← The Goal Digger Podcast | Top Business and Marketing Podcast for Creatives, Entrepreneurs, and Women in Business
The Goal Digger Podcast | Top Business and Marketing Podcast for Creatives, Entrepreneurs, and Women in Business
890: Start a Podcast in 2025? Here’s Why You Should (and How to Nail the Launch)
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Jenna Kutcher
Treat it like a real launch because your podcast is exactly that. Like launching a podcast is a real launch and you want to think through it thoughtfully so that you can get that momentum that will not only boost your morale in the whole process, but will get people excited to subscribe and share the show. I'm Jenna Kutcher, your host of the Gold Digger podcast. I escaped the corporate world at the age of 23 with nothing more than a 300 camera from Craigslist and a dream. Now I'm running a seven figure online business that feels even better than it looks, all from my house in small town Minnesota with my family Here, we value time as our currency. We mix the woo and the work and we are in the pursuit of building businesses that give us the freedom to live lives that we love. I've always loved turning big goals into reality and I'm here to help you do the same. This isn't just a peek behind the curtain. Come along with me and my guests as we tear the whole curtain down. Every week we tackle practice practical no fluff marketing strategies and host honest discussions on what works and what doesn't. Join me and my expert guests for actionable insights to help you grow your dream business with confidence. Pull up a seat and get ready to be challenged, inspired and empowered. This is the Goal Digger Podcast if you've been telling yourself that it is too late to start a podcast or that the podcasting space is too crowded, I am here to lovingly call you out. The truth is, there has never been a better time to start a podcast. The industry is booming, listener numbers are climbing, and podcasting is one of the only platforms where you get someone's full attention and you get to enter their life wherever they're at. Whether they're on a walk, doing the dishes, driving to the grocery store, and let me tell you, there is still plenty of room for fresh, specific, binge worthy shows. Now here's the twist. It's kind of a hot take. Podcasting is still booming, but winging it? Well, that's not a strategy. We are way past the era of sitting in your closet with your iPhone and hoping your tangents turn into downloads. You don't have to be fancy, don't get me wrong, but you do need a plan. A podcast isn't just a creative outlet anymore. It's a launch pad, a brand builder, a money maker. Even if you're just getting started. In today's episode, I am breaking down why right now is actually the best possible time to enter the podcasting space. And how to launch in a way that sets you up for success, not burnout. I'll walk you through what, what's working, what's changed, and what you need in place. If you want a podcast to grow your brand or business, and if you're serious about launching and monetizing your own show, I have a free masterclass that walks you through this entire plan, from setup to strategy. We're talking gear to making money. Go grab your free seat@teachmetopodcast.com that's teachmetopodcast.com get your seat. Because sometimes seeing is believing. All right, let's get into it. My brother knew something that I didn't know he could see, something that I absolutely could not see. My older brother gave me a microphone that he had bought for a project, and years before I even started my podcast, he had said to me, you know, Jen, I think you should do a podcast. And I remember literally laughing at him saying, I'm going to run out of things to talk about on episode three. Well, turns out I have a lot to say. We're on episode 800 and something, and my brother was right. But I will never forget the day that I finally decided to go all in. Maybe my brother planted a seed and that seed finally sprouted, but the day that I decided to go all in, I was actually in the shower. I don't know about you, and maybe it's my adhd, but I get the best thoughts and ideas in the shower. In fact, I know some of my listeners actually have notepads and in their showers so that they can take notes. They're like these cool waterproof ones that you can buy on Amazon. But I was listening to my now friend, Amy Porterfield. She did not know who I was. I was just a devoted listener of her podcast. Her podcast was the first podcast I ever listened to. Before I even knew that our phones had a podcast app on them. I would literally go to her website every single week and hit play on the little player on her website to tune into her show. And I learned so much from her. And I'll never forget that day. I'm in the shower, I set my phone into a cup because I didn't have an MP3 speaker. And so the cup was kind of making the sound go a little bit louder so I could hear it over the suds. And Amy was talking about an offer that she was working on. She didn't even have it done. There was no sales page. It wasn't for sale yet. And I remember thinking, As I stood in the shower, take my money. Like, here's my credit card right now. I want whatever it is you're building. Because the truth was, she had been my mentor. She had taught me so many things, she had given me so much value for free, that whatever she put out next, I wanted to buy it. I was willing to invest. And I literally reached out of the shower that day because I realized how much Amy had served me and how valuable that had been in my life and how she had created this devoted fan even when she didn't even know I existed. And I saw how powerful podcasting had been because she had changed my life. I hadn't even