Private Podcasts: The Overlooked Tool That Builds Superfans

0:05 Good morning podcasting, Morning chat. Today is Tuesday, December 9th, 2025, and today should you start a private podcast DOG Podcast Coach Cliff Ravenscraft joins us with lessons from 440 episodes and clear guidance to help you choose the right path for your show. So if you're listening live on Clubhouse, hit the share button, bottom left hand side of the screen and share it. However, Clubhouse lets you. And if you're catching us via podcast chatter, YouTube, Facebook, please share this with a fellow podcaster. And now give us about 30 seconds and we'll get things rolling. Thanks for being here.

1:20 Good morning again, podcasting, Morning chat. Thanks so much for being here. I am your host Mark Ronnick and currently on stage with me my Co hosts this morning producer Ashley Feller, Dr. Faye Cliff Ravenscraft, our guest today. We also have Ralph E step, Sid Meadows and BC babbles as well. Thanks so much to all of you for being here today. Really looking forward to this discussion. It feels like it's a it's been a long time coming. We every so often over It's kind of crazy to say over the years we've talked about trying to find somebody to come join us and talk about private podcasting and who better than Cliff Ravenscraft, the OGI call him the OG podcast coach 'cause he's been doing this. He's been coaching people way longer than I have and he's been podcasting for just as long as I have. Great to see him.

2:11 And I've said this before. Cliff is somebody that back in the day when I first started podcasting, he, his website was the one I would go to podcast answer man, I would go to his site all the time to get to get some guidance. So it's kind of full circle in some ways. So good morning to you, Cliff, Welcome. Good morning, Mark. I'm delighted and honored to be here, my friend. I'm glad you are. And before we dig into today's episode, I want to remind everyone about Thursday's episode. It's our podcast evaluation series. We've got a podcast from a from APMC listener Mike Messner, also an Empowered Podcasting Conference community member.

2:56 He came for the first time this past September, his show Carefree Highway Revisited, and the show's focus is on the songs of Gordon Lightfoot, Canadian singer-songwriter. So his target audience are fans of folk rock in the in 1970s music generally. So we're going to play that 30 minute episode well, we're going to play it privately and then play you some clips and talk about it, share what he's doing. Well, things that he could work on to improve, get even better. So we'll do that on Thursday the 11th. Also a reminder, if you are a Podfest speaker, check your inbox because we sent out a reminder yesterday afternoon.

3:41 This afternoon, 1:00 PM Eastern, we are doing a Podfest speaker networking call. This is a exactly what it is. What I said, it's a networking call. It's a way to get the speaker community at Podfest a little closer as we head into January's event. So check your inbox for that. And lastly, I want to say that the EPC Empowered Podcasting Conference Community Holiday Party is tonight. It's a virtual event via Zoom, starts at 7:00 PM Eastern Time. It's open to anyone who has come to any Empowered Podcasting Conference event. It's also open to you, the PMC community member.

4:24 But the way you gotta get your invite is to e-mail me. So go ahead and e-mail me if you are interested in joining us tonight, 7:00 PM for our holiday party, 7:00 PM Eastern. You can e-mail me at markmarc@ironicmedia.com. And ironic is spelled with a CKI was the last thing I was going to do today. But we can't do it because Nick isn't here. Nick got himself some new earbuds, and if you've been following the podcasting morning chat for any extended period of time, you know that Nick's audio sucks. His headset switches back and forth from working to switching to his phone speaker.

5:10 At least that's what it sounds like, and it happens multiple times as he's sharing whatever valuable insight he's sharing. He's finally bit the bullet and I think Black Friday got himself a good deal on a pair of earbuds, but we can't test them today. We'll have to wait until tomorrow. He's got some early work commitments today. So as I said, we have Cliff Ravenscraft here, the podcast answer man, by the way, also his Clubhouse anniversary. Cliff, how many years do you think you've been on Clubhouse now? Since the very first year that it like went, I'm sorry, the very first week that it went majorly viral during the pandemic, so whenever that was. Yeah, OK, so going on six years, I guess. So yeah, it's got to be 6 years today. Yeah, pretty crazy.

5:59 And all right, so one thing that Cliff told us is that yes, he has a private podcast and so does BC Babble. So BC feel free to answer any of the questions we ask Cliff that may pertain to you as well. Would love to hear from you and what you're up to. I know you have a newer private podcast, so I bet you you'll probably be able to learn a few things from Cliff this morning. And Cliff, I think the best place to start is a lot of podcasters have heard the term private podcast, but aren't quite sure really what it means. I mean, we have the basic premise. Perhaps would you mind describing it for us? For me, private podcast meant creating a podcast that is not generally available to the public.

