Quitter's Day for Podcasters: Knowing When to Stick and When to Quit

Want your podcast and videocast to be seen, heard, found and rewarded in this noisy digital world, you are not alone. Join the nonprofit community at Podcasters United and podcast industry experts Tom Hazard and Tracy Hazard as they debunk all that outdated and bad advice you've been getting from the podcast gurus and find out what actually works today. Get ready to feed your brand with smart cut tactics proven to cast your original voice to the world.

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Welcome to Feed your Brand. I'm Tom Hazard, along my co host Tracy Hazard. And you know what? It's that time of the year where a lot of people have made a New Year's resolution to either launch that podcast or more likely relaunch that podcast that they did not continue. They may have pod faded or life got in the way or never got it off the ground or intended to start. Recorded a couple and then, yeah, never really put it out.

Well, we're going to all the time.

We're going to talk all about that today. Yeah, just like what is it they say the first Friday after the year is quitters day for New Year's resolutions in general, most people say second Friday, the gym. Oh, second Friday I'm going to go to the gym. And then they don't go to the gym. And they realize by quitters day that it isn't going to happen.

Okay, I never heard of that before now. But I mean, maybe because I like if I'm going to commit to something, you know this, if I'm going to commit to something, I'm committing like I don't commit easily. Right. And that's the difference. Right.

I don't.

We take resolutions really seriously in my household. Like from time I was a kid, my dad will bug us for about a week letting you know, getting us to think about what our resolution is going to be. And I've been doing it with our kids to like they won't just give you a half bake answer either. Right. That's what the really good thing about it is, when it makes you really sit down and think, what am I going to be resolved to actually do? Because the minute I say it, that's a commitment. I've made a commitment to myself and I take that more seriously than my commitment to others. Although I do take those very seriously. Right. So when I think about those, that's what a resolution really is. It is a commitment to yourself. It is a part of your integrity. If you fail to keep that with yourself, what does that say about who you are and how you're going to show up in the world. And we can expect, and most of us do expect high commitments from our clients, from those that we coach. But if we can't expect it from ourselves, then we have to recognize that there's struggle. So that's why I've shifted my thinking a little bit this year. You know that I. Like, we already said this in our last coaching call, but this is a year of tough love. I am going to be harder on everyone else and myself. Right. We're going to be harsh about this this year because I want you to wake up and face the reality that you say you're committed, but you're not. Really. Everything you do says that you're not.

I'm kind of laughing on the inside, I mean.

And on the outside, a little bit.

A little bit. I mean, yeah, I understand the approach, and I agree this is the year of tough love, because I don't think it helps anyone to have the belief that they're going to achieve something they're not going to do when they're not going to achieve it, or that they're going to get there by doing the same thing that they did last year, because it's probably not going to happen. However, I'm not necessarily advocating quitting. I'm advocating, hey, get off your butt and get it done. Because guess what? You're going to benefit, and so are your listeners in many, many ways.

But that's what I really want you to think about carefully. Like, my dad got us to think carefully about what we were going to be resolved to do. Because it couldn't be ordinary. Right. If I could do this. Yeah, that. That's not. That's not a resolution to change something. Right. That's not a resolution to complete something. That's not a resolution that I should be making with myself to, like, eat less sweets. Like, it just isn't really changing some outcome. Right. And that's what we want to do when we're resolving to do something. We want to do something that is going to get a new result, a result we haven't been able to achieve yet.

Right at this time of year. Every year, we get a flood of people who we know who have either begun the process to launch a podcast years ago or had one and did it for a long time and then stopped or intended to get started. Started. The process had never really launched. We get a flood of people at this time of year who are probably saying, oh, my gosh, it's the beginning of the new year. Here we are, we're in 20, 25. I need to really do it this year. And it happened. I mean, you know, last week I get several calls. This week I'm getting more calls, and I'm like, wonderful, let's do it. But I'm also being realistic and letting people know what it takes to do it. And it's very interesting even having a meeting with one of those customers today saying, all right, here's what you need to do these three things, and are you willing to do that? Because that's what it's going to take.

And see that. I love the way you phrase that. Are you willing to do that? Because that's really what it is. It's not. Can. Can you do it? Of course you can do it.

