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If you want to grow a podcast on YouTube, this is exactly how to do it. I've been a full time podcaster for over seven years. I've worked with more than 500 other shows to help them grow. And I've studied thousands of successful podcasts while generating more than 54 million downloads for my clients. And after analyzing all of that data, I've seen the exact patterns that separate podcasts that explode from podcasts that die. And in this masterclass, I'm showing you the four level framework that actually makes the difference. Here's why YouTube is the best place to grow a podcast right now. Audio podcasts have become nearly impossible to grow. You could do everything perfectly. Great content, consistent publishing, amazing guests, and still be stuck at the same download numbers for months or even years. But YouTube is where podcasts are exploding right now. And Edison research shows that 31% of Americans now use YouTube to consume podcasts. That's more than Apple or Spotify. YouTube's podcast consumption is growing 80% year over year, while audio platform use is flatlining. And it's true, the platform that you and I as podcasters have been ignoring is now the biggest podcast platform in America. I discovered this the hard way. After years of successfully helping podcasters grow, only audio growth suddenly just stopped working. But when we switched to YouTube, everything changed. Some clients saw 10x growth in only three weeks. Others went from hundreds to thousands of views in only days. And after fighting for every download in the audio world, YouTube felt like easy mode. So in this masterclass, you're gonna learn the exact four level framework that makes this happen. And the four crucial steps are make one promise, one win the click, keep them watching and get them to buy. Let's start with level one. Here's what most podcasters don't realize. 95% of podcasts can't grow because they are making a fatal mistake that dooms them from day one. And that is their podcast doesn't make a clear promise. If you want your show to grow, your show needs to make one big promise. And every single episode needs to make a little promise that serves the that bigger promise. If you miss this, your show is going to be dead in the water. Let me show you what I mean. Podcaster A says, I make a show about whatever interests me this week. Sometimes it's business, sometimes it's sports. Sometimes it's just what's going on in my life. And sometimes it's interesting interviews, Telling raw, unfiltered stories from all walks of life. That sounds fun to make Right, that sounds creative, because you get to be this multifaceted creator who gets to talk about whatever you want to talk about. But the problem is, Podcaster A, unless they're super famous, and sometimes even when they are super famous, is stuck at like 200 downloads per episode. And if we're honest, they're a little embarrassed when people see how many views their episodes get. But the YouTube algorithm is totally confused as to who to show each episode to. So Podcaster a gets maybe 20, 30 views an episode. 100 if they're lucky. Now let's look at Podcaster B. Podcaster B says, every single episode of my show helps the same specific person move towards the same specific outcome, identity, or ideal. Now, does that sound restrictive? As a creator, maybe. But Podcaster B is growing 50% month over month. They don't care that they're constricted to one topic and one avatar. They're thrilled to talk about their show everywhere because people can see how fast their show is growing and. And they can see that they are legit. And the YouTube algorithm loves them because it knows exactly who to show their next episode to. Obviously, when it comes to results, you want to be Podcaster B. But here's the thing. 95% of podcasters are stuck being Podcaster A. They're making shows about whatever they feel like talking about. And then they wonder why nobody's listening. Now, after analyzing over 54 million downloads across the client shows that I've worked on over the past five plus years, I've learned that successful shows have one thing in common. Crystal clear focus. Let me show you a couple of real examples of this in action. I'm going to pull up three actual podcasters on YouTube right now. Podcaster number one. Every single video is about something completely different. One week it's 99% of leaders get this wrong. The next it's I turned down seven figures. Then next week, it's the shocking truth about child abuse. Now, this person has significant resources, and they are paying people tens of thousands of dollars a month to make this show. They're good at getting views, sometimes hundreds of thousands, on individual videos. And the host of this show is an incredible human being who has a lot of value to share and can access unbelievably famous guests. But after 580 videos, this channel has less than 5,000 subscribers. Nobody subscribes to this podcaster's channel, even though they have tons of resources, even though they've achieved a lot in life because they don't know what they're going to get every single week. It's too random. Podcaster number two makes an attempt at a promise. The show says that it's for sales reps and CEOs, which are two different people by the way. But then you look at the episodes. Making water great again, the guy who can fund anything. What does this have to do with closing sales? Now, this show has 273 videos and only 2,750 subscribers. This show makes a promise, but they don't keep it. So the algorithm continues to get confused and viewers don't stick around. Now let's look at podcaster number three. This podcaster makes a very clear helping creators build sustainable businesses. Whether the episode is he solved growth or meet the best selling authority, it all points to the same person wanting the same thing. Creators looking to build sustainable businesses. Now, this podcast has only published 156 videos, but