The Passion and Practicalities of Podcasting

There’s a tension in all creative work and podcasting is no different; finding the balance between the passion you (hopefully!) have for your podcast and the topics you talk about, and the need to make it sustainable.

I’ve seen it time and time again with clients who come to me full of energy for their podcast. We work together to create a few episodes and then things start to wobble. An episode goes out a day late. A week goes by. A break is taken. We start again. The cycle repeats. Then the show just stops.

You might’ve observed this cycle as a listener or even experienced it yourself.

It’s not that you don’t want to do the podcast. It’s that life gets in the way. Other more urgent, more pressing things take precedent over putting out a podcast episode.

The passion is there or you wouldn’t have started the podcast. It’s just that the practicalities of making episodes take time and effort that isn’t always available.

The analogy I like to use with clients is that passion is the fuel but the sustainability practices, the routines, and the systems are the engine that keep the podcast moving forward.

It’s those practices and routines that I want you to think about this month.

I’m assuming you already have a podcast, or at least have an idea for one. That’s the passion. It’s already there. The question is how can you sustain it?

From working with clients, I’ve got a few practical points to really consider that can determine how sustainable—and successful—your podcast can be.

Consider the schedule Most common pitfall is trying to crank out too many episodes. A lot of people aim for weekly episodes and quickly fall off that schedule. A simple shift to fortnightly or alternating between longer episodes and shorter weekly episodes can make producing episodes a manageable feat. Shifting your schedule to reduce your output isn’t admitting defeat; it’s saying “I’m so passionate about podcast that I want it to survive.”

Audit your workflows
How efficient is your podcasting process? I’m talking about from the moment you have the idea to getting that final episode published. Think of all the moving pieces and processes and where you can be more efficient.
It sounds clinical but it’s supposed to. The idea you have for an episode is probably fantastic. You’re energised by it enough to want to make it so how can you get it out into the world without making you begrudging the process.
For example, I edit a lot of episodes. If I didn’t have templates for each podcast containing that show’s music, intro, outro, and consistent audio files I’d spend hours redoing that work over and over and over again. Templates are great for creating graphics, scripts, emails to guests, and probably more that you can think of. They’re a time saver and implementing just a few can save a ton of time.
Another example that, I’m fairly confident in saying, is going to be a part of our lives in the near future is the use of AI. Perhaps one of the best timesavers for podcasting is taking a finished edit, generating a transcription, putting it in ChatGPT and asking for 5 key takeaways with relevant quotes. AI has turned a process that would’ve taken hours or days into a job done in minutes.

Having realistic goals and expectations
Podcasting is not a quick win but, with anything successful, compounding consistency is the recipe for successful growth. If your expectation is to become the most downloaded podcast in a month that might not be realistic and could end your desire to carry on if you don’t achieve it. If you tweak your goal to be putting out episodes at a consistent clip for 6 months and you hit that then you’ll likely have the momentum to keep growing your podcast into something beyond what made you start it in the first place.

Spontaneity or structure?
​I wrote about this in an email last year so check it out if you haven’t already. Do you need more structure to your processes? If so, audit your workflows, implement changes, and hold yourself accountable to them. Are things feeling too contained leaving you uninspired? Try something new. Maybe release a spontaneous bonus episode or try tweaking the format of your next episodes. Experiment with one part of your podcasting process and see what happens.

The point here is that you should enjoy podcasting. You started your podcast for a reason. There are definitely unavoidable parts of the process but that doesn’t mean they have to become unenjoyable or drain your passion for your podcast.