Growing a podcast isn’t just about hitting record and hoping for the best. If you’ve been tuning in, you know we’re all about making remarkable content that actually resonates with listeners. Last week, we dug deep into what successful shows are doing differently, and trust me, it’s not rocket science. It’s about conversation, not just broadcasting.

Today, I’m sharing free tools and insights to help connect with your audience better and some juicy news from Spotify that might just change the way you think about your podcast. Spoiler alert: it’s not all sunshine and rainbows.

I looked at some of the big names in the biz and guess what? Most of them have one thing in common — they interact with their listeners. They don’t just talk at you; they want to talk with you. We’re talking newsletters, voicemails, and even knowing the eye color of your audience. Because if you can relate to your listeners on that level, you’re doing something right. I even had a hilarious blunder with my email list that turned into a goldmine of feedback — the kind of feedback that makes or breaks your show. So, if you’re still wondering why your podcast isn’t growing, it might be time to roll up those sleeves and get face-to-face with your audience, even if it’s over Zoom.

The best way to find out what your audience wants is to ask them. I’m inviting you into my podcast kitchen to help shape future episodes. Because at the end of the day, your podcast should feel like a recipe that everyone can enjoy together. Join me for a live chat on October 16th where we’ll dive into what you want to hear, and let’s make this show the best it can be. Remember, if you want to grow, you have to listen first. Now, go out there and start those conversations!

Tools To Get In Touch With Your Audience

You could do this via zoom for $18/month (and cancel after the first month), if you need a free email tool look at systeme (aff), which does email, communities, digital and physical goods, courses and more. You can use lu.ma to have people register (it's free if you don't charge). Lu.ma then reminds people, and makes it easy for them to add the meeting to their calendar. If you are looking for an affordable calendar tool, check out Tidycal. Unlike Calendly (that charges you a monthly fee) Tidycal is a low one time payment for a lifetime deal. I've used it for years.

Affordable Lifetime Music Deal

I've been using Audio Blocks for my background music, and I was aware of TuneReel (as you can buy a single song for around $15. They have a lifetime deal around $300 and this includes a license for your Podcast! They have THOUSANDS of songs to choose from and there are no "Cheap Casio Keyboard" sounding drums, etc. Check it out! (aff)

Takeaways:

• In episode 1000, we chatted about making remarkable content to grow your podcast, like, duh!
• Big shows aren't just blabbing at their audience—they're having a whole conversation with them.
• I found out almost all successful podcasts have a newsletter (or some other way to DIRECTLY communicate with their audience), so maybe get on that bandwagon.
• If you can name your audience's eye color, you're definitely connecting. That's the goal.
• The best feedback comes from real people, so meet them face to face if you can, it's a game changer.
• I made a huge email blunder once, and it turned out to be the best mistake ever, trust me!

Links referenced in this episode:

• schoolofpodcasting.com
• podpage.com
• Episode 1000 on Making Remarkable Content
• podcastmovement.com
• buzzsprout.com
• convertkit.com
• mailerlite.com
• systeme
• podfest.com
• Zoom Meeting Software
• EoFire Show
• Podcast Hot Seat (Podcast Audits)
• How to Grow Your Podcast
• TuneReel Music for Podcasts
• Podnews Weekly Review (one of my Favs!)
• Podcasting 2.0

Mentioned in this episode:

Help Dave Shape the Show

I want to make this show your favorite podcast about podcasting. I can't do this without you. This will be a live virtual meeting where you can help me shape the content of this show. You can let me know what I'm doing right, and what needs some polish. I look forward to meeting with you and others and hearing your feedback. Go to www.schoolofpodcasting.com/kitchen (or click the link below)

Podcast Kitchen

Starting a podcast can be daunting. Fear of failure, uncertainty about where to begin, and doubts about your abilities can hold you back. But what if you had a guide? The School of Podcasting is here to help you confidently launch, grow, and monetize your podcast. With over 20 years of experience and tons of successful podcasts launched, I'll walk you through every step. From planning to promotion, you're never alone." Learn at your own pace with video courses, join a supportive community, and get unlimited coaching. Say goodbye to fear and hello to success." Start your podcasting journey today with the School of Podcasting. Join now and take the first step towards turning your passion into a reality. Visit SchoolOfPodcasting.com to get started. No fear, just success.

