Some podcasts blow up while others never get off the ground. So what’s the difference?

In this episode, I’m answering a listener question about what makes a podcast successful. Is it promotion? A unique idea? Celebrity status? Or is it just about sticking at it?

Spoiler alert: It’s not about going viral. But there are consistent things successful podcasters do and they’re things you can do too.

💡What you’ll learn:

• What big shows have in common (that you might not see)
• The eight things successful podcasters focus on
• Why consistency and realistic expectations matter
• How to define success for your show (not someone else’s)

EPISODE CREDITS:

Host: Rachel Corbett

Editing Assistance: Josh Newth

LINKS & OTHER IMPORTANT STUFF:

Download my free podcasting guide

Check out my online podcasting course, PodSchool

Click here to submit a question to the show

Email me: rachel@rachelcorbett.com.au

Follow me: Instagram, Facebook, X, LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok or check out my blog or the PodSchool website.

This podcast was recorded on the lands of the Wangal people, of the Eora Nation.

I pay my respects to Elders past and present.

Got dreams of being a professional podcaster, but have no idea what you're doing. This is impossible. That's about to change. A new kind of school. Welcome to the Pod School podcast.

Hello. Welcome to the show.

Today's question is from Grace.

If you want to submit a question, just head to the description of the episode and there is a link there that you can click on. Grace has asked, why do podcasts that become successful succeed?

Some shows have become absolutely massive and I don't expect my podcast to be one of those, but I was just wondering why some shows take off. Well, there's plenty of different reasons, some of which you can't really emulate, which is frustrating.

But I would sort of say that the shows that have massive downloads, massive success, your Joe Rogans that are getting $200 million from Spotify, that show hasn't been on for five minutes.

You know, that show has been releasing episodes consistently for years and has kind of been bubbling along and then sort of, you know, hit a bit of critical mass and has built over time.

So the boring answer to the question is that more often than not, when you're seeing those big shows, they have been on for much longer than you might expect, because you might have only heard about them just now. And the idea of the overnight success applies here just like it applies to every other space. And that is, there is no such thing.

Yes, there are some outlier shows that kind of hit the mainstream and go bunta. More often than not, to actually have a show that does that, you really need an audience already on another platform.

So quite often that is somebody who's already built up a significant audience somewhere else and that audience is coming across, because trying to get people to come to a new podcast idea if you don't have that existing audience already is very, very hard. It's even hard if you have an existing audience on another platform because there's no guarantee that they're going to come across.

So that consistency is the main thing, because most of those really big shows have just been... it's a grind.

You know, podcasting success is something you gotta grind away at, and that's why you gotta love your show and you gotta feel passionate about it, and you have to really understand what you're getting into because the amount of time and effort required is massive in comparison to what most people think it is. So that consistency is really important.

Sometimes, some shows can also have a really big event. I would say, as an at-home podcaster, that is quite difficult again to emulate.

Because often these big events are... you know, I've seen a couple of shows created by influencers or reality TV people who've been on a reality show where there was a lot of attention on their particular story, and the podcast was where they were kind of spilling the tea. And people didn't have to go to Daily Mail, they could go to the podcast, and all of a sudden those numbers flow. And one of the things about podcasting audience is heritage subscribers, and heritage audience can really help you.

So the thing about consistency is, A) you grow and you find more audience as you go on in time, but you also build that base audience, and that can really help to build momentum as well.

So some of those shows now are still kind of riding high off a really big period of massive interest that then built them up a nice level of base-level subscribers. Now, some of those people might check in from time to time.

One of the frustrating things about podcasting analytics, but also sometimes a good thing for some shows in terms of their numbers, is that if you have somebody that is subscribed to the show and they're casually listening every now and then, well, some apps are going to automatically download some of those episodes. So you're probably going to get more numbers than you realistically have.

And the more of those heritage subscribers you've got, the more potential there is for that. So that can actually help. But again, that only comes from those shows consistently releasing episodes and continually building on that success.

Another thing is, you know, a lot of controversial kind of must-listen, “oh my goodness,” shows often get a lot of attention. I am not that type of person. You know, a lot of people aren't that type of person.

They're not willing to live their life so bare and exposed in a public way that means they're in a very vulnerable psychological situation. So that can sometimes help.

But that's not everybody's cup of tea. So that is one thing I do notice — that a lot of people want that kind of “this is salacious, I feel like I'm getting a peek behind the curtain” kind of thing. But that's not everybody.

