Podcircle Podcast

Welcome to the Podcircle podcast where we bring practical tips and insights for every podcaster.

From aspiring podcasters to experts with hundreds of episodes under your belt and everywhere in between, these conversations dive into the topics that matter most to you.

Alright. Kyle, we are jumping in today to talk all about the 5 reasons that podcasters quit and how you can keep yourself from being one of those people that quit. So there is a 50% chance that your podcast is going to what I'm going to call pod fade. With more than half a million podcast churned out yearly, only 20% survive more than 1 year. And we've talked about this stat before.

So if you have made it past 1 year, you are in the top 20% of podcasts. Podcasts. So let's talk about why podcasters actually quit. Like, what gets in the way? What are the barriers?

Yeah. You know, I did some deep diving on this the other day because I just got curious. And I hopped in some Reddit forums and some different things. And the biggest reason consistently, and this is a little surprising to me Mhmm. Was just just burnout, you know?

And it it's surprising and it isn't. But, you know, some people, like, you know what? My cohost flaked on me after, you know, 7 episodes. I'm like, okay. I get that.

But a lot of it was just they just got kinda burnout with especially for folks that are trying to do weekly podcast.

Yep.

And so it kinda got down to you know, we batched a bunch of episodes up front, and then it kinda got to a place where we were week to week recording, and then we couldn't get it up on time. And then you Yeah. Get a week behind and then 2 weeks behind. And then that's what to your your point, the pod fade happens. And then it just kinda fizzles out.

And with creating, you know, writing the show notes and especially if you have a video podcast, there's just a lot that goes into it. I mean, we can speak to that firsthand from this podcast. You know, we do an audio version and a video version

Mhmm.

And creating the social media asset. So it's a lot of work, especially when you're trying to do it yourself. That burnout can be really tough, whether you're 6 episodes in or 60 episodes in. So I know we'll talk a lot in this episode just about creating a plan, staying ahead, creating a content calendar on Google. Mhmm.

Google is your Sheets is your best friend.

Your best friend.

We live by that, don't we?

Yeah. We really do. We send the sheets back and forth to one another, and I can understand that tension you get when just one episode gets thrown out and then you have to kind of hurry up. Like we're in that situation this week. We had a plan for a different episode, and then we got a little bit behind and we had some scheduling conflicts and then all of a sudden, oh my gosh.

We need to do an interview so that we can get this out on time because we have we have committed to being consistent to showing up every week for you. And that requires some work. Yeah. There's a lot that goes into that. So what I love about what PodCircle does is that you really create a partnership so that people can do what they like to do best.

They can do the interview, they can create the content, they can kind of pick and choose from your menu of services to say, okay, actually I don't want to burn out. So I don't want to do the marketing. I don't want to do those social media assets. I don't want to do those video clips. I don't want to do the show notes.

I don't want to do the outlines. I just want to show up and talk and do what I do best so that you're not having burnout and fatigue on it.

Yeah. And it's, it's just what keeps podcasters going.

Yeah. So the second point, we actually did an entire episode on how to monetize your podcast. And I think the second thing that gets people tripped up is that they haven't figured out how to monetize. So they're putting in the effort every week and they're not seeing the ROI that they want. And so they get discouraged and they just quit because they decide, oh, this isn't worth it.

So, if you wanna know how to start monetizing today, go back and listen to that episode. But we really believe that you can start making money right away. And it may just not look like what you think. Sometimes we think money means I've got big sponsorships and big ads, but really could you make money by marketing the products you already have? Could you create a sponsorship, and sponsor a segment?

Could you create affiliate links? That's something that we do is that we've got affiliate links to our favorite products in the show notes. So there's ways to start monetizing today. And that is something I think keeps people from continuing because they get discouraged.

It's really that kind of that long game. You know, we talk about it a lot, but the deep dive on that is really back in that how to monetize your podcast episode. We really go into I think it I think it's 6 ways to monetize, but it's it's really great. So, you know, set a reminder for yourself maybe to go back and and listen to that one after this episode.

Yeah.

And, we'll give you all the goods in that one. So we'll move on to number 3, which is creative fatigue.

I really get this one. As a podcaster, I have felt the creative fatigue. When you're doing a show every week and you feel that pressure to come up with something fresh and new, and you kind of sit and you're staring at the blanking screen and saying, what do we talk about next? So the things that seem second nature to you, this is the advice I give to, the therapist who I bring on in my other role. And it's the advice I give myself.

It's the advice I give you, Kyle. The things that seem second nature to you are often the hardest things to put into words because you just know about it. And so I really encourage people when you're thinking about content is to just go even a little bit higher. How can you simplify what comes second nature to you and provide value for someone else? Because it's gonna be revolutionary for them.

Yeah. Because I feel like the world of podcasting, it's like, I I know it so well. So it's it's to simplify it and communicate it to people that I work with all the time, frankly. Mhmm. I've even in just, you know, meeting new clients, I've had to say, okay, Kyle.

Like, you gotta, like, dumb this not dumb it down, but just make it, like, easier to understand when talking about microphones and and cameras and all this stuff and not inundate people with a a bunch of things that they're like, oh, we don't know all the technical speak for that.

So And if you're having trouble brainstorming, we'd love to help you. We actually do brainstorming sessions to help you figure out what should I talk about. And we can kind of step in as outside people who aren't in every day of your industry to say, this is revolutionary. What have you talked about this? What if you did this?

