How to take a break without losing subscribers

Podcasting is a lot of work and you'll reach a point where you just need to step away for a while. But how do you do that without losing the momentum that you've built? In this episode, I'll teach you how to use seasons so you take planned breaks from your podcast.

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Travis 0:00

Today on five minute Monday, I'll teach you how to take a break from your podcast without losing subscribers. Welcome to five minute Monday. We bring you the best tips and strategies for building your podcast in five minutes or less. So if you're new here, consider subscribing. Podcasting is a lot of work and that doesn't really come as any kind of news to anyone that's been doing this for a while. In fact, the longer you stick with it, the more you come to realize this, and it's the main reason why many podcasts don't even make it past episode seven. The exuberance and excitement of the initial launch has faded into the grind and that grind can wear you down or you just aren't excited about turning on the microphone anymore. But you're also afraid to stop publishing new episodes thinking that you'll lose everything that you've built. And so you have this dilemma. Do I continue to grind it out and put out new episodes so I don't lose the momentum I have or do I take a break for my own sanity and emotional and mental and creative health? It was a question that I had to answer for myself with my own podcast. This is a podcast that I produce outside of bus route that I just do for myself. And when I started it last year, I was publishing a new episode every single day. I had very grand ambitions for what I hoped that it would become. And I was trying to capitalize on a niche that I identified that didn't really have any great high quality podcasts, specifically daily Christian podcasts. And so I was putting out, you know, an episode every single day. I would batch episodes out in advance. I would schedule things in advance to try and streamline that process. But it was still a lot of work. And I , I knew it was a lot of work when I started and I was totally fine with that. But then my wife and I had our first child and all of a sudden the time that I could devote to my podcast shrank, understandably right? Having a kid more important than creating podcast episodes. So I had to figure out what to do. How do I, you know, not put out daily episodes so I can focus on my family without losing any positive momentum that I had built with my podcast at that point. So what I decided to do is implement seasons. So I actually have seasons in my podcast even though it was a daily podcast and now it's a three times a week podcast. I still have seasons. And so I want to talk a little bit about how to implement seasons in your podcast if it's a recurring weekly, biweekly podcast or more frequently. So that way you can take breaks without losing subscribers. So the first thing you need to figure out is how long you want each season to be. This could be the number of episodes that you want to do or the amount of time, the number of weeks or months that you want to devote to your podcast before you take a break. And so for me, I like to take two breaks a year. I will do 20 weeks of podcast episodes and then take a six week hiatus and then come back with the next season, which doesn't necessarily mean anything has changed, but it kind of signals that I'm back and we're going to continue to put out new episodes and then after 20 weeks of that that I'll take another six week break. So I have two really nice breaks to break up the year so I don't feel overwhelmed and stretched thin and typically the way that I will signal to my listeners that I'm about to go on a break is I will have a season finale episode where I tell everyone, hey guys, the last 20 weeks has been great. Here have been some highlights and then this is the specific date when I'm coming back. This is the date that you can put in your calendars that you can count on that I will start putting out new podcast episodes. That way that they know there's a plan. I'm not just saying, hey guys, I've stopping not sure what the plan is, not sure when I'm coming back, not sure if I'm coming back. They just know there is a plan and if I stay subscribed, then when Travis comes back, I will get those episodes that I've been used to hearing. So that is something that I encourage podcasters to do. If they're feeling stretched thin, they're feeling overwhelmed, or if they're feeling like it's just not fun anymore is to incorporate seasons into your podcast. Do you need some help with your podcast? The buzz sprout podcast community on Facebook is a great place to find answers and get the help you need to make your podcast as excellent as possible. So if you're not a member yet, just click on the link in the show notes and asked to join. That's it for today. Thanks for listening and I'll talk to you soon.