What Most Podcasters Get Wrong About Success
Leah Bryant [00:00:03 - 00:01:01]:
[00:00:03] Welcome to the Podcasting Problem Solver. [00:00:05] I'm Leah Bryant, your podcast growth strategist. [00:00:08] Can I tell you something that nobody in the podcasting space is going to say out loud? [00:00:13] Most podcasters aren't technically failing. [00:00:17] The expectations around them are. [00:00:21] I want you to think about the last time you checked your download numbers. [00:00:27] What was your gut reaction? [00:00:28] Were you pumped? [00:00:30] Or did you immediately feel like you weren't doing enough, growing fast enough, or reaching enough people? [00:00:37] Because what I see consistently are podcasters with genuinely solid shows who are one conversation away from burning everything down because their numbers don't look like they were quote, unquote, told they should look like. [00:00:53] And that, my friend, is an expectation problem. [00:00:57] And settle in because I'm about to get a little spicy.
The Lie About Podcast Success Metrics
Leah Bryant [00:01:02 - 00:02:19]:
[00:01:02] Because today we're getting into the lie about what podcast success looks like, why the metrics you're obsessing over are the wrong ones, and what to focus on instead if you want your podcast to grow your business. [00:01:19] So where did this come from? [00:01:21] Why are so many brilliant, very capable business owners convinced their podcast is failing when it's not? [00:01:30] I'll tell you. [00:01:31] It came from the wrong room. [00:01:34] We started comparing ourselves to podcasters who are monetizing through ads and sponsorships, where volume genuinely matters, where you need tens of thousands of downloads per episode to land a brand deal. [00:01:50] And somehow that became the benchmark for everyone, including coaches, consultants, service providers who have absolutely no business measuring themselves against a media company. [00:02:04] You, my friend, are not npr. [00:02:07] You are not a true crime show, and you are not Joe Rogan. [00:02:12] You are a business owner with a podcast, and the math is completely different.
Why Podcast Download Numbers Don’t Define Success
Leah Bryant [00:02:20 - 00:03:32]:
[00:02:20] I want you to think about it like this. [00:02:22] If you sell a coaching package at $3,000 and your podcast has 200 listeners and just three of them become clients this year, well, that's $9,000 in revenue from 200 people. [00:02:39] Now a podcast with 50,000 downloads and zero conversion strategy made nothing. [00:02:48] So which show is failing? [00:02:52] The obsession with downloads is costing people money opportunities, and in a lot of cases, podcasts that should, quite frankly, still be running. [00:03:05] And if you're sitting here thinking, okay, Leah, but I don't even know what I should be tracking, well, that's exactly what we dig into inside my new program, Positioned and found. [00:03:16] It's my eight week group program where we get your podcast strategically set up so it attracts the right listeners and actually converts them. [00:03:24] The waitlist link is in the show notes. [00:03:27] So if your downloads aren't the metric, then what is? [00:03:31] Great question.
The Right Podcast Metrics: Discoverability, Listener Quality, Conversion
Leah Bryant [00:03:32 - 00:04:24]:
[00:03:32] I'm so glad that you asked. [00:03:34] There's three things, and that comes down to discoverability, listener quality, and the conversion. [00:03:42] So discoverability, which I talk a lot about on this show, is whether the right people can even find your show in the first place. [00:03:49] This is where most podcasts have a problem that they don't even know they have, right? [00:03:54] Your content might be brilliant, but if your metadata, your title, your episode descriptions, they're not set up to be found. [00:04:01] You're essentially hosting a dinner party and forgetting to send the invitations, and we don't want that. [00:04:08] Your listener quality is all about who's in your audience, not how many. [00:04:13] Because a hundred listeners who are your exact ideal client. [00:04:17] Well, I mean, that is worth more than 10,000 passive subscribers who stumbled in for an episode about a topic you'll never cover again.
How Listener Engagement and Conversion Outweigh Downloads
Leah Bryant [00:04:26 - 00:05:18]:
[00:04:26] When someone is listening, consistently, engaging, and showing up week after week, that is your signal. [00:04:33] And then last but not least, is conversion. [00:04:36] This is the one people avoid talking about the most. [00:04:40] Is your podcast actually doing anything for your business? [00:04:44] Are people going from listener to email subscriber to inquiry? [00:04:50] Or they could be going from listener to inquiry. [00:04:53] I mean, I even have clients who have listeners going from listener to client. [00:04:57] Or are they consuming your content and then, peace out, cub scout. [00:05:01] They're disappearing because your podcast should be doing more than entertaining the people, okay? [00:05:07] It should be moving them somewhere, right? [00:05:10] These are the three pillars I look at when I audit a podcast. [00:05:14] And nine times out of 10, the problem is never that the show is bad.
