Is your podcast your passion?

Father’s Day helped me rediscover the reason I coach and create this podcast. The day reminded me of my passion.

DAD AND BASEBALL

It was a tough Father’s Day for me this year. We buried my dad five days earlier. He had a brief battle with cancer that he unfortunately lost. Luckily, he didn’t suffer.

Every Father’s Day weekend, the College World Series comes to town. It is some of the best baseball you’ll ever see.

Dad and I had been attending the CWS together for as long as I could remember. We started sitting in general admission when I was too little to remember. Over the years, we moved up. For the past few decades, we have been sitting in prime seats right up from first base. This is my favorite time of year.

This year was the first year I can remember not attending the College World Series with my dad. We have been going so long, I can’t remember not going.

On Father’s Day, I took my wife and son to the first game of the day. After that game, Simon and I jumped in the car to drive 9 hours to Colorado Springs for a roller hockey tournament.

Dad loved hockey. He was the president of the association for a few years. He couldn’t skate, but took us to the rink for games and practices even after we started driving.

Simon and I are on the drive to Colorado Springs. My brother lives in Colorado, which make this even better.

We are about 15 minutes from the Colorado border and can see rain on the horizon. We are still dry. But we can see it coming.

About 5 minutes later, it starts raining. It is a pretty good little summer shower.

The rain only lasts a few minutes. We cross the state line and drive right out of the rain.

Now it is a little cloudy, but the sun is coming out. Right then, this amazing rainbow shows up right outside of my window. I mean, it is right there on the other side of the hill.

Not only is it a rainbow, it is a full 180 degree rainbow. It goes horizon to horizon.

It is so bright, it looks like it is glowing where it hits the ground.

And not only is it one of the brightest rainbows I’ve ever seen, it is a double rainbow. Right outside my window. On Father’s Day. As I’m crossing into Colorado where my brother lives.

 

MY PASSION

The boys went on to win the tournament. Every team we played was from Colorado. It was tough being an outside team.

Simon won the goalie skills competition and was named Most Valuable Goalie for the tournament. His teammate won the skater skills competition and was also named Most Valuable Player for the tournament. I was very proud of all of them. Coaching them was a thrill.

While we were there in Colorado and I was spending some amazing time with my son doing what he loves, I was still able to work on my podcast and coaching business. Everything was still moving forward and getting done.

That is why I do what I do. I love coaching people. And I love having the flexibility to do it wherever I am allowing me to spend time with my wife and kids. I can travel with the kids for any of their activities and still coach, podcast and run my business around my passion.

Dad helped me remember that on Father’s Day. What a year.

Are you talking about your passion on your podcast? That is key to success.

YOUR PASSION

I was on a free podcast strategy call the other day with a podcaster. He had a successful comedy podcast that he had to discontinue due to political pressure from his employer.

This podcast had a sizable audience. He was talking about a topic that he loved. He was interviewing people that truly interested him. Unfortunately, the show had to go away.

He still wanted to podcast. So, he launched a second show.

The new show has nearly 100 episodes published. However, it isn’t growing. He feels stuck in relative obscurity. He feels like the show is stagnant.

Downloads for the show have been a struggle. The podcast is “getting out there”, but numbers don’t show it. Over the past couple weeks, the download numbers actually fell off by 75%.

Prior to our call, I listened to his latest episode. It was ok. Just not great.

When we had our discussion, the reason became very clear. It isn’t his passion.

He told me he doesn’t enjoy it as much as the last one. He could let loose on the other show. There are certain aspects of the new show he enjoys. He just feels like he got stale.

As I listened to the show before we even spoke, it felt like he had lost his passion for it. It felt like he does the interviews and promotes the show because he has to. Not because he wants to.

It doesn’t feel like he is really excited to bring me the interview each week. I don’t hear the excitement coming out of the speaker. I could hear that even before we spoke. After our discussion, the reason was clear. The other show was his passion. This show was just another podcast.

The solution is to find his true passion and create a show around that topic. This may require a relaunch, which would be painful after 100 episodes.

However, since it would focus on his passion, he would probably be right back to the same point in no time. He would be having much more fun. He would enjoy talking about it on social media. He would be excited to share it with his friends.

Passion makes it so much easier to grow your podcast. It also makes it much easier to develop revenue opportunities around that passion.

HELP TO FIND YOUR PASSION

Would you like help defining your passion and creating a business around your podcast? Get details on my FREE podcast strategy session online at www.PodcastTalentCoach.com/coaching.

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