My Weekly Marketing

What I've Learned About Podcasting After 100 Episodes

• Janice Hostager • Season 1 • Episode 100

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I can’t believe we’ve hit 100 episodes! When I started this podcast, I wasn’t sure I’d make it past the first few. As someone who wasn’t exactly confident about committing to weekly content, the idea of sticking with it felt overwhelming. But now, 100 episodes later, I’m reflecting on what kept me going, what I’ve learned, and how this journey has shaped me as a host and a marketer.

If you’ve ever thought about starting a podcast (or any kind of content for your business), I’m sharing the honest truth about what worked, what didn’t, and the lessons that made it all worth it. Mistakes, wins, and everything in between; it’s all here in this special milestone episode.

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Janice Hostager:

I'm Janice Hostager. After three decades in the marketing business and many years of being an entrepreneur, I've learned a thing or two about marketing. Join me as we talk about marketing, small business and life in between. Welcome to My Weekly Marketing.

Janice Hostager:

Hey, hey, and welcome to the 100th episode of My Weekly Marketing. I am so thrilled you are here because this is a special episode for me. I have worked so hard to get this podcast up and growing and today I want to share a bit about my experience with podcasting and just doing it while running a business in general. I'm going to talk about why I started My Weekly Marketing and what I was afraid of my podcasting experience, including one big mistake I made that I want you to watch out for. I'll hit on a few questions I get about podcasting, some lessons I've learned, my most downloaded episodes, what I'd do differently if I started today, and some advice for staying consistent and keeping momentum for 100 episodes. So if you're considering a podcast for your own business, you can learn from my experiences too. So first up, I want to express my gratitude for you, the listener.

Janice Hostager:

I didn't know what to expect when I started and I really wasn't sure if I wanted to start a podcast at all. I'm a bit of a committaphobe and the thought of having to do a task week in, week out made me just a little bit nervous. So I don't love to commit. But one thing I have learned about myself is that once I do commit, I am all in. But I also realized I didn't have to set a schedule, which is very freeing. I could record as many episodes as I wanted to at once and be done. In fact, the idea of batching is what made me reconsider doing the podcast at all. My other fear was that I would put in a ton of work and get no listeners. Thankfully, that has not happened, and although it's growing more slowly than I'd like, it's growing with every single episode that I'm doing. So I am so thankful to all of you who've made this happen. So, while I feared it would be a flop, I also knew that there was a lot of people who could benefit from what I've learned for more than 30 years in the marketing world. Maybe it's because I grew up in a small business family, but I have a passion for people who start businesses and I really wanted to help. I'm also a marketing nerd and I have played just about every role in marketing over the years, so I feel like I have a unique perspective.

Janice Hostager:

Marketing has become a very siloed industry. You have social media experts, ad experts, seo experts, but there aren't a lot of people who can pull everything together to make all the pieces work in unison. 100% of the businesses I've worked with are missing part of what I call the Trail to the Sale, so their marketing doesn't work. Understanding the whole marketing journey is what's required for marketing to be successful for a business, and that's what clients tell me is my secret sauce. So that was my aim for My Weekly Marketing.

Janice Hostager:

I also want to do podcasts because there's so much wisdom that my guests bring to each show. Marketing is like shifting sand and no one person can know everything in depth, so I wanted to bring in experts where they're needed. So the more I thought about it, the more I realized that this podcast was the right thing for me to do. When I recorded my first episode, I was crazy nervous. In fact, I re-recorded the entire episode three times.

Janice Hostager:

Not gonna lie, it was really hard for me to listen to my own voice, and it still kind of is today. I'm, without a doubt, my own worst critic, and I know that many of you are too. In my first episode, you can almost hear my voice shaking. It was especially difficult because I talked about why I was qualified to have a podcast, and although expressing personal things has gotten easier for me over the years. It's still a little nerve-wracking to talk up my accomplishments. I was raised to be very humble, and when you hear your mom's voice in the back of your head saying things like don't brag, it's hard to talk yourself up. I also know that I have a long way to go, especially when speaking off the cuff, and I'm working on that too.

