230 | Want Faster Audience Growth? Follow This One Rule - Grow The Show

Summary

Chief Audience Officer Episode 230 Summary: "Want Faster Audience Growth? Follow This One Rule"

In Episode 230 of Chief Audience Officer, host Kev Michael delves into a pivotal strategy for accelerating audience growth by focusing efforts on a single platform. Drawing from his extensive experience with over 500 entrepreneurs and his own success in generating millions in revenue through his podcast, Kev offers actionable insights and compelling analogies to help business owners streamline their content strategies for maximum impact.

Overwhelmed by Multiple Platforms

Kev begins the episode by addressing a common challenge faced by many content creators: the struggle to grow across multiple platforms simultaneously without seeing proportional results.

"Are you publishing everywhere but growing nowhere? Let's fix that."
—Kev Michael [00:00]

He shares the story of a client who was juggling five different platforms—YouTube, podcasts, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, and Substack. Despite gaining substantial traction on YouTube, averaging 30,000 views a month, other platforms lagged behind.

"She started getting serious traction on YouTube, like averaging 30,000 views a month. But even when we would get together and talk about how great she was doing on YouTube, she would then say, yeah, but why isn't my X growing? Why aren't I getting any more podcast downloads?"
—Kev Michael [02:15]

The Cupcake Bakery Analogy

To illustrate the pitfalls of spreading efforts too thin, Kev introduces a relatable analogy comparing content platforms to bakery locations.

"You are a baker. You bake cupcakes. Your thoughts and ideas are the cupcakes that you want to sell to the world. And having an audience is like opening a bakery."
—Kev Michael [03:00]

He explains that each platform acts as a separate bakery, each with its unique challenges. Trying to manage multiple bakeries simultaneously, especially without prior experience, is likened to trying to expand across five platforms without a focused strategy.

"It's like, if someone opened a bakery for the first time and said, hey, I love making cupcakes I think I'm going to open five bakeries now. We chuckle because it's like, no, of course someone who's never run a bakery before shouldn't try to open five bakeries at once."
—Kev Michael [04:10]

Success Through Focused Effort

Transitioning to the experience with another client, Kev discusses a podcaster excelling in long-form content but hesitant to branch out into short-form platforms like Instagram.

"She said, I feel like I should [grow on social media]. And I said, why? ... You have a really niche show, but her ads are sold out for the whole year."
—Kev Michael [05:00]

He extends the bakery analogy, comparing long-form podcast episodes to intricate wedding cakes and short-form clips to simple cupcakes. The mismatch, according to Kev, results in ineffective audience growth.

"Long form is like baking a wedding cake. It is big, it is intricate, and it is expensive. Short form clips are like cupcakes, tiny little cupcakes."
—Kev Michael [06:20]

Key Takeaways and Strategic Recommendations

Kev distills the episode’s lessons into clear, actionable advice:

Consolidate Efforts to One Platform: Focus your energy on mastering a single platform before expanding.

"Put all of your energy on one platform and getting really good at that one bakery, that bakery is going to have lines out the door."
—Kev Michael [07:45]
Leverage Strengths: Align platform choice with your content strengths—e.g., if you excel in long-form content, prioritize platforms like YouTube or podcasts over short-form social media channels.
Iterative Growth: Once the primary platform is thriving, use the established audience and resources to venture into additional platforms smoothly.

"Growing one, you will learn how to grow that one bakery. And then bakeries two through five will be so much easier because you've already done it once."
—Kev Michael [08:30]
Avoid FOMO: Resist the fear of missing out on new trends or platforms until your primary platform has achieved substantial growth.

Conclusion

Kev wraps up the episode by reinforcing the importance of strategic focus in content creation and audience building. By treating each platform as a separate entity and prioritizing one before expanding to others, business owners can achieve sustainable and measurable growth.

"If your audience isn't growing yet, pick one platform and go all in. I recommend it be YouTube. But even if it isn't, go all in on that platform until it's painfully obvious that you need a second location."
—Kev Michael [09:15]

Through relatable analogies and real-world examples, Kev Michael provides a clear roadmap for business owners aiming to transform their content efforts into a robust and profitable audience.

Episode Details:

Title: Chief Audience Officer
Host: Kev Michael
Episode: 230 | "Want Faster Audience Growth? Follow This One Rule"
Release Date: July 15, 2025

For business owners striving to grow their audience effectively, this episode serves as a valuable guide to refining content strategies and avoiding the pitfalls of multitasking across too many platforms.

Transcript

Kev Michael (0:00)

