210 | The Ugly Side of Podcasting (That No One Talks About)

[00:00:00] You know, most podcasts fade when life gets messy. And trust me, mine is messy right now. Divorce, house sale, total burnout. But I'm still recording this right now today. Why? Because podcasting matters, even when no one seems to care. And if you're barely hanging on, well, then this episode is for you.

[00:00:30] Okay, please. Sound matters. Be heard. Welcome to the podcast where you get exclusive behind the scenes tips to make your own show sound truly spectacular. This is Podtastic Audio. Hey, what's happening? How are you doing today? Thank you so much for being here. I truly do mean that. Thank you so much.

[00:00:56] You know, I do the show for you so you can make an amazing podcast of your very own. I love content creation. I love podcasting. I love creating audio podcasts because I find audio podcasting to be easier than anything else out there. But I know it's not for everybody. And I do know that some people struggle with creating audio content because they're like, what do you mean? There's no like video. What do you mean I'm using my phone? What do you mean I can't just do this on TikTok? What do you mean I can't do this at Instagram Reels?

[00:01:26] What are you talking about? A microphone? Doesn't your phone have a microphone? My computer's got a laptop. It's got a microphone. What do I need a microphone for? You know, I mean, I know it's not for everybody. And when I got started in podcasting, my entire thought process about podcasting was different than video content. Of course, we're talking, you know, 2019, 2018 is when I really kind of thought about doing stuff 2019 to pull the trigger on making a podcast.

[00:01:52] But that's beside the point. The point is this, is that getting a good podcast together takes more than all of the little things that we all kind of think are important. Like what kind of pop filter goes on our microphone? Does the audience really care? Probably not. Do they really care that you're using one type of microphone or another or where you host your podcast versus another?

[00:02:19] Chances are the audience really doesn't care. And I know we care. There's lots of things in podcasting that we care about as podcasters, as creators. We think that are important, but to the audience, they're really not. But do you know that if you were to tell somebody right now that you are a podcaster, almost like without a doubt, people seem to think that a podcaster is what they kind of envision,

[00:02:47] what a podcaster means and what a podcaster is today. And I mean today as in 2025. If you go online anywhere, whether it's Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, Instagram, any of the places, X Twitter, Blue Sky, Threads, wherever, there's a good chance you're going to see people promoting their podcast. And there's a really good chance you're going to see all these different video clips of some sort,

[00:03:11] whether it's a video clip of an interview or a video clip of someone talking or a video clip of somebody doing a podcast like the two-person, same couch kind of thing where they're sitting on the couch or two chairs kind of next to each other, two different microphones, three camera shot, wide angle camera of the host, camera on the guest, going back and forth, having a conversation. I think the general public, when you think of a podcast, that's normally what they think of.

[00:03:41] They think of a conversation with two people, maybe more. It could be like a round table or like a panel discussion. And he got it all filmed and it's all in this beautiful looking studio, nice backdrop, looks amazing, sounds amazing. And they're talking about who knows what, you know, it's a podcast. It could be about whatever you want it to be. There's no rules. You can talk about whatever you want, anything and everything. It doesn't really matter.

[00:04:06] The real problem is, is getting people to actually care about the thing you're talking about, care enough that they're actually going to check out your show. They're actually going to subscribe to your show, watch your show, listen to your show, follow you along in your journey. That's the tricky part. And when I first started the Chris and Christine show, I had no idea where it would go, if it would go anywhere, if anybody would listen more than five, 10, 20 people would even listen to the thing.

[00:04:36] But back then I was having so much fun learning how to create a podcast, learning how to figure out how to make microphones work, how to use a microphone correctly, how to plug it into the computer, how to record the audio and edit the audio and make it sound like make it sound as if I were on the radio. Because I listened to a lot of radio back then, a lot of morning radio, a lot of all kinds of radio shows really for the most part.