Janice Hostager:

But I am the type of person who is stubborn enough to keep going at something until I get it right, no matter what it is, and I want you to remember that, with anything in business, doing it consistently is what pays off. While it's difficult to pinpoint an exact percentage, a significant portion of podcasts like 90% don't get past episode three, and a huge majority of those that continue like another 90% quit after 20 episodes. So I was, and still am, determined to become better at what I do, and even if I get five downloads, I know that I'm making a difference in the lives of those five people, and that's what gives me the fortitude to keep going. And that's something I want you to remember too. If you're podcasting on social media or if you're just writing a blog, it's better to go deep and connect with those who really need to hear what you have to say than to go shallow and try and talk to everyone, because that never works. So, anyway, after I got going with the podcast, it became easier, and I love bringing on new guests. I have interviewed so many people I would have never met because of my podcast, and I've learned a ton from my guests as well.

Janice Hostager:

But remember, I told you I made a big mistake when I started. What I didn't take into account is if my ideal customer, an ambitious woman business owner, listened to podcasts. I know, duh right, I only assumed they did. I really violated my own first rule of marketing, which is go where your customer is. But in my defense, there weren't a lot of statistics available at the time about who exactly listens to podcasts. But I often ask my new customers and they tend to not be podcast listeners. That's why I always make a PDF transcript available for each episode and why I'll continue to do that. But that's the one thing I would encourage you to do if you're considering starting a podcast.

Janice Hostager:

Podcasts can be an amazing outreach tool if your ideal customer is listening to them. But keep that in mind. Find out first if they listen. Plus, if I were going to be 100% truthful with myself. The appeal of podcasts is that I don't need to get on camera, so I think it kind of dissuaded me a little bit in that area. But that's a therapy session right there, so I won't get into that, okay, I get a lot of the same questions about podcasting from friends and listeners, so here are some of my favorite FAQs.

Janice Hostager:

Number one do I use a script? Yes, I do. I found that I'm a much better writer than a speaker, so I script out all of my solo episodes, including this one, although if I'm feeling extra confident, I do go off script from time to time, including on this one. Number two do my guests know the questions I'm going to ask them in advance? Sometimes they do, but sometimes they don't. I try not to throw any curveballs, of course, but sometimes they like to know the questions in advance and I totally get that. Most of the time we have a conversation-like format which brings up questions I hadn't intended to ask them, so I definitely go off script a lot when I'm interviewing someone on my podcast. Number three how much time does it take? So I'm not really sure how to answer that because I never really clocked it. But here's my process and maybe you can kind of figure it out from there. For me,

Janice Hostager:

I brainstorm the type of guests I'd like to have and recruit some of those, and many come to me directly, which, by the way, you can too if you'd like to be considered as a guest on my show. I'll put the link in the show notes. After that I do some screening interviews or short meetings with the potential guests to talk about what I'd like to have in the episode, and then they schedule a recording date. The most time is spent doing the actual recording, including recording the intro and the outro and writing the script. If it's a solo episode, the editing process also takes a lot of time, but I outsource that part of it and then I listen to each one after it's complete and before it's uploaded. The show notes also take time to put together and I have my assistant who does that. It takes her several hours a week to do that. All told, it does take several hours a week to do this podcast, but it's my crown content. It's the thing that I spend the most time on, so I share it to my newsletter each week for secondary content, and on social media after that, if I have a guest on, I typically ask them to share it with their network as well, and that's how it's growing and that's how I fit it in with my other outreach.

Janice Hostager:

Question number four how do I get my podcast on major platforms like Apple and Spotify? I use a hosting platform called Buzzsprout and I'll put a link to that in the show notes where you get $20 credit if you subscribe. I started with their free account and they were great. I love Buzzsprout because they'll walk you through exactly what to do to get your podcast up on those big platforms. Once our podcast is edited each week, we upload it to Buzzsprout and then they do it all. They make it sound good, they transcribe it, they suggest titles and they export each episode to the big podcast players like Apple and Spotify, and they also give you analytics and, if you choose to monetize it, they even help you with that too. So Buzzsprout is a pretty good deal and it helps me save so much time each week.

Janice Hostager:

Number five what equipment and tools do you use to record a podcast? So my initial costs were a microphone, of course, but mine was very affordable and it's a really good mic for the money. It drowns out household noise, including my barking dog, when she's actually barking in the office while I'm recording. It's pretty amazing. Plus, it makes my voice sound so much better. It's made by Audio-Technica, so I'll put a link to that in the show notes too. We edit it on GarageBand, which is included on a Mac computer. I'm not sure about a PC, but it's just a typical editing tool. That's where I also record my solo episodes like this one. Right now I'm recording on a GarageB and.

