Latest / Your Mic / Podfade is Boredom In Disguise, Not Proof You Should Quit

Transcript

Podfade is Boredom In Disguise, Not Proof You Should Quit · Your Mic

• 0:00
  Potthade. It's not always burnout.
• 0:04
  That ugly, low-grade, I cannot believe I have to talk about this again feeling you get. When you stare at your outline and would rather reorganize your pantry than press record. We don't talk about that part, do we? We talk about consistency and systems and habits. All the stuff I've preached about and I'll keep preaching because it matters. But there's another truth sitting underneath a lot of dead podcasts. The host just got bored.
• 0:34
  This is your mic. My name is Freddy Cruz. And today, I want to talk about the other reason people walk away from their shows. The one I have run into more than once myself. I've had multiple podcasts since 2020 when I was on the radio. Over a thousand interviews recorded 25 plus years behind a mic. And I have wanted to quit. More than once. Not because podcasting is hard. Because life is hard.
• 1:02
  And podcasting sits on top of life. Now, there were seasons where client work was heavy, family life was heavy, and the last thing I wanted to do was sit down and record another episode of a show that felt exactly like the last 10. Same intro, same format, same questions, same talking points. When that happens, it's really easy to tell yourself a story. Maybe I'm not cut out for this.
• 1:34
  Maybe the market is saturated. Maybe nobody cares. Sometimes those are honest conversations. But sometimes if you strip away the drama, the truth is a lot simpler. You're bored with your own show.
• 1:54
  If you're hearing this and realizing that your podcast might be fine on paper, but dead to you in practice, that's the kind of thing I help people fix. If you want to help rebuilding your show so you actually want to sit down and hit record again, go to speakpodcasting.com. Hit the contact form. Tell me you came from this podcast and what it is you're trying to rebuild. Now back to Podfade.
• 2:17
  It rarely starts with a dramatic announcement. Hello, I'm Podfade. I'm here to wreck your podcast. No. It starts with a tiny negotiation. Let's skip this week. Come back stronger next week. Then next week becomes, I'll just do a short update. Then the short update never gets recorded.
• 2:45
  You tell yourself it's because you're busy, because the analytics aren't where you want them, because LinkedIn didn't clap hard enough for your last episode. And all of that might be true. But ask yourself this, and answer brutally honest, all right? If you were obsessed with the show you were making right now, if it lit you up, would you really, really be skipping that?
• 3:13
  Because most of the time when I wanted to bail, the answer has always been no. The problem was never capacity. It was excitement. I had built a format I was no longer really excited to sit in. I'll give you examples from my own life. There were stretches where every episode started to sound like a podcast about podcasting talking about podcasting.
• 3:35
  The same growth tips, the same clips, AI, repurpose advice you'd get from a thousand other feeds and from other LinkedIn bros. Meanwhile, the episodes that actually lit me up were the ones where I went off the script. There's an episode in which I tied in my dad in a drive down Loop 610 in Houston. There's an episode during season one. I'm in a forever season now, but when I thought I'd be seasonal in season one, I talked about a blocked punt from when I was in high school.
• 4:04
  Screw ups. Then there's a recent episode about Malcolm Gladwell. It lived in my head rent free for days. Those were ones where I wasn't just teaching. And when I looked at the calendar and felt resistance, it wasn't because I was tired of podcasting. I was tired of being a character in my own show instead of a person. And I was tired of formats that, well...
• 4:26
  Boxed me in. That's why I've leaned super hard into eight to nine minute solo rants that I can record in one take, audio first, and if I get around to it, maybe video. Because that format allowed me to talk like this instead of feeling like I was trapped in a window. Changing the format, it brought the fun back. And if you're flirting with pod fade right now, I want you to run a boredom check.
• 4:55
  Three questions and no, you're not allowed to lie. One, am I still curious about my topic? If your niche genuinely bores you now, that's a bigger conversation. Maybe you need to change careers, but most of you, well, I'm going to make the assumption and I know what happens when you assume that.
• 5:17
  But I'm going to assume most of you still care about your topic. You're just stuck in a stale format. Two, do I like the way I'm forced to talk about it? Are you locked into a 60-minute interview when you'd rather do an 8 or 9-minute solo rant? Are you hiding solo episodes because somebody told you interviews perform better? Well, that mismatch creates boredom.
• 5:46
  Then there's three. When was the last time you did an episode that scared you a little bit? I'll tell you right now, the Malcolm episode, the one about the screw up confession, the Bo Jackson origin story, those feel alive because you know what? They cost me something to say. They do. I could play it safe. I could pretend to be the strong man.
• 6:11
  I'm not. If it's been months since you have felt that, of course you're bored.
• 6:18
  Now, if you answer yes, you still care about the topic. No, you don't like the format. And if you can't remember the last time an episode scared you, you don't have a podcast problem. You have a design problem. Here's the part where I'm supposed to give you five bulletproof tactics. I'm not going to do that. I'm going to give you two experiments instead because boredom does not need a strategy deck. It needs a jolt.
• 6:45
  So your first experiment, yes, you get more homework. Format break week. For one episode, cut your runtime in half.
• 6:56
  Change your structure. Talk about the thing you actually want to talk about, the thing you've been saving for later. If you normally do interviews, do a solo rant. If you normally script everything, outline only and riff on it. Ship it. Watch how it feels in your body when you hit publish and listen. Yes, you have to listen. As I've told clients, you have to eat your peas.
• 7:20
  Experiment number two, the only if rule. For the next month, you only record episodes that meet this bar. If I could never see the download numbers for this episode, would I still want to make it? If the answer is no, it does not make the cut. You should be shocked at how quickly your calendar clears of should episodes and fills with episodes you're actually willing to fight for.
• 7:49
  If while listening to this you realize it's the structure that's choking you, not the subject, that's exactly why I built PodQuest. It's to rebuild the show so you want to sit down and hit record again. No pressure, no scarcity countdown, just a next step if you need one. Podfade is not always a crisis of character sometimes. It's a crisis sometimes.
• 8:12
  of curiosity. Hey, look, you've built a show that made sense on paper. Then you evolved and the show didn't. And it's not failure. That is a data point that you need to pay attention to. At least if you want to keep podcasting.
• 8:27
  So this is my challenge. Before you decide to quit on your show, ask yourself whether you're actually just bored. And if you are, give yourself permission to rebuild it so it's a show you will actually listen to. Because if you're bored hosting it, guess what? Your listeners feel that and they're going to be so bored, you probably won't get much retention. Yeah, they will peace out in less than 60 seconds. And if you're lit up, well...
• 8:57
  Your listeners can hear it in your voice. And if it's a video show, they'll see it. Oh yeah, they will. My name is Freddy Cruz. This is your mic. And if you want a partner to help you redesign your show so it fits who you are, not who you were when you launched, hit up speakpodcasting.com, fill out the contact form, tell me you came from this podcast and what needs to change in your podcast journey. And since this episode called you out a little bit.
• 9:23
  Send it, literally send it via text to another host who is on the edge of quitting. Don't post anything about it on social media. Send it to that friend who needs to hear this. I appreciate you.