Addressing Creator Burnout

You're tuned in to Steve Megatron on Altered

Geek. So without further ado, we're going to

get into that. So on Twitter last week, I commented

more or less that I posted, does anyone ever

feel like stopping doing something they enjoy

just because, or losing interest completely,

or not wanting to actually hit the record button?

Just tired lately, as much as I want to do it

all, just feeling tired. And I had a few comments

on it. Scanner51 says, no problem. I'll send

an email anyway when I mention that I'm not doing

an episode, which is awesome. And Kaleo2000 says,

just take a break. Probably just burned out.

You guys' network produces a ton of content.

Take a break and come back to it later. No need

to do it if you're not enjoying it anymore. And

yeah, it can wear you down all by itself, which

is true But Yeah, I I just I was having one of

those moments last week and it just kind of beat

me down and I just didn't really want to Do any

of it I just needed last week to just kind of

veg and despite it all I think I veged at not

saying that I won't have episodes where they're

missing periodically. But I don't think I'm going

to keep to such a strict schedule in the future

at any of the shows. I'm going to try and do

them predominantly every week, if possible. But

if it doesn't happen, it doesn't happen. And

I'm not going to try and do that as strict anymore.

So, some of the articles that I get across were

pertaining to things that happened a few months

ago. Like in beginning of June, it says YouTube's

top creators are burning out and breaking down

en masse. It says, this is all I've ever wanted.

