What does sustainable podcasting mean? Sustainable and sustainability are big buzzwords these days and I’m all for that. I grew up on the west coast of Canada, born and raised in Vancouver. Living in this beautiful environment of Vancouver in the 80s and 90s, it plays a big role in my life, even today, making sure that the practices that I do in my daily life are great for the environment, sustainable, and doing as much as I can and doing my part for the earth. But what does that mean in terms of podcasting? Sustainability and podcasting in my mind have to do with your capacity, making sure that your podcast doesn’t create burnout for you. Let’s take a look at where podcasting fits into your life.
Podcasting is a way to get the word out about who you are, what your values are your message, and what it is that you want to share with the world. In this case, it usually means that it is a marketing avenue for your business. Or as a way to show your authority in your space, being a thought leader in your industry. Because of this mindset, this objective for your podcast means that your podcast is part of your marketing platform. The best way to see an ROI or a return on investment in your podcast is really through a long-term lens. Podcasting is not for the short term. It is not for someone who just wants to try it once and be done with it. You won’t see that return on investment. A successful podcast needs to be long-term in terms of the marketing plan and your investment in it; the investment in your time, your mental capacity and money as well. The best way to see how your podcast is working out for you is to stick it out for at least a year. That means getting past the first 12 to 15 episodes. This usually is the benchmark for you to get over the 12 to 15 Episode hump to really propel you into the long term of podcasting. If you can get past those first 12 to 15 episodes, you’ve got this. You’ve probably created a workflow at this point, you know what your objectives for the podcast are and what you hope to achieve out of it. You have created a platform for your own publicity, showing people who you are, and those listeners are coming back episode after episode to consume your thought leadership. So when talking about this workflow and creating your podcast, what are you doing to make sure that you don’t burn out?
A lot of people ask how often should I be podcasting? How often should I be publishing episodes? My answer is always, as usual with anything else, it depends. Yes, you’ll see things on the internet saying that you should be publishing every single week in order to get that ROI and yeah I mean I get it because the compounding effect of each episode, really does draw in more listeners, you get to hone in on your content and your craft and podcasts really can’t grow if you create more content. But that doesn’t mean you need to create content every single week. Whatever you decide your publishing schedule to be, whether that be once a week, every other week, twice a month, I also have clients who do seasonal so they batch record a whole bunch of episodes and just release them during a season. That season would be based on your listeners, listening habits. For example, if you have an educational podcast, perhaps your season is lined up to the school year. So your episodes will only publish between September and June. You take the summer off, and maybe you even take the winter break and spring break as well. The idea here is to have consistency. So your listeners know when to expect a new episode. So one of the key things I always recommend is to schedule in rest. This means helping your listeners that you will be taking a break. Whether that be a month-long, two months, however long you want it to be, to let them know that you’ll be away. Like any good relationship, you gotta communicate these things. Don’t go to your listeners and then they think, “Oh yeah, I haven’t seen a new episode from this show in a while. I wonder if they’re done?” You don’t want your listener to think that, so let them know that you’ll be on a break on hiatus, whatever the case may be. And if you don’t know when you’re coming back, just let them know. Give them an approximation, but letting them know that you’ll be back. It’s just good communication and a great way to establish your relationship.
During this rest time, I also recommend that you are not fully resting, away from the podcast. Use this time to reflect on what you’ve done in your podcast so far. What objectives did you meet? What do you want to improve on? What listener interaction feedback was helpful that you might want to integrate into your show? Use this rest time, yes, for rest, but also to listen to your show, like a listener. Like any form of marketing, you can’t go go go 24/7. You need time to step back and learn from your podcast from a different perspective. So listen back to your episode, like a listener and enjoy your show as well. Don’t put your podcaster hat on and listen for specific nuances and how the editing is happening, your workflows, no. Listen, like a listener. So this is more passive listening, having it on in the background while you’re doing dishes going for a run, enjoying your show like your listener would in their environment. Perhaps listen to a few episodes back to back. Again, you’re not critiquing yourself or your voice in this instance, you are just listening to your episodes back to back to listen for the feel of your show. How do you feel when you’re listening because that is how your listener will be feeling as well. Is it conveying the message that you want? Is it conveying the emotion that you want your listener to have? Take a mental note, and then make sure that when you are ready to restart your podcast and get back into the podcasting mindset that you have these notes handy so you can improve on your show when you come back from your break.
This leads me to my own show, this podcast will be going on hiatus. There you go, I’ve created that communication piece between you and me. I am going to be doing what I say. Since things are finally slowly opening up in my neck of the woods, I am going to take the summer off from publishing new episodes. This has always been the plan in the back of my mind anyway, because the kiddos in school, and usually most people are taking some time off during the summer anyway. And I know too for some business owners, this is a great time to just turn off the business brain and enjoy the weather that we have here in the northern hemisphere. So you, as a Podcaster, probably would be taking some time off as well. So let’s all just take some time off away from podcasting for the summer months. We do sometimes see that trend in podcasting listening stats that numbers are a little bit lower. But fear not, if you are not taking a break during the summer, that’s okay too because there are listeners that will be listening. Those that do take a summer break will come back and listen to the back catalogue that they’ve missed over the summer months. But for me, I am going to be taking this time off. But thinking ahead as well, what is my capacity going to be like when I return? So originally my plan was to start having more episodes in September, and start doing the work in September, and then perhaps publishing in October again. But then I realized September is just so, so busy. There’s back to school and a lot of people take September as kind of like a new year, a fresh start. So I wanted episodes to be published in September, which means I have to start prepping for September publishing in August. Even today, as I’m recording this in June, I’ve already got guests scheduled in August. So I’m doing a little bit of legwork to make sure that I’m not going to be overwhelmed with my podcasting workflow and what I need to do in August.
That is all part of sustainable, podcasting. Take a look at your yearly calendar or at least the next three to four months. What are you doing to prepare for some rest? Knowing that when you come out of rest, it’s not going to be hectic go go go. Because, podcasting, like I said at the beginning is a long-term return on investment. So you also have to plan for this for the long term; it is a marathon, a long run, not a sprint. So know your capacity to be able to sustain your podcast because podcasting as you know, is a lot of work, but that doesn’t mean it has to overtake your life and you need to think about podcasting 24/7. With a few steps in planning and figuring out your workflow, your podcast can run like machine in the background as well. But we’ll talk about that another time. So for today, think about the long term, are you scheduling in rest, and if you are, good for you. You deserve it. Podcasting is hard work and the only way to make it sustainable, is if you rest.
So that is my workflow, that is my plan for the next little while. This will allow me to get back, ready to go in the fall with new episodes for you. That plan, sometime in September. In the meantime, what do you want to hear about on the show and what have you enjoyed about the episodes so far? I’d love to hear your feedback. Send me a voice note, through the “Send Voicemail” purple button on this website. Thank you so so much for reading and I will be back in September. Enjoy the break!
