🎙️ S2 E19: HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO US! One Year Older. Marginally Wiser

We celebrate one year of Awesomely Off-Topic and share what we’ve learned from 60-plus episodes, surprising global listening stats and a few glorious tangents. We talk honestly about consistency, titles, tech nerves, listener feedback and why real conversation matters more than chasing perfect numbers. 

• celebrating the one-year milestone and why we kept it low tech 
• looking at downloads, countries, cities and the Apple Podcasts spike 
• why consistency builds habits and growth comes in steps 
• what topics get traction including ADHD, neurodivergence and Q&As 
• why podcast titles and headlines matter for discovery 
• what listener messages mean to us and how they shape future topics 
• sharing the microbook programme details and how it helps creators 
• lessons on tech confidence, community and being yourself on mic 
• opening the Awesomely Off Topic hotline for listener voice notes

• This is also the episode where we kept calling Octavia Spencer Olivia. Oops. Sorry Octavia!  

If you've enjoyed this, hit follow and subscribe.. and if you want more, come and find Awesomely Off-Topic on social media. That's where all the extra bits live.

🔥☎️ 🔥 ALL NEW AWESOMELY OFF-TOPIC HOTLINE: +44 (0)33 00 272871.

Please get in touch. We'd love to hear from you. 

Transcript

Birthday Banter And Why We Started

SPEAKER_01 0:00

This is awesomely off topic where we talk books, brands, business and everything else we're not supposed to say out loud. Hi Ashtra and Tad, let's dive in.

SPEAKER_02 0:11

Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday. When you listen to this, lovely, lovely listeners, we will be one year and one day old. The dogs are sitting between us grumbling because they're climbing on top of each other.

SPEAKER_01 0:26

That's also nothing to do with your singing, of course.

SPEAKER_02 0:28

Nothing to do with that. I just tried to get Asher to sing with me as the episode started and she blank blank refused. I'm a lower alto. I think it's probably because she's more of a Claire Grogan and altered images kind of happy birthday. I am, because I'm old. But yes, our first episode, why the hell are we doing this?

SPEAKER_01 0:44

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 0:44

Weren't live on July the 27th, 2025.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

I believe so. I think so, according to Buzz Sprout, I think when I checked this morning.

SPEAKER_02 0:51

Yeah. Which means it's literally our birthday. We've been doing this for a year. For a year. Absolutely has. It's amazing. We sat down a year ago with absolutely no idea whether anybody would listen. I think we're still in the same place. We still do that now every week.

SPEAKER_01 1:08

Actually, not sure what we're going to talk about, but hey, that's a part.

SPEAKER_02 1:11

We just wanted to have the same kind of conversations we'd have over a coffee and do it really, really low tech to show that anybody could do this.

SPEAKER_01 1:19

I am actually drinking coffee now, although it's decaf. Mine is caffeinated because I don't know. I know, because that caffeinated makes me sleep and decaf is not.

SPEAKER_02 1:26

That's actually not uncommon for people with ADHD for caffeine to say. What are you saying?

SPEAKER_01 1:30

I'm not diagnosed with that.

unknown 1:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:32

I am, which of course means I'm now legally legally obliged to diagnose everybody else.

SPEAKER_01 1:37

I'm I'm having my coffee to just give myself my brain into come on, you're awake now. Record something.

SPEAKER_02 1:42

There is actually a little bit of caffeine in caffeine in decaf coffee. Same as decaf tea. Yeah. A thimble. But think about it. When I was going through many many paramours. Perimenopause. Many paramours. Oh that sounds that sounds much better, doesn't it? Sounds quite good, doesn't it? I quite like that.

SPEAKER_01 1:58

It sounds like a does it sound like a place or a character in a in a kind of fantasy novel or something. It could be, yeah. Could be it.

SPEAKER_02 2:06

It could be a hobbit.

SPEAKER_01 2:07

There's a merry in that. That could be it, couldn't it?

SPEAKER_02 2:10

Anyway, so when I was going through many paramours and I couldn't drink caffeine and went on to decaf coffee, if you remember I started getting the panic attacks that caffeine was triggered in the nut when we discovered to our horror.

SPEAKER_01 2:22

Oh you're doing lots of that today, aren't you? That's before the coffee. But yeah, it has caffeine in it. Oh, you've not started your coffee yet, all crumbs. No. Good luck, listeners. I know. Brave just has a single square of chocolate though. Sugar. Bailey, stop doing that to your sister.

unknown 2:40

Honestly.

SPEAKER_01 2:40

It's great.

SPEAKER_02 2:41

So yeah, we we set this up to be really, really low tech and just see what happened because we were we'd wanted to do a podcast for so many years and we were sick of people saying, Well, you're going to need this, you're going to need a special studio. You're going to need me at five million pounds a minute to produce it for you. And special tech for this and special tech for that. Do you bollocks? We did it on a shoestring. We've upgraded our tech since, but that's not because you need to, it's because we wanted to do that.

SPEAKER_01 3:07

And also, you wouldn't have got like creaky armchair then if people can hear that, although some of the cancelling stuff might not pick that up.

SPEAKER_02 3:13

Yeah, we've got very we are in a creaky sofa.

SPEAKER_01 3:15

Creaky sofa. Creaky sofa. Anybody would think we let the dogs jump up and down on it. Yeah.

Low Tech Podcasting On A Shoestring

SPEAKER_01 3:20

Nothing to do with us, obviously.

SPEAKER_02 3:21

So anyway, one year on year on. Happy birthday, Taz. Happy birthday, Asher. Happy birthday to awesomely off topic.

SPEAKER_01 3:27

And to all our listeners.

SPEAKER_02 3:28

Thank you for listening. Happy, happy, happy everything. May your may you all get your wildest dreams coming true just for listening to our podcast. We appreciate you all so much. We do. Thank you. Honestly. Even just that one single listener we had in Baghdad that time. We appreciate that. We love all of you. So we've recorded in the past year 60 plus episodes. Wow. Over two seasons. We've broken so many rules we didn't even know existed. But we seem to be doing alright. We've we did a quick look at the stats earlier. People have listened in 57 countries. I know that's incredible, isn't it? Including the one person in Baghdad. And it's just mad total downloads up to now. Yeah, we're not the best in the world, but at the point of recording this, we'd had 5,192 downloads. That's alright, isn't it? And given that a lot of the time we both forget to put anything on our social channels.

SPEAKER_01 4:20

Well that's the thing, we don't really promote it as we should. We don't do any irony people that were in oh, I hope that wasn't a slug I've just picked out of the dog's coat. Oh no, it was a dead fly. Oh it was a little fly. Nice, sorry. What was I gonna say? Yeah, no, considering we don't, and we're both in we used to be in PR. Really? Yeah, that risk to us because we don't promote it enough. Yeah, it's like mechanics driving out. Imagine what would happen if we did. You would say that to me.

SPEAKER_02 4:44

I know, imagine, imagine if we were all promoting it. In other words, listeners, that's because I hardly ever write it. And then I go, She's not doing it, so I'm not doing it either, and then it we kind of get to where we are now. That works out roughly, if you average it out, at 430 downloads every month. That's alright. Which equate some more, though. Yeah, we could definitely do with more. So again, if you're listening to this, if you haven't yet subscribed, shared, please, please do. It means the world to us. It really, really does. Those 430 downloads average every month also equate to an average of around 17 downloads every single day if you average it across the year.

