Everything in life has its ups and downs, it’s always difficult to continue a project long after you’ve started and nurtured it. This includes doing your podcast, especially if you’ve covered everything you thought you would when you started the show.
Everyone loses will power at some point, and it can be near impossible to reignite that fire when you lose it. But as long as you put the work in and keep going through the hard times, even when you feel like you just want to give up, I promise you will feel a sense of gratitude that’s greater than any you’ve felt before.
There are a few things that you can do to help you continue your podcast, even if you start to lose motivation.
Passionate Topic
It can be very difficult to hold on to motivation if you don’t have passion for the show you are doing. Passion is stronger than interest, if you have an interest in something it could fade and you are stuck with a podcast you don’t want to pursue anymore.
Don’t choose a topic that is popular at the moment just because you think it will get listens. Chances are you will not be excited about it, and will stop doing the show as the hype for the subject fades. The listener will be able to tell if you are passionate about the show, and it’s very important for them to hear the passion in your voice.
Just make sure when choosing a topic, you know you will be able to create tons of content based around it.
Create a Schedule
“What gets measured, gets managed”, a quote by Peter Drucker in his 1954 book “The Practice of Management” is a great way to say it’s easier to get things done if they’re written down.
The act of making a plan and sticking to that plan is helpful in a lot of ways. It takes your mind off of actually worrying about when and what you need to get done, and leaves room for the fun stuff. The best thing that can happen for your show is to get into a routine. That means that you won’t even think if you want to do the show this week or not, it’s just something that happens because it’s on the schedule. This will make it easier to avoid those long slumps of not wanting to do the show anymore.
If you have a co-host, get together and decide on a day and time that you record on and stick to that. Chunk out the idea for a lot of episodes at once, so you don’t have to sit for hours before you record, coming up with ideas. You will both be held much more accountable if you skip the day, you both know it’s something that needs to get done.
After a little while your show will become a fine tuned machine, that you won’t even worry about having enough motivation for!
Guests
If your podcast is just you, or just you and another person, it can get stale after a while. Think about having guests on the show for a little bit of variety.
You can get different points of view on the show, and about the topic your show is on. Your listeners will appreciate the new voices, and you will get a bit of fresh air, not having to talk through the whole episode. Guests can also give you some ideas for future episodes as well. It allows you to put in some work for the show that is different from what you’ve been doing behind the scenes.
You can also reach out to people with a little bit of notoriety in your field, that will help with getting more listens as well. You can work on creating a list of questions to ask, and get better at improvising a conversation on the spot. Guests are a great way to freshen up your show in a lot of ways.
Co-Host
This one may not apply to you if it’s just you doing the show, but I know for my podcast it has helped a lot having another person there to push me along.
There is a lot of accountability involved in relying on someone else to do the show every single week. It only takes one of you to have the motivation needed to push through and do the show. If you have a bit of a down week and maybe wouldn’t mind skipping a week, you have someone there who is expecting to put out an episode.
You also have another person to bounce ideas off of, which helps with the sometimes numbing process of brainstorming episodes. Co-hosts are great for helping each other through the tough times and keeping the train moving, even if you’re feeling a bit unmotivated for the week.
Freshen Up The Show
Your show can start to get stale if you’ve done it for a long period of time. You may have covered all the topics you can think of covering. No matter how much passion you have for something, it can become boring. If you’ve tried it all and still have trouble with continuing your show, try freshening it up a bit.
If there’s a topic that’s a bit outside of what you would usually cover, but you are still interested in, give it a shot. If you are just releasing weekly episodes, try doing episodic seasons, with a theme around the season. See if you can get some guests on that you normally wouldn’t have on, and talk about what they know about your subject.
There are many things that you can do to freshen up your show, but the idea is to do something to break the norm of where your show has been heading. Try keeping it close to the original idea, but remember, it’s your show and you can do whatever makes you happy.
If you made it this far, consider reaching out to me at matt@ieditpodcasts.com to chat about great and creative ways to improve your podcast, or if you would like some help with your entire podcasting process, including launching your show, consultations, editing, or just a more personal conversation!