What It’s Like To Build A Podcast (Part 1)
Welcome back to the progress journal, if we haven’t met before, I’m Tommy Ciampa, I live in Milwaukee, I work in marketing during the day, and have a few side hustles outside of that.
Today’s episode is going to be a bit different. Since I’ve been building this podcast, I’ve learned a few things, messed up even more, and had a lot of fun but one thing that’s always a focus is to help you out as much as possible.
With that, I thought it’d be cool to do a series around what it’s like to build a podcast from the ground up. The idea is that every 20th episode will be sort of a recap of what’s happened since the last part of this series, what I’ve learned since then, the numbers behind everything, and then the plan moving forward.
I’m always a fan when people share the ins and outs (including any secrets they might have) so I wanted to do the same, although I don’t think I have any groundbreaking secrets.
Since this is part 1 of the series, I’m going to go back to the start of this podcast and everything that’s happened since then, so let’s take a trip back in time a bit.
What’s Happened Since The Start
So as you might know (or not which is cool, but not really…) I started this podcast back in March of 2022. The main reason at the start was to just get better at public speaking and putting pressure on myself to do so.
So in 2022, I released 6 episodes over about 5 weeks, definitely nothing impressive here.
I was just trying to get a start but really had no system around what I was doing and no strategy with it. It really was more for me than it was for anyone else. Call me selfish maybe but hey we all got to do what we gotta do.
After those 5 weeks though, I gave up the idea of a podcast to focus on other areas I really wanted to see some results in. Looking back, it was certainly a mistake to do so but nothing I can do about it now.
Towards the end of 2022, I went on a trip to Colorado and on the plane ride back, I got a few good ideas of episodes that I could talk about which is when that itch to come back and start releasing episodes started to hit me pretty hard.
This time though I wanted to have a few things set up better.
Actually have a plan in place
The first was to have a plan in place when I did come back. That plan had to include systems around production (which included outlining, producing, and editing) since last time I just sort of did whatever worked during the week.
This has been a game changer for me and something I highly recommend even if you aren’t working on a podcast.
Systems solve a lot of issues that winging it creates. It gave me deadlines when originally I had none and it made the week a lot more scheduled out than it was previously.
How do I market this thing?
The second thing was having more of a strategy around the marketing side of the podcast.
I work in marketing but shockingly I still find this to be my weakest attribute here so if you have ideas, I’ll take them all.
2022 was about just getting the episode done and then after that didn’t matter.
Now I take the post-releasing work just as seriously as I take the pre-releasing work. Might be a no-duh moment for you but originally for me it was just not a focus.
With all of that being said, I started releasing episodes again on March 7th of this year with a few changes to the strategy.
I started to release clips on LinkedIn, at first without video, but then eventually added video in since why the heck not? I’m recording and might as well video record as well.
The other piece that was new and honestly something I didn’t really want to do was to start an Instagram account for the pod. This gave me another place to release those clips and announce episode releases but it also gives me a place to connect with a different audience and also show some BTS of what I’m doing.
This has been a really fun part of the new strategy this year. I’ve connected with a lot of great people and have gotten some really solid feedback on what is good and what I can improve on (not to mention it is fun to see the numbers on posts, well maybe not the ones that perform poorly but you get what I’m saying).
So that really brings you and me up to date but let’s get into the numbers a little bit.
What Has The Progress Journal Done In Terms Of Numbers
For reference, I recorded this on June 1st, so there might be better analytics but I’m not too worried about it. We’ll start with strictly podcast numbers though. Which is I’m being honest, I still don’t know if what I have is 100% accurate but it’s close enough.
From the start of the pod to right before I started releasing and marketing it again I had a total of 6 episodes that turned into about 52 plays (which are 60 secs or more on any platform).
With that, I had about 4 Spotify followers. Nothing amazing at all but some decent traction for only 6 episodes over 5 weeks early in the year.
Since I started releasing new episodes this year which has been a total of 13 (not including this one) I’ve had 107 plays and gained another 6 Spotify followers (and I believe a few on Apple Podcasts as well but I’m not totally sure there).
With these new episodes alone I had 82 plays across the new 13 that I released so technically worse numbers but I’ve also had 25 plays on the old episodes that I wouldn’t have gotten if I didn’t start back up.
All totaled I get roughly 5 plays per episode and have about 8 unique people tuning in weekly.
Now what do all these podcast numbers mean? I have no clue, to be honest. I don’t know if it’s good or bad so maybe wait until part 2 before we dive too deep into critiquing it.
What about on Instagram?
Now onto Instagram numbers. I started posting on March 25th so about 90 days ago.
Since then, I’ve reached 6435 accounts, had 284 engagements, and gained 41 total followers all with 72 total posts including stories.
Again, I have no clue if these numbers are good or bad but I was pretty surprised with them. I didn’t think I’d be anywhere near 41 followers or reach that many accounts.
