As a creative, I get a lot of satisfaction from making things. I’m lucky enough to have a job that allows me to do it for a living. At home, I get a lot of satisfaction out of writing articles like this and producing a podcast. There’s nothing like that little shot of happy juice in the brain that you get when you accomplish something you enjoy doing. However, every once in a while, that shot of happy juice isn’t enough to counteract the cyclical nature and occasional frustration that comes along with making a weekly podcast. When your job is to create something on a regular schedule and you start thinking that the work doesn’t end, or when you don’t feel like you’re getting any feedback on what you’re creating, that’s when burnout sets in. I don’t know the percentage of dead podcasts out there that just faded because the producer got bored or burned out, but I’m sure it’s significant. Many podcasts ‘podfade’ or stop making new content before they reach ten episodes, and that’s the most generous of the stats I could find. This leads to a hard truth: producing a podcast is easy, but producing a quality podcast on a regular schedule is not.

I’m no stranger to podcast burnout. We’re good friends. He comes along every few months and raids my refrigerator and camps out in my studio for sometimes weeks on end. He’s always a surprise, but he shouldn’t be. Burnout always announces himself before he arrives. It’s subtle, but the signs are there a long time before Burnout knocks at the door. It could be the act of sitting in front of a screen, staring at a blank document, and having no ideas at all, or it could be the preference to binge an entire season of a show instead of working on an episode. We never recognize these signs at the time, but when Burnout shows up and takes up space in your life, hindsight is clarity. What isn’t very clear is how to get rid of your unwanted guest, or better yet, how to keep him from darkening your door in the first place.

Consider these ideas to keep from getting burned out on making your podcast.

• Long before you’re starting to feel the burn, grab a notebook and start writing down topic ideas. It’s very important to not self-edit here, just dump everything out of your head onto the paper no matter how weird it might sound. Also, don’t feel bad if you can’t come up with much if you’ve never done this before. It may take a few sittings to come up with a sizable list. Later, when you’re scratching your head about what to do next, go to the list. That’s when you can prioritize the list into what’s usable and what’s not. After a set period, if there are topics you haven’t done and aren’t likely to, cross them off the list. However, ensure you add to the list as you develop new show ideas. Add them as you go, or make an appointment to sit and brain-dump regularly.
• In the past, when I reached the point of burnout, it was because — as an independent podcaster — I am an army of one. It’s nice to be the Chief Cook and Bottle Washer in this outfit, but the downside is that I write, record, produce, distribute, and promote the show myself. I will be the first to admit that when you do everything, something may not get done. For me, it was usually podcast promotion because I’m not a very good salesman. Of course, when you don’t promote, you don’t attract new listeners, which becomes a negative loop. I got discouraged, and that led to burnout. Take a look at your process and identify what you can either delegate to someone else provided you have someone, outsource to a third party for a fee, or optimize it, so it happens automatically without your intervention. In my example, I created graphics and pull quotes for an episode in advance, and once I had uploaded and scheduled the episode, I created posts in Buffer to all my social channels at various points during the week. Later, I would ‘Rebuffer’ some of those same posts over the next 30 days, 90 days, and six months on Twitter and Facebook. With that done, I could get back to producing shows, which I find much more pleasurable. One last thing: when you do a deep dive into your process, if you identify something that just doesn’t make sense or it’s a redundant step, get rid of it. You have enough to get a podcast out the door without doing unnecessary work for yourself.
• A periodic listener survey may help you determine what direction to take the show. This could be as informal as a Twitter chat, a post on your Facebook page, a mailbag episode dedicated to this topic, or something more formal like a listener survey form on a tool like Google Forms, for example. There are many ways to do this, and the more detailed, the more you can use the data for potential sponsors down the road. I’ll cover that in a future article. The basics you should be thinking about for this purpose aren’t very complicated at all. Ask them why they listen to your show, what they like about it, what they don’t like about it, what they think should be added, and what should be deleted. As a bonus, announcing the results of this survey and your conclusions is a built-in show topic. That episode is important because if you’re going to ask your listeners for their input, please give them the courtesy of giving them the input results.
• One of the biggest causes of burnout stems from its cyclical nature. Putting out an episode weekly can sometimes feel like a Sisyphean task, especially if you’re a solo podcaster. Does your podcast lend itself to a seasonal release instead of a weekly release? Can you batch produce a season of shows, release them all at once or schedule them to drop weekly as you take a little break and then get back to producing the next season? This may work better for scripted shows, but I see no reason why a weekly podcast couldn’t run for a set number of weeks and then announce a short hiatus. Anecdotally, it’s been my experience that breaks usually happen over the Summer or during the Holidays. That’s usually when people are doing other things, and listener downloads might be lower over that time. Use that time to take a break and prepare for the next season.
• Lastly, it’s possible that you just need a break. It’s OK. Even Cal Ripken Jr. had to stop eventually, but before the Orioles took the field that day, it was already announced that Cal wasn’t starting that day. Everyone knew what was coming, and the audience in the stadium that day more than understood. They gave him one of the greatest standing ovations Baseball has ever seen. Your audience will understand if you have to stop for a little while. Make sure you talk with your listeners about what’s happening. You don’t need to tell them why if it’s personal, but what I think you should do is give them a return date when a new episode will drop. In the interim, you might consider scheduling ‘best of’ episodes or just make sure the audience knows nothing will be dropping in the meantime. As long as you communicate with your listeners clearly, they’ll understand. If you do announce a return date, treat that as a promise, and don’t break your word. If your listeners can’t trust you, they may leave and not come back.

