It's a great thing if you can get 1000s of people to hear your message, I'm saying that there are more ways to grow to build your podcast to monetize your podcast than just download numbers. This is the show for creative entrepreneurs who have a message to share and want to live a life of freedom. Learn how to grow your network, and net worth, hear from exciting guests, and more. My name is Dylan Schmidt, and welcome to Digital Podcaster. My guest today is Marc Ronick, my friend my podcasting peer, you're going to learn through osmosis, what he has learned and the wisdom he's developed over the last 16 years of working on podcasts. And in podcasts, you're gonna really enjoy this, I just want to take a quick note and say thank you, Digital Podcaster is on episode 100. I didn't even plan on launching a podcast when I first started Digital Podcaster it was just going to be social media accounts. And then my therapist was like, You should start a podcast, I guess there was something in my voice. So thank you to my therapist. And thank you for listening. Because this has been absolutely awesome. I don't even know how I wouldn't be able to share all this stuff like my life has been enriched because of Digital Podcaster. And hearing such great things from you the listener, how Digital Podcaster has made a difference in your lives. It's honestly mind blowing to me, and it's still, you know, developing and all those things. But you know, you got to take a minute every now and then to celebrate certain little milestones. And I think episode 100 is a perfect one to do that. So again, thank you for listening. There's no other guests I would want to have on episode 100. Other than Mark, because he's been in the game for so long, and he has such a kind soul. I know you're gonna love listening to him. So please enjoy my conversation with Mr. Marc Ronick. It is an honor. It is a pleasure. And I am so grateful to have you here today. How long have you been in podcasting? I have been at it. And thanks for having me. By the way, Dylan, I've been at it for 16 years now. Yeah, it's been a long time. And when I was doing it, most people would just when I would say that's what I was doing, they would just give me that cockeyed look like what the heck is a podcast? And then I'd have to go into this long explanation nowadays, it's a lot different. More and more people are very familiar with podcasting. Now your podcast experience would have a driver's license. That's a good call. Yeah, that's right. I'm looking forward to being legal to drink as a podcaster. Yeah. That's coming for years for that. Yeah. So Marc has so much information and so much knowledge and wisdom. First question I wanted to ask you Marc is what do beginner podcasters need to know when it comes to launching their podcast? Obviously, I think I say obviously, to you, but there could be a lot of different directions, we could go with this. And the one that I've settled on, I'd say what I consider is the most important thing to know. And one of the most common mistakes I've seen new podcasters make over the years is that they're making everything all about them, and not about their listeners. And to be clear, I was one of those podcasters. And the challenge is, is that when most of us get started, we're doing it by ourselves. Right? It's human nature, I think also to focus on ourselves, especially in situations like this one, it's new, and we're thinking about putting it together. We're constantly, whether we're realizing it or not, we're we're wondering how we're going to handle this situation. And we're just always thinking about ourselves first, in most cases, I think what's important is to pay attention to your messaging, you know, are you leading with info about you? Or are you addressing your listeners? Are you addressing their challenges, their struggles, their likes and dislikes, etc? When they find your podcast? The question they're asking themselves, consciously or not, is what's in this for me. So that's why I say make sure you are leading with stuff, like I said, whether they realize they're asking it or not, they'll see. Yes, this is for me. And that could be in all areas of podcasting that can be in your podcast description. It can be in your social media posts. When you're posting about a new episode. I cringe a little bit when I see I'm so excited to share this episode with you. Because that's not enough. That's not enough for the listener that you're telling the listener you're excited. Instead, give them something that they'll be excited about in the episode and then they'll go and hit play in many cases, when you're just telling them you're excited. That's not enough to drive them to go hit play on your podcast. So Yeah, I would say probably the most important thing is to always lead with listener, not yourself. That's powerful. Honestly, I feel like that would make the marketing a lot easier as well. Because it's if your marketing if it's if it's for its if it's stuttering like myself, if, if you're focusing on what's in it for you as the host, when you come to market it right, like it's going to be marketed towards yourself, which is going to be like, Well, you're the only one that is going to be listening to it. Right. Right. And the reason why I say that, I'm glad that you said it's not like we're not saying that podcasters are selfish people, the number one reason why people listen to podcasts is to learn something to gain knowledge. Right? So the knowledge they want to gain isn't at the beginning about who the host is, the knowledge is what the host is providing the value that the host is providing to the potential listener. So that's why I say focus on that, because that is, in most cases, why they're coming to your podcast in the first place. So serve that up, and then they're going to want to get to know you more, and then that's what's going to get them to keep coming back for more, that's beautiful. SURE that you see trends will come and go, What do we need more of in podcasting? Yeah, I could go again, in a lot of different directions here. And I hesitate on this one only because it's a buzzword, and I don't want it to be lumped in with that. But I'm gonna say its authenticity. And stay with me, because I'm going to go I think in a maybe a slightly different direction than what you might be thinking. I think that new podcasters get so caught up in and overwhelmed with what they're told to do by, quite frankly, the people like you and me, the pros and the pros, the experts, whatever the gurus, whatever we want to call them. I think that they what happens is the podcaster, they lose some focus on their mission and their messaging, because they are, like I said, so overwhelmed with all of the things. And when they're so involved in learning all of these things, I see a lot of them losing confidence in themselves, and losing that enthusiasm and excitement when they first wanted to start this podcast, and they lose their voice in their messaging. When they hit that record button, something changes, because I think they've got all these moving parts going on in their heads, wondering, okay, am I doing this right? Is that right? What am I going to do about promoting and they're losing the focus of why they started in the first place. So I want to see more podcasters seek out that advice that people like you and I give and apply the pieces that resonate with them. And don't attempt to do all the things out of the gate and be okay, that it's not going to be perfect, right out of the gate, you'll have time to incorporate more strategies later down the road, build up that confidence, you're