Real Podcast Success Stories
Leah Bryant [00:05:19 - 00:06:04]:
[00:05:19] It's just that nobody has set it up to succeed on these terms. [00:05:23] So Sarah is a coach who came to me about six months into her podcast, and she was ready to quit you all. [00:05:29] She'd been showing up consistently, doing everything right by the conventional wisdom. [00:05:34] You know, posting every week, promoting on Instagram, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. [00:05:42] And her downloads were hovering around 80 per episode. [00:05:46] She told me she felt embarrassed. [00:05:48] She'd been bragging to her audience about having a podcast, and the numbers felt like proof she didn't know what she was doing. [00:05:56] So, me being me, I pulled back the downloads conversation completely, and I started asking different questions.
How Rethinking Metrics Transformed a Business Podcast
Leah Bryant [00:06:04 - 00:06:56]:
[00:06:04] Who is actually listening? [00:06:07] Are they your people, Sarah? [00:06:09] And what happens after they listen? [00:06:11] And here is what I found in the 80 downloads per episode was that three people had booked discovery calls directly from the podcast in the last two months. [00:06:21] Two of them became clients, and she had never connected those dots because she was too dang busy staring at a number that she told should be bigger. [00:06:33] So her podcast wasn't failing. [00:06:35] She just Couldn't see it because she was measuring the wrong thing. [00:06:41] We were able to shift her focus to discoverability and listener quality. [00:06:46] Getting the right people in, rather than just more people. [00:06:49] And within 90 days, her inquiry rate doubled. [00:06:53] Not her downloads, her inquiries.
Shifting Your Mindset From Downloads to Meaningful Podcast Growth
Leah Bryant [00:06:56 - 00:07:47]:
[00:06:56] And that, my friend, is the difference. [00:06:59] So here's what I want you to walk away with today. [00:07:02] Stop opening your podcast app to check your downloads as a measure of your worth as a podcaster. [00:07:10] For heavens to Betsy, just stop. [00:07:14] That number on its own means almost nothing for a business podcast. [00:07:20] Absolutely nothing. [00:07:21] I want you to start asking better questions. [00:07:24] Is my podcast findable? [00:07:27] Am I attracting? [00:07:28] Who actually needs my offer? [00:07:30] And when someone listens, is there a clear path for them to take the next step to me, or to work with me, or to continue the conversation with me? [00:07:41] And if you can't answer yes to all three, that's where the work is.
Building a Strategic Podcast Foundation
Leah Bryant [00:07:47 - 00:08:20]:
[00:07:47] Not in recording more episodes, not promoting more on social media. [00:07:53] It's in your foundation. [00:07:55] And that is exactly why, why I built my seamless podcast framework the way that I did. [00:08:00] Because strategy and attraction aren't the fun parts. [00:08:05] No, they're not. [00:08:06] They're not the parts that people talk about at podcast conferences. [00:08:10] They are the parts that make everything else work. [00:08:14] When I launch a podcast, we spend a lot of time on those phases because they're important.
Why Strategy and Attraction Matter for Podcast Growth
Leah Bryant [00:08:21 - 00:09:07]:
[00:08:21] Because without a strategy, you're creating content. [00:08:24] Without direction, without attraction, you're creating content for an audience that can't find you. [00:08:31] And without those two things locked in, the execution and momentum phases don't compound the way they should, your podcast doesn't need to be bigger, but it does need to be positioned. [00:08:43] And that is a very different problem with a very different solution. [00:08:48] If today's episode hit a little close to home, if you're realizing that you've been measuring the wrong things and you're not sure what to do about it, first, I want you to know that it's okay. [00:08:58] You are not alone in that. [00:09:00] Lots of podcasters are in the same boat. [00:09:02] But I also want to invite you to join the wait list for Positioned and Found.
Next Steps: Join Positioned and Found for Business Podcast Growth
Leah Bryant [00:09:07 - 00:10:01]:
[00:09:07] I am going to open the doors up for my birthday celebration in June. [00:09:11] It is my eight week group coaching program, and it's specifically designed for established business owners who are doing the podcast thing. [00:09:20] But no, something isn't quite clicking. [00:09:23] We're going to work through the strategy and attraction phases of my seamless podcast framework together. [00:09:28] So by the end, your podcast is findable and is positioned to attract your ideal client. [00:09:35] And of course, it's going to have that clear path to conversion, right? [00:09:39] The link for the waitlist is going to be in the show notes or you can go ahead and head over to Leah bryantco.com backslash get found go check it out and if it feels like a right fit I would love to see you on the wait list. [00:09:53] And if you have questions you can always DM me. [00:09:56] Find me on threads and Instagram eabrientco All right, that's it for today.
How to Connect and Keep Growing Your Podcast
Leah Bryant [00:10:02 - 00:10:36]:
[00:10:02] If this one resonated with you, screenshot it, share it on your stories, tag me, DM me, send me all your questions. [00:10:11] You can also find below the description the thing where you can send me a text, you can send me a voice, note all the things and I can respond back to you personally. [00:10:21] I want to hear which expectation you're letting go of. [00:10:24] Share it with me. [00:10:25] Until then, keep your podcast purposeful, keep measuring the right things and keep your growth seamless and I will see you next week. [00:10:35] Okay, bye.