In 2019, podcasts can no longer afford to be a ‘when I feel like it’ production. Produce a show on a schedule you can keep, and keep your audience in mind for those times when you need directions or when you need to step away. If you can keep those things in mind, burnout can be minimized if not wiped out completely.

There was a time when there weren’t aisles full of self-help books at your local bookstore. I recall that there were some self-help books that your local B. Dalton or Waldenbooks wouldn’t have carried. For those, you had to go to your local crystal-wearing, chakra aligning, toad licking new age store.

Today, there are two or three aisles at Barnes and Noble, and they consistently rank higher and higher on Amazon. Not only that, but since they are no longer content just to have a bestseller, they’re all over YouTube and Instagram, and they have podcasts. I don’t know if it’s because the snake oil salespeople have gotten better, or we, as a society, believe we’ve gotten worse. Of course, believing we aren’t quite right is what self-help gurus want us to do, and millions of us have bought into that idea. I would suggest that, for the most part, we’re fine, and we need to stop believing the motivational flavor of the week.

I have a few reasons why I believe we need to see this industry as the flim-flam it is:

First, a personal note: If you have to plant doubt and possibly a small amount of fear into a person to get them to buy something from you, I just don’t think you’re a decent human being. No amount of baby-kissing, puppy rescuing, or school planting you do in Africa, I can’t escape the fact that you profit off that doubt and fear.

Second, there’s a small part of the population that suffers from a sort of self-help attention deficit disorder. They jump from method to method, and when they don’t see immediate or short-term improvement in their lives, they give up and move to the next method that hooks them. In truth, the books aren’t the help that person needs, rather recognize that the action of moving from thing to thing when one doesn’t work quickly might be the beginning of the answer to their problems.

Third, and I can’t stress this one highly enough, most of these books say the same thing. Of course, they dress it up to match their personality and voice, but the basic premise is almost always the same. I spent two years reading every self-help and productivity book I could lay my hands on while researching a character for a comedy podcast. After that many books, I concluded that it’s almost formulaic:

• These books always start with a generalization. It’s meant to describe for you the person who ‘needs’ this book. It’s almost always written generally enough that many people will recognize some trait they possess in the writer’s avatar. That plants a seed of self-doubt in your mind, and that’s by design. If you recognize yourself here, the chances of you buying the book go up.
• Next, the writer will introduce themselves and explain why they are qualified to help you. Generally, they do this by telling you they were once where you are right now through a sad and almost tragic story but for the epiphany that changed their life. Depending on the writer, they will next go into what has happened since then. They might tell you the number of accolades they’ve received. They might name-drop people that you will certainly know to suggest an association. Some writers will tell you of their abundance, while others will share their philanthropic efforts. They will tell you that you can live that same life if you follow their directions, not all of which will be in their book. More on that later.
• In every chapter of their book, they will have a quote from some deep thinker you might know. They’ll lay out a premise that will introduce the subject of that chapter and then unnecessarily remind you of who they are through a ‘personal story’ that relates to that chapter. They’ll then cut to the main idea of that chapter and give a list of x number of reasons why they think they’re right. They’ll recap and close.
• At the end of the book, they’ll offer some congratulations and tell you that if you want to get even more information, you can go to their website and get their online course, join their premium membership, or buy some product that costs more than people have the sense to pay.

When you see this formula laid out, it makes you wonder: If it’s all the same, why is this a bajillion-dollar industry? You’re not paying for the content. You’re paying for the personality, style, and voice that hooks you for whatever reason. Once on the hook, you’re part of their gravy train until you decide you want off this ride.

