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Podcast about a creative state of mind and how to keep going.
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:18:21
Unknown
Oh!
00:00:18:21 - 00:00:24:23
Unknown
It's great to have you, Colin. And thank you so much for coming. It's great to be inviting you to.
00:00:25:00 - 00:00:52:08
Unknown
I was so keen to talk to you because I never knew you were in Inverness until last fall. And we worked together for a while, and that was such an eye opener for me, because I realized that there are so many cool people in Inverness. I am yet still to discover. So thank you so much for accepting our invitation and coming over to the studio.
00:00:52:19 - 00:01:04:08
Unknown
In this podcast, we talk about work and the small businesses and how they function and operate and survive in the Highlands. Yes, but for me, it's more of,
00:01:04:08 - 00:01:20:03
Unknown
the positive twist, you know, like how we sustain ourselves and how our creativity flows, how we recharge ourselves. And you're originally from Scotland? Yeah. Yeah. For the race? Yes.
00:01:20:05 - 00:01:44:08
Unknown
But you haven't lived all your life in Scotland? No, I've, No, I've had it off a few different times. Yeah. So I've been away for a year. Twice and a few months at a time. A few times as well. So. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. If you. Different spots for different spots. Because when you were a kid, you were traveling a lot, you were like living in France or Ireland for a while as well.
00:01:44:10 - 00:02:00:21
Unknown
Yeah, yeah, we lived in Ireland for three years when I was five till about eight. Wow. So, like the start primary school, I guess. And then France for a couple of summers, several. And we almost moved there permanently. Well, at least for a long time, because my dad was taking over a golf course over there.
00:02:00:21 - 00:02:05:04
Unknown
But just they decided it wasn't for them in the end, after they would stayed, three, four months there.
00:02:05:10 - 00:02:26:13
Unknown
Oh, we saw the whole summer there. So. Yeah. Amazing. What did you see in France? It was, so it was near, Plymouth Foundry, I think it was called so you sailed over to Brittany? Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. I never knew that about your. Until I listen to one of the podcasts through your website. Yeah. I was like, oh, this is really cool.
00:02:26:13 - 00:02:50:20
Unknown
And then your career really in podcasting started when you were at uni? Yes. Or was it a bit later? No. It was. No, it was university. So I worked as, I mean, I started out as a web designer, so I just did web design and animation. Anything digital, I could just kind of play around with computers, basically.
00:02:50:22 - 00:03:08:08
Unknown
And anyone who would pay me money, I would do something for them. So it was a whole range of stuff, but I ended up getting a job at a university. Well, a college in Edinburgh as a learning technologist, which basically just means like helping lecturers with technology to teach. So teaching lecturers how to teach for tech.
00:03:08:10 - 00:03:27:17
Unknown
And so I did that for about two years at the college and then moved to the University of Edinburgh Napier University and worked there for about five years and ended up working my way up from just plain old learning technologies to I ended up being a lecturer there, and teaching on one of their courses, The Masters.
00:03:27:17 - 00:03:53:09
Unknown
And what was it called again? Blended and online education. It was called so a fancy term for like how to teach with tech, both in the class and only essentially, you know, think. And when you were starting with the podcasting, was it that the university asked you for something very specific? Because back then it was just really emerging thing?
00:03:53:10 - 00:04:15:03
Unknown
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was around 2008 ish. I can never quite remember the exact time, but it was around that time and I was already doing a lot of work on, like using blogs to teach wikis. Do what? A video. Actually. They were linked in classroom recordings, all that kind of stuff. And podcasting had just come to the attention of one of the guys I worked with, actually a guy called Keith Smith.
00:04:15:05 - 00:04:37:03
Unknown
And I ended up working with him on a small course around how to use podcasting to teach, and he moved on to other things, and I was left with the course. And so I just had this room to play with this course around how to teach lecturers how to use podcasting. And we had a bit of funding late, luckily enough, working for university, we've got, we've got funding to buy some microphones and mixers, that kind of stuff.
00:04:37:05 - 00:04:45:10
Unknown
And so I made all the classic mistakes and overcomplicating everything, because I had a little bit of money to actually spend on it, which most podcasters do. And
00:04:45:10 - 00:04:54:16
Unknown
and so over like two, three years, I just ended up creating all this education around teaching a course at the university for a while, and I started my own blog just for fun.
00:04:54:16 - 00:05:12:10
Unknown
In the evenings. I was just writing in the evenings and weekends around what I was learning personally about podcasting, and that's what ended up becoming the the the website to be run today. To be honest, that was just writing about, you know, in my spare time about the fun stuff that I was playing around with, the, you know, makes and mixers, all that kind of thing.
00:05:12:13 - 00:05:35:12
Unknown
and I taught for a while, and then when I moved on from that, it kind of tied into my PTSD a little bit as well. And. Yeah. Oh, 100 there. Wow. That's amazing how you know that journey. Because at uni, what really kind of like zoom into this part of your life was that you started doing astrophysics and then transitioned to web.
00:05:35:16 - 00:05:52:24
Unknown
Yes, yes. That's so cool. Like proper geeky journey. Well, yeah. Partly because astrophysics was probably a little too geeky for me. No, no. Well, yeah, it was just too hard for me, to be honest. Like, it was just, I was pretty good at school. Like, I always got straight A's and a lot in school, so I was like a small kid.
00:05:52:24 - 00:06:08:20
Unknown
But you go to university, then you realize, like, little smart kids out there. And actually, I'm not that interested in this thing. Not enough to make me study enough to be really good at it. And so I just never so did very well at university for that. But the part I didn't really enjoy was all the tech side of it.
00:06:08:22 - 00:06:26:01
Unknown
I was totally when like the internet going around for a little time, obviously, but it was really when it started to open up, like, Google sort of emerged during that time and the web and proper websites and e-commerce and all that. And like proper only media start to be a bit more prominent around that. Like 90s early 2000s.
00:06:26:01 - 00:06:52:12
Unknown
And it was just fascinating. Like, I just enjoyed it so much more interesting to me than astrophysics. I just did it so that at the time really, and ended up getting good at that instead. That's amazing. But it I think it shows, you know, that our journey doesn't necessarily have to be straightforward. We don't have to choose our calling straight out of the high school and pursue that career forever and ever and ever.
00:06:52:14 - 00:07:10:11
Unknown
It's okay to try other things and venture and give ourselves that space. Yeah, and it's like the the one thing that I tell anyone that I meet that is struggling with that kind of choice, like it's kind of fun at the moment, actually, there's a lot of our family, friends and stuff. Kids are getting to university age and stuff like that.
00:07:10:11 - 00:07:25:23
Unknown
Just going to the gym that, minor wee bit younger than that. But telling them, like, you don't, I wouldn't go to uni straight away like I wasted my degree, my astrophysics. Like we're so lucky in Scotland that we get a free degree. Like we just pay for it. We get funded for us. It's crazy.
00:07:25:23 - 00:07:30:18
Unknown
But I wasted it almost because it was free and it was easy and I didn't really think that much about it.
00:07:30:18 - 00:07:36:01
Unknown
And I was just taught generally at school, like, just go and do something you're kinda good at, which was physics.
00:07:36:01 - 00:07:45:14
Unknown
And I wish I'd hold on. Held on, taking a year off, two years off. You can go and got a job or done something and then come back to it when I could have. Yeah, yeah, I, I know what you mean.
00:07:45:14 - 00:08:12:17
Unknown
I have a very similar feelings. I went to study straight out of the high school and really was studying all the way throughout my 20s and the first half of the 30s as well. And I think it's really nice. And so many of other guests before said the same thing, just like, take some time off and explore the world, go work or go travel.
00:08:12:19 - 00:08:36:13
Unknown
And I really like what, Alice Prentice said never first season. She said that when we come out of high school, what we lack is the original thoughts. Yeah. You know, and to kind of, like, try and figure out where we belong in the world as young people and as we kind of like, form ourselves into these adults.
00:08:36:13 - 00:08:55:16
Unknown
We're still trying to figure out what the world is like for you. You go, you realize that you're never going to figure it out. Yeah, it keeps changing. But yeah, absolutely. It's, it's the ironic thing, isn't it? It's the and the annoying but kind of beautiful thing. I suppose it's that the times when you're struggling and you don't know where you're going, and you're just trying to cast them around and trying all sorts of different stuff.
00:08:55:18 - 00:09:12:20
Unknown
That's kind of when you are figuring out. Exactly. That's the the interesting thing. Well, that was my 20s was just ended up becoming a uni. Not sure what I was going to do. Working in bars full time for three, four years after that, but at the same time getting this freelance work, doing like just web design stuff and ended up going back to Napier.
00:09:12:20 - 00:09:30:01
Unknown
I studied at Napier to get a degree in multimedia and interactive systems, which kind of gave me a few of the formal skills and supports around it, or at least showed me where I could go and then learn more about it. Yeah, and that was like ten years of just trying to figure all yeah or no, no, we got money threw up and all that much.
00:09:30:03 - 00:10:00:08
Unknown
Yeah. And then and then oh I've got my notes here. Got I got a sheep neck. And then the podcast host came around 2011 for you. Yes. Yeah. 2011. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. So this is the platform that is the blog and it's blog about podcasting for podcasters or anyone who is interested in podcasts. Yes. And that's a long time.
00:10:00:10 - 00:10:07:11
Unknown
That's a long time. That's more than that's almost 15 years now. Yeah. Just around the corner. That's amazing.
00:10:07:11 - 00:10:24:14
Unknown
how are you going this strong for these long? Like I'm trying to formulate that question. Yeah. It's like trying to figure out how it's been so long. It's I mean, it's I kind of count it as two periods, maybe three, but there's at least the five years at the start.
00:10:24:14 - 00:10:41:06
Unknown
Sustain 11 to 15 or 16 or sometimes. Yeah. Anyway, that five years was kind of the amateur of the hobby. So I was still doing other jobs. I'm still working at the university for a bit, and I did my PhD for about that, still just kind of writing articles on the side, like evenings, weekends, just for fun, really.
00:10:41:06 - 00:11:00:10
Unknown
And I start to make a website money, like I earned a couple of Amazon checks, for example, affiliate checks during that time, just like $5,100. But it was a time from maybe 12, 13, 14, 20, 12 to 14 that those checks started to double every few months and eventually ended up getting about a thousand and end to 2000.
00:11:00:10 - 00:11:06:10
Unknown
And by 2015, that's when I finished my PhD and saved me the jump into full time.
