Mike Murphy Unplugged

Episode Summary: A holiday update episode looking back at putting Mike Murphy Unplugged on hiatus, landing a new role at Simplecast, and looking ahead to 2019 goals across YouTube, writing, and Murphy Concierge.

What You'll Learn

• Why Mike put the podcast on hiatus and how 2018's minimalism push made that decision easier
• How the podcast hiatus opened the door to a new role at Simplecast
• 2019 goals: doubling down on YouTube, writing on Medium, and reaching 10,000 subscribers
• Passing 1,000,000 views on YouTube

A couple of months prior, Mike shared that he was taking a hiatus from Mike Murphy Unplugged. It wasn't an easy decision — he was proud of the consistency and hard work he'd put in every single week for three years — but it was the right call at the right time. The show had started introducing negativity instead of inspiration, and it was time to lighten the load.

On Consistency

People often ask how Mike manages to create tutorials and content so consistently. The answer: he loves it. Making tutorials and quick tips isn't always easy, but it's what he wants to do, so he does it.

The Podcasting Break

Mike still loves podcasting and always planned to publish again regularly. But as soon as the process stopped being something he looked forward to, the problem-solver in him kicked in — he doesn't like leaving things broken when he has the ability to fix them. He shifted and tweaked his process until the best move became putting the show on the shelf to re-adjust.

Minimalism Made It Easier

2018 was a year of minimalism for Mike — letting go of physical, digital, and mental clutter that caused stress or wasn't contributing to happiness. Candidly, the first half of 2018 had the podcast feeling like a thorn in his side, with topics pulled out of thin air just to maintain the streak. Recognizing that as a problem, and solving it, wasn't giving up — it was giving himself permission to free up space.

Opportunity Knocks

As soon as the podcast went on hiatus, a door opened: an opportunity to work for podcasting technology company Simplecast. Not a coincidence, in Mike's view — a result of showing up every day, making and publishing content, and gradually narrowing in on his style. The role is in support: helping solve problems for podcasters, creating educational content through tutorials and articles, and eventually teaching through webinars and conferences. It lines up almost exactly with what Mike talks about on this podcast — get started today, even without all the answers, and move in the direction of what's already positive in your life.

Doing His Thing

The Simplecast opportunity came at the perfect time, filling the void left by the podcast hiatus. Four months in, Mike had learned a ton about podcasting, startup life, and himself — working full-time five days a week, making tutorials nights and early mornings, and doing Murphy Concierge work on his two days off. He was making a living helping, creating, and teaching — exactly what he set out to do when…

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Episode Summary: Marking the 3rd anniversary of Mike Murphy Unplugged with an update on change, development, and creating the life you want — including news of a new role with podcast hosting company Simplecast.

What You'll Learn

• Why Mike started Mike Murphy Unplugged and what podcasting was really for him
• The value of showing up daily even when it feels like nobody's listening
• How a personal loss and a year of decluttering shaped a decision to pause the podcast
• Landing a new role as podcast support specialist at Simplecast

Mike Murphy Unplugged started on Friday, September 25, 2015. This anniversary episode does three things: acknowledges the milestone and everyone who's supported the show, shares updates since Episode 150, and announces a new position with podcast hosting company Simplecast.

What Is a Milestone?

A milestone is an action or event marking a significant change or stage in development. Change is to make or become different. Development is a state of growth or advancement.

Why Mike Started Mike Murphy Unplugged

Two reasons: to connect, teach, and help people figure things out, and to figure out how to make a living as an online educator and content creator. Podcasting was the perfect medium — Mike had been an avid podcast listener since the original iPod, loved audio and gear, and saw an emerging medium he could use to share his voice from his own bedroom.

He gave himself 30 days to learn how to start a podcast: recording and editing audio, building the artwork and branding, and setting up social profiles. He didn't overthink it, and stayed determined to do it his own way — everyone told him to niche down, but that's never been who he is. A wide range of interests used to feel like a weakness; it became his superpower. The long-term goal was simple: make a living as a content creator and teacher.

