Well, hello there.

Welcome back to the Podcast Accelerator.

I'm your host, Mark Asquith, and it has been a while, but never fear.

The Podcast Accelerator returns to help you with your podcast audience growth, but

this is a bit of a welcome back episode.

It's a bonus episode.

Just talking back through, I think, why I went through the hiatus, what

I've been working on in the meantime, when the show's gonna be coming back

properly, you know, any changes to the format, any changes to the release

schedule, and so on and so forth.

But of course, the thing that I need to do first is to thank you.

The ever-present listener, because you've stuck with me.

You've stuck around.

I get people asking me, when's the accelerator coming back,

Marco, when are you coming back?

When are you coming back?

And it's taken a while to get back into the head space, which

I'll talk about in a little while.

But the podcasting industry has changed.

It's changing.

Ever, ever, ever...

it just, you know, seems ever faster.

It's just continuing to evolve and evolve so very quickly and I've been in this

industry now for, well, a long, long time.

I, I got into this in the first instance in 2012, and, and since then I, I've

pretty much been here continually.

I've seen a lot of change.

I've seen it go from an industry that wasn't really an industry.

There were a few players, there were a few podcasters, there were a few

companies, and just seen it turn into this genuine media industry

where there are so many divisions.

There are so many different people wanting different things from the

industry all under this term podcasting.

It just isn't the same anymore.

There's nothing wrong with that.

It's growing up, it's going through it's teenage years, it's, it's finding

its feet, it's finding its own voice.

Excuse the pun, but it's figuring out what it wants to be.

And we see divisions, we see unification, we see all sorts of different things

cropping up from people trying to put up walled gardens to initiatives

like the Podcasting 2.0 initiative and the PSP that are trying to keep

podcasting as open as possible.

And the good thing about it is that there is space for everyone, and

that's the main reason why I love this.

It's the main reason why I got into podcasting all those.

Years ago.

So let me dig into, into why I took the hiatus.

I'm gonna, like I said, later in this session, I'm gonna talk about what's next.

I'm gonna talk about the format, when I'm gonna get back to content and so on

and so forth, some release schedules.

But I just want to go back and just revisit that hiatus.

So last year when I took that hiatus, it was around March time, and at that point

I'd been creating content podcasts in particular that educate other podcasters.

I've been doing educational shows like this one for a long, long

time, over a thousand episodes.

And that is tough to keep up and experimented with all sorts of different

formats because if I'm gonna help you with your podcast, I need to know I

need, what's it like to run a daily show?

What's it like to run a long form show?

What's it like to run a short form show?

And I'd done a lot, you know, I'd done a heck of a lot, and I was

finding that I was a bit burnt out.

I was.

I was at risk of repeating and I don't think there's anything wrong with

that cuz because I think when you're educating, there's always a great

opportunity to, to re revisit and to reiterate and to re reframe and to

refactor education and information.

All the best teachers, in my view, do that.

They teach things in various different ways because we all learn differently.

But I was, honestly, I was just burnt out on it.

There was a lot going on.

Weed actually, as Captivate would become part of the fantastic team at Global,

which has gone really, really well.

I love being part of Global and Captivate.

If you've been following Captivate, You'll know that we've carried on.

You know, we've done some great, great work, which I've put some

links to actually in the show notes for this episode because we've got

some amazing releases that we've put out, and we've got more that

are coming over the next few weeks.

We've got a big release the week commencing the 15th of

May this year, which is gonna be an absolute game changer.

So I'm really looking forward to sharing that with you.

But we've done a lot of stuff.

We integrated with Globals DAX platform.

We've put out the episode planning and research links with Captivate out

we've done AMIE (audio mastering & insertion engine) version 2.0.

We'd released a lot and it was, it was just a time, that was it.

It required a lot of focus as a business owner.

So yeah, I'm a content creator, of course, and I'm also the co-founder

and MD of Captivate and going from the CEO of a startup to being part of

a much bigger business and becoming the managing director and, and, and.

Still running the show at Captivate.

It required a lot of attention.

I had to do great work for you, the podcaster, but also great

work internally for global.

We had to do great work together and we do, and we did.

