4 Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make When Trying to Grow Their Podcast Downloads | Ep 23

We've all been there - launching a podcast and expecting people to listen. 

You've got a message to share with the world, you wanna do some good, AND grow your business at the same time...

But time and time again, I see entrepreneurs, life coaches and therapists making the same mistakes with their podcasts. 

And it's okay, we've all gotta start somewhere when we launch a podcast. We're all gonna make those rookie mistakes... 

But if I can help you skip a few of those steps so you don't fall into the traps that I see all the new podcasters making, that could make all the difference to the way you approach your podcast from the start, then it could make all the difference! 

Want to start a podcast? Download the FREE Podcast Starter Checklist, a 15-point guide created specifically for entrepreneurs, life coaches and course creators.

Music by Kadien: Instagram | Spotify | SoundCloud

Transcript

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Podcast Growth Strategies and Mistakes

Speaker 1 0:00

When it comes to getting seen online , there's a fine balance of being able to create content , create podcast episodes that get attention . Knowing full well what little clips are going to be cut out of your podcast is key , and so you then need to think well , how can I embed that into an episode ? Hello , and welcome to another episode of Big Vision Business Owners . Today , we are looking at the four mistakes entrepreneurs make when they are trying to get their podcast listened to and to get more downloads . Now , this is an episode where I share some of the mistakes that I have made , but the ones I also commonly see from other people trying to get their podcast listened to or seen , depending on what kind of format you're looking at . But what happens is is that we're so focused on these download numbers and I've spoken previously on episodes about why the download numbers are not the most single important thing that you need to be worrying about when you are creating your podcast , because there's no point having these numbers coming in if you then don't know what to do with them , to convert them and to do something with them . But at a certain point , you do realise that there's a numbers game element to it , where the more people that you have coming through that system , therefore , the more people are going to be signing up to your email list and therefore it's going to increase all of those numbers , even if we know that it's only a 10% conversion rate . Let's put 1,000 people coming in rather than 100 . You're going to have more people to convert in that . But there are a few things that entrepreneurs tend to do as a way of trying to get more podcast downloads . Yet they don't necessarily acknowledge that these things are causing them issues and that they're leading to the problems of not seeing the growth and not having a podcast that is worth listening to and coming back for more . So on today's episode , I'm going to share those four . We're going to delve into them and look at what it is that you might be doing and then doing afterwards to try and fix those things and what you actually need to be focusing on as a result of trying to get your podcast seen .

Speaker 1 2:09

Now , the first thing that I know a lot of people do is that they record their episodes off the cuff . Now , I have previously spoken about the fact that I can set a camera up and I can create a podcast like that . That is something that I can do . It's not an issue for me to go okay , I need to create an episode . What am I going to create the episode on ? And within a few moments , I'll have something that is made .

Speaker 1 2:37

However , there is a beauty to that , but it's not one that necessarily helps you in business , because more and more do we need to look at what we're saying to people , how we're saying it and when we're saying it as a way to really resonate with people in front of us , and whilst I could come up with something like three ways to make the most of single life like that , that's a lovely episode , but it's not necessarily going to move people towards me and my process . What we need to be doing is thinking very strategically about what's going to get us seen online , and actually my first podcast was called Eight Ways to Make the Most of Single Life , and it does really well . I don't think that's because of the title , though I think it's because it has position number one of the podcast , and that is what draws attention the fact that it's number one . People want to start at the beginning , so they go back and listen to that , whereas when you start to understand your audience and what they not want to hear , but need to hear as a way to start listening to you and trusting you . That's what makes the difference . Now , that isn't necessarily going to get you seen more online and get you more downloads . What that's going to do is start to convert people . That's the conversion process .

Creating Quality Podcast Episodes Online

Speaker 1 3:57

When it comes to getting seen online , there's a fine balance of being able to create content , create podcast episodes that get attention . So knowing full well what little clips are going to be cut out of your podcast is key . It's like knowing that you want a clip about X , y , z , so I could want a clip about this . I could want a clip about talking about what clips you're going to put out of a podcast , and so you then need to think well , how can I embed that into an episode ? And it's all of this element of understanding the intent of the episode for the listener , the intent of the episode for you as the person in your business trying to get people to see you online , to get people listening to the podcast , to get them on an email list and use it as part of a funnel .