given her a penny at this, and she had changed my life. And when I really started to recognize the power of podcasting and the way that you can really make a difference was the day that I reached out of the shower and voice memo. The one person I had on my team at the time, she was a part time virtual assistant. Her name was Caitlin. And I sent her a voice message and I said, hey, I think in my quote, off season as a wedding photographer, I'm going to start a podcast. Why not launch it in the next 30 days? Literally, what happened? Now, this was years and years ago, but the thing is, is that this is still true today. You might not be able to name an Instagram post that made you actually go through and buy a course, but you probably could remember the podcast episode that gave you so much free value you wanted to pay more. The truth is, is that podcasting is working better than ever in 2025. Now, I'm not new to the game. I've been around here for a long time. And I know even when I started years ago, I felt like I was late, right? Like I was seeing people like Amy, and she had already been years into the podcasting game. But what's amazing is that podcasting is one of the only industries that is still rapidly growing. There are over 460 million people expected to tune into podcasts just this year. Now, one thing that I love about podcasting is podcasting is this platform where people can give you their undivided attention. They can be fully engaged even while they're doing things in their life, while they're walking, driving, working, often for 30 to 60 minutes. When you think about the landscape of social media these days, we are dying to get people to spend eight seconds with us on a reel that we're creating, right? We're just trying to trick people into giving us their attention to get engagement. But the reality is, is that podcasting is this amazing opportunity to enter into the lives of the people that you want to impact, to literally be invited into some of their most intimate, sacred moments, whether they're gardening or they're driving to their cabin, or they're on an airplane. Like, you think of all the different places you might have listened to this podcast. Like, I feel so, so valued that I get to enter into your life. One thing that I love about podcasting that I don't think people understand or think about enough is that a podcast is basically like a living library. Unlike Instagram or TikTok, episodes don't just disappear after 24 hours or get buried by an algorithm. They're still working, they're still serving, they're still available. Get this. So for our downloads, half of our monthly downloads come from new episodes, but the other half all come from our backlog, meaning people are still constantly binging on the archives. Yes, the latest and greatest content is exciting for us, and hopefully exciting for you too. But the reality is, is that a lot of times people are searching for specific topics or episodes, they're going back into the archives. And I love that. I love that episodes that I recorded three years ago are still getting people. Results are still landing in the homes and the earbuds of the people that I created it for. And so podcasting is an amazing way to create long form content, to build out a living library, and to create content that allows you to, to enter into the lives of the people you're creating for. Not just for 10 seconds, not for a minute, but for minutes and even hours. Now, all of this to say is that podcasting is just growing. But one thing that I want you to consider if you are thinking about starting a show is that as podcasting explodes, one thing is thriving more than others, and that is niche content. If you are considering starting a podcast, which I hope you are, you want to think about how you can create specific, helpful, focused content. Because when you do that, let me tell you, people will search for it, people will find it, and people will stay for it. Now, one of the things that I love is that I have been talking a lot about just some of my frustrations around social media these days. I feel like, you know, we've spent decades trying to grow this following, and now with algorithm changes, the people that are following us aren't even seeing our content. And all we're trying to do is catch the attention of people long enough to engage with it. But engagement doesn't even really lead to results, which is where I just have a lot of trust issues and where my whole premise of time being my currency just doesn't line up right. It just doesn't add up for how much time social media takes. Have a really hard time connecting that investment to real results. And so one of the reasons why I love my podcast is because I feel like long form content builds trust in a much deeper way. Right? You're not fighting for just five seconds of attention. You're invited into someone's life. This leads to more connection and conversion. It leads to greater results and it leads to greater change. Like we are in this really interesting era where you are consuming so much information in such a short amount of time. In fact, my grandpa, who was 96, I was looking because I was so curious, like, what was life like for him when he was growing up? Like, how did he consume information and news? We get way more information in 10 minutes than somebody who is 96 got in an entire year. Right? We are just so exposed. And so when we're scrolling on social, it's like you're at a baby shower one minute and then you're grieving somebody's loss the next minute and then you're seeing another tragedy and then the world is on fire. And I mean, it's like so much information overload. And I think that people are craving to go deeper and not wider. I think we're overwhelmed by