The Hiatus is Over!
The hiatus is over!
It's been a while but I'm back to educate and (subjectively...) entertain those creators looking to build a meaningful, sustainable podcast audience.
There will be some changes so I want to spend a little time reflecting on why I took a break and talking about what's coming up, what's changing, and more about the format. Plus, I'll tell you a little about the things that I've been working on in the meantime.
Thanks for your patience, I'm excited to get back to this.
Useful links from the episode
- The Podcast Show LIVE - Podcast Show 2023
- Captivate Episode Planning & Research Links
- Captivate's AMIE v2.0
- Captivate Changelog
- Spark of Rebellion, Star Wars Podcast, UK
Fan of the show? Find it helpful?
You can become a supporter of the show via a one-off tip that I'll use to buy a beer at this link: Support The Podcast Accelerator: How to Grow Your Podcast.
Your next steps
I teach podcasting a lot and for free. So, here's what I'd recommend you do next:
- Watch my free podcasting tutorials on YouTube: YouTube (Captivate)
- Ask me anything at all about podcasting over on Twitter: Twitter
If you need help with anything at all regarding your podcast, get me on Twitter (Twitter ) and I promise to respond.
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy
Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy
Transcript
Well, hello there.
Mark:Welcome back to the Podcast Accelerator.
Mark:I'm your host, Mark Asquith, and it has been a while, but never fear.
Mark:The Podcast Accelerator returns to help you with your podcast audience growth, but
Mark:this is a bit of a welcome back episode.
Mark:It's a bonus episode.
Mark:Just talking back through, I think, why I went through the hiatus, what
Mark:I've been working on in the meantime, when the show's gonna be coming back
Mark:properly, you know, any changes to the format, any changes to the release
Mark:schedule, and so on and so forth.
Mark:But of course, the thing that I need to do first is to thank you.
Mark:The ever-present listener, because you've stuck with me.
Mark:You've stuck around.
Mark:I get people asking me, when's the accelerator coming back,
Mark:Marco, when are you coming back?
Mark:When are you coming back?
Mark:And it's taken a while to get back into the head space, which
Mark:I'll talk about in a little while.
Mark:But the podcasting industry has changed.
Mark:It's changing.
Mark:Ever, ever, ever...
Mark:it just, you know, seems ever faster.
Mark:It's just continuing to evolve and evolve so very quickly and I've been in this
Mark:industry now for, well, a long, long time.
Mark:I, I got into this in the first instance in 2012, and, and since then I, I've
Mark:pretty much been here continually.
Mark:I've seen a lot of change.
Mark:I've seen it go from an industry that wasn't really an industry.
Mark:There were a few players, there were a few podcasters, there were a few
Mark:companies, and just seen it turn into this genuine media industry
Mark:where there are so many divisions.
Mark:There are so many different people wanting different things from the
Mark:industry all under this term podcasting.
Mark:It just isn't the same anymore.
Mark:There's nothing wrong with that.
Mark:It's growing up, it's going through it's teenage years, it's, it's finding
Mark:its feet, it's finding its own voice.
Mark:Excuse the pun, but it's figuring out what it wants to be.
Mark:And we see divisions, we see unification, we see all sorts of different things
Mark:cropping up from people trying to put up walled gardens to initiatives
Mark:like the Podcasting 2.0 initiative and the PSP that are trying to keep
Mark:podcasting as open as possible.
Mark:And the good thing about it is that there is space for everyone, and
Mark:that's the main reason why I love this.
Mark:It's the main reason why I got into podcasting all those.
Mark:Years ago.
Mark:So let me dig into, into why I took the hiatus.
Mark:I'm gonna, like I said, later in this session, I'm gonna talk about what's next.
Mark:I'm gonna talk about the format, when I'm gonna get back to content and so on
Mark:and so forth, some release schedules.
Mark:But I just want to go back and just revisit that hiatus.
Mark:So last year when I took that hiatus, it was around March time, and at that point
Mark:I'd been creating content podcasts in particular that educate other podcasters.
Mark:I've been doing educational shows like this one for a long, long
Mark:time, over a thousand episodes.