So I needed to focus on that, but I also wanted to do two other things.

You see, when I was younger, a lot, lot younger.

Sounds like a Beatles song in there when I was younger.

So much younger than today.

It was really a lot, lot younger.

I said to myself that I want to get to a point in my life where when I've

got a little one, when I've got a kid, when I've got a child, I wanna

be able to focus my entire attention on being the best dad possible.

And as you might know, just a couple of months after the Captivate

became part of Global, I had my first child, my little girl.

She's beautiful.

I love her to pieces.

She's doing so well.

And thank you to all the listeners that have asked.

It's, do you know what it means so much?

Um, yeah, that just blows me away that people actually ask

people that listen to the show.

Thank you so much for that.

And what I wanted to do was put all of my effort into being

the best person for Captivate.

But also when you're running a podcast like the Podcast Accelerator, it takes

time over and above the working hours.

There are only so many hours you can work in a day, and what I'd

have to do is work on an evening to do the podcast accelerator.

And there's nothing wrong with that.

Really enjoyed doing it.

But when I had my little girl and, and, and Sam and I had our little

girl, It was, I couldn't do that.

I didn't want to do that.

I wanted to be there for bathtime.

I wanted to be there for bedtime.

I wanted to be there for breakfast, and I wanted to be there as much as I can.

And I can, and I can do that.

And I'm very fortunate enough to have spent a year finding that

balance with Sam and our little girl.

And it, it, it, it's, it works.

It's great.

Now she's a little bit older.

Now she's got her own activities that she do.

You know, she's, she, she has an hour doing player days, she has

an hour doing various thing, you know, activities like kids do.

And so I get a little bit of time, you know, one day a week I get an hour or

two back where I can do this again.

So when, when you combine all of these things, you know, moving from

being a startup to working within global, being a little bit burnt

out on creating all of that content, and then of course, Becoming a dad.

It was just the right time to take a hiatus, but also I

had to get my head straight.

I had to figure out, you know, I've been this outspoken, really generous and

genuine, transparent, open educator in the podcasting space for such a long time.

I've traveled the world and I've created so much content

and met so many amazing people.

What does the next 10 years of this look like for me?

Because the industry has changed and that's why.

I did another couple of things.

I experimented with hobby podcasts.

I got the love of the craft back because.

It's difficult.

We all know how difficult it is to carry on podcasting.

We do.

We know that we see Pod Fair all the time, and what I wanted to do was to

create content that I love, content for me, which is why I focused on Spark of

Rebellion, my Star Wars podcast, Gaz and I attended Star Wars celebration

and done another couple of things.

I interviewed the Fantastic Charles Soule, the author, fantastic author of all the

Star Wars comics that you might read, and a lot of the High Republic work as well.

We just had it for fun.

We built the NERD Podcasts Network, which we're launching a couple of shows, and

I've got a, a passion project that I've been wanting to do for years called,

It's How Old, which is celebrating pop culture's biggest birthdays.

It's a seasonal podcast that looks back and says, how the heck, is Superman.

The Movie from 1978, how is it 45 years old?

And we retrospectively looked at it, how is Man of Steel 10

years old and so on and so forth.

Just loved doing it.

And it's launching very, very shortly.

I'm just putting the finishing touches on that one.

We have done so much to get, for me to get the love of, of not just talking

about podcasting, but being a podcaster that doesn't talk about podcasting,

getting the love of it back whilst also, of course running Captivate.

So that's why I took the hiatus and I needed it.

And you know, I'm gonna tell you a bit of a secret.

I've made a complete plan to close this entire podcast, down the podcast

accelerator, and even recorded a goodbye episode, but I didn't publish it.

I left it, and over the last couple of months, I've got the taste back for it.

I've got the desire, the burnout's gone, the willingness to create

educational content for podcasters is back and I've learned a lot.

It's been a big year, so I'm excited.

Alright.

I am super excited not only to see all the listeners and to speak to you and to

chat to you on Twitter as always, and to just, you know, look at how I can help

you, but also to get back out to events.

We went to PodFest.

Kieran and I, we spoke out at PodFest over in Orlando with

our great, great friend, Mr.

