Focus on Intentional Reps - Mark Asquith of Captivate Shares the Only Key That's Helped Him Improve

Steve Campbell: 00:00:02

Welcome to the One Big Thing Podcast.

Steve Campbell: 00:00:04

Where inspiration beats transformation.

Steve Campbell: 00:00:12

Welcome to the One Big Thing podcast.

Steve Campbell: 00:00:14

Steve Campbell, your host.

Steve Campbell: 00:00:15

Really excited for this episode today as I have the honor of connecting with Mark Asquith.

Steve Campbell: 00:00:20

Mark is known as that British podcast guy and he is the CEO of Captivate.

Steve Campbell: 00:00:25

Captivate is one of the world leaders in podcasting for platforms like individuals like myself, where we track analytics, distribution that puts us on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, music helps us with monetization.

Steve Campbell: 00:00:37

Mark built one of the world leaders in podcasting from the ground up as a fellow podcaster.

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And in this episode he's going to share with you his one big thing of doing the reps with intentionality.

Steve Campbell: 00:00:48

It sounds super simplistic, but if you got 30 minutes, I really believe smart insight and experiences will really help you move the ball forward in your life and realize the change that you need to see.

Steve Campbell: 00:00:59

So thanks as always for being my guest on the One Big Thing podcast.

Steve Campbell: 00:01:03

Well, welcome into the One Big Thing podcast.

Steve Campbell: 00:01:05

I'm your host, Steve Campbell.

Steve Campbell: 00:01:07

Thank you for joining me.

Steve Campbell: 00:01:08

As we have revamped the way that we're doing this show.

Steve Campbell: 00:01:11

We're a couple episodes into the new experience, bringing these down to about 30, 35 minute bite size episodes to give you the best from the guests that we have.

Steve Campbell: 00:01:19

Really excited about my guest today.

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I'll introduce him in just a second.

Steve Campbell: 00:01:22

Steve Campbell, if you're new to the show, you know I serve as a chief brand officer at the business that I work at, marketing.

Steve Campbell: 00:01:28

Branding is at the heart of who I am, protecting brands and telling stories.

Steve Campbell: 00:01:32

And over the last decade, I' many cups of coffees with difference makers, people trying to fix some of the world's problems, bringing solutions to the world.

Steve Campbell: 00:01:40

And when I thought about starting a podcast, this show was really meant to help people in their 30s and 40s that are trying to navigate difficult seasons of life, to bring them life, real life solutions that can help them move the ball forward.

Steve Campbell: 00:01:52

And so in every episode you're going to get one big idea, one big thing from each guest that I think can give you permission to implement in your life.

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And today I have Mark Esquith on with us.

Steve Campbell: 00:02:03

Mark is hailing from the other side of the ocean, so I wanted give him some space here at the beginning.

Steve Campbell: 00:02:08

Mark is somebody that I kind of discovered in my journey through podcasting, which we'll get into here in a little bit.

Steve Campbell: 00:02:15

But Mark, for those that don't know you, why don't you give us kind of an introduction as to who you are?

Mark Asquith: 00:02:19

Yeah, sure, man.

Mark Asquith: 00:02:20

Thank you for having me.

Mark Asquith: 00:02:21

Yeah.

Mark Asquith: 00:02:21

So my name is Mark.

Mark Asquith: 00:02:22

I'm the co founder of a software platform called Captivate, which is a podcast hosting, distribution, monetization platform.

Mark Asquith: 00:02:30

And yeah, I've been around a bit, done a few things, did the whole small business journey.

Mark Asquith: 00:02:37

The business journey from about the age of 22, 23, I've been doing that really ever since, which has been quite fascinating and gone through a lot of interesting personal stuff and just, yeah, as age catches you, you realize you've done a heck of a lot of stuff.

Steve Campbell: 00:02:52

Well, and we discovered you because, as you guys know, I help operate NQR Media, which produces four different podcasts.

Steve Campbell: 00:02:59

The life as a creator is never a downtime.

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Trying to navigate different vendors, different platform platforms, different partners.

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In this space, there, there is no blueprint.

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And so before we get into Mark's one big thing, just a little backstory, we had been using a prior platform and considered hiring different podcast media agencies that really touted, we're going to grow your podcast, we're going to distribute it to everybody, everyone's going to know who you are.

Steve Campbell: 00:03:23

And then when you began to look at the price points and what these companies were charging, we could not figure out the value monetarily from what they were saying.

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And it left us with a lot of questions.

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And actually one of my previous guests, Kelly Kennedy, work great friends, connections on LinkedIn.

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He has an amazing podcast.

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I asked him like, hey, who do you guys use for distribution and for platform?

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And he said, you know what, you got to check out this company, Captivate.

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Mark, the CEO, is an incredible guy.

Steve Campbell: 00:03:47

So I did a little bit of research, watched a couple YouTube videos.

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And so we are very proud to host all four of our NQR Media podcasts at Captivate, which really helps us with analytics, distribution, monetization, as Mark talked about.

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But Mark, this show is called the One Big Thing.

Steve Campbell: 00:04:02

So to give our guest permission here right at the beginning to know what you want to talk about, what is the one big thing that you would share with listeners, listeners of this episode today?

Mark Asquith: 00:04:10

I think it's got to be doing the reps, doing the practice with intention.

Mark Asquith: 00:04:13

And it sounds really cliche.

Mark Asquith: 00:04:14

That sounds like the kind of crap that you get in a, you know, a guru book that wants to sell you a 97 books course.