6:47 I don't think it has to have a paywall, but specifically the one that I created did actually have a paywall. So the idea is that this is an RSS feed that only people who have been granted access to the content will actually be able to receive that content via the RSS feed. And so it does require a database system that allows people who have an account where they get a customized RSS feed for each individual member. So each listener who is granted access has their own RSS feed. That way, if at any point they either are no longer granted access or if it's a paid situation and they stop their monthly payment or subscription, then all of a sudden that podcast feed no longer delivers new content. So again, only those who are granted access get access to the private content.

7:49 That is exactly how I would describe it. OK, that makes a lot of sense. What for? What would be a good reason for having a private podcast? Why would we want to do that? Well, let's start with What some organizations might want to have is an internal podcast. So where they basically have a sales training team, for example, and they instead of wanting to do the old style conference calls via telephone, they can now do high quality audio recordings, have those done via Zoom. And then those who are not able to listen in live because they're doing sales calls, well, they can actually listen later once that's released into the private feed.

8:33 And this way, there's the ability to only give access to those people who are on your team who you want to hear that material. So that's one example. For me personally, I wanted to create something that was a more intimate connection with my audience, something that would allow me to have my subscribers to this podcast feel like insiders. So it's it's kind of like, hey, you're getting the lowdown on the behind the scenes stuff that's going on in all of the decisions when it comes to my personal life. And the real kicker for most people was they were really interested in why am I making the decisions that I'm making from a business standpoint.

9:19 So yeah, it was it was giving them an opportunity to hear my unfiltered thinking. I didn't have to do over. I didn't focus at all on content production value. I could just hit record, go for a walk and just talk. This is the IT is that unpolished, unscripted thinking out loud opportunity for me to just share sensitive and or experimental ideas. And this is protected and only shared with those who I know who are listening. Makes sense. And I think that there are probably some people out there, this would not apply to you, but there are probably some people out there that are maybe still feeling a little uncomfortable putting themselves out there publicly. And maybe having something like a private podcast would make them feel a little more comfortable speaking, knowing directly who they're speaking to, knowing that it's not out there for everyone to hear.

10:11 It might give some people a little more confidence in their podcasting journey. And when you first launched, I mean, you shared a piece of some of your goals, but what were your goals for this private podcast? And also, we didn't really even mention the name of it, so you can share that too. But what were you trying to create that didn't fit into a public show? OK So what was going on is I started this in November 2018. I had just finished my 1st annual conference called the Free The Dream Conference. As a result of doing that conference we had major success on every front except for one and that was financially. We had hundreds of people from all over the world come to this event.

10:59 It was incredible. However, I lost $38,000 as a result of doing that event that first year. And not only did I lose the $38,000, but during the process of nine months of building up and marketing that event, I, I had lost AI had not lost, but I had a number of people who were in my main continuity program called my next Level Mastermind. They had reached their renewal time and it's an option to renew and some of them did not renew. And because I was marketing this conference for the very first time, I was not marketing those empty seats. I thought no big deal.

11:40 I'm going to totally make up for any missed proper opportunity as far as income. I'm going to make all all of that up on the profit of this conference. But I did not make a profit on the conference. And so now I'm $38,000 in the hole. And I think out loud, I'm a verbal processor. And I would, I'm thinking, man, there's going to be a ton of people who I know who are on the entrepreneurial path who would absolutely love to hear my day by day thoughts and action plans. And then the results that I get from those actions. They would love to hear how I'm getting myself out of a $38,000 hole within 30 days.

12:24 I did not want that to be a part of my main podcast, the Cliff Ravenscraft Show, cause I am a firm believer that every episode of every podcast is somebody's first time ever hearing about you. And it doesn't make a great first impression to talk about the fact that, hey, I'm a business strategy and mindset coach. And by the way, I'm currently $38,000 in the hole trying to figure my way out of it. As your first episode. Yeah. I hear you. So what was that first episode? That first episode was about that. It was like, hey, I got you. I, I just lost $38,000 and here's how it happened. And this is what I'm going to do about it. And I shared the journey day by day.

13:06 That's very cool. Michael in the chat here says. I guess a subscription podcast is a private podcast, but not all private podcasts are subscription podcasts. So I think what he's saying is those subscription podcasts, like on Apple podcast, when you subscribe nowadays, that terminology means you're actually paying for the content. Technically speaking, I guess you could pull off a private subscription podcast through No, no, no, no, no, you couldn't. Nope, you couldn't do what I'm what I would want to do because in iTunes, if you have a premium subscription there and people can buy that, you can't choose who does and does not buy, right? And that.

13:49 And so for to answer that question for what I wanted to create with Train with Cliff, I would have not have done this through the Apple subscription model because the idea of the Apple subscription model is people are paying for premium content. So it's an additional revenue stream. I did this a long time ago before Apple did that. I had what was called gspn.tv Plus membership. It also technically was private content as well. So we had all of these entertainment based television shows or podcast where we did commentary on television shows and we put out regular content on a weekly basis. But several of our shows we did bonus episodes and anybody who paid $10 a month was a GSP n.tv Plus member and they had a separate feed that had all of this bonus content in it. And we also did that.

