503. Why Most Podcasters Quit Right Before It Works

0:05 Good morning podcasters. Today is Friday, April 24th, 2020. Sixth, and today, why podcasters quit before the breakthrough. We're diving into hidden progress, small pivots, quiet growth, and how staying in the game might be the move that changes everything. So if you're listening live on Clubhouse, hit the share button top right hand side of the screen and share it. However, Clubhouse lets you. And if you're catching us via podcast, YouTube, LinkedIn, etcetera, please share this with a fellow podcaster. And now give us about 30 seconds and we'll get things rolling. Thanks for being here.

0:51 The Podcasting Morning Chat is powered by Ironic Media, helping podcasters launch, Polish and grow great shows, and by Content Creators Accountant, helping creators build real business behind their content. Good morning again podcasting morning chat. Thank you so much for being here. I am your host Mark Ronic. Let me say that again Alex, can you mute please? Oh Alex, there you go. Thank you.

1:31 I am your host Mark Ronic and currently on stage with me my Co hosts Nick Naulback, Ralphie Step, Dr. Fay, BC Babbles, Sid Meadows, Alex Baelish and we also have Tide AKA Nikki here on stage with us from the audience. Welcome to all of you. If you want to learn about them, just go to Podcasting Morning chat dot com slash people and you'll see why I have all these fine people on stage with me and woo, what a start to the morning. Now, if you're listening on the podcast, you don't really know what why I'm saying that, but man, I started reading from the wrong script. As you know, I don't script a lot, but I always script our intro and I was reading the wrong one.

2:15 Then we had somebody off mic that was throwing me off. My ADHD was getting the best of me. So here we are. We have officially begun today's show, and I want to start with a reminder to you that on Monday we're going to be revisiting our Obsession Worthy podcast series hosted by Jonathan Howard and yours truly and all the rest of the people I just listed. And this episode that we're digging into, we like to every couple weeks, pick out a podcast that's really popular and figure out what makes it so popular, hence obsession worthy. And we're going to do an episode of the daily. Please forgive me, I I don't have the name of the episode written down, but you can find it in the show notes. This is an episode all about AI, quote UN quote, invading Hollywood, some of the the challenges that they've been dealing with and how they intend to deal with it moving forward. So join us on Monday, we'll play lots of clips from the episode if you don't actually catch it, but we encourage you to go ahead and listen to that if you can over your weekend. It's like AI think it's like 40 minutes long. It's not a long episode.

3:27 So go check that out. Ralph, I feel like you were going to say something. Were you? Yeah, it's Hollywood's AI moment by the Daily, and you can find that at Podcasting Morning chat.com/OWP. And that is why my friends, Ralph is a Co producer of this show. Thank you for having my back, Sir. So yes, go check that out and we look forward to talking about it with you on Monday. All right, so before we get into wins from the week, because it is Friday and that's what we do on Fridays, I want to talk about something a lot of us go through as podcasters at some point or another. I, I almost wanted to say all of us go through at some point or another, but I don't like to generalize, but I feel like a lot of us do go through this.

4:13 There's often this point where your show feels like it's going nowhere. Downloads aren't moving fast enough, feedback ain't really happening, growth feels slow and you start to wonder if it's worth it. But sometimes that's exactly the point where things start actually working. And I can give you a quick example. I know with this show, and I mean this, I don't focus heavily on the download numbers. And it is hard to avoid because you see it all the time when you log into your account. It's I think almost every one of us, all these different podcasting hosting platforms, when you log in, it's one of the first things they show us, right? So it's hard to ignore it completely. And for the longest time, I wasn't seeing a lot of growth. And I did have moments where I felt like, what am I doing here? Right?

5:05 So sometimes, though, that's exactly that point where it clicks. So today we're going to talk about staying in the game, recognizing progress before maybe it's obvious, and figuring out what helps podcasters keep going. And I know for me, what's kept me going when I've had those moments is the live stream, because I have actual people that I know are showing up and participating and hearing what I have to say. And that helps me a lot with staying less focused on download numbers and more focused on the people that are here in the room. That's an advantage of live streaming while you're recording your podcast, I think.

5:51 So let's start with that moment where podcasters begin questioning whether they keep going. And let's make it very simple. What do you think usually causes podcasters to quit too soon? What makes you think or what makes them think it's time to hang it up. All right, BC coming to you first and I'll, I'll save the thing I want to share that we shared at the end of this. Actually, I'm just going to say it yesterday at the end, not. The first time. At the end of the show, before we hear from BC, we wrapped up stop the live streams, press stop on the recording and I had to call BC out because the past couple of shows we've started noticing on the video that BC has been dozing off. And look, I think that there are many of us that are guilty of that.

6:43 It's just that we haven't always had the video to be able to see if you're dozing off. We've done it, the live stream on Clubhouse. So we only get audio. And I am sure there have been times where I've come to somebody and we didn't hear them respond and I'm like, hello, are you there? Are you there? And I'm sure it's because they dozed off. I'm sure that has happened before. We have something very fun coming soon to share with everybody who may have missed those moments. Although you can always go back to our live stream video on YouTube and elsewhere. But we have something prepared or we're working on to share that BC. On in each of the episodes titles where you can catch me visually dozing off. Now, Mark, shall I play our little Jingle for that? Sure.

7:27 Go ahead. Go ahead, Ralph. We have a Jingle. Hey, hey, hey, eyes up. Don't do now. Don't camera. Stay with me now. Come back to me live. Can you see? Open those eyes. Yeah, right now. Don't check out now. There you go. Thank you Ralph for that SUNO presentation. Appreciate it. OK so with that BC, what do you think usually causes podcasters to quit too soon? I know for me personally, part of it is when things outside of the studio shift around and you have to recalibrate where your time is being allocated.

