6.01 /// I'm Back On the Air!

If you’ve ever stared at your passion project and felt the start button grow heavier by the day, you’ll recognise this comeback story. After nearly eleven months away, I’m back with a simpler, more human setup: two phones, a squeaky chair, and a promise to keep the edits light so the conversation stays real. I’m taking the podcast to video without losing what made the audio work—no jump cuts, no overproduction, just a clear voice and an honest rhythm you can trust.

I open up about why the break stretched so long: stacked work stress, full weekends, and the creeping pressure to “launch video the right way.” The solution wasn’t more gear or a perfect set; it was choosing ease over perfection and protecting the fact this is a hobby. That shift unlocks consistency. I also share how the format is changing—less rushing to wrap every topic, more letting ideas spill into the next episode. Expect recurring threads, from music and 80s films to aliens and practical creativity, plus a few guests who bring good energy without turning the show into admin.

Life kept moving while the feed was quiet. There were local trips, motorbike rides, and a major work project that drained and taught in equal measure. I’m considering an episode on IVF—handled with care and consent—because the process is harder and more complex than most people realise, and stories like that need space. Through it all, I’m reminded that the metric that matters is connection: a comment, a like, a suggestion that says someone is out there. If you’ve got a topic you want me to tackle or a question you want me to unpack, I’m listening.

Watch or listen—your choice—and help shape what comes next let us build this show together.

Chapters

• 0:46 Return And Video Relaunch
• 2:01 Minimal-Edit Setup And Workflow
• 3:48 Why Starting Again Felt Hard
• 7:32 Cameras, Gear Choices, And Simplicity
• 9:13 Video Goals Without Losing Audio Listeners
• 11:14 Burnout Worries And Pacing
• 12:16 Anxiety, Time, And Letting Things Slide
• 15:24 Format Shift And Continuous Threads
• 18:01 Guests, Topics, And Alien Plans
• 20:05 Managing Admin And Keeping It A Hobby
• 22:41 Socials, Platforms, And Community
• 24:00 Life Lately: Travel And Work

