Shownotes
Welcome to the very first episode of our Summer Spark series! For the upcoming 5 episodes, we’ll explore new perspectives and practical tips to reframe how you view your podcast, and better, more efficient ways to utilize your show to grow your small business.
Launching a podcast is an exciting endeavor, and as hosts, we all want it to be successful. However, the definition of success can vary greatly from one podcaster to another. Many of us fall into the trap of equating success with the number of downloads we receive, or the social status of our guests.
But let me tell you, that's just one part of the equation.
Podcasters with more than 10 episodes are already successful
If you've been podcasting for over six months, congratulations!
You're already ahead of about 70% of podcast hosts who give up before even reaching episode 10. Take a moment to reflect on why you started your podcast in the first place. Forget the download numbers for now; ask yourself if your podcast is achieving what you wanted it to.
Podcasting doesn’t need to be monetized
Maybe you're using your podcast as a testing ground to write your book or exploring your passion for gardening. If so, measuring its success based on downloads alone doesn't do it justice. Are you having meaningful conversations with the people you wanted to reach? Has podcasting motivated you to publish content more consistently?
Remember, having a podcast is a significant achievement in itself. It takes courage to put yourself out there on the internet, and it requires discipline to build both a podcast and an online brand. Embrace the fact that you're providing value to your listeners and elevating your brand in a way that many professionals without an online presence miss out on.
Let's stop obsessing over monetizing our podcasts if it's not the primary aim. If you genuinely enjoy podcasting as a hobby and don't want to compromise, then don't. Success is about aligning your podcast with your original intentions and finding fulfillment in the journey.
As you evaluate your podcasting journey this week, I hope this reminder has helped you redefine what success means for you and your show. Keep going, keep creating, and keep sparking that summer inspiration!
CHAPTERS
- 00:00 - Intro: Redefining Podcast Success Beyond Downloads
- 01:44 - A Note on the "Summer Spark Series"
- 03:29 - You're Already Ahead of 70% of Podcasters
- 04:51 - Reframe: Is Your Podcast a Hobby or a Business?
- 06:08 - Success Metric 1: Publishing Content Consistently
- 06:43 - Success Metric 2: Showing Up as a Leader
- 08:17 - Success Metric 3: Your Podcast as a 24/7 Sales Call
- 09:21 - Final Thoughts: Numbers Are Just Numbers
- 10:01 - Outro & How to Connect
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Transcripts
If you were to ask any podcaster, how do you measure your success?
Speaker A:About 90% of people would say, well, obviously, having a lot of downloads, thousands of downloads per month, actually, and having really important guests on my show.
Speaker A:Now, here's the thing that most people don't think about.
Speaker A:They don't think about, like, how that actually does anything for them.
Speaker A:So how are those thousands of people listening to the show actually making your life better?
Speaker A:Are those just vanity metrics?
Speaker A:Are those actually going to be doing something for your business?
Speaker A:Or are these just kind of something that you assumed?
Speaker A:Because that's what everybody talks about.
Speaker A:Well, most people think, all right, I want to have thousands of downloads.
Speaker A:But maybe they never took the time to think about how many downloads and by when.
Speaker A:And if you're a current listener of the podcast, then you absolutely know that measuring success is all about being very specific.
Speaker A:Quantify things.
Speaker A:But also context is really important.
Speaker A:If you're listening to these podcasts, you're probably also thinking, anna, I wish my podcast was more successful.
Speaker A:In fact, like, that's probably why you're listening to this episode, because you read the title and you thought, huh, I'm intrigued.
Speaker A:And so even if you never set up a success metric or even a goal for the podcast, this episode is going to open your mind into new ways to look at your podcast.
Speaker A:And I have a feeling that you're already successful.
Speaker A:You.
Speaker A:You just don't know about it.
Speaker A:In case we haven't met, hello, I'm Anna.
Speaker A:I'm the founder of the podcast space, which, apart from being a podcast, is also a company that helps podcasters create better content, increase your impact, and also have fun while you're doing it.
Speaker A:All right, let's get right into it.
Speaker A:So before we get into what success looks like, I want to just quickly talk about this type of episode that you're listening.
