The masterminds behind Platinum Peek Productions are at it once again.

Oakdale’s own Eriksen and Soren Dickens have launched Scaling Creator Podcast, played on all major platforms.

“We’ve spent so many years now servicing clients and telling their stories we thought it was a good time for promoting ourselves by way of telling our own stories,” Eriksen said. “We feel it’s important not only for people to see our work but also understand who the individuals are behind it.”

Platinum Peek Productions, the primary business run by the brothers, aims at helping clients through producing, directing, as well as delivering video content to help with their businesses. In doing so, they also spend a fair amount of time profiling a client to help foster the connection of client/customer relations.

“Working with businesses over the past few years and lots of using the word ‘Scale.’ Clients were always talking about ‘Scale’,” younger brother Soren said, noting the duo was inspired by their work with clients and the realization that anything one does in life, you’re always scaling.

So, in early 2022 they began exploring the idea of creating a podcast under the name “Scaling Creator.” The goal, to initially tell their story as they built the platform, as well as highlighting interesting stories of people they’ve met through business as well as their travels.

“To be honest Soren and I are two guys that don’t normally share too much about our adversity we faced,” Eriksen said. “We’re quiet guys, I guess you could say. So for us to do this and be vulnerable like that, it took a lot for us to do that.”

The reception, however, has been a good one.

“To be getting the positive feedback,” he continued, “has inspired us to lean a little bit more into talking about the adversity people face. How that’s channeled into being a creator.”

As the brothers began exploring the idea of launching the audio forum, with video footage included, by late 2022 they had mapped out the podcast. Promotion of Scaling Creator via social media pages began early this year.

“The episodes were actually shot a while ago, we’re just starting to release them,” Eriksen said.

To date eight episodes have been released, with an additional 20 yet to come.

“We definitely did our homework, consulting with people on how to structure it,” Soren said. “Getting it on platforms. Getting it edited. What to use, what not to use. We’re not really following any format. After doing so many we’re figuring out what our audience likes.”

With their primary location in San Luis Obispo, the Scaling Creator founders shared they made the decision to have a production van for the podcast. That allows them both mobility as well as flexibility away from their home office.

“We realized we can slap a podcast studio inside of it,” Eriksen said of their Sprinter van.

The podcasters shared as the program has developed, they’ve strayed a bit from the format they felt would originally appeal to an audience, recognizing listeners respond to personal stories and experiences behind the business founders and creative works.

“On a base level it’s relatability,” Eriksen said. “People are going to listen to you more if they understand your motivation and they understand where you come from. Relatability leads to trust.”

“Also I would say it’s becoming more, with technology as it’s rapidly advancing the human connection and also your story is going to matter a lot more,” Soren said of the connection to the listener. “Your story matters. People understanding who you are matters more, because they want to work with people they can connect with and they can trust.”

The Dickens brothers further acknowledged how the podcast was intended versus how it “shaped up,” has most definitely morphed.

“If you plan too much and try and structure too much it kind of comes off as forced,” Eriksen said, sharing that both the length as well as content are now taking a bit more of an organic approach.

“Our own story and the closest stories around us ultimately, they have the biggest impact on us,” Eriksen said.

Early episodes of Scaling Creator feature the two discussing growing up in Oakdale and how that shaped them personally, as well as being the children of parents with cancer. Ultimately, losing their father to brain cancer in 2009 and then watching their single mother battle breast cancer following their dad’s passing.

“So I think that by developing our own minds to navigate this pretty wild world we’re living in, I would say that’s what we’re focusing on,” Eriksen concluded.

Scaling Creator can be found on all podcast forums, as well as social media and on the website scalingcreator.com.