Showing Up, Day After Day

The point of Mike Murphy Unplugged was always to document the journey — the tools, resources, and steps toward a general goal of making a living in creativity and teaching tech. Step one was starting the podcast itself, so the first several months were a podcast about podcasting, sharing everything Mike knew about setting up and producing a show.

The main principle from three years in: show up day after day, even when it feels like nobody's listening. Mike created at least one piece of content, seven days a week, 365 days a year, for almost three years — trusting that consistency would either help him figure it out or open a door. There was no roadmap at the start, just persistence.

In Episode 150, Mike announced he was taking a break and putting the podcast on hiatus. Was it podfading? Not quite — but it needed a break. What started as a tool to help him had started to feel like a burden, held onto mostly to protect a never-missed-a-Friday streak.

A Year of Simplicity

2018 has been the year of simplicity, and I created my own v…

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Episode Summary: A mid-year check-in on content strategy and work-life balance ahead of a 2-week vacation to Nantucket — planning the second half of 2018 and reflecting on the value of taking a real break.

What You'll Learn

• A mid-year review framework for evaluating your life and business roadmap
• Why podcasting didn't make the 2018 priority list, but stayed important anyway
• The 2018 mantra: Simplicity, Fundamentals, Storytelling
• Micro-storytelling as a teaching approach — breaking big concepts into small pieces
• Priorities for Q3 and Q4 2018 across Murphy Concierge, YouTube, writing, and health

"The mind should be allowed some relaxation, that it may return to its work all the better for the rest." — Seneca

Taking a Break

Resting your mind is vital to your health and wellness, but that doesn't mean stopping your efforts to create the life you want. Mike's sights were on the long-term — a marathon, not a sprint — so pace mattered. July 18th marks the halfway point of the year, a natural moment to evaluate a life and business roadmap and set up a strong finish. Are you on the right track? Do you know where you're headed? Are you in control, or in reaction mode?

Mike shared in Episode 149: The Freedom Show that he was taking an indefinite hiatus from the podcast. This episode plans the content strategy and business goals for Q3 and Q4 of 2018 ahead of a 2-week vacation to Nantucket — his version of work-life balance.

The 2018 Roadmap Revisited

In Episode 122: The 2018 Roadmap Show, the year's priorities were: Murphy Concierge (generating income), Tutorials & Classes, Writing, Ask Mike Murphy, YouTube, and Health & Wellness.

Looking back at the halfway mark, Mike felt good about progress against that roadmap — with one note: podcasting didn't make the original priority list, but remained important to the overall content puzzle, especially as audio and podcasting kept growing in a mobile-first world. The plan wasn't to walk away from podcasting, just to find a new rhythm — a step back to take two steps forward.

Mantra and theme for 2018: Simplicity, Fundamentals, Storytelling — maintaining a lifestyle of reduced physical and mental clutter, with more emphasis on fundamentals and storytelling in content creation.

Storytelling on the Trip

Mike approached the Nantucket trip with storytelling in mind — drawing from personal experience in a way others could relate to and connect with, rather than worrying about volume of content. The goal: micro-storytelling — taking big concepts and breaking them into smaller pieces instead of trying to cover too much at once, so that snippets of the journey add up to a larger story. Ideas on the table included behind-the-scenes looks at gear and workspace, the "why" behind the work, and glimpses into life and business — not to self-promote, but to let people into the journey.

Priorities for Q3 and Q4 2018

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Episode Summary: An announcement episode: after months of decluttering physical and digital life, Mike Murphy Unplugged goes on hiatus after Episode 150 — and why letting go isn't the same as giving up.

What You'll Learn

• The announcement: Mike Murphy Unplugged was going on hiatus after Episode 150
• How months of aggressive decluttering, physical and digital, led to this decision
• What "one man band" really means to Mike: freedom and independence, not working alone
• The benefits of letting go, and why it isn't the same as quitting

"The secret to happiness is freedom... and the secret to freedom is courage." — Thucydides

The Announcement

After months of aggressively purging and decluttering his physical and digital environments, and taking honest inventory of his business and life, Mike came to a difficult realization: this podcast had become a weight, not a lift. Stubbornness could have kept it going forever, but that wouldn't have been healthy. Letting go isn't the same as quitting — it just makes room for something new.

