June 15, 2026 • 6 mins
Hitting the point where your podcast feels like a burden instead of fun can sneak up on even the most consistent creators. In this episode, we'll share tips for taking a real break without losing listener trust to avoid drifting into podfade.
If you have questions about taking a break from your podcast, reach out to us on the Podcaster Success team by emailing support@buzzsprout.com
Have a topic or question we should address on a future episode? Text us or email the Buzzsprout Podcaster Success Team at support@buzzsprout.com.
Keep podcasting!
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Episode Transcript
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Cara Pacetti (00:00):
Welcome to Podcasting Q&A, brought to you
by the people at BuzzSprout.
I'm your host, Cara Pacetti,and I'm bringing you the best
tips and strategies to keep youpodcasting with confidence.
Last week we focused on ways tokeep podcasting during a busy
season of life.
And that got me thinking (00:20):
while that's super helpful for
someone who's excited and eagerto continue pouring into their
podcast, it's not super helpfulfor someone who has been at this
for a long time and is justready to take a break.
Doubling the work ahead of timejust to afford a break doesn't
sound productive.
It actually sounds exhausting.
(00:41):
And I don't want your podcastto feel exhausting.
I want to help.
It's common for us as creatorsto feel an increased pressure to
continuously offer new content.
The good news is that there areeffective and creative ways to
take the break you need.
And I believe your listenerswill be a lot more understanding
than you think.
If you've been podcasting for along time and you're finding
(01:03):
that producing your podcastyear-round tends to push you
towards pod fade, try breakingup your podcast into seasons.
First, you'll need to determinehow long you want each season
to be.
So this could be based on thenumber of episodes you want to
publish or a time frame based onweeks or months that you want
to devote to your podcast beforetaking a break.
(01:25):
You want to make sure you areplanning ahead and being
intentional about breaking upyour podcast.
So you can make a schedulethat'll allow you to record and
produce new content for 20 weeksand then go ahead and take six
weeks off.
Once your six weeks arecompleted, your listeners will
know that when you return, theycan expect brand new episodes
(01:46):
over the course of the next 20weeks.
During the six weeks thatyou're not producing new
content, you can spend that timedisconnecting and maybe that
disconnect will breed someinspiration for when you return.
When you produce your podcastin a way that is super
sustainable, you are not theonly one that benefits here.
So do your listeners.
The quality of your contentyou're able to put out for your
(02:06):
listeners will not dwindlebecause you're knocking on the
door of PodFade.
So if you've made the decisionthat it's time for a break and
you're ready to go ahead andmake that leap, I want you to
decide ahead of time when yourreturn date will be.
You know how it goes.
We stop doing somethingconsistently for whatever
reason.
And when it comes time to jumpback in, it becomes really easy
(02:28):
to push it off.
Kind of like that familiarsnooze button on your alarm
clock.
It keeps ringing, you know youneed to get after it, but it's
just easy to delay andprocrastinate jumping back in.
So I want you to really thinkabout how much time would be
beneficial and then commit tothat return date.
Decide before you ever stopproduction when you're coming
(02:50):
back and then stick to it.
Another benefit of deciding thedate ahead of time before
actually going on break is thatyou can plan while you're still
in work mode.
So if you wait until you aredisconnected and you're taking a
break from your podcast, youcould really overthink your
return.
Choosing a date and even comingup with a tentative plan of
action for when you return canreally help when motivation just
(03:14):
isn't there.
So once you've decided on adate, don't just ghost your
listeners.
Don't just disappear.
Let them know what your plan isand when you'll be gone.
And you can even share whyyou're doing it.
When you publicly communicateyour return date with your
listeners, you're now being heldaccountable.
You could also use some dynamiccontent to add a pre or post
(03:35):
role to your existing episodes.
And you can let your listenersknow that you're on a break and
that the content that they'rehearing might be a little
different than what they wouldnormally expect, but that you
have handpicked this for themwhile you take some time away.
Then when you return, you caneasily remove that content from
your episodes.