SPEAKER_01 5:20

Cool, that's good as well. But you know what? I know a lot of listeners, know when we went to the podcast show in London this year, one of the things we were saying is don't get too, and this is for everybody, if you're just starting a podcast or thinking about doing it or you're well underway with it, don't get so obsessed with the download figures because it's also it's looking at it's looking at the trajectory, isn't it? How it over time, how it it ebbs and flows a bit too. So don't get too caught up in that. There's other metrics to look at. Yeah. Um, and obviously at some point I would imagine we'll be talking about that as well in one of these podcasts.

SPEAKER_02 5:50

Yeah, and we'll probably talk about monetisation as well, because you know, we don't do many things with sponsorship. We've had a couple of sponsored episodes, but we've monetised in other ways. So the training we've run, we've got the book that we keep saying is going to be out yet because Asher hasn't finished proofing it yet. Just gonna keep giving them a padding to hard stare.

SPEAKER_01 6:08

She is. How many times how many actually no, don't answer that, listeners. How many times have you looked at me on a one of these podcast recordings and I still haven't done it? I'm sorry I've put my clients first, but you are a client, Taz. We are a client, our our our podcast is. I know. But that's typical me, really. It's like do everybody else's stuff and then Yeah, and Osne's doing it.

SPEAKER_02 6:28

And actually, actually, listeners, we have

Downloads, Promotion Gaps, And Perspective

SPEAKER_02 6:30

a very special announcement for you. If you listen to the end, yes, we do. It's very exciting. We've got something that we set up just earlier today. We've blood, sweat, and tears. Let's just leave it there. Yeah, bit of neck, much turning out of hair. Lots of swearing from me, not from Tad. Very nearly defenestrated a couple of years. Yeah. Defenestrate. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. So we've very nearly done that. But there's something we think is really exciting. We're going to tell you about it at the end. And there's something else that's coming very, very soon which will help. Is that? Yeah. What? That other thing we've been talking about behind the scenes, but haven't hit the button on yet. That's going to help all the other podcasters out. Oh yes, that. That. That.

SPEAKER_01 7:10

Oh, exciting.

SPEAKER_02 7:11

Yeah, no, we don't want to overload you today with all the new stuff.

SPEAKER_01 7:14

I promise I do actually know what she's talking about for once. I actually do.

SPEAKER_02 7:17

We really do. And we think it's really swear word coming.

SPEAKER_01 7:21

It's really fucking exciting. I've kind of forgotten about that, but now I'm with you 100%. Yes. Yeah. That's stage two in our plan.

SPEAKER_02 7:28

It is, but it's coming. It's coming soon. You know, if you think about. Let's just say. Not too many clues, Taz. Marks and Spencer's an Aldi. Okay, cool. How do we create that for people? Yeah, okay. For podcasty people. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What's that? Is there a kind of a a group name? You mean a collective noun? A collective noun, that's it. For podcasting.

SPEAKER_01 7:51

Like a murder of crows, for instance, or a gaggle of geese. Yeah. There should be, shouldn't there? Maybe we should invent one. Please send us your answers in. That'd be fab. We'd love to hear what you think. What would be a good collective noun for podcasting? Podcasters. We'd love to hear from you.

SPEAKER_02 8:06

And again, please hang on to the end, and there'll be a really, really, really, really, really exciting. Yes, it has. Alright, move on now, Tara. Right, okay. Anyway.

The Apple Podcasts Spike Explained

SPEAKER_02 8:14

So we were talking a little bit about stats. We had do you remember us talking about the peak when all of a sudden, two episodes into our second series, Apple Podcasts went, these guys sound a bit bonkers and worth giving a bit of a push to. Suddenly we had this massive spike. And our downloads jumped from like 1400 total downloads to nearly 4,800 in a matter of weeks.

SPEAKER_01 8:38

It was fab, wasn't it? It was very exciting.

SPEAKER_02 8:40

Apple Podcasts, thank you so, so much. So if you've got a podcast, even if you're not doing much with it, consistency is the key.

SPEAKER_01 8:48

Yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_02 8:49

You know, don't fall into that trap of recording a load and then not uploading them. You really do need to stay on top of it. And when when we were at the podcast show actually earlier this year, all of the experts were saying that's the thing that lets people down the most when they just stop uploading.

SPEAKER_01 9:02

Yeah, because often what you'll happen is you'll see things will tail off and your listeners get into you want them in such a habit that they're thinking, right, that we know that Wednesday or Tuesday for us at 5am, that's to download the latest podcast.

SPEAKER_02 9:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:15

Whereas if you're not there for a couple of weeks, even even two or three weeks, even one week, you know, you can easily be out of sight, out of mind, or out of listening out there.

SPEAKER_02 9:22

Think about your favourite TV show before the days where we could just, you know, binge watch them all in one go.

SPEAKER_01 9:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:28

If you were eagerly awaiting and looking forward to your favourite show dropping, dropping on, I don't know, Wednesday evening and then it didn't appear.

SPEAKER_01 9:34

Do you know what's really annoying me? Talking about that, I'm going to go off topic again in trick. Yes, Bailey. Yes, big sigh. He knew there was an off topic

Ted Lasso And The Joy Of Drip-Feeding

SPEAKER_01 9:40

coming. But talking of that, what I got really upset about this week, I'm so excited about Ted Lasso coming back very, very soon. I believe it's August the 5th. Believe, believe. I know I love that show. Amazing.

SPEAKER_02 9:50

Shane Evans, if you're listening, shout out to you, the world's biggest Ted Lasso fan.

SPEAKER_01 9:53

Yeah, yeah, I'm the second biggest. But what I was really disappointed in, they are drip feeding it, so they're not going to put the whole lot out. No! Yeah, one episode at a time. And actually, that's quite cle that's quite clever. But does that mean that we shouldn't start watching at the start? And that we should watch it. And let it build up, but then then we're in danger of somebody kind of spoiling it for us. I know what do we do? And of course it's a women's team this time, so it's gonna be amazing.

SPEAKER_02 10:16

What else would we give a big plug to that has a beautiful Ted Lasso aspect that we've binge watched this past week?

SPEAKER_01 10:23

Oh, ride or dives. Hannah Waddingham and Olivia Spencer. Yes. Yeah, amazing. Who would ever put those two together? But you can just see their chemistry is just brilliant. I know. If you haven't watched it, it's just a brilliant series. It was just what was needed. I don't know, for whatever reason, I wasn't feeling great. I needed something that was quite light, really action-packed. It was just great. I loved it all the way through.

SPEAKER_02 10:46

I cannot conceive how anybody, it seems so ridiculous to me, how anyone would ever have thought up any kind of plan or any kind of universe where they'd put Hannah Waddingham of all people in leathers and on the back of a motorbike.

SPEAKER_01 11:01

Stop it now. No objection going, Taz. Stop it, stop it. We're being well becoming.

SPEAKER_02 11:05

I'm talking about her acting abilities. Yes, she's an amazing actress. We'd love to have that.

SPEAKER_01 11:11

If you'd like to come on the podcast, please do come and join us. We'd love to hear from you. We really would. Yeah, but I'd have to interview you because Taz would be too blushy and embarrassed, wouldn't you, Taz? No, she's cool. I'd be just too intimidated in real life. So right, she'll be sitting down, it'd be fine.

SPEAKER_02 11:29

Hannah, we love you. That was a bloody brilliant series, joking aside. If you're looking for some Olivia, if you're looking for a series to go and binge that'll just take you out of the mundane for a bit, go watch that.

