How do you measure the success of your podcast that is NOT downloads

So many times I ask podcasters,

why are you doing the podcast? And they'll say that, who's it for? Great.

What do you talk about? Great. And then I'll ask, well, how do you measure

your success? And I get nothing. Like, they've never

even thought about that. And I see a lot of podcasters

that will stop their show because they're not getting as many

downloads as they think they should. And so

I thought I wouldn't get any responses when I made the Question of

the month. How do you measure your success? That's not

downloads. And instead of not getting any responses,

I got a ton. And some of them are very

unique, like this one from my buddy, Scott Johnson.

Hi, Dave. Scott Johnson here. This is one of those times when I heard

your request for the Question of the month replies and I thought to myself, yeah,

I'm going to do that. But of course, life happens. And I didn't get

around to it. And it was your email on the night before the deadline

that served as a reminder. So here I am. Just a quick

side here. I changed the format of my email and

I only asked for two things and one of them was to answer the question

of the month. So by breaking format, you might grab people's attention.

Let's go back to Scott. My podcast is my full time job and the

download numbers are something I have to keep track of. But I

definitely measure success in other ways. And one

of those is how does my show have a real life

effect on my listeners? And over the past eight years,

roughly 260 episodes, I've had some wonderful

examples of that. One of my earliest episodes was with a

man who had donated a kidney to a stranger. He

told all the details and it was especially heartwarming because he

was able to meet the recipient of his kidney. Well, since that

episode went live in 2018, I've received a number

of messages from people who said they heard that story and

made the decision to donate a kidney. And I've since done

another story with a kidney donor. So that has been

quite gratifying and I call that a success.

I did another episode with a man who found a newborn baby

in the New York City subway and just by an

interesting turn of events, ended up actually adopting that

baby. And there was a woman who heard that episode and

she had been considering adopting, but thought that she

wasn't really qualified or wasn't sure she would be a good parent.

But she heard that story. And the fact that these two men who

adopted the subway baby had no skills but they did have lots

of love to give, and so she decided that she was

going to go ahead and pursue adopting a baby of her own.

I call that a success. And one more example, my

very first episode was with a woman who accidentally

caused a fatal accident. She wasn't driving

distracted, didn't even have the radio on. And that's partly what was

in her favor in that case. And she was not indicted.

If she happened to be on her phone, the grand jury may have

seen things differently. So she's a big advocate of

not driving distracted. And I've had lots of listeners

tell me that her story is what makes them put down their

phone while they're driving. So I call that a success, too.

And there have been others, but you get the idea. Big downloads are great,

but if you can make a difference in someone's life, that's even better.

My show is called what Was that Like? And each episode is a conversation with

a regular person who's been through something extremely unusual

like a plane crash, a monkey attack, or witnessing

a murder. Even the guest just comes on the show and tells the

details of what happened. It's on all the podcast apps or

at the website whatwostatlike.com and I'll have

links to Scott's website and everybody's website

out@schoolofpodcasting.com

1042 and I didn't think anybody

was going to answer this question. I do use chapters, so

for some reason you're in the middle of someone's answer and they're not holding your

attention. Hit next. But we got a lot of

answers, some really interesting stories, so get

comfortable. Hit it, ladies. The School of Podcasting

with Dave Jackson.

Podcasting since 2005, I am your award

winning hall of Fame podcast coach, Dave Jackson. Thanking you so much

for tuning in. If you're new to the show, this is where we help you

plan, launch and grow your show. And today we're going to help

you grow your show. Why? Because so many people quit because

they're focused on what might be the wrong thing.

Downloads are probably going to kind of get phased out. I would love to see

people judge podcasts on their completion percentage.

That's the one that really Counts. The website

schoolofpodcasting.com the show is brought to you

by the schoolofpodcasting.com and PodPage. If

you're tired of dealing with WordPress and you want to build the home your

podcast deserves, check out podpage.com

now I did get a fair number of responses and

I'm so grateful for that. That really filled up my heart.

But I am going to try in some cases. If you sent in, I don't

know, a 27 minute answer and I cut it down to four,

please don't be offended. I always try to use every

answer that comes in. So with that, let's go over

to Kate. Hi Dave, My name is Kate Carpenter and I run a

podcast called Drafting the Past. In it, I interview

historians not about the subject of their books, but about how

they research and write history. The way that I

measure success other than downloads is whenever a

historian acknowledges the podcast in the acknowledgment

section of a new book. This is so huge for me because it's a

way of showing that the podcast is really helping writers to build

confidence and finish their projects. It's only happened a few times

so far, but man, what a great feeling of success when it does. Thanks.

That's amazing. Check out her

show@draftthepast.com Next we got

Mark from practicalprepping.info hello Dave,

Mark Lawley here from Practical Prepping. The way we really

measure success of our podcast comes down to engagement in

three main areas. First, and this is our favorite, is

feedback. We love getting emails from listeners

answering their questions and hearing their stories. That kind of

connection means more to us than any stats ever could.

Second is listener retention. How long are people

actually listening to our podcast? That tells us whether

the episode resonated and held their attention.

Third is follow through. Are listeners taking action

on what we share? We track that through our lead magnets

and our newsletter signups. Another indicator for

us is affiliate commissions and discount code usage.

If folks are choosing to buy through our links, that tells

us they trust what we recommend. And that's important.

Dave, Krista and I truly appreciate all you've done for us

and and for podcasters everywhere. Again, this is

Mark Lawley. Our podcast is Practical Prepping, where

we teach people how to be prepared for things that actually

happen to normal people. You can find

us@practicalprepping.info

podcast. Thank you so much, Mark. Proving again,

lots of different ways to measure your success outside of

downloads. Next up, another school of podcasting member, Nancy

May. Hey Dave, it's Nancy Mae from Family Tree Food Stories. The one thing I

do is I listen back to my first episode. Not to torture myself.

Although listening to those early episodes does provide plenty

of humility. It also helps me know how far I have come.

Right now I'm also working with a new co host and my motto has always

been progress over perfection, so I'm trying to help her

over that hump as well. The needle doesn't have to leap across the

room, it just has to move forward. I also judge

success by whether I'm still learning something in the content, because if I'm

bored, the listener's gonna smell it through the microphone. Okay, I'm

a food show. Pun intended. I'm still editing some of my

shows, although I am working with a new editor and we're trying to get our

groove there too. But as I'm listening, while I'm editing, I listen

for am I engaged? Am I forcing it? Or are the

dreaded uhms ahs, you know, and my personal favorite

so happening more frequently than I really want them

to? And as we all love in podcasting, feedback matters,

especially with people that we know like and trust. And Dave,

one of my favorite things in working with you is that you do listening parties.

I've gotten great feedback on those. Next episode is about

trolls and feedback, so follow the

show@schoolofpodcasting.com follow let's go back to

Nancy. And finally, this is the toughest one to listen to,

but my husband Bob, he's a great critic, but if I

can survive his comments and don't get too upset

or he really likes it, I know I've got a winner.

You can listen to my podcast by going to

podcast.familytreefoodstories.com because as I

like to say, every meal has a story, and every story is a feast.

And honestly, it could be a podcast, too. I hope every

podcast you listen to is a feast. See you later. Thank you,

Nancy. When Mr. Beast, the famous YouTuber started,

he just tried to make the next episode better than the previous one.

Next up, we have Buck. Hi Dave. It's Buck, podcast editor and

producer at large. For me, true success is about impact.

A huge part of that is the direct engagement we have with folks, the actual

volume and quality of communication that we have with the community that we

serve. When we get word that prominent leaders are consuming our materials and

using them to influence policy or investment and acquisition

strategies, or even just to further professional discourse, that's a

massive win for us. And just to give you some context,

Buck is involved with the US Army War College. We

regularly tell our guests it doesn't matter if your episode gets 10 downloads

or 10,000, if just one person listens, who's in a position

to drive the change you just explained, you've succeeded.

Beyond that, the ultimate proof of our reach is seeing the work applied in the

real world. We know we're hitting the mark when our episodes and articles are

integrated into academic curricula or when they're cited or republished

by other respected media outlets. Finally, I certainly don't

disregard downloads, and I know the question was other than downloads.

But I don't just use them to compare us to other shows. I use them

strictly internally to understand what topics hit home, which

episodes resonate and which ones miss the mark. The data often runs counter to

our expectations. We think we know exactly what the listener wants, but they still

surprise us from time to time. Anyway, that's how we define success.

Thanks. Thank you, Buck. And yeah, it's interesting.

