316 - How to Take a Summer Break and Stay Connected

0:05 Good morning podcasting, Morning Chat. Today is Tuesday, June 3rd, 2025, and today we're opening up the mailbag with a question about summer podcast plans, whether to take a break, mix things up, or find new ways to stay connected with your audience. So if you're listening live on Clubhouse, hit the share button, bottom left hand side of the screen and share it. However Clubhouse lets you. And if you're listening via podcast, please share this episode with a fellow podcaster. And now give us about 30 seconds and we'll get things rolling. Thanks for being here. Good morning again podcasting morning chat. Thank you for being here.

1:24 I am your host Mark Ronick and on stage here with me we have my Co hosts Amanda Sharp, Nick Naul, back producer Ashley Feller and Sid Meadows. If you noticed, if you're a regular listener, I did not say Dr. Fade. DRS needing some time to herself, some relaxation her back as she's told us before, she has some issues with her back and it was really bugging her this morning. So she's taken the morning. All good. Hope you feel better, Dr. And yeah, we're going to talk about summer plans, and also I've got several things from the mailbag if time allows. So we'll dig into other podcaster questions as well and answer them as best we can or from our personal experience. So first, I have some housekeeping items I wanted to get to.

2:18 I had reached out to Sid, actually originally Sid reached out to me a few weeks ago, I guess before my vacation. I guess knowing me as the T-shirt guy, he came to me asking about and asked me about my podcast T-shirt. So first, Sid, I'm curious if you could share a little bit why specifically that shirt? Good morning, everybody. Well, we were talking about that shirt one day or something. Oh, it was Dan was talking about the doing the coaching thing right in the coffee shops. That's right. And somehow asked me about my podcast came up. And so I went to Amazon and started looking for an Ask me about my podcast shirt. And they're all kind of crappy and I didn't like any of them. So I sent Mark a message and said, would you please make and ask me about podcast shirt because I'd rather buy it from you and support you than some random people on Amazon with shirts that are ugly.

3:12 And so you did. And so now I have me ask me about my podcast. Awesome, and yes, it actually helped me, helped me make that shirt as well. Just I gave him some different variations. I'm going to share it with you here and we'll put this in the show notes as well. I 1 little thing we also did is we added the empowered podcasting logo on it. Sid, is that on there? Because I haven't even seen the shirts yet. It's on the back, it's on the back it and it actually says Empowered Podcasting Conference on the back of it. And I got the blue one, the light blue one because my other two are black. I have the friends one that you gave me and then I bought the podcast morning chat 1. And so I decided there was also black. So I decided to get this one in blue and I really like it. I like the color blue.

3:58 I was telling Mark and text it. The sizing is a little different than the original one that he sent me, but that's OK. That's to be expected. And if I had any feedback, yeah, it's a great shirt. I love it. If I had any feedback, I would want the logo that says Ask me on our podcast to be just a little bit bigger. That's my only feedback. Yeah, I appreciate that. And I appreciate you buying those shirts too, Sid. Thank you. And yeah, I always have a hard time, and I used to be in the T-shirt printing business and I have a hard time determining how big or small a logo should be on a shirt. So maybe I went a little too small there, although I personally like the size. Like, you know, everybody's going to have a preference and opinion. And I keep hearing my clubhouse making all sorts of noise. Let me make sure.

4:43 Let me see if I can get that to stop. So if you're hearing that noise, that's what it is via podcast. Anyway. With that, Dan is on stage with us. Dan, good morning. Did you want to add anything or have a question? I was going to say I would like one of those T-shirts, but I would like my QR code for my podcast on there. Oh, well, then I'd have to make individual T-shirts for everybody. Maybe I could make a a page on the podcasting morning chat website that has all of our podcasts on it so that then if you hit that QR code, it'll show yours and everyone else's. That would probably be the best I could do. Otherwise, I'm going to have to do custom shirts, and I think that's a bit much.

5:23 But thank you, Dan. And yeah, if you want to get that shirt, I've shared the link with you there again, so you can get that shirt and all the different podcast shirts you see me probably wearing on social media and live here on YouTube. You can get those at ironicmedia.com, and that's spelled IRONICK media.com Playoff, my last name. And I wanted to also share a little bit first a shout out to my cousin Louis, who I wished a happy birthday to yesterday. And we were going back and forth a little bit via text. And he revealed to me that he's a regular listener of the podcasting morning chat. And you might think, well, that's cool, Mark, but he doesn't even have a podcast.

6:09 And granted, OK, I'm his family, so I'm sure that's the reason why he came to listen and he enjoys listening. So thank you, Lou, shout out to you. And this actually leads into the next thing I wanted to share before we get into our usual routine here this morning. I told you yesterday I started my improv classes. It's improv one O 2. I finished one O one a month or so ago. And we played a few games that I'll just briefly share with you just to give you an idea of how these kinds of classes work if you have any interest. And I do recommend to any podcaster and really anyone to take improv classes. It really man.