SPEAKER_01 11:39

And she did a lot of round stumps, I think, as well. Oh, she was really, really cool. So yeah, we loved it. Thank you for that. Just what was needed. I think it was just after the football gloom, and I needed something to perk me up, and that exactly did the trick. So thank you. It did indeed.

SPEAKER_02 11:54

And there are some brilliant chase sequences. Oh, yeah, brilliant.

SPEAKER_01 11:58

I know you were watching it for that, Taz, obviously. Yes. The stunts and the cinematography. I'm slurping coffee. Carry on. Where are we, Taz?

Where You Listen And Global Listener Stats

SPEAKER_02 12:04

We were talking about that big peat we had, which meant that all of a sudden a big chunk of our listeners were in the US. So hello to all of us.

SPEAKER_01 12:12

What's the percentage of the city? Overseas listeners.

SPEAKER_02 12:15

Well, if you look at across the year, our top our top listeners.

SPEAKER_01 12:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:20

3,000 one 3,106 of our top listeners are in the US.

SPEAKER_01 12:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:26

1,661 of our top listeners are in the UK. Some more in the US. UF, I can't even see it. And it's a thing to remember, isn't it? We say this to so ourselves and to people with business. Growth doesn't always look like a straight line. You know, it goes in in steps. And if you look at the kind of curve of our podcast, I might drop some graphics out on this on socials. Like pr like Promo Ash. If you actually look at the novelty, eh? Promoting the website. If you look at the cumulative growth of our podcast listens since we started, there's kind of a almost flat line with a very, very shallow uptake. And then all of a sudden this big step, and then it's just continued to grow from there.

SPEAKER_01 13:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:04

So it's brilliant. Other countries after after UK USA first, then UK, and then it goes Singapore. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:13

Australia. Yeah. G'day. Sorry, that's so bad. Germany.

SPEAKER_02 13:18

Yeah. I feel quite fine mentioning Germany in the football these days. Vietnam. Japan, Spain, Canada, Russia, Ireland, Brazil, Pakistan, Ukraine, Kenya, Saudi Arabia, and Hong Kong. And then there's another 40 odd countries after that. Apparently, somebody in Uzbekistan thought we were worth a download as well. Really? I don't even know if I've pronounced that properly.

SPEAKER_01 13:42

You know what that I can really geek out on the stats. I've really enjoyed that. That's what I love about it. I love the fact that, but what I wanted to ask actually, listeners, can I just drop in there? Because it feels appropriate that at this point, not just where you are in the world, but I'd love to know without obviously it's not giving too much away, too much in intimate detail, but are you listening to us when you're out cycling or jogging or I don't know, in the car on the way to somewhere, on the way to work, or the way while you're in the office? Or while you're in the office, where are you? How are you listening to the stuff? Are you listening to us in the smallest room? Yeah, exactly. Where are you when you listen to us? Because we'd we'd love to know. We'd love to hear it. Because I've just got that I've got this lovely kind of one world vision of all these different people connected by one kind of Yeah. But wherever they are, so whether you're it's I don't know, it's midnight in London and it's whatever time somewhere else in the US, and what are you doing? And you're all tuning in and listening to various different podcasts, and probably a lot of the time thinking, what the hell are they talking about? We are why are they talking so quickly and so off topic? But seriously, drop yeah, I know Bailey, he's sighing again. But what you know, where are you? What are you doing when you're listening to us? And um, you know, all right. And why do you keep coming back?

SPEAKER_02 14:51

I mean it baffles us, and we're really glad you do. Yeah. But why? Thank you. Absolutely. And interestingly, when you when you look at starts over continents, yeah, it breaks down again.

SPEAKER_01 15:04

That would be taking the pee, wouldn't it?

SPEAKER_02 15:06

Yeah, that's all I'll listen to. Sorry. Um, our top continent is North America. Okay. So when you look at how the US figures actually break down, 60% of our downloads are in North America.

SPEAKER_01 15:18

Goodness me. Do you know what made me laugh? I know you did show me one of those stats, and it made me laugh because we've got all these places in America. I'll read that out in a bit. You're gonna read that in a bit because I've you've got to read that, because it's just the contrast.

SPEAKER_02 15:29

Yeah, the city stats are hilarious.

SPEAKER_01 15:31

Not because the cities are hilarious, it's just the contrast.

SPEAKER_02 15:34

Well, you see if you find it funny, listeners, and then let us know. So we've got 60% of our downloads are in North America, then 33% are in Europe, and then it breaks down to Asia, Oce Oceania.

SPEAKER_01 15:46

Oceania, have I said that? Oceania, Oceania. Has he got an eye in it or not? Yeah, yeah, it has.

SPEAKER_02 15:52

So Australia, New Zealand, and all of that stuff. Yeah. So South America is quite a bit lower than some of the other continents, but North America. Or French in Canada and and around and about.

SPEAKER_01 16:03

Around and about.

SPEAKER_02 16:05

Right at the top. And then after that it's Africa. So this is the city's coffee. This is what always makes us chuckle whenever we look at it, and it's the same, you know, week after week, but even looking at the overall stats, city stats, wait for it, brace yourself.

SPEAKER_01 16:19

Yeah, but if people don't know some of the ones we're mentioning, they won't probably get the humour that we will and we're explaining it. I think a lot of Brits will. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 16:27

So our top top city for downloads is the Winnie City.

SPEAKER_01 16:34

Is Chicago Chicago.

SPEAKER_02 16:37

Hello, Chicago. Hey Chicago, if you're in Chicago, give us a wave and we'll pretend we can just see you over the I'm a bit psychic. I'll I'll psychically pick up your waves. Then after Chicago, it's miami.

SPEAKER_01 16:49

Oh, Miami. I've been there twice, I think. Have you ever been to Miami? No, I haven't been to Miami. I have. Many years ago. Many, many years ago. You'll have to take me to the same. Before us, actually. Early 1990s. You'll have to take me to Miami. Okay. Maybe when the leadership is slightly less than that. I don't think they'll let us in at the moment. Or they won't I don't know. Perhaps they love us so much they wouldn't let us go. I don't know if what's worse actually, but there you go. Okay, so I mean.

SPEAKER_02 17:18

When he first got in the first time, do you remember we were running a workshop, uh a business workshop, just as the news was breaking, because I remember saying something about how could the, you know, the leader of the free world have a name that actually means fart.

SPEAKER_01 17:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:31

Anyway. Let's leave it there, right? Let's do that. Okay. So we have Chicago, Miami, Salt Lake City, and then Spaulding, Grantham, and Lincoln.

SPEAKER_01 17:41

Lincolnshire. The flatlands. Middl Middler, the middle of England. They really are. Bless them, isn't it? It's really funny. But there you go.

SPEAKER_02 17:50

So yeah, what a variety though. How are we significantly more popular in Chicago than we are in Lincolnshire?

SPEAKER_01 17:58

It's a windy city, and we know how windy I can do. Well, you're very windy. I know. I don't know. I'm not entirely sure. Perhaps they I know some Americans like Brit accents, maybe it's that. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 18:08

Yeah, man, I just love their accents.

SPEAKER_01 18:11

What was that?

SPEAKER_02 18:11

I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 18:12

I'm sorry, I do apologise now. My wife's really bad. Well, think about it. You've only got to think about the World Cup.

SPEAKER_02 18:18

If I try and do an accent, she always takes the Mickey out of me.

