richardbrianpenn.com

About 6 weeks ago I went to visit Sr. Kibs out in Chicago.  It was several days of deep reflection and thought about where I wanted to go with my radio show and blog.  I realized I hadn’t been too happy as of late.  You may ask, what was so wrong?

I was starting to feel burnt out working on a radio show that was taking up to 5-6 hours of each and every day.  We sat around and brainstormed.  Where did I want to take all of this? I mean, what was my end goal of having an internet radio show?

Not only have I been the on-air personality, but also the show’s writer, editor, promoter, booker, and anything else that you can think of in between.  I was actually feeling a bit depressed.  We talked about how much longer could I keep up this pace. 

I’ve run some fairly successful businesses over the past 20 some years, but I wasn’t really spending much time working on them.  I’d saved enough that if I didn’t have to work for the next couple of years, I could do pretty much whatever I wanted.  In that regard, I felt really fortunate.  On the other hand, when you put yourself out there so publicly; scrutiny follows.  I found out that certain people were making inquiries into my personal life and it was weird that whenever I’d go out, there was always someone chanting “RBP! RBP! RBP!”

Flattering, but really weird. When it comes down to it, at the end of the day; I’m actually a pretty private person.

So the next logical step was to either hire an agent and attempt to get on morning radio or try to get a shift working on National Public Radio.  I mean, this boy needed to start making some cash-ola. Obviously, if you’ve been listening to the past several shows; you’ll realize the show has become a bit more serious. Why, you may ask?

The answer came down to the fact that it’s a lot easier to be serious than constantly attempting to be funny.  I also felt like I was hurting certain people in my attempts at humor.  I’m actually very sensitive to other people’s feelings and this was starting to wear on my sense of self.

So here we sit 10 months after I originally started the show. I have about another 6-10 episodes in the can.  They’ll run, but after that I’m done.  I’ve made some great friends and connections just by doing this show and have no doubt that if I continued forth, I might end up having a pretty successful radio career, but is it really worth it?

NOW WHAT?

Currently, I’m back taking a more active role in my businesses, working on my health and physical fitness, and resurrecting my personal life.  That means, I’m dating again and able to spend more time with friends and family.  My sister just had a baby a few weeks ago.  I’m a first time uncle and I really look forward to being able to get out to California and spending some time with my brand new niece.  She’s a beauty.

I’ll also be blogging a bit more and will be able to write some more introspective articles that hopefully will blow people’s minds.  Since I’ll be taking a less active “public” role, I may finally be able to blog about some personal things that I may have held back on previously.

Finally, I’m slowly working on my novel about my last 6 years in Philadelphia.  For all intensive purposes it could be an autobiography of a certain chapter in my life, but because I have no desire to get sued or hurt anyone unintentionally; everyone is safe.  I’ll be changing names, descriptions, certain times, dates, and places.  I promise that you won’t be disappointed.

I just felt the need to update everyone on what’s going on in the world and mind of RBP.  Sorry for the third person reference, it just flowed better

Love,

RBP

PS – Thank you to everyone who has supported me over the past year on my artistic endeavors. Thanks to all my co-hosts, thank you to my previous guests, and thank you to all my listeners.

richardbrianpenn RBP's Thoughts