
Loading summary
A
Okay, we're rolling. Hey, welcome back to the how to Podcast series.
B
It's Dave with you.
A
Hope you're doing well. We are plugging away, right?
B
We're getting there.
A
Well, we got a long way to go. It's only March, and we're doing daily episodes all the way through the calendar year of 2026. And you're like, dave, why are you doing this? Well, I love spending time with you, and I love creating content and I love podcasting. So you mix this all together in one big Campbell soup. Hey, that's my last name. And you come up with the desire to create more content. I've been on this journey of podcasting now for, like, seven years.
B
Ish.
A
And with nine podcasts, about 2,000 episodes, half of those being interviews. The machine of podcasting for me has been running really smooth. Knock on wood. It's been running really well and to the point where I am ahead of schedule. I have more content than I can release. I have people filling my inbox like you probably do as well. But actually good emails coming in, not just. I'm getting the crappy ones too, but I'm getting a lot of great content, a lot of great contacts, a great audience for all of my different shows. Everything's just running really well. And to the point where I got to be honest, I get a little bored because there's big gaps of time where I have to wait for the next episode. At this moment, I'm recording this on March 7th, and I have for my Living the Next chapter author podcast, livingthenextchapter.com I'm at episode 740 right now for that show, and it's only just over three years old. I'm releasing three episodes a week every week for the last three years, and then every November, doing 30 episodes in a row for National Podcast Post Month, the challenge to do a daily episode in November. So that's a lot of episodes. And even then, I'm still. I'm still getting people reaching out to me saying, we want to get our person on your show. I've got brand new authors who listen. Listen to the show, who want to come on. And I'm turning away PR agencies right now and telling me, come back in the summer, because I don't have an. I don't have any more room in my calendar to release an episode. Your guest, if they come on and record with me in March, their episode's not coming out till September. And it's not because I'm doing one episode a week. Or one episode every two weeks. I'm doing three a week and it's like, how much can I, how much can I put on my audience to listen? I, at 3, I'm pushing my luck, I think, for people to even stay up to date on any of these because they're full length, 45 minute episodes, they're not five minute episodes. So anyway, so I'm at this point where I'm just like, I want to create more content, but I want to, don't want to be bound by my calendar, so what can I do? So for this show, how to podcast series, doing a daily episode was my challenge at the beginning of the year. I just wanted to do something different and put myself into a state of uncomfortableness. That's a word. And be in a creative state daily. So not only creating content, but also being on social, on YouTube, shorts, on Instagram, on TikTok, wherever, and creating content online, getting my face out there and face to camera videos and just talking, connecting with people. That's been going well and that's not my happy place by any means, but I'm doing it because I know I need to. So I'm doing daily content online. I'm doing daily episodes. I did the 24 episodes in 24 hours over the Valentine's Day weekend. I'm pushing myself in 2026 to create more, be out there more. And it's not, is not to flood podcasting with content. It's for me to figure out what's next and how I'm going to navigate the future of my shows. All nine of them, helping podcasters, coaching, community building through our meetups. There's so many different elements to all of this, so that's why I'm doing it. And I think that as we create content as podcasters, we sometimes forget about the joy that comes to listeners when we, when we shine a light on the amazing people who, who support us, listen to the show, leave us reviews, buy our stuff, send us a buy me a coffee, whatever, right? Leave us a speak pipe. We, we forget that there are, there's a whole world out there. And the moment that you as a listener press play on your favorite podcast and the comment you left this voice message, the buy me a coffee, whatever, the interaction you initiated as a listener to your favorite podcast and they acknowledge you. I tell you, it's like going back to the old radio days and trying to get your voice on the radio to request a song just so you could hear your voice calling into a contest that maybe you might get on the air and talk to your favorite DJ on the radio. We can do this in podcasting. And it happened for me. So I wanted to share the moment. And I want to use that moment to encourage you to be more mindful about your interactions and your engagement with your audience so that you don't just honor the people who have been reaching out to you, but you encourage more of it by how you respond when somebody reaches out to you. So here's what happened. I had Jordan Blair on the how to Podcast series. She's from buzzsprout. She works at buzzsprout, and she's a co host on Buzzcast, and she's also the podcaster of the Dreamful Podcast. And I had her on, and it was like the best, most fun conversation ever because she's just full of light and joy and happiness. And you can't have a bad day around Jordan. There's just. It's impossible. So she came on and we talked podcasting. I was thrilled. And then, lo and behold, I left a message. To my point, as we talk about this episode on Buzzcast, you can go on and leave a text message to the show through Buzz, to their. Through their podcast. So I left a text message and I just thanked her co host for letting me borrow Jordan to be a co host on my show. I felt like I owed it to them to say, just, I don't get Jordan in trouble here. But I did borrow her to come on out of podcast series in fun, right?