SPEAKER_01 18:21

Right. I don't want us to offend anybody with their accents. But anyway. Whatever. What I was gonna say. Whatever. What I was gonna say. Oh crumbs. Carry on. No, I forgot what I was gonna say now. Carry on. I can't I honestly can't remember now. It was something about accents and where were we? Anyway, carry on, Tad. Yeah. I've gone off I've fallen off my white.

SPEAKER_02 18:42

We would genuinely love to hear from you. Those of you in the US, why is it what makes you like our podcast? It's amazing that you do. Honestly, we could not be more grateful. But our humour, I think, is very British.

SPEAKER_01 18:55

Yeah, but you know, things at the moment across the Atlantic, Ted Lasso mixes the two really well, actually, doesn't it? However good the World Cup was, it will always be football, not soccer. Sorry, American listeners, it's football. We came up with it first. Football, not soccer, I believe. But there you go.

SPEAKER_02 19:13

If it means you'll keep listening to our podcast, I don't mind if you call it soccer if you call it Gorgonzola.

SPEAKER_01 19:18

Netball.

SPEAKER_02 19:19

Netball. Set the hand of God. You can call it cream cheese with fairy lights for all I guess.

SPEAKER_01 19:28

That would be very messy. Very messy. Oh, I said I'll never say the name again in this. Well, that was a bit of an argy bargy. Oh dear, let's not go there. Okay, so yeah, so what is it?

SPEAKER_02 19:39

Because you know, our our humour's very British. I guess our coaching style is international. We've c we've coached people all over the world, so that's not that kind of you know, that's that's gonna quote.

SPEAKER_01 19:48

And they're still breathing, which is always an advantage. Yeah. Maybe it's because you guys are more used to listening to podcasts during your commutes. Is that it? Maybe it just makes you laugh because we're just so random. Maybe it's Or is it just because we're so lost. Or perhaps we're absolutely infuriating and you just want to, you know, have a r a rant after you've listened to us. Or maybe it's that perhaps it's our sexy voices. Maybe it is too. This isn't just any podcast. This is an MS podcast. Oh no, I'll get oh yes please, sponsorship by MS. I love their food. Oh, anyway.

SPEAKER_02 20:16

Didn't my mum once refer to your multiple sclerosis diagnosis as MS. Yes. She told you your MS was an affliction. This isn't just any multiple sclerosis. Oh, you've got to laugh about these things sometimes, don't you? You have. You really do. So it starts with what more stats.

What Topics Perform Best And Why

SPEAKER_01 20:36

That much really rumbling, I don't know why. Must be that chocolate I had before.

SPEAKER_02 20:40

Most individual episodes settle at between 90 to 105 downloads. Okay. So of course we'd we'd love to grow that, but that's really consistent across all of them. Yeah. Since that big spike, if we look back, that's pretty much.

SPEAKER_01 20:52

What would happen, Taz, if we promoted it? Imagine if we were all promoting it.

SPEAKER_02 20:58

The biggest episode fairly recently is still series two, episode two, where that spike happened.

SPEAKER_01 21:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:05

Which was the first time somebody paid for our brains.

SPEAKER_01 21:07

I'll tell you what, can I just drop in while I think of it actually? I don't know if anybody listens to it, but uh today I was just listening, I love listening to other podcasts. I started really getting into listening quite into quite a few. And one of them is Joe Wiley and Zoe Bull in the UK. Brilliant, brilliant podcast called Digging It, Digging It. And I've got loads of ideas from that, and that the way they work with their podcasts, it's really fab. So if you're listening, ladies, we'd love to get you on the show. But honestly, we've learned so much. We did. Yeah, we did. We did. Yeah. So it's been, yeah, it's it was really interesting. I was listening to another episode this morning, and yeah, it's been really good. So thank you for that. Give me lots of pointers and lots of enthusiasm for what is possible for podcasting. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 21:50

Totally. What'd you write Nash? If you had to guess, what'd you write and our our highest ever downloaded episode has been?

SPEAKER_01 21:58

I think I know because I think I know where it was last year, so I'm guessing it might still not last year, the beginning of this year, perhaps February, March I checked last time. Yeah. And I'm guessing it's gonna be AMA. Ask me anything. Yeah, the first ever stuff you asked us live. From series one. Yeah. Well, we just went r we ran with it live. We didn't look at the questions beforehand and we just went for it. So uh yeah, I would imagine that's scored quite highly. Yeah. Um what else was it? Followed by. I would imagine because it's an interesting it's a subject really close to our hearts. Not that everything isn't, but this one I couldn't. ADHD, I would imagine, that's up there as well. Which one? Well, I'm guessing because of the length of time it's been live, so people have been able to it'll be the early one from series one. So that's what everyone ADHD friendly business truths. Okay, first series. What else, what else? I don't know. What else is on there, Tad? The first ever episode. Okay. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:55

Which was 16 minutes longer. Now we think nothing of smashing through an hour. Although by the time we got to about an hour, Ash is you're usually nudging me or vice versa.

SPEAKER_01 23:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:03

And telling me to look at the clock, which is normally when we haven't set a timer.

SPEAKER_01 23:06

22 minutes and 59 seconds so far, but I think it's just over that because I forgot to put this timer on as I normally do. By about 10 seconds, 20 seconds. I know. I know.

SPEAKER_02 23:17

If you are if you look across the board and look at the ones I'm bored. The one the one that everybody's feeling right now while we waffle. No, that's bored as to opposed to be bored.

SPEAKER_01 23:29

But you're bored because of your No, bored as opposed to board.

SPEAKER_02 23:36

Are you talking about people who don't have hair?

unknown 23:39

No.

SPEAKER_02 23:40

Bald, because that sounds the same with your accent. Bald as in a children's right. Well that's that's what you were saying. What do you mean? Across the board. But also B-O-R-E-D. Yeah, but it sounds very different. It doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_01 23:58

No, but mine sounds different.

SPEAKER_02 23:59

Bored bored. So if you're sitting in a boardroom and you're bored, they sound different. Yeah, they do. Go on then.

SPEAKER_01 24:06

You're watching my mouth and the shape of it. Let's say somebody is sitting in a boardroom and is bored. Sitting in a boardroom and they're bored. That's different. But the shape of my mouth, it's different. What do you think? No, they're not. You should look at your own. Tell us listeners. Anyway, carry on, Taz. Carry on.

SPEAKER_02 24:27

That's why the whole joke occurs about people being bored in the boardroom.

SPEAKER_01 24:30

I'm bored net bored now.

SPEAKER_02 24:33

Wow. Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_01 24:37

Carry on, Tuz. Carry on.

SPEAKER_02 24:39

Somebody turned your life support off or something, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_01 24:41

So rude. I know. So rude. I'm gonna slurp my my mug. My mug now. My copy of my mug. I thought they did, but there you go.

SPEAKER_02 24:52

Anyway, we're sharing this because we're hoping for those of you who are who are running your own podcast, this might be some some interesting information for you. If you look across the board, board. I'm not saying anything else. I'm not commenting on it at all now. Which when Asher says it also sounds like bald, as in hairless. If she talks about it's in the same way that we can't always tell if she's talking about wool as in yarn or a wool that holds up a milk.

SPEAKER_01 25:22

I've never learned to enunciate, and I've got an estuary accent that's really not nice.