Mark:And that is tough to keep up and experimented with all sorts of different
Mark:formats because if I'm gonna help you with your podcast, I need to know I
Mark:need, what's it like to run a daily show?
Mark:What's it like to run a long form show?
Mark:What's it like to run a short form show?
Mark:And I'd done a lot, you know, I'd done a heck of a lot, and I was
Mark:finding that I was a bit burnt out.
Mark:I was.
Mark:I was at risk of repeating and I don't think there's anything wrong with
Mark:that cuz because I think when you're educating, there's always a great
Mark:opportunity to, to re revisit and to reiterate and to re reframe and to
Mark:refactor education and information.
Mark:All the best teachers, in my view, do that.
Mark:They teach things in various different ways because we all learn differently.
Mark:But I was, honestly, I was just burnt out on it.
Mark:There was a lot going on.
Mark:Weed actually, as Captivate would become part of the fantastic team at Global,
Mark:which has gone really, really well.
Mark:I love being part of Global and Captivate.
Mark:If you've been following Captivate, You'll know that we've carried on.
Mark:You know, we've done some great, great work, which I've put some
Mark:links to actually in the show notes for this episode because we've got
Mark:some amazing releases that we've put out, and we've got more that
Mark:are coming over the next few weeks.
Mark:We've got a big release the week commencing the 15th of
Mark:May this year, which is gonna be an absolute game changer.
Mark:So I'm really looking forward to sharing that with you.
Mark:But we've done a lot of stuff.
Mark:We integrated with Globals DAX platform.
Mark:We've put out the episode planning and research links with Captivate out
Mark:we've done AMIE (audio mastering & insertion engine) version 2.0.
Mark:We'd released a lot and it was, it was just a time, that was it.
Mark:It required a lot of focus as a business owner.
Mark:So yeah, I'm a content creator, of course, and I'm also the co-founder
Mark:and MD of Captivate and going from the CEO of a startup to being part of
Mark:a much bigger business and becoming the managing director and, and, and.
Mark:Still running the show at Captivate.
Mark:It required a lot of attention.
Mark:I had to do great work for you, the podcaster, but also great
Mark:work internally for global.
Mark:We had to do great work together and we do, and we did.
Mark:So I needed to focus on that, but I also wanted to do two other things.
Mark:You see, when I was younger, a lot, lot younger.
Mark:Sounds like a Beatles song in there when I was younger.
Mark:So much younger than today.
Mark:It was really a lot, lot younger.
Mark:I said to myself that I want to get to a point in my life where when I've
Mark:got a little one, when I've got a kid, when I've got a child, I wanna
Mark:be able to focus my entire attention on being the best dad possible.
Mark:And as you might know, just a couple of months after the Captivate
Mark:became part of Global, I had my first child, my little girl.
Mark:She's beautiful.
Mark:I love her to pieces.
Mark:She's doing so well.
Mark:And thank you to all the listeners that have asked.
Mark:It's, do you know what it means so much?
Mark:Um, yeah, that just blows me away that people actually ask
Mark:people that listen to the show.
Mark:Thank you so much for that.
Mark:And what I wanted to do was put all of my effort into being
Mark:the best person for Captivate.
Mark:But also when you're running a podcast like the Podcast Accelerator, it takes
Mark:time over and above the working hours.
Mark:There are only so many hours you can work in a day, and what I'd
Mark:have to do is work on an evening to do the podcast accelerator.
Mark:And there's nothing wrong with that.
Mark:Really enjoyed doing it.
Mark:But when I had my little girl and, and, and Sam and I had our little
Mark:girl, It was, I couldn't do that.
Mark:I didn't want to do that.
Mark:I wanted to be there for bathtime.
Mark:I wanted to be there for bedtime.
Mark:I wanted to be there for breakfast, and I wanted to be there as much as I can.
Mark:And I can, and I can do that.
Mark:And I'm very fortunate enough to have spent a year finding that
Mark:balance with Sam and our little girl.
Mark:And it, it, it, it's, it works.
Mark:It's great.
Mark:Now she's a little bit older.
Mark:Now she's got her own activities that she do.