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:46

Hi, welcome back to Infinite Battle. I'm so happy to re it's going well already. So happy to return uh to your screens. Uh in video format, you can see my face, uh unless you're listening, which I'm still gonna keep the the listening part of it uh ongoing. Um yeah, I'm just really happy to be back. Um I'm sorry it's been so long. I I was checking and I've actually made some notes. Um so yeah, it's been like 11 months. It's the 19th of January was the last time I made a podcast, so it's nearly 11 months, which I'm so sorry about. I've I've missed doing it as well. And I'll get into it, I'll get into it a little bit, like the reasons why, uh what I've been up to. I've not even been up to that much, so I've got really no no real massive excuses. Um just human ones. Um so yeah, so you can see my face. So if you want to choose to watch it on YouTube now, you certainly can. So if you're listening on one of the audio-only podcasts, flick over to the podcast on uh YouTube, which is just at infinite prattle. And um if you want, you can see my face. Uh I'm gonna keep it as much audio-based as I can, so I won't be doing a show and tells on the actual podcast. I may do some extra vlogs or or interesting videos separate to the podcast that will be on YouTube. Um yeah, and yeah, so that's that's what I'm doing. And until I get used to it, I was thinking about like starting a Patreon or something like that, but I keep saying it since I started, I'm doing it for my own benefit, really, and for the creation of the content. Content creator. Um and I've got two cameras, so I've got this camera as well, by the way, so that'll be fun to edit. Uh I had a bit of a test the other day, uh, and it seemed to go alright. I I did have that one in portrait mode, but I've decided to flick it to horizontal because I thought, well, meh. Um I'll probably I'll probably regret that. Um I was doing that for like social media stuff because obviously everything's in portrait, and I was thinking, should I do that? And I might do see how this one goes, and I might flick it back around once I've edited. Uh I'm gonna hopefully record a few in one go and then uh we'll see what happens. Um again, I want everything to be as minimal effort for me as possible. Uh maximum output for you, minimal effort for me. Everyone's happy. So yeah, I'm I'm hoping that this experience for you is gonna be good. Hopefully it's gonna be good for me, but not too um onerous to I don't like editing or anything like that. So what's gonna happen is there's minimal evidence. I won't delete anything that I'm saying, it'll just be, and I'm not gonna do all them stupid frigging jump because the YouTubers do, because I want the audio that you listen to on say Spotify or um you know Apple podcasts to be the same as what people would see in the video. Uh the only difference will be as you can see me, and there might be some camera changes, uh, and that's it. I don't want to do any work basically. This is a hobby, it's fun, and yeah, I just want to keep it chill. Um so I've been thinking while I've been on sabbatical, let's say, uh, how this was all gonna go, and I think that's what's actually been weirdly enough stopping me um starting again. Um hang on, I've just remembered I've got coffee down here. So let's have some coffee. The squeaky chair is still here, if you can hear it. Um I haven't oiled it yet or done anything with it at all. So enjoy that sound, but I've got my uh my Enterprise uh Star Trek Cup uh Picard Cup. Um I haven't got ill grey tea hot, I've got uh coffee white hot with a bit of uh brown sugar, you know. Delicious I would like to say freshly ground and all that, but it's not. But I do have a Pepsi uh Stanley-esque cup. Um not ice hockey, the you know, the Stanley cups that people are raving about recently. Well I love them over there, so yeah. What was I saying? I think nothing's changed. Nothing, nothing's changed. You might be able to see my face, but you can just see the cheer. You just see all the cheer panic on my face now when I don't know what I'm saying or um the confusion, mainly. Confusion is a resting face when I'm doing these podcasts. Because I have no idea what I'm gonna do. I've wrote wrote some notes, but they're not really planned. It's not it was just literally about 30 seconds before I started filming. And then I forgot to put them in my hand as well. Um where was I up to? Yeah, I think it was the anxiety of starting again. Um it's one of the things you know the longer you leave something, the longer it gets left, and then the harder it is then to start it again. And I think because I'd set myself the goal of definitely starting the video podcasting on this season, because I've been talking about it for a couple of seasons and never done it. I did a vlog last year, like a year ago. I did a vlog. Me and Sarah are in Scotland, and that's on YouTube, it's still live. Um, and I just decided I had my new my new mics, I'll just go through myself in a minute. Uh, but I've got my new mics, and I thought, you know, I'll test them. So I got my little gimbal and went for a wander. We were staying in a in a forest holidays um uh place, not a sponsor, although please. Um and then yeah, I just went for a walk. Sarah wasn't feeling too well, um, and I said I'm just gonna go for a little walk. Um I'm gonna I'm gonna take my camera and film myself. And it feels weird filming yourself. I must have this this feels a little bit odd. Like having this camera here and this camera here. I say cameras, they're my phones. Um I'm not a drug dealer. Uh I have two phones because one's my old phone, and one's one's not an old old phone, and one's my my my new old phone. Um old new phone. Don't know how you say that. The one I'm mu this one is my iPhone, which I got a while ago, which is my current phone. This isn't even relevant. And the one that's my secondary camera is my phone that I had previously, which I never got relevant, because it's a good little phone, and I thought, you know, if you ever need a backup or you go in