1
00:00:06,560 --> 00:00:10,155
Welcome to help me podcast. A show designed to help

2
00:00:10,155 --> 00:00:13,914
you launch and grow your podcast. I am your host Gino. And

3
00:00:13,914 --> 00:00:17,570
twice a week, I will release a new episode with different tips and

4
00:00:17,570 --> 00:00:21,270
tricks for launching and growing your podcast. From audio engineering

5
00:00:21,410 --> 00:00:25,090
to planning intentionally to growth tactics, each episode will be a

6
00:00:25,090 --> 00:00:27,225
bite sized tip to help you podcast.

7
00:00:30,645 --> 00:00:34,320
Welcome back to help me podcast I'm glad that you're here. I'm your

8
00:00:34,320 --> 00:00:38,079
host, Gino. And today, we are talking about taking

9
00:00:38,079 --> 00:00:41,675
a break from your podcast. And if you've been following along

10
00:00:41,675 --> 00:00:45,355
with this podcast, you know that recently I took a little bit of a

11
00:00:45,355 --> 00:00:48,980
break from it. And, you know, I kinda stepped away from it

12
00:00:48,980 --> 00:00:52,500
for a bit because I felt like I was kinda getting to the point

13
00:00:52,500 --> 00:00:56,100
where I was getting really behind on myself, and I wasn't

14
00:00:56,100 --> 00:00:59,895
taking my own advice of banking some episodes and having

15
00:00:59,895 --> 00:01:03,575
some ready to go in case life happened. And I just felt like

16
00:01:03,575 --> 00:01:06,935
they were becoming rushed. And, you know, I didn't want my

17
00:01:06,935 --> 00:01:10,680
quality to decline. So I took a little bit of time off,

18
00:01:10,680 --> 00:01:13,880
and I really just wanna talk about my experience in it, and maybe it's the

19
00:01:13,880 --> 00:01:17,674
right thing for you in your podcast. So, yeah, I took a

20
00:01:17,674 --> 00:01:21,115
break from this podcast. I didn't really know how long it was gonna

21
00:01:21,115 --> 00:01:24,555
be. I initially thought it might be a week or 2 weeks just so that

22
00:01:24,555 --> 00:01:28,140
I can fill up my Bank of episodes and have some

23
00:01:28,140 --> 00:01:31,840
episodes that are ready to go, so it doesn't force me to,

24
00:01:32,380 --> 00:01:35,615
you know, make an episode if I'm not feeling good or if I'm sick or,

25
00:01:35,615 --> 00:01:38,175
you know, something came up with a client, and I just don't have the time

26
00:01:38,175 --> 00:01:41,935
for it. I now have a bank of 8 episodes that I

27
00:01:41,935 --> 00:01:45,470
can use if something like that happens. So a,

28
00:01:45,470 --> 00:01:48,670
that's taken a lot of the pressure off of me. As far as being able

29
00:01:48,670 --> 00:01:52,435
to release 2 episodes a week, and it's also really helped rejuvenate

30
00:01:52,655 --> 00:01:56,494
me and get me back to being creative with this show. I

31
00:01:56,494 --> 00:02:00,095
went into it with not knowing how long it was gonna take, and I ended

32
00:02:00,095 --> 00:02:03,760
up taking almost about a month off. And in that

33
00:02:03,760 --> 00:02:07,555
time, like I said, I was able to make that Bank of episodes I

34
00:02:07,555 --> 00:02:11,394
was also able to do some other things that were very beneficial for my

35
00:02:11,394 --> 00:02:15,015
podcast that I wanna talk about and share with you. So

36
00:02:15,230 --> 00:02:18,989
Definitely number one was recharging my creative mind and the way

37
00:02:18,989 --> 00:02:22,815
that I think about this podcast. I think, you know, before the break, I

38
00:02:22,815 --> 00:02:26,275
was kind of getting stuck into a routine, and I have

39
00:02:26,575 --> 00:02:30,390
sort of this master content list that I've kinda gone

40
00:02:30,390 --> 00:02:34,150
through, and I basically picked all the good ideas already. And

41
00:02:34,150 --> 00:02:37,750
I kinda felt like I only had, like, the the half thought out ideas

42
00:02:37,750 --> 00:02:41,495
and ones that I didn't really wanna use. So during this break, I

43
00:02:41,495 --> 00:02:44,394
was able to go ahead and look at that content list again.

