Got dreams of being a professional podcaster but have no idea what you're doing.

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A new kind of school.

Welcome to the Pod School Podcast.

Hello.

Welcome to the show.

Today's episode is part public service announcement and part permission giving to you to allow you to say no to your audience.

From time to time I get asked this question a lot, both by independent podcasters and also people within the networks that I have run.

And it's a good sign that you're getting this question a lot from your audience, but it also doesn't mean you need to do anything about it.

Jasper sent this question in and his question was around the length of his episodes.

He says, I'm getting a lot of questions from my audience about my episode lengths and asking if I can extend them.

I think it's a great thing that my audience wants more, but I don't think I've got the time to do it.

But I also don't want to not give them what they want.

Don't give them what they want, Jasper.

Don't give them what they want.

If you know you don't have time to do it, don't do it because consistency is going to be the most important thing for you to maintain.

And if you already know I cannot keep up with longer episodes, I'm doing all I can, then you already know that this is a disaster waiting to happen.

And anytime that anybody comes and tells me that they're getting a lot of messages on social media or in their inbox about people who want more episodes or more longer episodes, I can tell you those people are not going to listen to every bit of content that you create.

They might want, say they want longer episodes, but they got a life.

They don't have to worry.

You can create hour long episodes and they can jump in and jump out and they can be excited that they've got an hour long episode there, but they don't have to consume it all the time.

That is no level of commitment to you.

It just says I love your show.

So all those emails are telling you is that you are doing a good job and stick at it and that's it.

If you are going to break yourself trying to do double the amount of episodes or even add on another 10 minutes of content, that 10 minutes that you add on might be an additional 20 that you recorded or whatever you're adding on, you are having to add on, planning for that, recording for that, editing for that, all of those things.

So if you know you can't fit that into your life.

Do not do it because it will affect your ability to maintain consistency.

And what you want your audience to feel at the end of every episode is, God, I can't wait till next week.

Fantastic.

If they are saying that, if they are thinking that, if they are reaching out to you and saying this is not enough, that is where you want them, you've got them in the perfect place.

So don't then get to a spot where they're like, I can't catch up with all of your content because I guarantee you I've had people do this change.

And then people are like, oh, I can't listen to all your episodes.

And it's just like, but you wanted more.

And I'm like, that's what you just said.

Just leave it.

Just leave it.

Let the emails roll in.

Say thank you so much, and instead drop bonus content.

Drop a Q and A every now and again.

Reach out to your audience if they're contacting you a lot, ask them what they want to know.

Drop a Q and A episode.

If there is content that would work in your feed as a bonus episode, where it's interviews, something special, you jump into the feed to do something that you wouldn't normally do.

Give them that value add that makes them think, oh my gosh, I've got more this week.

If they are asking for it and they it, they're going to be excited by that.

But as soon as you set that as the level of expectation, either they're going to consume it and they're going to be going, can you make another half hour episode?

You're like, at what point is my health and wellbeing not a concern to anybody?

So you're either going to get to that point or you're going to get to the point where you're making all of this content.

And actually they just love what you made.

And yeah, sure, they did want you to do more because they were really excited about your next episode, but they don't actually have time to consume the extra half hour you're now making.

And now you're making an extra half hour of content for nothing.

So as much as it is hard to think to yourself, okay, I'm gonna not do what my audience says.

You also need to maintain what you can maintain.

You are the creator.

You are making content that they love.

Make sure you do whatever it takes to keep on delivering that.

And that often means just setting a length of episode that works for you and it's obviously working for your audience.

If they're asking you for more, so just calm down.

And I mean, if two people have emailed you, that is not 400 people.

I guess it's all dependent on your size of your audience.

But I've had some people who have tens of thousands of people in the podcast and they've had like 10 emails, and I'm like that with that.

No, no, it's not.

It's not a big enough sample size and we're doing a good job.

This is the way to do it.

Let's keep on rolling as we're rolling.

Hopefully that has given you permission to say no to your audience.

I don't think it's a good idea to do much because you want to be giving your audience what they want.

But this is one of those examples where I don't think they know what they want.

Do you really want another half hour or you just want to keep gaming, being excited about getting this show?

If you want to submit a question, please head to the description of this episode and you can pop it in there.

I love to know what you are interested in, what you are grappling with, what you are thinking about, because I tell you, I've probably seen it and heard it all before and I love to help out and also just give permission to kind of knock down, go down certain paths because I think think half of this point of exploration in podcasting is you think you're supposed to do all these things.

And I tell you, it is a real picnic when somebody says, don't worry about that.

Right.

Just leave that for the other jumps to go down.

You can also head to the description and find out how to work with me and also download my equipment guide that can help you get set up for your podcast.

If you're like, I am raring to go.

All right, thanks so much for joining me and I will see you next week.

That's all for today, Sam.