Podcast Creation Tips

I built a Top 100 Global video podcast on Spotify. Here’s exactly how I did it. Six months ago, I launched Hot Smart Rich, a video-first podcast for anyone obsessed with the future of culture, creators, startups, and self-growth, on Spotify. We hit Spotify’s Top Business Podcasts in week one. Since then, we’ve charted 7 times, peaked at #5 in the U.S., and landed in Spotify’s Top 50 US podcasts overall. What surprised me most? How quickly video unlocked growth. On Spotify, my audience could seamlessly switch between watching and listening—just like the 300M+ listeners on the platform doing the same thing. That flexibility helped us attract not just more fans, but the right fans. The kind who binge episodes, send me DMs, share clips with their group chats, and now proudly call themselves HSR Angels. And yes, I turned it into a business. Through the Spotify Partner Program with Spotify for Creators, creators can monetize video content without giving up creative control. It’s real revenue, real reach, and a real community. (And let’s be honest: most platforms can’t say that.) If you’re thinking about launching, here’s what I’d tell you: - It is not too saturated. But you do need a plan. Get clear on your tone, flow, format, and point of view. Your audience doesn’t want a copy—they want something new. - Don’t waste money on aesthetic fluff. No one cares about your new photoshoot. Spend that cash on solid audio, decent lighting, and a camera that works. We started with iPhones. - Cut up your clips like your life depends on it. Post. Everywhere (Including Spotify). All the time. - Be consistent. Experiment early. When no one’s watching, try things. Switch formats. Get weird. Then double down on what hits. - Make it your personality. If you’re not hyping your own show, no one else will. You don’t need millions to start. You just need a camera, a mic, a message, and Spotify. Check out how to grow your video on spotify below. https://lnkd.in/gnB5ejaS #podcast #business #spotify #spotifypartner #videopodcast #growth

First month down as an independent podcaster. A quick recap of what I’ve learned + game plan to make this huge: 1. Downloads are at 70% of where they were before my 8-month hiatus. Honestly higher than I expected. Shows the value of owning the feed & the intimacy of a podcast relationship. 2. Talking to my audience is a great way to stay motivated when numbers are still relatively small. I ask my listeners to email me at the top of every episode. Hearing how much Founder’s Journal helps them with their business gives me more than enough fire to do this for a long time. 3. Working with sponsors (like Gusto) that you actually believe in & are a customer of, makes the advertising business actually fun. I don’t feel slimy & I want to go out of my way to overdeliver for them. 4. Filled closets are exceptional studios if you don’t have a professional one. I recorded today’s episode in my mom’s closet with a Shure MV7, and you’d never know I had such a janky set up. 5. Evergreen shows have a crazy long tail. 38% of my monthly downloads came from episodes not recorded this month. This means 2 things: making episodes easily discoverable is crucial since people treat the show as service content & selling the back catalog is as important as selling new episodes. 6. Like any business, the market you pick for a podcast is everything. Because my show is for startup founders, there will always be more advertiser demand than quality supply. That means I can monetize this show at high CPMs without needing to dilute the content in search of a massive audience. 7. Have a YouTube native version of your podcast. Given how bad discoverability in podcasts is, creating top of funnel on the largest search engine in the world is (almost) always the right move. I plan to bring Founder’s Journal to YT in the coming weeks. 8. Niche is generally better in media & podcasts are no exception. Be niche in topic (How I Write by David Perell) or niche in format (Founders by David Senra) My niche is short-form (<20 min) solo records by founders. 9. A podcast is a living breathing organism. Every media franchise has an arc of relevancy and the only way to stay relevant for a long time (>3 years) is to keep evolving the show based on what your audience wants. It’s why having 2-way conversation with your community is so important. 10. I plan to get my pod to 5x per week. Why? More surface area for discovery & word of mouth. More opportunity to create daily habit. More founder voices to highlight beyond my own. One thought is creating a “Residency,” where I get 3-4 other founders (in different industries/stages) to host one episode per week for a quarter. 11. Far more valuable then the advertising business is the lead gen that the pod creates for all of my portfolio companies, where the LTV of a customer is in the tens of thousands. This is generally true for B2B pods. Reply below if you have any questions about podcast strategy I can answer.

