Morgan Franklin: Unfortunately, for most of us, there will come
a time when we feel like no one really cares about our podcast.
Every single long term client I've ever worked with has at
some point said, what's the point? Or should I keep doing
this? Or what am I even doing? Or why does it feel like no one
cares about my podcast, and these are all great questions to
ask ourselves at every stage of our podcasting journey. And you
know, it might feel bleak to ask them, but on the bright side, if
you aren't regularly asking these questions, you're even
further away from creating a podcast that anyone will ever
care about in this episode, we'll talk about why your
audience isn't growing, what to do when you have a meltdown
moment and you're questioning everything about your podcast
existence. And finally, hopefully answer the question
of, Why does no one care about your podcast? Hello and welcome
to podcast for profit. My name is Morgan Franklin. I'm a
Podcast Producer, strategist and educator. This podcast will help
you create and grow a podcast that cuts through the noise of
social media and speaks directly to your target audience. If
you're ready to create a podcast that will align you with the
experts in your industry, position yourself as a trusted
leader and create another source of revenue for your business.
You're in the right place. I started working on my first
podcast at the beginning of 2021 I had no idea what I was doing.
Like that is an understatement. I never used a microphone or
Adobe Audition or really explored any kind of audio
medium. I remembered. I ordered about $500 worth of equipment
from Amazon. I couldn't figure out how to use any of it, and I
returned it all. I spent countless hours on Reddit and
YouTube trying to figure out how to get the recording from
talking into the microphone to on the computer. I started
developing a brand with a client who wanted to run for a state
senate seat, and having my background in content creation,
I thought the easiest and most obvious way to get in front of
his constituents and set himself apart in this race would be to
have an open line of communication with social media
and content. I'm gonna tell you this story, and I've never told
it on the internet before, mostly because it's
embarrassing, but we all start somewhere, and I wish I'd known
how many versions of podcasts that the people I look up to in
podcasting had before their podcast idea that actually
worked out I was sitting in a Dunkin Donuts drive through, and
I have no idea why I remember this, but for whatever reason,
the location that was by my house was really, really slow,
like sometimes I would sit in that line for 30 Minutes, and I
would do all kinds of things while I was waiting in line. But
on this one day, I was sitting in the dunganas drive through
brainstorming ideas for this new role and how I could get my
client in front of the community for whatever reason. And still,
to this day, I'm not 100% sure why this popped into my head,
but I thought, wouldn't it be fun if he had a podcast with two
of his other male friends who are also parents and business
owners and generally interesting guys to show a more vulnerable
side of male friendship, because what the world needs is one more
podcast with middle aged white men talking about stuff and
sharing their unsolicited opinion. Right from a brand
perspective, I think that I thought this would humanize my
client, but what I didn't really think about is what our actual
goal was. The actual goal was to help this client run for
political office. So while yes, this could have achieved that
final goal, kind of there were just so many better ways of
doing it after four attempted recording sessions that were a
complete and total disaster. I was feeling really defeated. I
was questioning everything about myself and my work and this
brand strategy overall, and I honestly just wanted to quit the
entire podcast idea. I was like, this is not working. Luckily,
one of the two friends we had for the initial episode
recordings had an offer to move out of state before we were able
to launch the podcast. And you know, sometimes things have to
fall apart to fall back together. And that is just
something that you should always remember in podcasting and life
in general. But I knew deep down, something had to change.
Because not only was this podcast a total mess from the
production side me, it was really, really boring. We had no
objective. We had no inspiration. This was three
middle aged white guys talking about their work and family and
stories that no one cared about except for them. And that's the
point of this entire episode when you're creating selfish
content no one cares about it, except for you. So after that co
host left, and I was scrambling to figure out if a podcast
should still be a part of this campaign strategy, I decided to
take a page out of my favorite comedian and podcaster, Conan
O'Brien's book. If you've ever listened to his podcast, it's
called Conan O'Brien needs a friend, and in that moment,
well, we needed more than. Anything was to make this brand
and campaign some friends. So I re pitched the podcast idea, I'm
guessing, this time I worked on it after I got the coffee and we
decided to move forward with a podcast that would interview
interesting people from our community. And you know, this
has gone on to be one of the most downloaded, talked about
and highly regarded podcasts in our area, we've had almost 200
different guests, and I'm proud that this podcast consistently
gets over 30,000 downloads every month. It's changed my life, and
I know it's played an important part in strengthening our
community and bringing quality media back to our area. Our
community cares about it, and not because of us, but because
we have integrity and purpose. We want to uplift the guests
that are on our show. We want to introduce them to people who
might have never heard of them before. About a year and a half
into working on this project, the client I was working with
decided he no longer wanted to run for office after spending
some time in the state legislature, it just wasn't the
environment or experience that he thought it would be. But we
both realized we created something that would exist far
beyond a campaign or any selfish purpose that had inspired it. If
you want to make a podcast that people care about, it can't just
be about you. It has to be about them. So if you're looking at
your podcast downloads every month and they're not growing,
or worse, they're decreasing, I want you to take some time and
think about how this podcast is speaking into people's lives.