Speaker A:It's called Summer Spark Series, and it's something that I came up with about a month ago.
Speaker A:And I thought, hey, I want to take a break from podcasting.
Speaker A:But to me, one of the huge elements of this company, the podcast base, is to provide educational resources for podcasters.
Speaker A:And if you're stuck this summertime, this series is going to be so awesome because, one, they're going to be shorter episodes, they're going to be more actionable, and they're really going to open your awareness about things that you never thought about.
Speaker A:So I'm so excited to be doing these.
Speaker A:They're going to be audio only, and I hope, I really hope that if this summertime you're not taking a break and you're working on your podcast.
Speaker A:I know that these podcasts will really help you get along if you're not taking a break this summertime.
Speaker A:All right, so if you're listening in real time, so it's the first week of August, just know that I would love to hear your aha.
Speaker A:So feel free to tag me on social media and also send me an email because I. I will be looking into those as soon as I arrive in September.
Speaker A:I'm taking a complete break on my sabbatical.
Speaker A:It's absolutely no work allowed.
Speaker A:So I'm excited, but at the same time, I'm really scared.
Speaker A:Really scared.
Speaker A:Because, you know, hey, this is my business, right?
Speaker A:So I'm completely disconnecting from everything.
Speaker A:And so to me, again, success, just to tie it into the topic of this episode, is to be able to have my own business and take time off.
Speaker A:And so this podcast enables me to help you while I'm gone, know that you're learning along in your journey, that you're continuing to grow so much, just step by step.
Speaker A:All right, so let's get into the episode.
Speaker A:If you're someone who likes journaling, this episode will be really good for that.
Speaker A:Or if you're someone who likes talking things through out loud, this is a great episode as well.
Speaker A:So if you've been podcasting for at least six months, you're already ahead of about 70% of podcast hosts who give up before they even launch episode 10.
Speaker A:For podcasts who launch episodes on a weekly basis, there's about like a two month kind of leeway and people give up.
Speaker A:So again, you are already successful by the metrics that state that the majority of people give up on their podcast.
Speaker A:You're still here and you're growing and you're learning with every episode they are doing.
Speaker A:So again, you are already successful by those metrics.
Speaker A:So I want you to go back to six months ago, or whenever it was that you decided to launch a podcast without looking at the podcast download numbers.
Speaker A:Is your podcast doing what you wanted it to do?
Speaker A:And what I mean by this is, for instance, are you using it as a testing ground to write a book that you will have later in the year?
Speaker A:A book that maybe you said that you would always launch, but you always struggled with sitting down?
Speaker A:And so you're using the podcast to get closer to that, to get a skeleton, at least that a book idea.
Speaker A:If you said yes and you're doing it, then you are successful.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:And if you're Feeling disappointed because you're not monetizing the podcast, but you actually started using the podcast as like a hobby or a creative outlet.
Speaker A:I want you to have a little bit of a reframe.
Speaker A:So if you like gardening or sewing or something like that, do you measure the success of that activity by being able, for instance, to sell vegetables?
Speaker A:No.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:You look at it as the enjoyment that you get from doing the thing to dedicating time to that project that you love so much.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:It is to, for instance, if you want to build your skills and be more resilient and you want to know exactly how to grow food, that's how you measure the success.
Speaker A:But again, we have to stop looking at things and thinking that monetizing, making money ultimately is the only goal, or reaching thousands of downloads every month.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Like it's not successful if you never set it up to be like that, or if you're having conversation with the people that you wanted to.
Speaker A:If when you started the show you told yourself, I want to talk to more people in my industry, if you are having these conversations on a, on a consistent basis, you are successful.
Speaker A:You are doing the thing that you set your podcast to do, right?
Speaker A:And if you're publishing content more consistently because of the podcast, then you are successful.
Speaker A:I know so many small business owners who told me, and I can never commit to blogging, I can never commit to showing up on social media because it just feels like it's a chore.
Speaker A:I don't enjoy doing it, I don't like writing.
Speaker A:But get me in front of microphone and I can talk all the time.
Speaker A:I can make that effort.
Speaker A:I can commit to it.