Last week I talked about if you're getting the most out of rss, and I

thought, boy, this is awfully nerdy. And I got a fair amount of feedback of

people that said, wow, I thought I understood this, but obviously

I did not. And so I got a fair amount of feedback. That's always great

to hear. Next up, we got Ralph. Hey, Dave, it's

Ralph. It's so easy to get stuck on that download

number, and that will just wear you down after a while. So the things

that I actually measure in my world is

feedback. Now, that's a tough one because you might put a ton of stuff out

there and only get a little bit of feedback. I love it when I get

a voicemail message or if someone sends me an email that just

makes my day. I put those up here in the studio. Another thing I

look at, for me is the financial impact are

people coming to me and wanting to get services from me

because of my content. To me, that's really moved the needle. And

that's the thing. Again, this is depending upon whether you want to be a hobbyist

or you want to be a business person in it. But for me, my whole

deal is trying to make money with it and building my brand. So

I look at feedback and I look at revenue dollars. The

other thing I look at, and I don't think you can undersell this, is are

you enjoying what you're doing? Because the truth is, I went through a

season doing my work where I really wasn't enjoying it anymore. I

had everything scripted out. Everything was well planned, but, man, the

enjoyment was just gone. A few months ago, I decided, you know what, I

got to get back to the basics. And. And I just talk now. I've got

some bullet points and those sort of things, but I'm not reading from a script.

And let me just tell you, Dave, that has made all the difference. And if

you want to find out more about me, the Ecosphere, which is

Ralph is@askralph.com I do daily

shows, weekly shows, and listen to this one. In September I'm

going to be launching a brand new show. It's going to be a daily call

in show. It is going to be called Becoming Financially Confident.

And I believe Ralph is still looking for a co host for that show. He's

looking for a female who is not financially confident. So you

don't need to be a, you know, finance guru. And of course, everything

Ralph you can find@askralph.com and I

had mentioned how I didn't think people could answer this question.

And one person that was like, what are you talking about? Dave was the one

and only Steve Stewart. Hey Dave. Hey SOP family. It's Steve at

stevestewart Me, where I help personal finance podcasters

make better podcasts. Okay, I've been doing this for 16 plus years,

so I get it. Downloads is actually not a very

good measurement of success. In fact, I think it's the wrong measurement

of success. Now, seeing overall downloads for a show grow over

time, yes, that is a good goal. There is some success in there. But

you can't measure a good episode by downloads. How

does a person know that an episode was good until they've heard it? And how

can they hear it until after they've downloaded it? There's no way of knowing the

download comes first and then they can judge for itself. So what that usually indicates

is they had a great title or good marketing to get people to hover

their finger over that play button and actually press it. Whereas some of their best

episodes actually might be one of their worst downloaded and it's because

the episode was titled wrong or their marketing didn't work. Instead,

if somebody wants to look at some real hard data to see if an episode

was good, then I go to the analytics, Apple Analytics, Spotify Analytics.

They tell you a whole bunch of really good stuff, but really the consumption rate

or completion rate, that's the gold. That is the gold right there.

That is the measurement that somebody should be looking at and I think they should

be looking at on a regular basis. Although I'm really guilty of not doing that

myself. The way I measure

success with the podcast is

response to the episode. Would somebody move to either

email me or share the show with somebody else, or make a comment on the

Facebook post about the episode or join the podcast at our

academy? I mean, that's the ultimate goal of the podcast at our Mastermind show is

get people to join my academy. That's success. That's

so much more valuable than a download number. The real

measurement of success in my mind is getting a listener

to move to do something. I want them to change, I

want them to share it with somebody else. This has been Steve Stewart from

stevestewart. Me, host of the Podcast Editor Mastermind

show and founder of the Podcast Editor Academy, as well as an editor for personal

finance podcasters. Thanks, Dave. So well put. How

do you want to move your audience? And that might just mean, you know, they

were not happy when they started listening and they left

glad or, you know, improved somehow in their

attitude. Also, before we get off the Steve Stewart train,

congratulations on your daughter's wedding. Next

up, it's time to take a little trip. Take a little trip.

This is Tripp from the Homebrewed Christianity podcast.

I started it in 2008. The three

biggest things that I use to measure other than

downloads our first email list. I started doing

it about, I don't know, six years or so into the

podcast and at this point my substack process this has

over 75,000 people on it. A second one

is I do some online classes like four to six week things on the

topic of the podcast, kind of theology, philosophy, religion science

type stuff and how many total people take the

classes over the year. And it's, you know, gone from 30 or

40 people in a class to two to 4,000, you know,

over the time of the podcast. And last are like live events

we'll do. We started doing live podcasts in breweries way back in

the day before live podcast was a thing and now do a big

event every year called theology beer camp and it's grown where at this

point we'll sell out 6, 700 seats

depending on how big a space we have. And I'll have 30 other

God pods like 30 different scholars and

a whole bunch of people that listen to more progressive

Christian justice related podcasts come and

all those things I think signal a community and

not just oh I like this episode or I wanted to hear a conversation with

this or was interested in this topic, but engagement

that says I'll let you send an email or I'll pay to join a

class and oh, the last thing I'd say

I measure success of a podcast if they're a fan of Dave Jackson.

Ah, thank you so much for that trip. Here's somebody you should know.

Hi Dave, this is Spencer from the recovery show at

therecovery show. I and my

guests share our experience, our strengths, our hope as we

recover from the effects of somebody else's drinking or drugging

on our own lives. Our conversations often center on the 12

steps of the Al Anon program, but you don't have to be a member of

Al Anon to get something out of the podcast.

For me, they come under the word engagement.

So how do I measure engagement? Well, here are three measures,

probably more, but this is what I thought of first, direct

feedback. How many emails and voice messages do I get

when I solicit contributions for a topic? How many people respond?

2 offers to be a guest on the show.

These are especially important to me when a listener

suggests a topic that I haven't covered in the previous

450 some odd episodes, or from a listener

who may have a unique take on a particular topic that we have talked about

before. And third, financial support

from listeners. I do include most

feedback messages, emails, voicemails in the podcast,

of course, after the main topic discussion, and

I often get responses to these messages which says to me that

there are at least some listeners who are listening to the end of the episode.

I see that as a measure of success in keeping my listeners engaged.

I have enough guest offers to provide a continuous

backlog of topics success. And

I've been able to cover the podcast expenses for the most part with

the support that people have sent me. Also success.

Thanks for prompting me to think about this question. This is Spencer

from the Recovery show signing off. Thank you

Spencer. And as someone who was married to a flaming alcoholic for

10 years, I needed your show back then. I wish it was

podcasting didn't exist back then, but if you're in that situation

again, I'll have links to everybody's show. Just go out to

schoolofpodcasting.com

10 00:20:02

42 hi, my

10 00:20:06

name is Travis Roden from bestie

10 00:20:08

approved@bestyapproved.com where my best friend Emma and I

10 00:20:12

talk about pop culture and women on reality TV that raised

10 00:20:16

us. Okay, Travis, I'm going to jump in here. As someone who doesn't watch

10 00:20:19

any housewives or reality tv, that made me laugh and I

10 00:20:23

want to go listen to your show. My measure of success on the POD is

10 00:20:26

how often someone says that we made them laugh while they were listening because

10 00:20:30

okay, I'm going to hop in here again. I didn't know that's what he was

10 00:20:33

going to say. But you, you're making me laugh already. So

10 00:20:37

success, my friend. The whole reason we started this show is for people to have

10 00:20:40

a good time when the rest of the world is chaos. There you go,

10 00:20:44

Travis. Short and to the point. Thank you, my friend. Next up, we have

10 00:20:47

Ashriel. Hi Dave. I'm Ashriel Huber from the Called

10 00:20:51

and Curious podcast around here. We grab a cup of

10 00:20:55

coffee, laugh a spend some time with Jesus, learn a little

10 00:20:59

brain science, and enjoy what I like to call little

10 00:21:02

inside out makeovers. Using everyday stories and

10 00:21:06

practical tools to help women experience life a little more

10 00:21:09

beautifully. So when I think about success beyond downloads,

10 00:21:13

I look for evidence of transformation. I'm looking for the

10 00:21:17

email that says, oh, I never thought about it that way before, or

10 00:21:21

you know, I actually handled that conversation differently, Ash.

10 00:21:24

Or I finally understand why my brain does that. Or

10 00:21:28

maybe even I spent a little time with Jesus this morning because

10 00:21:32

of your episode downloads. Tell me they heard it.

10 00:21:35

Transformation tells me they lived it. So for

10 00:21:39

me, success is measured by how many people start living a little

10 00:21:43

differently, a little more beautifully because of what

10 00:21:47

they heard. Thank you, Ash. And just so you know, if you go to

10 00:21:50

schoolofpodcasting.com I

10 00:21:53

actually it was a great booking. I got to interview Jesus on

10 00:21:57

this very show. He talked about his book, all sorts of stuff.

10 00:22:01

It's always great. We had a few of these brand new people I've never

10 00:22:05

heard contribute. So thank you Ashriel. But when I heard this one,

10 00:22:08

I was like, oh, it's my buddy Zoe. Hello Dave. Hello everyone.

