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 show is really successful I mean…”
When we’re thinking of success, it’s easy to jump to the extremes. To the “peak” versions of success we’ve seen other people like us accomplish.
Except…
Those other people are often less like us than we think.
They have different interests, experiences, perspectives, motivations, goals, and reasons for setting those particular goals.
In reality, podcasting success is as varied as the creators who make up the medium.
A 50,000 download/episode podcast earning $10,000/month from sponsorships might be more success than you would dare to dream for.
The same podcast, however, would be considered an abject failure for many podcast networks and businesses.
Getting clear about what success looks like for you and your podcast will inform the tangible goals you set, the strategies and tactics you put in place to reach them, and even the content and production of the show itself.
At Counterweight Creative, we have clients who require tens of thousands of downloads per episode in order to generate the number of leads they need in order to support their businesses.
We also have a client who’s pulled off a $300K launch with only 250 listeners.
This is a very different podcast and a very different strategy than a show that requires 10x or even 100x the number of listeners in order to be successful.
So again, what does success look like?
For you.
It’s a lot easier to find success when you know exactly what you’re looking for.