SPEAKER_02 25:27

It's not, you've got a lovely accent. I haven't. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:30

I forget sometimes I'm a bit postial when I make an effort, but at this time of night I can't be.

SPEAKER_02 25:35

It's just a fascination, though, isn't it? It's the same thing with blessing when my dad was still with us and he's still got bits of his brummy accent twang going on. I remember when I was a really little kid laughing at him because I said that when he said tie it sounded like toy, and when he said toy, it sounded like tie. Okay. Anyway, so this might be useful for anybody recording their own podcast. If you look across the board, the episodes that seem to get the most amount of traction are the ones that are to do with ADHD and Eurodivergence. Yeah. The QA's, and anything to do with kind of business truths and breaking myth busting kind of episodes.

SPEAKER_01 26:11

But it also comes down to having those really good headlines. So those titles, you've your podcast titles are so, so important. And that was drilled into us. We knew that anyway, with our journalistic background, we've lived with the importance of headlines all through our careers pretty much. So we understand that. But also going into podcasting, it's in the same way as it is if you've got a tabloid. It's got to be a headline that draws people in, and that's what make sure those headlines are really your ta your titles of your podcast.

SPEAKER_02 26:38

And for those of you who are doing video-based podcasts, we don't do all of ours video. It's a good job we're not today because we're both sitting in kind of desktops and pajama shorts.

SPEAKER_01 26:47

We are. I've got what have I got? Oh, is that why? What's he called? That who? That's Lilo and Stitch. Oh, I've got Lilo and Stitch on mine, yeah. Yeah.

unknown 26:56

You have.

SPEAKER_02 26:57

It's too hot, so is it. I can't see they're so short, um donuts and inflatable swim rings in the shape of flamingos and unicorns. Nice. Everybody should have some. Except as we're vegan, it's probably a unicorn. Unicorn. Another sponsor, potentially. I'm very singy today, am I? Yeah. So if you look at the topics we've covered over the year, this made me laugh as well. Look at all the topics we've covered and how random this has been. Go on then. And thank goodness we went for all some of the off topics as our title. Well that one of so many.

SPEAKER_01 27:31

It did.

SPEAKER_02 27:32

In one year we have somehow managed to cover ADHD, business, branding, AI, books, grease, ducks, horses, visibility, neurodivergence, burnout, dogs, beckum, retrogrades, as in planetary retrogrades, ecosystems, why St. George now has blue eyes. Oh yes. AI taking over the world and whether success gives you amnesia.

SPEAKER_01 28:04

And that's not everything, that's just a few. Somehow it all managed to make sense. Did it? Did it ever really for you? I'm not sure if it did for me. It did for me. I think I'm still trying to work out most of them.

SPEAKER_02 28:14

I think so. Yeah, and it's we we were saying this earlier, weren't we? That the the numbers are lovely and all those stats about where our listeners are in the world are lovely. But what really, really matters to us more than anything are the messages.

SPEAKER_01 28:28

Yeah, and we've had some really lovely ones, haven't we?

SPEAKER_02 28:30

We've had some gorgeous ones. We've had some beautiful fan mail coming through the BuzzSprite Sprout website. We've had just amazing, amazing messages. Every time we get messages after every episode, pretty much we get messages on Instagram and WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger from people who've told us that they've they've they've listened to to some to the episode and this is what they've got from it. Let me actually just read out one I had last

Listener Messages And The Microbook Offer

SPEAKER_02 28:54

week.

SPEAKER_01 28:54

Oh yes, please do.

SPEAKER_02 28:56

And it's the one where I was talking about some of my confidence levels around some of the books that are put out there that in spite of being best sellers, I I hadn't. Because you're up to about ten now, aren't you? What books? Yeah. Seven. Seven. Seven actually published. Because let's think about it. I've got the one that I've got the novel that I'm writing. Yeah. I've got the micro book that is written and I just haven't done anything with.

SPEAKER_01 29:20

And that was coming. That was coming. I've just dropped myself in it. As soon as I said that, I thought, Asher, why did you say that? When were you? And that would make it ten, wouldn't it? Yes, it would.

SPEAKER_02 29:31

And that's not counting the ones that the ones that I've contributed chapters to. But it always makes me like because A-L-E-X-A always thinks I've done more. Alexa!

SPEAKER_00 29:43

Who is Taz Thornton? Taz Thornton is an author of at least 11 books. Their most popular books were Whispers from the Earth, teaching stories from the ancestors, beautifully woven for today's spiritual seekers. The little book of Chat GPT. 102 Prompts to Boost Your Brand, Business, and Brain Power. And the little book of ADHD life hacks. 100 strategies for smarter, happier days.

SPEAKER_02 30:08

Thank you. So you see, Alexa thinks I've written 11 books. Always makes me laugh that.

SPEAKER_01 30:14

I'm not sure Math is a strong.

SPEAKER_02 30:15

Let me try and search for this comment because it was really lovely. And it kind of made my eyes water a little bit. So it was after I'd been talking about.

SPEAKER_01 30:22

Were you chopping onions at the same time?

SPEAKER_02 30:24

Yeah. It was after I'd been talking about having a bit of a confidence dip round some of my books. This was from Claire Pritchard, who runs butterfly cupcake. Hi Claire. She's lovely, lovely, lovely. She is. She's a bit Welsh. But that's okay. She said, Hi lovely, hope you don't mind me messaging. I just listened to your podcast and what you said about Whispers from the Earth actually made me cry. That is so sad. It's a fantastic book, and you and so are all your others. I love to say what? You should be shouting about them all because I can say from personal experience that every one of your books have helped me in some way, and I'm sure a lot of people say that as well. So stop being a negative Nelly brackets. I say that with love. You are amazing. I hope my book is half as good as yours and as helpful. Go shout about them.

SPEAKER_01 31:12

Oh, that's lovely. That's really, really lovely. And I think that's what you needed. Yeah. Because you were on a bit of a downer, and it wasn't just to do with the football, although that didn't help.

SPEAKER_02 31:19

And you know, I didn't make those comments for sympathy, it's just it was genuinely how I was feeling.

SPEAKER_01 31:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:25

And Claire is going to write her own books and because for anyone listening who's interested, we don't very often plug our own stuff on here, but those micro books we're talking about, the little book of later this year. Asher's running another one of her microbook programmes where you can come and work with her for six weeks, is it? Yeah, six weeks. Um, it's all done online.

SPEAKER_01 31:43

All done on Zoom, so anywhere in the world you can come and join in. And then all the sessions are recorded. So if you can't make one of the live sessions, you can catch up catch it on the replay. And we also set up a WhatsApp group so we can keep you accountable, keep you going with your book. And at the end of it, you have a designed manuscript ready to print.

SPEAKER_02 32:03

So yes, yeah, whether you want to do it on Amazon or on Ingram Spark or with your own printer.

SPEAKER_01 32:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:09

So anybody here who wants to get a book done very, very quickly, one of these little micro books, they're really popular now, they're brilliant marketing tools. Drop Asher online. I think she closures it at 12 people, don't you? You've not really started to promo it yet. And how much is it, Ash, for the whole programme?

SPEAKER_01 32:23

Um it's £650. Um, payable in installments, you don't have to put it all in one go. And at the end of it, obviously you have a great book and loads of opportunity to market yourself with it as well. So there you have it.

SPEAKER_02 32:33

If you want to write a micro book, come and join us. Get in touch, get in touch. I'm just having a look at some of the other feedback we had after last week's. What's your been your favourite bit of feedback that's come through, Ash?