Why am I so unhappy? And they're talking about

YouTubers that had 100 million subscribers or

creators with more than a million subscribers

and more than 30 million subscribers. That they

just turn on their camera to talk to their viewers

about the fear of an impending breakdown and

decision to take a break from the services. And

it's kind of bringing in this new serious thing

of mental burnout that everybody's getting lately,

you know, basically coming forward with these

mental health issues of performing to whether

it's a constant change in platform algorithms

like YouTube, unhealthy obsessions with remaining

relevant in a rapidly growing field, which I

can relate. And social media pressures are making

it almost impossible for top creators to continue

creating at the pace both the platform and the

audience want And that can have a detrimental

effect on all of them Which I totally get but

if your audience is not in it for your you know

for your content and not understanding of your

mental capacity to need for a break you know

just basically because of the anxiety and depression

of just having to go go go go go go go which

to be honest to to sit there and put yourselves

out I mean think about it this way yes the TV

hosts and radio hosts pretty consistently are

on television but if they need to they take a

take a break or you know I mean most of them

have that one time that they produce content

and they're not having to necessarily edit or

do all of their own marketing or anything else

I mean they're they're pretty much on air and

they do their their bit and then you know I'm

not saying it's not easy because it's not I've

seen some of the insides of a newsroom or of

a broadcast studio and you know some of them

do have to do all of the above but I think it's

challenging when you're not doing it more so

I mean you're doing it as a job but you're doing

it as an entertainment thing and thing that you

enjoy so I think that that can kind of screw

with you plus the fact that YouTube's constantly

doing their thing which I'm thankful I never

got into YouTube in its full capacity I understand

it's still relevant but I honestly am glad I

got into podcasting it's so much easier and it's

it's easier to edit and backlog multiple episodes,

and I've done this in the past. I'll record two,

three, four, five episodes of a show, schedule

them all ahead of time, and I'll still record

other episodes during that time, so I have multiple

shows coming out, but it doesn't necessarily

mean I have to focus on one particular piece

of content such as this. But one of the other

things that they said about the backlash to YouTubers

and Twitch streamers who publicly take time away

from the spotlight shows you know in their comment

section about you know mental health and creators

and a few of the comments that they they mentioned

on polygon about it is if it's as fun as if it's

as if their fun hobby that they turn into a career

came all with the trappings of having a career

and it kind of does I mean To be honest, there's

very little money made on the Geekcast Radio

side. Yeah, we get a little bit in the advertising,

but it mostly just goes right back into the hosting

of the website and the domain and any needed

software for the .com. I'm still working on a

new update for the website. It's not done because

I was having burnout and I didn't want to um

put up something that wasn't properly ready did

i want to hit the august deadline yes i severely

wanted to hit this deadline with the 10 years

of attf and six years of ag um but it just didn't

make sense to try and shove it out there when

it's not done i i'm having a couple technical

issues and i have a few um pages i have to renovate

And I'm also not sure on the speed issues, because

I was having a few couple speed issues and things

that weren't displaying properly, and I'm still

having the issue. I've cleared up a few of them,

but being that I'm the graphic designer, the

developer, and the website editor all wrapped

into one, trying to make these changes is not

easy on your own. And I don't have the money

to sit there and throw at somebody and say, here,

fix it. So that's kind of why the website's not

out yet. I put together, I think within a two

-month span from April until June, being in June

anyway, I was just ramping up for the new site,

just building, building, building, building,

re -importing, re -importing, re -importing,

reorganizing, redesigning. There's a number of

sections that are not... Up -to -date it's gonna

have the entire back catalogue of geek cast radio

content including the up -to -date stuff so there's

a lot of work that had to go into that and The

the new show profile pages are gonna be awesome

when when you see them And maybe if I get enough

shares on this episode or enough comments on

it. I might Publish a screenshot of what it's

gonna look like and kind of get user feedback

or if there's somebody that would like to get

feedback or give feedback I mean they can send

it to feedback at altergeek .com and I will send

them a screenshot of it or let them kind of peruse

the demo of the new site and kind of keep it

hush hush for those that are exclusive listeners

of the show and try things out. There's a number

of things I want to do with it but anyways back

to the the pressures of the spotlight, as it

were. It just created this kind of rigorous pace

of people just creating and obsessing over just

keeping in the spotlight and keeping relevant

when everything constantly is in flux. And yeah,

there's things with that, but there's not just

even YouTube anymore. Looking at it, they're

saying that millennials are getting burned out

and quitting lucrative jobs. People that are

publicists or people that are doing other things,

they don't want to be tied down or they want

to have more time, more freedom to do what they'd

like and spend life not just behind a cubicle

or a desk. And I think that that's kind of on

point, like, and I think that something that

I took for granted when I worked from home was

the fact that I was, now mind you, when I worked

at the car lot, I did enjoy it, it wasn't terrible,

like, every job, everybody's like, oh, it was

terrible, you know, and some of them are to some

degree, some aspects of it, but as a whole, I

didn't hate it, it was... Did I want out? Yes.

Did I want in media? Extremely When I finally

got in media and I was working for the previous

company where I telecommuted and worked from

home remotely It was nice and I I was able to

To begin with I obsessed over it and I started

giving myself burnout and mental mental breakdowns

periodically with it because the schedule was

hectic and then once I got to be the head of

uh distribution for radio and podcasts I I was

taking uh like 20 minutes to go sit and eat with

my family for lunch I was uh the the beautiful

part about it was I didn't have a travel time

I didn't have to drive I didn't have to get in

my car I didn't have the gas expense or the you

know the breakdown of my car the wear and tear

of it all I didn't have The stress of traffic

or weather or anything else. I could just eat

my breakfast Walk downstairs after hanging out

with the kids for half an hour Go to work and

it was great And then you'd lose that and you

realize what you had so it's been it's been kind

of a whirlwind Since that took place kind of

getting reacquainted with the podcast, getting

reacquainted with my social media, with doing

graphics, doing various things that I like to

get back to doing and finishing. And it's tough

when you have to go back. And so now I'm back

to the 20 minute drives. I am back to doing multiple

things that I may or may not like there's certain

aspects of my current position that I am not

qualified for but I've been able to figure it

out and so that that's kind of something that

I've learned along the way and then there's the

other things that I am and I'm trying to make

changes and trying to help things along and it's

just It's it's different and I'm having to readjust

to the fact I'm not in home anymore And I'm not

able to see my family or eat lunch with them

during the day, which is a bit difficult to Get

used to and and the fact again that I have to

drive and it's gonna suck when it comes to winter

So that's that's kind of why I've been a little

bit burned out too. I mean it's It's it's adjusting

But they're also saying in this article that

You know 50 -hour work weeks With a measly like

10 days of vacation every year people just don't

go for it anymore You know nothing wrong with

the jobs, you know good companies good money,

you know, and and some people are just you know

Why do I want to spend my year sitting at a desk

or you know? We're waiting for retirement at

67 and they keep bumping me up who knows what

the age will be for me 70s and you know so they

just you know people are leaving because of that

they want to experience the world they want to

experience life and You know I kind of get it

It's In summer or happy with what you're doing

like myself. I would love to work in media again

I actually know of many stations that are local

to me to be able to edit video or audio or publish

this content to the website or do some semblance

of what I do for Geekcast Radio and what I did

in my previous job would just be exactly what

I want. And I would be okay with sitting behind

a desk or a computer for that. But I guess it

kind of depends on what your definition of being

okay with and working with and where you get

burned out and where you don't get burned out.