6:55 If anything for me, it's helping me loosen up a lot. And I'm going to share something about what Lou shared with me. Lou is a an actor, actually a Shakespearean actor, and has done all sorts of different types of acting and performances. And he had some insight for me on improv. So I'm going to share a little bit with you about that as well. One of the games we played and I can't remember the official names, so I'm just giving them my own name. Good cop, bad cop. So what this involves is 3 people. There's one person in the hot seat literally sitting in a seat and there are two people playing the good cop bad cop role and the person in the hot seat has to leave the room while the audience quote UN quote. In this case, the class comes up with a few different things that ultimately the two cops are trying to get the person in the hot seat to guess their crime and some of the details. So essentially the two people are throwing out lots of clues in character as cops.

7:56 And so for example, if I can remember mine, I think mine was that I my crime was that I had to guess was that I didn't pick up after my dog on a walk. And something about my oh, this was getting my eyeglasses prescription. I don't even know why that's a thing, but in improv it doesn't matter. And what was the last thing it was with a celebrity? And now I can't remember who the celebrity was. So basically they kind of grill me and I have to sit there in character as the criminal trying to 1st deny and, you know, play along and then little by little pay attention to those clues and see if I can get it.

8:38 And I did get it, even though I can't remember now what it was. And then the other one was, again, can't remember the name, but it was basically household activity Olympics. This involved a lot of people. I think 5, there were two people that were commentators. There were two people that were performing the sport, quote UN quote. And then there was a field reporter as well. And the sport were really any kind of household everyday activity, not really a sport. So for example, laundry folding, I believe was one of them. And the tough part is that the two people, there are two people that are competing in that laundry folding competition and they have to do it in slow motion the entire time. Really challenging.

9:23 Even if it's like say a 5 minute sketch, it's really challenging to stay in character in slow motion the entire time and also take direction because those commentators are calling out things that you're doing. It's a blast. It's a lot of fun. And Lou and I were talking about improv, and he had wanted to share with me a theory about it, or really what he learned as far as how to make it, how to be successful at it. Because I was telling him it's funny. I do feel like I can be pretty quick on my feet when it comes to being funny or funny observations. You know, I tend to be that person in my group of friends and family that makes everyone laugh, right? But when I'm in these situations, I tend to go blank. And he said to me, I'll try to say this in a way that doesn't sound super nerdy.

10:11 He said, I think a lot of people spend so much time and energy in quote UN quote protector mode that it's hard to drop that. And the way that translates into improv is that lots of people want to be the quote UN quote the best, and improv is about the opposite. To be good at improv, you have to ignore that thing that tells you to be best. Rather, you take your whole being and sacrifice it. These are his words. Throw it in the garbage to make your scene partner look good. It's nothing about you and everything about your partner. And if you follow that recipe, oddly, this makes you funnier. So the key really is is to let go of trying to do something and just going with the moment, going with what's in your head, in your heart, and ultimately looking for ways to make your scene partner look better.

11:08 So I'm going to work to apply that next week when I'm back there. So thank you for allowing me to share. I hope that maybe this has inspired somebody or made somebody think maybe I should try improv. Lastly, I wanted to get to Amanda Sharp because yesterday I had teased that I wanted to talk to her about some recent TikTok activity. Those of you who listen regularly know Amanda is all in on TikTok and also has a podcast song swap showdown. But with her TikTok, she's always looking for ways to be creative, have fun. And some of the things that she shares are things like her chickens, her, her sourdough bread making, and of course, her store that she has in her hometown. And that's what this one has to do with. So Amanda, would you mind first?

12:03 I know you've shared once before a little bit, but there's been an update. So would you first set this back up and then tell us a little bit about the update? Absolutely. Well, thank you for asking. Last Thursday, a gentleman, Mr. Spinelli, brought in some beautiful coat racks to the store for me to sell in. Honestly, it's not exact what I typically would like bet on in the store for selling because it just is not necessarily my most of my products that I sell are gifts, but I just love this old man so much that I'm like, bring him in. And he had said when he for them that the goal would have been at one point country and sell these. Well, now he's going to be the in July and that just isn't a reality anymore. And so I had said to him, I said, you know what, you might not be able to travel the country anymore, but I definitely have a following across the country. So let's see, I can at least show the country your beautiful pieces.

12:57 And that was done. I put a video out on TikTok and hugged Spinelli so tightly. And people were checking in from California, Washington, Alabama, just completely across the country. And then the update on that is there was a buyer from Virginia. So these are not shippable. They're too big. And that I would have to ship them with cost thousands. So a gentleman wanted one in Virginia. So he's actually driving up from Virginia and picking it up on Thursday. I already have the money in hand. He sent me the money, the invoice has been paid. So he is coming, his name is Brian is coming on Thursday to pick it up. And then I had another gentleman from Ohio come and purchase one on Saturday.

