Sober Steve, the Podcast Guy, goes over three categories of people who will (almost) definitely never, ever listen to your podcast and why these are good things.
1. Your Family 2. Your Real Life Social Network 3. Your Social Media Network
What Next?
Check out www.SoberSteve.com to access your Podcasting Circle of Success to gauge how ready you are for success
Sign up for a free Tune-Up or Brainstorm session while you are there for free one-on-one support and the chance to be featured in a future episode!
Follow us on Instagram @PodcastingBadass for exclusive bonus content!
Want to learn more about Highly Sensitive People? Check out Stephanie Lynn's podcast, The Highly Sensitive Club, wherever you listen to podcasts, such as Apple and Spotify
Sober Steve, the Podcast Guy, goes over three categories of people who will (almost) definitely never, ever listen to your podcast and why these are good things.
1. Your Family 2. Your Real Life Social Network 3. Your Social Media Network
What Next?
Check out www.SoberSteve.com to access your Podcasting Circle of Success to gauge how ready you are for success
Sign up for a free Tune-Up or Brainstorm session while you are there for free one-on-one support and the chance to be featured in a future episode!
Follow us on Instagram @PodcastingBadass for exclusive bonus content!
Want to learn more about Highly Sensitive People? Check out Stephanie Lynn's podcast, The Highly Sensitive Club, wherever you listen to podcasts, such as Apple and Spotify
Speaker:
Hey, podcasting badasses. It's Stephanie Lynn from the highly sensitive club podcast. If you've ever been told you're too sensitive or you identify with having big feelings and deep thoughts, you don't always know what to do with my podcast. The highly sensitive club is the one for you. Check out episode 22, where I talk about five ways to spot a highly sensitive person in the wild. You are listening to podcasting, bad ass podcast tips and mindset tricks for success and monetization. Here's your host. Sober Steve the podcast guy.
Steve:
Hey there. Podcasting bad-ass is it's your host sober Steve, the podcast guy. And today I am going to be sharing with you three groups of people who will almost definitely never listen to your podcasts. This is a lesson that I've taken years to learn and accept and feel very comfortable with sharing with all of you. And I'm going to warn you that not all three of them are going to go down as easy as you think they will. A couple of them. I even be a relief, but one of them might hurt. So bear with me as we dive into this week's topic. And the reason why that topic is so important to me is that we're looking to make big waves with our podcasts. We're looking to make a big difference. We're looking to make impact on people's lives. And so oftentimes we're also at the same time trying to make everyone happy, or at least that's what I did for so long. I was so worried that when I went behind the microphone and started talking into it, That what people would think of me when they heard what I had to say, that I tried to make sure that what I was saying, it would make everyone who could possibly listen to it happy. And that is not a way to succeed at podcasting. I've learned if you are going to be a podcast, bad-ass. You've gotta be willing to make waves. And for that, you've got to get loud with your not only a voice, but with your opinions, you need to be willing to get raw and vulnerable and open and honest. I'm one of the major stumbling blocks for me at first with that is I was worried about who might hear the podcast. And that is why I am very happy to report that your family and close friends will almost definitely not listen to your podcast unless your podcast is about something that your family and friends are interested in. Yes, I was so nervous when I started podcasting. That the people in my life that I might reference or talk about might hear what I had to say. And not even that I was talking shade or being messy with it. But I was afraid of saying something that might get back, you know, talking with one of my podcasts, being about my recovery journey. It involves talking a lot about your history. And I was worried about what my parents might think if they heard me talking about some of the things from my childhood, that weren't great. And I was so nervous about it. And I can honestly say after having over 200 episodes of two different podcasts, over 400 episodes of content, that the number of podcasts episodes my parents have listened to is zero. And not only my parents, but also my in-laws who also. I did an podcast with almost 200 episodes, but their son who they love and adore. And we would say, even listen to this episode, listen to that episode. Guess what? They don't listen to podcasts. They didn't want to hear us talk about movies for an hour. So they didn't listen to our podcast where we talked about movies for an hour. You know, my parents were in interested in my sobriety attorney because they're not on my sobriety journey with me. Unless these people that are in your lives have something. That they want to get out of listening to your podcast. They're not going to be listening to your podcast. You don't have to worry about what your mom or your dad or your siblings, or your aunt or your high school teacher or anyone in your immediate group. Might think, like I said, unless your podcast is shit talking, my friends, I doubt your friends are going to bother tuning in, unless it is directly aligned with what they are looking for in their life, from a podcast. In which case at that point, that relationships shifts from them being. A friend, who's listening to your podcast, like for you to being someone who is actually your target demographic, in which case that dynamic shifts. And also, again, you don't really need to worry about what you're going to say for them, because if they're interested in what you want to say on this topic, they want to hear your real thoughts. So that is my advice to you. No matter what it is, you're talking about, whether it's business related, hobby related, personal related, do not be afraid of what your friends and family might think of you because they're never going to listen to you anyway. Hopefully that one feels like a relief. I know that that was very liberating when I realized that I could just talk freely about whatever I wanted to say on whatever topics that I had to say and not worry about my parents. But then I also had to worry about. Friends and coworkers and people in my real life. At one point I was doing a senior living related podcast. It was like in my industry. And now that I'm podcasting. I'm a podcast coach. I coach people about podcasting. It's something that I'm sharing with other podcasters. I don't have to worry about what some of my opinions are because of what my peers might think, but I just have to push that out of my mind whenever I get behind the microphone and we're ready to hit record. Because again, people are listening to my podcast that are friends of mine or professionals in my industry or related industries that are interested in possibly working with me. They're not. Here for me to say, here's the things that's going to make everyone happy about everything, or, you know, they're not worried about me ruffling feathers. They're here to hear what I have to say about the topic that I'm here to talk about. Not worry about that. An example of number two, that was very helpful was when I was working in senior living and doing a senior living related podcast and talking about events and there were some events that