44
00:02:44,855 --> 00:02:48,419
And kinda just replan myself and and redirect my

45
00:02:48,419 --> 00:02:52,180
content strategy and take the bad ideas and get rid of them, and

46
00:02:52,180 --> 00:02:55,825
and I came up with new ideas because Again, I was recharging my

47
00:02:55,825 --> 00:02:59,665
creative mind. I also had the opportunity to learn more and to research

48
00:02:59,665 --> 00:03:03,389
stuff and to read articles and come up with a better content

49
00:03:03,389 --> 00:03:07,089
strategy. So between having the extra episode

50
00:03:07,229 --> 00:03:10,930
bank and feeling better about my content strategy

51
00:03:10,989 --> 00:03:14,754
list, Those two things took a huge amount of pressure off of me when I

52
00:03:14,754 --> 00:03:18,515
decided to come back and start releasing episodes again. Because now I'm

53
00:03:18,515 --> 00:03:21,670
confident in in that list, and I'm not, like, going to it every week and

54
00:03:21,670 --> 00:03:25,290
thinking, like, these ideas are kinda half thought out, and I don't really like them.

55
00:03:25,750 --> 00:03:29,515
Now I have a list of stuff that, like, I'm excited to talk about, and

56
00:03:29,515 --> 00:03:33,355
I took, you know, bullet points on, and it'll be easier for me to

57
00:03:33,355 --> 00:03:36,900
then create 2 episodes every week. So the break has been very

58
00:03:36,900 --> 00:03:40,520
beneficial as far as, like, rejuvenating my podcast

59
00:03:40,819 --> 00:03:44,525
and and having it be less of a chore and more of a thing that,

60
00:03:44,525 --> 00:03:48,045
like, I'm excited about doing again, which, you know, I think is a very

61
00:03:48,045 --> 00:03:51,610
important thing because when you're excited about doing something, You

62
00:03:51,610 --> 00:03:55,390
just do it that much better because you're into it. So

63
00:03:55,610 --> 00:03:58,730
that was kinda what this break did. That was the main thing that this break

64
00:03:58,730 --> 00:04:02,455
did for me was it. It made me want to be doing it again and

65
00:04:02,835 --> 00:04:06,675
not be annoyed or resentful at it because I'm releasing 2 episodes

66
00:04:06,675 --> 00:04:10,380
a week. Some other secondary benefits that this break also allowed

67
00:04:10,380 --> 00:04:14,160
me to do was it allowed me to look at my podcast

68
00:04:14,380 --> 00:04:18,225
thus far. I had recorded 50 episodes you know, I was also able

69
00:04:18,225 --> 00:04:21,985
to take a look at the analytics and to see what was working. And

70
00:04:21,985 --> 00:04:25,640
and I was also thinking about taking the structure of this podcast and

71
00:04:25,640 --> 00:04:29,240
changing it. I thought maybe maybe 2 episodes a week is too

72
00:04:29,240 --> 00:04:32,840
much, and maybe I should make longer episodes, and maybe it should only be once

73
00:04:32,840 --> 00:04:36,415
a week, and I really kinda played around with that and

74
00:04:36,415 --> 00:04:40,095
kinda decided not to do that. And I think, again, after

75
00:04:40,095 --> 00:04:43,850
being, like, rejuvenated from this break, I felt confident that I would be

76
00:04:43,850 --> 00:04:47,370
able to continue to make 2 episodes a week and have it be

77
00:04:47,370 --> 00:04:51,075
beneficial to you all And, you know, that was one of the

78
00:04:51,075 --> 00:04:54,755
conclusions that I came up with. Another realization that I had was