Speaker 1 4:43

And go beyond and I know some people have this temptation to go to chat GPT and ask them for a list of things to talk about and then to give them a basic outline . Now I have done that for speed issues , but I usually have like a system of oh , I've got 10 ideas and I'm looking to sort of create 12 to sequence them . I'm like what else can I do , as opposed to give me 10 ideas and give me them all ? When it comes to outlines , I might ask ChatGP what it would include in . I've already got my outline , but what I'm doing is I'm using it as someone to double check my work , because when you're on your own , you do actually want someone to bounce ideas off . Can we bounce ideas off of an ai ? Um , but it just makes you go oh yeah , actually I did want to say that I totally forgotten . Or it goes , oh yeah , that's so topical right now . I could add that in . So chat gpt has a place .

Speaker 1 5:34

But there's this thing where people tend to rely on it because everyone's talking about ai , how it makes your life quicker . But then if you're asking ai for a podcast episode on four mistakes that entrepreneurs make , you're all going to come up with the same four things . But you know , within reason maybe it would come up with a little bit different , because you worded it like this and they worded it like that , but we're going to end up with everybody sounding the same online and nothing differentiating each other apart from the delivery of it . Now , you know , there's a good thing about that is because the best deliverers of the information are going to get the most attention , which then tells you oh , I don't really want people that are better than me at presenting but are presenting the same information to pit me to the post . So , therefore , you want to be positioning yourself with that content . That's your opinion or your methodology that actually gets attention online , instead of regurgitating something that someone else could easily say . And don't get me wrong , can people say this bit ? I mean , yes , they could , but they're gonna have the other three that people do as well . We'll see as we head on to mistake number two .

Speaker 1 6:44

And mistake number two is that you are avoiding the technical side of podcasting . So , yes , you've managed to get yourself set up , recorded , it's uploaded et voila . But what's happening here is that there are extra tools and systems that can help you to make your podcast even better than it is right now , and by avoiding the technical elements . It's not allowing your podcast to sound as good as it should or to come across as good as it should and to not leverage it as much as you could . So I know a lot of people , for example , are using Spotify for podcasters . It is not a bad thing because , for example are using Spotify for podcasters . It is not a bad thing because it's free . You can get your podcast set up . You don't even have to pay a podcasting platform anymore because you could do it on Spotify for free . The thing is with Spotify for podcasters , because it's free , it doesn't have half the functionality , for example , of something like Buzzsprout . Plug for Buzzsprout there . There they've not paid me or anything , but it is genuinely what I've always used .

Speaker 1 7:46

Now on buzzsprout , yes , the more tools you use , quite often you have to pay for more , but when I'm managing the podcast on my own , there's this beautiful setting called magic mastery . Now , mastering it's not the most important thing in your podcast , but don't make a little bit of difference to people like listening in the car , especially if you've got a guest episode where your microphone is at a different level to someone else's and , of course , your voice is quite dynamic , potentially , anyway . So what it does is it evens it out on average so that it isn't just really loud for you and really quiet for them and really loud for you . It'll actually sort that out so it sounds correct . It does all these other things that make it sound better and you , you might go . Does that really matter ? To download ? Well , if you have a fantastic podcast , then people will listen , no matter what .

Speaker 1 8:34

Now I think back to the Divercy O'Melcy podcast episode , when the audio didn't go right . They had an issue with it and they decided , because it was so good , they were still going to release it , but I just couldn't . I couldn't listen to it . And there was another episode one of their guests who had a lot of likes in their language , and , whilst it wouldn't have put everyone off , it really put me off . And so there's a level that you want to get to in terms of acknowledging that some technology can really help you in this process . So , so they still have plenty of views on those videos , but the reality is is it turns some people off , and you don't know who you're turning off by not having at least a decent level of quality to your episodes , of which something like Buzzsprout can help you with magic mastery , sorting out the volumes , you've got something like Descript for taking out ums , ahs and stutters

Overcoming Fear of Public Opinion

Speaker 1 9:23

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Speaker 1 9:23

Now I have presented for so long as a teacher , as somebody creating content that I don't think I'd like to think . I don't um , ah and stutter that much I know . I have a few how do we call them ? Annoying things where I I can't describe the tut . It's not a tut , it's like pursing my lips . It's not pursing , I don't know what it is .

