S3 E46 Join The Fun! It's the Comfort-600!

SPEAKER_01 0:11

Hello, Podcast Land! Welcome to the Comforting Voice Podcast. I'm your host Shastere, and it's just you and me in the studio tonight. I didn't want any other distractions going on, and while I love having my birds down here and you know hanging out with their little crazy antics and everything, I wanted the entire focus to be on you. Tonight's a very special episode, very special presentation. As you know, I am very fond of celebrating you, the listener base. And we hit a couple new milestones that we're gonna be just cheering ourselves on about and yeah, doing the thing. So it's gonna be a little bit different tonight. We're gonna skip over the tea tag and fortune cookie slip. We're probably really not gonna touch on your sleep prep very much, and we're gonna jump right into all of the fun and all of the commotion, and tonight is the Join the Fun Comfort 600. So let's just do a drive-by on your sleep prep. You guys are absolute pros by this time, but for all the newcomers out there, generally we get comfortable, we make sure everything we need is at our fingertips so we don't have to fidget with stuff later. You know, have your glass of water, your hot cup of tea, your beverage of choice, get your pillow scrunched up into the perfect shape, and when you're ready, really engage in a productive stretch all the way through your arms, legs, hands, feet, fingers, and toes. Give your fingers and toes a good wiggle, release that stretch, and go into a productive deep breath of air. Inhale to about the count of four, hold it to about the count of three, take another quick inhale to top it off, hold it to about the count of two, and then slowly exhale to about the count of six or eight, and those two actions, the stretch and the deep breath of air, really set you up for relaxation, shrugging off stress of the day, all kinds of good stuff. So do that. Okay. Since Lawn has been my collab partner in crime this whole time, and he is so amazing at sending through these clips, and he just loves connecting with you guys. So we're gonna start off with Got a Minute, and then after you've had your time with Lawn, we're gonna go straight into us hanging out, and we're gonna learn all about you guys, and we're gonna have some fun. So without further ado, here's Lawn.

SPEAKER_00 2:56

Hey, it's Lawn. Got a Minute or five? We are celebrating the world-changing event of the Comforting Voice Podcast, reaching 600 cities. Some other, well, not quite as amazing statistics about the number 600. Asteroids. Musta is an asteroid. It is number 600. It was discovered by J. H. Metcalf from Taunton Observatory in 1906. The Ambir Legacy 600 is a business jet in the large family of commercial jet aircraft. The total area of Cherbro Island in the Sierra Leone is 600 kilometers. The total area of water in Syria, 600 square miles. Other 600s in history, there is a 600-mile direct distance between Amristar, India and Bhopal, India. There's also 600 miles between Anyang and Nanchung, China. 600 miles between Anyang, China and Nimgo, China. Cities in the U.S. that are roughly 600 miles apart. Chicago to Atlanta, straight line distance, 600 miles. New York to Raleigh, North Carolina, approximately 600 miles by straight line distance. From Los Angeles to Denver, it is roughly 600 miles. And Dallas, Texas, to St. Louis, Missouri. Yep, about 600 miles. Other 600s, Pokemon Klyang is a Pokemon number 600 of the National Pokedex. History and politics, the IO ISO country codes for Paraguay is 600. United Nations Security Council Resolution No. 600 was adopted in 1987. The Via Baltica was a peaceful political demonstration that took place in August of 1989 when approximately two million people came together to form a 600-kilometer-long human chain through the Baltic countries, demonstrating their unity in their efforts for freedom. 600 is the advertised number of miles that NASCAR runs in the Coca-Cola 600, the longest race on any of the NASCAR circuits. The SEET 600. That's a city car made in Spain by CET beginning in May of 1957 under the license of Fiat. It started to I should say it helped to start the Spanish economic boom of 1959-73 that came at the end of the slow recovery from the Spanish Civil War. Mercedes S-600 Pullman Guard. That is the safest limousine in the world. The Tatra 600, a rear-engined large family car produced between 1948 and 52 by the Czech manufacturer Tatra. And in science, the melting point of aluminum bronze begins at 600 degrees. And the most incredible 600, the Paramount Number 600, the 600 above all other mere 600s, the Comforting Voice Podcast is in the ears and hearts of the planet's finest people in 600 cities. Together, we thrive.

