Awesomely Off-Topic: Books, Brands, Business and Everything Else We’re Not Supposed to Say Out Loud
🎙️ Awesomely Off-Topic is the podcast that dives headfirst into the business of being brilliantly, messily, unapologetically you.
Hosted by award-winning speaker trainer and business and personal empowerment coach Taz Thornton, alongside publishing powerhouse, book mentor and content coach Asha Clearwater – expect bold conversations about building a business and life that actually fits you, not the other way round.
We’ll talk personal brand, visibility without the ick, microbooks with major impact, ADHD-friendly approaches, messy launches, business flops, spiritual sidequests and all the stuff no one told you you were allowed to say out loud.
We’re doing this on a shoestring – raw, unedited and totally unscripted. No fancy studio, no big budget, no gatekeeping. Just hit record and go.
Real talk. Tangents. Swearing (probably). Useful insights. And a whole lot of permission to do it your way.
It’s chaos. It’s clarity. It’s Awesomely Off-Topic.
Episodes
62 episodes
🎙️ S2 E18: Lost in Translation 2 - WTF Is Success Amnesia?
Over-explaining, avoiding eye contact, doodling through meetings, asking a relentless stream of “why” questions… these can look like bad manners or insecurity, but they can also be signs of a neurodivergent brain working hard to connect, regula...
🎙️ S2 E17: Lost in Translation: The Neurodivergent Traits You’ve Got All Wrong
We were going to say the neurodivergent behaviours you've got all wrong, but it was a bit too long for the title space on our graphic! :DThis started out as an exploration of the things neurotypical people often misunderstand a...
🎙️ S2 E16: The Cosmic Joke - What If Disruption Is The Teaching?
Everything can be going perfectly fine, and then suddenly the land is double booked, the schedule collapses, half your plan becomes impossible, and someone is shouting at your people in the heat. We’ve just lived that reality at one of our retr...
🎙️ S2 E15: Stop Asking Everyone – How To Actually Make A Decision
Ever noticed how the second you feel uncertain, you suddenly want everyone’s opinion? We’ve both done it, and it can turn one simple choice into a messy tangle of voices, pros and cons, and “helpful” advice that drags you away from what you act...
🎙️ S2 E14: Atomicon: Lessons On Visibility, Value And Showing Up
Someone can sit in the same room as you, hear the same talks, and still walk away with a completely different turning point. On the drive home from Atomicon in Newcastle, we debrief the moments that actually changed things for us, not just the ...
🎙️ S2 E13: We Let AI Interview Us – It Got Weird
An AI handed us a list of “Ask Me Anything” questions and we made the bold choice to answer them cold. That’s how you end up trying to explain bingo to an alien anthropologist, debating why angling feels like a bizarre human ritual, and wonderi...
🎙️ S2 E12: Everyone's Winging It – And Nobody's Admitting It
We walk into the studio doing what we do best: trying something new with zero guarantees it will go smoothly. Two dogs under the desk, a new bit of kit rolling, and a very real reminder that life rarely waits for a perfect plan. From there, we ...
🎙️ S2 E11: What A Very Good Dog Taught Us About Business And Life
Tilly was with us for 14 years and eight months, woven into our home, our working days, and the quiet background of so many calls. When she died, we had no interest in pretending everything was “fine” just because we run businesses. Grief doesn...
🎙️ S2 E10: Fifty Episodes, One Podcast Show & We’re Just Getting Started
We went to the London Podcast Show expecting to feel like the newbies who’d been getting it all wrong, and we came home with the opposite feeling: we’ve already built a lot of the foundations, and now we know exactly which levers to pull next. ...
🎙️ S2 E9: How We Nearly Lost Everything – And Built Something Better
Some stories sound dramatic until you have lived them. We’re talking about the moments that almost broke us as a couple and the very real ways stress can turn love into a battleground: paranoia, spiralling thoughts, silence that feels safer tha...
🎙️ S2 E8: We Were The Secret: Feelings We Couldn’t Safely Say Out Loud
WARNING: Episode contains mentions of suicidal ideation and emotional trauma. We’re going to take you back to a time before dating apps, before video calls, and before “out” felt like something you could say without ...
🎙️ S2 E7: Why Rest Feels Like Cheating (And What That Says About Us)
Rest can feel like cheating, even when you’re running on empty, and that uncomfortable truth says a lot about how we’ve been trained to measure worth. We’re coming off a bank holiday weekend and we thought a couple of nights away near Sherwood ...
🎙️ S2 Episode 6: The Longest Unlearn
Some beliefs don’t just sit in your head, they invoice you every day. We’re talking about the “truths” we inherited from family, school, workplaces, and culture, then carried for years without checking the evidence. The big one? That low, stick...
🎙️ S2 Episode 5: Why Being Good At What You Do Isn’t Enough Anymore
Some people are brilliant at what they do - yet still get overlooked, underpaid, underbooked or stuck wondering why things are not moving.In this week’s episode, Taz and Asha unpack the uncomfortable truth that talent alone is rarely the...
🎙️ S2 Episode 4: Myth-Busting: What Nobody Tells You About Visibility
🎙️ Episode 4: Myth-Busting Visibility - What Nobody Tells YouEveryone bangs on about visibility like it’s the golden ticket.Show up. Go viral. Get a TEDx talk. Land some PR. Build a following.Job done… right?Not quit...
🎙️ S2 Episode 3: Bookable or Broke?
BOOKABLE OR BROKE? What most speaker training missesSpeaker training is everywhere right now - and so are the promises.Big stages. Big fees. Fully booked calendars.But what happens when you’ve paid thousands… and sti...
🎙️ BONUS EPISODE: Erm, Hello New People!
We woke up this morning and something slightly weird had happened… there were a lot more of you here than there were a few days ago.So if you’ve just found us, this is a quick hello.We talk books, brands, business… and quite a lot...
🎙️ S2 Episode 2: The First Time Someone Paid For Our Brains
Do you remember the first time someone paid you for what’s in your head… not what’s in your hands?In this episode, we rewind to the messy, brilliant, slightly chaotic beginnings of getting paid for our brains. From £45 “I’ll charge you f...
🎙️ S2 Episode 1: Before The Books and Businesses
Welcome to season 2.This time, we’re bringing a bit more shape to the chaos - starting by going right back to where it all began.Before the books, the businesses and the podcast, we were both young journalists learning fast...
BONUS EPISODE: St-st-studio
For your second BONUS episode between seasons, Taz and Asha share exciting plans for the future of Awesomely Off-Topic.Thanks so much for all your support so far - you rock!
BONUS EPISODE: Wild In Greece 2
The one we recorded in the shadow of the Acropolis, on a balmy evening in Athens.We meant to upload this way earluer - it was recorded in September 2025, but hey, better late than never!Enjoyx
🎙️ Episode 40: Is This The End?
When we started Awesomely Off-Topic, we had no studio, no production team, and absolutely no idea what we were doing.What we did have was a couple of microphones, a stubborn belief that podcasting shouldn’t cost a fortune, and t...
🎙️ Episode 39: Is ADHD A Superpower?
Episode 39 - ADHD: Superpower, Disability… or Both?Is ADHD a superpower… or a disability?It’s a question that keeps popping up online, and every time it does the internet seems to split into camps. Some people argue that ca...
