How do you know when a body of work is complete? When should a long-running project come to an end? After asking various forms of this question so many times to guests on the Nerd Journey Podcast, this is the story of how I answered the question for myself.
A Friendship that Transcends Podcasting
It’s been just over 8 years since John White sent me the message that said, “we should start a podcast.” I had no idea what saying yes to that suggestion would mean at the time or what I could contribute to a podcast. Creating and running Nerd Journey is something we did to help others with their careers in much the same way we had received help with our own. It taught us to lead discussions, curate career stories, sell the value of being a guest on our show, edit audio content, and ship our work. We started the show together, launched it in July 2018, and just recently, we recorded the final episode. Independent of the show, John remains one of my best friends on the planet.
A Constant through Life’s Storms
Life has changed in many ways over these last 8 years, but one thing has remained constant: the podcast. It was the work we consistently needed to do to release each Tuesday. The routine for me began with making show notes and participating in discussions, and it later extended to editing, producing, guest recruitment, and focusing on improving the overall show’s quality. There was never a question about how I would spend my extra time.
My healthy obsession was easy to maintain through changes like losing parents and grandparents, changes at work through an acquisition, and a kid who keeps growing up. It was a safe haven from the noise, stress, and a place where my mind could rest.
A Brittle System Revealed
Producing a weekly podcast takes time. Guest recruitment and conducting interviews is part of the equation, but then there’s editing, show notes, recording intro and outro segments, and all the remaining polish needed for a fully released episode. The production team was just the two of us, and starting around episode 113, it was mostly me doing the production. But I was happy to do it because I wanted to keep the show going.
Over the past year or so, my work and family obligations increased. There’s been more travel required, and there’s been a need for more homework help on the home front. That left less time for producing the show than in previous years. It wasn’t noticeable at first, but the time needed for other things slowly increased.
Part of being obsessed with podcasting is trying to do it well and produce a quality episode each week. I used tools that would remove background noise and ensure consistent audio levels for everyone speaking in an episode. While audio enhancement tools make the sound a lot better, they can often times introduce some audio quirks. These would show themselves in the form of unpleasant noises or sounds at the end of words. I tinkered with the knobs endlessly to try and prevent these audio quirks in post-processing. I made adjustments on the front-end by making sure we recorded with a good setup. Unfortunately, nothing seemed to make it better or make the quirks less prominent. Taking the mindset of a craftsman, my only option to ship a quality product was to take the extra time to remove those unpleasant sounds.
As my time window to produce the show each week began to shrink, the editing process started taking longer. I couldn’t seem to get ahead of the upcoming Tuesday’s release in the production process. The next thing you know I’m at or above 100% capacity and getting frustrated that the work isn’t finished when I think it should be. Much like in manufacturing, I was left with no sprint capacity.
In fact, when I took a family vacation in summer 2025, John recorded multiple solo episodes so we wouldn’t miss multiple weeks of releases. I didn’t have the extra capacity this time to work on the podcast during my vacation like I have in the past.
When Outside Perspectives Come to You
In August 2025, I attended Podcast Movement for the first time. I paid my own way and took time off work to go. It was the first time I had gone to a conference for myself in a long time, and I knew whatever I learned at the conference would serve a dual purpose in making me a better podcaster and making me better at my day job as a sales engineer. One of the most common questions you get at a podcast conference is “what goals do you have for your show?” I didn’t really know how to answer this question, and I remember a specific conversation with podcast industry veteran Michael Osborne about having multiple goals for a show. I wanted to grow the audience, continue producing quality content for current listeners, continue to highlight unique perspectives…but I realized continuing to do the show was also for me. I was getting tremendous value from the conversations with guests. Their advice was a gift I could hear multiple times throughout the editing and production process and even once the episode was released if I wanted.
A couple of months after the conference my work obligations once again shifted. In a conversation with my wife about juggling those obligations and finding time to podcast, she told me that for many months when I talked about the podcast, it sounded more like an obligation than a joy. My words were usually something like, “I have to get this edit finished.” I didn’t realize it had become a stressor. At first, I didn’t want to believe it, but I wasn’t going to dismiss her feedback either. She was merely pointing out something that I couldn’t see.