B
And they.
A
So I sent that off. I didn't know if they would read it, but I tried to make it engaging and I tried to be a little Dave and I. I put it out there and this is what happens. So they read my message, and then Jordan speaks up and talks about being on the show. And I had the biggest, goofiest smile on my face again. I've been doing podcasting for years, but I reverted back to being a listener. Just the joy of somebody tipping their hat to me and mentioning me on their show. They didn't have to do this at all. They don't have to do any of this. You don't have to do this. But I gotta tell you, as a listener of the show, my gosh, did it feel good. It really, really felt good to have somebody acknowledge me in real time. And like, I didn't do it to promote the show. I didn't do it to get new listeners. I didn't do it to come to my website. I didn't. I wasn't coming with the intent of I'm going to leave a message so you'll mention my name and people will come follow my show. People will actually tell you that's a great way to build your audience. I didn't do it for that reason. I wanted to say thank you. And from there, this is what happened. Here's the message, here's the recording, and I'll put a link for the episode as well so you can go listen. But this is near. This is during the show, and this is my email, my text message to the show and their conversation and Jordan's response about being a guest co host right here on the how to podcast series. So here's, here's what it is. I'm going to have this big goofy smile again as I press play. But here's what they. Here's what happened. There you go.
C
Dave from the how to podcast series wrote in Kevin and Albert, I was able to have your amazing co host drop by and guest on my how to podcast series show. We talked about podcasting, Socks, Buzzcast, Dreamful, and how amazing the buzzsprout team is. Thanks for allowing me to borrow your amazingly talented co host from Buzzcast. Jordan is the best. All right, Save the best for last because I wasn't sure. I was like, okay, so this is about Jordan, right?
A
Yeah.
C
Yes, Dave, I agree. Jordan is a co host and wonderful host of this show. I'm glad you were able to be on there. Jordan, tell me about being on Dave's podcast.
D
Oh, man, Dave is just the best we have. Like, I don't want. We're so lucky. We have the nicest listeners. It's nuts. But yeah, so I was on, they had a podcast series and I had actually looked at his podcast a bit before I went on. I was doing some research and I noticed that this year he is doing a 365 episodes in 365 days. He has a job, by the way, and he has like a bunch of other podcasts. And then I told him, I was like, how on earth are you doing that? Like, that's just nuts. And he said, oh, that's nothing. For Valentine's Day, he did a 24 hour podcast thon where he recorded like 24 episodes in 24 hours. And so Dave is a passionate podcaster. It shows that he has the reps in. He is so good at it. And so, yeah, I think, I think Dave's pretty awesome.
C
I've talked about it before. One of my favorite blog posts, speed Matters. If there's things that you want to be able to do in your life, you've got to start fast and you've got to be able to do them fast because you're going to get better. And if you think, oh, I'd love to do an episode on that, but your mind instantly goes to, well, I've got five ideas and every one of these takes two weeks, then you just kind of tap out because you don't, you know, you don't have the space to do a two week episode on whatever this topic is when you've got so many other ideas. But if you're like Dave and you've got in your mind, I'm going to do a podcast every day. I'm gonna do multiple podcasts in a day. I might do a 24 hour marathon. Then that voice in your mind says, oh, I can't do it because it takes two weeks, it's gone. And eventually you're going to be good enough that you will be doing more in a day than I will do in two weeks when I'm actually taking all that extra time.