Hopefully, that’s a good benchmark for you a bit but I think you’ll get more out of what I’ve learned and what my plan is moving forward so let’s get into those pieces.
What Have I Learned And What Am I Going To Do?
As I mentioned before, I work in marketing but have no clue how to market a podcast extremely well, especially when I was just getting going. So if you have more of a background here, you’ll likely blow the numbers I just mentioned out of the park (if your podcast is decent).
What I learned
For what I learned though, I’m just going to list these out and add a few thoughts on top of them as I go.
It’s not just about posting on social media
Starting with the first, it’s that getting more listeners is way more than just posting on social media and if I’m being honest, I have nowhere near mastered this (as you can likely tell from my numbers).
I really thought that starting to post on LinkedIn and Instagram more with a focus on it being the podcast I’d see the plays start to add up.
Now has it helped, likely, but not as much as I thought especially on the Instagram side.
For the 6435 accounts that I’ve reached on there in the past 90 days, I don’t think over 20 of those have listened to a full episode.
At first, I was pretty discouraged about this but I had a good friend the other day bring up the idea that some people just aren’t looking for a full episode. They want the quick information and to move on. Great point but also frustrating, like just give me some love on the pod please.
I don’t have many tips here other than just continuing to innovate. Whether that’s the types of posts, the CTA’s you include, or word of mouth, there are plenty of ways to test and change things up along the way.
Do the episodes YOU want to do
Lesson two is that the episodes you do because YOU want to tend to perform better than the ones you do for numbers.
My real thought here is they perform better because it’s what you want to talk about and you put more effort into them because they mean something to you. Simple as that.
Use being “small” to your advantage
Lesson three, being a “smaller” creator, I have the unique ability to be in touch with almost everyone who listens or follows me. I can thank them for listening, have some good conversations with them about life or anything else, and gain real feedback (not just what I think is best).
This is the true benefit of being smaller or starting from the ground up, you get to have an actual connection with people consuming your content, not just a surface-level one, so don’t take it for granted.
Edit, edit, and more editing…
Lesson 4, just be ready for long hours in the editing bay than you originally planned for.
Some people hate editing, I actually enjoy it so I don’t mind when it takes up a few more hours than expected but this is an area that’s important but at the time might not feel like it.
Don’t just go through the motions here. Actually, think about what you’re keeping or deleting and what you want to share as clips or just leave for the full episode, you’ll thank yourself after you release the clips and episode.
The plan moving forward
Now those are a lot of the big lessons over the past 90 days or so but you really do after to just go through the experience to learn them and you might even learn some that I need to or that I just won’t ever experience, that’s the benefit of personal experience, not just listening to me.
Quickly getting into the plan moving forward though which I always suggest people have. Too often we just keep going with no play or strategy to work towards.
Utilizing better systems for clips
Anyway, I’ll get off my soap box there. The first area I’m working on is finding a better system for clips.
To be real, I’m not sold on a few things here.
I’m not sold on the way they look, the way I choose what is a clip and what isn’t, and how I’m releasing them.
Now instead of just crying about the fact I have things I want to work on, the plan is to continue to watch other similar podcast clips to see if there are any improvements I can take from the way they do it. From how they edit to how they release them.
For the part around which clip I’m choosing, the plan is to have someone close to me listen to the episode before it’s released and give their two cents. I might take it, I might not, but it’s another set of ears and one extra brain to add to the equation.
Adding a weekly newsletter
The second piece I’m working on slash adding to the plan is to start releasing a weekly newsletter.
These are going to be centered around a podcast episode with different resources related to the topic, both video and written, and also just have some cool things I’ve enjoyed over the week whether that’s the spray I got to stop my shoes from stinking or something that’s helped my productivity.
The goal here is to package everything into one deliverable but it also is a reminder to someone who signs up for the newsletter that there might be episodes they missed that they can dive into.
Will this work? No clue.
Do I know when this will start? Nope. But I have a few drafted up so it should be somewhat soon. (And if you’re looking to subscribe to it, go to my personal site and wait for the pop-up to come up or hit one of the forms on the site for it).
Continue to double down on consistency
The piece I want to end on with the new plan is that consistency is going to continue to be my main driver.
I don’t remember the exact stat but something like 90% of started podcasts won’t get past episode 3 and of those that do 90% of the remaining ones won’t make it past 20 episodes.
Guess what sucker? I’m still here.
But really, as I’ve mentioned sooo many times. Consistency sets you apart and the plan is to not lose that consistency, so I’m going to keep releasing episodes and hopefully, you continue to tune in.
If not, well at least time me why.
And if you think it’ll hurt my feelings, well do it anyway, it’d be much appreciated.
Oh and if you do see my clips, get ready for the new set up since I’ll be moving (although it’s only to a different unit in the same building so maybe not too much of a switch-up).
