Podcast Pontifications

All podcasters get stuck. If you've not experienced being stuck; You must be new. Because on a long enough timescale, all podcasters get stuck.

Creatives from many disciplines have learned that sometimes the trick to getting unstuck is by doing the opposite. 

When I say “the opposite”, I don’t mean different. The advice of “try something different” leaves you with too many choices. “Try doing the opposite” is almost singular. Identify where you are stuck, and then the exact opposite (or as close as you can get to the opposite) of what you’d normally do. Or what you were doing when you got stuck.

Here are some common situations many podcasters face where this opposite trick can be deployed. 

Play The Opposite Role - If you’re the person who normally engineers the show but leaves the setup and planning to someone else, take on their role and give them yours for an episode. I guarantee you that the process of teaching someone how to do your job will teach you about your job. And crack open your own creativity. 

Reverse Your Process - If you are the kind of podcaster who plans out their episode on paper first, then records and produces the audio of the episode, and then writes the article at the end; try mixing that up by writing the article first and producing the audio last. If that’s too big, just mix up the planning part by writing out some detailed notes without a specific angle or title for the episode in mind. (I did that for this episode!)

Un-automate Your Podcast Marketing - Podcasters rely on the automated social posting service provided by our media hosting company or social management tools like Buffer to schedule an entire week’s worth of promotional posts about our latest episode. So do the opposite and handle all of your social posts manually for the week and see if that doesn’t reinvigorate your brain.

Ditch The DAW - I've talked previously about no-waveform audio editing tools that are quite the opposite of editing within a true DAW. The entire paradigm is foreign! Carving out some time to experiment and try it for a segment of your show. Just like teaching a new concept, learning a brand new way of doing things is often enough to unlock your trapped creativity.

Take A Joke, Leave A Joke - If your podcast is a comedy podcast, the funny doesn’t have to come from you, does it? Are there other ways the funny can be delivered that don’t require you to bring it? Or if your show is super-serious find ways to use humor without being flippant. It can be done.

Tight Show, Loose Segment - If your audience expects tight, detailed editing, it would be foolish of you to do the opposite and free-form an episode. However, you could drop in a looser segment (either at the end or as a bonus) that features more casual conversations with some of the normal imperfections left in intentionally. That might help you get unstuck.

The idea is simply to get you unstuck so that you can get to the next step. Though if you take a shine to your own experimentation with the opposite, be open to the idea of replacing your routine with a new one. Maybe your routine was the source of the trouble with all along.

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Podcast Pontifications is published by Evo Terra four times a week and is designed to make podcasting better, not just easier.

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Support For Abortion Rights

While Americans overwhelmingly support the right of an individual to make their own decisions about abortion, unfortunately, that right is no longer protected everywhere in the U.S. The Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade on June 24th. Abortion is a basic healthcare need for the millions of people who can become pregnant. Everyone should have the freedom to decide what’s best for themselves and their families, including when it comes to ending a pregnancy. This decision has dire consequences for individual health and safety, and could have harsh repercussions for other landmark decisions. Restricting access to comprehensive reproductive care, including abortion, threatens the health and independence of all Americans. Even if you live in a state where abortion rights are upheld, access to safe medical procedures shouldn’t be determined by location, and it shouldn't be the privilege of a small few. You can help by donating to local abortion funds. To find out where to donate for each state, visit donations4abortion.com. If you or someone you know needs help, or if you want to get more involved, here are 5 resources: 1. ShoutYourAbortion.com is a campaign to normalize abortion. 2. DontBanEquality.com is a campaign for companies to take a stand against abortion restrictions. 3. Abortion.cafe has information about where to find clinics. 4. PlanCPills.org provides early at-home abortion pills that you can keep in your medicine cabinet. 5. Choice.CRD.co has a collection of these resources and more. We encourage you to speak up! And spread the word.

This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:

OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy
Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy
Podsights - https://podsights.com/privacy