"I felt like a hero, Joe."

Mike Waskey owns 42 bags. He can recite the model names from memory. And by the end of this conversation he can tell you exactly why — it goes back to a pair of pants that split open on his second day working at Starbucks.

This is Part 1 of a two-part swap: no guest, no format, just Mike and Joe interviewing each other. Joe takes the chair this week and asks Mike the questions. Next episode, Mike turns it around — with help from ChatGPT, since he's decided that's fair play.

Joe did zero preparation, and it shows in the best way. The first hour wanders through beef tallow hair product, a pair of $400 Randolph sunglasses, Project Hail Mary, Silo, and a dad joke that probably shouldn't have survived the edit.

Then it gets somewhere real. Mike's father grew up in the Plymouth Brethren — a religious group headquartered in Australia where children weren't allowed to listen to the radio, and where leaving meant your entire family stopped speaking to you. He got out by enlisting as a conscientious objector. Mike walks us through what he knows of it, why he thinks people are drawn to that kind of thing, and his own view that any organization worth joining should probably be a little bit cultish.

We trace the stages of Michael Steven Waskey: the soccer-and-karate kid, the skateboarding guitar player with the 90s haircut, the kid who quit the soccer team after fighting three teammates who were picking on someone smaller, the high schooler recording an album with Statue Spread, the heavy phase with Clockwork, and the college student who found out he could sing in an ear training class.

And the Heavy Fred years — which means the crab tater tots story. Joe walking off stage mid-song to eat by the handful, Mike hiding his keys, the band leaving without him, and the intervention that took another year and a half to work. Both of them tell it straight.

After the break Joe asks what Mike's morals and values actually are, and Mike takes it seriously: family as the basis of society, four adopted children, faith, and the parts he doesn't live up to. He's unusually honest about it — the word games he plays with pricing to make more money, jealousy, and a resistance to authority that runs from claiming cash tips all the way down to wearing a seatbelt.

Then the bags. Mike pulls one off camera and gives an unrequested tour, and it becomes the most revealing part of the episode: a wrench pulled out of a tire on vacation with paracord and a hitch, the ripped pants at Starbucks, and what it actually feels like to be the person who has what everyone needs.

We also get into what's next — pivoting from bar gigs to weddings, funerals, and corporate events, playing fewer but better shows, and the fact that he needs to go buy a suit.

What shift have you experienced in your life?

CHAPTERS

THIS EPISODE IS SPONSORED BY WAYFINDERS TESTICULAR HEALTH FUND

Wayfinders THF is a Maryland-based 501(c)(3) dedicated to impacting the lives and health of young men by combating testicular cancer through awareness, education, fundraising, and community support — with a focus on men aged 14 to 35. A component fund of Chesapeake Charities.

Website: https://www.wayfindersthf.org

PUTTS FORE! NUTS — 2nd Annual Charity Mini-Golf Tournament

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

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Michael Waskey Music

Kent Island Academy of Music (Mike)

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PODCAST PRODUCTION GEAR (EPISODE 40)

The Shift with Mike & Joe is fully produced by Image & Sound Media.

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"I wasn't the best. I was the most consistent out of any of my competition."

Jason Morton has run roughly 800 Facebook ads in three years — one for every show, no matter how small — and he can now walk into a venue negotiation with the data to back up his rate. This is the most practical conversation we've had on this show.

Jason Morton of Jason Morton & The Chesapeake Sons is back for his second appearance, 32 episodes after he sat in a plastic chair as one of our first guests ever. He's just off a plane from Nashville with four new songs, the masters back last week, and a rebrand in progress: the same country rock bones with poppier vocal melodies laid over the top.

We start with how he got here — piano at four, guitar through middle school, a jock in high school who played alone in his room, then a biology degree at Salisbury he picked almost by accident and never used. He tells the story of driving home halfway through college to tell his dad he was quitting biology for music, and what his father said back.

Then it turns into something closer to a masterclass. Jason walks through the promotion system he's built: a Facebook event page for every single show, a video embedded in it, a boosted ad geo-targeted to twenty-five miles, separate ads for engagement and for ticket sales, and the club owner added as a co-host so the venue has skin in the game too. He explains why you delete old event pages, why your Instagram grid matters more than any single post, and why one ad for one show is meaningless but a hundred and fifty of them is leverage.

The other thread running through the whole episode is Atomic Habits, which Jason picked up because he kept reaching the end of a day and wondering where it had gone. Cue, craving, response, reward. Design the environment instead of relying on willpower. Say "I'm a musician," not "I play music." He's up at 5am now, gym first, ten to two for content — and he's honest that the reason he falls off is always that he let the environment slide, usually a cluttered garage.

