The Problem With Podcast Advice

 I’ve spent the last few hours today reviewing podcast advice, like how to grow and monetize your show. Naturally, as a podcaster I have an interest in this area. But after consuming all this content, I’m kind of left wondering well what should I do specifically?

I think the problem starts in a few areas. Most of the advice from video to video is the same, most podcast coaches are all giving the same advice. So, watching more content isn’t helping me since I’m not learning anything new. I think the bigger issue for me personally is the advice just isn’t applicable to my show format. I think most of these podcast advisers are coming from one of two places:

You Run an Interview Show

One, that the show is an interview show and I can just have a guest on no problem. On the contrary, I dislike interview shows and for that reason really don’t do interviews. Getting a guest on is a bit tricky. I have done two interesting alternative formats, but for most potential guests, I think they want to spew a few surface level ideas and run off. In fact, kind of like my issue with the advice here in general, its quick, its surface level. 

Instead, I think the advice I need is deep, thorough and researched. Likewise, I try to make my show lean towards something research vs just thrown together. Granted, I have experimented with less scripted shows as well. 

So we have covered one idea always given, which is to have guests on your show to promote your show, whether it is other podcasters or is it community leaders within your niche.

Your podcast is a loss leader for your business

Ok, I haven’t actually heard anyone use these exact words, but the sentiment is there. A podcast is not a business, but it can help you find clients for your business. Some of the strategy here is that you actually interview potential clients on the show. In essence the podcast becomes a one on one sale call with just a podcasting facade. For me, the podcast is the business, well actually I suppose there is a little more to it than that, the podcast and blog are a business with the book mixed in there.

I don’t really do consulting or any other activity the podcast would feed into, and for a while there the podcast was the most profitable of all those ventures I mentioned. I don’t really want a client facing side hustle; I’m happy with my media approach. 

Niche Down!

Another piece of advice given is to niche down the topic of your show. And sure my primary show does have a topic, personal finance, that topic is a bit broad. At the same time though, I want to be able to talk about what interests me, whether it is investing related, or otherwise.  Perhaps, I would be better served making a more narrow topic, which is the exact opposite I have done with my newest show. Maybe I will need to try this one in the future again. 

AI can tell me the same thing!

In fact, I think a lot of the advice most Podcast advisors give AI will give you similar guidance. I have a whole blog post about that here. And actually, AI was able to at least slightly personalize some of the guidance. The AI bots were able to ID shows that cover similar topics, that said, they wanted me to reach out to shows that were much bigger than my own. Although, I suppose on the other hand, if I really did get on one of those shows, maybe the podcast would be doing much better.

Back to me

I guess all of this is to say, advice on the internet isn’t personalized, which isn’t a big surprise. But more to the point, I think a lot of advice is tailored to a product I don’t want. So I guess I will keep striking it out on my own and try to find a system that works for me. I haven’t quite found it personally.  For some stats from my own show, my listenership right now is quite low. Granted, I didn’t even release an episode in Feb (I did on 1/1, so this chart is a little off). 

Anyways, using data from my show, I could mostly demonstrate, consistency doesn’t really seem to matter too much. Likewise, when I do social media outreach, I also haven’t seen a measurable increase in listenership. The only thing that really worked so far was featuring this guest, after which I had a bump in listeners for a few weeks.

So I don’t have any solid advice for you. Get out there and find something that works for you.