IAM2683 – Radio Personality and Mental Health Champion Supports Mental Health Causes

Special Throwback Episode with John Mielke

0 14 minutes read

A 30+ year veteran of radio and creator of Canada's #1 website for radio jobs and industry news (MilkmanUnLimited.com) now running a successful on-line station (BlastTheRadio.com) as well as creating and producing podcasts for a variety of clients, including Jesse & Jenna (as heard on CEO Podcast).

Mielke is also a champion for mental health having been diagnosed with clinical depression and anxiety in 2012. A survivor of one suicide attempt and a very close second call, he raises money for various mental health causes and does speaking engagements on the subject as well.

CEO Hack: (1) Talking to great leaders (2) Simon Sinek- Start With Why
CEO Nugget: Be a better listener
CEO Defined: Being a leader, making sacrifices for yourself and assuming risks

Previous Episode: https://iamceo.co/iam408-radio-personality-and-mental-health-champion-supports-mental-health-causes/

Website: https://www.blasttheradio.com/

Facebook.com/MMURadio
Facebook.com/BlastTheRadio

Check out one of our favorite CEO Hack’s Audible. Get your free audiobook and check out more of our favorite CEO Hacks HERE.

Transcription:

John Mielke 00:00:

Talking to great leaders. I want that little nugget of information. Anybody that I can get access to who I know is successful. I mean, we all know the names in whatever industry we're in. We know who the big movers and shakers are. And to find that person and just get that one little nugget of information.

Gresham Harkless 00:49:

Hello, hello, hello, this is Gresh from the I Am CEO Podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have John Melke of Blast the Radio and Milkman Unlimited dot com. John, it's awesome to have you on the show.

John Mielke 01:00:

It's great to be here.

Gresham Harkless 01:01:

No problem. Super excited to have you on and what I wanted to do is just read a little bit more about John so you can hear about all the awesome things that he's doing. And he's a 30 plus year old veteran of radio and creator of Canada's number one website for radio, jobs and industry news, which is milkmanunlimited.com he's now running a successful online station, Blast the Radio.com as well as creating and producing podcasts for a variety of clients including Jesse and Janice. As you heard on the IM CEO podcast, he also has a new project called Podcastle. CA Melky has been a champion for mental health, having been diagnosed with clinical depression and anxiety in 2012. A survivor of one suicide stamp in a very close second call, he raises money for various mental health causes and does speaking engagements on the subject as well. Currently he has a book about his triumph over mental health challenges and that is being written as we speak. John, are you ready to speak to the I Am CEO community?

John Mielke 01:57:

Oh man, I don't know if I can live up to all the hype, but yeah, let's do it.

Gresham Harkless 02:00:

You're crushing the hype. So I wanted to kick everything off and hear a little bit more about what I call your CEO story and what led you get started with your business.

John Mielke 02:07:

Sure. You know, I was a guy who just wanted to be in radio. That was it. There was never any intention for me to be a business owner and lo and behold, I kind of fell into it backwards. I was very lucky. In 1996 to have said to a fellow broadcaster of mine that anything I would ever need to do in radio I'd be able to handle on a typewriter. And he was mortified by that. Long story short, he literally kidnapped me, took me to his house where all old computers had gone to die on a shelf somewhere, and he hooked me up with my first computer, which got me onto the web. And in 1996, the Internet was still fairly new, so I was looking for anything I could find about radio broadcasting, whether it was show prep ideas, comedy bits, and I just wasn't having any luck. I could find some stuff for American radio, for radio in the uk, but Canada, by virtue of us being a much smaller country population wise, there just wasn't anything there. So anytime I could find something to do with Canadian radio, I'd create a bookmark and then, hey, I want to be able to access this in the studio, because now there's computers in the studio. So we started creating a list of links and it just sort of snowballed into a business that I, that you mentioned, milkman unlimited.com. i called it Unlimited because whenever I would see a business with, you know, such and such limited, I'd laugh. I'd say, well, why would you limit yourself?

Gresham Harkless 03:36:

There you go.

John Mielke 03:37:

So that's why. The Milkman Unlimited. But yeah, it's, it has become, and I've been very lucky to have it since 96, but it's the go to website in Canada for radio job postings and industry news.

Gresham Harkless 03:49:

Nice. Well, I definitely appreciate that, you know. Yeah, exactly. Why would you call it a limited liability company when you can call it an unlimited liability company? So I appreciate that and there's no.

John Mielke 03:58:

Reason it's a sole proprietorship now. And if I ever do, you know, make it a limited partnership, it'll be Milkman Unlimited Limited.

Gresham Harkless 04:06:

There you go.

John Mielke 04:07:

So that, that possibility still exists.

Gresham Harkless 04:09:

There you go. No, I, I like that and I definitely appreciate that. And so I know you touched on a little bit. You have a, definitely a couple of couple projects that you're working on. You told us about Milkman Unlimited. Can you tell us a little bit more about Blast the Radio? And then also of course, my favorite play on words podcastle. That's the end.