[00:05:02] But the point is this, is that when I listened to these radio shows, I said, maybe I can do that too. Maybe I can create a podcast that sounds like a radio morning show or a radio show where we had a, you know, some kind of topic we discussed about it and we give our own take on the, on the topic. And then eventually, you know, I decided to bring on a guest or two, and then we bring on more people.

[00:05:28] And then the technology was available to us at the time to bring on guests and record interviews, you know, remotely via platforms like Clean Feed, which was audio only still is really high quality audio. And it made it sound like the guest was right here with us into the audience. They had no idea. And during the year 2020, everybody was locked down or most people were locked down. Christine was locked down. She couldn't go to the office. She was working from home. So she was here available to do interviews.

[00:05:56] And we did interviews very regularly. Like I think it was at least one or two a week. I know for some of you, that's probably nothing, probably doing an interview every day, but we couldn't pull off interviews every day. But we did do maybe one a week, maybe two at one point, but never usually more than that really, because it just got, it became too much to do. And I was having a blast interviewing and doing a podcast and having so much fun doing all

[00:06:24] the creation, all the social media stuff related to the podcast, all the marketing associated with the podcast, the graphics, all that stuff. All that stuff I thought was amazing. And then people were asking me questions like, how'd you do that? How'd you make that happen? How are you making your show sound amazing? How are you getting the guests to sound amazing? How are you doing those things? So that's why I started this show right here, Podtastic Audio.

[00:06:48] Back then, in the midst of it all, in the midst of all the pandemic podcasts, I decided to start this show, Podtastic Audio. And it wasn't because I wanted to try to upsell all kinds of courses and all kinds of like coaching things or all kinds of like stuff like that. Nothing like that at all. In fact, this show is just like the companion show to that show. At least it was back then. And I was running both at the same time.

[00:07:15] The things I did on the Chris and Christine show back then during the thick of it all were things I was talking about on this show right here. Simple things like using Audacity for free. You know, what kind of microphone to use? Microphone techniques. What kind of gear to use? That's not going to break the bank. How do you record? Simple, easy, using tools like Clean Feed, like Zoom, things like that. How to record that, make a podcast, how to create the artwork for that show, how to

[00:07:45] put it up there in your podcast media host of choice. How do you do all that stuff? Just the basic stuff because people are asking me questions about that. And so here I am with Podtastic Audio. Now, you may know or you may not know, I don't know, is that the Chris and Christine show is no more. We no longer create that podcast. We no longer record that podcast. In fact, we no longer are a couple. That's right.

[00:08:12] In the beginning of the podcast, Christine and I were just dating. And then we got engaged probably five, six episodes into recording the podcast. Great. Got married during the middle of the podcast in 2020. That was kind of weird to pull off with the whole COVID thing, but we pulled it off. And then we did the podcast throughout the marriage. But things started falling apart. I'll tell you that right now. Things did not work well for the podcast. I saw the podcast as something fun we did together.

[00:08:42] She saw the podcast as something she dreaded, hated, did not like creating the podcast, did not like doing a podcast. Only did it because I asked her to do it. And it was like pulling teeth. We butted heads a lot. She did not want to do any more guest interviews. We had all these guests booked. She couldn't stand doing guest interviews. Probably because it took away from her time doing other things. So the thing I enjoyed was creating the podcast. The thing she dreaded was doing the podcast.

[00:09:13] You can kind of see where things kind of start to fall apart. Now, that's not the only reason we got divorced. But I think for me personally, when she finally said she doesn't want to do the show anymore and she absolutely hates doing the podcast, that was like a dagger in my heart. And I think for a lot of things started going downhill at that point. So that brings us to today in 2025 where we have filed for divorce. The court's got the paperwork.

[00:09:40] We're just waiting for the thing to finish the process. We have this house we're in right now that we bought together, that we sold my house, took the money from my house. I'm going to say it again. My house. And put that money into this house we bought together. And now we have to sell this house and split the proceeds and go our separate ways. So, yeah, I'm a little frustrated. Yeah, I'm a little disappointed.

