Ep 79: How Experimenting with Your Podcast Can Lead to Unprecedented Growth and Success
Do you experiment enough with your podcast?
In this episode, I am joined by Adam from Podcasting Business School to discuss the importance of experimenting more with your podcast. I know it can be scary to try new things, worried you might lose listeners. But be brave - what's the worst that could happen? The worst-case scenario is that your listeners will skip an episode they don't love rather than unsubscribe.
We share examples and podcasting tips of experiments, like workshop weeks with multiple episodes released at once and incorporating audience audio clips. Podcasting is still new with few rules, so we have so much room for creativity.
Consider what's holding you back from experimenting. Is it fear of failure? Know that one "bad" episode won't ruin your podcast. And trying new things, whether it's your format, guests, topics, or marketing, could take your show to the next level.
I'm here to tell you - be fearless. The opportunities here are immense, for both hosts and guests. This is the frontier, and together we're still shaping what podcasting can become. So try something new today! What do you have to lose?
Highlights:
- The fear of putting out a bad episode and losing subscribers.
- Examples of podcast experiments, such as workshop weeks and audience audio clips.
- Creating snippet episodes to cater to a specific audience.
- The evolving nature of podcasting and the lack of rules.
- The freedom and opportunity podcasting provides for creators and guests.
- Podcasting as a business tool and its growth and acceptance.
- Using experimentation to improve format, guests, questions, topics, and marketing.
- Overcoming the fear of potential outcomes and embracing new ideas.
Timestamps:
- 00:00:00 Do You Experiment Enough with Your Podcast?
- 00:01:07 How to be Fearless and Experiment with Your Podcast Content
- 00:03:49 The Frontier of Podcasting: Rule-Breaking and Innovation
- 00:05:51 The Potential of Podcasting as a Business Tool
- 00:08:45 Experimenting with Your Podcasting
Guest bio:
Adam Schaeuble is a full-time podcaster, podcasting business consultant, and the host of the Apple Top 100 ranked podcast Podcasting Business School. Adam uses his three-phase Podcasting Business Accelerator process to help coaches, consultants, and service providers leverage podcasting to generate a 6 figure income stream while subtracting at least ONE day from their work week.
- Listen to Podcasting Business School: https://www.podcastingbusiness.school/
- Website: https://www.podcastingbusiness.school/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/podcastingbusinessschool/
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Freebies:
- ✅ Podcast Launch Checklist and Episode Planner – https://veritysangan.com/launchchecklist
- 🎉 Grow Your Podcast Audience 5-day Email Challenge – https://veritysangan.com/5daychallenge
- 🙋♀️ Podcasting – Getting Your Business Heard – https://veritysangan.com/podcastwebinar
Transcript
[00:00:24] Verity Sangan: You know, maybe your show isn't growing and you're worried about that, or maybe it is growing and you just wanna try something new, but you may be too scared to. In this episode, Adam and I have sat down and we discuss all about experimenting with your podcast, and Adam gives some amazing tips as to just 1 thing that you could do, 1 experiment that you could run, which could really take the monetization of your podcast, assuming that you're monetizing your podcast, but could really take the monetization of your podcast to the next level. Enjoy. This podcast is I don't think people experiment enough with best shows. What what do you think?
:: [:[00:01:36] Adam Schaeuble: I'm like, I'm doing this experiment on this other thing that I I I have to see if this other thing works or not. So, like, I'm not always doing that, but I I experiment a lot just with my content, with my calls to action, With the cadence of my content, like, sometimes I'll do workshop weeks. So instead of 2 episodes, I'll drop 5 in 1 week and focus on, like, doing, like, a little mini workshop. I do a lot of, like, audience audio clip Experimentation with, like, testimonials or, open q and a stuff. But, yeah, I feel like The big fear that we all have is we'll put out 1 piece of content, and everybody hates it, and they unsubscribe.
[:[00:02:36] Adam Schaeuble: I'm not even gonna start listening to that. So, be fearless because you can come up with some cool stuff. Like, I had one of my clients. He's like, he's got he's got an ADHD podcast, And he's very conscious that he can't have really long episodes because of his audience. And he but and he wants to do interviews, But he also wants to have some extra positioning.
[:[00:03:23] Adam Schaeuble: So he still has he's still kind of the important person on the show, but still features another person as a guest. So, like, That was just really brave of him, and those episodes are getting great feedback from his his audience. And they're shorter, and he still gets feature of the people and collaborate with other people in the space. So, yeah, we need to be a little more fearless, a little less fearful with experimenting a little bit because we can create some cool stuff.
:: [:[00:04:04] Verity Sangan: episodes without, But without interviewing for multiple episodes. So from a guest point of view, that's absolute genius.
[:[00:04:23] Verity Sangan: Yeah. And do you
[:[00:04:39] Verity Sangan: I was like, but why do I have to. Where is this where is the 10 commandments of podcasting that told me and that's what I love about podcasting because I do think it's still relatively developing, up and coming. I don't know how to pull it, but I just don't find that there's as many rules in podcasting as there are for other platforms like social media, YouTube, etcetera.
[:[00:05:20] Adam Schaeuble: Like, if you'd asked me 3, 5 years, like, when I started in 2015, my parents had no idea what a podcast was or anything. And now I can they can find a podcast. I'm like, hey. Go and find, you know, Lazy Girl's Guide to Podcasting, and they can search it on Apple, and they'll find it. No problem.
[: :: [:[00:06:17] Verity Sangan: Yeah. Definitely. I love I was just, laughing internally though when you said about, your parents not knowing what a a podcast was when you started out. I remember when do you remember when Ipads. Not Ipads.
[:[00:06:43] Verity Sangan: And everyone was, oh my god. This is the coolest thing ever. And then we all looked at this thing which said podcasts, more like, what the heck is a podcast? We're just like, what is this? It was just such a weird thing.
[:[00:07:23] Adam Schaeuble: Yeah. I mean, I remember that I remember that exact time, And that's when I owned a fitness facility. And, the guy that did my website, he's like, you should do this thing. He didn't tell me what it was, You should record some audio, and we'll put it on your website. But he he was also putting it out as a podcast, and this is, like, 2009.
[:[00:07:51] Adam Schaeuble: And then even today, Like, I tell people that I'm a full time podcaster, and there are 2 reactions today. Reaction 1 Or question 1, are you famous? Question 2, are you homeless? Like, that those are the 2 those are, like, those are the only 2 things. It's either You
[:[00:08:11] Adam Schaeuble: It's either you're Amy Porterfield, Lewis Howes, or you're Wayne's World. You're Wayne and Garth from Wayne's World, and you live in your parents' basement. So, like, people don't know what to expect of me. Like, we moved to a new town, and my my son's playing basketball, I meet the other parents. Oh, what do you do?
[:[00:08:30] Verity Sangan: we invite him around for dinner
[:[00:08:39] Adam Schaeuble: Yeah. So it's it's still pretty interesting, but, We're we're gaining momentum in the space for sure.
:: [:[00:09:03] Verity Sangan: Could be about marketing your podcast, how you promote it. Do you experiment enough with your podcast. And if the answer is no, I'd like you to really consider why that is. Is it because you're scared of a potential outcome. Are you scared of maybe losing all of your listeners, which is very, very unlikely to happen?
[:[00:09:50] Verity Sangan: I would hugely appreciate it. Otherwise, I'm Verity. This has been another episode of the Lazy Girl's Guide to podcasting. Happy podcasting, and I will see you next episode.
