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I have a question for you. What if the most powerful podcast that you could create is not the show that you produce an episode for every single week for years, but instead is a show that you decide to put an end to before you record your first episode? After you leave this talk, I hope that I will convince every single one of you who has a regular ongoing podcast to launch a separate podcast that will never have more than five to 10 episodes. We're going to talk about the limited series podcast. This is a laser focused podcast on a very, very extremely targeted niche. So instead of doing online business with Cliff Ravenscraft, what if instead it is seven proven strategies for building your email list for online businesses. With Cliff Ravenscraft, you are solving one problem for one very specific audience. You are going to provide one transformation growth of that email list. You will never have more than five to 10 episodes in this podcast feed and you will know how many episodes there will be before you hit record on the first episode so that you can say hello and welcome to episode one of seven on the seven strategies for how to grow your email list for online business owners. Every episode is then going to end with a very clear call to action of where you want to point that person to next. Now I know what some of you are saying. Who the heck has Time for another podcast. Some of us are struggling to grow. Our existing weekly show. I just spoke to somebody in the audience over here, has over 100 episodes, and they're like, hey, you know, it's kind of like our show audience has plateaued a little bit. Some of us, maybe how many of you have seen a little bit of a decline in your subscription numbers over the years? Exactly. So you might be thinking, if I'm putting all this time, effort and energy every single week into my main show, and I can't even beat this curve where it's going on, the downward trend, why on earth would I take any time, effort, and energy away from that to go launch another show? I'm about ready to explain why. There are five benefits to the limited series podcast, and the first one is that it is easier to discover. Very few people today are getting out of bed and say, you know what? I wonder if there is a new, new podcast that has been active for years that has hundreds of episodes that I can subscribe to and listen to everything that they produce. Now, I know that there are exceptions, and there are some people who do that right. However, everyone on this planet wakes up every day with obstacles. They run into roadblocks, they have struggles, they have pains. And you know what? They're all looking for solutions to that. The next thing is that a podcast is easier to binge. A limited series is easier to binge. When you target your target audience, find your podcast, and they're searching for email marketing strategies, and they're hoping maybe to find a couple of podcasts in the search results, and they come across some episode titles that seem to indicate that how many have done this. You've actually done a search for a topic and you found a couple of episodes, and you don't have any idea what the show is, but you subscribe to it. And now all of a sudden, it's somewhere in the feed and you don't know where that episode is. Anybody have that happen? Exactly. Now, what if in that search there's an actual podcast that is titled what you were looking for, you would probably check that out first and hit subscribe, or at least click through and click play. And if you found that podcast episode engaging and you found value from it immediately, within 90 seconds or within the first five minutes of the episode, and you realize there's only seven episodes. What's all of us going to do? We're going to binge the entire seven episodes. And because of that benefit, number three is it's easier to build trust. You See, a limited series podcast is going to build confidence quickly. And I'm not talking about your confidence as a host. It is going to build the confidence that your audience that has just found you. It's going to build their confidence in your ability to provide solutions for them. After somebody listens to your six episodes in a row on a problem they care deeply about, they feel like they know you. They had never heard your name before during that search and finding that podcast, but now they feel like they know you. But more importantly, let's just say it's an hour per episode. They've just listened to you for seven hours over the last three days. They actually feel like you know them because you speak their exact language. They're like, oh, my gosh, this guy must be reading my journal with all of this knowledge of my pains and my problem. And I'm so thrilled to be introduced to this solution. These listeners from this limited series podcast are going to be more likely to subscribe to your weekly, ongoing podcast than anyone who hears you as a guest in a single episode of another podcast. Now, let me just say this. I am a fan of being a guest in a single episode of of other people's podcasts. In fact, for nearly 20 years, I have gone throughout the world to say it is the single greatest way for you to grow your podcast audience. And I could still make an argument for it. It's not the topic of this today, but I will say that it might be tied with the limited series today benefit number four. It's easier to recommend. Which of these scenarios do you think will convert more subscribers? How many in here are interested in having a proven strategy for building your email list for your online business? Raise your hand. All right. By the way, I don't have this podcast. It's just an example. What if I told you I know a guy who has a podcast? He's been podcasting for the last 15 years. He's got about 7, 800 episodes in his archive feed. And