Jelly Trumpet started as a scripted podcast aimed at helping small businesses and marketeers explore their creativity. Hence, regular items giving tips, interviews of creative people and challenges at home. In between these items were silly comedy spots that I called Riffs.

My Business, Conversion Detectives

I run a digital marketing agency, Conversion Detectives that supports small business with the full mix of marketing channels, from Google Ads and copywriting to Conversion Optimisation and social content. The idea was for Conversion Detectives to sponsor the Jelly Trumpet podcast to show off a deep understanding of creativity.

First Conversations, Season 01

I needed help with the recording and editing (and a lot more, it turned out) so I went and bothered my wonderful friend, a professional musician and technical wizard, Mr b. He said yes and I thought the way the podcast would progress would be me reading my script while he recorded it at his studio.

For some reason that I have long forgotten I decided to write myself as a character AND Mr b. We did six episodes in Season 01 and published to all the major platforms via Buzzsprout.

Deep Creativity

I overwrote Season 02 and delved into the surreal comedy I love so we had episodes where the podcast ‘landed’ in a Japanese Anime computer game, on ‘Treasure Island’, ‘The Old Dark House’ (with Sherlock Holmes) and various silly places, real and imagined.

We also launched ‘The 9 Trumpets of Creativity’ which were simple creativity tools and a micro sitcom ‘The Startup’, the adventures of Mary the Entrepreneur.

Season 03, Change of Focus

At one point Mr b said to me: “You realise, Jim, that you’ve written a comedy show?” I was avoiding that as I had little regard for my writing comedy ability but now it came home.

I decided to reduce the creative tool element, remove the guest spot and keep Mr b’s music which plays near the end of every episode. I built up the comedy and had a theme for each episode. O’, Jelly Trumpet was declared outlaw by the Podcast Authority (the P.A.) which along with this premise in my head ‘a podcast is a vehicle’ meant freedom, total freedom to take the podcast anywhere and develop the characters. Mr Jim became a deluded and pompus, sometimes angry writer, while Mr b became a compulsive (but forgetful) inventor. Plus in episode 01 of Season 03 we picked up Queen Eleanor of the Aquitaine to keep an eye on the boys.

Season 03 is being published while I write this blog post. Season 04 has been redrafted and is written, eleven episodes and at Mr b’s suggestion a Christmas Special.

Jelly Trumpet Must Keep Moving

Now, we are at the stage of Season 03 being published over the next few months while we record Season 04.

Season 04, goes further with a tiny amount of creative tips, each episode a story and sees the JT crew land underwater, on a South Korean train going to an award ceremony, and on a Scottish Island with danger at every turn.

Promoting the podcast has become serious as now we believe we have a wonderful ‘product’.