D
I love that. Even if you just do like a smaller version of it, like a week of a podcast every day would make a huge difference in your practice. All right, so for our next episode, Alvin, we could talk about how to craft a good call to action. Call to action placement, how to analyze if it's doing well, putting call to actions in dynamic content, things like that.
C
Yeah, I think that's something we could definitely touch on. There's lots of different pieces to this.
D
Yeah.
C
How do you figure out what they should be? How do you structure them when you put them in?
D
Yep.
C
What tools are available? I think that's really good. All right, so if you have experience, if you have thoughts, if you have questions, we would like it all. So send us anything related to calls to action. What has worked for you, what has not, what questions do you have? I want to hear it all. Click the text the show button in the description and send it in to us. We'd really love to hear it and we'd love to feature you and your show and your call to action on our podcast.
D
Love it. Until next time, thanks for listening and keep podcasting.
A
See, I just dare you to be angry and sit near Jordan when she laughs. I just. I dare you. It'll not be angry if you sit near her. Reach out to them. The next time you go to any podcasting event and Buzzsprout is there, make sure you go to their table and meet Jordan. She just amazing. So Anyway, so that's it. So as I listened to my, I listened to the show, I listened every time, all the time. And did that just show up in my ears? I rewound it, I replayed it over and over again. I was like, that is the coolest thing ever. And I think that again, we as podcasters forget that people love to hear their support of your show on your show. I think it's an untapped thing that we really need to lean into in 2026. And that's what I want to talk about more about here on the show. So let's talk about this. So if you're not in the regular habit of shouting out the messages that come your way, through your buy me a coffees, for example, through your DMs on social media, through your emails, through your speak pipes, voice messages, however, you get feedback from your audience. And I hope you have some of these tools, if not all of these tools, set up to make it super easy for your audience to reach out to you. Because if you make it difficult, you're not going to get these comments. People complain about not getting comments, but you never ask for them. There's a line you do not have because you do not ask. So you if you're not getting what you want, then you're not asking enough. You're not putting it out there enough. It needs to be out there multiple times before people will respond. But if you're finding that your engagement levels are lower, I'm encouraging you to do more of this. Be more intentional around shouting out your listeners on your podcast. I think it's probably one of the most simplest, yet most powerful ways for you to build real, true, long lasting engagement and community around your show. I'm watching in Spotify. You can leave comments inside each individual episode on Spotify, whether you host on that platform or you host somewhere else. You can claim your show on Spotify and you can jump into the comments for your podcast. Your audience might be on Spotify, you might not support Spotify yourself personally, but your audience is there. So shouldn't you talk to your audience instead of maybe lamenting that it's difficult to get feedback, but you're ignoring the feedback you're getting? I don't, I don't understand that. People naturally enjoy hearing their name, their comments, or even their voice recognized publicly on their favorite podcast. When a listener hears their contribution acknowledged on a podcast, something shifts. Something is like, wait a minute, they move from being a passive consumer listening and not acting to feeling more like they're part of the conversation. Like they're part of something bigger than just them. They're part of the contributing to the content of your show. This sense of recognition that they get by having their existence acknowledged. It. It's an emotional investment on their behalf into your show. That's what we want. We want to move people from being passive, just listening in the background, never acting, never reaching, to actively being a part of what we're doing and what we're building. It brings them into the family and into the conversation, and they. They love to be recognized. You love to be recognized. It. It's a great way to get them to participate, and it also helps them. That also entices them to share the podcast with others. I did it here for buzzcast. I did it for you right here on the show. It's organic, natural reaction to a podcast that I. I love. Took time to shout me out like, come on, right? It's I did it here on this show. It's natural. People love to see their contributions acknowledged, shouted out, supported, and encouraged. Do I want to leave another message for Buzzcast? Heck yeah. Do I want to have Jordan Blair back on my podcast in the future? Let me think about this for a second. Yes. Simple. At its core, this works because I believe recognition is a strong motivator for our audience. When somebody takes the time to. To leave a comment for you, they. They, or they ask you a question or they send you a message and then they hear it mentioned on the show, I think it creates a sense of appreciation