Welcome to the Texas Wedding Podcast

Kevin Cochran, the Texas-based wedding videographer and founder of 718 Creative, opens the Texas Wedding Podcast with a solo welcome episode built entirely around listener questions.

Kevin explains why he started the show: most content online has been cut down to its shortest, highest-dopamine form, and podcasts are one of the few formats left that make room for real connection. He also wanted a megaphone for the Texas wedding market itself, a way to talk about the people building it, on air, instead of just behind the scenes.

Going forward, the Texas Wedding Podcast will be interview-based: candid, relational conversations with the vendors moving and shaping weddings across Texas. No coaching frameworks, no courses, no five-step growth hacks, just people talking honestly about their work. Kevin shares how his own business, 718 Creative, grew once he stepped outside the videography bubble and started understanding what photographers, stationers, planners, and other vendors deal with on a wedding day.

The show is Texas-focused but not Texas-exclusive. Anyone shaping the Texas wedding market qualifies, wherever they're based. Kevin also covers who the show is for, what surprised him most about starting from scratch as a first-time podcast host, and what's ahead.

Follow the Texas Wedding Podcast on Instagram and subscribe wherever you listen to catch new episodes as they drop.

The Texas Wedding Podcast is hosted by Kevin Cochran of 718 Creative, a Texas wedding videographer.

Full Transcript (condensed)

Why the Texas Wedding Podcast Exists

Kevin: Hey y'all, welcome to the Texas Wedding Podcast. It's weird to say that, it's been in my brain for so long now, but I'm glad you're here. If you're listening to this, you're right at the beginning of it, right at the beginning of everything.

At this point I have very little idea how to do a podcast. There's maybe one or two things I know and a thousand things I don't know, so I hope you're ready for the journey and ready to learn as we go, because that's the plan right now.

I opened up to questions on Instagram, and a lot of y'all wrote in, so we're going to go through those. This one's just me, here in my office. This format isn't going to be the norm, I'll very rarely be here by myself talking. This is going to be interview-based, very relational. We've got all these questions, so let's just jump into it.

First question: what's the name of it? It's the Texas Wedding Podcast, which I've been told is a bit on the nose. Not my most creative moment, but that's the name.

When is the first episode dropping? As you're listening to this. The goal, even from the beginning, is to hit a rhythm and do this once a week. I might need a little grace getting there, because I'm slow and I'm not good at this yet. Eventually we'll get the systems down.

Connection Over Content

The question I've gotten the most is why a podcast, and why I'm excited about it. Two things really get me excited.

The first is connection. So much content online has become so massively abbreviated, cut down to its shortest, highest-dopamine form, that it's taken away the actual connection and heart of a lot of those things. Just think of social media: the addiction to it is at an all-time high, and any actual connection coming from it is at an all-time low.

I like that podcasts are different. There's no hook, no 15-second trending audio and then that's it. I like that it's longer, that it's edited but not edited down to perfection or cinema. There are real conversations happening in it. It feels lived-in. You can soak it up and get comfortable.

I'm a 10 out of 10 extrovert, the highest on every test. I'll leave a wedding and be up for two and a half hours afterward because of how energized I get from being around people. I love networking events for the industry, and I'm on cloud nine every time. And I still always leave those events feeling a need for more connection than what I got there. You can't sit down and have a real meal and conversation with 250 people at a networking event, just two-to-five-minute catch-ups. It's appealing to have a genuine conversation for 30 minutes with someone instead, and I feel the need for that more than what social media or networking events offer.

A Megaphone for the Texas Wedding Market

The second thing I'm excited about is that this gives me a megaphone to talk about the incredible things happening in the Texas wedding market. I think more people should know about the quality of the people serving at every wedding, working their tails off to make these days happen, whether I'm interviewing them directly or talking about them behind their back, which I'm very much looking forward to doing on this podcast.

For the general public and the national wedding market, I think Texas is massively underrated. If you actually compare what we have here to what other markets have, I think everyone else would be longing for what we have. This podcast is an opportunity to share that.

What the Show Will Sound Like

My vision for the Texas Wedding Podcast is a behind-the-scenes connection with the people moving and shaping the wedding industry in Texas. It's going to be highly relational, based on candid conversations. This isn't a type-A, highly actionable, leave-with-three-steps-to-increase-your-revenue kind of show. It's not coaching-based, and no one's selling courses here. It's grounded in people, grounded in experience, grounded in the stories of what's actually happening, and more than anything, it's about building bridges and making connections.