I asked the world's leading podcaster, Steven Bartlett for advice on growing my podcast. The answer was supposed to be three minutes long. But, he gave me a whole lecture with such great game that I can't gatekeep it. I have been digesting what he said and here are the lessons you can learn when it comes to innovating and developing your content strategy. I call it the 'Bartlett Big Three' 1) Swing for a Fundamental Innovation. When he launched The Diary Of A CEO six years ago, the founder/CEO podcast format remained unexplored territory. He recognised this arbitrage opportunity and seized it. Today, he sets the standard. Countless shows mirror his format, style, and thumbnails. The window has closed, he told me. The next imitation of a DOAC podcast will fail miserably. Breaking through now demands innovation in concept, content or format. He offered a provocative example: "I wouldn't watch another interview show but I would totally watch a podcast series about why someone is cheating secretly on their spouse." Imitation guarantees obscurity. Audiences will still seek the original. It's better to swing hard for something novel altogether. 2) Experiment Relentlessly But here's what separates him from most people who build an audience: he never stopped experimenting. He hired Grace Miller to help the DOAC team run fast experiments, fearlessly and often. They tested hypotheses to improve retention, engagement and click through rates. Compare his podcast today to 2021—the trailers, b-rolls, even ad-reads have been transformed dramatically. Each upgrade stems from an experiment. Most creators with his audience would coast. Steven remains relentless about treating the podcast as a product to improve. Then he said something that forced me to pause: "I am not romantic about being right, I am romantic about winning." Do you want to win or be right? The point of experimenting, I've realised, is to lock you into that focus—improving the product becomes the work itself. 3) Sweat The Small Stuff. I asked him about the Jimmy Fallon interview—the moment when Jimmy pulled out a custom scrapbook of photos and quotes, prepared live during filming. Why? "I sweat the small stuff," he said "A lot of greatness is unlocked this way." The scrapbook isn't just a generous gesture. It's representative of how he thinks about every element of the podcast. But here's the thing: the scrapbook is one of hundreds of small details he's obsessed over. Better lighting. Tighter editing. More thoughtful questions. Smoother ad transitions. Each improvement seems minor in isolation but they compound. The podcast you see today isn't the result of one breakthrough idea. It's the accumulation of relentless, incremental improvements across every dimension of the experience. Whilst competitors copy the surface-level format, they miss the infrastructure of obsession underneath. They would never go to such lengths. That's his edge.

5000 views and no clients or leads... is your podcast working? Views. Subscribers. Download counts. These matter… if you're building a media company or chasing sponsorship deals. But most independent founders and solopreneurs aren't - and in 2026, with more podcasts than ever, the foundation matters more than the metrics. Start with the fundamentals: - What is this podcast, and who is it for? - What problem does it solve for your listener? - What's the positioning - in one paragraph, could you explain why this show, over every other show on the topic? - What strategic purpose does it serve for your business? - What's the long-term potential of the show? And then: What job does this podcast do that other formats can't? Thought leadership positioning? Trust-building at scale? Reframing a misconception your ideal clients hold? Category creation? Audience education? Recruitment? Ecosystem expansion? Most people skip these questions. They invite the biggest names in their network and start publishing episodes before they've thought about the role the podcast is meant to play for their business or brand. Then they check their downloads, feel underwhelmed, and wonder if it's working. The metrics you track should follow the job your podcast is doing. Not the other way around. — I’m Cheryl, a podcast producer and host of EDIT HISTORY (2x winner at the 2025 Asia Podcast Awards). I offer podcast consulting, podcast production, and podcast hosting. 

Podcasting isn’t about going viral. It’s about creating value that lasts. I recently sat down with NILESH JAIN, one of India’s leading podcast coaches, to break down what actually creates a successful podcast. Not the hype. Not the shortcuts. The truth. Here are the biggest lessons that stood out: • Research is the real superpower. Great questions come from deep preparation. • Build rapport before you hit record. Guests open up when they feel safe and respected. • Consistency > talent. Most podcasts die after Episode 5. The ones that survive win. • Create for your audience, not your ego. Value drives growth. Fame follows impact. • Promotion matters. Clips. Reels. Stories. If you don't distribute, you don't exist. • Monetization comes later — authority comes first. • Podcasting is a long-term career path, not a quick dopamine project. • Engage with listeners. Replies build trust. Trust builds brand. • Choose guests who align with your mission. • And above all… podcasting is about impact, not applause. If you’re thinking about starting a show — or already running one — this episode is worth a listen. 👉 YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gGNTfQcK 👉 Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gru5b8Sg Would love to hear your take — What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned from running or listening to podcasts? 👇 #PodcastGrowth #KillerSalesEngine #NileshJain #EntrepreneurJourney #PodcastingTips #ContentStrategy #CreatorEconomy #ConsistencyIsKey #MonetizeYourPodcast #Storytelling