8:08 And for me, it's also prompted me to constantly question, OK, I love the video podcasting and I've always done it that way. And I'm a little scared of the idea of maybe it'll be better use of my time where things are right now again, outside the studio space to not revert, but to at least temporarily switch to audio first podcasting. So I have less to productively worry about and I can still get the content out there. But I'm worried about if I make that shift, will that cause some kind of negative effect to the downloads, to, you know, distribution, all that other stuff? And so as I contemplate that question, I find myself just not doing anything which that in and of itself causes negative effect on all those aforementioned things.

8:58 So I think just, you know, trying to figure out if there's if now or if there is ever a right time to pivot a certain way can cause people to feel like they're not growing enough. And I've been doing this since summer 2019. So this is a constant. It's kind of struggle for me. BC very relatable. I tend to be a person that freezes when I'm overwhelmed or have too many decisions to make. I end up just not making any decisions. So I completely relate. I actually had some of this conversation with Dave Campbell yesterday when I was on his podcast as a guest, just sharing that. Yeah, the lot. I have those moments where it's like, OK, I'm out. I just can't handle it.

9:41 I don't know what the right decision is, so I don't want to make one at all. That is very common for me and I'm working on it. I'm definitely working through that. Ralph, did you want to respond to this? Yeah, I think the question was, you know, what makes you feel that way? I think the biggest struggle that I see for podcasters is not clearly defining at the front end what success looks like. I think that's the biggest struggle. Because before you even hit record, I think you need to have a vision in your mind of where this is going, where you want it to go. Because what feeds you and what feeds me and what feeds BC and other people is completely different. It might not be downloads, it might be feedback. It might be people recognizing you could be whatever those things are.

10:24 But I think we fall into a trap if we don't set that up ahead of time. What does success look like? And that's why when I see people fade out, I talk to them and I'll say to them, why did you quit? Well, it didn't do what I expected it to do. Well, what was it you expected it to do? I don't really know, but it's not doing it. Well, how do you know it's not doing it if you don't know what your expectations were at the front end? So Mark, I think that's I think that's one of the biggest struggles is clearly defining what the what success looks like from the beginning. Yeah. And do you think, though, that sometimes what some new podcasters think about when they're going in as far as success goes is maybe they're thinking about the wrong things, right? There are some things that maybe they're holding in a higher regard that maybe that's not really the benchmark that they should be looking for.

11:17 I agree with you and I've mentioned on the show many times, you got a lot of hustlers out there promising to make $1,000,000 overnight and you're going to have 10 million followers those not. That's not true. And that's the thing. I think a lot of people fade out or burn out or get frustrated because they don't have this overnight success. Like there's this belief out there that, well, if you just post it, if you're just consistent, you do that show every week, man, you are going to be just like Mr. Beast and all the rest of the big names. Well, guess what? It's like hitting the lottery, my friends. That doesn't usually happen. That doesn't mean it can happen, but you have to really understand what makes this successful for you. I will speak personally, my Daily Show, it's called Financially Confident Christian. When I first started this, I'm like, hey, I got a ton of experience.

12:03 People are going to need to hear from me and crickets. And I had like 20 downloads and then I got to like 30 downloads. And I said when I started, I'm going to do this every day for three years. Dave Jackson said on his show, one time I was listening to it, he said it takes about three years to breakthrough. And I didn't really want to hear that at the time, Mark, to be honest. But I said I am making commitment to do that to three years. Now. My numbers are fantastic. I'm doing almost 10,000 downloads a month. That's great. But if I had, if I hadn't thought at the beginning, I'm doing this for three years, then I would have stopped many times. I would have said the heck with this, I don't want to do this anymore. Yeah. And I mean, I think that formula that or that idea of waiting three years, I mean, I don't know if it's true or not.

12:48 And I can say again, piling on to what I was sharing earlier about this show, we are in technically, I guess, year three of the podcast, right? And we're just now really starting to see significant growth in comparison to the first year. So yeah, that might be actually a thing. I mean, Dave might be on to something there. Tide, you've been waiting patiently. Good morning. What did you want to add to this? Oh, thank you. Yes, I was going to add a couple of things just for clarity and I'm more so speak from my own personal experience. I do think Ralph is definitely correct when he says that the expectations that you set for yourself are really, really, really important. Because for me, I, when I got into podcasting a few months ago, I didn't have any expectations about downloads or anything like that. So for me, because I had set, I had made my own rules. I don't want to say I set the bar low, but I had made my own rules that I wasn't going to have any expectations. So what that did for me was that it every download that I did get was spontaneous.

13:50 It was awesome. It felt like forward momentum. I was like, this is the coolest thing ever. Because even if it was just one download, it was better than 0. So the expectations that you set for yourself and the rules that you set for yourself on how you win are not determined by anybody else. They're not determined by the other podcasters or society or anything like that. You're the one making the rules on how you win each day. And so that that's how I look at it. It's just the expectations that you have of yourself. Because if you say to yourself, well, I'm going to have, you know, I'm going to expect that I have 100 downloads or that people recognize me out in public. And every day that doesn't happen, that's going to wear you down very quickly. And you're going to say, well, I don't like this. This isn't fun anymore.

14:35 So it's just all about the expectations. I mean, you even think about the way that people talk about like, listen to politicians. Politicians are experts at making people feel good and delivering horrendous results. You know what I mean? So all you have to do is just say that to yourself and then you'll be fine. That's how I look at it. But then the other thing you have to consider is do you actually like podcasting? Irregardless of the results, You can try something and maybe you don't actually like it as much as what you thought you were going to. So, and that's OK too. If you don't actually like it, if you don't actually feel good doing podcasting irregardless of the results, then you know it might not be the right thing. And most of the growth happens underneath the ground. It's what you don't see happening behind the scenes. That is where the most of the growth happens. So as long, in my opinion, as you're making, as long as you're making forward progress and you actually like what you're doing and you set those expectations, you make your own rules for whatever a win for you today looks like, and you can easily achieve that goal, then you win.

