Creating travel content in a world of Instagram influencers and millionaire YouTubers can be an intimidating.
Not for my friend Mark Moran, who is bringing his unique creation to the travel world through his awesome podcast – The Friday Take Five.
It was so awesome to catch up with Mark for the latest chapter in ‘The Travel Files’ here exclusively on Life Went That Way.
Settle back, have a read and get inspired.
Great to catch up, Mark. For the readers, tell me a little about yourself.
Good to be here!
Well, I’m another Mark, I’m the host of the travel podcast, The Friday Take Five.
I’ve been in the travel space, creating travel-based content for the last six months or so, which is how we came to know each other through the ‘Twittersphere’ or is it now the ‘X-sphere’ (laughs).
I’m from Minnesota in the good old US of A, but I love exploring other parts of the world when I can.
Tell me about your favourite travel experiences. Where have you been?
A couple of places come to mind.
I think from a pure beauty standpoint, I would have to say Switzerland.
When I was 20, I studied abroad in France. Myself and a group of friends visited on a weekend trip. We had heard all the stories about the incredible beauty in that part of the world.
We caught the train from Marseille to Geneva and I remember arriving and was like ‘This is awesome, but it isn’t what I imagined’, I wanted to get to the Alps.
So we all got an early morning train the following morning to Interlaken and from there, we hiked to Lauterbrunnen. It was pure beauty unlike anything else.
“I’d been to the Grand Canyon here in the States, but the mountains in Switzerland are truly amazing.”
Another place is more of a sentimental favourite – Hawaii.
My fiancee and I just got engaged in Maui this past year. It’s such a beautiful and incredible destination.
And we got to do a bunch of adventure-ish things.
- It was my first time surfing
- It was my first helicopter ride
Awesome memories for both of us.
Another special memory is we were in Maui when I launched my first episode of ‘The Friday Take Five’ – it was my birthday and our second day there when it went live.
It’s been great to see the growth of the podcast and the people I’ve met along the way.
Tell me, where did the idea for your podcast come from?
It came about after wanting to do something different for a long time.
I’m in the world of 9 – 5 right now, which is fine, but I’ve been going through a self-discovery process to try and figure out something that aligns with two of my passions – travel and history.
One day, it just clicked.
I realised I could start doing something for fun. I wanted to learn about exciting new travel destinations, as well as the story behind them.
That was how the Friday Take Five was born.
“I wanted to share my story and experiences with these incredible places. It’s also about uncovering places that have a great story. It’s a lot of fun figuring out where the next story/destination comes from. “
It’s funny. It was only about a week from having the idea to the first podcast! In that same week, it was manic as I recorded the first five episodes and built the website.
It all happened so fast. It’s been great ever since, watching the growth and meeting people along the way – like yourself.
It’s been awesome.
What do you hope your listeners gain from the podcast? Is there a specific theme or focus you want to explore?
The main point of the Friday Take Five podcast is to make travel and adventure accessible to everyone.
I think you and I are on the same page where we want to encourage others to get out there and do it, right?
Everyone has five minutes in their day. Everyone can take five minutes and take a step back from the stresses, job or whatever and go on an adventure.
I wasn’t sure it was going to be five minutes at first, it might be the Tuesday 10 or something, but I ended up on the five minutes as it has a connotation here in the States. Like ‘Take Five’ means ‘let’s have a break’.
“With the short five-minute episodes, I can share a short story with listeners that hopefully inspires them to explore a new place.”
We cover a bunch of destinations and they are all places I’ve been to or excited to go to.
Some episodes are becoming, like fan submissions. It’s great to get feedback. I want the Friday Take Five to become the sort of podcast that can help people with places they would like to know more about.
When I get positive feedback that the story I tell reflects their experience or they have gone and booked a trip after listening it makes me feel it is all worthwhile.
The thing I love about your pod is it’s short and sharp. How do you go about curating your content and getting the best of each location across?
There is a small formula to it.
There has to be a good story and if I’ve been there, then that is a good starting point as I can share my personal experiences.
Google is also a handy tool for other information that ties into the story I’m trying to tell.
“There is always a small section dedicated to the history, the story and also sprinkle some jokes or observations.”
After you have all of that in there, you have something to work with, you know?
I have a background in high school with speech and debate stuff, so I’ve got an idea about the process of putting this type of thing together.
I write it into a script and stick to it to a degree. Occasionally, if I’m in the moment, I’ll do something a little different.
As long as it has a logical flow to it, I’ll be happy to edit from there before publishing.
Being an online creator is full of challenges. What have been your biggest learnings so far?
There are two things.
The first I sort of knew about, but when I started the Friday Take Five I was hoping (and still sort of hope), to create a brand separate from me.
To create a brand of travel and adventure.
To some degree, I’ve had a level of success but what I found to be more successful is to be more personal. My story is what people seem to engage with more on social media.
“The plan is for the Friday Take Five to still become a solid brand, that way I can go into the background a bit more.”
The other thing is it’s just hard, man!
It’s a lot of work. I have a full-time job as well as finding time for relationships and other commitments – you need to find a balance.
I’m lucky I’ve got some help from my awesome fiance who is great at branding and the creative stuff. She’s great at stuff like logo design and getting the social media stuff off the ground.
Another thing starting to take up a lot more time is X (Twitter), so while it’s another thing to balance out, I can see the benefit of the connections I’m making there.
It’s all worth it though!
What are your long-term goals for the podcast? Where do you want to take it?
I’ve set down some goals relating to the podcast.
I have a spreadsheet which I haven’t been great at keeping on top of that, I’ve set goals around episode numbers, amount of listens etc.
Writing down my goals has been great for orienting my mind and keeping me focused – especially in the long term.
Soon, I would like to produce some longer-form content and have regular guests on the show.
“At its heart, there will always be the podcast, but I plan on building the brand of Friday Take Five beyond that.”
I’m dreaming a bit here, but I would like to almost like to build something where I can organise trips where I can take people on their own adventures.
Almost like live episodes!
We have plenty of dreams where it could take us.
If I could sum it up in one sentence, my longer-term vision for the podcast is to be able to tell stories in a bigger medium bring people into those stories and have them experience it with me.
Now the hardest question. You're 25+ episodes in, so tell me your favourite two episodes and why people should tune in.
My favourite would be my first – Rome.
It’s always going to hold a place in my heart. It’s a unique story, where I delve into the gladiators and the history of Rome.
For a history nerd like me, it is my favourite.
“The second is the Maui episode.”
As I said it’s quite a personal one as I talk about my engagement, the different activities we did like the surfing and helicopter ride but also some of the history around the Hawaiian unification.
That was a really fun process to put together all the different parts.
Thanks Mark, appreciate your time. Any final thoughts to share?
I hope that anyone who listens to the podcast, can take the five minutes and step back from their crazy, busy lives and explore what’s out there.
Travel and history are super important for me and I want others to experience that.
“Take a break from life for five minutes – stop and smell the roses!”
We all get caught up in so much, I’m the same with my job and all that, but there are so many more important things out there to explore and learn about.
Mark’s podcast, The Friday Take Five is available on all podcasting platforms.
You can check out Mark’s website here and you can find him on all the social’s @FridayTakeFive
Thanks for sharing this info about Mark, Marc! (That was fun to write.) I admit, I’m not great at listening to podcasts, but I do read a decent amount of blogs, so it was finally good to see more about Mark since he started up in the online travelsphere.