79
00:04:54,755 --> 00:04:58,115
that I need to do a better job of creating my show notes and my

80
00:04:58,115 --> 00:05:01,930
show titles and my transcriptions and making sure that I'm

81
00:05:02,150 --> 00:05:05,910
putting all of the back end data into the episode and

82
00:05:05,910 --> 00:05:08,965
not just having, like, the m p 3 file in loading it and then, you

83
00:05:08,965 --> 00:05:12,725
know, having a sentence for the show notes. I really wanted to make sure

84
00:05:12,725 --> 00:05:16,245
that I'm creating good show notes. I mean, I I did a whole episode about

85
00:05:16,245 --> 00:05:19,570
what good show notes are. I know what they are. And because I was a

86
00:05:19,570 --> 00:05:23,250
little bit burnt out, I wasn't really putting effort into creating good show

87
00:05:23,250 --> 00:05:27,045
notes. And I also didn't have a system put in place to be

88
00:05:27,045 --> 00:05:30,725
able to repeatedly do good show notes and good show

89
00:05:30,725 --> 00:05:34,340
titles and transcriptions. So What I've done in this

90
00:05:34,340 --> 00:05:38,180
time off is I've created a system for me to help me transcribe my

91
00:05:38,180 --> 00:05:41,895
episodes to come up with a great episode title. to come up

92
00:05:41,895 --> 00:05:45,655
with show notes that really work. And now I feel like I

93
00:05:45,655 --> 00:05:48,870
got a system down to be able to create those with the use of the

94
00:05:49,030 --> 00:05:52,630
AI tool that I talked about in the last episode. So if you haven't listened

95
00:05:52,630 --> 00:05:56,250
to that episode, go back to episode 55 where I talk about creating

96
00:05:56,470 --> 00:06:00,095
transcripts and using cast magic, which is an

97
00:06:00,095 --> 00:06:03,935
AI tool for podcasters. But the moral of the story is I I

98
00:06:03,935 --> 00:06:07,775
found a process and a workflow that works for me to be able

99
00:06:07,775 --> 00:06:11,160
to do good show notes, good show titles, and transcriptions

100
00:06:11,460 --> 00:06:15,220
for every episode that I release. Lastly, another big thing that I was

101
00:06:15,220 --> 00:06:19,065
able to do during my break was I was able to create my lead magnet,

102
00:06:19,205 --> 00:06:22,565
my podcast launch road map, which is to help any other

103
00:06:22,565 --> 00:06:26,370
podcasters out there and you all who haven't started your podcast

104
00:06:26,370 --> 00:06:29,570
yet. I'm really happy with the way that came out, and I think the final

105
00:06:29,570 --> 00:06:33,345
product is something I'm confident in. And if you'd like to download that,

106
00:06:33,345 --> 00:06:35,925
you can go to the show notes, the link for that's in the show notes.

107
00:06:35,985 --> 00:06:39,025
But it really gave me the time to finish that up. It was something I

108
00:06:39,025 --> 00:06:42,510
was kinda working on for a while. and kinda felt like I was just

109
00:06:42,510 --> 00:06:46,350
stalling with the the editing of it and and putting it together and making

110
00:06:46,350 --> 00:06:49,870
it look aesthetically pleasing. So I'm really happy with the way that came

111
00:06:49,870 --> 00:06:53,545
out. And then the last thing that I want to talk about was

112
00:06:55,125 --> 00:06:58,645
the actual analytics of everything. Right? I guess I guess

113
00:06:58,645 --> 00:07:02,240
everybody's fear for maybe stopping a podcast or

114
00:07:02,240 --> 00:07:05,920
taking a break from a podcast is that you're going to lose

115
00:07:05,920 --> 00:07:09,620
downloads. Right? And you're gonna people are gonna go away. They're not gonna listen anymore.

