{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"308. Why I Quit Podcasting","description":"After nearly eight years of the Love Your Work podcast, I\u2019m quitting. Here\u2019s why, and What\u2019s Next. Podcasting is a bad business This is not the immediate reason I\u2019m quitting, but it is at the root: Podcasting is a bad business. When the indirect benefits of an activity run out, it\u2019s hard to keep doing it if it\u2019s not making money. I realized long ago podcasting is a bad business, but I kept going for other reasons. I\u2019ll explain why in a bit. Though I didn\u2019t start my podcast with dollar signs in my eyes, I did at least hope I would grow to earn money doing it. I\u2019ve earned about $32,000 in the eight-year history of Love Your Work. More than half of that has been from Patreon supporters, many of whom support for reasons other than the podcast. During that time, I\u2019ve spent: $1,008 on hosting $11,749 on assistance with editing and publishing $241 on equipment And some other expenses, for a total of about $13,000 In raw numbers, I\u2019ve made a \u201cprofit\u201d on the podcast. But, as I broke down in my latest income report, my \u201cwage\u201d was about $6 an hour. My podcast comprised about 5% of my income over these eight years, and took much more than that portion of my time and energy. Of course, I don\u2019t think about whether the podcast was worth it in terms of an hourly rate. Creative work happens in Extremistan, not Mediocristan, and I\u2019ve made massive life choices to be free to explore creatively without worrying so much what I\u2019m earning in the short-term. Ways to make money podcasting But there are many different ways to make a podcast a solid business, and none of them worked for me, for various reasons. Here are some of these business models, as they apply to the \u201cthought-leader\u201d space (I\u2019ll ignore the more entertainment\/infotainment space that podcasts like Gimlet\u2019s inhabit). Be so massively famous, you can pick-and-choose advertisers, while demanding a lot of money. This is where Tim Ferriss and Joe Rogan are. They both started with large platforms, and applied whatever talents that helped them earn those platforms to make their podcasts huge. After more than fifteen years as a creator, I have a modest platform, but orders of magnitude smaller. Build a \u201ccontent machine\u201d that manufactures ad slots. I won\u2019t name names, but you\u2019ve heard these podcasts. They\u2019re formulaic and don\u2019t seem to discern much who they have as a guest, nor what sponsors they accept. This business model is why my inbox is still full of pitches \u2013 they think I actually want more guests, because more guests would mean more ad slots. It takes a very rare set of circumstances for me to be excited to interview someone. Share information that directly helps people make money. If you have tactical and actionable information that\u2019s useful to professionals in a specific industry, you can charge for premium podcast content. I\u2019m not as interested in the tactical and actionable as I am in the abstract and exploratory. Cover a niche topic. If you have a leading podcast about a very specific topic, advertisers within that niche will be willing to pay high rates to reach that audience. I didn\u2019t want to build my podcast according to a specific topic \u2013 more on that later. Have a \u201cback-end\u201d business. If you have a thriving consulting business, or training programs to sell, you can attract more clients and customers through your podcast. As I wrote in my ten-year reflections, \u201cI want to make a living creating. I don\u2019t want creating to be merely a marketing strategy for other things. Is that completely insane?\u201d I flirted with success in a few of these business models. Early on, I hoped my podcast would be famous enough to pick and choose advertisers at high rates. For a while, it looked like I had a chance. I was approached by a podcast network, and I had some reputable advertisers such as LinkedIn, Skillshare, Casper, Audible, Pittney Bowes, and University of California. Various times, I thought I was on the cusp of my \u201cbig break\u201d \u2013 such as when Love Your Work was featured on the Apple Podcasts home screen. But the more I tried to go the \u201cget famous\u201d route, the louder the siren-song of the \u201ccontent machine\u201d route got. There were plenty of opportunities to do \u201cinterview swaps\u201d with hosts I wasn\u2019t interested in interviewing. There were a few advertisers that had money, but whose products felt sleazy. Joining a podcast network would have pressured me to crank out content even if I didn\u2019t feel like it. There was (and still is) the never-ending stream of pitch emails for guests. I had too much wax in my ears to go the \u201ccontent machine\u201d route. Not included in my lifetime revenue-estimates for Love Your Work is money I made through the \u201cback-end business\u201d route. I was somewhat comfortable with this model, but I haven\u2019t made a course in years, as I\u2019ve been focused on writing books. And as bad a business as people say writing books is, it\u2019s better than making a podcast. The podcast has helped me sell books in more ways than one. One way is that people who listened to the podcast bought my books. The other way is, making my podcast helped me write my books. This brings me to the reason I kept making my podcast, even after I realized it wasn\u2019t a good business. Make for what making makes you In my sixteen years experimenting with different business models as an independent