15:39 Nikki, thank you so much. And I see a lot of people here are emphatically agreeing with everything that you shared. Thank you for that. And yeah, I think the whole thing here is that, like you said, you're we make our own rules, we make our own success. And I think the problem is when we were talking about newer podcasters, the they're only able, or it seems that they're only able to follow what others are telling them. Our success looks what success looks like, right? They're hearing from the experts, they're following them on social media. And the experts are saying that you got to do this, you got to do that or that. And if you don't, it's not going to work, right? There are some people that really come on strong about that, and a lot of new podcasters don't know what they don't know, so they're just going to gravitate to. All right, well, this guy's got 10,000 followers, 100,000 followers, so he must be doing something right. So I got to just, that's what success means. So that it's a mindset shift, I think, too. And yeah, it's a challenging 1.

16:44 I appreciate what you're sharing. I see Janae said he wanted to chime in, but you stole all of his thoughts. But Janae, I'll give you a moment. Did you want to add anything or you good to go? Absolutely. I mean, Nikki's right on the money because there's a story about the Chinese bamboo, which it takes five years for the sprouts to even come out of the ground. But you have to continually water that place, water those seeds so that it can build that root, build that foundation. And that's what we're doing right when we're starting a podcast. We're building our foundation. We're building our muscle memory of what it takes, right? For me, when I started the podcast, I was like, hey, I just want to get started. I don't care about anything at all. My first year, I was just working on that muscle of podcasting and not even promoting it, right? I was just saying, hey, I just want to get through this first part of this phase.

17:41 And a lot of people will say, OK, I'm going to start and I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. I'm like, no, that's not how it works. You can't just say I'm going to run a marathon tomorrow and try to do a marathon because you haven't worked your muscle and then the next day you're all broken up. So really need to think into the long term, right? So it's not a Sprint, it's a long term project. And the things that you can build with a podcast, right? Not just a podcast. So YouTube channel, it's a relationships that you build over the years. And I've been so honored and been so lucky and fortunate to have not stay ahead. This is where I want to be in five years and six years. But to see that change happening now that I've been around for like 8 years.

18:25 Podcasting, right? You start build that muscle, build that connection with people. So it's a long term game. Thank you. Yeah, thank you. Thank you. BC did you want to chime in? Yeah, I just got to say this the second time in the past week I've heard the whole root system metaphor, and I just keep loving it the more that I hear about it. And I think it's such a great way to really kind of breakdown how most success works. You have to keep in mind as big as a tree looks after years of growing, that root system is easily twice as big. So you have to really put into to the time frame the patients to let that work. And I put it earlier in the chat where I said, and that's why it's so important for those of us who consult on this to really help not only help people clarify what success for them looks like, but also establish reasonable time frame expectations.

19:28 It's not going to be an overnight thing unless you want to drop millions on ads today. But even then, people who might see it are not necessarily subscribers. So if you stop tomorrow, it all stops tomorrow. So just being really clear on what that path will require from you, I think is such a quintessential thing, quintessential part of this whole experience. Yeah, thank you BC And I'm with you. I love that root analogy. I like it, almost like it more. At least I gravitate to it more than the whole iceberg analogy, which I think is also a great one too. You know, we only see the tip of the iceberg, but there's this whole foundation underneath the water that we don't see. And I so I love that analogy too.

20:08 But there's something about the roots one that I really connect with Sid. Good morning to you. Welcome back. I know you were on a little bit of a trip. I'd assume you're back from your trip because you're here now. But anyway, good morning to you. What did you want to add to this conversation? Good morning, everybody. I know I am not back yet. I don't leave till tomorrow. I'm staying an extra day and headed back tomorrow midday. But you know, I think one of the things that for me that people overlook sometimes is when it starts to feel overwhelming and oh, I got to do this and now I got to edit this and I tried to record that perfectly so we didn't have to do any editing. And you know, just starts to feel I got to do it on YouTube too.

20:51 And you know, blah, blah, blah, different starts to feel overwhelming. I think is what drives people to want to give up on their dream of podcasting. And it happened to me twice. First thought it happened was when I realized I had to edit and I was like, I tried it. Somebody said use Adobe, whatever. And I open that thing up and like what the hell is this? Like I can't do this. And so at episode 35 I found an editor and that's at that point was why I started. And then I don't know what episode it was where I did actually pod fade for about 6 months was because I had an engagement that was weighing very heavily on me and just, it was just too much for me to do everything at one time.

21:33 And so let's not overlook the fact when life happens or when things start to feel overwhelming, that's I think the point at which a lot of people actually give up. Yeah. Thank you, Sid. I think that's yeah, of course, if you're overwhelmed and you're feeling like, I don't know what I how I can handle this anymore. Yeah. Sometimes finding help is the key to keep going. And yeah, there's, I've seen it in all ways, shapes and forms. For example, if you're feeling like, well, that's great for Sid, he could afford it. I can't. Look, I know I have clients that I consult that has family involved. They have, I think it's their older daughter is doing the editing for them, right? Like there are things you can do, but you just got to get creative sometimes you just got to think outside the box sometimes it doesn't always have to be paid help. And if you do need and have the budget for some paid help and you want somebody to help edit and produce your podcast, check out Ironic media.com.