14:43 Of course that was manual before there were systems for this. But no, I would not have done this through Apple. Although if Apple had that option back then, that would have been a great place because it to me, it doesn't matter who wants this extra bonus content, just go sign up for it, get it delivered. I would probably would have not shut that down had Apple had it because it was such a pain in the butt to manage before there were software like Patreon. Yeah, I think a lot of people don't realize how challenging that was back in the day for people like us, Cliff, to actually charge people for content like a podcast. It was not easy as far as systems go, for sure.

15:23 And by the way, Tim in the chat says, I have a private podcast that is not discoverable on podcast apps. And I would say, yeah, that is a true definition of what a private podcast is all about. It's a private RSS feed that people don't see publicly in most podcast apps. Now, people on stage have questions as well, Cliff. So I'm going to 1st go to BC since BC is another private podcaster. And then we'll check in with Ralph. Go ahead BC. Also, I'm going to quickly say to the point of private podcasts not being subscribed, I was initially thinking, well, if you do it through YouTube and just make the whole thing unlisted, that could count. But I think to Cliff's point, a lot of those other caveats may kind of create loopholes and whatnot, and people can still get access.

16:07 So that's not quite. Yeah, 'cause the unlisted on YouTube, anybody can access it with a link. The private RSS feed makes it a little more challenging to share. Is that, is that fair to say, Cliff? Yep, the RSS feed is tokenized. Technically the person who paid for the content or has Oct because it doesn't have to be paid, but the person who has access to the content they could download the MP file and share it. Probably not as convenient as sharing a link to an unlisted YouTube video. Also, if you do the unlisted YouTube video route, you need to have some form of delivery of notification to people that you have a new unlisted video to share.

16:48 Right. And that's when I would have like pitched like maybe like a newsletter or something like that, like build up ACRM through something else to make sure that you do have some kind of deliverable through that. Let me just say one thing though. If you do all of that effectively, you have a private newsletter that contains video. You do not have a podcast. A podcast is defined by media delivered via an RSS enclosure. That's helpful. Thank you. And by the way, real quick shout out to Suzie May in the audience. Suzie May, one of our podcast evaluations, I believe we that was the most recent one, if my memory serves me. It's great to have you here, Suzie. Thank you for being here. Glad that you're here. After the evaluation, some of us kind of worrying behind the scenes, like, oh, we did this evaluation, how are they going to take it?

17:34 How are they going to take it? And the fact that you're here and I know 'cause we had a brief conversation off outside of here. Sounds like you were very happy with your evaluation and I'm glad to hear it. And yeah, she says in the chat here. Thank you for the feedback. It was really helpful. Cool. Well, we're doing it again this Thursday. Not your show, but come join us, Susie, if you want to learn from other people's podcasts as well. Now, Ralph, you had something as well. Go for it. My question for you, Cliff, is with my shows. What I did recently is I've launched A Patreon site for each of those shows because I think my end game is to try to bring people into a Patreon community. I heard you mention the word Patreon. So do you see that as a good delivery platform for a private podcast? Because my my view of monetization in the traditional models is you've got to have such a huge audience that it makes it almost impossible to get to that point. So as I'm launching a new show that actually kicks off today, my idea is to try to drive people to the Patreon so that they can basically get content that they're willing to pay for. And I just wondered if you thought that was a good plan. I think Patreon is an incredibly powerful platform, and for anyone who's starting out for the first time with a private podcast, I would go straight to the Patreon. Now if you get to the place where you are either one of two cases 1.

18:59 You get so popular and you're making so much income from Patreon that the amount that they take as far as their Commission cut is kind of painful. Then you could look at other options if you think your community that has followed you to Patreon would follow you to another platform. The other reason why you might want to consider something other than Patreon down the road is if you determine that, wow, the content that I want to deliver privately is worth a lot more than a few bucks a month. So for example, I've been I've known people who have had private podcasts that are $1000 a month and you don't want $1000 a month platform or Patreon taking a percentage of $1000 a month. Thank you, Cliff.

19:49 And I think Ashley has something and then we're going to go back to BC. Go ahead, Ashley. My question is, is it possible to host a private podcast from your own website? And I don't mean just link the RSS feed or embedded player. I mean like it actually. Comes from your website. Is that a thing people do? It's something that I hand coded back in 2007. It was the most painful experience on the planet. I had to host my own PHP databases. I had security flaws left and right. It took me countless hours every week that Apple and other podcast directories did a little bit of things because I basically what we did is we embedded different codes inside of the RSS feed so that it would read.

20:37 It was a nightmare. Now, I will say that I haven't looked into hosting it on my own, let's say, WordPress website in quite some time. There may be some premium podcast feed plugins that will do this for you. So I don't know the answer of whether or not they're out there or not. Now I use Kajabi and Kajabi is in a, a platform that also has the ability for one of your products to be a podcast and you can choose to make that a premium only podcast. And I, I happen to get into Kajabi when they first were in beta. And so I have a lifetime plan and they gave, I don't think that they knew what they were doing, but they gave me a plan that had an unlimited number of products.

