← The How To Podcast Series - Podcast Co-Hosts, Practical Podcast Tips, and Podcast Community
The How To Podcast Series - Podcast Co-Hosts, Practical Podcast Tips, and Podcast Community
E581 - Finding The Right Podcast Mentor and Cheerleader - The Podcaster’s Path, 24 Steps from Beginner to Pro
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Okay, we're rolling. Welcome back to the how to Podcast series. My name is Dave. I'm glad to be with you and enjoying this path that you and I are on. It's 24 steps from beginner to pro. The podcaster's path, we're calling it. And if you want to get all the episodes grouped together, real simple, then go to the YouTube channel link in the show notes. You'll find all of the episodes all grouped together in one big happy family of all 24 episodes. As we're recording these. These are happening as the recordings of these are going on in February 2026, from the 13th to the 14th of the month. I'm doing 24 episodes in 24 hours. So, yeah, we're. It's 5pm when I'm recording this. I still have all the evening, all night, and then tomorrow morning to do. Yeah. And, yeah, So I thought we grouped these together. We'll have a theme to the 24 episodes over 24 hours. And I hope you're enjoying this. I hope this is helpful. The reason behind the theme, if this is your first episode. Welcome to the show. Glad to have you here, is you go back, there's other episodes for you to listen to. In this pathway we're working on is people are coming to the show. As a new listener looking at a wall of content going, I have no idea where to start. I just want, like, a. Like a small group of episodes that just help me go from I have an idea to I have a podcast. So, Dave, can you create that? That's what we're doing here. I'm glad you're here. Hopefully this helps. And if you have any questions, anytime at all, you can pause this and go right to my website. There's a. There's a calendar link there. It's always there. Anything you see available, I'm available. Let's get together, let's chat about your journey. Happy to help. Great. Love to do that. Okay, let's continue. I think that every podcaster needs to find the right podcast mentor. Now, understand that I didn't say mentors, plural. I said mentor. Here's the downfall of new podcasters who get caught up in, like, an information loop. They just want to know everything about everything possible so that they can, you know, avoid all the mistakes that other people make. And they just want to be like. Want this to be as easy as possible with the fewest errors that we can ever do. So they get a lot of input from a lot of sources. Here's the danger when Your gurus start to disagree with each other. One person tells you this, another guru tells you the opposite. Now what do you do? You like them both, but now they don't even agree with each other, and you're torn. And then what happens? You just stop because you don't want to make a mistake. What if I follow that advice and it's wrong and the other person was right or vice versa? And now what do I do? And you're at a crossroad and there's nobody there to help you. You have to pick a side. I encourage new podcasters, and this feels a little weird to say, because I would love to be your podcast mentor, but maybe you and I don't click. That's fine. I would love to be that person for you, the way I'd work my butt off for you. I'd love to help you. But when you pick your mentor, you need to understand, we've talked about this on this show in the past, that your mentor does not know everything. I know. Even though they charge you, a some people do. They charge you a ton of money to work with them. Their hourly rates are just out of this world, yet people keep signing up. And I'm thinking I should be charging, but I'm not. When you work with a mentor, you find out their limits as you interact with them over a period of time. When you start getting the same answer to every question. When you hear them mentor someone else in the exact same way they mentored you, they have kind of their talking points and they're just recycling it and inserting the name of your show into the advice and just. It's the same photocopied advice that they give out to everybody else. And then you're like, wait a minute, I find it interesting. There's one guru I've listened to. He does, like a podcast review type thing on his show to give you feedback. What I find interesting is he doesn't even listen to your show. Like, he doesn't know anything about your podcast at all. And here he is giving you feedback on how your show could be better. You'd think that listening to the show would be part of the process just to get an idea of what's happening on the podcast. That would be my first thought, but for him. And he's quite successful, as he claims. He makes a lot of money, so I find that interesting. So when you have multiple mentors, you open yourself up to a difference of opinion. In that difference of opinion causes conflict, confusion. When you confuse, you lose, and you don't podcast. So when I work with podcasters, whether it's me or someone else that you have your choosing, pick one. One voice, one person that you look up to that you feel that