Your Podcast Doesn't Suck, It Just Needs Un-Stuck

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Sometimes the muse fails us. Sometimes we're just not feeling it. Sometimes the thought of getting behind a microphone, facing a blinking cursor (do cursors blink anymore?), or dealing with any other production-level aspect of your podcasting process is just simply too much to ask.

Because you and your podcasting efforts are stuck.

I've been stuck. All podcasters get stuck. If you've not experienced being stuck; You must be new. Because on a long enough timescale, all podcasters get stuck.

Opposites Unstick

Creatives from many disciplines have learned that sometimes the trick to getting unstuck is by doing the opposite. I know it sounds odd, but it works. Music creatives often lose the groove or the feeling of a tune. Rather than (or perhaps after they) power through, they’ll do the exact opposite of what they’re trying to do, which sometimes leads them to a new take on the song they hadn’t seen before.

This trick is not just for pure creatives. I employed this technique many times during my career when digital ad and marketing creatives at my agencies we're stuck on a concept or idea that just wouldn’t move. There’s a clear path that should work, but it’s not. So we do the exact opposite, and almost always a path forward opens up.

Different Is Different Than Opposite

When I say “the opposite”, I don’t mean different. Sure, taking a different approach is often a good idea and very well might work to get you over the hump. In fact, podcasters should be trying different things all the time, especially because we humans tend to be are creatures of habit. Different breaks us out of ruts.

But the advice of “try something different” leaves you with too many choices. “Try doing the opposite” is almost singular. Identify where you are stuck, and then the exact opposite (or as close as you can get to the opposite) of what you’d normally do. Or what you were doing when you got stuck.

Podcasting The Opposite Way

Every podcasting setup and process is different. That’s one of the great things about podcasting. But it also makes it hard to say “just do this”, as we all have our unique way. Below, I’ll present some common situations many podcasters face where this opposite trick can be deployed. You should be able to see yourself in many of them. Ideally, you’ll find some nuggets to try out the next time you get stuck.

Play The Opposite Role

If you podcast as a team, you and the other co-host(s) have likely fallen into predictable roles. If you’re the person who normally engineers the show but leaves the setup and planning to someone else, take on their role and give them yours for an episode. Or if everyone on the team is also feeling stuck, including the behind-the-scenes folks, scramble all the roles.

Even if (perhaps especially if) you’re the only person who can do one job, teach someone else your job. I guarantee you that the process of teaching someone how to do your job will teach you about your job. And crack open your own creativity. Especially if your “student” has lots of questions. Because good students always have lots of good questions.

Reverse Your Process

Are you the kind of podcaster who plans out their episode on paper first, then records and produces the audio of the episode, and then writes the article at the end? Me too. Try mixing that up.

Try writing the article first. You’ll probably still need to make notes and plan the article. But those notes are for a completely different experience - reading vs listening. Once the article is fully written, grab some highlights from your polished piece and then figure out what you’d say in audio to support the article, adding the unique color and commentary allowed by the audio medium.

If that’s too big, just mix up the planning part. My process to make this show is to start with the title of an episode, then suss out the angle I want to bring, jot down some notes to keep my going in the right direction, and then record.

But I can mix that up (which I did for this episode)! Today, I started with my notes first, figuring out some examples I wanted to provide. I knew the topic, but I hadn’t identified the angle yet. Yes, that felt really strange to let the notes I typed out lead me to an angle. From there, I came up with a title and then started recording. And it worked!

Un-automate Your Podcast Marketing

Podcasting done well, you know or will soon discover, requires a lot of effort and time. Smart podcasters rely on automation, often on the marketing end. We’ll use the automated social posting service provided by our media hosting company. Or we’ll use social management tools like Buffer to schedule an entire week’s worth of promotional posts about our latest episode.

That can get really, really boring. And automation is sort of the opposite of creativity, right?

So do the opposite and handle all of your social posts manually for the week. Yikes! “That’s more work, Evo!”, I can hear you crying. Correct. But this is supposed to be uncomfortable. Make notes on your calendar, set timers, do whatever you need to do. But publish all of your social posts manually for a week and see if that doesn’t reinvigorate your brain.

Ditch The DAW

If you’re like me, you’re quite proficient and efficient using your DAW - digital audio workstation - of choice to build your episodes. Switching to a different DAW probably won’t unlock your creativity. But giving up your DAW might.

I've talked previously about no-waveform audio editing tools that are quite the opposite of editing within a true DAW. The entire paradigm is foreign! And while I don’t suggest jumping ship to Descript when you’re staring down a publishing deadline (that way lies madness), I do recommend carving out some time to experiment. Try it for a segment of your show if that’s easier. Just like teaching a new concept, learning a brand new way of doing things is often enough to unlock your trapped creativity.