13:42 So of the three I've sold 22 gentlemen. Both gentlemen are out of state and what's this is so cute because this is so reflective of his age. So I called him to try to kind of explain the situation of what was going on and how exciting it was. And so when I called him, his hearing just isn't great. So I'm yelling into the phone with excitement and he's like, I'm really sorry. I'm going to have to excuse myself, just not able to catch on to what you're saying. So now I have to wait until Wednesday for him to come into the store for me to give him like the entire update of all of the amazing things that have happened that he really, he was able to hear that I sold 2, but he just has no idea the magnitude of the story behind selling the 2.

14:32 So it's just been a really fun journey and showcasing Mr. Spinelli. And so the newspaper, I spoke with the newspaper and the newspaper is interested in doing a story on Mr. Spinelli's coat rats because of everything that's happened from Tiktok to the buyers being out of state. And so it's just kind of this really feel good story that just feels so good to be able to like just be a tiny piece of the puzzle to be able to honor Mr. Spinelli and all of his hard work that he put into his woodworking. I love this. Thank you, Amanda, for sharing. And I'm curious because I think that there's a lesson in here for a lot of us just as far as, like you said, you contacted the newspaper. So I'm curious, like, did you know somebody there? What was that like?

15:18 How did you approach it? Who did you find to talk to? How did that all go down? Great question. Now keep in mind my our county newspaper, my Monroe County area in which Ida is part of is still smaller than many other people's towns. So it's still very small. So I actually, Lisa had run stories on my store before the farmers market before, so I did her contact information. So I directly reached out to her and said, hey, Lisa, this is what's going on. I think it would make a tremendous story, but more importantly, I just want to honor Mr. Spinelli. So is there something that we can do to showcase him? And she was a absolutely.

15:59 This is exactly what community is about. We're going to run it. So she's going to interview the buyers, She's going to interview Mr. Spinelli. But now we realize it has to be in person. And so it's just really nice that she sees the the charm in the story, the impact of the story, the warmth in the story. And you know, she's just going to be now a piece of the puzzle to honor his legacy. I just think that's great. That is great. And what's also great. Am I hearing your chicks in the background? They're being so bad, they're, they're mad 'cause I'm on the phone right now, you know, instead of playing with them. So you have them in the house with you. Yeah, at night they have to come in the house 'cause they're still a little too little. Oh yeah.

16:41 If I wasn't in Michigan and the weather wasn't, you know, 45 at night, I could keep them outside. But there's still too babyish. Okay, Sid, I think you had a question. I did have a question. So Amanda, those aren't chickens. As Chris Baglio said, those look like dinosaurs. Thank you. So I'm curious, I mean, First off, what a great story. And kudos to you for putting that story out there, for having the courage to do all the things that you do that are so unique for your small town. And you know, Mark asked you a question and I think the first thing that came to my mind was kindness.

17:22 It's at your soul, right, Amanda, to be kind to anybody and everybody that walks into your store. And this is just a real life example of that. But how did you meet him? Did he just randomly walk into your store? Is he part of your community? How did you actually meet Mr. Spinelli? So this is sweet. So actually the newspaper had ran a story back in the fall on my store. And so he is one of the, when they ran that story, every customer who came through that store like that week with probably 70 plus because they're the ones who are physically getting like physical papers still, everyone else was kind of like seeing it online. So I had an influx of people who just didn't see myself online. And so they were coming in that week. And so he came in back in the fall telling me about these and he just was so precious and sweet that again, even though it wasn't 100% what I thought I or at least wanted to give him and honor him with some space in my store, that seemed the fairest thing to do.

18:23 So the week before last is when he popped back in out of the blue and was like, are you, is that offer still available if I bring them in? And I said sure. And then Thursday, just like a few days ago, Thursday is when he brought him in. And that's how quickly all of this has like just spiraled into something amazing. That's. Awesome. Thank you, Amanda. Appreciate it. And yeah, keep us posted if there's any progress or any updates on this story. It's really cool to hear. Thank. You, I will it's been it's just been so much fun and probably I said this last week, but probably of all my videos I've put out on TikTok, I feel like this one has had the most impact and connected with so many people on just a warm and good feeling that I'm most proud of this video of all my videos, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds, probably thousands at this point.

19:14 But this one, this just feels and this is so I'm taking so much time and I apologize, but there's something about these coat rats that after he left, I like just cried. There was something about them that I couldn't not do this for him. And these coat rats, like you can almost when you feel these coat rats, you can feel like all of the conversations he probably had and has had when he was doing the work on this one. And so to almost feel life in decades in these pieces is just so impactful. So I don't know if I've honed into something on the story behind the product or the feeling in the product itself because so many people say when they come in my store, I don't know, I just, I'm so connected to this.