10 00:22:13

My name is Zoe. I want to let everybody know about

10 00:22:16

Backlit Cinema, the podcast. This is where we

10 00:22:20

take a look back at the movies of yesteryear, especially the movies of the

10 00:22:23

70s, 80s and 90s. And besides talking about

10 00:22:28

our favorite parts, the actors, the directors, the musicians,

10 00:22:31

and all of the people gathered together to make a wonderful story

10 00:22:35

that we all enjoy. I also like to try sometimes to

10 00:22:38

connect the events of the movie to what goes

10 00:22:42

on in today's time. If you're interested,

10 00:22:46

you can check out the website

10 00:22:49

www.backlitcinema.com.

10 00:22:52

and nostalgia is something that is growing now. If you look at all the

10 00:22:56

movies and stuff, it's all, they're just reselling our childhood back

10 00:23:00

to us. And how does Zoe measure success? Engagement,

10 00:23:04

being able to communicate with your listeners.

10 00:23:08

And that could be through emails, comments on

10 00:23:12

YouTube or Spotify, comments on social

10 00:23:16

media, even Apple Podcast ratings

10 00:23:20

can be a kind of engagement.

10 00:23:24

People sharing your podcasts through social media,

10 00:23:28

people buying your merch, or podcasters

10 00:23:31

inviting you to be on their show,

10 00:23:35

or accepting an invitation to be on your

10 00:23:38

show. Those are the things I think about when I think of

10 00:23:42

success or gauging success. In

10 00:23:47

the podcasting game without thinking about download

10 00:23:50

numbers. Have a Nice day, everyone.

10 00:23:53

Backlookcinema.com is Zo's site. And again, I'll have

10 00:23:56

links to Everybody's site@schoolofpodcasting.com

10 00:23:59

1042. Next up, we have Jen. Hi, this

10 00:24:03

is Jennifer Hensel from the Women in podcasting

10 00:24:05

show@womenpodcasters.com where we elevate women's

10 00:24:09

voices globally. Globally and in the podcasting industry. The

10 00:24:12

metrics that matter the most to me are three things that all work

10 00:24:16

together. Number one is lead magnet signups and growing my email

10 00:24:20

list. Number two is the growth of our free online

10 00:24:24

communities so, for example, our Facebook, LinkedIn and school

10 00:24:27

groups. And number three is new member signups to

10 00:24:31

the women Podcasters network. Those measurements tell me we're building

10 00:24:35

real relationships and a thriving community, not just attracting

10 00:24:39

listeners. So for me, it's all about community.

10 00:24:43

And one more thing, Anything I know about podcasting is thanks to

10 00:24:46

Dave. He's the best. Oh, thank you, Jen. You make me blush.

10 00:24:50

And if you like the logo of fix my podcast or

10 00:24:54

how to pitch a podcast, or ask the podcast coach or

10 00:24:57

schoolofpodcasting.com, it's because of this guy.

10 00:25:01

He's a great graphic designer. Podcastbranding Co. The

10 00:25:05

one and only Mark. Hi, Dave, it's Mark DeCote here from

10 00:25:08

Podcastbranding. Co. I want to talk about my

10 00:25:11

podcast network@solotalkmedia.com, which is

10 00:25:15

my television fan show network. And I want

10 00:25:19

to talk about how I measured success on those shows. You got to understand,

10 00:25:23

my shows are feedback driven show. I don't have a

10 00:25:27

co host. It's just me and my audience. And

10 00:25:30

what I do is I have them send in feedback. After,

10 00:25:34

say, one of the television shows an episode airs, then

10 00:25:38

we'll discuss it and they send in feedback. And I've had upwards of

10 00:25:41

60 people sending in feedback for an episode. So it's a discussion

10 00:25:45

kind of between me and them. But to measure success

10 00:25:49

beyond the downloads is just how much fun I have talking about the

10 00:25:53

television show and how much fun I have interacting with my

10 00:25:56

audience. Some people started off with my very first show, under

10 00:26:00

the Dome, and have followed me on every podcast I've done on

10 00:26:04

various different TV shows just because they love the community.

10 00:26:08

And let me tell you, download wise, I had one show for the

10 00:26:11

Expanse podcast that was regularly getting over

10 00:26:15

10,000 downloads per episode. And while that

10 00:26:18

television show was airing, there was another television show that I was also

10 00:26:22

podcasting about called Killjoys. And that one, Dave, I

10 00:26:26

was getting roughly about 40 downloads per episode.

10 00:26:29

So I was doing two podcasts at the same time, one getting 10,000

10 00:26:33

downloads, one getting 40 downloads. And I could tell you I had

10 00:26:36

just as much fun doing both of them. The numbers didn't matter to me

10 00:26:40

because whether it was 10,000 people listening or 40 people

10 00:26:44

listening, I was doing it because I wanted to talk about the

10 00:26:47

television shows that I loved. And that's exactly what I was doing.

10 00:26:51

I was satisfying my itch for podcasting at the time

10 00:26:54

and just the interaction with the audience, as I said,

10 00:26:58

was all the payment that I needed. So in that instance, that's how

10 00:27:02

I measured success is by how much fun I had. Once

10 00:27:05

again, Mark Decote, the network of television shows

10 00:27:09

is@solotalk media.com and of course you know me better from

10 00:27:12

podcast branding co where I help podcasters with their visual

10 00:27:16

branding needs. Thanks, Dave. Thanks Mark. If you are new

10 00:27:20

to the show, I love accents and Mark is Canadian and he

10 00:27:24

said about like legit about like not a weird

10 00:27:27

American trying to sound like like that was a legit about from a

10 00:27:31

Canadian. I'm so happy. I am Chris of Cool Cars with

10 00:27:34

Chris, my brand new show. I've been podcasting for a little while, since

10 00:27:38

2019. The most important thing above all else

10 00:27:41

when it comes to podcast measurement, in my opinion,

10 00:27:46

is fun. F u n fun, baby.

10 00:27:50

Are you having fun doing your show? If you're not, then what's the point?

10 00:27:54

I know that other measurements are out there, like downloads and

10 00:27:58

views on YouTube and things like that. Listen, I've had millions of views on

10 00:28:01

YouTube with millions of views across social media, blah, blah,

10 00:28:05

blah, whatever. But the most important thing to me has been having

10 00:28:08

fun. My new show here, Cool Cars with Chris has been around not even a

10 00:28:12

year yet and for some reason on Instagram

10 00:28:16

it's actually blown up quite a bit. I've actually, as I record

10 00:28:20

this right now I am somewhere in the ballpark of

10 00:28:24

5,500 followers and growing every single day

10 00:28:28

on Instagram. But the most important thing, like I said, is

10 00:28:31

I am actually having fun doing this show. I get to do things

10 00:28:35

I've never done in podcasting before. Taking the show on

10 00:28:39

the road, live events, recording from a live racetrack,

10 00:28:43

with video and audio, putting it all together, mixing,

10 00:28:46

mastering, doing short form video, YouTube video. I'm

10 00:28:50

having fun doing all this stuff. So when it comes to

10 00:28:54

podcast success for me is having fun.

10 00:28:58

It's gotta be top numero uno. So if you want

10 00:29:01

to have a good time hanging out, talking about cars because I own a cool

10 00:29:05

car. My co host has a cool car. We're diving into other cool car or

10 00:29:08

even car related topics on the show Cool Cars with Chris. You can find

10 00:29:12

it at coolcars with chris.com and let's make

10 00:29:16

podcasting fun again. The school of

10 00:29:20

podcasting. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hey, thanks

10 00:29:23

again to everyone who has written in. And here is another person that I go

10 00:29:27

hey, I know two other people on this episode that you should probably talk

10 00:29:31

to. Here's Howard L. Hi Dave. My name is Howard L.

10 00:29:35

And I'm a recovering alcoholic with more than 38 years of continuous

10 00:29:38

sobriety thanks to Alcoholics Anonymous. I just want to jump in here

10 00:29:42

and say congrats. I know it's not easy. I'm the creator, producer and

10 00:29:46

host of the podcast and AA Recovery Interviews

10 00:29:49

where Alcoholics Anonymous members from around the world share their

10 00:29:53

stories of experience, strength and hope. In each episode,

10 00:29:57

guests describe what it was like to live as a hopeless alcoholic,

10 00:30:00

what brought them into aa, and how working the AA program has

10 00:30:04

restored and enriched their lives. When I launched

10 00:30:08

AA Recovery Interviews more than five years ago, my goal was

10 00:30:11

simple. To give recovering alcoholics and their loved ones

10 00:30:15

an engaging way to learn what AA is all about and to find

10 00:30:19

hope in the stories of others. But measuring success

10 00:30:22

has never been straightforward. AA's traditions

10 00:30:26

discourage promotion and place great value on personal

10 00:30:29

anonymity. We don't advertise, endorse outside

10 00:30:33

organizations, or seek public recognition. As a result,

10 00:30:37

conventional growth metrics tell only part of the story.

