200: The Journey to 200!

Staying Relevant

Sam Thompson and Pete Wicks celebrate the 200th episode of Staying Relevant by taking a nostalgic trip down memory lane, reflecting on how their podcast evolved from a tentative six-episode experiment

Key takeaways

• Sam Thompson paid to produce the podcast for its entire first year, with both hosts initially making zero revenue from the venture.
• Early outreach attempts featured dream guests like Stormzy and Tom Cruise on a spreadsheet, but agents frequently replied that their clients had no idea who the hosts were.

Main topics

• Podcast milestone celebration & retrospective
• Early production struggles & financial realities

Notable quotes

"I paid to do staying relevant for the first year. I lost work because I had to fucking film the fucking thing every week and it cost me."

Conclusion

The episode functions as both a humorous roast and a genuine tribute t

Transcript preview

Speaker 4 (0:00) Welcome to Staying Relevant, the podcast hosted by two bestest of best pals, myself, Sam Thompson, and Peter, James, Jonathan, Joseph, Wicks. Now, we are on, what day are we on together now? Speaker 3 (0:14) I've been working together. Of almost Speaker 4 (0:16) consecutive working. Fifteen. Fifteen working days together, Sam Thompson and Pete Wicks, and I'm not dead. Speaker 3 (0:23) Neither am I. Speaker 4 (0:25) It's been close. Speaker 3 (0:26) So this is the main episode, which means it comes out on a Monday and you can watch it all visually, sorry, on Josh and Kira's YouTube channel from 5pm on Wednesday and then we'll be doing a bonus episode which comes out Thursday audibly which you can watch on Josh and Kira's YouTube channel from 5pm on a Sunday, which means you can catch us on a... Speaker 4 (0:40) Catch us on a Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and a Sunday. Speaker 3 (0:44) Beautiful. Rate, review, do all of that crap. You know the score by now. They will be swearing if you don't like it. Go f*** yourself and anyone around you. Speaker 4 (0:52) off. Got a full house today as well, by the way. We have Speaker 3 (0:54) got a full house in the office. It's been interesting. And the reason we've got a full house is because it's a very special episode. It's a big one. This is a double century. This is episode 200. 200 Speaker 4 (1:09) episodes, everybody. What a milestone to hit when we first started this. Did we think we'd get to this number? Speaker 3 (1:17) Yes, I did. I agreed when we first started this to do six. He Speaker 4 (1:22) did. Oh, my God, he did. He agreed to do six. That's so true. I Speaker 3 (1:27) said, I don't want to do this. Speaker 4 (1:29) I'll do Speaker 3 (1:29) six. Speaker 4 (1:30) God, that's funny. I did six Speaker 3 (1:32) and then it became seven and then eight and then 200. I Speaker 4 (1:38) remember. So little stroll down memory lane here. I remember the conversation I had with Pete. just prior when like he was on the fence and I had called up his agent, Ellen, and I was pleading, begging her. I went, just get him to the studio, get him to the studio and I'll do the rest. And, um, and so he gets to the studio on day one and he's, he can't be asked this when he was in his drinking year as well. So he was like, he immediately had like a beer. It was like 10 AM, had a beer and, uh, and he goes, right, you've got an hour. I enjoyed it. Okay. So he sat in the booth. Do you remember I had A4 sheets of paper printed out, which were like crinkling down the mic. And he went, this is the most shit thing I've ever seen in my life. Speaker 3 (2:20) Sam says, listen, we're going to do this pod. Don't worry, it's going to be fine. I said, I don't listen to pods. You know, I don't do podcasts. He went, don't worry, I'm going to handle it all. I get there. I'm not joking you. He tried to do the intro for the first time, which hasn't changed. in 200 episodes and he goes oh god i'm nervous oh oh he's got this sheet of paper i said what's on the paper you turn around nothing it was a blank sheet of paper that he was just holding for no fucking reason i actually think you you wrote staying relevant on the back in biro yeah Speaker 4 (2:48) mate it's because we're getting filmed Speaker 3 (2:49) but yeah and it was it was a fucking mess who'd have thought did you think we'd be here 200 i hoped we wouldn't i know but Speaker 4 (2:56) when i did but now you're happy we are Well, it's financially viable for me now. There we go. And that's how I reeled him in at the start. I went, you're going to make money. No