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A Permission Slip
If you’re a consistent listener or a newbie to the podcast, you know that I’m currently on a 2-month break…
This was supposed to be a quick little Bonus episode to update you on what to expect next…
As I started writing, it ended up turning into a journal…
NOT to explain to you why I’m taking this break…
But more to work out how things got to this point, while also convincing myself it’s OK (and necessary) to hit pause and reset.
This was really hard to write, but it’s important for me to air it all out.
I haven’t brain-dumped everything out like this before.
Instead, I’ve only had a few brief venting conversations with my Wife, the podcast team, and my coach.
This episode is for me to look back on a year or so from now to:
Appreciate the growth I’ve made.
Show how progress can come from taking breaks.
See how taking a big risk and shaking things up worked out for me.
It gives you a front row seat in my head to understand how this started as a passion project and the possibilities of what this could evolve into.
Let’s dive in.
How We Got Here…
This podcast originally started back in August 2016 as the Perspective Podcast (for lack of a better name).
I simply wanted to encourage creatives who felt lost and isolated like I did.
I didn’t know what the hell I was doing—it was solely an extension of the weekly blogging I had been doing since June 2015.
Those blog posts simply evolved into show notes and solo audio episodes with featured cover artwork.
My voice seemed more natural (or so I was told) compared to my writing, so audio seemed like the next evolution of getting my voice and ideas out into the ether.
6 months into the podcast, I jumped into the next terrifying step by doing interviews.
I basically wanted an excuse to chat with friends and people I really looked up to in the creative space.
The podcast slowly scaled as I built a team around me:
I hired an editor in 2017 to build an episode queue—keeping up weekly was too hard.
In 2018, I hired someone to help with scheduling, show notes, proofing, and imagery.
In 2019, I brought someone on to tackle the next terrifying step in adding video.
Finally, in 2021, I brought someone on to help schedule out all social media posts.
After doing this weekly for almost 6 years and almost completely delegating 80–90% of the podcast, I ended up burning out.
I’ve been tiptoeing the edge of burnout for easily the past 2 years, but ignored the feeling and pushed through.
It all snowballed and got to this point for a couple of reasons:
1. Boredom
The podcast felt like a mundane day job that I dreaded going to.
It wasn’t challenging anymore and became repetitive—I was on autopilot.
I started to resent showing up to do it, even though, when I was in the middle of the conversations, I loved it.
The tasks of scheduling guests, writing outlines, intros, outros, recordings, reviewing the weekly checklist, etc. became more of a burden that took time away from what I was wanting to do.
I stopped giving it the full energy, attention, and commitment it deserved.
I’d rush to pass it along to the team to handle, schedule, and publish.
Something had to give…
2. Things Changed
When I started this in 2016, I could simply leverage the same process I used for blogging…
In that I’d create artwork and leverage that as the main way to promote the episode.
The reach I used to get on Instagram was incredible, and I converted lots of listeners in 2016–2018.
Algorithms changed over the years…
Not only what used to work wasn’t working anymore…
But what I used to feel in terms of excitement and drive wasn’t there anymore.
It showed in the declining numbers and reach…something that was once doubling year after year.
But it’s all on me, not an algorithm.
I was changing A LOT. Both as a human, a creative, a family man, a coach, etc.
I was falling behind (and am still behind) on how to best create new content that aligned with the new direction I thought I should pursue.
For the last few years, I’ve been doing all the things I think I should be doing without doing things how I wanted…I’m a critical over-thinker.
In 2019, I could really notice the shift in things not working, but I started adding a video element thinking that was the next big solution to spark excitement.
But the process for adding video was broken and took the backseat to my audio-driven process.
I didn’t care to streamline it all over time…audio is what always worked, why change it?
(This was a huge mistake because I’ve ended up building 2 processes that weren’t streamlined and created more work and overwhelm in the end.)
Instead, I was extremely focused on leveraging the podcast to speak toward my new identity shift and focus for that season…
Becoming a side hustle coach.