Take A Joke, Leave A Joke

Some podcasters (hi!) are always looking for the joke or funny bit in an episode or conversation. For some of you (us?), it’s almost become a job. Well… give up that job for an episode or two. Even if your podcast is a comedy podcast, the funny doesn’t have to come from you, does it? Are there other ways the funny can be delivered that don’t require you to bring it?

Or maybe the opposite (what a concept) works if you’re always super-serious on your show. Humor doesn’t have to equate to flippancy. There are ways to use humor even on serious topics. Of course, forcing humor is rarely enjoyable. But this is about being uncomfortable so perhaps target just a segment where you try to inject some humor. (And if you fail miserably, that segment doesn’t have to go live, right?)

Tight Show, Loose Segment

Are you committed to a tightly edited show, where you pour out your creativity in artfully crafting every second of your show? Some of the most popular podcast networks produce very tight shows. The entire podcast fiction genre is reliant on tight editing. Investigative shows, documentaries… there are many shows that require tight, detailed editing.

If that’s what your audience expects, it would be foolish of you to do the opposite and free-form an episode. However, you could drop in a looser segment (either at the end or as a bonus) that features more casual conversations with some of the normal imperfections left in intentionally. That might help you get unstuck. (Though I highly recommend giving your audience a heads up lest they think you’ve abandoned your commitment to quality!)

Diamonds, Not Opposites, Are Forever

I’m suggesting you do the opposite in a surgical way to serve a single purpose: Getting you unstuck. If your experience is similar to the myriad experiences I’ve encountered when deploying this technique in various settings, you’ll not find lasting changes to your process. That’s not the point.

The idea is simply to get you unstuck so that you can get to the next step. Though if you take a shine to your own experimentation with the opposite, be open to the idea of replacing your routine with a new one. Maybe your routine was the source of the trouble with all along.

I see lots of “I’m stuck” lamentations in the various podcasting groups and forums, so this is an established and well-documented problem. Perhaps you’d consider offering up a link to this write-up and episode where appropriate if you frequent those places? If you send a personal note along with the link, it’ll make an even bigger impact.

And if you like the ideas I provide to you every day here on Podcast Pontifications, please visit BuyMeACoffee.com/EvoTerra and toss a couple of shekels into the virtual coffee slush fund.

I shall be back tomorrow with yet another Podcast Pontifications.

Cheers!

Published On:

August 25, 2020

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PPS3E27 Your Podcast Doesn't Suck, It Just Needs Un-Stuck - Transcript

Podcasting is a creative endeavor and all creatives eventually think that their work sucks. And while it might, you're probably just stuck and need a technique to get you over the hump or slump.

[00:00:19] hello, and welcome to another podcast. Pontifications with me, Evo Tara. Sometimes the muse fails us. Sometimes we're just not feeling sometimes the thought of getting behind a microphone or facing a blinking cursor. To the crushers blink anymore, anyhow, uh, or dealing with any other production level aspect of your podcast or post production process or preproduction podcast is just simply too much to ask because you are stuck and I've been stuck.

[00:00:56] All podcasters get stuck if you're not getting stuck yet. Congratulations. Sure. One of the very few, but the reality is that we do from time to time get stuck. And, um, one of the best ways I have found to get over the fact when you are stuck is to approach it from exactly the opposite direction. And this is a technique that music creatives use quite a lot when they're in the studio or when the writing or the doing something else.

[00:01:29] And it's just not working. They can't get the groove and the feel and the thing they'll they'll do be exact opposite of what they would normally do. I've employed this technique when I've been running digital ad agencies, same thing. We're stuck on a concept. We're stuck on an idea. We just can't make this thing move.

[00:01:50] Well, we, one trick is trying the opposite. So I want to run down a few ways in which pod-casters might try doing the exact opposite to get over these humps. Now, one thing to keep in mind when I say the opposite, I literally mean the opposite or as, as close as you can possibly get to the opposite. Not, not just different.

[00:02:13] We should be trying different things all the time, but we are creatures of habit. And it's hard for us to do things that are different. And plus, what is different means that that's, that's a, that's a nuance right there. So all the things I'm going to talk about are the opposite and as close to the opposite, as you can possibly get to, which I think is key for this technique, again, not just different, actually go all the way.

[00:02:37] Crazy opposite. Now, if you're fortunate enough to be podcasting in a team, I'm a solo operation quite obviously, but if you have a team and a lot of podcasts are a teamed situations, either are both two people on the microphone or more people on the microphone hour, perhaps just a production level team.