00:11:06:10 - 00:11:15:12
Unknown
and so that's kind of the second period. So there was the amateur first five years, and then there was the, well, pretending to be professional with, for ten,
00:11:15:12 - 00:11:17:11
Unknown
the first five, not really having a clue what I was doing.
00:11:17:11 - 00:11:45:09
Unknown
And then I kind of second five really kind of honing in a little bit on what we really wanted to do, I suppose. So, I don't know. I don't count it. It's 15 years, really. It doesn't feel that long to me because it was kind of different phases of it. Yeah, yeah. I can't wait for me. And it's very organic, kind of like transition for you because from the podcast you move to your making, creating your own platform.
00:11:45:11 - 00:12:06:16
Unknown
And that came about those 4 or 5 years after you started that came about. So Aleta is. Yeah. So that's our podcast, the platform. Ended up making that building that was in 2017, really. So it was in the early. It was in the mid phases of that middle, like figuring out what we're going to be doing phase.
00:12:06:16 - 00:12:25:10
Unknown
And it was really because the content had grown. So we've grown an audience, but people were coming to our site. We're getting really good traffic, affiliate income, they have sponsorship income. All of that content based income was growing quite nicely. I had enough to take on a few more team members, and we had some extra cash to then start experimenting with other products and what else we could do.
00:12:25:10 - 00:12:31:07
Unknown
And the one thing that people kept asking for and you know this as well as I editing and editing, it's just like
00:12:31:07 - 00:12:42:15
Unknown
some people get really internal. I think both of us are nerdy enough that we do a lot of that. But there's a lot of people that really don't give a crap about, like, the editing side of learning technology.
00:12:42:15 - 00:12:58:06
Unknown
They don't want to be they don't want to be an audio engineer. You know, they don't care about equalization and compression and lofts and all this kind of stuff. They really just want to be able to speak into a microphone. And for it to be out in the world and to show their message, whether it's to inspire, to teach, to entertain, whatever that may be.
00:12:58:08 - 00:13:06:00
Unknown
And so, so many of our audience kept asking this question like, how can I make editing easier so complicated? I just I'm not techie. I can't get this.
00:13:06:00 - 00:13:21:02
Unknown
And so that was like, because I, I'm a bit taken nerdy and geeky and interested in that stuff. I thought I would if I can figure out a way to automate at least a lot of this and then make tools simpler for the rest of it, because we were still using like, proper audio engineer tools and all this stuff.
00:13:21:02 - 00:13:36:11
Unknown
It's designed for music creators or film creators or, you know, all this so much in there that we don't need more casters. And so, yeah, that was the inspiration for it to try and create a bit of software that just made that simpler, that we could then charge a subscription for, and then we would be the business in future.
00:13:36:13 - 00:13:59:23
Unknown
And you are really now, you know, after years of really pushing here for the cloud and working on it quite heavily because I've seen, you know, your process, I seen the behind the door stuff and, and you have a wonderful team and you guys worked so hard on really creating this product for people.
00:13:59:23 - 00:14:02:09
Unknown
To make our lives easier.
00:14:02:15 - 00:14:03:13
Unknown
You know,
00:14:03:13 - 00:14:21:06
Unknown
I completely forgot what I wanted to ask because I was just, like, thinking about Alyssa and how wonderful it is. And then you said you really you really achieved it. You know, you really achieve, that that first starting idea of creating a product just to streamline the process for people,
00:14:21:06 - 00:14:31:11
Unknown
because so many people, yes, can be bothered with, you know, all this stuff, like whether it's sound, my cables,
00:14:31:11 - 00:14:33:21
Unknown
lenses, what lens should I get for my camera?
00:14:33:21 - 00:14:42:09
Unknown
Well, I don't know. Have you tried lightning? You know, it's it's always kind of like trying to figure out how to help people,
00:14:42:09 - 00:14:45:23
Unknown
make their stuff better. And you really got there. But,
00:14:45:23 - 00:15:10:08
Unknown
what really interests me, you know, you started this company by yourself, and you build that from literally ground zero point to becoming one of the, you know, you are really one of the biggest ones out there in terms of content.
00:15:10:08 - 00:15:18:24
Unknown
Yeah, like blogs for podcasting and stuff like, yeah, you should. Yeah, yeah. But also when it comes to for you're kind of like.
00:15:18:24 - 00:15:24:10
Unknown
Like an underdog of the platforms, you know, because you are not super mainstream.
00:15:24:10 - 00:15:36:15
Unknown
But equally you are very well known in the podcasting world. Yeah. We're I think it was it was the right way to do it, which was to do content first, audience first, and then product.
00:15:36:21 - 00:15:55:04
Unknown
Like most, a lot of products, like software products particularly grew up around the problem. They try and create something cool and then you trademarked it afterwards, whereas we already had an audience that were fallenness and we were creating something to solve a problem, we knew that. So it made it easier for sure, because people already knew us through the content.
00:15:55:06 - 00:16:13:11
Unknown
And so yeah, it's still a struggle for sure to actually sell the thing. Like we we you're absolutely right. Like it's been it's been some journey like, it's been been so privileged to kind of serve like thousands and thousands of podcasters that have used to over the years. Yeah, for sure. We have big competitors like far better funded all that kind of stuff as well.
00:16:13:11 - 00:16:43:14
Unknown
So yeah, it's definitely ups and downs to all. But yeah, that's fun. And your team works remotely. Yeah. And I think this is fascinating because you know, we kind of like touched very briefly on, you know, your nomadic childhood. And I love that. And you know that you were based down south in Scotland. You haven't been up here in Inverness the entire time, but you eventually moved here.
00:16:43:14 - 00:17:05:21
Unknown
So what I'm interested into hear from you is why Inverness? Because I get this question all the time as well. Yeah, yeah. I think I was living in the day before that and in Edinburgh before that, obviously. So we've been kind of gradually moving north. My wife's from in France, so that helps. So we've always been up here fairly often to visit family and stuff.
00:17:05:21 - 00:17:12:09
Unknown
I've got a few friends that moved up here. I just like I've always been of the,
00:17:12:09 - 00:17:25:17
Unknown
work to live type of approach as opposed to live to work like I do love the stuff I do, and I've had plenty of late working nights and stuff, but I really enjoy my my hobbies as well, like a little bit and bake with salmon bacon.
00:17:25:17 - 00:17:41:03
Unknown
I love running the house, walking in the hills, all that kind of stuff, and that was a big part. But it's actually just moving up to have the lifestyle of living up here. Quieter city like we got a bit fed up with even the it wasn't exactly massive commutes in Dundee as well. You back in Edinburgh, Edinburgh was a nightmare for that.
00:17:41:03 - 00:18:00:14
Unknown
But even I just like driving around for half an hour just to get anywhere then. So yeah, there was just something about like attracted us as a family of a smaller city. Nicer place to live. And the advantage we have as like, content creators, as more companies as we can look anywhere. So why not actually pick exactly where you want to be?
00:18:00:19 - 00:18:08:20
Unknown
That's amazing. And you are. I feel like you're one of those quiet pioneers who are really pioneering the remote work.
00:18:08:20 - 00:18:24:21
Unknown
Because your team is based all over the world, which is incredible because you are also managing how many time zones? Three time. So that's a good question. At least five, because we've got a couple across America.
00:18:25:00 - 00:18:34:02
Unknown
We've got a few times on there. I've got one here. We've got, Europe and Asia as well. So. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. That's impressive. And,
00:18:34:02 - 00:18:49:03
Unknown
you still managed to move forward into achieve your goals. That's amazing. Yeah. I find that actually a really fun puzzle as well. Like, it's every part of this whole key part, like whether the business is just about the game isn't it?
00:18:49:03 - 00:19:07:02
Unknown
There's all these little puzzles, all these games you play and you try and when you try and do it in a fun way or whatever, it's just like, it's just fun solving puzzles. And one of them was how to engage a team as a remote team. There was even a point where we had an office in Edinburgh with four people in it, so we had a hybrid T-Mobile, so we had to figure out how to.
00:19:07:04 - 00:19:23:15
Unknown
And this is one of the biggest problems, I think, when your remote is if you do have a core of people, you actually see each other in person, but then you have a surrounding with people who are entirely remote as well, because you have this kind of separation. These people that see each other every day compared to they're the ones that only see each other online.
00:19:23:15 - 00:19:43:00
Unknown
So but we certainly was there was lots of different things that emerged over, particularly with Covid and everything. Like everyone forced to go a bit more remote. But, I mean, we were doing this since 2016, so like figuring out how to build camaraderie and culture online is really interesting. And and so lots parts of it. Yeah, quite fun and interesting.
00:19:43:02 - 00:20:09:08
Unknown
Would you be able to go back to the office life like the office life as we know it. Oh yeah yeah yeah yeah for sure. Yeah. I mean I'd prefer that like I'm so remote it's not as good. For, for actual work for sure. But we had that office in Edinburgh. It was great. It was so good to be able to go down there and then spend like 2 or 3 days with all the people there and its ability to bounce ideas around them and even know, like meeting, you know, massive with our team.
00:20:09:12 - 00:20:11:06
Unknown
Yeah. At least. And you,
00:20:11:06 - 00:20:29:19
Unknown
and I meet him in person next week to do some planning, because we just find when you get together for a few hours, it's just more so much more efficient and effective and nice to actually see people. Yeah. So as much as I am a big proponent for remote working, it's for, it's because the pros outweigh the cons.
00:20:29:21 - 00:20:37:13
Unknown
But there's definitely a lot of cons. Yeah, the pros are, though, that you can employ people anywhere you can live anywhere, and you can have so much more talent and,
00:20:37:13 - 00:20:49:03
Unknown
and different cultures involved in your team and all those diverse opinions and thoughts and ideas and all that stuff. But if I could tomorrow I put everyone in one office and we'd all in the same place.
00:20:49:05 - 00:20:55:18
Unknown
Do you know what I kind of I kind of get it because I've been working remotely for a long time now as well. Yeah.
00:20:55:18 - 00:20:59:16
Unknown
I have my own studio and I do work for clients and whatnot, but,
00:20:59:16 - 00:21:06:05
Unknown
there is just something like in person, there's so much more buzz. Yeah, yeah. Do you know what I mean?
00:21:06:07 - 00:21:08:24
Unknown
It's like the energy is quicker.
00:21:08:24 - 00:21:24:01
Unknown
as a remote person, I do like doing stuff in person. Yeah, yeah. You know. Yeah, yeah. There's an energy you get from being with other people. Even if you're not speaking for two hours, you're sitting at opposite ends of a room. Yeah. And you're not speaking still knowing there's somebody else there.