10 00:30:40

I'm grateful that AA Recovery interviews has surpassed

10 00:30:43

750,000 downloads and my Big Book podcast

10 00:30:47

has exceeded more than 400,000. These numbers are

10 00:30:51

encouraging, but they are not the measure that matters the most. Oh,

10 00:30:54

I'm going to pop in here. What a great line. Did you just lean in?

10 00:30:57

That's a great way to set up. The payoff pitch is

10 00:31:01

with that line. Let's hear that again. These numbers are encouraging, but they are

10 00:31:05

not the measure that matters the most. The real

10 00:31:08

measure arrives in the emails I receive from listeners who tell me

10 00:31:12

a particular interview. Help them stay sober, return to meetings,

10 00:31:16

find a sponsor, work the steps, or simply make it through another day

10 00:31:19

without a drink. So how do I measure success?

10 00:31:24

One life at a time. I believe that there are people alive and sober

10 00:31:27

today because they heard a story on AA Recovery Interviews that

10 00:31:31

resonated with them at exactly the right moment. If

10 00:31:34

even one suffering alcoholic finds hope, seeks help, and

10 00:31:38

discovers the life changing fellowship of alcoholics and anas because of this

10 00:31:42

podcast, then every hour, every dollar and every effort

10 00:31:46

invested has been worthwhile for me. That

10 00:31:49

is success, that is service, and that is why I continue

10 00:31:53

this journey. Thanks, Dave. Thank you, Howard. And at the

10 00:31:57

heart of every podcaster, you will hear this. That is service.

10 00:32:00

And now we need to get Eric coming up here connected with

10 00:32:04

Mark and his TV network because, well, here's Eric.

10 00:32:08

Hey, Dave. I'm Eric and I am one of the hosts of the Steel

10 00:32:12

Watching podcast, which is a rewatch podcast of the

10 00:32:15

1980s TV series Remington Steel. And we can be

10 00:32:18

found@steelwatching.com and as a

10 00:32:22

reminder, steele is spelled with that extra E on the end. So it's S T

10 00:32:26

E e l e watching.com and

10 00:32:30

that's where I would buy both versions of that domain and point it at your

10 00:32:34

website. We look at the interactions between

10 00:32:37

ourselves and our listeners and our listeners and other fans of

10 00:32:41

the show that we can directly attribute to

10 00:32:45

our podcast. Because we take the episodes in the order in which

10 00:32:49

they aired, the listeners of our podcast

10 00:32:52

know which is the next episode coming up. We release twice a month.

10 00:32:56

Conversations start in the Facebook group about the

10 00:33:00

upcoming podcast episode. And many of the people who post will actually

10 00:33:04

reference this as being related to the

10 00:33:07

upcoming podcast episode. So there is a

10 00:33:11

direct indicator of people having

10 00:33:14

listened to our show and continuing to listen to our show. We also

10 00:33:18

have people who join the group and say that they heard about the

10 00:33:22

group through our podcast. So again, another direct

10 00:33:26

indicator that people are listening to our podcast.

10 00:33:29

So we know that we are having an influence in this community

10 00:33:33

through our podcast. But there's another indicator that

10 00:33:37

we use, and I know this is going to sound like a humble brag, but

10 00:33:41

it's simply the truth. We have very strong financial

10 00:33:44

support from our listeners. We typically run

10 00:33:48

100 to 150 downloads in the 7 day period after

10 00:33:52

a release of an episode, which is, as you know, a rough

10 00:33:56

indicator of how many people are subscribed to your show. Not necessarily how many

10 00:33:59

people actually listened to to the episode, but how many people are subscribed.

10 00:34:04

But if we take that number and we do some math,

10 00:34:07

then somewhere between 10 and 15% of our

10 00:34:11

presumed subscribers donate to us to help

10 00:34:15

cover our costs on the podcast. Now, I do

10 00:34:19

not judge that as the measure of success. I view that

10 00:34:22

as a layer on top of the primary

10 00:34:26

level of success, which is that base layer. We have

10 00:34:30

people listening and we know that because we can see from

10 00:34:33

their own communications, their own words that they post online

10 00:34:37

that they are listening, but it's a second layer on top.

10 00:34:41

And if you don't mind me getting philosophical for a moment here? I think there's

10 00:34:45

a lot of people who start a podcast and they define

10 00:34:49

a success that they want to achieve, and then once they

10 00:34:52

achieve that, they establish a new indicator that they want to

10 00:34:56

achieve, which isn't a problem as long as they remember to keep it as a

10 00:34:59

layer on top of the primary indicator of success. But

10 00:35:03

unfortunately, I think there's a lot of people out there that say, okay, I've got

10 00:35:06

this new goal for success, this new definition of

10 00:35:10

success, and everything that I did before is

10 00:35:13

invalid if I don't achieve this new

10 00:35:17

level of success. And I think that's where some

10 00:35:21

people wind up being unsatisfied with the results of their podcast

10 00:35:25

and giving up abandoning it because they've

10 00:35:28

forgotten what their initial goal was

10 00:35:32

and they've decided that if they can't achieve this next level

10 00:35:36

of success, it was all meaningless. So your

10 00:35:40

philosophical thought of the day. Anyway, again,

10 00:35:43

ericealwatching.com thanks Dave

10 00:35:47

thank you, Eric. Anybody that makes me think is my friend.

10 00:35:50

Speaking of friends, here's one of my favorite people, Ray from

10 00:35:54

aroundthelayout.com hello Dave and fellow school of

10 00:35:57

Podcasting listeners. This is Ray Arnott from Around the Layout

10 00:36:01

Podcast where model railroaders come to tell their story.

10 00:36:05

It's been quite some time since I've even looked at my downloads for the

10 00:36:08

podcast as being a niche podcast. I know my audience

10 00:36:12

is limited. Instead, I measure the success of around the Layout

10 00:36:15

Podcast by the engagement I get from members of the community.

10 00:36:19

Over the last four years, I've enjoyed several marketing partnerships that

10 00:36:23

continue to grow when I attend model railroading events. I'm

10 00:36:27

recognized for the podcast and attendees take time to provide me with

10 00:36:30

compliments and feedback. As heard here during a Because

10 00:36:34

of my podcast segment, a model railroading event invited me to be

10 00:36:38

their guest at the Sydney RPM in New South Wales, Australia.

10 00:36:42

Okay, we're going to stop just to make sure I have your attention. Ray

10 00:36:45

got a free trip business class to Australia

10 00:36:50

because of his podcast. How cool is that? But

10 00:36:53

wait, there's more. I've been asked to lead keynotes at

10 00:36:57

Railroad Prototype Modelers meets, submit articles and participate in

10 00:37:01

interviews about the podcast for Model Railroad Publications and

10 00:37:04

so much more. Lately I've been calling it the feel of

10 00:37:08

momentum versus statistics. Numbers alone will never tell

10 00:37:12

the story of my podcast, as it's not about how many,

10 00:37:16

it's more about who many and the amazingly engaged audience

10 00:37:20

I'm so blessed to have again. I host around the Layout

10 00:37:23

Podcast, a weekly Interview show where model railroaders from around the

10 00:37:27

globe come to tell their story and share their passions for the world's

10 00:37:30

greatest hobby. You can learn more@aroundthelayout.com

10 00:37:34

and I love that phrase, who many. It's not how

10 00:37:38

many people are listening, it's are the right people listening

10 00:37:42

to your show. And that's what Ray refers to as the who many.

10 00:37:46

And I've been mentioning how some of these contributors

10 00:37:50

should be networking together. And this next one already is.

10 00:37:54

You'll hear from his contributor a little later, but

10 00:37:57

this is the one, the only York. Hi, Dave.

10 00:38:01

This is York from Welcome to Earth Stories.

10 00:38:05

When I started my Show Back in 2017,

10 00:38:09

I wanted to be very clear with my objectives.

10 00:38:13

So I wrote them down. Objective number

10 00:38:17

one was to understand myself better.

10 00:38:21

Number two was to understand people better.

10 00:38:25

And number three was to understand the mind of

10 00:38:28

God. So every episode, that was the game

10 00:38:32

plan. But later on, I got bogged down with

10 00:38:36

the stats. I used to be somewhat

10 00:38:39

obsessed by it, constantly looking after

10 00:38:43

every episode to see how I'm doing. Not just

10 00:38:47

how I'm doing in Canada, where

10 00:38:50

I live, but how the show was doing in the States,

10 00:38:54

in India, in Japan, in Turkey, in

10 00:38:58

Jamaica. That's how far I took it.

10 00:39:01

That's all that I could think of. And slowly

10 00:39:05

but surely, I was forgetting the reason that I was

10 00:39:09

recording. So I had a change of mind.