[00:10:06] And yeah, I'm a little sad about all the stuff I've been dealing with in the last few months. It's been very frustrating and it makes it very difficult to want to do a podcast about podcasting that was supposed to be based on the show I did together with Christine. And going through all of these things I'm going through right now makes it very difficult to want to do a podcast. I kid you not.

[00:10:30] It's a real struggle when like it's hard for me to get excited about podcasting. It's very hard for me to have this emotional like excitement rah, rah, rah about podcasting. When a lot of the shows I tried helping back in 2020 are gone. A lot of them are gone. But you know the funny thing is about that though?

[00:10:52] What's your kind of a funny thing is that this show right here, Podtastic Audio today is getting way more downloads than it ever has, which is kind of mind blowing to think about. This show right here, Podtastic Audio is getting way more downloads per episode than the Chris and Christine show did back in the heyday when we were interviewing guests regularly. And we had them sharing the episode and we were promoting the episode, you know, three people promoting the episode.

[00:11:22] Me, the guest, maybe Christine if she wanted to or not. In the early days she kind of did, but then it kind of tapered off. But this show right here is doing amazingly well, surprisingly well. I am super shocked how well the show is doing. Like it's unbelievable. From when I first started the show till now, I'm going to say it's probably increased, I don't know, maybe 800%, 1000%. I don't know.

[00:11:48] It's gotten quite big and it's very humbling because here this show here was basically supposed to be a side project to that show. And it does make it difficult to want to create the show when the other show, the main show has dissolved. The marriage has dissolved. Our relationship is no more.

[00:12:07] And I'm going into uncharted waters, which can make it very hard for me to focus, come up with content, and still get excited about podcasting. Because I'm here for you. I'm not here for her. I'm not here for the other show like I was when I first got started thinking about it. Like, oh, I got the two shows and I'm talking about the one show on the other show and this and that. That show is dead. That show is no more. The relationship is gone.

[00:12:36] I'm here because I want to podcast. I'm here because I know that although a lot of the shows during the pandemic days have folded and they're done, but you'd be surprised. There's still new shows. Maybe you're one of them that start up every single day or people that maybe are podcasting. They feel like they hit a rut. They hit a wall. They're like, I don't know if I can continue. I don't know what to do with the show.

[00:13:06] Can we continue doing this show? We feel like we talked about everything we can talk about. I feel the same way too. I feel like I'm in the same boat right now. Like, there's only so many different new tools about podcasts. I think people fall into this rut. Either they go into the interview anybody route where each episode is a new guest telling their story of something, you know, whatever it is. I mean, you can maybe draw something out of that. Maybe you can't. And not all guests are great. I can tell you that right now.

[00:13:35] I've done a ton of interviews and not all of them are winners. So there's something to be aware of. Or you go into the what's topical in the news today. I go and scour all of the, you know, podcasting news articles and just give you all the news. Just feed it to you like it's some kind of like news headline show. That's not very fun. That's not very interesting. I think the reason why we stick to a certain podcast, the same way we choose a certain morning radio show or a certain type of show. It's the personalities behind the mic.

[00:14:06] It's the person there versus the actual content. I know content is king and all that great, wonderful stuff. But what do you do when 1,000 different shows are all spitting out the same exact content? Who do you choose to go with? You can't listen to all 1,000 of them. You just, not enough hours in the day. So you have to pick one that you relate with. You have to pick one that you believe is honest, real, and authentic. And that's the thing with all this AI crap that's out there.

[00:14:34] I know the last episode I did was with an AI co-host. That's fine. It was all fun and all fun and games because I was there doing it live off the cuff organically. Now, you can use AI to create your own little fake podcast. And you've heard them before, the AI voices. You've heard these voices on Instagram, TikTok. You know what they sound like. And people do shows with these AI voices or other AI voices, AI content, whatever.

