The little-known micro funnel within your larger marketing funnel that might be holding you back from more listeners.
2022 Articles
Every Podcast Starts From Zero
Zero listeners, zero fans, zero reputation. Every podcast creator starts in the same place. It’s easy to begrudge the big brands and media empires for instantly racking up millions of downloads without having to pay their dues. But they did. They started from zero...
The Only Type of Podcast You’ll Ever Be Able to Grow
Chances are, you'd like your podcast to reach more people. Not just reach people, however, but connect with them, move them, change them. The way to achieve that, as you might have already guessed, is through marketing. But there's a catch. There's a secret that...
Don’t Steal This Podcast Marketing Strategy
There’s a good reason why copying the marketing and growth strategies of successful shows doesn’t usually work.
Why Specificity Is the Hidden Driver of Podcast Growth & Monetization
Whether its a heart surgeon, auto mechanic, or podcast host, when it comes to solving problems, we all want to work with a specialist.
The Cliché Career Advice That Will Grow Your Podcast
Sure, this advice might no longer be applicable in the corporate world. But it’s more applicable than ever in podcasting.
One of The Biggest Illusions In Podcast Marketing
From the outside, marketing a podcast appears to be an incredibly complex, technical process. In reality, the complexity is a lie.
To Keep Podcast Listeners Coming Back, Nail Your Episode Endings
The last few minutes of an episode play a massive role in keeping your listeners coming back. Here’s how to think about constructing them.
Is Your Podcast Setting You Up For Creative Burnout?
You can only stave off burnout for so long. Here’s how to tell if your current show process is walking you into a trap.
The 10 People You Need to Grow Your Podcast
As podcast creators, our shows often based around a big goal or grand vision for how to make life better for a specific group of people. That vision might be a refinement or improvement on the way things are currently done or a complete uprooting of the existing...
Want Your Podcast Listeners to Buy From You? Here’s What You Need to Do Every Episode
If you feel under-compensated for all the work you put into your show, you might be missing one crucial piece of your podcast strategy.
Defining Your Villain: The Secret to Uniting & Energizing Your Podcast Audience
A shared enemy is a powerful tool for building loyalty, engagement, and a movement. Here’s how to pick the right one.
The Two Tried & True Strategies to Make Your Podcast Un-Ignorable
If you want to grow your podcast, your show needs to stand out. And standing out boils down to two primary options.
Podcast Marketing Insanity (and Why It’s Keeping You Stuck)
If your current marketing strategy isn’t leading to podcast growth, this might be the reason why.
Great Podcasts Have A Distinctive Fingerprint. Does Yours?
If you want your show to both stand out and retain listeners, it helps to make use of all the tools at your disposal. Here are a few of them.
The Idea Faucet: A Simple Exercise to Generate Ideas & Get Unstuck
A while back, I came across Julian Shapiro’s idea of the Creativity Faucet. Here’s how he describes it: Visualize your creativity as a backed-up pipe of water. The first mile of piping is packed with wastewater. This wastewater must be emptied before the clear water...
Your Podcast Probably Isn’t That Good (But Should You Expect It To Be?)
You can’t master Mongolian, golf, or the piano in just a year or two. Why should podcasting be any different?
Idea Generation: The Crucial Skill Your Entire Podcast Hinges On
When it comes to the success of your show, it’s your ability to generate high quality ideas—not your technical skills—that matters most.
The Art of Finishing: The One Habit that Will Make or Break Your Podcast Marketing Strategy
If you want to grow your podcast, there’s one habit that has an outsized effect on your marketing results.
The Overjustification Effect: The Silent Killer of Podcast Dreams
If your podcast has lost its spark, there’s a good chance this is the reason why. You’ve got a couple of options for what to do about it.
The Kobe Bryant Approach to Podcasting
How the process that made Kobe Bryant was one of the most successful basketball players of all time applies to podcasting.
Are You Measuring the Wrong Podcast Metrics? (Here’s What to Measure Instead)
When it comes to growing your podcast, the most-obvious metrics are rarely the ones that matter most. Here’s what to focus on instead.
One Sneaky Psychological Bias Keeping Potential Listeners From Choosing Your Podcast (& How to Get Around It)
To see it in action, all you have to do is start scrolling through Netflix… and then wait for the overwhelm to kick in.
The Best Podcast In The World (and How It’s Easier to Create Than You Think)
You don’t have to compete with the NPRs and Spotify’s of the world to create the best podcast in the world. Instead, think smaller.
A Clever Hack to Stay Motivated When Podcast Growth Is Slow
Podcasting is a notoriously slow-growth medium. That doesn’t mean you need to wait to see real, tangible results.
