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This session features Alex Barker, host of the Leadership Dojo podcast. We first met on 48Days.net (I would highly recommend this great community). A few months ago, Alex made a decision to stop the podcast, despite some of the successes it was achieving. We’ll dive in a little deeper into his story and what we can learn from it.

When to quit a creative project with Alex Barker (1-20)

Begin with the end in mind.

– Steven Covey (The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People)

After finishing school to become a pharmacist, Alex began to decide if he really wanted to be a pharmacist the rest of his life. Learning about podcasts and listening to them for 5-6 months, he decided that he wanted to start one himself. Using Pat Flynn’s course of starting a podcast, he began preparing for the podcast. He also joined John Lee Dumas’ Podcaster’s Paradise.

What were your expectations when you launched the podcast?

  • Alex didn’t have a plan or goals, or even what to expect.
  • If you choose a niche about something you don’t know a lot about, it’s very hard for you to create products and services for a very  eager audience and for them to buy from you.
  • He desired to make money from coaching and  mastermind groups.

Did your expectations change along the way? Did your expectations just not work out?

  • After 5 months, Alex noticed that it became a chore for him to do the podcast. The work he was putting in was exceeding the return he was expecting.
  • You really need to look at your expectations and what you really need to do to get there.

Exit strategy

If you’re about to launch something, you need to have an exit strategy.

When will you evaluate your journey and be willing to pivot. Be specific and set a deadline.

The birth of Alex’s second daughter caused him to go through another evaluation.

Know your why

Alex’s why is tied to his family, and he was spending so much time away from them.

The future

Alex’s idea was to have someone to take over, but he is just putting it on the back burner. He may revisit later.

He has started a new site, Pharmacy School HQ. He is taking the things he learned from launching a website and building a platform and meshing it with his training as a pharmacist.

You can’t keep doing something that is not meeting your expectations or that the passion isn’t there like it used to be.

Know your expectations.