Mark Asquith: 00:04:20

And I'm, I'm sort of, I'm coming at this from the genuine perspective of just getting better, you know, not, not, not some cliched, motivational, inspirational, quote unquote, brand talk, which are very usually generally not brand talks and they're actually just quotes from someone else that someone's repackaged as their own.

Mark Asquith: 00:04:39

So I'm talking about genuinely practicing the thing you want to get better at with full on intention because there's very little else when it comes to progress, there's very little else.

Mark Asquith: 00:04:52

So I think that's important.

Mark Asquith: 00:04:53

So that's my big thing.

Steve Campbell: 00:04:55

Let's take a quick break to hear from our sponsor.

Steve Campbell: 00:04:58

This episode is brought to you by Not Quite Right Media.

Steve Campbell: 00:05:01

If you love podcasts and enjoy hearing from creators that aren't afraid to tell you what you need to hear, then check out NQR Media.

Steve Campbell: 00:05:08

Their podcasts unapologetically broadcast genuine truth to whoever wants to listen.

Steve Campbell: 00:05:14

And their shows cross a wide spectrum of topics from leadership development to personal improvement as well as getting the most from your money in life.

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Who doesn't love that?

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So start following their shows today at www.nqrmedia.com that's NQR media dot com.

Steve Campbell: 00:05:31

So do you think that that is just in the dimensions of business or practicing the reps?

Steve Campbell: 00:05:36

Has that spilled over?

Steve Campbell: 00:05:37

Because you do a lot of things and so one of the cool things want to give you guys right here at the beginning, you can head over to markasquith.com that is Mark's website.

Steve Campbell: 00:05:46

And when you get on there, man, I love as a fellow, you know, creator and podcaster, just seeing people that are doing it and they're trying a number of different things.

Steve Campbell: 00:05:54

And if you ever visit mark's website again, mark asquith.com you're going to see he, he not only is the CE of Captivate, but he also hosts and co hosts several different podcasts across different genres, which we could spend a couple hours getting into from Star wars to Marvel movies to Superman to some of the things I saw on there.

Steve Campbell: 00:06:12

But when you say do the reps, has that just been in your business life?

Steve Campbell: 00:06:16

Has it spilled over into your personal life?

Steve Campbell: 00:06:18

What does that look like for you?

Mark Asquith: 00:06:20

I think it's every facet of life and I think a lot of people don't necessarily think that certain elements of life you can do reps with or you can, you can improve through repetition with.

Mark Asquith: 00:06:30

So I think business, inevitably you know, you regardless of what that, that looks like.

Mark Asquith: 00:06:36

So as an example, you know, you, you aren't gonna, if you're a service business or a brand led business, you aren't gonna land bigger clients unless you practice landing bigger clients and put yourself forward for pictures.

Mark Asquith: 00:06:46

If you're a podcaster, you will not get better as a podcaster.

Mark Asquith: 00:06:49

You will not grow your numbers unless you practice podcasting and unless you practice marketing your podcasts.

Mark Asquith: 00:06:55

If you are a dad or if you're a parent, you're not going to get better at that until you've, you know, until you do a day and then you do another day, and then you do another day and then you do another day.

Mark Asquith: 00:07:05

And a lot of it, a lot of the time doesn't necessarily look like practice, doesn't feel like practice, doesn't look like it's anything that could have practice associated with it.

Mark Asquith: 00:07:14

But it's, you know, if I, if I equate it to two elements of my life, you know, the idea of creating a podcasting platform, that genuinely changed the game.

Mark Asquith: 00:07:23

You know, we've changed how other podcast hosting platforms market.

Mark Asquith: 00:07:26

We've changed how they approach interface design, we've changed how they approach product releases.

Mark Asquith: 00:07:32

I wouldn't have been able to create that without doing a thousand podcast episodes myself before it, because how do I, how do I know what I want?

Mark Asquith: 00:07:41

So the practice of just be, you know, just becoming the thing that you want to be is important.

Mark Asquith: 00:07:46

And then if you look at, like, whether it's fitness or whether it's a sport, like, I'm a big golf fan, you aren't getting better.

Mark Asquith: 00:07:52

You will not get better at anything either mentally or physically, unless you keep doing it.

Mark Asquith: 00:07:58

But the kicker is doing it with intention.

Mark Asquith: 00:08:01

Doing it with intention.

Mark Asquith: 00:08:02

You know, you said just off air, I've changed the format of the show.

Mark Asquith: 00:08:05

It's now 30, 35 minutes, high impact.

Mark Asquith: 00:08:08

No one told me to do that.

Mark Asquith: 00:08:09

My listeners didn't tell me to do that.

Mark Asquith: 00:08:10

That's practice with intent.

Mark Asquith: 00:08:11

You've practiced your show.

Mark Asquith: 00:08:13

You've realized that intentionally something has to change or you want to change it for whatever reason.

Mark Asquith: 00:08:18

That's intentional practice.

Mark Asquith: 00:08:20

It's not just, I'm going to stick to the hour because that's what everyone does.

Mark Asquith: 00:08:24

I'm going to keep doing it.

Mark Asquith: 00:08:24

That's practice.

Mark Asquith: 00:08:25

You'll get better as a podcaster, but it's not intentional, and that's the difference.

Mark Asquith: 00:08:30

So the intentional part of it is key, and it helps every facet of your life, inevitably, every facet of your life.

Mark Asquith: 00:08:38

Like even a stupid example of this, right?

Mark Asquith: 00:08:40

My beard's like, not a great beard.

Mark Asquith: 00:08:42

It's just longer than normal because I'm going away next week and I want to have a good shave and it to look good.

Mark Asquith: 00:08:47

It took me four years to realize that I've got to do this part of it.

Mark Asquith: 00:08:51

To get a good shave out of it at the end.