[00:15:03] But what do you do when all of it starts to sound the same? Like who do you choose to subscribe to, to listen to? And podcasting, like this one right here, podcasting, audio podcasting is a long form content. It's not your quick bites kind of stuff. Although I do know people do do like, you know, two minute shows, five minute shows, you know, one minute shows. Great. But I think if you're going to do a one minute show, you should probably just make it a TikTok video or Instagram video.

[00:15:32] You're going to have more reach that way. The algorithm is going to push you out to more people. Do that. But podcasting is not a big numbers game. In fact, I was telling somebody this the other day. They were complaining that their numbers on the podcast weren't as big as other platforms. So that's something you really have to consider if you're going to do an all-in audio podcast, which is fine. This is an all-in, I call it podcasting classic.

[00:16:03] I record into a microphone, audio only, and I put it out as audio only. Yes, it's on YouTube, but it's audio only. There you go. But I know people do the video thing and all that great stuff. But what I'm saying is that when it comes to audio podcasting here, the numbers on a true IAB certified podcast media host, those numbers are going to be way, way smaller compared to any other platforms out there.

[00:16:31] You see big numbers on, say, your TikTok. Oh, I get like 5,000 views on my TikTok video, but yet I only get 10 downloads on the podcast. Why is that? It's because a lot of us get buried in the weeds of not thinking about how the content gets consumed on the other end. How is the listener? How is the audience receiving your content? How are they taking it in and what are they doing with it? Are they listening?

[00:17:00] Are they scrolling through Instagram and they're flipping their phone through the next video? And the algorithm just so happens to put your video in front of them. They saw it and they flicked it away. Flick, flick, flick. They literally had to do no work to find that little quick video. Instagram or TikTok provide it to them automatically. When you subscribe to a podcast, when you get a podcast download, somebody had to go find your show somehow.

[00:17:28] Either you gave it to them personally or they had to search it up and go find it. And once they find it, then they have to press play or press subscribe and download a episode. A episode. And that's how it takes more work, more dedication from the listener to actually listen to a podcast episode than it would if they're watching a YouTube. Because you know what? When I'm on YouTube, I see lots of videos.

[00:17:56] And chances are, I don't subscribe to any of those videos, but they feed them to me. Now, in podcasting, it doesn't work that way. You have to physically go out and find that thing yourself and listen to it yourself. Nobody hand feeds you podcast episodes. Nobody hand feeds you something to listen to. You have to go out and find it yourself. That's why the numbers are so much lower on an audio podcast versus anywhere else.

[00:18:25] And I know that's why a lot of shows burn out. They say, well, podcasting is stupid because obviously no one's listening. Look, I got 2,000 views on my TikTok video, but I got three downloads on my podcast. Well, obviously, TikTok is the way to go. Video is the way to go. Obviously, you got to go video because look at podcasting. It's stupid. It's stupid. Nobody's listening to this thing. I'm only getting two downloads on this stupid thing. Why would I even continue doing podcasting?

[00:18:54] I'm going to go full on on this TikTok videos or whatever, things like that, short form video. And if you want to go full on on those platforms and that's all you want to do because you think that's the way to go, then go right ahead. Have at it. Have fun. It's your world. Congratulations. Be a star. Be a super TikTok star. You do you, boo. All right. But for the rest of us that enjoy podcasting and enjoy listening to podcasts, enjoy creating

[00:19:21] podcasts, it's really hard to stick with it. I get it. When the numbers are not in your favor, when everything is against you, when the entire world is saying you have to do things on video. When they all say video is the way to go, video this and video that. But I do believe that even with all the video noise that's out there right now, because you can get so like into a doom scroll, scrolling video after video and not even paying attention

[00:19:48] to what you're seeing, just flipping into the phone, just flick it, flick it, flick it, not even paying attention. Your eyes are rolling back in your head. You're not even like there. Just like, what's next? What's next? What's next? Nobody does that in podcasting because podcasting is long form content. We listen to podcasts mainly while we're doing other things. And I think that the busy person will probably listen to a podcast versus doom scrolling away

[00:20:17] for hours and hours. But even besides the point with all that noise, I'm here right now on this microphone delivering content to you. And I think that when it comes to podcasting, they always say consistency is king. You have to do good content, of course, make it sound amazing. You have to have a great personality on the microphone, be engaging, and then also be consistent with the things you're saying.