Speaker 1 9:43

But there are things that I do that I know are for buying me time , such as using butt and pausing , and that little noise is me thinking over . I don't necessarily intend to make the noise , so I'm aware of what's going on , but I don't cut all of those out . We cut some of them out . We cut . We cut the annoying ones out , um , and we don't go for every single um . It's more of a . If there's a long thinking um , then we'll get rid of that , and that's the kind of ums , rs and stutters that you do want to get rid of . And d script will get get rid of the ums and the rs . And there are all these tools but so many people shy away from them because they just think well , I've got a podcast , it is going to be good enough . People will listen if they want to listen , but ultimately people want to listen to the best bits and they want to listen to it in an eloquent way and to the point . So we've got to start realizing that there's so much out there that's going to help you to get your podcast seen online .

Speaker 1 10:42

Now let's go on to the third thing that entrepreneurs are sometimes a little bit put off by in terms of getting their podcast seen , and that is that you're worrying about what other people are going to think of you . Putting yourself out there online in a space is scary , and I remember this because I'd been not bored enough of it . But I know that my school were not particularly . They weren't unhappy and they didn't say , no , you can't do it . But they really didn't want there to be this sort of public persona that they could not control , but they didn't have control of the PR around it . I totally get that as a business , and so I'm working within that that they've got a public persona to hold , and so when I was putting myself out there talk about going through divorce , single life , it was a bit scary for them .

Speaker 1 11:30

So they were just like can you please not use your name and just make it a little bit more distinct from Chantelle Dyson to Chantelle the coach ? Sure , fine , like that's not a problem , okay , but bit difficult because I would quite like to use my name . It's quite unique , but fine , and obviously we use our name now as that association has distanced . But that in itself then made me more worried about what I was putting out there . I was already worried not worried , but you know , conscious , because I'm a teacher and we're warned about putting stuff on social media full stop . We have whole safeguarding training days on it . So then imagine being pulled to the side and someone saying by the way , can you not , can you not make it something to do with you too much , because we need to worry about this from a school perspective . So then I'm doubly thinking about what other people are thinking and is this okay ? And I think we all naturally unless you're some sort of born performer and know that the camera loves you already that we worry what people are going to think about us .

Speaker 1 12:28

I remember being like , oh god , like I don't really care about any strangers seeing . It's what my friends will see , it's what people will think of me for talking like someone that knows . And you , you see all those videos , people taking the mick out of influencers . So obviously I now walk down the street and record myself much like that as an influencer . I call myself a content creator , it's fine , but it is that shift of oh , but what if I ? What if I get seen by my friends ?

Speaker 1 12:56

And what is putting this opinion out here annoys people because that's the next part of it . It's's then it's not our friends seeing it , but our friends seeing what we're saying , because maybe it's something that they've never talked to you about , maybe it's something that you haven't had a discussion for , and then it's what you're actually saying about that thing . I mean , some of you might delve into politics if you're brave enough . Some of you are going to be talking about social causes because , as big vision business owners , you are going to be talking about the problems in the world and that has so much nuance to it . I know as a PSHE teacher there's left , there's right and there's everyone between in the middle to be debated about , and what we do is we hold ourselves back from putting opinions out there because we're worried about what that opinion is going to say back . One of the biggest ones that we know has a lot of don't say what . You're thinking this out there , because of being cancelled , is anything about gender ? It's a really difficult subject to enter the conversation on without being hounded for one particular . If you don't fit one particular opinion , you're in danger of being cancelled , etc . And that scares people . So what you have to do is find spaces that you can say your piece and realise that by saying those things in the right spaces to the right people , you're going to attract the right people .