00:21:24:03 - 00:21:43:14
Unknown
Yeah. And so there's, there's a bit of energy and inspiration comes from that. And there's so much more I don't know what it because we have these instant communication like we use slack. So I can send anyone on my team a question and get a response probably like immediately, I probably want one. But it's not the same as being able to turn a chair around and like say, hey, can we have a quick chat about something?
00:21:43:14 - 00:21:48:06
Unknown
Then I've got this question. It's not the same energy, it's not the same back and forth.
00:21:48:06 - 00:21:59:10
Unknown
it's it's definitely something much more. Yeah. Yeah. I can see why. As much as I don't think it's a great thing in many ways, I can see why a lot of companies are like, we can we can make pronouncements. Yeah.
00:21:59:11 - 00:22:07:22
Unknown
Everyone has come back to the office. Yeah. Although I think a lot of them are doing it for bad reasons. But yeah, that's very true. That's very true. I like the idea of,
00:22:07:22 - 00:22:18:16
Unknown
kind of like open office almost policy. Yeah, that you still have flexible work, but you have times when you have to be there for a meeting.
00:22:18:16 - 00:22:34:20
Unknown
and it really goes with that lifestyle that you mentioned that you have a very specific idea of how you want to live, and you really want to advocate for yourself. Yeah. And, and try to achieve that through some sort of optimization.
00:22:34:22 - 00:22:57:14
Unknown
Yes. Yeah. I mean, I don't I don't see the point in taking all the risks that we do as running our own businesses. Yeah, so much worse. It is hard working for a company in so many ways. It's but it's so much better in some of the other ways as well. So but that's one of the ways is better as you get a bit more control and a bit more optionality, you know, a bit more, you know, you can actually take control of your life and choose how you want to live.
00:22:57:14 - 00:23:04:21
Unknown
It's a it's the I think that's the main reason for taking that extra. Yes, I think so. You know, I, I completely agree with you because
00:23:04:21 - 00:23:20:11
Unknown
it's the pleasure of meeting a variety of people. It's clients, you know, and working with them, but having a little bit of my own independence and that's I think what I like about remote work as well, because it kind of blends things.
00:23:20:13 - 00:23:42:06
Unknown
I would that, you know, I got my studio because I, I just wanted to get out of the house. Yeah, I think I want to be in my living room behind the desk. I just wanted my work to go away. At the end of the day, I wanted to shut the door and leave, and having my own space, my own studio, like you have as well.
00:23:42:08 - 00:24:02:21
Unknown
Yeah. That's so important. Yeah. I couldn't live without that. I've had a few periods over the last ten years where I have had to work at home for a few months at a time, whether it's moving or whatever. But every time I crave having a separate space, yeah, I need less. I need that transition. I need to be able to go outside to change my mindset from like, work to home and move to work and stuff like that.
00:24:02:21 - 00:24:17:10
Unknown
And we still have in place. Yes, yes, we need to shut the door and have that mental cleanse a little bit. Yeah, for sure. Seeds ourselves, of course, the key. Yeah, definitely. So let's go back to the podcast because,
00:24:17:10 - 00:24:23:14
Unknown
podcasting is such a great platform for people to meet,
00:24:23:14 - 00:24:25:20
Unknown
to, for other people to receive information.
00:24:25:24 - 00:24:39:22
Unknown
And yes, we have the video part of the podcasting and it's like forever ongoing discussion whether do we need that video? Do we need that video? But, if anyone asks you,
00:24:39:22 - 00:24:43:21
Unknown
I'm based in Highland. I have a business in Highlands.
00:24:43:21 - 00:24:51:14
Unknown
Maybe I have a product, whether digital or physical. And, you know, I shoot nationally or internationally, but
00:24:51:14 - 00:24:55:12
Unknown
why should I have a podcast?
00:24:55:14 - 00:25:20:01
Unknown
You should have a podcast because it connects you to people. It's a great way to grow an audience. It's, it's a place where you can create content. It showcases who you are as a person behind the business. It's one of the biggest benefits that a podcast generally has is that it's it puts personality behind that brand. So see, you run, a company with 50 staff or something like that stuff, a brand, maybe even a massive.
00:25:20:01 - 00:25:30:20
Unknown
Com, a big, huge company. And people don't really know who the humans are buying this thing. So you create a podcast, you showcase 2 or 3 of the people, even just one, one host, it gets interviews in,
00:25:30:20 - 00:25:51:06
Unknown
and then it just shows the people, it shows the actual humanity behind it. And that's really what grows trust with the brands, because if you can show the person and that growing audience around that person or people on the team, then it shows that there's a trustworthy real person with, you know, ideas and thoughts and, and they get to know them.
00:25:51:06 - 00:26:14:23
Unknown
You know, it's like one of the most powerful things about podcasting is the intimacy there. Because you grow this relationship with the host. So people are listening to our voices here or maybe even watching the video, and it's so much easier to get to know that person or feel that you are that person in that message than if you're reading something or yeah, you know, so it grows this trust and personality that really helps you sell whatever product or service that you're selling.
00:26:15:00 - 00:26:39:10
Unknown
Yeah, yeah, that's you know, I 100% agree with this. I it's like a couple of years ago, I mean couple years ago, it's a bit longer than that. But, everyone was like, oh, blog is so huge, why should I have a blog? I think everyone should have a blog, you know, as a personal outlet. You know, we have websites as our business cards now.
00:26:39:12 - 00:27:06:20
Unknown
It's like it's a mask then. Yes, you should have a blog. You should showcase what you do. And then little bit of a reason for it is great for the SEO. You know, it's almost like necessary. Yeah, yeah. But the podcast is and you said it so nicely, it's this intimate layer that connects people. And I think podcast is a really great form to showcase your business or who you are, especially if you are camera shy person.
00:27:06:20 - 00:27:24:09
Unknown
Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah. There's just a few barriers you set there. You can just you can have a script in front of you to help you, which a lot of people like. It's the fact that it takes away a bit of that anxiety to perform. You don't have to steer a camera. And therefore worry about looks and lighting and background and all that kind of stuff as well.
00:27:24:09 - 00:27:40:02
Unknown
So it's so much easier to do and it's much easier to edit as well if you don't have to add smaller files like some of the technical stuff you have to worry so much for the visuals, all that kind of stuff. Yeah. So it's great. It's just a great way for people to start creating that content. And there's something around the consumption method as well.
00:27:40:07 - 00:28:08:00
Unknown
So like if you're watching video, you tend to be sat down. Yeah. Looking at a screen, whether it's watching your phone or whether it's on YouTube, on your computer. But there's always these other distractions because of these devices. It's weird, like you've got your phone in front of you and a notification pops up, and so you go away and look at something else, or you're looking at a video and there's all these other little videos beside it and see it, because that's the troublesome thing with any kind of video is there's always all these suggestions beside the thing you're watching and trying to drag you away from it.
00:28:08:02 - 00:28:26:01
Unknown
But with podcasting, it's for that time when your eyes are busy actually doing something else or your hands are busy. Whether you're washing the dishes, you're walking the dog, you're driving the car, all of those places where you can't really watch something, you can't be distracted. You want something that's going to be on for a long length of time.
00:28:26:07 - 00:28:30:05
Unknown
Yeah, because you want to be distracted for a while because you're busy otherwise.
00:28:30:05 - 00:28:54:16
Unknown
And that actually that attention is really powerful because you combine that attention to the fact that people are going to listen for a long time. Well, you get people listening to shows for three hours. So it's crazy how long some people listen to podcasts, but you multiply that time with the personality, the trust you're building, and suddenly that's what turns people like to fanatical fans of the stuff you do, because they spend so much time with you.
00:28:54:16 - 00:29:00:03
Unknown
That way they get to know you so well. It's way like, I, I went to a conference a few years back,
00:29:00:03 - 00:29:14:21
Unknown
and I was standing at a bar waiting to order a drinks. The Scotsman American Conference could speak to the bar. But I just heard at one point, as of ordering and whisper in my ear breath of, yeah, I listen to your voice and I fall asleep to it every night.
00:29:14:23 - 00:29:37:23
Unknown
Like, why this guy had walked up behind me. And I was obviously terrified at first, and but it turned out it just it was a listener support. Crafty listens to our podcast about podcasting, and he just got to know me and Matthew's on the show with me so well because it spent so much time with us that you felt so familiar just walking up and saying hi, but not translate.
00:29:37:24 - 00:29:56:23
Unknown
He's like a real big advocate for what we do. I know, like I talked to him fairly often. They really they often they talks about what we do on the internet, like advocates for us because he knows us so well. That's the kind of relationship we build with your audience through something like a podcast. Because of that personality, that tension time we spend with it's it's amazing.
00:29:57:00 - 00:30:08:05
Unknown
Yeah. But you know, you don't necessarily have to have a business to have it. You can be a private person, you can be a student or retiree,
00:30:08:05 - 00:30:20:09
Unknown
what I really like you advocate people to do with podcast is to focus on a leash on their leash because so many people are like, oh, what should I do?
00:30:20:09 - 00:30:47:07
Unknown
Podcast about, you know, like I have like, I'm a golfer or, you know, I love knitting and like, who would be interesting in knitting? I think a lot people. Yeah. So so tell me, you know, if if someone was really interested into maybe getting into podcasting a little bit and, and getting their hands dirty podcast world,
00:30:47:07 - 00:30:49:07
Unknown
what kind of advice would you give people on?
00:30:49:07 - 00:31:03:13
Unknown
Sort of like what type of content or the length of a podcast, like what's the buzz right now? I mean, the type of content starts with what you're passionate about. It has to be. And it's it's cool that you can do both sides. Actually. You can you can create
00:31:03:13 - 00:31:11:01
Unknown
podcast for a business. There's a lot of people who are question, what do we know who have created a show to be a marketing channel for an existing business?
00:31:11:01 - 00:31:15:22
Unknown
So like a floor that just starts a podcast or a accountancy firm that starts a show,
00:31:15:22 - 00:31:30:03
Unknown
and they can work really nicely, because generally if you run that business, you're quite passionate about it. So you can like create really interesting content around that. But equally you can create a podcast about whatever you're interested in, your hobby that then becomes a business as well.
00:31:30:09 - 00:31:39:14
Unknown
So like people that, have created a podcast around, like miniature gaming or something like that, you know, you do tabletop gaming. Yeah, I know people feel it is,
00:31:39:14 - 00:31:48:06
Unknown
and they talk about that, and then a year end, they're getting all sorts of sponsorship deals from companies, and they're selling memberships on Patreon or on YouTube or whatever as well.