SPEAKER_01 6:55

Thanks, Lawn, and as always, thank you for being part of this podcast. Your presence here is so appreciated, and I always have so much fun with you as a collab partner. So thank you very much for joining the fun all the way down there in the desert regions where you reside. And um, as for the rest of you, every Tuesday we have a segment we call Join the Fun. This whole episode is one giant join the fun segment. So we're gonna salute you guys who have been joining the fun, and we're gonna put the challenge out there for you, the Join the Fun Challenge. All you gotta do is tell people about it. For those of you that listen through Apple Podcasts or on Spotify, and maybe even some other podcast apps that I'm not aware of, if you've got the ability to leave us a thumbs up or a heart reaction, a like reaction, and then if you're able even to leave a comment, please do so. What that does is it signals the algorithms that people enjoy the show. We get shown to more people that are surfing their apps. Doesn't cost you a dime, and you wouldn't believe how much it does to promote the show with just a few flicks of your thumb, literally. So join the fun challenge, leave us a like, leave us a comment, and last tell people about it. If you're in any social groups or you have friends that are looking for something new to listen to, just give us a mention. And the link to the website, our headquarters, is comfortingvoice.com. Very easy to remember. We've also got a Facebook page you can follow, and every episode that drops, I make a post on that Facebook group. I'm not very active on YouTube, to be honest with you. I'm really focused on providing a really good show here in the podcast community, and you know, providing links in an easy way. Most people are on Facebook or you're on a podcast app, that's why you're here. So there you go. Easy ways to share that, easy ways to give a mention. That's your Tuesday night challenge. And now on with the Comfort 600 celebration of you guys. Let's start out by seeing what you guys have been up to. Oh my gosh. I'm on the podcast host site right now, looking at the stats of the podcast. We've been steadily gaining momentum, and I really don't advertise this at all, other than the two posts every week on the Facebook group and on my personal Facebook page. I also have some business cards I've made up that I throw into my Etsy orders. I've got a few of my Etsy customers that listen in, and I think that is super cool. So most of you have found this podcast because you were looking for it, I'm assuming. You stumbled across it in some way, and you've just kind of stuck around. It's so much fun to see. So one of our major, major milestones we just crossed over, was the amount of downloads. And for as tiny as we started out, and as unique as we are, we've had over 3,500 downloads. Those are all organic. Congratulations, everyone. That's a lot of listen time. And it may not seem like much. I know there's some powerhouse podcasts out there, but they're also investing in a lot of advertising campaigns and putting a lot of money into that. So I'm pretty proud of our little community we've been building. Now, how are you guys finding us? This is fun. Let's take a look at your favorite podcast apps. Most of you are listening on Apple Podcasts. Apple Podcasts allows you to do that like and leave a comment. I encourage you to do so. It helps the algorithms show us to more people. Same with Spotify, and that is our second most popular app that you guys are using out there. And on Spotify, you can actually leave a like and a comment on each episode. A lot of you are joining the fun just on simple web browsers. That means that you're going to the headquarters, comfortingvoice.com, or you're looking it up online and finding us through links maybe on the Facebook page, whatever. We've got people listening on Castbox, iHeartRadio, Deezer, Amazon Echo, Overcast, Buzz Sprout Embedded Players. Uh there's some of you listening in on Audible, Player FM, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, Podamo, Roku, Antena Pod, Podcast Guru, Listen Notes, Podbean, Podcast Addict, Good Pods, Google Podcasts, and Sonos. Now what's interesting about Google Podcasts is they haven't existed in two years, so I don't even know how that's possible. But it came up in our stats. There's one one person that listened that way somehow, which is just fascinating. Now, as far as the episode downloads go and your favorite all-time episodes, I have that on comfortingvoice.com. If you go to the episodes link at the top of the page, there's an option for fan favorites. Check that out. That's where all of our top ten favorite episodes are linked. So there you go, right there. I'm gonna let you go chase that on your own. That's a fun little podcast scavenger hunt, just for you. But I will say right here that my personal top three episodes are season three, episode thirty-eight, Humpty Dumpty, an analysis, season three, episode twenty, a frog, an ocean, and your well-being. That's a really good episode. Lon and I had a lot of fun putting that one together. And then of course, most of you know, Beyond the Shadow of a Doubt, my all-time favorite, which is also in the top ten, is season one, episode thirty, a catfish to remember. Oh my gosh, those three episodes, those are good listening right there. Go