You Only Ever Have To Make One More Episode

Dis you, hun?

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It's stupid o'clock in the morning,

you've just finished editing an episode,

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and instead of feeling good about

it, you're laying there staring at

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the ceiling with one horrible little

thought doing laps of your brain.

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Do I have to do this forever?

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And there it goes.

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The excitement curdles.

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The thing you were buzzing about an

hour ago suddenly feels like a life

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sentence handed down by a judge you'll

never, ever meet. And there's a thing

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that nobody flogging you a podcast

course will ever admit to, and that

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is that feeling right there at stupid

o'clock in the morning isn't a flaw in

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your brain, it's a feature which they

installed, and I'm going to delete it.

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This is Podmastery: Podcasting

Insights, the podcast for people

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who've actually had a bit of a go

at this and are a bit sick of being

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told they're doing it wrong by people

who've never properly done it at all.

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I'm Neal Veglio, the Podmaster, and

today the biggest lie in podcasting,

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the one that's got you convinced

that starting a podcast means

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signing your life away in blood.

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We're gonna take that apart and

you're gonna walk out of here

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about a stone lighter and a good

deal less obedient, hopefully.

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Let's do that naff quote of every

LinkedIn influencer relying on

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AI for their genius these days.

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Let me say the quiet bit

out loud, because you won't.

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It's that, "Do I have to

do this forever?" feeling.

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You're not being weak or commitment

avoidant or whatever that same

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LinkedIn hustle goblin told you between

posts about their morning routine.

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Nearly everyone gets it.

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I get it, and I've been at this 25 years.

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But here's where it comes from, and this

is the bit that should truly wind you up.

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Somewhere along the way, an entire

industry of podcast gurus decided that

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the holy commandment of podcasting

is surface-level consistency.

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That means show up every week, never

miss an episode, publish on the same

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day at the same time for all eternity

until you keel over at the microphone

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like a good little content machine.

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Miss one, and you've broken trust.

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Miss two, and you're not

serious about your brand.

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It gets drummed into you from day

one, usually by someone whose entire

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business model is selling you the cure

for the anxiety they've just given you.

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Funny that

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And I watch this doing

real damage in my day job.

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Someone will rock up buzzing about

doing a podcast, they're full of the

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enthusiasm and good intentions, and

then three conversations later, the

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light's gone out of them and they mumble,

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"Maybe

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I'll just do a season, see how it goes."

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Forget that.

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That's never strategy.

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That is fear buying an RSS feed.

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What they actually mean is, "Please can

I have permission to not ever do this

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forever?" They're begging for parole

before they've even committed the crime.

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So let me get one thing

dead straight with you here.

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The podcast has never been the trap.

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Say that back to me right now.

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The podcast is not the thing with the

bars across it. The trap is a belief that

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got welded into your head by people who

profit from your guilt, that once you

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start, you're never allowed to stop.

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That any kind of content

gap makes you a failure.

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That walking away makes you a quitter.

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That is the cage, and the genuinely insane

part of this, the bit that should make

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you laugh and swear in equal measure as

it does I, is that you built it yourself

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from their marketing and then sentenced

yourself to it. The door was never locked.

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You have been sat in an open cell

doing someone else's PR for them.

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So let me give you the thing that they

will never, ever put into their online

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podcast guru course because you can't

sell a monthly subscription to it.

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You only ever commit to the next episode.

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That's it.

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That's the whole bloody contract.

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Not a podcast, not a season, not

the next five years of sodding

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Tuesdays, just the next episode.

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And the second that is

published, you're free again.

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You can walk.

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There's no finale, no teary apology in

the show description, no explanation

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owed to a single living soul.

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I want you to ponder on that for a moment

because honestly, that is the complete

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truth, and it's the exact opposite of how

my competitors have trained you to feel.

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And now here's the really

crazy bit about this.

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It is properly backwards.

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Are you ready for this?

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The freedom to walk out whenever you like

is the very thing that lets you stay.

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The people who know, I mean really

know, deep down in their gut,

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that they can quit tomorrow are

the ones still going years later.

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It's the poor sods white-knuckling

their upload schedule out of pure

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guilt who burn out and vanish

somewhere around episode nine.

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It's like anything, a run you

fancied going on is a nice afternoon.

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That same identical run ordered by

some bloke with a whistle holding

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a clipboard is a punishment.

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You're wearing the same damn trainers.

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You're running the same damn distance.

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But take the have to out, and

the want to comes right back in.

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Which brings me to seasons.

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And yeah, I think seasons for most

indie shows are one of the stupidest

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ideas going, and any guru that is

so desperate for any cash from you

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that they encourage you to do seasons

should be struck off from the

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podcast management register forever.