Mark:You know, she's, she, she has an hour doing player days, she has
Mark:an hour doing various thing, you know, activities like kids do.
Mark:And so I get a little bit of time, you know, one day a week I get an hour or
Mark:two back where I can do this again.
Mark:So when, when you combine all of these things, you know, moving from
Mark:being a startup to working within global, being a little bit burnt
Mark:out on creating all of that content, and then of course, Becoming a dad.
Mark:It was just the right time to take a hiatus, but also I
Mark:had to get my head straight.
Mark:I had to figure out, you know, I've been this outspoken, really generous and
Mark:genuine, transparent, open educator in the podcasting space for such a long time.
Mark:I've traveled the world and I've created so much content
Mark:and met so many amazing people.
Mark:What does the next 10 years of this look like for me?
Mark:Because the industry has changed and that's why.
Mark:I did another couple of things.
Mark:I experimented with hobby podcasts.
Mark:I got the love of the craft back because.
Mark:It's difficult.
Mark:We all know how difficult it is to carry on podcasting.
Mark:We do.
Mark:We know that we see Pod Fair all the time, and what I wanted to do was to
Mark:create content that I love, content for me, which is why I focused on Spark of
Mark:Rebellion, my Star Wars podcast, Gaz and I attended Star Wars celebration
Mark:and done another couple of things.
Mark:I interviewed the Fantastic Charles Soule, the author, fantastic author of all the
Mark:Star Wars comics that you might read, and a lot of the High Republic work as well.
Mark:We just had it for fun.
Mark:We built the NERD Podcasts Network, which we're launching a couple of shows, and
Mark:I've got a, a passion project that I've been wanting to do for years called,
Mark:It's How Old, which is celebrating pop culture's biggest birthdays.
Mark:It's a seasonal podcast that looks back and says, how the heck, is Superman.
Mark:The Movie from 1978, how is it 45 years old?
Mark:And we retrospectively looked at it, how is Man of Steel 10
Mark:years old and so on and so forth.
Mark:Just loved doing it.
Mark:And it's launching very, very shortly.
Mark:I'm just putting the finishing touches on that one.
Mark:We have done so much to get, for me to get the love of, of not just talking
Mark:about podcasting, but being a podcaster that doesn't talk about podcasting,
Mark:getting the love of it back whilst also, of course running Captivate.
Mark:So that's why I took the hiatus and I needed it.
Mark:And you know, I'm gonna tell you a bit of a secret.
Mark:I've made a complete plan to close this entire podcast, down the podcast
Mark:accelerator, and even recorded a goodbye episode, but I didn't publish it.
Mark:I left it, and over the last couple of months, I've got the taste back for it.
Mark:I've got the desire, the burnout's gone, the willingness to create
Mark:educational content for podcasters is back and I've learned a lot.
Mark:It's been a big year, so I'm excited.
Mark:Alright.
Mark:I am super excited not only to see all the listeners and to speak to you and to
Mark:chat to you on Twitter as always, and to just, you know, look at how I can help
Mark:you, but also to get back out to events.
Mark:We went to PodFest.
Mark:Kieran and I, we spoke out at PodFest over in Orlando with
Mark:our great, great friend, Mr.
Mark:Chris Krimitsos so's the team, uh, Podcast Movement.
Mark:We've got the podcast show in London, which we're speaking
Mark:at an exhibiting at as always.
Mark:So I'm really excited to just see you guys in person after Covid after
Mark:this content hiatus from me and.
Mark:It is just, it's just good to be back.
Mark:But what I also wanna do is, is, is is before I tell you about some of the, the
Mark:format changes and some of the little tweaks that I'm making, I want to just
Mark:give a big shout out to the Captivate team because one final reason that I stepped
Mark:back a little bit from the Limelight was to let those talented souls shine.
Mark:We've got Garry, we've got Sarah, we've got Ben, we've got Danny, we've got
Mark:Judy, we've got Kieran, we've got Pierre.
Mark:We've got some amazing Captivate team members that wouldn't ordinarily
Mark:have been able to get to conferences because people wanted me, the
Mark:person that creates the content.
