1 00:00:00,160 --> 00:00:03,840 This episode might come across as a bit weird 2 00:00:03,840 --> 00:00:07,280 to you, mostly because it contains truth. 3 00:00:07,920 --> 00:00:10,160 Inconvenient truth for some. 4 00:00:15,919 --> 00:00:19,520 There's a moment almost every podcaster has. 5 00:00:20,000 --> 00:00:23,280 It usually happens a few episodes in. You look at your 6 00:00:23,280 --> 00:00:26,910 calendar, you feel your energy, you look at the 7 00:00:26,910 --> 00:00:30,630 microphone and you think, oh, I 8 00:00:30,630 --> 00:00:34,430 might have slightly over committed here. Because somewhere 9 00:00:34,430 --> 00:00:37,830 early on, you decided this podcast was going to be weekly. 10 00:00:38,470 --> 00:00:42,070 Not because weekly made sense, but because weekly 11 00:00:42,070 --> 00:00:45,750 seemed serious. Like the podcast equivalent of 12 00:00:45,750 --> 00:00:49,550 buying a planner in January, most indie podcasters lock 13 00:00:49,550 --> 00:00:52,710 in their publishing schedule far too early in the process. 14 00:00:53,970 --> 00:00:57,330 Weekly feels like the default. It feels professional. 15 00:00:57,730 --> 00:01:01,330 It feels like what real podcasters do. 16 00:01:01,650 --> 00:01:05,490 But it's usually a decision made before you know what the show actually 17 00:01:05,490 --> 00:01:08,930 wants to be, how much energy it's going to take out of you, 18 00:01:09,250 --> 00:01:12,610 or whether you even enjoy recording 19 00:01:13,250 --> 00:01:16,450 yet more content. So what starts as 20 00:01:16,450 --> 00:01:20,180 excitement slowly turns into obligation. And 21 00:01:20,180 --> 00:01:22,900 obligation is where podcasts 22 00:01:23,380 --> 00:01:26,900 quietly lose their spark. Let's talk about the 23 00:01:26,900 --> 00:01:29,780 guilt loop, and this is going to feel quite familiar. 24 00:01:31,060 --> 00:01:34,820 Here's the pattern I see all the time, and yes, 25 00:01:35,060 --> 00:01:38,620 I've done this myself. You miss a week, you feel 26 00:01:38,620 --> 00:01:42,180 guilty. You record something quickly to make up for it. The 27 00:01:42,180 --> 00:01:45,620 episode is fine. You feel a bit worse, though, 28 00:01:46,130 --> 00:01:49,770 so you promise yourself, I'm gonna be more consistent 29 00:01:49,770 --> 00:01:53,010 from now on. Which usually just ends up with you 30 00:01:53,330 --> 00:01:57,170 feeling more tired. There's a very specific type of episode 31 00:01:57,170 --> 00:02:00,770 you record when you're doing it out of guilt, and listeners 32 00:02:00,770 --> 00:02:04,450 can hear it instantly. Your words carry 33 00:02:04,450 --> 00:02:08,050 energy. It's the podcast version of when someone 34 00:02:08,050 --> 00:02:11,740 asks you, you okay? And you reply with, yeah, 35 00:02:11,740 --> 00:02:15,420 all good. When absolutely nothing is all good. 36 00:02:15,820 --> 00:02:19,180 Here's a recent, very real example that I can share with you. 37 00:02:19,420 --> 00:02:22,460 This actually happened to me a couple of months ago 38 00:02:23,980 --> 00:02:27,020 during the November December period. I 39 00:02:27,020 --> 00:02:30,620 oversubscribed myself to my own recording schedule. 40 00:02:30,860 --> 00:02:34,700 I didn't factor in getting sick. I didn't factor in needing to 41 00:02:34,700 --> 00:02:38,290 rest my voice. I definitely didn't factor in 42 00:02:38,450 --> 00:02:42,170 being a human being who needs Christmas. I 43 00:02:42,170 --> 00:02:45,850 ended up about four episodes behind, if you look at it through the lens of 44 00:02:45,850 --> 00:02:49,650 a strict weekly schedule. And yeah, there was a little 45 00:02:49,650 --> 00:02:53,369 flicker of guilt, that voice inside that says, people 46 00:02:53,369 --> 00:02:57,130 are going to notice. People are going to wonder where you've gone. But 47 00:02:57,130 --> 00:03:00,290 then I realized something slightly awkward. 48 00:03:00,610 --> 00:03:03,970 I'd literally just recorded episodes telling people 49 00:03:04,590 --> 00:03:08,310 not to do exactly what I was doing. So I took my own 50 00:03:08,310 --> 00:03:12,110 advice. I rested. I didn't record with a knackered voice 51 00:03:12,110 --> 00:03:15,310 and a bad mood, and the world didn't end. 52 00:03:15,710 --> 00:03:19,070 No angry emails from listeners going, where The F are your episodes. 53 00:03:19,550 --> 00:03:23,390 No dramatic drop off. No one sitting around thinking, I 54 00:03:23,390 --> 00:03:27,030 can't believe he's abandoned us. When the episode eventually 55 00:03:27,030 --> 00:03:30,840 did publish, the response was basically, oh, there he is again. 56 00:03:31,320 --> 00:03:34,360 Which is exactly how I react when 57 00:03:34,360 --> 00:03:38,160 podcasts that I enjoy take their breaks. What 58 00:03:38,160 --> 00:03:41,320 I was really suffering from there was the spotlight effect. 59 00:03:41,720 --> 00:03:45,360 I've talked about this before in this podcast. It's that feeling that 60 00:03:45,360 --> 00:03:48,760 everyone is paying far more attention to what you're doing 61 00:03:48,920 --> 00:03:52,360 than they actually are. We think listeners are tracking our 62 00:03:52,360 --> 00:03:55,720 schedules. They're not. They're busy. They got their own lives. 