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They should hit some sort of creepy list.

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Some activists on TikTok should turn up on

their doorstep and hound them forevermore

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and wait for the police to arrive.

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But my reason for saying that is

not what you expect, and I want to

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be fair to you if you've done one.

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The thing is, publishing

in seasons isn't strategy.

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It's a coping mechanism dressed up

in a delivery method, in a format.

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It's a frightened person trying

to schedule a bit of freedom they

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already own outright for nothing.

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It's bolting a fire escape

onto a door that was never,

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ever locked in the first place.

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And here's the real punchline on this.

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It doesn't even work because instead

of freeing you, it just kicks the

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dread down the road to, "Oh my God, am

I actually gonna come back for season

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two?" And that bit there, that breezy

little, "Back in the autumn, guys," is

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nine times out of 10 precisely where

the show wanders off and then dies

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in a ditch, never heard from again.

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You never needed a season

finale to be allowed to stop.

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You had that the whole time.

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Nobody was gonna arrest you if

there wasn't a next episode.

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Now, I'm not gonna hand you a warm

cup of lies because that's the guru

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move, and it makes my skin crawl.

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The flip side of you can stop

any time is that you might.

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Most shows do stop in the end.

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Yours may well do, and that has to be

actually fine with you in your brain.

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Not brave-face fine, genuinely

fine, or none of this works.

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Because if the only way you can

keep going with your podcast is by

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convincing yourself that stopping

would be some sort of tragedy, then

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you're actually not permitted, mate.

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You're just scared.

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Real permission has to include the version

of you where one day you go, "Yeah.

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Do you know what?

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I've done eight years.

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I think I'm done."

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And allowing yourself a

proper, dignified full stop.

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And that's not failure.

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That's not you giving up.

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That is you imposing an ending.

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Grown-ups are allowed those.

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Let's put this into a real-world analogy.

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Imagine you're invited to a party, and

you turn up at the party, and when you

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get there, the party host says, "Oh, okay.

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You're here now for the next eight weeks."

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How would you feel at that party?

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Would you want to stay forever?

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No, you'd be ticking days off the

calendar, watching the door, and

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yearning for the day that you can walk

through it again. And that is literally

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the mentality that you're imposing

yourself in your podcast production

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when you approach it as seasons.

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Versus the person that turns up at

the party, knows they can leave at any

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time, makes a bunch of friends, has

lots of fun, and then just walks out

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thinking, "Do you know what? That was

such a great party. I can't wait to go

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back to that one again." That is it.

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That's the whole deal.

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And weirdly, it's the exact method

that lets you begin in the first place.

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Anyway, speaking of people who just

keep choosing to make the next one

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and sod the five-year plan. After

this short break, I'd love to play

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you a podcast trailer from one of

our Podmastery Community Members.

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We will be opening the

doors to the public soon.

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If you'd like to join the founding

members, go to podmastery.co/waitlist.

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There you go.

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Someone who made one episode, then

on the day decided to make another.

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That's the entire game.

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No master plan.

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There's no blood oath.

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They're not trapped.

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They're not handcuffed to their show.

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They just want to keep making it.

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So here's something for you.

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It's not a checklist, it's

not a framework, it's not a

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seven-part signature system.

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I would rather chew glass

than give that to you.

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Here is what you need to do.

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You need to stop committing to a

podcast that's too big a thing to

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fathom. It isn't real, and it's the

exact thing that's crushing your spirit.

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Commit to the next episode.

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Only ever the next one.

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And next time that you're laying in

bed at stupid o'clock and that voice

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in your head pipes up, "Oh my God, do I

have to do this forever?" stare at the

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ceiling and think to yourself, "No, I

only ever have to do exactly one more."

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That's the whole commitment.

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Can I make one more episode?

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And of course, the

answer is you bloody can.

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So go and make it.

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And when it's out, you're free again.

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Properly, genuinely free.

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And you'll wander back in behind

that microphone again, and

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you'll choose to make another.

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Not because some LinkedIn goon guilted you

into it, because you actually wanted to

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create, you wanted to share, you wanted

to spread what you're here to spread.

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Forever was never the contract.

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Just the next episode as it feels

right to you was, and that's the only

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thing you ever have to say yes to.

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I hope that's removed the proverbial boot

from the back of your neck a little bit.

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You never signed up for forever.

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Nobody did.

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You signed up for one more.

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And if you want a hand working out

what your podcast's next episode

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should actually look like, that's

a conversation I love having

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Get yourself to podmastery.co and

get your next podcasting challenge

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solved in a one-to-one with me.

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I'm Neal Veglio, the Podmaster.

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Go and make your next episode, just the

next one for now, and good luck with your

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continuing journey towards pod mastery.