00:31:48:06 - 00:31:51:17
Unknown
Like, oh, all the content you create ends up creating,
00:31:51:17 - 00:32:05:05
Unknown
strands of income that you can create by that. It's like to the audience that actually follows them. So it's really cool that you can do both sides, and it really does come down to, what are you going to be fascinated enough with, passionate enough with,
00:32:05:05 - 00:32:07:17
Unknown
to do something fun every single week?
00:32:07:23 - 00:32:22:23
Unknown
Yeah, because a lot of us are kind of into things that you get a bit bored with after, you know, a couple of months. It's a lot. It's going to sustain your attention for that long. You're going able to do it for that lifetime. Yeah. Yeah. What's that about said. And
00:32:22:23 - 00:32:30:02
Unknown
you're yourself. You have a massive podcasting blog log of a podcast.
00:32:30:02 - 00:32:54:04
Unknown
You have a podcasting platform, you're life is really about podcast, but you still make other podcasts about cool stuff that you love. Yeah. That's the trouble. As soon as you start one, you can't help but send me more. Yeah, so you know how easy it is. Your first you get into something and then the first thing you think is, I need to make a podcast about this.
00:32:54:06 - 00:32:56:20
Unknown
And it's a, it's a curse sometimes, like you're too many.
00:32:56:20 - 00:33:08:24
Unknown
I actually, I, you know, I don't run that many of my hobby runs anymore, but I got two seasons of them, like, I. So we made, I'm making one from a 2 or 3 years. That was one of the more popular ones I've done.
00:33:08:24 - 00:33:14:23
Unknown
Matthew and I created I kind of oversaw the whole one about space. So I've come back to the astrophysics we did around,
00:33:14:23 - 00:33:18:00
Unknown
exploring the solar system, and it was going to be a bit of a drama.
00:33:18:00 - 00:33:22:13
Unknown
So it was like, fictionalized as if we were up in the spaceship. It would seem to fit and stuff like that.
00:33:22:13 - 00:33:35:23
Unknown
And it's just, all of these things are just like some of them are hobbies. Some of them are for fun. Some of them are with the intent. Maybe we could turn it into something bigger, that we could turn into a revenue stream or something like that.
00:33:35:23 - 00:33:43:00
Unknown
But it's just a fun, I mean, we're lucky enough, obviously, that we run a podcasting company, so we can generally use any of it as a case study.
00:33:43:06 - 00:34:02:23
Unknown
Yeah, but it sure is and can can make more of it. And I think like talk about knitting. There's, a lady I know called Jewel mine who runs a knitting podcast, show biz podcast. Oh, man, I'm really she has she had a huge following. I think she's actually on a break from it just knowing. But she went through a few years of growing that thing and did really well with it.
00:34:03:03 - 00:34:12:01
Unknown
A huge community, that folder and learning about the living out of it. And you can do anything amazing. I love hearing, you know, things like that because,
00:34:12:01 - 00:34:32:19
Unknown
there really is no topic that you cannot make a podcast out, like you can do it with anything. And I really urge people to go ahead and do it because I think it's the best at making podcast changed my life.
00:34:32:20 - 00:34:41:20
Unknown
Yeah. So I had my corporate job with, in a fishing and aquaculture industry. Yeah, yeah, of course. And,
00:34:41:20 - 00:35:00:01
Unknown
one of my friends, she wanted to do a podcast and she was like, how are we going to do this? And I was like, let's figure it out. And it actually, that podcast led to her getting an amazing job, an amazing career.
00:35:00:01 - 00:35:01:11
Unknown
She's still doing that.
00:35:01:11 - 00:35:32:11
Unknown
And it led me to eventually leaving my job, my corporate job, and starting a completely different path. So although you might not 100% or, like, generate the money from the podcast and monetize it, you, I really do believe what so many people say, you know, like if you start a podcast or if you start a blog that has a giving engagement.
00:35:32:11 - 00:35:54:01
Unknown
Yeah, or a YouTube channel, it will change your life, like within a few months, I think. Yeah, yeah. Because the impact of it's so huge. It's yeah, it's partly the inspiration you get from the fact that you just made something, isn't it? It's like, I don't know, there's something so powerful about creating anything. If you've been working for a company, you've been just sort of stumbling along like not really sure what you want to do.
00:35:54:01 - 00:36:10:03
Unknown
And then suddenly you create something other people respond to. That's the magical other. Same as that. You've made something you've put in the world that's amazing enough. But then when somebody actually comes back and says, oh, that, that's cool. Yeah, yeah. Somebody you've never met before, it like a complete stranger. You're like, oh, I made a change. Yeah.
00:36:10:03 - 00:36:38:14
Unknown
Somebody's life there. Yeah. And then that leads to, yeah, the inspiration to actually turn into something, maybe a different job, a different. Yeah, endeavor or whatever it is. It's. Yeah, it's amazing. And you've been speaking out podcast on a weekly basis for how many years now? Oh, I mean, I won't claim to have every single week over this time, but we've put, yeah, like hundreds of probably over a thousand of episodes.
00:36:38:14 - 00:36:46:00
Unknown
Since I think podcast probably started around 2010, I think it was around the same time as the blog. So 15 years.
00:36:46:00 - 00:36:54:11
Unknown
And at some point she, I run in like 4 or 5 different shows at the same time. It's not a good idea to do that. Where's it started coming from? Like,
00:36:54:11 - 00:36:56:20
Unknown
you are making podcasts about podcasting.
00:36:56:21 - 00:37:21:11
Unknown
So yeah, that's like equivalent of making ten plus years of podcasts about meeting, you know, it's niche women. It's with its own universe. So how do you how do you generate this content that's all about the audience. It's all about screaming. Yeah, totally. That's you can you can generally come up with your first like 20, 30, 40 episodes easy by yourself.
00:37:21:16 - 00:37:23:07
Unknown
So if you're really into something,
00:37:23:07 - 00:37:29:04
Unknown
like like what's one were you most passionate about? You just know it's in your work. Oh, man.
00:37:29:04 - 00:37:40:10
Unknown
monochrome photography. Yeah. Okay. Cool. Yeah. So. So you do a podcast about monochrome photography, so you could quite easily come up with like 20 or 30 topics or like, just like, get a notepad out, okay?
00:37:40:10 - 00:37:57:12
Unknown
I don't want to start writing out like, questions that you had when you started up. Beyond that, as soon as you've got into like 2013, you're starting to get towards, you know, oh no, I should cover it next. You're hoping at that point that you've at least generated a few lessons, so you've got a few people that get in touch, a few people are part of your community.
00:37:57:14 - 00:38:16:20
Unknown
If not, then you just go out to those communities too. I need to start asking questions. Yeah. And it's all about those questions. So like any content generation is about just listening to what people are asking right now and it changes over the years. That's the brilliant thing. So like the first few years that we were making podcasting content, I put out 20, 30 vlogs.
00:38:16:22 - 00:38:31:09
Unknown
I grew a bit of an audience. Those people start getting in touch. I would ask them, like, I would make a real effort on every single episode I put out. Like, what do you know? Next? Send me your question. Send me your listener CUNY's. Answer them on the show and that becomes your ideas for the future episodes.
00:38:31:09 - 00:38:37:01
Unknown
And like I said, if even if you're not getting that in, don't go to, like, online communities.
00:38:37:01 - 00:39:08:21
Unknown
So go on like LinkedIn groups, Facebook groups, forums, wherever that may be. Cause tons of questions on there, Reddit, loads of places like Reddit, and there's questions all over the place. You've got research tools that you can pay for that actually help you create the questions around a certain topic as well. So there's all these places that you can create these questions that people have in your area and start to just get them out of there so that yeah, like it's it's there's no like I said, trends change so much.
00:39:08:21 - 00:39:21:17
Unknown
So there's never any shortage of new stuff coming in. Yeah. And even like reentering the same stuff from before, like the question we've had for 50 years, every single year. It's like, what microphone should I.
00:39:21:19 - 00:39:25:11
Unknown
It's always the same. The first thing to think about, it's a microphone.
00:39:25:11 - 00:39:41:17
Unknown
I can understand it. It's definitely not the most important thing that you should. Yeah, but I can understand that. But that changes quite often as well because new ones come out. Trends change. So yeah that's what is the most important. Thank you. You think or from your experience what's the most important thing when you're starting out.
00:39:41:19 - 00:40:00:20
Unknown
It's it's what is your real pitch for the actual podcast itself. Like what is the idea behind this podcast and what makes it unique? Okay, yeah. So what makes it different? Yeah, that's very true because that's your mood. That's your vibe. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Right. That's what's going to push you forward. Well that's what's going to. Yeah.
00:40:00:20 - 00:40:05:23
Unknown
That's what helps you make it like think of your content. Because if you don't know that if you don't know why you're doing it,
00:40:05:23 - 00:40:08:00
Unknown
what your particular topic is
00:40:08:00 - 00:40:16:13
Unknown
and particularly what your angle on it is, that's generally what makes it unique. It's what your angle on that topic is. If you don't know that, you don't know what content to create.
00:40:16:19 - 00:40:34:12
Unknown
Yeah, for sure. And even worse, you don't know what to create. But also nobody knows whether they should listen or not. Yeah. So like it's the way to see everything is going to come down to how you sell this podcast to your listeners. Yeah, your potential listeners. And that's all contained within that package of like, what is it?
00:40:34:12 - 00:40:58:00
Unknown
What's that about? And why should you listen? It's a different. Yeah, because I guess people connect with you if they feel you're on the same or similar wavelength, and if they can sort of, like, see where you are at. Yeah. They don't know where they sit. Yeah, yeah, yeah for sure. Yeah. It can be like it can be there's a bunch of different ways you can make a podcast unique.
00:40:58:00 - 00:41:15:20
Unknown
So it could be for example, this podcast might be unique because of your particular blend of skills. So maybe the fact that you're, really interested in photography and videography and stuff like that, but you also have a background that's something else that kind of puts a particular angle on that. So it can be a real personal angle that people identify with, or it can be formatting.
00:41:15:21 - 00:41:20:18
Unknown
It could be that, you know, you cut this up into, you know, five minute segments and just put out,
00:41:20:18 - 00:41:30:13
Unknown
particular questions, or you ask a specific question every single week, or you have like a, quiz that you run or something like, you know, it can be formatting, like the way that you was put together, or it could be quality.
00:41:30:13 - 00:41:43:21
Unknown
It could be the fact that you're very good at like cameras. It makes and it just sounds and looks brilliant. And that's what makes the show stand out. Yeah. So there's a bunch of different ways that you can do it, but it has to have like it has to have that. I if I want to search out
00:41:43:21 - 00:41:52:03
Unknown
podcast about monochrome photography, I'm going to find, let's say 10 or 15 of them, why am I going to choose yours or 15.