10 00:39:12

I started going back and doing the things that I did before

10 00:39:17

recording for those three reasons. And

10 00:39:21

then the show improved because I wasn't just

10 00:39:25

looking at the success rate based on downloads, because that

10 00:39:28

fluctuates. I was looking at, am

10 00:39:32

I understanding people better myself Better? Are

10 00:39:35

my goals that I've set for myself back in

10 00:39:39

2017, do I see an improvement in

10 00:39:43

order to gain these improvements? Every episode

10 00:39:46

that I do, I try to go even one

10 00:39:50

step further by writing stories in a different

10 00:39:54

way, going out in the field and listening to

10 00:39:57

conversations that people are having and thinking of

10 00:40:00

ways that I could incorporate it into a story. So my

10 00:40:04

mind is always on stories.

10 00:40:08

When I'm watching a TV show, when I'm out grocery

10 00:40:11

shopping, whatever it is, I'm constantly thinking

10 00:40:15

of stories. And then I challenge myself one

10 00:40:19

step further. I create obstacles,

10 00:40:22

roadblocks in my way for so that I could overcome

10 00:40:25

those roadblocks. Why do I do this? Because I want

10 00:40:29

the show to be even more strange

10 00:40:33

and bizarre so that I could figure myself out

10 00:40:37

better, understand spiritual things and

10 00:40:41

understand people better. This goes beyond

10 00:40:44

the downloads, and because I've been doing that, I've been

10 00:40:48

noticing Tremendous success. Also, the show has

10 00:40:52

helped me to communicate better on a one to one

10 00:40:56

basis or even if I go up on stage, I feel

10 00:40:59

confident because I've been recording myself

10 00:41:03

since 2017. If you want to hear me communicate

10 00:41:07

strange, bizarre sci fi tales that

10 00:41:11

goes beyond a regular audio drama,

10 00:41:15

then listen to welcome to Earth stories at welcome

10 00:41:18

to earthstories.com Season

10 00:41:22

9 is coming out later on this year, but you can listen

10 00:41:26

through all previous seasons. This is sort of

10 00:41:30

like Twilight Zone and Black Mirror getting together

10 00:41:34

and having a baby. Thanks a lot, Dave Yorick. That

10 00:41:38

is a very cool way to describe your show. I love

10 00:41:41

that and just thank you. That was an amazing answer because

10 00:41:45

we really do. This is exactly what I'm talking about. We get

10 00:41:48

distracted and then we go off the rails. And when you go back to

10 00:41:53

wait, who am I talking to again? Oh, wait a minute. This isn't gonna

10 00:41:56

entertain them. This isn't gonna educate. This isn't gonna hold their attention.

10 00:42:00

So I love that. And like he said, the minute he went back to

10 00:42:04

like, who is this for? What am I trying to do? What are. And I

10 00:42:07

love the fact he's got his three. These are the three things that I'm doing

10 00:42:11

this show for. And he went back and refocused. What do you know?

10 00:42:15

Success was right around the corner. Very cool. Hello, Mr. Jackson.

10 00:42:19

All right. That was my dad. You can call me Dave. My name is Rob

10 00:42:23

Darrymple and I am the co host of the Softball Central podcast.

10 00:42:27

We help players, parents, coaches and fans navigate the world of fast

10 00:42:30

pitch softball. You can find

10 00:42:32

us@softballcentralpodcast.com

10 00:42:36

or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm kidding. I know you hate

10 00:42:40

that. I only added that part to get your dander up. It worked.

10 00:42:43

I almost gave you the buzzer. Well, I like to look at a few different

10 00:42:46

things. One is when a new episode comes out, I like to see

10 00:42:50

people that are listening to it. But I also go back and check the back

10 00:42:54

catalog to see if they've listened to any of those episodes. And when they

10 00:42:58

do, that's. That's a win for me. I like that

10 00:43:01

it means that the first episode they listen to they liked and they wanted

10 00:43:05

more of it. Next. I like to look at the geographic reach. How many different

10 00:43:09

countries are consuming our content? We have over 30

10 00:43:12

countries listening. 34 to be exact. And it just

10 00:43:16

tells me that our softball content resonates with

10 00:43:20

softball fans or players or coaches all

10 00:43:23

over the world. I just, I just get a kick out of that. Probably not

10 00:43:27

scalable because we'll eventually run out of countries, but seeing

10 00:43:31

over 30 countries that have consumed it makes me feel good. I also

10 00:43:34

watch website traffic. Are people visiting the site? More

10 00:43:38

importantly, are they clicking through to listen or to watch the

10 00:43:42

episodes? That behavior also tells me they're enjoying the content

10 00:43:45

and it's compelling enough that they want more. Then there's the

10 00:43:49

monetization. Because let's be real, podcasting costs money.

10 00:43:53

I don't care if it's just a hundred dollar microphone, it doesn't stop there, it

10 00:43:56

just keeps going. My current goal is pretty simple. Generate enough revenue

10 00:44:00

to cover my editing software. I use Riverside and

10 00:44:04

it's between 30 and 34 dollars a month. I would also like

10 00:44:07

to generate enough money to finally enroll in the school of podcasting.

10 00:44:11

Use the coupon code listnr when you sign up for either a monthly, quarterly

10 00:44:15

or yearly subscription. So these are just some of the things I do to

10 00:44:19

measure success and see if I'm winning or if I'm

10 00:44:23

learning. I heard that from you first, Dave, but I am pretty sure the

10 00:44:26

royalties will go to the Nelson Mandela estate. Thank you for allowing

10 00:44:30

me to be a part of this. I love almost everything you do. Almost.

10 00:44:35

Wait, what? Ciao. Next up, if you love history

10 00:44:39

and you love movies, you gotta check out Based on a True Story

10 00:44:42

podcast by my buddy Dan Lefebvre. Hi Dave. Dan

10 00:44:46

here from Based on a True Story. Outside of downloads, there are two key ways

10 00:44:50

that I measure the success of my podcast, and the first one boils down

10 00:44:53

to simply a yes or no question. Am I excited to work

10 00:44:57

on the next episode? The answer is yes, it's a success. In my

10 00:45:01

case, each episode is about a different movie or TV show,

10 00:45:05

so the only time I've really said no to whether or not I'm excited about

10 00:45:08

an episode is if the movie or TV show is not interesting to

10 00:45:12

me. In most cases, though, I find that once I start working

10 00:45:16

on that, it changes. And even if the movie or TV show is not really

10 00:45:20

one that I'm interested in, we all have movies or TV shows we don't really

10 00:45:22

like. I'm no different. But I usually am still fascinated by

10 00:45:26

the true story behind the movie, even if the movie itself is

10 00:45:30

not that interesting. The very few times that I was not

10 00:45:34

excited about covering a movie or TV show, and I wasn't that interested in learning

10 00:45:37

about the Truth Story, I simply picked a different topic. Since it's

10 00:45:41

my show, I get to work on the topics that interest me, and I

10 00:45:45

firmly believe that the episode will be better if I'm actually

10 00:45:49

interested in that topic instead of just phoning it in about a topic that I

10 00:45:52

don't care about. So that's one way that I measure the success of my podcast

10 00:45:56

by asking that question. The second way that I consider my podcast

10 00:46:00

as success might kind of be cheating based on how the question of the month

10 00:46:03

is worded, because it's not something that I can measure, at least not in my

10 00:46:07

lifetime. But I consider my podcast a success because it gives

10 00:46:11

me a reason to build a library of recordings for my only daughter.

10 00:46:14

I started my show back in 2016, so without a

10 00:46:18

decade of podcasting, I really doubt that I would have all of

10 00:46:22

these recordings of my voice that I can pass down to my daughter.

10 00:46:25

Actually, that's the primary reason that I added video to my podcast, so

10 00:46:29

it's not just audio that my daughter will be able to go back to long

10 00:46:33

after I'm gone. You see, in the early days of my podcast, when it was

10 00:46:36

audio only, I took my gear and recorded my parents

10 00:46:40

talking about family history. I'm going to jump in here. If you haven't done

10 00:46:44

this, do it now. I'm interviewing. I've been

10 00:46:47

secretly interviewing my aunt, who's 99, and it's just

10 00:46:50

pure gold. After I shared that recording with my immediate

10 00:46:54

family. It's only where it was shared. My daughter has told

10 00:46:58

me numerous times since then that she's glad that she'll be able to hear my

10 00:47:01

voice because of all the podcast recordings. And now with video, she'll

10 00:47:05

get to see me across hundreds of episodes, or maybe even her kids,

10 00:47:08

which she doesn't have any now, but maybe someday. I mean, I have

10 00:47:12

no idea what my grandfather sounds like because he died before I was born, but

10 00:47:16

I would love to have a library of audio and video that he or any

10 00:47:20

of my ancestors recorded to see and hear what they sounded like and

10 00:47:24

how they talked to others and how they interacted. Will my own descendants

10 00:47:28

care about the movies or TV shows that I'm talking about? Probably not. At least

10 00:47:31

not all of them. But I still consider my podcast a success

10 00:47:35

simply because it gives me a consistent reason to offer that

10 00:47:38

to future generations of my immediate family. Anyway,

10 00:47:42

those are two key ways that I measure the success of my podcast that have

10 00:47:45

nothing to do with downloads. Once again, this is Dan from Based on a True

10 00:47:49

Story, the podcast that compares Hollywood with history, which you can

10 00:47:52

find@basedonatruestorypodcast.com yeah, my

10 00:47:56

uncle, which was my aunt's. This is how that works. My. My uncle is my

10 00:47:59

aunt's brother and he died, I think at 87

10 00:48:03

or 80, I don't know. He was very old and he had all sorts of

10 00:48:06

stories and I didn't get a single one on tape,

10 00:48:10

so don't wait. And next up we have

10 00:48:15

Tim. Hey, Dave. This is Timothy Kimo Brian,

10 00:48:19

head instigator at Create Art Podcast, where I

10 00:48:22

help my listeners tame their inner critic and

10 00:48:26

create more than they consume. You can find it

10 00:48:29

atcreateartpodcast.com

10 00:48:33

I also have started a new podcast here in 2026

10 00:48:37

detailing my journey through Ms. With

10 00:48:40

my diagnosis happening in 2021.