how wide and how diverse the amount of information that is coming at us is. And so I am obsessed with long form content because as somebody who loves to give context, as somebody who loves to share stories, as somebody who loves to get people results, not just giving people information, but helping them actually implement long form content allows us to do that. And it is a lot easier for me to connect the dots between long form content and connection and conversion than somebody who is just passively scrolling. Okay. My team has been using Monday.com for years. It's how we manage launches, projects and all the moving pieces in our business. When we made the switch, everything changed. We went from scattered docs and slack chaos to a single space where everyone could see what's happening and when. That's why I was excited to learn that Monday.comcrm platform brings the same clarity to customer relationships. It's fast, flexible, and built for adoption. Giving your revenue and customer facing teams a CRM that they'll actually enjoy using. And it's more than just managing contacts. Monday's CRM connects your entire customer journey from first touch to long term retention, bringing sales, success and operations together in one fully customizable workspace with AI at its core. It takes care of the heavy lifting like lead scoring, forecasting and auto generated summaries so that your team can focus on closing deals, not chasing them. Move deals faster with an AI powered CRM your team will actually use. Visit Monday.com CRM to learn more. We've been eyeing up some new furniture pieces for a lake house and we have been loving Cozy because their furniture is amazing. Like it's so hard to choose because we love their vibe. It is clean, cozy and modern and it's seriously made for real life with a brand new puppy and two kiddos who love to climb on everything and snacks that somehow get everywhere. We need furniture that adapts to us, not the other way around and Cozy gets that. They make everyday home furnishings easy. Their pieces are modern, adaptable and worry free, which is honestly a dream when you are juggling a puppy and kids and just everyday life. What I love most about Cozy is how it opens up new home possibilities. Their modular designs literally grow with your life. Like you can add and rearrange or swap pieces as you need and they have washable covers which make cleanup feel so much more doable. It's your home, your way and Cozy makes it all feel effortless. From easy assembly to mixing and matching styles. Cozy makes everything easy. I've never been more excited to Cozy up. And yes, this pun is very much intended. Transform your living space today with cozy. Visit cozy.com spelled C-O Z E Y.com the home of possibilities made easy. So this leads me to my next point. And that is, and as much as I hate to say this, this is the honest truth. You cannot just wing it anymore. Let me tell you, your girl was winging it when she started it. Let me tell you when I started this podcast. You probably know the origin story, but in case you don't, I started this very podcast parked in my car with Target throw pillows on the dashboard to quote, muffle the sound. I didn't even use the microphone my brother had graciously given me because I didn't even know which cord was needed and how to connect a USB mic and how to make sure that microphone was recording. I sat down with my iPhone headphones in the front seat of my parked car in my garage and hit record. Now it worked. Because these were the early days, right? I feel like my kids lately have been saying, was that the olden days, Mom? And most of the time I'm saying yes Drew and I literally had a conversation the other day about how my gymnastics floor music was on a cassette tape. And when we all did floor routines, we would have two cassette tapes going. One would be rewinding and one would be playing. And we were just laughing because we're like, oh my gosh, we're so old. But the reality is, is when it comes to podcasting, you don't want to wing it. Like, I don't want you to wing it. Even though I was winging it, I did a lot of things right. Let me just express why this is so important. This is kind of a fun fact, but also slightly depressing. Most podcasts don't make it past seven episodes. That's not just a statistic. That is a podcast graveyard. There are thousands, probably tens of thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands of shows that never made it past seven episodes. Does that tell you something? It tells you that a lot of times if you are going into this just kind of saying, let's just see how it goes, it's probably not going to go far. A lot of people start out super excited, right? Maybe they buy the gear, they create the canva graphic templates of vision board, but then they hit week three and they think, wait, what am I going to even talk about next? What do I have to say? I've already said everything I wanted to say. Where is this going to go now? I am someone who is neurodivergent. I have adhd. Or maybe you're someone with just high energy or you have this big vision brain like I do. If that's you, you've probably had these moments where you're like so excited, you're all in and then the excitement wears off. And a lot of times the excitement wears off fast when systems aren't in place, when you don't actually have a rhythm to what this is going to look like when it doesn't naturally fit into your life. And that's why I don't want you to wing it. I want you to think long term. This is so important if you want to have a successful show. Now, when it comes to winging it, it doesn't mean that you have to have like a fancy studio or the best mic on the block. Audio quality doesn't have to be expensive, but we want to