Behind the Podcast with Mark Metze

What if you could transform your understanding of Agile by simply listening to real-life stories? Join me, Mark Metze, as I unravel the rich tapestry of The Agile Within podcast's journey, starting from its genesis and influence under the expert guidance of Greg Miller to my first solo venture with insightful coaching from Allison Pollard. This episode is a reflective narrative on the evolution of a podcast that thrives on community support and the sharing of genuine experiences. With a special spotlight on our most popular episode featuring Kat Buckwalter, I share how these stories not only capture the essence of Agile but also serve as a catalyst for continuous learning.

Beyond the technicalities, this episode is also a heartfelt exploration of my passion for connection and relationship-building within the Agile community. My journey as a solo host is driven by the joy of meeting new people and learning from their unique perspectives. I invite you to connect with me on LinkedIn, not as a mere networking task, but as a sincere interaction to enrich our collective Agile journeys. This is more than just a podcast episode—it's a call to build a vibrant, supportive community where we all grow together.

Connect with Mark on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/markmetze/

Get your FREE ticket to the Agile Online Summit:
https://agileonlinesummit.com/

Chapters

• 0:06 Agile Within Podcast Journey and Lessons
• 11:09 Building Agile Relationships and Support

Transcript

Mark: 0:06

Welcome to the Agile Within. I am your host, Mark Metze. My mission for this podcast is to provide Agile insights into human values and behaviors through genuine connections. My guests and I will share real-life stories from our Agile journeys, triumphs, blunders and everything in between, as well as the lessons that we have learned. So get pumped, get rocking. The Agile Within starts now. Before we get started, I want to share some exciting news with you. The Agile Online Summit is just around the corner. This year's summit, running from October 22nd through the 24th, features thought leaders like Juergen Apello, known for revolutionizing the approach to Agile frameworks. You can expect live sessions, including Juergen's session on solving wicked, complex problems in organizations. Get your free ticket and join the discussion at agileonlinesummitcom. And now on to the show. Hope everyone's having a fantastic day out there. This episode is going to be different from our regular format, where I'm joined by a guest and we have a conversation centered around a topic. Today, it's just me and I'm going to give you a look behind the podcast.

Mark: 1:34

I was inspired by the VH1 show Behind the Music that focused on a music artist or a group and looked at both the successes and the problems that they faced during their careers First up. I'd like to tell you how the Agile Within came to life, and I want to start out by sharing that. I simply would not have been able to pivot my career into an Agile leadership position without the continual support of the global agile community, and I generally mean that. I was welcomed by so many amazing people who have taught me invaluable lessons Without judgment. They listened to my flops and my failures and the fallout that resulted from those. So I felt compelled to give back to this incredible global community that had provided me with so much.

Mark: 2:28

So my first step I tried writing a blog, but I'll be honest with all of you it didn't feel authentic. It didn't feel like me, it was exhausting, it was draining and, honestly, I kind of sucked at it and I started thinking well, maybe writing isn't my thing, maybe I need to start something else to give back to the community. And I thought about a podcast. Starting a podcast just seemed like this huge, massive mountain that I was going to have to climb and I had all these questions what equipment do I even need to start a podcast? What software is the best to use? I've never edited audio before. How does hosting work and what does that cost? What kind of format should I use? So many questions that I had is where do I even start?

Mark: 3:22

So I decided to reach out to one of the people that I met in a virtual meetup during the pandemic, who had his own podcast, to get his take on what it was like to run a podcast and what was involved. His name was Greg Miller, and Greg agreed to meet with me and he answered many of my questions as best he could, and I remember him interrupting me and saying something along the lines of Listen, mark, my podcast has been on the shelf for a while and I'm looking for someone to partner with me in order to revive it. Would you be interested in coming along With this daunting task of starting a new podcast from the ground up, getting to partner with somebody? I thought this was the absolute right thing for me to do a great stepping stone, so I said yes. I didn't hesitate. This meant that the podcast was going to move from phase one, where Greg founded and ran the show himself, into phase two, where we would split some of the duties and co-host the show. Greg took me under his wing and he showed me the ropes about what was involved with podcasting, what was involved with finding guests, finding topics, with recording, with editing, with publishing, with marketing. There's a lot that's needed.

Mark: 4:45

Then, late in 2023, greg made the difficult decision to step away from the show for personal reasons, and that left two options Could retire the show or move into a new phase. As I was reflecting, I could have recaptured a fair amount of free time and opted to retire the show, but ultimately I chose to move into a new phase. Ultimately, I chose to move into a new phase and in January of 2024, I released the first episode as the sole owner of the show, and that episode featured a guest by the name of Allison Pollard, and that episode was titled People Tell Me I'm Doing Agile Wrong, am I? In this episode, allison talked about the three C's in coaching Are you being clear, are you connected and were you curious? To this day, I lean on these three C's when entering a coaching conversation to stay grounded.