Mark Asquith: 00:08:53

Like I've practiced that.

Mark Asquith: 00:08:54

I know what, it will look better because of it's experience.

Mark Asquith: 00:08:57

It's silly little things, but every, you can practice every different element of your life.

Mark Asquith: 00:09:02

So it can be business, it can be any, any, any area of life whatsoever.

Steve Campbell: 00:09:07

Yeah, and I love that.

Steve Campbell: 00:09:08

And you know, that's been part of my experience.

Steve Campbell: 00:09:10

And like you said, I revamped the show and you, you always want to be very mindful of your listene, those that have bought in, people that follow you, that you don't want to course correct for no reason and jeopardize the intimacy of them listening to you and what they expect.

Steve Campbell: 00:09:24

And so I think the intentionality for me, like you had mentioned about, is also doing a little bit of due diligence, research, beta testing.

Steve Campbell: 00:09:32

And for me, that looked like reaching out to previous guests, people that have reached out to me and said I love your show and even just polling the public.

Steve Campbell: 00:09:41

So I had those that have been in this with me, those that have joined me in the experience, and then those that don't know me from the next person.

Steve Campbell: 00:09:48

What would you think about if I changed and re engineered this show from 60 minutes down to 30 and made it super impactful?

Steve Campbell: 00:09:54

In of the 15 people that I reached out to personally and said, here's my vision, all 15 said, I love it, run with it.

Steve Campbell: 00:10:01

So it wasn't just that I had an emotional desire one day to say, hey, let's completely change my show.

Steve Campbell: 00:10:07

And I just did it and gave no one the ability to know this was coming.

Steve Campbell: 00:10:10

And so having that intentionality, I think has really helped me sometimes just jumping into it.

Steve Campbell: 00:10:16

But in your world, you know, you had done a thousand podcasts and then launched Captivate.

Steve Campbell: 00:10:21

So what, what was that experience like?

Steve Campbell: 00:10:24

Was there testing involved in that?

Steve Campbell: 00:10:26

You went from recognizing, from what I understand in your story, there wasn't a podcast platform that for you as a podcaster was meeting your needs for what you were looking for.

Steve Campbell: 00:10:37

And this set off a journey to launching Captivate.

Steve Campbell: 00:10:40

What, what was that timeframe, that experience from conception to actually rolling out.

Steve Campbell: 00:10:46

And then what did that intentionality that you just spoke about, like how was that implemented into the launch of Captivate?

Mark Asquith: 00:10:53

I started podcasting probably: 2012

Mark Asquith: 00:11:05

My original business podcast website is with my co founder Kieran.

Mark Asquith: 00:11:08

It was a segue business.

Mark Asquith: 00:11:09

You know, I was, I was an agency.

Mark Asquith: 00:11:11

I was building brand agency, design agency, technology agencies, software agencies.

Mark Asquith: 00:11:16

And I was fortunate to get into podcasting early, but have the skills to build what is essentially like a website as a service business.

Mark Asquith: 00:11:26

So I was like an early, early, I suppose an early proponent of the, you know, take a service business that you'd normally charge X amount for and turn it into a monthly recurring revenue stream.

Mark Asquith: 00:11:36

And we did that in podcasting, and an element of that was backend podcast hosting.

Mark Asquith: 00:11:40

We would host your media files as part of that.

Mark Asquith: 00:11:43

So we sort of had these two things running concurrently.

Mark Asquith: 00:11:45

Me doing the podcasting, doing the public speaking, speaking at podcast movement, bringing all the brand experience, the marketing experience, the tech experience that I've got into the podcasting space and teaching people actually look, marketing a podcast and growing an audience, there is no different to marketing whatever else you want to market.

Mark Asquith: 00:12:00

It's all the same principles, but no one was talking about it back then.

Mark Asquith: 00:12:04

So what that allowed me to do was spend years doing the research by proxy of just being around.

Mark Asquith: 00:12:11

You know, if you look on my Twitter, I look at my website, it says that British podcast guy.

Mark Asquith: 00:12:14

That's because I was only the only British guy there.

Mark Asquith: 00:12:17

Like there was Colin, who was from Scotland, Colin Gray, a great friend of mine, and that was it.

Mark Asquith: 00:12:23

There wasn't really many other English people out there.

Mark Asquith: 00:12:27

came, when it came to sort of: 2018

Mark Asquith: 00:12:36

oint, probably like more like: 1400

Mark Asquith: 00:12:51

And that, that encouraged me to understand what people wanted from a hosting platform.

Mark Asquith: 00:12:55

So I didn't do, we didn't do any testing, didn't ask people what they wanted, didn't do any of that stuff because we knew we were there.

Mark Asquith: 00:13:00

We did it, we walked, literally walked the walk.

Mark Asquith: 00:13:03

I don't think we've ever asked anyone to test.

Mark Asquith: 00:13:05

We've never asked anyone for features.

Mark Asquith: 00:13:07

Yeah, people can put feature requests in and we review them and we regularly release what people ask for, but they're never our main releases.

Mark Asquith: 00:13:13

They're always, we're always thinking like a podcaster.

Mark Asquith: 00:13:17

We're always, you know, to paraphrase the Gretzky quote, you know, we're always where the puck's going to be.

Mark Asquith: 00:13:23

And it's just through being a well practiced podcast, but also a well practiced tech founder and a well practiced business mind, you know, it's none of this is, could I have done that in my early 20s?

Mark Asquith: 00:13:36

No, I couldn't.

Mark Asquith: 00:13:37

I couldn't have done any of this in my early 20s.

Mark Asquith: 00:13:40

So that, that's been really important.

