The date is Monday 4th of July 2022 and it’s 9:35am. I woke this morning with a knowing that was stronger than my own normal thoughts. It was as if the spirit world had spoken to my subconscious mind whilst I lay asleep.

I’ve worked very hard for the past three years on my project - Spirited Talk. From nothing I’ve created something that everyone of like minds could benefit from using to help improve their own development and unfoldment.

I’ve been lucky to have spoken to some of the best mediums in the UK. I’ve uncovered their personal stories in timeless recordings that many people across the world can now benefit from.

If I really wanted to I guess I could fill this article with all positive sentiments from what good The Spirited Talk Podcast has achieved in the three years it’s been running. Those that know me personally, know that I put all of myself into anything I do, and that is never been more true than with the Spirited Talk project.

I love what Spirited Talk stands for. I’m proud of its reputation. I’m humbled and amazed at how around a dozen ordinary people have stuck with me from the early days and supported this project with their cash month after month. Their belief in me has always inspired me to keep going and to make sure I produce better and better content.

However, I had not fully planned a future for Spirited Talk when I set out at the beginning. From my courier business bank account savings I invested in all the equipment I was going to need. At first, I bought the basics, cheap equipment and used computers. I set up a studio in my Sanctuary, away from our main home. I invested in furniture to make it work, lighting, cameras and monitors.

I really hadn’t paid too much attention to how much money I was investing in Spirited Talk. I just bought what I thought I needed at that time. My initial courier bank account had £18k when I started this project. But at the end of the first year of Spirited Talk, the balance was down to just two thousand pounds remaining.

I started to become concerned. I had no income for myself and Spirited Talk was only bringing in under £75 every month. It was costing money for ongoing fees for distribution, subscriptions and production. The money from the partners was not quite enough to cover outgoings and sadly the bank account was draining fast.

At the beginning of September 2021 the funds had ran out. The bank account held under £100 I had to find a way to make Spirited Talk return some funds. This was a long way from my original visions. I hated it, but I knew it was the only way this project would survive. It needed to support itself. I rebranded parts of the project and came up with the idea of the Foundation for audio content.

My problem now was that I had no money left to advertise and promote it or to spread the word. Many other things were also starting to go against me. Support in the huge community on social media was subsiding. Fewer members than ever before were participating in the group. The interviews I were producing were now very high standard, but some were getting fewer than a dozen listens every month.

The big surprise for me was how little the interviewed guests themselves were prepared to promote their interviews. Around 80% of the interviewed guests have never mentioned Spirited Talk or their own interviews on their social networks. The potential community network stopped growing and in reality was collapsing by the week.

I took uncomfortable actions in a hope of cutting out the proverbial rot that was now happening throughout the project. Through all of this period, I was working harder than ever. Night and day constantly developing, editing, producing, creating new content - and none of these were easy for me alone. They’re not my natural skill sets.

I started to sleep less and was constantly worried about my outlook and the future of Spirited Talk. It was wearing me down. My health was suffering. However, occasional positive comments and feedback from the more caring of the guests, or listeners helped keep me inspired -though temporarily.

Meanwhile in my home life, everything was taking a toll. My personal hobbies, such as gardening, photography, reading, meditating, walking, music, DIY, and other interests were getting no time from me. Our beautiful home started to suffer as no maintenance was happening any more. I was always too tired or too busy.

Day by day I knew more and more that this project, Spirited Talk, was on a path to failing and there was nothing more I could do. Constantly I prayed to the universal forces to help me find a way through. I asked my spirit team for guidance, probably every few weeks. I asked for answers. If Spirited Talk is to continue, help me find a way through this mess.

Surely these people of like minds appreciate a good source of knowledge. What I was creating had a value. But apparently not enough for them to pay a few pennies towards the costs and the productions they had access to. I found it strange. These same people were finding money for other events and workshops but didn’t value Spirited Talk enough to support it.

In February 2022 the Spirited Talk bank account went into overdraft. Sales from episodes were in the ones and twos every month. Ideas such as ‘Sponsor A Day’ were not working and worse still, a couple of the founding partners left Spirited Talk.

I’d calculated how much was needed to be able to produce a single episode and I came up with a plan for listeners to sponsor each episode. This plan worked on the first month of trying, mainly because I cheated the figures to make it look like I was raising the money. In truth, only 60% of the target was raised. When I promoted raising funds for the following month, there was no interest whatsoever from anyone. The podcast, at this stage, was now running into a dead end.

I don’t often give up easily and perhaps that has been my problem. Perhaps I should have given up on Spirited Talk a long time ago, when I first became aware of pending issues. But I don’t like failure. I believed that Spirit might shine a light on this project and help it through. But the reality was the universe was not going to help me and the project was my responsibility. It was coming to an end and there was nothing that could stop it bar from me taking more money from the house accounts to keep it going. That would not be a solution.

From March 2022 the workload for me with Spirited Talk has become increasingly harder to manage. In June when we went on our previously cancelled holiday, I packed enough equipment to allow me to continue working on Spirited Talk. During the holiday, Jane and me talked about where Spirited Talk was going and how I was going to have to face up to the facts.

And so, here we are. I’ve woken the same as any other day. Yet I had a knowing. Today was to be the day I should end Spirited Talk.

THE FOLLOWING DAYS . . .

The words above were written on 4th July 2022, I suspect as a way for me to put in words what was happening to me and to Spirited Talk. Over the coming days after that decision, I put everything in place to suspend Spirited Talk. I dropped off our Facebook group and stayed silent. I ripped the Foundation website apart and heartbreakingly dumped over 100 pages that I’d designed and created for the project. I removed so much of the working mechanics that on three occasions I broke the website altogether and had to recover it from backups.

Interestingly, nobody had a clue at this stage. Nobody noticed any of the changes, the lack of social media input from me, or any of usual posts that were now missing from me. All this did for me was to endorse my decision as being the correct one.

I am withdrawing and releasing all the pent up tension from stress and worry. I am free. My metaphorical cave is preparing for my return. I am on the way back to a life of solitude with my partner Jane and my own spirit education.

THE FUTURE

I will be focusing more on my writing. I have a few paying subscribers to the recently created MORE WFIW series. I have several ideas for other written publications, including a book. I will plan my future according to what I want to achieve, what I want to offer, and what works best with my time.

I’m going to make an assumption. If you’ve taken the time to read this article and stay with it to this point, you are one of the few I’d like to thank. Your support and belief in me and Spirited Talk has been a driving force.

There’s an old business acronym that comes to mind for these last few words. It is based on the meaning and word TEAM.

Together
Each
Achieves
More

Unlike so many people I’ve come to know through the Spirited Talk project, you’ve embraced that along with me. Together, we have achieved more. Thank you so very much.