I wanted to cover and some that I didn't want to cover. And I felt so guilty about the certain events that I didn't cover, because I was afraid that they would hear that they weren't talked about on the podcast or that I missed that their event was happening. And I realized that again, unless they were specifically listening to my podcast because they wanted that information every single week, they would never listen to it. Similarly, I do my sober podcast. I don't think that even everyone in my recovery community is going to listen to my podcast, which is something that I thought of for awhile. I assumed if someone is sober and queer, of course, they're going to listen to my sober queer podcast, but guess what? Even a people that are sober and queer of all of those people out there that exist in the world, not all of them are also podcasts listeners. Or want to listen to my podcast specifically, even if they are podcast listeners, they might already have a favorite sober podcast that already fits nicely into their routine. Still never check it out, or they might not go to podcasts. For sober related content, they might go for it for business related content. So it doesn't jive with their concept of what they go to podcasts for. And so having to learn that even sometimes when people are in my demographic, Of who should be listening necessarily. It doesn't mean that they're going to be tuning into every single episode. And that was a hard pill for me to swallow. Is that like, yes, these friends, these professionals, whether they're in my industry or not. They can all, listen, they should all listen to some of them, but they might not listen. And then that's okay too. That even if your podcast is designed to specifically for what your target audience and you know, somebody in your life, who's that target audience. And you say, Hey, check out my podcast, realize that even then you're rolling the dice that they might ever listen or subscribe. I know what the number of followers and subscribers I have right now in this podcast compared to the number of people I've told about it. Out in public that said that they were going to be listening and subscribing. I know that the numbers don't match up because I also know that not every single person that I told about this podcast. Wants to start a podcast and listen to a podcast about podcasting or wants to take their podcast they're podcasting about right now and grow it or monetize it. So if these people that I'm talking to about my podcasting business, aren't interested in the content that I'm producing about launching or growing or monetizing. And they're not going to listen to this show. So don't worry about who's listening. In terms of those two things. And then the third is the one that might break some people's hearts out there. And I apologize. But your social media followers are not also all of your listeners, which is wild for some of you I'm sure. Yes. It might make sense if your social media personality came before your podcast, realizing that that might not necessarily be a one-to-one correlation. That just because you have 1000 or 5,000 or 10,000 followers across your social media accounts, that, that doesn't mean that the moment that your podcast gets published and put out there in the world, that you're going to be having thousands. And thousands of downloads for each and every single new episode. Those numbers don't correlate. And hopefully that's something that a lot of people can come to terms with and grab. Because. Your podcast might've come afterwards, but even something that was difficult for me to wrap my mind around was that I had people who follow my social media content for my gay Abe podcast, specifically about queer sobriety. That have never listened to episodes. And they've been following me and commenting on my posts and they're queer and they're sober. And I was like, of course they listened to episodes every single week because they're commenting on all these posts. That I have and all these conversations I'm having in my stories about sobriety and being queer and like living out loud and recovering out loud and all these people who are so engaging in my social media account for. My podcast. And then when I had talking with them in messenger, where I bring up like an episode or this episode or that episode there, oh, I don't listen to your podcast. I'll have to check it out sometime. But it's because people will find us on social media because of the content that we're producing. And again, To convert them to listening to a podcast. There's going to be barriers there depending on the way that we're talking about our podcasts on our social media. And the way we're talking about our social media on our podcasts, that relationship might not be as mixed as we would think it might automatically be. But also just realize that there are some people where you will have to meet them where they are, because they won't meet you where you are. You can be talking with people on Tik TOK or Instagram or Facebook or whatever social media is your favorite platform. And talk to them about your podcast until you're blue in the face. And they'll engage with you and constantly bat back and forth and always respond to your messages, but they might never ever listen to an episode because they don't listen to podcasts. And that is okay. It is okay that your followers don't listen to your podcast. It's okay. That your coworkers who should be listening to your podcast or your industry professionals who should be listening, or your friends who would really benefit from it or all these people that you know, should be listening to your podcast might not be listening to. It and your friends and family that have no interest in your podcast content. I sure as hell are not listening to your podcast. So those are people who are not listening to your podcast. So you might be left wondering who is listening to your podcast. And that is your target audience of the people that you are speaking to, which is why it's so important for you to be very specific in the content that you're producing to make sure that you know who your audience is, so that when you're talking to them, you're talking to them as yourself, comfortably and authentically. And you're talking to the audience with the message that you feel and that they need to hear. And you're not worried about all those other people out there who were never going to listen to your podcast. You need to be able to feel comfortable just talking. To the right people, because at the end of the day, there was over 8 billion people in the world. Let's pretend that your podcast is so nice that you. Can only possibly have 1% of the world will actually want to listen to your podcast. That still means that there's over 80,000 people in the world right now, waiting to listen to your podcast. So you are not necessarily talking to 8 million people when you get behind the microphone. You're talking to that 1%. You're talking to your people who need to hear your message. So make sure that when you are getting behind the microphone, you're not worried about the people that aren't listening. You're worried about the people who are, those are your listeners. And that's my hot take on your listeners versus non listeners. I'd love to hear your thoughts on that. You can let me know by engaging with me on all the social medias I'm on Instagram at podcasting. Bad-ass. And also check out my website where you can schedule your own tune-up or brainstorming session. Or a consult with me@sobersteve.com. Until then. Keep on podcasting. Bad-ass is.