Mark Asquith: 00:13:42

And I think the, you know, the way that we did it and the way that we do it is very natural to us.

Mark Asquith: 00:13:52

You know, when you said, you were very kind earlier on, said, you know, the content's good, the way that captivate is presented good.

Mark Asquith: 00:13:56

Like, none of that is, none of that is by design, which sounds weird.

Mark Asquith: 00:14:03

It's just normal to us.

Mark Asquith: 00:14:04

Like, I can't think of any other way to do it.

Mark Asquith: 00:14:06

Like, it's just natural to us.

Mark Asquith: 00:14:08

We just, that's just how we are.

Mark Asquith: 00:14:10

And that, that comes from accumulating all that experience, which you can, you can genuinely only do through practice.

Mark Asquith: 00:14:16

And, you know, the intentionality side of it is very important.

Mark Asquith: 00:14:20

Like, I knew that I would when I did start public speaking.

Mark Asquith: 00:14:25

I've, you know, I've done a TedX, I've spoken at Harvard, I've spoken at every podcasting event pretty much on the planet at point.

Mark Asquith: 00:14:30

But I didn't start that way.

Mark Asquith: 00:14:32

And I knew to get to these stages, to get to a Harvard or a TEDx, I had to start at local networking.

Mark Asquith: 00:14:36

And I did, I put myself out there.

Mark Asquith: 00:14:38

I did this one, I did that one, did that one, Drove five hours to speak for five minutes at an event and then drove back, you know, so there's that, that you, you've got to be really focused on the outcome because that then drives the practice, you know, so it becomes, becomes really important to align the day to day steps with the vision.

Mark Asquith: 00:14:57

It's like you're going on holiday and you want to lose weight for it or you want to bulk up for it.

Mark Asquith: 00:15:00

Maybe you want to put weight on.

Mark Asquith: 00:15:02

You can't start two weeks before.

Mark Asquith: 00:15:03

You've got to think, what do I want to feel like?

Mark Asquith: 00:15:06

What do I want to be comfortable with in six months, in a year's time, and start early with a well designed plan, you know, just, okay, what, what are the gaps in my armor?

Mark Asquith: 00:15:15

What are the gaps in my arsenal?

Mark Asquith: 00:15:16

What do I need to get better at?

Mark Asquith: 00:15:19

And it's important to kind of think that through, which I think a lot of people don't do.

Mark Asquith: 00:15:22

I think they just sort of, you know, whether it's a business or whether it's a podcast or whether it's some sort of own personal journey, I think a lot of people just think to themselves, well, I sort of wing it.

Mark Asquith: 00:15:33

That's good enough.

Mark Asquith: 00:15:34

And it rarely is.

Mark Asquith: 00:15:35

It rarely is.

Steve Campbell: 00:15:37

Well, one thing that you just mentioned is you wouldn't have been ready in your 20s.

Steve Campbell: 00:15:41

And I think that that's such an underlying kind of conversation in this is sometimes the things that we're desiring, we're just not ready for either because we don't have enough experience, we don't have enough opportunities that we've fallen on our face and we've learned what that looks like.

Steve Campbell: 00:15:56

I just had a good friend of mine who's been working with me for a long time, young guy in his 20s, just had his very first child, Baby Girl.

Steve Campbell: 00:16:04

And you know, leading up to our relationship, there was only so much I could talk about as a father and having four children of my own experiences that he could in a way be like, oh, man, I don't, you know, you had a tough night last night sleeping.

Steve Campbell: 00:16:18

That's gotta be rough.

Steve Campbell: 00:16:20

I mean, he was an outsider trying to have sympathy or empathy for my situation.

Steve Campbell: 00:16:24

But now our whole relationship has changed because now he's got a kid of his own.

Steve Campbell: 00:16:29

And, you know, for those, you know, we always say, in business or in life, until you have your own child, like, you don't know what it's like to experience certain things.

Steve Campbell: 00:16:37

And I think what's also hard sometimes is we're seeking out information to help us move the ball forward in our life.

Steve Campbell: 00:16:44

That's what this one big thing is all about.

Steve Campbell: 00:16:46

And I could have every successful speaker come on and tell other people how to live their life, but it's another thing to have somebody who's been in it too.

Steve Campbell: 00:16:55

You know, you are somebody who was podcasting and saw that there was a need to start, you know, basically a platform to help.

Steve Campbell: 00:17:03

And you did all these speaking events.

Steve Campbell: 00:17:04

Nobody told you to do that.

Steve Campbell: 00:17:05

There was no blueprint for it.

Steve Campbell: 00:17:07

If I bring somebody on who's never done those hard things or had those experiences telling other podcasters how to live, you almost in the back of your mind, have this, like, doubt of, like, but you've never done it.

Steve Campbell: 00:17:20

So it's, you know, you're telling me how to live.

Steve Campbell: 00:17:21

And I think sometimes we experience this as parents.

Steve Campbell: 00:17:24

Like, you can have, well meaning professionals tell you, you never do this with your child.

Steve Campbell: 00:17:28

You should never do this with your child.

Steve Campbell: 00:17:30

But when life gets chaotic and you only have so few choices, sometimes you bend the rules a little bit because you're like, I know the book says don't do it, but I, I literally have to navigate this moment right now.

Steve Campbell: 00:17:41

So the implementation and what you had Talked about driving five hours for five minutes, I think would the one big thing you can look at individuals like you from afar and say the British podcast guy, look at all these shows.

Steve Campbell: 00:17:53

It must have been easy.

Steve Campbell: 00:17:54

Like he just showed up one day and had all of these things.

