By Casey Neill
Now, do you know what will happen to Sam Ramsden on his Silly Stories podcast adventure?
Neither does Sam. There’s only one way to find out…
The Kilsyth electrician and father of four girls – Zahli, 9 months, Brinley, 3, Aubree, 5, and Holly, 7 – entered the podcast scene late last year.
By May, Silly Stories for Kids was topping the worldwide charts.
“It wasn’t my idea. I didn’t even conceptualise it or anything,” he told Kids, clearly still bewildered by his sudden success.
“When Holly, our oldest, was 2 and transitioning from a cot to her own bed, I used to just lay on the floor and started making up stories.”
Fast forward four years, and his father-in-law, Russell Dixon, pitched Sam an idea.
“He said ‘I’ve listened to you tell these stories for a long time now, I think you should turn it into a podcast’,” Sam said.
Russell said he’d been researching the medium for months and wanted to back the project.
“I literally just thought ‘I’ll make a little catalog of stories for my kids to show their kids one day, maybe a few friends will listen to it’,” Sam said.
He and Russell held weekly meetings and learned the ropes of podcasting.
They settled on a name – searchable, catchy – and a logo, and Sam selected a release date…which fell two and a half weeks after his fourth child was born.
“I was just too excited, I didn’t want to keep waiting,” he laughed.
“The first place I started recording was literally a supply cupboard at church.
“I taped blankets up, put up LED lighting.”
He upgraded to a recording studio he built in his back yard using a photo booth he’d bought on Facebook Marketplace.
Then an electrical job for missionary organisation Reach Beyond led to an offer to use its professional broadcast setup.
Each Silly Stories episode begins with, ‘Do you know what’s going to happen in today’s adventure? Me either.’
“That’s genuine,” Sam said.
Listeners send their names to Sam, who embeds them in a wacky story he makes up on the spot.
“I write their name on the tablet in front of me. I might start with a word or a place or the tiniest piece of an idea, and then I’ll press record,” he said.
“I love being creative. I love thinking outside the box.
“Telling stories and being silly is the most authentic version of me there is.
“My brain is exciting, to put it politely.
“When we go on a drive, me and the girls, they’ll often request a character.
“I’ll be driving as (Silly Stories favourite) Pim Pim, making jokes about seeing people on the side of the road.
“We’ll take wrong turns and things.
“To still try and be the fun and the joy in your own family, that’s what my dad did for us.
“I wanted to do that too.”
Sam explained that he has ADHD.
“So much of what I do day-to-day is trying to keep my brain on task,” he said.
“Telling stories is just sitting down, pressing record, and enjoying where my brain goes and really just having fun with it.”
Fans can rest assured that Sam’s story supply is endless.
“I’ve been doing it for five years,” he said.
“There’s never been a time I’ve sat down to tell a story and something hasn’t come out.
“I can’t actually explain how this works.
“If I tell a story, it’s almost like I’m experiencing it like the kids are.
“It flows that quickly.
“When I’m editing it, it’s like listening to it for the first time.”
His life experiences often bleed into the stories, like a story about a girl entering Food Land through an oven that emerged after Sam installed a large oven at work.
“I’m learning that the way I tell stories is fun and I think so many things are dark at the moment and so many things are so complicated,” he said.
“I think there’s a real desire amongst parents to just really help their kids have fun.”
Parents tell him they put on a Silly Stories episode when “everything is really hard”. It gives their kids a few minutes of fun and gives them a chance to reset.
Parents of children on the autism spectrum regularly tell Sam that his stories help their kids to regulate.
“My real hope is that this podcast can strengthen family relationships,” he said.
Sam’s also a church youth group leader.
“I’ve been doing that since I was 17,” he said.
“So much of what I get to do there is just be silly, be fun.”
But doesn’t he ever feel self-conscious about being silly as a grown-up? Nope.
“I think I’ve just had so much opportunity in my life to be that silly, and to be that silly in front of lots of people,” he said.
“My dad was in a band when we were little. They did fun, silly, stupid things.
“I saw people in front of large groups being silly, and people loving it.”
And doing youth ministry reinforced this.
“I’m used to being the dad in a group of dads who is mucking around and doing stupid stuff,” he said.
“I think those kinds of nerves come from putting what other people see of you higher than what should be higher – the joy and the fun and bringing some good to people’s lives is the most important thing.
“If someone thinks I’m weird or strange, I’m OK with that.
“I don’t find self-worth in what other people think.
“I’m created by God, this is what he’s created me to be.
“I love that I’m different.
“We actually need different people to be able to meet the needs of different people.
“You need diversity, you need different people with different ways of thinking.”
Sam never planned to start an electrical business.
“I literally said through my apprenticeship that you’d never find me running my own business,” he laughed.
But the company he was working for liquidated just before he was due to marry wife Olivia, who was then studying full time.
Sam had to find more work, and was soon eating his words and working for himself.
“My business journey has been terrible,” he said with his trademark broad smile, which reaches his eyes and never seems to leave his face.
“I wouldn’t be half the person that I am now if not for all the trials and troubles.”
Olivia is now on maternity leave from her role as a physiotherapist in the Austin Hospital ICU.
“She’s gifted in that kind of stuff,” Sam said, his pride obvious.
“In crazy situations, she’s comfortable and logical.
“I am incredibly blessed with the wife that I have.
“She is so supportive and encouraging of me.
“She’s my biggest supporter.
“We manage the chaos of life together.
“I wouldn’t be able to do any of this on my own.”
Sam and his family were invited onto the field with the Melbourne Football Club cheer squad a few weeks before our chat, after Sam mentioned the club in one of his stories.
“That’s mind-blowing, to think that some idiot sitting in a cupboard talking to himself could lead to these kinds of experiences,” he said.
It was the girls’ first AFL match so the bar was set high – Aubree asked if they’d get to go onto the court if they went to a netball match.
“I was trying to communicate to our kids how abnormal that experience was,” he laughed, shaking his head in disbelief.
Sam’s made connections with other podcasters, who’ve been generous with advice, and now has a manager – “which sounds ridiculous to say” – after performing an electrical safety check at his home.
He is also now working with children’s audio player company Yoto.
“We’re the kids’ podcast they’re partnering with in Australia,” he said.
Silly Stories is mentioned in the company’s press release alongside the likes of Roald Dahl, Sir Paul McCartney, Zoe Foster Blake, and Emma Memma.
“I never would have imagined this stuff in a million years,” Sam said.
“I’m just excited to see where it does go.
“I’m quite the pessimist when it comes to myself.
“There was no glimmer of a thought in my head that it would progress past my family and friends.
“I would love to be known in houses around the world and have a really positive effect, and
generate income for my family.
“I’ve got no idea where it could go.”
