60 // What Launching a Top 30 Podcast Taught Me About Growth | Podcasting For Business

Have you ever looked at a podcast that seemed to take off overnight and assumed it was luck?

A few weeks ago, I launched a brand-new show that landed in the Top 30 charts in Canada within days. While the rankings were exciting, they weren't the biggest takeaway. What surprised me most was what happened after people started listening. And that experience reinforced some powerful lessons about podcasting for business that every entrepreneur should hear.

One of the biggest misconceptions in podcast growth is that you need a massive audience to succeed. But what this launch reminded me is that niche doesn't mean small—it means specific. When your message is clear, your content becomes more memorable, creating deeper audience growth and stronger connection. That's one of the foundations of successful podcasting for business.

Another lesson? Being discovered and being remembered are two very different things. Yes, podcast SEO, positioning, and launch strategy helped people find the show. But listeners shared it because they connected with the stories. The emotions felt familiar. The experiences felt relatable. That's where real podcast growth begins.

You'll also hear why the most effective business growth strategy isn't chasing a single tactic. Sustainable podcast business growth happens when trust, visibility, and connection work together. Whether you're focused on podcast marketing for business, podcast monetization, or trying to grow podcast downloads, momentum comes from creating conversations people want to continue long after the episode ends.

This conversation explores what it really takes to grow your podcast, why specificity creates stronger results than broad appeal, and how podcasting for business can become one of the most powerful tools for building authority, relationships, and long-term business growth.

Because it's not about reaching everyone. It's about reaching the right people. And this is where podcasting for business becomes far more effective than most creators realize.

If you've ever wondered how to create a podcast that people genuinely care about, this episode will give you a fresh perspective on what drives podcast download growth, audience loyalty, and meaningful business growth.

Enjoyed this conversation? Subscribe to Small Town Stories wherever you listen to podcasts, and if you're ready to build a podcast that supports your business goals, attracts the right audience, and creates lasting results, join Podcasts That Convert at janditchfield.co/join. Podcasting for business works best when strategy and connection come together.

