Setting and Achieving S.M.A.R.T. Goals for Your Podcast

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In this episode of The Circle Sessions, host Brett Johnson is joined by Tonnisha English-Amamoo, a digital marketing expert and the founder of TJE Communications. Tonnisha is passionate about helping small businesses level the playing field through digital marketing strategies. The episode focuses on the concept of S.M.A.R.T. goals and how podcasters can apply this framework to set and achieve their podcasting goals effectively.

Understanding S.M.A.R.T. Goals

Tonnisha provides an in-depth understanding of S.M.A.R.T. goals, breaking down each component of the acronym:

1. Specific: Tonnisha emphasizes the importance of setting specific goals, highlighting how specificity aids in tracking progress and making necessary adjustments.

2. Measurable: She elucidates that measurable goals enable podcasters to quantify their progress over time and make informed decisions based on data and analytics.

3. Achievable (or Attainable): Tonnisha advises against setting unattainable goals, underscoring the need to strike a balance between challenge and achievability. She recommends breaking large goals into smaller, more manageable steps to maintain sustainability.

4. Relevant (or Realistic): With a focus on relevance to overall business objectives, Tonnisha stresses the importance of aligning podcasting goals with the larger context of the podcaster's brand and mission.

5. Timely: Lastly, Tonnisha discusses the significance of setting time frames for achieving goals, allowing for strategic planning and periodic check-ins to evaluate progress.

Applying S.M.A.R.T. Goals to Podcasting

Brett and Tonnisha explore the application of S.M.A.R.T. goals specifically within the realm of podcasting. They delve into the relevance of setting time frames for podcast seasons, allowing podcasters to take breaks, reevaluate, and plan new content. Moreover, they address the need for podcasters to consider the sustainability of high-demand content and the potential benefits of evergreen content strategies.

Top Takeaways

1. S.M.A.R.T. goals can be applied at any time of the year, not just at the beginning of the year.

2. When setting S.M.A.R.T. goals for a podcast, specificity is important to track progress and make adjustments.

3. Measurable goals help in monitoring and evaluating progress, such as tracking content posting frequency and follower growth.

4. Achievable/attainable goals should be challenging yet realistic for sustainable progress and growth in a podcast.

5. The relevance of goals to the overall business objectives is crucial to ensure the efforts align with the desired outcomes.

6. The timeliness of goals provides a clear timeframe for achieving them and organizing tasks effectively, which is important for mental well-being and preventing burnout.

7. Utilizing seasons for podcasts can provide a natural break for reflection, evaluation, and planning, allowing for quality over quantity.

8. Pivot is essential as unforeseen circumstances might require a change in plans, and that's okay.

"So when you're thinking about your goals, they should also meet ultimately be aligned with whatever your overall business goals are."

Setting Realistic Business Goals on Social Media — Tonnisha English-Amamoo

"Best practices, you know, there is no wrong way or right way to do it. It just comes down to maybe doing it a little bit better."

Podcasting Best Practices — Brett Johnson

Memorable Moments

00:00 Important to set specific, trackable goals.

03:41 Evaluate, align, and adjust social media strategy.

07:40 Set achievable, sustainable goals for personal growth.

12:27 Align personal goals with business strategy realistically.

14:32 Setting specific and timely goals is important.

18:17 Podcasts, true crime, pop culture, recording weekly.

20:19 Create evergreen content, set goals, and maintain a schedule.

Subscribe to Tonnisha's Tip of The Month

Each week, one of The Circle of Experts talks about critical aspects of growing your podcast. We focus on marketing, social media, monetization, website design, and implementation of all of these to help you make the best podcast possible.

Have a question or an idea for one of our episodes? Send us an email at podcasts@circle270media.com.

The Circle of Experts are:

Yasmine Robles from Robles Designs

Tonnisha English-Amamoo of TJE Communications

Don The Idea Guy

Brett Johnson, My Podcast Guy, from Circle270Media Podcast Consultants

Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):

https://uppbeat.io/t/vince-mcgill/lemon-slice

License code: 2NRNUIV5VG7FU3K5

Copyright 2024 Brett Johnson, My Podcast Guy™

Welcome to the Circle Sessions featuring the Circle of Experts. The Circle of Experts are Yasmine Robles from Robles Designs, Tonnisha English Amamoo of TJE Communications, and Don The Idea Guy. I'm Brett Johnson from Circle 270 Media Podcast Consultants. Each week, one of the Circle of Experts joins me to talk about critical aspects of growing your podcast. We focus on marketing, social media monetization, and website design to help you implement all of these together. Well, this week, Tonnisha is here from the Circle of Experts. Tonnisha is on a mission to help small businesses level the playing field through digital marketing and digital marching solutions. You know, Tonnisha, thanks for joining me again today.