[00:02:57] One of the things you can do when you are stuck is to switch roles. Cause it maybe it's you who are stuck. Maybe it's maybe just the entire show who knows. Maybe everybody's all stuck, but that's fine. Swap roles. If you're the person that normally does all of the audio engineering on the show and your partner is the one who does all of the planning of what the episodes are going to look like, switch, do those things and opposite roles.

[00:03:24] Now, if you're really good at one of those things and your partner's not good, you might think, why would I want to switch to that? Well, here's the deal. You will have to teach your partner. How to do your job or vice versa, they'll have to teach you. And I guarantee you when you know how to do something, and then you're forced to teach someone that thing you do, you will learn so much more and you will open up some creativity because that person is going to ask you questions.

[00:03:52] So that's number one, switch roles. If in fact you can, if you can't and it may be all about you or the rest of this probably will be all about you. Maybe your process needs some changing up, like for example, many people plan an episode on paper first. Then they sit down behind the microphone to record their show and do all the other work.

[00:04:14] And then the article comes out of the other end because every podcast episode should have a well written article. Right? Yeah. We need that. Flip it around. What if you write the article first? What if instead of making notes on paper, that then goes to a microphone. What if your notes on paper go to the article and you write out your thoughts fully, and then you make a podcast episode to cover all the things in between and add color and commentary.

[00:04:41] Would that work, try that, see what happens? It doesn't have to be that big the way I do this show almost every single day. And it's a process I've developed over time. Is I first come up with the title, then the angle, and then I write some notes before I sit down behind the microphone. Okay. Well, what if I reverse some of those things?

[00:05:01] What if I started with the notes first haven't even defined the angle yet. I let the notes go out and that gives me the angle. And then ultimately after all that, I look and figure out the title that will open up creativity. That'll unstuck a show. If you were actually doing that. Marketing stuff. Are you using automated social publishing?

[00:05:23] Is that part of your routine where you go and you either stick things into a feel on your podcast, hosting company or a service like buffer and you plan out all of your posts and you write it and you put it in there. So they automatically go for the rest of the week. What if you did manual? What if you manually did it?

[00:05:40] Don't do that upfront planning stuff manually. Do it make notes on your calendar, whatever, if necessary. Manually push out your social updates for a week or a month that might reinvigorate your brain. Are you using a DAW digital audio workstation to edit? Well, I've talked previously about the new, no wave form editing tools.

[00:06:00] They are so vastly different. You could call them the opposite. Try one of those, if not for an entire episode, for a segment or, or take a Sunday, whatever your day is, where you were free to do things. Spend a trying, not necessarily a new tool, don't switch Daws, but go to these new wave form editing platforms like descript, for example, give it a shot at will open up some creativity.

[00:06:27] Maybe it's always going for the joke. Always looking for the funny bit. Maybe your show shows a comedy podcast and you should be doing that well, what if you didn't always go for the joke? What if you let the funny happen in some other way? Or the opposite of that. True. Maybe, maybe your program is very serious.

[00:06:45] You are just hardcore doing the thing. You do take an episode or a segment and try to actually inject some humor. Try to be funny when you're purposely not trying to be funny, find a way to do that. Is your show very, very, very tightly edited down to the wire flows. Beautiful and wonderful. Okay. Let's not mess with that, but maybe a looser segment of the show where you are more casual and you leave in some of the imperfections.

[00:07:17] You can try it for an entire episode if you want, but maybe just a, a segment of your episode where you warn your audience ahead of time that you're trying something new. Why not? Try the opposite of tightly edited and go loose for a bit. See what happens now, none of these are going to replace your routine.

[00:07:34] The idea here is simply to get unstuck to the next level, but they might replace your routine. Maybe the routine was what you were having a trouble with all along, and that needs to be changed by looking at these and many other aspects of your podcast and looking for the exact opposite of what you do.

[00:07:54] You might come up with a new and better routine that makes you show all the much better, no longer stuck, no longer stuck. That's what you're going for. Now maybe, you know, a podcaster who is stuck, you're in a podcasting group and you hear people and read people say all the time, I can't get past this thing here.

[00:08:14] Well, now you can send them this episode that talks about doing the exact opposite to see if that helps them get unstuck. Send it along with a personal note from you because personal recommendations go a long way. Tell them this is the episode they should listen to. Maybe it will give them some ideas.

[00:08:29] And if you like the ideas I provide to you every day here on the podcast, pontifications please consider going to buy me a coffee.com/evo, Tara, and tossing a couple of shekels into the bucket. Would you shows me that you love the show and, you know, gives me a good reason to keep ongoing and financial support is always a good thing.

[00:08:49] Right? Right. That's it. I shall be back tomorrow with yet another podcast on vacations. Cheers.

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