#251 - I'm baaack!: Why I Took My First Podcast Break in 250 Episodes

Hey. Hey, everybody. It is Kate here from hellofunnels, and welcome back to the Doing it online podcast. Now, I don't know if you noticed, I don't know if you missed us, but I have had a little bit of a hiatus on this podcast over the last couple of months, and today I want to talk about that. I want to talk about why we had a break. I want to talk about what's been happening behind the scenes, and I also want to talk about what you can do when you need to have a break, and just some really good practical tips for managing that. Because life happens, right? And sometimes, you know, we need to do this, particularly if we are a small team and, you know, there are definitely ways to do it and not do it. And I've done some of the good and some of the bad, and I'm going to talk about it all. So grab your headphones, let's go for a walk. Let's jump in the car. Whatever we're doing, let's dive into it.

All right, guys, as I mentioned, I have been on a little bit of hiatus, and as much as I would love to say I've been lying on tropical island sunning myself, it's absolutely not the case. Also, I just want to preface by saying nothing really bad happened, but I did just find myself at a point where there were three things going on, and I just really had to make the decision to. To free up some time. So basically, as a lot of you would know, particularly if you're in our programs, my, like, right hand woman is currently on maternity leave. And so when that happened, I of course was like, yeah, no worries. I can totally do all of this stuff myself. And I think I massively underestimated what it would be like to do two people's jobs rather than just one. So I was finding that I was just definitely running a lot faster than normal, and that's not my normal pace. I'm about automation. I'm about ease. And I was like, going, hang on a second. What's. What's going on here? And, you know, she's definitely planning on being away for a good chunk of time to spend time with her new baby. So there was that. The other side of it was that in this, you know, with all of my great wisdom in this period of having to do, you know, having a lot more on my plate anyway, I decided to buy off some really big projects now. These are things I've been wanting to do for ages, things I'm really excited about, things I definitely didn't want to wait until the end of the year to tackle. So one was we did a massive, you know, re imagining of Inside the Empire program. I do this about roughly about once a year because, you know, one of the pros and cons of having a online program that teaches digital marketing is a lot changes. While foundational stuff really stays the same, the nuances around it and how to get it to work best and for different businesses and in what order you should do things. That is what has been changing. I did a lot of experimenting. Sort of end of last year, start of this year, I saw some things which needed to make a shift to help my clients get even better results. And I really didn't want that to wait. Like, I want to make sure that the curriculum was as up to date as possible. So that was like a really huge priority for me. And I think, as anyone who's ever recorded curriculum for an online program knows, it always takes way, way more time than you think it will. So that was number one. Number two was I had a couple of other big projects that I was just dying to get started. One I can't really tell you about yet. It is coming very soon. Again, I was like, this will be a quick thing to just get set up and running. It hasn't been, it's so far, it's taking quite a lot of time, but it's going to be so good and I'm so excited about it. But basically, you know, with, with having less support and then deciding to just bite off way more than I could chew with some really big chunky projects on top of like the general stuff was just doing to keep business running, to obviously be showing up for my clients, I was finding that the, the, the recording days and recording sessions, I was just dreading them. And when, you know, I was looking at my calendar going, no, not this week. I've got so much to do. And even though I batch and you know, try to do like four to six weeks at a time, it was those weeks in between went so fast. And then the other thing, when it came to it, I was like, usually I would allow myself a good amount of time to plan these out, to actually sit down, to do the outlines and then record them on a separate day. And I like it to be quite spacious. I like to have, you know, not to take crazy amounts of time, but maybe it's four hours on one day, four hours another day. And I was finding I was trying to squeeze them into like a two hour block and I actually had one Friend tell me that she goes, I was listening to your podcast the other day and I thought I had put it on 2x speed and I realized I hadn't. That's just how fast you were talking. And so I was rushing through things because I was like, I just need to get this done. I need to get this done. So that's not. I mean, I talk fast anyway. I'm probably talking crazy fast right now. Now that I'm aware of it, I'm gonna try and slow it down. But, you know, that's not what I want. I'm not about a just tick a box, like just get it done for the sake of getting it done kind of person. Like, if you're going to lend me your ears for like 10, 15 minutes, I want to make sure I'm giving you something of value that is the best it can be. So I didn't feel like I was doing any of those things well. And so I was like, something's got to give here. And so reluctantly, for the very first time ever since, since in like 250 episodes, I said, all right, we're going to pause, we're going to actually take a break. And we're just, you know, and the intention was it's going to be a four week break. It ended up being a 12 week break. That time went very, very quickly. But I got a lot done. So, you know, I'm glad and I'm back and I'm refreshed. But like I said, I just really want to jump back in and not sort of, you know, ignore the fact that I just ghosted you guys for a little while, explain it and also talk about some of the things that I did this time, some things I didn't do this time, and things I've done before in the past when it's gotten busy. Because things do get busy, right? And you know, we do sit down and we map out like, you know, if you've got a big project or something that we're doing, or a new product we're creating, or, you know, whatever it is, a new funnel that we're launching. And then, you know, how often have you gotten halfway into it and you're like, hang on, this is blowing out. This is taking longer than I thought. And, you know, there's only so many hours in a day. And sometimes, you know, the thing that does kind of get, you know, put to the side might be your content creation. So that's, you know, now you've heard my story, let's dive into the tips. So, as I mentioned, I've had about done 250 something episodes at this point of this podcast. And this was the very first time I ever decided to just flat out stop what I've done previously. Because definitely had other moments of, you know, peaks and troughs and other moments of like, all right, we're not gonna be able to get this done, or I wanna go on a holiday or whatever it is. So things I've done in the past to fill those gaps is that I have gone back and actually rerun old episodes, or I have taken maybe it's recording of a training or a coaching session and I've turned that into a podcast episode. And all you have to do then is, well, if you've got two options, one, the totally lazy option is just say that it's a rerun in the title or in the description. There's nothing wrong with that. The other option is you can record a new intro and just pop that in in the front. Both of those things don't take a lot of time. And whether it's a matter of going back, finding a previous episode that was really popular, or one that's maybe just related to some other stuff you've got going on at the moment, or, you know, if you've got a launch or something coming up and you still want to make sure that it's relevant and it's leading up to that, then, you know, maybe there was a live training that you've done inside that program or a coaching session or something like, there's. We all are creating content all the time, even if we don't technically think of it as content. And just because you created it once doesn't mean you can't use it again. So that's normally what I would do and I have done multiple times in the past, but this time I was like, no, I just don't even have the bandwidth for that. I think I just need. I just need to pause it. I need to pause it right now. So that's what happened, guys. And my apologies for not really giving you any warning. I think looking back, what I probably should have done is just record a quick little like, hey, taking a quick break, back soon. Because I did just kind of just stop. But it was definitely one of those moments where I was like, no, there is. This just needs to, like at this couple of hours just needs to be freed up immediately. So that's what happened. So hopefully, you know, you guys didn't miss me too much as I mentioned.