it's got over 132,000 subscribers. That's 30 times more subscribers per video than podcaster number one. Think about that. Podcaster one has probably spent close to a million dollars on their show. Podcaster 3, I know for a fact has not spent nearly that much on their podcast. But podcaster 3 has 30 times better results because they understand that their podcast needs to make a promise. But how can you make a promise on your podcast that makes your show more growable? Well, there's three elements. First, every episode has to be for the same avatar. And when I say avatar, I don't mean demographics. It's not men, it's not women, it's not millennials, it's not Gen Z. It's not how old they are. It's not where they live. I mean psychographics, what situation are they in? What is their mindset and what are they struggling with? What are their problems, hopes, fears and dreams once you have an avatar? The second thing is that every single episode must point to the same destination. That destination can be an outcome, like land five clients per month. It can be an identity like become a seven figure business owner. Or it can be an ideal, like modern wisdom. Now your podcast promise is the third thing and that's what bridges your avatar with your destination. My podcast promise is that grow the show is the podcast that grows your podcast. Every single episode delivers on that promise. I don't care about your age, your location or your income. All I care about is that you have launched a podcast avatar and you want it to grow. Destination, that is psychographics, not demographics. But here's where it gets really important for YouTube, specifically on audio platforms, people might give you a chance even if your promise isn't clear, especially if they're already subscribed to your show. The episodes might automatically download to Apple Podcasts, and maybe they'll kind of throw it on and they'll listen while they're driving. YouTube, though, is ruthless. The algorithm is trying to figure out who to show your content to. And if you're all over the place, it will not help you at all. It's not being mean. It just doesn't know what to do with your videos, so nobody sees it. When your podcast promise is crystal clear, the algorithm knows exactly who needs every single video that you publish. It can find people that you didn't even know existed, people who've never heard of you but desperately need what your podcast talks about. That is the power of a clear promise on YouTube. But that is just level one. You could have the perfect promise, but if nobody clicks on your episode, you're still dead in the water. Which brings us to level two. Win the click. This is what has taken some from launch to over 100,000 subscribers in just four months. This is the difference between 30 views and 30,000 views. You see, your ideal listener is scrolling through YouTube right now. They are desperately looking for the solutions that your podcast can give them. Your episode could literally change their life. But today, they scroll right past you. Why? Well, it's because you haven't mastered what I call the three elements that win the click. I call it triple T, attraction, and the three T's stand for topic, title, and thumbnail. These three T's must work together in perfect harmony or you'll get zero views. Now, I discovered these principles after testing thousands of episode titles across over 500 shows. And it's the same psychology that gets someone to press play on Spotify. But it works even better on YouTube because people can see what you're offering them visually in your thumbnail. Let's break down each of the three T's. First is topic selection. And I think this is the one that's least obvious to people. Every single episode topic needs to match what your avatar is actively searching for or thinking about right now. Not what you want to talk about and not even what you think they should hear, but what they're actually thinking about at 11pm when they can't fall asleep. Remember, every episode must make a little promise that helps to keep your show's big promise. So if your big promise is helping coaches get clients, every single episode of your podcast should be something that coaches who are struggling to get clients are actively worried about. And so here's five quick places where you can find the right podcast topics that are gonna make it easier for your show to grow. Number one is your curriculum. If you're a coach or a consultant, map out what your proven framework is. Each step becomes an episode topic. So if you help people lose weight, you might have nutrition, exercise, mindset, and accountability. That's four episode topics right there. And you can break each one of Those down into 10 or 100 more. Number two is your calendar. Look at your calendar and review the problems you solved this week, the questions that clients asked you, the realizations that you've had about your show's promise, and stories that you can tell. I keep a notebook next to me all day, and whenever I have a conversation with a client that could help other podcasters, I write it down. That's an episode. Topic number three is copy what's working now? This is the biggest lever for fast growth on YouTube. Find videos in your niche or even outside your niche that are crushing it. Don't copy their content. That's not ethical. But model their video's packaging. So if there's a video that's called the morning routine that changed everything and it got a million views, make your version. Maybe the morning routine for coaches that changed everything. Same angle, but your unique perspective. And topic number four is your closers. So if you have a sales team or you do sales calls yourself, what objections come up. And every single objection you get is an episode topic. I can't afford it becomes how to afford a high ticket coach I need to think about it becomes why overthinking kills your business growth. Turn objections into content. And then number five is