116
00:07:09,835 --> 00:07:13,055
And I think it was actually really surprising that

117
00:07:13,515 --> 00:07:16,875
during the break, it didn't really seem like I lost any

118
00:07:16,875 --> 00:07:20,580
listeners. And You know, maybe that's because I had a episode bank

119
00:07:20,580 --> 00:07:24,340
of 50. Maybe that's because I told people I was going on a break.

120
00:07:24,340 --> 00:07:27,955
Maybe that's because you know, the break was not even a

121
00:07:27,955 --> 00:07:31,575
month long, and it was only a couple weeks. I don't really know. But I

122
00:07:31,715 --> 00:07:34,995
I am very happy with the fact that, like, I didn't lose a lot of

123
00:07:34,995 --> 00:07:38,710
listeners And my data seems to be

124
00:07:38,710 --> 00:07:42,470
continuing to slowly grow ever since I started. I I

125
00:07:42,470 --> 00:07:45,805
guess I took the break from, like, the last week of June to

126
00:07:46,265 --> 00:07:49,885
1st couple weeks of July. And June was actually,

127
00:07:49,945 --> 00:07:53,630
like, doubled May's performance as far as down lows and listeners.

128
00:07:54,250 --> 00:07:57,770
So, you know and it's been trending upward, so it's not too surprising. But I

129
00:07:57,770 --> 00:08:01,545
think it's funny that, you know, it was almost double the month before when I

130
00:08:01,545 --> 00:08:05,305
took a whole week off in June. And July's, you know, the

131
00:08:05,305 --> 00:08:08,880
month where I took the most time off, because in July, I'll really only be

132
00:08:08,880 --> 00:08:12,720
releasing 4 episodes in doing 2 weeks. And, you know, right

133
00:08:12,720 --> 00:08:16,465
now, the month isn't over yet at the time of this recording. but

134
00:08:16,465 --> 00:08:20,145
it looks like July is gonna surpass June. So, really, you know, I

135
00:08:20,225 --> 00:08:24,065
it seems like I didn't lose listeners. So that's always really encouraging, and

136
00:08:24,065 --> 00:08:27,850
I think that's an important point to bring up. Sure. You can't,

137
00:08:27,910 --> 00:08:31,030
you know, guess what it would have looked like if I did put episodes out.

138
00:08:31,030 --> 00:08:34,515
But I think the important thing is all those benefits that I just

139
00:08:34,515 --> 00:08:38,115
listed and not losing listeners or not having

140
00:08:38,115 --> 00:08:41,740
listenership decline, I think that's kind of you know, a win

141
00:08:41,740 --> 00:08:45,500
win, and and I couldn't really ask for for more than that. So I just

142
00:08:45,500 --> 00:08:49,045
wanted to talk to you about my experience about taking a break. why there was

143
00:08:49,045 --> 00:08:52,805
a lot of benefits from that for me, and really wasn't a whole lot of

144
00:08:52,805 --> 00:08:56,485
downsides from it or really wasn't any downsides from it at

145
00:08:56,485 --> 00:09:00,030
all. And I think It's been really helpful for me, so

146
00:09:00,030 --> 00:09:03,470
maybe it could be helpful for you. And that's all I got for you

147
00:09:03,470 --> 00:09:06,885
today. You know, as always, you could shoot me an email. You can download my

148
00:09:06,885 --> 00:09:10,645
podcast launch roadmap in the show notes, and I will see you all

149
00:09:10,645 --> 00:09:14,450
on the next episode Happy podcasting. We've reached the end of

150
00:09:14,450 --> 00:09:18,130
the episode. And if you enjoyed this podcast or you got something

151
00:09:18,130 --> 00:09:21,890
from it, you might be interested in my weekly newsletter that I

152
00:09:21,890 --> 00:09:25,385
send out every Monday morning full of podcasting tips,

153
00:09:25,525 --> 00:09:29,125
tricks, and news. So if you like this show, you might like this

154
00:09:29,125 --> 00:09:32,620
news letter. To sign up, just go to the show notes and click the

155
00:09:32,620 --> 00:09:35,360
link. Thanks for listening and happy podcasting.