We also get into the hard conversation most local bands never have: live players versus studio players, and what it costs to tell the guitarist who's driven all those miles with you that his parts aren't going on the record.

We also talk about why less polish outperforms more right now, the artist who cut 500 reels for a single song, taking the last record offline, changing your sound and losing fans, Wim Hof breathing, learning to regulate your nervous system, what a hospice nurse hears people regret at the end, and the mentor who beat Paul Reed Smith for Small Businessman of the Year.

What shift have you experienced in your life?

CHAPTERS

CONNECT WITH JASON MORTON & THE CHESAPEAKE SONS

Jason was previously on Episode 7 of The Shift with Mike & Joe.

THIS EPISODE IS SPONSORED BY WAYFINDERS TESTICULAR HEALTH FUND

Wayfinders THF is a Maryland-based 501(c)(3) dedicated to impacting the lives and health of young men by combating testicular cancer through awareness, education, fundraising, and community support — with a focus on men aged 14 to 35. A component fund of Chesapeake Charities.

Website: https://www.wayfindersthf.org

PUTTS FORE! NUTS — 2nd Annual Charity Mini-Golf Tournament

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

SUPPORT THE SHIFT WITH MIKE & JOE

CONNECT WITH MIKE & JOE

Michael Waskey Music

Kent Island Academy of Music (Mike)

Image & Sound Media (Joe)

Joe Bryan Music

The Shift with Mike & Joe is fully produced by Image & Sound Media.

#TheShiftPodcast #EntrepreneurLife #BusinessTalk #mikeandjoeshow #KentIsland #EasternShore #Annapolis #MarylandPodcast #AtomicHabits #CountryRock #MusicMarketing

In Episode 38 of The Shift with Mike & Joe, we sit down with business and marketing coach Peggy Re James to talk about her unconventional upbringing, her path into entrepreneurship, and how she built a business designed to support her life instead of consuming it.

Peggy opens up about growing up as one of eight sisters in a highly controlled religious environment connected to the organization featured in the documentary series Happy Shiny People. She shares how that experience shaped her childhood, how her family eventually recognized what they had been part of, and what it was like to begin questioning and deconstructing those beliefs.

We also explore Peggy’s journey from stay-at-home mom and virtual assistant to six-figure business owner, coach, course creator, and host of the Six Figure Shift podcast. She explains how she surpassed her husband’s corporate salary within months, why specialization makes a business easier to scale, and how she helps established entrepreneurs make more money while working fewer hours.

Peggy also shares why your business vision should support your life vision, how systems and boundaries create freedom, why marketing is about more than simply posting online, and how she is applying her own framework to launch a local cleaning company without becoming the person doing the cleaning.

We also talk about personal branding, outsourcing, motherhood, jiu-jitsu, debt, investing, short-term rentals, perfectionism, decision-making, and the challenge of building a business without becoming trapped by it.

Connect with Peggy Re James:

Website: https://peggyrejames.com

Learn more about The Shift with Mike & Joe:

Website: https://www.theshiftwithmikeandjoe.com

In Episode 37 of The Shift with Mike & Joe, we sit down with Daniel Alvarez — musician, videographer, photographer, audio engineer, producer, and the creative force behind Spilling Pictures Studio.

Daniel shares his story of growing up in Colombia before moving to Maryland, discovering guitar as a teenager, playing in original bands, and eventually building a creative life around music, video, photography, and audio production. We talk about the name Spilling Pictures, his band Leo & Cygnus, the Annapolis music scene, and how his older brother helped introduce him to film and video work.

This conversation also gets into the real side of creative work: pricing yourself, raising your rates, dealing with imposter syndrome, working with musicians who may not have big budgets, learning by trial and error, and trying to balance passion with business.

Daniel also opens up about losing his DC studio in a house fire in 2024, the gear and creative space he lost, and the way the Annapolis creative community, AMFM, friends, family, and supporters helped him rebuild.

We also talk about AI in creative work, where it can be useful, where it starts to feel like “AI slop,” and why live performance, human taste, collaboration, and real creative connection still matter.

Huge thanks to our sponsor Cult Classic Brewing in Stevensville, Maryland — a brewery, taproom, restaurant, and live music venue on Kent Island.

In this episode, we talk about:

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The Shift with Mike & Joe is fully produced by Image & Sound Media.

In Episode 36 of The Shift with Mike & Joe, we sit down with guitarist, teacher, bandleader, and Priddy Music Academy owner Lee Priddy to talk about building a life around music, teaching, family, and community.