00:41:52:05 - 00:42:26:22
Unknown
Yeah. Yeah. That's very that's very powerful. Yeah. Nailing that. It's quite difficult though. It is. Yeah. Is it. Why is it because we we're too hard on ourselves? I think it's because most people don't really think of it as. It's almost hard to think of why you're special. You know. Yeah, like I always thought of. So with podcast, podcasts, our podcast about podcasting or how to run a podcast or podcast,
00:42:26:22 - 00:42:32:17
Unknown
and I always thought of it, the uniqueness of it was my particular kind of background.
00:42:32:17 - 00:42:52:09
Unknown
I always talked with this on the show was the fact that I used to be a teacher. Yeah. So I know teaching. I've worked in classrooms, I've had like I've got a PhD in how to teach all this kind of stuff, but equally, I'm also really nerdy and bit and quite techie. So I combine those two things. I know the tech, but I also know how to teach, and that actually they don't come together as often.
00:42:52:09 - 00:43:00:05
Unknown
Like more often than not, if you're really techie, you kind of find it quite hard to simplify things. But one of the things I'm good at is simplifying quite technical things.
00:43:00:05 - 00:43:11:11
Unknown
And so those two things come quick, come together to make a little uniqueness that I can use as an angle. So podcasts became almost like lessons, and I almost overemphasize the teaching side of things.
00:43:11:11 - 00:43:18:01
Unknown
I put homework in, and I feel like I made a bit of a thing of it, and that became the angle that became the uniqueness.
00:43:18:01 - 00:43:25:23
Unknown
And some people like, I want to resonate a little strongly with that, no doubt some people here that were like, I don't wanna be taught to you. I want to, you know, I don't want that.
00:43:26:00 - 00:43:36:20
Unknown
But that's fine, because you're only ever going to find great funds if you put some other people off. Like the only time when everyone likes you is when you're just a bit me. Yeah. You're. Nobody really cares.
00:43:36:20 - 00:43:43:05
Unknown
So any time you actually match to find a good angle, you're always going to put some people off. But it means that the people that like you really like you.
00:43:43:10 - 00:44:20:06
Unknown
Yeah, yeah, that's very true. Because we have people that listen to us all the time, all the time, and all the seven episodes that we've been. That's okay. Okay. That's great. Yeah. You know, and and they're literally, people that just come for the nibbles, you know, come for specific people that we have on the podcast. But it goes all back to the violence and all back to us being creative in our own very unique way because we're all our own people.
00:44:20:06 - 00:44:20:21
Unknown
Yeah. You know,
00:44:20:21 - 00:44:38:24
Unknown
yeah. I mean, that's a great that's a great uniqueness. Location. It's like a really interesting one because you'll generally not have as much competition. Yeah, because it's quite a small area, but then again, you've also got you still got like hundreds of thousands of people that live in this region that would be interested in content around, you know, how to create a business here or whatever.
00:44:39:00 - 00:44:45:15
Unknown
And so, yeah, really cool, cool. Thank you for the a little bit of feedback.
00:44:45:15 - 00:44:46:07
Unknown
So,
00:44:46:07 - 00:44:56:22
Unknown
you've been in the business for a long time. You have these expertise. You you you love podcasts and you create podcasts on top of your podcast.
00:44:56:22 - 00:45:01:16
Unknown
Once you close that door of the studio every day.
00:45:01:16 - 00:45:04:10
Unknown
How do you make sure that you come
00:45:04:10 - 00:45:05:17
Unknown
back the next day
00:45:05:17 - 00:45:09:19
Unknown
and you're recharged and ready to go?
00:45:09:21 - 00:45:11:10
Unknown
But the speed you're going with,
00:45:11:10 - 00:45:26:06
Unknown
good question. I don't always achieve it. I'll be honest. It's tricky. Like, it's really tricky to manage your energy when you're running your own thing because you can't help but think about it all the time. Sometimes, like, things will pop into your head in the evenings, in the in the shower, in the morning.
00:45:26:06 - 00:45:29:13
Unknown
And, you know, it's just it's all consuming in so many ways. But,
00:45:29:13 - 00:45:38:20
Unknown
I think the main thing I do is that separation, we talk about earlier. So having different spaces for it is a huge one for me. So being able to just go all and shut the door like literally shut the door,
00:45:38:20 - 00:45:48:12
Unknown
but also I've always made an effort to keep up with a few hobbies, like to actually have things that I've got going on outside.
00:45:48:14 - 00:46:04:15
Unknown
So like I said, I take a few times a week, but generally certain things that I quite like to do as well. And what else I can do some nerdy stuff like games and things like that as well. So like, like tabletop gaming. So I do play that kind of stuff. Board games, all that kind of stuff.
00:46:04:17 - 00:46:23:00
Unknown
Have a family as well. I just make an effort to sleep, spend and save time and be mindful with them. And spend that time with kids and not be thinking that the busyness makes a big difference. Yeah, like I've gone through all of the the tropes these days of like, meditation and stuff like that and, and some of that you find helpful.
00:46:23:00 - 00:46:44:12
Unknown
But actually, I think these days I'm mostly just thinking about trying to be present and where I am, whatever I am at the time. And that makes a difference. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, with all these activities that you have going, I really like to find out more when you go on a bike. Yeah. What are your favorite routes?
00:46:44:12 - 00:47:03:13
Unknown
You know, where would you like to, where do you usually go? Do you have mountain bike or road bikes? Both. Okay. Yeah. What's your preference? I it goes I it goes up and down actually I change so I was also making for years and then I discovered the road bike when I moved up here actually because the routes up here, the roads up here, just so much more nice.
00:47:03:15 - 00:47:04:20
Unknown
It's much more scenic.
00:47:04:20 - 00:47:05:17
Unknown
By local stone.
00:47:05:17 - 00:47:24:01
Unknown
Yeah, for sure. But, yeah, I'm lucky enough to live over on the south side of Inverness. So on the south, west side, north east, south east side. So there's a bunch of routes up over the Cairngorms and it's kind of early garble and data. Aviemore and off to the east coast and stuff like that and like some really nice roads are in there.
00:47:24:01 - 00:47:42:06
Unknown
So I'm really lucky that way. And then from here they can actually we're just lucky enough to have that, even just the mast like free fabric. And I like the, the hills up there close by. Yeah. Head down to the Cairngorms like again, again. You've got again. You've got Glen. Place. I wanted to get a name.
00:47:42:07 - 00:47:48:07
Unknown
Glen. I think it's called. There's, there's a sculpted mountain bike route just, south east of us here as well,
00:47:48:07 - 00:48:01:02
Unknown
and then up to Golspie as well. Like, there's so many cool places. I never, never went that way. That's interesting. Yeah. Interesting trip. And, you know, you are a big sports guy, obviously from the mountain biking.
00:48:01:04 - 00:48:21:06
Unknown
But you when we met, we talked about you. You mean you? You are Jim person as well. You like the sport? Yeah. What do you do just now? Right now I'm kind of. I'm traveling. Actually, I was I did CrossFit for years, so just really enjoyed, like, the kind of, combination of cardio stuff with, like, really technical a little bit left.
00:48:21:06 - 00:48:28:10
Unknown
So I think it's really good fun. Just like enjoying the technique, like getting better at something and really get detailed on how something works like that.
00:48:28:10 - 00:48:34:08
Unknown
And then, last year I spent a fair bit of time, which I just trying to do much more specific training,
00:48:34:08 - 00:48:40:13
Unknown
just to get stronger, like some quite a skinny guy, so, like, quite enjoyed the act of trying to get a little bit stronger.
00:48:40:13 - 00:48:51:14
Unknown
But I got kind of bored with access to not enough variety this year. I think I'm just getting back to. Yes, like crossface type stuff and more, a bit more variety of fun stuff. Yeah, yeah.
00:48:51:14 - 00:48:56:00
Unknown
in that respect, I feel like.
00:48:56:00 - 00:49:02:19
Unknown
The guest that we had so far on the bolt cuts are all people who work hard.
00:49:02:20 - 00:49:13:13
Unknown
They're in love with what they do. They love it. You know, it's kind of like this love hate relationship. I think we have. It's that passion relationship with what we do.
00:49:13:13 - 00:49:23:04
Unknown
and and Kiva, who was our last episode guest. She said something that really resonated with me, but she said it so beautifully. She said that,
00:49:23:04 - 00:49:26:01
Unknown
movement, it's also a form of art.
00:49:26:03 - 00:49:50:24
Unknown
And that movement in nature, are the ultimate medicine for us. Yeah. You know. Yeah, because it helps us really come back to ourselves. And it sounds to me like with all these off work activities that you do, it's your way of recharging or of coming back to yourself so you can have that,
00:49:50:24 - 00:49:53:12
Unknown
output that you do have.
00:49:53:14 - 00:49:56:24
Unknown
Yeah. Yeah. That's really I like that, I like that it's a nice way of putting it.
00:49:56:24 - 00:49:58:16
Unknown
And it definitely resonates in that.
00:49:58:16 - 00:50:11:04
Unknown
a, it's like person I so enjoy, I overvalue novelty and then I'll do a new riff over an older any day of the week. And I'll just get a little more not do in front of.
00:50:11:04 - 00:50:18:12
Unknown
Can't think of something new to do. And I get bored of it's far too easily and it's rubbish. Like I should be able to just go ahead and do the same one having the same view.
00:50:18:12 - 00:50:27:16
Unknown
But it sure kind of shows that a lot. I think part of it is actually let's get to discovery and adventure, finding new things and and seeing those views and yeah, that's so much more.
00:50:27:16 - 00:50:49:07
Unknown
Enjoy content for us, reading about the forest as opposed to, you know, running around the blocks around my house. Yeah. Yeah, totally. Do you find that as well? Is that kind of how you help to renew your energy? Yeah. You know, we like and that's was it last week I had this face I last month and I, I haven't been to the gym.
00:50:49:13 - 00:51:15:10
Unknown
I have a really hard time going. Yeah but I was craving for it. I was just like, I need to be in a forest. So every day I took pepper and we went for like an hour, sometimes two hour walk in the forest just watching the sunset go, you know, around the doors and, yeah. Oh, yeah. It's just makes my soul sing, you know?