Speaker 1 14:15

I mean , this happened . Why do I always end up referring to this podcast ? Because it's such a big podcast , so much happens with it . The Molly May incident of the diary of a ceo . She made the classic quote of we all have the same 24 hours in a day and unfortunately it got picked up on by somebody that turned it into something on social media . It had been out for ages . I'd heard it hadn't thought a thing of it , so many other people probably had , but it was the virality of it that caused the issue and that experience . I saw there was an interview with Stephen and another podcaster who was talking about this incident yet again , and the interviewer had said I was scared to come on your podcast because of that and he said yes , and so many other people actually cancelled . Stephen had said people cancelled as a result of that .

Speaker 1 15:02

Big celebrities , known people that have followings , that have successful businesses , etc . Were worried because of that exposure and this worrying what other people think of you when you put yourself out there does not go away . You will always be putting yourself at a potential risk of someone saying something because you have put yourself out there . I mean , there was one thing the other day with Joe Wicks talking about he thinks ADHD came from food . Now I've since heard since he had to do a clarifying statement that he apparently didn't say that , but it was a quote taken out of context . I didn't check it to know exactly what he did say , but I have a feeling that when you're big enough , that happens more and more and I'm thankful that , despite having like 40,000 followers on TikTok , the podcast having 100,000 downloads , I haven't been subject to that too much .

Speaker 1 15:58

The bigger you get , the bigger that this problem becomes , chris Williamson being another one who started to really feel that because of his status . The beautiful thing is is that most of it . Chris Williamson has a very big podcast now . He didn't get that so much even in his growth period and that was still pretty impressive . Stephen Bartlett hasn't had loads of negativity until most recently in the one incident of Molly Mae . For all of the views that guy has had , it's not been that negative . We're getting more now because people are questioning the validity of some of the nutritionists and the food experts and the contradictory statements from each expert , which becomes difficult and has its own issues . But you've got to be really , really big or start having real influence in the community to really understand , have to deal with that most of the time .

Speaker 1 16:42

I'm not saying it's not impossible that someone would come along , but in order to get more downloads you've got to put yourself out there in a way that other people aren't . And I don't mean to be polarizing for the sake of polarizing . You do not need to polarize , although it is a strategy , but you do need to have an opinion . Being middle of the road and not putting yourself out there and just staying safe is going to make you blend in yourself out there and just staying safe is going to make you blend in , and we know , unfortunately , that negative sort of statements works better .

Speaker 1 17:10

Negative titles , four mistakes . You're making three things not to do . It gets more attention , and that's how psychology works . Unfortunately , positive actually gets you less than if you even went neutral . So it's almost better not to be positive about the world , which is annoying to me as an optimist . But psychology wise , that's really difficult . You pitch yourself really difficultly in that regard . So worrying about what people are going to think and not putting your opinion out there is going to hold you back on the downloads . So having middle of the road episodes you'll probably find them anywhere You've got to make them interesting . You've got to put opinions story , something that makes you stand out and stops the worry of other people's thoughts and opinions of you from saying what you really want to say .

Speaker 1 17:56

And number four comes as a result of the classic what do you do to promote your episode ? So this one's always interesting because there's . So you do to promote your episode . So this one's always interesting because there's so many ways to promote your episode . But the biggest mistake I see from entrepreneurs is that they try and put their podcast everywhere , and I don't mind that to some degree at the start when you're trying to work out where gets the best traction for you how this works best . Now , if you download my podcast checklist , it's got 15 points and it says to you in the promotional part , the last part , how to get seen . One of them is the email list .

Speaker 1 18:32

One of them is the social media technique and I would always no matter if it's just content or podcasting you really want to specialise in on one kind of type of content promotion on social media , whether that is carousel posts , whether that is short clips , whatever it might be . Now , I love the short clips , hence why I do the videos on these , take the short clips , post them a bunch of places and that there is just the same clip regurgitated . And I'm seeing where we get the most traction . And , if you want the insider scoop , youtube Shorts , youtube Shorts that is where my videos , my shorts , seem to be getting the most traction , not TikTok . And this is so interesting to watch because from the Single Girl's Guide to Life , chantelle the Coach , tiktok was absolutely the best place and I really struggled on YouTube Shorts . It really wasn't loving me and I really struggled on YouTube Shorts . It really wasn't loving me , and I can observe that because I've always known that Chantelle the Coach is a very different podcast to this one . This is slightly more educational . It's slightly more intentional .

