36: Should You Take a Podcast Break During the Holidays?
Considering I'm releasing this episode on Thanksgiving day, it's pretty obvious I think you should continue to release podcast episodes on Thanksgiving. But, what about Christmas and New Year's?
In this episode, I explain what you should consider when deciding to either launch your new podcast or release episodes of your current podcast during the busiest holiday season of the year.
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Transcript
Welcome to podcasting for coaches. I'm Britany Felix and I'm a podcast launch consultant who specializes in helping coaches and consultants utilize the power of podcasting as a way to build brand awareness and generate new leads for their business. I realize not every new coach or consultant can afford to hire someone to help launch their show. So I created this podcast as a way to guide you through the process of launching and utilizing your very own podcast to help you grow your business and reach a new audience of adoring followers and potential clients. If you're ready to get your voice and podcast out into the world, head over to podcasting for coaches.com to learn more. Welcome to Episode 36 of podcasting for coaches. Seeing is how the day This episode is released as Thanksgiving here in the United States. I figured this would be the perfect time to discuss how to handle your podcast release schedule and even launches if you're yet to launch during the holiday season. Obviously, you know my feelings about releasing an episode on Thanksgiving, considering I have done just that. Thanksgiving is a smaller holiday. And generally speaking, there's no issue when it comes to releasing podcast episodes on Thanksgiving or around Thanksgiving. Yes, some people do still travel around Thanksgiving, but for the most part, people tend to stay local for the holiday, which means they're not really falling too far behind on their podcast episodes. However, I wanted to address this now to give you plenty of time to plan for Christmas and New Year's Eve. Because those are holidays, that really take up more time than just the days of the actual holidays occur on. As I'm sure every single one of you can relate. The holiday season tends to get a little bit crazy, a little bit chaotic, a little bit stressful, and a little bit busy. All of those things equate to people having to let some of their usual routines or hobbies fall a little bit to the side, and even some things with their business. Some things with the personal life, generally around the holiday season, some things have to go. for you that could mean taking a break from releasing new podcast episodes. For your listener, that could mean taking a break from listening to podcast episodes. So this is a question that comes up pretty often in the podcast community is whether or not you should take a break around the holidays. I'm sure you've noticed a pattern in my advice for podcasts, if you have listened to a few of my past episodes. And that is do what works for you. So if you need a break, if you are especially busy, if you're feeling a little bit burnt out, if you've been producing episodes for a little while, take a break, it's not a big deal. I do want to highlight some things that may happen if you take a break. That way you fully understand the impact of what that break might do to your downloads and your audience. But when it comes right down to it, just do what works for you. So for people who are currently releasing podcast episodes, and they have been for a little while, you may be thinking, I don't really want to put an episode out around Christmas or New Year's people are so busy, nobody's going to listen. And there are two sides to that coin. Yes, people will not listen, people will be busy. But there will also be people who are traveling during the holiday season. They're flying across the country, they're taking a road trip to visit family, and they're actually going to have more time to consume content. Generally speaking, yes, people do tend to see a dip in downloads whenever they take a break. So just be aware that if you decide to take a break during the holiday season, you may notice that when you come back from your break, your download numbers and your engagement might not be quite what it was before you left. Now I have some clients who don't see a single dip in their downloads or their engagement, and everything proceeds as normal. But it is very, very common to have a little bit of a dip when you come back and to have to build that back up again just a little bit. For most people, this is not anything dramatic, and definitely does not cancel out the benefits of taking a break to spend time with family and focus on other aspects during an incredibly busy time of the year. And now when it comes to how long of a break you should take. You can decide that for yourself. For example, this year, Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve are both on Mondays. So if you normally released a podcast episode on Monday, maybe you should skip both of those weeks this year. And so your final episode would be on December 17. And your first episode of The New Year would be on January 7. That is completely understandable and again is completely okay if that feels good to you. In fact, a little bit of an announcement here I'm actually going to take an even longer break than that because I am going to be traveling for about three weeks this year around the holiday season and I am going to be swamped with client work as a result of taking that time off to spend with my family and friends and attending a family wedding. So my last podcast episode of two 2018 will actually be on December 6, and I won't release my first episode of 2019 until January 10. So I will be taking a full month off from this podcast. And that is okay, I may experience a little bit of a dip in downloads, as I mentioned when I get back, but I'm okay with that. Because that allows me to have a little bit less stress around an incredibly stressful time of year for me. Now, let's switch gears a little bit. And for the people who have not yet to launch, and they were considering launching in December, I have a few clients that were planning on doing that and have adjusted their schedule, I have a couple who have actually decided to stick to their schedule, and either one is fine. Again, whatever works for you. I do want to of course, just the same as if you're already producing episodes, talk about a few different things here, just so that you're aware of how it will impact your lunch. It's pretty much the same basic principle, everyone is extremely busy, extremely chaotic. People are posting a lot more on social media around the holiday season, they're doing a lot more activities, sharing a lot more pictures, a lot more updates about what they're grateful for thankful for and how amazing their 2018 was, and their resolutions for 2019. Social media tends to get a little bit busy just like everything else during the holiday season, which means people may not have the attention span or the mental capacity to handle something new right now. So if you're planning on launching in December, my advice would be to actually wait, because we don't want people to know that you have this podcast and be super excited about it and then immediately get distracted, or be so distracted that they missed the launch completely. Neither one of those things really makes for a great podcast launch. One thing to consider though, if you do put off launching your podcast is the fact that everybody launches something new in January, New year, new products, new year, new podcast, New year, new service, New year, new me all kinds of those things. So if you're okay with building on that momentum and being a part of that push for something new, then this will be perfect for you. And you can just launch your new podcast at the start of the new year. If however, you don't want to be lumped in with everyone else who's launching something, again, doesn't even necessarily have to be a podcast. You could wait a little bit until maybe mid January or February. And then you will see that a little bit more. So I'm going to say it one more time in case you're not annoyed Enough already. Do what works for you do what feels good to you. When it comes to your podcast launch. If you know that you need to get this thing out there and launched as soon as possible, or else it's not going to happen, then by all means do it. If however, you think that you're going to launch at the beginning of December, and then immediately have to switch gears into regularly producing content in the middle of the holiday season. And that feels overwhelming to you. Then just wait, even if you have everything ready to go. And you're just kind of sitting there, maybe occasionally recording podcast episodes or getting some guests interviews in the can until the new year that's perfectly fine. I give you permission to do whatever you want to do with regards to taking a break or not launching your podcast or putting it off until January. So that's going to wrap up this episode. And as a reminder, the final episode of 2018 will come out on December 6, and the first episode of 2019 will come out on January 10, where I will be announcing something very exciting. Thank you so much for joining me and I hope to see you back here next week, where we are going to talk about the all important question of how to grow your podcast audience. Have a fantastic week. And that wraps up another episode of podcasting for coaches. If you'd like to connect with me further, get additional free resources, receive updates on this podcast and connect with other coaches and consultants who are using a podcast for their business. I'd like to invite you to join the podcasting for coaches community on Facebook. You can either search for podcasting for coach's community on Facebook to find it, or you can use the link that's in the show notes for every single episode of this podcast on my website podcasting for coaches.com