22:35 That's my company. And that's one of the things we do over there is produce podcasts and we consult podcaster. So Ironic media.com. There you go. Thank you for that, Sid. OK, Let me ask a different question, if you don't mind, because I think, well, a lot of podcasters are waiting for one of those breakthroughs that we're talking about here. So what are some early signs that a podcast is starting to work, even if the numbers are still small? How do they know that it's actually working? Yeah, Dr., go ahead. Well, I hate this phrase, but until we come up with a new phrase, I'll have to use it.

23:17 You have to know what your why is. For instance, I have a client, I've talked about her before. She is a business coach and she is doing her podcast specifically to get more clients. Now, that might mean that her downloads are not quite there, but the ones that are there, they're all calling her up, saying can we work together one-on-one? That is a success. That's a huge success. I like it. So it really depends on and again, I hate this phrase. It depends on what your why is.

23:57 Well, Ralph is agreeing with, you know your why did you want to chime in, Ralph? Yeah. And like I said, I kind of go back to what I said earlier is what is the measurement? If you're doing your podcast to get more clients, then ask yourself a tough question. Am I getting more clients doesn't feel good when this you're not getting new clients and then you start to say, OK, what is the time frame that I'm going to allow myself to invest in this before I say you know what I've got to change something, but know what those things are because a lot of people going to say, oh, I went viral. I want to be viral I want to have this many followers. If you're doing it for money, guess what? Followers doesn't put money in your bank account and you're. Going to burn out faster. Well, absolutely, and that's where I love your coaching client, Dr., because she has a focus and then she's got to have that tough decision with herself. How many hours a week are you putting into this and what is the return on investment?

24:49 It's something we talk about in accounting all the time. What is the return on investment? You're making an investment. I had this very discussion with Mark and we've talked about what is the return on investment? How many hours are you putting into something? What is it you're expecting to get from it? Because if you're not getting that, you're going to stop doing it, you're not going to put all your effort into it, and you're going to say, why am I bothering spending this much time? I'll give you a great example of that. I was working with a client a couple weeks ago, has their own business and I looked at their net profit for the year and I said, how do you feel making $4.00 an hour? And he looked at me like, Ralph, what are you talking about? I said, you just told me you spend X number of hours a week working. You make $4.00 an hour. How does that feel? Now that was tough love, but it he had to hear that because that's and all of us podcasters need to hear that too. What is it feeding?

25:38 Hey, it could be. I love doing it. It's my escape from the reality of my life. Hey, fantastic. There's a huge return on that. But if you're asking for this to pay your bills, help out with the bottom line, pay for itself, ask yourself those tough questions. You know, I have a love hate relationship with the whole download thing. As long as distribution platforms, AKA hosting platforms jargon wheel. OK, so as long as hosting platforms have that on your dashboard, have that as a measurement, people are going to look at it and say, oh God, I got to get that number up. I got to get that number up.

26:20 Especially new podcasters. Especially new podcasters. So why can't they have like an engagement number? It seems to me that, you know, I'm not a techie person, but it seems to me that they that this would not be a difficult number to achieve to get is an engagement number. Maybe not on the socials, but there are so many podcast players these days that are including ways to communicate, to put stars on something or to comment on something. Why aren't these platforms being recognized by your hosting platform? So. The problem with that though, Dr. it is very difficult to track and you also have to recognize that only about 3% is what they say of your people who are consuming your content will actually reach back out for feedback.

27:11 It's something so that can almost be that can almost be more defeating than seeing the download numbers, unfortunately. I'm not sure because I mean, how many times do you see that number and you're keep reminding, well, it doesn't really mean that they're listening to that download, you know that download number doesn't. Really. And I totally get that because I, I put in the chat a little while ago, there was a point in time where I needed a 12 step program from looking at my stats, because I was checking these things like every hour and going, oh, I just sent out an e-mail. Did the move. Oh, I just did this, didn't move. And a good friend of mine said, dude, stop looking at your stats, He said. Look at it once a day to make sure your stuff hit because I have a production team. Make sure they put the stuff out, he said. But you're driving yourself crazy. And he was right, because I was driving myself crazy. Yeah.

28:01 Real quick, just want to remind everybody that as of May 4th, we have a new start time. Instead of 7:00 AM Eastern, we're starting at 8:00 AM Eastern every single Monday through Friday. And one of the reasons for that, well, let's just be transparent. It's to give ourselves a little more sleep in the morning so BC can keep awake during the entire duration of the show. And also so I can get some sleep overnight and not get so anxious about having to wake up so early in the morning. But also more importantly, I think what this does is it creates more opportunities for this little show of ours. I think it gives us more guest opportunities. I think that potentially it's potentially better for discoverability being on at a later time. I think here on Clubhouse that could be helpful. It could be helpful on our live streams like YouTube and elsewhere.

28:53 So again, may the 4th, may the fourth be with you. That will be our new time, 8:00 AM Eastern. So please make a note of that and come join us, especially those of you who might be listening right now via podcast that have always said to you, to us or to yourselves, oh, that's too early. I'm never joining live. Hopefully this extra hour, we'll get you motivated and get you to come join us here. OK, John is on stage. John, did you want to participate in what we were just talking about with Ralph and Dr. Yes, sometimes you don't have to listen to what everybody else says because I did that. I said, OK, I want a certain amount of downloads by this time. And it got to that time and I didn't have those downloads. So I'm like, well, I'm just wasting my time. And as it got closer, I felt sad because I really enjoyed doing the podcast.

29:45 So what did I do? I just said, I don't care about this because I remember that someone said, if this many people showed up in a room to listen to you every week, would you think, would you think that was success, success? And it was. And my success is that I really enjoy doing it. I, I love doing it. So your success is your success. And if you listen to everybody else, I have to have this many downloads. You don't, you don't. So don't set expectations. If you like doing it, it's fine. If you're doing it for business and you're not getting it, well, then you might have to pivot, I would say. Before you quit, change things before you quit. Yeah, I'm with you there. I think that's the best advice that I could hear. I mean, yeah, make make a change before you quit if it doesn't feel like it's working for you. And I'm doing that right now.

