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November 3, 2024 17 mins

Niall Mackay, The Podcast Guy, shares his journey from starting a podcast about Saigon in 2019 to running a successful, end-to-end podcast production agency.

Niall discusses the evolution of his podcast, including rebranding it to focus on Vietnam as a whole, and how he navigated significant challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic. 

He emphasizes the importance of setting specific goals, learning to say no, and focusing on one's primary objective for achieving success. 

Niall also shares insights on the most effective social media platforms and strategies for monetizing a podcast production business.

00:00 Introduction and Beginnings in Saigon
00:00 Rebranding and Expanding Beyond Saigon
00:00 Challenges and Pivotal Decisions During COVID
00:00 Refocusing and Setting Goals
00:00 Achievements and Recognition
00:00 Q&A: Social Media and Monetization
00:00 Q&A: Income and Final Thoughts

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Niall (00:00):
thank you very much everyone for coming out This is

(00:02):
awesome An incredible audienceSo my name is Niall Mackay the
podcast guy I've been here inSaigon for eight years And Zach
has asked me to share my storyof how I went from starting my
own podcast about Vietnam torunning my own end to end
podcast production agency Sothat's what I'm going to talk
about today so back in 2019 I'dbeen a massive podcast fan for

(00:29):
many years And I was bold oneday so I decided that I was
going to start my own podcastabout Saigon Now I wanted to get
to know people here in Saigon Iwanted to know their real
stories So lots of you haveprobably met someone that has a
really interesting story butmost people don't know about it

(00:52):
Now I was an English teacher andI met lots of English teachers
who would introduce themselvesas just a teacher And that
really frustrated me becausenobody is just a teacher For one
you're teaching somebody a skillwhether it's English or a
subject That's an amazing thingSo nobody's just a teacher But

(01:13):
also lots of these people hadreally really interesting
stories And I wanted to sharethose stories with people I
wanted to get to know the peoplethat lived in Saigon So I've
read uh an article in VN Expresssaying how many motorbikes were
in Saigon There were 7 3 millionmotorbikes in a city of just

(01:38):
nine or 10 million people So Ithought it was a funny name I
called the podcast Seven MillionBikes a Saigon podcast I got a
really shitty microphone Iinvited people over to my front
room and I started talking topeople and I just wanted to find
out more about them and sharetheir story Now when I started I

(02:00):
didn't really have anyexpectations To be honest I
thought 15 people would listento it and that would be amazing
15 people are going to listen tomy podcast that's so cool
Thankfully I got quite a fewmore listeners than that right
away from the beginning And ifanyone else here does YouTube or
does podcasts you'll notice likeyou sit and you just keep

(02:22):
refreshing the button justwatching the numbers go up one
every five minutes two You'relike Oh my God So I did that in
the beginning nearly every dayAnd it was one of the best
things that I ever did I got toknow so many people I got to
share so many stories And aftera year or two I realized that
the name wasn't really helpfulFor one Seven Million Bikes

(02:47):
Nobody really knew what it meantIt didn't describe the podcast
It didn't say what it was aboutAnd also the podcast was called
a Saigon podcast By now I wasstarting to interview people
across the country and actuallyacross the world who were all
connected to Vietnam So I made abig decision I decided to change

(03:08):
the name of the podcast to aVietnam podcast And at the time
I was running events not as goodas Zach This is an incredible
event but I was running eventsWe did some networking events
that we met at Uh I was doingcomedy shows Some people maybe
might know me I used to dostandup comedy I was running
comedy events I even wasstarting to put on some music

(03:29):
events and quiz nights as wellSo things were going really well
and I decided that Seven MillionBikes was the overall brand for
everything that we did Comedypodcast events And everything
was going great 2019 things wereawesome Everyone remembers 2019
And I got my dream job My dreamjob I work in fundraising for

(03:53):
charities so my job is to raisemoney to help people And I got a
job here in Saigon to help raisemoney for underprivileged
children to give them educationAnd in my first year we set a
target to raise 70 000 to builda school in the Mekong Delta for
children And we raised thatmoney and it was one of the best

(04:15):
moments of my life was to godown to the Mekong Delta and
watch the kids go to that schoolfor the first time and see their
faces and how happy they were So2019 I was doing my dream job
helping give underprivilegedchildren education and the
business was going really wellIt was like a side hustle I was