Steve Campbell: 00:17:57

But I think the entrepreneurial journey, the journey as men, as women that we experience as human beings is so important to go into.

Steve Campbell: 00:18:04

ce now from where you were in: 2018

Steve Campbell: 00:18:13

implement compared to mark in: 2018

Steve Campbell: 00:18:22

Has there been any surprises kind of along the way with this intentionality of experiences that you've had to make you realize like, wow, I can do more or I need to be careful about what I do because I can't handle all these things.

Steve Campbell: 00:18:36

Hey everyone.

Steve Campbell: 00:18:37

Steve Campbell, thank you so much for listening to this episode.

Steve Campbell: 00:18:40

If it's made an impact on you, I would love to take a moment to ask you to subscribe to this podcast so you never miss an episode.

Steve Campbell: 00:18:46

But I would also love for you to leave a five star rating and review your ratings and review help other listeners know that this show is worth their time.

Steve Campbell: 00:18:54

So thank you so much for tuning into the one big thing and let's enjoy the rest of the episode.

Mark Asquith: 00:18:59

Well, I'm in a fortunate position.

Mark Asquith: 00:19:01

Like we sold Captivate to Global.

Mark Asquith: 00:19:03

I still run Captivate at Global, but you know, we took all our risk off the table financially, which means that at the same time we, we get to work 8 till 5 as opposed to 8am till 10pm and working 14 hour days.

Mark Asquith: 00:19:20

And I think that was again, intentional stuff.

Mark Asquith: 00:19:24

You know, we had a little girl two months after we got acquired by Global and it was that particular timing wasn't by design.

Mark Asquith: 00:19:33

But you know, since my 20s, early 20s, that's probably late teens, my intent was always, look, when I have a kid, I don't want to have to worry about taking her to school, going to the school concert, taking it to sports day, whatever, you know, and someone saying, oh, you can't do that, you can't do that.

Mark Asquith: 00:19:49

And I was very intentional in the decisions that I made to get to that position and I've got to that position.

Mark Asquith: 00:19:56

And it's all that was very, very intentional.

Mark Asquith: 00:19:59

So I sort of realized that actually I can, as you get older, you can do, actually I'll rephrase it.

Mark Asquith: 00:20:06

You can have more impact with Less input, which I think is really important because you've built the experience and you know what, you know what to say and when to say it, and you know when to hold back, you know when to react, you know when to act, you know when to be proactive.

Mark Asquith: 00:20:21

So I think having more impact with less input is a real vital thing.

Mark Asquith: 00:20:25

I can work eight hours a day now and achieve just as much because actually some of the noise has gone and I'm just listening to the signal.

Mark Asquith: 00:20:35

And it's, it's.

Mark Asquith: 00:20:36

It's not like it used to be in the 20s where you're chasing every single little thing round.

Mark Asquith: 00:20:42

You know, if I want Captivate to do X, then we intentionally pursue that.

Mark Asquith: 00:20:49

We do that thing.

Mark Asquith: 00:20:50

We don't try and do everything.

Mark Asquith: 00:20:51

And again, that comes with practice.

Mark Asquith: 00:20:53

You know, to say no to things.

Mark Asquith: 00:20:54

You got to practice it.

Mark Asquith: 00:20:55

It's not comfortable to many people to trust your instinct, to trust your intuition takes practice.

Mark Asquith: 00:21:03

You know, all of it takes practice.

Mark Asquith: 00:21:05

And you gotta, like, you gotta stop yourself.

Mark Asquith: 00:21:07

Again, it's a bit like playing golf, you know, if I.

Mark Asquith: 00:21:10

I eat a cracking drive and it goes, you know, 280 down the middle.

Mark Asquith: 00:21:13

I think this is amazing.

Mark Asquith: 00:21:14

I could just knock this.

Mark Asquith: 00:21:15

I could just knock an 18 onto the green here.

Mark Asquith: 00:21:18

And I know that every time I think to myself, I'll do that.

Mark Asquith: 00:21:21

I always mess it up, always screw it up.

Mark Asquith: 00:21:24

But today I'm not gonna.

Mark Asquith: 00:21:25

That's the trap.

Mark Asquith: 00:21:26

Today I'm not gonna.

Mark Asquith: 00:21:27

Today will be different.

Mark Asquith: 00:21:28

But it's not.

Mark Asquith: 00:21:29

You gotta trust your intuition.

Mark Asquith: 00:21:31

Actually, maybe we take something a bit different.

Mark Asquith: 00:21:33

Maybe we think about it again.

Mark Asquith: 00:21:34

But it takes practice to listen to your gut.

Mark Asquith: 00:21:36

So this is what I'm talking about.

Mark Asquith: 00:21:38

It's.

Mark Asquith: 00:21:38

There's almost like silent cues that we've got to understand and silent things that we got to practice that we don't always think are things that we can practice.

Mark Asquith: 00:21:48

Whether it is listening to the intuition, whether it's navigating an argument, whether it's, you know, having a disagreement with your partner.

Mark Asquith: 00:21:53

You know, how did I react last time?

Mark Asquith: 00:21:55

I've got to practice to be better at that.

Mark Asquith: 00:21:57

Like you said, having a little one.

Mark Asquith: 00:21:59

You know, you've got to practice and you've got to understand.

Mark Asquith: 00:22:02

You know what?

Mark Asquith: 00:22:03

Okay, she had a meltdown this morning.

Mark Asquith: 00:22:04

She didn't want to brush her teeth.

Mark Asquith: 00:22:06

Maybe my.

Mark Asquith: 00:22:07

Maybe the way that I deal with that tomorrow should be a bit different because she had the meltdown.