[00:20:43] But I think more than just being consistent on time, you have to be consistent in delivery. With so many things happening in the news, with so many things happening online and social media, it's really hard to believe anything. People make things very believable on social media, make things very believable in the news. And people are doubting everything they see and hear these days. So honesty, honesty from you as a podcaster is incredibly important.

[00:21:09] Authenticity is incredibly important, probably more important than ever, especially in the day of AI everything. And also important, especially with all that digital video noise that's out there, the TikTok, Instagram, the Facebook, the YouTube, so much digital noise being thrown at you by the algorithms. The algorithms are like throwing arrows at you, like shooting at you. You're like trying to catch all of them as they're being thrown at you.

[00:21:34] And with a regular podcast, you personally get to choose what you want to listen to and subscribe to. Which when it comes to the actual podcast listener, from the listener's perspective, when they lock into their favorite podcast app and they see your show sitting there, like, cool, I'm going to listen to that because I see it right there. Not being hit with all kinds of other noise surrounding it. Like, hey, check out this video or check out this other thing or all this junk being thrown

[00:22:03] at you that you didn't even ask for. You asked for that podcast to be there and it is there. And that's the beauty of podcasting. So if you're like me right now, you're struggling to create content, you're struggling to keep going. Here are some practical tips that we both can put into place right now to help each of us keep the podcast going if you feel like it's coming to a close.

[00:22:28] So tip number one is that you can record short, scrappy episodes. They don't have to be long. They can be short and to the point and just get some off your chest and doesn't have to be perfect. It can be simple. It can be easy. It can be something from the heart, something honest. It's something to give your audience something to show that you care. You actually care about being there and you care about them because when the audience knows

[00:22:58] you care about them, they're going to care about you. And it goes back and forth. So moving on to tip number two, here's one to kind of keep you going if you feel like you're drained on content is that you can reshare past episodes or even past content if you have all the notes for the episode. If you do decide to use an old episode, probably add a new intro to the episode like this was an older episode.

[00:23:25] You know, this is what we did, you know, about this topic or such and such or whatever. Kind of do a new intro to the episode so it keeps it kind of fresh still at the same time. That's something you can do and then rerun that episode in your feed. And it's kind of like a throwback because there's some days that creating content or creating new content is a little hard to do some days when you're just not feeling it. Okay, moving on to tip number three.

[00:23:51] And that is if you are feeling up to it, if you're feeling great, then batch record your content. Batch record as many episodes as you can. Now, this is for when you are feeling in a great mood. If you're not feeling in a great mood and obviously you're not going to feel like recording a bunch of episodes, let alone one episode. So if you're feeling up to it, just do as many as you can when you're feeling great.

[00:24:18] That way, when you're not feeling that great, you don't have to do an episode because you already have them recorded in the can. So I might start doing that when I'm feeling great and I might start doing a bunch of episodes if I have time. I do go on vacation real soon here. So maybe I'll see about doing more than one episode in the week. I will see. It all depends. Like I said, everything depends on how things go, really.

[00:24:44] So moving on to the fourth tip here is that if you do a podcast with lots of production elements, I'm talking sound effects and music beds and different kind of things and all this different pizzazz in your show, well, maybe just pull that back and just do like a regular normal conversation podcast. No extra fluff, no extra intros, no extra music, no extra stuff.

[00:25:10] I know I put them in here, but there's a lot of shows that do like five times as many different sound effects and music beds that I do on their shows. I do a few. I do a small handful because I believe that a small handful can go a long way. You can really overdo sound effects. You really can. And that adds a lot of stress to your production. If it makes you kind of burnt out about doing the show because you have to add all these different things.

