If you’ve been with me from the beginning of this podcast, you may have noticed that my intro is just a little bit different, which brings me to today’s topic – the future of this podcast…
But to give you some context, lemme take you back to how this all started in the first place.
When I started the Pep Talks for Side Hustlers podcast back in March of 2018, it was designed to be a daily flash briefing for the Amazon Alexa.
Flash briefings are short episodes that are supposed to be no more than 10 minutes long.
When I first was introduced to the concept of a flash briefing from my business coach, I totally poo-pooed the idea. If you want to hear that story in detail, you can check out episodes 22 and 23.
But once I came around to the idea, I thought, “Easy Peasy. I can share tips and advice to help keep side hustlers motivated through those tough times – because it’s something I wish I would have had while I was side hustling.”
And then I thought… “Well, I don’t want these episodes to go away after one listen…” Which is the nature of an Alexa Flash briefing, it’s almost like an Insta story – it’s there for 24 hours until the next episode comes along and there’s no way to listen to past episodes. It’s a snapshot in time.
So I decided to also set them up as a podcast on iTunes so that there’d be a whole library of them for anyone that wanted to go back and listen to past episodes, or binge listen which is what I do when I find a new podcast I love – I subscribe in iTunes, then I change the settings to start in chronological order and I binge-listen from the very first episode.
And rarely do I listen to multiple podcasts at once. I find one that I love, and I listen until I’m caught up.
In fact, the other night I had dinner with the very first friend I made in third grade when we moved to Columbus Ohio, and she called me a serial monogamist.
Uh, duh, I’m still friends with you 30 years later and I can only listen to one podcast at a time!!
So that was the plan. A daily, 10 minute flash briefing/podcast. 70 minutes of content a week, knock it out in just a few hours. Boom. done.
But what I didn’t expect is how much I’d have to say on the subject of side hustling.
Or how much I’d have to say about building a business from the ground up.
Or all the fear I had after I quit my day job. Or all the transitions I’ve gone through over the past few years.
So what was supposed to be a daily, 10 minute pep talk turned into 30 minutes or more of storytelling, teaching, and sharing the good, the bad and the ugly about side hustling and entrepreneurship.
Every. Single. Day.
Of course I don’t record every day. I write and record and edit these episodes on Thursdays, and then my team takes it from there and publishes them.
If you’re interested in learning more about my process, you can check out episodes 123 and 124.
Here’s the thing: I absolutely love creating this podcast. I love writing the episodes, I love reflecting on my business and sharing the lessons I’ve learned and the mistakes I’ve made along the way.
I love recording and editing it, and the strategy I have for leveraging it to grow my business is also super exciting to me.
It lights me up!
But what I’ve heard from my listeners and my community and my peers is that it’s just too much. They can’t keep up with over 30 minutes a day, seven days a week of new content.
Now, I know there are some of you listening that are like, “Wait, I listen every single day, I don’t understand what those people are talking about.”
And I know you’re out there because you tell me! You listen while you work out in the morning, you listen on your way to work…
But guess what? Not everyone is like us! Crazy, right?
But what I discovered 6 months in is that creating new content at the pace I’m creating it is a challenge, especially when I have a whole entire web design business to run.
It’s one of those things where I didn’t realize how hard it was on me until it was too late.
Like, until I was past the point of exhaustion.
Until I didn’t realize how much it was hanging over me, like, “I gotta get the podcast done, I gotta get the podcast done.”
And then, people start saying to me, “You do seven episodes a week? And you write them all out beforehand? How is that even possible? That’s crazy! How do you keep up with that?”
And I’m like, well, I have a process, I don’t record every day… and I explain it all very matter of factly, like I’m some superwoman who has it all figured out.
And then, I start hearing things like, “I love your podcast, but I can’t keep up. Too many episodes. The amount of content you’re putting out is overwhelming me, it makes me feel like I have to move faster than I can, and that makes me feel like I’ll never be able to be successful.”
Wow.
Hearing that was like a wake up call for me. Like someone threw a glass of cold water in my face. Like in a good way, not like in a Real Housewives way.
And in that moment what I realized is that the frenetic pace at which I’ve been recording pep talks and writing blog posts and sending emails is a total reflection of the uneasiness I’ve felt since leaving the security of my day job.
I channeled my fear into hustle. As long as I keep running, the monster can’t catch me. As long as I keep creating new content, people will find me, my business will grow and I’ll be able to write myself a paycheck every two weeks.
So I had an amazing opportunity to go away with 5 other girlbosses for a weekend mastermind/planning retreat recently.
As we were getting to know each other, we were talking about our big, crazy, out of this world goals, and I had said, “I want to be the Amy Porterfield of WordPress.”
And for those of you that don’t know who Amy Porterfield is, she’s the goddess of online marketing – well, in my eyes. She has a ginormous audience, we’re talking hundreds of thousands of business owners, her podcast is called Online Marketing Made Easy, and she has a few courses all about online marketing.
Like, that’s the kind of impact I want to have.
So we’re going around the room talking about things we’d like to change in our businesses, and mine is that I’m still working too much.
Like, an unhealthy amount.
My business coach already ordered me to do something fun just for myself on Fridays and take Sundays off, but I had overcompensated by adding hours to the weekdays.
So I’m talking to the girls about my schedule and what I do every day, and we get to Thursday and I say how I spend 5-6 hours on Thursday on my podcast, not including writing or curating the content or scheduling the guests or whatever. So if I really boil it down, the podcast takes me around 8-9 hours a week, and then probably another 5 for my team.
And one of them says to me, “What if you cut it down and did less episodes a week?” And I immediately was like, “Why? It doesn’t take me that long. And it’s my favorite thing to do!!”
And she looked at me and said, “How many episodes a week does Amy Porterfield put out?”
Good point.
She puts one 30 to 40 minute long episode out per week.
So after a lot of soul searching, and planning, and thinking about the future of my business and how I want to FEEL, for now, I’ve decided to go down to 3 episodes a week of Pep Talks for Side Hustlers – Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
So for those of you that listen on Alexa, you’ll get a flash briefing from me just 3 days a week, and those that listen on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeartRadio or Google Podcasts will get a new episode on Monday, Wednesday and Friday going forward.
And I’d love to hear your thoughts on this decision – head on over to www.shannonmattern.com/176 and leave me a comment on the show notes and let me know – did you listen every single day? Are you a binge listener? Was it too overwhelming for you or just right?
And in episode 177, I’ll take you behind the scenes of my mastermind weekend, because if you ever get the opportunity to do something like that in your side hustle, it can be a total game changer.
Today’s pep talk is brought to you by Bluehost. Go to www.shannonmattern.com/bluehost and get 36 months of web hosting for just $2.95 a month. That’s less than one trip to Starbucks a month – and if you’re anything like me, you’re at Starbucks more than that!
Then you can sign up for my Free 5 Day Website Challenge at www.shannonmattern.com/5day and I’ll show you step by step how to get started building your new website for your side hustle.