00:51:15:10 - 00:51:32:18
Unknown
It's just this. Really disconnecting from the tag that we're around all the time, or security all the time. It's so, so important. It's so important. And I'm really guilty of,
00:51:32:18 - 00:51:45:19
Unknown
really living with tech a lot and trying maybe to disconnect more. So I'm kind of like living in a forest right now. Yeah. That's that's my that's my go to.
00:51:45:21 - 00:51:48:08
Unknown
Yeah. Just to heal myself.
00:51:48:08 - 00:52:13:04
Unknown
But I blame Kiva for it as well, because she planted that idea into my head as well. I, I used to go when I lived near Dingle, near Maribor in Maribor. Yeah. There was the beautiful forest there on a private estate, and we used to go every day. Sometimes we needed even a 1015 K around the forest, and it was so great.
00:52:13:06 - 00:52:39:13
Unknown
It was so great. I at the time I was finishing my Cambridge degree, so it was like a lot on top of work, and it helped me to really empty my head, you know, and really breathe. Yeah, yeah. Let's go. I think that was sent water, actually. Oh, man. If I ever get the choice, I will. So like a really easy run for me, is to just go quietly over the bridge,
00:52:39:13 - 00:52:40:10
Unknown
and run along.
00:52:40:12 - 00:53:03:03
Unknown
Morse. Classic. Yes. You run along the water, you run on the forest. You can see the forest on the other side of. It's a lovely day. You can see right down to the mountains with the snow on the top. And it's just like, oh, I do. You know what? When you said that, I thought, oh my God, it's it's like I'm going to make cliffs with you and Kiva and just think that way, because she was talking about,
00:53:03:03 - 00:53:05:23
Unknown
how water naturally comes down.
00:53:05:24 - 00:53:19:14
Unknown
Yeah. And when you said water, I didn't think of running this water for me. It was called swimming. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I mean, yeah, that's good too. Yeah, yeah, it's one of the things I love most about being up here as well. Actually talking about why I moved to Inverness
00:53:19:14 - 00:53:21:03
Unknown
is a couple of days. I spent,
00:53:21:03 - 00:53:24:24
Unknown
paddleboarding right on the loch via.
00:53:24:24 - 00:53:25:23
Unknown
down near Aviemore.
00:53:25:23 - 00:53:37:24
Unknown
And it was just such a beautiful place and experience. And I was like, you know, if I could just if we it's like half an hour from here. I'll be here all the time. And actually, I was one of the ones I've lived up to every year, every summer we go a few times a week.
00:53:38:01 - 00:53:56:16
Unknown
This, a Biloxi recommended to me when I was asked, what do you do? Yeah, yeah, I wrote it down. I would like to go here. Yeah, but pedalboard and get eager was telling me, a couple weeks ago, he came to me. He was like, maybe. Maybe we should try paddleboarding this summer. I was like, oh my God, is everyone about pickleball?
00:53:56:18 - 00:54:03:15
Unknown
And going totally, on trend? Certainly. So yeah, yeah. Local to get up. Oh, yeah. What kind of paddleboard do you have? Like a the one that
00:54:03:15 - 00:54:12:05
Unknown
is it that you blow up and there's like a really cool ones. Yeah. You get solid ones and blow up. Yeah. The blow up ones are far easier to go just because they're so flexing.
00:54:12:06 - 00:54:34:07
Unknown
Yeah, yeah for sure. I think we need a solid one because he has an ambition to teach Pepper how to paddleboard with us. Yeah. Oh man. You know the the hardship of dog parenting. Cause I feel. Yeah. Talking about parenting. Yeah. A different kind of parenting. You are a dad.
00:54:34:07 - 00:54:41:07
Unknown
How do you optimize your time as a small business owner with parenting?
00:54:43:17 - 00:54:47:13
Unknown
I don't, I mean, I,
00:54:47:13 - 00:54:48:07
Unknown
I remember
00:54:48:08 - 00:54:49:12
Unknown
my son came along,
00:54:49:12 - 00:55:03:00
Unknown
an indoor two and a half years later, and I remember it being a real struggle the first, the first few years, it was so hard to get my head around the fact that suddenly I wasn't in full control of my time.
00:55:03:02 - 00:55:06:04
Unknown
I couldn't just choose to do something because I wanted to.
00:55:06:04 - 00:55:21:12
Unknown
And that sounds quite selfish, but I mean, it's like we live with the first 30 odd years of our lives very much like that. And it felt like it felt like a burden, as much as this, all the amazing things that being a parent like, it felt like with work, it felt like a burden.
00:55:21:12 - 00:55:37:19
Unknown
It felt like it was holding me back a little bit. But I remember like, realizing at one point, like, what's the point? Well, it's like this is a big part of why I'm doing my own work so that I can be flexible so that I can actually, you know, take my kid to nursery and pick him up there, you know, 4:00 or something.
00:55:37:19 - 00:55:52:21
Unknown
And then go to the park and play around in front of work. And it sounds dumb, but like it does. It took me a while to go through that cycle to realize that that's the advantage of running your own business. Is that you don't have to work for five years, and you feel less pressure to do it anyway.
00:55:53:00 - 00:56:05:11
Unknown
Yeah. These days I really enjoy the fact that I make a big effort to at least a couple of days a week like I do, finish up at 3:00 and I'm home when the kids are there and they come home school and I could chat to them about the school day and stuff like that.
00:56:05:11 - 00:56:11:19
Unknown
and I am much better now at no feeling the stressful pressure of phase three.
00:56:11:20 - 00:56:46:01
Unknown
Sorry, I probably should be still doing some work because I know a thing that I can actually do enough in a couple of hours if I do the right work. Yes, I like go deep on it and I really do the right thing. The most valuable thing right then that's actually a great thing. And that can actually, I'm becoming much more to terms with the fact that I don't have the energy to do that really deep work for eight hours, and I used to push myself through it and actually I don't I wasn't that good, like it was bad, like three hours and you're like, losing momentum and you're losing brain capacity nowadays.
00:56:46:01 - 00:57:03:04
Unknown
I realized that like two hours worth of proper strategic planning and thinking is a day's work, and I'm. I'm dead enough after that, and I can go home and I can go, like, for an hour, get home for the kids, get home from school, and then that's actually a really good day. Yeah, yeah, I hear what you're saying.
00:57:03:06 - 00:57:18:18
Unknown
Minus children as an experience. As I haven't had that yet, but, Yeah, structuring day differently definitely helps. Especially since, you know, we have to produce and create and.
00:57:18:18 - 00:57:30:11
Unknown
when we have these kind of careers, when we're running our own businesses, and I think this is especially if the business is a passion, it's very close to our heart and mind.
00:57:30:11 - 00:57:47:04
Unknown
You know, our life story. When people approach you and ask you, you know, what do you do or who you are? And this is something that I grapple with myself.
00:57:47:06 - 00:58:15:19
Unknown
Like, what do you answer? You know, are you a podcaster? Do you identify yourself as a podcaster, as a business owner, entrepreneur, or do you identify yourself mostly as a dad or just just a person? I don't I don't know if there's an easy answer to that. I definitely there's a big part of my identity is running the company that I do.
00:58:15:19 - 00:58:34:05
Unknown
see, I actually yeah. The funny thing about our business as we teach podcasting and certainly podcasting is a huge part of what we do, but it's in the blog is bigger visibility. And that's what really started the company. Video is actually a really big part of it as well. Newsletters like writing email newsletters for people every single week.
00:58:34:07 - 00:58:52:18
Unknown
So there's so much more to it. And podcasting. So I, I probably identify as, a maker like creators kind of almost become a bit of a cheesy word these days. I mean, it's like like exactly like, what are you going to call your. So, you know, so that's kind of what I identify as is somebody that just makes things.
00:58:52:19 - 00:59:00:18
Unknown
Yeah, I like making things. I love to create something that I put in the world, and it has some kind of effect on his life.
00:59:00:18 - 00:59:16:10
Unknown
And I kind of identify that from both sides of my life and work, but also at home. So like, I make things with my kids like, oh, that was always a thing that we enjoyed doing the most was like to remember Lego when they were little, or these days making like, nerdy models and stuff like that, eating things and,
00:59:16:10 - 00:59:22:21
Unknown
building something in the garden with them or something like that, you know, it or even like my son into coding these days.
00:59:22:21 - 00:59:26:06
Unknown
So he makes games. So I sit and play with him and make games with him.
00:59:26:06 - 00:59:35:08
Unknown
And he's better at it than me by a long shot. Now, on the coding side of things, so I just kind of set and, like, help him with ideas and things like that, but it's so much fun. That's a cool.
00:59:35:08 - 00:59:39:13
Unknown
I love the fact that that's kind of seep into the other side of my life as well.
00:59:39:13 - 00:59:47:17
Unknown
I think it's kind of almost a fruitless pursuit trying to find yourself in any way like, I am a dad. I am, and I it's part of my life. So I did a lot of most
00:59:47:17 - 00:59:51:05
Unknown
But I also couldn't live without the work that I do as well. I couldn't live without,
00:59:51:05 - 00:59:54:18
Unknown
my life and like how I identify with her, the relationship I had with her,
00:59:54:18 - 00:59:55:07
Unknown
but also
00:59:55:07 - 00:59:57:21
Unknown
I love being healthy and stuff like that.
00:59:57:21 - 00:59:59:15
Unknown
So that's like a whole other part that
00:59:59:15 - 01:00:21:17
Unknown
complements all the rest. And the rest of it wouldn't be as good without me doing that, because I know when I do an exercise or whatever or get into nature, like you're saying, yeah, I'm not as good at the other parts. Yeah. You know, it's completely unrelated. It's funny. Do you know what I, I think I just asked you this the wrong way, because as you were talking to me, I realized, oh, it gets up.
01:00:21:19 - 01:00:33:05
Unknown
Oh, no, no, no, it's just it's a good question. It's just it's kind of hard to. Yeah. Do you, could you. Yeah, I think I can read it earlier. It. So
01:00:33:05 - 01:00:34:16
Unknown
you know
01:00:34:16 - 01:00:49:10
Unknown
our output. I think that that's the thing that I will now we identify ourselves or we measure our success in life based on output.
01:00:49:10 - 01:00:51:19
Unknown
A lot of times as creators. Yeah.
01:00:51:19 - 01:01:09:11
Unknown
my question is if anyone is out there, you know, thinking or feeling being overwhelmed, you know, how can we have a healthier relationship with our work so we're not fully dependent on our output?