Around this same time I received similar feedback from a mentor. I was in high stress mode a lot of the time. Most Monday nights I was up really late putting the finishing touches on the release for the next day. I was exchanging the value I received from the show for less sleep and exercise. That’s not a great combination.
I also asked my daughter around this time if she thought I was stressed about the podcast. She said, “yes, but I think you’re stressed because you care so much.” And there’s the label for what can be both a gift and a curse – caring.
The Decision to Sunset
At this point I had feedback from 3 different trusted sources all echoing the same message. It was time to start processing.
A Thought Exercise and an Experiment
My mentor suggested a thought exercise (which was also echoed by my wife). He suggested making a list of all the things I could be doing if I wasn’t doing the podcast. I was surprised at just how long the list was when I made it. He thought making the list would help me decide what to do next.
In addition to making the list, I tried to think about what I could change that would allow me to keep podcasting. We could consider releasing less frequently, using AI for show notes (which wouldn’t help the long editing process and wasn’t something I wanted to do anyway), hire production help (nope), take an indefinite break, or end the show.
John and I made the decision to move the releases to every 2 weeks instead of weekly to lower the stress and pressure. It definitely helped, but I found that I couldn’t even hit the 2 week timeline consistently.
The Gift of Advice
During this same time, I needed advice. This is when I turned to our catalog of episodes. Seth Godin said in The Practice that the work you’ve done in the past is a gift to your future self. I realized just how true that is.
I immediately sought to listen back to our discussion with Amy Lewis about the decision to end The Geek Whisperers with intention. Maybe reminding myself why they ended the show would provide insight on what to do. Episode 302 talked about their decision to end the show while it was still good so that it didn’t just fade away. They wanted to build a body of work they could be proud of, and they walked away proud. Amy also talked about how we have to put something down to pick something else up and highlighted the courage required to make that decision. Maybe it was time to be brave.
I also listened back to Episode 127 – Countdown to Burnout with Tom Hollingsworth (3/3). There’s a part where Tom talks about making sure we don’t ignore it when people tell us we need to slow down / that we are redlining from a health perspective. Multiple people were saying it to me, and I needed to take action.
I still had the final episode of the Datanauts podcast with Ethan Banks and Chris Wahl downloaded on my phone. In it they talked about their own reasons for bringing their show to an end. Creating a farewell episode was a courtesy and a thank you to all the listeners who had invested time in them. And it gave me some ideas we could use to craft our own farewell if that was the direction we chose.
Finishing Strong
John and I had another conversation and ultimately came to the conclusion to finish strong. We would release the remainder of the recorded interviews with guests and then end it the way we began – just the same 2 nerds, this time completing their body of work’s journey. If you would like to listen, you can find a link to the final episode of Nerd Journey at the bottom of this post.
After we made the decision to end the show, I felt a mix of relief, gratitude, and deep grief. I was relieved to know the pressure was off. We could take our time with the last few episodes and treat them with the same care as those that came before. We would finish the generous act of shipping our work until the very last episode was released. We would keep our promise to listeners.
Endings can be sad, and this one certainly is. In some ways, I feel a little lost. There won’t be another podcast to produce, but there also won’t be a crippling feeling of stress. We didn’t lose our love for podcasting as a medium or our love for the show’s mission. We ran out of capacity to generate the quality of work in podcast form that would support the mission. It was the right decision based on both mine and John’s life circumstances. I am truly grateful for John’s friendship and support and for everyone who took the time to listen or be a guest on the show. And I am grateful for what I’ve learned by contributing to this body of work.
Listen to the final episode of the Nerd Journey Podcast here – An Intentional Ending: Completing the Journey for This Body of Work.
Even though the podcast is now complete, it was a vehicle that helped me build many skills that I plan to highlight in a future post.
Special shout out to former guest Kelly Schroeder for reading and providing feedback on this post before it went live!