So you want a logistics podcast? Cool. Here’s the part nobody tells you. “There’s no straight line from listener to customer.” On CargoRex, we have one of the most comprehensive database of all the podcasters and creators in logistics which amounts to a little over a hundred active voices/publications. Some might see that number and choose to never pick up a mic. That shouldn’t happen. If anything, I want to encourage more people in logistics and supply chain to find their voice. Its not “there are too many podcasts!” It’s that there’s not enough of them willing to do it for the long haul to get better at it while also doing it the right reasons. So if you want to start and avoid being part of the 90% of all podcasts that never make it past 10 episodes, here are some tips: 💡Your ROI at first should be insights from smart people. That’s the only way your audience will give your show a chance in a more competitive attention marketplace. ROI can be learning from customers and building brand trust. Don’t even think about sponsors at this stage, if sponsors are even right for your show at all. Gaining insights from customers to retain and possibly gain new business is THE metric you should care about at this stage. 💡Curiosity beats corporate. A genuinely curious host > scripted talking points. That’s how you get conversations people replay and choose to tune in again. 💡Treat the show as collateral. Episodes power clips, posts, and YouTube search—great for discovery and sales enablement, not just downloads. 💡Budget like a grown-up. A couple hundred bucks an episode can work. Skip the multi-camera circus until the content proves itself. Otherwise the finance team is putting your show on the chopping block before you can ever prove ROI. 💡Your distribution of the show is forever the most challenging aspect. Recording is easy. Finding people to interview is easy. Distribution (social/email/blogs/white papers) is hard and will only get more challenging as our attention spans are pulled in every direction. This is why you need to focus your effort on actual takeaways for the audience, not “three cameras and vibes” as Grace Sharkey 🚛🤖❤️ would say. 💡Measure influence, not vanity. Track meetings booked, pipeline influenced, and content reuse—then decide if you should scale up to more epsiodes. Add “how did you hear about us” to every high intent website form—make it a free text field that’s required so you can measure the show’s impact, or lack there of. As an industry, we’re still only scratching the surface with content in logistics. Don’t let the number of podcasts scare you away! Your voice is unique and in a sea of sameness, using your voice can be a powerful way to stand out. If you want to learn more from two people who actually live and breathe this stuff, check out the latest Everything is Logistics podcast episode where Grace and I break this topic down even more along with other fun logistics topics.

I’ve been putting off sharing this for a while because I know many podcasting gurus won’t agree with it. But, it continuously becomes more true, and I know it will add value, so I’m sharing it, finally. In my experience, here’s how to become a highly successful podcaster: #1. Focus 70% of your efforts on continuously improving your content by simultaneously making it more niche, clear, engaging, entertaining, educational, and binge-worthy. (It needs to be so good that anyone who hears it is compelled to share!) #2. Focus 20% of your efforts on clarifying your messaging/branding around the show for discoverability. (Show cover art, title, and description. Episode thumbnails, titles, and descriptions. Make it what people search for. Continuously adjust based on data.) #3. Focus 10% of your efforts on everything else. (This includes posting on social media, making graphics, syndication/distribution channels, administrative functions, etc.) ^ Sadly, most podcasters have this backwards. They focus 90% of their efforts and time on #3 “everything else” while ignoring #1 and #2, which are the things that actually lead to growth and success. If we can get this focus right, the value we add will no longer be a best-kept secret!

Podcasting is brutal. Most shows never get off the ground. Last week, Ben and I hit episode 35 and approached 10k downloads. Here are 7 counterintuitive lessons I wish I knew when starting out: 1/ Be okay with the worst-case scenario Podcast growth is notoriously difficult, so being excited about the worst-case scenario removes the pressure and makes the process enjoyable. Even if nobody listens, we still get to: ↳ Have deep conversations about topics we're passionate about ↳ Improve our public speaking and conversation skills ↳ Learn something new from every single guest ↳ Build deeper relationships with interesting people 2/ Choose your metrics carefully They shape every decision you make. As Charlie Munger said, "Show me the incentives, and I'll show you the outcomes." We only track two things: ↳ Are we having fun? ↳ Are we being consistent? That's it. No download targets. No subscriber goals. No pressure to hit arbitrary numbers. By focusing on enjoyment and consistency, we've built something sustainable that keeps getting better. 3/ Less is more We started trying to cover everything in each episode. Big mistake. The result? - Superficial questions - Rushed conversations - Constant pressure to "move on" - Missing the best insights Now we pick ONE topic to go deep on and let the conversation flow naturally. The magic happens in the unexpected tangents and follow-up questions. You can't plan those. 4/ Find your unique style Don't copy other shows. In the beginning, we tried to sound like a "proper" interview podcast. The result? Stiff, awkward conversations that felt like job interviews. We realized we wanted to create the feeling of friends chatting over coffee. No high-stakes interviews. No rigid structures. Just authentic conversations where everyone (including us) can be themselves. 5/ Create for yourself first Our best episodes? Not the ones we thought would perform well. They're the ones where WE learned the most. When we finished recording thinking "Wow, that was fascinating!" Trust your taste. The audience will follow. 6/ Double down on what you enjoy Want consistency? Focus on the parts you love. Delegate everything else. We love having the conversations and curating the guest, so we delegated everything else. This creates a virtuous cycle: Energy → Consistency → Growth → More Energy 7/ Find a great co-creator Having Ben Erez as a co-host made all the difference: ↳ Built-in accountability when life gets busy ↳ Someone to learn from and bounce ideas off ↳ More energy and fun in every episode ↳ Shared excitement about growth ↳ Different perspectives that make conversations richer ↳ Someone to celebrate the wins with What did you learn from your creative projects this year?

