051: How to Revive Your Podcast After a Break
If you’ve taken a break from podcasting, you might be wondering how you can make the best impact when you come back.
In this episode, I am exploring everything you need to know about taking a break from your podcast. You’ll hear why breaks are important and how they can inspire you with newfound dedication and passion for your podcast. I’ll let you in on a few tactics to excite your listeners for your return and tips that will set you up for success as you reignite your podcasting journey.
What’s in this Episode:
What you need to know about taking a break from podcasting
How to come back from a break with gusto
Tips to set yourself up for success
Why you should treat breaks like a launch
Strategies to drum up excitement with your listeners
Links:
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Sometimes it's just you're finally ready, right, like you've had a break, you're ready, let's start sharing again. But there are a couple of things I really, really want to encourage you to do as you kind of get back into the groove and the mindset of recording podcasts and creating content. Welcome to the Wild Home Podcast, where we talk about podcasting life and all the wild in between. Join me, Carolin. Every week I share a peek into the world of podcasting and my wild life as well. Ready? Let's get into it. Hey, everybody, and welcome back to the Wild Home Podcast, this is season three of the podcast, and I'm really excited to be back. Kind of took a little bit of a break over the summer. And I did run a small series called My LAUNCH! Series. So if you want to go check that out, we will put a link in the show notes to the podcast page on my website, where you will see the episodes.
So had that little series. And I'm excited to kind of dove back into topics that have to do with growing your business and growing your podcast and what that means. And today I wanted to tackle a topic that is very timely since I'm coming back from a break. I know a lot of people who were taking breaks right now. In fact, Wild Home Podcasting, my podcast management and editing agency. We have had quite a few clients take extended breaks and I think it's totally OK. I don't think it's something that people have to worry about. We've had a rough like year and a half, two years. Right. And I think in general, burnout is just going around. Everybody I talked to, a business owner that I talked to is really tired and they're tired of all the work that they have to do, all the visibility stuff, all the showing up. And a lot of times the first thing that you need a break from is creating content. So you might take a break from social media or you might take a break from your podcast or if you have a YouTube channel, even I kind of wanted to talk about how to come back from break with some gusto and set things to kind of get you in the right frame of mind for that, but also things that you can do to drum up excitement again about your podcast and what you're doing and get your listeners just ready to listen again. So let's dove in.
The first thing I want to touch on is yourself. So you've taken a break from your podcast, and I don't know if you feel like it's time to come back because you're ready to share again. Or maybe you're just feeling like me. One of the things that I was really coming up against is that when I don't have a podcast episode going out, I don't have content to pull from. Right. So my podcast is the main piece of my marketing plan, which I highly recommend for business owners who are podcasting. It's just it makes it so easy to repurpose content and come up with other pieces of content from your podcast. Right. Because I'm going to sit down. I'm going to put all this content into this episode. So when I'm on a break and I don't have podcast episodes going live, it creates kind of this content vacuum. Like there's no content coming out, nothing going in. And sometimes it can feel like a challenge to figure out what I'm supposed to post about on social media or what emails I'm supposed to send, that kind of thing. And so for me, coming back from a break was really about visibility and starting to get content back out there. Now, sometimes it's just you're finally ready, right? Like you've had a break, you're ready. Let's start sharing again. But there are a couple of things I really, really want to encourage you to do as you kind of get back into the groove and the mindset of recording, podcasting, creating content.
The first thing I want to say is make sure that you don't decide tomorrow that you're going to do it the next day, like you want to give yourself some time to adjust and you want to give yourself grace as you get back into this routine. One of the things that I'm really kind of figuring out for myself is how important having rituals and routines is. It's not something that I've really done a lot of I would say in my life. I've just always been kind of that creative, messy brain. I'm just kind of floating around and doing things on the fly because that's what feels good. But I have three kids now and I'm a home school mom and my kids are getting older. So homeschooling is getting harder and taking up more time. We just moved into a slightly bigger house, which may not seem like that big of a deal, but we are the ones who are keeping it clean and doing all the maintenance. And so there's just a lot on my plate. And I find that all of that on top of running a business and creating content can make my brain feel like it's going in 50 different directions. And so I've created some rituals to really help me get in the zone each day when I'm doing work. One of those is having like a very strict schedule about what I'm working on when I started journaling and doing breathing exercises. And then I've also started doing a brain dump every morning, which is really, really helped me. I did do a post on Instagram about this, and I was really curious to hear other people's rituals or how they structure their weeks. So I'm going to link to that. And they share notes. And I would love if you would go on Instagram and share some of what you do as well, because this has been such a positive thing for me and for my productivity and just for me as a business owner.