(04:35):
starting to do more shows Thepodcast was going well And then
as we all know 2020 happened I'mgoing to come and join the guys
at the back So 2020 happened Andwe all know what happened in
2020 right we were planning toraise money raise another 70 000
to build another school And thenwe all know what happened in

(04:58):
March 2020 COVID hit right Sothe world changed dramatically I
went from doing my dream jobraising money to help children
to reducing my hours and havingto teach more because the school
couldn't bring in any teachersand that was fine We all needed
to do what we needed to do Bythe end of 2020 I asked if they

(05:20):
were going to renew my contractand unfortunately they said no
They weren't going to be able tofund the program anymore because
of the amount of money thatthey'd lost because of COVID So
they gave me three options Theysaid you can become an English
teacher Like an academic manageryou can become a full time
teacher or a part time teacherNow I see this this is one of

(05:42):
the biggest sliding doorsmoments in my life I had to sit
down and talk to my wife I saidyou know the company is starting
to do really well We're doingmore events we're doing more
comedy shows And we're doingmore podcasts What should I do
And so it was at that moment wemade the decision that we were
going to start the business andconcentrate on that and I was

(06:03):
going to become a part timeEnglish teacher So fast forward
through 2021 the business isstarting to pick up I'm doing
podcasts I'm doing comedy showsI'm doing events I'm about to
sign the biggest contract of mylife Everything's going well And
then suddenly June comes aroundAnd for those who were here June
2021 was when we went into thebig lockdown right where we all

(06:28):
ended up in our apartments andcouldn't leave So things got
really bad And so I couldn't doanything that I've been doing
before We came out of lockdownWe moved forward goes into 2022
and I'm just trying to surviveBy this point I've lost my job
My business isn't doing well andI'm doing so much just to try

(06:49):
and make a living to try andkeep things going And at one
point in 2022 I counted I wasdoing eight different gigs at
one point I was just runningfrom one to the next I was doing
comedy shows I was teachingstill I was doing public school
teaching I was making TikTokvideos I've never made TikTok
videos in my life but somehow Idid that job Uh I did an acting

(07:11):
gig I've never done acting in mylife I mean it's called acting
but it was literally juststanding forward But I did that
for 10 hours I was doing so manydifferent things and so many
people were giving mecompliments like Niall that's
amazing You're doing so much Andthen I realized I wasn't doing
anything well I was doing lotsof things but I was doing them
all badly and I wasn't makingany money So there was so many

(07:36):
challenges that I had toovercome And then it got to June
sorry January 2023 I went backto America with my wife my wife
is from America and that waswhen I had a bit of a chance to
re evaluate where I was at and Irealized I was doing too much I
was saying yes to everything andI was succeeding at nothing And

(08:00):
I thought what is it that youreally want to do What is your
number one goal And my numberone goal was to help people make
podcasts to help share storiesSo when I came back from America
I had a couple of big thingsthat came to me because I've
heard this advice on so manypodcasts I've read it in so many
books that you need to startsaying no It's one of the best

(08:24):
pieces of advice that you canget I realized that I needed to
stop saying yes to everythingthat came my way thinking that I
could fit it in and do a goodjob and everything and I needed
to start saying no And that'sone of the most difficult things
to do especially when you've gotno money and people want to pay
you to do something So I decidedI'm going to start saying no I'm

(08:47):
going to focus on podcasts onlySo I reduced my teaching hours I
stopped making TikTok videos Istopped doing stand up comedy I
stopped running shows I stoppedrunning events I cut back on
everything to focus on one thingAnd it was at the same time as
well I realized that I hadforgotten something that I know
works and we all know this worksand it's setting goals I needed

(09:11):
to go back and set goals Becauseof everything with COVID I
hadn't set a goal for threeyears because We're all just
trying to survive right And Iwas like I have to set a goal So
I set smarter goals Everyoneknows what smarter goals are If
you don't go Google it But I setsome smarter goals I started to
say no to stuff and thingschanged almost immediately When

(09:35):
I decided I was going to focuson one thing and that one thing
was podcasts I immediatelystarted getting more business I
started to grow my team And Istarted to achieve what I set
out to achieve fast forwardsince then which was only 2023
So it's been a long journey Istarted in 2019 but things
really only started kicking offin 2023 Since then we now have a