keywords. What are people actually searching for on YouTube? Unlike Google that's getting eaten by ChatGPT, YouTube search probably isn't going away anytime soon. So use tools like Vidiq or tubebuddy to to find what people in your niche are searching for. If 10,000 people a month are searching how to sell my coaching program without being salesy, there's an episode topic that's going to get you 10,000 views a month. So once you have the right topic, you next need the right title. Now your title needs to make a specific little promise and it needs to use your avatar's language. Not terms that you made up, but the actual words that are rattling around in their brain at 2am A basic formula that works is outcome plus time frame, ease plus objection handler. So how to get five coaching clients this month? Without paid ads, the morning routine that doubled my productivity in seven days, why your podcast isn't growing, and the simple fix. Notice that these titles work even for interview episodes. So stop putting episode 125 with John Smith. We talk about business and life. Nobody cares. Nobody knows who John Smith is. Episode 125 of what Nobody clicks. Instead, say how John smith built a $10 million business in two years. Parentheses his exact playbook. Same interview, completely different result. But here's the thing about titles that you may not understand. The title's only job is to work with the thumbnail to get the click. That is it. You don't have to include everything in the title, and you definitely shouldn't try to be clever. Just be clear and get them to click. Which brings us to Tidal's partner in crime, thumbnails. Your thumbnail should be simple. There should be no more than three elements in your thumbnail. Not your show name, not your episode number, not your logo, not your tagline. These three things. You should include a face. Either your face, someone else's face, or both with a clear, emotional expression, or we are wired to look at faces. It is biological. Use it. You should include three to six words. Something bold and simple that calls out the value of the episode. And there should be some sort of background. It could be a plain color, it could be the background of your studio that's blurred. Or it could be something else in the background that conveys the value of your video. But that's it. Above all else, keep it simple. Maximum three elements. A face, a few words, and a background. That is it. The biggest mistake that I see podcasters who are new to YouTube making is they cram everything into the thumbnail. They make it look like a movie poster, with credits and headshots and taglines and numbers and logos. Remember, people see thumbnails at the size of an actual thumb nail. That's why it's called that. If they can't understand what your episode's about in half a second, they're gone. But getting the click is only half the battle. Here's where most podcasters lose everything, and it happens in the first 30 seconds. Level three is keep them watching. You see, some podcasters are good at getting the click, but they lose the viewer in seconds. Or worse. They keep viewers for one episode, but they never get them back ever again. This is why level three has two parts. Keep them watching your episode and keep them watching your show. Master both, or your show will die. One of my previous clients in the audio World learned this the hard way. He was stuck at 12,000 downloads per month on audio and the problem wasn't his content. His content was really good. His problem was retention. Once he brought him in to help with his show, we fixed his episode retention and his feed retention and in three months his show tripled. That was on the audio side. When another client applied these same principles to their YouTube episodes, she went from 3,000 views per month on all of her episodes to over 27,000 views per month in just 30 days. So let's break down both types of retention. Part one is episode retention. This part is all about the intro. When someone clicks on your video, you have maximum 30 seconds to hook them or they're gone forever. To get them to stay, you need to use what I call the 4P's framework. Watch how I used it at the beginning of this video. Problem. P1 is problem. Acknowledge immediately the problem that your title promised to solve. So for me, right away it was if you want to grow a podcast on YouTube, that's the problem that you clicked for. P2 is proof. Show why you are the one that can solve it. I've helped 500 podcasters generate 54 million downloads. That's the proof. I know what I'm talking about. Promises confirm what they will get out of your episode. Not what you're going to do, but what they're going to get out of it. So for me, it's you'll learn the exact four level framework to grow a show. That's what you'll walk away with. Then P4 is plan. That's when you talk about what you are going to do and when you map out how you'll deliver. And the four crucial steps are make one promise, win the click, keep them watching and get them to buy. Let's start with level one. Now, most podcasters completely butcher this. They start with a two minute introduction about their weekend. They tell a meandering story that might connect to the topic eventually. And they think they're mom, they think they're dog, they think they're third grade teacher. No, no, no, cut to the chase. Problem, proof, promise, plan. 30 seconds, go. Here's an example of a perfect intro. If you're struggling to get coaching clients without feeling salesy, I get it. I've helped 47 coaches go from zero to over five clients per week. And in this episode, I'm going to show you the exact enrollment conversation that converts without any pressure tactics. We'll cover three phases that you might be missing from your current connection. Exploration and invitation. Let's dive in. Boom. They're hooked. Now a few visual tips for YouTube retention. You do not need Mr. Beast level production. You just need some movement. Change