Since this might be somewhat ofan urgent break and you don't
(03:58):
have the time to pre-record allof those episodes that you want
to release during your timeaway, this is a perfect
opportunity to highlight someother podcasts in your niche.
I'm taking this idea fromJordan's playbook, but I
remember her mentioning thatwhen she needs to pause her
podcasts, she will actually vetsome podcasts in her niche
through social media and herpodcast communities and ask if
(04:22):
they wouldn't mind featuringtheir episodes on her show while
she's taking a break.
You can even spin this as agreat promotional opportunity
for these podcasters.
Honestly, what podcaster wouldsay no to that?
When another podcaster sendsyou their audio file, you will
want to make sure that you areadding a short introduction to
the episode so your listenersare not caught off guard by
(04:44):
hearing a new voice on theirfavorite podcast.
You can let them know whyyou've handpicked this episode
for your audience, why it'sspecial to you, And then you can
even add their podcastinformation into the
descriptions for your listeners.
I know that friends of minehave had great experiences with
(05:05):
this and they've even discoverednew podcasts they love when a
podcaster switches episodes intheir time away.
This is also a greatopportunity to make a connection
in your niche and a possiblenew friend.
Who knows?
Maybe next time they're readyto take a break, they will ask
you for one of your episodes andhopefully get you some brand
new followers as well.
(05:25):
I do want to share a pro tipfor anybody who is hosted on
BuzzSprout.
If you know you're going on abreak and you want to pause your
podcast, but you still want theepisodes to be live and
available for your listeners, goahead and move your podcast to
our archive plan.
The archive plan doesn't giveyou a monthly upload allowance,
but it will allow you to pay forhosting and keep those episodes
(05:49):
live and available for yourlisteners.
If you have a specific questionabout pausing your podcast,
share it with us by clicking thesend us fan mail link in the
show notes.
I'd love to feature yourquestion on our next Podcasting
Q&A episode.
You can also reach out to us onthe Podcaster Success Team
anytime by emailing support atbuzzsprout.com.
(06:09):
I hope these tips are helpfuland I hope you take the time
away so that you can getre-inspired and re energized to
keep podcasting.
Be sure to join us every Mondayto kickstart your week.
Thank you so much forlistening.
And of course, keep podcasting.
Welcome to Podcasting Q&A, brought to you
by the people at BuzzSprout.
I'm your host, Cara Pacetti,and I'm bringing you the best
tips and strategies to keep youpodcasting with confidence.
Last week we focused on ways tokeep podcasting during a busy
season of life.
And that got me thinking (00:20):
while that's super helpful for
someone who's excited and eagerto continue pouring into their
podcast, it's not super helpfulfor someone who has been at this
for a long time and is justready to take a break.
Doubling the work ahead of timejust to afford a break doesn't
sound productive.
It actually sounds exhausting.
(00:41):
And I don't want your podcastto feel exhausting.
I want to help.
It's common for us as creatorsto feel an increased pressure to
continuously offer new content.
The good news is that there areeffective and creative ways to
take the break you need.
And I believe your listenerswill be a lot more understanding
than you think.
If you've been podcasting for along time and you're finding
(01:03):
that producing your podcastyear-round tends to push you
towards pod fade, try breakingup your podcast into seasons.
First, you'll need to determinehow long you want each season
to be.
So this could be based on thenumber of episodes you want to
publish or a time frame based onweeks or months that you want
to devote to your podcast beforetaking a break.
(01:25):
You want to make sure you areplanning ahead and being
intentional about breaking upyour podcast.
So you can make a schedulethat'll allow you to record and
produce new content for 20 weeksand then go ahead and take six
weeks off.
Once your six weeks arecompleted, your listeners will
know that when you return, theycan expect brand new episodes
(01:46):
over the course of the next 20weeks.
During the six weeks thatyou're not producing new
content, you can spend that timedisconnecting and maybe that
disconnect will breed someinspiration for when you return.