(09:59):
small team of four people aroundthe world working on their own
schedule on their own time Wehave people in the Philippines
in the Singapore and here inSaigon as well And this year has
surpassed all expectations So asyou can see uh Podfest which is
one of the biggest podcastconferences in the world decided

(10:21):
that they were going to do theirfirst conference in Asia in the
Philippines and they werelooking for speakers So I
decided to put myself forwardand thankfully I was accepted I
was the first ever speaker atPodFest Asia in the Philippines
So that was incredible I talkedabout how to edit a podcast
Thank you very much Then I'm amember of the British Chamber of

(10:41):
Commerce and we actually helpedproduce the British Chamber of
Commerce podcast Completelyunrelated at the Brit Channel
Awards this year Seven MillionBikes podcast won the best or
great company for the amount ofwork that we do helping produce
podcasts that share Vietnamstories and share what Vietnam
does and how amazing it is hereSo that was absolutely mind

(11:03):
blowing Yeah thank you very muchAnd then just last month we
found out that we won the bestinterview podcast in Asia and I
was the best audio producer inAsia as well Thank you very much
As as as sigh as you can see bymy typing mistake there So these
awards uh I know they obviouslymake you feel good but it was

(11:24):
more a validation of everythingthat I'd been through everything
that the company'd been througheverything that we'd done to
come to this was absolutelyincredible So the growth has
been unreal because we decidedto focus on one thing say no and
set goals And if I could giveeveryone here one advice in your

(11:49):
journey whatever you're doing ina content creator it would be
this exact same three things Ihave said to you Have the
confidence to say no It doestake a lot It took me so much to
have the confidence to be ableto tell people no I don't want
to do that Especially whenthey're offering you money But
set your goals This is my adviceSet smarter goals and every

(12:12):
single day check your goals andask yourself Am I doing
something today to achieve thatgoal So if you start to say yes
to something that doesn'tachieve your goal then you
shouldn't do it So my examplewas comedy It took me so long to
set up a comedy show and performand eventually I realized this
is not helping my goal So setgoals Start saying no and you

(12:37):
will see a massive massivedifference almost immediately if
anyone has any questions thenplease raise your hand

Chris (12:44):
What's the um social media channel you use most and
is

Niall (12:49):
most profitable Thank you That is a good question What's
the social media channel I usethe most I'm actually terrible
at social media I'm absolutelyawful at social media but this
year I've started using LinkedInmore which is a social media
channel And that has been thebiggest game changer for me is
using LinkedIn because I want tobuild the business So Instagram

(13:10):
Facebook I still use them To behonest they don't lead to any
business for me LinkedIn Iconnect with people every day
and it leads to meetings and itleads to business So LinkedIn is
the best social media channel ifyou want to build your business
Thank you very much

Unknown (13:25):
Is Patreon the way you monetize or do you have other
monetization methods

Niall (13:30):
So that's a good question So about a year ago or two years
ago I realized to monetize apodcast is really difficult Only
the top one to 5% of podcasts inthe whole world can really
monetize So I made the decisionthat the best way to make money
is to make podcasts for otherpeople So that's why I started a

(13:53):
podcast production agency Andwhen I made that decision I
started making money It's wayeasier to make money charging
other people to do what you'regood at And the other thing I
realized over the years of doingit thanks to my wife she was
like you know you know a lotright And I was like no no it's
just making a podcast I don'tknow that much And she's like
you know a lot So whatever youdo right now just remember

(14:14):
you're building skills There'ssomebody doesn't have and you
can sell those skills to thatperson So the quickest way to
monetization is Selling what youknow

Unknown (14:24):
Practical questions better I'm also a YouTube
creator YouTuber so uh How muchuh what's the maximum money you
make in a month sometimes So

Niall (14:37):
if you didn't hear that what's the maximum money I make
in a month That's a difficultquestion to answer but I'll tell
you now I'm putting outproposals which are up to 40 000
So that's just to give you anidea of the potential of them
Thank you very much guys Thankyou very much I'm going to hand

(14:58):
you back to Zach

Zak (15:05):
So Neil gave us a lot about his Story going from humble
beginnings to great success Anduh I loved the last question
about how much money he wasmaking That's actually one of
the interesting parts aboutbeing a content creator You want
to actually make a living doingthis Thank you so much Niall
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