[00:25:37] If recording the show is hard as it is and then having to edit and produce the show with all these bells and whistles is another headache. Well, trust me, your listeners don't really care if your show has bells and whistles in it. They really don't. And I know it sounds like they do. You think they would. You think that, oh my goodness, they listen to my show because I add all these music beds and I add all these bells and whistles and sound effects. It's just icing. It's just icing on the cake. It's all it is.

[00:26:06] It's not real. It's not real content. Your jingles and bells and whistles have nothing to do with your content. So if you want to, it's totally up to you, but you can make a regular episode and temporarily, just temporarily here, lay low on all the bells and whistles. And just do a regular episode. You don't need the music. You don't need like real crazy editing to be impactful. You really don't.

[00:26:33] And the fifth and final tip here to give you some kind of advice, some kind of practical advice to keep your show going, even when things feel hard and feel difficult, is that try, when you do a podcast, try to just talk to one person. If you keep it low, you keep it intimate, you keep it simple, there's low pressure. Like I'm talking to you right here.

[00:27:00] And that's how I do this show for most of the time is I do add the pizzazz and I do add some inflections and I do add some energy and things like that. I do do those things. Yes, I get it. But I'm trying to talk directly to you. Just you and me having a conversation. There's nobody else here. It's just you and me and we're just hanging out. And that's how I do this show right here. That's how I've done this show for the most part. And it's really helped me when I've created a solo show.

[00:27:30] When you do solo shows, it makes a difference when you're really talking to one person because I do very well talking to just one other person in real life, having a real conversation. I'm not very good at talking to a big group of people at once. So when I do this podcast here, just thinking that I'm talking to just you, the one person, makes it so much easier for me to do the podcast. That's how I do it anyway. So however you do it, it's up to you. But these are some things that could help you get through some real difficult times when

[00:27:59] it comes to creating your podcast. And if you're still struggling, even with all these things and you're thinking, man, I don't just don't know. I just don't know if I can do this anymore, Chris. I don't know if I have it in me anymore. I don't know if I have one more recording left. I don't know. Well, then maybe just pause the podcast. It's okay. Maybe it's a sign that you need to stop and take a pause and reflect on what you really want to do in life. Maybe you're just not there mentally.

[00:28:28] And I think I feel like I'm there right now. Like it's hard to do the podcast when this show is based on the other show, which is dissolved and the marriage is dissolved and we're getting divorced and all that great, not so great stuff happening right now in my life. And I'm dealing with all these things, all these emotional things, all of these physical things. Where am I going to live? Where am I going to move to? All of these things. Is the house even going to sell?

[00:28:57] Like, I don't even know like what's going to happen. And it makes it very difficult to get on here and try to put on a happy, fun, fun show when reality is, is that my current life situation is far, far from fun. It's not the greatest right now and I'm making the best of it. And I love content creation. I love podcasting. And I want to keep podcasting as long as I possibly can.

[00:29:26] But I know that I can't do this forever and I know I can't keep this up forever. You know, just recently, there has been some podcasters that have been doing this type of a show that have folded. They've quit. They've walked away. They said all they've had to say. They've done it all. They said it all. And it's time for them to hang the microphone up. And I don't think I'm quite there yet. All the whole life is really trying to like twist my arm right now, but I want to be here. And I think that's the difference.

[00:29:56] Is that I actually want to do this. And I actually want to be here recording and editing and producing. I love podcasting. I love content creation. I love helping you make your content, your podcast, your show amazing. And podcasting is not for the big guys. It is for everybody. It's for us indie podcasters too. And on that note, you keep on making your amazing podcast with your amazing show. And I'll catch you on the next one. Happy podcasting.

[00:30:26] I got a mic and a story to tell. In a world of noise, I'll ring the bell. Podastic audio breaking through. Voice for the many. A guide for.

[00:31:07] Bedroom to the stars above. Wrapped in care. Need fame? Just be true.