106. The Hard Truth About Taking a Break From Podcasting

Feeling burnt out and wondering if it's time to take a break from your podcast? In this episode, I'm going to unpack what it really means to take a break, how to know if it’s the right move, and what to do if things feel stagnant...but you’re not quite ready to walk away.

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Transcript

Hey. Hey. And welcome back. This is your podcast teacher, Julia Levine, and you're listening to podcasting for solopreneurs. The show that helps online business owners grow their podcast to get more listeners, leads, and sales. Today, we're digging into a topic that comes up a lot, not just in coaching consultations, but in casual conversations in Facebook groups. I have seen so many posts asking, should I take a break from my podcast? And I understand if you started your podcast earlier this year, maybe you were one of the thousands of people who launched in January with big goals and a lot of momentum, right about now, you might be hitting the point where you're feeling a bit tired and burnt out. The newness has worn off, the excitement has slowed down, and your podcast is starting to feel more like a chore than a golden opportunity.

And therefore, you might be wondering if it's time to take a break from your podcast. It's a totally normal question and you're definitely not alone in asking it. So today, we're going to unpack what it really means to take a break, how to know if it's the right move, and what to do if things feel stagnant but you're not quite ready to walk away. Alright, let's dive in. First, let's talk about the why. Why you're thinking about taking a break. Are you thinking about taking a break because you're going through something in your life that is making podcasting feel impossible right now? Or are you thinking about taking a break because you're frustrated with the lack of results? Because those are two very different things. If you are facing something big in your life, a health diagnosis, moving, caring for an elderly parent, something like that give yourself grace.

Take a pause if you need to. No guilt, no shame, it's okay. But if the root of the issue is disappointment, if you're feeling like the growth just isn't there, all of the effort that you're putting into your podcast is not being rewarded, that's when I want to encourage you to look a little bit deeper before you hit pause. Because here is what I have seen over and over and over again. Most podcasters who stop because they are discouraged do not end up coming back because keeping the momentum is really important. And there are two different aspects to look at. There's audience retention and momentum and also your own momentum as a creator. So let's start with your audience because most listeners consume podcasts in a routine.

You are part of their daily walk, their drive to work, their dropping off the kids, their weekly cleaning session, their daily gym session. When your episodes stop showing up, they are gonna slide another show into that spot. And then if and when you start publishing again, it can be challenging to bump that other show out and slide yours back in. I think I mentioned this in last week's episode, but I personally would rather work to retain listeners than work to convince them to come back. Then there's also your momentum as the creator. You have built a rhythm, whether that's publishing weekly, biweekly, something else, whatever your schedule is. You have carved out the time, the mental space, you've created a system, and that routine is gold. Because once you step away, it's so much harder to restart.

And this is one of the reasons why I'm such a huge advocate of simplifying instead of stopping. I want you to work smarter not harder. There are ways to lighten the load with out losing the habit. Whether that is switching to shorter episodes, publishing less frequently, or repurposing content that you have already created. If this is something that you're actively navigating by the way, consider joining other podcasters like you inside of the podcast growth collective. It is a supportive space where you can get guidance, bounce ideas around, and get strategies for growth that do not require burning out in the process. You can check it out anytime at the podcastteacher.com/collective. Okay, so what if your podcast feels stuck? If you are not seeing the results that you have hoped for, that doesn't necessarily mean that something is wrong with you or your content, but it does likely mean that something in your podcast strategy needs attention.

This is where I use a framework that I teach called the podcast ARC. ARC stands for attraction, retention, and conversion. Attraction is about getting new listeners. If you are publishing weekly but you're getting fewer than 1,000 downloads per month, you likely have an attraction problem. Now this doesn't mean that your content isn't good, it just means that not enough people are discovering it. So a couple of things that you can take a look at: are your titles optimized for search? Are you marketing in places that drive traffic back to your podcast? Are you using guest interviews or promo swaps to get in front of new audiences? These are all some different avenues to explore if you need to work on attracting new listeners. Now retention on the other hand is looking at if people are sticking around once they find you. And if your episode consumption rates are below 70% on average, you may have a retention problem.

By the way, you can scroll back to episode 87 if you want more information about consumption rates. Anyway, retention often ties back to content clarity and messaging. So something might not quite be hitting the mark if you are not retaining listeners. So you want to make sure that your titles and descriptions communicate clear and specific value to your listeners. You also want to make sure that your episodes hook the listener early and deliver what was promised. And finally, make sure that you are not burying all of the good stuff towards the end of the episode. Retention matters because if listeners are not sticking around to listen to a whole episode, they are definitely not converting. And so that brings us to looking at conversion, which is are your listeners taking the next step with you? Maybe they're listening, even binging your episodes, maybe they're consuming the whole thing.

You've got a great retention, but they're not joining your list, they're not reaching out or becoming clients or customers in some way. So if you think you may have a conversion problem, there are a couple things to look at. First and foremost, you want to look at your call to action, also known as a CTA. You wanna make sure you have a clear, simple call to action in every episode. Sometimes we focus on providing value, I know I've been guilty of this, and then we forget where we don't want to seem salesy so we don't incorporate a CTA. And then if you are incorporating a CTA I want to make sure that you're asking them to do just one thing because too many CTAs can cause confusion and inaction, and finally take a look at what you are giving as your CTA and make sure that that next step is relevant and aligned with the episode content. I will say this can be challenging if you're a multi passionate online business owner and you cover a lot of subtopics and you have a lot of different offers, but it's not impossible. When we're talking about conversions, it's important to have realistic expectations.

On average, podcasts have a 1% conversion rate for sales. That means that if you have 100 listeners, it's normal to have only one person turn into a customer or client. This is one of the reasons so many podcast coaches, myself included, talk about increasing your download numbers because 1% of 1,000 is more meaningful to you and your business than 1% of 100. So more downloads typically also means more conversions. And by the way, you can anticipate slightly higher conversion rates when you're asking someone to do something that doesn't involve a lot of time or money, such as opting in to a free resource. Okay. So where should you focus first? If you can identify one of these areas that's a big struggle for you, then great go ahead and start there. But, if you need to do some work in all three areas that's okay.

And I recommend starting with retention. I know that that might seem a little out of order since it's in the middle of the arc, but unless you're literally literally getting zero downloads per episode, you have already attracted a few listeners. So I want you to focus your efforts on retention. Make your content amazing and ensure that the people that you already have attracted are sticking around for more. Then you can go back and work on attracting some more people like them through podcast SEO, marketing, guesting on other podcasts, paid advertisements, etcetera. And then finally, you want to address conversion. Once you've got people listening and they're engaged, make it easy for them to take the next step with you. So to kind of sum things up here, taking a break is not always the wrong move, but it's not always the right one either.

So if you need space for big things that are going on in your life you have the podcast teacher's permission to take that space. But if you are just feeling kind of stuck, discouraged with a lack of growth, I hope that this episode has helped you reframe what might really be going on and what you need to address. Your podcast absolutely has potential but sometimes it needs just a few intentional tweaks in your strategy to start moving forward again. And if you want support making those tweaks, if you're ready to grow your podcast without burning out, I would love for you to come join us inside the Podcast Growth Collective. It's where strategy meets sustainability, And you can head to the podcastteacher.com/collective to check it out. Doors are opening soon. Until next time, happy podcasting.