Ep 79: How Experimenting with Your Podcast Can Lead to Unprecedented Growth and Success

[00:00:00] Verity Sangan: Do you experiment enough with your podcast? That is the question that we are gonna be discussing with Adam from Podcasting Business School on today's episode of The Lazy Girl's Guide to Podcasting. Because as we discussed, I don't think enough people take enough risks with their show where it's so easy to slog along with whatever it is you're doing. You think it works. You're worried.

[00:00:24] Verity Sangan: You know, maybe your show isn't growing and you're worried about that, or maybe it is growing and you just wanna try something new, but you may be too scared to. In this episode, Adam and I have sat down and we discuss all about experimenting with your podcast, and Adam gives some amazing tips as to just 1 thing that you could do, 1 experiment that you could run, which could really take the monetization of your podcast, assuming that you're monetizing your podcast, but could really take the monetization of your podcast to the next level. Enjoy. This podcast is I don't think people experiment enough with best shows. What what do you think?

00:01:07 How to be Fearless and Experiment with Your Podcast Content

[00:01:07] Adam Schaeuble: I I love it. And I experiment to a fault where, like, this year, I I have a lot of service providers that Listen to my show, and I'm telling them all. I'm like, your only call to action if you have a program, product, or service. I would do every episode this year, intro and outro, send people do a discovery call, and just do that, And you will make more money than you've ever made in podcasting. And they're like, why don't you do it, Adams?

[00:01:36] Adam Schaeuble: I'm like, I'm doing this experiment on this other thing that I I I have to see if this other thing works or not. So, like, I'm not always doing that, but I I experiment a lot just with my content, with my calls to action, With the cadence of my content, like, sometimes I'll do workshop weeks. So instead of 2 episodes, I'll drop 5 in 1 week and focus on, like, doing, like, a little mini workshop. I do a lot of, like, audience audio clip Experimentation with, like, testimonials or, open q and a stuff. But, yeah, I feel like The big fear that we all have is we'll put out 1 piece of content, and everybody hates it, and they unsubscribe.

[00:02:15] Adam Schaeuble: And that's just not the case. Like, podcast listeners Or just, like, most of us, it's just, like we have to think it in our own shoes and go, how many podcasts have you unsubscribed to because of 1 bad episode? Probably none. Like, we just skip that episode and hope for a better one the next one. Or maybe they look at the the the episode title and, like, not for me.

[00:02:36] Adam Schaeuble: I'm not even gonna start listening to that. So, be fearless because you can come up with some cool stuff. Like, I had one of my clients. He's like, he's got he's got an ADHD podcast, And he's very conscious that he can't have really long episodes because of his audience. And he but and he wants to do interviews, But he also wants to have some extra positioning.

[00:02:57] Adam Schaeuble: So we came up with this idea to do what he's calling snippet episodes, where he's gonna do an interview For maybe 30, 45, 60 minutes. But he's primarily doing solo episodes. He'll teach on a topic, and he'll go, And now let's pull in a 10 minute clip from my my session with with Verity where she talked about x, y, z, and then so it's kinda like a sandwich. He'll introduce the topic. He'll bring an audio clip, And then he'll go on the other side and unpack and give his own opinion.

[00:03:23] Adam Schaeuble: So he still has he's still kind of the important person on the show, but still features another person as a guest. So, like, That was just really brave of him, and those episodes are getting great feedback from his his audience. And they're shorter, and he still gets feature of the people and collaborate with other people in the space. So, yeah, we need to be a little more fearless, a little less fearful with experimenting a little bit because we can create some cool stuff.

00:03:49 The Frontier of Podcasting: Rule-Breaking and Innovation

[00:03:49] Verity Sangan: Absolutely. And I think that's what what the really cool first of all, I'm gonna mention about the ADHD podcast. I I think that's absolutely brilliant. And also how cool is that for a guest as well? Because you're potentially going to end up

[00:04:04] Verity Sangan: episodes without, But without interviewing for multiple episodes. So from a guest point of view, that's absolute genius.

[00:04:10] Verity Sangan: But, again, from the fearful there. I just I love what you're saying because what is the worst thing that's going to happen? I mean, I've been trying for the last few months. I don't have an intro anymore on this podcast. I just decided get rid of it.

[00:04:23] Verity Sangan: Yeah. And do you

[00:04:24] Verity Sangan: That's that's that's kind of working. In fact, I know it's working because the retention is getting even longer. And When I first said that, I was like, I'm getting rid of intros. So because I I'm mainly, active on Twitter, and so many people were like, but why? But you have to.

[00:04:39] Verity Sangan: I was like, but why do I have to. Where is this where is the 10 commandments of podcasting that told me and that's what I love about podcasting because I do think it's still relatively developing, up and coming. I don't know how to pull it, but I just don't find that there's as many rules in podcasting as there are for other platforms like social media, YouTube, etcetera.

[00:05:03] Adam Schaeuble: Yeah. It's still yeah. We are still in the, like, the frontier of podcasting. Like, we're still figuring things out. There's so many ideas that have not even been been discovered yet, and just, like, the rate that podcast, people launching shows and listeners listening to shows.