10 00:48:45

That podcast is for folks that may have just had

10 00:48:49

the diagnosis or maybe going through the process of having the

10 00:48:52

diagnosis. You can find

10 00:48:54

it@mysolomsjourney.com

10 00:49:00

so let me start with my newest podcast

10 00:49:03

first. I realize it's not for everyone.

10 00:49:07

If you don't have Ms. Or you don't know anybody with ms,

10 00:49:11

it may not be for you. But I measure

10 00:49:15

success in that podcast with audience

10 00:49:19

feedback. And check this out. York, you just

10 00:49:23

heard him a bit ago, and Tim have been working together and

10 00:49:27

York gave Tim some feedback. He says, I enjoyed the first

10 00:49:30

episode of my solo Ms. Journey, especially the section

10 00:49:34

with the hot doctor. You'll have to

10 00:49:38

listen to it to find out what he's talking about. Schoolofpodcasting.com

10 00:49:42

42 but the bottom line is I'm getting

10 00:49:46

tips from York. If you've listened to York show, you know

10 00:49:49

he's fantastic. He continues on. Overall, I enjoyed

10 00:49:53

the episode with your vulnerability. People with Ms. Are going to

10 00:49:57

be impacted in a positive way. And also thank you for

10 00:50:01

your continued support. It's much appreciated.

10 00:50:05

Right there. I not only got, you know,

10 00:50:09

thanked for my show, the impact that it's going

10 00:50:12

to have, and some technical assistance as well,

10 00:50:16

which, you know, he and I do all the time back and forth to each

10 00:50:19

other. So it's reaching somebody,

10 00:50:23

even somebody that does not have ms, it's reaching somebody

10 00:50:27

and it's having an impact on them, which is

10 00:50:30

success in my book. Now, the next thing I wanted to share

10 00:50:34

with you is for Create Art Podcast.

10 00:50:39

Now in that podcast, I invite people to come on

10 00:50:42

and listen to the show if they want to be on the show,

10 00:50:46

tell their stories, talk about creativity

10 00:50:50

and inspiration and all that kind of good stuff. Well, I just recently

10 00:50:54

had a gentleman by the name of Daniel Curtis,

10 00:50:57

who's a composer, educator and speaker

10 00:51:01

exploring creativity. He's based in the UK

10 00:51:06

and he wrote to be on my show.

10 00:51:10

And what he wrote was I recently came across Create

10 00:51:14

Art Podcast and really Connected with the focus on artistic

10 00:51:17

journeys, creative practice, and the honest human experience

10 00:51:21

behind making work.

10 00:51:25

Now, for me, somebody from the UK

10 00:51:31

has listened to my show. The actual reach

10 00:51:35

of that is amazing.

10 00:51:39

I mean, we're reaching across the world,

10 00:51:43

literally, Dave, that's how you measure success.

10 00:51:46

Downloads are one way to do it, and that's fine, and that's

10 00:51:50

good. But when somebody connects

10 00:51:54

from thousands of miles away,

10 00:51:58

then you know you're doing something right.

10 00:52:03

And for the days when all I hear is crickets,

10 00:52:07

I go back to those emails, I go back to those interviews,

10 00:52:11

and I go, well, somebody's getting this. That's

10 00:52:15

right, somebody is getting it. Thank you so much, Tim. And batting

10 00:52:19

cleanup. That's right, the one, the only, Kim

10 00:52:22

Newlove. Hi, Dave. This is Kim Newlove with the Pharmacist's

10 00:52:26

Voice podcast and the Perrysburg Podcast. The Pharmacist's

10 00:52:30

Voice podcast explores pharmacy topics and careers,

10 00:52:33

so my audience feels connected to the profession of pharmacy and

10 00:52:37

inspired to contribute to it. You can find

10 00:52:40

that@the pharmacistsvoice.com

10 00:52:44

I also host a local podcast called the Perrysburg Podcast.

10 00:52:48

You can find it@harrysburgpodcast.com

10 00:52:51

It's a resource for future and current Perrysburg, Ohio, residents.

10 00:52:55

But of course, we attract visitors, former residents, et cetera.

10 00:52:59

And we talk about what's in Perrysburg and why people like to live here.

10 00:53:03

The website again is perrysburgpodcast.com Now,

10 00:53:07

Kim provided a list, but I'm here to tell you this

10 00:53:10

is exactly what I was looking for. And that is, we

10 00:53:14

think we're not moving anywhere because we don't realize there are

10 00:53:18

so many different ways to measure success. And

10 00:53:22

so here is Kim going over her list. Yeah,

10 00:53:25

numbers provide social proof that people are listening. Yeah, I

10 00:53:29

get that. But there's so many other things, like growing as a person

10 00:53:33

and helping my voice to mature.

10 00:53:37

You know, feeling confident and sounding confident while stepping up

10 00:53:41

to the mic. I used to have to write out pretty much

10 00:53:44

exactly what I was going to say before I said it, but now I can

10 00:53:47

operate off of an outline and let myself

10 00:53:51

just go with it. I'm going to elaborate on some of these. Creative

10 00:53:54

fulfillment. I'll tell you, there's so much creative fulfillment

10 00:53:58

if you're a podcaster already, you know that every episode's

10 00:54:02

your baby, and it's so satisfying to publish that.

10 00:54:05

And it's creative fulfillment. I feel

10 00:54:09

like I'm aligned with my why. So I'm on number three here. It's

10 00:54:13

a good feeling to create a show and be able to tell somebody. Yeah.

10 00:54:17

My show explores pharmacy topics and careers, so my audience

10 00:54:20

feels connected to the profession of pharmacy and inspired to

10 00:54:24

contribute to it. I feel so aligned with that. Every time I step up to

10 00:54:28

the mic, that's success. That's podcasting success. The fourth one

10 00:54:32

was audience feedback. When listeners respond and

10 00:54:35

they either thank me or ask questions or, you know, text me

10 00:54:39

and say, I've never listened to your show, but this is the episode that got

10 00:54:42

me to listen. That's amazing. That's so fulfilling. That's

10 00:54:46

podcasting success. Number five is

10 00:54:49

social capital. I mean, you meet so many people when you're a

10 00:54:53

podcaster, you earn relationships. You don't

10 00:54:57

just talk to somebody, but you earn it through an interview.

10 00:55:00

Through talking to someone, you build trust, you get relationships.

10 00:55:04

If you're a guest, you get visibility with their audience. You get

10 00:55:08

credibility in your community and professional circles. When you talk

10 00:55:12

about certain things, you become an expert. People put you on this pedestal.

10 00:55:15

Kim Newlove is a drug pronunciation expert.

10 00:55:19

And then number six, I mentioned growing a backbone. All right,

10 00:55:23

Any podcaster that's been around for long enough to attract

10 00:55:27

sponsors or potential sponsors knows that you have to say

10 00:55:31

no to the ones who are not in alignment with your show or

10 00:55:34

who you are. So podcasting, a podcasting

10 00:55:38

success for me has been saying no to people who are

10 00:55:42

not in alignment with my show, and I'm gonna pop in. That is

10 00:55:45

huge in so many areas, not just in podcasting,

10 00:55:49

but in your life. Saying no can help you

10 00:55:53

in so many ways because we just spread ourselves too thin.

10 00:55:57

We get involved in things that we're not supposed to do. So let's go back

10 00:56:00

to Kim. Number seven is unexpected opportunities.

