2020 was a proper meh for so many reasons. For MIC Media, it was our first full year in operation. And it proved to be a very testing first year! But, in many ways it was a total joy, super rewarding and it’s made us raring to go this year.

So, here’s a little lowdown of what we did last year and how we navigated (and still are) the upheaval of covid. Plus, a taster of what you can expect from us in 2021.

We, like a lot of businesses, set up shop in their house. Vic steered the MIC ship from her living room, where our trusty assistant producer Alan meowed his way through many a zoom call. We shifted all of our workshops and recording sessions online and became pro’s at remote delivery! Vic’s wardrobe even doubled as a recording studio – thank goodness she’s a clothes hoarder and has not got one of those capsule, Marie Kondo wardrobes! Look, if it’s good enough for Ira Glass…

(L-R Vic’s ‘hoarder of clothes’ wardrobe & King Podcaster Ira Glass)

Moving stuff virtual included our awesome MIC’s Podcast Club, which is now delivered totally virtually. This means we’ve welcomed folk from beyond the North West to 11 meetups and got some of our awesome community to share their podcasty skills;  these included Slimming World podcast’s Clare Freeman, Paradise (BBC) podcast’s Dan Maudsley and Charlotte Foster, Ms pre-production queen. We’ve also seen the community grow to over 400 brilliant podcasting humans. 

Talking of brilliant humans, we delivered 32 ‘how to podcast’ workshops and webinars to 400 people and continued to coach some fab female entrepreneurs to create their own podcast. These included sessions for Pro Manchester‘s network of business owners, Unltd‘s award-winners and the PRCA.

Then, when it comes to actual podcasts, MIC Media launched 4 new podcasts, all produced during the covid madness, including our Vic producing a podcast for Bauer Media called,  The Reality of Reality TV. Presented by pop star Fleur East, the podcast features fellow reality stars to uncover the truth behind some of our favourite TV shows. These included Kerry Katona, Diversity, Vicky Pattison, The Vivienne (Drag Race UK), and Alison Hammond.

During lockdown 1.0 MIC helped a bunch of value-driven and social good organisations to launch their podcasts. From (online) working with PIE and a bunch of secondary school kids on a podcast challenge, to supporting a whole (virtual) variety show production with the Stand Up Sisters, a community group of abuse survivors from Bolton. The show must go on (quite literally!). 

In May, we received the absolute shocking news that we were up for a British Podcast Award for our Strong Manchester Women podcast. It was such an honour to be included in a stellar list of British Podcast Award nominated podcasts from the BBC and The Guardian, podcasts by some of our favourites like Jon blumming Ronson, Fearne Cotton and Sam Walker and alongside some of the podcasts we adore like Dear Joan and Jericha, My Dad Wrote A Porno and the Guilty Feminist! Even though we didn’t win on the night, we’re still super stoked to have been recognised. 

In 2020 MIC Media also had the joy of welcoming some awesome new clients into the MIC fam, including Co-op, Plan International, Unltd, Fight for Peace, Stockport Council, Nina Dar, University of Salford and Made By Mortal’s, where we’ve been marketing their gorgeous, interactive podcast Armchair Adventures.

We also continued to work with our favourites PIE, Yellow Jigsaw and the Talking About My Generation crew, Flourish Together CIC, Katya Willems, Digital Advantage, Children’s University and Kate Cocker and her Presenter Coach Team. 

In October 2020, we were chuffed to graduate from the LLoyds Bank and School for Social Entrepreneurs Start-Up development programme. We can’t even begin to describe the amount of good eggs we met on our SSE journey. With the calibre of new social enterprises that we saw develop beside us on that programme, the future is defo bright.

Plus, we continued to be supported by Luminate and the Co-op Foundation as part of the responsible and ethical enterprises network housed at the amazing Federation (RIP) in Manchester. Thank-you we’re so grateful for your support and belief in our mission and work! Also, huge well-done to Lauren at Noisy Cricket for leading and connecting the rowdy rabble of soc ents at The Fed through this support programme.

Throughout the year we regularly got the tables turned on us and featured on other people’s podcasts and radio shows, including BBC radio Manchester! 

One of the last things we signed 2020 off with was Pods Up Level Up, a 2 hour masterclass for podcasters that focused on podcast growth. Our Vic is one of the co-founders of the Pods Up North and alongside her partners in crime Kate Cocker and Ant McGinley decided a small virtual event was the way forward in 2020. The PUN team bagged 20 awesome speakers like Clint Boon, Janet Murray, Bernard Achampong, Headliner Video, Captivate Audio and Crowd Network. You can watch the event back here 

Finally, a huge massive thanks to Charles Commins for helping to run, and grow MIC’s Podcast Club. A big thank-you to Vicky Wright for being an absolute superstar in all things podcast marketing for team MIC Media. And a huge thank-you to everyone who’s helped and supported MIC through our absolutely crazy, stressy, fun, weird first year!

Here we are on the other side (ish). We have some proper top projects in the pipeline, including kicking off our workshops in 2021 with our signature ‘How to start a podcast’ webinar this March.

We can’t wait to continue to help more good eggs to tell their stories through awesome audio.

2021 is going to be a belter – we can feel it in our waters.

Much ❤

MIC Media x