Of course.

Right? You're really not willing to do it. And if you are not willing to do what it takes, then there's no way you're going to keep your resolution.

I agree.

So that's what I really want people to think about as we look at this model of, am I resolved to commit to my podcast and make it happen this year or keep it happening this year? Right? Like, that's also something. Right? You have to sit down and do the work. You can't just say it. You have to sit down and start the work. And that's where maybe you need an outline. Maybe you need to understand what that work looks like. And that's what I think we should talk a little bit about today is like, if you're POD faded, what does that mean? And if you've. There's so many people that fall into this category, right? Where they cannot stay what we call consistent and constant with their podcast, right? We have terms for them, classifications in our database system for them. That's how many it is at the end of the day. So we have people who are calling, who we call POD faders, right? They started a podcast, they had a really great show, but they told no one they were quitting. They didn't quit us. They didn't tell us they were stopping. They just drop off and they leave their subscription live for a really long time because they still believe they're going to come back to it. And then eventually they realize, oh, really, I'm not going to come back to it. And usually they quit in embarrassment. Like, it's usually a no words. They don't say anything. They just stop paying their bill. Like, that's it. Like, they never tell us. They don't return any phone calls. Like, they don't return any emails. Like, hey, is everything okay, you know, what do you want us to do about your show? Like, they just abandon it with no words said to both their audience and to us as their producers. Like, just. That's what it is. And that happens because they realize, and they're somewhat embarrassed by it. It just happens.

Right.

They realized that they didn't keep the commitment that they made to themselves, their audience.

And I think there's also a natural feeling that if they really shut their show entirely down and it's no longer available in listening apps, that that's kind of a finality they don't want to admit or face. Right. If it's still out there, well, I can start it back up at any time. I can record, I can publish more episodes, but often they never do. That's why there's literally more than 4 million podcasts out there, and less than 10% of them are publishing new episodes on a regular basis. So that's why it's also so easy. And had this happen the other day with someone again touting their sort of listen notes, percentage or rank, whatever, that's why that. That metric is really useless because it's saying you are in the top 5% or 10% whatever, of all podcasts, and that includes all the ones that have stopped publishing years ago, months ago, whatever. It is pretty easy to be in the top 10%, because guess what? Every podcast publishing episodes today is in that top 10%. There's only 10% that are publishing episodes. So it's not that hard to be there now.

Right. Anyway, so, yeah, so we have a term for them. We also have a term for those that are. That maybe do one or two episodes, like they get started, like, or they somewhat set up their show. We call them Mia Missing in action. Right. Because that's what they are. They needed to take action and they're not taking it. And they're hard to track down, too. There's always excuses like, this is what we find with those people. The ones that fall into that bucket is, oh, but my. I'm launching my book right now, so I'll get to this next. Oh, I'm preparing a course. There's always something in the way first. I'm never going to get to this. Let's face up to it. This is where my tough love comes into. You people out there who are in that Mia category, your priorities have shifted. Admit it to yourself. How many of these open projects do you have that you never get back to? My daughter, my youngest daughter has been giving me heck because went out to Learn how to crochet this past year, over the summer, really. And I had more time in the summer with her. So we went out to learn how to crochet. We got all the yarn, we got the book. We started projects. My project is sitting there. It's sitting right by the sofa where I sit and read or watch TV or whatever it is. So it's my spot, and so it's right there. And I see it every time I sit down. But I have not picked it up since fall started because I'm busy and it's not a priority. And I also discovered in the process that I really don't like crochet. I like knitting much better. It's much faster. I'm much more confident. I can do it without thinking. But crochet, I have to think too much. So it's not relaxing. So I discovered that. But I have to admit that to her.

And what'd she say? What was the reaction?

I haven't. Cause she doesn't.

You haven't done it yet? Oh, oh, I haven't done it.

I have to admit that to her, right? Because she doesn't. Because that conversation is a much longer conversation than I want to have five minutes before bedtime. When she says, as a distractor, right? She says, mom, you know, we really need to crochet. Yeah, yeah, sure, Go to bed.

Right.