Mark:So I stepped back and let them get in front of the camera, let them get
Mark:on the stage, let them be on podcast.
Mark:And you know what?
Mark:They're absolutely fantastic.
Mark:There's more talent there than I will ever, ever have, and I'm super,
Mark:super proud of you, the Captivate team, and super proud of all.
Mark:Your view, the Captivate users and the podcast Accelerator listeners and the,
Mark:and the people that consume all of our content for embracing that team.
Mark:So very, very much.
Mark:We've created a lot of new content through Captivate and I've done none of it.
Mark:I've been working behind the scenes on product and they are so talented.
Mark:So go and check some of that out over on YouTube cuz they have done
Mark:excellent work over on the written blog.
Mark:Captivating Insider, the podcast there is so much great content that the
Mark:team has created and you'll see them at podcast movement again this year.
Mark:So when is the podcast coming back?
Mark:This is a bonus episode, just kind of talking through a couple of things.
Mark:The podcast will be back on Thursday, the 18th of May, but in
Mark:the meantime, I'm gonna release a little bit of runup content,
Mark:more bonus episodes like this one.
Mark:I'm gonna put a couple of these out just to build up to
Mark:that Thursday the 18th of May.
Mark:Look out for that cuz I'm excited about them.
Mark:I'm gonna mix things up a little bit.
Mark:I'm speaking.
Mark:Of mixing things up.
Mark:If you have your calendar in front of you, you'll note that
Mark:the 18th May is indeed a Thursday.
Mark:I'm gonna be releasing brand new episodes, not on Monday anymore, but Thursday at
Mark:midday UK time, which is around 7:00 AM Eastern, depending on daylight savings.
Mark:That's on a Thursday at 12:00 PM UK time, and I'm gonna be putting out early access
Mark:to those episodes a couple of days early.
Mark:Four.
Mark:People who support the podcast and I'll talk to you about that separately.
Mark:Dun dun.
Mark:What else is changing?
Mark:Well, Format is gonna be tweaked.
Mark:Give us a slightly Yes.
Mark:I'm gonna be educating, yes, I'm gonna be talking like I do.
Mark:Yes.
Mark:I'm gonna be giving you the skinny on all things podcast growth, education,
Mark:monetization, you know the drill.
Mark:I've been around long enough doing this.
Mark:I'm gonna be doing more of that, but I'm also gonna be interviewing some people.
Mark:I'm also gonna be giving you some industry insights.
Mark:I'm also gonna be bringing people on from around the industry to help me
Mark:to educate and maybe some friends.
Mark:That aren't in the industry.
Mark:Just to help me to educate you on the things that you need to grow your
Mark:audience, because one of the big things that I learned as a podcaster very, very
Mark:early on is that the way that I could succeed with the Podcast Accelerator and
Mark:all of the things that I do in podcasting was to bring the experience that I had
Mark:outside of podcasting into the industry.
Mark:So the brand, the marketing, the product work that I do, the building
Mark:of businesses that I've done, the way that I do public speaking, all
Mark:of that informs how I build podcasts.
Mark:And I couldn't do any of it without the outside experience.
Mark:So I'm gonna, I'm gonna be bringing a little bit more of that to the table.
Mark:So listen, we're back.
Mark:Thank you to you, the ever present fans.
Mark:I love you dearly.
Mark:And I, it the, the message that I've had talking about Michael,
Mark:when are you coming back asking me, Marco, when are you coming back?
Mark:It excites me and I'm so grateful for you.
Mark:You know, I can't believe that I get to do this as a job.
Mark:You, I'm thankful to you.
Mark:I'm thankful to the Captivate team, to the wider global team.
Mark:I'm grateful to my friends in the industry, right across the industry from
Mark:the news outlets like Sam Sethi and James Cridland and everyone over there, right
Mark:through to the other hosting companies that we know and love, right through
Mark:to some of the other tech providers, the other fantastic creators, some
Mark:of the influencers that are really.
Mark:Providing great thought leadership in the space, and just everyone in
Mark:the industry is always so welcoming.
Mark:So thank you to everyone and welcome back to the Podcast Accelerator.