Ep 100: Why It’s Okay to Take a Break from Podcasting

Full Transcript

[00:00:00] Verity Sangan: Hello, everybody, and welcome back to episode 100. Would you believe that? Episode 100 of the lazy girl's guide to podcasting. And I can't think of a better way to start off this episode than giving a shout out to Mandelyn. Mandelyn has contacted me on Instagram to say that they have been binging the podcasting, and that they are currently working on launching their own. I am so super excited for you. I am so glad that the podcast has given you confidence to start your own podcast, and I am super excited for your launch. Please do let us all know when you do launch, and we will hopefully remember to give you a shout out. I'm really, really excited that this is episode 100. Thank you to everybody who has been with us since episode 1, episode 80, episode 60, 60, like whenever you started, just thank you so much to everyone who is stuck with the podcast. If this is your first episode, it's amazing to have you here. If it's not your first episode, amazing to have you back. If you are not currently subscribed to the podcast wherever you listen, Apple Podcasts, Bossify, YouTube Music, literally wherever you listen, make sure that you are subscribed because there are some great episodes coming over the autumn months. Now what I want to talk about for episode 100, which might actually be a little bit of a contradiction almost for a 100 episodes, because I want to talk about why it's okay to take a break from podcasting if needed. Those of you who are long time listeners of the show will have noticed that I have not been very, very active with the podcast over the summer months. I did do a release of 2 episodes from the vaults, like rerelease of episodes from the vault in August, or it might be the end of July actually. And the plan was over the summer to release previous episodes from the vault because I have had a lot let's just say I've had a lot going on in my personal life over the summer months, and it's just been that time where you need to focus on well, I just needed to focus on one thing to be quite honest with you. And as much as I like to be really organised with the podcast, you know how I've talked in the past about batch recording episodes and being all organised and what have you, sometimes with the best intents and purposes, the best laid plans, things just you just need to prioritise in life sometimes, and sometimes you just need to be able to say, do you know what? I need a break from this. I am only human. I am one person. I don't have this huge team. You know, the lazy girl's guide to podcasting is my me, myself and I. I record, I edit, I do all the social media promotion, I do literally everything for the show. And that's not me moaning, I love doing everything for the show, But sometimes you kind of need to, you know, just kind of recognize your own your own limitations within that within that respect. So, as I said, over the summer I just had a lot going on, and I really had to just step back and consider to myself what is it that's actually needed here. What is it that I need to put my energy into? And I know that taking a break from the podcast is not the best thing that I possibly could have done, but I also knew that you guys, as my audience, deserve decent episodes. You don't deserve, excuse my language, but shitty episodes to be put out just for the sake of saying here is an episode. And so that was why my backup option was to do episodes from the vault. But then, do you know what? There was just I don't know. Like I said, I just I needed a break. I needed to, like, send to myself, ground myself, whatever, and just, you know, bring it back to the basics and make sure that, yeah, just make sure that I was looking after me and everyone around me and, you know, all the rest of it. But my point is is that in the end, I didn't even have Verity the energy to be going through the vault episodes and deciding which of those episodes I was gonna be picking out. So I did. I just kind of left it. And some of you, oh my gosh, I have had the loveliest messages from so many of you just like, Verity, where are you? And are you okay? And, you know, reach out if you need any help. And, you know, I'm here to talk if you want to. And it's been so, so lovely. Those of you who have reached out, and I appreciate it so, so much. And just know that, you know, like I said, I appreciate it. Appreciate all you lovely listeners. But sometimes you've just got to know in yourself that sometimes you need to take a break, and I want you to remember that it's okay to take a break. It's great if you can carry on and if you've got backup plans. It is great if you can say to people, you know, I am going to be taking a break. But sometimes we can't foresee. And sometimes we just need to spontaneously take that break. And sometimes we just need to spontaneously take that break. And if that's you, if you're thinking to myself, or if you're thinking to yourself rather, like, 'I need to take a break for my podcast but everyone's telling me that I need to keep up my schedule of weekly episodes or biweekly episodes, whatever it looks like with you. You come first. Your health comes first. Your mental well-being comes first. Your family comes first. Your you know, if you're doing your podcast as a hobby, then your job comes first. You know, I'm not saying that everything comes before your podcast because, you know, Lazy Girl's Guide to Podcasting, this whole thing that we're creating, this community, it means a lot to me. But at the end of the day, it's you know, it doesn't come before my mental health, my physical health, my family, my paid job, etcetera. So it's okay to not put your podcast at the top of your priority list all the time, is is what I'm saying, despite what everybody out there tells you to do. And it's also okay, you know, not to you know, if you need to take a break, it's okay to not throw loads of money at somebody who's going to manage your podcast for you. Although if you can do that and you want to do that, it's obviously absolutely fine. But, you know, you don't have to suddenly throw a load of money at your podcast to keep it going. You've got to you've got to look after yourself because If you're not there, who's gonna host your podcast long term? So shorter so as ever, I hope that you have taken something away from this podcast. Do make sure, as I said before, to be subscribed to the show. Next week's episode, we are going to be talking about the absolute BS. That's our podcasting statistics and podcasting percentages because this is something that people get so wound up about. So if you are looking ever looking at podcasting stats and you're thinking to yourself, gosh, how do I become the top 1% podcast or the top 20% podcast or whatever it is? You are gonna want to listen to next week's episode because we're gonna break it down. I'm gonna tell you that it's complete. The whole thing is just complete BS. So make sure you're subscribed to the show so then you are notified as soon as the episode comes out. And if you're on Apple Podcasting, make sure that you have your settings set as well so that the episode is automatically downloaded, and then it will just be there for you to listen to. As ever, it's been great hanging out with you for this episode, and I will see you next time.