somewhere and you think, oh, don't care if I lose my phone, that's the one I use. Sorry, phone. So I thought I was gonna buy some new equipment. I thought, you know what, don't. I was trying to use my old DL DSLR, it was get it was annoying to use with a computer, and I was like, it's more to set up, and like everything, I like ease, so I was like, I'm not gonna set that up. Um and yeah, so I just I just thought, you know, I've got a phone, it films well. I've got this phone, that films well uh well enough for doing what I'm doing. Um so yeah, why why not do that? So I that's what I did. Uh that's what I'm doing. Um yeah, it was just the anxiety of starting this setup. I think the the idea of I got in such a habit of being able to do the audio stuff so quickly um that I could literally record a podcast and upload it within an hour and it'd all be done. Like it was all automatic. My my host sent it all out, didn't really think about it. And even the the and they even started on on YouTube because of the YouTube music thing. You'd add your RSS feed into Buzz Sprout and then it would automatically send that to YouTube and your channel as well. So it was it was super easy, it wasn't really a task for me to upload anything, everything kind of become automatic. But I really wanted to do the video podcasting thing, not not so much in the sense to like gain more followers or more subscriptions or views, it was just because I think it's pretty cool to have that interaction, makes me feel like I'm talking to someone because I think I think I've said it many times on the podcast where I'm yammering away, and that's normally where I face, or I I normally face this way, say when my back to the camera, looking that way, my computer's all set up, and that's the that's the way I face, and um it's weird just speaking to a wall than speaking into a microphone. So I thought if I have a camera, um and a and or two, I can I can I can kind of you know speak to someone, speak to you, and it'll make maybe make you feel directly that I'm speaking to you. Uh and hopefully that that won't detract from the sensation that the the the experience that people get when they're listening to the audio uh alone. Um yeah. Absolutely rambling right now, which uh I'm back to full form with my very first podcast. Um what else I've got to say? Um yeah, so if all goes well, I'll continue this. If it becomes too much to produce and edit and upload, um then I might do like a video podcast every couple of weeks when I think I've got something maybe important to say or something I think would benefit from a video on. But at the moment I'm not thinking about that. At the moment is audio and video podcasting released at the same time. Um yeah, so there we go. Um and that that's how it's gonna be. Uh until I get burnt out. Um but yeah, I was I was saying about that that the the the the anxiety kind of thing, it was kind of eating me up and I I I think a lot of people think that I'm quite a confident guy and you know things don't affect me. But I am human and um you know things affect me the same as everyone else. I think I'm reasonably well adjusted and I think I'm good at dealing with stuff. But every so often uh when things get too much, things have to drop out of your agenda. And for some reason, um the podcast, even though I super enjoy it, super enjoy it is is the phrase, um it was something that I could kick keep kicking down the road, let's say. Uh and plus the the thought of like doing this was really getting on top of me, and I d I don't really know why. Um I suppose I felt maybe a bit guilty for it taking a bit longer to do and how that was affecting my time with Sarah because I worked so much. Um like everyone. Um my downtime seemed more important, even though I wasn't really being that um productive. So it was kind of kind of getting to a vicious cycle, really. I kept saying these things and I wanted to tidy my space up, which still isn't. It looks tidy-ish at the moment. I know I've noticed some things over there that I've left on the side, but um it looks tidyish now, but I was kind of getting a bit in my own head about that YouTuber look, you know, what what YouTubers have, and and I wanted to get myself a little sign done, which I did. So my signs up, and I'm I'm pleased with that. It was a teamw special. Um, hopefully it doesn't catch fire. Um that would make an interesting video. Um, I wouldn't be happy though. Um but yeah, I I I wanted to get kind of like that look, and I think I was getting too in my head about it. So everything's in my head, but I'm back now, so I can I can shut up about that. Um with with with the podcast to say it's gonna stay the same. The only thing that the only thing that I might um change is uh my my previous format was episodical, um but every episode kind of, unless it was like a part one, part two, I kind of like tried to close off that kind of thought process within that episode. Sometimes I'd say I'd come back to it, but I never do, so I never really listened to what I was what I was talking about. Very very rarely remember to make a note to say, right, you were talking about that today, come back to it, which I'm gonna try and do because how I'm gonna try and do this in the future is oh, excuse me, if I'm the problem with visuals. Uh so if I'm doing something and I'm talking about something, I won't try and wrap it up so quickly. I will like overlap it until next episode, maybe record that episode back to back so I can't forget, and then that'll be the flow of the podcast. So it might be like one continuous podcast, maybe. Uh depending on how it works out, so I do have in my brain certain topics I want to speak about, and it's whether I can get 20 minutes out of a conversation. Which anyone that knows me or has listened to the podcast before probably would say that I could, considering I've been talking God knows how long right now, about God knows how much, I don't know. Um so yeah, so that that's that's kind of like the way the podcast's gonna go. I'm gonna get some guests on as well, hopefully again this