crucial period for me. Then COVID hit and things dried up and, you know, we all went through that, that fuzzy phase of life. And then coming out of COVID was when I first got my real opportunity to work for high budgeted, high quality production.

  [00:07:48] Storytelling. That's when I first started working for a frequency media as a contractor and an audio editor there. We worked on some amazing stuff. We got some awards from some of the pockets we worked on. Some of the people, some of the people that were on these productions and the host and the guest.

  [00:08:07] And I was like, man, like, I feel like I'm in the big leagues now, as far as access to certain people. I just felt like I really made that jump in my career. And it was a great opportunity. Unfortunately, it wasn't a full time job. It was still a contract. So I would like just hustle, do DoorDash, do Instacart, and then, you know, When the work presented itself, I would do the work to the best of my abilities.

  [00:08:34] Looking back on it, it was a, it was a great time. I really enjoyed that experience and it really opened my eyes to the possibilities, uh, that my career could go. And then the next opportunity I got was to speak at Black Pie Fest in Atlanta, which was my first speaking gig. Um, I was asked to lead an audio engineering seminar, which.

  [00:08:56] Scared the hell out of me, but it was what I needed at the time to step outside of the comfort zone of just being behind the scenes and to really speak on my experience and my knowledge. So I went there and made some amazing connections. And one of those connections posted on Instagram, a story about opportunity as an associate producer.

  [00:09:18] So I looked into it and found out that it was for a company called Tenderfoot TV who produced true crime podcast and. At the time I was looking for a full-time role with benefits, and I kind of wanted to work on edgier content. That seemed like that was just meant for me at that specific time. So I applied and one day they hit me up and you know, I found out I got the interview and did a couple of rounds of interviews, met the team, and then ended up get, and then ended up getting that job.

  [00:09:51] Like I said, we worked on some really edgy. Yet sometimes morbid stuff and it gave me, it gave me a chance to do things outside of editing as well to actually produce and do research and help carve out the stories as opposed to just, you know, being the last step in the process as an editor or doing post production.

  [00:10:12] So, okay, I just don't want to be an editor like I want to help produce. I want to be involved in the whole process and. At the beginning of this year, I unfortunately got laid off from that job and for a month or two, I was kind of like in flux about like what I wanted to do next. And, you know, was I still being fulfilled in this industry?

  [00:10:36] And was I optimistic about the state of the industry? We all know how things are now, man. It's people are trying to do more with less and a lot of roles have been eliminated and a lot of people have lost jobs and. I feel like they were kind of in the same boat that I was, but I kind of skipped this earlier in the story, but the seed to start this podcast had been planted way back when I was in Atlanta and working for DHL and that client that I mentioned, that first client I had who left the company to work with me specifically, her reason for wanting to work with me specifically was because I was black too.

  [00:11:13] And then I just thought about, okay, well, I haven't really came across a lot of people. Who are black who are actually doing like the editing in the production part of the podcast They were more so in front of the camera the talent But they weren't behind the scenes and I was like man, it would be a great idea one day to I thought it would be nice to have a platform where whether it was just audio specifically, or if it was just media in general where our black hosts can interview black guests and they can share, you know, their experience and the lessons and the journey that they took to try to achieve success in their field.

  [00:11:47] So that was the genesis of the idea for beyond the threshold. And here we are. Yeah, that's pretty much the story and the process of how I got to creating the podcast and making a name for myself in the industry. I have a big vision for the podcast, highlighting people in audio in a variety of fields, not just podcasting, voiceover artists, people in radio, people who do video games, audio for video games, whether you work in film, TV, there is a A whole list of roles within the industry.

  [00:12:23] I want to highlight and. I really want to learn more about like, this is not about just me, you know, being the host and thinking that, you know, I have all the answers to everything. No, I come from a specific niche within audio and I know a little bit about that, but for even the people that I have on, I want to learn from them and for the people outside of podcasting, I want to continue to learn about what they do and the process for them becoming successes in their field as well.

  [00:12:51] So. The official trailer for Beyond the Threshold will be dropping soon. So I appreciate you all for listening and, and I can't wait to bring you this first season.

  [00:13:05] Thank you for joining us on today's episode. Please don't forget to subscribe to the show and leave us a review. If you'd like to work with me or connect, please go to soundbysid. com and schedule a call. There you can also check out the full list of productions I've worked on. If you'd like to connect on social media, my handle is soundbysaid.

  [00:13:27] com on Twitter and Instagram, and I'm Sidney Evans on LinkedIn. Don't forget to follow Beyond the Threshold on Instagram as well. I'll catch you on the next episode.