Lee shares how he first got hooked on guitar after hearing Rush’s “The Spirit of Radio,” how players like Santana, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Van Halen, Joe Satriani, Allan Holdsworth, and Guthrie Govan shaped his playing, and how years of lessons, gigging, touring, and teaching eventually led him to build one of the area’s most performance-focused music schools.

We also talk about the growth of Priddy Music Academy, from private guitar lessons to a full music academy in Millersville with multiple teachers, student bands, adult bands, showcases, charity events, and real-world performance opportunities. Lee breaks down what students can’t learn from YouTube, why fundamentals still matter, how band programs build confidence and responsibility, and what it takes to manage 20-plus bands.

The conversation also covers Lee’s family band Honey Sol, PRS guitars, pedalboards, live tone, performance anxiety, music education, charity events, sound production, and the community that has grown around Priddy Music Academy.

Question for you:

Connect with Lee Priddy / Priddy Music Academy:

Honey Sol:

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The Shift with Mike & Joe is fully produced by Image & Sound Media:

In Episode 35 of The Shift with Mike & Joe, we sit down with Maryland-born country artist and songwriter John Haywood to talk about his path from writing novels and short stories to chasing songs in Nashville. John shares how a trip through Music City sparked the idea for a book about Nashville’s songwriting scene, only for that project to eventually turn into a much bigger shift toward writing and performing music himself. We get into his early days playing open mics at places like Cult Classic, the confidence he found through learning guitar, his battle with stage fright, and what it was like moving to Nashville as a shy person trying to break into one of the most competitive songwriter communities in the country.

John also breaks down the reality of Nashville writers rounds, bar gigs, networking, recording music on a budget, touring after losing his day job, and building a career around original songs without chasing the more polished, radio-friendly version of country music. We talk about his outlaw and gothic country influences, his Maryland roots, his time performing overseas in Scotland and England, his appearance as lead singer of Gamblers in the Neon on AXS TV’s Banded: The Musician Competition, and the mindset behind wanting to become one of the best writers of his time. It’s a conversation about music, confidence, discomfort, old-school country, creative ambition, and the strange but necessary process of becoming the person you always hoped you could be.

Question for you:

In this episode, we talk about John’s Maryland roots, moving to Nashville, writers rounds, stage fright, outlaw country, recording music independently, touring overseas, appearing on Banded: The Musician Competition, and what it means to chase something real instead of settling.

Website: https://www.theshiftwithmikeandjoe.com

Website: https://johnhaywood.info

Image & Sound Media: https://imagesoundmedia.com

The Shift with Mike & Joe is fully produced by Image & Sound Media.

Jay Fleming on Documenting the Dying Waterman Industry + Preserving Chesapeake Bay Culture - EP 34

In Episode 34 of The Shift with Mike & Joe, we sit down with Maryland photographer Jay Fleming to talk about his career documenting the Chesapeake Bay, the seafood industry, and the people whose lives are tied to the water.

Jay shares how growing up around photography through his father, former National Geographic photographer Kevin Fleming, shaped his eye from an early age. He also talks about early wildlife photography, fisheries work, Maryland seafood marketing, and how those experiences led him toward his first major book, Working the Water.

What starts as a conversation about photography becomes a deeper look at the changing reality of the Chesapeake Bay’s watermen, the economics of local seafood, and why so much of this culture is disappearing so quickly.

We also get into Jay’s self-published books, his sold-out Smith Island photography workshops, documenting Tangier and Smith Island for Island Life, boat bow photography, underwater images of blue crabs and rockfish, AI’s impact on photography, his next book Atlantic Harvest, and the realities of working inside small island communities.

It’s a conversation about photography, preservation, local identity, and what it means to capture a way of life before it changes forever.

Question for you:

In this episode, we talk about:

Connect with Jay Fleming:

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Joe Bryan Music:

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Michael Waskey Music:

The Shift with Mike & Joe is fully produced by Image & Sound Media:

From College TV Show to Global Cooking Classes + Why Chef Egg Still Wants to Be a Rock Star - EP 33

In Episode 33 of The Shift with Mike & Joe, we sit down with Eric Berlin, better known as Chef Egg, to talk about the unconventional career he built by teaching people how to cook. What starts as a conversation about culinary school and restaurant life quickly turns into a much bigger story about performance, education, and connection.

Eric breaks down how he carved out a lane far outside the traditional kitchen: teaching hands-on cooking classes at colleges, working with health departments and veterans groups, appearing on Baltimore and DC television, traveling internationally with the military, and helping people overcome the fear that keeps them from cooking for themselves in the first place.