Lessons From The Stock Market On Growing A Podcast
The non-obvious, hard-to-grasp math behind how small, regular investments in your show add up to big results.
This One Podcast Audience Member Dictates Your Entire Strategy (Don’t Ignore Them)
If you can’t create a podcast that works for this one member of your audience, it’s almost impossible to sustain & grow your show.
The 3 (Deceptively Difficult) Questions That Make or Break Your Podcast Marketing Strategy
They’re deceptively tricky. Incredibly hard to get right. And they’ll dictate the success or failure of your show.
If Your Podcast Isn’t Your Audience’s Favorite, It’s Nothing
At the end of 2020, I discovered the software tool, Notion. If you’re not familiar with it, Notion is an ultra-flexible, all-in-one workspace, allowing you to wrap all your favorite productivity tools into one neat & tidy package. Now, I’m a systems nerd, and I...
The Hidden Marketing Magic Behind the Most Successful, Audience-Loved Podcasts
A lesson from the world of magic, illusions, and showmanship on what makes for a truly special podcast your audience can’t get enough of.
The Slow, Unsexy, Utterly Effective Way to Improve & Grow Your Podcast
While everyone else is busy chasing the next, over-hyped marketing fad, do this to quietly and effectively grow your podcast.
Achors & Associations: A Simple Messaging Tactic to Convert More Listeners
How to use existing well-known content to help potential podcast listeners understand the value of your show before they ever click play.
The Real Work of Podcasting
Creating a great show takes a ton of time. But the most important work happens far away from the mic and computer.
The Hidden Benefits of Approaching Your Podcast as a Body of Work
Individual episodes matter. But not as much as the larger body of work your podcast represents.
Great Podcasts Do “Work” for Their Listeners. Does Yours?
I came across this tweet from Sam Parr, host of the massively successful My First Million podcast a while back. The show's concept is that in every episode, Sam and his co-host Shaan brainstorm potential million-dollar business ideas for their listeners to take and...
Two Ways to Improve Your Podcast (& Why Most People Choose Wrong)
There are two ways to make anything better, including a podcast. The first, and more obvious, is to add something new. More features. More benefits. More bonuses. We often look at the work of others we perceive as more successful and think the difference in results is...
Two Ways to Improve Your Podcast (& Why Most People Choose Wrong)
When what you’re doing isn’t working is it better to add or subtract from your existing foundation?
Distribution Isn’t Enough to Grow Your Podcast
There's a classic scene in Season 4 of Seinfeld that relates perfectly to how many podcast creators approach their shows. Jerry and George are in a meeting with Russell Dalrymple, President of NBC pitching him a pilot for a TV show Jerry and George are writing. When...
The Onlyness Statement: A Simple Sentence That Will Unlock Your Podcast’s Growth
This simple exercise is harder than it looks. But getting it right is the difference between growth and stagnation.
Is Your Podcast Packaging Confusing Potential Listeners?
One of the best pieces of marketing advice I ever received was this: "A confused mind always says 'no'." When it comes to podcasting, this advice applies most specifically to your podcast's messaging. Here's how it works: Clear messaging has the effect of both...
Great Shows Are Built Around The Host’s Superpowers. Is Yours?
Every host has their own unique skills, personality, and perspectives. Your goal is to identify yours and build your show around them.
The One Way to Escape the Podcast Production Hamster Wheel
At one point or another, we've all experienced the podcast production hamster wheel. We run faster, produce more content, and yet never seem to get anywhere. The hamster wheel is exhausting, discouraging, and leads, in one way or another to the death of many a...
What’s the Rare Thing Your Podcast Provides?
Hi friends, I'm a bit of an ice cream fiend. I've sampled ice cream at dozens if not hundreds of ice cream shops around the world and my very first podcast was actually a show about local ice cream in Vancouver. Since I know you're curious, my favourite shop is Salt...
Podcast Growth Flywheels: How to Grow Faster with Less Effort
How to get the maximum return on your effort and make growth faster and easier the longer you produce your show.
The Truth About How Podcasts Really Grow
A few months ago, I decided to go through the list of podcasts I subscribed to and determine exactly how I had discovered them in the first place. There were 18 podcasts in my feed from Seth Godin's, Akimbo to Krista Tippett's, On Being, 99 Percent Invisible to LeVar...
Before You Can Achieve Podcasting Success, You Need to Define It
Asking what podcasting success looks like might seem like a silly question to ask. "Millions of downloads, of course! Oh, and a line up of sponsors out the door... And a book deal... and I want to interview Barrack Obama... And maybe a spin-off Netflix series? Once my...
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