SPEAKER_01 32:44

Oh goodness me. I think there's been a few comments about obviously some of the ADHD stuff that we've talked about, particularly one of the the later episodes that we've done in this series in season two, the last couple that we've done, when we've had people saying, you know, r they're really identifying with it, and thank you so much for talking about some of the the topics that not many people do talk about around it. So, you know, being kind of brutally honest about our own challenges. And that really makes me feel like we're we're helping in some small way. So that's really good. That's really made me happy. Yeah that it's good that we've found the you know the the courage to do it because sometimes it can be really difficult to talk about that. It's very easy, and particularly when you've been in the line of work that we've been in where it's been about telling other people's stories and suddenly turning that spotlight on our us. And I know particularly for me that's really difficult. So it's lovely when you hear that kind of you get that kind of feedback.

SPEAKER_02 33:36

Yeah, it's really a lovely, lovely feedback, and I could keep reading more and more off there's loads. But again, that that's what drives us to keep doing this, I think. You know, the the people who tell us that they laughed in the car or they're having a bad day and something made them smile.

SPEAKER_01 33:49

Or in the supermarket, or in the supermarket, or on the train station platform.

SPEAKER_02 33:53

Or something we said that to us was second nature but to them has been a real breakthrough for their business. Those people who say that episode arrived exactly when they needed it. And all the conversations that essentially started because there's something really daft that we said that was really off the cuff. So I think that's the bit the messages and the feedback, that's the bit we will never ever stop being grateful for. Yeah, I mean the world. I really do. So thank you. Thank you. And if there's something you want us to cover more or more in depth or go over again in any way, please, please, please let us know. So what about what about lessons, Ash?

Lessons Learned About Confidence And Tech

SPEAKER_02 34:28

If we said let's have, I don't know, five lessons each for from the past year about crumbs. About podcasting, about what what might help other people with the podcast, about business.

SPEAKER_01 34:42

Well, I I I remember from the first conversation we had talking about this months, years before we actually found the courage, plucked up the courage to do it and just you know, go for it. One of the things that I really worried about was I wasn't sure how I'd stand up to doing it, doing this regularly, you know, and would my I don't know, would anybody want to hear my voice for a starter, you know, for a starter? And and actually all the intricacies, all the kind of tech thing, which is not my my strong point. Thank you, Gladys. Well done.

SPEAKER_02 35:12

Don't know if the mic's gonna pick that up, or Gladys is sitting right underneath the laptop and just kind of gave us a or the other end.

SPEAKER_01 35:18

Oh, it was this end, it was it was a head end. That's good. So there was that going on, and also then about you know how I'd manage with all the tech and stuff as well. And actually, we've kept it really simple, and that's my and the technology now is just incredible. The things that you can do. I've learned so much from all these kits that we've you know, we've we've gradually upgraded, haven't we? The kit, and we haven't spent a huge amount of money at all, but the sound quality's improved, I think. We've learnt quite a bit. Going to the podcasting show was just brilliant, such a lovely community of people that we met there. I was just a very different community to anything I've experienced before, really. But so much crossover of what we've done in our careers up to d to date, and then to meet with other people and get a real kind of a a different vibe again, but just really supportive and really interesting people that we met, and just such there was that real curiosity about other people's podcasts and wanting to to support and be supportive, and I really like that, and I think we can learn so much from that that approach to things, you know, in all all types of businesses to support one another instead of kind of you know, you know, always thinking, well, what are they up to? But I just found it the whole thing was really welcoming. So I really enjoyed that. And I think also it was about it's about trusting in your audience to to listen and want to come back because that's the other thing, and we've talked about that earlier, but actually they do want to come back and listen to us again and to join in, and when we get those lovely comments, that just keeps me spurs me on. So there's been so many things I've learned. But the tech particular, I think for me, has eased my worries about it a little bit. Had a little bit more of that today, and we'll explain in a little while why that why that happened. I know, um, but it's been worth it, I'm sure. I hope you're gonna agree on that one. Exciting. It's making my toes all curly. Oh dear, off she goes again. Um, but yeah, so that again has shown me that actually I can do things, and we can do things, and we can learn new ways of working with the tech that's out there. So and there's people there to support us and help us with that.

SPEAKER_02 37:19

Yeah. The other thing I loved about the podcast show is the people we met there and have kept in touch with afterwards. Yes. So we met Chloe Fergie, who is the studio supervisor over at the Flamingo Heights Podcast Studio in Newcastle. Hi, Chloe. Lovely. So big shout out to it. So great to see you again, wasn't it? Yeah, we met her there, we got chatting, we chatted a bit online, we we we all had the same favourite podcasts, we've all got a little bit of um nurdery geekery going on between us, and then we bumped into her again and her boss uh Atomicon when we went there. Yeah, exactly. It was great, wasn't it? And the pieces of kit we saw there when we looked in enviously at people wandering around with with with little DJI cameras there, and we went, we want one of those. Yeah. We went and got one of those, and that meant that then when we went to Atomicon, big shout out to Andrew and Pete and all the amazing people there, particularly Rapindacore, who was one of my speaker training graduates and smashed it at Atomicon this year. Sure did, yeah. We did some little video podcast clips around around Atomicon. We've not even put them all out yet.

SPEAKER_01 38:21

And I loved that because guess what? This is a little tiny thing of on my wish list. I've always wanted to have a mic with a proper little, you know, the little square logo box on the microphone. On the microphone, I've always wanted that, and it gave me an excuse to have one, and I was so excited and so happy to do that. So thank you, everybody, that uh allowed me to interview them just for a few minutes.

SPEAKER_02 38:42

Although backstage, we were doing that so late at night, I was printing off the branding to actually stick on to the microphone box because it just comes as a plain black box. So I ordered some special vinyl to print on it, and because I was so tired, I actually stuck the stickers on every side of that 13 times, one on top of the other. So the microphone box, it branded box, is like five times wider than it should be. It's not really. But just when I thought I'd got it perfect and picked it up when I've done it, I'd put them on upside down so I had to go again. So it literally has 13 layers of stickers on it.

SPEAKER_01 39:19

I didn't know there were 13 layers. Oh well, you got there in the end, but yeah, I loved it, so thank you. Because that helped me achieve one of my dreams to do that. So don't worry, there'll be more of that coming up. Yeah, and if you love a good vox pop.

SPEAKER_02 39:29

If you run an event and you want us to come and do awesome of the off-topic vox pops around there, we'd love to, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:34

Get in touch, I'd love to do that. I've always I'll be your roving reporter. I can I can talk the legs, uh, hind legs off a donkey, but I can also listen really well to an interview well. So if you want me to come and do that, ask to come and do it, we'd be happy to do it. So get in touch.

SPEAKER_02 39:47

And if you if we interviewed you at a TomaCon and you're like, well, I haven't seen my video yet, we're drip feeding them. So don't worry, we we have not stopped. You are still gonna get the line lock. We've only actually put two out, I think.

SPEAKER_01 39:57

I think so. We need to do some.

SPEAKER_02 39:58

We've got quite a few more. We just need to get round to you know if imagine if we were all doing it, our show. There's a bit of a theme here, Taz. Go on then, talk about it. Talk about podcast studios for people who do feel like they need a studio. We've we've actually we're actually gathering quite a good collection of podcast studio connections now.

SPEAKER_01 40:15

Yeah, we are.

SPEAKER_02 40:15

So we've got Flamingo Heights over in Newcastle.