Janice Hostager:

For interviews I use Zoom, since they allow you to record a separate audio file for each speaker. So if I start coughing, for example when my guest is talking, it's easier to edit that out than if they were both on the same track. And then Buzzsprout, of course, which I talked about earlier, and my computer, of course, and I use ring lights and an additional light if I'm going to be doing video snippets, which I do for my interviews. And I also use ChatGPT to generate some questions and outlines for podcasts. But then I work on from there. It's a really good brainstorming tool, but it's not at the point where I can trust it for questions for the guests, but it does help me think of some ideas. Of course, the biggest expense is going to be time. It's my time, my assistant's time and my editor's time. I've also learned a ton about podcasting from Pat Flynn, who has a free course, and I'll add the link to that to my show notes as well.

Janice Hostager:

Okay, I have learned a few lessons in this process. There have been some typical things like tech fails and awkward silences, which, of course, can be expected, and I've learned that interviewing is a skill, and a skill can always be improved, right. I would say. The biggest challenge, though, is the guest who isn't chatty. A few guests answer the questions, and kind of that's it. Those guests are a little more of a challenge to work with, since I feel like their interview is a little forced, so I do pre-screen all my guests to get a feel for how well they do on an episode before I have them on, and to just make sure that we kind of connect.

Janice Hostager:

It's also something to keep in mind if you are a guest on a podcast too. If you're chattier, you're going to be easier to interview, and your podcast host is really going to like that, and the other thing I've learned is that you don't want to pressure anyone to be on your podcast. Early on, I begged and pleaded with people that I knew to come on my podcast because I just didn't have any guests signed up at the time. But many were not comfortable with it and you could really tell on the interview. So I've learned not to pressure anyone to be a podcast guest. Okay, so I thought about sharing my favorite guests, but honestly, there have been so many amazing guests that I have loved so I just can't do that. So I will share my most downloaded episode.

Janice Hostager:

That was one of my first episodes and it was with my good friend, Tammy McKinney, who is a coach, and she talked about how to keep running your business when your personal life falls apart. I think that really hit a nerve with so many business owners. We all want to appear to have everything together and Instagrammable, but that's not life, and when we get sick or our parents get sick and our kids go off the rails, we still have to keep our business going, and that's not easy. So if you want to hear that episode, it's number three. She provided what she did as she was faced with a plethora of personal challenges all at once, so it's a very good episode, and that one is also tied with episode 10, which is how I used ChatGPT to market your small business, which did really well early on, before anyone had much experience with using ChatGPT. So I want to continue to do episodes on how to use ChatGPT in marketing too, as it becomes more of a powerful tool.

Janice Hostager:

Okay, and then what I would do differently if I started a podcast today. I would have started earlier, but of course there's no way to do that now. It's become more competitive, so it's important to be unique and stand out in a sea of sameness. And because there are so many podcasts out now, I wish I would have started long before. It was so competitive, but I didn't. So it's important to just kind of keep focusing on what I do best and really speaking to the pain points of my ideal customer. And also, I think one other thing I would have done differently is I would have rehearsed more on my own before starting my first recording. That would have helped with my nerves.

Janice Hostager:

But honestly, the way to get good at something is to just do it, and that was true when you're learning. We're learning to walk or ride a bike or start a podcast. So repetition pays off, and totally true in podcasting. And I just recommend, if you are wanting to do a podcast and you're a little nervous about starting, just jump right in. That's the best way to do it. And last but not least, I do have a little advice for staying consistent and keeping momentum.

Janice Hostager:

For the last 100 episodes, I believe we can do anything in our business. If we can schedule it, if it's a priority, you can make sure you have time for it. If you leave it to when you just have the time, it won't happen, or at least it won't happen consistently and perhaps not even at all. Once you're committed, keep it going and don't give up. You have it in you to improve, and so do I, and that's the advice I give to anyone in business. There is no failure. There are only lessons learned. We just pick ourselves up and try again next time. This time you can find the show notes for this episode and any links that we talked about today at myweeklymarketingcom forward slash 100. And a big thank you to my guests, supporters and, most of all, you, my listener, who helped me get to 100 episodes. If you want to continue to learn more about marketing strategy for your business, please consider subscribing. Thanks again, see you next time. Bye for now.

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