The Mick and Dave Show our 20,000th download special

🎉 20,000 DOWNLOADS… WHAT A JOURNEY! 🎉

The Mick & Dave Show

We're both Master Plasterers and former Plastering Lecturers, and about ten months ago I came up with a simple idea: "Why don't we start a podcast?"

The only problem was... neither of us had ever made a podcast before, and none of our mates had either. We were stepping completely into the unknown, learning everything through trial and error.

Fast forward ten months, and we've now passed 20,000 downloads.

In this episode, we share the journey—the things that worked, the mistakes we made, what we'd do differently, and the lessons we've learned along the way. If you're thinking about starting your own podcast, or you've already begun your podcasting journey, we hope our experiences will help you avoid a few pitfalls and give you the confidence to keep going.

If we can help in any way, get in touch with us through our Facebook page, The Mick & Dave Show.

Thanks for listening, and we hope you enjoy the episode.

#TheMickAndDaveShow #20000Downloads #PodcastMilestone #ThankYou #Plastering #Construction #Tradespeople #BuildingCommunity #KeepTheFaith #Podcast

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:30

A little bit. Can you believe it? We've done 20,000 downloads, in fact, just over in 10 months. 20,000 downloads. 20,000? Fucking hell.

SPEAKER_03 0:44

Twenty thousand. And when you think about it, we were praying for a thousand, thinking we'd done all right with that.

SPEAKER_00 0:54

Oh, can't can't believe it. Really can't believe it.

SPEAKER_03 0:57

Well, who knew plastering would be that fucking popular?

SPEAKER_00 1:02

Well, I don't know, it's plastering, it's just me and you taking piss and not giving a shit.

SPEAKER_03 1:07

Well, that might have something to do with it as well.

SPEAKER_00 1:10

Yeah, but bloody hell. You know, you you know, when we set out, what if you remember? I phoned you up and like, Mick, do you want to do a podcast? And you were, well, how do we do one?

SPEAKER_03 1:22

No, I actually said to you, What the fuck's a podcast?

SPEAKER_00 1:25

Well, something like that, what the fuck's a podcast? Yeah, so can you remember how it all started? I I I kind of phoned you up and said, Do you want to do a podcast?

SPEAKER_03 1:35

And you said, What the fuck's a podcast?

SPEAKER_00 1:38

I said, I don't really know, do I? But let's have a day.

SPEAKER_03 1:41

I'm still trying to figure it out now.

SPEAKER_00 1:45

But so realistically, what have we got? One microphone, you live in one part of Britain, I live in another part of Britain. I had a microphone, you didn't. That was about it, and then a few weeks in you actually bought a microphone and bloody hell fire. And you were like stupid, but you know, and we we started, and then well, but reason why what the reason why we started it. Can you remember? Can you remember why we started it?

SPEAKER_03 2:19

I just remembered a bloody phone call, yeah. And I think I think it went along the lines of should we do a podcast? And I went, What's the podcast? And then you went, Well, well, people talk about things, they're like, Yeah, and and and then you and then you said to me, Well, have you ever done one? I went, No, and I said, 'Have you done one?' and you went, No. And then your next statement was it's about time we did. Exactly. So that's how it started.

SPEAKER_00 2:48

That's how it started. But realistically, thinking about it, why did that enter me in the first place? Because you I were listening to podcasts on plastic. Sure.

SPEAKER_03 2:59

Are you sure? Or was it a red wine moment?

SPEAKER_00 3:02

Well, it must have been a red wine moment. I do tend to get them quite regular, mainly every night. You listen to other podcasts, they're boring. If you can get through five minutes, you deserve a bloody medal. You know what I mean? We we listen to you all prescripted and and what have you, and you know, professional. And me and you sound bloody rough. We haven't a bloody clue what we do.

SPEAKER_03 3:26

Hey, you speak for yourself.

SPEAKER_00 3:30

So, you know, we we we we just started, and and that's the way it were, in it, you know what I mean. We we thought, well, if we're gonna do a podcast, one thing it's not gonna be, it's boring.

SPEAKER_03 3:41

Well, yeah, we did say that to be fair. We we did say that to be fair, yeah. Because we have listened to a few quietly away, and we you usually have a little conversation about them, and brutally honestly, if we get past the minute, we've done well, haven't we?

SPEAKER_00 3:55

Well, yeah, yeah. I don't think I've got past the minute on some of them, tell you the truth. You know, they kind of put you off, and they're like you can tell it's scripted, tell it's scripted, and oh yeah, they're trying to talk Porsche. Well, we don't do any of that. We just well, we're not Porsche, and we don't we're not scripted, we're just like whatever we're saying.