If a podcast is becoming your primary B2B content engine in 2026 (or you’re debating starting one)… the bar is a lot higher than it used to be. I sat down with Tom Hunt - CEO of Fame - and he shared one of the most practical breakdowns I’ve heard on what separates podcasts that compound… from the ones that slowly fade out. Here are 6 takeaways worth stealing: 1️⃣ Your positioning needs a niche + an edge. Niche = who it’s for. Edge = why a listener tells a friend. Most shows have one… not both. Broad disappears. Your niche probably needs to be narrower than you think. 2️⃣ Guest strategy is your fastest path to early ROI. If leadership wants impact in ~6 months, audience growth alone won’t get you there. Strategic guests can - customers, prospects, partners - not to pitch, but to build relationships that turn into pipeline while the audience compounds. 3️⃣ Know the early green flags. Month 1: people outside your company say they like it. Months 2–6: downloads growing ~5–10% MoM + listen time increasing. Holy grail: someone writes “podcast” in attribution. 4️⃣ “Best of” lists are a discoverability cheat code. Thousands rank on Google - and LLMs pull from them when recommending shows. The payoff compounds long after the outreach work is done. 5️⃣ The host can make - or kill - a podcast. The instinct is often the CEO or most technical expert. Tom looks for: • Availability (consistency beats seniority) • SME depth + genuine curiosity • Strong conversational skills Sometimes the best host isn’t the most senior person - it’s the one who asks the questions listeners actually care about. 6️⃣ Sequencing matters more than most teams realize. Tom’s order: build organic social → build email → then launch the podcast. I did it the opposite way - and I completely understand why he recommends this. Podcasting is one of the hardest channels to grow… but one of the deepest relationship builders once momentum kicks in. We go deeper on resourcing, positioning mistakes, and showing business impact while audience growth compounds. Full episode is live on Growth Activated - I’ll drop the link in the comments. Curious: 👉 If you have a podcast (or want one), what’s been hardest - positioning, guests, consistency, or distribution? #MarketingLeadership #B2BMarketing #Podcasting #GrowthActivated

Great content is not enough. Most podcasts die in silence. The real killer is isolation, not bad audio. Many new podcasters believe that if they build it, listeners will come. This is a myth that holds back growth and kills momentum. The truth is simple: Podcasts grow when you connect with others. Industry research proves it. Cross-promotions and collaborations are the highest-performing podcast marketing tactics. Yet, most creators work alone, hoping their insights will magically find an audience. I made this mistake myself. When I launched Podcast Junkies in 2014, I thought my content would speak for itself. It didn’t. The shows that last and thrive do one thing differently: They build a system for audience growth. Here’s what works: • START AND END each episode with ONE specific action (DOWNLOAD your lead magnet, JOIN your email list, CONNECT on LinkedIn) • Collaborate with other podcasters in your niche who already have engaged audiences • A/B test your episode titles with algorithm-friendly phrases that help with discovery. YouTube makes this easy. Make it easy for new listeners to find you. Discovery is not luck—it’s strategy. Content quality matters. But audience development matters more. If you don’t guide your listeners, you leave growth on the table. Your voice deserves to be heard. But only if people can actually find it. Stop creating in a vacuum. Start building your ecosystem—one clear step, one collaboration, one smart title at a time. That’s how you grow a podcast that lasts. P.S. When you're ready to stop creating in isolation and start building a real audience, I'm here to help.