01:01:09:14 - 01:01:11:21
Unknown
You know, I'm. Yeah. Yeah, totally. No, I get you,
01:01:11:21 - 01:01:34:14
Unknown
Yeah. Because if I'm like, if I'm like, if I'm not constantly making stuff. Yeah. Or like thinking about stuff like you said, sometimes in the evening, you know. Yeah. And I know a person who has like he's had like a wet pad in the shower and they write their ideas there and I'm like, man, no, I'm kind of cool.
01:01:34:16 - 01:01:52:04
Unknown
Like, how do we keep ourselves, you know, that? Mental hygiene. Yeah, yeah. I think a huge part of it is realizing that we are limited in capacity, can't just keep going like that. I think that was as part of what was trying to get it out and realizing like,
01:01:52:04 - 01:01:55:14
Unknown
what is a good day, it's a good day is not working day to five.
01:01:55:14 - 01:02:19:22
Unknown
A good day is achieving a goal that you have. And so if I have the goal to think through really, genuinely, deeply what our company should be doing this coming year based on like current market conditions, based on what we've done in the last year, based on the competition, all that kind of stuff, that kind of thing. We'll take two, three, four hours of thinking to come up with something, but I'll be exhausted, like I said, and I need to finish like I need.
01:02:20:01 - 01:02:22:15
Unknown
There's no point in anything else. It's fruitless.
01:02:22:15 - 01:02:26:08
Unknown
But acknowledging that that is a worthwhile thing to do, and
01:02:26:08 - 01:02:37:08
Unknown
I think with make as it was creates as a particular like if you're a you can actually I think you can do it like I think you can go on output, but it has to be based on something realistic.
01:02:37:08 - 01:02:38:08
Unknown
It has to be based on,
01:02:38:08 - 01:02:40:13
Unknown
you know,
01:02:40:13 - 01:02:55:12
Unknown
the part you alluded to, the problem with the video earlier on the podcast. There's most podcasters feel like they have to do video because it's the biggest podcasters doing it. Joe Rogan's day and all the rest of them are doing it. But it's like they've got a team, they've got a whole team that are running this for them, so it's not something that you can do.
01:02:55:12 - 01:02:57:16
Unknown
So realize what's actually within your capacity,
01:02:57:16 - 01:03:07:14
Unknown
and realize that just getting an audio episode every single week and dedicating one day to that every single week is enough and actually is a really big achievement and sort of taking value in taking,
01:03:07:14 - 01:03:09:19
Unknown
achievement in that is is enough.
01:03:09:19 - 01:03:13:24
Unknown
I think that's the biggest part of it is really just setting that realistic target.
01:03:14:01 - 01:03:47:17
Unknown
And that's a value in that, one, I, I really appreciate what you said. You know, I mentioned to you earlier that, well, obviously guru is not here today to do the sound and the camera for us. So I have to figure out how to do this by myself. Yes. But equally, as a content creator professionally, I have this feeling somehow that I need another person to feel complete in this podcast.
01:03:47:19 - 01:04:14:14
Unknown
Like in my head, I wasn't enough, you know, to create a valuable output. But really? Yeah. And it took me a while to figure out that. No. Do you are you know, you can do it. You can do it by yourself. And I agree with what you said. You know, you have to be realistic. But you also feel like not to be too hard on yourself.
01:04:14:20 - 01:04:38:08
Unknown
You know, I feel like sometimes we're too hard on ourselves with the expectation, you know? Yeah. You don't have to do all. Yeah, well, I remember one realization in the last ten years that made a big difference to my mental well-being was actually realizing that I hate social media, and I don't have to do it. Yeah, I can make a choice in my life.
01:04:38:08 - 01:04:46:15
Unknown
There will be a trade off, so maybe I'll be giving up some opportunities by not doing Twitter and Facebook and LinkedIn and all the rest of them all the time,
01:04:46:15 - 01:04:52:07
Unknown
but it makes me so much more happy in general, not being involved in that so much more,
01:04:52:07 - 01:05:00:13
Unknown
energized because I don't have to spend all this time thinking through how I do that, even though it's not something I'm necessarily the best, that it's not my strength.
01:05:00:13 - 01:05:25:19
Unknown
And it gives me so much more time to do the things that I want to do, which is long form content, deep content like, 2000 word blog post or an hour long episode of a podcast, or like I really indexed 20 minute YouTube video or something like that. The stuff that I get so much more satisfaction out of, I never want to have different things of that, but choose the thing that actually, what is it that's giving you the most negative feelings right now in your work and say, you know, what, do I have to do this?
01:05:25:20 - 01:05:47:18
Unknown
Maybe I am losing some opportunity, but what will it give me back to have that lack of stress and the time back again to spend on the things I actually better have? Yeah, that's very right. You know, like when I started the podcast, I was like, what social media am I going to do? I, like you immediately feel overwhelmed.
01:05:47:19 - 01:05:48:24
Unknown
Pressure to do like
01:05:48:24 - 01:05:52:06
Unknown
do you know what I like? Instagram. I'm a millennial. I'm
01:05:52:06 - 01:06:00:01
Unknown
I'm just going to do that and that's okay. Yeah. And if you make a hard rule around it as well, I mean, it takes away so many, flows and decisions and so many of those.
01:06:00:01 - 01:06:14:01
Unknown
Let's say, tracks that drag you, of course, because you'll see something of somebody saying like, oh, you're some that didn't TikTok to watch really well and you'll be like, oh, maybe I should try to help understand that they at least try an app. You're like, no, I said I wasn't going to do this. Yes, that might work for me.
01:06:14:07 - 01:06:22:22
Unknown
But no, it's going to distract me. It's going to keep me away from these things. I really need a plan around. Yeah. And so it's a negative. Yeah. It's putting those fun traits. And also I think,
01:06:22:22 - 01:06:33:23
Unknown
it's setting the boundaries within your limits. But also if you're going through that journey figuring out also what those boundaries are and then adjusting them.
01:06:34:00 - 01:06:36:20
Unknown
Yeah. Yeah. Because sometimes I feel like,
01:06:36:20 - 01:06:52:07
Unknown
we still are trying to figure things out as we go. Well, that's that's I remember one time I, it's somebody on my team told me and it surprised me. They said one of the things they think I'm best at is changing my mind, and I wasn't sure whether to turn out positively.
01:06:52:07 - 01:07:00:12
Unknown
No way. And Kim, I was like, I just immediately thought, oh, you what? Did I just flip flop all the time? I just, like, never stick to anything.
01:07:00:12 - 01:07:18:04
Unknown
And they they took great pains, said, no, no, no, honestly, I think this is a really good like, the way I come across, apparently, is that I'm just quite happy to, you know, if we're three months into a project and some decent, solid evidence comes up that actually it was a bad idea after all, we didn't know that at the time.
01:07:18:04 - 01:07:23:24
Unknown
But now we do. Then let's just stop it immediately, whereas a lot of people will just stick to something. Whatever.
01:07:23:24 - 01:07:44:19
Unknown
And so yeah, absolutely. You need to be open minded like that. It's like, what's the phrase? I can't remember. There's like a good phrase around like, or strong opinions loosely held. So believe things strongly and commit to it, but hold it loosely enough that you're not going to be dragged like too far in wrong direction.
01:07:44:19 - 01:08:00:04
Unknown
If it turns out it's wrong, because there's always a good chance that you're wrong. And, you know, I think that applies to, personal life and business equally. Yeah, yeah. Because letting go is a huge part of,
01:08:00:04 - 01:08:04:23
Unknown
why so many businesses fail or why so many creative ideas fail.
01:08:04:23 - 01:08:07:02
Unknown
And the ability to,
01:08:07:02 - 01:08:16:13
Unknown
ab test things, feel it out, give you the chance and then either let go or then for more resources if that's going.
01:08:16:15 - 01:08:49:21
Unknown
I think it's a skill that not everyone has, you know. So yeah, I think you deserve a, a spark for that one because based on my experience, it's fairly rare in this world. Speaking about, you know, creativity, I, I saw this link on it's scrolling, during my lunch break, but I saw that today is international. Let me read this right where World Book and Copyright Day, because we're recording this on the 6th of March.
01:08:49:23 - 01:09:17:20
Unknown
So I know from my research that you do love a good book. Yeah. And that's within a specific genre, isn't it? Yeah, more than one, I suppose, but yeah, quite specific ones. Yeah, yeah. So if you could tell me what books were kind of like formative for you when it comes to business because I know we have this in common.
01:09:18:00 - 01:10:04:06
Unknown
Oh, okay. Yeah, that we like. We like certain types of, you know, like business growth, self-growth books or people. Oh, I'm trying to figure out which ones we were talking about. Oh, no. Oh, yeah. So so tell me what you read recently or what really made you pause and rethink some strategies. Good question. Do you know, I have actually not read that many business style books in the last year or two, so I kind of stopped because I just had a big pile of them, and I was realizing that so much of what I was reading in any kind of business book was kind of just recycling stuff that I either already had read somewhere
01:10:04:06 - 01:10:20:04
Unknown
else, or it was new, but it was dragging me a different direction. Yeah, and I already had read something that I should. I'm still in the process of put into action, so I think I kind of put a pause on reading too many business books, because I realized I just hadn't put into action enough of the stuff I don't already know.
01:10:20:06 - 01:10:44:06
Unknown
So I kind of go back, actually, and reread stuff. I mean, some of the best ones, like, I read the. You ever read the emails revisited? Yes. Is it, is it. It's not here. Probably. It's in my home library. Oh, really? Well, yeah, that's very good. I mean, that's such a good book as a whole principle really is around how you professionalize, you know, a company, turn it into something that's a system as opposed to just you.
01:10:44:08 - 01:10:55:08
Unknown
Yeah, it's a legendary book. Really? Yes. I and that was one of the that was one of the first ones that really took me into how you, you know, I take it a bit more seriously, essentially.
01:10:55:08 - 01:11:00:07
Unknown
But from there, like after books and, once I really enjoy actually, I'm more just the,
01:11:00:07 - 01:11:06:17
Unknown
story based biographies that really teach you things like am shoe dog love shoe dog, one of the best books I like to make, you know.
01:11:06:17 - 01:11:21:21
Unknown
Yeah. So it's like, Phil Knight, I think his name is made of Nike. Yeah, yeah. And there's so many things in that book that are around, like persistence and resilience, around some sales, around how you put a team together and how you relate to,
01:11:21:21 - 01:11:30:10
Unknown
other people that work for your company, things like that. Some of it like learning from his negatives because you obviously and he says a lot about this book around things that he did wrong and mistakes he made.
01:11:30:10 - 01:11:55:24
Unknown
and he's obviously one of the depressing things, as you read a lot of those books that are super successful business people and generally the personal lives are broken, is terrible. They're estranged from their partners, their kids. They're, you know, they see horrible issues around like alcoholism and drug addiction and all that kind of stuff, you know, like, how do you find the middle path where you can run a business and not be broken at the same day?