30:31 I mean, I alluded to it a little bit yesterday on the show when we were talking about social media. I'm doing that right now for social media. I am easing off a little bit and I'm also looking at changing my strategy, not necessarily getting rid of what I've already started doing because I enjoy putting out some of the clips from this show. But I want to add more variety because I think that's what my audience wants. They're not responding to just the podcast clips that I put out there. So I want to provide more content in different ways to try to connect with my audience. And then if that doesn't work, I might take a damn break from social media altogether. I'm getting close and I know everybody hears me constantly talking about Tether Parody, who will be a keynote speaker at Empowered Podcasting.

31:17 I saw she just put out an episode recently with somebody that she actually knows personally, that I forget what this person does, but I can tell you has a strong social media following. And as of October, the woman decided I need a break. It's poisoning my brain having to be on here. She was getting caught in the comparison traps, etcetera. Here's the number that changed for her when she went off social media. Her business sales increased 176% after she got off social media, which she was doing quite well at as far as followers and views and things like that. But it was taking its toll on her. She recognized it.

32:02 She stopped and her business increased a lot. That it was a huge lesson for me when I saw that clip. And I intend to go check out that full episode as well. But yeah, Unconventional Leaders is the name of the podcast. Heather parody. Check that out. All right, I saw earlier, Sid, did you want to chime in again? Yes, please. Thank you. The question was around, would you repeat the question mark real quick that you ask? Yeah, sure, no problem. I just have to pull it back up. I don't even have it in front of me now. So it's something about how do you know? Like what's the something about how do you know? Yeah. How? How long? Well, I think I was it. How long? You were talking about early wins that you might not recognize. Yeah.

32:45 Thank you. Thank you, Ralph. So for me, the things that really get my juices going, if you will, is when somebody reaches out to me directly, right and says, Oh, wow, that was a really great episode. I learned so much from that. Thank you very much. Or I get some of you've heard me talk about this. I get stopped at events in hallway and a you know, are you said I'm like, yes, and they start thanking me for my podcast. Those are the things to me because that really get the energy going to continue because we all need validation at points and times that what we're doing is really good. And to, I think it was Ralph that said, less than 3% of your audience is actually going to engage with your content in some way.

33:33 But when they do, it's reaffirming that you're doing the right thing and you're on the right path. And so I track those, I pay attention to those. I personally reach out to everybody that, you know, makes a comment on something that I post or an article that I write or whatever, because they're just reaffirming because my goal is just to help one person every day, right? And if my show helps somebody grow their business, then I'm doing my job. I'm going to keep going because I helped somebody. And if I helped one person that took the time to reach out to me and tell me that I helped them, how many did I help that didn't tell me, right? They didn't reach out to me to tell me. So for me, it's those are, you know, affirmations of listeners that engage with me to tell me how much they appreciate the content or that it helped them. So I'm paying attention to those. And I think we all need to pay some small little signs that you help.

34:32 OK. I think the connection got a little wonky right at the end of what Sid was saying. And I saw a lot of us here were, again, emphatically agreeing with Sid. Thank you, Sid, for that, Ralph. I saw you were actually even applauding. Yeah, I think that is so key. I think about that on my show every day. If one person is impacted by something I say today, if I can help one person get through a tough time, I don't always hear from them. I don't always see them. But if I can help one person, man, I think that's well done, Well done. Yeah, I got to tell you, there are times still that I sometimes feel down about the show or feel like, you know, what the heck am I doing? Is this really?

35:13 Are people really connecting with the show? Are they feeling like this is this is their home? Because that is one of my goals is to make this show feel like a place that all content creators can come to feel seen, feel heard and get the kind of advice they want. And there are times that I just don't know if it's if that's landing. And Dave, yesterday on our interview, he really validated a lot for me because he was saying all the things that I hope that the people that listen or watch this show would think and that that really gave me a big jolt, a big resurgence in what I'm doing here just from one person.

35:54 And I don't take that lightly. I'm not just saying, oh, just one person. I'm saying all it takes is hearing it from one person. And I really appreciate it. Dave, thank you for the kind words. We'll talk a little bit more about that in a minute when we do wins. First, I want to go to Nikki. Nikki, you wanted to chime in? Yes, I was just going to say, well, first, Ralph, I just want to let you know and affirm you that 115 minute conversation that we had really did help me a ton. So you met your goal of helping one person and the effects and the reverberations of that conversation have been great. And so I appreciate you taking the time to do that. And Mark, your show really has helped too. It does feel like home. I'm going to miss you guys when it starts up at 8:00 AM because I won't be able to be here. But I do think that this is a fantastic space for any kind of content creator and you do an amazing job. Well worth, hopefully to you, well worth the time and energy that you expend because I see it as tremendously valuable. But the other thing I was just going to say is that whatever metric, whether it's engagement or it's downloads or something different, whatever metric makes you feel good, go with that one. For me, it's the downloads.

36:59 It's not the engagement because I don't really get it. I get a lot of engagement in my Facebook community, but it's kind of fleeting and short lived. So it doesn't make me feel good, but if it makes somebody else feel good, then use that as your metric because it's fulfilling you, it's filling up your cup. But in the other thing I was just going to say is that in terms of the metrics, if you have, let's say your goal is just to get one download, OK, cool. You get one download. You feel really good about that. Well, when you get that one, then you, your brain automatically starts to say, well, maybe I can get 2. And then when you get 2, you're like, ah, maybe I can get 5. And then you start to do that. And so with every little win, every little success, your ability to see and feel good about getting more of whatever it is that you want, that's it comes with time and you achieving those small goals. And before you know it, like Ralph said, now you're getting 10,000 downloads a month.

