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Podcast Playbook: Helping Coaches & Advisors Convert Podcast Content into Clients
Can You Take Time Off Without Killing Your Podcast Growth?
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Eventually, every podcaster runs into the same challenge. Creating a great show takes time and energy, but sometimes you need a break. Running your podcast in seasons can be a great way to build in those breaks, but there's a problem. When you stop publishing for a month, you risk losing the momentum you work so hard to build. The good news is you don't have to choose between taking breaks and growing your podcast. In this episode, I'm going to share a framework for creating a sustainable publishing schedule and that gives you the best of both worlds, the recovery of a seasonal show and the growth of an ongoing show. Let's talk about how. Hey, welcome to Podcast Playbook. I'm Justin from Simple Pod Studios where we help service based business owners launch, edit and grow their podcast. If you're looking support with your show, head over to simplepod studios.com or or just start a conversation by emailing me@justinimpleplepodstudios.com today we're going to talk about the crossroads that every podcaster eventually faces. At some point, the content treadmill gets heavy. You need a break, but you don't want to disappear for a month and lose the momentum you've built. Or maybe you're trying to be proactive and build a sustainable system before you reach that point. That's where today's question comes in. Should you run your podcast in seasons or should you continue publishing year round? In this episode, I'm going to break down the pros and cons of both approaches and share a framework for how to get the best of both worlds. First, let's talk about seasons. A seasonal podcast works like a TV show. You create and publish a group of episodes and then take a planned break before starting again. Most seasonal podcasts will publish somewhere between eight and 12 episodes, followed by a four to eight week break. For entertainment based shows, seasons often exist because of production constraints. They may need to work around actors, filming schedules, or larger production teams. But for business owners, a seasonal approach optimizes for something different. Sustainability. The biggest advantage of seasons is that they create planned recovery. Instead of waiting until you're exhausted and needing to step away, you build those breaks into your schedule ahead of time. And that's especially valuable around busy business seasons, holidays, or summer travel. Seasons also make production planning easier. Instead of constantly thinking one episode ahead, you can think about an entire collection of episodes and how they work together. Seasons also create a natural reflection point. At the end of each season, you're going to have the opportunity to look at what worked, what didn't, and make strategic changes. Maybe next season you experiment with a new intro, you add video, you change your publishing date, you, you bring on a co host, or you just shift your content focus. Those season breaks are really great times for evaluating what's working, what's not, and implement some new experiments for the next season. Another benefit of Seasons is they create natural marketing campaigns. Each season can have a specific goal or focus. Maybe it's promoting your upcoming book, or launching a course, or driving people towards a lead magnet, or supporting some kind of specific business initiative. And finally, one of the last pros of Seasons is that they create clear milestones. There's something different about finishing season one compared to publishing episode 12. A season gives you a finish line which can make the entire process feel more achievable. I think at the end of the day, Seasons can be a great choice for podcasters because they create structure. Now that we've made the case for seasons, let's talk about the other side of the equation. Ongoing publishing. An ongoing publishing schedule means committing to a consistent weekly or bi weekly cadence without planned breaks. While seasons optimize for sustainability and reflection, ongoing publishing optimizes for podcast growth. You've heard me talk about how podcast listening is built on habits, and that's true for both creators and listeners. For creators, a consistent schedule creates rhythm and routine. You know when to record, when you need to edit, when, when you need to publish. But after taking a long break, it can be surprisingly difficult to get back into that routine. More importantly, though, your listeners also build habits around your show. Maybe your podcast is what they listen to during their Monday morning commutes, or their Wednesday workouts or their Sunday meal prep. When you disappear for a month, you create a gap, and your listeners still have that time that they want to fill, and they may start filling it with another show. Once another podcast becomes part of their routine, it is harder to regain that attention. There's even a technical reason that consistency really matters. If someone follows your show in Apple Podcast and they don't listen to an episode in 15 days, Apple stops automatically downloading new episodes of your show for that listener. So they're no longer going to see your show in their downloaded folder, which may lead them to forget about it, which I see as a huge downside. Another major benefit of ongoing publishing is just more reps. The more episodes you create, the faster you improve. You get better at your hooks, your pacing, your storytelling, your interviews, titles, understanding what's resonating with your audience. These reps add up fast and you improve faster because of them. Consistent publishing also creates compounding growth opportunities. Every episode is another chance to be discovered, another piece of content that you can repurpose, and another opportunity for someone to find your work. And showing up consistently versus infrequently is going to build trust with your listeners and hopefully potential clients, which is usually the real reason business owners start podcasting in the first place. So now that I shared the pros and cons of both seasonal and ongoing publishing, we're kind of back to the problem again. The podcast seasons solve the sustainability problem, but they can also slow your momentum. Ongoing publishing solves the growth problem, but they can become exhausting because the content treadmill never ends. The good news is I think you can build a podcast that gives you the recovery of a seasonal show while maintaining the consistency of an ongoing show. The key is separating your production schedule from your publishing schedule. In other words, taking breaks from creating your podcast, not necessarily publishing it. And that's the idea of what I call the 48.4framework. The 48.4framework is designed for a weekly podcast, but don't get hung up on the exact numbers. If you're publishing biweekly or even monthly, you can scale this to fit your schedule. The principle here is going to stay the same. There are 52 weeks in a year, which means there are 52 publishing opportunities for weekly shows. Instead of thinking about those as 52 identical episodes, break them into two. Your core episodes in your recharge Episodes your core episodes are the foundation of your show. These are original episodes created specifically for your audience. They follow the normal production workflow from content planning and scripting to recording, editing and promotion. They are going to require the most energy, time and creative effort because you're creating these episodes from scratch. Then there are your recharge episodes. Recharge episodes are intentionally designed to give you a break or while continuing to deliver value to your audience. Instead of creating something entirely from scratch, you repurpose and or lightly update content you already created. The production workflow is much simpler because you're building from an existing asset instead of just a blank page. The important thing to cover in recharge episodes is that they are not lower value episodes, they are lower effort episodes. Your listeners should still walk away feeling like this episode was worth their time. The difference is it shouldn't require your full production process. Some of my favorite recharge episode ideas are an interview that you did on someone else's podcast that your audience may have never heard. A replay of one of your best performing episodes that especially New listeners are likely to have missed a recorded workshop, webinar, or conference talk that you've already delivered, a Q and a session that you had with your community, or even a lesson from one of your paid courses or training. The exact format doesn't matter. The goal is to keep publishing consistently while giving yourself the ability to step away from creating new content. Now, what does the 48.4framework actually look like in practice? Well, let's imagine that you're planning your weekly publishing schedule for 2027. From early January through mid June you publish 24 core episodes. Then the last two weeks of June you switch to two recharge episodes. Maybe they're replays from a guest appearance or replays from your show. Maybe it is some of that recorded training content that you have behind your paid course. The great news is, is that you'll have two episodes almost done so that you can take a family vacation or traveling for the summer, or simply just step away from the content treadmill for a couple weeks to recharge. Then you come back refreshed and you publish 24 core episodes from early July through mid December. And you finish the year with two more recharge episodes around the holidays before starting the new year with fresh core episodes again. This kind of framework gives you two intentional recovery periods every year without ever disappearing from your audience's feed. Now that's just one example. You could also structure it quarterly with 12 core episodes followed by one recharge episode. You can build in longer recharge periods around a particular busy season of your business or personal life. It doesn't matter. You can even add in more recharge episodes than just for a year. Maybe you do 8, maybe you do 12. The framework is flexible while the principle stays the same. Keep publishing and build recovery into your schedule. I think the one guideline that I would recommend is keeping your recharge episodes about 20% or less of your annual output. Honestly, I think if you're finding yourself needing more than that, it may be a sign that your publishing cadence is just isn't realistic. And it might be better off for you to move from a weekly schedule to a bi weekly schedule or get help with part of your workflow that could be editing or another time intensive part of your workflow. One final tip that I'd share around the 48.4 framework is that before your recharge period begins, record your first core episode that you'll publish when you come back. That way you're not spending the last day of your break scrambling to get another another episode finished Instead. You can actually enjoy the break knowing that you are ready to step back into the rhythm whenever you come back. Speaking of breaks, let's talk about how to use your break. One of the biggest mistakes I see is podcasters building breaks into their schedule and then just filling those breaks with more work. Especially business owners just don't do that. The purpose of Recharge episodes is exactly what the name suggests to recharge. If you are going to build breaks into your calendar, actually use them. That means making your recharge episodes truly low effort. Repurpose the content that you've already created, simplify your workflow, maybe skip social clips for these episodes, or reuse your show notes, or pause some of your growth tactics. You might see fewer downloads, maybe less engagement. And that's okay. The goal isn't to maximize one month. The goal with the 484 framework is to create a podcast that you can still be publishing three years from now. So I just told you to use your breaks to recharge, but I would suggest adding one reflection period into that break. This is really some of the huge benefits that I see with seasonal podcast. It doesn't have to be a long multi day process, but really just review these five questions. It can be a 30 minute meeting with yourself. The first question is what content resonated most with my audience? Look back at the last string of your core episodes and ask yourself what topics have generated the most downloads? Which ones have the best retention rates? Which ones created the most conversations? And then how can you create more content just like that? The second question that I want you to ask yourself during this reflection period is what content missed the mark? What topics fell flat? What should you stop spending time on? What no longer lights you up to talk about? These are all really good questions to ask yourself. The third area that I want you to focus on is what part of your workflow is creating the most friction? What's taking too much time? What's taking too much of your energy? What's one improvement that you can make before your next core episode releases? The fourth area that I suggest you looking at is what's one thing that you should stop, start or simplify? Is there something that you can stop doing, delegate, or even make easier? I think every recharge period should leave your production system just a little bit better than the last one. And finally the fifth question to ask yourself is does your podcast still support your business? A lot of this has got to center around messaging. Is your messaging clear? Are your call to actions aligned with what you're offering today. And ultimately, is your podcast helping you create the business that you actually want when you're done, if you've spent 30 minutes, maybe 60 minutes reflecting, you should have a clear plan for your next stretch of core episodes, the topics you want to cover and the ones you don't. One improvement that you can start working on in your production system and the confidence that your podcast is still aligned with your business goals or a plan to realign it. As we're wrapping up this episode, I hope this really gave you the confidence to build breaks into your podcast without feeling like you're going to be sacrificing growth. Whether you're using the 48.4framework or you create your own variation, the goal is the same. Build a publishing schedule that's sustainable for both your audience and for you. Because once again, the goal isn't to survive this month. The goal is to still love podcasting three years from now. And if you can create a system that lets you consistently show up while permitting yourself to recharge throughout the year, you're going to put yourself in a much better position to keep growing your audience, your authority, and your business. And we would love to play a part in helping you build that system. You can email me@justinimpleplepodstudios.com or you can learn more how we work with business owners@simplepodstudios.com thanks so much for listening. I'm Justin and I'll see you next time on Podcast Playbook.