Ultimately, my goal is to make the kind of podcast I would want to listen to. I hope it's the kind you want to listen to too.

How Industry Relationships Grew 718 Creative

My business really transformed when I stepped outside the videography bubble. When I got to know other people in the industry, went to networking events and actually built connections instead of just trading business cards and Instagrams, when I understood what other vendors are seeing on the wedding day, what life is like for the photographers I work alongside, what's annoying for them about videographers, why stationers design things the way they do, what rentals and planners and designers are dealing with, that's when things shifted.

Once I understood the vendors I'm working alongside, what drives them, what they're passionate about, what their struggles are, my business, 718 Creative, grew exponentially. My enjoyment in the work grew right along with it, from building those relationships and knowing I'm helping the people I work alongside. I hope this podcast does the same thing for the people listening, whether that's a videographer learning from another videographer, or a stationer listening to me talk to a florist. If we can understand where each other are coming from, I think the whole market gets stronger.

Who the Podcast Is For

Yes, it's a wedding podcast. I think two groups will find this interesting. The first is wedding vendors, people I work with and people connected to our first guests. In my experience, clients increasingly want to know who's behind the business they're hiring, not just the work. Most of us aren't putting ourselves out there beyond a bio on an about page or an occasional portrait on Instagram, and I think this podcast can bridge that gap. I also have plans to eventually bring on past clients to talk about their side of things, from engagement to hiring a planner to the research they did choosing vendors.

Texas-Focused, Not Texas-Exclusive

Will the podcast be exclusive to Texas vendors? No. It's obviously Texas-focused, that's the name, but the Texas wedding market isn't isolated within the state's borders. There are outside influences that impact how we do things here and what our clients want. The baseline is this: the podcast is for anyone moving and shaping the Texas wedding industry, whether that's someone based in Texas or someone outside it who's having an impact here. It'll always be Texas-focused, just not Texas-exclusive.

Dream Guests and What Kevin Looks For

I don't have a strict list, but I've narrowed down who I want on the podcast. I'd love to one day be able to have A, B, and C on the podcast. Guests will be people moving and shaping the Texas wedding market, and the second thing I want in every guest is someone I look up to, whether that's for the business they've built and the scale of their events, how kind they are, or the small, highly intentional things I've seen them do to serve clients above expectations.

First Time Behind the Mic

Have I done a podcast before? No, literally no. I was a guest on one, one time, maybe three years ago. This isn't a secret skill I've been sitting on. I don't have radio experience from college. I'm figuring this out as we go.

At this point we've recorded three episodes, and I've edited some of them, and every single one has taught me something: I shouldn't ask a question this way, I should fix my background this way, I should position the mic differently. What's surprised me most is how much time it takes. I always underestimate the learning curve of picking up something totally new, and part of that's on me, I hold myself to a high standard even when I have no idea what I'm doing yet.

What's surprised me second most is how freeing it's been to step into something brand new where I get to be the beginner. At the scale 718 Creative is operating at now, there's a high expectation on every wedding day and every film, and I love the stress of that, but it's been creatively freeing to go the other way with this podcast, where I don't have it all figured out yet, and that's okay.

Behind the Scenes: The Office

Funny story: we'd just gotten a house under a year ago and were in the middle of renovating it, and I recorded my first podcast episode before we'd even started painting the office. I showed it to my friend Alex, a regular second shooter of mine, and his first reaction was that it looked like I was recording from a prison cell. So that's honest. This background has looked different in every episode so far, and I guarantee we'll keep tweaking it, the camera, all of it. I hope you're okay being along for the ride.

Follow Along

It would help me out a lot if you'd follow us on social media, subscribe wherever you're listening, and if you have the extra seven or eight seconds, leave a review. I don't know much about podcast analytics, but I've been told that's really helpful, and it would mean a lot to me.

Thanks for listening to the first-ever episode of the Texas Wedding Podcast. I'm excited about where this could go. I'm also pretty terrified of the amount of work it's going to take and everything I still don't know. I hope I answered your questions, I hope you know a little better what this podcast is going to be about, and I hope you're excited too. I'll see you on the next episode.

Follow the show Texas Wedding Podcast: https://www.texasweddingpodcast.com | https://www.instagram.com/texasweddingpodcast Kevin / 718 Creative: https://718creative.com | https://www.instagram.com/718.creative