← The Think Media Podcast
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- [00:00]
A
Hey, before we jump into the show, I just wanted to take a second and say thank you for listening. I know that life is busy and you have a lot of options when it comes to the content you consume. So whether you're new here or you've been listening to the Think Media podcast for years, I just want to say thank you and I appreciate you. Okay, let's jump into the show. Half the country is listening to podcasts every single month.
- [00:26]
B
156 million Americans voted, but 158 million million Americans listened to a podcast last month.
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A
Isn't there competition? Isn't there a lot of podcasts? How do I break through?
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B
We're gonna uncover why video podcasting is actually the biggest opportunity right now. There's over 1 billion monthly active viewers of podcast content on YouTube alone. It's not too late. The door is actually wide open for you this year, Sean. You've done over 500 podcast episodes yourself. And the first reason we have to start a video PODC is the audience is massive and the demand is only growing.
- [01:06]
A
Yeah, you know, 100%. And I want to address the elephant in the room. I'm sure, you know, listeners are like, isn't there competition? Isn't there a lot of podcasts? How do I break through? And as we go throughout the episode, you know, I think we're going to handle those objections, but what we really want to look at is the actual math. And number one, the audience is massive, and demand is only growing. So there's an estimated 584 million podcast consumers globally. That was in 2025. And the data that was pulled for that, I think, is leaning on the audio side. So so many people, of course, still consume podcasts on audio via Apple, Spotify, and other places. But separately, YouTube has over 1 billion monthly viewers of podcast content. And so the audience is massive, no matter how you count it, of people that want these longer form conversations, that want interviews, that want solo episodes, and want that podcast format. And 55% of American consumed a podcast last month. So here in America, one in two people have listened to a podcast in the last month. That's not a niche hobby anymore. It's not even really an early adopter thing at this point. It's maturing. Half the country is listening to podcasts every single month. Nathan. The opportunity is real.
- [02:25]
B
The opportunity is massive. Sean. I think a stat that we have here that actually broke my brain is this one that 156 million Americans voted in the 2024 election, but 158 million Americans listened to a podcast last month. Yeah, it's like it's here, man. And I think about the conduciveness of a podcast. When you think about people commuting, when you think about people going for a workout, going for a run, it's just the demand is growing because of how easy I think it fits into your everyday life.
- [02:56]
A
I mean, what you just said is crazy. More Americans listen to a podcast last month than voted in the last presidential talking about election. Podcasts are mainstream. And actually, before we hit number two, there's kind of a some headlines and news that everybody listening needs to know for what's happening with podcasting. One, on January 22, 2026, Netflix officially entered the video podcast market. So on Netflix, they're rolling out video podcasts on the platform, treating podcasts like a new streaming category. Apple just turned Apple podcasts into a video platform. You know, I remember back in the day, you could upload videos to usually like a separate podcast feed. But Apple is maturing and becoming more dynamic, like Spotify, where you can click on the podcast and it might be a video version or an audio version. And then of course, that's what YouTube is as well. I mean, you're watching a video, there's also audio. So Apple is cranking up their podcast investment. Spotify is doubling down on video podcasts. And they have a new partner program which now lets creators monetize with as little as 1000 engaged listeners. Just 1000 listeners and over 2000 hours of content consumed, watched, or listened. And you could start monetizing on Spotify. And here's the big idea. You know, in the title of this episode, we're talking about video podcasting. And the reason we think and really can prove by data that it's like the best opportunity is because you can be all these places with one thing that you create. You create one thing. You can be on Spotify in audio and video. You could be on Apple in audio and video. Most listening are, we're probably not going to be on Netflix, but if you're an A list celebrity, you might be able to get your podcast podcast on, you know, Netflix. But that's still a big sign. That summarizes this. The four tech giants are competing for video podcasts. YouTube, Apple, Spotify, and Netflix, they're all building video podcast ecosystems. It's a massive sign that smart business owners, entrepreneurs and creators should be paying attention.
- [04:57]
B
Sean, Number two is that video podcasting is the biggest content opportunity right now. So we just uncovered like, hey, what's going on with podcasting, and I think a lot of people's initial thought is, oh, yeah, someone talking in front of a microphone. There's no video. I'm just listening to stuff. But the video version. Video podcasting is actually the biggest content opportunity right now for several. For several reasons. And I'll kick us off by saying 32% of US podcast listeners now prefer video. And this is awesome. Sean, I'll kick it to you. I'm noticing, too, like, my wife, while she's doing, like, chores, or she's doing something around the house, or she's, like, hanging out, I'll, like, come see her for lunch or something. TV's on, and it's a podcast, the video podcast. And she's just listening to the conversation while she's doing something. I asked her about it in preparation for our talk, and she was like, yeah, no, it feels like we're hanging out. Like, it feels like I can see. I can see the person I'm listening to. She's like, help it. You know, she's a part of my everyday. In video podcasting unlocks a whole other dimension for you to be able to
- [05:52]
A
connect with your audience 100%. And there's some semantics because people get. What do you mean, a podcast versus a video podcast? I think. Doesn't a podcast mean a certain thing? Basically, what a video podcast is, is it means you're still doing the same format. And there's a lot of different strategies, but the same format of sitting down and either delivering educational information or a conversation solo or like we're doing right now. I mean, this is exactly a video podcast. We're using, you know, Riverside software, and we. Some listeners are on Spotify or Apple consuming this content. But this video also exists on YouTube. So the big headline is this. Don't start a podcast, start a video podcast. I think it is insane in 20, 26 and beyond to think, huh, okay, well, I'm going to get the gear, sit down, and start recording like an audio podcast. It's like, turn the camera on, get that video file uploaded online. And I understand it's more complex, but at the beginning of the show, we said 1 billion, over a billion monthly active viewers of on YouTube are consuming podcast content. So it's like you need that video format to be there for accessing the actual leader of podcasting, which is YouTube. So it kind of sounds confusing because it's like, well, but YouTube's not a podcast. It's a video. Yeah, yeah, okay. But, like, okay, video podcast. And I think probably most people understand that now, but I'll say it again. Don't start a podcast. Don't start a podcast, don't start an audio podcast. Start a video podcast. And the final thought is, because when you do video, you also get audio. But if you only do audio, you lack the video. So if you have both, you then can distribute it everywhere. That one file can kind of be slightly modified, upload the video version, strip the audio off. We'll explain more in the episode about that. But then it allows you to literally put one piece of content everywhere, giving you maximum benefit for the end goal of the listener. What you're listening to this. What do you want to achieve? You want leads in your business. You want to create a podcast business that you monetize and get brand deals and do this full time, working from home. You want to build awareness for a cause. You want to go deeper with your church or your congregation after the Sunday sermon. Like, what do you want to achieve? Video podcasting is a vehicle to help you reach your goals faster. What's the next one?