you work best with, and work with them till you get to the point where you've now outgrown your guru. This happens, by the way. People outgrow their mentor, their mentor. If they're not growing as a mentor personally, they will have a limit, they'll have a ceiling, and you'll get to a part point where you'll be like, I know just as much as my mentor, and now it's time to move on to somebody else. Don't start your podcast journey with 25 mentors. You're going to get confused. You're going to give up. You're not going to podcast. Pick one. Pick one. Every podcaster hits roadblocks, tech glitches, empty downloads, or episodes that just fall flat on their face. A mentor cuts through all this confusion, saving you months on trial and error, mistakes that you will make by yourself. Think of that one book, podcast, or person who flipped a switch for you. Maybe a hosting guide that demystified like RSS feeds and how they work, or a creator that shared their batch recording hack. Or their wisdom becomes your fast track. That podcaster that showed you exactly how they record their episode in front of you. The podcast mentor that will open up and explain to you analytics and will share their numbers with you. They won't hide them. They won't inflate their numbers and pretend to be bigger than they are. They're just out there showing you exactly what they do and how they do it without any fear that you're going to be like, oh, I thought you were more important than you are. Pick one mentor and work with them until either you've outgrown them or you don't need their advice anymore and it's time to move on to somebody else. So where do you find a mentor? I want you to know that mentors, they actually hide in plain sight for podcasters. There are podcasts. Seems weird to say this, there are podcasts about podcasting, of which this is one of many. There are lots of different shows that will help you in your journey for podcasting. Keep in mind, some of these podcasts about podcasting are hosted by tools and services that want you to use their tool and service. So they have a slant, they have a leaning towards how they do what they do. They're not neutral. They have a bias. So keep that in mind. So when you listen to a podcast about podcasting from a hosting site, then understand they want you to use their hosting site. That's why they're doing the show. Yes, they want to serve their community, but they want you to use their site and they're going to talk down other sites, they're going to put other sites down and say, well, that's not how we do things over here at blah blah blah. Keep that in mind. They have an agenda is what I'm saying. What I like to offer to people are podcasters who don't have an agenda. Podcasts about podcasting that don't have ties to a big company that's trying to sell you on their product or service. I find independent podcasters who podcast about podcasting to be a safer, non biased opinion of the industry. Because we don't want you to sign up for our big program service account, nothing like that. We're just here to offer you unbiased advice of things that we've tried and things that have worked and not have worked. So if you're looking for unbiased information, then I would go with an independent podcast mentor over someone who works for a large company who's going to rope you into what they do. Just keep that in mind. So listen to podcasts about podcasting. If this isn't the show for you and you're still here, I'm confused. But if this show is not it for you, then I have a few others I would recommend. Love to point you in that direction. Reach out to me. I'm glad to share the links with you. Anybody that's been a guest on the show is a good indicator of who I recommend. Because the shows I don't recommend, guess what? They're not guests on the show. Either I don't know about them or I know too much about them. So just keep that in mind. That's why they're not on the show. So if you look back and you scroll through my past guests, that'll give you an indication of who I might point you in the direction of. And I will avoid the other ones because I've had some pretty bad experiences with people who do what I do to the point that I started this show. So keep that in mind. Listen to podcasts about podcasting as well. Communities. This is something that is untapped and I think there's a. There's a value of finding mentorship in community. So to that end, that's why I built my meetup community. I wanted to provide a safe place for Podcasters, even if they don't listen to my show to get together with other podcasters and build community together. Sure, I love everyone to listen to my show that comes to my meetup, but they don't. That's fine. But they get value from being together. It's all based on this show. But you don't have to listen to the show to attend the meetups. And they're free by the way, for you. So Facebook groups are okay because you will get again the pile on effect of many voices disagreeing in public about your question and answer. So be careful a little bit about that. Reddit is a slippery slope into some pretty interesting conversations about podcasting. Not always super helpful. Discord