And so I'm excited to, like, keep this going and maybe implement some other things as well. So I'd love to hear what you're doing and say what you want to do is set up rituals for your podcast as well. Right. So as we come back from a break, what we want to do is make sure. We sit down and have a really good planning session for content, and we want to make sure that we have a schedule for recording and start working back into that. You know, sometimes I preach and preaching at Batch record is the way to go, but sometimes you don't have time to batch record. I certainly don't have the time to batch record in my life anymore. And so knowing what days I'm going to be recording and making sure that I can get ahead and if I can't get ahead, having like a contingency plan is really, really important. And so thinking about those things before you come back from the break is so crucial to making sure that whatever season or time period you are on your podcast, that is going to be successful. Because when we come back from a break, we want to make sure that we don't come back for three episodes and then disappear again. If you do that, you're going to lose listeners. Consistency is really, really important.
But it's also OK to take a break. But you need to make sure that when you come back, you come back into consistency. Right, because we want to make sure that we're capturing those listeners and grabbing them. And it can take a few episodes for them to really get in the groove with you again as well as you get into the groove. And so by creating a schedule, sitting down and doing some major content planning, it's going to make sure that you're setting yourself up for success as you jump back in. So let's talk about content a little bit. We've kind of talked about ourselves and getting into the mindset and the schedule. But let's talk about content after a break. So if you've taken a break, I don't know what kind of break you've taken, but maybe you've lost touch a little bit with what the current climate is with your clients and the problems they're having and things like that. After a break, I like to do a check in with my listeners and be like, hey, I'm coming back and working on content for season three. What is it that you're struggling with right now or what is it that you need help with? What can I help you with? What can I share that would be of value to you? Go ahead and ask your audience whether that's on social media or through an email. Who knows? They may have some burning questions that they've been sitting on and they want you to cover them. Maybe there's a couple of guests that you're thinking about. So I have a couple of topics in mind that don't necessarily have some guests. So I'm excited to kind of put out into the universe. Hey, I'm looking for somebody to come talk about this. I'm looking for somebody to come talk about that, you know, get your audience involved in the process, checking in with them. But also, this is going to help drum up excitement as you get ready to come back from your break, right? Oh, she's about to create some new episodes. We're really excited. Let's let's engage and get excited to listen again.
And so it kind of works in two ways, which is really, really great. I think checking in in general is a good thing, but I really, really love it for after a break for this purpose, because I feel like you can gain so much insight. And I know for me, because it's been summer, it's been a crazy year and a half. We moved over the summer. So like my brain has been focused on my family and moving and getting settled. And so doing a kind of check in is a really nice way to get your brain refocused on that part of you, that business owner, part of you that's creating content and creating value to drive leads and clients to your business. Right. We want to make sure that we're sharing things that are impactful and that are going to be meaningful for people who may want to work with us. And so this is all about reframing. Right. So we want to reframe and like reenergize and reinvigorate to come back to a successful podcast. And this is part of it. Part of it is getting your brain and your mind set in the right place. And checking in with your audience is a great way to start, I think kind of easing back into it. I not only did I take a break from the podcast, but I inadvertently kind of took a social media break. I just found myself having a really hard time, like I said, knowing what to post and what to talk about on social media, because I didn't have the podcast episodes to pull from and I kind of got into a rut with social media. And so I kind of took a break. So coming back from that break has been a real challenge because I feel like I'm finding my feet again and like figuring out what I want to talk about. And like, do you want to see every room in my house or, you know, which podcast tips do I need to share? So it's been a really interesting thing and I'm really glad that I did that before I started actually recording episodes again, because I think it's just really helped me kind of get back into that content creation mode and that that brain. Right.