- [08:21]
B
Number three is that YouTube is the number one place people discover new podcasts. And this is where I'm going to get pretty excited because now, okay, if you've decided, not just a podcast, video podcast, boom, that's what I'm starting. And we're going to YouTube for all the stats we've just given you, right? I get pumped because now video on YouTube gets to do a whole bunch of really cool things, right? YouTube is actually the world's biggest podcast discovery engine. And just in general, by the way, YouTube is actually the second largest discovery engine in general, right behind YouTube. So when you think about, oh, bringing my video podcast onto YouTube, and now you get to unlock all of these other tools that podcast platforms, if you did audio only, don't give you what am I talking about? You get to curate a title, you get to curate multiple thumbnails. Even if you want to start testing things, you get to have something called a description in tags and all these reinforcements that you can go inside can go inside your video podcast to actually help what you're doing, find more people. And Sean, I'd even argue, curious your thoughts on this because you're doing a video podcast on YouTube, you can actually grow quicker than if you just did audio alone. What are your thoughts?
- [09:27]
A
Oh, by far. I would actually say that we can't overemphasize this point because actually, the fundamental flaw with audio podcast was discoverability. You know, if we go back five, 10 years or even more, there's some level of SEO, like maybe you do some search engine optimization. A lot of people would take their audio podcast, embed it on a blog, and maybe if someone searched on Google, they could find one of your podcast episodes. If you got big enough, your best way to get traffic from audio only podcasts was the charts. So you start getting discovered. There's some algorithm on Apple or Spotify, right, that's like listeners that listen to this listen to other podcasts. But fundamentally, getting discovered from scratch was difficult, if not impossible as an audio podcaster. So by doing video and by really leaning heavily into YouTube, you're actually tapping into a reality where there's such quotes rolling around as like, subscribers don't matter anymore. That's a little bit over exaggerated, but it's also true. Brand new channels with no audience can put out smart, strategic, crafted content, good title, thumbnail topics, and actually start being promoted and suggested in an algorithm. If you're starting from scratch in 2026, if you upload a video to, if you upload an audio file to Apple or Spotify and you don't share it on social media, it's going to sit there and do nothing. Now some people might say, you know, I'm uploading it to YouTube, but it's sitting there and do nothing. Well, that's why I'd recommend, you know, going deeper with us at Think Media. In fact, if you haven't watched, like we have a free class@thinkmasterclass.com it's all about discoverability on YouTube. So if you want to watch that, we'll put it in the show, notes thinkmasterclass.com because if you position and package your podcast properly, you can start getting discovered even if you're starting from zero on YouTube at a hundred X or a thousand times greater than any other platform. YouTube is the world's best discovery engine. And so that's why you want to think about it as your primary place to be posting your podcast, AKA your video podcast.
- [11:44]
B
Discoverability is huge. And also we have to talk about the money making opportunity. Okay, so there's a reason to do video podcasts. You can get discovered quicker, grow faster. Awesome. But then also what comes along with that? How can I, how can I make more money? How can I make it quicker? This is reason number four is because the money making opportunity is massive and it's only still growing. And what's kind of crazy is some of these numbers we put together, Sean, that it's a 47.75 billion industry in 2025. That was just last year. Like what are we even talking about? It's projected to nearly triple to 171 billion by 2030. And so that's just some crazy stats. But then how do you, okay, how do you actually go about it? What is the opportunity in my podcast, in my video podcast? Well, you can have multiple revenue streams. We're talking about ad revenue, brand deals, your own products and services, YouTube Partner Program ad revenue as well as well as other features that you get inside there. If you like wanted to do community, if you wanted to get like super chats and super. It's just crazy. Sean, we've done whole episodes on all the ways YouTube can pay you. But any thoughts, you know, when it comes to how the money making opportunity on YouTube through a video podcast opens up a whole new dimension?
- [12:52]
A
Yeah, I mean I think it's, it's realizing a mindset shift that you could start a hobby podcast and should. If you want to build community, you could have the motive of like, I want to express myself, I want to have conversations, I want to build, you know, I want to help mothers, I want to help people, you know, understand their faith more. And there's all kinds of depth and connection and all types of high impact benefits of doing a podcast. But I think also thinking about it like this could just be a real business and this could very practically be a full time business. Podcasting is a business. So if they're calling it an industry that last year was approximately 50 billion, I think the students of like business and research and planning out their life and their future would be looking at the fact that that's going to triple in the next four years. So, oh wow, this industry is going to have a lot more money coming into the system, more flow of brand deals, mo more flow of financial opportun. So if you were thinking like an investor or a business owner and starting something new, I mean this is 12 reasons to start a podcast. It's like, okay, this is a good time to start. There's a financial opportunity there, there's discoverability opportunity there. And then I think one thing that's very fascinating that most people don't realize is podcasts offer a unique way to monetize that isn't available anywhere else. Plus YouTube just leaked that it's about to come to YouTube as well. And here's what it is. It's called dynamic audio ad insertion. So the way we host our podcast and upload it to all the platforms really easy with the most user friendly platform is this thing called Buzzsprout. There's others. And this is actually a podcast series, so you can subscribe to the channel. And we're going to be going deeper into some of that software and stuff. But what we do is we use a software like buzzsprout and it allows us to take a past episode or our entire catalog and add like a new ad spot to the entire catalog. So, I mean, people understand that maybe, or maybe you don't, but you'll know exactly what happens on audio on the Think Media podcast. Like at the beginning of the episode, I'm like, hey, by the way, before we get into the episode, we have an event coming up soon. Like actually it's, it's a ways out now. But even by the time you're listening to this, you could go to like ytsprint.com where we have a free three day YouTube event coming up where you'll learn about how to get views on YouTube and create content. So if that event is coming up, what I just said is going to be baked into this podcast forever. But if that event is coming up, we can turn that on and off. And you could put it at the beginning, you could put it at the middle, you could put multiple ad spots. And that's not just for your own stuff. That's what we just did. We're so that's our own event. But you, if you start building a library of podcasts and you have this baseline of viewer viewership of your past episodes, you can sell to a brand with actually guaranteed numbers. And hear me, even if those numbers are small, people don't understand that if you have a small audience, podcasting has the highest RPMs. Basically, it pays the most RPMs andPMs, which is the amount of money per a thousand listens or views out of anything. Because there's all these stats that say podcast listeners are the most affluent. So if you're listening to this, you're probably affluent and really smart. They're the most educated. It is kind of true. I mean, there's a difference between people, people who listen to podcasts in a very serious way and just scroll brain rot AI content. Some people listening might do both, but it's like it's two different intents. It's professionals. So ads pay more. So I'll land the plane on this point saying the fact is, besides all these other ways to make money and monetize, dynamic audio, ad insertion is something that's unique to podcasts. But YouTube just announced that they are testing and going to be Adding sponsored segment replacement of your back catalog. Basically the same thing. Dynamic ad insertion into your past videos. So if you were to do a video and three minutes into it, you're like, today's episode is brought to you by Riverside. And you know, that's what we're actually recording on right now. And that's true about this episode actually, in fact, highly recommend them. If you want us launch video podcasts, use our link in the description down below and get Riverside. It makes it super user friendly. You know, Nathan's in Nashville, I'm in Seattle. We're doing a video podcast right now. So we can do something like that. But if you've got that actual ad spot on YouTube, they're testing this thing. So you could go back and change that. We still have questions about it. Could you just change it to your own stuff? But as you build up a library of videos, I mean, to put it another way, we rank so many videos at Think Media. We're looking at this like, holy crap, we're about to double our brand deal income. I'm not even kidding. We're actually about to double our brand deal income because we have so much real time views on our past catalog. For the person who's starting, you might say, well, good for you. Like, I don't have any views yet. But that's about being smarter, about the vision for your future. What could you build over the next one, two, three years? And this all summarizes this. Assume out the money opportunity. Money making opportunity is not only massive, it's still growing. That's not a hype statement. It's like real practical ways to make money via this format. They're massive and they could keep growing. And last thing I'll say too. I know it's a lot, but a quick story to illustrate this. One of our students, Michael Zuber, One rental at a time, has the simplest video podcast I've ever seen. He doesn't edit, he just hits record, turns it off. He does this thing called the Daily financial news. In 2019, just from AdSense alone, he made 1500 bucks. 20, 20, 14,000 bucks. 20, 21, 38,000 bucks. 20, 22, $78,000. And so he was generous to share his numbers from doing a video podcast. YouTube's the primary platform, but he distributes that content on audio and he's got all kinds of other income streams. It's grown to be like a 500 to 700k a year business. He's talking about personal finance. Daily Financial News. One of our other students Kimber Leia has a true Pod true crime podcast. She just sent us a Screenshot where top U.S. podcasts. Number one, Joe Rogan. Makes sense. Top podcast in the U.S. number two, True Crime with Kimber Leia.