just be intentional with the pieces of our show listeners. They're going to forgive a lot, but they're not going to forgive like super echoey or hard to hear rambly audio with no point. We want clarity. People that are Listening don't want their time wasted. They want clarity, not chaos. They want to know why they're tuning in, what they're going to get out of listening, and where it is you're leading them. So I want you to have a vision. Well past episode number seven, I want for you to start this show with intention. So if you're considering starting a show, or maybe you have a show that hit episode seven and you're like, dude, I'm over it. I don't know. These are the things that every podcast should be able to answer. One, who is this show for? Who's it for? Two, what transformation will they experience? They being the listener when they tune in, and where do you want to guide them next? These three questions are going to answer a ton of your questions, and they're also going to help you really get crystal clear with clarity on what is the vision for this thing? Now, for me, I take this a step further and I go down by episode and say, what is the end promise of this episode? Like, for every single episode of the Gold Digger podcast, I am asking myself, what is the ruler that you, the listener, are going to hold this experience up to? Right? If I'm telling you why 2025 is a great time to start a podcast and why you can't just wing it anymore, how am I delivering that inside of this episode? What I want for every episode to lead to a potential transformation. Now, I understand you might not implement every bit of information from the show, but I want to give you information that you can implement. Because if I can get you results for free, then you will be curious about what is next for you, right? Where do you want to guide them next? I want this show to not be a dead end. I don't want for you to finish listening an episode and be like, cool, now what I want this show to be an invitation into transformation. And so again, the three questions, who is this show for? What transformation will they experience, and where do you want to guide them next? If you can't answer these three questions, there is a very good chance that you will not run a successful show and that you'll get burnt out because you're not actually tying it to anything tangible and you're not thoughtfully leading it to real results. So pod fade is what we call it when people just fade out into the ether where the podcast just lives and dies, is real. It's not just burnout, but building something without infrastructure to support it. It's real. You've probably seen this happen in your life. In a million different ways. When you're trying to eat cleaner, or you're on a new workout regimen, or you have this new business idea, you've probably experienced this type of burnout. And it's not because the idea or the thought behind it or the intention behind it wasn't good. It was because you didn't build out infrastructure or systems to actually support it. So my advice here is to answer those three questions, but also to harness your excitement and challenge yourself to start as simple as possible. Start small, start simpler. That is actually the smartest strategy when it comes to podcasting. A lot of times you'll get on a roll and you're like, I want to just get all of these episodes out into the world. I want three episodes a week. I'm going to show up every day, all of these things. No, nail your system first and then layer on more if and when it makes sense. So, for example, this podcast that you are listening to started out one day a week. So I was like, okay, I can commit to four episodes a month. Now, my podcast actually started as a total experiment. So I was a wedding photographer at the time. And essentially being a wedding photographer in the Midwest means you have seen six months of crazy. Like, I'm talking shooting every single weekend, sometimes double headers, but then once winter comes around, things slow down a ton. And so I always packed my schedule where it was six months of crazy. Basically it was like March until October. Ish. And then I would do like November through February to March. So I would have about six months on, six months off. So in my off season, I was like, I'm going to do this thing as an experiment. I'll do one episode a week. I can commit to one. Four episodes a month. Well, once I got the hang of things, I was like, you know what? I'm actually going to add on a second episode a week even. There was a time when I did three episodes a week. Now, what is so powerful about this is one, it made it way more sustainable. Two, adding on the second episode wasn't double the work because I had the systems and the infrastructure in place, and it allowed me to kind of expand the show out. In fact, if you've been listening since day one, you might recognize that at the very beginning of my show, I didn't even do solo shows. I'll tell you why in just a minute. But I started as an interview only show. Now I look back and I'm like, that's crazy. So point number three is this. When you think about podcasting, if you want it to be a valuable return on investment, with your investment being both your money and your time, you want to figure out how you can use the podcast to fuel your business or brand growth. Now, this is coming from someone, again, who treats time as my currency. And I want anything that I'm spending my time on to be tied to a tangible result. If I am doing things in my life or business that isn't directly connected to my values or directly connected to a result, I will often burn out or leave it behind. Like I just. It's not worth it, right? And so for me, we often look at the podcast as