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(By Troy Price) Last month my wife started my podcasting existential crisis when she looked at me and said, “April is the cruelest month.” She said it was from T.S. Eliot’s book, The Waste Land. She told me about Eliot’s irony in thinking of Spring as a killer of Winter. That evening, my knowledge of modern poetry tripled, as did my appreciation for a certain type of podcaster. Let me share the events of my April so you can understand my mental/vocational/podcasting journey more fully.
At the beginning of the April 2019, I was happily employed at the College where I graduated. It was a good job doing good work. Before April 15th, I received an offer for a different job and subsequently, April 30th was the last day at that old job. I now work for a national organization that serves the professionals who serve abused children. I get to work from home and talk to people from all over the U.S, daily. I made the decision to take the new job one rainy April evening. Nestled inside that decision was my podcasting existential crisis.
I was talking it through the job offer with my wife. And she said, “You know, you don’t just have two options here. You could do your podcasting stuff full-time.” My sweet, awesome wife was suggesting that rather than staying with the college or taking a new job I could branch out on my own and let podcasting be my primary focus and source of income. We ran the numbers. My podcasting side hustle was bringing in about half of what I was bringing home from my job. And I had turned down a few recent editing jobs because I needed time to do valuable things like sleep and eat. With our financial projections, we thought it was possible, actually probable that I could replicate my income by doing podcasting work full-time.
Then the hard questions began. I asked myself if I wanted podcasting to be my full-time gig. At first I said, ‘Of Course!!!’ Up to then I thought there was a hierarchy in podcasting. Please read the following list from bottom to the top to understand who I thought was most valuable in podcasting. In my mind there were: Those who were full-time podcasters. Those who did podcasting part-time. Those who were starting their own podcasts. Those who loved listening to podcasts. Those that have never listened to a podcast before.
If I went full-time I would be in what I thought was the highest echelon of the podcasting world. I was flattered that my projected cash flow and my wife saw me operating at that level. I was excited about the possibility. I loved the idea of owning my own business. I was already imagining the grand opening. I was ready to make the leap!
Then the question came next changed the course of my life… I knew financially I could do it, I asked myself if I really wanted to become a full-time podcaster. I tried to imagine what my life would look like after the excitement of the grand opening faded.
What would my full-time podcasting business look like a year from now? I started to envision mid-2020. I made a list of what I thought I would be doing after things got off the ground. Here is that list of activities as they came to me: Getting more clients. Upselling current clients. Refreshing promotional materials. Producing content.
I stopped the list there.
Producing content was fourth on the list of what I imagined myself doing one year into my business. That is about where it was on my list of priorities now as a part-time podcaster. The top of my list as a part-time podcaster includes a day job with a worthy organization (that pays benefits), and spending time with the family. My excitement for being a full-time podcaster faded when I considered the necessary business tasks required for podcasting to be my primary source of income.
Now I don’t think that full-time podcasting is a wasteland full of meaningless transactions focused on getting money into a bank account. I am saying that as a result of my questioning, I have changed the order of my hierarchy of podcasting. I think part-time podcasters are actually at the pinnacle of the podcasting world. It may seem ironic that something part-time is more valuable that something full-time. I am sure that if T.S. Eliot was alive today he would write a poem about it.
But it is true. Part-time podcasters are less driven by financial need. They can make money, but they do not need to make a certain amount to keep the lights on. Thus, they are more able to produce content based on their own creativity and less on the content’s marketability. And since they do not live and breath only RSS, they lead lives more similar (and are thus more relatable) to their audience. All of this helps the world of podcasting.
As for me, I accepted that new job offer and am loving my podcasting part-time. I also encourage other part-time podcasters to view themselves as having a status that others should strive to achieve. You now hold a valuable position in the hierarchy of podcasting and are not just on a path that should lead to full-time podcasting. Relish what you are doing now. If you are a part-time podcaster, kudos to you!
Troy Price can be reached at troy@frontporchstudio.com