is another one, but it feels like 1980 when I look at that. So I don't go to Discord. There's a lot of different places where creators swap feedback. I would go in as a lurker first before I engage. Just sit back and watch the group and see how things are. Does this group functioning well or is it a bunch of people yelling get off my lawn. You'll notice that right off the bat when you go into these groups. So just sit back, grab a drink and watch what's happening before you commit and ask questions or take substantial feedback from anybody in a community group like Facebook or any other group online. Be careful. The next thing that's very frequent in podcasts about podcasting is courses. Of course there are courses. There are so many courses out there and with this many courses, it's almost to the point of having numerous mentors. The courses don't even agree with each other. So be careful on what you sign up for and what you pay for. Really, you can learn everything you need to learn about podcasting from YouTube University. You know, just going to YouTube and typing in what you are looking for. Will you get the best, most current advice? Maybe not. You're going to get the most popular advice, but as far as views, so just keep that in mind. Again, it's a little bit of hit and miss. I love the idea of connecting with a person, whether they have a course or not, who can walk with you next to you as a cheerleader, somebody who's in your corner over a random, faceless, nameless online course where you sit by yourself and watch videos and click links and hope for the best. I do at work, I have to do online training, computer based training, cbls we call them computer based learning. And you have to go in and watch a video, click buttons and you're done. It's done on your own, you're accountable for doing it. They come after you if you don't. And you really don't learn much, really. You're just randomly clicking buttons and you're like, I don't remember anything. That's a lot of what podcast creators build is this library of videos. And they, you sign up, you pay them money, they give you access to the videos, and then that's it. You don't have access to people, you can't ask any questions. So courses are great, they're a good starting point. Don't spend a lot of money on them. I hear, I hear new podcasters spending way too much money on courses. Be careful. If you have any questions about a course before you sign up, reach out to me. Happy to look it over for you and see if this would be a value add. I'll give you my opinion. You can do whatever you want. Happy to help as a sounding board if you're not sure, but just be cautious about how much you spend on courses. You're going to learn way more by doing it than reading about it. Just keep that in mind. And then the last part of all this about mentors being of being like, available, hidden in plain sight, is one on one help. When you listen to a podcast about podcasting and you build a relationship with the host over time, my hope is for this show and for the other shows you listen to that they have earned your trust as a listener. They show up, they do something for you, they build community for you, they put themselves out there into the world and, and there's a relationship built and there's an accountability that's built between you and the host of the show to the point where I would hope you trust them with your questions. You trust them to give you the real truth. You wouldn't feel like there's a bait and switch. You've actually built a relationship with this person, you know their voice and there's a built in accountability there because you've been together for a while and the relationship is there. Even though you've never met personally or virtually, they're in your head. So one on one help is great. Reach out to people through DMS or through their websites, through their podcast. And reach out, if you're looking to a podcaster, even if they don't have a podcast about podcasting, but you admire their show and how they do it, reach out to them and say, I loved your episode on what you talked about in the topic. Here's my take. Here's what I would like to talk about. Here's some questions I have for you. Can we talk about how you do your podcast as well? I'd like to learn from you one little side note for the big, big shows. Understand that the host of the show probably doesn't understand how podcasting works. They're the host of the show. They're the talent. I went to a podcasting meeting, and the speaker for that meeting was up on stage, and people were asking questions of the speaker. And some 101 podcasting questions came up for this guest speaker about podcasting and about their show. And somebody raised their hand and asked what I would think, based on my background, to be a pretty standard question about podcasting. And the host at the microphone had no idea what they're asking. They're like, I don't know what that means. And the person in the audience is like, what do you mean you don't know what that means? They're like, I don't do that. I have a team that takes care of that. I have no clue what you're talking about. And this was the expert in the room to