20. Holiday Podcasting Tips to Avoid Burnout

This transcript was created using Headliner. It has been copied and pasted but not proofread or edited, so it may contain errors or inaccuracies.

Laura: Welcome to Podcasting for Business Owners. I’m Your host, Laura McRae, a podcast consultant, educator, and self confessed podcast nerd. If you’re thinking of launching a podcast or want to grow the one you have, you’re in the right place. Hold on to your headphones and let’s go.

Laura: Hello and, um, welcome back to Podcasting for Business Owners, the podcast that helps you share your story, lead your industry, and grow your network through podcasting. I’m Laura and I’m so glad you’re here. Today. We’re officially in the thick of December. The holidays are right round the corner, and here in Australia, it’s also the summer holidays. For many of us, this time of year can feel a little chaotic with family events, work deadlines, and planning for the new year. That’s why today’s episode is all about giving yourself permission to take a break from your podcast. If you’ve been feeling the pressure to stay consistent through the holidays, I want you to know that it’s, uh, okay to pause. In fact, it can really be the best thing you do for yourself and your show. Before we start, I want to mention that I’m not taking a break myself this holiday season. Since I’ve only recently launched my podcast, I’m focused on building momentum and connecting with you right now. That said, I’m not recording these episodes during the holidays. I plan and batch record my episode weeks, sometimes even months in advance. That’s what works for me, though. I love the feeling of having everything scheduled before the holiday season so that I can really relax and enjoy the holidays. But this is my choice. If you’d rather take a break and come back refreshed in the new year, then you go for it. This episode is here to help you decide what’s best for you. Let me share a quick story from my early days as a podcast manager. One of my clients had been producing episodes weekly for months without a break. They were dedicated and consistent, but after a while, they used to dread recording their podcast episodes. Her creative spark was gone and it started to show in her content. Eventually, she took a short break, came back refreshed, and told me it was the best decision she’d ever made for her show. Podcasting is for the long game. It’s not about perfection or sticking rigidly to a weekly release schedule at all costs. It’s about staying connected with your audience over time. Taking breaks strategically is part of a sustainable approach that keeps you from burning out. Remember, rest fuels creativity, giving you space to reflect, dream up, uh, new ideas, and return with fresh energy. I will say though, that it’s important that you communicate your break with your audience. That could be a short announcement, Whether it’s a 30 second episode, a social media post, or an email. Or if you know in advance that you’re going to take a break, mention it at the end of the episode before you take a break. So in the outro of that episode, explain that you’re taking a break and when you’re planning to come back. Let me tell you about two podcasters that I admire who prioritise breaks. First is Krishla, who’s the co host of the Mad Marketing Mums podcast. I interviewed her, huh, back in episode 13 and she shared with me how they always take breaks over the school holidays. This allows her and Clem, who’s her co host, to balance podcasting with their busy lives and their listeners know this and they understand. Then there’s Sarah Thompson. She’s the host of the Social Circus podcast. Every year she takes a six week break over the summer and Christmas holidays to focus on her family. Her audience knows this routine and it hasn’t hurt her podcast’s growth at all. These examples prove that taking a break isn’t just okay. It’s a smart and sustainable way to manage your podcast. It shows that you can balance personal life and podcasting without compromising on quality or audience connection. I recommend that you consider planning breaks into your podcast schedule. You can take seasonal breaks as Sarah does, or even plan a few off weeks during the year to recharge. Make it a habit and not a last minute decision because you don’t want your podcast to have burnt you out. And then you decide to take a break because then you’re so burnt out you’re probably not sure even when you’re going to come back. So by you taking these planned breaks, it’s preventing you getting burnt out by your podcast. I love hearing about how other podcasters manage their time. One of the podcasts I listen to is called Podcasting for Educators. The host, Sarah Whittaker, took a break to have her baby. Her podcast has been going for a couple of years now, so during this break she just published some of her most downloaded and popular episodes. She repurposed

00:05:00

Laura: her old content, which is such a great idea. So if you plan to take a break and you’ve got a big backlog of episodes, if you want to keep your podcast going during this break, then you can repurpose your old episodes. With the old episodes, just add, ah, a short intro explaining that it’s from a previous episode that was really popular and you felt it would be good to share it again. I always recommend saying this rather than just chucking your previous episode in there. Uh, just explain that it’s an old one, because that way you’re letting them decide whether they want to listen to it or not. If they’ve heard it already, they can choose to skip it. Or sometimes for me, when I hear these episodes, even if I’ve heard them already, if they’re really good episodes and I enjoy them, I like listening to them again. But I think it’s just good to let them know that it’s a repurposed episode and that you’ve released it before. So here’s what works best for me, seeing as I want to take a break over the holidays, but I don’t want to stop my podcast episodes from being released. So what I do, as mentioned earlier, I, uh, batch, record and schedule episodes, weeks and sometimes even months in advance. Earlier this year, my parents were visiting me from England to Australia for a, um, month and I wanted to spend as much time as possible with them. So our batch recorded and scheduled six episodes before they arrived. It felt really good knowing that I didn’t have to record whilst they were here. Batch recording gives you the freedom to relax while staying consistent. It means you don’t have to rush around, which is something I hate doing, and it allows you to really enjoy your holidays. To make batching easier, plan your episodes in advance. Use a simple content calendar to, uh, map out topics and recordings. I love tools like Trello or Asana to keep everything organised. I use Trello for both myself and my clients podcasts. If you’re not sure what Trello is, it’s a project management tool that helps you get organised. I’ve got a free Trello board template you can download for free. I’ll put the link to that in the show notes. I recently heard from a listener who was anxious about recording over the school holidays with the kids running around. So I recommended to her that if she doesn’t have the capacity to batch record before the holidays or outsource some of her podcasting tasks, that she just simply take a break. She’s since decided to take that break and she messaged me yesterday saying how relieved she felt. So, as much as consistency in podcasting is important, it’s also important to look after yourself and, um, not let your podcast burn you out. A, uh, rested podcaster is a better podcaster. When you prioritise your wellbeing, you come back more creative, energetic and connected. Talking of connection, let’s connect. Head over to my instagram page@uh, podcast.support.services and share your holiday podcasting plans with me. Are you going to batch record, take a break or just keep going? I’d love to hear what you’re up to and give you a shout out in the future episodes. I really hope this episode has helped you to decide what’s best for you over the holiday season. Thank you for listening and see you next week.

Laura: If you found value in this podcast, please leave. A five star rating and a review would be even better. Your support shows that this is a good show which will attract high profile guests and in turn deliver greater value to you. This podcast is produced and edited by me. Don’t waste your time on editing. Let me help you with your podcast. Cheque out the links in the show notes to get in touch.

00:08:40