0:03

[inaudible]

0:12

you asked me a question that

0:14

I think is

0:17

really the thing that I didn't have a good answer.

0:19

I think it's the thing that I would ask you, which

0:22

is how do you know

0:26

you should keep going? I mean, you know

0:28

the math, right? Like don't most people give up

0:30

at three months and you

0:32

know the number of podcasters and make it a year

0:34

and you know the growth levels off and you're

0:36

right about that. Like the growth leveled off

0:38

and now you know, they're new

0:41

listeners who come in every day and there are people

0:43

who migrate out and the growth happens,

0:45

but it's slow. What

0:47

is like the top two or three

0:50

reasons to keep

0:52

going? I guess it would

0:54

be my question.

0:57

I think that's a fantastic question. Uh

0:59

, I can give you my answers and

1:02

hopefully this will be helpful for you and anyone listening,

1:04

I wouldn't, I wouldn't presume to be the

1:07

absolute authority on this question because I

1:09

think every single person is different, right? Every person

1:11

has different reasons for starting

1:13

a podcast. Um, I think there

1:15

are terrible reasons for podcasting.

1:18

One of those is trying to be the next Beyonce,

1:20

right? It's just, I'm sorry, it's just not gonna happen. Um,

1:23

but as far as reasons to keep going, the

1:25

, the things that I always come back to are,

1:28

am I enjoying it? And

1:31

if I am, then I'll keep doing it.

1:35

Um, is this benefiting

1:37

my life? I think that's another

1:39

thing that I think about a lot that

1:42

, uh, like once you, once

1:44

you get on a roll and you get on a rhythm and a schedule,

1:47

it's tempting to just keep doing it, you

1:49

know, and , and throw hazard to the wind.

1:51

And even if it's sucking the life out of you,

1:54

you just keep going because you

1:56

have to put out an episode this week. Right? Um,

1:59

so I even think about like, how is my

2:02

podcast affecting my marriage? How is

2:04

it affecting my relationship

2:06

with my, my daughter who's

2:08

, uh, turning one soon, right?

2:11

How is it affecting my relationship with my friends and

2:13

my spiritual health and all the things that

2:15

are important to me, right? Where

2:17

does the podcast fit into my

2:19

whole life? Um, cause

2:21

it is easy to kind of diagnose

2:24

and , and think about your podcast in

2:27

a, in a very specific way, but

2:29

it's just one piece in a much

2:31

larger puzzle. Right? And

2:34

so I always, I always reflect and that's, that's

2:36

kind of how I decide when to take breaks

2:39

with podcasts that I don't do

2:41

for Buzzsprout, right? So if it's just me

2:44

passion project on the side, you

2:46

know, I think is doing

2:48

this podcast benefiting

2:50

my life or is it causing

2:53

more trouble than it's worth? So right

2:55

now we're in the middle of selling our house,

2:57

moving in with some friends while we wait

2:59

for another house to get built so

3:01

that, that creates a lot of chaos, right?

3:04

And so it's like, yeah, this is a good time to take

3:06

a break. This is a good time to

3:08

not be having this podcast going. Um,

3:13

so that's, so that's a second thing that I think about.

3:16

And then the third thing I think about is just making

3:18

sure that's , uh , what

3:20

I'm doing is taking me where I want

3:22

to go, right? That I have

3:24

a longterm vision and

3:27

goals for. Why I podcast.

3:29

A lot of those have been fulfilled with me working here

3:31

at Buzzsprout. Um, you

3:33

know, but I want to make sure that any

3:36

action that I take today is leading

3:38

me to where I want to end up. I think

3:41

a couple of years ago I had kind of like a quarter

3:44

life crisis around 26

3:46

, um, where I was

3:48

like, man, I just am not satisfied

3:50

with my aerospace engineering career.

