What’s up everyone,

Most people are not where they want to be because they don’t take the actions to get there.

I was the same for years with my podcast.

I was moving sideways (or backwards) almost afraid to make a change.

I would wake up, do the same shit and expect different results.

That is the definition of insanity.

It’s also inertia, a tendency to do nothing or remain unchanged.

The reality is there was nothing wrong with me.

I lacked two fundamentals traits:

I lacked clarity.

I lacked direction.

Without a simple strategy, I wasn’t happy with what I was doing and I was getting 0 results with it.

To give you a comparison, when I’m training, I need a goal to work towards.

Whether it’s putting on 20 pounds in 6 months or losing 20 pounds in 6 months, I need that goal.

It’s undeniable what that does for me:

I’m more engaged in my training. I’m tracking every detail, analysing the numbers and approaching my craft like a professional athlete.

That is the same for content and podcasting.

When I speak to struggling podcast hosts, they all have one universal characteristic:

Undefined goals.

What is ‘growth’ or ‘improvement’ if you do not know what your goal is?

It sounds obvious, but that’s the case for 99% of podcasts moving sideways.

It’s time you build a strategy and we’re going to do it right now.

There’s three main metrics that all podcasts need to define:

Content Growth

All content should run off a baseline and benchmark metric.

It’s important to understand the baseline of where you are right now, right down to every detail of views and downloads.

If you get 10 downloads, say it out loud. At least you’re aware of your situation.

Next step is to understand the benchmark in your industry.

B2B enterprise podcasts will not have a benchmark of 10,000 downloads, but more like 500.

It’s niche, it’s specific, the goal is beyond the content. It could be revenue generating or brand building.

For a fruity personal development podcast on relationships, your benchmark is much, much higher for downloads and views.

When you look at where you are and where you need to get to, this makes it 10X easier to devise a timeline to get there.

Even with the most niche podcasts, your content should grow on a month by month basis:

• Average monthly downloads
• Average episode downloads
• YouTube episode views
• YouTube Shorts views
• Instagram Reels views
• LinkedIn impressions

Audience Growth

Audience growth tells you is your content working.

As you’re releasing content, build your audience side by side:

• Content growth > audience growth = Low retention
• Content growth < audience growth = High retention
• Content growth = audience growth = Building your tribe

This looks different for every podcast and every business.

Once you return to the baseline and benchmark principle, you can see exactly what is realistic for your niche.

The goal here isn’t pure irrational optimism, it’s looking at the data and crafting a logical strategy to get there.

I’m currently working backwards from 100,000 subscribers.

What is it I NEED to do to get there? Here’s my strategy:

• Record 5+ studio podcast in 2023
• Release 6+ podcasts every month
• Release 7+ Shorts & Reels a week
• Release 2 - 4 Highlight clips a week
• Redirect traffic from IG / LinkedIn
• Review data & adjust 3X week

I can compare content growth versus audience growth clearly once I literally give it my all.

Revenue Growth

When people say “you can’t make money from a podcast” what they actually mean is “I can’t make money from my podcast.”

It’s like when people say “exercise doesn’t work” and they’ve never exercised…

Revenue from your podcast is more about the business and less about the content.

Harsh truth: if you’re a shit entrepreneur, you’re going to struggle to make money regardless of what you do.

It’s not the podcast or the algorithm’s fault, it’s probably you.

The good news is, like everything in life, you can get better.

The first step is setting up your products properly. Everything must serve the audience or provide an adjacent service to your show.

​Kickoff Sessions doesn’t sell anything. At all.

However, it provides visibility and exposure for Voics.

The goal is to help and serve others. Once you accomplish that, you’ll generate traffic to your core offer.

It is absolutely fundamental you define your revenue goals. I track this on a monthly and quarterly basis.

In the online space, the lights are on 24/7, there’s no reason you shouldn’t be growing every month.

Every month, the goal is something like this:

• Content growing by 15 - 25%
• Audience growing by 10 - 20%
• Revenue growing by 20%

Sometimes it will dip up and down, but the general trajectory is upwards.

That’s all for today people, see you next week internet friends!

Whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

→Schedule an Introduction Call: Voics is the straightforward podcast agency that creates, markets, and scales your podcast in a “done-for-you” model.

→Podcast Accelerator: Remove the stress, pressure and countless hours of growing a podcast. This comprehensive course will teach you the system I used to grow Kickoff Sessions and record with the sharpest minds in the world.

→Listen to Kickoff Sessions: Learn from 145+ entrepreneurs who have scaled businesses to millions in profit that will help you on your journey.