- [19:06]
B
Let's go.
- [19:07]
A
Our video Reagan Academy was, you know, family was like, what are we talking about? Like, someone's like, second to Joe Rogan with their podcast. And so the money opportunity, money making opportunity is real. You know, we might get accused of hyping things themes up, but that's usually just from the haters. You know, it's like, this is data. Like there's real story. And what. We are hyping this up, but we're not downplaying. No, this takes freaking work. Like you. But if you treat it like a business, you're starting a video podcasting business. If you treat it like a professional, the financial opportunity is massive.
- [19:41]
B
It's huge. And as we get into number five here, reason number five, to start a video podcast. This actually is really encouraging. The pandemic podcasters quit and left the door wide open. This is nuts. And we got to talk about this because this is the biggest piece of encouragement so far. It's fun to talk about money and discoverability, but, like, when it comes time to, like, actually work on this thing, just like you said, Sean, it's a lot of work. Well, check this out. One million podcasts launched in 2020, which was the largest single year boom in history. Okay. New launches, of course, have dropped every year since down to around 198,000. Just last year, 47% of podcasts stop at what number do you think? Three or fewer episodes. Nearly half of people are quitting before they even got started. And 90% don't make it past episode three. This is where it gets nuts. Of the people that do, we're already talking about such a small percentage of people. 90 people. 90% of those people quit before episode 20. So long story short, if you just make 21 podcast episodes, you're actually in the top 1% of people trying to make it. I'm trying to make a podcast. So the competition actually isn't other podcasters at this point. The competition is yourself. The competition is your own consistency. And Sean, as someone who's done over 500 episodes, obviously you're well beyond this point. But what did you notice about getting through those first few? What was it like and what helped you move past into episode 21 and beyond?
- [21:13]
A
Yeah, that's a good question. I mean, this is. This information is so important because it's going to give us the right mindset.
- [21:19]
B
Yeah.
- [21:19]
A
And when I started a podcast in 2020, this very podcast, you know, already had a tech channel. And so fair enough. I had, you know, some momentum, you know, was able to, like, to promote this podcast over there, had built social media influence. I wasn't starting from scratch, scratch. But here's the truth. I was still starting from scratch. It's hard to move audiences. It's hard to get people to a new place. And I had this mindset of resilience and patience. It's this exact mindset. It's like, listen, I don't. I'm not expecting anything to happen by episode three. I want to get to episode 20. I don't think anything's going to happen until episode 100. If it does, that's bonus time. That's bonus credits. But, like, I'm going to sit down, be disciplined. And I've. I've also had the privilege of interviewing so many successful YouTubers, entrepreneurs that do video and video podcasters. And so many of them have told me, like, it was about year seven that things really started to pick up. It took me three years to even figure out my voice. And it wasn't that they didn't get results along the way or have all kinds of benefits that were saying in this list, but, like, the mindset is just, like, things take longer than you think, so buckle up for the long haul. The rewards. And that's what this data reveals. The rewards are waiting on the other side of consistency. Consistency is the cheat code. And let's just, you know, we can speed up for the rest of these tips, but let's just think about it. If you hear that a million podcasts started in 2020, you go, well, there's a. I'd be a needle in a haystack. There'd be no way to stand out. But we can very quickly say, okay, 90% of podcasts don't make it to episode three. So 900,000 of those podcasts are invalid. Like, they just had no chance because everybody quit. So now we put the number down to a hundred thousand. Well, that was just the pandemic. And the pandemic podcasters quit. So now, okay, there's still competition because probably it'll be a similar number this year. Probably 200,000 podcasts will start this year. You're listening to this. Maybe you're like, man, that still feels overwhelming. How am I going to stand out? Well, 180,000 are going to quit. So if you just are consistent and that's only the three episodes again, to actually make it to 20 episodes, you'd be in the top 1%. So even just 1% of that 200,000 that are going to start in 2026, that brings us down to what, 20,000 podcasts. And now you divide that across niches and competition is not that fierce.
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B
No, no way.
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A
And they always say, like, the, the extra mile is never crowded. So if you're listening to this podcast and you're still listening, like it shows me you're devoted to a level, a level of excellence and mastery. To me, those are the two things. I think it's commitment to consistency and then commitment to mastery that, like, I just want to make a good episode. It doesn't need the fanciest gear. But like, I'm actually going to sit down and treat this like a professional. And so, yeah, the door is wide open, but we could keep it moving.
- [24:11]
B
Absolutely. Well, reason number six actually goes along with consistency, I think pretty well. And the sixth reason to start a video podcast is because the tech and the equipment has never been simpler and it's never been more affordable. Like it. I just. It's crazy, Sean. It is the best time to do anything creative wise online because all you need is a camera, a desk, light, a USB microphone even for just a video podcast setup. And you can get all of this for under 250 bucks. I mean, Sean, I mean, you're like the tech wizard. You know this. It's crazy. And I've actually talked to multiple students of ours. Someone who we just had on the podcast, Carrie, she said her whole YouTube setup itself was $100 lights. She already had her phone, she's going with it. And so when you think about the software that's available to you, we've already mentioned Riverside, where you have something that can actually be an all in one platform. It's kind of crazy. It can do everything for you and it can be pretty affordable each month where you have something that can handle the recording, something that actually enables you to edit. And because of the way it's built out, this is kind of why we like Riverside. You can edit so easy because you can edit the transcript. So you could be sitting there being like, okay, cool, podcast, yeah, I got some of my heart, maybe I'm ready to talk, I can record. But then there's a lot of friction between dumping that audio or video into an editor to clean things up maybe. Right. Well, there's tools out there that make this easier for you, Sean. Even inside Riverside, there's Like buttons you can click. They're literally called magic buttons or something. And like, you click it and it just, it does like a V1. It gives you a first pass, removes pauses, removes things it thinks were a mistake. And you can go through it and edit it and you can do it all in one place. And so again, we've talked about Riverside Link is in the description if you want to check that out for yourself. But having a virtual workflow means you can record anywhere in the world and always have access to these tools.