School of Podcasting

Question of the Month

This month's question comes from Todd the Gator of the Gaurdian Downcast (guardiandowncast.com). He wants to know: How long did it take to go from idea to podcast? Also how long did it take to find your community? I need your answers by September 26th

Question of the Month

Live Appearances

I will be at the Empower Podcasting Conference in Charlotte NC September 26-28 This is going to be a great conference. I'll be speaking and I can't wait to see you there.

Where Will I Be?

When I looked at some of the bigger shows, there was one key ingredient that all of them seemed to do and that was they weren't just talking at their audience, they were talking with their audience. And so today I've got some free tools and insights on along with some interesting news from our friends at Spotify. Hit it, ladies.

If you're new to the show, this is where I help you plan launch. And today we are still talking about growing your podcast.

My website is schoolofpodcasting.com use the coupon code listener when you sign up for either a monthly, quarterly or yearly subscription. Again, that's at school of podcasting.com and so I went out and I looked at some of the bigger shows to see if I could spot any clues.

They always say successfully leaves clues. And almost all of them had a newsletter. Most of them I saw some sort of voicemail.

And then some of them I saw where there were ways to connect with the audience. And I say this and it sounds hokey, but it's true. When you can tell me the eye color of your audience, you're really doing something right.

Let me tell you a quick story. And this comes from my buddy, Jared Easley, who now works for for the national association of Broadcasters.

That trade show, if you weren't aware of that, he used to work for Podcast Movement. I believe he is now working for nab. And Jared was talking about when he went to the very first John Lee Dumas meetup.

Now, if you're not familiar with John Lee Dumas, he runs the show originally called Entrepreneur on Fire, now just called EO Fire or something to do with Entrepreneur magazine. That got a little icky there. But John, here's a fun way to sum up John.

John made so much money he had to move out of the country, you know, because you pay less taxes when you live in Puerto Rico. And the fact that it's Puerto Rico and it's beautiful. But John was not doing poorly. He was one of the first.

Not the first, but he was one of the first that did a daily show. He had a very tight format. He basically now a lot of us would go, yeah, it's boring. He asked the same six questions over and over.

But what he really did, and when I saw It. I was like, oh, that's brilliant. Was. He walks people through what's called the Hero's Journey.

And if you've never heard of the Hero's Journey, go to your favorite search tool, whether it's Google Perplexity ChatGPT, and ask for it. It is the backbone. If you. If you read it, it's Star Wars. It's a hero in his normal life. A hero, you need to go save the world, not me. Oh, my gosh.

And then a mentor comes along, and then the mentor goes, I don't know if I can do it. And then, you know, in the end, they win. And et cetera, et cetera. It's in backbone of a lot of movies. And that's what John did.

And so I say this because John is. Is huge. And his very first meetup, Jared was talking about it. If I believe it was an In N Out burger.

And I believe Jared said there were five people counting Jared. So it was very, very tiny, right? It was intimate. I'm sorry, not tiny. It was intimate. That's how we say small in podcast world.

In the, you know, it was an intimate gathering, and you got to start someplace. But the best way to get feedback is face to face. So that's the best one.

There's something weird, especially about eating food with people or a handshake or a selfie or whatever it is. If you can do that, do that. Then you get into things like zoom calls. I've said this before, but I'll say it again.

I once set up my email list, so that was supposed to send out to 10 people. There was like this filter, and I could have sworn it said, yep, this will go out to 10 people when you send it.

And it said, hey, basically, I'm doing some market research. I'd like to get some feedback on the show, and I would really love your insight. Well, it didn't go to 10 people.