the starting point for the bigger goals of my business. We use Gold Digger to support promotions and launches that are happening in my business. We use it to support affiliates and partners. Basically, we're looking at this podcast as this place to warm up my audience for a new offer, to support a launch and to recognize again that we are building something that will live in this library, that will build long term brand equity and help buyers feel more ready, right? So it is like this long term warmup strategy that will live on, that feels good for me. So when I think of this podcast, I think that Gold Digger is often where we plant the seeds. It often sets a stage before anything goes live. It lets people in behind the scenes of the launches, the offers, the things that we're working on, so that by the time somebody sees a sales page or an Instagram post, they already have heard the backstory, they already know the why, they've experienced part of the transformation. They're more likely to be on board, they're more likely to be excited about the offer, they're more likely to be a part of it, right? And even if they aren't, this isn't brand new information to them, right? If somebody decides a year from now, oh my gosh, I think I want to start a podcast. I remember this episode Jenna had about it and I remember she had this free masterclass, right? This is like the best way to warm people up. And guess what? If you just listen to this episode and you apply what I'm teaching you today, you're going to get results. If you join the masterclass, you're going to learn even more. If you join the paid course, oh my gosh, you get the entire system, right? And so can you see how this is a way to not just fuel business growth, but to get people results for free. So how do we use the podcast to do that? So when we launch something new, which Honestly isn't super frequent in my business. My business has been very rinse and repeat since I became mom over six years ago. We have often used a podcast to either create miniseries or to gear our content to tie into that offer or that topic. It's content that teaches and teases at the same time. Right? We're adding value. We, we're helping people understand the what and the why and then we're leading people to the how, which is oftentimes in a masterclass or in a paid program. I also have used my podcast in other areas. Like when I released my book how are you really? My podcast became this long form PR machine. I was able to do so many different episodes about writing the book, about marketing the book. I interviewed my agent, I interviewed my editor. I had team members come on and talk about this process. I was able to go way deeper, build connection and stay in control of the message and help convert my podcast listeners to readers. We even played audio chapters from the book on this podcast. And so it was just an amazing way to leverage something that I had created outside of the show and leverage the podcast to support it. We also love like, this is one of my favorite things to do on the podcast, creating episodes that answer common client questions or objections. Like if you've been listening lately, we have you listeners call in and ask us a question. It's so much fun. You get to hear your own voice on this show. It saves us time, it helps us to pre educate our audience and it makes all the conversations moving forward smoother because we're all on the same page. And so when you create content with your ideal client in mind, handling their objections, answering their questions, you're already making a difference for them and showing them, proving to them why whatever that next step is is valuable. You can also create private podcast feeds and use them as lead magnets. So you could create a private podcast feed and serve free content on a specific topic and then invite people into a paid offer. It can be a super seamless on the go way to serve your leads and paying students. There are so many different ways you can use podcasts to help warm people up and fuel your business growth. Another thing that we love to do on this show is like peel back the curtain and let people behind the scenes. It shows people what we're working on, how we're working on it, who's on the team, what we're learning. I have learned time and time again, the more transparent we can be, the more trust is built. And so your podcast doesn't have to be a sales pitch. In fact, I would argue it shouldn't be a sales pitch. But there are so many different ways. Whether it's more covert, where it's not necessarily super obvious what you're talking about, or more over where it is explicitly clear exactly what you're talking about or where you're guiding people to. Your podcast is this living resource library that can help connect people to the logical next step. And so, again, I think podcast content, when done right, can do two amazing, important things at once. Connect and convert. You're not just creating for clicks. You're not just creating for likes or comments. You are creating intentional episodes that live longer, that build credibility, and that move people closer to saying yes. And I mean, in today's age, where we are in a full blown trust recession, I would argue that a podcast is the best way to build trust with people because you're spending that time with them. And it's not just this quick hit. It is something that will live on way long after you hit publish. Okay, let's dive into the next topic, which is monetization. Like, how do we make money? This is so much more than just sponsorships. Most people think that the only way to make money with a podcast is through sponsorships because there's a good chance that you might listen to really big shows that have really big download