Agency Land: A Survivor's Podcast

Making Podcasts Great Again

I've hosted three podcasts. Better In Bed. Honey I'm Home. And Maker & Creator, which was the third and the one that actually worked. It was about creativity, culture, and how it affects us. It found an audience, I loved making it, and then life moved on.

But the itch never went away.

The thing three podcasts taught me is that conversations are the work. Not the output of the work. Not the marketing. The actual work. Sitting across from someone, asking a question you don't know the answer to, and watching them go somewhere neither of you expected. That's when the good stuff happens. Every time I walked away from a recording, I understood something better than when I sat down.

It also taught me what I got wrong.

Maker & Creator was audio only. Every interview was face to face. That sounds romantic, and it was, but it also meant I could only talk to people I could physically sit across from. I was limited by geography, by schedules, by whose diary lined up with mine on a Tuesday afternoon in Surry Hills. Some of the best conversations I could have had never happened because the logistics didn't work.

And I never captured video. Looking back, that was a mistake. Not because video is inherently better than audio. It's not. But because the way people consume content has changed, and I was building something that only lived in one format. No clips. No visual moments. No way to share a 60-second piece of someone saying something that matters. The work just sat there, locked inside a feed.

So when I decided to make a podcast again, I knew what had to change.

Agency Land: A Survivor's Podcast

Agency Land is different from Maker & Creator in almost every way except the part that matters. The conversations are still the point. But this time, the show is sharper. It's specifically about advertising, agencies, and the lessons nobody teaches you about surviving in this industry. The people who've been through it, talking to the people currently going through it.

I've recorded around 40 conversations so far with senior agency figures, and it launches 1 May.

The creative challenge was figuring out how to make a show that could work anywhere. In person when possible. Remote when it needs to be. Same quality either way.

I built the recording setup around Riverside.fm. It records separate audio and video tracks for each participant, locally on their machine, which means the quality doesn't depend on anyone's internet connection. For in-person sessions at the DOUBLESTAR CO office, I still run the Zoom H5 and Rode Procasters for audio, because that XLR chain is hard to beat. But both people also sit on Riverside for the video capture. For remote sessions, Riverside handles everything.

The shift from audio-only to video changed how I think about the show. Not in the way you'd expect. I'm not trying to make a YouTube channel. I'm trying to make something where the medium doesn't limit the reach. A full episode lives as a podcast. The best moments live as clips. A single recording generates content across ten different platforms. That's the game now. One conversation, maximum output.

The move to remote also unlocked something I didn't have with Maker & Creator: access. I can now talk to people in New York, London, Singapore, wherever. A Calendly link, a Riverside session, and we're recording. The diary coordination problem that killed so many potential Maker & Creator conversations just disappeared.

Strategy Hotline is Back

The other thing coming back is Strategy Hotline.

For anyone who doesn't know, Strategy Hotline is a project I run with Sophia Brockman. The original concept was simple: strategists from around the world submit their hardest questions, and Sophia and I work through them together on air. It got great traction, people submitted questions globally, and then real life got in the way. Schedules. Travel. The kind of logistical friction that kills good side projects if you don't protect them.

This time, we're doing it differently. Strategy Hotline is coming back as a monthly segment inside Agency Land. Not a separate show. Not a separate production schedule. It fits inside the rhythm of something that's already running. That's the key. Sophia and I can record once a month and it slots into the existing workflow without either of us having to build a second thing alongside our actual jobs.

The ambition is bigger though. Strategy Hotline isn't just a segment. It's a brand Sophia and I are building together. Monthly right now. But the long game is something much larger. We're aligned on where it's going, and folding it back into Agency Land is the right first step to get it moving again without burning out before it matters.

What I Actually Learned

If I'm honest about what three podcasts really taught me, it's this: the hardest part of making a podcast isn't recording. It's not editing. It's not gear or platforms or distribution. The hardest part is protecting the thing long enough for it to become what it's supposed to be.

Maker & Creator didn't fail. It just stopped. And it stopped because I didn't build it to last. The first two taught me how to find my voice. Maker & Creator taught me that voice alone isn't enough. The format was too rigid. The logistics were too narrow. The infrastructure wasn't designed for a life that moves.

Agency Land is built to move. Remote and in person. Audio and video. Solo episodes and recurring segments. A system that works whether I'm in Surry Hills or somewhere else entirely.

The podcast launches 1 May. If you work in an agency, or you used to, or you're thinking about it, this one's for you.

Welcome to Agency Land: A Survivor’s Podcast.