Mike Murphy Unplugged is going on summer hiatus. The pause takes effect after Episode 150. This isn't the end of podcasting for Mike, just a break. Since launching in September 2015, he'd published a new episode every Friday morning at 6:00 AM without fail — the podcast helped him find his voice as a creative and gave him a platform to teach. He's extremely proud of the body of work built, and it's time to start a new chapter.

Backstory

Mike moved from Colorado to Montana to Portland to New Hampshire and back to Colorado, traveling everywhere in between, often living out of a Subaru wagon or VW van. The freedom and independence of that life came largely from not owning much — being debt-free and unencumbered let him pick up and go whenever opportunity knocked.

"One man band" is a phrase Mike uses often, and it represents exactly that: the ability to move and act on his own terms, without being tied down. Simplifying and cutting back to essentials is about maintaining control over what matters most, and eliminating what doesn't serve his goals. The less he has, the better he feels.

The Minimalist Process

For several months, Mike turned decluttering into a kind of game — thinning out everything, even the small stuff that doesn't seem to take up much room. Gear and tools that weren't used regularly went to be given away or sold. Kitchen cupboards, junk drawers, bathroom cabinets, closets — all pared down to only what actually gets used. The same approach applied digitally: iPhone home screens went from 10 to 2.5, hard drives and Google Drives got cleaned and properly backed up, unused Mac apps got deleted, and email subscriptions and old accounts got ruthlessly cut. Anything unused is one less notification, one less distraction.

The Benefits of Letting Go

Feeling lighter, cleaner, and freer. Less stuff means feeling swifter and more nimble, with reduced stress from actually knowing what you own. A clearer, more focused mind. More moti…

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Episode Summary: A deep dive into IGTV (Instagram TV) shortly after its June 2018 launch — what it was, how it worked, and why Mike planned to use it for Mike Murphy Co. Note: IGTV was discontinued by Instagram in 2022; this episode is preserved as a historical snapshot, not current guidance.

What You'll Learn

• What IGTV was and how it worked when it launched in 2018
• The vertical-video specs and rules IGTV required at the time
• Why Mike planned to use IGTV as a storytelling platform for his brand
• A snapshot of platform strategy thinking in 2018, useful as a case study in adapting to new formats

Follow along at the time: @mikeunplugged on Instagram.

What Was IGTV?

IGTV launched in late June 2018 from Instagram (owned by Facebook), at a time when Instagram had over 1 billion users and Facebook over 2 billion. It was a standalone app, separate from Instagram, but also accessible from within the main Instagram app.

Many described it as "TV for mobile devices" — every content creator was their own channel, open to anyone. Content played automatically when you opened the app, like turning on a TV, with browse options for For You, Explore, Following, and Popular. You could search for creators, but not topics.

How IGTV Worked

IGTV was built entirely around vertical video — a 9:16 aspect ratio (the opposite of YouTube's horizontal 16:9), most commonly shot at 1080×1920, matching what an iPhone shoots and the same size as Instagram Stories. Videos had to be between 15 seconds and 10 minutes long for most accounts; accounts with over 10,000 followers or verified status could upload up to an hour, but only via a web browser, not the phone app.

Tip at the time: keep text and graphics away from the edges of the frame, since certain phones would crop them.

Viewers could comment (visible in both IGTV and Instagram), like, and share videos, and IGTV integrated with Instagram Stories through swipe-up links directly to IGTV content.

Why Consider It for Business or Brand

With Instagram and Facebook's combined reach in the billions, IGTV represented a significant early opportunity for creators and brands — the first platform of its kind built specifically for vertical, phone-native video, which is how people were increasingly consuming content. The reasoning: tell your brand's story in long-form video, market products and services, entertain or educate your audience, network with other brands, and control your own narrative.

Keeping up with every new platform is exhausting — one week it's Facebook Live, the next it's Instagram Stories, then IGTV. The real secret isn't chasing every platform; it's getting genuinely good at making content (writing, video, podcasting), since those are the core transferable skills. Go where your opportunity actually is, not just because everyone else is there.