And that doesn't mean that you need to make that content your content, because ultimately that content only works when the person who's hosting it is authentically really into that kind of show. And if you're just trying to do it, you just won't generate the kind of audience that you need.

You really need to stay true to your idea, true to what you want to do, because a listener can tell — is this genuine or not? And that genuine feeling that an audience gets from a podcaster they love is really important in terms of building relationship.

So that's a kind of, you know, a few of the ways that shows can get a little bit of a bump that is outside of the ordinary of podcasting. But in terms of what is consistently required as a podcaster if you want your show to be a success — and might I say that success needs to mean what it means to you…

Another thing is, you know, a lot of controversial kind of must listen. Oh my goodness. Shows often get a lot of attention. I am not that type of person. You know, a lot of people aren't that type of person.

They're not willing to kind of live their life so barely and exposed on in a public way. That means that, you know, they're in a very exposed and vulnerable psychological situation. You know, so that can sometimes help.

But that's not everybody's cup of tea. So that is one thing that I do notice that a lot of people want that kind of, oh, this is salacious.

This is kind of, I feel like I'm getting a peek behind the curtain kind of thing. But that's not everybody.

And that doesn't mean that you need to make that content your content, because ultimately that content only works when the person who's hosting it is authentically really into that kind of show. And if you're just trying to do it, you just won't generate the kind of audience that you need.

You really need to stay true to your idea, true to what you want to do, because a listener can tell, is this genuine or not? And that genuine feeling that an audience gets from a podcaster that they love is really important in terms of building relationship. So in terms of.

That's a kind of, you know, a few of the ways that shows can get a little bit of a bump that is outside of the ordinary of podcasting, but in terms of what is consistently required as a podcast if you want your show to be a success. And might I say that success needs to mean what it means to you.

Success is not a million downloads because your show might be in a niche that is never going to get a million downloads, no matter how hard you try, no matter how hard you promote. There's just not the potential audience there to get to that point. So you have to really understand what is the measure of success for me.

And don't look at those Joe Rogans and whatevers and say the only measure of success is when 200 comes. $200 was a bit more than that. $200 million comes my way from Spotify. Because that's just, you know, that is like the absolute sort of tip of.

The tip of.

The tip of the iceberg of people that is getting that, you know, the majority of people are underneath the water in that big old mess that nobody sees, you know.

So it's really important to have the right success metrics that you can feel good about what you're achieving too, because that will help you to move forward. So here are the eight things that really impact podcasting success.

If you are a normal podcaster who is not building up an audience from an existing massive audience on another platform, or you're not on reality TV or any of those kind of things, the first thing is you have to come up with an idea that, that has your ideal listener in mind. So this is an exercise a lot of people skip out on. They think about, what do I want to talk about? What does my ego want to talk about?

Not what does a listener want to hear. So it is really important that you do the of sitting down and planning out your ideal listener. Who are you making this show for? What is their life?

What is their lifestyle? What is their day to day? How can your show fit into that?

And that will really help you make content decisions with that person in mind rather than you in mind. So you want to be thinking about, you know, this person might be time poor. So you're not going to be recording three hour Joe Rogan episodes.

You know, or five hours or however long he's recording for these days. So it's really important to think about who your audience is.

That idea of thinking about your idea in terms of the audience rather than your ego is another really important factor. And this is where I see a lot of people trip up. They really think about what I want.

I want to be a podcaster, I want to talk on a podcast, I want to say this. You know, people think I'm funny at the pub, blah, blah. Okay, great.

But I can tell you right now, doing a podcast, a lot different than occasionally entertaining your friends while you're drinking beers. Let me be very clear about that. And I've seen a lot of people that come in and are like, I can tell a good story at the pub.

And then they're like, oh, this story has to go for 25 minutes to fill a whole episode. It's like, yeah, it's hard. This is not easy.

So it's really important that you are not putting your ego first and you are thinking about your listener. The next thing is to deliver content consistently. I mentioned this, but you have to build trust with your audience.

And the only way that your audience can trust you is if when they set the appointment with your show and say, I'm going to check in on this because I like it and I'm engaged with it, and then you don't turn up. That does not give people a reason to keep sticking around.

You want to be sure that if they are going to turn up for you, you are going to turn up for them.

Because it's those people that stick around and keep coming week in, week out that are going to tell other people about your show and help with word of mouth and all that kind of stuff. So it's really important that you are consistent. It also takes a long time for you to find your audience.