Like, it's not the time for the conversation. We need to have it on a weekend. We will have that conversation coming up because I'm going to clear it out at some point here, right? But the yarn, it's a project, right? This is no different than you getting all the tools together. Right. Getting everything on all in one place and. Right. And putting it together and then not doing it because the next things comes in or. And this is what I found here. Right. I realized it's not for me. That is the biggest aha. And the best time to say timeout, quit. This is not right for me. Chalk it up to a learning experience that is so valuable right there, and it's worth the money I spent on that yarn. I'm not going to go return it. I'm not going to go do any of those things. I'm going to chalk it up to a learning experience. And maybe Vanessa loves crocheting and she'll just take over the project that I finished or that I started and never finished.

Right?

So maybe that'll happen. I don't know. We'll see how our conversation goes this weekend. But it is a great aha for you to learn that, and then imagine how you're going to feel when you take it off your plate when it's not sitting next to me as this distractor going, yeah, you quit. Yeah. You didn't finish me. No. You said, I learned what I needed to learn. I'm done with this. I've put it away. It's no longer important. I've got space to tackle the real thing I'm resolved to do this year. Make space. That's a perfect reason to quit. And it is okay to admit that that wasn't for you. And there are people that podcasting is never going to be for them. Do you have kind of a sense of that, Tom, from the people you've met where you're like, yeah, you really wasn't right for them?

Definitely. It's really usually the people who have every good intention and like the idea of being a podcaster and want to do it, and they'll pay for the support to do it, but then they just never, ever record, and they don't.

Love the recording process.

It's the one thing I cannot make someone do. We can provide them all the support in the world to do everything else for them. I cannot make them record, and I don't have the time to take all those people and really hold their hands, get on zoom with them and participate in their show as a sidekick to make them record. I mean, you know, that'd be the only way you could maybe do that. I don't have the time to do that.

Yeah. Yeah. And that's really what it is. It's not that. It's not the technical part of the recording that's hard. Keep that in mind. Like, I mean, you guys zoom all the time. You're perfectly capable of recording. What you're not always feeling comfortable with is being at this end of speaking, because people. There are people out there who need the audience exchange. They need the energy exchange. Without it, it's not worth it to them. They can't visualize who's out there. I know who I'm talking to. I know exactly who my audience is. Whether they're showing up on this call or they're gonna get it in the future, I. It doesn't matter to me. I know exactly who they are. I have them in my head. We'd done this from the beginning of podcasting, Tom. We visualized who we wanted to listen, and they did show up. And so it's always worked for us to have that visualization of an audience, and it's fine. We're perfectly good there.

I have no problem sitting on Zoom talking into the camera. Even if I'm not doing it with you, I will, you know, do it myself on other shows or occasionally we have an episode here. You're sick, or I'm sick. One of us out of town, whatever. I mean, I have no problem doing that and actually enjoy it. So much so that even just with my personal friends, if I'm like, recording a video to tell them something or show them something on my phone as I'm walking the dog in the neighborhood or something, they'll always come to him. It's like, Tom, that. That video you recorded, it sounded like a podcast. That's like, I can't get out of that.

You're narrating your life.

They're like, that was so descriptive. Like, ooh, that's the podcaster in me.

Okay, well, it is who we are, right?

Yeah.

And there are other people where. This is why we have some processes we set up at the beginning of things. It's like, if you good showing up for someone else, get guests on your show, you'll show up, you'll have a conversation. It'll make you feel better. It'll be fine. If you need an audience, set up a coaching call like we do. Right? Try to. Because some people really struggle with coaching without the audience or mentoring without the.

Audience, or having the event that you've set up, that's going to occur, and you have to be accountable to show up for them. Whether people really show up or not. You've put it on your calendar, you've made an event. You've. In our case, you've set it up in Restream, You've set it as an event in Zoom. So it's gonna happen. And if you don't show up, even Zoom will say, the meeting should have started. It's late. I don't know if you've ever gotten that kind of update, but.

So you're late for your own meeting.

Some people need that kind of, I would say, regimen of there is a schedule. Now, a lot of people don't like to do that and love the freedom of recording a podcast whenever they want. That's why they pre record the batch record, and then they get published on a regular cadence later. Some people need to show up every week at a certain time to do it.