20:01 And so to maybe get the story of. Behind like what was in this thing that they're buying that connected them might be interesting. So it's been a very emotional journey for me, if I'm being honest, even though it's just been so exciting. Absolutely. Yeah, Go ahead, Sid. So, Amanda, I think what you're hitting on is, First off, he's 90 years old, right? Yeah. Dream to travel the. World. Do you sell his coat racks? He physically can't do that. And let's be clear, it is art. And what I think what you're connecting to, at least what I'm connecting to, is the craft ship of those pieces in the detail and the time that it took.

20:43 And when you showed the price, I was like, that's all. That's not first thought. Like that's all I'm just saying. Spent hours and hours and hours working on these and they're beautiful and they tell a story all by themselves and let's be clear, that type of craftsmanship is dying and 3D printing is replacing it. And so I mean you're helping to literally live this man's legacy well beyond his life by staring his story, by sharing his message and by selling his products and it all literally I go back to this. It started with a simple act of kindness. And imagine what would happen if each and every one of us would have that in our heart every day, how the world would.

21:23 Absolutely it does. In a world of AI, which is a wonderful tool. I do think that we all have a craft that is very unique and special to us. And so while maybe his was really working with his hands and doing all of the attention to detail, it makes me want to tell everyone like, no matter what your craft is, big or small, just make sure it's perfectly you. So that way your legacy will go on and somebody will feel like I feel from Mr. Spinelli's Co racks. And I'm looking at the comments here, by the way, I'm sharing a link to the three coat racks that Amanda started with in the store. I shared it in the chat.

22:04 I'll put it in the show notes as well. And I'm reading all the comments and such, such positivity. It's nice to see on TikTok and social media a lot of all these positive remarks about the craftsmanship, about the fact that they want to own one, etcetera, etcetera. It's really cool and these are really beautiful. What a great story, Amanda, thank you for sharing. Like I said, keep us posted. And yeah, I mean, just as far as when we talk about numbers on social media, I'm glad I'm ending with that. Didn't start with that, but man, this particular post I'm talking about, it's got just likes alone. 3500 likes and over 400 comments and over 200 saves.

22:45 I mean, this is definitely what I would consider a viral video and I I applaud you for sharing this story and getting it out there, Amanda. All right, let's dig in to the mailbag. And this is about summer plans. At least this first one is. We'll see how much time we have for others today. This comes from someone named Andrea or Andrea, depending on how she pronounces it. Hey everyone, I'm going to take a summer break with the podcast. I can hear some gurus right now. I can hear their stomachs turning. I was thinking of doing small social media clips of reflecting back on certain episodes that I had higher downloads over the summer to build my audience base specifically on social media in order to gain a listener base.

23:34 Anyone else do this? Or what are your summer plans for your show if you do take the break in the summer? Thank you all. So thank you, Andrea. And let's talk about this. And I said that, you know, I hear, I hear the the guru's stomachs turning because I know there are there's a camp out there that says, Hey, we want, you know, we want you posting every week and there shouldn't be any breaks. And look, as as much as I think that in an ideal world that's the case, I just don't believe that that's realistic. And I do believe that everybody deserves a break, especially if you're somebody who's posting content consistently all the time.

24:20 And yes, there are ways that you can still put out content and take a break. Batch recording being one of the big things. And we can talk about that if that's somebody's plans. And I think that that's challenging for people as well to make time in their schedule to do those batch recordings. And then I know there are other people that feel like they don't want to do the batch recordings because they feel like it's not timely content anymore. Sometimes your content does depend on the time of the year. And if you're putting out content that was three months old in the summer, it may not translate as well, depending on what you're talking about. So all right, I see lots of people wanting to chime in. And I'm going to go to Yvonne first because Yvonne joined us on stage from the audience.

25:08 So let's go to her first. Yvonne, good morning. Welcome back to the stage. What do you want to add to this? Good morning. I am getting ready to go on an extended summer and I'm going to be not producing for 9 weeks and I always take a summer break and I do see a dip in downloads that I kind of have to recover from. So I'll admit to that right off the bat. But I'm taking a new approach to it this year. I am throwing some new intros at the beginning of old episodes, letting people know that I'm on break. They didn't want to leave them hanging. And I'm only putting those episodes out every other week while I'm off.

25:55 And I'm will be putting out extra social media to let people know that the broadcast is on break, that I'm making big plans for next season, etcetera, etcetera. And this is to allow me space and time to do that. So we'll see how it goes. Well, thank you. And what brought you to that decision of nine weeks off and how much longer is that than you usually do? Life brought me to that decision and burnout is definitely a part of it. So my kiddo is graduating from high school and I'm in. I'm actually this week guys is my five year anniversary for the podcast.

26:42 Oh, congratulations. Thank you very much. So I'm doing AI did a solo episode that's going to be coming out tomorrow celebrating that, reflecting on what I've learned from five years of podcasting, etcetera. And then the last podcast of this season is going to go out July 2nd and I'm coming back in September after we get him off to college. So it's all just part of relishing and savoring this last summer with him home and living life as I'm on for a bit until until we get him out the door and see from there. So.

