See you soon

[00:00:00] Hey everyone, it's Nikki Young and I'm here with a bit of an update on the Serial Napper podcast I don't have a script here. So I'm just sort of free-flowing For the last four years I have tried to put out an episode

[00:00:20] You know approximately every five days and it's been a lot of work, but it's been a lot of fun It's been a passion project of mine and I've really enjoyed it

[00:00:31] especially the people that I've had the opportunity to meet over the years, especially you my listeners and getting to connect with you and chat with you and really just make some of the best friends that I could have found. With that said

[00:00:46] I will be going on a hiatus over the summer. I don't know how long this hiatus is gonna last I don't know how I'm going to feel after the summer. I want to be completely honest with you about why this is happening Without complaining because I'm so grateful

[00:01:06] for everything The first reason for this hiatus is just because I am going through one of the most difficult points of my life I'm having to handle much more than one person can really handle and I just need to remove any other Additional stressors. I am okay. I'm

[00:01:27] Doing okay. Things are just really hard and I need to focus on Being okay. I don't know how I'm getting emotional. I really didn't expect to get an emotional over this Whoo It's hard because this is my baby It's something I created for fun

[00:01:51] Because I was in lockdown in Tokyo across the world without my friends and family and I wanted something to occupy my time but it's also something that I've spent a ton of time on and

[00:02:04] Poured my heart into so it's really hard to even be saying that I'm taking a hiatus. It's hard to feel like I am Potentially letting go of this it has not always been easy over the last five years and

[00:02:20] If you're not a podcaster, you don't get it and that's not your fault at all But I just want to give you a sort of a peek behind the curtain of what it means to be a podcaster Over the years. I really battled with

[00:02:34] Creating enough content while not just letting the podcast consume my entire life one single episode requires Between 15 to 20 hours of research alone That's not including the recording the editing the marketing and everything else that goes along with running a podcast I do

[00:02:54] Everything myself unless you're one of the top podcasts in the world You're not making a whole lot of money from this if anything most Podcasters spend more money than they make to create the content with true crime in particular

[00:03:10] There is a lot of care that needs to go into each episode a lot of fact-checking to make sure things are properly reported It takes a lot of time and I love doing it, but truly it has been a passion project

[00:03:25] I'm not getting rich from this and that's fine I never wanted to get rich from this but it's been difficult especially Recently trying to handle the demands for more content

[00:03:38] Managing my time while also realizing I might need to get my ass to work in order to pay the bills I'm not morbid. I'm not crime junkie. I'm not rich from this. I don't make a ton of money

[00:03:50] I can't afford to hire anyone to write research edit my things so I do everything myself Then to put the content out there for every maybe Five positive comments I get I'll get four negative To have people Criticize

[00:04:10] Things that I have worked so hard on I'm not made for this life. I don't know how content creators do it my platform is Fairly small and I still get a ton of hate Over the way I look over the way talk

[00:04:28] Over the way pronounce things or mispronounce things Over the number of ads which is really frustrating because my ads pay for things like hosting fees Which are expensive like $50 a month just to host the podcast

[00:04:45] All this to say I'm not complaining because this is something I've chosen to do and something I really enjoy doing and I'm so grateful that you've listened But I think a lot of podcast listeners just don't understand the true reality of

[00:05:00] Podcasting and how much work it is and How very little payoff you get the payoff really is the listeners The friendships you make but along with that comes a ton of personal criticism That right now, especially in my life

[00:05:19] I just don't feel I can handle all this to say I will be taking a hiatus over the summer and then in August I'm gonna come back and sort of re-evaluate things To see if I can keep moving forward or not

[00:05:37] I just want to thank you for all of your support over the last four years I've learned so much and I've met so many amazing people and I honest to God truly appreciate every listener every patreon member

[00:05:54] Every person in my Facebook group anyone that's ever left a review or a comment Thank you, because I know that there are a ton of options out there and the fact that you've chosen to

[00:06:08] Do something positive with my podcast. It means the absolute world to me. So this is goodbye for now and Hopefully see you soon