- [25:57]
A
Yeah, I think listeners might be thinking, okay, well, if I watch something like, is podcasting really affordable? If I watch a show like Diary of a CEO, and if you look at that, you'd be like, no, it's not. Diary of a CEO uses nine camera angles. Sometimes when they travel to interview somebody, they've built whole studios. You know, that's just a whole nother level. What's so fascinating, though, is actually exactly what we're doing right here. Like the accessibility of creating a high quality podcast from your home office, your home studio, your office at your real estate, you know, office. It's just so accessible. And I know $250 for the tech sounds low. Assuming you have a computer. You know, webcams are like, better than ever. Super high quality. A desk light and a USB mic. It totally could be under 250 bucks. All you need was the computer. And then you say, okay, what's the software? And we're biased. And yes, this video is sponsored by Riverside, but I've literally fallen in love with Riverside. We've used other. We, we like other brands and other things that we've used, and anything that works, you should work it. But I was talking actually to a pastor recently who wants to really continue to grow his video podcast, and he was using this free software called obs. Nothing but love for it. But I'm like, I. This is literally what I told him. I go, bro, you're too busy. What are you doing? I was like, riverside, like the mid plan, it's like 25 bucks a month. Like, OBS is hard. It's hard to set up the angles. It doesn't have the magic buttons. It doesn't have the user friendliness. So I think also the idea of like, keeping it simple and affordable. Like, if you're just dabbling, then yeah, you could try to duct tape together free tools. But at the end of the day, like the entire software stack, which would for us mainly be Riverside and Buzzsprout, is only 500 bucks to a thousand dollars a year, that's not nothing. But like, that's both of those things to, to shoot, record the podcast like we're doing. You could edit it inside of Riverside, you could get clips out of it. You got the transcript, you got the time codes, it does all that. And then you distribute it. And so how do you upload it to like, you know, Google Play? Audible? By the way, this podcast is on Audible. This podcast is on, you know, not just Spotify and Apple, like 28, 34, 500 different places. The cool thing about Buzzsprout just handles all that for you. And so anyways, we'll link those things up. But the big idea is like, I think it's a wrong mindset to think it should cost nothing at all. Yeah, but the tech and equipment has never been simpler and more affordable. And to be fair, if you do want to get super fancy and buy more gear, it's still only going to be a few thousand dollars. That's not nothing, but like you can start a podcast business at like a super professional level for a few grand if you want the fanciest cameras, really good mics, etc. And so by the way, we also have a free resource for people if you go to videopodcastguide.com and you specifically want help. I mean, we have an entirely other channel, but we've organized a free training videos and a checklist to walk you through things like the gear you need, how to set up your podcast, how to structure your episodes, how to grow your video podcast. It's really a step, step by step guide. It's totally free. We'll link that up in the show notes video podcast guide dot com. And so yeah, the tech and equipment has never been simpler and more affordable.
- [29:20]
B
Huge number seven. Reason seven you should start a video podcast is that every interview that you do is a networking meeting, a content asset, and it's a learning experience all at once. And this is super meta because it's what we're doing right now, Sean. Right. The whole idea is don't go alone, do a podcast on co op mode, pass the controller to somebody else, because of all the good that can come from that. You don't have to create everything from scratch. The guest brings content as well. And this is like a little meta, Sean, because I actually just counted and I've passed, I've passed the 21 episode mark for podcasts. But it's only because I'm here with you. Right. Like stepping in here and like learning from you and getting to that So I made it. But a big reason I made it was because I have accountability. I have someone else. I'm not doing this alone. And so thinking through, hey, how can you boost your odds of navigating all the tech stuff, of navigating, figuring out, okay, how do I get to that 21st episode? How do I stand out? How do I outlast, just simply outlast everyone else in my niche who could be trying to do the same thing? Who can you bring? And Sean, like you just said, you've done so many interviews, and so what have you learned about this format that makes it easy to create and actually benefits you as the creator?
- [30:30]
A
By the way, this is actually like, I'm GLAD we did 12 reasons. Because there's just so many stacked benefits. And this is like, why you should start a video podcast, even if it doesn't make money, is you're not thinking about all the ancillary benefits. So what we mentioned, every interview is a networking meeting. So if you start a video podcast where you do interviews, and if you do them virtually like this, you can meet with anybody in the world, you now have a platform where you could interview and talk with authors, experts, people who you could normally not have access to. Now, of course, like, if you wanted to interview, the Rock is gonna probably, with a brand new podcast, he's probably not gonna say yes, you know, or like Oprah Winfrey, like, yeah, she's probably busy. But it's wild the amount of people you can get access to. And so if you're a student of life and a student of business or a student, you know, of your discipline, that's what's exciting for me. Like, that's when I thought back when you say, hey, Sean, when you first started, you've done over 500 episodes. Those first three of those first 20, like, I'm just here to learn. I'm the one who's getting the most benefit. Like, I just want to be a fly on the wall. And so again, the assumption here is you don't have to do an interview podcast, but once, what's so cool about it is, again, it'll open doors, help you meet people. By the way, it's led to business, it's led to friendships, it's led to paid invites to things, it's led to collabs, it's led to biz dev, it's led to team member hires, it's led. It's just made my world big, bigger. It's like one of the ultimate networking tools. And a lot of People won't say yes like, hey, can I like get a phone call with you and pick your brain. Busy people are not going to say yes to that unless you hire them as a coach. But you take your podcast seriously. A lot of people will say yes to being on your podcast. It doesn't have to be gigantic. You sometimes have to build up. You're not going to start with the biggest guess, but if it's clean and professional and actually one of my filters is I won't say yes to a lot of people's podcasts unless they're past 21 episodes because I actually feel dishonored. I'm, you know, whatever, just personal opinion. It's not like I, I think I'm special. I'm just like, if, if I spend time to go on your podcast, but you haven't laid that foundation, I know what the stats are. You're probably going to quit. I'm going to be with you out there. Just abandoned and abandoned podcast world. So. So no matter the size of a podcast, if I see the consistency, I usually say yes. And so, you know, a one hour coaching session with me is a couple thousand dollars that people will hire just to really do like direct consulting. But a podcast invite a lot of times is, you know, free. And so expand that into whatever world you want. And for a lot of professionals here especially, like, it could be C decision makers at companies, the CMOs, A C, A hiring team. You'd be shocked at how many people would come on your podcast that could lead to biz dev. And so then, you know, the other benefit is then there is an actual content asset. The fact that you got to be there getting the benefit, but other people could benefit as well. You can expand it. We've already covered those tips and you get to learn along the process. I'll summarize it by saying this. In fact, I'll mention tip number eight as we keep it moving. This ties together with number eight, which is a video podcast is a personal growth engine disguised as a content strategy. So your video podcast is a personal growth engine for you disguised as a content strategy. Why should you start a video podcast even if it didn't get views or it never made millions? Because the greatest commitment in life is a commitment to growth. Like we were designed to be fruitful and multiply. How do we keep learning? How do we keep growing? If you make, if you say, I'm starting a video podcast and I'm going to try to do one episode a week, or I'm just going to Be try to do at least 40 episodes a year. Like, it doesn't have to be weak. Like, I'm just going to be consistent with it and I'm going to do it over 10 years. You're going to change, you're gonna grow. Even if you do solo rounds, you sit down and research. Like, you know, one of the best ways to learn is to teach, actually. Because if you're forced into a teaching environment and you do it in a quality way, hours of research and prep can go into episodes. You get to study your subject, the books you're reading on your subject. What I always loved was whenever I would have a guest interview, if they had a book, I did my best to at least skim it or read it. So it forced me to read books. Grow, learn. And the content strategy is there as well. But like the research, the developing your media skills, just the practice of doing it teaches you to think differently about marketing, psychology, media. And so basically, your video podcast show schedules growth for you. It makes growth inevitable. It makes your future brighter. Like, always make your future bigger than your past. It makes a bigger future for you because you meet people, you're growing, you're reading books, you're researching. And so then it's like if all you did, someone like, oh, your podcast, you know, you've been doing it for three years. What benefit has that had? You're like, here's a list of benefits. How I've changed, how I've transformed. And yeah, now it's bringing in some money. And yeah, now it's. But these are the open doors. And by the way, you would do all of that intelligently. I think most people don't really see that video podcasting is the most underrated personal development tool alive.