It went to every single person on my email list. And along with that message came a link to my calendar.

And so I had about two weeks of back to back to back to back to back to back to back to back meetings with my audience. It was the best mistake I've ever made. And so that is something you can do. Now. I realize you might be thinking, oh, meeting people. I don't know.

I'm just. So you gotta remember something. These are people that like you, right? They like you. They're listening to your show.

Now, that doesn't mean they might not have notes, but you gotta hear them out. What's the point of trying to promote a show that doesn't resonate with people?

And I didn't have hardly any people that were like, oh yeah, you know, I had people back then. My cat kept interrupting me and they were like, any chance you can get that cat to quit interrupting the show?

And so I would recommend that and just to, you know, put my money where my mouth is. There's a cool tool because why I'm using this, I'm doing a thing on October 16th, so that's about a month from now.

So you'll hear me talk about this for the next month and October 16th at 7:00pm Eastern Standard Time. So my apologies to anyone on the other side of the globe where you're like, bloody ey, it's 4:00am in the morning, right? It's. That's not gonna work.

But it works for me. And so I need to be there so that. That kind of helps that. But I'm using a tool. Well, I'm using two tools. You could do this in Riverside.

You could do it in Squadcast. I think Squad cast is more one. You could do it in zoom. I mean, really, you could do it in zoom.

And I'm using a tool because it's free and it's Loulu Ma. So Luma, I guess, and you can set it up.

And why I'm using this, A, it's one click registration and then B, it reminds people, hey, remember that thing you signed up for a month ago? It's happening and it's pretty handy.

So you'll see if you go to that, I'll put a link in the show notes where you can sign up for that because I'm really, really dying to hear. Here's what it says when you go there. It says, look, I always say your podcast is a recipe, not a statue.

And so I'm inviting you into my podcast kitchen where I'm asking you what you would like for dinner. Because that's really what this show is. Hey, what do you want? And then you can help me pick future topics of the show.

You can help me add things you want to hear and maybe remove some things you're tired of hearing about. I will take your suggestions. I will put them in the oven for future episodes of the School of Podcasting.

The best way to grow your show is to find out what your audience wants and give it to them. And I really, really hope you join me in helping me make this show the show you've always wanted. So sign up for that if you would. Like to.

Even if it's just to say, this is what I really like about this show, but if you have things, and I have one thing that I think is going to be one of those, like, could you please quit doing that? And I'm going to offer that up because as much as my ego would love to have people just go, dave, you're the best, Roy.

You know, I. I'm really interested in more of the, like, well, this is why I tune out. You know, I'm trying to find out what you really liked about the show and. And what you really didn't.

And for me, kind of that constant improvement, I'm always looking for things that I can do better. So it's not just me saying this, I'm gonna do it. And I realize that you might be afraid of this, and I'm gonna go back to my favorite mistake.

It was the best thing I've ever done. And so I thought, well, let's lead by example. And I'll have to see.

I'm trying to figure out if I'm going to record it because people may not be as willing to really be brutally honest if it's being recorded. So we'll see how that goes. But that if you want to grow your show, step one, we always say, is, who is your audience?

And so it can be a live zoom call with a group of people. It could be a live zoom call, one on one. That really is the best. I just right now, at this point in my life, don't have the time.

I've got a lot of things on my plate. I'm like, well, it'll be one to many.

And that's always tricky because you might run into group speak where somebody goes, hey, I wish you did more of this. And then everybody else on the call goes, oh, yeah, me too. You know, so that's the only kind of downside. One to one is the best.

But also, keep in mind, there are things like email lists. And so if somebody replies to your email, reply back. If somebody sends you just an email, it's not a newsletter.

They just send you from your contact page. You do have a contact page, right? You know, or if they slide into your DMs, always, always, always talk to your audience.

And I know that's kind of a duh, but I am amazed that some people have never thought of this or they're waiting for people to contact them. I talked about it in the last episode. One of the coolest things. Like here I'm requesting feedback.