But here's the thing. I'm gonna tell you that I could go through the list and pick the people who say that. And this is an excuse. This is an excuse. You tell yourself, you're telling yourself that. I love the spontaneity, the ability to record whenever I want. And you will not record. Those are the ones. I know it because they say it all the time. They don't wanna have accountability. They don't wanna have a schedule. And they're the ones that will pot fade and quit. Bmia. It happens all the time. I can identify them because they've said it to me. I look on our list of clients, I'm like, yep, this is what they tell me. Every time I try to tell them to get on a schedule, they say it's not for them. Okay. It's not for them. And it's not working for them either. Right. It's still not doing it. If you cannot hold yourself accountable, then you have to set up a system or someone else to hold yourself accountable. That's it. Like, just stop.

Those are actually good things to realize that you need and to do or to set up or to get support so you can do that. Okay, I agree. Tracy. There's. I'd like to pivot a little bit from. You're just. You're not committed and face it and stop trying, which is a little.

No, no, no. That's not what I said there. I said that is not a recipe. That is not an action. You must take action in order to hold yourself accountable there. That's what I'm saying is you have to recogn. That is not working for you.

I agree. I wasn't really talking about what you were just saying, but more what you were saying a little earlier in the episode. Okay. But I also think there are an awful lot of especially existing podcasters out there, okay. Who have been struggling, who have either faded or they're continuing to do it, but. And they enjoy it, but they are feel like they're not setting the world on fire. Like they don't have enough people listening. They're not serving enough people. They've plateaued in some way in the results. And this is where I think there's an awful lot of people that lack awareness of what's either wrong with their show or their process or why are people not finding the show? There are always good reasons why. And actually this on my mind because I met with a podcaster this morning who's been working with us for, I don't know, maybe half a year, and they needed to do a bunch of those things, like three of those things. If you want to make progress, here's what you need to do. And it was a Struggle, almost like pulling teeth, to get this person to make a decision on some of the changes. But finally did, and guess what? A month after those changes, now the downloads are going up. And guess what? This person actually didn't publish an episode for a whole month during the holidays, but during that month, downloads went up. That usually doesn't happen, but it says some of those changes that were made are having an impact and more people are finding the show. The listing of the show is in the right condition, that it's motivating people to click to learn more. So imagine what happens now is that next episode is going to publish in another week. Now it's going to really do even better. So my point in this is this can be a good time of year, resolutions aside, to finally get some support. You have somebody help hold a mirror, get an evaluation. Get. Yeah, so I'm saying hold up a mirror, get an evaluation of your show and your whole process and what's working and what's not, and be willing to make some changes.

But I think that the most important thing that you can do if you're going to reach out and get an expert evaluation, and we encourage you to do it like it makes all the difference in the world. There's nothing that I hate more than. You didn't ask. Right. You should have asked someone who knew what they were talking about.

Right.

It would just be so much easier to get a real answer than to burn through what we believe is the answer. You need to be realistic about your show, though. What is the struggle for you? Where is that metric that is bothering you so much? What's going on there? So I had an evaluation of a show recently, Tom, where I said, you don't even realize how great your show is because your show has a finite time period. They do what you say in your show, and when they do it, they succeed and they age out of your show.

There are shows like this. We know of at least two or three where their audience are. And I'll just give you one example. Expectant mothers or people who have just had a baby and they have needs for a certain period of time in their life, and then they age out of that. So your audience, you need to constantly be pulling new people into your audience. That's one example. I know you had another one.

No, no. But it's very valid. Yeah, it's totally. This is. It's a time period in your life, right? And you're gonna do this thing and the show is in support, and then you move on to the Next stage. Right. And maybe you are not the expert. You're not. That podcast host is not the answer for that next stage. Maybe they are. And now they need to consider a second show or another product or something for that. That's valid. But what I. When I was evaluating the show, I said, look, you may think you're flatlining, but what I'm telling you is you have attrition and replacement. And attrition and replacement naturally happening. Yours should be so thrilled. Your show's not in decline, it's staying flat. That's actually an amazing thing. Especially when you spend $0 on marketing. And that's what they were doing. They're spending $0 on marketing other than.

Their pods, other than their podcast content.

