The negative and positive impact of quitting a podcast.

What if you only do a few podcast episodes and then quit?

For busy entrepreneurs, it is a legitimate fear and reality that they could start a podcast and then stop it shortly after. It happens. Scroll through the podcast players, and you'll find a graveyard of shows that haven't had a new episode in 3 years. What if that's your show? Let's take a moment and unpack the pros and cons of launching and then killing a show. 

How starting a podcast and killing a podcast can hurt you. 

The most significant consideration one might have around killing a show early in it's life is the ding on your reputation. Because you will push your new show, build out marketing collateral, and pull in guests — killing your show will be a public event. I hate pulling the plug on anything I feel was a good idea. Maybe its pride. So I can completely relate to the inner talk you experience as you live out this real-life possibility. What will my clients think? What will my competitors think? What will my mom think!? Jk. 

Starting and killing a show can make you appear inconsistent at best and unreliable at worst. The sustainable effort required should be considered before you begin a podcast. If you hire a company or freelancer to help you, it will still take at least take 1-2 hours of your time to record an episode. If you are doing the recording and editing yourself, substantially more time will be required. Like any business decision, you should weigh time, money, and energy loss before starting the project. 

How starting a podcast and killing a podcast can still help you. 

Still, there are benefits to having even ten episodes. Podcasts have so much evergreen life to them. Episodes recorded years ago still get active listens, even when no new episodes are released. It's the gift that keeps on giving. Unlike a social media post that could be a hit today and forgotten tomorrow, podcasts genuinely live on. Plus, guests can point people back to your show years down the road as a great resource. This exposes you to new potential customers years after that episode was released. 

Also, you killing a show will likely not harm the new relationships built through the podcast. So many of our best partners, referrals, and friendships have begun through podcasts. That's priceless and won't be affected by quitting your show. 

In the end, it's hard to say if doing a hand full of episodes would hurt you more than it would help you. But most of our past clients are still very happy they did the show in the first place. They continue to reap the benefits of starting and creating a podcast.