Podcast Promotion Strategy Mistakes

Speaker 1 19:37

It's really hard to sort of almost lend itself to opinion to some degree , because I can have opinions on podcasts , but there's only so far I can go without repeating myself . It's not . The industry isn't moving in a quick way . We don't have lots of news stories about us single life . On the other hand , dating oh , topic of interest , so much to talk about it . Very b2c , this is very b2b . It almost has a different place and it almost , I think , has a different audience . So so do my clients to some degree . So it's an interesting experiment at that point and that's when you then have to go right . So what's not really working here ? So I then sort of , with chantal the coach in particular , gave up with youtube shorts because it just seemed like I was hitting my head on a brick wall .

Speaker 1 20:15

Same same content , and it doesn't matter for facebook reels , instagram reels , tiktok or youtube . Predominantly the short form content is the same . But trying to put short form content , for example , on Twitter or X is a little bit different to then putting it on LinkedIn , which is a little bit different to trying to do it as a pin on Pinterest . You know that's what I mean by different content pieces . Now , the other big mistake , though , when it comes to this strategy , is posting your audiogram thinking that people are going to listen to it .

Speaker 1 20:46

I think if it's anything in this category of like trying to post way too many things , it's then that you're also posting an audiogram , because the audiograms suck . They , like you , don't watch them , people don't watch them . They don't listen to them because nothing visually bringing anything to their attention . So your best thing to do , if anything that you're going to do with these audiograms , is , you take the audio and you replace the video whatever you're saying hopefully it's nice and deep and something that people want to listen to and you just put b-roll over the top , whether that's a 10 second clip or a 30 second clip , and you just go from different shots of b-roll of you in your business , in your life , in your adventures , whatever it is that you're talking about . I think that's the strongest way that has , because it's not as simple as click download . That has a little bit of extra work to be done . You can't just do that through AI so easily . I imagine that there is a website , and I do know that there is a website that's really good for AI or bringing stock video to the forefront for your audiograms , but I can't think what it's called .

Speaker 1 21:49

When I find it I'll put it in the show notes . It is to hand somewhere , but it's not going to just happen from your podcast host , which a lot of the hosts do , bustrout being one . They do select audiograms . You choose audiograms . I need OpenStop Pro taking my , my entire 20 minute episode and chopping it into pieces because I don't have the time I do not have the time otherwise to select it all myself and I need it to be visually appealing . You know , just a quick , you know it just shows my face just does that bit different to there .

Speaker 1 22:20

So the mistake number four is that people get that strategy wrong . They are not realising that you just need to get good in one place and then you push it out after that . But you've got to perfect that first and find a place to perfect it in . That's getting some traction for you . That isn't your audiogram . So those are the four mistakes that entrepreneurs make when they're trying to get more downloads on their podcast . I'll just do a quick recap of those to refresh your memory as we come to a close

Podcast Mistakes to Avoid

Speaker 1 22:51

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Speaker 1 22:51

So the first one is recording off the cuff , not having a plan , not having a strategy , just recording what you want when you want , because you think that people will listen regardless . Number two is avoiding those technical tools that can help you make an episode that people are actually going to listen to and not put people off of listening . Number three is overly worrying about what other people think of you and therefore avoiding putting yourself out there in any particular way and just staying in the middle lane when you're thinking about content and presenting it . And lastly , is that you're trying to be on way too many podcast platforms and probably sharing that dreaded audiogram that no one wants to listen to anyway . Lots for you to think about there in terms of the mistakes that you might be making . That will be stopping you getting more downloads rather than helping you , even though that's what you are trying to do . Until next time , keep changing the way the world thinks , one podcast at a time .