Latest / Your Mic / Do the hard thing your podcast actually needs

Transcript

Do the hard thing your podcast actually needs · Your Mic

• 0:00
  Doing the hard thing doesn't necessarily mean pushing harder.
• 0:04
  Sometimes it means having the nerve to stop.
• 0:10
  Welcome back to Your Mic.
• 0:11
  My name is Freddy Cruz, founder of Speak Podcasting.
• 0:15
  If you want to get a show started or if you've already got one and you want a course correct, you can download the free Speak Podcasting Roadmap at speakpodcasting.com slash free resources.
• 0:27
  Welcome.
• 0:28
  Now, I'm no stranger to doing hard things, not for the sake of doing them just so I can brag.
• 0:35
  I mean, I can get after it.
• 0:38
  Three or four miles in the middle of a Houston summer.
• 0:41
  And if you know about Houston summers, even Septembers, which we're in right now, it could be brutal.
• 0:47
  And that's an understatement.
• 0:49
  Again, I don't do this to brag or flex.
• 0:52
  I do it because the alternative, not taking care of myself, is an even harder thing, just stretched out over years instead of 30 to 45 minutes.
• 1:04
  You see, I, you, we, we get to pick our version of hard.
• 1:10
  So, when it came to this very show, I had to pick mine.
• 1:15
  About a year ago, I switched hosting platforms, and when Apple Podcasts rolled out HLS Video this year, I turned video on for the episodes that had it.
• 1:27
  And a glitch caused hundreds of old episodes to quietly republish over the course of about two months.
• 1:34
  My analytics, they turned into garbage.
• 1:37
  Downloads didn't match unique listeners.
• 1:40
  Something was obviously broken.
• 1:42
  Support's advice was to go on a short hiatus, let the feed clear, and get clean data back.
• 1:49
  Now, do you know how brutal it was to consider killing my own show for two weeks?
• 1:56
  It was only two weeks!
• 1:57
  Just two weeks!
• 1:59
  Not two years!
• 2:01
  I love this podcast.
• 2:03
  So at first, I didn't listen.
• 2:07
  I tried running a few reruns in August, tagged with From the Archive.
• 2:12
  Good episodes, fun episodes.
• 2:15
  Still didn't fix the problem.
• 2:18
  Eventually, I pulled the plug.
• 2:21
  I took those weeks off and came back with a feed that I can actually trust.
• 2:26
  I should have followed the advice.
• 2:29
  And that was the hard thing.
• 2:31
  Not grinding through a broken system, just stopping it.
• 2:37
  Kind of like when you get a blowout on the freeway.
• 2:40
  You don't keep going, you stop.
• 2:42
  Because you know something's wrong.
• 2:45
  Doing the hard thing looks a lot like buying the mic you've been putting off, investing in the camera or the lighting that you know you need, having the uncomfortable meeting with your team about why the show is not working, asking if the format's wrong, if the co-host isn't working, if you're talking too much or not enough.
• 3:09
  Now for me, it meant admitting I chased a shiny object, switching hosts for no reason other than I met somebody cool at Podcast Movement last year.
• 3:18
  And then that fallout, well, it was on me.
• 3:22
  And it wasn't fun, but it was mine to own.
• 3:26
  So here's your version of that hard thing.
• 3:30
  Think about it.
• 3:30
  The format, the co-host, the cover art that's felt stale for over a year, possibly longer.
• 3:36
  Is it admitting your show doesn't need to run 52 weeks a year?
• 3:40
  Maybe it needs two deliberate 10-episode seasons instead of you flying by the seat of your pants for months at a time.
• 3:49
  Now, I'd love to know what your hard thing is as we head into Q4, because Q4 is when you plan next year.
• 3:57
  And yeah, we're already planning for 2027.
• 4:01
  I'd love to know what your plans are.
• 4:03
  Hit me up, freddy at speakpodcasting.com.
• 4:06
  Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Your Mic.