835 - I Forgot About My Identity as a Writer

For most of the past 20 years, I have thought of myself first and foremost as a podcaster when it comes to content creation.

Recently, I was working on a project that caused me to go back through hundreds of blog posts I wrote between 2004 and 2014. I converted the entire archive into HTML, Markdown and even an EPUB that I can now read on my Kindle.

As I started looking through all of that old writing, I realized something I had almost forgotten.

Before I was a podcaster, I was a writer.

In fact, before I recorded my first podcast episode in December 2005, I had already spent years writing online. At one point, I was even working toward becoming a published author.

Podcasting changed everything for me because it allowed me to communicate ideas in a fraction of the time it took me to write and polish a long-form article. Eventually, audio became my primary creative medium and I mostly left long-form writing behind.

Today, the economics of writing have changed for me.

With the tools I now have available, especially the way I use ChatGPT as part of my creative process, I can take an idea that might once have required six or eight hours of writing and editing and turn it into something I'm proud to publish in one or two hours.

At the same time, I recognize that my written content currently has the potential to reach significantly more people through my email list, LinkedIn, Facebook and Substack than I'm reaching through my audio podcasts alone.

All of this contributed to my recent decision to step away from my commitment to producing The Cliff Ravenscraft Show and Podcast Answer Man every single week.

I'm returning to what I call "inspired content only."

My commitment is simple. There will be at least one new episode of each show every calendar month. Beyond that, I may publish two episodes, five episodes or considerably more whenever there is something I genuinely feel inspired to share.