How Mike Planned to Use IGTV

The plan: post tutorials and quick tips made for vertical viewing, mix in fun animated promo content for the podcas…

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Episode Summary: After losing a friend, an episode about what really matters in life and business — priorities, urgency, a self-audit, and the recipe for success as a content creator.

What You'll Learn

• How losing a friend reframed what actually matters in life and business
• A self-audit framework for how you'll be remembered
• Why the podcast episodes and videos that get the most personal feedback are the ones sharing a real story
• A four-part recipe for content creators: create for people, positivity, self-awareness, and story

The Story

Last week, Mike lost a friend. In reflecting on the good times, he never once thought about where his friend worked, how successful he was, or how much money he made — just the little things, the laughing, the pure joy people felt around him. He remembered his friend saying hello to everyone, holding doors, giving up his seat for someone older. Being a good human being at the core is all that stuck.

Side tip: take photos and videos every time you're with friends and family, no matter how often you see them, and have a system to organize and back them up — you'll want them when it matters most.

Self-Audit: Look in the Mirror

If you left this earth tomorrow, how would you be remembered? Would your life have had a positive impact on the people who met you, in person or online? The little things that make the biggest impact: laughing, smiling, saying hello to strangers, being nice, doing your best, working hard, being reliable, being a good friend and family member, and doing the right thing when nobody's looking. Are you doing these things every day? It often takes a death, or a near-death experience, for people to pause and actually reflect — and that's okay.

Life Lessons and Content Creation

After 147 podcast episodes, the ones that get the most feedback and comments are the ones sharing a personal story. Same with the nearly 500 YouTube videos — the most common comment, by far, is genuine surprise that Mike actually responded. That disbelief is baffling to him: why wouldn't you reply to someone who took the time to write? You're never too busy or important to hit reply or say thank you — plenty of creators with massive followings, Gary Vaynerchuk included, still personally reply to emails and tweets.

Recipe for Content Creators

Create content for people. Would you want to consume what you're making? Content creation is about relationships — treat your audience with the same respect you'd give a good friend. Positivity. Be optimistic, focus on the good, and make content with pure intentions — meant to entertain, help, or solve a problem. Ask yourself: how does this content make people feel? Self-awareness. Be yourself 100% of the time. You're not competing with anyone but yourself — go all in on what you do well. Story. The most important element, and the one that ties everything together. Stories are what people remember, think about, and share. They're why Instagram Stories, Snapchat, and IGTV resonate — creators let their guard down and tell their real story. Your co…

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Episode Summary: A behind-the-scenes look at self-publishing a first eBook on Amazon — the tools used, the step-by-step process, and an honest read on how it went.

What You'll Learn

• The main tools used to self-publish an eBook: Scrivener, Adobe Creative Cloud, and Vellum
• How Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) works and how eBook vs. paperback royalties compare
• The full step-by-step process from topic to published book
• The honest truth about how hard it was, and how sales actually went

If you've ever thought about self-publishing a book on Amazon, this episode goes behind the scenes of self-publishing How To Podcast on Wordpress.com: The Step-by-Step Guide. For the full story behind why this particular book got written, see Episode 142.

The Main Tools

Writing — Scrivener ($50): Mike's writing tool of choice for every podcast script and the entire eBook. The appeal: strong project organization via a sidebar (146 podcast episodes fit neatly under one folder), fast document creation, Google Docs-style autosave, and cloud sync across iPhone and iPad.

Design and marketing graphics — Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign: the trifecta for logos, fonts, colors, images, and mockups, via Adobe Creative Cloud ($50/month at the time).

Formatting — Vellum ($200 for an unlimited license): a Mac-only app that makes formatting eBooks and print editions simple, and genuinely enjoyable. Highly recommended.

Tip 1: proofread and edit relentlessly — get as many other people as you can to help, since your own eyes will start playing tricks on you.

Tip 2: upload to Amazon KDP first, and hold off on other platforms (Google, iBooks, Nook) until every error is fixed — that way you only have to make corrections in one place.

Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP)

KDP is where all the self-publishing magic happens — free, and packed with resources for every step of the process. Past episodes 72, 73, and 74 go into more detail on KDP and Amazon's self-publishing tools. If you're planning to write an eBook, creating a KDP account early — ideally once you know your title — lets you check for title conflicts and lock in your title while you write.

The Kindle Store is where readers buy the book; KDP is where you upload the manuscript, cover, and print version. Mike priced How To Podcast on Wordpress.com at $3.99 (about $2 in royalties per copy) and the color paperback at $15.99 (about $1.50 in royalties) — eBooks were the more profitable format.

Quick Recap of the Steps

Figure out your topic. Create a KDP account, enter a working title, and verify…

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Episode Summary: A motivational episode and a bit of a reality check on what it actually takes to make it as a content creator — the honest time, effort, and patience behind every finished piece of content, and a challenge to stop looking for shortcuts that don't exist.

What You'll Learn

• Why content creation is no longer optional for brands and businesses that want to stay relevant
• The real time cost behind a 15-minute podcast episode: scripting, recording, editing, and promo
• Why most podcasters and vloggers quit before they ever get good
• A self-audit checklist for your online presence

What does it take to make it as a content creator? To succeed in business? To create the life you want? The easy answer to all three is hard work, consistency, persistence, and patience — but this episode goes a little deeper into what mastering the craft actually requires.

This episode is meant to force a gut check: are you doing everything you can to succeed, or are you making excuses? Content creation is no longer optional for brands who want to stay relevant online — it's a requirement, and it's noisy. You have to work to earn your audience's attention and learn how they actually consume content. Take small steps, but take them, and stay ready to shift as things change. Audit your own online presence: is your website mobile-friendly? When did you last update it or post new content? Are you giving people a reason to want to do business with you? There's no easy button for creating content — stop looking for one.

The Backstory

This episode was inspired by a video Mike made that week, "Why It Takes 3 Hours to Make a 30-Second Video." Based on the reaction, it seemed to hit home for a lot of people. The moral: things aren't always what they seem, and being great at your craft takes hard work. Content creation and working for yourself isn't easy for anyone. The people who make it look easy are pros who went through the same struggle — they just stuck with it longer. Every article, podcast episode, YouTube video, and Instagram story you see is a finished product. What you don't see is the years of classes and tutorials, the practice, the research and writing and prep time, the gear setup, the 20 takes for an intro, and the reshoots because of bad lighting or audio problems.

Why People Quit

The average podcaster pod-fades or quits before episode seven. Most daily vlogs don't make it a week. The reason most people quit vlogging, podcasting, blogging, or any craft is that it's genuinely hard and takes a lot of time and dedication to master — the climb isn't always fun, but you do get better and faster. The other reason people quit is self-doubt, often fueled by friends and family questioning why it's taking so long. You have to block out the negativity and keep going if you genuinely believe in what you're doing. Be relentless.

Mike's Content, By the Numbers

Tech and creativity come easily to Mike, but creating content on a regular basis is still a real challenge. This 15-minute podcast can take several hours just to script. Recording and editing come easily, b…

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Episode Summary: A chapter from Mike's eBook How To Podcast on Wordpress.com, sharing 14 reasons to consider WordPress.com as a combined podcast and website host. Note: plan names and pricing reflect 2018 and have since changed.

What You'll Learn

• 14 reasons WordPress.com made sense as an all-in-one podcast and website host in 2018
• The three WordPress.com plan tiers at the time and what each unlocked
• How WordPress.com handled reliability, customization, and multiple/private podcast feeds
• Monetization options available through WordPress.com hosting

Mike's approach to recommendations: he only endorses tools he genuinely uses and believes in, because trust — that he knows what he's talking about and actually believes it — is the foundation of the whole brand. These are the 14 reasons that were compelling enough to write an entire eBook about it: How To Podcast on Wordpress.com: The Step-By-Step Guide.