27:27 Yeah, yeah. And congratulations to your son again. And I was just thinking, as you said, it's your five year anniversary of the podcast. I'm guessing this is probably a big five year anniversary for a lot of podcasters because of the pandemic and that the how many podcasts actually launched during the pandemic? Yeah, that's cool. And thank you for and I will also say, I think that there are probably a lot of podcasters who started five years ago that can't say they've been doing this for five years. So kudos to you for sticking with it because I think that a lot of people just did it to fill some time and then just walked away from something that could have been a beautiful thing. So thank you for sticking with it and serving your audience so well. Yvonne and I, I did say there were other people that had their hands up about their summer plans. But Nick, I saw, yeah, I saw your hand come up. So did you want to ask or add on to what Yvonne's talking about? Yeah.

28:21 I wanted to ask Yvonne the strategy of re recording the intros. And as you were talking about that, I was thinking how you could do a free roll like dynamic add in those. So I was wondering, have you given that any thought or is there a specific reason why you're choosing to re record every single one of those that you're going to really? I think it's something that was mentioned in here at some point and I would was the idea that they, you know, at least Apple Podcasts, right, stops pushing out your podcast if you don't have something posted every two weeks. And I'm mistaken about that. So so I'm basically looking to do the bare minimum while I'm gone, get it all scheduled beforehand.

29:08 I am going to have emails batched and ready to roll for the summer as well. And those will go out still go out weekly to my e-mail list. It's also to keep people in the habit. I want to see if I can avoid the dip in listening that I looked at. When I go back and look at stats each year, I can see that little dip around August is usually when I take the break and see if I can just level that out a little bit because I feel like I end up having to regroup through the year. And then I go back on break again and things dip again. Thank you, Yvonne. And I think Nick is asking a little bit more about your intros specifically, right?

29:50 Well, OK, so, so yes. And so putting the intros on it, they're going to have a new episode number and they will officially be a, you know, in the eyes of Apple, at least a new episode with new content because there will be an an intro at the beginning that says, hey, I'm on break. And and who's your podcast hosting provider, Pod Bean? I think Pod Bean has dynamic ads, which is I think is what Nick was talking about. Where? Yeah. Tell me more about that because I'm I'm not sure I thought. Yeah, so dynamic ads, and I'm glad you asked because I'm sure there are people listening that aren't sure what we're talking about. Dynamic ads are recorded ads you can upload to your podcast hosting provider. And I'm using Buzz Sprout as an example because I'm more familiar with Buzz Sprout.

30:39 What you can do is you can tell Buzz Sprout to play this particular recording either at the beginning of the episode, the middle, or the end. And so I think Nick is suggesting what you could do is record those intros and attach it to the old episodes that you're re uploading in an effort to not have to cut out the original intro, put on a new one, etcetera. This would automatically play it when somebody presses play. It would automatically play at the start of your podcast. And it would also play on all of your past podcasts, so if anybody lands on old episodes that you're not releasing throughout the summer, they'd get the little update saying hey, taking a summer break.

31:23 But I hope you enjoyed the episode kind of thing. That's why I was curious because you can't just re upload the episode as a new episode without changing it. At least I've done that. I don't think it messed with my numbering. It doesn't even have to be necessarily an ad. There's no sponsor necessarily. It's almost like you are pending a specific recording to each of your episodes. So if you wanted it to be a sponsor, it can be a sponsor. Or like what you're talking about letting everyone know you're taking a a break for the summer, you're going to be coming back On this date. You just record that little introduction and then it would attach it to every single one of your episodes for you. Might save you time if you're not making a episode specific intro for each episode that you're going to release in the summer. I did end up doing episode specific but really interesting interesting.

32:08 So who knows, maybe next year. If you're curious about it more, Yvonne, I'm happy to talk to you outside of the podcasting morning chat and walk you through some of it, see if it's something that you want to do. Sid, did you want to add on to this? Yeah, I did. Just real quickly, Yvonne, if you wanted to, you could go to my podcast, The Trend Report and click play and listen to the 1st 30 seconds and you'll hear a dynamic ad that I inserted at the beginning of selected episodes to run for 30 days. That is asking my audience to connect with me and either complete a former schedule time to for me to survey them. It's a really great example of how to use, even though it's called an ad, it's not really an ad. It's just me talking for probably even 15 seconds.

32:50 So you can at least see an example of how I'm using using it that might give you some inspiration to what make us talk. That is super cool yes, I I love that because that is something I can do to to talk up my play shop and different things like that. That's awesome. Thank you guys so much. You're welcome. Amanda, what did you want to add? I just, I'm going back to that original mailbag question about the taking the breaks and and that type of stuff. I personally, as a listener, I respect people having to take breaks and I would rather have them take a eight week break then try to come up with eight weeks of inferior content for me to listen to. I don't want to click on the next episode and go.