21:23 So currently I host 55 different podcast feeds off of Kajabi. And I don't think that's what they intended, but there are ways that it can be done. And if there's not a plugin out there, which I'm sure by now there has to be, but if there's not, you could hire a developer to build a customized private podcast only feed system for your WordPress website. And Ashley's follow up is so you can marry your private podcast with your course in Kajabi. Yes. So basically I created, I can create an offer and when you get access to my quote, UN quote, let's say building an online business course, one of the benefits is that you're also granted access to the product called Trading with Cliff Audio Journal. I could definitely do that.

22:10 Very cool. And did anyone else fall over when Cliff said 55 RSS feeds? Cliff? So these are just like every podcast you've ever hosted in your 20 year career. Absolutely. So I have a lot of different shows and they're every single one of those 55 shows are still getting at least hundreds of downloads a month. Even, let's say the Virtual Assistant podcast, which hasn't had a new episode since December 2012, gets about 300 to 500 downloads every month. That's so cool. Speaking of releasing episodes, how often did you release episodes of the private podcast? How and how did you balance the the cadence with everything else that you were publishing? People could pay as little as $10 a month and as much as $100 a month, and I had some people who paid much higher monthly amounts.

22:59 And what my promise is that you will get at least one behind the scenes episode of The Train with Cliff Audio Journal per week, every single week. Now, sometimes I published 1:00 every single day of the week, and there were a handful of times where I recorded more than one podcast episode in the same day. So consistency is just as key in a private podcast then? It depends on what your promise is to the person who subscribed. OK. So yeah. So do you think then an audience, a private podcast audience is going to be more flexible as long as they know upfront, if I come in with my private podcast and say, you know what, my promise is you're going to get at least three episodes a month if I just leave it there, You think that the audience is tolerant of that?

23:48 The thing is, is you have to test it all out. It depends on how you communicate, what people's perceptions are of what you mean by that and all these other things. But I just, I just want to say have an open mind. I could actually see myself creating a private podcast feed that I make no commitment at all as to the frequency of the show. But to say that, hey, over the next 12 months, I anticipate having a conversation with these 4 individuals. I don't know when they will happen, but when they do, it's going to drop and it will be only available exclusively here. And by the way, to, to subscribe to this feed, it is, you know, $250. So go ahead and plop it down. And as I have those conversations, I will drop them in here.

24:32 I mean, I'm just making stuff up, but that's my business model. It's called the MSU business model. Make stuff up. I. Like that BC did you want to ask something? Pitched another option for those who are interested in in pair of podcasting, one that I came across recently and so far I've loved it for it's simplicity. So I've been hosting mine on Substack, which I came aware of a few weeks ago and I'm currently in an accelerator where someone else told me that that's where they house theirs. Substack is great for, I think also for anyone who's a Blogger who is a writer, you can set yours up to look very much like A blog or a newsletter or a newspaper kind of distribution system. The RSS feed for this one is is has a couple of interesting caveats.

25:13 So once you launch, and mine does have a pay window of 5 bucks, but it's you can search it automatically on Spotify. But the second you try to listen to it, you do have to connect to your sub stack and you do have to become a paid member. But as far as distributing to other platforms, it does distribute to Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, YouTube Podcasts, Pocket Casts and Overcast. You have to. Once you subscribe, you will get a special RSS feed that you then input into those streaming services. Then you can see the podcast and then access the content. That makes sense. Private RSS feeds have been going on for a long time now. And yeah, that's that's one of the nice things about them is you do have the ability to add them to some of these, most of these podcast players like Apple, Spotify, and even some of the quote UN quote smaller ones out there too. Yeah.

26:03 Oh, and Tim asks in the chat. Legal question here. With Europe Union protecting privacy, does that extend to private podcasts? I'm interested in getting detailed stats to see the reach for our employees overseas. Any ideas on that Cliff? I'm definitely not a lawyer, I don't play one on television, but my best guess if you're interested is protecting the privacy of individuals, whether they're paid or public, I think is in the best interest of your community. Yeah. And I would advise maybe go check in with Gordon Firemark and see if he could help you with that question. I think he probably would know better than us because like Cliff said, neither of us play a lawyer on a podcast or TV.

26:49 OK, let's talk a little bit about challenges. And ultimately, you did decide to shut down too, so we'll go into that as well. You were running this private podcast first. I think you said seven years. That's a long commitment. So what were some surprises, positive or challenging, that came along the way for you, Cliff? I don't know that I actually found many challenges at all, but the reason why I ended up shutting it down is there was a point in my journey where I'm like, wow, I, I am sharing so much valuable content behind the scenes that could be public. And the only challenge that I ran into is that with the behind the scenes podcast, the Train with Cliff Audio Journal, the production value, there was no promise at all to the production value.