63 00:03:56,320 --> 00:03:59,800 They press play when something shows up in their library and it sounds 64 00:03:59,800 --> 00:04:03,400 interesting. They don't sit around moping because you missed a 65 00:04:03,400 --> 00:04:06,160 week. They just get on with things. 66 00:04:07,760 --> 00:04:11,520 Look, here's the truth that a lot of podcast gurus won't 67 00:04:11,520 --> 00:04:15,360 want you to hear. Frequency doesn't build trust. 68 00:04:15,920 --> 00:04:19,600 Intent does. Nobody's really ever thought, 69 00:04:19,760 --> 00:04:23,120 I wasn't sure about this podcast, but then I noticed 70 00:04:23,480 --> 00:04:27,320 they religiously publish every Tuesday, and suddenly 71 00:04:27,320 --> 00:04:31,080 I felt emotionally invested. That doesn't happen. What 72 00:04:31,080 --> 00:04:34,920 builds trust is knowing why your episode exists 73 00:04:35,080 --> 00:04:38,360 and how it helps them, feeling like the host 74 00:04:38,760 --> 00:04:42,040 actually wanted to be there for you, and sensing 75 00:04:42,360 --> 00:04:45,880 that your time wasn't just treated casually. 76 00:04:46,360 --> 00:04:49,400 Here's the truth. I would much rather 77 00:04:50,280 --> 00:04:53,560 listen to a podcaster who goes quiet 78 00:04:53,560 --> 00:04:57,200 occasionally than one who never stops talking. At 79 00:04:57,200 --> 00:04:59,240 least the silence is honest. 80 00:05:01,080 --> 00:05:04,680 Consistency doesn't mean weakly 81 00:05:05,240 --> 00:05:07,880 never missing, pushing through. Regardless, 82 00:05:08,520 --> 00:05:12,280 consistency is a recognizable voice 83 00:05:12,520 --> 00:05:16,190 showing up, a familiar pace, a sense 84 00:05:16,190 --> 00:05:19,630 of you care. You can be consistent 85 00:05:19,790 --> 00:05:23,630 without being frequent. And you can be frequent and 86 00:05:23,630 --> 00:05:27,430 not be consistent. And only one of those makes people stick 87 00:05:27,430 --> 00:05:31,110 around. And honestly, recording less doesn't 88 00:05:31,110 --> 00:05:34,670 mean disappearing. It means giving you 89 00:05:34,670 --> 00:05:37,990 time to finish off your ideas, letting 90 00:05:37,990 --> 00:05:41,150 episodes earn their existence. 91 00:05:41,730 --> 00:05:45,170 Stopping when your thought is done, not when the clock says so. 92 00:05:45,410 --> 00:05:48,610 Now, some podcasts genuinely thrive weekly, 93 00:05:49,010 --> 00:05:52,450 others don't. And forcing yourself into that 94 00:05:52,450 --> 00:05:55,730 regular schedule just because others are doing it, 95 00:05:56,210 --> 00:05:59,810 even though it flies against everything you believe, 96 00:06:00,210 --> 00:06:04,050 everything you're capable of, and everything you desire, well, that's just 97 00:06:04,050 --> 00:06:07,780 dumb. And it makes you quietly resentful, which is not 98 00:06:07,780 --> 00:06:10,860 what any one of your listeners wants from your podcast. 99 00:06:12,380 --> 00:06:16,100 Now, here's the kinder way to decide your schedule on your 100 00:06:16,100 --> 00:06:19,620 terms. Instead of asking, how often should I 101 00:06:19,620 --> 00:06:22,860 publish? Try asking, how often 102 00:06:23,340 --> 00:06:26,660 do I actually have something to say? And that 103 00:06:26,660 --> 00:06:30,340 answer may well change. And that's allowed. You're not 104 00:06:30,340 --> 00:06:34,070 signing a blood oath here. The podcasting gods are not 105 00:06:34,070 --> 00:06:37,510 going to suddenly turn up with a contract signed in your blood 106 00:06:37,590 --> 00:06:41,350 saying you signed the contract in your own blood. Eliza, 107 00:06:41,590 --> 00:06:45,390 you owe me Weekly episodes Do not disappoint 108 00:06:45,390 --> 00:06:48,630 me. You're learning what this thing needs to be. 109 00:06:49,030 --> 00:06:52,870 And if you're worried that recording less will make people forget about 110 00:06:52,870 --> 00:06:56,550 you, here's the promise they won't. People 111 00:06:56,710 --> 00:07:00,300 don't forget podcasts because they miss a week. They 112 00:07:00,300 --> 00:07:03,780 forget them because they're and nothing 113 00:07:03,780 --> 00:07:07,220 sticks. And the episodes people remember are almost 114 00:07:07,700 --> 00:07:11,380 never the rushed ones. I hope you found this helpful, 115 00:07:11,540 --> 00:07:15,300 and if you did, please do share it with another podcaster that you 116 00:07:15,300 --> 00:07:19,140 think might find it useful to hear or watch. Followed the 117 00:07:19,140 --> 00:07:22,500 podcast yet? If not, make sure you click Follow or 118 00:07:22,500 --> 00:07:26,260 subscribe in your favorite podcast app. I've been Neil Velio, the 119 00:07:26,260 --> 00:07:29,760 Podmaster. This is Podcasting Insights. And until the next 120 00:07:29,760 --> 00:07:33,240 episode, good luck with your continuing journey 121 00:07:33,240 --> 00:07:36,400 towards podmastery Podcasting 122 00:07:36,640 --> 00:07:37,440 Insight 123 00:07:39,440 --> 00:07:41,840 Podcasting Insight.