Transcript

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About a week ago, I launched a second podcast, and within days, it was sitting in the top 30 charts in Canada. And while the charts weren't very exciting, they weren't actually the thing that surprised me. The thing that surprised me was what happened after people started listening. I'm Jan Ditchfield, an award-winning marketing strategist who left the corporate world, picked up a $25 microphone on Amazon, and built a half million dollar business powered by my podcast. Along the way, I learned that success online isn't about hustling 24-7. It's about building a business that works even when you're offline. I created Evergreen Marketing Simplified to give you simple, actionable, step-by-step strategies to help you build an Evergreen business through your offers, your content, and a podcast-driven system that sells for you. If you're a coach, consultant, or a course creator who wants to create consistent income without living online, so you can actually enjoy the life you're working so hard to build, you're in the right place. Let's get to work, my friend. Before we jump in, I need to give you a little bit of context because unless you follow me outside of this podcast, there's a good chance this is the first time you're hearing about this. So about a week ago, I launched a second podcast called Small Town Stories. Now, it couldn't be more different from this show. It's not about podcasting, it's not about online business, it's a little bit about marketing, but it's really a show about small towns, local businesses, community, and the people who quietly shape the places they call home. And within days of launching, something really unexpected happened. The show landed in the top 100 in Canada and then it climbed into the top 30. It started out ranking shows that had been around for years. And perhaps most surprisingly for me, it stayed there. Now, because I teach podcast strategy for a living, I wasn't surprised that the launch worked. I had spent months building the show. I had done so much research. I had built the positioning, I mapped out the content, I created the launch plan, I recorded the interviews, I built the marketing assets. So, in many ways, the strategy did exactly what it was supposed to do. What surprised me, however, was everything that happened after people started listening. Because when we talk about podcast growth, we tend to focus on the things that are easy to measure. So we look at downloads and rankings and subscribers and whether the graph is moving up and to the right. And all of those things matter. But what this launch really reminded me is that some of the most important indicators of growth are the things that never show up inside of a dashboard. They're the conversations that people have about your show when you're not in the room. They're the messages that arrive in your inbox. They're the recommendations, the referrals, the moments when somebody hears what you've created and says, I need to send this to someone. And as I've reflected on everything that's happened over this last week and a bit, I realized there are three lessons from this launch that apply to every podcast, whether you're launching something brand new or you're trying to grow a show that you've had for years. So I want to talk about that with you today. The first lesson challenge, something that I think a lot of us with podcasts believe. And if I'm being honest, it's something I've wrestled with myself over the years. We hear all the time that if we want a podcast to grow, we need to choose a topic with a large audience. And then we need to make sure that enough people are searching for it. And we need to avoid getting too niche because if we become too specific, we'll somehow limit our growth. So on paper, Small Town Stories should probably be the perfect example of that. It's a podcast about small towns recorded in a village of about a thousand people. The guests are all local business owners, artists, community leaders, people who are making a difference in the places that they call home. And if you were looking at that idea strictly through the lens of audience size, you could make a pretty convincing argument that the audience would be limited. But that's not what happened. What happened was that people started hearing their own communities in the stories. Somebody in another small town would listen and say, This sounds exactly like where I live. And then someone else would tell me that they knew a business owner, just like the person I had interviewed. And what I started realizing very quickly is that the audience was never really limited to Merrickville, which is where it's recorded in my hometown. Like the stories on it may have been specific to the village, but the experience was universal. And that's the distinction. Because niche doesn't mean small, niche means specific. And when we're specific, it's often the very thing that creates connection with our listeners. One of the biggest mistakes that I see women with podcasts make is trying to broaden their message in the hopes of reaching more people. So they make the topic wider and they soften opinions or they try to appeal to everybody. But when we do that, we usually become less memorable, not more. The shows that tend to resonate the deepest are usually the ones that know exactly who they're speaking to and aren't afraid to be specific about it. What this launch reminded me is that people don't connect with content because it's broad enough to include everybody. They're going to connect with your content because it feels true enough to include them. And that's a lesson that applies whether you're talking about podcasting or marketing, leadership, small towns, or just about anything else. The second lesson surprised me even more because while I was expecting the strategy to work, I wasn't prepared for how quickly people would connect with the show itself. This feels a little awkward to talk about, and I really debated whether I was even going to put this into the episode. But one of the strangest experiences that I've had over the past week and a bit has been being recognized because of the podcast. Now, I've been in business for a long time, and you know, if you've been listening for any time, that my background comes from speaking on stages and building communities. And I've led numerous organizations and also have grown this business online. Yet somehow having someone stop me and say, You're Jan, you're the one with the podcast. Well, that feels entirely different. I think it's because podcasting creates a different kind of relationship than most forms of content. When someone listens to your show, they're inviting you into their life. They're listening while they're driving to work or walking the dog, making dinner, folding laundry. So week after week, they're spending time with your voice, your ideas, and your perspective. And we both know that when you host a show, there's a lot of vulnerability that comes with that as well. So what this launch reminded me is that