you know what? This guy did a series of podcast episodes. There were seven of them back. I don't know if it was October 2018 or October 2019, I can't remember which, but there were seven episodes. His podcast is named such and such. Go subscribe to it and go see if you can't search and scroll up and down and stuff like that, and see if you can't find email strategy series or something like that. It's really. I promise you it'll be worth your time. Honestly, how many of you are going to go home and do that. Nobody. What if I told you, hey, there's a guy named Cliff Ravenscraft that I know. He's got this series called 7 Proven Strategies for Growing your email list. Now I've heard lots of people talk about growing your email list, but this was the most practical, straightforward, no nonsense advice. Every single episode had a homework assignment. He told me not to listen to the second episode until I committed to have completed the first assignment. After the first episode, this thing is rock solid. My email list has grown. It's amazing. You should check it out. By the way, it's over at 7Proven Steps.com. how many of you are going to go and check that out? Exactly. And they go to 7Proven Steps.com or whatever it is. And by the way, why do they remember that? Because it's been branded in their head in the call to action. And throughout the thing, they heard it seven different times. This call to action. Share this with your friends, share this with somebody you know. Also, they got into your email list and it's been branded through the email follow ups and all these other things. So they actually have this ready to go and tell the world about this short series podcast. And you don't have to tell them where to go look, so it's easier to recommend. The fifth benefit is it's easier to convert. You see, a limited series podcast is meant for movement. It's meant to take somebody who has never heard your name ever and to introduce them to the fact that you have a solution to their problem. You notice I did not say that it's designed to introduce them to you. They don't care about you yet. It's meant to introduce them to the fact that you have a solution to to the problem they've been searching for. The answer to every single episode should be pushing that person forward towards resolution of the problem. Having them solve the issue, overcoming the obstacle, giving them the desired outcome that they had in mind when they were searching for that key phrase in the first place. Keep moving them forward. And then at the end of every episode, you do something to get them into your email list. Give them some sort of amazing quick win guide or something like that. But give them this at the end of every episode, tell them where you want to go and if you wanted to, you could even put a call to action. Hey, if you like this content, you might also be interested in such and such show. Assuming that this is actually targeting your target audience for your main weekly show. There's no awkward pitch, it's just the obvious Next step, whether it's the next step towards the solution, and now that they have actually come to know, like, and trust you, it's the next step to take with you and the relationship that has been established. And those are the five benefits. Now I want to share with you how I stumbled across this. So in April 2010, I launched a podcast called the Virtual Assistant Podcast. I launched it because I had hired my first virtual assistant. Before then. I didn't even know what a virtual assistant was. I was learning as I went. I was so excited in my show, Podcast Answer man, talking about how this was benefiting my podcasting journey. And so I talked about it for probably six or seven weeks. And eventually, people were continuing to ask me questions about virtual assistants. But my podcast is not Virtual Assistant Answer Man. It's Podcast Answer Man. Now, this strategy was not in my mind. Again, this is how I stumbled across this strategy. And so what I did is I went and launched a separate podcast called the Virtual Assistant Podcast. In fact, I found a sponsor before I recorded my first episode, and they agreed to sponsor me. And I was only going to do this for three to six months. Turns out it was so successful for them that they begged me to drag it out for nine months. So it went from April through December 2010. Here's what you need to understand. I have not published or produced a single episode in over 15 years. Outside of this talk, I rarely ever mention that I ever did the Virtual Assistant podcast. Fun little detail. Since I have enough time. How many people here ever watched Tiger King during the pandemic? How many people know Carole Baskin? If you were to listen to all 38 episodes, eventually you'll find where Carole Baskin called in an audio question for her. Tiger. Whatever. Yeah. And so Carole Baskin was one of my listeners way before Tiger King. Yes. So a little fun thing. It's a little hidden Easter egg. I didn't even know it was in there until one of my listeners when Tiger King was out, he's like, cliff, did you know? As a matter of fact, it was John Sanders. John Sanders said, do you know that Carole Baskin from Tiger King is on your podcast? I'm like, no, I did not know that. I had to go find it. All right, so, anyway, so I did this podcast, the important thing. Nothing in over 15 years. And it produces $75,000 in annual revenue for me every single year today. Who in here would like to know how on earth is that possible? Here are the details. In the last 30 days, 28 new people found episode 38 of the Virtual Assistant podcast. Of those four of the 38 people who listened to at least a portion of episode 38, four of them are currently working their way through all 38 episodes. And they will listen to, by the way. That's a port approximately 30 hours of listening to me give them the answers to what they want to know about virtual assistants. 