SPEAKER_01 40:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:19

If you're southwest, look up Rob at the Pursuit Agency, Pursuit Digital Agency.

SPEAKER_01 40:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:25

Because he's converted part of his office and them or kind of twinned in Bristol way into a podcast studio up on the top floor. And I know he works with Jodie Fraser on the Beyond Four Worlds podcast.

SPEAKER_03 40:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:37

So that's one in the South West, one in Newcastle. If anybody else has podcast studios all over the world and you want us to add you to our little list of places for any of our clients who want to go and do it in the studio. Do podcasters do it better in a studio? Probably. That should be a t-shirt, shouldn't it?

SPEAKER_01 40:55

Podcast in the car. Is there a bad joke about reverb in there or something? I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 41:01

Anyway, let us know. Anywhere in the world where you've got a podcast studio that's just for that, let us know. We'll we'll give you a shell. We'll add you to our little podcast studios. Because it would be lovely to have be able to send people

Consistency, Real Talk, And Studio Options

SPEAKER_02 41:12

all over the world. So what what have my some of my lessons been over the I mentioned it earlier, but consistency definitely beats perfection. Definitely. I mean, if you listen to our early episodes compared to the ones now, they're all fairly rough because we make a promise that we're not going to edit anything. We don't edit, we don't polish them apart from just bringing up the sound levels. We don't do anything, we just record it off the cuff. We maybe have some bullet pointer topic to talk about, but we do not have a script that we stick to. Sometimes we'll make notes before I've just chucked coffee all over myself. Um sometimes we make a few bullet pointed notes to refer back to, and we usually tell you when we've got that. Let me just refer back to my notes. But we just keep going. And I've got to say that since committing to doing this every week, it's become one of my favourite times of the week to sit down and just record some podcasts with you.

SPEAKER_01 42:03

Oh, that's lovely. Me too.

SPEAKER_02 42:06

But we don't we weren't given ourselves the time to sit together, and yes, it's work, but it's working. Doesn't feel like work, does it? No, exactly that. And that's the way it should be. This has been one of become Merlin Merlin.

SPEAKER_01 42:16

Merlin wants to get in on the celebratory of the.

SPEAKER_02 42:19

This has become one of the highlights of my working week. It really has. So that's it.

SPEAKER_01 42:22

But to any of my listeners, we're not starving him. He's had his tea today, he's had his dinner, so he's just trying it on, and he's had snacks as well. He's been a proverbial fat cat once in more. He is 16, he's 16 and a quarter, he's doing very well. So back to me. Okay, sorry, Tal. Sorry.

SPEAKER_02 42:37

Back to my my my most favourite topic in the world. That's not true, actually. I'm taking the Mickey, it really isn't. I'd much rather talk about other people. This is very similar, so where consistency beats perfection, one of the other things that's really been hammered home to me, and again, not just through our experience, but talking to lots of other podcasters and at the podcast show as well, was conversation beats performance. Don't try and perform or sound as you think a podcast host should sound, just be you.

SPEAKER_01 43:05

It's in the same way that I talk to people about if they're writing a I don't know, a press release or something or a blog, not so much a blog, but if they're trying to get a press release out to media and suddenly they've they've got this this whole kind of different language pattern and different way of putting across their key points, you know, in the press release, and it doesn't sound like them. Would you actually say that if somebody spoke to you, would you say that to them in in that way? No, probably not. You know, make it as personable as you can because that's going to make it more, you know, appealing to your readers. And the same for podcasts as well, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 43:36

That's one of the reasons, you know, that we don't you will sometimes hear us swear on it, and we always, you know, tick the little explicit box when we're uploading them because Yes, of course we can switch off the language, but Ash and I are both former journalists. And, you know, swearing is kind of part of part of our repertoire, it's part of our vocabulary. And if I was going to try and tone this down and make it absolutely sanitised, that wouldn't be me. I can do that when I'm being interviewed for the BBC. I've done that a few times. If I'm live on radio.

SPEAKER_01 44:10

But this is us. Roy Kent in um Ted Lasso. Yeah. He he swears quite a bit.

SPEAKER_03 44:16

Fucking hell!

SPEAKER_01 44:17

Yeah, he does. I know. And just like that, yeah. But he's like somehow, I don't know, perhaps you are offended by that, but for me, that's just his character, that's the way he is, in the same way that and we did swear a lot as journalists. Yeah. Usually on deadline.

SPEAKER_02 44:30

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So I'm not big on using them like commas. No, but it's it's me. Well honesty. I've always been a big advocate of this, but people love honesty.

SPEAKER_03 44:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:43

And I don't think we really hold back on this. There've been times recording this where I've been a bit choked up, you've been a bit choked up, we've been we've been furious, we've been passionate, we've been not in that way, we've been we've been livid, we've been really wound up about the subject we've talked about, we've we've done rants, but it's all real and none of it is performative. And it's a bit like you were saying earlier about don't try and sound like a podcast host. It's the same thing we teach when we do the heart of speaking, isn't it? The speaker our speaker training programs. But there's nothing worse than somebody trying to sound like a speaker. And we the there's a really information-heavy, uh really well put together series of YouTube videos. I'm not going to drop who it is, but they're clearly kind of a layperson, not a journalist. There's some brilliant information in there, but what what is really off-putting is that they try to present in the way that they think a newsreader would present.

SPEAKER_01 45:40

Oh, I know. Well, when you mean yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 45:42

Yeah, it's quite political. Yeah. And obviously, I'm not talking about Jonathan Pye, who's brilliant. This is supposed to be a serious broadcast. But because of the way they speak when they're holding the microphone, they sound way too much like a stereotypical comedy newswriter, newsreader.

SPEAKER_01 45:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 45:58

So you're too busy like a newscast.

SPEAKER_01 46:00

You're too busy focusing on that in instead of the content, what they're saying, what they're trying to go through.

SPEAKER_02 46:05

You're giving me some brilliant information, but you sound a bit like a Burke.

SPEAKER_01 46:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 46:10

Not of the Michael variety, who did it much better.

SPEAKER_01 46:13

Yeah. But it yeah, I get you. And it's that it's about your voice, isn't it? Your true voice, not a kind of, you know, a a prescriptive voice or a voice that you think sounds acceptable.

SPEAKER_02 46:22

You're absolutely right, yeah, Asher. Yes, it is, and now back to you in the studio. We're not in the studio for now. We're on the sofa. We're not on our sofa, on our sofa in our pajama shorts and vest tops and without browsers.

SPEAKER_01 46:32

Oh lovely. Nice, eh, everybody. And it all hang out. I know. My knees are hurting, they're a bit breezed. Don't be so silly. Everybody else is breezes.

SPEAKER_02 46:40

The other thing I've learned just don't don't run if anybody's behind you. The other thing I've learned is that this is something we talked about a lot up front. We wondered if we'd actually manage to get any traction because we didn't want to create a guest-led podcast.

SPEAKER_01 46:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 46:58

We wanted it to be about us and the things we wanted to share, the lessons we wanted to impart, some coaching, some business advice, and every now and then we would bring in a guest. And we worried about that up front because we were thinking, surely if somebody's bringing in a guest, it's the guest sharing it that's going to get the traction and the footfall. Yeah, get the numbers up. Yeah, the stats. And yet we know from some of our clients and some of the podcasters we've spoken to, some of who've been going longer than us, maybe not as frequently, but we've managed to pull in higher views than people with regular guests. So I d I don't know why that is. Whether it's just to do I maybe it's the consistency thing again. Yeah. I think we see a level of promotion. I think so.