- [35:43]
B
A hundred percent. Sean. And I want to say before we jump to number nine here, I think that the very nature of the video podcast format, the kinds of reps that you get there, it's like a lot. It's like extra sets or for anyone who likes into fitness, it's like a super set. You know what I mean? Like, you make a video or you do a short. It's like, okay, maybe I filmed for 45 seconds. And hey, that's where you're at. Way to freaking go. You know What I mean? 45 seconds is a big deal. But okay, you're moving on. You film a video. 8 and a half minutes. Okay, cool. You sit and like, facilitate a conversation with somebody for like 45 minutes or something. Just the nature of it being super long form forces you to get reps, you're going to grow as a communicator, you're going to grow in your interview skills and you're going to pick up things surely because of the amount that you're going to be spending creating that content. So I like that a lot too, in terms of growth and rapid growth. But number nine, the ninth reason that we want to start a video podcast is because long form video and audio build the deepest trust online. I'm obsessed with this. There's this framework that Google has, it's their 7, 11, 4 rule, which is a marketing framework of theirs that just suggests that to trust the brand enough to purchase something from them, a consumer needs roughly seven hours of interaction, 11 touch points across four distinct locations, which you could think of platforms, four different places, right? Okay, wow. Seven hours, 11 touch points, four pl. A single 60 minute video podcast episode gets you like an hour towards that seven right in one sitting. So the short form content by nature is it's a world of 15 second clips. Our attention moves over, we're swiping and we're moving a podcast conversation to kind of reference something we said a little bit earlier. The kind of people who are going to be listening to a podcast. If you're here right now at this moment in the podcast, you're legit like, you know what I'm saying? You're just like a different caliber. And so someone who can spend a lot of time with you because through these multiple touch points, they start to know you better, they get to like a little bit more, they start to trust you because of the time duration we get to hang out. And what I love about the podcast format too, Sean, is the room for a little bit of improv, the room for a little bit of personality to show through. I don't know, sometimes like you film a YouTube video, you really are thinking about like, okay, trying to get through 0.1, 0.2, 0.3. And you want to do the same thing on a podcast to be beneficial to who's listening. But I like the little moments that come out. I feel like you do get to know someone better when we're hanging out for 30, 40 plus minutes. And that'd be the same if we were just meeting someone new for the first time. You see someone at church or something like, hey, I'm Nathan. Hey, I'm Bob. Oh, cool, Bobby. That's it. But then you go get coffee, right? And all of a sudden you learn something about Bob, you that you didn't know before and you feel more connected. And so what do you. Do you want to schedule another coffee with Bob because he was cool? It's like that same thing. It's just what I was saying with my wife who's like hanging out, you know, like in the living room while doing laundry or something. I think this 7, 11, 4 rule is something to carry forward. And again, that's seven hours of content. 11 touch points across four different places before someone's going to trust you enough to go deeper with you.
- [38:49]
A
Yeah. And what's so powerful about that is how long would it take to clock seven hours with an individual that's following you online. If they were consuming 10 to 30 second vertical videos, it would take forever. And it's very interrupted because the nature of these shorts feeds or meta Facebook Instagram feeds is they might catch a little bit of content from you on watching one of your vertical videos. They watch for 15 seconds, 30 seconds, they might follow you, you know, cool. But then they keep swiping and then it's, you know, some humorous video. Somebody else totally fine. We're pro social media. There's. These platforms are great and short form content is cool. But Nathan, I would think about it like this. If you said, Sean, you have two choices. Choice number one, you could get a thousand views on a YouTube short, or would you take option number two and take a hundred views on a long form podcast? I'd take a hundred views all day long on the long form podcast because of the intent and because of what this is saying right here. Long form video and audio builds the deepest trust online. So it's a mindset shift that not all views are created equal. And that video podcasting, you know, it sets expectations again. The truth is, some people are like, I don't want to just listen to two people talk. You know, I, I need more. I need constant dopamine and fast paced editing and so on. Okay, you're not going to reach those people, but the people you are going to reach. Like when one of the reasons why we named this YouTube channel and distribute this everywhere, the Think Media podcast, was to set the expectation that it's a podcast, you know, like, like to actually set expectations up front. Like there's a big argument where you actually get to build the brand you set expectations for. When Michael Zuber, who we talked about earlier, started the Daily Financial News, he was like, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to like press record. And in his case, he goes live, I'm gonna press record, share the five to seven financial news stories of the day in 10 to 20 minutes and turn it off, gives a few calls to action, does his thing, has built this incredible brand because of it. He set expectations and the, the show format got clarified. Now, it could be hard to figure out your show format and develop your strategy, but that's what's cool, is you set expectations and then that becomes the audience you build. And so, yeah, you're maybe not going to get millions of views from people that want the most broad appeal, food or relationships, short form content, you know, videos. But you're getting depth and for the business minded, it converts better and it produces more loyal customers. So what are you starting this year that's mapping to your goals in the future? If you want to build deeper trust, you should really consider video podcasting, man.
- [41:29]
B
The 10th reason to start a video podcast is that your back catalog works for you while you sleep. And I know, Sean, you and I can both nerd out about this for quite a bit. So I'll say a little bit and I'm going to toss it to you because you really pioneered this whole thing. On the YouTube side, when it comes to. No, no, no. Your goal should be ranking, because you can rank videos on YouTube. What does that mean? That just means I can create something once and it can exist to serve people really forever in theory, but for years and years and years and years. And Sean, you've said it all the time. When the student is ready, the teacher appears. That's how YouTube works. Because we've already said you should do a video podcast. You're already filming audio, flip on the camera, get it to YouTube so that you can, what, access all of these search and discovery features that are just second to none? And nothing beats YouTube in my opinion, when it comes to the personalization, the crazy amounts of algorithms that are going on. Both you and I, both our homepages, Sean, are completely customized for our viewing behavior, just like anyone who's going to be listening, right? And that is something you get to tap into when you do a video podcast and you publish it on YouTube because your episodes can keep getting discovered for years, right? So what you're actually doing over time, week by week, episode by episode, is you start building a library of content, not just a feed. Not just what I did last week, but what I did last year can still be existing in serving people. And now this is where it gets crazy, Sean. It's like, okay, you tie all this stuff together. People hanging out with you for long periods of time, okay, that's awesome. We talked about why people hanging out with you for long periods of time from years ago is nuts to me. Like, this is this, this is the reason alone, if nothing else, has excited you up to this point. It's like you should just do it because of this. Because your previous self, previous episodes literally could be serving people first and foremost. But if you got your money plan in place, wow, you could be getting leads, you could be getting sales, you could be connecting the dots between what you want to be generating from episodes you did a long time ago. Any, any additional thoughts here? Sean? I know this is an exciting, exciting.