something visual every 30 to 60 seconds. Could be a camera angle, could be some text on screen, could be you holding up a prop. Just something different. Show. Don't just tell. When you mention a number, put it on screen. If you reference a framework, show a simple diagram. When you tell a story, show a photo. These pattern interrupts keep the brain engaged. But episode retention is only half the battle. Part two is feed retention. This is about getting people to come back week after week. And here's what kills most shows. They confuse consistency of schedule with consistency of value. Podcasters think I need to publish every Tuesday at 8am or I can never miss a week. That's audio podcasting. Thinking YouTube doesn't care when you publish. YouTube just cares that when someone watches one episode, they want to watch another. So while feed retention doesn't come from consistency of publishing schedule, feed retention comes from three other types of consistency. Number one is consistency of avatar. We talked about this already. You always speak to the same person, the coach struggling to get clients, Podcasters struggling to grow their show every episode. Not sometimes coaches, sometimes consultants, sometimes real estate agents, same person every time. Two is consistency of destination. You always point to the same transformation, the same purpose, the same reason that your podcast exists. So getting clients without being salesy growing and monetizing a podcast, every episode must be tied to to that podcast promise. And then the third level of consistency is consistency of format. You deliver value in the same ways. Now you can have some episodes be guest episodes and some episodes be solo episodes, but you still want your audience to understand what they're gonna get format wise from every episode. If one episode is a solo episode, one episode is a panel, one episode is a guest episode, one episode is a vlog, and it's completely all over the place. You're not going to retain people because some people really don't like vlogs. Some people love interviews, some people love solo. So it's going to be really hard for you to build an audience if you're constantly flipping around your formats. So you want to stay consistent with your format. S in parentheses because you can do solo and guest so that your audience knows what to expect. This is the difference between a YouTube channel that people subscribe to and one they watch just once. Now I want to pause and highlight the game changing difference between audio podcasting and YouTube podcasting, because this is about to become very you see, with audio podcasting, you publish and wait 30 days to see what happened. You're flying mostly blind. You can look at completion rates, but other than that you just have access to how many downloads did this episode get? You have no idea how many people found your episode, who they actually are, how many real subscribers you have, or why one episode got 5,000 downloads while another got 500. YouTube, on the other hand, gives you a 24 hour feedback loop. Within one day, you know if your title and thumbnail are working within two days, you can see exactly where people stop watching your episode. You know what to improve on immediately, and sometimes you can retroactively fix an episode and get it to grow. This is the difference between hard mode, which is audio podcasting, and easy mode, which is video podcasting. So these two metrics are the ones that matter most on YouTube. Number one is click through rate or CTR. This tells you if your packaging is working. You want to shoot for between 3 and 8%, although this is totally different for every channel. But below 2% generally means that your title and thumbnail are off. Above 10% is awesome, but it'll probably drop as time goes on. And the second metric is average view duration or avd. This tells you if your content holds attention. For a beginner, I want you to aim around the 5 minute mark, maybe 5 to 10. I know that can seem low, but remember YouTube shows your videos to complete strangers. The people who leave after 10 seconds bring the average way down above all else. I see a lot of podcasters get really tied up on what should my CTR be? What should my AVD be? And it's different per channel. The short answer is you just want it to be getting better. And likewise you want your AVD to keep going up. That means that you're getting better at holding people's attention. If your CTR is low, fix your title and your thumbnail. Or maybe you picked the wrong topic. If your AVD is low, tighten up your intro and add RE engagement hooks throughout the episode. So that's level three. But none of this matters. Without level four, that's a RE engagement hook. Level four is get them to buy. You don't want this to be a hobby. You want your podcast to generate revenue, right? Yeah. Everybody asks me how do I monetize my podcast? To which I say wrong question. The right question is what can I get my listeners to buy? Because here is the truth. You will only ever make money sustainably from your podcast when your listeners buy something that you recommended that they buy. Every single form of podcast monetization boils down to this. If you have a patreon, you recommend it to them that they buy exclusive access to you. If you have sponsors, you recommended that they buy stuff from your sponsors. Companies are paying you hoping that your listeners buy their stuff. Even when you have YouTube monetization, YouTube just sends you money. That's because YouTube recommended that they buy something while they watched your stuff. So the only way that you can possibly monetize an audience is by getting that audience to buy something that you recommend they buy and you get a cut somehow of them buying it. My favorite way and the way that I've seen create real success, literally where podcasting has changed lives is when you get your listeners to buy your stuff directly. So that's your product, your