Are you publishing everywhere but growing nowhere? Let's fix that. Today I want to give you a whole new way to think about your content strategy that'll make it so much easier for you to grow your audience, attract more leads, drive more sales, and build a personal brand that people can't ignore. My name is Kev Michael, and this is Chief Audience Officer, where it is my job to help you build an audience of buyers. And in this episode, I'm going to share an analogy with you that I have been sharing one on one with a lot of the business owners and podcasters that I work with that's really been helping them to focus, have less FOMO, and grow faster. I'm going to tell you the story of two clients. One who's completely overwhelmed trying to grow on five platforms all at once, and another who actually has a smash hit podcast but still feels like she should be everywhere. And then I'm going to share a simple analogy that applies to both of them that just might change the way you approach your content. Let's dive in. So first, let's talk about the overwhelmed client. So a few months ago, I was working with a client who wanted to grow everywhere at once. Her audio podcast, her YouTube subscribers, YouTube shorts, views, her X following, and even a substack. And the thing is, she started getting serious traction on YouTube, like averaging 30,000 views a month. But even when we would get together and talk about how great she was doing on YouTube, she would then say, yeah, but why isn't my ex growing? Why aren't I getting any more podcast downloads? And I said, okay, I want you to think of your content like cupcakes. Okay? You are a baker. You bake cupcakes. Your thoughts and ideas are the cupcakes that you want to sell to the world. And having an audience is like opening a bakery. But here's the thing. Every single platform online is its own separate bakery location. It's not one thing, it's several separate locations. So your YouTube is one bakery, your X is one bakery, your Instagram is a separate bakery, your audio audio podcast is one bakery, your substack, totally separate bakeries. And while yes, you might have some people who buy your cupcakes at multiple locations, each location is its own separate business that has different problems and different challenges with growing. And so if you're somebody who does not have an audience online and you're trying to grow on five platforms at once, that's like if someone opened a bakery for the first time and said, hey, I love making cupcakes I think I'm going to open five bakeries now. We chuckle because it's like, no, of course someone who's never run a bakery before shouldn't try to open five bakeries at once. That is a recipe for absolute disaster. Instead, you would pick one location that has really good foot traffic and that you love working at, ideally, and put everything in into making that one bakery as good as it can be. And you don't open a second bakery until people are begging you to. And you can't help but open a separate bakery, let alone five. Despite the pressure to be on every platform and despite you looking at some of the biggest creators in the world and wanting to model them and wanting to be like them and seeing how they post 400 pieces of content a day and not thinking, oh, they spend $100,000 a month paying people to make content for them, you are like, I wanna do that now. So that's story number one. And now, whenever that client comes to me and Sundays, yay, my YouTube is growing. But my downloads didn't go up, I'm like, ah, ah, ah. One bakery at a time. It's not time to worry about another bakery yet. Now, earlier this week, I got on a call with a podcaster who was considering joining my new YouTube cohort. Now, she is not starting completely from scratch. In fact, her audio show is crushing it. It's growing very well. She has a really niche show, but her ads are sold out for the whole year. She was thinking about joining my YouTube cohort to expand, but then she said, I don't really know if I should focus on YouTube right now. I think I should grow on social media first. And I said, why? And she kind of laughed. And she was like, because I feel like I should. And I said, okay. Have any of your potential podcast advertisers ever told you no because you don't have enough Instagram followers? No. They want to reach your PODC audience. I then asked her, I said, okay, I've known you for a while. You've talked about wanting to grow on social media. It hasn't happened. Why haven't you grown on social media? And she's like, because I hate it. And I'm like, yeah, that's fine. You hate it. You're not good at it. You're crushing it at long form. Like what you've achieved with your audio podcast. There are so many people who are dying to achieve. So my point was, if you're going to work on expanding to a new platform, expand to YouTube, which is also long form. And so here's where I took the bakery analogy a step further. This particular previous client who's considering rejoining with me is really good at long form. She's crushing it with her podcast, which is long form. She's under the belief that in order to grow further her long form, she has to go get good at short form. That's like if she owned a bakery that made wedding cakes. A full podcast episode or a long form YouTube video is like baking a wedding cake. It is big, it is intricate, and it is expensive. Short form clips are like cupcakes, tiny little cupcakes. Okay, now, if you owned a wedding cake bakery, would you say, I need to get more wedding cake customers, so I'm going to go outside and hand out cupcakes. Most people I've shared this analogy with chuckle and they're like, no, that probably wouldn't work. And I'm like, yeah, because you would be making a totally different product. Well, yeah, it's like, it's still a cake, but a cupcake is different than a wedding cake. You're handing it out to people on the sidewalk who love cupcakes. What are the odds that one of those people is engaged and will need a wedding cake sometime soon? And honestly, that sounds far fetched, but I don't know. I've talked with a lot of podcasters who have millions and millions of followers and downloads, and a lot of them say that their short form content gets tons of views on social media, but it does not translate to a lot of downloads of long form. And I think that it could be a similar ratio to just handing out cupcakes to strangers trying to sell wedding cakes and hoping that one of them just happens to be engaged and in the market for a wedding cake. It might not be that far off. Nonetheless, prospect that I was speaking with chuckled and said, that's a very good analogy. You should share that on the show. And so here we are. Here's what I want you to take away from this. We must avoid the temptation to grow five bakeries at once. Even me, I fall into it too. There's so much pressure to be everywhere. You have so many ideas for how you can record something once and have a system for repurposing it. Everywhere I talk about it, I'm working on it, I've tried it. But what I found is that if you can just put all of your energy on one platform and getting really good at that one bakery, that bakery is going to have lines out the door. And then you will have so many more resources to start new bakeries because your one bakery is crushing it so much, it makes it easier to grow other bakeries. So that's the other thing here is not only is it hard to grow five bakeries at once by itself, even if you knew how to grow five bakeries, but it's even harder when you've never grown a bakery before. If you instead focus on growing one, you will learn how to grow that one bakery. And then bakeries two through five will be so much easier because you've already done it once. So if your audience isn't growing yet, pick one platform and go all in. I recommend it be YouTube. But even if it isn't, go all in on that platform until it's painfully obvious that you need a second location. And if you're one of those people that feels like you should be on social media but you're successful elsewhere, you don't have to sell cupcakes. Even though more people will eat cupcakes than wedding cakes. If you're good at wedding cakes, sell the wedding cakes. All right, that's going to do it for this episode of Chief Audience Officer. I am Kev Michael. I'll see you in the next one.