Yesterday I finally revealed some of the major details of my secret book project. Today I’m revealing the end of another project. Knowing when to quit something that you enjoy doing is tough to act on, but in order for the other things to flourish…you’ve got to let something go.
For me, that thing is the ProductiVardy podcast.
Back when I started ProductiVardy last summer, I put it all out there. I left the Work Awesome podcast and was eager to start my own, bought and paid for a website and hosting, paid a designer as best I could (both for the branding and website design – thanks you Aaron Mahnke and Alex Blackie) and I was good to go. I had a series of great guests, some great sponsors1 and some pretty decent segments in there as well, and was looking to incorporate some of the listener ideas into the mix as the podcast progressed.
Then things started to get really busy.
I started working for Lifehack, and began writing for more and more people. I also started to focus more on my own writing here. I kept up as best I could with Dyscultured, and even Talking is Dead started to slide. And then I forged a partnership with Michael Schechter on a new podcast – one that covered quite a bit of the ground ProductiVardy did.2
And let’s not forget about my family. They rock and I like to be around them because – and when – they do.
With all of that in mind, I put ProductiVardy on hiatus. I thought that maybe – and soon enough – I could bring it back today in some form or another.
I had considered making it an exclusive podcast – part of some sort of premium membership – but I don’t want to go that route. Too many other weblogs are doing that these days, and I don’t want to enter that crowded space.3
I also thought about bringing the podcast back on a less frequent basis, but it wouldn’t have as much of an impact with that type of schedule. I even contemplated making a very short weekly podcast once more – 10 minutes in length or less – but in the end I knew that would be more work than I could handle.
So I’m following my own advice by quitting ProductiVardy. I’d rather deliver better quality on less things than simply deliver more things. I’m not going to delete the site or anything like that, and the archives of all fifteen episodes are still up in iTunes for as long as Apple chooses to leave them there. There’s some quality interviews there, so be sure to check them out before they’re gone.
And thanks for your support with ProductiVardy – and with everything else I’ve got on the go.
Photo credit: beatplusmelody (CC BY 2.0)
1Big thanks to Shopify and Moredays for sponsoring the podcast during its run.
2Not to mention the possibility of a Lifehack podcast in the future.
3I applaud and support several of these weblogs as well, and am looking to support more when budget permits.