Mark Asquith: 00:22:10

Maybe tomorrow we can decide that she's not going to have a meltdown.

Mark Asquith: 00:22:14

How do we get to that.

Mark Asquith: 00:22:15

And it's just, I think it's stepping back a little bit and having a little bit of that emotional intelligence, having a little bit of that self awareness and then thinking to yourself, you know, actually, I'm going to see what the outcome will be when I do something different.

Mark Asquith: 00:22:28

And that is intentional practice.

Mark Asquith: 00:22:29

I'm practicing that engagement.

Mark Asquith: 00:22:30

I'm practicing doing that.

Mark Asquith: 00:22:32

So it can apply to everything.

Mark Asquith: 00:22:33

It can really apply to everything.

Mark Asquith: 00:22:34

But like I said, the biggest lesson is you can probably have more impact with anything with less input than you think you are required to put in.

Mark Asquith: 00:22:43

You know, I think that is.

Mark Asquith: 00:22:44

That's across all walks of life.

Mark Asquith: 00:22:46

You know, it's like you see someone in the street is having a bad day, you know, a good morning and a smile is probably going to make them feel 10 times better than a, you know, do you want this?

Mark Asquith: 00:22:56

Can I help you with this?

Mark Asquith: 00:22:57

Do you want to come and do this?

Mark Asquith: 00:22:58

They don't always need that level of interaction.

Mark Asquith: 00:23:01

They just need to know that someone's seen them.

Mark Asquith: 00:23:02

Do you know what I mean?

Mark Asquith: 00:23:03

And again, so it can be anything.

Mark Asquith: 00:23:06

It can be anything.

Mark Asquith: 00:23:06

But it just takes a bit of time to trust yourself, I think.

Steve Campbell: 00:23:09

Yeah.

Steve Campbell: 00:23:09

And I think to your point, I don't want to lose that comment right there because the world is hurting in many ways.

Steve Campbell: 00:23:15

And when you get a chance to listen to this episode when it airs, there's a lot of people out there that are just looking for somebody else to recognize them.

Steve Campbell: 00:23:23

And that could be the simplest as holding a door for somebody, acknowledging them in line at the coffee shop, buying their coffee for them, passing them in a hallway, saying hello.

Steve Campbell: 00:23:33

Those are the things that can change somebody's life.

Steve Campbell: 00:23:35

That we don't always realize it.

Steve Campbell: 00:23:36

And it's not always the heroic.

Steve Campbell: 00:23:38

Sometimes it's just the simple things.

Steve Campbell: 00:23:40

And I think the perspective from you that's great is as a CEO and all the work that you're doing, nobody would blame you if you were skipping the steps on, you know, working with your child, on not brushing their teeth.

Steve Campbell: 00:23:50

But you said having the emotional awareness.

Steve Campbell: 00:23:53

There aren't these different levels to our life where, like, I'm so focused on captivate that I had the emotional intelligence to step back and realize when things have gone wrong.

Steve Campbell: 00:24:01

But when it comes to my daughter, man, I just kind of let things happen.

Steve Campbell: 00:24:05

No, it's that same filter through like, like, how can I get better?

Steve Campbell: 00:24:08

Something that you had mentioned though, and you and I didn't talk about this at the beginning.

Steve Campbell: 00:24:11

I don't know if this is the space that anybody's in listening.

Steve Campbell: 00:24:14

We have listeners from all walks of life.

Steve Campbell: 00:24:16

You had talked about selling Captivate to Global and I don't know if there's individuals that are out there today.

Steve Campbell: 00:24:22

Maybe it's not a media company, maybe they have a doctor practice, maybe they are an entrepreneur.

Steve Campbell: 00:24:28

And when that process started, were you actively seeking to be acquired?

Steve Campbell: 00:24:33

Did Global reach out to you and say, mark, we love what you're doing.

Steve Campbell: 00:24:35

We'd love to talk about that, Because I think with what you're talking about trusting your gut, everybody wants to say, I trust my gut.

Steve Campbell: 00:24:41

But when the stakes are higher and the risk is more the emotional, like, I'm my own worst enemy sometimes because I can convince myself.

Steve Campbell: 00:24:50

So, like, there's the gut, then there's the emotion, then there's the like, how do I move forward?

Steve Campbell: 00:24:55

So when the risk is heavier, being acquired, what was that process like for you, for anybody that may be considering being acquired or bringing in, you know, more hands, more help?

Mark Asquith: 00:25:05

Well, there is no real risk.

Mark Asquith: 00:25:07

I mean, someone wants to buy your company because it's a good company, which means it's probably making good money unless you're a real, you know, pure startup.

Mark Asquith: 00:25:14

Startup.

Mark Asquith: 00:25:16

So there was no real risk for us.

Mark Asquith: 00:25:18

We Captivate.

Mark Asquith: 00:25:18

The risk was we carry on as normal and it's making great revenue and jobs are good and, and we could even get a managing director in to run it and step back as CEO and Kieran, a CTO can step back and get a senior engineering team in and whatever else.

Mark Asquith: 00:25:31

So the.

Mark Asquith: 00:25:31

That's a lesson that I was taught very early by.

Mark Asquith: 00:25:34

By what?

Mark Asquith: 00:25:34

By my granddad actually just said, you know, you've got to be willing to lose it if you're going to try and win it.

Mark Asquith: 00:25:38

And it's, it's the same with anything, you know, it's.

Mark Asquith: 00:25:43

It's.

Mark Asquith: 00:25:45

You've got to be willing to say no in order to be able to confidently say yes.

Mark Asquith: 00:25:48

You can't, you know, you got it.

Mark Asquith: 00:25:50

You got a bit, you know, you go into the.

