073: Podcast Burnout? 5 Actionable Tips to Overcome It
The burnout is real. I don’t know about you but when I’m feeling exhausted or when things are just feeling challenging, coming up with outlines for podcast episodes doesn’t flow as easily. Not only that, but sitting down to record or create other content around the episode can be challenging. Let’s face it: when you are burnt out, it all can add up quickly.
In today’s episode, I am going to be talking about what to do when you face burnout with your podcast plus 5 actionable tips to get you started. I’ll even dive into how getting support helps create space for growth in your business and the brain space you need to create podcast episodes.
What’s in this episode:
How to know if you might be facing burnout
My 5 tips to overcoming burnout
How getting help with your podcast can create space for growth
Links:
071: The Best Strategies for Taking a Break From Podcasting
068: How to Uplevel Your Podcast (and Save Time) by Hiring Support
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The Transcript:
073: Podcast Burnout? 5 Actionable Tips to Overcome It
One of my favorite things to do is to have a conversation with someone who doesn't know what I do and explain to them what I do and what I love about my job. This happened to me over the weekend. I was hanging out with some people that I didn't know and explained to them what I did and just the excitement came back up in my voice. I could feel it. And there's something so special about sharing it with someone who's hearing it for the first time that makes you really excited. And so maybe talk to some friends about what you do, what your podcast is about.
Welcome to the Wild Home Podcast, where we talk about podcasting life and all the wild in between. Join me, Caroline, every week as I share a peek into the world of podcasting and my wild life as well. Ready? Let's get into it. Hello everyone and welcome back to the Wild Home Podcast.
Today I wanted to chat about podcast burnout. I don't know about you guys, but I am feeling so much burnout right now. I think really the reason I'm feeling burnout is it's that like end of school year crunch time and there's just so much going on in my life besides work and, you know, kids and everything else, that the idea of sitting down and creating content feels a little overwhelming, you know?
And also, like, I feel and maybe maybe you can relate to this, but when things feel especially hard or I'm really tired. Coming up with the outlines for my episodes feels really hard, like it just doesn't flow as easy as I want it to. A couple of weeks ago, I had this really great idea for a series that's going to be happening on the podcast pretty soon. And my idea was that I would do the series of episodes that was going to get it all recorded before May, and things got a little nuts in my life, and every time I sat down to like outline it, I just could not get the ideas into my is on it because that's where I organize everything.
So, you know, I really started thinking about this this week, especially this week has been especially exhausting for personal reasons and other things. And I knew that I needed to sit down and record a couple episodes and I just did not have it in me. And I was like, this is like burnout. I think I'm burnt out. And so instead of doing the episode I planned, I actually wanted to share five tips with you. I've experienced what I call podcast burnout many times in my podcast career, and anybody who does any kind of content creation can tell you like there is a point where you're going to hit a moment where it all feels like too much. Like I just I don't have it in me to do all the content, all the creating that I need to do. It's normal. I feel like there's kind of seasons to when things there's times when things feel easier and there's times when things feel harder. And so I don't want anybody to ever feel like, oh, my gosh, I'm the worst because I'm having podcast burnout and it's going to happen. Podcasting especially, I feel like it can be really burnout inducing when you're trying to do everything yourself. Trying to do episodes each week without batching it can really kind of create this cycle of stress and anxiety and feeling like you're not getting things done. And so I wanted to put that out there like, you're not alone, it's normal, it's totally fine.
So let's dive into my five tips to get you going again to get you past that burnout. And the first thing I'm going to say, and I actually did an episode about this a couple weeks ago, but take a break like it is okay to take a break. Now, that being said, there are ways you can take a break without completely dropping your listeners off or not engaging with them. And so I really recommend you go listen to that episode because they give you some tips on how to make sure that you're taking a break effectively. And, you know, kind of preemptively, if you can build in breaks, is even better. But if you're like hitting a wall and you need a break, it's okay. Come up with a plan for your break and make it happen.
For me. I, I like I've been thinking about this because I knew that I was kind of hitting this burnout moment. So I'm going to do a couple episodes, I'm going to do a series, and then I'm going to take a break and we're putting a plan into place for when that happens. So, number one, take a break.
Number two, seek inspiration in unusual places. You know, I am in my house a lot. And if you work from home, you may also feel the same way. I don't leave my house very often, but when I do, it's incredibly refreshing. And so for me, like an unusual place where I find podcast inspiration is like in the mountains, going on a hike, going for a walk, take a weekend getaway, maybe go to a bookstore and browse for a few hours. Buy that one book that you've been thinking about getting for ages and have purchased for yourself. Obviously, I'm talking to me right now, but do something else, right? When you're in a funk. Like getting in the car and going somewhere and seeing what inspires you can be just really great. One of my favorite things I used to do all the time is go to a museum. Like, I know that I'm not like an artist and not creating art, but there's something about being in a museum with art that is just so inspiring. And I always come back like just ready to go and feeling refreshed and feeling like, "Oh, I can create too", and so find something in an unusual place that is out for you. Right.
Number three, maybe it's time for a refresh. So if you've been podcasting for quite a while, maybe you need to spice things up a little bit. Maybe that means redoing your cover art or getting new music. You know, sometimes when we hit a wall, it's because we need to find another way around it. And a refresh is a really great way to do that. And I love a good refresh. In fact, I was actually thinking about this for myself. I really think it's time for some new cover art because I look at it and I just kind of go, Yeah, you know what I mean? And so I think having new cover art would make me feel inspired and excited. I think I need to revamp my description as well. So, you know, just a simple refresh can do a lot for just kind of changing the angle on how you view your podcast and if you need help with a refresh, we actually have a package for that. I love doing podcast refreshes because they feel like it's taking something and like taking it to the next level. And so you can head to WildHomePodcasting.com/services to learn more about that.
So for my next tip and this kind of goes along with what I talked about in number two, but I want you to see a new perspective on your podcast. So there's a lot of ways you can do this. If we dive into customer journey, those kinds of things, maybe that's where we find the new perspective. But I want to tackle this from a little bit more of a organic, organic place, right? So one of my favorite things to do is to have a conversation with someone who doesn't know what I do and explain to them what I do and what I love about my job.
This happened to me over the weekend. I was hanging out with some people that I didn't know and explained to them what I did and just the excitement came back up in my voice. I could feel it. And there's something so special about sharing it with someone who's hearing it for the first time that makes you really excited. And so maybe talk to some friends about what you do, what your podcast is about, why you like podcasting, have a conversation with somebody who maybe isn't a podcaster, and that may kind of get you ramped back up right in the same kind of avenue, you know, take a nap, work out, watch a movie, do something that can turn your brain off from the podcast. That way when you go turn it back on, you have a different perspective on it. And aligning with that or going with that as well is to remember why you started in the first place.
Thank you so much for listening to the podcast. To stay in the know, head to WildHomePodcasting.com and be sure to connect with me on Instagram @WildHomePodcasting. See you next week!