10 00:56:04

Because of my local podcast, I got contacted by a Shark

10 00:56:07

Tank participant. I had talked about buying

10 00:56:11

Storyworth for my mom so she could create a memoir. And

10 00:56:14

this was a Christmas gift for her. And then for my dad, I purchased

10 00:56:18

Remento as a Christmas gift so he could also create

10 00:56:21

a memoir. I would like his stories, please, before. You know, I want my parents

10 00:56:25

stories before they're gone. I don't mean to be morbid, but that's the reason

10 00:56:29

that I purchased these products. I'm just going to throw this in here,

10 00:56:33

and hopefully I can say this sentence. I don't

10 00:56:37

remember what my mom sounds like because

10 00:56:40

I think there's, like, one videotape where she was, you

10 00:56:44

know, somebody was doing, like, a camcorder on their shoulder kind of thing because she

10 00:56:48

died in 1989. And it's weird

10 00:56:52

to say that so I'm just here to say, as someone who would probably

10 00:56:55

crumble into a bunch of pieces if I actually heard it,

10 00:56:59

I'm out here to tell you, your kids will thank you. So the owner

10 00:57:03

of the company Remento, and he was featured on Shark Tank,

10 00:57:07

reached out to me because of my show notes. The word

10 00:57:10

remento and the link to the Remento website showed up on a Google

10 00:57:14

alert for him. So he reached out via email. And I didn't see

10 00:57:18

the email for at least a week because, you know, it's a local podcast. I

10 00:57:21

don't check my email for that podcast very often. And so why do

10 00:57:25

you write good show notes on your website? That's why. And

10 00:57:29

so we had a conversation. It was probably 20 to 25 minutes.

10 00:57:32

And he just wanted to know if I did, in fact, buy the product and

10 00:57:36

if I did, how it was going. And I thought that was amazing.

10 00:57:40

So because of my podcast, I had this unexpected opportunity.

10 00:57:44

Number eight is giving back to my community. The Perrysburg Podcast is

10 00:57:48

a service project. So just jumping in quick enough to say,

10 00:57:51

there's that service word again. With every episode, I feel like I'm

10 00:57:55

giving something back to my community. Number 10,

10 00:57:58

publishing consistently. All right, when I started the

10 00:58:02

Pharmacist's Voice podcast back in 2019, I published

10 00:58:06

episode one, and then I started publishing weekly, and I

10 00:58:10

stuck with it for six years, and I considered that a big success.

10 00:58:14

Now, over the years, I've gotten busier, my priorities have changed, et

10 00:58:18

cetera. So I have gone to a monthly publication schedule,

10 00:58:22

and I actually get more daily downloads now than I

10 00:58:25

did publishing weekly, which I did not expect.

10 00:58:29

So there's two podcasting wins, I guess. One is related to

10 00:58:32

downloads, though, so that doesn't count. But still, me personally, I

10 00:58:36

published for six years straight every single week, and I thought that was

10 00:58:40

pretty darn good. Number 11, participating in the

10 00:58:44

podcasting community. I feel like because I joined the school of

10 00:58:47

podcasting, I have met so many people, and I feel like

10 00:58:51

I'm really friends with them. Steve Stewart, you are a great example. I know you

10 00:58:55

always listen to the school of podcasting, but he grew up not too far

10 00:58:59

from where I live now, and, you know, I feel like we have so much

10 00:59:02

in common, podcasting, but then growing up in Northwest Ohio, and

10 00:59:06

he's been on one of my podcasts, so there's just so many things.

10 00:59:10

Participating in a community, caring about the same thing, meeting people,

10 00:59:14

and it's such a rising tides lifts all

10 00:59:17

boats. Community, this podcasting community. And thank you all for

10 00:59:21

making Me feel like I am in the community. It's such

10 00:59:25

a win. I know this is getting long, so I'm going to lump the

10 00:59:29

next four together. Here's the deal. I run this local podcast,

10 00:59:32

the Perrysburg Podcast. In that podcast, I have made a point

10 00:59:36

to interview faith community leaders, because, let's face it, when

10 00:59:40

you are a religious person and you move to a new town, finding that

10 00:59:44

church home makes you feel like you're at home even though you're away

10 00:59:48

from home. Hope that makes sense. So I interviewed

10 00:59:51

the bishop of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in

10 00:59:55

my town. Because I did that interview, I got invited to

10 00:59:59

go on a tour of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day

10 01:00:03

Saints in my town. And during that tour, I got to see

10 01:00:06

their family Search center. My dad has been

10 01:00:10

wanting to update our family genealogy for years.

10 01:00:13

Years and years. The staff offered to help us. So

10 01:00:17

I made some appointments in August for my dad and me to go in

10 01:00:21

and talk to the staff and find out how we can move forward

10 01:00:25

with this genealogy project that is so important to my

10 01:00:28

dad. So for Father's Day, I gave him this card. And

10 01:00:32

inside it, it gave the dates and times that we have these appointments

10 01:00:36

with the staffer. And I think he was kind of speechless.

10 01:00:39

Let's just say he was speechless. It's something he's always wanted to do. No,

10 01:00:43

he didn't cry or anything like that. But, yes, it was meaningful. And

10 01:00:47

that is a connection that money can't measure.

10 01:00:51

Making that connection with the bishop and going on the tour,

10 01:00:55

seeing the Family search center, meeting the staff and

10 01:00:58

giving him hope that we're going to move forward with this project.

10 01:01:02

As he's 76, you never know how many years you have

10 01:01:06

left. So I made a connection that money can't measure

10 01:01:09

because of my podcast, and that is podcasting success.

10 01:01:14

I sure hope you're still with me, because she's got more. But

10 01:01:17

that's just a classic example of you start talking into

10 01:01:21

a microphone in Perrysburg, Ohio, and you have

10 01:01:25

no idea what it's going to lead to. What an amazing story.

10 01:01:28

But wait, there's more. Number 18 on my

10 01:01:32

list is preserving memories. I had a bunch of podcast

10 01:01:36

interviews with my friend Asha, Dr. Asha Pai

10 01:01:39

Bohannon. She meant so much to me. And

10 01:01:42

then she, unfortunately, unexpectedly died

10 01:01:46

on June 7, 2024. So I had all

10 01:01:50

this material of recorded conversations with her. I have

10 01:01:53

narrated one of her audiobooks. We've met in person, we've gone to

10 01:01:57

conferences together. We've exchanged Christmas cards. I Mean, this is a personal

10 01:02:00

friend, and I lost her unexpectedly, and I'm gonna try not

10 01:02:04

to cry when I talk about this. But a podcasting success for me

10 01:02:08

has been preserving her memory. I did a podcast

10 01:02:11

episode where I talked about my favorite things

10 01:02:15

about her. I read her obituary in the

10 01:02:18

episode, and it was a way for me to remember her.

10 01:02:22

And let's just say I pledged during that podcast episode to

10 01:02:26

listen to that episode every June 7th on her death

10 01:02:29

anniversary. And I have done it. She died in

10 01:02:33

2024. I listened to it in 2025 and

10 01:02:36

this year in 2026. So just this month as I record this, it is June

10 01:02:40

27, 2026. So I just listened to it

10 01:02:44

a couple weeks ago. Preserving memories is

10 01:02:47

important. After she died, I got to listen to her voice.

10 01:02:51

Preserving memories is a great opportunity, and when you actually do,

10 01:02:55

it is a podcasting success. I'm so sorry

10 01:02:59

to hear that, and thanks for sharing that. And I know we've hit

10 01:03:02

that point a couple times because it's important. And I'm here to tell you,

10 01:03:06

you always think you have tomorrow. My great nephew just graduated

10 01:03:10

from high school, and I was a guy that was always going to go to

10 01:03:13

every game, and I was going to be like, Uncle Number One. And I think

10 01:03:16

I saw him play twice. And I apologized to him at the

10 01:03:20

party. I said, you know, your uncle's always here for you, even though I

10 01:03:23

wasn't there at the games. And I just, you know, you think there's

10 01:03:27

always one more game. Oh, I'll do it tomorrow. Father Time is

10 01:03:31

undefeated. Number 19 was keeping a promise to yourself. I just talked

10 01:03:35

about how I pledged to listen to that podcast episode every June

10 01:03:39

7th, and I have done it. Number 20, using

10 01:03:42

podcasting as a personal archive.

10 01:03:46

Dave Jackson has talked about this so many times. Podcasting

10 01:03:49

can help you preserve stories, memories, relationships, and moments

10 01:03:53

that might otherwise fade over time. I

10 01:03:57

just talked about my friend Asha. There are so many other

10 01:04:01

things. You get so many light bulb moments.

10 01:04:04

Light bulb moments when you podcast. Right. You get to

10 01:04:08

grow as a person, and you can almost see that

10 01:04:12

transformation. You can hear that transformation if you have an audio podcast

10 01:04:16

in a single episode. I remember having a podcast episode

10 01:04:20

on the Pharmacist Voice podcast where I was learning about DEI

10 01:04:23

from Dr. Simone Sloan, and we talked about how

10 01:04:27

empathy goes a long way, and until we trust each other, we don't listen

10 01:04:31

to each other. And that was a light bulb moment for me.