John Mielke 04:26:

Yeah. Okay, we'll, we'll tackle all those for you. So Milkman Unlimited was sort of a side project while I was still on the air in my hometown. I've been very lucky. I had a 23 year broadcast career here and when the station I was at Flip Formats about six Years ago. God, yeah, it is. It's going to be six years this November. It was really all I had. My wife had actually lost her job nine days earlier. She had been with, with Sears in Canada and Sears Canada of course is no more. So it was kind of a double whammy. We went from, you know, a three income household to one. Like I said. Fortunately that was there. But by virtue of that I was able to, you know, connect with a good number of broadcast veterans who were able to sort of guide me very quickly to the idea of still doing my show, but from my voiceover studio that I had built. So within five weeks I had actually launched it originally launched as spankuradio.com giving conventional radio a sound beating. Ha ha ha. Because whenever listeners would call my show and make a request, I'd say spank you. And they'd say, no, spank you. And it was kind of just this little playful thing. But I didn't like the optics of it because on one hand here I am running a business asking radio, you know, to support me and put job postings on and then I'm going to start this radio station that's basically, literally a backhanded, you know, to hell with you.

Gresham Harkless 05:54:

Yeah.

John Mielke 05:55:

And I woke up 2 o' clock in the morning and I looked at my wife and I said, I can't, I can't call it that. She said, why? I said, I just, I can't. And it's halfway down the stairs and I remembered a sign my parents got me, just a cardboard sign that I hung on my bedroom door when I was a teenager after I had bought, you know, every kid has to have a stereo that's too big for their room. Yes, I bought that in high school and they put a sign up my door that said warning, blasting area. It looks like a little road sign. So the idea of blasting the radio just sort of popped into my head and the domain ended up being available. So yeah, within five weeks of having lost my on air job, I, you know, we had the Christmas break in there and by January 5th I was still doing my show, but online. And initially I thought, yeah, this would be a fun place to hang out until, you know, somebody comes knocking. I fell in love with the freedom of it. And you know, as we see cutback after cutback after cutback happening in conventional radio, I'm seeing growth and I'm seeing an opportunity to actually offer a lifeline, if you will, to a lot of broadcasters who are in that same position. Now what am I going to do? You know, the station I was at just flipped formats or they've cut back. So we're bringing on a lot of very talented broadcasters. And that's how I came to know Jesse and Jenna. And we launched their messy podcast. The trade off there being podcast for them, content for me on blasttheradio.com.

Gresham Harkless 07:22:

Right, that makes perfect sense. And actually, you know, during Jesse and Jenna's podcast, I remember they spoke to that. They spoke about the aspect of how they had a lot more kind of freedom. I don't know if that's the right word that they said, but it kind of alluded to that by being able to do things online as opposed to the radio.

John Mielke 07:36:

Yeah, you can, you can use a lot more colorful language on podcast and on Internet streaming. Yes, am, fm, for sure.

Gresham Harkless 07:42:

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. So, no, I definitely appreciate that. And so now I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce. And this is for you or for your organizations, but what do you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique?

John Mielke 07:55:

My vision, hands down, I am an off the wall creative thinker. Actually, a listener of mine probably described me best because I get very frustrated when, you know, why isn't this happening? Why are there not sponsors lined up? You know, why, why, why, why, why? And she boiled it down very simply for me because I'm such a creative thinker. She said, you know, John, you're in the end zone celebrating a touchdown long before the rest of the team even has a chance to realize the ball's been snapped. And I love that analogy because I'm a football fan, but it's so true. I, I do see things, you know, 50, 60 yards ahead of where they actually are, which I guess makes me, you know, a great leader. But with, you know, the mental health issues and the anxiety especially, it, it, it just eats at me that I need people to catch up. I've, I've got that under much better control now. I think, though, where I'm. I better able to recognize that. Okay, I'm in the end zone. Come on, guys.

Gresham Harkless 08:57:

Come on. I'm dancing, waiting for you.

John Mielke 09:01:

And as soon as we're there, where are we going? Other end zone.

Gresham Harkless 09:04:

Exactly, exactly. I definitely enjoy this. I wanted to switch gears a little bit and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. And this might be an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

John Mielke 09:18:

Gresham Harkless 09:44:

Yes, years last.

John Mielke 09:46:

believe it begins with why, you know, and, and I love the whole why. It's. It's just such a powerful thing. I was on a flight a few years ago and the gentleman sitting behind me was an inventor. He actually invented a new way to do these gallery wraps, which is where you take a print and stretch it over a frame. Well, he grew up in his dad's framing shop with clamps, whatever else. Well, he decided that he would just, you know, make four individual planks, pre cut, lay it over that, and then flip the wood planks together. He sold it to Walmart for a bunch of million dollars and was on his way to Thailand. But the way he spoke about business, like, I latched onto this guy. The plane landed, I turned around. You're somebody whose business card I need to have, you know, give me five minutes with someone like that. And I've been very lucky that people I've reached out to. It's amazing when you do reach out to somebody and you're complimentary and it's like, look, I don't want a lot of your time, but I'd love to. Can I, you know, can I get on a call with you for five or six minutes? How it's amazing to me how many times that door will open for you. Well, me, sure. Okay. What can I help you with? I just want to sit in the room and be a fly on the wall.