Mark Asquith: 00:25:52

You put an offer in for a house at whatever price, you've got to be willing to say no when they counter.

Mark Asquith: 00:25:56

That's the only way you're going to get it for the price that you're comfortable with.

Mark Asquith: 00:25:59

Because you've got to know what you know is before you can say that.

Mark Asquith: 00:26:01

Yeah.

Mark Asquith: 00:26:02

And, you know, when it came to Captivate, it wasn't.

Mark Asquith: 00:26:06

We never intended on selling it and we weren't seeking it.

Mark Asquith: 00:26:09

We kicked the tires a little bit on.

Mark Asquith: 00:26:11

Do we actually have something that people want to buy.

Mark Asquith: 00:26:14

We got a lot of people interested and people coming to us with sort of offers and discussions and none of them were right.

Mark Asquith: 00:26:19

We just didn't want it.

Mark Asquith: 00:26:20

We took ourselves off the market.

Mark Asquith: 00:26:23

But guess what that was, that was practice.

Mark Asquith: 00:26:26

Like we, we weren't, we never intended on selling, but if someone came to us, we wanted to be able to know what questions would be asked, what the state of the business needed to be, what, how were they going to approach any due diligence and such like.

Mark Asquith: 00:26:39

So it was quite an interesting time for us.

Mark Asquith: 00:26:42

So when global, like they approached us and you know, through connections that we've had for 10 years, they came to us and basically said, do you want, can we.

Mark Asquith: 00:26:55

Do you want buying?

Mark Asquith: 00:26:55

Are you interested?

Mark Asquith: 00:26:56

And again, like I'm from a small mining town in the north of England.

Mark Asquith: 00:27:01

Someone says, do you want this or do you want something that's going to change your life?

Mark Asquith: 00:27:05

You, you naturally almost taught around here to back off and well, I don't really know, I don't want to.

Mark Asquith: 00:27:10

And guess what?

Mark Asquith: 00:27:11

You got to practice.

Mark Asquith: 00:27:11

And I just, you know, we just said, yeah, of course, yes.

Mark Asquith: 00:27:16

Nothing more than that, just yes.

Mark Asquith: 00:27:18

And even that takes practice.

Mark Asquith: 00:27:19

Being in the position where you can be confident with your answers took practice.

Mark Asquith: 00:27:23

So there was a lot of different threads that ran throughout that, but it genuinely all came from right.

Mark Asquith: 00:27:32

Here's a well intentioned roadmap that will help people.

Mark Asquith: 00:27:34

Here's a well intentioned pricing plan that will help people.

Mark Asquith: 00:27:38

Here's a well intentioned marketing plan and so on and so forth.

Mark Asquith: 00:27:41

Again, we just got better at it.

Mark Asquith: 00:27:43

Got better it, got better at it through doing it.

Mark Asquith: 00:27:46

And it is, I think a lot of people don't often give credence to repetition.

Mark Asquith: 00:27:52

You know, if I want to do something in my golf swing, I gotta rep it, I gotta change it.

Mark Asquith: 00:27:56

If I want to go and you know, lose some weight or I gotta go train at the gym and I want to put some weight on, I gotta rep it, I've got to eat my calories and I've got to go and push and I gotta go and push again and then keep pushing.

Mark Asquith: 00:28:07

And it's not going to happen once, it's not happened twice.

Mark Asquith: 00:28:10

It's a thousand, fifteen hundred, two thousand of these things that are going to add up and they're going to suddenly turn into the thing that you thought it would turn into.

Mark Asquith: 00:28:20

So it's, it's, it's very difficult to, it's almost very difficult to tell people, like almost a more more deeper, meaningful answer than that.

Mark Asquith: 00:28:36

I think a lot of people, like the whole entrepreneurial space has just sprung up from crappy entrepreneurs writing books that have basically got one.

Mark Asquith: 00:28:43

They've got one small lesson that you could write down on the back of a cigarette packet, but they pad them out because no one wants to just hear some simple advice.

Mark Asquith: 00:28:54

Everyone's looking for some magic bullet.

Mark Asquith: 00:28:56

And it must be in the new book, it must be in the new course, it must be in the new whatever.

Mark Asquith: 00:29:01

And it's usually just practice, usually just get better at something, get better at the thing that you want to get better at.

Mark Asquith: 00:29:07

And it just genuinely is that which, you know, I don't think that sells books.

Steve Campbell: 00:29:14

No.

Steve Campbell: 00:29:14

But if you're, if you're a listener, you know, think about the area of your life, because there's probably not every area of your life that you want to change.

Steve Campbell: 00:29:21

Maybe you'd like to see some modification or some growth in those areas.

Steve Campbell: 00:29:25

But there probably is one particular area right now that you're thinking of that.

Steve Campbell: 00:29:29

I would love to be better at xyz.

Steve Campbell: 00:29:31

Be.

Steve Campbell: 00:29:32

Love to be better as a parent, would love to be better as a spouse, would love to be better in my career as a business owner and the people I manage, it isn't always.

Steve Campbell: 00:29:40

It isn't always a silver bullet or secret sauce that a Mark Asquith is going to come on and tell you, you got to go do this one thing that no one has the, you know, ability to do.

Steve Campbell: 00:29:50

You have to go invest a million dollars in xyz.

Steve Campbell: 00:29:52

Here's the things that I heard from you today.

Steve Campbell: 00:29:54

Basically the repetition, doing, doing the hard thing, because no one ever said this thing was easy.

Steve Campbell: 00:30:01

So do the hard thing repeatedly, over and over again.

Steve Campbell: 00:30:04

But also having emotional intelligence and having the ability that when something doesn't go the correct way, to just step back and think about what could have gone better and implement that small change.