season. Uh they they will probably be recorded as well, maybe in a bit of a different setup, because I need to make space for another person. Um But yeah, I'm gonna get I'm gonna get uh there's a chat guy in my band, no say my band, our band, that uh I think will come on and probably discuss some stuff with me, music, probably, as as well that's what we're doing, and definitely aliens. I'm a massive alien fan, as as you're well aware, and that will definitely be a couple of the episodes this season with all the new alien and predator stuff that's come out. Uh and there's a local guy that contacted me uh called Sickly Green. So I'm hoping to get him on the show. Um it's really nice when people reach out to you and and want to interact with you and want to talk about what you do, and I'd like to find out what he's doing. I have actually subscribed to him, so uh he he's been on the social medias in in my local town, and uh he's got some interesting things going on, so hopefully we can get we can get him on the show and and we can have a bit of a discussion and um yeah, it'd just be nice to maybe have that that mix-up again of of different people on on on the show and and having that different dynamic every so often. I don't think I I'm not gonna go too deep with it, I'm not gonna try and force guests on the show, but if if someone crops up or you know that that's needed, then then I will, you know. I like to be fluid, you know. I don't want to pin myself down and and I like rambling about crap myself, so I I don't want to be that sort of show where that I had an initial idea where probably like season two, season three, where I was trying to get guests on all the time, and I I had quite a few on, a lot of them were two-parters, and my my thought process back then was basically to have have a guest every other show, uh like like a solo, then a guest, a solo, then a guest, and so on. All all the way through the season. Um that didn't work out because it's really hard work to like pin people down, get people to, you know, tell them what you want, get people to sign the agreements, and because you have to have a little bit of legal cover when you're uploading stuff to the internet, and it's really difficult to like manage that. And even though it's a little bit of admin, I I didn't want it to become a job again. I didn't you know if this was my full-time thing, that's that wouldn't be an issue, but it's not, and I didn't want it to become you know onerous and and and and just getting bogged down in them details. So um it's really nice when people reach out and and I can maybe get a couple of friends on as well this season. So I might even be I might even get a couple of people from the uh the band on. You never know, you never know. Let's see how receptive they are. Um but definitely I'm gonna try and get my mate back on again. Um Scotty, who talked about Star Trek last time. Um we'll see if he can come back on. We'll talk about some other nostalgic stuff, um, probably some 80s films, etc., that we like. Um because we're the same age, literally four days apart, I'm four days old. I mean, he never lets me forget. Um just just the whole thing about subscribing, you know. If if you can subscribe or give us a like and um I just mean it just I I don't I don't I don't say that to like gain notoriety, it just knows that someone's out there. If someone comments or gives me a thumbs up or you know subscribes, it just lets me know that people are listening, lets me know that people are enjoying what I'm doing, and if you want to give me feedback, then I'm open to it, you know. Just just just ping me, you know, ping me a message, uh slide into my DMs, as they say, as the youngsters say, Oh, I sound so old. Uh slide into my DMs. Isn't that like a dating thing though? I don't know. Is that a dating thing? More so than just messaging. I don't know. I'm I'm old. I don't need to know about that jazz. Um yeah. So that's that's pretty much like the podcast for this season. I'm going to just do what I do, be very fluid, do some videos, try and make it as interactive as I can, try and keep it audio-based so I'm not doing show and tells during these during these uh videos, and um or be descriptive when I am. Um yeah, and just just follow my uh socials as well. Like I'm on Instagram, I'm on TikTok, but I don't upload that very often because it annoys me. Again, it's the whole thing of like too many socials, trying to upload too much stuff, but Instagram I use loads, um, and that ultimately shares to uh threads. Uh I am on Twitter as well with X as it is now. It has been for a while to be fair, but Twitter just is ingrained. And I'm on Facebook, so I've got a Facebook group on uh on there. I'm on Reddit as well, I think. I think I think I've got a Reddit thread. Um Subreddit. I can't remember. I set up loads of stuff. So if you if you Google at Infinite Prattle, you'll probably find uh the social media for you to follow me on. And I will try and get better with TikTok, or just delete it. Uh I'll let you know. So yeah, so what have I been doing? Like, so this is this is the thing. What have I been doing in the interim of Infinite Prattle in 11 months? Well the answer is lots, but not very much, I think. I think that that's probably how I can sum it up. I've I've been away a couple of times, not any foreign holidays, not been away abroad anywhere, uh all all based in the UK, been to see my mum in Ireland, went up to S we went up to Edinburgh, uh not Edinburgh, um I said Edinburgh. I've been watching I was watching Frankenstein last night, the new one called um the Del Toro one, and uh very good, and part of it was in Edinburgh, so I think it's in my brain. Anyway, went to see the British Superbikes in a few places around the country um last season, uh and one of them was uh Nockhill, which is in Scotland, and we stayed in Beau Maris. Is it Bo Maris? I think that's wrong. It's somewhere that's it's somewhere that's got the same place as a place in Wales. Which Beau Maris isn't Wales. I want to say it is Beau Maris. It's got a little museum. Oh, it's