Yeah, right, exactly. So it's working like it's getting you noticed. And that was a bigger aha for them to realize. Those people are new. They're just finding you and joining the show. And all of a sudden the energy shifted to how they're going to approach.

Their show and that constant level of listenership, which, as I remember for that show is pretty darn decent anyway.

It's decent. Yeah.

In the 8 to 10,000 plays a month type of level, which is very solid.

Right.

That just cause you flatline there. That what you're saying, Tracy, was a measure of success, not of stagnation or of a problem that needed to be fixed now, like you said.

And so what my fear, though, is.

Other things to do to even grow the audience more. Right.

It's a to. But now that you got the host out of the focus on what they believed was a bad measurement, into looking at it as a positive, we can now focus on the other things. So that's why if you're going to go into an evaluation, let's be honest about with ourselves and who we're asking to evaluate. Let's be honest about how we feel about these metrics or about where we are or how much of a grind something is. We have to be honest with it or we're not going to be able to either reframe it or change it. And we'll just be back here next year with you in that same permanent potential position. Mia pod, faded, whatever it is, you'll be back again, trying to renew your commitment to podcasting because you weren't realistic about it. And that's what I really want you to face. It's like, look, I want you to quit your show if it's the right thing for you to do, to focus on the thing that's necessary to really grow your business. Because if it's not podcasting and you're not doing it anyway, like, let's focus on the thing that's going to really make it sing. Make your business change, make resolve to change the outcome for the year. But if it is the thing that can get you what you want, then you got to do the work. You got to take those actions that Tom was talking about. You've got to make those steps to make the difference, get out of your own ego in your own way to make those things occur. Because that's how resolutions take off.

And, you know, now I'm going to turn to the dark side a little bit because.

Because you're the sunny optimist in us. I know in our group here, I.

Am the optimist in our group. It's true. But I've been hearing from a lot of people who, fair enough, are constrained by probably their budget more than their time. Okay. And they're, they're in this limbo place of I really enjoy the podcast. I want to keep doing it, but I really need to be spending my time on revenue generating efforts in my business. And this could be a solopreneur to a small business owner. Right? And what I keep hearing, which is again, the ultimate to me trying to think of how to put this nicely, but maybe I shouldn't even try, it means the ultimate excuse really is, well, when my business is making more money, then I'll pay and get the support I need to be able to really do all the things necessary to benefit from the show, to have it really work. And when they say I need to wait until the business is making more money to do it, that I always am, like, all right, you're never going to get there. You're going to be in permanent potential for a long time. Because the reality is you should be spending more of your time not editing your own audio and video, not creating social share video clips. All you should be spending your time on is recording the raw message because no one can do that but you. You need to do that.

And if you can't, if you legitimately can't afford the other stuff, don't do it, okay? Do what Tom and I are doing. Go live, turn it into a podcast, put it on a hosting platform. It takes nothing to strip off audio and make that happen or use your video. We, on our platform, you just stick the video in and the audio comes anyway. So you don't even have to work that hard to get your audio. So just do that, syndicate it out and leave it at that for now. Because the worst thing, and this is what I want to say to you. If you're going to quit your show, you must seriously consider what happens to the investment you already made, because I am so saddened. We just looked at this number recently and out of the amount of shows that quit over the last five years, we have 110 that literally just abandoned it. They did nothing. They didn't move their show, they didn't save it. They didn't. They just abandoned everything. And Tom, you know what happen? Remember that one client, I don't remember how long ago it was, like last year, I think, but where they got bought out by another company and they just deleted all the blogs.

Oh, it was.

And their website dropped in 30 days.

It tanked their keyword rankings and free traffic they were getting from Google. The very organic content marketing benefit that all of us podcasters have the opportunity to enjoy and get a huge amount of value from was just thrown away because the powers that be within that organization just did not understand it. They weren't aware of it and they thought it was not important.

Right.

It's terrible.