help us learn about podcasting. See what I mean? So big shows don't necessarily mean the best advice. Independent podcasters is where I lean to, where I hope you find value again, because we are not sponsored by any big company. We're not making a ton of money. We're not here to sell you our product or our website, our hosting service, none of that stuff. We're just independent people. We don't have to bow our knee to anybody. And we'll tell you straight up if a company is doing something good or not because of our experience. So my default for you, find an independent podcast mentor over anybody else. Build a relationship with that person over time. Let I want you to earn the trust of the host over a period of time. And when you're ready for mentorship, reach out to them first and hopefully they have some way to help. If not, come back here because I'd love to help you. Feels weird to do this, but, yeah, this is what I want to do. The other side of mentorship that I don't think people talk about enough is how you can be a great mentee. It's a word I've never used before. Mentee being the one to be mentored by a mentor. When you become a mentee under a mentor, this is fun, right? You absorb and apply what you learn. Mentors spot implementers. Super frustrating as a mentor, when I have people come into My world who are not implementers. They come and suck the life out of us, asking questions with no intent of actually doing the thing and starting a podcast. They just suck the room dry of all of the knowledge and leave everyone like empty. Those kinds of people. A great mentee is an implementer for you. As a mentee, I want you to go out and consume the advice of your mentor, test it in your next episode and then report back. Hey, I tried your intro formula and you know what's next. I tried it and it didn't work. I tried it and I loved it. This builds trust and and invites deeper guidance from your mentor. Skip the shiny advice. Focus on what fits your podcast and what brings reality and a better reality for your show. Focus on that. Your show accelerates when one voice consistently points you forward. You don't have a mentor. You're learning the hard way and with a mentor, you're compounding your wins weekly. Here's your action step. I want you to identify one mentor today. A show, a book, a person, a podcast. Subscribe, follow and send them a concise thank you message. Your specific tip saved my podcast and I'm super grateful. Do it now. Then apply their next idea that week. Use the free resources of podcasting, this show and other podcasts to be your spark. Build a relationship as a listener with the host and when you're ready, reach out and get some one on one time with the host. Hopefully like we do here, that's available to you without a big hurdle and without cost. There's a difference too. You can also then pay for time with your podcast mentor and and get more in depth and more detailed information and availability from that person. That's always an option as well, but you should find a mentor who invests in you first before you invest in them. If the first time you meet a mentor they're asking for money, that's not the right mentor for you. Possibly. Find somebody who invests in you first. They listen to your show, they give you feedback, they give you free value. They have a podcast about podcasting. They show up and support you even when you don't pay them. That's the mentor you want, not the mentor with their handout and won't give you anything until you put money in their hand. Keep that in mind. Go find a mentor and be a great mentee and you'll have a great relationship. Need help? Reach out anytime. Thanks for being here. If you're looking for more information about podcasting and you're looking for a community around podcasting Come check out how to Podcast ca. It's my website where everything we do around podcasting, the show, our community or meetup resources. There's a lot of great stuff there for you. A whole list of free tools that you can use as a podcaster to save yourself some money. That's based on my website, podcastforfree.com which just leads you back to my regular website. And if you want any more information as well, there's a calendar link on my website website where you and I can meet anytime. It's always there. It's always available. Whatever you see available on your end. I'm ready to talk podcasting with anybody. I'd love to help you no matter what your questions are. We can grab a virtual coffee and we can talk through what your big idea is. Maybe some of your struggles in podcasting, maybe some motivational things, maybe some growth things. Happy to help you over at how to Podcast. Come check out the website. Let's connect. Stick around because we have a bunch more episodes here on The Podcaster's Path. 24 episodes here in a row. That's meant to be kind of your starting point for your journey as a podcaster or if you're going to start a new show or you want to refresh your journey and catch up on maybe some of the things you might have missed. That's what this show's about. I'm glad you're here. My name is Dave. Love to help you reach out anytime. HowtoPodcast ca. Take care. Talk soon.