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How to Take a Break From Your Podcast Without Losing Momentum · Abbey the Podcast Lady

• 0:00
  you Hello and welcome to another episode of Abby
• 0:07
  the podcast lady so you clicked on this because
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  you obviously saw the title of Taking a break
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  from your podcast without losing momentum and
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  that is what we are going to be covering today
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  I have a pretty extensive background with podcasting
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  at this point I am producing 10 shows every single
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  week for different people across the country
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  and across the world and they're all in different
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  places with what they want their podcast to do
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  for them for their brand for their business and
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  a lot of have been doing this for a while. A
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  lot of my clients have had for almost four years
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  now. So I have some really dedicated people making
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  some really incredible content, but that doesn't
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  mean that they don't need to take a break every
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  now and then. Podcasting is a grind and you see
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  the best results when you stick with it for a
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  long time, but life doesn't always work that
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  way. I think we're all well aware that we go
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  through different seasons and different struggles
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  and different priorities. Things change and your
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  podcast should be able to adapt with that as
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  well. So today we're gonna be talking about how
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  you can take a break. while you're podcasting,
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  but not lose momentum in the process. We're gonna
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  go over some case studies of the clients that
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  I work with and what they're doing. And I also
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  wanna touch on a celebrity podcast that's been
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  doing this lately as well. So let's dive in.
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  The first one I wanna touch on is my client Liz.
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  She is the host of the Rooted Agri -Tourism podcast.
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  She also hosts the Farmers to Florist podcast
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  that just launched in the month of March in 2026
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  as a companion to her new online software platform.
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  She is a busy lady. She not only has two podcasts,
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  but she also, like I mentioned, has an online
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  software platform. She's trying to get off the
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  ground. She just launched her very first book.
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  She wrote a memoir and put that out into the
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  world. That published the first week of March
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  of 2026. She also is running an event venue.
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  She's a wedding florist and she's running a cut
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  flower farm. So she's got a few things going
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  on and the podcast. is a priority. I'm not saying
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  it's not a priority for her. It definitely is.
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  Both podcasts are. But with this busy season
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  of life that she's in, she did need to take a
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  step back from the Rooted Egg Retourism podcast
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  and just pump the brakes on it a little bit.
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  And that is totally fine. When she reached out
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  to me and she expressed that she didn't think
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  that she had the capacity to make the Rooted
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  Egg Retourism podcast on the scale of what she
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  wanted it to during this busy season, I said,
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  that's fine. It is so fine. That podcast has
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  been going on for, well, it's actually been a
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  few different podcasts. It started as the Sunny
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  Mary Meadow podcast, which was all about her
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  cut flower farm. She thought she was going to
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  connect with her customers that way. Turns out
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  her customers just wanted to buy flowers. They
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  didn't really care how they were grown, but she
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  found this audience of people wanting to start
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  cut flower farms. So it morphed into the Flower
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  Farmer Forum podcast. We rebranded it. And then
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  a couple of years later, we rebranded it again
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  to be Rooted Agri -Tourism to just kind of expand.
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  the scope of what she wanted to talk about and
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  she just couldn't give it the attention that
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  she thought it deserved during the super busy
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  season of her life with trying to you know market
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  a book and run this software platform and book
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  out her venue so it's just been kind of on the
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  back burner and what I've been noticing because
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  I've been monitoring the numbers of this podcast
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  as we have not released an episode since early
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  February what I've seen is that the numbers well
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  they'll never go down your downloads will never
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  go down I'll tell you that much I mean they might
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  like on a weekly basis but the overall downloads
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  are still going up it's still trending up because
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  she has this back catalog of so many evergreen
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  episodes which if you're unfamiliar with what
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  evergreen is it means that they're always relevant
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  it's good information that people can find years
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  down the road and still find pertinent to what
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  they're looking for and she has this incredible
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  deep back catalog of episodes that people are
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  still discovering that people are still finding
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  because we set up correctly with proper keywords
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  and tags and there's blogs built for every single
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  episode so people are still on the internet searching
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  for these topics finding the podcast downloading
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  it listening to it subscribing following along
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  even though there hasn't been a new episode in
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  a month and a half now so she Kind of, this is
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  gonna sound weird, but she kind of has a privilege
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  of taking a step back and not releasing new episodes
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  right now just because she has such a deep back
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  catalog of episodes. So if you are in a position
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  of you've been podcasting a long time, you got
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  a bunch of episodes and you just need to take
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  a break, you probably can. And you're probably
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  still gonna get downloads. Another example of
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  this happening is my very first podcast. It's
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  called The Small Town Tourist. It was just a
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  passion project. I never really... had big aspirations
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  with it I just kind of wanted to make it and
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  last year at this time I put out my last episode
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  of it not on purpose just because I got busy
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  producing for other people and your own shows
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  kind of end up on the back burner when you're
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  working for other people so I just didn't have
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  time to make the small town tourist anymore I
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  actually went and checked in on the analytics
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  for that show last week and I was shocked to
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  see that I had crested like over I think it was
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  like 12 12 ,000 downloads on a show that I think
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  when I last checked it I was maybe at 6 ,000
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  a year ago. I don't know something took off again.
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  I had the proper SEO built for it I had keyword
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  rich show notes. I had like location tags. I
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  had blogs built for everything So something somewhere
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  caught someone's attention and that podcast is
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  still getting listens It's still getting downloads
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  to this day, even though I haven't touched it
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  or done anything with it in over a year. So that's
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  another example of taking a break and just kind
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  of letting it sit and seeing what happens. If
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  you don't have time for it, people are probably
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  still going to be discovering your show, even
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  if you're not actively making new episodes. Another
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  example of this is my client, Amanda Radke. She
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  is the host of the Heart of Rural America podcast.
