NEW BLOG POST IS UP: My New Rules for Podcasting – To Keep Things Interesting So, how do you differentiate yourself if every person and their grandma is starting a podcast? If you’re starting from scratch, I think choosing a niche you have a bizarre love for—and therefore endurance for—makes a lot of sense. If, on the other hand, you have a broader, interview-based legacy show, it can be a little tricky. Perhaps the business is great, but you see the writing on the wall and want to be ahead of the curve. As I see it, there are at least a few options: 1) Start a new podcast with a niche focus. Sadly, I suspect I would get bored within weeks or months, but it’s not off the table… 2) Pack up your tent and walk off into the sunset in search of other adventures. 3) Create new and better rules. I landed on #3. In the midst of a weekly ship cycle, it’s hard to escape the collective pull of algo chasing, thumbnail tweaking, and details long enough to zoom out. The waters have been churning at a fever pitch, ever changing and ever faster. When you’re inside the washing machine, it’s very hard to step out and get perspective. So I decided to take a sabbatical of roughly four months. It ended a few weeks ago. During the sabbatical, I stopped recording new episodes, republished some of the greatest hits (e.g., Jamie Foxx, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Margaret Atwood, Jerry Seinfeld, and more), and did a lot of thinking. The full break allowed me and my team enough breathing room to think about the long game. What do we want to do, and furthermore, why are we doing this at all? Since nearly all the rules are made-up anyway, I asked myself a bunch of questions, including: What might this look like if it were maximally fun? What might this look like if it were easy? If I get to do this for another decade, or had to do this for another decade, what new rules might I create to keep it interesting? Of course, these are implicitly “for me.” It’s a highly personal thing. In my experience, keeping it interesting for me generally keeps it interesting for my lovely listeners. At the very least, it’s the only way to ensure I have the enthusiasm required for endurance. See the link below to continue reading:
