My Podcast Isn’t Dead (But It Ain’t Movin’ Much)
I read an article lately that said that a lot of podcasts, especially on Anchor, are dead podcasts, in that they either only have one episode or they haven’t been updated in 90 days or more.
The Tim Adkins Does Digital podcast fits that description many times over.
It didn’t start out being a podcast that wanted to be dead, of course. I wanted it to thrive. I love talking into a microphone and putting it all out there to the world (ask anyone who listened to my college radio DJ work — I never shut up). So why isn’t the podcast getting updated if I love it so much? Like a lot of things, there are many reasons.
Social Media Wears Me Out
The Tim Adkins Does Digital podcast is primarily about digital marketing for people who are interested in that kind of thing, so it leans heavily into social media marketing. In order to be good at social media marketing, you should actually use social media, even if your personal profiles are a bit lacking. (Are you following me on Twitter? I’m super boring there. Check it out!) Now, as we all know from the past year or two, social has turned into a dumpster fire for the most part, and it’s hard to separate the wheat from the chaff. I have blocked and snoozed so many of my Facebook “friends” it’s unbelievable. My Twitter feed is about 50% self-congratulatory pompousness, 30% nonsense, and about 20% useful. I do love that 20% because they are marketers who actually have something to say. I love those types.
I have something to say too sometimes, but I’m of the mind that if you don’t have something important to say, don’t say it at all.
I’m in the minority.
Social, especially hashtag Marketing Twitter™ , can get to be non-stop noise, with vapid nonsense advice like “everything is marketing and everyone is a marketer” or “your personal brand is a brand but it’s personal to you” or some other silly stuff that takes up space but tells you nothing. I’ve never been the type to do that.
And some people schedule this nonsense! Like, they actually pull out a social media scheduler, put this stuff in it, and let it roll.
Then wonder why no one engages with that. (They do, though! Why? Ya got me.)
I’m worn out. Between the constant take-a-side ranting on Facebook and the look-at-me-blah-blah-blah on Twitter, it’s hard to talk about something I used to love.
I ain’t lovin’ it these days.
Old Man Yells At The Cloud
So, rather than being a grumpy old man who screams at things I decided I wanted to take the thing in a different direction. This was after I deleted a lot of my later episodes.
Yep, deleted the bleep outta them.
I was trying too hard to be topical, and was lacking the conversational style I loved doing so much. The episodes were hard to listen to. They were contrived, boring, and frankly, I didn’t enjoy recording them either. Someone online…well, a lot of someones…said that you “have to show up everyday” and “you have to be consistent” and that put a lot of pressure on me to come up with something even though it wasn’t my best work.
You can still find those episodes if you look hard enough. Don’t though. You’ll be disappointed and I’ll be embarrassed. It’s not good for any of us.
The last two episodes on the main networks are my two interviews, the one with Dustin Mankin from a long time ago, and the one with Felipe Mandujano from also a long time ago. It’s surprising, and one of the cool things about podcasts in general, that old episodes still get listened to, and good for Dustin and Felipe because they deserve some exposure.
My other friends deserve exposure too, but they have to wait for my motivation to come back. They have been patient and supportive, and it hasn’t been easy.
So I will forgive them if I tell them I’m coming back and they do that eye roll thing.
Mouth-to-mike Resuscitation
For me, though, this is a CPR moment for the cast. I want to get back into it for various reasons. I miss it. Also, I’ve made a big deal of it, and that might not have been the greatest idea when I’m not keeping up with it.
For example, it’s on my LinkedIn profile, it’s on my resume, it’s on my socials — I even have an IMDB entry for the podcast and for myself, which makes me famous?
I’ve invested a lot of my (here we go) personal brand into being a podcaster and a blogger. It’s time I get started doing both again, right?
How to get started? They say the best way to get started is to get started. This thing right here that I just typed out is a start. I guess. I got something on paper.
We’ve been here before though. This isn’t new.
But maybe it’s time to breathe again.
