The Biggest Mistake That Podcasters Make

You are listening to Grow the Show, the podcast to help you grow your podcast. My name is Kevin Schmitland, I am your podcast growth coach and today I'm popping into warn you about the number one mistake that I see podcasters make big and small. Almost every single podcaster I come across who is having trouble growing their audience is making this mistake and honestly I feel like 80% of my efforts as a podcast coach are to try to convince people to stop doing this one thing. So what is that mistake and how can you stop doing it right now? I'm about to walk you through it but before doing so you should know that the audio that you're about to hear is going to sound a little bit different than what you're used to hearing here on the Grow the Show feed. That's because this is actually taken from one of the videos on the brand new Grow the Show YouTube channel which just launched today. And today in addition to sharing knowledge right here on the audio podcast feed I'll also be posting videos to YouTube regularly. Those videos will include tutorials, walkthroughs and other teachings that are better delivered with a visual component. Don't worry though this feed here is not going to suddenly become just a bunch of YouTube audio rips. You're still going to get the Grow the Show audio experience that you know and love right here. If you want to get even more podcast growth and monetization knowledge then what will be provided here on the audio podcast definitely subscribe to the YouTube channel now. There are already three other videos other than the one you're about to hear waiting for you to learn from. So anyway without further ado here is the number one mistake that podcasters make that you're probably making and how to fix it. If you are a podcaster who is trying to grow your audience and you're having a hard time with it there's a chance that you are making the number one mistake that most podcasters make. And if that's true it does not matter what growth hacks or marketing tactics you use. Spending hundreds of hours or even thousands of dollars to grow your podcast will all be a waste. And after six months to a year you're going to give up you're going to say well I guess I'm not cut out to do this and it'll be over. And this will be a tragedy because it all could have been prevented if you just didn't do this one thing. My name is Kevin Schmittland I am a two time podcaster I've taken two shows past a hundred thousand dollars in revenue and combined I've made over half a million dollars on podcasts in just over three years. In this video I'm going to walk you through that number one mistake that most podcasters make. I'm going to show you how you can avoid it and in doing so you are going to be able to grow your audience and become a successful podcasting entrepreneur with a growing thriving business. But first be sure to like and subscribe to the Grow the Show YouTube channel so I know that you want more videos like this to help you grow and monetize your podcast. Okay so enough with the crap what is the number one mistake that podcasters make and what is the mistake that is killing podcasts like a silent cancer. You're not going to like the answer because it's not sexy but I promise you if you fix this one thing you're going to start seeing growth with less effort than you're putting in today. So here it is. The number one mistake that you're probably making with your podcast is you're trying to get too many different people to listen to your podcast. What? Yes. Your audience definition is too broad. But Kevin I want to have a massive audience and impact tons of people. Shouldn't I try to reach a larger pool? No that's exactly what's going to prevent you from having a large massive audience and impacting thousands and millions of lives. Let me explain the more broad and vague your audience targeting is the harder it will be to grow your podcast into a thriving business. This is counterintuitive. I know it makes sense to assume that a broader bigger audience pool will provide two things. One it seems like it'll make it easier to appeal to new audience members and two because there are more audience members to appeal to admit you would think that it would give you a bigger audience, right? But it's actually the opposite way around. It's actually harder to appeal to a wide broad audience base. And this is because number one, everyone thinks this and so everyone is trying to reach a really, really broad set of people, including massive companies with billion dollar marketing budgets and you will be up against that. But number two and more importantly, it's really hard for you to achieve resonance with that individual. If you are watering down your message to try to appeal as many people as possible, people are not going to feel heard and they're not going to hear their truth in your message. Just ask any of the many influencers who have millions and millions of followers on Instagram and TikTok and YouTube, etc. but are really not making any money because they can't get those followers to do anything because there's no connection. Many influencers with millions of followers are flat broke yet there are tons of people who have 100,000 followers or even all the way down to a thousand followers who are making tons of cash. This is because they're hitting a specific, specific audience group and they're resonating with that audience. So instead of being broad and vague, you need to be as painfully specific as you possibly can with who your podcast is for. And I say painfully because it's going to cause you two forms of initial discomfort to do this. Number one, you're going to have a feeling in your gut that says, I think this audience is too small and I promise you, if you have that feeling, you've only just begun narrowing your audience down enough. The audience is not too small. The internet is huge. There are so many people. It is literally beyond our comprehension levels, how many people we can access through the internet. Number two, this is going to be painful because the people in your life are going to tell you, isn't that audience too small? They mean well, but they don't understand. And by the way, anytime you get business or podcast advice from somebody else in your life, ask yourself, has this person achieved more than you're hoping to achieve with your business or your podcast? If the answer is no, don't listen to their advice. politely thank them for it, but don't take it. The third reason why this is going to be painful is because you have to exclude people from your targeting and your community. You're going to have to plant a flag in the sand and say, this is who this podcast is for and this is who this podcast is not for. This is going to go against your instinct. You're going to have the urge to bring anybody in who wants to come in. Yeah, totally come on in. This is for you. You have to resist that. It's going to make your show suck. It's going to make it not resonate. It's going to make it water down when you're trying to appeal to all these different people. You have to get specific and say, no, this show is not for you. It's for these people. Kevin, why must we endure this initial discomfort? Because as they say, the riches are in the niches with a painfully specific audience. You will have one an easier time appealing to new members. So when your dream listener finds your podcast and they read the description and they hear the first episode, they're going to have this visceral feeling like, holy crap. This is incredible. I can't believe this exists. This shows like it was made for me. You're going to think that you're listening to their phone call. And by the way, if you listen to my podcast, grow the show, you'll probably feel the same way. I've gotten that a lot. The other thing that you will get with a painfully specific audience is more fame and fortune down the road. This one is hard to believe, but I promise you, it's true. You have to be the go to for one thing, one group of people before you will be the go to for everything, for everyone, every single person with a self-made audience, right? So they built their audience themselves without, you know, a TV network or something like that. Every single person with a self-made audience that currently has wide appeal, started by doing one thing for a long time. Gary Vee only talked about wine. Marie Farleyo's first book was about dating for women. Pat Flynn made a course about an architecture test. How specific is that? Now he's the smart passive income guy. You have to be the go to for something specific before you can be the go to for something brought. By the way, this is also true for businesses. Amazon used to sell only books. That's it. McDonald's only burgers. Facebook was just profiles. There was no poking. There was no wall. There was no groups. There was no ads. None of this crap. It was just a profile and a relationship status. Instagram, just square photos, no rules, no stories, no shopping, no nothing. Walmart was one store in Arkansas. You have to be the go to for one thing before you can grow into the go to for everything. If you can commit yourself to one painfully specific audience for one, two, maybe even five years, I personally guarantee that you are going to have the easiest path to a large adoring audience. And so that means if you're a podcaster that says, my podcast is going to help millennials. My podcast is for women. My podcast is for entrepreneurs. It's too broad. You're not going to be able to appeal to those people. There's too many of them. But Kevin, what about insert podcast name here? Their show isn't specific. Not yes. 99 times out of 100, they got there by a being early to podcasting, right? So publishing a thousand episodes over the course of 10 years and be the sheer volume of being the only horse in town. We don't have that advantage. Instead, we have to be painfully specific. That's how we compete today. Once you do this, it's going to be much easier. And by the way, much more fun to grow your podcast audience. Okay, fine, Kevin. I get it. I need to be more specific with who my audience is. How do I do that? I'm going to tell you in the next video. Until then, subscribe to Grow the Show so you can grow the show.