December 5, 2022

How Do I Measure Success as a Podcaster?

Downloads, Dollars, or Discourse Driven?

Let’s get the bad news out of the way up front. Chances are you’re not going to get famous from podcasting. A podcast can enrich your life and advance your career in a bunch of ways, but if you’re looking for a path to wealth and influence, it probably doesn’t run through a USB mic.

There are exceptions, of course, but nearly all of the household-name podcasters you can think of achieved that level of fame in one of three ways:

1) They had an audience from somewhere else that they brought with them to a podcast. Conan O’Brien is just one of a million actors and comedians with a built-in audience who’ve embraced podcasting. They’re naturally attracted to a medium where they reach their fans (and keep the profits) with less filtering through corporate standards and practices. They likely worked hard to build that audience in the first place, but once they had it, finding funding and attracting guests was a lot easier than it would have been without that name recognition.

2) They’ve been doing it for a million years. Justin, Travis, and Griffin McElroy launched My Brother, My Brother, and Me in 2010. Today, their family publishes approximately 183 podcasts every month. They’re at it full-time, thanks to advertising, sponsorships, and donations, along with touring, merchandising, and sales of books. (Though at launch they had connections in journalism and media that most of us don’t.) They’re also commendably philanthropic, using their various platforms and profits to support a variety of charitable causes.

3) They’re the most awful people you can imagine. Hosts and shows willing to pander to the worst impulses of humanity have an easier time breaking through the noise. There’s lamentably strong demand for that content, and the necessity of taking a chainsaw to one’s moral code limits the competition a bit.1

Now, the good news. Podcasting is a venue where “success” can be defined in a number of ways that have very little to do with how many people hear your ads for sketchy boner pills. Here are a few of the ways my clients have chosen to define - and achieve - results from their podcasts.

• Connections Made. You want to meet smart people and have interesting conversations, right? Of course you do. Thing is, those people are B U S Y, and wary of responding to every request for their time. If you cold email them an invitation to chat, they’re more likely to consider it if you’re inviting them to demonstrate their expertise and insight to an audience. Speaking of which…

• Expertise Established. A podcast is a portable audio portfolio that’s easily shared with potential clients or employers. You can show off your understanding of a subject AND your ability to communicate it, as well as the initiative and effort you’ve demonstrated in creating a podcast in the first place.

• Clients Attracted. If you’re an entrepreneur in any kind of service business, your clients want to feel like they know and trust you. A podcast is a great way to share your wisdom and your values with them, so they feel a connection to you before you ever get on a sales call.

• People Helped. You’re just one person, with 24 hours in your day.2 You can only solve problems for so many people. A podcast can help you share a message, reach a population, and tell a story. And if it’s done well, each of those folks will feel like you’re talking directly to them as an individual.

Let’s be real. Pulling in listeners is always going to be a priority. But if it’s your first or only priority, podcasting might not be the medium for you. If you’re trying to engineer virality, there’s always sustaining a painful-looking but not-too-serious injury on TikTok. Podcasting lets you reach people in an intimate, approachable way, but audience-building will take time and persistence. Having a motivation beyond download numbers will make the time spent building an audience more rewarding.

If you have a question about podcasting, I’d love to answer it! Comment on this post, or send an email to info@particulatemedia.com.