37:56 But if you're a new podcaster and you set that 10,000 downloads a month goal as right now, you're going to feel horrible about that because you're only going to see one or two because you're setting yourself up for failure. So just get one, then get 2, then get 5, then get 10. And then as you go through that process, before you know it, you're going to be able to see, oh, wait a second, I can get hundreds or thousands of downloads and you'll actually believe it and feel good about it. I love that, Nikki, Thank you. There's been a lot of gold shared here today, so thank you for being part of the gold sharing. I appreciate that. And yeah, what I just put here on the video chat, I was saying, yes, setting reasonable benchmarks for yourself 100% that, you know, I don't even realize that I do that sometimes. And you calling it out helped me just connect with that. When I do see those download numbers, when I open up my Spotify for creators, I do think about it like, OK, we've made an incremental improvement.

38:57 We, we are seeing it might be 5%, but I'm starting to see, OK, there's a 5%. And then I start to set those, those reasonable benchmarks, right? Let's say the number is 200 downloads that I've been seeing consistently for a while. Well, then all of a sudden if I'm starting to notice 220-5240 and I'm starting to see that more consistently or I'm setting that as the goal to see that more consistently, it feels a lot easier, right? I'm not just sitting here saying I've got to get to 10,000. It's just not, it's not realistic to think that way because it just burns you out and wears you down over time because it takes a while for a lot of us to get to that kind of number, if at if at all. Yeah.

39:43 Ralph, what did you want to say? Yeah, I want to go to Nikki too, but I just wanted to say something that John said. He says I still believe in Word of mouth, the best advertisement and he talks about how I mentioned this show. Just think about how impactful that is. If all of us mention this show to the people in our social circles, this show will grow immensely. Do the same thing with your pockets. I laughed yesterday. I wore a shirt that said ask me about my podcast. But that's because I wanted to reach one person. But like John said, thank you for saying that, John. Reach out with one. You know, just talk to one person. Share what you're enjoying, share what you're doing. I think it's huge. But Nikki wanted to make another comment. Mark. Yep, go ahead, Nikki. Yeah. I was going to make another comment and the comment is that if you, it's a metaphor, but if you plant a seed, OK, If you plant a seed, you have to know that seed is going to grow.

40:34 You have to know it. That's a really important thing. And when you plant the seed and you're confident that it is going to grow, then the success that you're after is going to, it's going to seem like it's coming so fast, especially when it does finally sprout. Because you always knew that it would. You always knew that it was going to be successful. Even Chris, like with the World Cup coming up, one of the interviews I was listening to Cristiano Ronaldo, he said that as a child, he always knew that he was going to be successful. There was never any doubt. So when it comes to your podcast or whatever it is that you feel really good doing, know that it's going to be, it's going to be great, it is going to turn out to be successful.

41:18 But you can't force a seed to grow in your timeline. You can't say, well, I want to have this many downloads by this date because immediately that it doesn't even make any logical or rational sense because you have no idea what your own personal timeline is for success. And who's to say that the time frame that you picked isn't absolute because maybe there was something the very next day that you were going to get, but you set the deadline for today and you now you've missed out on the opportunity for tomorrow because you didn't even know, you had no idea. So setting timelines and things like that, it automatically puts you in a state of anxiety. It for most people, I'm not going to say for everybody, but typically I know for me, it puts you in a state of anxiety.

42:02 And if I plant a seed, an actual seed, I can't tell that seed, OK, I want you to grow by next week. It doesn't doesn't make any sense. So you have to know that you are going to be successful. And when you do know that, then everything starts to come a lot faster than what you expected. It would anyone noticing a theme here with seeds and roots and trees? Lots of. Well, it is springtime, my friend. It is springtime, Janae. We are getting ready for our gardens. That is hilarious. Yeah. And so true. Nikki, again, thank you for the words of wisdom. And I am. I am refusing to believe that we're not going to have you around at once. We move to the 8:00 AM hour.

42:43 And I know that you said at least we've got you for the summer. Is that right? Well, I guess she couldn't get back off of off Mike. OK. But she told me that summertime. Is there? I thought it was off. Like my fault. I thought it was off mic. Yeah, well, and during the summertime, I'll be here. But my classes, they start at 8:00 AM, and students are actually rolling in right now, so I'll see if I can pop in every once in a while. But I'm definitely going to miss you guys. But over the summer, it'll be all right, so it's all going to work out. OK, yes. And of course, that is one reason why we do this as a podcast too, is that so people who can't make it live have a way to still connect with us. OK, did anyone else want to comment on this? DRI See, your hand is up. Did you want to comment before we get to wins? Well, yeah, right before we get to wins, I wanted to comment on Ralph's T-shirt yesterday and he brought it up again today. What is it?

43:30 Ask me about my podcast. Well, a couple months ago I used that as inspiration and I had AT shirt made that says tell me about your podcast and underneath it says I will rate like and follow. So since I'm a podcast producer, yeah, I thought that this might, you know, maybe get some conversation going. So I just wanted to say that I used that as inspiration. I love it, I love it. That is a great idea. Great way to network with people as well. Yeah, Although I would say you may not. Well, I'm joking because it actually would be a good idea. It's going to say if you walk into a big podcasting conference, you're going to get overwhelmed with people. But I guess that's the idea, right, Because we want to connect with as many of them as we can. Yeah, that's cool.

44:24 Thank you for sharing that little tidbit, that networking tip. Appreciate that, Dr. Let's do it wins from the week. So this is where we all take a look back at this past week and share and celebrate with one another those things that we were able to accomplish. No such thing as something being too big, too small. It's just a matter of celebrating what your win is. If it's a win to you, it's worth celebrating. So that's what we're going to do this morning. And you know what? I'm going to start. I figure why not? And yes, please, if you are listening live. And by the way, shout out to somebody watching live right now who's been participating in the video chat over on YouTube. Adam Tech Tools.