01:11:56:00 - 01:12:11:08
Unknown
You know, so it's hard to learn from that kind of stuff. But books like that. Yeah. I love absolutely. Yes. Like you, I don't know if you're alluding to the side that I would. I encourage when it comes to books as well, in terms of I read a lot of sci fi and fantasy, so I a lot so those sorts of things to me or spaceships and I love it.
01:12:11:09 - 01:12:17:12
Unknown
Yeah, I, I actually there's quite a few sci fi books that I've learned a lot of kind of leadership lessons from. And
01:12:17:12 - 01:12:21:08
Unknown
there's, there's there's a link.
01:12:21:08 - 01:12:29:20
Unknown
So one of the social media that I'm getting back into, I'm quite enjoying, actually the only one that's like ten and it's kind of because you can tell stories more easily.
01:12:29:22 - 01:12:32:05
Unknown
And I think that's what's working for me just now.
01:12:32:05 - 01:12:51:18
Unknown
And I'm toying with the idea of a series of posts related to series books love called The Blade itself, which is about a guy called Morgan named fingers. He's kind of a reformed barbarian, almost like he was, he was a horrible, horrible man in his younger days, but he's kind of reflecting on his life and trying to be a better person and all this.
01:12:51:20 - 01:13:09:00
Unknown
And there's like, all these, like, really basic things. Like one of his big sayings, it's, it's there's a job to do, just make us look at all and do it rather live in fear of that. And I'm like such a basic, simple thing, but it's like it's it's a life lesson that nobody knows when they're 18. You only really learn that when you're older.
01:13:09:06 - 01:13:19:15
Unknown
Yeah, yeah. So there's loads of stuff like that and connected. So I'm toying with the idea of using some fiction stories around to try and teach some lessons. You guys, when it comes to leadership
01:13:19:15 - 01:13:19:22
Unknown
and,
01:13:19:22 - 01:13:27:15
Unknown
how to live a good working life and stuff like that. I think that's a great idea because it's it makes it more relatable.
01:13:27:15 - 01:13:48:15
Unknown
It doesn't make it just like these are the hard core lessons, you know, and then bam, bam, bam, check the links and stuff. Yeah, yeah. But it makes it more engaging in a way. You know, it makes people, I think, more curious. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it ties into that like I've seen earlier with a podcast. You need to have an angle.
01:13:48:15 - 01:14:07:14
Unknown
You need some of your uniqueness. You need to bring yourself into it. So it's got personality that makes it yours and make people listen. But I can't really content. So with social media, I think that an angle I might have I'm not sure if it's going to work. Karamo is like bringing together my my geeky, sci fi fantasy type stuff and trying to actually teach some real lessons.
01:14:07:14 - 01:14:26:16
Unknown
I of that as well. So I don't know. I'll give it a go. Yeah, I think it's a great idea. It will definitely set you apart, you know, and I in a good way or a bad way. Who who knows? You're gonna test it out. You have to let us know how it works. Yeah. Amazing. And tell me, I don't know how long we've been talking.
01:14:26:16 - 01:14:32:24
Unknown
Oh, my God, hour in the hell home of Jesus. I don't want to keep you too long, but I tend to do this with people.
01:14:32:24 - 01:14:34:20
Unknown
Tell me
01:14:34:20 - 01:14:37:24
Unknown
before we kind of, like, wrap up and forget.
01:14:37:24 - 01:14:55:01
Unknown
What is your next set of things that you would like to achieve, whether you know, it's in your culture, how for your or five year plan like, wait, what would you like to see yourself go?
01:14:55:03 - 01:15:10:14
Unknown
We we have a bunch of plans with ality, so we'd love to make like Alex's are, like I said, the forecast maker out. There's a bunch of stuff I want to put in there to make it, like so much. There's so many things that are still difficult in podcasting, particularly with a lot of people moving towards the video podcasting side of things.
01:15:10:14 - 01:15:17:21
Unknown
I think we can apply or philosophy to podcasting, which is like minimalism and simple, simple workflows and
01:15:19:05 - 01:15:32:23
Unknown
and polish, but without too much technical side of things. I think we can apply that to video, and that's kind of what I want to put out too. But I also want to try and find, more you past, like talking again of choosing our kind of unique angle on it.
01:15:32:23 - 01:15:49:01
Unknown
I don't want to be just a generic podcast making app. I want to be one that helps people with a particular part of it, partly because we could meet that, be a way to compete with the bigger kind of more generic apps, and partly because it's more interesting for us to do as well. So that's a big part of it.
01:15:49:03 - 01:15:52:19
Unknown
But this year I want to also just actually find
01:15:52:19 - 01:16:11:18
Unknown
more unique angles for making content like I'm talking about, about LinkedIn, like things like that, like just putting a bit more personality into stuff. And I'm finding so we run another podcast called The Creator Toolbox, which she helped me with for a while. I love that one. And so I still haven't quite nailed down really what the angle is on it.
01:16:11:18 - 01:16:22:13
Unknown
Like we break it up into segments and we try and put our own personality around the tools that we're playing around with, how we use them and how it cracked it. Yeah, and I think there's something in there that could be great.
01:16:22:13 - 01:16:25:21
Unknown
And I really want to talk about this year and take that to the blog as well.
01:16:25:21 - 01:16:46:09
Unknown
Like we're building a new blog around that too. So like writing more, getting back into writing more as well, but tying it into the audio and video. So it's all one sphere of content that really people can get into consuming the way they want to compliments each other. Yeah, so that's a bit of an amorphous answer, but there's a few things in there that are all bubbling in my head this year.
01:16:46:09 - 01:17:10:08
Unknown
That's for 25 is amazing. I do you know what I am? Sorry, I forgot to mention, the creative toolbox because I still follow it and I absolutely love it. And many tools that are mentioned there. I actually recommend them to like my clients or people that I work with. Yeah. And I'm like, oh, this is a great tool.
01:17:10:10 - 01:17:35:24
Unknown
I had no idea about these tools before I heard about them on the Creative Toolbox. But that is such a, such a cool platform because it's real creators. And these are not like high end gamers, you know, that have, millions of views. And following these are like real people, you know, that do the grind even though.
01:17:36:02 - 01:18:04:06
Unknown
Yes, for sure. And the tools that I mentioned there are super cool, super helpful and really help with, like the optimization of the workflow, you know, especially when you have to choose, you have to choose your battles. I'm going to say about it. So that's definitely one of the one of the things, whoever's interested in podcasting or whoever's in the creator world, I think should check out,
01:18:04:06 - 01:18:10:06
Unknown
and you guys are where where can people find you?
01:18:10:08 - 01:18:23:00
Unknown
If you want to start a podcast, just go to the podcast host.com. So that's our website for all. Everything is in there. So there's a link at the top that says start in the navigation and that's just our full guide on how to start a podcast.
01:18:23:00 - 01:18:28:11
Unknown
But equally just hit the search button and search for growth monetization gear, anything you need out there.
01:18:28:11 - 01:18:30:11
Unknown
So that's the podcast to start. Come
01:18:30:11 - 01:18:46:22
Unknown
Analitica as our tool to spell ally to you as our tool for running the podcast. Right. So recording and making it. So yeah, that's still a place. But we're on all the channels. If you search the podcast host, or Aleta, you'll find us on YouTube. And any point you like podcast is our podcast.
01:18:47:03 - 01:19:10:16
Unknown
There's too many things you need a whole list of, like, yeah, you find most. You find all of it on the podcast. So it's dot com. And if someone feels overwhelmed, like they arrive to any kind of website or they search on YouTube, you know how to start a podcast, which video? And I'm going to like this video as well for anyone who's interested.
01:19:10:18 - 01:19:30:07
Unknown
Do you have a video that we could just give people like, this is a great thing to watch or to, or maybe a podcast to listen if you're interested, but you've never done anything like it for starting up a new show. If you really want to give it a shot. Yeah, there's so there's two videos I would usually point people to.
01:19:30:07 - 01:19:31:20
Unknown
One is called
01:19:31:20 - 01:19:48:17
Unknown
the Path framework. So Pat and that is exactly around what we've been talking about about uniqueness. So how do you design it can it can be a podcast, but it applies just as well to a blog, to a social media channel, to a newsletter, to a YouTube channel. Its sole purpose, audience,
01:19:48:17 - 01:19:51:09
Unknown
topic and hallmark uniqueness.
01:19:51:09 - 01:19:55:13
Unknown
So there's all these things that come together to make a show easy to sell, essentially,
01:19:55:13 - 01:19:58:08
Unknown
as an easy to get somebody to listen to. So that's that's a big one.
01:19:58:08 - 01:20:09:01
Unknown
But I've also got another one, which actually is just me designing and recording and then publishing a show in 20 minutes. Wow. How easy it is to actually make a brand new show.
01:20:09:01 - 01:20:19:13
Unknown
And that's another video I've got, which is on YouTube too. So both of those are on our YouTube channel, but I can give you links to both. Amazing. Super. So we're going to definitely share that on Instagram and our website.
01:20:19:13 - 01:20:25:00
Unknown
Yeah. Thank you so much for coming. No no thanks. I would really left catching up with you.
01:20:25:02 - 01:20:41:13
Unknown
It's almost healthier than I've seen you. Yeah. And it's great to see your studio. It's great to see the space here. It's like cool space. I and you know, I hate these blue walls. When I first came, I was like, I to make this work, and that kind of like it, I, I really like it. Oh, wait.
01:20:41:14 - 01:20:42:15
Unknown
We made it home.
01:20:42:15 - 01:20:44:15
Unknown
Definitely.
01:20:44:15 - 01:21:00:03
Unknown
thank you so much for coming. I wish you all the best in the future. And I hope we're going to catch up at some point. With what you what you're up to. And thank you so much for all the listeners and everyone who are seeing us on social media.
01:21:00:05 - 01:21:04:19
Unknown
And we'll catch up with you again in two weeks time. Bye.
01:21:12:03 - 01:21:16:23
Unknown
No.
01:21:17:00 - 01:21:19:20
Unknown
You.
01:21:19:20 - 01:21:35:15
Unknown
Awesome. Thank you so much. No worries. That was good fun. Thank you so much for your time. Oh, man, I can't do you know what? I have to get, like, a clock behind so I can, like, peer on the tide. Yeah, I usually ignore signal for me, everything.
01:21:35:17 - 01:21:36:09
Unknown
So I'm like,