We also get into the origin of the name “Chef Egg,” his early public-access cooking show, how relationships and follow-through created major opportunities in Baltimore, and why he still sees himself as a musician at heart. The conversation also touches on virtual cooking classes, Chef Egg soap, trying to turn creativity into income, and the 25-year journey of writing his first novel.

This is an episode about making things, staying open to unexpected opportunities, and chasing the kind of work that makes you feel most alive.

In this episode, we talk about:

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The Shift with Mike & Joe is fully produced by Image & Sound Media:

Filming John Mayer & Santana at PRS + The Cancer Shift That Changed Everything | Andrew Dorbin (EP 32)

In Episode 32 of The Shift with Mike & Joe, we sit down with Andrew Dorbin, Senior Videographer at PRS Guitars in Stevensville, Maryland. Andrew takes us inside the PRS world—working around Paul Reed Smith, filming product demos where both lighting and audio have to be flawless, and capturing artists on the road. We talk PRS’s quality-first mindset (from SE to Private Stock), how custom builds work through dealers, and what changes when you’re filming legends like John Mayer and Carlos Santana.

Then the conversation goes deeper. Andrew shares how a testicular cancer diagnosis reshaped his priorities and led him to launch the Wayfinders Testicular Health Fund. He walks through early warning signs, how he discovered it, why early detection matters, and what’s next for the nonprofit— including Putts for Nuts and a potential comedy fundraiser. This is an episode about craft, pressure, meaning, and the kind of shift you don’t get to choose.

In this episode:

What makes PRS different (Paul + quality-first culture)

SE vs Private Stock + how custom builds work

Filming guitars: lighting challenges + capturing great audio

Artist shoots: the Santana lesson + working with John Mayer

Cancer, perspective shifts, and building Wayfinders

Wayfinders Testicular Health Fund: https://www.wayfindersthf.org/

Support / follow the show:

Website: https://www.theshiftwithmikeandjoe.com

Donate: https://www.theshiftwithmikeandjoe.com/giving-page-2-1

Email: [email protected]

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheShiftwithMikeandJoe

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-shift-with-mike-joe/id1813198065

Produced by Image & Sound Media: https://www.imagesoundmedia.com

This week on The Shift with Mike & Joe, we sit down with Bobby Jackson — guitarist for MIGGS (M-I-G-G-S) — to talk about what it actually takes to build a band that works: chemistry, leadership inside the group, finding the right lineup, and keeping momentum without burning out.

Bobby breaks down his path from drummer → guitarist, how gospel + church music shaped his musicianship, and why modern country guitar has more overlap with the worship world than most people realize. We also get into the grind of building MIGGS from solo → duo → full band, how they finally landed the right players (yes… including the “is Tench his real name?” moment), and why the band is now focused on quality over quantity.

We also talk live-show reality: being the “glue” on stage, using talkback/MD-style cues, rehearsing transitions and show flow, handling crowd requests, and balancing family life with gigs and a day job in live events production.

And yes… Creed comes up. A lot.

Question for you: What matters more for a band’s success — talent, chemistry, or work ethic?

In this episode:

Bobby’s role in MIGGS + being the “glue” live

What an MD does (cues, saves, talkback mic, show flow)

Drummer-to-guitarist journey + why he switched

Gospel/church roots and how they translate to country

Pedals, tone, and the modern country/worship overlap

Florida vs Maryland music scene + the Nashville reality check

MIGGS origin story: solo → duo grind → full band lineup

Finding the right drummer/bassist + building a reliable team

Why “quality over quantity” matters (and how to avoid burnout)

Rehearsal strategy: parts, tones, transitions, and polish

Marketing consistency without repeating the same post

Recording in Nashville + using demos/AI for song ideas

Support The Shift with Mike & Joe

Website: https://www.theshiftwithmikeandjoe.com

Donate: https://www.theshiftwithmikeandjoe.com/giving-page-2-1

Email: [email protected]

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheShiftwithMikeandJoe

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theshiftwithmikeandjoe/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/61574975860350

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-shift-with-mike-joe/id1813198065

Podbean: https://joer7.podbean.com

Mike & Joe

Image & Sound Media (Joe): https://imagesoundmedia.com

Joe Bryan Music: https://www.joebryanmusic.com

Kent Island Academy of Music (Mike): https://kentislandacademyofmusic.com

Michael Waskey Music: https://www.michaelwaskey.com

MIGGS / Bobby Jackson

MIGGS (band): follow for show updates + new releases (link as available)