Saying No To Podcasting Jobs&Yes To Podcaster Relationships [S3E20] - a podcast by Evo Terra

You’ve developed some valuable podcasting skills that others - individuals or companies - might be willing to pay for. And they might as well pay you, right? 

But that’s not the only way to work. You can, if you choose, invest in an opportunity to work with someone on their podcast. 

Without fail, I triage every inbound business contact through this binary lens. Contrary to what self-described life coaches or business gurus will tell you, this isn’t a pass/fail decision flow. I’m quite happy to take purely business transactions and provide quality podcasting services to my happy clients in exchange for their money. I’m equally as happy to provide similar (if not the same) services as an investment toward an opportunity that might develop in the future.

With the gift of hindsight, I can confidently say that out of all the clients I’ve lost or fired, none have been a surprise. I knew at the very beginning of the relationship that I probably shouldn't take the job. Sometimes you take jobs you can do but don’t really want to do. There’s no shame in that. So don’t beat your self up when the money starts looking less attractive. Fire them (when you can) and move on.

For every “well that worked out nice!” story I have, there are two or three that never panned out. That’s why the biggest rule in investment (or gambling) is to never gamble (or invest) more money than you can afford to lose. I don’t lament the hours lost. Sunk costs are just that. Focus on what you learned from the deal that didn’t pan out and move on.

On occasion, truly uncertain opportunities present themselves. Maybe the client is way too big for you, but they still want to talk. Maybe you can’t figure out the podcasting angle, but they’re terribly excited about an audience you’ve never considered and know nothing about. Or maybe you’re invited to a lunch meeting (if we ever have lunch meetings again) because someone you respect wants you to meet with someone else they respect sight-unseen.

I’m quite good at sizing up opportunities. But I know the world beyond my bubble of influence is filled with opportunities I can’t see. When a window beyond my immediate world opens, I have to look through it. Don’t you?

I might specialize in podcasting, but I’m a generalist, with a broad set of skills that enable me to plug into almost any podcasting project at any stage. However, there are certain aspects of the podcasting process I can do, but really don’t want to do.

For example, I can confidently state that social media management for podcasts, while something I can do,  is something I don’t ever want to do.

In contrast, there are lots of podcasting services I’m offering to clients that I don’t want to do forever, like post-production work. Yes, my firm obviously provides post-production work as part of our services, we no longer offer post-production as an ala carte service. 

But fair warning: Be prepared to be very wrong about those convictions. When I got into podcasting-as-my-business in 2016, podcast advertising was squarely in my Don't Ever Want To Do category. How naive of me. Fast forward to today, and my firm is handling a modest-but=growing book of business managing podcast advertising, either buying ads or selling them. As it turns out, it’s fun, engaging, and meaningful work that we’re happy to provide.

Though it’s been a struggle these last few months, I almost always bet on the future. And even if I don’t, I'm almost always thinking about the future. If that means I don't get paid to work on a really cool project I feel has the opportunity to become something I want to be involved with, I'm going to take that bet. 

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