and reciprocity happens in that transaction. People feel. They feel seen. They. They're valued. And when you do this more than once, the repetition just snowballs from there. It just takes on a life of its own. The interaction, it builds a shared sense of identity among the people listening. They hear other people being acknowledged. Now they want to be acknowledged. It's just this big group of interactions that builds over time because you were responsible and responsive enough to acknowledge the people that are already leaving you feedback. So why are you waiting on this? Why is this not one of your top priorities as a podcaster? Why is that? I think a podcast has this unique ability to become what might be described as this quote that we hear often in the world about the rising tide raising all ships. It's a common one. I know you probably just rolled your eyes by highlighting listener comments and questions and ideas, even their own work. I think the host is using the platform to amplify other voices, and I think that's a powerful, powerful thing. When listeners are recognized, their ideas reach a wider audience. It's like, it's their show more than it's your show. That's a good shift, by the way, when your audience thinks of your show as their show. Wow. It's like your favorite band. It's like, that's my favorite band. Well, you don't own them, but it's your favorite band. That's my favorite guitar. That's my favorite food. It's my favorite restaurant. When you own it. When your listeners own your show and say that your show is their favorite show, does that mean something to you? Doesn't that make you happy? That makes me happy. If you said, if you told anybody that I had a podcast series, that's my podcast that I listen to, that's the show that I get my value from. That's my show. Dave is my guy. What's up, my guy. Yeah, I'm that from you. Right. That. That means everything to me. It does. When your audience identifies with your show in that way, my gosh, your show is on the right track. So what can you do this week in your show to either reignite comments or stir up the pod and get more comments? Just as a side note, comments aren't the sign of a good podcast. It's a sign of an interactive podcast. It's a sign of action, but it's not the determination of whether or not your podcast is good. So if you're not getting any comments at all, you're not failing. There's just a lot of room here to build. There's a lot of opportunity in front of you, and it will come. But you have to fan the flames. You got to get this thing started. You got to take that coal, that burning ember thing, and fan it into a fire. That's your job. It's not going to happen on its own. So use things like comment of the week or bring in your speak. Pipe messages, the audio portion of it, and put it into the podcast. Like, answer your listener questions. Feature a short voice message or highlight wins or accomplishments from members of your audience. Celebrate other podcasts. Call out other shows that you love. Tag them. Bring a clip of their show into your show. Like, what are you doing to build up your community? Even just mentioning a listener's social media handle or acknowledging a thoughtful insight can make a meaningful impact for your audience. These moments, I think they really take very little time. Oh. In the big picture, during. During an episode. Yet they can create memorable, shareable experiences for your listeners. Hey, I was on this. I was mentioned on the so and so podcast. I loved it so much. I created an episode and you're looking at it, episode 628, this one. Because of what happened. So it works. And I think when recognition becomes part of the culture of your podcast, I think it naturally encourages more participation. More people are going to want to buy in. Listeners begin to understand that their voice matters, you value their voice, and that contributing could actually lead to being featured in a future episode. Who doesn't want that? This creates a positive engagement cycle. I think it helps people to see that when someone participates, they're acknowledged. Who doesn't want to be acknowledged. They share their episode with their friends and other new listeners, and they're inspired to contribute as well. It's just this big growing snowball rolling down the hill. It just gets bigger and bigger and faster and faster over time. This cycle strengthens this into a community which increases your reach and builds a foundation for you to build on. So ultimately, the most successful podcasts are not just platforms for you to speak from. They are platforms that invite people into the conversation. They help by celebrating listener contributions and creating this beautiful space here for their voices on your show. And a podcast can evolve into something way bigger than just a podcast, just a show. It becomes a community where recognition, participation, and even ideas, shared ideas lift everyone involved. And in that sense, a podcast truly is a tide that raises all ships. So you've been listening to this show, whether it's this is your first episode or your 628th episode of the how to podcast series, and you have never, ever left me a voice message on Speak Bite. You have never, ever supported the show through Buy me a Coffee. If you have never, ever sent me an email or followed me on socials or whatever you want to do, whatever works for you. If you've never done that, first question, why