33:31 That just was like a space holder and I feel like I can tell almost immediately and it's, I don't mind having a refresher of an older episode that seems relevant, but so often people pull their best episode, which isn't necessarily the most relevant episode. So I think if you're going to relaunch some older episodes, you just surely have to make sure that it's a good topic that people absolutely will want to listen to and that it's 100% still relevant. Otherwise, just take the break. I don't think anyone holds anyone accountable to having to have a new, you know, podcast come out every single week as long as you've notified your listeners what's happening for that break and the length of it.

34:15 So let me ask you, Amanda, do you feel like you feel that way because you are a content creator yourself? If you weren't, and this might be a hard question to answer, but if you weren't, do you think you'd feel the same way? I think if I weren't, I would still feel the same way because what I'm consuming, I'm not consuming as a podcaster, I'm really consuming as a consumer. And so it drives me bonkers when I go, oh, that was just an absolute waste of my 45 minutes. Yeah, well, that I can definitely relate to. You know, so it's, I feel pretty passionate that it is as a consumer as opposed to a podcaster, because I give people a lot of grace and what their podcast ends up looking like.

34:55 Because just because it's not for me doesn't mean it's not somebody. So I don't really judge that as much as I just, if I'm already a listener, I want it to stay at the same level as what I've been listening to for that particular podcast. OK. And then I see Sid had something. Go ahead, Sid. One of my favorite hosted, this is called At the Table with Patrick Lantoni and he announced that he was taking a break and they were going to take the fall off. This was in August and they took the fall off. They took the winter off and didn't come back until May, right?

35:37 And so it was a really extended. So he told us he was taking the fall, but he took a longer than that, which kind of made me disinterested. But when he came back and he talked to his first episode back, he didn't find any details about why he took the time off. And then the show had completely changed. He had a whole group of Co hosts that were there with him. And I learned all this later because a friend of mine heard him speak at a convention and but he had actually relocated from San Francisco to Nashville. And that's why all the Co hosts are gone because not everybody moved with him. And like, there was this huge dynamic shift not only in the show itself, but even in the content. And honestly, to a degree, he's lost me as a listener because he didn't really communicate.

36:24 So I think that my message there is communicate what you're doing. And if you do take longer, tell your audience when you come back what happened and why, and don't leave them hanging and guessing and speculating, at least in my opinion. Thank you, Sid, and thank you for the pause at the end. I think also when you're communicating a way you can continue to communicate. And to some this may be obvious, to others, maybe not. Continue to use social media and post in your say, if you're on Instagram or TikTok or man, I guess most platforms have stories now. So post to your stories, what you're doing on your break, right? If you're on vacation shows, show us what you're doing.

37:07 Check in with your audience. Let them know that. Yeah, I'm still around. It's just the podcast is on pause for right now. I want to check in with Dan. Dan, did you want to add to your summer break plans? Not my summer break plans. I did want to add to the conversation, so I appreciate it. I, I just wanted to say, you know, I, I just posted an episode this morning about discipline being the shortcut. And I posted that because I was thinking about so many businesses, so many creators tend to allow distractions if you will get in the way during especially summer months or holiday seasons. And I think there's tremendous value to be had for those that are disciplined enough to at least bash their content so that they're not missing those periods of time. More opportunity for those people that are consistent filling up.

38:04 Summer is 1 big one because family vacation, the schools being out so kids are at home. It's really easy for people to get distracted and slow down. So those are my thoughts. Yeah. Thank you, Dan. I know a few years ago when I was really digging into my personal development, personal growth journey, I was spending time focusing on that word discipline and what I came to, I feel like if you have discipline, you don't need motivation anymore. If you are able to create that routine, to create that discipline, you know, a lot of us are searching for the motivation to do the thing.

38:47 But if you have discipline, you don't need the motivation anymore. And that was a real, I don't know for me, when I kind of put those connected those dots, it was a real moment for me. And it's one that I'm still just fully transparent. It's one that I'm still working on both my discipline and motivation. I'm with you there, Dan. Thank you. All right, who else would like to share what's something that you've tried during the summer or something that you've done during the summer in the past? Or what are you planning on doing now this summer for your podcast? Let's help some others who are maybe on the fence about that who would like to take this. Janae, you're on stage. Good morning to you. Do you want to share a little bit about summer plans? Morning Mark and Amanda.

39:34 Actually everybody on stage said my dad. I could definitely say that, yes, I am taking a summer break where I'm not recording anything during the summer, but doesn't mean that the podcast taking a break because he has something in the backlog. And I'm laughing because, you know, that's a good problem to have, but also as a marketing effort is going to continue to, you know, focus. I'm taking a break from my solo episodes. I'm going to talk about that on the podcast. Hey, taking a break from the solo episodes. I'm going to bring back the learn, but people will still continue to listen to the interviews that I've had in the past. I guess it's in the past now.