taking on some new stuff. So learn that stuff at a pace that's comfortable for you, and don't overwhelm yourself with all of the things. Just find the ones that resonate with you first, and bookmark those other things that you want to get to down the road. For one, I got to make that into a clip, of course, because I'm like, we need to spread that message far and wide. Because that's so true. I talk with so many people. And this is funny, because how often I mean, we all do this in one area or another, especially when we're starting out is we think we have this understanding. And then we started realizing, oh my gosh, there are so many things to this. And then you start trying to implement him things like, this is so hard, I have to get back to this. Yeah. And we so desperately want it to go so well. And we can get caught in that trap so easily. So it's really I think the best thing you can do is really focus on that message, focus on why you started this podcast in the first place. And I think if you're stay true to that, all of the other things aren't as important as you think. Right? So yeah, I would say just stay on point, stay on messaging, incorporate new things as you can. And I think you're good to go from there. That's that wisdom right there. That's that wisdom. Less is more. Hey, I wanted to take a quick break and thank you so much for listening to the show Digital Podcaster is continuing to grow because of the ratings and reviews it is getting. So if you haven't taken a quick minute to leave a review on Apple Spotify or wherever you listen, I would greatly appreciate it again the success of the show is dictated by you the listener so your ratings and reviews mean the world to me. Thanks again for making Digital Podcaster success and I could only do this with you. Anyways, back to Digital Podcaster All right. Speaking of lesson actually piggybacking off that Last question. It's funny because it's almost related in a way you could answer that one with this question I'm about to ask you, but what do we need less of in podcasting? I had it down to two things. I think, first being less of the obsession around obtaining huge numbers for your podcasts, huge download numbers. That is the number one obsession, in my opinion, I'm sure you could probably agree with that. Hunt. I think that what I try to preach to people is to connect with what's behind that desire. You say that you want, let's just make it up here. You say you want 10,000 downloads, right? Why do you want those 10,000 downloads, if you understand what's driving that obsession, you can then cater to the why, and discover other strategies to help get you there. And I'm not saying that big numbers are a bad thing. I think it's, it's a great thing. If you can get 1000s of people to hear your message, I'm saying that there are more ways to grow to build your podcast to monetize your podcast than just download numbers. So if that is really your obsession, and if you're one of those people that you are constantly going to your Buzzsprout, or Apple connect, or whatever you use to check your analytics, constantly looking to see if you got more, if you got closer to that target, I challenge you to ask yourself why it is that it's so important. And then explore what other ways can you get there. And once you've got your mind turning in that direction, things will start to open up, you will start to notice more things and focus less on this one thing. And I think we've touched on where I was also going earlier, which less of perfectionism because the quest to deliver the perfect podcast is draining. And ultimately can lead to that buzzword we hear pod fade if we don't keep ourselves in check. So my advice there is to be okay with making mistakes. And in fact, I would encourage you to welcome those mistakes. I do a clubhouse room in the mornings. And I have kiddingly asked people to share and celebrate their failures, their mistakes. Because when you make that mistake, you've learned a lesson. And you're moving toward improving your skills and improving yourself. So I know I gave you two answers there but and to sum it up, it's that obsession less of that obsession around huge numbers, and less perfectionism powerful. And just curious how many mistakes would you say, on average, like a podcast episode you have makes? Does that make sense that I phrase it right? How? Oh, yeah. And I mean, look, my longest running podcast, I've done several over the years, my longest running podcast, I think, just about up until maybe the last season we did, just about everything we did goes against everything I preach to people. So I would say it's pretty much everything. I've always made the mistakes, I couldn't tell you this countless amount of times. And what I have come to learn in the years of making those mistakes is the more I share those mistakes with my audience, the more they appreciate me, and I become more relatable to them. And that is all I'm after, when it comes to growing my podcast if I can be relatable, and I can deliver information or entertainment that they're after. That's it, but I've succeeded. And all those mistakes along the way don't matter if anything, it makes me better. And the audience is more appreciative. There's nothing I could possibly say after that, which I honestly feel is the most important thing of all of this. But that last one, part two, oh for myself, I'll just speak for myself. I will speak on behalf the listener because they might have the first question you might have answered would have been the most powerful thing for them. So for myself, that last thing you said is easily the most important podcasting thing I think I've heard all year, honestly, like not just be isn't that and saying that. So important. So the only thing I'm gonna say after this point, besides that thing I just said is how do you work with people and how can people work with you? You know, I started my business with a production agency. So I wanted to help people podcast. So many people wanted to start a podcast or wanted to To improve upon their podcast and knew that, you know, in my circles knew that I was a guy that had been doing it a long time. And finally, it came to a point where I was like, I should just do this for business. So I started producing podcasts, I grabbed a few people that I knew and offer to do IT pro bono for them to get some clients under the belt of this new business, and started helping people launch podcasts and do the production there after what I started to realize is, I'm also coaching these people. It's not just you know, them handing something off to me and turning it around and handing it back as a finished product. There is a lot of coaching involved a lot of that mental aspect of podcasting that I was helping people with. So I still have this production company where I can help you launch a podcast, I can help you edit and produce your podcast. And I think my biggest passion now is helping you podcast helping you go out there and empower you to be the best podcaster that you can be. So I help you with production. I help you with consultation, coaching, etc. And you can find me at my website ironic media and that's a play off my last name. So you got to spell it like my last name. It's AI, R O N IC K media.com. And you can find me on most social media platforms if you look for either Marc Ronick. Mark with the C or Ironick media look for that handle either either one of those and you should be able to find me pretty easily and you can find everything to Marc in the show notes to drop it all there. Thank you so much Marc for joining me today. Thank you. Appreciate it.