- [43:34]
A
Yeah. I mean, this is like the core of our whole company. It's why our main products called Video Ranking Academy, because the definition of a ranked video is a video that you post today that keeps getting views for weeks, months and years to come. The point of number 10 is your back catalog works while you sleep. And I think actually this can get a little bit emotional because I think if you think for listeners, probably 100% of us could relate to working hard in life, but then waking up in the morning and feeling like we have nothing to show for the hard work and like we're never getting ahead. And that's, that can just be the grind of life. It's like, my man, by the time I go to my job and then I, like, pay my bills and like, I pay my rent, what do I have to show for this? Like, most of it has just kind of gone away. And that could be financially. And sometimes this is why maybe you transition in a relationship or something. You're like, I've been investing in this relationship and there's, it's not going anywhere. Maybe I need a new circle of friends. Like, I've given so much and that is a very visceral and emotional thing that, like, we want to be able to see a return on investment for our efforts. So if you apply that to social media, we get it. There's a risk in social media, you know, people can try it, you know, well, this isn't a promise that you're going to be a millionaire podcaster by listening to this episode, but when I think about that's why it's like 12 reasons to start a Video Podcast. I want to be very selective of how my, how I invest my time. And one of the principles I try to live my life by is this question. What can I do today that'll give me more time tomorrow? Both you and I are Dave Ramsey fans. Dave Ramsey is a bit he. What is he, he wants you to get out of that rat race by saying you've paid down debt so you're not a slave to the debt. You've built savings and you've built investments. So you're getting ahead, like financially. That is a freeing path. It's called, it's financial freedom that you're like, finally, I'm literally not living paycheck to paycheck. I'm actually getting ahead. YouTube specifically. And your video podcast on YouTube is actually a lot like compound interest in financial investing. If you rank videos, you start getting ahead. It's hard upfront, just like clawing out of debt and saving and limiting your spending and then putting some money aside and you know, and then even building those investments and dang, these investments are growing so slow. Like, I don't like, but there's YouTube is the same thing. It's a compound effect. Your back catalog compounds and I think you could expand that not just to views. And I got a case study for you in a second. But what is it worth to have a influential brand that is established online? It's actually priceless. Like, what is it worth to insert your favorite person, your follow, your favorite guru, your favorite person you follow on YouTube? Like, it's insane. And it took a lot of work. And once they have it, you know, it must be nice for them to have, like, I would love to have that. I'd work a whole week if I could get that. It's like, well then you're probably not going to get it because anyone who did that has worked three years, five years, 10 years. But it compounds brand equity, compounds views, compound. But let's talk about this tactically. So this very podcast, I just looked it up before filming, we actually chopped out a clip of an episode which is a sub. It's not even one of the 12 points. You don't just have the long form, you know, conversation that this will be around an hour. And you could, we could cut a clip out of this. Fascinating. That's repurposing the content. Okay, so we cut a clip out of a podcast, posted it in June of 2023. You know, as we record, it's mid-2026 and that clip is still getting four views every single hour. Another example, a full episode, not a clip from October 2023. As we speak, four humans every single hour are listening to that full length episode. Let me add it all up. Every 60 minutes on this podcast channel, the Think Media Podcast, 564 people are listening across just long form content. We upload shorts here as well. 564 people every 60 minutes are consuming old content. It's mixed with a little bit of the new episode, but it's mostly old videos. Your back catalog works while you sleep. And don't be mistaken, YouTube is the primary. It's the goat, it's the king. We've already proven it. Invite me on your podcast if you want to debate it. YouTube is, is the podcast leader. It's the everything leader. That's just what the facts say. But I'm not discounting the back catalog of Spotify and Apple and other places. There is discoverability there. There's also when someone new discovers you and maybe that's their favorite way of consuming it, they just manually will go to your back catalog. They'll manually start list. Like, that's the beauty of building a body of work. And that goes back to the mindset, I think, of excellence. It's like, we're not just throwing. I think one of the biggest mistakes people make in podcasting is they're like, bro, do you want to start a podcast? Like, let's just sit down and talk. Like, yeah, like, we should just, let's like, share our ideas. No theme, no structure. Like, they just want to talk. You know, I mean, maybe people will accuse us of this, but this, this episode has hours and hours and hours of prep in it. You asked me the other day, Sean, I did an actual public talk. You said, sean, how long did it take you to prepare for that talk? My answer was 20 years.
- [49:07]
B
That's right.
- [49:07]
A
I've been preparing for. So, so I, I, we're proposing that commitment to excellent excellence, that if you build a back catalog of high quality content, you'll meet one new person. There's how the 7114 rule works for you. Like, it's not even just future. It eventually starts going backwards. Someone might discover you from a short. There's an aspect for vertical. They discover you from a vertical video. Dang, that was interesting. Watch an episode. Wow, that was interesting. And start binging your content. You're on vacation, you're asleep, and someone's going on their own journey across a couple different touch points. Watching on YouTube, oh, they kind of follow you over on Instagram, maybe get on your email list reading a few things. And when you set all that up, it's all automated. Your back catalog works while you sleep. And for the business owner, that could lead to views, which leads to leads, which leads to sales and build your income. You know, one example of this is Meadow Devore podcast She's actually helping people learn to recognize narcissistic manipulation. So to help them see it clearly, to shut it down. She's been studying it for years, has gone through her own experience. The whole podcast is devoted to that. She is one of our video ran academy students. She doesn't do interviews. So again, you get to kind of choose your own adventure with this. Those we talked about that being an opportunity to network. But you don't have to do it. She doesn't. So it's a solo podcast. So each episode, you know, she's picking a topic, structuring it, delivering value. And I just looked at her channel. She has an eight month old YouTube video that's getting 40 views per hour. Nathan, 40 people every hour are watching one of her eight month old video podcast episodes. She has a year old video getting 30 views per hour as we speak. And again, she has her whole audio library distributed everywhere. And then of course, her video library on YouTube. So your back catalog works while you
- [51:05]
B
sleep and while it's working for you as you're sleeping. The 11th reason that you should do a video podcast is because one video podcast episode can fuel your entire content strategy. Okay. Brains have been breaking hopefully through this conversation. Sean, this might be the climax right here because of the time you spent filming your podcast episode. I think so many people are sleeping on the opportunities that that work can give you, how that work can continue to work for you. What am I talking about? Okay, so after you filmed your video podcast episode, you can get so many more pieces of content done for that week by just stripping and pulling things out strategically from that video podcast episode. So of course you upload the video. Cool. But then you could strip the audio and publish that. Right? Spotify, Apple Podcasts, rss through. Seems like Buzz Proud is what we've mentioned today. But you could also then, especially if you got a piece of software like Riverside, export the full transcript from that conversation, drop it into AI of choice to generate. Here we go. Ready? Ready. Blog posts, YouTube tab posts, your email newsletter, social captions for your captions for your Instagram G email sequences like, what are we talking about? The ripple effect from preparing well for one conversation can go in, can go and benefit you all throughout the rest of your week by generating additional content. Sean, I'd love to hear how you think through this because if I can quote you saying this, you are Chef Master chop the chicken, right? So like, when you think about the ripple effect from one video podcast episode, what lights you up?