Yes. Of course. Always a pleasure. Thanks for having me.

So beginning of the year, we're talking about goal setting. That that kind of is the conversation you have in January, and I think we, You know, we kinda talked about this before the episode as well too Of looking at The SMART goal Sessions. And and you could really start The clock anytime with this, but, of course, January is a good time to be rethinking what you do. So you you have some ideas on SMART goal setting for for your podcast. And and and let's let's go over that. Let's, let's start with what the smart s m a r t means, and then we'll let's break them down.

Yeah. Yeah. Like you said, this is the the time of year where everybody's working on Sessions, and they have big goals for the year. But, these SMART goals can be used really at any time of the year, anytime you're working on something new or, you know, maybe you just need a reset. So SMART goals are specific, measurable, achievable, Relevant and timely. Some people say the r, can be relevant or realistic. So we can, you know, jump in to kinda, like, breaking those down. So number 1, the s in the smart stands for specific.

So, you know, I'm guilty, of setting a goal, and being a little generic. And I think We get generic because we get scared sometimes of, like, setting a goal and then have it in the back of your mind, like, well, what if I don't reach that Goal. So we can be generic. But I think it's important to be specific when you're setting a goal. So let's Say your, your smart goal for 2024 will be to post more content or gain more followers. That is a very specific goal, and you'll be able to kinda track how, you are working towards that goal if you are making strides to hit The or not. And then, whether you are or not, it will actually be a great opportunity for you to look at how to work Towards that goal.

Yeah. I think the more vague it is, the harder it would be to do the other pieces of smart people.

Exactly. Exactly. Which goes into measurable. So you want the goal to be something that, you can actually, you know, look at some numbers and See if you're hitting it. So if your goal is to post more content, you know, you can look at some data from last year And say, okay. Last year, I posted once a week. So far, I'm posting 3 times a week. So you can see that you actually are making strides Hit that goal.

Or maybe last year, you did post 3 times a week and, like, your goal was to post more, but now you're posting less. So now you could think about what is happening, why is that happening, and how can I, you know, do better to reach that goal so you can think about utilizing a content calendar, which you all know that I love? And that will help you not only, make sure that you're posting more, but you can also keep track of analytics to see how that is working out for you. Same thing if your, you know, specific goal for social media may be to gain more followers. You can create that content calendar, And at the end of every month, see how many followers you have. And let's say once we're, you know, 3, 4 months into the year, are you growing? Are you posting more? If if not, then now we need we can go back to the drawing board and try to figure out how to continue to work towards our goals.

Yeah. One thing came to mind when you're talking about that, that it seems as though if you have that measurable goal in mind, let for your example, Let's say, last year, you post posted 1 time a week, and now it's 3. Okay. Very measurable. The all of a sudden, Subconsciously, you start to for me, at least, you start to hear all this advice about that social media platform and how to do it better. Mhmm. So it's almost The, and and I heard this podcast the other day talking about how to work quit, dropping a bunch of links in in a in a LinkedIn, pod a post.

Yeah.

Because you're just dumping, and it and and and LinkedIn doesn't like that. So if your focus is on LinkedIn and increasing posts, or why would you just dump a bunch of stuff every week that you know is not making any sense for LinkedIn to even be be visible. So I think it's, again, it's that part Of, like, okay, you're in you're in that mindset of doing this.

Yeah.

And all of a sudden, this information that, about the social media you're utilizing is kind of coming to you going, oh, I didn't know that was a better way of doing The. And it just kinda helps you go along. At least that's what what hits me when I hear you say that. It's like, yeah, some of that stuff really comes 2 to the forefront once you focus on what you're doing.

Yes. And I actually love that you mentioned LinkedIn because that's another way to get even more specific It's to say, I wanna post more content on LinkedIn, and then you can, you know, listen to other podcast, read articles that are specifically talking about LinkedIn and how you can get better at LinkedIn. And maybe you spend, you know, 1 quarter of the year focused on every single platform and how to grow and get better. That's super specific. And, you know, it gives you the opportunity to really dive deep into one thing and really, you know, push towards reaching to your goals. So I really love that that you mentioned that.