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  She's based in Mitchell, South Dakota, and she
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  is in a super busy season of her life as well.
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  She's a public speaker. She's on the road a lot.
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  She is a private property rights activist, and
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  she is just kind of leading the charge for that
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  in South Dakota. She's also a cattle rancher
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  and she's got four kids. So she is super busy.
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  She started the year off really strong. We had
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  episodes lined up for, oh gosh, I think we had
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  them like through the first or second week of
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  March. She realized that we were at episodes
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  and she didn't have time to record more and that's
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  okay. So instead what we're doing because we've
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  seen such a big uptick in her numbers for downloads
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  as well is I really wanted to keep this momentum
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  going. And I knew that we would probably need
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  to keep the feeds at least fed. So what we were
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  doing for that is going back and finding some
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  of her more popular episodes, which if you use
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  RSS .com, you can actually sort your episodes
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  based on how many downloads they had. So you
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  can kind of go in and see, OK, that episode really
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  resonated with people. That one was super popular.
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  That one had a huge download spike. Let's replay
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  those episodes. and bring them to the top of
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  the feed so you can go and grab the audio. I
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  luckily keep everything in a folder for all of
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  my clients so we can go through and grab that
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  old audio. Grab the cover art if you need to,
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  copy and paste the title and the description
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  over. Make sure you put in the title that it
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  is a replay episode so people know, especially
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  if they're diehard listeners that like... Have
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  I listened to this one? Yes, you probably have
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  but you know what? It's good to revisit these
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  things sometimes So I've been going through and
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  putting replay episodes together for her on her
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  RSS feed Just so that every Wednesday morning
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  The people who have subscribed to the show the
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  people who have been loyal listeners the new
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  people who have just got on board They're getting
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  that notification going Oh a new episode right
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  the heart of rural America comes out on Wednesdays
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  I'm gonna listen to this and the new listeners
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  are gonna get basically a fresh episode because
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  they probably haven't gone this far far back
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  and heard these episodes, the old listeners might
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  get to revisit something and learn something
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  that they didn't catch on the first time around.
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  And it's just staying top of mind for people.
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  It's just staying in their feeds, which is super
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  important because you want to build those relationships.
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  You want to build trust. You want to be part
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  of your listeners weekly listening. So it's just
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  a really good way to stay top of mind without
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  having to create a brand new episode. on the
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  fly at the last minute, stressing yourself out,
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  stressing your producer out. Like it is just
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  an easy way to stay relevant in people's feeds
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  and ready to rock. So I mentioned at the start
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  of this episode that there's a celebrity doing
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  this as well with their podcast right now. I
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  noticed Amy Poehler is doing this. Yes, Golden
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  Globe winner for podcasting, Amy Poehler is doing
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  replay episodes of her podcast. Now they're not
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  necessarily like full blown replay episodes.
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  Instead, she is doing basically like a clip show.
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  So she has done different categories of like,
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  she always asks her guests what they're laughing
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  at these days. So she made like a big montage
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  of what her guests said they were laughing at.
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  She did one that was a montage of people sharing
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  SNL memories. So when she would talk to someone
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  on her show from SNL and they'd tell a story,
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  she pulled all those clips and put them together
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  in a new episode of basically just highlights
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  from the show. It's pretty sweet and it takes
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  a lot of time. I will warn you that if you want
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  to do this as like your replay episodes or as
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  a new episode, you're going to have to be pretty
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  diligent about it. And I would honestly just
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  start keeping a ongoing folder of like highlights
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  and clips as you're editing episodes. Like if
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  you think, oh, this is a great standout moment,
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  cut that part out, throw it in a folder somewhere.
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  And then the easiest thing would be to go and
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  grab those clips and mash them all together.
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  If you're starting this from scratch and you're
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  like, oh, yeah, I don't have an episode for next
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  week I want to do a clip show honestly you'll
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  probably spend more time trying to make a clip
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  show from old episodes than you would just sitting
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  down to record a fresh one so if this is something
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  that piqued your interest you're like I would
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  like to do a clip show highlight reel that sort
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  of thing someday start saving those clips now
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  because it is a labor of love but Amy Poehler
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  is even doing it Amy Poehler even needs a break
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  from podcasting she's only been doing it a year
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  she won an award for it but You still need a
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  break sometimes. Life gets busy. Life gets chaotic.
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  And when you need a break, you should be able
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  to take one. And there's definitely ways to do
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  that. The last thing I want to mention is that
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  you probably have a bunch of content that you
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  have not shared from old episodes. How many of
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  us have made reels and posts and Pinterest pins
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  and blogs for podcast episodes, but we haven't
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  shared them anywhere. They just sit in a void
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  waiting for us to share them. And we just never
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  do. So if you need a break from podcasting, just
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  go and share those clips. that you already have
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  made and never got around to posting on social
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  media because chances are good if you didn't
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  share it no one found the episode so share it
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  with the link to the episode boom fresh content
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  ready to go might not seem fresh to you, but
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  it's gonna be fresh to your audience. So make
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  sure that you're sharing all that social media
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  goodness that you're creating to promote your
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  show. So that's all I got for you this week.
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  Thank you so much for tuning into another episode
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  of Abby the Podcast Lady. If you need to take
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  a break with your show, take a break with your
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  show. There's different ways to do it without
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  losing momentum. If you're looking for more guidance
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  on this kind of thing, if you're looking for
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  podcast consulting, if you're looking for help
• 11:03
  editing, if you need help figuring out how to
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  do a replay show, I would love to help guide
• 11:08
  you through that. Be sure to check me out. Fill
• 11:09
  out my contact form at abbygravesproductions
• 11:12
  .com. I have a link in the show notes as well.
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  I'll catch you next week.