service, stuff from your business. Even with audio only podcasts, I've seen incredible results here. I've had clients use their podcast to grow their investment funds. I've had clients have their podcasts fuel seven plus figure mastermind businesses. I've had some clients do multiple five figure launches to their podcast audience. And that's all from audio. But here's the crazy thing. On YouTube, it's even easier. The secret is understanding that YouTube viewers buy differently than audio listeners. Audio listeners are busy. They are driving, they're working out, they're walking the dog, Their hands are tied up. The odds of them stopping what they're doing and buying something are nearly zero. In reality, in order for them to buy that thing, they're going to have to later on, remember that you recognize the thing, find time to search for it, find the website, and then maybe, if they're still in the mood, take action. It's rare, it's hard to do. YouTube viewers are a different story. They are at their computer, they might be looking at their phone. You have their full attention. So they can click immediately, they can opt in, they can book a call, they can buy without interrupting anything. The link is right there in the description. So one click and they're in. This context shift changes everything. The same offer that barely converts on audio can explode on YouTube. But how can you capture that conversion boost? Well, you use the simple next action framework. The key is understanding what is the easiest next action that your audience can take to buy something based on what they just watched. Now, you need to make sure that what you're recommending they buy is aligned with your show's destination. So if your show helps coaches get clients, you probably shouldn't try to sell them makeup, you should sell them something that will somehow make their business grow. Then once you have the thing that you want to recommend that they buy, hopefully it's your product or service. Pick the right call to action based on on trust level and ease. So, and the secret is you want to rotate these out because some of your audience doesn't trust you at all. Some of them trust you a lot and most of them trust you a little. So you have different calls to action based on where they are with trust. For those that don't trust you a lot, they need something low commitment, so you just send them to a free resource or a newsletter. If they're at medium trust, you can ask them to book a call or check out your sales funnel. And if they're at high trust or at a really, really high pain point, you can make the offer right in the episode. Although I usually don't recommend that. Once you know what the next step is, here's the key. You have to make it stupidly easy for them to do that thing. Just one really clear call to action per episode. Put the link in the description above the fold so they shouldn't have to click the more button to get to it. Say it verbally and have a visual on screen and pin a comment with the link. Remove every possible reason for them not taking that action. And then the fourth step is to time it right. So you want to kind of sprinkle mentions of what you're going to CTA early on to plant the seed. And then you want to have a full call to action in the middle third when they're most engaged. And then finally a quick reminder at the end of the video. And the beauty of YouTube is that successful videos get views for years. So you might be seeing this video several years after the moment that I'm recording it. I know that now I still get leads every single day from YouTube videos I published three plus years ago. That is leverage that I'm telling you, you cannot get audio podcasting. Okay, so I just gave you everything, the exact framework that's working right now for podcasters who have been stuck for years. Number one, level one is make one promise. Level two is win the click. Level three is keep them watching. And level four is get them to buy. This is how you grow a podcast on YouTube. Now, like I said before, if you want my personal feedback on your show as you implement this, I do work with a small group of podcasters directly. The link is below to learn more about that. And either way, let me know in the comments. Which of these four levels do you feel that you need the most improvement on? Look, the future Biggest fans of your podcast are searching on YouTube right now. It is time that they found you. Best of luck and I'll see you in the next episode of Grow the Show. If you're a podcaster trying to grow.
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On YouTube and you're still spending hours editing, or you're working with a team that just cleans up the audio and.
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Calls it a day, you need to.
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Check out Podcast Boutique. They've been my go to production team for over five years and now they've built something that's tailor made for YouTube first podcasters. It's called record and forget and it's exactly what it sounds like. You record your episode, send them the raw files, and they take it from there. High quality audio and video editing, titles, thumbnails, description, show notes, uploads, clips, everything. But here's what makes them different. They don't just polish the content. They help you script your content, cut the fluff out, shorten your episodes and increase viewer retention. They helped you script your content, trim the fat, shorten your episodes and increase viewer retention, which is the number one factor in YouTube growth right now. And because they're in lockstep with me anytime I uncover a tactic that helps podcasts grow and monetize, especially on YouTube, they implement it for their other clients too. So if you're still diying post production or you're not seeing results from your current team, go to podcastboutique.com and tell them that I sent you. All right, I'll see you next time.