27:42 So I could literally record on my phone while I'm out walking if I want with the built in microphone with the wind blowing. That's the if there's anything there was the challenge of, you know, the some of that content, which was incredibly powerful and and like profound. I mean, people are just like eating this up. It wasn't valuable. The con, the production value wasn't as valuable, wasn't high enough for the main public podcast content, But then all of a sudden I'm like, well, gosh, if I just take that episode, transcribe it, outline it, and then go and re record this with high production value, I'm going to go and create this as a public episode.

28:23 And so I began doing that very frequently. And at some point I'm like, why am I doubling all of this? I'm the amount of money that I'm bringing in from this monthly subscription doesn't, it just doesn't seem to have a good return on investment. And so over time, I decided to shut down the private podcast. I've pretty much shared everything I think I want to share with you guys. I think I'm ready to move on to some other things now. And by the way, if you want to hear more of Cliff, you can check out his show that's returning after a hiatus, not the private podcast, but the public podcast, the one that I know know him from most podcast answer man. So check out Podcast Answer man.com For more information.

29:05 And when or it has it already relaunched Cliff? It is relaunching today, so there there are 474 episodes currently in the feed. I think 39 of those are episodes of the Cliff Ravenscraft show that were fully devoted to podcasting since I went on hiatus. But there are 474 episodes in there now, and episode 475 will drop probably by the end of today, Tuesday, December 9th. And it is going to be a doozy. I'm going to be talking about the. Roadcaster killer. Oh the roadcaster killer. The roadcaster killer. Can we get any more hints than that? Nope, we have to tune into episode 475.

29:46 OK, alright, and I'm not kidding, I have, I have two of the original Roadcaster Pro units. I have a Roadcaster Pro 2 sitting right here on my desk and it is unplugged, turned off and not being used right now. Wow, wow, I would have guessed you were using it. What are you using 'cause you sound, you sound? Yeah, I'm using, I am using the Roadcaster Killer, which you can learn about in episode 475 at podcastanswerman.com Leader. See that? I got a hint out of it anyway, so now we know it. It's something that's replacing the roadcaster for Cliff and he thinks for others as well down the road. OK, cool. But. Let's just put it this way, somebody asked. In this episode I answer 13 questions from people in my community and the last one was.

30:30 So now I'm asking myself, do I really need one of these? And the answer to that question is no, you need to. All right, I will definitely check that out and we will put a link to the show notes podcast answer man.com or just go to cliffravenscraft.com to learn more. Dr. Do you have something? Cliff, I would like to know if the marketing for a private podcast, how it differs from a public podcast and if it differs? Yes, it definitely would differ from a public podcast because with the public podcast, the marketing that I would do is I would get on other people's shows as a guest.

31:11 And I would say, hey, before you go any further, you're already listening probably in a podcast app right now. Just go ahead and hit the search bar, type in this keyword and you'll pull up my podcast. Go subscribe to it right now and make sure you download episode number or such and such. That would be the kind of marketing that I would do for the public podcast. That's not something I would typically do for my private podcast. My private podcast is more along the lines of me communicating either to my existing audience who are already subscribed to my show and explaining the value of this additional bonus content and or creating a sales page, which basically describes the overall essence of what this this is.

31:57 And you really want to sell the value of this to somebody who may not already be a follower of yours or a subscriber to your public podcast. So it does, it does require a bit of marketing and sales to get somebody to go to a premium podcast compared to a public podcast which it's it's just pushing a button. Do you like give them a little tease of what's in there so they would have some inkling of what is what's in store, what they get for their money? Absolutely. So one of the things that I've done over the years with the Train with Cliff Audio Journal, occasionally I'll record an episode.

32:39 I'm like, Oh my gosh, this episode right here is worth $5000. I mean, and that's not hyperbole. This episode alone, this one private podcast episode is worth $5000. And as soon as I have that feeling, I immediately go into my recorder and say, hey everybody, Cliff Ravens Craft here with another episode of the Cliff Ravens Craft Show. Today I'm going to share with you a little behind the scenes action of what happens in my Train with Cliff Audio Journal podcast. This is an example of the type of content that is only available to premium subscribers of the Train with Cliff Audio Journal. Here's what you're going to hear.

33:20 Here's what I hope you'll take away. Here's that episode right now. And then at the end, I'll put a big, huge call to action for them to go to subscribe to get access to more of this. And so you give them the whole episode. I'd give them the whole thing. Oh. I see. Good. Thank you so much. And Gene in the chat says that he already knows what the road caster killer is 'cause he just saw your YouTube video three hours ago. And nice. All right, Gene. Don't tell though. Even though I want you to don't tell. I'll go listen like a good listener. And let's go to Sid, who I believe has a question. Go ahead, Sid. My question is, I'm a podcaster. I have an existing audience of a couple 100 people that TuneIn every week. Why would I want to create a private podcast and what would it?