45:09 Thank you for being here all morning long and participating. Adam was sharing with us earlier how here I'll just tell you, he was saying that he and his Co host decided to put their podcast on hold until they restructure. He said that they jumped in and had a wonderful time doing episodes without having a plan. They were just doing it for pure joy. And I asked him if they have a plan as far as how long they're going to give themselves. And he said there is no plan right now and he might even just go take it solo for a little while. So I applaud you for really trying to keep this thing going. If like we were saying, if it's something you enjoy, by all means find a way to get it done, even if it looks a little different than what you thought about initially.

45:53 So with that, I am celebrating for this week. Of course, I have to say episode 500 in two ways. One, I'm just celebrating the fact that we got through 500 plus episodes. That in itself is worth celebrating. And I'm also celebrating how well that episode went. Episode 500, You know, there are, I often think about all the different angles of the different topics that we do on this show, you know, good, bad and indifferent. And I was worried that with newer listeners that they wouldn't really care about hearing some of the old voices that they're not familiar with. I was worried they would just find that boring. And I've gotten some early feedback from a few different people who have said, you know, I've been listening to the show, but I haven't been listening to it since episode 1.

46:42 And a lot of those voices I didn't know, but I really enjoyed hearing them anyway. I heard, I enjoyed hearing them come back, share their stories, share their gratitude for this community. So it ended up being something that worked out really well. And I'm really proud of that episode. We've made it a featured episode over at Podcasting Morning chat.com as well. And so thank you. I celebrate that win with each and everyone of you because this show does not happen just because of me by any stretch. This show happens because of everybody that's here today and that's been a part of this show in some way, shape or form over the years. So thank you for all that. Also celebrating the official decision to finally change the name of this show from podcasting morning chat to podcasting morning show and also that time change. So I'm celebrating those.

47:33 And finally, I'm celebrating my appearance, my recording with Dave, Dave Campbell yesterday on his show. I told him during the show and after the show. And I was telling my wife this yesterday as well. Probably. No. I'm going to say it was the best introduction and closing I've ever received. I mean, the kind words and the way that Dave really captured how I perceive myself to others, it just blew my mind. And by the way, the questions that he asked, the conversation that we had just, it was so well done. It was so natural and it was probably the deepest I've gone publicly about my ADHD.

48:20 So I really look forward to that coming out. Dave, you'll have to let us know when that comes out. Thank you. I celebrate that win with you, Sir. And I'm going to pass the baton to our guests on stage first. And I'm going to ask everybody, try to keep these concise if you can because we don't have a ton of time left. But with that, Nikki, the floor is yours. Do you want to share a win? You may not be able to because I know you had students walking in. Let's see, can do you want to share? OK, that's what I thought. OK, let's go to Janae. Janae, please keep them tight, but please share away. Go for it. Good morning. Two quick wins. One last week at military creator Con, I met a gentleman and this actually relates to don't quit yet topic as well.

49:05 Awesome. And he said, you know, I finally started recording a podcast. He reported a podcast and if he just had a phone and then when you saw our set up at the event, he's like, Oh my God, have I got shoes to fill? And then he said to him that I told him, you know, I'm glad that you started because that's the hardest thing that you got to do. So that was an amazing win. And then the comment he posted about it on LinkedIn. The second win was I revamped a studio for a local friend of mine and we are going to be turning it on today. So excited for all of those wins. Thanks guys. Thank you, Janae. And I'll just say it to everybody. I'm not going to sit and comment on everybody's wins this morning, but I will say congratulations.

49:46 What an awesome win and I love that it tied into today's topic. Thank you, Janae Sambaza, you're up. You want to share a win with us? Oh sure, that's why I came up. Hey, I want to good morning. Good morning. How you doing today? I'm doing well. I'm happy that you're here man. Please share. OK, so she's just like today, she's going for her last dance for the before she goes to high school. So we're going to celebrate that. What I wanted to say, Mark, congratulations first of all for your 500 plus episodes. I know this was my first show that I got into clubhouse and I've stuck with it and thank you so much for keeping it going. You're. Welcome. Do appreciate that.

50:27 Lastly, I wanted to say, you know, we always. Assume that you know things are not as they are. But we don't realize how many people do listen to the shows. And like everyone here says, hey, I know my show is going out there and I don't know people listening in. Well, story short, I do this challenge where the 30 day challenge where I work on podcasts out of out of Africa where I just study them and then kind of give them a review. No bad reviews, just great reviews and just talk about it. And I did 1 and somebody was so excited about that and did an episode, reviewed my podcast from there and also I got some new subscribers from it. What this goes to show is that, you know, whenever we feel like it's not working or things are just, you know, you know, you're not getting any feedback, there's somebody out there that's listening.

51:16 And that was the win for me. And thank you so much for allowing me to speak and y'all have a blessed weekend. Thank you, Simbaza. You too. And yeah, I'll celebrate with you the fact that this was your first show here on Clubhouse and you still are part of this community in such a big way. We appreciate having you here, Sambaza. Thank you for that. All right, Brian, coming to you. Good morning. Welcome back to the stage. Do you want to share a win with us? Yes, Mark, good morning. This kind of ties into what Nikki was saying of not having expect expectations for downloads of a podcast. By when was that on the rss.com? It told me that I had 25 downloads this week on at least on that website.

