E588 - How To Expand Reach and Be Found As A Podcaster - The Podcaster’s Path, 24 Steps from Beginner to Pro

Summary

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Episode Overview

Title: E588 - How To Expand Reach and Be Found As A Podcaster - The Podcaster’s Path, 24 Steps from Beginner to Pro
Host: Dave Campbell
Date: February 14, 2026

In this energetic and honest episode, Dave Campbell dives into actionable strategies for expanding your podcast’s reach and ensuring discoverability. As part of his ambitious 24-episode-in-24-hours “Podcaster’s Path” series, Dave focuses on practical, non-salesy ways to be found and build community in the podcasting world—without getting lost in the noise or sacrificing your passion for the craft.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Setting the Stage: Why This Matters

• Dave highlights the journey so far, targeting listeners who've moved past the “hear your own voice” phase and are ready to grow (01:10).
• By episode 588, Dave explains that podcasters are starting to see traction, audience stats, and are thinking seriously about expanding beyond their initial core audience.

“We’ve gone from idea to fumbling through our first few episodes...now it’s time to expand the reach of our podcast and be found as a podcaster.”
— Dave (02:55)

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1. The Power of Basic Discoverability (04:15)

• Crafting Titles & Descriptions (04:17)

  • Titles should immediately communicate value and specificity (e.g., “Three mistakes solo podcasters make”).
  • Descriptions function as mini sales pages: open with a hook, bullet the benefits, and finish with a call to action.

• Show Notes & Metadata

  • Incorporate timestamps, standout quotes, and genuine keywords to aid in discoverability within podcast apps and Google.

Memorable Quote

“Write descriptions like mini sales pages. Hook in with that first sentence and bullet the benefits—end with a CTA, a call to action.”
— Dave (04:38)

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2. Social Media: Serving the Podcast First (05:28)

• Choosing the Right Platform (06:05)

  • Don’t chase trends—pick platforms you personally use and find intuitive.
  • Dave shares his shift from Instagram to experimenting with TikTok and LinkedIn, after being thwarted by Instagram’s live limitations (07:10).

• Multipurpose Content Creation (08:45)

  • Dave uses a one-minute Audacity template with music, voiceover, and corresponding video clips to promote episodes. This efficient process generates sharable content for multiple platforms.

Notable Moment

“One created content piece, multiple uses. Awesome.”
— Dave (09:55)

• Advice on Balance
  • Avoid letting social media overshadow your podcast’s core content and mission (10:20).

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3. Leveling Up: Cross-Promotion & Collaboration (11:18)

• Promo Swaps and Guesting

  • Reach out to similar-sized shows for 30-second promo exchanges; no money involved, just mutual audience growth.
  • Guest appearances: Don’t shy away from inviting even “competitors,” as their varied perspective adds value for listeners (12:10).

• Newsletter Features

  • Pitch your episodes to newsletters in your niche for reciprocal shout-outs and increased exposure.

Actionable Step

“Email five hosts this week and say, ‘Hey, love your take on this topic. Want to trade a 30-second mention on each other’s podcasts?’”
— Dave (11:43)

• Community Building
  • Join or create podcasting communities and meetups to foster organic growth and collaboration.

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4. Take Action & Challenge (13:34)

• Practical Challenge for Listeners
  • Identify a podcast with your ideal audience.
  • Brainstorm and propose a simple collaboration (guest swap, promo swap, or bonus episode).
  • Track the impact on your subscribers and reach.

Direct Quote

“Your reach grows when you stop soloing and start sharing. So there’s your challenge.”
— Dave (13:55)

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• On Resisting Salesy Self-Promotion

  “New podcasters often hide their show behind weak metadata and or isolation...they miss the low-effort wins that bring listeners from other like spaces because they’re not into getting their voice out there.”
  — Dave (03:35)

• On Social Media Frustrations

  “Instagram...sequester my audience and keep content from them unless I pay, which sounds like a hostage situation, to be quite honest.”
  — Dave (06:40)

• On Tackling Collaboration Anxiety

  “Are you intimidated by working with other shows? Then get over yourself because there’s an opportunity in front of you and the longer you delay it, the longer it’s going to take to grow your show.”
  — Dave (14:00)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:03-02:55 — Introduction, series context, why episode matters
• 04:15-06:00 — Discoverability basics (titles, descriptions, show notes)
• 06:00-10:20 — Social media strategies, platform selection, content repurposing
• 11:18-13:34 — Cross-promotion, guest swaps, newsletters, real-life examples
• 13:34-14:10 — Action challenge
• 14:10-14:53 — Community invitation, resources, outreach encouragement

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Resources & Further Engagement

• HowToPodcast.ca — Dave’s podcast community hub, free tools, and resources
• PodcastForFree.com — Redirects to more free tools and Dave’s main site
• Virtual Coffee with Dave — Bookable via website calendar for support and brainstorming

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Tone & Closing Thoughts

Dave’s style is approachable and motivating, seasoned with self-aware humor. He emphasizes that success in podcasting doesn’t require expensive ads or gimmicks, but real connections and community—a podcast-first mentality, enriched by purposeful collaboration.

