I never thought I'd be doing this for five years.

I started this podcast in April 2021. I had just quit my corporate job. I loved podcasts, and I loved data. Hence “Data Career Podcast” was born.

And somehow, here we are. Episode 200 just dropped. We have 62,000 YouTube subscribers. 610 Spotify reviews at 4.9 stars. 162 Apple Podcast reviews at a perfect 5.0. And almost 200,000 people watched or listened in the last month.

Holly cow.

I’m not saying that to brag. I’m saying it because I genuinely would have never predicted it.

And you played a big role in it.

Thank you. From the bottom of my heart. Thank you.

If you’ve been watching or listening lately, you might have noticed things have felt… different. Maybe the video quality is weird. Maybe the links in the show notes were broken. Maybe the topic felt a bit intense.

And I feel like I owe you an honest update on why. Why all of that.

Buckle up. Kinda a lot to spill here.

I’m not in my usual studio…

To start, it’s partially because I moved to Spain for the first quarter of 2026.

It may sound amazing. And it has been, in a lot of ways.

But it’s also beenreallyhard.

It has been raining nonstop. Seriously, it was the wettest month in this town’s history. We had two separate tropical storms hit us. Floods. School canceled. Grocery stores closed. It reminded me of hurricane season back in Houston - but honestlyworse.

Secondly, we are currently living in a very small apartment with two little kids. So to get any work now, I have to commute to a coworking space. At the coworking, if I want to record a podcasts / video, I have to squeeze into these teany-tiny phone booths. The lighting is sucky. I’m shooting on my iPhone. The wireless mic’s aren’t the best.

It’s just made recording a bit more difficult than what I’ve grown accustomed to.

Some personal updates I’ve been putting off….

I’ve been putting off saying this out loud. Not because I'm embarrassed. But because there's never a perfect moment. So I'm just going to say it.

I'm now a dad to two kids. Both under 2 years old. And that is my number one job now.

Before this, I was a data analyst. Then a data scientist. Then I became a founder, a teacher, and a podcast host. But right now, the most important title I have is "Dad." And that takes time. A LOT of time.

I have to acknowledge that I am not able to put the same amount of time into my content as I once did. And that’s okay.

Does that mean I’m producing less content? Not really.

Is it lower quality? I don’t think so.

I’ve been trying to build systems that save me time while still creating high-quality content for you. Sometimes that means I’m using my team, or maybe AI, or maybe automation.

Regardless, it’s just important to tell you I’m a dad first, creator second.

Phew. That feels good to get off my chest.

Now onto the next big news I’ve been holding on to.

I’ve been waiting for the right moment to tell you this….

Not sure this is it, but here we go…

I was diagnosed with ADHD last year.

I really didn’t believe it when I got diagnosed but here we are.

It took me 8 months to accept it, start medication, and begin figuring out how my brain works. I’m still in the messy middle of that.

And that takes time.

I’m trying to find systems that work for me. Trying to journal more. Trying to figure out how to best “cope” and remain productive.

It’s a work in progress.

The 100+ things I’ve built in secret…

While all of this was happening in my personal life, I was also trying to build.

Last year alone, I built a lot. I ran new accelerator cohorts, launched a job board, built a junior data analyst AI companion, started taking this newsletter more seriously, and completely rebuilt Interview Simulator from scratch.

On top of a bunch of secret projects I can’t talk about it (stay tuned).

My brain was/is in 100 places at once.

So I tried to hire help. And some of those people were genuinely great. Trevor, Cynthia, and Isaac inside the Accelerator have been incredible. Shoutout to them.

But behind the scenes, I hired a podcast producer who basically stole money from me. Then I hired another one. They signed everything, looked great on paper, and never showed up.

Basically, I wasted 2 months on these bad hires. Wasted my time & made the podcast lower quality.

That's why some of you noticed timestamps were off or links were missing in episodes. Either they did it poorly, or I was left on my own, scrambling to figuring it out myself.

Growing pains, right? Speaking of growing…

The podcast stopped growing (for a second)…

For a long time, I was stuck. The podcast hit a ceiling of 20,000 downloads a month. It just wouldn’t budge.

Podcasts don’t have a "viral" button. There’s no magic algorithm that shows your show to a million people overnight. It’s a slow grind.

So, I did what I preach. I paid to learn. I joined a program by Jay Clouse calledPodcasting Like a YouTuber.

He taught me to reach more you need to stop being a podcast that happened to be on YouTube. Start being a YouTube channel that happened to have a podcast.

Why? Because YouTube has an algorithm. YouTube has reach.

I started obsessing over video quality, titles, and thumbnails.

And it worked.

One episode hit 500,000 views. We quadrupled our subscribers in just a few months.

But there’s been a price (I think).

YouTube viewers and podcast listeners are totally different.

Podcast listeners are loyal. You show up every week. You’re part of the family. But there’s not a ton of you.

YouTube viewers are often just passing through. They watch one video and might never come back. But there’s millions of them.

I got caught up in the numbers that I started to forget about the people who had been here all along. And I’m sorry about that.

It’s a tough balance: helping my message of “you can become a data analyst” reach new ears, or focus on those who are already part of our data army.

I'm still trying to figure that out.

The dark side of the YouTube algorithm

I recently got so caught up in the YouTube numbers that I created a thumbnail that said: "Quit Data While You Still Can."

I hated it. It felt clickbaity. I am optimistic about data jobs. I don’t think you should quit.

But I’m a data guy, so I A/B tested it against a softer, nicer thumbnail.

The results were:

• The negative "Quit Data" thumbnail got 44% of the watch time.

• The nicer version got 20%.

That is a huge difference. Literally 2x more reach.

The data literally says: "Be negative if you want views."

But that feels a bit “much” to me. I don’t want to be the guy spreading fear just to get clicks. But also, my positive message can’t get spread if no one clicks.

Frustrating balance that I’m still trying to find.

What I’m doing in the next little bit…

I’m done trying to perfectly optimize for the YouTube algorithm.

I’m still going to release one episode / week.

But, I think, two of those episodes will be more podcast-style (longer, more personal, more conversation), and two will be more YouTube-style (tighter, more visual, built to reach).

Some YouTube experts will probably tell me this is bad. That I'm hurting my reach. I’m confusing the algorithm. That I need to pick a lane.

And honestly? Oh well. That's fine with me. This is what I think is best for you.

But I need your help…

Tell me what you think via email.

Podcasting feels like talking into a void. There are no "likes" on Spotify. I literally talk to 20,000 of you each month, but I rarely hear anything back.

So let’s fix it.

Reply to this email. Tell me what you hate. Tell me what you love.

What do you want more in the podcast? What do you want less?

What’s your favorite episode style? Your least favorite?

I’ll read every single reply.

📩 [email protected]

Thanks for sticking with me for the last 200 episodes.

Here’s to the next 200!

Avery