numbers and they have sponsors. This is just one piece of the puzzle, and it is not the only. Or I would even argue it's not the best place to start. So I teach a different approach, one that sets your podcast up to support your business from day one. Because here's the truth. People are always going back to episode number one. Literally today, as you listen to this episode, people are listening to episode number one of the Gold Digger podcast. That means, again, you're building this content library that can drive real results, not just downloads. But it also means that you do not want to miss the opportunity to start your show with intentionality and with an ability to drive results from it, even if it's not monetary results. Now, the good news here, you don't have to have a massive audience or thousands of downloads or brand deals to monetize a podcast. You just need a strategy that starts with whatever it is that your business goal is in mind. So Gold Digger does a lot of things in our business, right? Yes, we do have paid sponsorships. And I just want to say, really quick, as a listener, thank you so much for listening and supporting those partners. I am insanely selective. I know everybody probably says that I am insanely selective about what partners I will have on this show. And these are brands and companies and businesses that I use that I love and that I support. So thank you so much for listening to the sponsors and hopefully supporting them if they're things that you want. But that's just one way that the podcast helps my business. My podcast also supports our course and our affiliate launches. It also warms our audience up. It's an amazing way to get new leads, meaning new email subscribers. And it's this long term nurture sequence. Over the years, I have tried basically every different monetization model, which is why I love teaching on this topic. Like, it's probably one of the number one questions I get about podcasting. And I have tried basically everything. Like, I started my show from day one having a sponsor and then I dropped sponsors for an entire year. I use my show just to grow my email list. I joined a podcast network. Like, I have always wanted to try and experiment with every different method and then teach it because I want to be able to teach from experience. And I want to say, hey, this worked great, or this didn't go like a planned and so podcasting can do a lot of things. It can grow your email list if you have clear and consistent call to actions in your shows. It can fill your programs by priming people for transformation. It can sell affiliate offers by recommending aligned products you love. And P.S. that doesn't mean that you have to be sponsored by them. It can nurture and convert leads by delivering real value week after week. It can sell your products. It can serve as a place for testimonials to live. So I just want you to know that if you're considering starting a podcast, monetization isn't something that just like magically happens once you hit 100,000 downloads. It is something that you intentionally design for. And I would argue, starting with episode one now, if I could go back, I would actually do things differently, but I can't. So the only thing I can do is to help you start intentionally, right? I want you to create a plan that aligns with your business, your goals, and whatever is inside of your offer ecosystem. Now, one thing that I want to know is like, I love talking about monetization. I go deeper in this and I share an exact roadmap and just like a deeper breakdown on this because I think sometimes seeing is believing so that you can really understand. So again, I break it all down in my free masterclass at teachmetopodcast.com that's teachmetopodcast.com I walk you through the different ways to monetize and how to align your episodes with your business goals and how to create a show that supports your income and your impact. And if you're paying attention right now, if you see what I did just there, I have a next step for you. Right I started this episode with a very clear promise that I'm delivering on, but I also want to invite you to that next step if you're like, I need the next thing. So again, free masterclass teachmetopodcast. Com. I love that masterclass. And again, I love going deep on the monetization thing because I think it's something that a lot of people don't start thinking about until it's too late and then they realize, shoot, if I could go back, I would totally do things differently. 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You know those text threads with your college besties where you say you're going to plan a trip together and then you blink and five years has gone by and it still hasn't happened? Well, my college roomies and I are finally going to do it. We're spread out all over, but the other day I found this incredible Airbnb with a private pool and sent it to our group chat. The thread exploded. Everyone was checking calendars, texting their partners, trying to secure babysitters. It was the most excited we've been in ages. Life gets full fast, so when we do get the chance to actually go, I'm reminded that so someone else's home made that moment possible. If you've got a space that's just sitting empty, whether it's when you travel or even just a few weekends a year, Airbnb's co host network makes it easier than ever to start hosting. You can partner with someone local to handle everything, guest communication, even setup and design. It's all about making your home work for you. On the days you're not in it, find a co host@airbnb.com host okay, so final point of this episode is talking about, okay, what is launching? Well, in 2025, when it comes to podcasting, what does that actually look