School of Podcasting: Expert Tips for Launching and Growing Your Podcast

Episode Title: How Do I Grow My Podcast Audience?
Host: Dave Jackson
Date: September 8, 2025

Episode Overview

This milestone episode (#1000...ish) of the School of Podcasting dives deep into one of the most frequently asked questions in podcasting: “How do I grow my podcast audience?” Drawing from 20 years of hands-on experience, Dave Jackson explores fundamental truths about audience growth, the nature of truly remarkable content, the importance of delivery, and actionable strategies to avoid common pitfalls. Along the way, he shares personal anecdotes, expert insights, and listener feedback, emphasizing both practical techniques and the mindset needed to stick with podcasting long-term.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Understanding Your Who and Why

• Identify your audience (“Who”)
  • Be specific – “It can’t be everybody, and it even can't be men between 25 and 50... they're way different." (01:10)
  • Go beyond demographics; consider psychographics: personality, values, interests, beliefs, lifestyle (01:30)
  • Delivering value starts with knowing exactly who you serve.
• Clarify your “Why”
  • Don’t start, “because everyone seems to have a podcast.” (02:10)
  • Use your show to achieve specific goals: establishing expertise, building relationships, growing influence, etc.
  • “If you don’t get your why, you quit.” (02:30)
  • Main cause of shrinking your show? Quitting.

2. Content: Making it Remarkable, Not Just Good

• Solve a real problem for your listeners
  • Chanel Basilo (from Growth in Reverse): Episodes should do at least one of these: solve a problem, help make/save money/time, make listeners “laugh, cry, think, or groan," provide education or unique info, be entertaining, first to break news, or exclusive. (05:00)
• E.E.A.T.– Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness (plus Relevance)
  • Google's criteria for great content (09:00)
  • “When you are relevant, it’s huge—you grow trust through that connection.”
  • "People don't have shorter attention spans. They have a better ability to spot time-wasters." (10:50)
• Remarkability vs. Goodness
  • “Good gets you in the game. Remarkable gets people talking.” (12:29)
  • Examples:
    • A good restaurant: “...the food is fine, and you leave satisfied. But a remarkable restaurant… you can’t stop telling people about it.” (13:00)
    • Trivia show about Donna Summer (good, but not share-worthy info), versus Saki This podcast about Japan’s $1/night livestream hotels (remarkable). (15:00)

3. Delivery: How You Present the Show

• Your Voice, Schedule, and Presence
  • Includes technical quality, artwork, website (yes, you must have one! Not just a Linktree.) (17:10)
  • "...Trying to grow my audience." “What’s your website?” “Oh, I don’t have one.” (17:45)
• Podcast Consistency
  • Fit your show into your life, not the other way around.
  • Caution on seasons: “I’m not a fan of seasons at all… if you’ve become part of someone’s routine and disappear, they may replace you.” (20:00)
  • "Record a couple episodes and time it to fit your life." (20:45)
• First Impressions Matter
  • “About 10% of your audience will give you one minute. 40% will give you five. And 41% won’t give a second chance if you blow it.” (22:10)

4. Reflecting and Self-Auditing

• Take your own advice—or at least know why you don’t
  • Dave critiques his own show (“Ask the Podcast Coach”) for self-indulgent chit-chat & ads up front—bad for newcomers, fine for his current goals (23:00)
  • “So many people ask for advice and don’t follow it..."
• The Role of Fun and Personal Satisfaction
  • “You can get paid in fun… that’s why I do it.” (25:00)

5. Community Building & Listening to Feedback

• Direct connections produce better content
  • "I would not put my community in a Facebook group… you don’t own it, they do." (30:00)
  • Suggests platforms like System for free, owned communities.
  • Observing listener questions in communities leads to more relevant, problem-solving content.
• Surveys and Notes
  • Constantly ask for feedback—good and bad. Sometimes feedback leads to key insights (like knowing your audience’s “frog” interests are accidental). (34:00)
  • Not all notes are usable, but always evaluate them for validity.

6. The Work—Quality Above All

• Preparation/Research
  • Jordan Harbinger example: “Read the book!” before author interviews—preparation = better, more valuable content. (36:00)
• Be Consistent in Quality, Not Just Schedule
  • “There is only quality. That’s the thing that matters.” (38:00)
  • “I’d rather get a late episode that’s amazing than an on-time episode that’s just ok.”

7. Why Podcasts Lose Listeners

• Top reasons people quit before episodes finish:
  • Boring content (40%)
  • Meaningless or irrelevant chit-chat at start (33%)
  • Host repeats themselves, talks too slowly, or includes “inside jokes” newcomers can’t follow
  • Reference to visual content no one can see (e.g., “Look at this in the upper right…”). (41:00)
  • Attempts to be too funny or clever with introductions
• "The title is a promise—deliver as fast as possible." (41:20)
• “There’s no such thing as too long, only too boring." (56:10, attributing Valerie Gower)

8. How to Market Effectively (Smart Marketing)

• Downloads = Value x Smart Marketing
  • Know who your audience is, go where they are, make friends, then tell them about your podcast. (45:00)
  • Consider cross-promotion with similar podcasts: “Embrace them, don’t treat them as competition.” (45:35)
  • Put your best episodes first—front-load your website and feeds.
  • Smart paid marketing = advertise where you KNOW podcast listeners are (e.g., podcast apps, not random postcards).