SPEAKER_03 4:20

Well, if you remember, one of our first reviews, which I thought was brilliant, was it sounds like two lads in a pub having a chat over a pint. And as daft as it sounds, that's what we're aiming for. I quite like that, yeah, because it's more relatable. Well, it's what we aimed for, innit? Yeah, JC. We wanted to do something that was different, that was fun, and was enjoyable, yeah, yeah. And if we haven't done it, I'm sorry, but shit, you know, we tried.

SPEAKER_00 4:50

Well, yeah, but you you know, all I still can't get my head around what 20,000 downloads. In fact, it's another 500 since then. Uh and every day you're getting at least 50 downloads every day. More days you're in 200 plus. I think bloody hell fire. Why?

SPEAKER_03 5:09

Yeah, it's well, it's like when we when we set out, our aim was what was a thousand for new year, weren't it?

SPEAKER_00 5:15

So we didn't hang on, let's have a right. We started in 17th September. Yeah, 17th September, and the aim were one thousand for new year for new year, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:27

And then somebody changed the goalpost.

SPEAKER_00 5:30

Yeah, that'll be me. That'll be me. Yeah, I moved goalposts. I'd rate me a couple of thousand now for Christmas Day. And well, how many did we do?

SPEAKER_03 5:41

Well, that came and went, didn't it? It came and went. Yeah, I think we were about I might be slightly out here, but I think we had around five thousand by uh new year. So that was that was a bit of a bonus.

SPEAKER_00 5:54

Oh dear me, yeah, yeah. Five thousand we had about five thousand. Yeah, bloody hell fire.

SPEAKER_03 6:02

It's good, it was quite funny because I think it we did it where when we did the five thousand, I'd seen a post somewhere where somebody was saying, like, is 90 downloads good for a month?

SPEAKER_00 6:15

And I was thinking to myself, I don't know, is it not being we mean sometimes we'll we'll do 160 downloads in half an hour, and I think what what it is, you've got to know you pick your topic and pick your times and know where to put it. You know, yeah that we've learned from experience that yeah, one you you've got to have a decent topic to start with, and we're both explasters, ex-plasters, master plasters, and we're both teachers. I'm an ex-teacher, and we thought, well, why not talk about it?

SPEAKER_03 6:57

I'm still debatable.

SPEAKER_00 6:58

Well, yeah, still debatable, I'm still teaching people, and so we thought why why not talk about getting into teaching, going from plastering to being a teacher, yeah. Well, yeah, for a call, and we did it, and yeah, we had some downloads, and well, let's do a series, let's like talk people through it one by one, and you know what's next interview, how you manage your classroom and various things, and and it was a six-party series, and it's still getting downloads now. Today alone it's had about 12-15 downloads as part one. It was like crap, better.

SPEAKER_03 7:35

Well, we can look back at it now and think, yeah, it was a bit ropey, but people liked it, so what can you say?

SPEAKER_00 7:40

What can you say? So it kind of went from that, and then I mean, how could it progress? And you come up. Well, why can't we have a guest and think? Oh shit, I've never done it like that.

SPEAKER_03 7:51

So luckily we neither had I, but we just went for it, didn't we?

SPEAKER_00 7:55

Well, that's right. But luckily, we do know people in the plastering trade. So when we contacted them and said, Do you want to do part of the podcast? They were always, yeah. You know what I mean? And we we we get these people on board, and they like love it kind of thing. We have the laugh, we have the crack with them, and he's in and play a piece of music and what have you, and yeah, it it goes down well. And everybody says, Can I come back? Don't they?

SPEAKER_03 8:23

Yeah, it's quite mad that it's like we've had people on, and first thing they say to us when we get near the end, it's like, uh, can I come and do another one?

SPEAKER_00 8:32

Yeah, so you know, like let's look at some do's and don'ts that we can say from you know our experience. So do well, have a go at it.

SPEAKER_03 8:46

Yeah, give it a go, you never know.

SPEAKER_00 8:47

Yeah, I'll just have a go, buy a 20 quid mic off Amazon and have a go.

SPEAKER_03 8:52

Hey, I've upgraded mine, it cost me 35 quid.