like? So if you are someone who is dead set on showing up in someone's earbuds every week, you want to make your first impression count. Launching a podcast is not just about dropping a single episode and hoping that people want to stay around. Like, you can't just drop one thing and be like, hey, you like this enough, you want to stick around. You want to give people more than just a sample. You want to serve up a full taste so that they can hit subscribe. They're excited to binge your content, maybe they leave a review or share it with a friend, and they're coming back for more. So one thing I did right when I launched Gold Digger is I started with four episodes. I wanted people to get more than a sneak peek. I didn't want them to, like, cherry pick the episodes or look and say, like, well, there's nothing for me here. Why would I listen to this? I wanted them to land on the show and say, like, ooh, I cannot wait to see what drops next week. And so launching well, today means you want to launch with at least four to six episodes. I think four is a really good number because you don't want to launch with too much where people feel behind, but you want to give them a taste. But I would say anywhere between four and six episodes so that you're not scrambling every week from the jump. So let's say you record six episodes, you launch with four, and then you leak out the next two. That way you're not feeling that immediate, like, hamster wheel, like, oh, gosh, what's next? What's next? What's next? By this point, you want to know what your format is. You want to kind of have clarity around what I like to call content pillars, meaning, okay, what topic or topics are you going to cover on your show? And you want to have a clear upload rhythm so that you know when the next show is dropping and you can communicate that to your listeners. Now, one thing that's really interesting, and I don't think a lot of people consider this or think about how they use it in this way, but essentially, podcast platforms are kind of like search engines. And so if you think about it, if you've ever gone on to Apple Podcasts or Spotify or wherever you tune in and you've typed in keywords. Like, even yesterday, I was, we're reworking our welcome sequence for our email list, and I went on to Apple Podcasts, and I typed in, like, email welcome sequence. And I wanted to see, like, what type of shows popped up with that topic. And so when you start your show, you want to think about SEO, which is search Engine optimization. You want to think about the keywords that you would want in your show title, in your episode titles, in your podcast descriptions, because you want to make sure your show is searchable. From day one, if I were starting My podcast over again. I don't necessarily know that I would select Gold Digger as the title of it. I've learned to love it. It feels like a child to me. But a lot of times when I tell people my podcast name, I have to spell out the word goal in so that they don't think I'm a gold digger. And it's, you know, it's cheeky, it's fun, it's quirky, it's cute. A lot of people love it. But if I were starting a show again, I would maybe think about, like, the main things that I want to teach and having that be my title and making sure that my title had strong keywords in it. And so when you start your show and when you launch your show, think about what would people type in to find you and your content. You also want to build anticipation. So you don't want to just like one day drop, like, hey, I have a podcast and here are four episodes. You want to let people into the process and the journey of like, you starting to record you creating graphics. If you have an email list, you want to use it. If you have a social media following, you want to use it. You could get onto other people's podcasts and have those people come onto yours, which we call guest swaps. You want to get people excited to listen and share, and you want to invite people like your army of people, whether it's your close friends or family or your social media following, if you have one. You want to get people amped that like, your show is dropping and you want them to share it, treat it like a real launch, because your podcast is exactly that. Like launching a podcast is a launch, real launch. And you want to think through it thoughtfully so that you can get that momentum that will not only boost your morale in the whole process, but will get people excited to subscribe and share the show. So when I think about how to launch, well, you want to make sure you have some systems in place. Again, we want to make your show sustainable. We don't want you to burn out. We don't want you to hit that pod fade moment. Seven episodes. Episodes in where you're like, I'm done. I want you to know you don't have to have a massive team. Like, I have only ever had one dedicated team member working on my podcast throughout the entire journey of this show. Right? We have a batching rhythm. We leverage different tools. We have a few contractors that support. You don't have to have any or all of this on day one. But what you do need is a plan that helps you to feel confident that you can consistently continue to deliver your show. And so for me, what's so fascinating is what started as this, like, off season experiment. Something like, I guess, like, I'll just try this thing. I'm really curious about it. I'm excited about it. It really genuinely started as an experiment because, frankly, I was feeling incredibly lonely as an entrepreneur, right? I was a few years into the entrepreneurial game. I had finally created systems in my photography business that allowed me to have a little bit more time, time and bandwidth. And so if you go back to the early