9. Dealing with Stats and Slow Growth

• Completion stats are humbling but instructive.
  • Apple & Spotify dashboards reveal how far people actually listen.
  • Treat drop-offs and low numbers as feedback, not failure—opportunities to improve. (47:00)
• Success takes patience and persistence
  • Cites Jerry Seinfeld as an inspiration: 4 years to get on Carson, 9 years as a guest, 13 years before a TV show, 4 years for Seinfeld to gain traction. (50:00)
  • "Do it for the fun. Do it for serving others. Don’t quit too soon.”

10. The One Thing Dave Would Do Differently

• FOCUS on One, Remarkable Show
  • “If I were to do it again, I’d do one show. And it would be amazing.” (55:00)
  • Launching a podcast is easy; building an audience is hard.
  • Better to have one show everybody remembers than several mediocre ones.

11. Memorable Moments & Notable Quotes

• The Triple Imperative:
  • “If you don’t get your why, you quit. If you don’t educate or entertain the who, you never grow an audience.” (03:03)
• On Remarkability:
  • “Don’t be boring. Thank you, Glenn Hebert.” (11:00)
• On Chit-Chat:
  • “When the chit-chat is relevant to the topic, it’s fine… The title is a promise.” (41:20)
• On Smart Marketing:
  • "Anywhere there’s a group that’s your audience, go there. Make friends first, then tell them you have a show." (45:00)
• On Listener Loyalty:
  • “When you stop losing the audience you have, it’s the fastest way to grow.” (24:01 approx.)
• On Measurement:
  • “Unsolicited shout-outs—that’s a great metric. If people are reaching out without you asking, it’s resonating.” (61:30)

12. Listener/Expert Highlight:

• Jack Recider (Host, Darknet Diaries) on Word-of-Mouth Growth:
  • “If you can make the audience love the show so they have to go tell someone else about it, then they become marketers for your show.” — Jack Recider (57:20)
  • “I was asking people to call, text someone and say, ‘I just listened to this podcast, you’d love it.’ That was my call to action.”

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:35 — Opening: The “Who” and “Why” of Podcasting
• 05:00 — Content must-haves (solving problems, E.E.A.T., relevance)
• 12:29 — Good vs. Remarkable content (restaurant/concert/movie analogies)
• 17:10 — Delivery: Voice, Website, and Professionalism
• 20:00 — Warning about seasons & consistency in production
• 22:10 — How audience attention works: First impressions and forever judgments
• 23:00 — Dave critiques his own show format
• 25:00 — “Paid in fun”—sustainable motivation
• 30:00 — Community: Why to avoid Facebook groups, how to build your audience hub
• 34:00 — Value of surveys and actionable listener feedback
• 36:00 — Doing the work: Preparation, quality over quantity
• 40:00 — Why listeners quit (stats and behaviors)
• 45:00 — Marketing: Smart, audience-specific promotion
• 47:00 — Embracing stats, rejection, and long-term growth
• 50:00 — Jerry Seinfeld’s timeline (and lesson)
• 53:45 — The one thing Dave would change: Focus
• 57:20 — [Guest Clip] Jack Recider on creating word-of-mouth
• 61:30 — Measuring your impact: unsolicited feedback

Notable Quotes & Speaker Attribution

• Dave Jackson (01:32): “You need to know your audience. Demographics is just age and sex, but psychographics—what people believe in, their values, interests, all of that—makes up who it is.”
• Dave Jackson (03:03): “If you don’t get your why, you quit. If you don’t educate or entertain the who, you never grow an audience.”
• Dave Jackson (10:50): “We don't have shorter attention spans. We have a better ability to spot time-wasters.”
• Dave Jackson (13:00): “A good restaurant, you leave satisfied; a remarkable one, you can’t stop telling people about.”
• Dave Jackson (56:10, quoting Valerie Gower): “There is no such thing as too long, only too boring.”
• Jack Recider (Guest, 57:20): "If you can make the audience love the show so that they have to go tell someone else about it, then they're going to become marketers for your show and your show is going to spread."
• Dave Jackson (61:30): “Unsolicited shout-outs… that’s a great metric. If people reach out without you asking, you’re resonating.”

Conclusion & Takeaways

Dave reinforces that podcast growth is fundamentally about two things: remarkable content and effective delivery—both guided by a deep knowledge of your specific audience and a clear reason for making the show. All the tactics—communities, marketing, feedback, and self-improvement—serve these two pillars. Growth is not quick, not guaranteed, and not the only form of benefit, but with patience, listener-focus, and continual self-improvement, you can build a show worth sharing.

Action step:
Strive for “remarkable.” Deliver on your episode titles’ promises quickly, make meaningful connections, learn from feedback, and never lose sight of why you started. If you must err, let it be in pursuit of service, fun, and ever-better content.