What if you did this? And you'll walk away with an entire content plan for the quarter, for the month, whatever it is you're tasking us to help you with.

Yeah. And what's so cool about working in this space is that we work on so many different types of podcasts. Genre wise, We work with a lot of different businesses. Like one comes to mind. They run an e commerce podcast.

They have an e commerce company and they have a podcast. And what I noticed, like, kind of to your point, like that zoom out Yeah. Lens that we have into their podcast is I had noticed that their CEO, Josh, was like, man, he's such a fount of knowledge about the world of e commerce and and all the kind of the related aspects. But I noticed I'm like, hey, man, I told him I said, I don't know much about your company or just you and your background. Like, I would love to know just more about you and how you got into being an ecommerce expert.

And so they started recording some episodes where they they worked that in more and giving more of his background because, obviously, he's an he's an expert at this stuff. Yeah. But I just wanted to know more about him as a listener, and that's part of what some of these strategy brainstorming sessions that we do, we can take and we can kind of be that 3rd eye and look at it and say, you're so good at these things. Like, make sure you're talking about x, y, and z every episode on a consistent basis to give, like, listeners and viewers that background into who you are so that they can, quote, know, like, and trust you.

Yes.

You know what I mean? So we talk a lot about that a lot. So that's a really good point, Mackenzie.

So good. And what about the 4th point here, Kyle? This one, I think everyone faces.

Oh, yeah. And it's the most relatable. I mean, it's time constraints. Mhmm. Especially as a business owner, you know, if you're doing this as a wing of your business, if you're doing this as a hobbyist, whatever that is, you know, there's not a 1000000 hours in the day. We all know that. So creating a podcast from doing just the post production, the planning, if you're scheduling guest, overcoming a scheduling mishap like we did this past week, pivoting, it takes a lot of time. And that's to our first point, the burnout thing.

Yeah.

That's kind of that's where you start to feel that wrestle in that tension. So, again, getting ahead in Google Sheets and creating those, like, hey, here's a bunch of content ideas maybe for the next 3 or 4 months. And if you do need to pivot, you can do that relatively quickly and slot in a new, a new episode transparently like we did today. Yeah. And if I hadn't mentioned it, you would probably never know.

But just trying to be real on this podcast about what it's like to record a weekly podcast and pivot when things come up.

Yeah. And I have in other seasons kept an evergreen episode, just kind of in the backlog. So that when not if you run into the situation where you don't have an episode for the week, you've got something in the curtains that you can pull out and say, Hey, this is an ever great episode. It's going to land with our audience no matter the seasonality, no matter the time we can use it and we've got this back up. So that's a way to overcome time constraints.

The last one is unrealistic expectations and goals. And so we kind of talked about this at the front end. You tend to when you're not making the money you want right away. I think we just wanna remind you again and again, we will hit this drum again and again. Podcasting is a slow burn.

And so we wanna help you have realistic expectations around monetization, downloads, listenership. If you go into it with the right expectations, then you're not gonna be disappointed, and that's not gonna throw you off. You're gonna say, hey, I know that this is going to take a little bit to find success. But if I define success as, hey, we've gotten, 20% increase in listenership, celebrating along the way. I think in one of our first episodes, I talked about the importance of celebrating along the way so that you don't get tired.

Yeah. I'm I'm looking forward to our 10th episode. Yeah. For a lot of podcasters, that's like, oh, big whoop, 10 episodes. You know?

Know? But I think it's really important, like you said, to celebrate milestones because creating a weekly podcast is a lot of work, but I believe in it. Like, I I've seen it pay off for so many other so many clients of ours who have done this for years. And it just the stick to itiveness that you and I talk about all the time. I feel that same commitment to our podcast, practicing what we preach.

So we can relate when when I read things like time constraints and and burnout.

You feel like So

it's totally yeah. We all feel it. But it's like, I believe in this and what we do at Pod Circle. I've seen what it's done for for other folks, for their businesses or whatever they're trying to promote or whatever they have going on. I believe in what it can do for Pod Circle also cause I think this content is really, really valuable.

I hope you feel the same way too. And the other content we've created around our podcast starter kit, which is a free PDF that we have on podcircle. Com/start. I still get feedback on on just how helpful that content is. I send it to our current clients, the Riverside checklist that we have.

That's checklist for virtual interviews. Yeah.

Yeah. It just it just makes things to when you sit down to record a podcast, it's like you feel like you have the resources to do it without a hitch. And you're not thinking like, man, what am I forgetting? I feel like I'm forgetting. Is my mic set up the right way?

You kind of come into a podcast with a little bit of anxiety. Like, how did I hook all this stuff up the right way? We've kind of removed all of that guesswork from the process with some of these things in our podcast starter kit. So you can grab that at podcircle.com/start. There's also a link in the show notes to check that out as well.

And when you remove those barriers and that anxiety, you burn out a lot less often because you have created systems and structures and you feel like you know what you're doing. You can just sit down, plug and play, and do what you do best. So we don't want you to quit. We believe your podcast has value. We believe the world needs what you are offering.

And so we wanna come alongside you and help you continue on this journey. So don't quit, friends.

Yeah. Keep on going. If nothing else, this episode is just an encouragement to keep on keeping on. So we appreciate you guys listening. As always, like I mentioned, we'll be back next week with a brand new episode.

We'll talk to you then. Have a good one.