3:53

I don't want to do this for 30 years. What

3:55

do I do now? And I think that that for

3:58

me crystallized this idea

4:00

that , um, I

4:02

want to be very intentional with what I decide

4:04

to do and what

4:07

I devote time to. And so

4:09

the podcast always has to be something

4:11

for me that's leading me towards

4:13

what my longterm goals are. And

4:15

if not, then, you know, figure

4:18

out is there something better that I should be doing

4:20

or am I just in the middle of grinding something

4:22

out and then it might work or it might not.

4:24

But it's a bet I'm willing to make. Like, I

4:27

just don't want the podcast to be something that

4:29

, uh, runs my life

4:31

or controls my life or where I feel like I

4:33

have to do it and it's

4:35

become a job. Like I want it to be

4:38

working towards something meaningful for

4:40

me. Um, so

4:42

those are the three things that I would say , um,

4:45

that I think about as far as should

4:47

I continue podcasting or should I quit

4:50

or should I take a break, which is like small

4:52

quitting, right? It's saying

4:54

I'm going to take a hiatus, recharge,

4:57

refresh, remember what it's like to

4:59

not podcast and then if I have

5:01

the bug after a couple of weeks, create

5:03

a plan to come back. Um, that's

5:05

been super helpful for me. And , and s like an an

5:08

unintended side effect of doing

5:10

seasons is

5:12

when I'm on break, I'm like, man, I really enjoy

5:14

podcasting and

5:16

I want to go back to it. But it's not something

5:18

that you like think about often when

5:20

you're in the middle of grinding out that edit

5:23

so you can get your head episode

5:24

out on time, you know? Right. I know

5:27

yours is tough too with the interviews. That's

5:29

something we didn't talk about, but that's a big difference.

5:32

You have to set up Tom with someone. I'm sure

5:34

there's a tremendous amount of editing. You know, we got

5:36

the audio issues here, you'll figure all that out.

5:38

It's very different from, I just

5:40

walked back into this room when I have an idea and

5:42

, and speak for 18 minutes and then

5:44

it takes about 90 minutes, you know, by the time you go back in

5:46

it and then you're done. I

5:49

think that would you say most podcasters

5:51

are, I mean there's a lot of

5:53

interview stuff and the logistics

5:55

of that I think are a different animal

5:58

probably.

5:59

Yeah. It's a totally different beast whenever you

6:01

have to coordinate with other people

6:04

and you're not in 100% creative control

6:06

of the out of the, you know, the

6:09

end, the finished product , um,

6:11

because you can't like make them say something

6:14

else afterwards . Right. Um,

6:17

and then like you said, trying to figure out

6:19

the tech side of things. Like we were experimenting

6:22

with a different software today that didn't quite work

6:24

out. We had to go to plan B and yeah,

6:27

it's just those are just extra, just

6:29

extra things you have to figure out. Um,

6:32

but I think it's, for me it's worth

6:34

it because I know that , uh,

6:37

interviewing somebody gives me an opportunity

6:39

to share someone else's expertise in someone else's experiences,

6:42

which is something that is above

6:44

and beyond my own capability.

6:47

And so it's , it's like I'm making my podcast

6:49

better in that way instead of just limiting

6:52

it to what I know or what I can offer.

6:55

I love that and I love what you do and I love

6:57

getting to share what works. This

6:59

is zero.

7:01

This is zero competitive. There's

7:04

no competition here. The world has

7:06

7 billion people in it. It's

7:09

not like if

7:11

I help somebody learn how to use social media,

7:14

that's going to hurt me in some way. There's none of that.

7:16

I mean, everything you do to help will

7:18

help you and them. I really like that about this

7:21

industry. I think, you know, there's

7:23

just people everywhere. Any tip we can share. So

7:25

I love what you do on reaching out quickly

7:28

and helping when we need you or promoting

7:30

something like this. It's just going to expose someone to

7:32

a new way of getting their message

7:34

out. It's pretty cool. I appreciate

7:36

you. Thanks, Chris is very

7:38

nice.

7:55

[inaudible] .