When you produce your podcastin a way that is super
sustainable, you are not theonly one that benefits here.
So do your listeners.
The quality of your contentyou're able to put out for your
(02:06):
listeners will not dwindlebecause you're knocking on the
door of PodFade.
So if you've made the decisionthat it's time for a break and
you're ready to go ahead andmake that leap, I want you to
decide ahead of time when yourreturn date will be.
You know how it goes.
We stop doing somethingconsistently for whatever
reason.
And when it comes time to jumpback in, it becomes really easy
(02:28):
to push it off.
Kind of like that familiarsnooze button on your alarm
clock.
It keeps ringing, you know youneed to get after it, but it's
just easy to delay andprocrastinate jumping back in.
So I want you to really thinkabout how much time would be
beneficial and then commit tothat return date.
Decide before you ever stopproduction when you're coming
(02:50):
back and then stick to it.
Another benefit of deciding thedate ahead of time before
actually going on break is thatyou can plan while you're still
in work mode.
So if you wait until you aredisconnected and you're taking a
break from your podcast, youcould really overthink your
return.
Choosing a date and even comingup with a tentative plan of
action for when you return canreally help when motivation just
(03:14):
isn't there.
So once you've decided on adate, don't just ghost your
listeners.
Don't just disappear.
Let them know what your plan isand when you'll be gone.
And you can even share whyyou're doing it.
When you publicly communicateyour return date with your
listeners, you're now being heldaccountable.
You could also use some dynamiccontent to add a pre or post
(03:35):
role to your existing episodes.
And you can let your listenersknow that you're on a break and
that the content that they'rehearing might be a little
different than what they wouldnormally expect, but that you
have handpicked this for themwhile you take some time away.
Then when you return, you caneasily remove that content from
your episodes.
Since this might be somewhat ofan urgent break and you don't
(03:58):
have the time to pre-record allof those episodes that you want
to release during your timeaway, this is a perfect
opportunity to highlight someother podcasts in your niche.
I'm taking this idea fromJordan's playbook, but I
remember her mentioning thatwhen she needs to pause her
podcasts, she will actually vetsome podcasts in her niche
through social media and herpodcast communities and ask if
(04:22):
they wouldn't mind featuringtheir episodes on her show while
she's taking a break.
You can even spin this as agreat promotional opportunity
for these podcasters.
Honestly, what podcaster wouldsay no to that?
When another podcaster sendsyou their audio file, you will
want to make sure that you areadding a short introduction to
the episode so your listenersare not caught off guard by
(04:44):
hearing a new voice on theirfavorite podcast.
You can let them know whyyou've handpicked this episode
for your audience, why it'sspecial to you, And then you can
even add their podcastinformation into the
descriptions for your listeners.
I know that friends of minehave had great experiences with
(05:05):
this and they've even discoverednew podcasts they love when a
podcaster switches episodes intheir time away.
This is also a greatopportunity to make a connection
in your niche and a possiblenew friend.
Who knows?
Maybe next time they're readyto take a break, they will ask
you for one of your episodes andhopefully get you some brand
new followers as well.
(05:25):
I do want to share a pro tipfor anybody who is hosted on
BuzzSprout.
If you know you're going on abreak and you want to pause your
podcast, but you still want theepisodes to be live and
available for your listeners, goahead and move your podcast to
our archive plan.
The archive plan doesn't giveyou a monthly upload allowance,
but it will allow you to pay forhosting and keep those episodes
(05:49):
live and available for yourlisteners.
If you have a specific questionabout pausing your podcast,
share it with us by clicking thesend us fan mail link in the
show notes.
I'd love to feature yourquestion on our next Podcasting
Q&A episode.
You can also reach out to us onthe Podcaster Success Team
anytime by emailing support atbuzzsprout.com.
(06:09):
I hope these tips are helpfuland I hope you take the time
away so that you can getre-inspired and re energized to
keep podcasting.
Be sure to join us every Mondayto kickstart your week.
Thank you so much forlistening.
And of course, keep podcasting.
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