So it might take you releasing 10, 20, 30, 40, who knows how many episodes before you start to get a bit of momentum into things. So you really don't know until you press pub what your base level in terms of audience is.

And then once that hits, you got to consistently publish and you got to consistently promote. Anytime that your show goes on a break or there's nothing going into the feed, your download numbers are going to be lower.

Because it is not as easy to bring people in to listen to a show when there's no new episode there.

If you're just promoting and going on a break, like, you don't have the same numbers when you're in a break just because you're doing heaps of promotion. So you need to be consistently releasing episodes if you want to grow your show. You also need to pay attention to audio quality.

You have to think about the experience for your audience and there is plenty of choice out there. And if your audience is like, this sounds annoying, then they're just going to turn off. And why would you want to give them a reason to turn off?

It is really simple to record good audio at home. So it is not that you need a studio or you need to spend a lot of money or you need to soundproof a room in your house.

You can record good quality audio that sounds really great, that will be great to listen to for your audience. And that just takes some testing, some working on the spaces that you're recording in at home, choosing the right spot.

Sometimes it can be getting a little help, like running your audio through Adobe Enhance, which is a really great AI tool. You know, you just need to think about what is the best experience for my audience so they stick with me week after week.

The next thing is to connect with your audience individually. A lot of people make the mistake of thinking about podcast audience, like people in a stadium.

And these individuals are mostly listening individually. They have got their headphones in their ears, they are going about their business, they're walking the dog, doing the shopping.

And if you start going on with the, hey, ladies and gentlemen, all you guys out there, hey peeps. All of this stuff for them, it's like, who are these people?

And it's not necessarily a conscious sort of decision for them to disconnect, but it's a subconscious one because they're not being spoken to directly. You need to build a relationship with each individual audience member like they are the only person that you are talking to.

And that means that on mass, all of these people will feel personally connected to you. And that is really the goal. You want these people to feel like they are speaking just to me.

And that is going to build that relationship, build that engagement and build that fan base. The next thing I've mentioned this at the top around success, set realistic expectations for what success looks like for you.

Most podcasts don't succeed because of unrealistic expectations, also unrealistic ideas of what is expected. People underestimate how long this will take. People underestimate how much work you have to do to get an audience.

People overestimate the amount of money they're going to make. They overestimate the amount of downloads they're going to get. And that leads to disappointment, and disappointment leads to giving up.

So you want to make sure.

If you want this show to be going for a long time, then you want to make sure that you set up some realistic expectations that you understand what is going to be expected every single week.

To make sure this show is out and is finding an audience and that people are enjoying it so that you don't pull the pin because you're like, this isn't what I thought it would be. The last thing is to have patience. Everybody wants success in five minutes for everything.

And I don't know how many times in this world we have when we've found a new platform and something's happened. We all buy into the idea that this happened overnight. And every single time any overnight success says it was not overnight.

I've been chipping away at this for 15 years. I've been doing this for 20 years. I've been doing this for 10 years, whatever it is. So you have to have patience.

If you are getting into this because you want to quit your job in six months, I would encourage you to think about a different option.

If you are getting into this because you just want to see where it goes and you're willing to put in the time and you're like, nah, I'm going to commit to this for two years and I'm going to see where it lands. If at the end of two years, you're like, I have done all of the things that I'm supposed to do to promote my show. I'm releasing it consistently.

I still don't have an audience. Okay, pull the plug.

If it's a little earlier than that, or a year, whatever, you know, you're going to work out how you can do this, but don't do it for three months and then go, there's no audience here.

Because I've seen some shows take years to get to the point where they are generating the kind of downloads, where they're like, wow, we're making good money here. You know, this is actually really good.

They were building it, and there was enough to keep going because there were people that were checking in with the show. So you really have to be thinking like, there's nothing wrong with having 100 people or 50 people listen to your show.

You don't have to be trying to get 50,000 people, 100 people in a room. If you had, that would be an excellent event. That would be great.

So you have to start thinking about those smaller numbers and really turning up for the people who are turning up for you and have the patience to go the distance because it's a marathon and not a sprint. Thank you so much for the question, Grace.

If you have a question, please head to the description of the episode where there is a link there that you can click on. There's also links to my online podcasting course. You can find out everything that's included there.

That opens up a few times a year, and if you join the wait list, you will be one of the first people to know about when the course is open again.

I also have my free podcasting guide that you can download, which gives you all of the tools and tech that you need to get started and set up so you can start to record your show. All right, I will see you next week. That's all for today.