10 01:04:35

So not only can you use podcasting as a personal

10 01:04:39

archive to remind yourself to listen to a Podcast episode

10 01:04:42

featuring a friend that you lost. But you can also listen to those

10 01:04:46

light bulb moments and I'll tell you. I am currently

10 01:04:50

using the Perrysburg podcast as a personal archive so I

10 01:04:54

can write a book about it. Hopefully I'll get it done here in

10 01:04:57

2026. That is my goal. But you can use

10 01:05:00

podcasting as a personal archive to draw from

10 01:05:04

to write a book. I do a show called

10 01:05:07

betterdave.com it's horrible for the most part,

10 01:05:10

but what's weird, it's my smallest audience. I get maybe 70 download for

10 01:05:14

that show. And yet when I don't do one in a while,

10 01:05:18

my audience will be like, hey, where's better? And it literally, as I look back,

10 01:05:21

I can remember things now from holidays

10 01:05:25

and a lot of times it's me trying to deep think or

10 01:05:29

it's just me being very silly or very third grade potty

10 01:05:33

humor in some cases. But it is a way to. I

10 01:05:37

now look back and go, I totally forgot about that. And that's just because I've

10 01:05:40

journaled most of my life and sometimes I'll do one and go,

10 01:05:44

I think this is entertaining. So absolutely. It's really

10 01:05:48

cheap therapy. When I was in my

10 01:05:51

second marriage, it got dark. I mean, like dark.

10 01:05:56

And I could not. It was weird. I was, I don't know,

10 01:05:59

60 miles from all my friends, and yet I felt so alone.

10 01:06:03

And one of the ways I would just, it's a creative release

10 01:06:07

was to record an episode of Building a Better Dave and

10 01:06:11

try to make people laugh. Which is weird when you're feeling really,

10 01:06:14

really bad and depressed and lonely and things like that. But it

10 01:06:18

can be an interesting form of therapy.

10 01:06:22

Now, some people will go, I wouldn't recommend that. I always say, remember the Internet

10 01:06:26

writes in ink and don't talk about your family and your podcast.

10 01:06:29

But if you want to talk about you, you can. But absolutely agree with

10 01:06:33

that point. All these personal archive stories

10 01:06:37

are podcasting success to me. And number

10 01:06:40

21 is measuring success philosophically, not just

10 01:06:44

numerically, which ties in very much to building a better Dave. Again,

10 01:06:48

sometimes I try to think over there and I think that's what this assignment was

10 01:06:51

all about. It's not just about the downloads, it's

10 01:06:55

all the podcasting successes that are philosophical. The

10 01:06:59

things that you got right, the things you are doing right, the things

10 01:07:03

that you learn, the personal growth you experience.

10 01:07:07

One person I didn't mention from the school of podcasting is the

10 01:07:11

host of AI Goes to College, Craig Van Slyke.

10 01:07:15

He helped me grow as a person by helping Me learn how to use

10 01:07:18

AI. He is a great teacher. And

10 01:07:22

I gotta say that, like, you know, I've grown as a person because of him.

10 01:07:26

And Dave and Steve Stewart and Gordon Firemark.

10 01:07:30

All the people that I've met through podcasting downloads are just one metric,

10 01:07:34

okay? But the bigger measures of success are the fulfillment, the

10 01:07:37

personal growth, the relationships, the service to community. For

10 01:07:41

me, anyway, the courage that I've earned through going

10 01:07:45

through hard times. You grow through what you go through, right?

10 01:07:48

Consistency and schedule, all those memories made and the

10 01:07:52

impact that you make. I mean, you can't measure impact, but, you

10 01:07:56

know, making an impact as a podcasting success, so

10 01:07:59

many things. So that is my answer, Dave. Hope that was long enough

10 01:08:03

for you. I know you always worry that people are not going to

10 01:08:07

answer your questions of the month, but hope you all learned something from it

10 01:08:11

again. This is Kim Newlove from the Pharmacist's Voice podcast and the

10 01:08:14

Perrysburg Podcast. Happy podcasting, everyone. Thank you,

10 01:08:18

Kim. For me, I measure

10 01:08:22

my success by members of the school of podcasting. And you heard

10 01:08:25

many of them here today, by the way, in case you ever wonder.

10 01:08:29

Everybody's welcome to contribute to the question

10 01:08:32

of the month. And so it's

10 01:08:36

always kind of fun because in January, my numbers go up because everybody says, this

10 01:08:40

is the year I'm going to start a podcast. And in February, my numbers go

10 01:08:43

down because not everybody does. But also in February, my

10 01:08:47

memberships typically go up because there are people

10 01:08:51

that do want to start a podcast or grow their

10 01:08:55

podcast or they need feedback or whatever it is. And so

10 01:08:58

it's always interesting because my numbers go down in February as my membership goes

10 01:09:02

up. And that's why I always ask, how are you going to measure your success?

10 01:09:07

Because you need to identify that so you can

10 01:09:10

figure out how to tweak your content. But the other thing, I

10 01:09:14

also, I guess, measure, and it's

10 01:09:18

not really measurement. This is my why I love to

10 01:09:22

help podcasters. I've got some. We're doing the podcasting in

10 01:09:25

six weeks course, and I'm working with a lot of new podcasters.

10 01:09:29

And I love taking people that come to me and say, there's no way I'm

10 01:09:33

going to be able to do this. I hate technology. And then,

10 01:09:36

you know, a month and a half later, they're an apple. That, to me,

10 01:09:40

watching them kind of transform is

10 01:09:44

that just puts a huge amount of gas in my tank. That's why I

10 01:09:47

do ask the podcast coach where you can get free podcast consulting.

10 01:09:52

That's just something because I'M a people pleaser, but I measure my

10 01:09:55

success by members of the School of Podcasting. But much like

10 01:09:59

Chris and other people said, I also am having fun.

10 01:10:03

As I look at this, we are so over the normal time. But

10 01:10:07

I actually had fun. Even though he said, pulling up the

10 01:10:10

timer, I've already spent three hours working on this

10 01:10:14

episode because I have. I had to cut these down because,

10 01:10:18

you know, my show's usually 45 minutes or so and

10 01:10:22

I might start making that shorter over the next

10 01:10:25

couple episodes. We'll see. But that's my why I do

10 01:10:29

it. Why that's how I measure my success by members of the

10 01:10:33

School of Podcasting. And I'll have a coupon

10 01:10:36

code for you right after this.

10 01:10:42

The School of Podcasting. Yeah, yeah,

10 01:10:45

yeah. The coupon code, if you want to sign up at the School of

10 01:10:49

Podcasting is listnr. You can use that on either a monthly,

10 01:10:52

quarterly or yearly subscription. And don't forget that comes with a 30 day

10 01:10:56

money back guarantee. So if you're worried that maybe podcasting is

10 01:11:00

not for you, you got 30 days to figure that out. The one

10 01:11:04

thing, the one answer that came up the most is people

10 01:11:08

mention feedback when I get feedback

10 01:11:11

from my audience. So I'm here to tell you that

10 01:11:15

sometime this week, when you're listening to a show, if they delivered

10 01:11:19

value, just send them a message that says, hey,

10 01:11:22

that was a great episode. That's really all you have to say. If you want

10 01:11:26

to say why, that's true. But I

10 01:11:29

see from my chair that people quit

10 01:11:33

podcasting when they don't get their why and they just

10 01:11:37

feel like it's not worth it. And if we were to spur each other

10 01:11:40

on and say, that was a great episode when it was a great

10 01:11:44

episode, I think we might not have as many people

10 01:11:48

hanging up the microphone. So with that, we're going to

10 01:11:52

call it a day. If you need help again with your podcast, you know where

10 01:11:55

to find me. Schoolofpodcasting.com thank you to every

10 01:11:59

single person who chimed in. Holy cow.

10 01:12:03

I really was just floored. That. That put a lot of gas in my

10 01:12:07

tank and I really appreciate it. Again,

10 01:12:10

schoolofpodcasting.com 1042 is where you

10 01:12:14

can find links to everyone's show. And next

10 01:12:18

week we're gonna be talking about trolls

10 01:12:21

and feedback. We talked about feedback today to

10 01:12:25

next week. We're gonna kind of continue on and we're going to introduce the topic

10 01:12:29

of dealing with trolls. You can always follow the show

10 01:12:32

by going to schoolofpodcasting.com follow

10 01:12:36

and follow in whatever your favorite app is there. And until

10 01:12:40

next week, I'm Dave Jackson. I help podcasters.

10 01:12:44

Been doing it for over 20 years and can't wait to see what

10 01:12:47

we're going to do together. And until next week, take care.

10 01:12:51

God bless. Class is dismissed.

10 01:12:56

Yeah.