Yeah. Yeah. It's at least at least you feel like you're moving forward Exactly. And The the right thing

Mhmm.

As part of this big goal that you have for the year. Yeah.

Exactly. It it can be a lot. And I know that social media in general can be a lot in, you know, overwhelming if if it's not something that, You know, is your passion. Like, your passion is whatever it is that you're doing, maybe not necessarily the social media aspect. So if you're able to break these goes down as small as possible, into the tiniest bites. It makes it, more achievable, which is the a, in the smart goals. Right. And, you know, I also like to use the word attainable, Interchangeably with achievable because, you know, if your goal is to grow more followers and you have a1000, You may not grow to a 1000000 followers in a year, you know, if that is your goal.

I'm not I'm not gonna say it's impossible, But for the average person, it's probably not something that's achievable or attainable. So really thinking about as you're setting your goals to, make them something that you can achieve. Now you don't wanna make them so small where it's like, I have a 1000 followers. I wanna have a1000 and 10 by the end of the year. You know, you do wanna challenge yourself, but you don't want to necessarily, you know, think about or create goals for yourself that are seemingly just, like, so outrageous that it may not be able to not only attain, but sustain. So you've been thinking about, you know, how often you wanna post content. If you're only posting once a week and now you wanna post every single day, That might not be sustainable for you to make that huge jump. So thinking about how to You know, if in the end, your goal is to post 7 days a week, what can you do now to go there? Or right now, you're at once a week.

So now our goal is 3 times a week. And then maybe in the second half of the year, our goal may be 5 times a week. And just, you know, kinda slowly climb that ladder for yourself. You wanna make sure that whatever the goal is, it's not gonna be something that you hit one time, and then it's like, Yeah. I did it. I'm moving on. You want it to be something that you can truly sustain, throughout the time of you doing whatever it is that you're doing.

That's really insightful thinking about that that, yeah, you can have a Of, but you don't know what it means. Okay. You'd love to have a 1000000 followers, What does a 1000000 followers mean? Mhmm. Mhmm. That that's a huge community Yeah. That wants to be fed all the time, or they're gonna drop off. There there is a expectation level that you have built that if you're doing, like you said, 7 times a week, you You have to continue

it. Mhmm.

There has to be some end run on that to figure out what you wanna do with The 1,000,000 people that are, You know, following okay. The engagement number, that's a different story. You know? Right. There are lots of different levels of The, what what a 1000000 followers mean. Right. Yeah. It's it's that okay. Now you can you you can you're you're a marathon runner.

What's next? Yeah. Are you yeah. Are you gonna keep doing marathons, or, or what are you gonna do? That's a really good insight, but, you know, it's great to say, hey. I've got a 1000000 followers. Okay. Great. But

Right. Right. Because, you know, once you start which, you know, maybe the goal for some, maybe not for others, but if your end goal is a 1000000 followers, now we're talking about a whole different, way that we're running business. So maybe it's not you managing social media now. Maybe it's a team that's doing that to make sure that your followers are being fed. And when you have all those people, they're all wanting something. You know? So there's, like, layers that will eventually go into that goal, but you gotta start somewhere. And you want it to be at, a pace that you're able to sustain.

I mean, we see people go viral, And then they really have nothing else to Guy after that, so then it kinda like dies out where it's like, okay. They had a moment, But they didn't have the right tools or team in place to really capitalize off of that moment. You know, the, what's The the saying, like, slow and steady wins the race. Right? So you wanna make sure that, you are able to really sustain and, To attain and sustain whatever your goals are.

Yeah. That's that's that may be the the this a may be the most important part of smart, and it's for you. It's smack dab in the middle of the word smart as

well too. I think it's probably the most important. Same thing with the r. Now some people, use the r for relevant. Some use it for realistic, which is Kinda along with that achievable, attainable, and a. So when we say relevant so, you know, for me, Being a small business owner, primarily working with other small business owners and nonprofits, doing digital marketing, You know, a business goal for me may be to build brand awareness to get more clients or more projects. A goal that may not be relevant to me, you know, maybe I'm just thinking about, like, contracting Because they're, in my neighborhood, they're building houses. So, you know, would my goal to be, like, to learn how to, like, lay carpet? Maybe not.