idea. And he did say that. And Speaker 3 (3:06) for the first year, we didn't. We Speaker 4 (3:08) made nothing. If you remember, actually, even like sort of halfway through the first year. Even now, Speaker 3 (3:12) we've made nothing. We Speaker 4 (3:14) haven't taken anything out. Do you know what? There was a point where we just started. This is like a legit thing. And if you are an OG listening, you'll know this. There was a point where we. We just started Snapchat and Pete was calling to say, we made two pounds on Snapchat and Pete was in the red. He was spending more money getting to the podcast than he was on making money through the podcast. Staying Speaker 3 (3:37) relevant cost me. I paid to do staying relevant for the first year. Speaker 4 (3:42) Think about that. Speaker 3 (3:43) I'm not even joking you. I paid to do it. I lost work because I had to fucking film the fucking thing every week and it cost me. I literally paid to do it. And now look, and to be honest with you, look at you, I still pay to do it. Nothing's changed. Just more. And do you Speaker 4 (3:58) know what as well, it's so funny, so with that in mind, so Pete's paying money to do it, he's getting in there, he's getting ever so slightly harder. Because of course Speaker 3 (4:05) we filmed it in West London. And Speaker 4 (4:08) then, do you remember one of our first photo shoots, Pete? And it was, we had to be naked. And do you remember we had blankets on us? And I was like lying on your lap. It was like for a heat magazine shoot. Speaker 2 (4:21) I've seen that photo. To Speaker 4 (4:22) announce that we had like done this like, oh, the boys are starting a podcast. It used Speaker 2 (4:27) to be the YouTube banner. I don't Speaker 4 (4:29) remember that at all. Speaker 2 (4:30) You were in like a paint me like you're French girls kind of pose. Yeah. And Speaker 4 (4:34) we were like, I think I was fully naked and you were like a little bit naked. And you were so angry. about doing it and you i have Speaker 3 (4:42) completely erased that from my fucking memory i wasn't there but i know the photo much with all the trauma throughout my life it's completely gone and i barely remember anything but i'm sure it's had i literally don't have a clue what you're on about that's fucking mad Speaker 4 (4:54) was it oh hold on was it that touching finger like yes that's exactly what it was yeah yeah yeah and do you remember you really Speaker 3 (5:00) you you were in like a faux fur rug yes exactly yeah like a fucking weird sort of sort of hooker and Speaker 4 (5:07) i remember pete just sitting there being like we're never gonna make any money at all and at that point to be honest with you i believed it but i had to lie i lied to you a lot throughout this podcast to try and to get well that's nice Speaker 3 (5:19) what Speaker 4 (5:19) was like the the episode like one of the first like five let's say that made you think this is gonna be i think the first guest Speaker 4 (5:30) Joe, was it Joe Marlowe or Grace? Speaker 3 (5:31) Joe, who obviously has his own brilliant podcast, didn't back then. He hadn't done Traitors. He hadn't done all this sort of stuff. But obviously we've known Joe since the start of this podcast and, you know, we love him. I'm not entirely sure why he's come back on the podcast. And I'm sure he learned a lot from that podcast in What Not To Do because Sam spat at him. Speaker 3 (5:51) during that. I'm not even joking. I sneezed. All right, sorry, you sneezed. Either way, he had to pull your saliva and spit out of his fucking beard. At that point, I thought, what Speaker 4 (6:01) am I doing? Speaker 3 (6:02) But look, here we are 200 eps later and what a fucking ride it's been, which we'll get onto in a little bit. But the team celebrated in a beautiful way this morning for me. I walked into the office. It was lovely and found my desk and chair wrapped. In wrapping paper. Apparently it's killing two birds with one stone because we're also 13 Mondays or Wednesdays away from Christmas. No, we are not. Speaker 2 (6:24) Are we actually? So, Speaker 3 (6:26) you know, that national holiday that everyone celebrates, the 13 before Christmas. So I then spent 10 minutes unwrapping my desk and the baubles on my pot plant. Why Speaker 4 (6:37) did I not get a desk wrap? Speaker 2 (6:38) Because it was a group present from all of us, including you. Speaker 3 (6:43) So thanks ever so much. Because as we all know, I love Christmas. So nothing like celebrating it 13 weeks early, you know. Why not bring in the old Christmas