3. Identity Shift
Making the big shift from being known as the artist Perspective-Collective, to being known as Coach Scotty Russell is where things really affected the podcast.
Because of the podcast, I truly found my voice and realized the majority of people listening are like I am…
They were building a creative side hustle outside their day jobs, families, etc. They were looking for the tools and motivation to make things happen on their own terms.
I went deeper from a marketing perspective into this side hustle-driven approach.
It’s what people asked the most questions on and what I felt most qualified to speak toward.
The opportunity to pursue coaching naturally presented itself since I couldn’t keep having 1:1 Skype calls with listeners who wanted to go deeper than the topics of the episode.
The more I explored coaching (where I was making the most direct visible impact), the more the podcast became an afterthought.
I spent the past 2-ish years trying to find my new voice, style, approach, and content strategy within my limited bandwidth—the time to draw wasn’t there like it used to be once I took the full-time leap in 2020.
I’ve been playing a losing game of finding the “new thing” that clicked from a social media perspective while catering to the coaching demand to pay my bills.
This was a big reason the podcast focus took the back seat.
The podcast was never meant to be a money-making machine, and maybe the focus to not monetize it pressured me to devote all attention to coaching.
My past love for drawing became a separate identity from coaching.
The coaching identity became separated from podcasting—especially on Instagram.
(Although I rebranded the podcast this past August 2021 to align the same marketing, message, and soul of the show with my focus on coaching side hustlers.)
My coaching community became separated from my podcasting, Patreon, and Facebook Group communities.
Nothing was aligned. I became extremely split-focused trying to determine where to pour my time and energy because I couldn’t keep up with it all.
4. Overwhelm
Because of this split focus, lack of clarity, and limited bandwidth…
I’ve been feeling hella overwhelmed. No matter what I was doing, I was letting someone down because my attention was spread way too thin.
I ended up going through some heavy burnout this past August–October with the weight of everything over the years piling on top of each other caught up with me.
What used to be my superpower in making time to always respond to everyone…
Has quickly turned into my weakness.
Posting on Instagram has become a chore these days, let alone responding to my buried DM inbox (as well as my email).
Which made trying to keep up with comments and DM’s on my separate podcast IG account feel damn near impossible.
It all became too much and a distraction.
I have to take a moment to say sorry…
I’m truly sorry for anyone who shared/tagged me/podcast, and I haven’t responded over the past 3–6 months. I hope you don’t take it personally because I haven’t been my mentally/physically best and most present self.
I’m sorry to my guests over the last 3–6 months. My promotion game has been horrible as I’ve been skating by doing the bare minimum versus going all out getting your name, story, and message out there. I feel like an asshole—but selfishly enjoyed each conversation and gave you my all in that very moment.
I’m sorry to my podcast team. I feel I’ve grown distant, forgetful, and missed deadlines I once was so dialed in and always delivered on. It’s hard to be excited about work when I’m not excited about it…
I’m sorry to anyone who pledged and backed me on Patreon over the years. I tried at times to make it a valuable experience, but I was never fully committed due to other big priorities such as coaching. I completely ghosted bringing value on Patreon as it turned into more of a tip jar versus a community I served.
The Tipping Point
Since starting the weekly podcast, I’ve never officially had a break…not even when both of my kiddos were born.
I always found a way to insert “Best Hits” because I felt like I was letting people down if I didn’t show up.
The idea for taking a break happened around October time…the time when I was turning a corner, pulling myself out of a brutal Summer/Fall slump, and connecting with my art again.
The podcast was still weighing me down, but I was scared to press pause.
The tipping point for me was seeing how much I was spending on the podcast each month…
After doing my Q4 taxes, I saw that I had invested well over $10k last year to cover a 4-person podcast team, equipment, software, website AND podcast hosting, etc.
I was investing too much time and energy…
But I wasn't feeling happy…
Not to mention growth was stagnant…
Yet I’ve been so preoccupied with everything else that I’ve failed to:
Redefine what success for the show looked like.