SPEAKER_00 8:55

Well, it's sure enough, you are going from non-stop quid tell his pension and who's working, can't well that's debatable at the minute, isn't it? Yeah, so yeah, you know, we started that, didn't we? And so so dudes, have a go. And what I did, I do all editing, and I went on YouTube and watched what other people like you had pick a you know a platform, and I use one called Buzz Sprout, and and they're fantastic. You just upload it up to there, and they do it old fire type of thing, you can edit it all out, and better you get, you know what I mean. And another one called Wave, you know what I mean? You edit stuff out, and more you do, the better it becomes and easier it becomes. But at first, you think you're lost. So you just keep watching YouTube. What do I do here? What do I do there? And then from your own experience, because realistically, there were no one we could turn to. No one we knew. I'd done a podcast.

SPEAKER_03 9:58

Well, as daft as it sounds, I think you did all the YouTube watching, and I just blanked it.

SPEAKER_00 10:04

Well, you do no, that's right. I uh you you're like Mick and Dave show, so we put you there and you like voice at show kind of thing. You do you do the quizzes on one thing or another, and I'd edit it inside in it. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 10:18

That's only because they can't understand me.

SPEAKER_00 10:23

So yeah, do it, and so have a go. No, so we're two bloody guys can have a do never done it like before. And another thing you you need to think about is where's your audience? Yeah, definitely, where's your audience? Um so we're plastering, so obviously plastering people is is our audience. So, what what I do? I join, I'm on you on Facebook, and I join loads and loads of plastering groups, and when they put the podcast out, I put it across all of them, you know. Facebook get pissed off with me, they block me occasionally, well, once a week, man. Well, you're lucky if it's only once a week at the moment, so but yeah, that's the only way you they call it spamming, I call it marketing, you know what I mean? That's exactly it's only where you can get you you're out there, innit? So you need to find your audience, and another good thing to bear in mind one of our largest audiences is America. American people are more into podcasting than British people are. So, what I kind of do is what time do most American people come online, and it's like 12 o'clock UK time. So we put a post on about 12 o'clock UK UK time, you know, seven o'clock or whatever, US time, and then they listen to the podcast, and that's when we seem to get a bigger downloads at that time of night. So, you know, and another thing to bear in mind you when you do a podcast, you get a daily total. Now, what I try to do, so you my daily total starts at one minute past 12 midnight. So, what I want to do first thing of all, before I go to bed, is blog across all the websites and you know, podcast websites, plastic websites, wherever. And you know, that's when you get all your people coming on board, you do, and then like when British people wake up, they're up there for them to have a look at, and they'll then start doing and be lunchtime. Maybe we you know, you don't have much response to that particular podcast, we're running again, and Mick's always sharing it, you know. He'll put on he'll share, he'll link on to it, a timing.

SPEAKER_03 12:46

You need you need a a group, a group of you that'll share it around, yeah. Because otherwise, you're basically targeting your amount of people. So we're quite lucky we've got lads here, there and everywhere that share ours for us, and we appreciate that so much. We do, but that helps us get to where we are, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:08

It helps grow. And another thing, be as at least to it, you know, in the podcast itself. Don't add, I think you'll struggle if you do it independently on your own. You know, like we're lucky, we have each other and we can bounce off each other. If I dry up, you'll say something, you know what I mean? Vice versa, if you dry up out, and and that seems to work really well.

SPEAKER_03 13:31

Yeah, it also helps if you've known the person a while as well, because you know how they're gonna react. Because I know that I can rip into Dave and I'll just get ripped back. Some people don't like it when you rip into them.

SPEAKER_00 13:47

No, they take offence, won't they? Yeah, I'm offended.

SPEAKER_03 13:51

Yeah, as long as you don't take my offense and keep the cows out, I'm not bothered.

SPEAKER_00 13:56

We don't seem to give a shit about what we say anyway. And another thing as well, you want to swear, swear. All you do is tick a boxes, people over 18. And then you're more natural. Don't try and be somebody you're not.

SPEAKER_03 14:11

Yeah, that's that's that's the biggest shoot. There's a lot of people try to put on a different voice as soon as they think that they're gonna be online and the likes of don't just be yourself, definitely, just be yourself, and we we put comic wanker of the week.

SPEAKER_00 14:28

Who the fucking hell gets away with that?

SPEAKER_03 14:30

Yeah, which which which nobed came up with that, yeah. It'd be me, that one.

SPEAKER_00 14:37

Fucking hell. Well, why not? You know what I mean? There's some bright wankers out there, and we just put there is yeah, yeah, we never showed them, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_03 14:46

Sometimes there's always always somebody we can count on.