[00:05:20] Adam Schaeuble: Like, if you'd asked me 3, 5 years, like, when I started in 2015, my parents had no idea what a podcast was or anything. And now I can they can find a podcast. I'm like, hey. Go and find, you know, Lazy Girl's Guide to Podcasting, and they can search it on Apple, and they'll find it. No problem.

[00:05:38] Adam Schaeuble: I have to verbally tell them. I don't have to give them a link or anything. And boom, we're we're good to go. So, yeah, there's So, yeah, the opportunity is there in this space. So everybody's listening in.

00:05:51 The Potential of Podcasting as a Business Tool

[00:05:51] Adam Schaeuble: Like, you gotta know that this is you're You're in the right place is what I'm trying to say. Like, learning from people like Verity and myself and that are experienced in this space, There's just so much potential there for not only podcasting as a medium, but, man, if Using this as part of your business ecosystem and you're wanting to draw people in from a client perspective, it's the magic bullet in my in my personal opinion.

[00:06:17] Verity Sangan: Yeah. Definitely. I love I was just, laughing internally though when you said about, your parents not knowing what a a podcast was when you started out. I remember when do you remember when Ipads. Not Ipads.

[00:06:29] Verity Sangan: Ipods first came out, and it was, like, it was the 4 little bits on, like, that tiny little screen. It said music. It said podcast, but there was something else, and then there were settings. And I remember when Ipods came out, and there was this 1 girl at school. She was called Alicia, bless her, and she had this iPad.

[00:06:43] Verity Sangan: And everyone was, oh my god. This is the coolest thing ever. And then we all looked at this thing which said podcasts, more like, what the heck is a podcast? We're just like, what is this? It was just such a weird thing.

[00:06:55] Verity Sangan: And I remember once I found out actually what it was, just thinking to myself, this is never gonna catch on. Like, you can listen to millions of songs on your iPad. Who's gonna listen to somebody just sitting down and talking? We've got the radio for that. And then fast forward how many years, All I do is talk about podcasting, so, clearly, I am not the one for picking up on trends, but it shows how much podcasting has has evolved and become much more mainstream as well.

[00:07:23] Adam Schaeuble: Yeah. I mean, I remember that I remember that exact time, And that's when I owned a fitness facility. And, the guy that did my website, he's like, you should do this thing. He didn't tell me what it was, You should record some audio, and we'll put it on your website. But he he was also putting it out as a podcast, and this is, like, 2009.

[00:07:43] Adam Schaeuble: And he would tell me, like, yeah. People are listening from all over the world. I'm like, oh, cool. How does that even work? Like, it's so it's so weird.

[00:07:51] Adam Schaeuble: And then even today, Like, I tell people that I'm a full time podcaster, and there are 2 reactions today. Reaction 1 Or question 1, are you famous? Question 2, are you homeless? Like, that those are the 2 those are, like, those are the only 2 things. It's either You

[00:08:09] Verity Sangan: read the successful or you're not.

[00:08:11] Adam Schaeuble: It's either you're Amy Porterfield, Lewis Howes, or you're Wayne's World. You're Wayne and Garth from Wayne's World, and you live in your parents' basement. So, like, people don't know what to expect of me. Like, we moved to a new town, and my my son's playing basketball, I meet the other parents. Oh, what do you do?

[00:08:26] Adam Schaeuble: Oh, what do you I'm a I'm a full time podcaster. Really? Like, it's just like Do

[00:08:30] Verity Sangan: we invite him around for dinner

[00:08:32] Verity Sangan: Do we befriend his children. Does my child go for a play date at his house? Still figuring that one.

[00:08:39] Adam Schaeuble: Yeah. So it's it's still pretty interesting, but, We're we're gaining momentum in the space for sure.

00:08:45 Experimenting with Your Podcasting

[00:08:45] Verity Sangan: Yeah. Definitely. Definitely. After listening to that discussion, I would like you to ask yourself, do you experiment enough with your podcasting. That could be in terms of format, types of guests that you get on, questions that you ask your guests, the topics that you cover, whatever it is, whatever experimentation means to you.

[00:09:03] Verity Sangan: Could be about marketing your podcast, how you promote it. Do you experiment enough with your podcast. And if the answer is no, I'd like you to really consider why that is. Is it because you're scared of a potential outcome. Are you scared of maybe losing all of your listeners, which is very, very unlikely to happen?

[00:09:23] Verity Sangan: But what is it that is holding you back from experimenting and trying something that could actually potential you know, potentially take your podcasting to the next level, so I'd really love you to consider that. If you enjoyed this episode, which I hope you did, I would love it if you can leave 5 star review. You don't have to leave any words. I realize leaving words takes longer than just hitting the 5 star button. So if you can hit the 5 stars on whichever podcast platform you are listening on.

[00:09:50] Verity Sangan: I would hugely appreciate it. Otherwise, I'm Verity. This has been another episode of the Lazy Girl's Guide to podcasting. Happy podcasting, and I will see you next episode.