30 hours. Now this happens every single month. And also almost every one of those four people each month end up becoming a subscriber to my other main podcasts and my email list. That's a whopping new 48 new subscribers every single year. How many people get excited about 48 new subscribers every single year? I do. And you're about ready to see why. Because an average of five of these 48 people become a one on one coaching client, with me averaging at three $15,000 for the year when they sign up. That is $75,000 a year from a podcast I haven't touched in over 15 years. Now, how many people in here can obviously just see it's just absolute logic that if there were only 7 instead of 38, this would be much higher. How about a podcast that I created that only has six episodes? This is one where I actually recognized the pattern and I went and created a short series podcast for this exact purpose. You see, I host paid mastermind groups for people who are entrepreneurs. When I launched this podcast in October 2021, I only sent one email to my list and I only mentioned it one time in two of my podcasts. So only three mentions to my existing audience. It was intentional that I did not market this because I wanted to test this strategy. By the way, I did market it to those people just to start the word of mouth buzz. But my idea isn't to take my existing audience and throw them out to another show. My idea was to go attract a new audience of people who had never heard of me before. You see, I do my business strategy and mindset podcast related stuff in a show called the Cliff Ravenscraft Show. And most people, believe it or not, nobody who's never heard my name before wakes up and says, I wonder if I can go find a podcast about a guy named Cliff Ravenscraft. But basically $90,000 was generated from four people who discovered my podcast within the first 45 days. These are four people who had never heard the name Cliff Ravenscraft before. One of them said, cliff, the reason why I'm signing up with you today is this. I was going on a road trip before I went on this road trip. I was about ready to sign up for a $25,000 a year paid mastermind group with a bunch of entrepreneurs. I didn't know if it would be a worthy investment. I was leaning towards it. It seemed very good. I was just kind of on the fence, so I figured, I'm going on a road trip. I went into audible. I went to see if there would be an audio book on mastermind groups. He says there was none, but it did show me a podcast called upgrade your peer group the power of mastermind groups. And I'm like, I'll check it out. So he listens to all six episodes of my podcast. So we spent six hours together on his road trip, and when he got home, he made the decision to contact me. We got on a call and he paid me $15,000 instead of that guy, $25,000. He's like, oh, my gosh, you saved me $10,000, Cliff. And I'm excited to be a part of your group now. I started this podcast in October 2021. I've done nothing to promote it, nothing to promote it, except for the first 2000 people I know came from people who already knew me. However, over 7,000 people have listened to all six episodes. There's one where there are like 300 people who listened to the latest episode number seven who didn't go back. So out of 7,300 people, there were 7,000 who listened to all six. 5,000 of these people had never heard my name before. Three episodes came from the archives of the Cliff Ravenscraft show. These are episodes I did with Pat Flynn, Michael Stelzner, and Ray Edwards. And I just had conversations with them about our experience in mastermind groups. These are all very well known people. I leaned into that a little bit, and so I just went and took those out of the archives. I chopped off the opening. I chopped off the end from. From the Cliff Ravenscraft show. And I recorded a brand new intro and a brand new call to action at the end of each of those three episodes. And then I did something different with the other episodes. I created new content. So that's where the six episodes came from. I didn't have to create it all from scratch. I already had lots of valuable evergreen content in my archives that people are never gonna find on their own. I used every single episode to promote my paid mastermind group, which is $15,000 a year. Four people within 45 days, within a month and a half of launching this podcast, four new people who never heard of me before that month and a half ago signed up for my paid Mastermind group at $15,000. Two of them renewed for a second year. That's $90,000. That came as a direct result from four people who found this podcast within the first 4:45 days. What does this make possible for you? Imagine creating a limited series podcast that could become an evergreen on ramp to something bigger with you to introduce people to the fact that you have solutions to their problems. And you're going to do it by solving the one that they most recently have been searching for the answer to. You could do a five episode series to promote the sales of your book. You could do a seven episode series to introduce a coaching program. You could do a 10 episode series to warm up an audience before your live event. You could do an infinite number of short series podcasts. Now how many people in here are excited to go launch a separate podcast that has no more than five to 10 episodes? My job is complete. I just want to let you guys know that you can find me@podcastanswerman.com My email address is there. It's cliffodcastanswerman.com In 20 years, there's never been a person who's emailed me that. I did not personally reply to their email. I am one of the most approachable people you will ever reach out to and I want to encourage you to ask me questions. I would love to be of service to you and with that, we're going to move to Q and A.
