How can independent podcasting be sustainable? 🤔 with Mercury's Liam Heffernan
Eurowaves #11 Interview
Liam Heffernan is an award-winning podcast producer with over 15 years of experience in the audio and media industries. He has been fully dedicated to podcasting since 2021, working as a freelancer, for agencies, and independently. In early 2025, Liam combined her extensive knowledge of independent production with years of firsthand experience to launch Mercury, a brand-new independent podcast network that represents the best indie shows from around the world.
You can find Liam on LinkedIn here.
You started out producing podcasts for The Podcast Boutique and then at 11:FS. What inspired you to eventually go independent and launch your own shows?
Like anyone in the creative industries, I was always working away on things in my spare time. This was partly because you have more freedom to fail when it's not a client project, which means I can try new things, test out new apps; it was my way of making sure I never got complacent, and particularly in this industry we learn from doing. So I always had an interest and desire to make my own shows and be my own boss. I love the autonomy that comes with that.
But the reality is I still have bills to pay, so there was never a right time to make that leap into full time self employment until I was fired by 11:FS. I could write a whole essay about that, but the short version is I was in an environment where I became a super ineffective version of myself. I didn't really like it, they didn't like me (clearly, because they fired me 🤣), and then there was a whole mountain of stress happening in my personal life. It was the perfect storm where I had more on my plate than I could physically or emotionally cope with, and something had to give. I love my work but at that moment I had to give my time and energy to my family, and it cost me my job.
Call it karma, call it circumstance, whatever you believe in, but that was the moment I realised I needed to take control of my life and commit to self employment. At first this was hustling for any freelance work I could find so I could still pay the mortgage, but even at that point I'd had a desire to launch a podcast network that supported independents. Channeling the pain points that I experience as an indie producer myself, I wanted to address them and create something that could genuinely help with that, not just for me but for all independent podcasters.
Though I've been creating content for a long time, the last year has given me the incentive to make it work. I feel more motivated now than I ever have to grow Mercury into something that can really help indies everywhere.
You’ve created three independent podcasts. What have those experiences taught you about what it really takes to make indie shows work?
I guess there are two lines of thought to this question.
The first is far more cynical: money. The more you have, the better chances you have of succeeding. It's that old saying that you need to spend money to make money, but when you don't have anything to begin with, you're trapped in a vicious cycle and kinda doomed, regardless of how incredible your podcast might be. This is a pretty gloomy outlook, but there is some truth to this in podcasting. A small minority of people control a disproportionate amount of the resource in our industry, and that can make it incredibly difficult for independents to create the opportunities they need to get their content heard.
The more optimistic answer is that I think our industry is changing. It feels like every week there are more tools available, and affordable, for independent creators to level up their content and compete with the big shows. This is helping to close that resource gap, But I also am a staunch believer in a content first approach, because yes money can buy hype, but it can't buy quality. That takes talent, creativity, imagination, and actually I think that indie shows are free from bureaucratic red tape, they're not burdened by a responsibility to clients, and they don't have the pressure of delivering clickbaity content just to deliver profit and keep the board happy. This is empowering, and it's the super power of independents: unbridled creative freedom. It will take longer to break through, and it will be a slog, so it requires a lot of dedication and patience. Unfortunately most independent podcasters get discouraged too soon to see the fruits of their labor.
Mercury is a new network for the best independent podcasts in the world. What is your vision for it?
What I found from talking to a lot of other creators is that big networks fail to provide the support that's needed, and that's because big networks are only really set up as a sales and marketing function. They're great if you're already big enough to make money, but pretty completely ineffective for all of the great indie shows with best in class content in need of a little boost.
I wanted to create a network for those shows big enough to be earning and scaling, but not big enough to command the attention of the big networks. Mercury is filling that gap, and we're doing it by kinda redesigning what the foundations of a network should look like. We're not built on sales, or marketing, or PR. We're built on content. When we recruit new shows, the last question I ask is their downloads, and it's usually after I've already decided on whether they're a good fit. We have to make money, and therefore finding a healthy balance of shows, particularly while we're starting up, is important, but it's the final consideration once we've vetted the podcaster and their content, because we only represent shows we truly believe in and love ourselves.
That's the groundwork, from which we're going to build the best independent podcast network in the world.
But that's just the beginning. I am working on how we can extend the Mercury ethos to the entire independent podcasting world, so that we can provide real value and support to the thousands of shows out there who really need it, so watch this space because big things are in the pipeline!
What differences do you see between podcasting in the UK and US for independent podcasting?
The short answer is I think the UK are just a few years behind the US in terms of uptake. There's no denying that America is the centerpoint of the global podcast industry. This is changing rapidly around the world, but in the UK specifically I think there is still a challenge in embedding podcast consumption into daily life. There's still a big untapped market in the UK, especially among older listeners, whereas in the US I think podcast listening is becoming more habitual for a majority of people.
I also think when you look at huge gatekeepers in our industry like Spotify from a business perspective, they deal in USD and Euro, and as someone who is trying to scale a startup in this space within the UK, I can tell you the global infrastructure is not as accommodating as it should be to anyone working outside of USD. It's not insurmountable, but it does reflect the work that still needs to be done in the UK podcast space to create something a bit less dependent on US companies.
Share 2-3 of your favorite podcasts at the moment!
So I'm gonna stay impartial and not mention anything on Mercury (but please visit mercurypodcasts.com to find your next favourite podcast haha). Here's some of the other great stuff I'm listening to:
Americast: I always switch between this and The News Agents, but I'm very much in my Americast era at the moment. It's a staple part of my playlist because I'm way too obsessed with American culture and politics, and I do resent endorsing such a high profile show from the BBC, but it is such a great example of how to nail a news format and deliver it in a super engaging way. It continues to be the blueprint in its genre.
How Very Hannah: I am somewhat skeptical about the increasing expectation of video in podcasting but if there's ever a great case study for how to nail it, look no further than How Very Hannah. The production value, the branding, the fabulousness of it all is just so fun, and whether you watch or listen it's super bingeable. Hannah is a great host, though it is very shamelessly theatrical, so it may not be for everyone, but man do they do a great job with this show.
Somehow I Manage: This is a little off piste because they wrapped up the show at the end of 2022, but I am a big fan of The Office, and this is probably the only rewatch podcast I can listen to for more than three episodes. Tiff and Stephen are just superfans who love talking about the show, one episode at a time and I don't think I'll ever stop loving it.