SPEAKER_00 14:49

Always someone you can count on. So, yeah, you put little novelty things on like that, and it gets people laughing. And another thing we put on to, you know, put a quick a quiz on you, you know, like a general knowledge quiz or a music quiz on your podcast. That gets people listening and sharing, and that's all of a sudden you you know your downloads in. And another thing that we don't do, we're non-for-profit, we we do not accept sponsorships or nothing. You we had people today, people contact me. Will you be sponsored on one thing or another? Answer is no, we'll just we're we're doing it because we want to do it, not because we have to do it, we're doing it for a laugh. And when it starts becoming a laugh, we'll stop doing it. We don't own anything. We don't own anybody nothing, then it's our podcast.

SPEAKER_03 15:40

Well, we're not tied to having to do X amount of episodes a week and the like, so and it's yeah, and not being told what we can do and what we can say, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:50

See if you're not careful, the sponsors will take over that. It'd have me a website I used to run, and I run a website and being new at it, yeah. Or get a lot of sponsors on and make a lot of money. Yeah, yeah, you get your people on, you do make you know, you charge them whatever, and but they want a 12-month contract, and then in that 12-month contract, you put another person on, it might be their competitor. Well, why have you put him on? You got me on, you know what I mean? And also just a minefield, you've got an internal battle going on, and they don't bloody need that. Who's running this podcast? Who's running bloody website? Me with them, turn down with them.

SPEAKER_03 16:26

Who's putting the effort in? Yeah, and who's and who's just sat back and just going, Oh, we don't have to do anything.

SPEAKER_00 16:32

Well, that's right, yeah. Yeah, so you know, I wouldn't run a podcast to make money. Well, you're lots of thousands, thousands of people do, obviously, make a lot, but you know, does it take the fun out of it? You know, are you under pressure to come up with different topics and and getting more downloads?

SPEAKER_03 16:52

Well, I wouldn't I would imagine you are. It's like if you think about it, it's like I'm out the house at 10. Well, I'm out the house from half six in the morning. What time? Through half six in the morning through till about six of the night.

SPEAKER_00 17:03

I didn't know there were time. Sorry, I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_03 17:06

So no, you don't you only know one six o'clock in a day, you I do, yeah. Yeah, I do. And it's like the the thoughts for me getting home thinking to myself, oh, I've got a sponsor on, I've got to do this for for this week, or I've got to do that, and I've got no, no, thank you. So much pressure. If I come home and I'm knackered, we're not doing it. Simple.

SPEAKER_00 17:25

That's right. It happens quite regularly, you know. I'll text Mick, are you up for it? No, not tonight, mate. And same with me, no, not tonight. Yeah, another night and what have you, and they tapped it.

SPEAKER_03 17:35

Now, if you've got a sponsor on board and they want you to release one for argument's sake every Wednesday and you haven't done, yeah, in your case, then you're knackered because you're tied into a contract, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:45

So so you don't want to do that. Keep your bloody contracts, keep your contracts, keep your bloody money and do it for fun. Yeah, that's all you have to worry about. Do it for fun, and you you know the surprise, you know. That probably probably we get a lot of downloads because we just do it for fun, you know what I mean? When uh you know, buy big razors or whatever, other brands available, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:10

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 18:11

You know what I mean? Just like what why why would you do that? Yeah, so so that's a yeah, a couple of your do's and don'ts, in it. So, what I'd suggest, like you say, is trying to do it, have a go. Doesn't matter if you fuck up, don't matter at all. We do it quite regularly.

SPEAKER_03 18:32

Well, as the old as the old saying goes, how many times do you watch something on the TV and think to yourself, why do you think they've got so many fuck up programs? Yeah, that it's the it'll be all right on the nights, yeah. Because we like watching people fuck up, no, we do, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:52

It's natural, we'll he and sometimes I'll actually leave them in. I left last night. Last night's uh we did a recording on pop quiz, well, we're Tamla Mortown music, and what and I'm bringing wrong answers out. Have you got your glasses on? Yeah, exactly. I left it in, it sounds quite funny actually. We're having a bit of an argument over ringing wrong answers out, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 19:18

So it doesn't matter, it all adds to it, it all it just shows that you're actually a human being. Yeah, it's like you can listen to some, like we've said before, and you can tell they're scripted, yeah. So it's like I look at it and think to myself, okay, how much bloody editing have they had to do on that one? Yeah, yeah. Where our attitude is just go for it.

