Our indiepod legends have given us many insights, tips, and words of advice this season. They’re speaking from positions of authority and experience, but they didn’t get there overnight. On the final episode of Season 20, we’ll dig into what they wish they’d known before they started, and ask about some mistakes they see new podcasters make, too.
Transcript: Lessons Indie Podcasters Wish They Knew Before Launching
Also Mentioned
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Meet Our Indiepod Legends
“Just do something you’d be proud of. There is no other win, there’s no other success that should have a metric as high as you being proud of yourself. I may not have the most followers, I may not have the most listeners or the greatest reach, but I know that the people that do like what I do matter to me and the content that I do and the work that I do matters to me. And I’m proud of the work that I do. So at some point it’ll resonate with the right people. But I get to have fun until it does, and I get to do work that I’m proud of until it does. And I think that as long as I can be proud of the work that I’m doing, then there’s no way it’s going to fail. It just may take a little longer.”
“I decided to figure out my “why”. Why am I still doing this show? And one reason I came up with was that it’s fun and I like it. And yeah, I have worried about my numbers or my growth or my Patreon income or whatever and been frustrated about those, but I still do it because it’s fun. I have the luxury of having an audience that I can communicate with, and so they’re a big reason why I keep doing it as well. But really I had to look and see why I was doing it. And if I would keep doing it, if I had zero listeners just because it was fun, then I’m doing it for the right reason.”
“And so now I feel a lot more confident to say, actually, I need another week for that episode. Or actually, let’s push the season back by a week or two if we need to. If we’ve not hit this target point at that date, we’ll just move it back. Allowing yourself to take that decision is really important, and people put themselves under a lot more pressure than they have to.”
“A niche is a way for a small marketer, a little guy, to compete with the bigger guys. I’m really, really big on niche marketing. And so my podcast is very much a niche. It’s ocean cruising. There’s a lot of cruisers, and they’re fervent, but many people have never gone on a cruise, so it’s kind of a niche, and you’re almost automatically protected against competition.”
“Things aren’t guaranteed to become amazing. If you keep going, it’s not guaranteed. But if you stop, it is guaranteed to not be amazing, right? Like, if you quit, then that guarantees it’s never going to be successful, it’s never going to work out. But if you keep going, at least you have a chance.”
“I feel like the podcasts and shows and things that succeed are the ones who are truly authentic to themselves and not trying to be like everybody else.”
“Despite the award win, I’m not an expert, but hopefully it does show that I don’t think you need necessarily to be an expert in podcasting. I think what’s probably more important is delivering really good content. So I think if you’re thinking of starting a podcast, but you’ve got some doubts, I think as long as you’re confident in what you want to talk about and who your show’s for, as I spoke about earlier, I think that’s actually more important than knowing what mic to buy and what hosting platform to use.”
Vicki – Bring Your Product Idea to Life
“You just launch, you put it out there. You don’t try and do anything special, because you know within two or three weeks, you’ll know whether or not people are beginning to listen, whether or not they’re finding you. And that’s the time to think, okay, how can I improve on this?”
“I would never not do my cocktail of the week because I think people look for that. They want that. So staying consistent with what people expect from your podcast. Not changing things up all the time… being super clear with that idea in your head and giving that each time,”
“It’s to keep going. Especially when you start looking at the download numbers, it can feel you don’t get the same dopamine hit as social media, where you post something and you see likes and comments. Podcasting, in those early days, you don’t get any feedback. And the download numbers in the beginning are always much lower than we think they’re going to be. And so it’s a little bit of a reality check of like, here’s what the beginning is going to look like. ”
Andrea – The Savvy Social Podcast
“Make the episode good. That’s what you need to start with, is a great why it should exist, and who is it gonna serve? Who is it gonna help? What’s the point of it? Like, there’s a lot of things you can talk about… pick the thing that actually is like, oh, that’s a question that needs answered, or that’s a problem that needs to be solved.”
Daren – The One Percent Better Runner
“I think you need to make sure that the audience know what they’re going to expect, because those are the features that the audience will begin to know your podcast for. Those are the things that if they enjoy them, they will come back for.”