34:05 What would I like? What would the purpose of it be or what would I want to share with it? I'm trying to get my arm. I mean, I understand what a private podcast is, what I'm trying to get my arms rounded. What would I give to my audience that I'm not already giving them? Sid, the first thing that comes to my mind and what comes up for me as I hear that is I wouldn't create a private podcast unless you already have something burning in you that you know you want to deliver, but you don't want to deliver via the podcast feed you already have. So if you're So what I'm saying, I don't think that a, I don't think that a private podcast should be a solution to a problem you're not already experiencing.

34:49 And so I would say that if you don't know the answer to that question already for yourself, you don't need a private podcast. And that is actually on point, so thank you for sharing that and being honest. I love the idea of it, especially love the idea of it for businesses to share, like the status of what's happening in the business or business update for their employees and things of that nature. I'm working on a community, you know, something to bring in a low cost community feature for my podcast in 2026. And I've been talking to a lot of my listeners about what would they pay $20.00 a month for, just to try to get an idea because I want to be able to have a more intimate relationship with them. And I think the community platform is going to be that.

35:31 And one of the things that they've given me feedback on is they really don't have time to consume more content. They don't want more content, which is something I think it's really important. Your points are well taken. So thank you for sharing that, Cliff. My pleasure. Just throwing it out there for looking at it from the other side where, OK, what what are some ideas Sid could do for a private podcast? The first thing that came to mind, maybe it's because of what Cliff shared, is you're starting a new business with a couple of partners. Maybe you would share behind the scenes with your audience of that process like that. If that's something that calls to you, if that's something that you think is needed, that could be a direction you may want to go. That's a great point, Mark, and you know, something that could help to benefit the collaborative network, our new business.

36:15 But the only thing that like has come up for me is something similar to Cliff show, ask the, you know, podcast Answer Man is just like ask Sid because I get a ton of questions from people on a regular basis, whether e-mail or phone calls and they ask my opinion about this or this or that. And I could take that questions and I could turn those questions into, you know, quick little Nuggets of information and share privately for people who want to pay. So it's kind of like you get my business advisory service for $5 a month or something. Yeah, exactly. And if that's something that people are often doing, yeah, that's a great use of those questions and your answers. I think that's a cool idea. BCI think you had something?

36:56 Go for it. Yeah. But granted, I think you and Cliff kind of come, come, come by and already kind of hit this. But going off a little, Cliff said, you know, podcast should always be purpose driven. You want to make sure that there's something you already want to comment on our converse about before creating a show. But also as human beings, we're not or even as podcasters, we're not restricted to one convoy that we believe should be happening. So if you kind of what Mark and Cliff were saying, if you feel there's another conversation that should be happening and it happens to align with, let's say you're building a business. For me, I do want to build my podcasting into a business. And so for me, that's a great chance to provide a little extra something for parts of my audience who want to help me in building that.

37:39 And I'll even begin coupling the private podcast with other exclusive things as well. Polls on helping to decide future format changes or inviting people to live recordings of my main podcast, which I don't currently do. Just kind of like keeping in mind those opportunities of correlation between whether you feel there should there's another way you want, another idea you want to express, and if it aligns with something productive in your own life. Thank you BC and let me check in. David here in the chat said that it doesn't have to be too in depth. But as far as a private podcast for a business without having to spend $50,000 on a network but still needing to keep the content within the walls of the company, do you have any recommendations?

38:27 Factoring asso enterprise platform? There are enterprise solutions, I can't remember the names of them. I think premium cast might have been out there. There are some platforms that are designed to be industry specific and not industry specific, but corporate specific internal podcasts. So there are solutions out there that have a little bit more product protection built in with that in mind, whereas Patreon isn't really designed to try to keep and protect your industry insider secrets, if you know what I mean. Thank you, Cliff, and you've answered some of this, but I want to come back to it just to see if there's anything else.

39:10 For creators who are interested in offering a private podcast, what questions should they ask themselves before diving in? And obviously, the big one was, if you don't know why you need one, you don't need one at all. So first ask yourself, do you need one? But are there other questions that we should be asking? Here's some questions off the top of my head is am I going to charge for it or do I want to let anybody have access to it but still have the ability to choose who does and does not? So again, what the question is, is why am I not publishing this publicly that that you have to have the answer to that. Why? Why am I not making this freely available to anyone and everyone on the planet who desires to hit the subscribe button?

