A while back I was a guest on Nicolas Vaca’s podcast, Untold. This time I turned the tables and invited him onto mine - to talk about what it actually takes to start a creative project on the side of a full-time job, and keep it alive past the point where most people quit.
Nicolas and I met on his podcast, Untold, where I was a guest. We had a great conversation about the future of work, AI, and how all of that is changing our lives.
Today, I invited Nicolas to talk about the harsh truth of how to manage a side hustle you’re really committed to with a full time demanding job. Let’s get into it!
Nicolas is an author of Untold podcast
Yana: How’s Untold going so far? I remember you shared this stat — that 98% of podcasts die after the second episode, or something like that.
Nicolas: Yeah, so I think 90% of podcasts only have three episodes or less. And 90% of the ones with more than three episodes have 20 episodes or less. Which means that if you manage to push past your 20th or 21st episode - you’re already in the 1% of podcasters who’ve launched. It doesn’t mean you’re necessarily successful after 20 episodes, but I’m approaching that relatively soon, which is exciting. It’s a long journey.
90% of published podcasts are inactive
Source: Amplifi Media / Podcast Index, June 2026
Yana: How many episodes have you filmed already?
Nicolas: Filmed 13, released 12. I’ve got one releasing this Sunday, and I’m filming one straight after this. So I have a couple of episodes scheduled.
How to Manage it All?
Yana: What’s the most time-consuming task for you? Is it finding people to talk to, the scheduling, filming the episode, or the post-production?
Nicolas: Definitely editing but prepping as well. Prepping takes quite a bit of time: being aware, coming up with the right things you want to ask the person you’re going to interview. In the end it’s not a full-on interview — my podcast is a conversation as opposed to an interview style. But still, you want to be acquainted with the things the person you’re speaking to is an expert in. And then, when editing an episode, it takes a lot of time to review, apply edits, and then upload. But the most challenging, if you think of it as a learning curve, is probably just the simple fact of becoming good at it. It’s a funny thing to name as the most challenging, because most people would think of a particular task. But I just think it’s a skill set, you know? It takes time, it takes repetition, and I’m definitely not nearly as good as I’d want to be yet. It’s challenging to become good at something — and you can only do it by doing it.
It’s challenging to become good at something — and you can only do it by doing it
Yana: What helped you grow confidence?
Nicolas: I’ve been very confident and decisive about making it a real thing from the get-go. I enjoy what I’m doing, and I think that’s a very important thing too. Because in the end, if you’re trying to become good at something you don’t enjoy, someone who’s trying to become good at it and actually enjoys it will probably outwork you — every day of the week.
You don’t need to be afraid of putting your work out there. There’s still a bit of that fear in me. I still don’t post much about it on Instagram, which is something I definitely need to do, and the reason I’m not doing it is exactly the fear of putting myself out there. But in the end, you just do it. If a lot of people watch, great. And if a lot of people don’t watch, then no one thinks you’re funny or silly anyway. As Alex Hormozi says: The way to become good at content creation is you put out 100 videos. You take the 10 that got the most engagement and make 10 versions of each of those. Now you’ve got another hundred videos. You take the 10 versions that got the most engagement, and you do that enough times that you end up with a very sellable video you can put on Instagram — and it’s going to go extremely viral, because you’ve learned exactly what people are triggered by.
The way to become good at content creation is you put out 100 videos. You take the 10 that got the most engagement and make 10 versions of each of those. In a few iterations, you’ll get a video that is going to be viral because you’ve learned exactly what people are triggered by
Building the Right System is a Key
Yana: You mentioned editing also takes a lot of your time, which is a nice segway to my next question. How do you manage consistency of podcast creation with the full time job and social life?
Nicolas: When you first start, you’re learning a lot, and doing things takes much longer than usual. For me it was a matter of finding a system that lets me push through with the podcast and put it in a position where it’s more likely to succeed, while still having a full-time job and a life, friends, all of that.
For example, I started reaching out to one person a day, on average. And it comes back to something I truly believe in: that consistency is much more important in life than intensity. AI is also extremely useful. I usually come up with the topic myself but I use AI to help me find someone who’d be interesting to speak with. There’s a lot of reading in the podcasting world — you need to be very acquainted with new ideas, and with the things the person you’re inviting has written. It’s difficult to go through all of it, but AI does a pretty good job of surfacing what aligns best with what you’re trying to discuss or bring to light. And then on the editing side - AI does a great job at editing and choosing the right snippets for short-form content. There’s a quote I love:
Checkout my recent note. What’s the stack you’re building with?