not? Because I love talking to podcasters. I love talking to you, and I'd love to meet you. I have all my information out there, Free links to everything, meetups, calendar links, my website, free tools for podcasting on and on and on and on. There's no excuse as far as trying to find me. There's probably too much of me out there to be pretty open. There's probably too much of me with 365 episodes in a year. So I'm out there. I'm easy to find, you're hard to find, and I love to meet you and I'd love to talk to you. So join me in the comments. If you listen on Spotify Send me a message. Speak Pipe is great. It's a voice recording platform. You can record a voice message anywhere on the Internet. Comes to me an email, I can respond with my voice. We can have a conversation through email and never touch our our keyboard. It's great. If you find value in the show, then support the show with the Buy me a coffee link on our website. The money that we spend on meetups is like $50 a month. That's coming right out of my grocery money. We don't have ads in the show. We don't have ads in any of my shows. It all comes from you. So if you found value in this and you can do it without over taxing yourself, please consider supporting the show. I would love to connect with you. I'd love to bring more value for you than you could ever find on your own. So please reach out. Thanks for being part of the show. I would love to hear your example of bringing in voices from your community into your podcast and then tell me what happened when you did so@howtapodcast ca. Thanks for being here.
B
So I get asked quite often, usually at the end of a podcast, like
A
right now, Dave, how can we help you?
B
Like how can we as a listener like support the show? Can we come rake your leaves?
A
Can we cut the grass?
B
Shovel the snow? Watch your dog help you move? What can we do? Clean your dishes?
A
Oh, that'd be interesting. Well, if you don't, if you can't
B
do that because you know you're in Poland, maybe you can help us by supporting us with our Buy me a coffee. It's right there on our website and you know, it just will help us to a stay fueled because you know, we drink a lot of coffee around here and it helps the show. So if you want to help us,
A
it's out of the goodness of your heart.
B
I can tell you that listening to
A
the podcast to this point, you've already
B
helped us so much. But I do have people saying, dave, I'd love to to give back something small, even just to the show. Buy me a coffee link is on our website howtopodcast ca and you can support the show that way. It would mean a lot to have you on our team supporting what we do here. If you find value in the show, then that's great. Share the show, tell somebody about it. And when somebody says, dave, I want to start a podcast, who should I check out?
A
Oh, you should go check out the how to podcast series because of all
B
the great co hosts and all the things that Happen here, the meetups, everything. And I would appreciate that. And then fill her a cup once in a while if you can. But again, thank you so much for being here and supporting the.
A
How to put. Still here. Take care. Well, awesome. I was just cleaning up, putting away the leftover cake from today. Yeah. Hey, I'd love to chat with you. Okay. So the question came into me, Dave. How do I find a new listener for my podcast? How do I find them? Where do I look? Well, I would say first, what is the. What is the content of your podcast? So I have dad space, so it's a dad podcast. So I'm going to go and try to be around anything to do with dads, A dad conference, a dad event, another dad podcast, a dad community. I'm going to go and I'm going to participate as a community member, as a support. Before I ask anything of anybody, I'm going to show up and bring value. That's where I start. So whatever your topic, whatever you talk about, find a community around that subject and be a support, be a help, be a contributor, Be somebody who, who looks for ways to serve in that community to the point where people ask you, why are you here? Like, what do you. What's your deal? Like, because you just keep showing up and you're great. Like, how. How did we luck out finding you? And there's your open door to talk about your show. And do that another thing, simply just guest on shows, be a guest on other people's podcasts, get in front of other audiences who don't know you, and do it often, once a month, twice a month, if you're really available. But get on other people's shows and find, Try to be on shows that complement what you talk about. So if you have a fishing podcast, don't try to go on a podcast about, I don't know, space fishing and space not really connected. Right. Find a podcast in your area and make that your priority. Be on other podcasts and continue just showing up and being part of community. Those are two easy ways, thoughtful ways for you to find more listeners for your show. And when you find a listener, like I'm going to do right now, ask the listener to tell others about the show. So you found the show, you're still here, so that means you. You're looking for more and you know somebody else who. You. Who you just know would be a great podcaster. And they don't know about this show yet, so please share a link to that friend with your recommendation so that we can help more podcasters and more people who want a podcast at HowToPodcast CA. I appreciate you. Thank you for being here. Take care.