14 Reasons to Use WordPress.com

1. Simplicity. One price covers both podcast and website hosting. Mike's own setup at the time wasn't simple — separate bills to Libsyn, Siteground, and Sucuri (for security, after a website hack) — which made the WordPress.com all-in-one approach appealing.

2. Trust. WordPress has a long track record and roughly 30% of websites run on WordPress.org or WordPress.com. Paid plans included email and live chat support.

3. Affordability. Every paid plan bundles podcast, blog, and website hosting plus a free custom domain. Note: the Free Plan doesn't support audio uploads, so podcasting requires at least a paid tier. At the time: the Personal Plan ($4/month, 6GB — roughly 200 thirty-minute episodes worth of storage), the Premium Plan ($8.25/month, 13GB, premium themes, video support), and the Business Plan ($24.92/month, unlimited storage/bandwidth, plugin installs, custom themes like Divi, automatic backups, e-commerce). See current WordPress.com pricing for today's plans and rates.

4. Reliability. WordPress.com's server infrastructure is built for uptime, security, backups, and heavy bandwidth — with enough redundancy that an individual site going down independent of a platform-wide outage is unlikely, unlike smaller shared-hosting setups.

5. Customization. The base tier is limited to free themes; the mid-tier unlocks hundreds of premium, mobile-responsive themes; the top tier allows full custom theme uploads (Divi, in Mike's case). For a podcast that just needs a home base, the entry-level plan is often enough.

6. Domain name included. Paid plans include a free custom domain for the first year (renewal was $13/year at the time), replacing the default yourpodcast.wordpress.com address — or you can bring your own existing domain.

7. Social sharing. One-click publishing to Twitter, Facebook, and other platforms, plus automatic email alerts to blog subscribers when a…

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Episode Summary: What a podcast media host actually is, how the whole system works behind the scenes, what to look for when choosing one, and the two different hosting setups Mike ran in 2018.

What You'll Learn

• What a podcast media host actually is and how it differs from a website host
• How podcast media hosting works end to end, from upload to listener download
• The 3 factors to weigh when choosing a media host: longevity, flexibility, affordability
• The two different hosting setups Mike used for his two shows in 2018

What Is a Podcast Media Host?

A podcast media host is where you upload and store the final audio files for your podcast — most commonly MP3s, though it could be PDFs or video files for a video podcast. Every time you publish a new episode, the MP3 goes into storage alongside your other episodes, and when someone opens a podcast app and downloads an episode, it's the media host that serves up the file. It's conceptually similar to a website host, just for podcast audio — plus extras like RSS feed generation, statistics, and podcast web pages. Think of it simply as the home for the audio files you want to share with the world.

How Podcast Media Hosting Works

The 101 version: every podcast has an RSS feed submitted to Apple Podcasts and directories like Spreaker, TuneIn, Google Play, and Spotify. That feed is generated either by your hosting company or, in Mike's case, by a plugin on his own website — but every podcast has one either way. Publishing a new episode uploads the MP3 to the media host, and the RSS feed automatically distributes it to every directory and notifies subscribers. When a listener presses play in their podcast app, the media host pulls the file from storage and serves it up — a warehouse that's always on call.

What to Look for in a Media Host

Three big factors:

1. Longevity and dependability. Choose a host with a proven track record and financial stability — one likely to stick around long-term. Flashy, free, brand-new hosting solutions with no track record are a real risk, since switching hosts later is a genuine hassle.
2. Flexibility and expandability. Look for a host that can scale with your show — state-of-the-art servers that handle traffic spikes and provide unlimited bandwidth, so a big shoutout from a major podcaster doesn't take your downloads offline.
3. Affordability. Price matters — find something that fits your budget so you can sustain it long-term.

What Mike Used

Podcast #1 — Mike Murphy Unplugged: $15/month to Libsyn for MP3 hosting, plus $15/month to Siteground for the WordPress.org website, using the free Powerpress by Blubrry plugin to generate the RSS feed. Total: $30/month across two separate services — a common setup, but not the cheapest option.

Podcast #2 — the companion show to the WordPress.com eBook: using WordPress.com itself, which combines podcast hosting and website hosting in one $4/month Personal Plan wit…

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