39:57 Have an answer to that question and then ask yourself, what am I actually going to deliver? What's the value that is being given here that makes sense for this not to be publicly available? So I would have that the answer to those two questions. And then you want to ask yourself, what is the promise that I'm going to make to the audience if they choose to, for example, pay for this private access podcast? Then what is my commitment as far as the content or the frequency? What is my commitment as it comes to the production value? You'd want to have answers to all of those questions, I think. What about the practices? Any other practices that's helped you keep your private subscribers engaged over the long term? Definitely invite them to ask questions and submit them to you and respond to them and call them by name. That's something that I do in my public podcast, but it's something that is even, I think, more valuable in that private podcast, especially when those people get to know each other. If you use a platform like Patreon, there's a little bit of a community aspect that's built into their app system, their ecosystem that allows people to interact and engage with one another.

41:11 One of the things that Patreon allows you to do is even host a Discord server. So not only when somebody becomes a paid subscriber, they get access to a private podcast feed, but they also get they get access to a Discord server that's tied to their actual subscription. And so they can, you can manage a community and engagement with not only you directly with them, but you can facilitate that community among each other. And whether or not you use Discord or some other platform, it doesn't matter. But I, I think really getting in and engaging directly with those people, getting them plugged into each other. And when they're plugged into each other and they know that they're plugged into each other, there's nothing more pleasing to the ear than hearing your own name.

41:57 I'm sure you've heard that before. And so every time you share their name, they're like, they perk up. It's like, oh man, this is amazing. And of course they wouldn't want to go months with out being subscribed and not knowing whether or not their name is being said. Yeah, I think our audience has heard me say that multiple times as soon as recently I think as this week or last week. As far as make sure you're saying you're the names of your audience, Cliff, is there a lesson from your private podcast journey that still influences the way you create or communicate today? I would say that there is an there is a ton of value in sharing your heart authentically and transparently. That especially given today in the overly scripted AI content creating world that we seem to be stuck in in this season of life, lowering your production value can almost be of benefit in your public content today.

43:02 That does feel freeing, just hearing the idea of like, you don't have to worry as much about your audio quality. It can be more of an on the go thing. If you're on the go and you only got your phone to work with and that's how you're going to record, your private audience will be a little more accepting of that. That's at least what I'm hearing. I do want to say I'm an audio snob. So I will say that I'm not suggesting that my audio quality should be. I think that it's OK for that to slack because I because I don't think that that's the case, but I'm talking about production value. Like for me, just editing out all of the umms and the times when I restate something over and over again, it's there's a lot of editing. Like for example, episode 475 of the Cliff Ravens. I'm sorry of the podcast answer, man. It's going to sound perfect because I've been working on this one episode for about 9 hours and it's so far it's only 45 minutes in length and I've still got 15 more minutes of content to put in it.

44:03 So this thing is high production value. But what I know is that not every episode's going to get this layer of treatment. This one is because it's going to be the most, it's going to be the most widely listened to episode for the next 5 to 10 years. And so I'm going over and above here, but the next episode beyond it will probably have lots of mistakes in it that will not get it out edited out. And it will be intentional that they don't get edited out. What makes you say that that episode Come In Now or that came out is going to be the most listened to over the course of the next 5 to 10 years? I helped Amy Porterfield launcher podcast. I helped Pat Flynn launch his podcast.

44:44 I helped Michael Hyatt launch his podcast. I helped John Lee Dumas launch his podcast. Those four people are going to be telling the world about my relaunch. They will link to it and that alone will reach about 5 million people. Love it, love it. And he taught me too, in many ways. Go ahead. Sir, back to a little bit of my question. So Cliff, I have a course that I taught live. It's designed specifically for new people in the office furniture industry and which is a really hard industry to learn and it's really hard to attract new people. And part of the reason is it's so complicated. As I've been listening to this, I'm just wondering about like taking that course content along with taking questions that people ask me about in the industry and turning it into a private podcast that is basically teaching people about the industry without having to sit in front of their computer and watch a video for 30 minutes of me talking about something I don't know. What do you have thoughts about like taking a course and turning it into a private podcast where you're still delivering the same level of content, but you're just delivering it differently. Maybe a way that people would prefer to consume in walking around the house or doing their exercise or whatever and not sitting in front of your computer watching a course. So I'm going to go back to your question. You asked me previously, Cliff, I have a couple 100 subscribers and you know, why should I have a podcast? I can't think of a reason.

46:10 I'm going to amend my answer, Sid. The reason why you would want to create a podcast is so that you can actually create a course that is delivered through audio. You just came up with the reason for you to have a private podcast. And by the way, a private podcast does not have to be an ongoing podcast that you do for seven years, right? A private podcast could be 7 episodes that are anywhere between 20 minutes to an hour in length. Or obviously we all know that there's no reason to change. You can make it, however, you can make each episode 4 1/2 hours if you want. It could be 3 episodes, it could be 10 episodes. And then once it's done and you could sell that private podcast for $1500. Once you get the access to it, you can start at episode 1 and go to however many episodes that you, that you design find it to be.