gonna really annoy me now. I'm telling you the wrong thing. Anyway, we had a lovely time there. I went up with my friend Jeff and his wife Heather, and uh we had a lovely time, went to see the British Sea Bikes, had a couple of days just potting around um the the the lovely Scottish countryside, and yeah, just had just had a thoroughly nice time, if I'm honest with you. Um work's been really busy. Um and I think I I think the daily grind of work and only having like a couple of days off of the weekend, plus we've been busy this this year at weekends. We're normally sort of a couple where we don't really plan stuff in. Uh and this year we seem to have had quite a lot of stuff planned. Uh, and anyone that works like an office nine to five job uh knows that like your weekends are quite precious and trying to do stuff around the house and and and all that jazz, you know, it's just been getting on top of me this year. And I'm not gonna be whiny about it, you know. I think sometimes you just have a period of time where your brain and your body sometimes is just like, whoa, like you know, and this this is the year, this is the year for me. I think this is you know, last year was it was a busy year in work for me, like my first major project commissioned. It was a bit of madness, really, really really quite stressful at times. Um, and then that linked with like personal stuff, like doing the IVF for so long. Um we've got some news on that, and I'm still deciding whether to do a podcast on that or whether it's too personal. Have a have to have a conversation with Sarah about that. Because like, you know, I do put my feelings out here, I do talk about stuff, and I need to know that you know that is okay for for other people. Uh, and especially my wife, I don't know how to feel anywhere about what I'm doing, and um because some things need to be kept private. Um I don't think she'll have a problem with me sharing the thing I'm thinking about sharing, but um if not, I'm I'm I'll probably just do another one on IVF in the process and because it it's quite stressful. I think I went into it with a bit of uh closed mind thing that it'd just be like, you know, they do some stuff in a lab, bish bash bosh. Uh you're pregnant, and it's not the case at all. Um Yeah, uh what else have I done? What else have I done? I've been incessantly trying to tidy this room, trying to get the garage in order, and it looks worse than ever if I'm honest, with the garage especially. Um been out with my motorbike a few times with my mate Pete from work, been out a couple of times on my own, not as much as I would like. That is something I need to change next year. Need to get a pannier on it, need to replace my panniers and put a backrest on it. Uh so Sarah can come on the back of it. Um we need to get her on the back. Um Yeah, it's just been one of them years, I think, that's just it's gone so fast as well. It's gone so so fast. And yeah, it's it's it's been a bit much, if I'm honest with you. It's been a bit much. And I'm so sorry that it's taken 11 months nearly to to get this out. Um but thank you for coming with me on the journey. Thank you for the people having still downloading in that 11-month downtime. I've had quite a lot of downloads still, and it amazes me that I've not really been promoting, I've been putting stuff on the Instagram page. It's kind of become my I've got my own personal Instagram page, but I've got the Infinite Proud one's become the one that I just use the most and just for everything everything really. It's podcast stuff, just things that I'm doing. Um and even though I've not really been posting links to the podcast, uh I've had quite a lot of engagement recently, uh, which is lovely. Thank you for anyone that's left a comment um and and listen to the podcast, and hopefully this season will be um peak, peak infinite prattle uh so far, um and and make it continue going forward. Um so I I'm looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to you know talking crap at you again and making making mistakes, doing you know, making errors, and and travelling on that journey with you, and you know, hopefully you get something out of it. It's cathartic for me. Hopefully you guys get something out of listening to someone talk about things in their life that may resonate with you. And that's the only thing that's the only reason I do this. I just do this because it helps me and hopefully some random person in the world may listen to it and you know get something from it. And you know, that's a bargain for me if that's the case. So I've been rambling for 20 minutes on bugger all um and it sometimes just realised that I have no way of telling how long I've been talking about talking for. So I need to get like a little countdown timer somewhere that I can see Um front of house kind of thing. Front of house? Is that right? Would that be the right thing? Because that's the audience. I don't know. I don't know, I don't know what I'm saying anymore. But I need to get a timer so I know how long I've been bloody rabbiting for. Because um that's not a good thing when I'm doing it on the deck. I it actually tells you. Well, there's a thought to be left with, isn't it? Right, I love you all. Thank you very much for listening. Watching, if you're watching, please leave a like, subscribe, whatever. It's not for my benefit, it's just to know well, it's for my benefit, but it's just know that you're there. Um I'd like to know that you're there. So a little like would would would make me realise that someone's been you know paying attention. Uh and if you want to leave a comment or suggestions, or even if you want to leave something that you want my view on, so you want to make a suggestion for a podcast, because you'd like to hear my view on something, then uh why not? Uh thank you very much for listening, and I will see you on the next one. And remember, keep prattling.

SPEAKER_02: 24:54

Thanks for listening to Infinite Rattle with your host, Steven. Follow me on social network at InfinitePradle. And don't forget to subscribe. Thanks very much.