Emotional Reasons You Should Stop Your Podcast.
#2 is the biggest show killer.
Making a podcast can be hard.
Making a good podcast can be harder. Sustaining a podcast over time may be the hardest of all. This is proven by the numbers. The average number of shows before “podfade” is seven.
Since I’m all about the soft skills, I want to discuss the emotional reasons for stopping. What feelings can make you stop?
It’s not fun anymore.
You might have started your show full of excitement, convinced your topic was great, and your co-hosts were going to be awesome people to work with. But then some disagreements start to form, flare ups become more common. You’re beginning to be annoyed by your team being late, unprepared, etc.
Bottom line, your show starts to feel like a chore.
You might start to feel overwhelmed over how much there is to do.
This is probably the one that kills the most shows. It feels like there are a million details to starting and running a podcast. Setting up, recording, editing, posting; all of these take time. You might even have to spend time learning how to do something, like audio editing. There are companies that can handle all of these for you, but they cost money.
You start repeating yourself, and you’re starting to become frustrated.
You might have chosen a topic you thought you could talk about forever. But after a couple of episodes, you notice you’re already having to dig hard to find things to talk about. You hadn’t realized how much ground you can cover in one hour long episode. Maybe you need to do more brainstorming, but you may also choose to cut your losses and restart with a different niche.
You’re becoming bored.
This one might surprise you. You believed your passion would be enough to carry you for months, yet you find yourself becoming restless while you’re recording your show. Maybe your eyes start to glaze over while you’re researching. Even worse, your show topic becomes dated, and you find yourself wondering why you’re still trying.
You work hard to build an audience, but no one is listening.
You’ve scoured the internet to find tips and tricks to build a following, but nothing is working. While persistence and consistency are extremely important in sustaining a show, there are times when you need to cut bait. Learn from it, move on, and perhaps try again with a different idea.
Don’t feel guilty if you need to stop.
Failing is often part of the journey towards success. Think of failures as lessons instead. Understand no one will think less of you. They may even respect you more if you pick yourself up and try again.
I am a 30-year major market veteran of radio and other media, including hosting a morning show for over 12 years, plus I was a news anchor and reporter for another 10 years. My goal is to teach the soft skills needed to be successful in podcasting and radio, like how to get the best from a show guest, and how to work with co-hosts.
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