So I want to talk about the the coming back like that, actually releasing episodes in what you should do about that. And here's my big thing about coming back after a break. I want you to treat it like it's a launch. So think back to your launch and what you did. I have an whole episode on how to have a good launch, how to make a launch fun, that kind of thing, and think about those things and how you can apply them to coming back from a break. So what kind of like. Email newsletter, a situation where you doing what kind of social media posts were you doing to get people hyped up? Maybe when you come back from a break, you released a couple of episodes instead of just one as a, hey, we're back. Here we are. Maybe it's time to refresh the podcast a little bit. Maybe you need some new cover art or a new trailer or a new intro and outro after a break is a really great time to do all of these things. It gets people excited and says, hey, oh, there's something new. And it also like, again, helps you be excited about it again because you're refreshing it. There were a couple other things that, you know, I like people to do during launches, which is, you know, having a team of cheerleaders and planning out their posts and emails for the few weeks before the episodes go live. And I highly recommend doing that as well after you come back from a break, because it's going to get you excited about it. We want to create momentum, right? We want to create momentum for ourselves and for our listeners. And so it's going to get them and you excited, but then it's also going to make sure that you have things planned out.
So this, again, goes back to like creating rituals and schedules and things to make sure that we are coming back into a consistent, excited place. And this is the same the same thing. Right. So here's the thing. It's totally OK to take a break. And I've talked about before, like how important it is to let people know why you're on a break or if you're on a break, that you will be coming back. And so even now, like if you're listening to this podcast and you're on a break and you're planning on coming back soon, just send a little note to your email newsletter or post something on Instagram that you're planning on coming back soon and you're working on content and you're so excited, you know, just dropping these little breadcrumbs, right. Usable crumbs. Let's let's do cookie crumbs instead, because that cookie sounds really good. Just dropping a little cookie crumbs. Right. Leading people back to the podcast. That's what we want to start doing. And so go ahead and think about how you can do those things and start doing them today and getting that schedule in order. So that way, again, it's going to be a successful relaunch of your podcast. In a way, it's going to be coming back with momentum and excitement and you're going to feel it, which means you're going to create content that you love and you're excited to share. And your listeners are going to feel it, too, because they're going to be excited that you're back. But they can really tell. They can tell. And so I think all of these things put together can really make a break that maybe seems scary to come back from. Or you may be asking yourself, how am I even going to to come back from this? Because they've been gone so long. Have I been gone too long? Doing these things is going to help eliminate all of that fear and that anxiety as you come back from a break, because you're going to have a plan and you're going to be having fun and getting excited about your podcast again. And that's really, really, really important as you go into this content creation mode.
The other thing I want to say to is, you know, if you're listening to this and you haven't launched a podcast yet, maybe you've been talking about it. You're thinking about it. It is not too late. I think the fall is a really great time to launch and to come back from breaks. And so I really encourage you, like this is your moment. This is your time were in September when this episode goes live. And so, like, do it now. Don't wait until October or November. Do it now because it's going to help increase your visibility, build authority and take you into Q4. Just feeling so good knowing that you're creating some impactful content and putting that out there. So let me know if you have any questions. You can always email me hello@wildhomepodcasting.com or direct messaged me on Instagram at @wildhomepodcasting, which is where I hang out most of the time. I am so excited to be back for season three. Feels good to be creating content again. And I'm excited. My plan is to have some interviews this go around and talk to other podcasters and business owners about what they're doing and how it is creating success for them. So that way it can create some success for you.
And I want to invite you all to join me in my new free community. You just go to whpcommunity.com. I am moving my community off of Facebook and I'll probably talk more about that some other time, but I'm really excited for this move and I'm excited to create a space where podcasters can learn and grow together, specifically business owners who are using a podcast as part of their marketing, because I think it's so different than just general podcasting. And so I wanted to really create a space where we could talk about that and grow together. And that's what I've done. whpcommunity.com, we hope to see you there and I will see you next week with a new episode. Thank you so much for listening to the podcast.