I believe the best way to get off this ride is to give you the common denominator. So, here are the things that every self-help book has in common:

1. Set A Goal, Make A Plan

The first thing you must recognize is that getting your life under control can’t be a scattershot thing. Start small and identify a particular area of your life you would like to improve, and define what success would look like. For example, I wanted to get up earlier and have at least an hour to myself before going to work. This would mean I needed to get up between 4:30 and 4:45 in the morning on the weekdays, much earlier than I was used to. Working backward from there, I realized that I needed to go to bed earlier, stop consuming caffeine at a certain point in the day so I could go to bed earlier, lay out clothes and pack a lunch at night before bed, and stop taking devices into the bedroom and read a book instead, and force myself not to hit a snooze button no matter how much I would like fifteen more minutes. After a month of incorporating these steps into my life, I have made that time possible. Now I can move to the next goal.

2. You Can’t Just Think About It.

This is the linchpin of everything else I will put on this list. If you’re addicted to self-help and productivity porn, and you plan and make lists and think about it and never take action, everything else is useless. For years, I would carry a notebook with me everywhere, take all kinds of notes on to-do lists, and write endless ideas and vision statements I never used. I was always ‘Fixin’ to get ready,’ which is another way of saying I wasn’t ready. Eventually, I had to recognize that the reason I wasn’t moving forward was that I wasn’t moving at all. Once I took action, things started happening. You have to make procrastination and paralysis a thing of the past. Go do the thing.

3. Progress Is A Daily Practice.

When I was a very young child, I had a problem with a bully kid punching me every day on the playground. I cried to Dad about it, and he said, “If he hits you, then hit him back”. The next day I went back crying to Dad. “Did you hit him back?” He asked. “Yes, but then he hit me again,” I said. Dad was confused by my answer. “Well, why didn’t you hit him back a second time?” I got very upset by the question. “Because I didn’t know I was allowed to him *again*!” 
You can’t just hit the bully once because they’ll hit back. Only this time, the bully is Life, and Life hits harder. Hit Life back hard every day. You may not win, but you will get stronger at dealing with the bully.

4. Your Discipline Equals Your Results

It’s this simple: If you can get your mind right, you can get your life right. The more you can incorporate the second and third points on this list into your life, the more you will be able to get your life under your control and work towards the goal you set. When my life is going the way I want it to, it’s because I have followed the systems I built for myself, and I do my best not to let other people control my day. I make time for quiet; that’s generally my drive to work in the morning. I don’t keep my email open during the day, and I don’t ever open it up first thing. I do one thing at a time because I know I can’t multitask. I find the time to hit the gym. I get a good night’s sleep. I block out time for the side gigs during the week, and I ensure that every day includes the wife and the kids because they’re the reason I do anything. When I forget to use these systems and lose my discipline, my life is not where I want it to be. So I do my best to keep to my discipline. Find what works for you, and stick with it.

5. It Won’t Happen Tomorrow

As I previously wrote, people often jump from system to system and guru to guru because they don’t see results in a short amount of time. To quote a favorite meme of mine, ‘That’s not how this works’. I started lifting weights on Memorial Day Weekend 2018. It’s a year and a half later, and I’m finally seeing some visible positive results from working out two to three times a week. I had to commit to putting in the time and the work for the long term. If I had become discouraged six months in, I wouldn’t have ever seen the progress I see now. Now that I see results, I’m more compelled to keep going. I have a simple goal. I turn 50 in July 2020, and I want to define what 50 looks like. It’s a long-term goal. This isn’t a sprint; it’s a marathon. Stop treating everything like a sprint.

6. You Need To Own It.

When you have minor setbacks or major failures, sometimes we look to place the blame on anything but ourselves. “It’s not my fault, the dog ate my homework. Mercury was in retrograde. The Illuminati towed my car.” Having agency over your own life means you get the wins AND the losses. You have to own it, so stop making excuses for why things don’t go well. Learn, Adapt, Overcome.

7. You Don’t Have To Be Nice But Don’t Be A Jerk.

People will understand if you’re having a bad day if you’re honest. What people don’t deserve is your sour attitude. Try to be nice, try to be positive, but on those days where it’s hard, make an effort not to be a jerk. Or, as my Nana used to say, “Be nice, or be quiet”.

It seems a bit weird to say ‘It’s that easy,” because clearly, it isn’t. But, without the fluff, it does look simpler than the motivational voice of the day makes it out to be. You don’t need to find the next voice out there that hooks you; instead, listen to your own. You’re OK. Yes, everyone can be better at something, but that does not mean you’re a failure. You don’t need self-help. What you need is self-help that works.

Where I come from, self-help that works…is help.