And so that's what I don't want you to quit and then actually abandon all your investment. I want you to think very carefully about what happens when I turn off my podcast. Well, all the track players in your blogs break now. Your website looks half working. Google starts to downgrade that because broken links and all of that. And the next thing you know, your website now has no value which you were still committed to. So be really careful about what you're doing with these things when you decide to quit, be careful about the consequences of them. Because the last thing you want to do is say I need to spend time on revenue generating activities. But because I was unwilling to spend $30 a month to keep my podcast live, I now have hours and hours and hours of work to correct mistakes that were made when this could be six months before I'm back and ready to go again.

Or it's the podcaster has just started and you know, actually providing a really good message to the world. Hasn't really built that audience yet and says, you know what, I really need to stop, slow down on the podcast till I build my funnel. Because I need to have a funnel in order to have listeners go into that's going to make me money down the road. So they go and build that funnel, they pause everything for six months a year and then realize, who am I going to let know about the funnel. How am I going to get people into the top of funnel? Well, if you'd kept podcasting and grew it properly, you'd actually have a bigger audience to put into that funnel. So we find a lot of things get out of sequence here. And when people are struggling, they're maybe not keeping their eye on the ball. And what is going to be the fuel that is going to make whatever you do going forward in 2025 work?

And we have to look at it at today's world. This is the other problem we have. We have clients who. It's been two years and they still haven't started their show yet. And the world is different. So we have to look at this. We're in an AI world. The Tom and I are, like, so grateful. We never stopped blogging. Never. I was a blogger before it was popular. I wrote this.

When was that? Like, easygoing green 2002, something like that? Yeah, over 20 years ago, right?

Over 20 years ago, I wrote a blog about going green.

Like eco green.

Like eco green, right. Yeah. I would write about stuff like soap nets and giving up paper towels and toilet paper alternatives that were really not good. Stuff like that. Like. And I would write about what it was. And they were good articles, they were funny, and they were fun to write. No one read them. I was trying to figure out blogging. I was writing about something I cared about, but I was really trying to figure out blogging. And then the next step in my evolution was, okay, nobody's reading my blog, so how am I going to drive traffic? And it was get a better website, built a better website. And it was working. But the key to it was the fact that I started to podcast the content for the blog. And so those things, I'll think, but now we're coming full circle again. And my written content, all of that written content that Tom and I produce, and we never stop producing during that whole time, because it. All the things that we've been exploring, video and podcasting and all of those things were a means to the end to get the written content. Because we knew the value of building that website was the key to everything for us in that whole path of it. We've come back to the cycle where real human thought put into written word is the highest valued thing right now in this digital economy.

And not just for websites and Google search. We're now experiencing it with AI, with people finding us in our company from ChatGPT and Gemini and some of these other AI tools.

We don't even have it in the drop list of like, how did you hear about us? And people are writing that in. Right, like, so that's how important it is that we are being referred that way because our content is there. So that's the last thing I don't. I want you to not forget the importance of the things that you're putting into your platform. If you're an author, if you're a course builder, if you've got a membership group, if you've got any of those things, the stuff you feed into that has lasting residual value and is lead generating and money making at the end of the day. Right? So we don't want to shut that off completely. We want to find a way to make it easier for you, but we don't want to shut that off and we don't want to definitely don't want to delete it. Like, that's the part that I just, I cannot understand why someone would just like do hundreds of episodes and then just like, I'm done.

There's all sorts of value for that content, whether you want it or not. I mean, there's value for someone in that content. I agree. It's a shame when it just gets destroyed.

You've just destroyed all that good, valuable thought leadership and I don't want you to lose that for yourself. So let's also talk about that. If you're going to quit your show, there are ways to do it that preserves the values you you built, preserves the investment you built in case you want to come back to it, but also preserves it and associates it you, which is really critically important in today's world because you're going to lose it if you abandon it. It is going to go and it's not. You're not going to get credit for it. We want to make sure that that doesn't happen. So let's take a look. Thompson, my advice to you is if you really have a resolution, think carefully about the outcome you're looking for. Make sure what you're resolving to do actually can deliver that outcome. And if you're unsure about it, get an expert opinion. If you've already resolved to do something and maybe your podcast is now in conflict, there's not enough time for it. Let's have a conversation about that too. Or have a conversation with someone you trust. If it's not us, that's okay. But get a conversation with someone not selling you something who's willing to give you an evaluation of where you are with things and say, is this really serving me in a way that I'm not understanding it, and is it going to actually create the outcome I want or help support that outcome that I want, then I really need to maybe figure out a way to keep it going. So you guys may have heard me being a little tough with Tom over the last couple of episodes, right? Cause I've been pushing him to commit to something he claims he wants, but he's not participating in the actions it takes to make it happen. That's the tough love you're gonna get from us this year. Right? We're going to hold your faith, feet to the fire, and make you take the action you need or it's not going to happen for you. And in some cases, you're going to find out we're giving you, we're penalizing you to kind of make you think about the penalty. Like, am I losing this? Right. Because if I'm losing something, maybe I'm more likely to hold myself accountable for it. So we're also adding that in the mix this year. Little psychology going on. Yes. But it's critically important because if we cannot hold ourselves accountable, we need a partner that can. That's what's going to create the outcome. Success. And the resolution is going to be worth it. Because we don't make a resolution that doesn't have value. It's not a resolution we could have done.