“Winning combination for you to help you expand your reach and be found as a podcaster comes from collaboration. It’s not a solo exercise. Reach out, connect with people and build relationships. Your podcast will grow, guaranteed.”
— Dave (13:57)

Listeners are left with clear, actionable tips and a friendly challenge—plus a supportive invitation to join Dave’s podcast community for continued growth and networking.

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Transcript

[A]

Okay, we're rolling.

[B]

Hey, welcome back to the how to podcast series.

[A]

It's Dave with you yet again. Here we go. We're talking about the podcaster's path. We're going to take you from beginner to pro over 25 episodes in a row. And again, if you're just joining us, I'm recording these over a 24 hour span from February 13, 2026 to February 14, 2026, and doing 24 episodes in a row. Every hour, a new episode going live again from 10 in the morning till 10 in the morning. I'm past the halfway point, so thank you. So far so good. I'm still awake. I'm feeling a little numb, but that's fine. And I've decided to do this because I'm bored. Well, no, because I wanted to create a set of episodes for new people coming to the show. So that's the idea. And the best way to see them grouped together in one location. YouTube channel link in the show notes. There's a playlist just for these podcast episodes together. So if you're meeting a podcaster, you're meeting somebody who's thinking about podcasting and they're like, who should I go listen to? There's a ton of people you can listen to, but there's only one Dave. Well, this Dave. So come check out my show and send them to over here and they can go check out this playlist. And it basically will walk them through from concept to reality and take them down this podcaster's path. 24 episodes in a row. Here it is. So we're past the middle part for heading towards the finish line. And I'm groggy, but we'll get there. And there's coffee. So here we go. So we've created this podcast. We've gone from idea to fumbling through our first few episodes, getting our sea legs and, and learning how to use a microphone. You're learning how to edit maybe. At this point we're, we're actually getting to the point where we're actually able to bring on some help. If it's paid or free. We're, we're seeing some progress. Like we've gone past the 10 episode mark by this point. We are seeing some traction. We're seeing people showing up in our stats, we're getting feedback from our audience. We are building community. We have identified our challenger, the person who challenges us. We've identified a cheerleader who cheers us on and we've identified a coach. We've settled on a mentor, one Voice one mentor that's going to take us and our podcast further than we could ever go on our own. We've kind of set all these things up and now, now it's time to expand the reach of our podcast and be found as a podcaster. How do we do it? Where do we go? What is the best and most appropriate and the best use of our time? By promoting our show and getting ourselves out there. That's where we're focused on today. So I'm glad you're here. Expanding your podcast reach doesn't require fancy ads or fancy algorithms. It's all about smart discoverability and it's about genuine connections with other creators just like you. That's why we have our meetups. It's exactly why we have our meetups. New podcasters often hide their show behind weak metadata and or isolation. They hide behind a curtain. They're like, I don't want to be.

[B]

Out there talking about my show and.

[A]

Promoting sound salesy, you know, all that stuff. And they miss the low effort wins that bring listeners from other like spaces because they're not into getting their voice out there. Imagine finally nailing a promo swap. You trade 30 seconds of shout outs with another show and suddenly 50, 100 new listens in your. In your stats. What it worked. The other host mentions your niche and focuses on a mid episode and your returns. You return the favor in your show. You, you work together, no cash is exchanged, no money, none of that stuff. Just mutual audience growth with a fellow podcaster who's in a similar or close to similar area that you are in and your audience has a natural connection. Right? It's just organic and it's exciting. So the first thing we need to do is we need to start with basic discoverability for a podcast that's growing for your show. The foundation everyone searches for is to craft magnetic titles that promise specific value. Like three mistakes solo podcasters make in episode one. Write descriptions like mini sales pages. Hook in with that first sentence and bullet. The benefits end with a cta, a call to action. I like pathway to engagement and stuff the show and all of the show notes and everything you're doing with with your timestamps, your key moments, a quote.

[B]

That stands out from your guest and.

[A]

