Podcast Growth Lab
What do the top podcasts know that most creators don’t?
At AZ Pod Studio, we work in podcasting and media every single day with some of the top voices and top-performing shows in the space. This podcast gives you the behind-the-scenes strategies most creators never hear about — from YouTube growth and viral clips to monetization, branding, thumbnails, titles, guests, and audience building.
Whether you’re trying to start a podcast, grow one, make money from content, or understand how modern media actually works, this show is built to help you skip years of trial and error.
Episodes
22 episodes
The 4 YouTube Metrics That Tell You Exactly What's Wrong With Your Podcast
If your podcast is posting consistently on YouTube but the views refuse to move, there’s a good chance the problem is measurable and fixable. We walk through four YouTube analytics metrics that act like a growth dashboard for podcasters: impres...
How to Grow Your Podcast SO Fast in 2026 It Feels ILLEGAL
To grow a podcast in 2026, you need three things: content people want, packaging that earns clicks, and distribution that gets your show discovered. Learn how to get more podcast listeners and YouTube views by turning one episode into searchabl...
Using AI for Podcast Clips? Fix This Before You Post
o create better podcast clips with Opus Clip or other AI editing tools, fix the opening two to three seconds: lead with a question, surprising statement, or emotional moment your audience cares about. In this video, I explain how to improve AI-...
Your Small Business Needs THIS: Not More Ad Spend
If you’re pouring money into ads and still not seeing momentum, the problem might be simpler than you think: you’re amplifying content that doesn’t earn attention on its own. We lay out why podcasting is the most underutilized tool in small bus...
The Simple Podcast Guest Strategy That AI Engines Love
Want to know how to be a guest on podcasts—and turn every appearance into lasting SEO, AEO, and GEO authority for your brand? In this episode, Tyler Copenhaver explains how strategic podcast guesting helps search engines and AI platforms unders...
How to Start a Podcast in 2026 (The Only 3 Things You Need)
You don’t need $10,000 in podcast equipment to start a professional-looking podcast in 2026. This video shows you the only three things your podcast setup actually needs: clear audio, a 4K camera or smartphone, and good lighting.Expensiv...
HOW LONG SHOULD YOUR PODCAST ACTUALLY BE?
The “average commute” rule sounds smart until you notice the biggest podcasts on the planet routinely run one, two, even three hours. So what’s actually driving audience growth: the clock, or the ability to hold attention? We dig into why podca...
THE FIRST 30 SECONDS OF YOUR PODCAST ARE DRIVING PEOPLE AWAY
The first 30 seconds of your podcast could be the reason viewers leave—even when the rest of the episode is incredible. One “professional” podcast habit may be quietly destroying your YouTube audience retention, and most hosts still use it in e...
Your Podcast Automation Is Killing Your YouTube Growth
Your YouTube podcast can be perfectly recorded and still get buried if you publish it like an audio file. We dig into the real reason creators see “zero views” on YouTube and why a static cover image on a black screen signals dead air to a vide...
How Small Podcasts Land A-List Celebrity Guests (The "Ladder" Strategy)
Want to get celebrities on your podcast? Learn the podcast guest-booking strategy our studio used to secure Kathy Ireland, Larry the Cable Guy, Rob Schneider, and more.This step-by-step “laddering strategy” shows new podcasters how to build...
Upload Once Publish Everywhere
Stop Uploading Your Podcast 15 Times. One RSS Feed Does the Work for You.Most podcasters waste hours uploading the same episode to every platform. You don't have to.In this episode, we break down how an RSS feed lets you upload on...
YouTube Doesn't Push Videos. It Pulls Them. Here's the Difference.
20 views after hours of recording, editing, and polishing a title and thumbnail can make you feel cursed by the YouTube algorithm. We take that frustration head-on and share what we’ve heard repeatedly from the person closest to how YouTube rec...
Apple Video Is Here — Does It Actually Hack Your Podcast Views?
Apple just added video to podcasts, Spotify keeps doubling down on video uploads, and YouTube is rapidly becoming the default place people actually watch long-form content on their TVs. The problem is that “video podcasting” sounds like a singl...
Your Podcast Clips Are Worthless If You're Not Doing This
You can spend hours recording a great podcast and still wonder why growth feels stuck, and it often comes down to one thing: distribution. We walk through the exact mindset shift that turns short-form podcast clips from “nice content” into a re...
I Beat the World's Best Editors With One Simple Trick
Most podcast clips fail for one simple reason: they start in the wrong place. If you’ve been dropping your YouTube link into an AI tool like Opus and posting whatever it spits out, you might be getting “clips” but missing the moments that actua...
Your Podcast Is a Muscle — Here's How to Train It
Most people treat podcasting like a lottery ticket and then wonder why it never pays out. We treat it like a gym routine, because the shows that last are built on reps, not a fancy microphone. If you’ve been tempted to spend big on gear before ...
You Spent Hours Recording and 5 Minutes on the Cover Art. It Shows.
Your podcast is competing against a wall of options, and most people decide in seconds whether you are worth a click. We talk about the “sea of covers” problem and why podcast branding is not decoration, it is targeting. If your podcast cover a...
Zero Downloads? This Is Why Your Podcast Is Stuck
Your podcast might not be “bad” at all. It might just be talking to the wrong person or more accurately, trying to talk to everyone at once. When the message is broad, the result is predictable: low downloads, weak shares, and that awful feelin...
HOW TO NAME A PODCAST PEOPLE ACTUALLY CLICK
A great podcast name can be worth millions of dollars in marketing value. A bad one can make your show harder to discover, harder to remember, and in some cases even create trademark problems that force you to start over from scratch.In ...
Choose the right topic or your podcast will never take off
If your podcast idea feels “good” but you can’t explain it in one sentence, that’s a warning sign. We see it all the time: new shows launch with vague topics, chase a trend, and fade out before they ever find momentum. Here’s the fix we use wit...
AI Is Wrong About Starting A Podcast
Can AI actually teach you how to start a successful podcast?In this episode of Podcast Growth Lab, we break down advice generated by AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude — and compare it to what actually happens inside real podcast studios ...
How To Start A Podcast In 2026 With A Real Plan
Starting a podcast in 2026 is NOT about just buying a microphone and hitting record.In this episode of Podcast Growth Lab, we break down what actually separates podcasts that grow from podcasts that disappear after a few episodes. From d...