So the best Kind of feedback is the stuff you didn't request. When somebody just out of the blue goes, man, that was a great episode. That's one of the things I'm like, I'm gonna start tracking that.

And so I'm just here to say, don't be afraid to talk to your audience. I'll give you another example. I am the head of podcasting at PodPage, and we kind of have almost a mantra where we're not afraid of our customers.

We actually, you can schedule live support calls at podpage. We have monthly meetups with our people. We have all sorts of stuff.

Because why I was at Podcast movement in Washington, D.C. and a customer came up and said, hey, you know how you have all these cool quick links like contact and follow all these things to make it really easy for the audience to remember your website while you get them to wherever they want to go, and they go, why don't you have a slash newsletter? And I thought, well, surely we must have a slash newsletter. That'd be dumb not to wait, we don't have a slash newsletter.

And so I went to Brendan, I said, hey, we don't have a slash newsletter. He went, ah, you're. Hey, we don't have a slash newsletter. And so it's that kind of stuff that.

And we made it, you know, you can now go to, you know, slash newsletter on your POD page. And there it is. There's your newsletter sign up. And so it's one of those things that we all want to grow our audience.

And the easiest way to grow the audience is to have the audience tell their friends about it. Well, how do you get your friends to tell people about it? Well, you give them what they want in a way that's including.

And so find some way to connect with your audience.

And if you're like, I'm not getting any audience connection, then make it easy and give them a time and place to meet you, because they can't figure it out. And always explain it to them how they're going to help shape the show. You can help me make the show you always wanted.

And in theory, some people should act on that. Again, probably around 3%. But if, you know, somebody came to me and said, hey, Dave, or I know you like the Zoom PodTrack P4. I'm from Zoom.

We're thinking of redesigning the P4. Would you like to be involved I would go, oh, yeah, can we do that right now, please? So explain it in a way that you're. And be wide open.

Bring an extra set of skin, because you really, really want to find out what's not working. Many moons ago, I won an award for a customer service position I was in, and I was there to teach people how to run their office equipment.

That's what we told them. But what I was really there to do was to throw in hints on how to not run your office equipment. Do not put paperclips on the copier.

Do not do this, do not do that. It was always just these little, you know, what do you call it? Passive aggressive things. And that's really what you want to do. Why?

Because one of the easiest ways to grow your audience is. Is to stop the current audience from leaving. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Hey, I just wanted to take a quick second, as this is the second time I've recorded this, to say thank you to everyone who reached out on the passing of my friend Todd Cochran. This is a guy I've known for 20 years, quite the character, and he will be deeply, deeply missed.

Pod Fest is going to be very weird because Todd will not be in the booth and Neil Galarte will not be DJing the Saturday party. Both of them, within the last year or so, passed away with no warning at all, which is always a gut punch.

So I just thank you to everyone who reached out that said, hey, we're thinking of you. I deeply appreciate that. And in just a second, we're going to hear, you know, I always. You know how much I love Spotify.

Well, they're doing that Spotify thing again. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The school of podcasting, hey, I am known. I love the Spotify music service. I use it all the time.

But as a media host, I am not a fan. And if you're new to the show, I always like to explain why, because I want you to trust me.

And so the man that co invented podcasting, Adam Curry, does a show called Podcasting 2.0. It's very, very nerdy. And he did say this about Spotify. And I've always known that a Spotify kind of hides their RSS feed.

Now, RSS feeds make things very open. It's the syndication that makes it easy for you to syndicate.

So if I use Spotify as a media host, which I do not recommend, but if I did, I could syndicate my show to Amazon and iHeart and Apple, and then I heard this and was like, oh, that's just dumb.

The good News is it looks like Spotify, formerly known as. What were they?

They used to be? Oh, anchor.

Anchor, yeah. So all the old anchor feeds, or a significant portion, because some people still show up with an old anchor feed.

Anchor was putting in itunes block tags automatically. Those guys are real a holes. And so someone will show up and say, hey, you know, it says, I can't add this to the index. And I'll go in and look.