Has to bring us something new, change an outcome. We don't just want to lose weight. There's an outcome to that weight loss that we want. Maybe it's better heart condition. Maybe it's being there for the grandkids. Maybe it's something else that you're resolved to make a difference on. It's not the weight loss. The weight loss is a means to the end. And those are the number one resolution, obviously, Right? Change your diet, change your weight.

Right.

Like that's the number one resolution. But in our businesses, we do the same thing. I resolved to publish my book, but it's not the book publishing. That's not the action that's important. It's the communications with the audience. It's the other things that I'm going to get from publishing my book. More stages, whatever that other thing is. That's what you have to actually make sure you're taking actions on. Let's clarify those things when we make our resolution. It's like, ask the question, ask the question, ask the question. Deep dive why you want this. That's why it takes me a little time to come up with my resolution. And I have business things that goals and things that I'm going to do, but they're not my resolution. My resolution this year is how I'm going to be in the world. My resolution is that I'm going to be tough on you. I am going to be as tough on you as I am on myself. And that's harsh. I'm going to tell you. It's really harsh. It's hard to accept, but I'm going to do it because I believe that this tough love is the best thing I can do for you. And if you can't handle it, then I'm not the coach for you. That's okay. You're gonna not waste my time, and I'm not gonna waste yours. That's okay. I can accept that. But I also know where I'm going. And if only the ones that can be serious about podcasting can be serious about the thought leadership they want to bring to the world, those are the ones who are going to benefit from what I'm building for you. And if I'm gonna build something this big, I need people who are committed to it. So it might be a filter that is happening over the course of the year where you're deciding you don't want to be a part of what we're doing. That's okay. Make that decision. Right. Because making that decision says, this is what I want in the world. This is how I want to show up. And I'm resolved to make that happen. I'm resolved for that outcome. So I know we've been real tough on you guys, real tough on ourselves, and I've been really tough on Tom, and I'm sorry for how that feels. But I also know, and this comes from one of my favorite people, the coach who held me accountable, Michelle Young. It is messy in the middle. It is hard in the middle. When you are trying to build muscle, lose weight, do all of those things, change your life, change it. It is hard. That's why you need to be resolved. Right? Because it is really hard and it is really messy, but the outcome's beautiful. And I want that for you. I want you to feel like I feel when I podcast, when I talk to you here. I want you to feel how great this is. I want you to feel how easy and effortless this is. And I know the benefits are there without having to watch it, because I.

Feel it, and I truly believe that, too, Tracy. The benefits are there as long as you enjoy doing it and you're willing to record, everything else can be figured out and resolved.

Yeah. It doesn't mean there's not, like, stuff that's in the way or, like, I mean, look, we barely got this call up today because stuff got in the way, but it happened, and it didn't change the outcome of the quality message that happened today. None of that changed. That was going to happen no matter what the technical part, we need a little more support. We need a little more system. We need a little more participation. But it'll come because you recognize that that's where it's falling apart. Not. Ugh, podcasting. I give up.

No way.

Right? Not going to give up.

It's the path to awareness, marketing and growing your brand, whether it's a personal brand or a business brand, and is a path to really everything that I see in business. It is a path to the outcome that we're looking, we are looking for. And I find with most other podcasters in business, that is true in one business, in one way or another.