Gresham Harkless 10:58:

Yeah.

John Mielke 10:59:

So, yeah. You know, the more you expose yourself to great leaders, I think the better leader you become.

Gresham Harkless 11:04:

Absolutely. Exactly. So now I wanted to ask you another question, which is a CEO nugget, and this is a word of wisdom or piece of advice, or if you can hop into a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self?

John Mielke 11:18:

Be a better listener. And that's all encompassing. Whether it's an opportunity to listen to someone who has more experience than you. But also, I find some of my best ideas come from opportunities. I get to speak in front of college students, for example. They're young, they're not in the business yet, but they have great vision and great questions. And if you listen to those questions, you can really get A sense of where the business is going and where it's at, and I refuse to dismiss any of it. It's all valid, and I'm a very good talker. Listening is, is something I'm having to learn and always learn, but when I really allow myself to do that, boy, the successes that come from listening are unreal.

Gresham Harkless 12:11:

Absolutely. Yeah. And especially what you spoke to, like, you know, being, you know, in those, you know, college or university environments, especially because they're, they're, they're, they're bubbling with ideas and different perspectives because they haven't been entrenched.

John Mielke 12:24:

Sure.

Gresham Harkless 12:25:

And no fear too. Yeah, absolutely.

John Mielke 12:27:

Preconceived notions. Just, you know, it's almost like talking, you know, how they say, you know, children are so innocent. Someone at the college level, I'm not considering them a child, don't get me wrong. But they just, they haven't been in the industry for 25, 30 years, you know, like I have. They're not jaded like I am, you know, or, or, or other people of my tenure are, and, and they've got a genuine curiosity. And tapping into that is, Is a breath of fresh air.

Gresham Harkless 12:54: Yeah, I appreciate that perspective. And, and now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different, quote, unquote, CEOs on the show. So, John, what does being a CEO means to you?

John Mielke 13:06: A CEO means you've got to be a leader, and that means you need to. Sometimes you need to assume all the risk. You need to be prepared to take the hits. You need to be able to make sacrifices for yourself in order to better the team around you. And when people who are around you see that you're willing to make those sacrifices. For me, I'm six years living off my savings and whatnot in order to build my blasttheradio.com and podcast enterprise up and get myself back to where I was. But people see that I'm willing to take that hit myself and make that sacrifice myself, and they respond to it. And the respect you get from that when you're willing to bring yourself down to somebody else's level, that is a powerful, powerful thing.

Gresham Harkless 14:01: Well, I appreciate you, John, for, for paying it forward. Appreciate all the awesome things you're doing and reminding us of, you know, tapping that, tapping to that ourselves. I wanted to pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you can let our readers and listeners know. And then, of course, how best they can get a hold of you.

John Mielke 14:17: So you can follow milkmanunlimited.com if you're in Canada, you probably already know the website. If you don't. Hey awesome. Welcome aboard board. If you are an American broadcaster, we would be the equivalent to let's say an allaccess.com but have a look. We certainly do have a good number of people from around the world who radio is radio is radio or all sort of kicking tires to see what everybody else is doing regardless of geography. But the Blast the radio model is something certainly I would encourage people to take a look at and take a listen to. It's creative, off the wall, fun, personality driven radio. It's the kind of radio I grew up up on. It's the kind of radio I will always want to deliver to my audience. And the podcastle ca which you and I didn't really touch on, but it's really just sort of a branch off of blaster radio.com it was inspired by the fact that Jesse and Jenna were coming into my house creating content for themselves and from where I sit in my living room, we've actually converted my dining room into a podcast area, much to my wife's chagrin. But I've got the area surrounded by, by moving blankets. So when I don't have guests in the blankets go up on the back of photography stands and it often takes the shape of, you know, the entrance to a castle.

Gresham Harkless 15:33:

Nice.

John Mielke 15:34:

You know, like sort of that circus tent entrance kind of thing. And so that I, I was sitting here one day and I thought that's my pod castle right there. So that's kind of, you know, the evolution of, you know, giving people the know how and the equipment and the tools to create a real, real quality podcast. Because sound is everything when it comes to podcast. As you know, you want it to sound good in order to give yourself the best opportunities. So that's where they can find me on social media, facebook.com blasttheradio or/themilky show. I'm at MMU radio and at Blast the Radio Milky show on Instagram and Blast the Radio on Instagram and I'm on LinkedIn as John Milkey. M I E L K E awesome, awesome, awesome.

Gresham Harkless 16:20:

And I'll make sure to have those links in the show notes so that everybody can follow up with you and stay connected. Do see all the awesome things you're doing. Take a trip to the castle, so to speak. And John, I appreciate you and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

John Mielke 16:32:

It's my pleasure man. Thank you so much for reaching out.