Frustrating day today.

Several things have me feeling a sense of burnout. One is in my podcasting. I LOVE podcasting, and have no desire to quit, but there’s one thing that is getting more difficult with time.

When I first started, back in 2008, I was one of a very few Christian podcasters who weren’t pastors or full-time parachurch ministers. I can’t even think of another off the top of my head that was doing it.

There were certainly Christian podcasts in 2008, but pretty much all of them were extensions of full-time ministries. Most were podcast versions of radio shows.

Since I was one of a very few laymen/part-time ministry types in the podcasting realm, it was easy to find guests to do episodes with. Add in the fact I’ve always only done 1 per month, no one felt pestered when I came back for a 2nd interview a year later or more.

These days, everyone and their brother has a podcast. They’re a dime a dozen. (Don’t get me wrong, there are a ton of good ones, too.) But it’s making it *much* harder to get guests to do interviews with, especially pastors & people who do full-time ministry as their job.

People in full-time ministry are being invited on podcasts all the time. It’s not novel or interesting to them any more. I can also sense a fear that if someone agrees to do a show, they’re afraid they’ll get a dozen more requests & start seriously eating up their time.

There’s a tension, an irreconcilable difference that I didn’t have much in the beginning. People in full-time ministry see interviews as an extension of their regular job. They don’t want to push their job into the evening or weekends.

As a part-time ministry, I do my thing in my free time, outside of a normal, full-time job. Many of my most desired guests can’t or won’t do interviews in the off time.

They’re all very nice people though, and most of them don’t know how to outright say “no thanks.”

And not saying “no” has always been an interesting thing. I rarely get a “no.” I just get no replies; communications go silent. I’ve always had he sense that this is pretty “industry-normal” even for traditional radio hosts.

So where my frustration/burnout is leading me to today is the consideration that maybe it’s time to adjust to the current conditions and change up the format.

I’m not sure how that will look, as I’m only now sensing that the time might be upon me.

And even as I type out this thread, I’ve gotten a few DMs. Potential guests & suggestions. Thanks for those!

Whatever the future holds, I have always loved doing long-form interview shows (and only really learned that’s what it’s called in the last couple years.) The door will probably always remain open for that.

One idea I’m pondering, though not yet at all serious about, is maybe pairing up with a regular co-host and going to more of a typical discussion format. We could maybe bring on guests occasionally as opportunity arrises, but not be dependent on finding a guest every episode.

My apologies if this thread comes across at all whiney, that was not my intention at all. More just to show others that things aren’t always what they seem. We’re all just regular people, and I’m no different. But then, I’ve always tried to be a regular (Average) guy on Twitter.