Mark: 5:44

I'll share some more insights in just a minute, but I want to move to sharing some of my biggest achievements in this journey and the lessons I've learned. Well, lessons I've learned, that's a nice way of describing mistakes that I've made. My first observation is the Agile community absolutely rocks. So many wonderful people have been willing to be guests on the show and share with you, the listeners, and with me, and this podcast serves as a gateway a gateway to real-life stories from people on the front line. Not just theoretical arguments, but authentic stories of success, failure and growth.

Mark: 6:28

Second observation is the consistency that I've been able to maintain. So, looking at 2024 and talking through some metrics, this is the 34th episode that I've released so far. Since January 30th, I've consistently released a new episode every week, only missing one week during that time, and this wasn't always easy. It requires organization and planning ahead and, I'll be honest, there's weeks where I'm tempted to pause, but there is value in consistency. Talking more metrics, in the first seven days of each episode, the show's currently averaging 82 downloads and each episode is averaging 123 total downloads. This year, the most listened to episode was episode 67 with Kat Buckwalter, titled Are we Preparing Scrum Masters for Success. That show gained 205 downloads to date. I'll be honest, these are modest numbers. At best. I wish they were higher, but that's the data. I want to grow these numbers in hopes of multiplying the impact across our community, and I'll share later how you can help with that.

Mark: 7:40

My third observation I am committed to producing a high-quality show with content that makes a difference to our listeners. In order to stay true to this, I've had to turn some potential guests away. I have a pre-meeting with every guest where we create an outline together and we talk through the major points of the episode, and for talks that I feel like aren't going to resonate with the listeners, I really have to respectfully decline, and that's not easy to do, but I feel like it's the right thing to do so hopefully that gives you a little more appreciation for what goes into making the show. And now I also want to share a few of my key learnings that I've received from my guests. Learnings that I've received from my guests I think back to episode 60 with Jon Fazzaro.

Mark: 8:33

That episode was titled here's why Agile Isn't Working for you. In that episode, john shared a quote from Woody Zool it's in the doing of the work that we discover the work that we need to do, and John went on to eloquently share that. Some level of planning is required, but work naturally expands whenever you touch it. That's just how it is. What a great, succinct way to counteract that big, upfront planning that we all encounter from time to time. In episode 68, with Cherie Silas, cherie shared a time where she worked with a company that didn't believe that they needed scrum masters. So she decided to come in as a scrum master and show the value of working through difficult situations and having those tough conversations. She could have come in with an advising stance, but she chose to model the behavior that was missing, and the client was so convinced at the end that they built out an entire coaching practice across 12 enterprises. Cherie reinforced the idea of being the change that you want to see.

Mark: 9:40

Episode 83 was titled when Metrics Misfire, with Mark Paul Sabral. In that episode, one of Mark's teams noted that onboarding new teams was taking too long and the main culprit was a lack of documentation. They could have taken this info and had the attitude of we're lacking documentation. Great, we'll fix it, let's create more documentation. Problem solved Check the checkbox. So Mark was very smart. He began monitoring not just the creation of documentation but also its usage, and he used this to help the team decide if the documentation that was being created was actually being consumed. After all, spending time writing documents that no one reads is waste. The lesson I learned from Mark is when you think you have an answer to a problem. Maybe dig another level deeper. You might be surprised.

Mark: 10:42

So, as we wind this episode down, let's talk a little bit about support. How can you support the show? If you find the show or specific episodes helpful, please spread the word by sharing individually or more broadly on LinkedIn. Another way to provide support is to leave a review on your favorite podcast app. This helps others to discover the show.

Mark: 11:09

Now, how can I support you? Building a relationship isn't a chore for me. I genuinely enjoy meeting new people. That's a large part of why I do this show, and if you're up for a chat, look me up on LinkedIn. I'll put the link to my profile in the show notes and let's talk about what I can do to support you on your journey. Well, that's it, my first solo episode. What do you think? Send me a DM on LinkedIn and let me know if you found this valuable or if you didn't. I would love to hear your feedback and suggestions. All right, that's it for another episode. We'll see you next time. Everybody, thanks for joining us for another episode of the Agile. If you haven't already, please join our linkedin page to stay in touch. Just search for the agile within and please spread the word with your friends and colleagues. Until next time. This has been your host, mark metz.