check those out. Okay, what else do we got for you tonight here? I've got a little bit of podcast trivia for you. The word podcast didn't actually exist before 2004. It combines iPod and broadcast for podcast. And pod also stands for personal on demand. There's more than five million podcasts created worldwide at this point, but only a tiny fraction continue releasing episodes consistently. Most podcasts never get past their first 10 episodes. So anything that you go out there and search, if there's anything over 50 episodes, that's worth checking out. When I search podcasts, I look for shows that are approaching 100 or have already published over 100 episodes because I feel like they're going to stick around. Many listeners feel that podcasts are more personal than television because you're hearing one voice speaking directly to you instead of performing for a crowd. And research has found that people often develop a genuine sense of familiarity with podcast hosts even though they've never met. It's called parasocial relationships, and in positive settings, it can help people feel more connected and less alone. And that's exactly why Lon and I are here. We want you to feel like there's a real person out there somewhere that cares about how you feel. And this is a tough world right now, and all we want to do is make you feel like you matter because you do, and that's why we're celebrating you tonight. So with that said, let's move right along into the quiet magic of organic podcast growth. Every listener who finds a podcast naturally becomes part of its story. Podcasts grow mostly by word of mouth. Somebody who recommends an episode to a friend, that person can end up recommending it to someone else, and it goes on. That's why we have the join the fun challenge. And unlike viral videos that can disappear in a week, podcasts grow slowly and steadily over months and years, and that's how a really good listener base develops, and that's how we build our little tiny, comforting voice community. We all hang out here because we're all finding each other. A single person listening every Tuesday for a year is going to spend more than 20 hours with their favorite podcast on the average. And that doesn't just apply to Tuesdays because out of all the podcasts out there they may release on a different day of the week, but you get the gist of it. One recommendation from somebody who genuinely enjoys a show is still one of the most powerful ways for a podcast to grow. We are in a very unique way of entertainment, communication sharing, and just time spent together. And honestly, advertising is hit or miss as it is. Some people find the show from means like that and they listen for five minutes and just decide it's not for them. And that's okay. Not every podcast is a match for every listener. But if you think about it, word of mouth is the best way for organic growth. So again, the join the fun challenge. Go tell someone about it. Now, since I like to focus on a good night's sleep, let's talk about how amazing sleep is. Your brain doesn't actually turn off when you sleep, it's busy organizing memories and clearing away waste products from the day. During deep sleep, your body releases growth hormone, helping repair muscles, bones, and other tissues. Even if you don't remember dreaming, you almost certainly had dreams several times during the night. Scientists believe that sleep helps strengthen emotional resilience, making tomorrow's challenges feel more manageable. Quiet, familiar voices can help some people relax because the brain recognizes predictable sounds as less demanding than sudden unexpected concepts or noises. So that's another reinforcement as to why we're here. I myself have found that just falling asleep to a natural speaking voice is best for my sleep patterns. It feels safe to me, and I'm not really crazy about meditation podcasts because they talk in a real dreamy, unnatural manner. So that's why we we developed the comforting voice is a natural speaking voice to help you feel safe and give your mind a place to relax without worry. Now let's talk about the Friday night bedtime stories. Here's some bedtime story trivia. For thousands of years, stories were shared aloud long before they were ever written down. Bedtime stories exist in cultures all over the world, even when the stories themselves are completely different. Many classic fairy tales were originally written for adults long before being adapted for children. Reading or listening to stories before bed gives your imagination something gentle to focus on instead of the day's worries. A comforting story gives the brain permission to wander about without having to solve problems. And all of those are reasons that I do the bedtime stories on Fridays, and I specifically choose children-oriented stories because it's really good for us, even as grown-ups, to have that very light-hearted, easy, dreamy, and totally disconnected from reality material. It takes us back to an easier time, it removes stress out of paying attention, and it really helps you disconnect and fall asleep. It's amazing. Now, another reason why we're here. Taking a break from the noise. The average person is exposed to far more news and information in a single day than previous generations experienced in weeks. Researchers have found that taking intentional breaks from