I I mean, I don't know. Unless it's like a new business venture, but that's not something that's truly relevant to, like, what I'm doing right now. So when you're thinking about your goals, they should also meet ultimately be aligned with whatever your overall business goals are. And then like I said, that r can be realistic. So, again, thinking about those 1,000,000 followers, is that realistic? Is it realistic for you to say that you're gonna go from not posting at all to posting twice a day, 7 days a week? Really thinking about, again, when we say smart goals, we we're thinking working smart. We're being, We're we're making sure that the things that we want to achieve for our business, even if they are these huge goals, I'm not saying that they can't happen, but we have to be strategic about reaching them.

Yeah. Makes sense. Well, and that kind of leads to the t, timely, of of that time frame of whatever it might be. And I I we always think in year increments, and I don't know whether that may be Healthy, I I you know, we we we divide the year in months, weeks.

Yeah.

Days. You know, it could be a multiyear SMART goal 2. It will bring it back bring it back down.

Yes. That is a a great, way to put it because, I mean, You know, you can have The smart goal, you know, to maybe you do wanna reach a 1000000 followers. That's not gonna it might not happen in a year. It might if get lucky, but maybe this is like a 5 year plan Mhmm. To reach those 1,000,000 followers. So maybe In year 1, you have a focus. Year 2, you have another focus. And really taking that plan, whatever The big idea is, and breaking it down so that it is, specific, so that it's measurable, that it's achievable, it's realistic, And maybe you give yourself a time frame to even check-in.

So, you know, let's say every quarter, You hope to grow 250 followers per quarter. So, you know, keeping track of that and really breaking that down, I mean, The timely part, is is another place where I think the specific and timely is where we can, almost count ourselves out before we even get started. When we're not specific enough, We don't really know what we're trying to achieve. And then when we don't give ourselves a timeline, we kinda just leave it open because, You know, you may have that fear of putting a time frame on it Of not achieving it. And honestly, I think That not achieving a goal is a great learning experience to figure out, you know, what went wrong. Or maybe I need to give myself more time or maybe I, gave myself too much time. So I procrastinated a lot and really didn't Don the things I was supposed to do. So really setting a time frame to achieve those goals.

And like you said, it doesn't have to be Year over year. It could be every month. It could be every quarter. It could be, you know, from January to June and then from July to December, you know, really thinking about what makes sense for you and your business. And, you know, I know for me, Depending on the time of the year is when I'm getting more people reaching out for proposals versus when it gets really quiet and everybody's either on summer vacation or they're enjoying the holidays, and there's really not much going on. So I kinda have those time frames To really work on my business and, you know, working on some of the goals that I had set. So think about your industry, think about your business, and what make sense for you. But you don't have to work on a January to December.

I mean, a lot of corporations are on a fiscal year For their year, like, from The 2023 doesn't end until June. Mhmm. So, you know, whatever makes Since for you and what works for your business, is really important when it comes to setting these goals for yourself.

And even putting it into very specific podcasting. You know, walk working with a lot of clients that they The don't realize they can give themselves the grace of taking some time off.

Yeah.

So they look at and so, you know, let's let's let's divide your your your podcast content into seasons then.

Mhmm. Mhmm.

And there there you have that Time segment of a Sessions, and one builds on the other versus cranking out content all the time and you get burned out. Mhmm. Well, let's let's Take a break from that, and then all of a sudden, now you can measure 1 season against another versus

Right.

You know, The the month after month after month after content kind of content, and you you you're starting to build this library of great content, but you you sometimes forget what you have. And taking a little bit of a break and looking back

Mhmm.

At season 1 or season 5 and how it all plays, It gives you that break, and all of a sudden, you get you get to start again with another smart goal even if your even if your season is 1 month off. You know, you just say, I'm gonna take 30 days off to re redo and re reduce and and look at season number 5.

Yeah.

Good. All of a sudden you have those markers and time The may be a little bit easier to measure than month after month after month after month of analytics and downloads and, you know, all The engagement stuff that

Yeah.

Maybe a smarter way and more mentally healthy way The it too. Yeah.

Yeah. And specifically with podcasts, you know, I've talked about, you know, how I enjoy, you know, lots The true crime podcast. I listen to podcasts that are also, like, related to pop Circle. And with the pop culture Robles, because that's. Those are things that are happening right now. Like, those podcasters have unfortunately kinda set themselves up where they have to record every single week Because something that they wanna talk about may not be relevant anymore versus like a true crime kind of podcast or telling stories of things that, You know, it could be those infamous people that we already learned about, and maybe it's just new information, or they might be telling a story where it's something that's already happened Don now they're just telling the story. And I know for 1 of the podcasts, they have, like, A 1000000 listeners. And people, you know, if they don't post an episode, you'll get mad.