47:03 So if it's 15 episodes and all 15 are published and somebody joins, they can start at episode 1 and listen through and they could jump to episode 8 if they wanted to and then go back to episode 2. So it's all there. It's really a really great idea because I've been sitting on the relaunch of this course because I just struggling to update the PowerPoint and all that kind of nonsense. And so I'm just like, and I've been trying to figure out a way to automate it to make it easier because when I did it in the past, further a couple of years that I did it, it was all about me teaching. And that just takes up so much time and effort. And it wasn't really scalable. I'm not scalable that way. So this gives me a way to teach it, keep the content updated, add current events to it, and then sell it at a lower cost that would attract more people into it. So it's a real thank you, Cliff.

47:52 My pleasure. Yeah, and I'm thinking you for me personally, I'm inspired to at least considering the idea of a private podcast for only my clients only, right, Like I I could have some stuff to maybe it's twice a month, maybe it's once a week. I don't know yet, but where I'm just updating them. Maybe it's with some advice, maybe it's with some things going on that I want my clients to know about within the company could be a variety of things. I like that. And then also, I feel like a lot of us do newsletters and we could create a private podcast based on those newsletters. Maybe we go more in depth for the private audience. Maybe that's one way to do it.

48:34 Maybe it's it's own type of newsletter. Who knows? But this has got the juices flowing. Ralph. Hey, Mark. Yeah, I'm going to go to you, Ralph, in a second. Go ahead, Cliff. So one of the other ideas that came to my mind as Sid was talking about, course, maybe you're a self published author. And if you're a self published author, one of the things that you could do is create an audio version of your book and each chapter is a podcast episode in a private podcast feed. I like that too. Ralph, you're up. Here's my question, is there a magic number as to the size of your community where this makes sense? Depends on what your desired outcome is financially.

49:15 So for me, I often have had the philosophy if this is a value to one person and I would create it, even if only that one person would listen to it, then I'm going to create it. It doesn't matter to me if there's a minimum return on investment financially that I need, then yes, that you would. There would be some numbers and metrics you'd have to kind of navigate through. But for me, there, there was a time where I could literally link back several millions of dollars in sales from my products and services to one person. And his name was Dan Miller.

49:55 And if Dan Miller was the only person who listened to my podcast at the time and nobody else, I would still create that content every week. And Cliff, before we wrap up, I do want to ask anything going on in your world besides the return of podcast Answer Man that you'd like to share with our community? Absolutely. So number one, I didn't get the e-mail that you mentioned earlier, but I am going to be speaking at Podfest in Orlando. So if anybody wants to meet face to face, let me know and I'll make sure to put you on my list to make sure that I do get the opportunity to cross paths with you. So I'm looking forward to speaking at Podcast Podcast Expo. And the week after I get back from Podcast Expo or a pod Fest Expo, I am going to be relaunching my Learn How to Podcast course, which is a four week training program that has taught more than or nearly 700 people how to podcast through a four week, one-on-one.

51:00 And also group coaching relationship with me, where I answer an unlimited number of questions and walk you through every single step in the process of launching your podcast. I have. It has been, I think it's seven years since I've done one of these or maybe it's 8 and I'm bringing it back and it's going to be a primary focus in 2026, in the year ahead. Awesome. Congratulations, Cliff. Cool to see you bringing back some of the your classic stuff. And I'm excited to see where this goes. And this has been such a helpful conversation. I really appreciate you walking us through not just what a private podcast is, but why it can be such a meaningful tool for podcasters who want a closer connection with their audience. And I know a lot of our listeners are thinking about now new ways to serve their communities. And your experience really has, at least for me, motivated and inspired me and and showed me what's possible and what to think through through before jumping into it. So thank you for all of this, Cliff, and thank you for being a part of the podcasting morning chat over the past couple months.

52:08 Appreciate you being here. Well, Mark, I appreciate you and I thank you for keeping this community going and and just the work that you guys are doing. It is a privilege to be a guest here today and it's also a lot of fun to be a family on the wall when I'm able to drop in here and there. So I love this community and thank you for what you're doing, Mark. Yeah, thank you, Cliff and BC, shout out to you too. Thank you for your contributions today. And if you want BC, do you want to share where people could get your private podcast if they're interested? My show is called Caffeination Nation. It's on my sub stack BC babbles.substack.com. Check out my blog there, my main podcast as well. But also go to the private Babble Corner and you'll see a chance to sign up and enjoy the private podcast. Awesome, cool.

52:56 Thank you BC and thank you to all of you for participating today. Remember that tomorrow, 7:00 AM Eastern, we are covering news and comment all things podcasting in the news that are of interest to you. We will try to get to as many of them as possible. So come join us and join that conversation tomorrow. And remember Thursday, and I'm saying this to my team here as well, remember we are evaluating another podcast on Thursday. Please go listen to that and we'll put a link in the show notes if you want to get a little deeper into that before joining us on Thursday. And if you don't feel like listening, that's OK. We got lots of clips we'll play for you on Thursday and discuss as well. So until tomorrow, make it a great day everybody take care.