What could doing less look like for your podcast? Life is chaos these days. The hours often seem to fill up instantly with all the things on your plate, so don’t feel bad if publishing podcast episodes start to slide to the bottom of your to-do list. Stumbling on the podcasting flow is totally normal—and totally fixable. The good news is that you can cut back on your workload and still release an impactful, exciting show.

Curbing the number of hours you spend prepping, recording, editing, publishing, and promoting doesn’t have to result in lower-quality episodes. By circling back to your original goals and finding ways to trim, rearrange, and even cut tasks that don’t serve you, a process emerges that keeps you excited to create but not bogged down for hours and hours you just don’t have.

Yes, you have the potential to balance more rest and a meaningful show:

• How to check in on your definition of success
• Why you’re getting better with every show, even if you didn’t notice
• How to go out with heart if you decide to take a break

Links worth mentioning from the episode:

• Episode 84, “Simplify Your Workflow to Keep Your Podcasting Passion Alive with Craig Constantine” - https://www.organizedsound.ca/simplify-your-workflow-to-keep-your-podcasting-passion-alive-with-craig-constantine-episode-84/
• Episode 86, “Warm Up to a Healthier, More Confident Voice with Nic Redman” - https://www.organizedsound.ca/warm-up-to-a-healthier-more-confident-voice-with-nic-redman-episode-86/
• Edison Research, Infinite Dial 2024 - https://www.edisonresearch.com/the-infinite-dial-2024/
• Edison Research, Infinite Dial 2023 - https://www.edisonresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/The-Infinite-Dial-2023.pdf

Connect with Mary!

• Leave a voicemail with your feedback at https://www.speakpipe.com/VisibleVoice or email visiblevoicepodcast@gmail.com
• Get the full transcript of the episode at http://www.visiblevoicepodcast.com
• Read up on more secrets with the Visible Voice Insights Newsletter https://www.organizedsound.ca/newsletter
• To learn more or work with Mary, check out https://www.organizedsound.ca
• Link up on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/marychan-organizedsound/
• Engage on Instagram @OrganizedSoundProductions https://www.instagram.com/organizedsoundproductions

Show Credits:

• Podcast audio design, engineering, and edited by Mary Chan of Organized Sound Productions
• Podcast cover art by Emily Johnston of Artio Design Co.
• Show notes written by Shannon Kirk of Right Words Studio
• Post-production support by Kristalee Forre of Forre You VA

Transcript with Audio Description:

[MUSIC IN - GHOSTHOOD FEATURING SARA AZRIEL “LET’S GO” BEGINS]

MARY: What's possible if you can do less on your podcast, but still achieve your goals. This very specific moment in time. We're looking at the very end of 2024. We're in early November. As I record this, I feel like the collective Western world is at a standstill, kind of waiting in the wings, in limbo to see what's going to drop next. Whether that is interest rates for housing, local or federal elections, cost of living, like grocery prices rising. And you know, there's still like the day to day stuff like managing your work and your podcast is part of that. 

So there's a lot happening in your world, and podcasting might not be at the top of your list of to do’s. I know. And you know what? I'm here to say that it's okay if that's what you're thinking. Like, I got other things to do than to work on my podcast right now. And yeah, it's okay. And this is coming from someone who makes a living editing, managing and strategizing other people's podcasts. Podcasts is mainly what I do. So that's a scary thought for me that if I'm telling people to podcast less, is that going to be less for me as well? How do I survive that? 

But once you take a step back, less is more. As they say, doing less at this time in history can reap many benefits in the future. During your podcasting journey, just like any other parts of your life, it's always good to take a step back. Ask yourself, is there anything I can optimize or do less of, while still enjoying making my show? So let's get into how you can reassess your podcast, so you can still have fun creating a show that you love and have the work of making a podcast that meets your capacity. 

This is episode 87 on the Podcaster's Guide to a Visible Voice.

<< WOMAN SINGS: So so so so let’s go >> 

In our fast paced, moving, technological world, many things are grabbing our attention. 

[INTRO MUSIC ENDS]

And as creators of content, how do you want to create content for this world? I would like to think that we're not creating content just for the sake of creating content, adding noise to what is already out there. But you know what? If you want to create content for the sake of creating content, that's your goal? All the power to you. But if you're here to nurture those relationships, get more clients, practice your messaging, and maybe experiment with your thought leadership, then you're in the right place. 

But a podcast with those values is not easy to create. We're not just here plugging in a microphone, sitting around a table, and just shooting the breeze with your best friend. To create a podcast with intention, the effort is a long game. And some days, those days of creating the podcast can feel long as well, and very isolating. Especially with the digital world, we're always on screens and have a lot of technology in our faces and in our ears, but we're also busy with our real, quote, unquote, real life. You know, outside of work, friends, family, life in general, there's so much busyness that we are looking to slow right down, in our world. 

In the last few months, I've been hearing this a lot. I've been hearing you say you want to do less, or pare down this chaotic life that we're in to be less, do, do, do, and just be for once, just be in your space. Everyone is also, you know, looking at your bank statements or, you know, if you don't go through it in a fine tooth comb like most average people, then at least you're looking at the bottom line, right? We're scrimping, saving, hoping for the same, or having more with spending less. 

And that was the scary thing I was alluding to at the beginning. It's like, oh, man, if people aren't investing in a podcast, what am I doing? What am I here for, right? And there's been a lot of talk in the podcasting world, too, where people have put their shows on pause or they stopped it all together because of health reasons. Health is a big issue right now, too. So many of my clients either went through a huge health concern themselves that, impacted their capacity, or they became a family caregiver to someone, focusing their time on that. And, yeah, they still want a podcast, but figuring out, what does that look like now? 

So in my world, it's less scary, because people still want to podcast. It is still something that's fun and that people see meaning from it. So podcasting isn't going away, but in this world that we're in, what does it look like to do less for your podcast? 

[MUSIC IN]

Let's switch over to the podcast listeners themselves. Today, listeners are listening less, in terms of how many shows they dedicate themselves to. So listening to an average of nine shows a week last year in 2023 to only eight shows this year in 2024. That's all from Edison Research's Infinite Dial Reports for those years. Links in the show notes if you want to go back and prove stats, if you're a big stats lover. But okay. Although listening time has gone up, so there's probably more shows now. There's more choice, and the episodes have gotten a little longer. But the thing here is that each listener is choosing to have fewer individual shows to listen to. They still want the content. Doesn't matter how long the content is, but they're being more choosy about which shows they're sticking around for. And overall, like I said, podcasting is still popular. It still grows year over year. 

So I'm not saying to stop your podcast, you know, unless that really is your goal, and it hasn't been fun for you to produce podcasts, so I get that. But these listeners are being choosy. So let's be choosy, too, about how we create our shows. We want to keep them fun