What I Learned on Hiatus

This episode is to relay what I learned while I was on hiatus. It is my introductory episode that kicks off the new season which will begin on January 13th, 2021, so stay tuned.

Hello everyone, it's Elaine and I am back at the mic. When I first announced that I was going on hiatus, I was feeling like all I did was toil away and didn't have a good work/life balance. So, when I announced my decision to 'go on hiatus', I actually didn't think I'd get back into podcasting.

I thought that was it for me.

Well, I was wrong.

My last episode was published on December 20th in 2019 so, it has almost been a full year since I hung up my microphone and headphones.

During that time, I learned many things.

Let me start with what I learned regarding the podcast, which I found very interesting.

After I pressed publish on that last episode, I danced around the house, feeling free and happy that I didn't have to reach out, schedule or sit down and perform those interviews.

But even more exciting to me was I didn't have to edit the episodes. Because as I've mentioned before, it was extremely hard for me to let those "umms", false starts, sometimes-hard-to-follow sentences, and deep pauses just 'be'.

My training as an actress, performer, and recovering perfectionist reared its ugly head and made me spend hours editing each episode. I tried to make both myself and my guest sound as good as I possibly could.

But in the process, I sucked the fun out of podcasting.

I loved chatting with my guests, but I was starting to dread the interviews. Not because I didn't want to talk to them, I just didn't want to edit the episodes. And I wasn't ready to hire someone to edit them for me since the show didn’t make me any money.

So, after that last episode and my freedom dance party, I enjoyed the holidays and even enjoyed the first few months of the new year. We all know that the pandemic has been a big part of our lives, but I don't think it had anything to do with why I started to get the feeling that I should get back into interviewing other bloggers and experts.

Those niggling thoughts

By the time May rolled around. I was thinking daily about getting back into podcasting. But then I'd talk myself out of it by reminding myself how I felt the last few months of 2019.

Then it occurred to me, "What if I don't publish episodes every week?" "What if I published twice a month or even better, ONCE a month?"

I struggled with those questions because I've heard from many of my awesome listeners that though they understood why I stopped; they did miss the show. So, if I only published one episode a month, would people still want to hear the content?

I asked a few bloggers their opinion and it ended up being a resounding yes.

That made me happy.

So here I am.

I have rebranded the podcast from Dishing with Delishes to the Dishing podcast because, let's face it, I was trying to connect it to my food blog Dishes Delish and play on the word dishing as in chatting or better yet, gossiping (because I am nosy) and delishes to represent other food bloggers. But try saying that over and over and over. It's a mouthful.

Those that helped me

So, the podcast is now the Dishing Podcast. You can still get to the website through the old dishingwithdelishes url. Charles Smith from WPOpt.net has happily and efficiently redirected the site to the new url which is dishing.co.

I also had Vladi of the husband and wife team from LIL Creative Digital Agency design both the artwork for apple podcasts and the logo for the website.

The format for the show will stay the same - interviews with food bloggers and an expert or two, but I need your help. I’ll still ask the questions I’ve been asking my guests all along, but I’d also love to know what YOU want me to ask them.

Please share your questions for food bloggers and food blogging experts with me at elaine @ Dishes Delish dot com. I can’t wait to hear from you.

Blogging thoughts and ideas

Now, to talk about what I've learned about blogging.

When you first start out, everyone will tell you that you need lots of content. But I’ve learned that’s not always smartest move. What you need is quality, not quantity.

And even though that’s what I was learning as a member of Food Blogger Pro, I still decided to pump out as much content as I could because I was excited; I knew one of the recipes was bound to go viral and I’d start making money.

I do wish I hadn’t gone that route and had been more selective with what I published. But I was on learning and on a mission.

When I first started, I published 2 food posts a week. A month or two later I made one of the s