spirit? But do you know what? I'll be fair. Nice of you. Nice thought. And it did make me feel quite Christmassy. Speaker 4 (7:01) I like what you've done there. Speaker 3 (7:03) But yeah, there's loads of things that have happened since we started this pod that I think neither of us thought would happen. Did we ever think that you would win the jungle? Speaker 4 (7:12) No, I told you on the pod as well. I Speaker 3 (7:15) think it was one of the first few eps you said that your dream was to do the jungle. Yeah. Just to do it. Yeah. Let alone win it. I think I remember saying in the first couple of episodes that my worst nightmare would be Strictly. I did it. Yeah. But all of that has happened in the period that we've had this podcast. We've kind of grown up together career-wise. We haven't grown up in any way, shape or form, sort of maturity levels. Speaker 4 (7:40) But Speaker 3 (7:40) career-wise, we're in a very different position now to what we were. Maybe it's down to this Speaker 4 (7:45) pod. It's kind of, well, I think, I definitely think it's got a big part to play and all the people listening to it. I remember, Pete, when I told you about the jungle in this pod, do you remember when I cut my finger? I jumped on you. and slammed my finger and then sliced it open. It's like bleeding all over Pete whilst I'm jumping all over him. And you were so happy for me. And then literally the year later, like almost to the day, you went, I'm doing Strictly. And you brought out that glitter ball, mate. And it was just... Speaker 3 (8:16) All of those things and all those pivotal moments over the last few years have happened on this pod. And this pod has given us an opportunity to talk about that. It's given us a right to reply on stuff. We've shared all of that in, not necessarily in these chairs, but in these chairs, you know what I mean? Make-ups, break-ups. Makeups, breakups, fucking, you know, all sorts of stuff. Speaker 4 (8:38) Life changing, life altering things. To the Speaker 3 (8:41) point that when we first started, we were renting a little shitty studio and it was costing. Now we have two studios. We've got an office. We have a whole team of people that rely on us. Speaker 4 (8:53) Yeah, that's terrifying. We actually just had a team meeting. Speaker 3 (8:58) Yeah, it's kind of mad. We've had a Times bestselling book. We've sold out the O2. We've done tours. We adopted a goat. Speaker 4 (9:06) Yeah, adopted a goat. Neville. Speaker 3 (9:08) Went to Vegas. We went to Vegas. We've done a fucking lot in, what, three years? It's not even, Speaker 4 (9:16) yeah, it's about three years. Three, Speaker 3 (9:18) three and a half years. Yeah, you Speaker 2 (9:19) started on Halloween. And Pete's so right Speaker 4 (9:21) as well. Mate, we've grown up in terms of what we've done with our lives. Yeah, Speaker 3 (9:26) but mate, think of where you Speaker 4 (9:27) are. It was only last week that I was giving you an award. We could have only dreamed of awards. But Speaker 3 (9:32) some things have never changed. Speaker 4 (9:34) Yeah, I mean, the way it does. Speaker 3 (9:35) The way in which it was presented. And what I also love is that no one cares I've got an award anymore. It's brilliant. And people have forgotten the reason. You just fell off a chair. So, which is lovely. But like I said then, that's one of the reasons that I wouldn't change doing this. Speaker 3 (9:58) ever because I get to do it with you. I get to do all of this stuff with my best mate. And despite the fact that I despise the idea of it three, four years ago, it's my favourite day of the week every week. Speaker 4 (10:11) I knew it. Speaker 3 (10:11) It's my favourite thing to do. And most of that is because of the team and you, obviously. Speaker 4 (10:18) Well done, everybody. It's brilliant. It's a right little love in here, isn't it? Bloody hell. Yeah. Speaker 2 (10:24) We reached out to... a few of your very first guests a few of who you mentioned just then yeah Speaker 3 (10:29) oh they've done like a compilation of Speaker 2 (10:32) sorts um where we were like oh should we get some video messages they're not gonna come Speaker 3 (10:35) in are they oh Speaker 2 (10:36) no no not this time um asking for like a well done and a congrats and so we got one back got Speaker 4 (10:44) one back out Speaker 2 (10:45) of like three or four and it's been whatsapp to you yay Speaker 1 (10:51) My darling boys, Peter, Samuel, oh my goodness. Guys, I am so genuinely unbelievably proud of you. I know we are always firm to take the