- [52:47]
A
Yeah, I think actually there's two things as I'm really feeling empathy for our listeners. And it's this, I think at one point, at this point in the podcast, you're like Sean and Nathan. It's a pretty convincing argument. Like, there's a lot of reasons to start a podcast. Secondly though, you're actually kind of talking me out of it. Like, this sounds insane. Like, I mean, it sounds like it's gonna be a lot of work. And so I think there's two responses to that one. I think there's something about starting simple and figuring out a very simple system. We don't rise to the level of our goals, we fall to level of our systems. So this sells. Like, wait a minute though. I mean, even with good software, it's like if I film an episode and then I structure it and then you said the episod episode should be good and then I, you know, but, but simple systems, weekly routines and habits can make your video podcast strategy sustainable. And you always want to start simple, avoid complexity, and you can always scale up as you go. But I think the second thing I would respond if someone's like, this is going to take a lot of work is one I tell you to suck it up. Like Thomas Edison said is opportunity is everywhere. But it's dressed in overalls and it looks like work. So it's like, yeah, listen, we'll help you be a six figure podcaster. Oh, but I want to be a six figure podcaster. And like, I don't even want to work on anything. Well, then you're probably not like, no, that's a full time job. Like, you know, that's. But it's an amazing job. And then eventually it could be done in a lot less than 40 hours a week. If you wanted to build like a, you know, a niche podcasting. So here's the other big thing to think about is this is, is the way you said it. When you see the downstream opportunity of doing the work up front, and I think it makes you more willing to do the work up front. Like, why would I put a couple hours of research into an episode? Because I'm creating the one thing that. Because that's quality. Everything downstream from it is quality. Because we're saying one video podcast episode can fuel your entire content strategy. But if you create one episode of crap and then multiply it, you just multiplied crap everywhere. Not good. And that's where so, so it's like if your transcript is actually good, then the AI usage of it could be amazing. Turning it into a newsletter, incredible social Captions, incredible email sequences. So that's just why we would spend a little bit of extra energy because we understand, you know, I'm a busy dad. I got a three year old, a five year old boy. I can never find enough time in life. So if I'm budgeting my time, it's why I started a video podcast in 2020 was actually family time leverage. Because I'm like if. And then I still work hard preparing the episodes. Because if I prepare this one episode, well, that catalog value, cut it up value. So, so I think that's the mindset I want people to hear. And then yeah, rapid fire again, just by Riverside. As far as like soft. I'm just serious. Like yeah, because again, we've tried everything and you know, we'll put our link in the description. Of course we get an affiliate commission for that. But it's like again, if you're duct taping together these, it just does everything for you. Like it has a magic button to produce your social media clips and it will write incredibly smart SEO based chapters. It'll help you edit the video down, get everything right based off the transcript, edit according to the transcript, AI, show notes, episode summaries, takeaways, like it's just. And they continue to, you know, improve the topic. It has like live stream features and webinar features as well. But you can actually just kind of do their mid tier plan to make it the engine of your one video podcast episode, fueling your entire content strategy. And you know, we'll help you learn how to use it because at the end of the day, you know, magic clips help you do YouTube shorts, Instagram reels, and then it's reinforcing that system for you. It's just saying, hey, one tool. And to be fair, again, you still need to distribute it and you can upload it manually to YouTube and you can upload it to like Libsyn and kind of get it on like an RSS feed to be at all the places. But I'm eve, I know money funds can be tight for some people. Again, we'd recommend Buzzsprout just because it's such a great tool. And that's the one, two punch Buzzspot. Plus Riverside is your software stack, which for most people is gonna be under $500 a year. And there's your entire content strategy. Here's the thing, Sean, like, but what if I don't make money? Well, listen, you might not make money for a few months as you're getting it going, you're learning, you're you're studying, you're getting things. If you're a business owner, you can make money almost instantly because if you have a product, an offer or service ranks the videos, but you're. Then you're just one brand sponsorship, one offer. Like, that's what I think. You know, a small business owner, if they invest in a new business, you can look the stats up on Google. It takes them 18 to 24 months or 18 to 36 months to even be profitable. So you're investing in something. Anyways. I'm not trying to overly put the software. We're just saying that one software episode can feel your entire content strategy. But in doing so, AI and tools like Riverside or other AI tools are the key, because you're going to be using those transcripts, distributing things everywhere. And our. Our point is not even to overly hit Riverside. It's just that it's so nice to have a simple workflow that's sustainable for your podcast. All right, I think we have one more.
- [58:17]
B
A hundred percent. Yeah. So number 12. 12. Reason why you should start a podcast is because your competition's gonna quit. How does. I mean, if. Is that it? Right. Okay, see y' all in the next episode. But, like, here's the reality. We already talked about the stats at the beginning. Consistency is the cheat code, on average. Okay, how long's it gonna take, Nathan and Sean, on average, take about two years. A hundred episodes, you could call it, before a podcast sees significant growth. So the real investment here is consistency, actually more so than cash. Right. Like, I know we get ripped up about the tech and the gear. We've walked through all of that. And we have future episodes coming out. Right, Sean, where we're gonna be walking people through. Like, actually no real case studies of people doing this each and every single week. With video podcasts, with a very budget set up, you can do it. We've got your back. We have so many resources. But the thing that you need to do to simply outlast everyone else is to be consistent. So we just to say again, 47% of podcasts stop at three episodes or fewer. Sean, as far as I'm concerned, you make it to episode four. You need to go have a nice dinner. Like, actually, like, because you're already in a league of your own. And then as you keep going, remember, 90% don't make it past episode three.
- [59:29]
A
Right?
- [59:29]
B
And 90% are going to quit before episode 20. So, hey, you get to 21, boom, go like, well, I don't know what you want to do, but go celebrate. You got to do something. Because the number of episodes it takes for you to become consistent is actually probably within those 21 episodes. I think the jury's still out, Sean. Right on. Like how long it actually takes to solidify a habit. I think it's longer than maybe what we thought, like three weeks or a couple months or something. Anyway. But if you get to that 21 episode Mark, I would trust by that point. Why is it 21? Why is it so specific? Because you've developed the workflows, the systems in the habits of consistency that then give you momentum and now you can keep going. The start is always the hardest. The start is always going to require much more energy of you and you're going to be burning way more energy in an inefficient way purely because you're starting something new. But hey, that's just anything new you're going to try. It's going to be messy at the beginning, but if you stick with it and maybe have like some sort of calendar system, you know what I'm talking about. Am I a coach, Sean, or what? Where you're like checking off x ing episode 1 2, 1721. Remember, the 12th reason you should start a podcast is because your competition will quit. Consistency is your cheat code. SEAN. Again, over 500 episodes into this whole video podcasting thing, what are some things that you've learned maybe even to sustain the later years? Like when you're in the hundreds, not trying to freak people out who are listening, but like, what does that look like?
