Here’s a potentially radical suggestion for anyone who (ahem) has spent the better part of this year dutifully feeding the insatiable content beast:
Consider putting your podcast production on pause.
I know, I know, it goes against every “consistency” instinct that’s been hammered into you, but truly what would happen if you just…stopped chasing that “steady cadence,” even just for a little while?
“B-b-but what about my thought leadership,” you protest.
“What about my parasocial relationship with my trusty following?"
"Won’t it all evaporate into the ether the first time I break my vow to release episodes every Tuesday in sickness and in health?"
I strongly suspect not.
In fact, I have it on good authority that the rising tide of your increased bandwidth and room to breathe will lift both your boat and the consumption of your episodes.
Your subscribers will just have to scroll back in the feed a bit to dip into your “early work.” And if they’re the RIGHT subscribers, they will.
This is at the core of what I’m calling "Slow Podcasting."
One of the things I pretty much insist my podcast-launch clients and cohorts do when they’re getting started: commit to just one season. For now.
That can mean six episodes. Eight. Whatever feels like it could do the job you’ve hired your podcast to do. For now.
And then: pause for a bit. Calibrate and take stock of how things are going: for your show, and for you.
I know. Wild stuff.
Think about it: you’ve spent weeks, maybe months, planning, recording, producing, publishing, and promoting your podcast. Not to mention the year or more you may have spent thinking about your show before you finally went for it.
You’ve invested money (even if you DIY’d, I know that mic didn’t pay for itself), too.
Wouldn’t it be nice to know whether any of that investment has done its job before you get married to the notion of podcasting indefinitely?
You know I love me a good ROI assessment. I’m learning it’s very hard to do that calculus when you’re racing from one episode to the next, banking new recording sessions along the way.
The intentional pause is an essential part of smart podcast strategy.
In order to rest your podcasting muscles to give them time to repair, of course. But also to look at the gains you’ve achieved…and whether you’ve done enough with them.
I’m talking about all of the things that contribute to a podcast’s ability to earn its keep (not an exhaustive list):
- Following up with your guests to see if they’ve exposed your content to their audience.
- Publishing + promoting the best spinoff pieces from said content (newsletters like this one, Instagram carousels + reels, LinkedIn posts, etc.) to your channels.
- Integrating the great ideas spawned from your episode-creation sessions into your business strategy and/or mission.
I weep for the vast quantities of my podcast flywheel left untouched because I’ve treated every podcast episode like a bottle of unpasteurized milk with a 8-day “best by” date.
Can someone please explain the business logic here? I sure can't.
If you’re making a podcast to demonstrate your expertise, build trust, and attract the right people to your business, there’s a very good chance that the thing you said a few months ago is just as relevant today.
This is why I’m entering my Slow Podcasting era.
The idea and moniker for this taking of time with each podcast episode, from recording to publishing to promoting, came to me this past week when I was pulling on my wetsuit to surf a sudden tsunami of incoming business. 🌊 🏄♀️
But then I realized I was probably borrowing at least part of the idea from Cal Newport’s Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout. (Which obviously sounds like my version of a Bible, but it’s currently languishing unfinished in my Audible library... maybe because I’ve been too busy chasing the consistent podcast cadence dragon to finish it.)
The premise of what I’m calling Slow Podcasting is this: rather than run yourself ragged in service to some arbitrary “weekly release” edict, and thereby risk succumbing to podfade...take a break. Or at minimum, take your sweet time.
Dedicate as much time to your podcast as your life, business, and resources reasonably allow. And then publish accordingly.
I can practically hear the collective gasps from the podcasting best-practices police.
But we forget that those "best practices" weren’t really meant for entrepreneurial, thought-leadership podcast people, anyway. We’re not trying to beat NPR at its game. We don’t have the luxury to drop everything and dedicate our lives to building a podcast empire. We have a business to run, bills to pay, clients to serve.
Wouldn’t it be a little absurd if you had to turn down the new business your podcast helped generate because you were too busy making the next episode?
This question is currently altogether NOT rhetorical for me.
Time for a little detour into a land I frequently occupy. It’s called Doctor, Heal Thyself.
As I head into my eighth month of making Talking the Talk, I’ve been doing an excellent job of following almost none of the advice I’ve just outlined.
Did I commit to a very sensible single season to start? Reader, I did not.
Did I at least build in an intentional pause to evaluate my ROI? Nope.
Have I squeezed every possible drop of value out of the excellent conversations I’ve recorded with my guests? Also nope.
While I’m very grateful for the influx of business opportunities that October has delivered, I’ve found myself in the somewhat ridiculous position of having to choose between making more content to attract clients and actually serving the clients who are showing up.
Alas, the universe has forced me to once again follow my own advice. When I find myself in times of content struggle, I ask: What Would Podcast Strategist Courtney Tell Her Clients to Do?
Press pause. Take a beat. Assess, calibrate, and proceed as appropriate.
Which is why I’m slowing down my podcast release schedule (to exactly what schedule remains to be seen): to give my existing episodes more time and space to earn their keep.
And to do the work my new clients + Strategic Podcast Launch Studio require of me.
Will the sky fall? Will the podcasting authorities come confiscate my microphone?
Stay tuned.
Or you know, tune the dial back to the Talking the Talk episodes you have skipped. You might unearth a gem we both overlooked (and by all means, hit reply and let me know what you find).
