Podcaster Blues: When Your Show Just Won't Take Off

I saw on Reddit where someone was feeling kind of low because their show wasn't growing.

And so we're gonna talk about some things to think about.

And also, today's episode has a slightly adult theme.

Welcome to youo Podcast Consultant.

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With more than a decade of experience and millions of downloads, this hall of fame podcaster is a featured speaker, author, and mentor to thousands.

Now, he want to work with you.

He's your podcast consultant, Dave Jackson.

So I'm on Reddit, and I go there to see what people are talking about, because that's how I come up with episodes.

And I saw this one, and I felt bad.

The title was Feeling Low.

And this person says, I've been doing this podcast for nine months now, and I did take a bit of a break.

Well, right there, that's a problem.

Now, obviously, if something has come up that it's really damaging your health or, you know, emergencies or things we just call life.

Yeah, take a break.

It's a podcast.

But realize that any momentum you had, it isn't lost, but it slowed down a bit.

But I've been working hard for the past few months to really push and promote it.

I know these take time to grow, but I been doing twice as much work as before and have added some personal touches, but my numbers are lower than ever.

I don't want to stop because it's fun.

Then don't.

If you're having fun, you are getting paid in fun, and that's a good thing.

How many times do you watch things on Netflix or any other streaming service, and you're like, well, that's 90 minutes of my life I can't get back.

You're doing something that is rewarding you in fun, but it's discouraging after all the work I put into it.

And I'm not saying that you're not working hard, but I'm gonna tell a little story here.

When I was married, I discovered that my favorite or my wife's favorite flower were yellow roses.

I don't know why it was Tuesday, but every Tuesday, I would buy her a dozen yellow roses, and she'd come home, it'd be sitting on the table, she'd smile, and it was thoughtful, and she, you know, she appreciated it.

And this went on for quite a while.

And the one day she came home on a Tuesday, and there were the yellow roses.

And I don't know if she was having a bad day.

But, you know, it's great to get feedback, even when it's letting you know that you could be doing something better.

That's how we grow.

And she looked at me and said, look, if you're trying to have more sex, what would really turn me on is running the sweeper, maybe cooking dinner every now and then, or putting the dishes away, something of that nature.

And so when you're saying, I'm doing twice as much work, maybe you're doing things that aren't resonating with your audience.

I see this a lot with new podcasters that are a little worried about launching their podcast.

And I get this.

It's kind of scary, but they will work on their artwork and then they'll work on.

Maybe if they're going to have monetization, they'll start working on their products and then they'll work on something.

And wait, wait, wait, wait.

Where's the actual first episode?

Because we've got to get that one.

Because the first thing you record is not the first thing you publish.

Let's get working on the material.

And that's where things get scary.

And so they're working.

Yes, they're, you know, this is taking up time.

This is taking their effort.

But in the end, if you don't have the content, it doesn't matter what your monetization strategy is.

You don't monetize a podcast.

You monetize an audience.

And step one is get an audience.

And step one of getting an audience is finding out what they want and giving it to them.

There are many other steps to that, but I feel bad because you're taking it personal, and I understand that.

Let me give you another example.

I do a show called Ask the Podcast Coach.

If you ever want free podcast consulting, just get up at 10:30 Eastern on a Saturday and go to AskThePodcastCoach.com live and you can ask me whatever you want.

And I have that show on a media host that allows me to put in dynamic stuff so I can stuff things in later.

And so at the very end of the show that says, hey, if you couldn't attend live, then you can Simply go to askthepodcastcoach.com voicemail and leave us a message and we'll answer it on the next show.

That particular call to action has been heard 16,000, 385 times.

And you know how many questions we've got from people?

0.

0.

So what does that mean?

Does that mean we're awful?

Does that mean we're bad?

No, it means that nobody's listening at the very end of the show, or who knows?

But we do know this asking 16,000 times at the end of the show is not working.

And so maybe I'll put that somewhere in the middle of the show now instead of the end.

And it may just be that people don't want to ask a question.

They're not on the edge of their seat going, I can't wait to hear what Dave says.

But it is, again, free podcast consulting.

It's a bit of a head scratcher, but in the same way I spent on that same show because it's live, I spent hundreds of dollars on equipment and software so I could take phone calls because I wanted to be Phil Donahue.

If you're over the age of 40, you know who that was.

I wanted to go, is the caller there?

And you know what?

My audience didn't want to call in.

They wanted to put their questions in chat.

I make it available to where they can actually jump into the video.

It starts as a video streaming show on YouTube, and then I take the audio and I put it out.

And it just came to my attention after spending lots of money and all this effort that I was trying to give my audience something.

Hey, here's the opportunity to call into the show.

And you know what they said, thanks, Dave.

I'm good with chat.

So when things aren't going the way you want them to, maybe, you know, that's just not what they want and switch it around, try something else.

And there are times when you just can't figure it out.

There's always a strategy that maybe you could do.

As I record this, TikTok is on the chopping block, and we'll see what happens when the due date comes again.

It was taken offline for almost 24 hours.

But what would those people do if TikTok went away?

Because we do what we need to do when we have to do it well, sometimes we have to pretend, well, what happened if all social media went away?

Maybe it's time to start a newsletter now.

In her case, she's given it nine months.

The numbers are going down now.

Another thing here is, is your show somewhat seasonal?

Because shows about weddings and wedding planning, those are going to be huge in the spring, and then probably later in the winter, they probably die off because who's getting married outside when it's, you know, 13 degrees?

Something to think about.

So if things aren't working, I'm with you.

It feels bad to put in the work and not get any results.

But you did get results.

You found out what's not working.

So you can stop doing it now.

If you need help with this, it's super simple.

Go over to schoolofpodcasting.com start, use the coupon code consultant, and let's see what we can do together.

I'm Dave Jackson.

I help podcasters.

It's what I do.

And I can't wait to see what we're going to do together because I want to be your podcast consultant.