From engineers, to writers, to actors – LCM students have a history of being successful after graduation. This trend has been continued by LCM alumnus Cade Fuller, who graduated in 2013 and now hosts a Southeast Texas-based podcast that is steadily growing in popularity.

Fuller hosts “Fuller’s House Podcast” by himself and has a different guest on the show almost every episode. As of now, he has released a total of 50 episodes and the podcast can be found on Spotify and Apple Podcasts by searching “Fuller’s House Podcast.” 

Running a podcast is no easy feat at all. It involves large amounts of creativity and ingenuity, with substantial effort and ability to market oneself. Managing everything can hard, especially when it comes to marketing and production.

“The idea to do a podcast came from me being a firm believer in loving what you do for a living,” Fuller said. “I am a person who will not settle for a job that I don’t love going to every day and a podcast is something that I love to do and have so much fun with. The name Fuller‘s House came about because that’s where my podcast studio is – it’s at my house! I wanted that name because I have big dreams and goals with this podcast and with that name, no matter where the podcast takes me, it’s a reminder of where it all started.” 

When working consists of the things you love to do, is it really considered work? Finding things you love about your work environment is very important to a healthy work life. Keeping things new by having a new talking point for each episode is a great refresher, and makes it easy to find things you love. 

“What I love most about hosting a podcast is the people I meet, whether they are guests or someone who comes up to me to tell me they listened to an episode,” Fuller said. “I have met and interacted with more new and interesting people this year than ever before in my life.” 

Telling the same old stories on a podcast every week would probably get boring pretty quickly. This is why it is important to find new topics to keep things fresh. According to Fuller, he finds various topics depending on his guests. 

“For example when I had our mayor Larry Spears on the podcast, I let listeners submit questions for him,” Fuller said. “I would ask a question, then try to dig a little deeper into whatever answer he gave. For the psychic medium I had on the podcast, I watched videos and TV shows about psychics and when I saw something that caught my interest or I didn’t fully understand, I would make a note about it to ask during the podcast. Now as far as finding guests, I often just think about someone that I am interested in learning more about or a field I want to learn more about and I find someone in that area. Then I just reach out to them through email or direct message. It’s not always easy finding a guest or a guest will sometimes cancel last minute, which has led me to doing solo episodes from time to time, which has been one of the best learning tools I’ve ever found for being a better host.” 

Production is a very daunting job and can be quite difficult sometimes. This includes podcast production, which is a struggle enough since it’s a new concept to a lot of people. Some people have the means to have a production crew, whereas others are trying it alone. 

“Production usually consists of setting up lighting and camera for pictures and opening up notes to have them fresh in my head,” Fuller said. “After recording, I then edit the episode and add intro and outro music and make any necessary cuts to the audio. I do all the work myself. I have had offers from people to be my producer, but I do it myself because I want to know how every part of my show works. I also hold my podcast to very high expectations, so I do it myself so I know it’s done the way I am satisfied with.”

For people like Joe Rogan who can sign a multi-million dollar deal with Spotify to make a podcast, it’s very easy to turn hosting a podcast into a full-time job. Unfortunately, not everybody is Joe Rogan, so the rest of the “normal folk” hosting a radio show or podcast start out as a hobby. Even if it’s just a hobby, for many it still requires a full-time job’s amount of work. 

“Right now the podcast is a hobby that I will turn into a full-time gig in the future,” Fuller said. “This has been my first year podcasting so I am still growing and learning, but turning it into a full-time job showing other people in our community that it is possible to build something and make a career in a field that is different from the norm in our area! Somebody has to show what is possible and I am taking that responsibility upon myself to show with hard work and dedication you can create something great.” 

Hosting a show such as a podcast or radio show, or even a talk show, involves meeting a lot of people. New guests come in and out each episode. However, it’s human nature to pick favorites. Even these hosts fall victim to picking favorites, whether they realize it or not. 

“Some of my favorite guests have been our mayor Larry Spears, psychic medium Lauren Burris, and fellow LCM alumni and owner of Wolf Den MMA, Ruben Alaniz and Madison Alaniz,” Fuller said. “These were my favorite guests because of how interesting our conversations were and the things I’ve learned from them.”

According to Fuller, his time at LCM taught him many things, but one of the most important lessons he took with him is how to be open-minded and accepting of others, no matter their background.

“This is something that was not learned in a class but learned by being around others and open to talking to everyone and making friends with anyone,” Fuller said. “You really learn a lot that when you get rid of all judgment and hear people out.” 

For now, Fuller wants to continue to do what he loves and hopes to one day turn his podcast gig into a full-time business.

“I hope to show people around here that creating something from the ground-up is possible – it just takes a lot of hard work and patience,” he said. “I want to use my podcast to set an example about what is possible to achieve. If there is something you love to do, then bet on yourself and go after it. These things are possible to achieve; you just have to start taking the necessary steps now to achieve those goals. Always bet on yourself.”