Did you make it for selfish intentions? And if you did,
that's okay. We all have to get off the launch pad, and
sometimes selfish reasons are just as good as any other. But
while that'll get you in the sky, it's not gonna keep you
going. It's not going to grow your podcast. It's not going to
build a community that can't wait to hear your new episodes.
And what about the inevitable podcaster breakdown? I hope you
know what I mean when I say that. But generally, anytime
you're just in the total pit of despair, thinking this is never
going to work out, or why am I doing this, or who even cares
about my podcast, or who even listens to this podcast? And
we've all been there. I've been there. I've been there very
recently. Podcasting is hard. Podcasting is the long game.
It's just like owning a business. There's gonna be
really high highs. They're gonna be very low lows. But you know,
the people who make it, they're the ones that figure out their
audience, they know who their community is, and they're always
working to grow and serve them. I was reading a newsletter from
Guy Roz this week, and he was saying that the thing that
almost every business owner he's interviewed over the past 20
years, which is a lot has in common, is they all
underestimated how long it would actually take to become
successful. And if there's a through line through every
podcaster that I've ever met, I'd say it's the exact same
thing. You are not going to be where you want to be with your
podcast in a month, or three months or six months, I'd say
after a year, you're probably just getting in the groove of
how this specific podcast works. In my experience, it takes about
three years to see a real community growth and development
from your podcast. If you're doing a podcast every week,
that's 156 episodes. So yeah, I'd say after 150 episodes,
you're finally going to see where you stand. But do you know
where most podcasters give up? I'll give you a hint. It's not
150 episodes, it's three. Three to seven episodes is how many
episodes most podcasters publish before they decide if this is
working or not, and that's just so unrealistic. Success in
podcasting will always belong to the creator who is willing to
stay the course, because not only are you consistently
showing up for your audience, you're passing up all those
other 90% of podcasters who try and quit and try and quit.
You're getting better. You're improving your skills. You're
writing more interesting episodes, you're connecting with
your audience, you're getting better guests. You're learning
not to use the microphone like that. Practice makes perfect. No
one just wakes up being a professional podcaster, and you
have to give yourself the grace to know you have to practice at
this. You can get better, and you will if you're putting in
the effort. I feel like so many people I meet are just like, I
would never be good at that. Yeah, you might not be good at
it right now, but you will be good at it if you practice, if
you put in the time, and that's so important, because it's hard
to be proud of something when you aren't confident in it. And
I know I've said this before, but if you aren't talking about
your podcast, no one is. And if you're wondering why no one
cares, it's because you don't care if you aren't caring about
it. Enough to talk about it or learn about how to get better or
practice. Why would anyone else care? We have to take
accountability for ourselves first, because we can't control
how other people feel and how other people feel really has
nothing to do with us. I want you to be confident, so sure of
yourself, so passionate and inspired and in love with the
podcast you create that even if no one else gives a crap about
it, it wouldn't faze you in the slightest. You'd keep going.
You'd know that your value, when you find the listeners who this
podcast is created for was so powerful and meaningful and
valuable that you have to keep going until they find you,
because you can create a community around your podcast of
people who love you and adore you and I want you to I pray you
do. The only thing that's going to keep you going and keep you
motivated and keep you creating is knowing that you have
something to give the world that is so meaningful that you have
to keep going, you have to have clarity, you have to have
direction and purpose. And I know that that's not always
easy. That's not always easy for me. I know that sometimes you
get started and you think you know exactly where you want to
go, but then things just still end up falling apart. So if
you're feeling lost or uninspired or you just don't
know where to start, I'd love to help you out. Send me an email
to Morgan at morganfranken dot media, and I'll share my website
in the show notes. I have monthly coaching available, or
we can just sit down for an hour together and strategize for your
podcast and figure out how you're going to find the
audience who needs to hear what you have to say. Because
remember, you have to care about your podcast first. And as
always, I can't wait to listen to your podcast. Hey, thank you
so much for joining me on this episode. If you enjoyed the
podcast and you'd like to hear more episodes like this one, go
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