Oh, it's got a block tag. And they say, well, how'd that get in there? And there is no way to change it other than you have to actually call someone at Spotify.

Really? Yep.

Yeah, you have to get someone on the phone. And I've had probably three people in the past week or so who popped. And they were able to figure it out.

They were able to get to some customer support person, but it's just amazing that they were doing that. Like, what a bunch of horrible people.

And so this is. Be careful. Anytime you're dealing with a company who says, oh, podcasting's hot, we should add podcasting to our offering.

Because, number one, the support you need. As someone who worked at Libsyn, the world's first media host, the support you have to deliver is insane.

People love to break their feeds and things like that. So we always kind of jokingly call Spotify the walled garden.

And there you can see, once again, Spotify by putting in a bit of code that stops you from syndicating your show to Apple is again, they love to do things that benefit Spotify. One other thing, this came from the POD News Weekly review. If you like this kind of stuff where it's news about the industry.

James Cridland and Sam Sethi. It's one of my favorite shows. I love this show. Also, one other point before this, Sam and Jim. Jim. Jim.

Jim Cridland, who calls him Jim James Cridland do a great job of their chit chat. We talked about it in the last episode about chit chat. Usually they do theirs at the end and I listen. Why? Because I'm a super fan.

And that's where you put chit chat so that the people that are still there can listen to it. But James Cridland said this about Spotify because what I love about Spotify is they love to go, hey, here's a big, exciting headline.

And then it's they don't lie. Because that'd be liable for me to say. But they do at times forget to include all of those details.

Here's James talking about how video is just going Crazy on Spotify. Sports video podcast consumption on Spotify is up more than four times year on year with lift across the ringer titles.

And

I just like to stop there and go, okay, so it's up 4% year on year and the ringer has seen at least 4% increase in video podcasts. Ah, yes, that was because this time last year the ringer had zero, zero, none, zero videos on Spotify. Thank you, James and thank you, Sam.

It is a great show. And what I just heard on the latest episode, then this is just something I want to share. These guys are titans in their industries, right?

Sam has an amazing background. James has been in radio since it was hand cranked and now is in the pot.

When James came into podcasting, like multiple newsletters about podcasting just shut down. They're like, oh, well, we can't beat that.

And I just point this out because they just said on their recent episode they got their 23rd supporter and they're using Buzzsprout. So you can do, I think it's 3, 7, 5 and 10 or something, I don't know. But you can pick your own level.

But they were, and this is just my own opinion, they seem somewhat surprised, like they didn't know if they were going to get anybody. And now they're like, hey, we're up to 23.

And so it's one of those things where again, I think we're afraid to say, hey, would you like to support the show? Because if nobody does, then you feel like your show is invalid.

And that's not the case because sometimes I did a show for musicians and just kept trying to find ways of them.

I had a book I was selling and I'm just here to tell you, when they say starving musicians or starving artists, that was the case, that particular audience had. Well, I could not convince them. I was gonna say they had no money. That's one way to look at it.

The flip side is I didn't convince them of the value I was providing. In my book, there's always two sides to that story.

But I'm starting to think that the way podcasters are going to make more money in the future is not ads. It's gonna be through support. And the great thing with Buzzsprout also captivate, makes this really easy.

And you can go in and say, look, make the last 10 episodes free. Marc Maron used to make the last 50 free, and then you put the rest behind a paywall. Now that doesn't work. Like it wouldn't work for me.

Because, well, it might. But I want you to find all my episodes so that you can hear me talk about the school of podcasting.

That's the main sponsor for this show and that's me. That's the most profitable way to make money.

But if you've ever looking for a way to make money, you could just turn it on and say, look, we've got 30 episodes, 20 of them are free. The first 10 are only available if you pay me 3 bucks a month or whatever it is, 5, 10, etc.

It might be something you consider, but just realize again that about 3% of your audience, if you're really good, is going to take you up on that offer. And, you know, sometimes you got to do things that are a little scary.