I find it entertaining to do that, to edit, to

do that stuff, to record. But sitting here and

having, I guess the rush of it of you planning

your own content consistently and... editing

it, and publishing it, and marketing it, and

distributing it, and writing up on the various

posts on the websites, having it go to social

media, having, you know, so on and so forth.

It just gets to be a lot. So I can definitely

see that that's where you stress yourself out,

overwork yourself for. Sometimes money, sometimes

not. And being that, like I said, I don't get

paid for this, basically it's, you know, very

labor of love intensive and so it's one of those

things that it's easy to get burnt out on and

yet I can't yank myself away from it. At least

not this show. I get burned out on all things

transformers and future imperfect easier than

this I got burned out a number of podcasts I

mean I started internet pathfinder at the beginning

of the year did four episodes or three episodes

and it tanked Because I just I didn't want to

deal with it Started another podcast this year

it I went four episodes stopped Did the legends

of the brave and the bold did a couple episodes

stopped? I mean it's And I may reinvent the show

when it hits up as the 300 to be honest Because

some of my interests have changed and I don't

quite know what I'm gonna go from there I may

add in segments again that are real short to

cover certain things or maybe like, you know

top five lists before something or You know dead

joke of the day or something or just I don't

know something cheesy or maybe even parts of

my screenplay or maybe something completely original.

I have no idea. I know that when I get Dodd on

again, I plan to do, he was sick last week, but

I plan to do that craft a movie thing that we

mentioned in the last one that he was in, which

I think will be really fun to kind of just spur

the moment, just do something like that. and

it gives you the genre, all the information that

you'll need to build something out. So I think

that it'll be a lot of fun. But yeah, I think

that it might about take us where we need to

go on this. There's also the thing of why it

might be time to quit your podcast, which I've

done before. on a variety of podcasts, specifically

All Things Transformers have killed it three

times and still it's made it to ten years. Doesn't

have as many episodes as I'd like in ten years,

but still, it's fine. It says, so why quit your

podcast? And some of the popular reasons why

you may be struggling with your show, it says

you're not enjoying it. Podcasting is the sort

of medium you can fake it, at least not for very

long. Audio is intimate, and listeners can quickly

pick up on a podcaster's lack of passion or enthusiasm

for a subject. Says if you're not enjoying talking

about something, nobody's going to enjoy it,

which is true. And if you feel like you've reached

this stage, it's likely your numbers and engagement

will be on the way down, and a change of direction

is definitely required. And like I said, I think

that's why episode 300, I'm going to change the

focus of the show. So one, I can keep the name,

and two, I can reinvent it. And it says that

typically a show in one niche might run for 500

episodes and have enough ideas in the bank to

see them through to the thousand mark. And another

show may have run a great run at 50 episodes,

and then at a loss of what they can cover. And

I'm going to be listening to some new podcasts

in the meantime to get some ideas on what to

do. Or some some segments that I enjoy from other

shows and adapting the process because I think

that podcasting needs to be an evolution and

there hasn't been a lot of that on some of the

geek cast radio programs and I think that that's

why a lot of times things tend to falter and

So it's it's definitely one of those things I've

been thinking about of rebranding redoing the

show I don't want to necessarily kill it and

it has nothing to do with the episode count.

It has more so to do with the fact I love the

name. So it's just imagining something new that

I want to do with it without taking too much

away from it. So I might start talking more about

some of the parent issues and some of the dad

things that kind of come up now that I'm a parent

and... things that that I notice in like maybe

the work world or job market or people that are

experiencing job displacement or aka layoff since

I've recently been in that boat but let me know

what you guys think what you want to hear about

what what resonates with you on a lot of podcasts

or specifically something I mentioned on this

one And until next time, get altered, get geeky

with the Altered Geeks.