Podcast: The How To Podcast Series
Host: Dave Campbell (Ontario, Canada)
Episode: E628 – Shout Out Your Listeners – We Love To Hear Our Name, Comment and Our Voice on Your Podcast
Date: March 17, 2026
In this engaging solo episode, Dave Campbell dives deep into the superpower of recognizing and shouting out podcast listeners. He draws from his own experiences as a prolific podcaster and recent listener interactions to demonstrate how acknowledgment transforms passive listeners into active, loyal community members. Dave’s big message: Listener recognition is one of the simplest, most powerful tools for creating a thriving podcast community.
Dave submitted a thank-you message to Buzzcast after Jordan Blair (Buzzsprout’s co-host and host of Dreamful Podcast) guested on his show.
Buzzcast read his message on-air, and Jordan shared glowing words about Dave's passion and consistency.
[10:00] Jordan Blair: "Dave is a passionate podcaster. It shows that he has the reps in. He is so good at it... I think Dave's pretty awesome."
[09:11] Buzzcast host: "Dave from the how to podcast series wrote in... Thanks for allowing me to borrow your amazingly talented co-host from Buzzcast. Jordan is the best..."
Dave describes rewinding this segment multiple times, grinning goofily, and being reminded how far a simple shout-out goes.
Public acknowledgment on the podcast causes a mindset shift in listeners:
Recognition triggers reciprocity and snowballs engagement—people who are mentioned are more likely to share your show and contribute more.
[16:00] Dave Campbell:
"It brings them into the family and into the conversation... They love to be recognized. You love to be recognized."
Comments and messages are not “proof” of a good show, but they are a sign of an interactive, healthy podcast community.
[23:15] Dave Campbell:
"Comments aren't the sign of a good podcast... but it's a sign of an interactive podcast."
Dave gives clear advice:
[29:07] Dave Campbell:
"Find a community around that subject and be a support... there's your open door to talk about your show."
[04:12] Dave Campbell:
“I’ve got to be honest, I get a little bored because there are big gaps of time where I’m waiting for the next episode to come out... and I want to create more content.”
[09:47] Jordan Blair:
"Dave is just the best... he is so good at it... I think Dave's pretty awesome."
[11:31] Jordan Blair:
"Even if you just do like a smaller version... a week of a podcast every day would make a huge difference in your practice."
[16:00] Dave Campbell:
"People naturally enjoy hearing their name, their comments, or even their voice recognized publicly on their favorite podcast."
[22:40] Dave Campbell:
"When you do this more than once, the repetition just snowballs from there... Now they want to be acknowledged. It's just this big group of interactions that builds over time because you were responsible and responsive enough to acknowledge..."
[25:20] Dave Campbell:
"If you've never, ever left me a voice message on SpeakPipe... if you've never done that, first question, why not? Because I love talking to podcasters. I'd love to meet you."
[29:23] Dave Campbell:
"Share the show, tell somebody about it... I appreciate you. Thank you for being here."
Interested in being part of the How To Podcast Series community? Reach out to Dave on howtopodcast.ca, through SpeakPipe, or support the show via Buy Me a Coffee. And next time, you just might hear your name on air!