Embracing Change

Scratching Your Creative Podcasting Itch

Of all the ingredients for podcasting success, consistency is always at the top of the list. But do podcasters, as creative people, get bored when their sound remains the same?

January 5, 2021

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Are you making the podcast you were born to make? Or do you have other creative podcasting itches that need to be scratched? Because podcasters are creative people, and while it’s great to have a popular and successful show, we often need to explore different aspects of our creativity, lest we grow bored.

The inspiration for this edition of Podcast Pontifications was music. Take Bruce Springsteen as an example. Even if you are not a raving fan of The Boss, you probably know that Bruce has used a very recognizable and consistent sound throughout his decades of making music professionally. The same holds true for some of my favorite bands, Cake and Soul Coughing. I can recognize a song by them by scent alone, even when they (or Mike Doughty, in the case of Soul Coughing) explore new directions.

But that’s not true for all musicians. Take Jefferson Airplane in whatever configuration (and name) over the decades. Their sound changes drastically from album to album. So too with Gwen Stefani. Her sound when she was fronting the ska band No Doubt is light years away from her solo pop sound. Heck, just listen to the complete discography of The Beatles and pay attention to how different those songs are from one another.

It's not just musicians who seek to explore different ways to be creative. My favorite example is Leonard Nimoy—Spock—and his poetry book Warmed By Love, arguably the most awkward book cover ever. The same for comedians who are now serious actors, and wrestlers who became chefs. Creatives are rarely one dimensional.

Creative Podcasters Have It Easy. Well… Easier.

Bands and musicians can only release so many albums per year and can only do so much touring to support their most recent album. So if they want to explore a solo project, they often find it hard to keep their current fans happy. Or keep the money flowing in.

When a podcaster decides to explore their creative itch, doing something different to break out of the routine that they are in with their show, they (often) have much more flexibility. They don't (usually) have to shut down their current podcast in order to try something new. (Though I acknowledge podcasters creating more production-intensive shows will have a difficult time of it.) For most of us, it’s just an investment of more time and energy. If we have the bandwidth, we can create a new podcast fairly quickly.

The risk is, obviously, alienating some of our listeners. If we keep our current show(s) going, we mitigate that risk. But still, word of mouth could cause a listener unfamiliar with our popular work to discover our side project first. If they don’t like it, they may wonder what all the fuss is about and give us a pass. But, hey. Shit happens, right?

Knowing When It’s Time To Try A New Podcasting Angle

Oftentimes, a drastic change from a musician or band is driven by a producer or record label chasing the latest trend so they can sell more copies. We have trends in podcasting too. Should you chase them? How are you keeping up with those changes?

Relevancy is a part of that. While there will always be hardcore fans who just want a rinse-and-repeat of the last thing produced by a creative, they are, by definition, a finite group. Over time, attrition will remove more fans than are created, especially if the tone and style aren’t in step with what today’s audience is looking for. If you’re seeing a plateau in your listenership, it could indicate your time to try something brand new.

And sometimes, creatives people just feel the need to change. To scratch that creative itch. That doesn’t have to mean huge, drastic changes. We can, in the spirit of Springsteen and Cake, make subtle tweaks that might make us more interesting to the new crowd without risking our aging fanbase. Maybe that means doing a few solo episodes or letting someone else take over the interviews for a while. Maybe bringing in a co-host from time to time. Or something else entirely different but still subtle. We get to make that call.

It’s Your Podcast And You Can Change If You Want To

I'm a big fan of exploring creative itches. But there's nothing wrong with ringing the same bell over and over again if that’s what makes you happy. Again, I listen to way too much Cake and Soul Coughing, and I’m perfectly content to put that stuff on repeat all day long.

But at the same time, I love change. I change things up all the time. So if you’re like me, make sure you find a way to scratch that creative itch, podcaster. We’re fortunate to be in an industry that lends itself to lots of ways to change. So if you’re feeling the need, go explore!

Speaking of change, would you consider throwing some my way? BuyMeACoffee.com/evoterra is where you can buy me a virtual coffee to show your support.

But more important than that, please tell a fellow podcaster about Podcast Pontifications. Maybe they're just starting out on their podcasting journey. Or maybe they've been dropping episodes for a long time and need a friendly and supportive voice that’s talking about more than basic “how to get started” content and instead shares ideas that all of us working podcasters should be thinking about. That's really the core of what I'm trying to do with Podcast Pontifications ‘21. Hope you love it.

I shall be back tomorrow with yet another Podcast Pontifications.

Cheers!

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Podcast Pontifications is written and narrated by Evo Terra. He’s on a mission to make podcasting better. Allie Press proofed the copy, corrected the transcript, and edited the video. Podcast Pontifications is a production of Simpler Media.