creator, I\u2019ve settled on one thing that works: Make for what making makes you. If making a podcast, writing a book, sending a weekly newsletter \u2013 you name it \u2013 merely makes you money, and doesn\u2019t make you who you want to be, what\u2019s the point? Sure, sometimes you don\u2019t feel like creating, and you do it anyway. Yes, sometimes you pick one project over another because you think it will be more lucrative. But you can only redirect the river that is your creativity so much before it overflows and returns to its natural path. I learned from my guests When I started Love Your Work, and was struggling to make it big enough to work with an ad model, even if I wasn\u2019t bringing in lots of ad revenue, I was still connecting with and learning from my guests. It was an incredible privilege to have in-depth conversations with people like Seth Godin, Elise Bauer, and David Allen. It was like having my own personal advisory board of heroes. Talking to them helped me learn how to go off the beaten path and find my calling. I was able to find patterns in their stories that I could apply to my own life and career. I would be a completely different person today if I hadn\u2019t had those conversations. It was time to explore But there came a point when doing interviews was no longer serving me the way it once had. It was when I had gained the confidence \u2013 thanks to my previous guests \u2013 to explore further my own ideas. That\u2019s when I stopped interviewing guests, so I\u2019d have more time to explore. Love Your Work shifted from my personal advisory board to my personal sounding board \u2013 a sort of \u201copen mic,\u201d where I fleshed out ideas. I got to see how it felt to effortfully explore each idea. I got to hear how they sounded when I read them aloud. I got to feel how they resonated (or didn\u2019t) with others. It helped me write my books A couple years after I started Love Your Work, I started writing a book called Getting Art Done. Getting Art Done turned out to be three books, two of which I\u2019ve published. Love Your Work has been there to help me explore the ideas in these books. The Heart to Start was full of conversations from my early guests, and came from my very real struggles in gaining the confidence to take my ideas seriously enough to pursue them. Mind Management, Not Time Management came from my very real struggles to harness my creative energy and push my ideas forward. As I work on the final book in the Getting Art Done trilogy, Finish What Matters, I\u2019m asking myself, What struggle does this book come from? Clearly, I\u2019ve finished a lot of creative work: three books, over two-hundred consecutive weekly newsletters, and over three-hundred episodes of this podcast. But as I\u2019ve dwelt on that final word in the title, matters, I\u2019m asking myself if I\u2019m really working on what matters? Love Your Work and Getting Art Done have been an exploration in creative productivity. But at some point, writing about Resistance becomes a form of Resistance. I don\u2019t feel I\u2019ve reached that point yet, but I don\u2019t want to. If I\u2019m going to learn enough to write Finish What Matters, I have to really test my ideas of what matters. I\u2019ve probably explored enough ideas, through Love Your Work, that I want to develop further in Finish What Matters. But for the time being, I need space to explore what matters. That\u2019s the biggest reason I\u2019m quitting Love Your Work. I had considered doing so in the past, but I kept hoping I\u2019d know What\u2019s Next before I quit. I\u2019ve come to realize that I can\u2019t know What\u2019s Next until I have the space to explore. What\u2019s Next is finding What\u2019s Next It\u2019s a little scary to have that void. But it\u2019s also exciting. Furthermore, I\u2019ve faced The Void many times before: when I started on my own, after finishing each book, and a little bit after each podcast episode or newsletter. What\u2019s scarier now than facing the void is that I\u2019ll stick with what\u2019s safe, and distract myself into dying with my best creations inside me. I could just say I\u2019m taking a break, or not say anything at all and stop until I felt inspired to make a new episode. I\u2019ve talked before about how I struggle to burn my boats and close doors. So, I\u2019m calling it quits, knowing I could always drop another episode in the feed down the line if I wanted to. But I hope I find something that matters more, before that ever happens. Thank you for listening! Thank you for listening to Love Your Work. Thank you especially to my Patreon supporters, who can of course feel free to stop supporting, or keep supporting for the bonus content, and to support What\u2019s Next. To learn What\u2019s Next once I find it, be sure to subscribe to my newsletter at kdv.co. One last time, thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Image: Pierrot Lunaire by Paul Klee About Your Host, David Kadavy David Kadavy is author of Mind Management, Not Time Management, The Heart to Start and Design for Hackers. Through the Love Your Work podcast, his Love Mondays newsletter, and self-publishing coaching David helps you make it as a creative. Follow David on: Twitter Instagram Facebook YouTube Subscribe to Love Your Work Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Stitcher YouTube RSS Email New bonus content on Patreon! I've been adding lots of new content to Patreon. Join the Patreon \u00bb       Show notes: https:\/\/kadavy.net\/blog\/posts\/quit-podcasting\/ ","author_name":"Love Your Work","author_url":"http:\/\/kadavy.net\/blog\/archive\/love-your-work\/","html":"