negative news can improve your mood and reduce feelings of stress for many people. Even 10 to 15 minutes can help lower mental overload. Choosing something peaceful is not avoiding reality. It's giving your mind a chance to recover so you can face reality tomorrow. Rest is not laziness. It's self-care and maintenance. And again, all of those are reasons that I researched before I started this podcast. I just want to give people a safe space to catch their breath before they have to jump back into the chaos again. And we all have to. So more celebration of you. Six hundred cities around the globe for a tiny little podcast I do myself. That is so flattering. I love this. I love hanging out with each and every one of you every week, and so does Lawn. So let's take a look at six hundred cities and think about this for a moment. Six hundred different places around the world. Six hundred views of sunsets every day. Six hundred different weather patterns and weather reports. And right now we're six hundred cities of people getting ready for tomorrow. That's amazing. And the really cool version of this is that while I'm recording this, that's another starting point. Because eventually that six hundred is gonna be a very tiny number in the grand scheme of how many people there will be. And this episode might be being listened to and we might be hanging out together over the course of time. You might be listening into this three years from now, but we're still hanging out together. Isn't that cool? I'm glad you're here. Okay, here's some weird and wonderful facts about the number six hundred to add to Lon's number six hundred trivia. It means that it's easily divisible by the sum of its digits. Six plus zero plus zero equals six. There are six hundred seconds in ten minutes, and that's about how long it takes most of us to begin settling into a relaxed bedtime routine. Ten minutes. Six hundred seconds. Six hundred written in Roman numerals is DC. Six hundred is twenty-four times twenty-five, which makes it a surprisingly friendly number in mathematics because it has many factors. Six hundred is the smallest number divisible by every whole number from one through six, meaning it's evenly divisible by the number one, two, three, four, five, and six. Light travels at about one hundred eighty-six thousand miles every second. So in six hundred seconds or ten minutes, light travels nearly one hundred twelve million miles, far enough to go from the Earth to the Sun. In the year six hundred, so if we're gonna go back in time, books were still copied entirely by hand. Every page required the patience and skill of a human scribe. And now all I have to do is a few keystrokes on a computer, and I can do all the research I need, I can capture all the information I need. In just a few minutes, I can compile all of the trivia and facts that I needed for this particular episode in seconds. And we never had that luxury all through time until actually very recent history, if you think about it. We have not even had the printing press for 600 years. The printing press was actually invented 586 years ago, so we're just shy of s of even printed word being 600 years old, and that's really amazing. So we've had some really fun trivia for the number 600 here tonight. That's all about you. You guys have made this episode totally possible, totally inspired. We love hanging out with each and every one of you, and the fascinating thing about 600 cities around the world, that doesn't mean there's 600 listeners. We've got some of those cities that have multiple listeners in each city. So I don't actually know how many of you there are. There's a lot of you. And here again, we just adore each and every one of you. Thank you so much for hanging out with us every week. We enjoy it so much. So whether you're listening from a tiny town, a busy city, a quiet farm, somewhere in the desert, or a foreign land where we can't even imagine what your house or your landscape looks like. Thanks for joining the fun. Thanks for making this little community the special little safe space that it is. Thanks for giving us incentive to come back twice a week and hang out with you. To me, this is 600 places where people decided they could use a little peace, a little kindness, a familiar voice before drifting off to sleep, a place to shrug off the busy chaos of the day for just a few minutes. And if you think about it, people in 600 different locations around the world, all hanging out together just to have a safe place to take a deep breath, stretch, doze off, listen to a story, listen to some trivia, or just have somebody tell you you matter. That's a pretty magical place to create. I am really proud of this little podcast. So here again, the Join the Fun Challenge. Tell people, hit that like button, leave us a comment, check out the website, and keep coming back. This is a pretty unique little podcast and a fun little safe space to be. And now we're just about ready to enter our fourth season. Can you believe that? That's so amazing! So thanks for joining the fun. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your week. I'll see you here on Friday, and don't forget we're gonna be starting a brand new bedtime story book, and you'll find out what that is on Friday when I announce it, and we dive right in. So until then, sleep tight, good night, and bye bye.