SPEAKER_00 19:40

If there's a cock-up, there's a cock up, it is what it is, it is what it is. That's top to bottom, yeah. So definitely go for it, definitely. You you so your marketing realistically, you know, is your social media. I don't use TikTok and I just use Facebook me. And you know, if you use your TikTok or Instagram and things like that, that's where you're gonna tell about your podcast and get it out there. So that's a definite one. If we've got a good social media following, once you get going, your social media grows anyway, and you know, you get other rewards like we've got approach we ex-plasters, we're master plasters, we've got a approach to write a book on plastering, and that's gonna turn out into a two-book deal, all come from podcasting, realistically. Yeah, I mean, people here, yeah, and oh, would you do this and would you do that? And so, yeah, there's other ways of you know, that's not tied to no sponsorship, that's just because of who we are, yeah. So just what we wanted to do, what we want to do, and yeah, so you need your social media out there and just go for it, just have a practice. And if you like Facebook, they don't like you showing across loads of groups, well, they don't with me, anyway.

SPEAKER_03 20:58

So when you're covering about leading 90 a day, you I'm not surprised.

SPEAKER_00 21:06

So, so yeah, yeah, you you know what I mean. You you need to share it across all groups, and uh another good one to show. So if you if you get your topic on the groups on your topic, that's a good one. Other good ones, really ones that podcast podcast groups, because these are people who put your teeth in now.

SPEAKER_03 21:26

You what? Did you put your teeth in then?

SPEAKER_00 21:29

I took them out, yeah. So so yeah, they're they're they're the they're the kind of groups that you you need to be down, you know, to be joining and what have you, you know, and people have your crap, they'll tell you crap, and and that's it.

SPEAKER_03 21:45

And oh, and trust me, you will you will get the odd troll.

SPEAKER_00 21:49

Oh, you you'll get the odd troll, not too as well, but there's a way to sort them out, isn't there, Mick?

SPEAKER_03 21:54

Yes, of course there is. Always try and be nice and polite. Yeah. Let them swear at you first. Because the once they've swearing and then it's open season and it's open season then another good way.

SPEAKER_00 22:08

Another good way. You know, keep it on it, yeah. Tell about them on you, talk about them on your podcast.

SPEAKER_03 22:16

Yeah, that's always a winner.

SPEAKER_00 22:17

Yeah, that's that's the winner. Yeah, yeah, you're gonna have to do them. Yes, well, I'll be able to do it back at you. And that kind of becomes a winner, don't it?

SPEAKER_03 22:33

Yeah, absolutely. It becomes a bit of a score for me now, don't it?

SPEAKER_00 22:39

Well yeah, when you're in a crap mode, you and you'll have a doom. You will you'll have a doom. So yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:05

Well, we've got a Facebook page for the make a day, yeah. If you're on boss broke, you can leave us a thumbnail on there and we can get back to you. Leave us a way of contacting you back, obviously, because otherwise it's funny.

SPEAKER_00 23:27

We're always looking for looking for America. We can do it. We can do it. We're gonna end it now, but before we go, we're gonna say thank you for joining us, you know, for opening the twenty thousand downloads.

SPEAKER_03 24:16

We appreciate it massively. We do it without you, we wouldn't have carried on, would we, to be fair?

SPEAKER_00 24:23

Well without people listening while we do it. So we really appreciate everybody who took the time to to download, listen, and enjoy.

SPEAKER_03 24:34

And give yourselves a massive pat on the back, because we appreciate every single one of you.

SPEAKER_00 24:38

We do, we do. So we need to the next 20,000 in the dance. If we're that lucky. If we're that lucky, we're that lucky. So on that note, we'll play a nice piece of music.

SPEAKER_01 24:58

I've been walking these streets so long, singing the same old song. I know every crack in these dirty sidewalks abroadway, where hustles the name of the game, and night skies get washed away like the snow and the rain. There's been a lot of compromising on the road to my horizon, but I'm gonna be where the lights are shining on me like a rhinestone, cowboy Like a rhinestone cowboy. And the food's coming over the I really don't mind the rain. And the smile can hide all the pain. But you're down when you're riding the train that's taking the long way And I dream of the things I'll do With a subway token and a dollar took inside my shoe There'll be a lot of compromising on the road in my horizon, but I'm gonna be where the lights are shining on me like a rice I ran stone cowboy now, still rolling I go and strong cowboy strong people It's a goodbye from me, Dave.

SPEAKER_03 28:01

And a goodbye from me, Mick, and hopefully we'll speak to you soon.

SPEAKER_02 28:05

Ayy Always look on the bright side of life Always look on the light side of life Life's a piece of shit when you look at it Life's a laugh, and that's the joke It's true Use it on a joke, keep up laughing as you go Just remember that the last life is on you.