Any keywords related to your topic. Not just random keywords that Google and podcast apps surface for you. Then amplify what you do on socials. Now here's where you can get a little bit away from being a podcast first approach and become a social media first approach and the Podcast takes a second seat, a passenger seat to what you're doing. I think we got to be careful here because I find a lot of podcasters slipping away from their intent of their show and becoming a social media maven instead of being a podcast first podcaster. So be careful here. But picking a platform for your social media takes time. I would say pick the platform that works for you first because you know it first and you enjoy the platform. As a user, you probably. It's a little more intuitive for you to pick a platform that you understand than some random platform that you think your listener might be on and focus on that. So for me, I would think Instagram would be my platform, but I found with the limitations that Meta and Facebook and Instagram have in the world that it's not the most easy to use platform. It's a little unrealistic and they, they sequester my audience and keep content from them unless I pay, which sounds like a hostage situation, to be quite honest. So I have actually thought, well, maybe YouTube or LinkedIn or somewhere else would be my main go to place. I'm surprised to say that TikTok has actually been quite eye opening over this 24 hours. On top of recording these episodes and, and pulling all this content together over a 24 hour period of time, on the even number hours over this 24 hour period, I'm going to be going, I've been going live and it'll be 12 times. I'll be going live on different platforms. I tried Instagram, that failed horribly because now I don't have a big enough audience where I used to. According to them, they've changed their rules. So that's fun. So I couldn't go live on Instagram, had to change my plans. I been live on TikTok, as I mentioned on LinkedIn and YouTube so far and we had our meetup as well. So that's what I've been working on over the night as well, you know, throughout the day is just being live, showing up and trying these platforms. So pick a platform for you to promote your episode and try some clips. If you go to my Living the Next Chapter podcast on Spotify as a listener or you go to my Instagram page, you go to my TikTok page or my YouTube page, you're going to see these little video clips. I'm playing with these right now. I've been always trying to figure out what's the best way to promote the episode. Pulling a clip from my guest and having different, having everything look different and not cohesive. I'm like, I don't know. They're good, they're good clips, they've done well, but what else could I do that's a little bit more kind of an assembly line process? So what I've come up with is creating a template in Audacity that's about a minute long with a music bed and recording a voiceover about the episode three that I want to promote. So in episode 588 we talked about how to expand your reach and be found as a podcaster. In this episode we cover this, this, this and this. It's really a great episode. You should go check it out and it'll have some kind of video clip corresponding to what the topic of what I just said play in the background and it gives you a visual, it gives you the information and it's short, it's under a minute. So it goes up into Instagram, no problem. And then it can also go in all the other places as well. So one created content piece, multiple uses. Awesome. That's great. I've been finding that my audience is more and more on TikTok, which is shocking to me and it's surprising but fun. And so I've been live a couple times now and yeah, I'm learning this, how to use the app. I got a lot to learn, but so far so good. So that's kind of my approach at this point. Use, use these clips, promote your episodes. It's very helpful and, but again, do it in the margins of your podcasting life. Don't let, don't let your social media overrule and erase your podcast. Make it podcast first. Keep that in mind at all times. And then the next step is to, to level up from basic discoverability is to do cross promotion, casting and newsletters. So all of these things at different stages I have done, I should be doing or I've never done. And it's something for myself as well. I want to do more of these things. Promo swaps are great with shows of similar size. Email five hosts this week and say, hey, love your take on this topic that you cover on your show. Want to trade a 30 second mention on each other's podcasts? Guests on complimentary podcasts, not competitors. I've actually had competitors on the show, so this advice kind of goes two ways. I've had like people who do exactly what I do and what I love about that is they see things a little differently than I do and that gives my audience some variety. So at your comfort level, consider Having your direct competition on your show as well. It might work for you. It's worked so far for me. I'm okay with it anyway. But have people on your show that you can borrow each other's audiences and prepare like a killer story that they can't edit out. Make that something that's just like, ah, what a mic drop moment. And pitch newsletters in your niche. Feature my episode on your dad podcast and offer a reciprocal shout out. These moves compound and help you build one guest spot turns into into three different promo swaps simply by you putting yourself out there. So use your basic discoverability, leverage, cross promotion, work with other podcasts guests on shows. I still think that is one of the best ways to get in front of a listening audience is to talk to listeners. I know that sounds so difficult and so unique, but no, it's not. Go to where the listeners are, reach out to them and present yourself to someone else's audience. Come on this show and present yourself to my audience. I would love to have you on. Keep that in mind. So what's our action step? Where do we go from here? Dave? Well, I'm glad you asked. I want you to identify one podcast with your exact ideal audience and I want you to brainstorm a simple collaboration idea. Maybe a guest swap. You go on their show, they go on yours. A promo swap where you talk about each other's podcast or a shared bonus episode and then send a message. Hey, our listeners would love each other. Do you want to do a swap, a promo promo, you and I, and then track the new subscribers from this one move. Your reach grows when you stop soloing and start sharing. So there's your challenge. Are you intimidated by working with other shows? Then get over yourself because there's an opportunity in front of you and the longer you delay it, the longer it's going to take to grow your show, leverage other people's audiences and serve with value. And there you go. Winning combination for you to help you expand your reach and be found as a podcaster comes from collaboration. It's not a solo exercise. Reach out, connect with people and build relationships. Your podcast will grow, guaranteed. If you're looking for more information about.

[B]

Podcasting and you're looking for a community around podcasting, come check out howtopodcast ca. It's my website where everything we do around podcasting this show our community or meetup resources.

[A]

There's a lot of great stuff there for you.

[B]

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 where you and I can meet anytime and always there.

[A]

It's always available.

[B]

Whatever you see available on your end. I'm ready to talk podcasting with anybody.

[A]

I'd love to help you no matter.

[B]

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 howtopodcast ca 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.