Here's the thing, Tom. I knew when I challenged you. I knew when I was being tough with you, when I was giving you all that tough love about the coaching call, which is what this is. Right?

Right.

I told you you should give it up, that you weren't committed to it, that you didn't have what it takes. What did I know about you? That was motivation, that was going to change the outcome for you because it's going to change the thinking. What would the world look like? What would my world look like if I didn't have this? What would change? And you weren't willing to give up those things. That may be what it takes to motivate you. Imagine if.

And you know what, it's interesting, Tracy, I'm being reminded as we're doing this, that tough love actually has the word love in it. And I'm not taking credit for it. This is not Tom's. I'm not going to take credit for realizing that, because I think it's right in front of us, but we don't realize it. Right?

That's right.

So tough love's okay. And I hope all you listening are okay with it, too, because you're gonna.

Hear it again and again.

That's what happens when you're like it.

Or not, it's coming.

Right. But I do also, every time you go to, like, unsubscribe from something and ask yourself, what am I losing? Did I lose value for something that is actually important? Because we react and we don't do that. Like, I'm a fierce unsubscriber. It's the first thing I do. I hit unsubscribe a lot. Right. And so quitting your show is a form of unsubscribing you're, you're doing. Yeah, yeah. And for a lot of you, because you're subscription only, that, it feels like that, right? It feels really easy. Just, I'm just going to take away this charge on my credit card, right? Like, it feels like that. But when I sit back and think about it, is that really what I want? Am I going to miss some really valuable information that is actually informing me and keeping me. I almost did it today because it comes in too often. So I just changed my subscription to Wired magazine. I have been reading Wired magazines since I started. That's how old I am. It's really old. But our first business, right, like, it was really valuable and we got featured one point in Wired magazine. It was like the biggest coup ever. It was like, it was like the most important thing I ever wanted to be was featured in that magazine. I actually wanted to write for it, but maybe that'll still happen one day. But the reality is, is that if I unsubscribe from it, I'm missing a perspective on the tech industry that I don't get anywhere else. Whether I read it all or not, which I don't always have the time to do, which I used to do, I'm missing something that's critically important. The input on my perspective on the world. And I can't give that up. If I gave that up, I'd be making a mistake. And I knew that the minute I almost hit that today because it was coming into my inbox.

So I don't understand. So what, what did you, you said you changed your Wired subscription. What do you mean?

I changed it to a weekly. So, like, I, I, I just, so I don't get it normally.

What would it be otherwise? Daily, you change it to weekly. That's all.

Right. So it doesn't feel overwhelming, but I'm still getting a summary of everything that happened over the week because I'm not reading everything like I used to. And so.

Slacker, what's the matter?

I know really what's wrong with me because it's too much, right? It's too much information and it's also too focused on things that are not as critically important to my life anymore. The way I'm approaching tech, it's different, right? So I have to take a look at that. And so there, there are ways where you can go and say the minute I made that choice, I felt a relief, but I didn't feel like I lost. We can find that. Anyway, I think we've been tough enough on everyone today, so I think.

So I think we covered it.

Yeah. So we're going to have some really tough looks at things, parts of the industry, parts of our podcasts. With things going, the binge factor's really changing. If you haven't listened to our New Year's year end. Yeah, our start of the new year, because I think it was like, it was like January 2nd, our episode. But our start of the new year, we're announcing it. It's going to take a couple of weeks before the first episodes come and flow through, but we are doing a new model of it where we're really examining how podcasts are built. And we're hoping that through that examination process, we're calling it the binge factor deconstructed. We're hoping that you could figure out the build model for your own show in that process. So there's going to be some new things and I'm sure they're going to cascade between the two here.

Right.

The AHAs that we're learning from deconstructing is going to bring us great topics that we're going to talk about here for you and things that you might want to try on your show. So stay tuned, join us. We'd also love to hear from you as to what you're looking for. Where is it that you need support, you need commitment, assistance, you need resolution, you need solutions? Let us know. We're here for you.

All right, let's end that episode right there. It's perfect. Outro will take care of the rest. The rest. And we're gonna sign off from the live stream and be here for those that are live with us and have some questions.

Thanks, everyone.

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