40:17 So that's my summer break plan where I'm taking a break from recording but not from publishing. Thank you. And there was also something you said in there, even if you're somebody like Janae, who I don't know how many are like Janae having so dozens and dozens and dozens of kind of episodes in the hopper, if you will. I still, when I think about it, even with batching, taking a break from your podcast doesn't always mean you are fully off because it could require you to upload and schedule those episodes. Although if you're scheduling them ahead of time, that should solve that problem. But promoting it, that takes time in your time.

40:59 And there you probably want to have a plan for that too. And yeah, again, you could schedule out in this talk about discipline. You could schedule out all of your promotional social media posts so that you don't have to think about it, but that is something to factor in there. There are other elements. There are lots of moving parts when it comes to podcasting and if you take a break from one, some of the others still may need some attention. All right, does anyone else want to add anything about their summer? What's something that you want to do this summer? And if not, then I'll go to the next question in the mailbag. All right, it looks like I'm going to do that. So this next one, let me pull out the mailbag here. This next one comes from Bob W because I don't know if I should say last names.

41:49 They didn't tell me whether or not that was OK. Says I'm thinking about including a shout out to another podcast during one of my episodes, obviously with a reciprocal arrangement, the aim being to attract more listeners. Does anybody do this? What are best practices? Amanda's hands up, let's go to you first. So we did the same. It was very successful. We did it with Johnny and back of the cereal box. We felt like our listeners were one in the same in many ways. So we felt like it was a a good swap that honored our listeners and potentially found some new listeners for each of us. And one of our most amazing VIP listeners came from doing that.

42:36 And I'm thinking like to think we wouldn't have Dave as one of our listeners if we wouldn't maybe swapped. So it's really fun and I think it can be very effective. But I do think you have to have the right exchange. I don't think it has to be identical. It just needs to have maybe the same audiences. So I think as long as you take that into consideration, it can be very good. And we just did it at the very beginning of our podcast where we kind of Johnny came in and said, Hey, you're listening to the song. So up shout out I'm Johnny. You know, he kind of went into our podcast a little bit, but he was kind of doing a read for us, but it was very clearly back the cereal box and you know, red. So I think it went really, really well and I do it again.

43:19 OK, there you go. There's a vote for doing it. Go ahead, Yvonne. I've joined recently a podcasting group for a bunch of podcasts that focus on women of a certain age. And we are Co promoting each other on a, We're taking a partner from the group once in like each month and we are rotating and Co promoting each other during that month. And that involves a little shout out at the end of a couple of episodes of the month each month and as well as e-mail shout outs weekly.

43:59 And that's been pretty cool so far. So that's new and I haven't really seen how that's going to make any difference at this point. So I feel like I'm serving my audience doing it. Thank you, Yvonne. Another good idea. I love that. And Dan, coming to you, what say you? I wanted to say that I love this idea. I like to think of it more like affiliate relationships, where it doesn't have to necessarily be reciprocal, but if there's something I'm enjoying and I want to share it with people, why not? It doesn't hurt me to share something of value with someone else. And I just did that on my episode that published this morning talking about the Empowered Podcasting Conference coming up.

44:45 Awesome. Thank you, Dan. And I was just thinking about Amanda's share and one of the things she said that I just went right by and I want to make sure we go back to it really quick. The idea of make sure that if you are just swapping that these are audiences that are aligned for multiple reasons. One for you, for you and your podcast, right? You want to make sure you get the most bang for your buck. So you want to make sure that this podcast audience is the kind of audience that's going to want to come and listen to your content. And because if not, it's kind of a waste of time. But also, I think that if you are promoting another podcast that doesn't align with your audience.

45:30 And if you're especially if you're doing that somewhat regularly, I think that you're going to end up kind of annoying your audience after a while. And, and you're also going to diminish some of the trust that you're building with them, even if you do it with the best of intentions. If you're sending them to places, whether it's a podcast, whether it's a product or a service that they could could care less about, couldn't care less about, you're going to hurt that trust between you and them. So you always want to consider whatever it is you're sharing. If you're making a recommendation, let them know, or you could, if you're making a recommendation because it's just something that is of interest to you, just let them know. You know, this may not be something interesting to you, but I just wanted to share this with you. I think that open communication is really important. If you're going to share things that doesn't always jive connect with your audience.

46:24 Sharon, good morning. Welcome back to the stage. Mark, two things I wanted to revisit the break, whether it be a summer break or what may have you. This is what I'm going to say that may not be popular with everybody. That's OK. I'm coming from this perspective when we're first starting anything, I don't think break should be really a part of what we're doing publicly. In other words, if we have to batch to ensure that we're showing up and the beginning of building a brand, then that's what we have to do. But I don't think it's a good idea to take breaks. Now, if we already have an established brand, then that's another story. So that's just my two cents about it, for whatever it's worth.