Chris Krimitsos so's the team, uh, Podcast Movement.

We've got the podcast show in London, which we're speaking

at an exhibiting at as always.

So I'm really excited to just see you guys in person after Covid after

this content hiatus from me and.

It is just, it's just good to be back.

But what I also wanna do is, is, is is before I tell you about some of the, the

format changes and some of the little tweaks that I'm making, I want to just

give a big shout out to the Captivate team because one final reason that I stepped

back a little bit from the Limelight was to let those talented souls shine.

We've got Garry, we've got Sarah, we've got Ben, we've got Danny, we've got

Judy, we've got Kieran, we've got Pierre.

We've got some amazing Captivate team members that wouldn't ordinarily

have been able to get to conferences because people wanted me, the

person that creates the content.

So I stepped back and let them get in front of the camera, let them get

on the stage, let them be on podcast.

And you know what?

They're absolutely fantastic.

There's more talent there than I will ever, ever have, and I'm super,

super proud of you, the Captivate team, and super proud of all.

Your view, the Captivate users and the podcast Accelerator listeners and the,

and the people that consume all of our content for embracing that team.

So very, very much.

We've created a lot of new content through Captivate and I've done none of it.

I've been working behind the scenes on product and they are so talented.

So go and check some of that out over on YouTube cuz they have done

excellent work over on the written blog.

Captivating Insider, the podcast there is so much great content that the

team has created and you'll see them at podcast movement again this year.

So when is the podcast coming back?

This is a bonus episode, just kind of talking through a couple of things.

The podcast will be back on Thursday, the 18th of May, but in

the meantime, I'm gonna release a little bit of runup content,

more bonus episodes like this one.

I'm gonna put a couple of these out just to build up to

that Thursday the 18th of May.

Look out for that cuz I'm excited about them.

I'm gonna mix things up a little bit.

I'm speaking.

Of mixing things up.

If you have your calendar in front of you, you'll note that

the 18th May is indeed a Thursday.

I'm gonna be releasing brand new episodes, not on Monday anymore, but Thursday at

midday UK time, which is around 7:00 AM Eastern, depending on daylight savings.

That's on a Thursday at 12:00 PM UK time, and I'm gonna be putting out early access

to those episodes a couple of days early.

Four.

People who support the podcast and I'll talk to you about that separately.

Dun dun.

What else is changing?

Well, Format is gonna be tweaked.

Give us a slightly Yes.

I'm gonna be educating, yes, I'm gonna be talking like I do.

Yes.

I'm gonna be giving you the skinny on all things podcast growth, education,

monetization, you know the drill.

I've been around long enough doing this.

I'm gonna be doing more of that, but I'm also gonna be interviewing some people.

I'm also gonna be giving you some industry insights.

I'm also gonna be bringing people on from around the industry to help me

to educate and maybe some friends.

That aren't in the industry.

Just to help me to educate you on the things that you need to grow your

audience, because one of the big things that I learned as a podcaster very, very

early on is that the way that I could succeed with the Podcast Accelerator and

all of the things that I do in podcasting was to bring the experience that I had

outside of podcasting into the industry.

So the brand, the marketing, the product work that I do, the building

of businesses that I've done, the way that I do public speaking, all

of that informs how I build podcasts.

And I couldn't do any of it without the outside experience.

So I'm gonna, I'm gonna be bringing a little bit more of that to the table.

So listen, we're back.

Thank you to you, the ever present fans.

I love you dearly.

And I, it the, the message that I've had talking about Michael,

when are you coming back asking me, Marco, when are you coming back?

It excites me and I'm so grateful for you.

You know, I can't believe that I get to do this as a job.

You, I'm thankful to you.

I'm thankful to the Captivate team, to the wider global team.

I'm grateful to my friends in the industry, right across the industry from

the news outlets like Sam Sethi and James Cridland and everyone over there, right

through to the other hosting companies that we know and love, right through

to some of the other tech providers, the other fantastic creators, some

of the influencers that are really.

Providing great thought leadership in the space, and just everyone in

the industry is always so welcoming.

So thank you to everyone and welcome back to the Podcast Accelerator.