So the other Thing that I want to point out is, and this is, I think one of the reasons why I've never really paused before is because I have a bit of an all or nothing personality. And it did really concern me that if I ever took a break, if I ever missed a week, that all of a sudden it'd be in the back of my head, that that's okay and that, you know, I can start missing more and then the consistency will go out the window and then, you know, why kind of bother? I think it's one thing to take a break once every, you know, couple of years or year or so if you need it, particularly if it's a plan break and you kind of let people know, maybe you have an off season, for example. I mean, even TV shows take a break, they're not going all year round. Unless you're like the Simpsons or something. That I think is probably the better option than just what I did, which is just letting it all build up and then going, you know, holy shit, I need the break right now. And that might be something I'm going to look at in the future is when we're sort of planning out different projects and things. Planning out the year is to maybe to look, to do a bit more of a seasons versus a constant. I haven't decided on that, but I really just think it was a moment where I just know myself. And I think if you're listening to this and you're considering taking a break with, whether it's with your podcast or your socials or whatever it is, I think the most important thing to know is, number one, breaks are okay. It is your business, it's your. So it's your rules. And you know, you have to put yourself, your mental health, your family, whatever it is that's kind of pulling you away. That's number one over creating content always. But I think like directly behind that, we need to make sure it doesn't become a pattern and therefore we lose our consistency and the trust that we've built with our audiences. So I think like, ideal scenario, if you have been feeling like a break might be needed soon, is to probably put a bit of thought and intention into it. Like I said, don't wait. Like I did get to like the, you know, the last minute and go, nut has to happen now. Or maybe look at the option of doing seasons. So lots of people with YouTube videos, with podcasts, things like that, like things that are a bit more creation heavy will have seasons. So they will have an on period and an off. Period. And they can prepare for that. Now, again, check in with your own personality. If it's something that you do seasonally, it doesn't mean that you'll just keep pushing it back and back and back and never actually do it. If that's the case, maybe that's not the right choice for you. But you know, the good one? The good things about having your own online business, as I think you probably all know, is that some of the lessons that we learn are not just marketing. They're not just sales and not just customer service or whatever. They're actually so much about ourselves. And I always think that the businesses that work the best are the ones that are designed to support the founders and the people inside that business and not just purely the other way around. So that's my sort of 2 cents worth on when to take a break, how to take a break, and how to probably start thinking about structuring your content, your content creation as intentionally as we can can. But also just know life happens if you know something comes up and you do need to take a break. If you need to stop posting on social media for a couple of weeks, the world will not end. Your sales may slow down a little bit in that period, but your audience is not going to completely forget you. They're not going to totally hate you. I think it's good to always lead and be honest and upfront and say, this is what happened, especially in the age of AI. It's so good to actually, I mean, I know I connect so much more with people who are. I just reel and just tell it how it is. So that's what I'm doing in this episode, guys. And as I mentioned, during this break, I have been creating so many fun things. I've been nerding out on AI. I've been making stuff better and faster and just really, really like, just really freaking cool. Like, you're going to love it. So keep your eyes peeled. Coming over the next week or so. Big announcement coming. So I can't tell you about it right now, but I'm really excited to share it with you all. And yeah, got more on that in our next episode, which I'm going to go record right now just to make sure it's in the can. And I will see you same time, same place next week. Bye.