47:10 OK, and #2 I just want to let everyone know, I don't know if you are aware, but Clubhouse now has a captions feature and I'm listening to the conversation with all the speakers and I can actually see the words at the bottom of the screen. And that is a very convenient feature. When I look down every now and then, I'm like, OK, what did Amanda say? What did Mark say? And I can look. I mean, it goes pretty fast. So you have to keep your eye on it for the most part whenever you want to hear what someone is saying. So I just wanted to just run that by everyone and ask if you're using that. Thank you. Thank you. I had heard about it, but I have, I have not seen it yet. And I think it's an awesome feature both for those that are hard of hearing and like you're saying, for those of us just trying to go back or keep up with the conversation, it's an extra way, an additional way to do that. I think that's a, that's a great feature, a much needed feature here.

48:09 So I'm glad that they've incorporated that. And I'm with you on what you were saying about taking breaks. And I think what I heard you say is particularly if you're early on in the game, if let's say just for an example, you're within your first year of podcasting, I think I, I'm on the same page with you that it's important to keep going and plan for those breaks. And if you are doing that early on, I think that you're setting yourself up for success because you're building that habit of what am I going to do when this break is coming or what am I going to do when I when there's an unexpected break that I have to take.

48:49 Having that backup plan really will save you in the long run and help build up your success down the road. And I also think, I think that it serves your audience well too, especially in the very beginning, because you don't want them to feel like, when am I going to get the next episode or are they going to take a break again, You want to build up that trust early on. And I do believe that then down the road, if you do have to take a break, unexpected or not, I think your audience is going to be more forgiving about that. I think just the Sharon's point, I think that is also a really good factor when you're considering starting a podcast.

49:31 When you're with Sharon's point, are you going to go live when you do your podcast or you recording when you do your podcast? Because person I we, we don't have that, that, you know, ability to go live if we're not there. So I think that might swing somebody, whether they go live or if they just do recording when they start their podcast with that in mind, because you can't really batch record if you're a live type of concept. So just keep that in mind if for those who haven't start their podcast yet. Yeah. Thank you, Amanda. Appreciate that. And Sharon, thank you again. Appreciate it. And I'm really glad that you are joining the conversation more up here on stage lately. Really, really enjoy that when when our audience that I see frequently listening coming up here and more frequently and joining us.

50:20 Yeah, Janae, go ahead. Great. Point what Amanda said. You know, if you're doing a live production, if you're not there, you're not there. But if you wanted to still be live and not be there, there are features on stream yard or restream that lets you do that where you can pre record something and say, hey, go live with this video on this day on this time. And you can just be sitting in the comments answering back if you want just another option. Yeah. Thank you, Janae. I appreciate that too. And what I'm going to do here is with this other question we were answering about swaps, podcast swaps and endorsing, promoting other podcasts. I'll just throw out best practices. In my opinion, you want to have the, what we've already said, the right alignment.

51:15 You want these podcasts that you're going to swap with to be in the right alignment, right audience, etcetera. You want them to be or sound and sound genuine. Don't just mention the podcast. Hey, this is a podcast that I think you'll listen to. Check it out, you know, share your why you're personally enjoying that podcast or why you find value in it because I'm going to say the the buzzword authentic recommendations build a lot of trust. Have a clear call to action. Just like anything else that we talk about in podcasting or social media, encourage your audience to to check out the podcast.

51:57 Make sure you're telling them where to go. Don't just mention the name of the podcast. Give them specifics. And Speaking of specifics, I would say make sure you clearly define the specifics of this arrangement with that other podcaster, like the timing, what episodes it's going to be mentioned in, the language you're going to use, etcetera. So you can avoid any misunderstandings, misunderstandings and make it a, a fair and fun way to do it. And then the part that I don't know many more people are doing, make sure you're measuring the results. Figure out if there is a way that you can track this. Maybe you can do a unique code or a link, right? The link you could do anything.

52:44 You could use a free service like Bitly bit dot LY because what you'll that'll do is it'll shorten that link for you, but also it'll track how many clicks you're getting. So you could make a specific Bitly link or short link with another service that you can then track and see if people from that other audience are actually clicking and coming to your podcast. Those would be some of the tips I would give. We are back tomorrow. Got to wrap it up. We are at the top of the hour. We're back tomorrow, 7:00 AM Eastern. We're going to cover all the podcast headlines around the world and there are some big ones including Marc Maron in the news. We will share that info tomorrow along with lots of other things like events coming up, podcasting job opportunities, and all the ongoings around this crazy world of podcasting. So come join us tomorrow and for that matter, any Monday through Friday.

53:41 We do it live here on Clubhouse. You can get that information in the show notes. And if you can't make it live, you can always find us on your favorite podcast platform. So until tomorrow, make it a great day everybody take care.