Speaker A:So if the purpose of the podcast was to release content more frequently so that you could be top of mind for new customers, to showcase your expertise, to showcase how you help clients, then you are successful.
Speaker A:Also, I want to run something by you that you're probably not thinking about because you've been doing the thing for a while.
Speaker A:Maybe you have a few podcast friends.
Speaker A:It just feels like it's kind of like, eh, it's okay, right?
Speaker A:But look around at the people who work in your industry.
Speaker A:If you're having a podcast, you're going beyond the safe space of keeping your knowledge to yourself to not even being public.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:Like just doing that with clients or just doing blogs or articles or social media.
Speaker A:It takes a lot of courage to put yourself on the Internet to voice your knowledge because, hey, there's a lot of strangers.
Speaker A:And while there's a lot of trolls and people who are kind of mean.
Speaker A:There's also so many goodness that comes out of it, but not everyone has the courage to do that.
Speaker A:So you are already successful because you are a leader.
Speaker A:You're getting ahead, and you're doing more than most people do, right?
Speaker A:And also, it takes discipline to build a podcast and an online brand.
Speaker A:So if you're doing it, you are successful.
Speaker A:Are you already done with me telling you that you're successful?
Speaker A:Because I'm kind of done, but it's important.
Speaker A:Having a podcast with prerecorded resources also, by the way, elevates your brand.
Speaker A:There are so many professionals that don't take the time to create an online footprint of their knowledge and their business.
Speaker A:So think about this.
Speaker A:If you have a podcast, you can actually charge people more because you are an industry leader.
Speaker A:You are doing all of these other things that your competitors aren't doing, so you are more successful.
Speaker A:And lastly, I want one thing to kind of like, stay top of mind for you so many times.
Speaker A:Again, I'm not saying that you shouldn't want to grow your podcast to the thousands of listeners.
Speaker A:You will get there.
Speaker A:However, you cannot get discouraged just because you're not there yet.
Speaker A:But as a small business owner, think about the amount of sales calls or conversations that you are able to have every day with people.
Speaker A:You may be able to have maybe three to four sales calls, but you don't want to do them every day.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:And so next time you look at your downloads, if you had three downloads, if you had, you know, four unique listeners, five, 10, 60, 100.
Speaker A:It's 100 conversations that you didn't need to have in real time, the podcast is working for you.
Speaker A:The podcast is such an amazing tool because you are saving time.
Speaker A:Imagine having to repeat yourself all the time.
Speaker A:If you have podcast episodes that you can send clients to and say, hey, listen to this episode, and then come back to me and let's work on the specifics of your needs.
Speaker A:That is completely different.
Speaker A:And suddenly you're like, hang on a minute.
Speaker A:Yeah, like, that sounds really cool and efficient, right?
Speaker A:So again, numbers are numbers.
Speaker A:We only attach meaning to them.
Speaker A:And most times we attach negative meaning to them.
Speaker A:So every time you see three downloads, you were like, huh?
Speaker A:What was I doing today while people were listening to my podcast?
Speaker A:And it comes with so much more gratitude and just realization that you are creating something incredible.
Speaker A:And you're also investing in yourself.
Speaker A:You're learning so many skills as your podcast.
Speaker A:So again, this podcast is more than just content.
Speaker A:It's more than just numbers out there.
Speaker A:This is elevating how you show up online and how people see you.
Speaker A:Okay, so if you're wanting to grow those download numbers, if you're looking to take your podcast up a notch, sign up to my weekly newsletter where I'll share with you an exciting training that I have coming up.
Speaker A:But also I have weekly resources that I always get so much good feedback on, things that you may not have thought about, things that you are able to implement right away.
Speaker A:So make sure that if you haven't signed up to the newsletter, you can find that@thepodcastspace.com and all the resources mentioned in this episode will be available on thepodcastspace.com podcast and you can find the episode number, which is 29.
Speaker A:So this was my reminder for you this week as you evaluate your journey, and I hope it helped you reframe what success actually means for you and your podcast.
Speaker A:I've been annexavier and I would love for you to keep creating content that is imperfect but moves you forward.
Speaker A:I'll see you in the next episode.