Set new targets to chase to keep me hungry.
Focus on restructuring everything and streamlining the process.
It’s obvious a break was necessary.
I desperately needed to hit reset and blow everything up by taking off a minimum of 2 months to start fresh.
This was in December, but I had scheduled out guests all the way through February episode 250…
So March and April would give me a runway to build a queue of episodes, get ahead, and loosely plan what’s next.
What’s Next?
How the podcast has progressed over the years hasn’t aligned with what I’m best at and excites me the most.
Over the past 2 years, I found through coaching sessions, IG Lives, webinars, etc. that I was at my best teaching and coaching in a live, direct, personalized format.
During these moments, I was the most challenged, excited, and fulfilled version of myself.
I’ve been noodling on this for a hot minute, but why couldn’t I carry this format over to the podcast somehow?
Why couldn’t I do weekly teachings on a topic and open it up for live Q&A/coaching at the end?
(While turning past interviews into more like my coaching guest expert calls?)
What would it look like if my coaching, podcasting, and creative communities all aligned in one place?
A single source I could pour all my efforts, attention, and energy into?
What if I had one thing to promote year-round, instead of separate offerings like Boot Camps, 12-week programs, podcast episodes, etc.
What if I had one thing that took up 50–60% of my time and freed me up to pursue my passions of coaching and creating work in the crypto, NFT, Web 3 world?
This dream scenario format doesn’t exist…YET.
I understand and embrace this dream structure and format will come in phases, meaning I’ll have to blow up my current models (which is scary AF).
I have a good thing going in the meantime coaching wise until that day comes…
The rest of my year is mapped out with quarterly Boot Camps and the Spring/Fall 12-Week Coaching programs, so I can’t blow up those commitments during this season.
But I can start small and scale toward that dream model with a Phase 1 plan of attack:
1. Test out the live stream podcasting format on my YouTube Channel during March and April.
(In fact, I’m doing my first live test session today at 12pm CT—link in show notes).
2. Convert all my current, spread-out communities into one Discord.
This is where most of my Alumni student communication lives and where I spend a lot of my time in my Web3 communities.
(The new name will be the “Side Hustler’s Collective” and a link to join is also available in the show notes.)
3. Build out a new system and processes for show notes, imagery, episode release dates, etc.
I know things will be rough, stressful, and challenging early on in this season…
I’m excited to embrace this new season of suck knowing I’ll progress each week, and these sessions will become the cornerstone I build from…
Especially in Phases 2 and 3 where I’ll bake in an ongoing private coaching community.
The goal is to start back up the podcast with this new format in May, but honestly, I have zero issues pushing it back into the summer if needed.
I’m giving myself permission to figure this out without feeling rushed or pressured to have it perfect and please people.
It’s gotta be fun, exciting, and challenging to keep me driven to do it—I want to create an incredible experience that allows me to connect with you more.
Join Me
It’s funny, recently my Wife asked me, “Could you imagine yourself not doing the podcast ever again?”
I thought about it for a second as the extra time and energy to focus on other things like my art sounds really tempting…
But she already knows my answer…
Clearly, I told her, “No, it’s something I’m supposed to do and it’d be too weird not doing it.”
She agreed and is glad I’m taking a break and is stoked/hella supportive on where this is trending.
With that being said…
If you’re excited about this new pivot, I’d love to invite you to join me during March and April every Wednesday at 12pm CT on my YouTube Channel (link in show notes).
Expect my current IG Live format on steroids as I navigate and improve each week.
It’d be cool to have you in early on the new process and give me feedback leading up to the official comeback of the podcast this year.
Thanks so much for vibing with me all these years.
Your support means everything—stay tuned in the meantime!
As always…
Keep showing up, keep putting in the work, and keep creating…
YOU GOT THIS.
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Credits
Music - Blookah
Executive Assistant - Paige Garland
Video Specialist - Jared Cunningham
Social Media Coordinator - Hannah Schick
Animation Specialist - Greg D'Amico