Speaker 1: If you're starting a podcast or have started a podcast, well, I don't want you to fail. That's why today I'm gonna tell you the top five reasons why podcasters fail. I don't want you to fail and I know you don't wanna fail either, so let's watch this video all the way through so we can make sure we give ourselves the best chance to win as a podcaster. Reason number five, your podcast is too broad. Podcasts that are too broad, which means it covers a wide range of topics, generally speaking, do not succeed. Now, there are exceptions, of course, and if you started in the early days, well, you could podcast really about anything and do well because you were first to market. But today, imagine starting a fitness podcast and competing against all the existing fitness podcasters out there. Well, your audio is just gonna get buried. In order to succeed today as a brand new podcaster, you need to start small. Now, it might sound counterintuitive because by niching down, you're leaving people out, but by leaving people out, you could show up more fully to those who your podcast is meant for. Case in point, one of my students, actually, his name is Phil Lichtenberger, he started a podcast called Scanner School, and this is about those radio scanners, you know, where you can listen into the police or emergency lines or whatever, a very specific niche within the electronic space. Well, within six months, he was able to build a raving fan base. And even after 24 episodes here, he sent this message in one of our Facebook groups. He said, I just had to come here. It's a funny feeling to realize that you've created super fans. I have listeners who follow me on Facebook, Twitter, and now YouTube. They comment on every podcast and are there for almost every Facebook Live. He'd only been live for six months, and already he's getting those things happening. What's really cool is because Phil is establishing a name for himself in a particular area, any company that wants to be in front of that audience knows that he is the guy to go to. And over time, if you wanted to, you can then expand with the base of the audience that you've already built. But if you start too broad too soon, you will have a very, very difficult time. The truth is some of those episodes that you create may hit. Now imagine if all your episodes were about that particular topic that hit, how much of a name you could make for yourself in that space, and how much more quickly you could build loyal fans, connect with companies, and build a business out of that. The riches are in the niches, as I often say. Next, reason number four, you compare yourself to others. Playing the comparison game is very, very dangerous. It's totally cool and actually encouraged to look at others for inspiration and motivation. However, if you look at them and say, oh, why not me or Will? They started much later than me and they're already doing better. They have more subscribers, they have more emails, they have more followers, whatever the case may be, it does nothing positive for your mindset. It is so common to see podcasters give up because they see another podcaster who they feel is doing better, and so they think, well, why should I even be here in the first place? The comparison game that you need to play with yourself as a podcaster is you versus you yesterday, you versus how you and your show were last week, you versus how you and your show were last month or last year. That is how you can make the improvements, that is how you can motivate yourself and gamify the situation. One common comparison newbie podcasters make often is, oh, there's somebody else already in that space and I'm starting from scratch, I have no business, no contacts, no following, no emails, no nothing, how am I gonna succeed? Well, you actually have a huge advantage starting out. The fact that you can actually craft the experience from the beginning, the fact that you can actually tailor messages and specific episodes to a particular group of people and you can fill in the gaps that everybody else has sort of missed within the space, and finally, you can come up with something better or different that can make some noise. For example, take Sophie Walker, she's another one of my students. She started a podcast interviewing moms who were pregnant or had just given birth to help other moms not feel like they're alone. Well, check this out here, she said she started her podcast with no website, no business, and she only has a few amount of people on her email list, and she hit 50,000 downloads, and not only that, over time, she had the number one podcast in Australia in the kids and family section, and she continues to blow us away with her numbers. What's really cool now in Australia is that a lot of organizations use her podcast for continuing education credits. Super, super inspirational, and if you wanna listen to a full interview that I did with Sophie and her journey and how she got started, I'll link to it in the description below. All right, reason number three, you don't market yourself or your podcast. You believe that if you build it, he will come. It's actually he will come, not they will come. Look it up, I promise you, it's a Mandela effect thing and it's driving me nuts, but it's not they will come, but that's what we think, and that's what many podcasters think, and you can't do that anymore. Just having the podcast alone, you're