Yeah. And The go on Twitter or x, And they will tell them like, yo. Where's the episode? Like, what's going on? And, you know, they've had to be open and honest about their mental health struggles Just with the demand of not only working on the podcast, but other things that they have going on in their lives and, you know, that demand for for the content. And they've had to now kinda retrain their listeners just to understand that, you know, they're humans. They have, you know, mental health Robles. They have family struggles, and sometimes you may not get an episode. So even me as a listener, I kinda got, You know, retrain where it's like, I might get an episode this week. I might not.

It might be on Wednesday like it usually is. It might be on Friday kinda just is what it is. Yeah. So thinking about that too. When you have that high demand for for your content, when you have a 1000000 listeners, Are you gonna be able to sustain that, and how will you be able to sustain that?

Right. Exactly.

The that really plays A role into your goals as well. You know, it could be the type of content that you have. I feel like it may be almost better to have that evergreen content where it's like you know? Of course, you know, if there's something going on in the industry like We've done before with TikTok and threads where it's like, hey. We gotta do this episode and get it out, you know, the next day. But that's super rare. So, you know, being able to maybe set a goal for yourself if you know that, you know, in the wintertime, things may be a little slower For you, for your business, maybe it's easier to get podcast guest, when it's cold outside because everybody nobody wants to go outside and do anything, and try to record as much content as you can so that you're not constantly on that, You know, schedule, it's like, oh my gosh. Every single week, I have to, like, make sure I get to the studio and record. Like, can you set a schedule for yourself? Can you set a a goal To say that in every podcast recording session, we're gonna do 3 episodes or 4 episodes so that we could build out for an entire month And then use the rest of our time doing something else.

So Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. And, you know, what what we're painting the picture here Hey. Is The sometimes you need outside help. Yeah. You just do. Because of of and if nothing else, another set of eyes, another set of ears,

Mhmm.

Another brain that's gone through these scenarios that you're just now entering. Right. And that and that kinda leads into, you know, contacting any The professionals here at the Circle Sessions, you know. And, again, specifically you with with the smart goals of of the social media, Whether it's specifically for a podcast or maybe a business that has a podcast or just Mhmm. Business needs for social media, let's get into contact information. So let's Take the we've we've we've we've created an itch. They've got a scratch, and and and they wanna talk to you more about The, you know, some smart goal ideas or how to implement 2 out of 3 to understand, whatever the case might be. How can they get a hold of you? Let's let's Let me know to keep this conversation going with people listening.

Yes. Yes. You can always get a hold of me through my website at tjecommunications.com. I'm also on social media as TJECOM. I do offer free, consultations. So, if you wanna talk more about SMART goals or maybe even just talking through some ideas of some goals that you have and Trying to figure out how to break that down into the smart model. I'm always down to to talk to anybody, so don't hesitate to reach out.

Yeah. And you've got a newsletter going on too, don't you?

You send some stuff going on. Yeah. Do have a monthly newsletter. I did not send one at The top of the year, recovering from the flu like we were talking about that's running rampant. So, yeah. And and, again, I set a goal for myself. I had All of my, newsletters planned out from January to December, and January didn't happen. Yeah.

So, you know, things happen, and we gotta, you know, figure out how to pivot, When it comes to your goals, like, you may set these goals and something may happen and you have to pivot, and that's totally okay too. I don't think anybody is, like, you know, desperately waiting for my newsletter, so I think it's fine.

Oh, what once it's sent, they're gonna unsubscribe because, Well, now you send 1. It's too late. You're right excited.

Right. So so, yes, if you wanna talk to your goals or maybe even talk about, I have a lot of failures that I've learned from too. So if you wanna talk through, you know, how you, you know, wanna work There's some failures with your goals. I'm always open. I'm an open book. So

Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. And, you know, this year, we're looking at, for Circle270Media that any podcaster wants a podcast audit.

You know,

let's let's listen to what you're doing. It's part of the SMART goal thing is, like, you have a podcast already. Let's take a listen to it and see what's what's not clicking. You know, most podcasts have some really good things going on for themselves. It just comes down to maybe tweaking this, tweaking that. Mhmm. Best practices The, you know, there is no wrong way or right way to do it. It just comes Don to maybe doing it a little bit better.

Yeah. And we we we Of that podcast audit. You can get a hold of us at mypodcastguy.com. And until next time, Tonnisha, thank you. Appreciate it.

Yes. Of course. See you