52:05 I don't know if that meant Apple Podcasts as well, but I'm, I'm not that kind of an expert at finding statistics like that, but that is a win for me because I had, I really had no expectations for anybody downloading my show. So that's it from me. Congratulations, Brian. That is awesome. And I think it's a great contribution to the conversation that we've had today. Right? You didn't set your bar too high and you're taking this as a win. And I think it is absolutely a win. I know that you've been doing your show on YouTube for a while and he just recently put it out as a podcast. So that is 100% a win.

52:48 Thank you for sharing that this morning with us. And also Speaking of Adam Tech Tools that we called out earlier, he said he has a win this week. He received a new follower on Sub Stack who liked what he wrote and is asking him. It is wonderful that someone not only read his work but wants more. That's from Adam Tech tools. Thank you for sharing that, Adam. Now I'll go to the moderators. I see BC wanted to chime in. He's got his hand up here on the video stream. Go for it BC. Yes, Sir. And I'll say one win is that you stayed awake the whole day today. That I did that I did. This is a follow up from 2 weeks ago. I got reached out to by that luxury apartment complex that wanted to build a podcasting studio. Updates is that we got the project approved, got the budget approved, so we are officially a go. I sent a first invoice.

53:41 So once that gets sent back, we're going to kick it off. And I'm really hopeful if I do this project right, then this is a service I can really kind of own in Charlotte. I don't think really anybody else offers this service. So super excited. Lookout Noda for a brand new podcasting studio coming your way June July of 2026. That is exciting. That means BC. Then that means it technically could be ready by empowered podcasting. It could be, it should be that's they want to launch by July, by the latest. That's fascinating. So maybe I'll get to come and get a tour, personal tour from you. Absolutely. I would love that. Congratulations. That is really exciting. And I also know, and I know I said I'm not going to comment on everybody's, but I did want to say like you have shared with us, like, you know, since you've graduated, got your masters, it's been a struggle trying to get some business going.

54:30 And it's great to see that you stuck with it and an opportunity presented itself. And that's another good reason, sticking with things even when they're hard. Sometimes it's that very moment that once we feel like we're at our wit's end, that all of a sudden and a new opportunity arises. So thank you for being a great example. Let this be a lesson. Every now and then take the random phone call. Yes, you don't know what's on the other side of it. Agreed. Thank you BC appreciate that. Ralph, you're up. Yeah, quick win. I'm launching my live show on May 1st, 1:00 PM on Clubhouse because of all the fun times I've had over here. We're getting all the Ecam scenes set up. So that's my win for this week, just getting it all and ready to go. We've got all the publicity going for that. So thank you, Mark.

55:15 Yeah, thank you, Dr. Go for it and congratulations, Ralph. Go for it, Dr. Well, as I've said before, I've kind of wrapped ramped up my networking game and I've been meeting with people one-on-one. Someone I met yesterday has turned me on to a feature that LinkedIn has. It's called my most trusted. And if you don't know what this is, pull it up on YouTube. Put it in YouTube. It is amazing. It uses AI, but the insights that it gives you is amazing. It's amazing and it's giving me a new tool basically to play with, but I am going to be utilizing this. It's there's it's an extension for Chrome and also people who are on Edge.

56:05 You can get it too. That's what I do, but I am. I am just bowled over at this. It's not a new feature, apparently it's been around for a long time. I just found out about it yesterday, so I'm going to have fun with it. My most trusted. Thank you, Dr. Congratulations. That's a good little tip as well. Thank you. I will definitely check that out. And let's see Sid, got any wins to share? Maybe a couple? Yes. So my first win, I think I said last week to you, but finally on Tuesday after 5 1/2 years, I got to meet the amazing Stacy Sherman in person. And wow, it's just so great to actually get a hug from Stacy after I've been connected with her. We talk offline a lot, we support each other, We have phone calls, we have Zoom calls.

56:54 And so it's just really great to finally meet Stacy in person. And, you know, my second win is that I got to come to this amazing event nestled in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains just outside of Knoxville and meet, you know, 40 people. It's only here is 40 people. And it definitely was an immersion about marketing, business growth, AI. And so I'm walking away with lots of ideas and a lot of new friends and connections. So being here was a really, really great decision for me. So those are mine for the week. Thank you, Sid. Congratulations. Awesome. I'm so happy you and Stacey finally got to meet face to face after all these years being within this community and of course, the friendship you guys have developed outside of this community.

57:36 It's so cool to hear. Mark, real quick. Yeah, thank you. Real quick. I hardly got to talk to Stacey really, because somebody would pull her over here to talk. Somebody would come pull me over here to talk. And so last night, if you're hugging goodbye cuz she left at like 5:00 this morning, she goes, I guess I'm just gonna have to call you next week and we're gonna have to do a walk and talk so we can catch up because we didn't. Get this did a lot of time. Together. But I did get to be around her and most importantly, get the neck hugs. Yeah, yeah, that's hilarious. Well, I'm glad, Yeah, I'm glad you guys got a little bit of time. And yeah, you guys talk all the time anyway, so I'm glad that all worked out. And all right, listen. Oh, and by the way, thank you to Adam Tech Tools for putting in the chat on YouTube that he hearing everyone's wins is inspiring and he's congratulating all of you.

58:23 So, yeah, thank you, Adam. Appreciate that. And hey, listen, if this whole week has been helpful to you or any part of it, it's been helpful to you and you want to find a way to support us here at the Podcasting Morning chat, please go to podcastingmorningchat.com/support. You can buy us a coffee. We have Buy me a coffee on there. Or if you don't feel like doing that and you have PayPal and you want to throw some support our way, by all means, take advantage of one of those. We would greatly appreciate it. That money, that support goes back into growing this show. And we're back on Monday with their Obsession Worthy podcast. So check the show notes and listen along this weekend and come be a part of the conversation on Monday. And if not, we'll play clips for you and get get you up to speed all morning long.

59:09 So until Monday, make it a great weekend everybody, take care.