When I do the question of the month on this show, I always wonder, is this the month that new? Nobody's going to send in an answer. And speaking of that, the school of podcasting, I had mentioned that there are tools to do all this stuff.

So Zoom is $18 a month. Now, keep in mind, you could order a month of Zoom, do your little meetup, and then cancel it.

They do have a free version of Zoom, but it's only 40 minutes long and depending on the scenario, maybe you start there. Another tool, When I talk about email lists, I use Kit, which used to be ConvertKit.

But if you're looking for something free, there's a tool called System, and I'll have a link to this in the show Notes where you can have 2,000 people on your list for free.

I know Mailerlite just reduced their amount and when this happens and prices go up, you just need to ask yourself, what can I do with this tool to increase my monetization if that's the case? So with my email list a, I'm going to be really diligent on writing a weekly newsletter because it's costing me money.

And then I will maybe be a little more blunt with my calls to action. But if you want to try a free service, freemium is kind of an all in one. So their email is fine, but it's not going to be as robust as Kit.

They have a membership part, but that's not going to be as cool as say, something like Heartbeat or Circle.

So if you're looking for a community, but it does the job, they do landing pages which look really good and they do, it's one of those all in one kind of things. But if you're looking for free, that's not a bad place to start.

And speaking of tools, the school of podcasting, I don't know about you, but I like to go in and see my monthly charges. And years ago, I got a Black Friday deal on Audio Blocks, which is a huge catalog of music.

So when you listen to my computers, my computers, my computers. Seriously, wow. My commercials, a lot of that music comes from Audio blocks. Well, the $50 was my black Friday. Then it went up to, I think, 129.

And then it was 1:49. And I saw where last year it's going to renew on December 1st at 1 99.

And so I went to their help section and said, what does the membership plan cover? Where can I use this? And they say their music can be used in YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Vimeo, weddings, commercials, podcasts, yes, video games.

The only exception is if you are later in broadcast tv, radio or theater, or an OTT network such as Netflix and Hulu. But podcasts are directly mentioned.

And I'm going to, like I said that, that lifetime deal, because for me, now do they have as many tracks as Audio Blocks? And I'm like, how many funky tracks do you need? You know, how many happy, inspirational tracks do you need? They have a lot.

I went over because you know me, bring in the noise, bring in Defunk. I like the happy funk music. And they had 12 pages. I was like, okay, I think that's enough.

So if you're a person that likes to have music, you know, transition music, things like that, you might want to check out Tune Reel. They do have an affiliate program. So just full disclosure, I am recommending this.

A, because I like their music, and then B, yeah, also if you use my link, that's another way of saying, hey, Dave, thanks for the value. Thanks for letting me find this and use that link and I'll get a small kickback.

Hey, if you are going to be joining me in Charlotte, North Carolina, this is September 26th through the 28th, I will be speaking at the Empowered Podcasting Conference. And if you see me and you listen to the show, please stop and say hi. I never quite get how people are like, oh, I didn't want to bug you.

Or I'm like, I. I feel like I'm the most approachable guy on the planet, and yet people somehow are intimidated by me. I don't, you know. Okay, your feelings are real. What is it? I acknowledge your feelings. I'm just here to say I'm a pretty nice guy.

At least I hope I am. I try to be. And if you're coming, I look forward to seeing you. Now, if you're like, dave, I don't even have a podcast.

Or maybe you got a podcast and it needs to grow. And don't forget about a the school of podcasting.

We can get you up and going in the right direction, along with an amazing and amazing community, along with coaching. Unlimited coaching from me. Next week, I'll talk about something that's going to change that unlimited thing. Just a little. FYI.

And if you need to grow your show, look, you can do that at the School of Podcasting. But I also have podcast hotseat.com where we help you identify what's working and maybe those things that need a little polishing.

Hey, this is Doug from King's X, and if you like what you hear, go tell someone. And may the groom be with you.