not going to build an audience. However, you can fast forward your podcast growth by doing a few things that I recommend. Based on one of my earlier tips, if you niche down a bit, you will actually spread faster because people like to hang out with people just like them, and if you create a show for somebody, they're gonna share it with other people who are like them. Number two, get very clear with your messaging. When your mission, your beliefs, your message is clear, your ideas, it's much easier for other people to connect to them and relay them to others too. Number three, actively go out there and start building relationships. Not just try to find A-listers to come on your podcast, but try to befriend other people who have podcasts or other bloggers. And number four, the best thing you can do with relation to that is be a guest on another podcast. Not only are people hearing your voice, but you're getting endorsed from the other host and people's apps are already open and it's very easy to subscribe to your podcast from there. Oh, and number five when it comes to markability, create stuff that's worth talking about, right? All right, reason number two. You haven't defined what a successful podcast really means to you. I know a lot of people who start podcasting just because other people are doing it. And when you do that and you don't have something to measure against, you can't tell whether or not it's actually working or not. And if you continue to do something and you're consistent like you should be, well, the truth is eventually you're gonna get to the point where you're just gonna go, well, why am I even doing this? When you can define your why, the success becomes a lot easier to grasp. Maybe it's a certain dollar amount that you wanna make after a certain period of time. Or better yet, it's a certain number of people whose lives you wanna change. And the biggest thing related to this is to remember that every single download, every single play of your podcast is an actual human being that's spending time with you. And depending on what your goals are, I think it's a pretty good opportunity to be able to share your message, to connect, and perhaps build some customers and relationships and actual, actual success stories from what it is that you teach. But you must first define what success with podcasting means to you. Then you give yourself a certain number of months or years to make that happen, and then you show up. You show up consistently. If you don't show up consistently, whether that's weekly or every other week like I did when I first started, then there's no chance for a person to really gravitate toward your show and have it become a part of their lives, and therefore have you become a part of their lives. Podcast listeners are a habitual listening audience. You become a part of their daily lives, on their commute, on their walk, when they go to the gym. And unless you're consistently showing up, well, they're gonna insert somebody else into that playlist because you're not showing up and you're not there anymore. But when you can remember your why, showing up becomes a lot easier, and the real reasons to do so become a lot more clear. And the number one reason why podcasters fail is because they give up before the uptick begins. So many people seem to just quit right before inflection points happen. Imagine all the people who have quit who, if they've only went a couple months more, have could have gotten that hockey stick curve that they've been looking for this whole time. Massive downloads, a number of subscribers to their email list, and potential business, but nope, they were too impatient. On the macro level, when it comes to podcasting, yes, you do have to be a bit patient, but on the micro level, you can do a lot of these things that we talked about to market yourself, to stay consistent, to give yourself the best chance to get to that point where that uptick can occur. Give it time. We live in this world now where we all want results right away, and this is why most of these podcasters quit and fail. But when you show up and when you're consistent and you're patient, but you also figure out what you can do to market yourself, so many doors open up, so many opportunities that you can't even imagine. It can be life-changing for you and your listeners. And so again, if you've just started your show or you're about to, whether you took part in PitcherPod earlier this year, or you're starting your podcast because you found me on a YouTube video, your friend told you about it, whatever the reason is, don't let any of these five reasons stop you. There are people out there in this world who are ready to listen to you, and of course, I'm here and I'm ready to help. There's some information below in the description to help you get your podcast up and running, and I'm excited because it's not just about putting your podcast up, it's about getting found too, which is our specialty. That's what I do, it's the marketing side of it that most people miss, and that's why I'm here. But the marketing and the content and whatever you say on the mic doesn't matter if you're just gonna let any of these things stop you. Don't let them stop you. All right, click on this video right here. This is what YouTube is telling you is the next video you should watch, and I think it's a good one. Yeah, that's a good one, for sure. Thanks so much.