SPEAKER_01 47:44

Yeah, what promotion? Imagine if we were all promoting it. No promotion. But that but I think the consistency, and that again, that was something that was one of the things I know when I looked at my notes when we came away from the podcasting show, that was one of the things I'd got consistency, the great big capital letters, because that was one of the things that was really drilled home to us, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_02 48:02

And the other thing though that's really that that we've really gone for is if something comes up between episodes, don't shy away from just doing an off-the-cuff, really kind of short intermediate episode. Yeah. You know, we did a couple of those when we're in Athens. One we didn't post until months afterwards because I ADHD brains. We did one after the spike, we did one talking about the sh the podcast studio, which we're not in right now because it's too bloody hot.

SPEAKER_01 48:32

Yeah, it is quite hot over there.

SPEAKER_02 48:34

But for those of you in the in the States or overseas, the heat in the UK is very, very different. And of course, all our houses and buildings over here are built to keep the heat in.

SPEAKER_01 48:44

And suddenly we're like, what the what's happening? I mean, our house is about 25 years old, isn't it? So it's not a matter of time. We moved into it new, didn't we? Yeah, so we were the first owners.

SPEAKER_02 48:52

Still here, this was going to be our UK houses did not come with air kind of standard because we've never needed it.

SPEAKER_01 48:58

They're all insulation everywhere, and you know, big combi boilers to make it hot. But it's of course, you know, in this weather, so we've now got a portable air conditioning unit, but over the studio we haven't at the moment. No one's seriously thinking about getting one.

SPEAKER_02 49:11

Our studio is on the top floor of of an industrial unit, I guess, in the not a unit, a a building, a house. It's a it's a both of printers.

SPEAKER_01 49:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 49:20

On the edge of a city. Yeah. So glass all around, and I I suppose it's hotter because it's the top floor, so it's closer to the sun.

SPEAKER_01 49:29

Merlin agrees with you. Merlin, you're gonna get a sore throat, mate. You're not having any more troops of a blow.

SPEAKER_02 49:34

You don't need celebrity guests. Love your males. And the other thing I would say is don't worry too, don't get caught up on the numbers. Because your people will find if you if you're consistent and if you just let people know it's there, your people will find you eventually. Yeah. Anything else you'd add in terms of lessons so far? What lessons have you learned so far, Ralphia Clearwater, in our year of producing podcasts together? Over to you.

SPEAKER_01 49:59

No, just to relax. We're gonna get stuck now in that, aren't they? Yeah, I've just I think just relax into it. Because I know there's times when I've not been so relaxed for whatever reason, if I'm not having a great day. And you know, our voices can show a lot of emotion. They can also display some of the emotion sometimes we don't want to display.

SPEAKER_02 50:17

God, they were displaying some emotion earlier on when we were trying to set up the tech for this thing we're gonna announce it, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 50:22

No, that was yeah. I was yeah, I'm glad we weren't recording that because that wouldn't have been very nice.

SPEAKER_02 50:27

In fact, when we'd finished, you actually said I don't think we should record a podcast today because I don't think we'll be in the frame of mind for both that stressed.

SPEAKER_01 50:34

I know, but we're okay now because it's all sorted, so that's good. But it took far longer than we anticipated. Mary, I'm alright, yeah, I'm okay. So what about this? Are we on to this announcement now? Are we still in the house? I think we should be.

SPEAKER_02 50:46

I think we should. And I think one final point from me again, please, please, please share and subscribe and download and all of that. It really, really helps. But we'd love to hear from you if you've been listening for a while, and feel free to go back to you know, awesomely off topic on wherever you listen to your podcasts or to the Buzz Sprout website and look at all the episodes as a reminder. But which episode do you think that every new listener should start with? Which has been the best one for you, and which conversation has stayed with you the most? We'd love to hear those things. Yeah, that's because where you listen, not just being the world, but where, as in, which room, and when, and what under what circumstances?

SPEAKER_01 51:25

Yeah, cool.

SPEAKER_02 51:26

So, yeah, we press record a year ago with no expectations.

New Hotline Announcement And How To Call

SPEAKER_01 51:30

There we are. And we're still going strong. That's good.

SPEAKER_02 51:33

Yeah, like it. So, one thing we wanted to be able to announce for you that we are we have live and ready to go specifically for our one year anniversary. I feel like we need a drum roll, Taz. I'm just moving in my seat now.

SPEAKER_01 51:47

Come on, then do a drum roll. No, I can't. I don't think so. I'll do it on my tummy. Come do here. I don't know if we can add one in afterwards. Okay, that's fine.

SPEAKER_02 51:56

We have brand new autumnly off topic hotline. Hotline is open and ready for you. You can ring it anytime you like, day or night, and you will get Asher and I on a recorded message, leaving you a space where you can tell us anything. And it's where you can leave messages where if we choose you, if you're leaving something really interesting and you're really awesome, we will share some of those voice messages on future episodes of Awesomely off topic. So whether you've got something you want to rant about, something you've loved about an episode, something you've hated about an episode, whether you've got a bee in your bonnet, whether we've talked about something that's really resonated with you or sparked some interest or got you to think about something in a different way. If we have, I don't know, helped you to do something differently in your life, business, built your confidence, anything at all, we want to hear from you. And you can just ring that number and leave us a message, and then we will get a recording of that message and we'll play some of them on the show. And we're very, very excited about it.

SPEAKER_01 53:00

We are. What I want to say as well is I think there's some lovely kind of synergy or some lovely links with this because we were talking about it earlier before we set this up, and one of the things that got Taz and I together is you probably, if you listen to earlier podcasts, is that we listened to each other's voices, and that's how we met after that.

SPEAKER_02 53:18

It wasn't even an app, it was a dating dating column in a magazine. We didn't have that.

SPEAKER_01 53:22

It was all about the voice, and I find it really interesting that now we want to hear from you and your voices because you know we've loved the support we've had and we'd love to hear from you. And now you can actually be part of the show. Yeah. Asher, do you want to read the number? Is Plus 44 if you're calling in from outside the UK, but it's otherwise it's 033 00 272871 or 033 00272871. 033 002 72871. Um please get in touch. We'd love to hear from you. It'd be really cool to hear from you, to hear where you're listening to us from in around the world, and uh all your messages would be wonderful.

SPEAKER_02 54:01

Oh, the number in the really crap newscaster voice would be 033 002 72871.

unknown 54:10

Very good.

SPEAKER_01 54:11

So please, please, please for the rest of the night now. I know I'm stuck now.

SPEAKER_02 54:15

It's like when I start talking scouts, isn't there, guys?

SPEAKER_01 54:18

Oh no. Okay, scouts. Time to wind it up now, Taz.

SPEAKER_02 54:22

Taz to wind it up. So please, please, please leave us some messages. Test the hot mail. The hotmail? The hotline. Tell us it works. And we will see you next Tuesday.

SPEAKER_01 54:33

Happy birthday together.

unknown 54:36

Happy birthday.

Final Thanks And Subscribe Reminder

SPEAKER_02 54:38

You've been listening to Awesomely Off Topic. If you've enjoyed this, hit follow and subscribe. And if you want more, come and find Awesomely Off Topic on social media. That's where all the extra bits live. Stay awesome, stay off topic, and we'll see you next time.