Wize Grazette is in the business of telling stories.
For as long as he can remember, the Brooklyn-born 29-year-old with Barbadian heritage has been interested in writing stories.
“Since I was a child I’ve been writing stories. My mum allowed me to become a published author when I was nine when I wrote a short story for a magazine,” Wize said.
And as time passed and the digital age advanced, Wize, who is based in New York, fell more in love with technology, and these days he’s into telling digital stories. In fact, he’s now made a thriving career out of it.
“I am a digital storyteller. Over time my love for technology kind of progressed into a digital storyteller. I turn 30 in August and it will mark the 20th year that I had a desktop computer in my house. That kind of got me into what I’m doing now.
“In 2012 I started getting into broadcasting. I’ve been working with digital agencies building websites for people in Barbados and in New York and so on. I kind of got into broadcasting because it was new for me at least, because I was only into storytelling before. That got me into podcasting and that’s how it got me started with this whole thing,” Wize explained.
Today, he’s the owner of Indie Creative Network, a company that specialises in producing creative podcasts. He told EASY magazine the company, which was started in 2015, was now doing really well.
“When we started, it was initially just a podcast network producing podcasts within the podcasting community. From there it grew to be more. We expanded to Canada and Britain within our first year and in our second year we added South Africa and Mumbai, India. That gave us a space to really share content from communities who, in general, you might not necessarily hear about. You can give people an opportunity to hear about a place before they go. So that’s kind of where the company grew from. But it also grew from investments I got from my family’s company,” Wize explained.
He added, “Business has been going good. It’s still very young. The niche audience is also very young, but what we have been able to establish so far as a company is that we can provide numerous stories from people all over the world and we also teach people how to create podcasts. We help people with their marketing and so on.”
And though Barbados doesn’t have a huge market for podcasts, Wize believes that through his company, people all over the world would be able to learn more about Barbados and want to flock to the island.
“We try to provide really unique stuff.
“I think we create a space for people who want to do or create podcasts; they now see Barbados as a space that they can have that. With our podcasts we talk about basically anything. We don’t limit it. What makes us different from other companies is that we do provide help to teach you how to create a better podcast and a more sustainable podcast,” Wize added.
And while business is booming for him and he is enjoying what he’s doing, Wize said he never imagined that this is where he would have ended up.
“I’m not sure it was something I wanted to get into but I was always interested in the social entrepreneurial side of things. I really focus on ways that I could help people grow. Podcasting is really about storytelling and we live in a time where people are really trying to understand and identify with what a particular thing means. So I’m enjoying every minute of it,” he told EASY just before he left the island to head back to New York.
As for what’s next for him, Wize said he is looking to develop his company much more. (DB)
