Mandatory isolation. Drygoods hoarding. Tiger King on Netflix. Currently, many podcasters are having difficulty finding the motivation and the time to produce their shows. You may be one of them. Here are three tips to keep podcasting in a world such as ours.
- First, be kind to yourself. You can release an episode that is shorter than usual or one that’s not as polished as you would like. Give yourself some grace if an episode is not up to your usual standards. We’ve all got a lot going on right now, it’s OK.
- Secondly, keep to your podcast production schedule as much as possible. Sticking to your routine, such as recording on Thursday, editing on Friday, and releasing on Monday will boost your mental and emotional fortitude when other parts of life go sideways. Also, this is an important time for your audience to follow their regular weekly routine, your consistent podcast episodes are helpful to them, too.
- Lastly, if you need to take some time off from podcasting, treat the connection you have with your audience like you would any other relationship you have in real life. Simply communicate your plans to your audience. If you doubt you can put out a show and homeschool and work remotely, let your fans know. You should either announce at the end of a full episode that it may be a few weeks before you release your next episode, or release an additional 30 second episode to share that you will be taking a few weeks off from content creation. Your audience is understanding, such an announcement will cause them to look forward to your next episode – whenever that may be. Keeping them in the dark about your struggles will fill them with ennui when they see your cover art on their device.
In review: 1) Be kind to yourself. 2) Keep to your routine. 3) Communicate with your audience.
Doing these three things will make it easier for you to keep your podcast going during and beyond the current crisis.