- [60:56]
A
Yeah, you know, a couple things. I want to read a list of stats, not our, you know, marketing, ltb Lower street podbean, real stats that listeners need to know that are very encouraging if ultimately you stay consistent. But before I do that, I also want to encourage individuals, you know, as you were talking about, like staying consistent. One of the biggest keys is to either one, determine your own self discipline with self awareness. Do you know yourself? Like, are you one to start something and stay consistent? But if you want to increase your likelihood of success, get into a community and if you want support, get a coach. I just want to give people a heads up. We have coached so many successful video podcasters now that started from scratch, that started midway on their journey, that got stuck. And we have group coaching and one on one coaching with a specialty in YouTube. But I think a lot of people don't realize that we are video podcast experts and meaning of audio as well. Right. This very podcast, five years old, 500 episodes. We've learned a lot. And then we have all of our students, data, et cetera. So if you want help starting growing or monetizing a video podcast, and you just want to increase your likelihood of success, especially with accountability and expert coaching, you could schedule a free discovery call atviral video coach.com. that's all it is. We're super chill at Think Media, but if you want to jump on the phone with us, you can go to viralvideocoach.com because consistency is the cheat code. And here's some of the stats that I think we need to know. Okay, so if you publish 21 episodes, that puts you in the top 1% of podcasters ever. So that's kind of a good first milestone. Like, you know, the whole purpose of this episode is maybe by the end of it, you go, you know what? I'm. I'm gonna count the cost. This isn't the season for me. I don't think it's. This is. But the flip side is, like, you know, we're out here not trying to overhype it. We're trying to give you realistic expectations and literally partner with you to building a profitable podcast sustained over years and even decades. So it's like, one. That's your first milestone. Let me, like, really commit to do at least 21 episodes next. Podcasts with consistent posting schedules grow three times faster than inconsistent ones. And, Nathan, you just said that, like, have a schedule. If you mess up your schedule, you know, whatever. Like, actually, recently my schedule got messed up. You know, a little personal thing. I actually ended up in the hospital, had emergency surgery. Was all quite a surprise. Guess what? That messed my schedule up. Like, as it should in a significant way. Like, you know, so, like, life happens. You might get sick, you might end up in the hospital, but usually those are outlier events. And so the consistency is not about just me being consistent in the last 45 days when my whole life has been very disrupted. It's all about, what have I done over the last four years? And my general. We commit to posting actually two episodes a week on the Think Media podcast. Guess what? We actually. I don't think we've ever hit it in a year. We. If you had clips and shorts, the amount of videos is a little bit higher. But there's some weeks we're like, oh, we're gonna miss a week. We only do one. Oh, we're gonna have to redo the schedule. But the macro consistency. So next one. Successful podcasters are 7.7 times more likely to have published over A hundred episodes is a stat. So there's your next milestone is like, I actually want to just prepare my mind for battle that number one, if I start and stay consistent and keep learning. And number two, especially if I start stay consistent, work with a coach and really commit to long haul. Where could you be a hundred episodes from now? That's a real like counting the cost thing. That's not like this is the easiest way to make money online. And it happens instantly like a cash machine, you know, like. No, this is, this is like a real professional mindset. Okay, this is crazy. This is from Lower Street. They did a study. 69% of podcasters with shows older than 24 months are successfully monetizing.
- [64:46]
B
Wow.
- [64:47]
A
But that right there revealed what she said up front. And that was a pod bean stat. On average, it takes two years and 100 episodes to see significant growth. But seven out of 10 people that make it to that mile milestone are successfully monetizing. 12 reasons you should start a video podcast. It's actually 12 reasons you should start and not stop your video podcast. Because actually probably 200,000 people are going to start a video podcast this year and they're going to quit at three episodes. Consistency is the cheat code. And then this is one of the kind of anti stat is the average podcast life span is just 174 days, less than 6 months. So as we land the plane on today's episode, I think that stat is profound because here's what it reveals. It reveals some people start, they ex, they get excited after an episode like this. First month, maybe the fire's still burning. Second month, you're like, why did I do this? Third month, you're like, is this really worth it? Fourth month, you don't even upload. Fifth month, you upload one time and by month six, 100 and you know, 74 days, you stop. And so it's such a fascinating data backed delta. Just between the fact that six months is where most the average lifespan is where it's quitting, and then two years is where seven out of 10 people are monetizing and they've done over a hundred episodes. So the competition isn't really other podcasters. Cash isn't really the limiter. It's your own schedule and it's your own consistency. And so I do want to do rapid fire and you can land the plane, Nathan. But you know, you're listening to this and you're like, sean, Nathan, what should I do next? I just want to give a rundown because we have a lot of resources that we talked about in this episode. Please, what should you do next? You should go to videopodcastguide.com because yeah, there's ways to work with us and all kinds of stuff like that, but this is just a free resource. We've put together free video trainings, a checklist and tips, simple step by step guide to launching and improving your video podcast without wasting time or money. You could get it for free@videopodcastguide.com that'll be in the show notes. You could click that link. If you're serious about starting and growing a video podcast, free is a great price. And so you, if you love this podcast, you're going to love that. Secondly, you could check out the show notes because one of the tools and you know, tell you more about it. But if you want to do exactly what Nathan and I are doing, check out Riverside link is in the description and get it, use it, lean into it. Like I told my friend that I was talking about who's got a ministry podcast. I was like, bro, stop using weak free tools that are just wasting your time. Like your time. You can afford 24 bucks a month. You know what I mean? Like, and, and, and again, you might be listening to this. No, I can't. Well then that's not for you. But it's like treat this seriously, don't eat out one time at Chipotle and invest in something that's really going to help you grow. Riverside is gangster. And so there's a link to that in the description down below. And then lastly, we've shared a lot of stuff here. In fact, Nathan, I'll kick it to you. You know, you're one of our coaches. We've got one on one coaching, we've got group coaching. But if people want to go deeper and you know, you have two paths, you could go it alone. But if you also literally want help, we will lock arms with you. What, what are ways that people can connect with us@viralvideocoach.com 100 I mean that's
- [68:14]
B
the place to go viral video coach.com because you're going to, if you qualify, you have to fill some stuff out about your channel, your journey, where you're at. But you're going to get on a free call with someone on our team and it's purely to get to know you, get eyes on your channel, help you strategize some next steps and see like would you actually benefit from coaching. And then from that point, yeah, maybe it's group coaching. We can hang out each week in an intimate gathering. Or it's like, dude, I actually just want help from a single person dedicated to me. Dedicated to my video podcast journey each and every single week. Yeah.
- [68:44]
A
Cool.
- [68:44]
B
And we have one on one coaching and we would love to partner with you as we're able to partner with thousands of people at this point and help them do this exact same process. So again, you can apply for a free strategy call there at Viral Video Coach Podcast if you got value out of today. Like rate, share, review wherever you watch or listen. This is the Think Media Podcast. I'm Nathan Eswine and I can't wait to connect with you in a future episode.