episodes of my podcast where I was just interview only, I was just getting in touch with people who were in my industry so that I could pick their brains, ask them questions, and feature them. I didn't necessarily trust in myself and my ability to do a solo show, to talk like I am today, to carry the microphone in the conversation on my own. But what I recognized very early on as a terrible interviewer is that I had a lot to say. Like, my guests would talk and I'd be like, well, wait, I think something too. Oh, my gosh, I want to talk about this. One time I had this story happen. I was like, wait, wait, wait. I had to learn how to become a good interviewer and then save all my thoughts and stories for episodes just like this one. And so my podcast genuinely started as an off season experiment that turned into something that I feel like I am most known for now. Like, I'll never forget, when I was writing my book, my publisher insisted that on the COVID of the book it says host of the Gold Digger podcast right on the COVID Because by then, my podcast, it wasn't just a platform. It was the entry point to me, to my brand, to my business, to my offers. It's the place where oftentimes people find me, where they get to know me, and where they decide to stick around. This podcast here has built trust. It has launched offers, it has sold products, products. And honestly, it has created a legacy. Like these episodes I often think about are something that my kids can listen to someday. It's something that will live on way longer than I will and something that I get to go back. It's like a capsule into my entrepreneurial journey, one episode at a time. I had to smile because my daughter just graduated kindergarten. Something that, as a mom, I totally laughed at in the past. And now I found myself on Amazon, like, ordering a cap and gown and imagining someday I'm going to take a picture of her graduating high school or college and putting it next to this little kindergarten graduation photo. These are things that only mothers can understand. And I laughed because her teacher sent this cute little slideshow over, and it had the last three years, and every year, the teacher asked the kids, you know, what do you want to be when you grow up? And the first year, Coco said she wanted to be a puppy. The second year, she said she wanted to be a princess. That helps people. And the third year, this year, she said she wants to be a podcaster. And it was so interesting to me as a mom because she's not usually around when I'm recording, and oftentimes, if she is around, she'll come and sit quietly in my office reading a book so she can listen. And I wasn't totally sure that she understood what a podcast was or what I did with it, but when her teacher sent that picture over, and when I asked her that night, like, you know, what do you want to be? I. A podcaster mom, I just thought, wow, like, this is something that translates and that she'll not only be able to listen to, but maybe someday she'll have her own. In fact, this summer, we have a dream, and I'm putting it into my calendar that once a week, I'm gonna sit down and I'm just gonna interview her, and she's gonna have her own little podcast where I'm not gonna put it public. It'll just be for her own memories, but, like a little capsule of the summer and what we've done and what she's loving and what she's excited about. And so the power of a podcast is real, and it is alive and well. And the good news is, you don't have to have a million downloads. You don't have to have a fancy studio, and you definitely don't need to talk into the void and hope that somebody will listen. If you want a podcast in 2025 and you want it to be successful, here's what you do need. You need a clear message. You need a smart strategy, and you need a plan that will help turn listeners into leads and turn your mic into a marketing machine. That is exactly what I do. That is exactly what I teach. And so, for one last time, I'm going to invite you. If you want to join my free podcasting Masterclass, go to teachmetopodcast.com Grab your spot. You can sign up. It is absolutely free. Teachmetopodcast. Com. I will show you how to map out your podcast, how to build a plan to monetize and how to launch with confidence and not confusion. So, Gold Diggers, I hope this is the year that you land in the earbuds just like I get to. And just know that as a podcast host, it means the world to me that you're listening right now that you've made it this far in the episode that I've gotten to spend this amount of time with you, I will never, ever, ever take it lightly just how much of a gift that is. So thank you for letting me enter into your life. It means more than you'll know. And if you have somebody in your life where you're like my brother was years ago saying, you need to start a show, send this episode to them. Let this be the entry point. Plant the seed with them that they should start a show. And if that someone is you, this is your call to action. It is time 2025. Let's make it the year. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the podcast. Of course. Until next time, Gold Diggers, all you got to do is keep on digging your biggest goals. Thanks for pulling up a seat for another episode of the Gold Digger Podcast. I hope today's episode fueled you with inspiration, gave you information that you can turn into action, and realigned you with your true north in life and business. If you've enjoyed today's episode, head on over to gold diggerpodcast.com for today's show notes, discount codes for our sponsors, freebies to fuel your results, and so much more. And if you haven't yet, make sure you're subscribed so that you never miss a future show. We'll see you next time, Gold Diggers.