growth isn't just about getting discovered, it's also about being remembered. Because getting found and creating connections are not the same thing. The SEO mattered. The keywords matter, the positioning mattered. Those things absolutely contributed to the success of the launch, and I wouldn't even try to say something different. But nobody shared the show because of a really good keyword that I used. They shared it because it reminded them of somewhere they had lived, or someone they had known, or something they had experienced themselves. The stories were specific, but the emotions were familiar. And that's what people passed along. I think sometimes we spend so much time focusing on discoverability that we forget what happens after somebody presses play. And it's hard, I think, sometimes when you're a strategist like I am, that you tend to automatically go to that side of things and don't spend enough time sitting in the side of things where connections really come from. Because, right, getting found is important. You if you listen to the show, you know it's important. But being remembered is what creates the momentum for your podcast. Which brings me to the third lesson. And honestly, this might be the one that surprised me the most. I don't think small town stories grew because of any single marketing tactic. I think it grew because it became part of conversations. Yes, I created reels and I ran ads in local newspapers, and the show charted, and yes, people definitely shared it online. But when I look back at what actually happened, the growth came from people talking about it. Somebody heard it from a friend, somebody saw a reel and then noticed a newspaper ad. Somebody listened to an episode and then recommended it to a neighbor. Somebody heard about it at an event and then decided to subscribe. And every touch point reinforced the others. And what that reminded me is that growth rarely comes from a single tactic. It comes from building enough trust, visibility, and connection that people start carrying the message for you. The funny thing is, is that while the charts were exciting, I don't think I was prepared for what happened after that. And I've talked about this with a couple of friends, and definitely Mike and I have unpacked this a lot. But when the show first landed in the ratings, I was thrilled. But I was also waiting for the other shoe to drop. And a lot of us do that when something goes well. We immediately start looking for reasons why it won't last. And then we convince ourselves that it was luck or good timing or some fortunate coincidence of some sort. But then the new show stayed there. The downloads continued, the people kept sharing it, the messages kept arriving in my inboxes. And eventually I had to confront the possibility that this wasn't luck at all. This was exactly what happens when strategy and connection come together. Because the truth is, a truth that I had to sit with. I didn't accidentally launch a podcast that resonated with people. I spent months building it. I thought carefully about the positioning, the audience, the stories that I wanted to tell, and the experience that I wanted listeners to have when they arrived. The strategy mattered. But what this launch reminded me is that strategy alone isn't enough. Yes, a strategist is telling you this. The strategy helped the right people find the show, but it was the connection that gave them a reason to care. And when people care, they start talking about it. They're going to share it with friends and they're going to recommend your show to colleagues and they're going to become advocates for your show in ways that no marketing tactic ever could. And that's where your growth is going to come from. And that's where mine came from for small town stories. So if you're working on a podcast right now, whether you're launching a brand new show or you're trying to grow an existing one, here's what I hope you'll take away from this. The goal isn't to reach everybody, it's to be specific enough that the right people recognize themselves and what you're creating. The goal isn't simply to be discovered, it's to create something memorable enough that people want to come back. And the goal isn't to find a single tactic that unlocks growth. It's to build enough connection that people start sharing your work with others. Because that's what this experience reminded me. That's the whole point of this episode, is to remind you that growth doesn't happen when people find your podcast. It happens when they care enough to talk about it. And those are very, very different things. Now, if you'd like to hear the show I've been talking about throughout the episode, it's called Small Town Stories. And you can find it wherever you're listening to podcasts right now. Just type in my name, type in Small Town Stories, and you know it will pop up. And if you have been listening to the new show as well as this, I just really want to say thank you to you. When you create a podcast, you are putting your heart and your soul and so much work into it in ways that many people never will realize who don't create shows of their own. So having that listener base come in, a listener base like you, who I don't know, just makes you supports the show in a way that, gosh, it's just hard to explain how much it matters. And again, not because of the download numbers or the charting, but because you're reminded that what you do, that's what matters. The conversations you're creating, the discussions you're having, the curiosity that you're exploring the world with, and the connections that you're making. And those are the things that matter so much. So thank you for listening to the show, whether it's Small Town Stories or Evergreen Marketing Simplified, because I really value you and appreciate that you've invited me into your world once or twice a week to share some time with me. And if you're looking for help building a podcast that's not only going to get discovered, but also creates authority and attracts the right listeners and supports the growth of your business, then that's exactly what we do inside podcasts that convert. And it's exactly what I did to create small town stories. So you can learn more about that at janditchrill.co forward slash join. And I would really love to be able to help you shape a show that gets found and gets remembered. All right, my friend, thank you for joining me for this conversation. And until next time, remember, let's keep it simple and let's keep it profitable. I'll talk to you in the next episode. Thanks so much for spending time with me today. If you know someone who's trying to grow their business in a way that actually feels sustainable, would you share this episode with them? It really does help more people find the show, and I'd be so grateful. And if you're loving what you're hearing, make sure you're following along on your favorite podcast platform and leave a review. I read every single one, and it helps me create more of what you actually want and need. All right, my friend, I'll see you in the next episode.