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Of all the ingredients for podcasting success, consistency is always high on top of the list. But do podcasters as creative people get bored when their sound remains the same?
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Hello, and welcome to another Podcast Pontifications with me, Evo Terra.
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Are you making the podcast you were born to make? Or do you have other creative itches that need to be scratched?
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That's our lives as podcasters. We're doing this creative thing, and then we get popular, we get successful, or we get into our groove, if you will. And I wonder if we're doing what we need to do creatively from now on? I've been doing this for 16 years - well, not this show - which is kind of the idea.
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What do you think about recording artists like Bruce Springsteen? Even if you are not a fan of Bruce Springsteen, you probably recognize that Bruce Springsteen has been making music for years and they all sound pretty much the same. Bruce Springsteen has a very consistent style.
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Same for some of my favorite bands like Cake and Soul Coughing. I can smell a Cake song from across the room. Same thing for Soul Coughing, even when they start exploring new, interesting ideas. Compare and contrast that with bands like Jefferson Airplane, or as they've been known by 19 different names throughout their career, their sound has changed drastically over time.
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Same with Gwen Stefani. I started listening to Gwen when she was with No Doubt. And now she's gone on to do poppy type stuff. The Beatles for that matter. Listen to the Beatles discography. It's a wide range of sounds.
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It's not just musicians. Other creative people - like did you know Leonard Nimoy, Spock, has poetry books? Check out Warmed By Love for arguably the best book title, not best book cover, ever. You can name a whole bunch of other actors that have tried their hand, first off at singing, and a variety of things.
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So I guess the good news about when a podcaster decides to explore their creative itch and do something different, break out of the routine that they are in, the good news is that unlike say actors, we don't have to shut - well, I should say like actors.
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You know, when a band decides to go a different direction there's only so many albums a band can release in a year. And while they're working on one album with a new, interesting style and sound, they can't make the album that their fans really want them to make, which is the one that just sounds like that last album.
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Actors and podcasters have more flexibility. They, we don't have to shut everything down to try something new, right? It just takes more time and energy and investment. We may not have a lot of time and energy and investment for our show continuing, but we probably can do it a bit easier.
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Now that might alienate some of our listeners. If we go in a radically different direction and try something that we wanted to do it might alienate new listeners, but that's okay because we still have our other show, the thing we're known for, the things we're known for, going.
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So I guess where the risk is somebody might accidentally - a brand new person - might hit that new thing and think that's what is indicative of all of our work. And that wouldn't be a good thing, but you know, that's reality. We can't hit everything.
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Why do we make changes like this? Why are we thinking about creative changes? You know , when bands, people in bands, when musicians make a change, sometimes they do it to chase trends. Sometimes they're listening to their producer or on the advice of their label so they can sell more copies. But in some cases they just want to do things that are different because they want to do things that are different.
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What's trending in podcasting? How do we know so we could maybe take that on ? Or what keeps us relevant? What kind of show could we produce that is more relevant than the thing we might have been doing for a few years possibly? Or what, as a podcaster, are topics and ideas that you want to explore? New ways of making shows that you don't make them?
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Now some of us don't really want to make huge, drastic changes, and that's okay. Sometimes we just want to make smaller change, more subtle, moving around our style a bit.
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Much like Springsteen and Cake and Soul Coughing, some of the bands and people I've mentioned, not everything is exactly the same. They're making some growth, but not wild changes.
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So maybe you just want to do something similar. Like, I don't know, go solo if you're doing a multiperson show or let somebody else take care of the interview, if in fact it's an interview show. Or who knows what else it might be?
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I'm a big fan of exploring creative itches. And I know, like you know, that there's no easier way than podcasting to do it. We have the skills, right? We know what we're doing. We can sit behind a microphone and we can talk. What else could we do around that to explore creativity so that we don't just feel like we're doing the same thing over and over again?
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But there's nothing wrong with doing the same thing over and over again. I have to come back to that. Did I mention that Cake and Soul Coughing are two of my favorite bands? And I love when they explore, but I also love when they don't explore.
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There's no reason - I'm not advocating everybody go out and change. I'm a huge proponent of change. I love change. I change things all the time. But it's not what we have to do. All we have to do is make sure that when we get that creative itch, we find a way to scratch it. I think podcasting lends itself to so many ways that we can do that.
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Now, if you like the things I had to say today, please consider going to buymeacoffee.com/evoterra and buying me a virtual coffee. But more important than that, please tell a friend, someone who also has a podcast, about Podcast Pontifications.
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I would really appreciate the boost, and I would like for you to give this to someone. Maybe they're just starting out. Maybe they've been around for a long time. Maybe they just need to hear from people who are being supportive of their podcasting efforts, not telling them how to do this and how to get started and all - just the ideas around podcasting that all of us working podcasters should be thinking of.
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That's really the core of what I'm trying to do with Podcast Pontifications here in the year of '21. That's my goal. Right? Thanks.
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I shall be back tomorrow with yet another Podcast Pontifications.
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Cheers. .

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