Steve Campbell: 00:30:15

And you've covered everything from business to personal life to your health.

Steve Campbell: 00:30:19

And I think the hard part is right now, there is no get out of jail free card from the difficult or hard season you might find yourself in there.

Steve Campbell: 00:30:29

There is no one that is going to come and save you there.

Steve Campbell: 00:30:32

There is no entity, no government, no.

Steve Campbell: 00:30:36

No money, no the economy.

Steve Campbell: 00:30:38

Nothing is going to save you.

Steve Campbell: 00:30:39

But it's a series of what change do you want to implement in your life?

Steve Campbell: 00:30:44

What is the repetitive things?

Steve Campbell: 00:30:46

And just like us as parents, you know, I.

Steve Campbell: 00:30:48

I've coached multiple sports for my kids, and it's funny how you listen to parents on the sideline and even you as a coach, the things that we'll tell our children, you know, make that play, run harder, get down, do the right things.

Steve Campbell: 00:31:02

It's like, do we apply those same simple antidotes to our own life?

Steve Campbell: 00:31:06

And that may not look like, you know, we're not running sprints every day, but did you send the difficult email?

Steve Campbell: 00:31:12

Did you follow up with the prospect?

Steve Campbell: 00:31:14

Did you do the thing that you told somebody that you would do when your kids wanted you to go play?

Steve Campbell: 00:31:18

Did you show up with them?

Steve Campbell: 00:31:20

I mean, these aren't things that in a day to day seem like they're moving mountains or changing your life.

Steve Campbell: 00:31:25

But it's the repetition, the mental psychology, the dopamine, the things that start to happen in you as you do the hard things like lifting and eating right, you start to build momentum.

Steve Campbell: 00:31:36

And if there's one thing, you know, that I would love for listeners of this show is to feel like wherever you are today, you don't have to stay there.

Steve Campbell: 00:31:44

I want to give you permission.

Steve Campbell: 00:31:46

Mark wants to give you permission.

Steve Campbell: 00:31:47

That changes on the other side of the things that you're willing to do over and over again because there's value to it.

Steve Campbell: 00:31:54

And the one thing that you said is with wisdom and with agent experience, it's more impact with less input.

Steve Campbell: 00:32:00

How amazing would that be for every listener of this show?

Steve Campbell: 00:32:04

That at the end of the week you could within a week accomplish all the things that you want to do with more impact but less input.

Steve Campbell: 00:32:12

And that's only going to come through struggle.

Steve Campbell: 00:32:14

That's only going to come through repetition.

Steve Campbell: 00:32:15

That's only going to come through experience.

Steve Campbell: 00:32:17

And sometimes driving five hours for a five minute engagement, that you have no idea what's going to come from it, but it could be part of the launching pad to get you where you are.

Steve Campbell: 00:32:26

So, Mark, I, you know, we're right about that 30 minute cutoff here.

Steve Campbell: 00:32:29

I want to be very respectful of our listeners.

Steve Campbell: 00:32:32

I will make sure that we put tons of notes in the show, notes for this, some contact information for you.

Steve Campbell: 00:32:38

If anybody is a podcaster and thinking about, you know, a company like Captivate, we'll put information for them too as well.

Steve Campbell: 00:32:44

But if we circle back to that one big thing, do the reps with intentionality that could, that could change somebody's life.

Steve Campbell: 00:32:50

If you'll really think about those aspects of your life that you want to change, what are the mental and physical reps that you need to in emotional reps to really become the person that I think inwardly, you know, you can be, but maybe you're just stuck a little bit right now.

Steve Campbell: 00:33:04

How can you begin to break that mold and realize life doesn't always have to be this way?

Steve Campbell: 00:33:09

It's just maybe you're one yes away or just one go and do it away from really seeing real life change.

Steve Campbell: 00:33:14

So, Mark Asquith, thank you from the other side of the pond.

Steve Campbell: 00:33:17

Thank you for being a guest on the One Big Thing podcast and just appreciate your partner.

Mark Asquith: 00:33:22

Thank you so much, my friend.

Mark Asquith: 00:33:23

Yeah, thank you so much.

Mark Asquith: 00:33:24

It's, it's been a pleasure nice to talk about that sort of thing.

Steve Campbell: 00:33:27

Thanks, sir.

Steve Campbell: 00:33:29

Well, thank you for listening to the One Big Thing podcast.

Steve Campbell: 00:33:31

How good was that?

Steve Campbell: 00:33:32

30 minutes doing the reps with Intentionality Mark Ask with what an incredible guest sharing real practical insights that can help you move the ball forward.

Steve Campbell: 00:33:41

If you want to connect with Mark, I'll have information in the show Notes.

Steve Campbell: 00:33:44

If you're a fellow podcaster looking for more information about Captivate, that'll be in there as well.

Steve Campbell: 00:33:49

Well, but as always, if there are topics that are near and dear to your heart or guests that you would love to hear from, please reach out to me.

Steve Campbell: 00:33:56

You can send me an email.

Steve Campbell: 00:33:57

You can head over to nqrmedia.com backslash one big thing.

Steve Campbell: 00:34:01

That's NQR Media and on the drop down will be the One Big Thing landing page.

Steve Campbell: 00:34:06

Connect with me, let me know topics guests you want to hear from.

Steve Campbell: 00:34:09

But as always, it is an absolute Honor to have 30 minutes of your time each and every time.

Steve Campbell: 00:34:13

I really love you guys, want to help you move the ball forward in life.

Steve Campbell: 00:34:16

So thank you for being a guest on the One Big Thing podcast.