Why Instagram Will Matter More Than Spotify For Podcasters In 2026

The era of growing your podcast through just great content is officially dead. And if you're not adapting, your show is becoming invisible no matter how good your episodes are. I've been podcasting since 2014 with over 300 million downloads and 2,700 episodes. And this is the biggest shift in the way people discover podcasts that I've ever seen. People aren't searching Apple or Spotify or even YouTube anymore. They're finding podcasts through Instagram. It's exactly how Mel Robbins, Huberman Lab, and The Diary of a CEO have exploded in less than a year. So in the next 12 minutes, I'm gonna break down the exact 3-step framework the fastest growing shows in the world are using right now, and why Instagram needs to become your number one growth engine. I know I'm making it my top priority. Here's the uncomfortable truth. Podcasts don't get shared. Nobody DMs their friend, "Hey, I'm listening to episode 312, minute 47, check it out." You know, I know because I've been running this podcast and I've been trying to get people to share my podcast for over 11 years. What I discovered is that that's not how humans behave, but what they do share are 20-second insights, a hot take, a quick reel, A moment that makes them say this, "This is what I've been looking for. I got to share it with somebody else." Now, Instagram is not a podcast platform. It's a sharing platform. Now, think about when's the last time you shared something on Instagram, you DM'd a friend or a family member, probably just 5 minutes ago. And sharing is how growth happens. And it's painful because I learned this the hard way. And now that I'm doing this, I'm seeing the growth. That I should have been seeing for years. This is why podcasts that embrace video plus short form are exploding, and the rest are just stuck wondering why their downloads are plateauing. I want to give you some real concrete examples. Mel Robbins. Mel Robbins has got a podcast that has grown tremendously in the last 12 months, and she didn't grow her podcast because people were searching on Apple Podcasts. She grew because her clips were everywhere on Instagram. Short, emotionally charged videos, clear, practical advice, statements that made people feel understood, even statements people didn't agree with. But people didn't discover her by looking for her on Spotify or even searching on YouTube. They discovered her through sharing. People sharing clips with their friends, people sending the message, "Hey, you need more of this in your life. Check out this clip." The Diary of a CEO, Stephen Bartlett. The show didn't explode because of podcast SEO. Exploded because of highly produced video clips, strong emotional hooks, uh, honest, vulnerable moments people want to share and repost. Now, I met Steven Barlow in person and he told me as a fellow podcaster, you got to get into short-form video. It's how my show grew so fast. He told me that Instagram and TikTok were the top of the funnel for him. It's how people discovered his podcast. Not through a podcast app. Huberman Lab. Now, Andrew Huberman is a scientist, talks a lot about the human body, and a lot of stuff is confusing and complicated, but he really was able to grow his show by explaining one idea clearly in a short clip. By doing this, he made people feel smarter for sharing it. Hey, I got a little insight that's going to make you a little smarter, friend. Look how smart I am. Well, all these podcasts that blew up all have in common Even though they have different styles and different personalities and different audiences, they have the same strategy of getting people to share their podcast through short-form video on social media, particularly Instagram. They didn't rely on platforms like YouTube or Spotify or Apple to recommend them. They relied on individual people to share their clips on social. And that's the game now. One, one sharing, one-to-one recommendations. So I want to share with you my 3-step Instagram podcast growth framework that I'm using to grow our show, and I've seen incredible results already. Number 1, you want to design your podcast for moments. Most podcasters make one critical mistake, and I know this firsthand because I was doing this mistake for years, where you record an episode and then you hope something good will come out of it. That's actually backwards. If you want to grow on Instagram, you must design moments intentionally when you're recording. That means having a clear opinion, sharp contrast, strong framing, memorable lines. You don't want to ramble for the most part because you want to make sure that you have a concise message that you can share. You want to be able to share clear ideas and ask yourself while recording, What will someone want to share? What will make somebody look smart if they reposted this or shared it with a friend? Your job is not to only record the podcast and have great content, but your job is also to create shareable intellectual currency, intellectual property that other people can leverage and use so they can look good. Now, another option is that you can shoot intentional reels for your episodes so that they echo the episode's content. So it's a little bit more focused, it's a little bit more contained. Make sure that you have planned soundbites that you can use in short form. Even if you're doing an interview podcast, for example, I'll be sitting down with Charles Duhigg, the author of a great book called "Super Communicators." I've already planned out that when I'm asking him questions and when I'm going back and forth with him, I'm asking short, crisp, concise questions that require clear answers, really quickly. Even if you want to ask your guest, "Hey, answer this question in one sentence or less." Even see it as a game so that way you can have a very tight piece of content that you can share on social. This doesn't have to be the whole conversation. It could just be a segment of the conversation that you can use. Step 2, optimize for sharing, not for followers. Followers are not as important as they used to be, and this is an absolute big insight you need to really remember. Instagram growth doesn't come from followers, it comes from shares and saves. The algorithm really rewards when you have a post that's been shared a lot, that's been sent into the DMs, that has been posted to stories, that has been saved for later. All these signals allows Instagram to say, oh, this is a very, very good piece of content, let's show it to more people. That means your clips must speak to a specific pain. They must have some emotion or evoke some emotion so people can feel compelled to share it. And it should make someone say, "This explains how I feel," or, "This explains something I've been wondering about or been thinking about." So stop asking, "Will my audience like this?" Start asking yourself, "Will someone share this with one other person?" Because if one person shares it and it's good enough to be shared once, that other person will share as well. And that will become 10 people to 1,000 people. That's how it works. It snowballs. And that's how podcasts grow through social media and particularly Instagram, because remember, Instagram is the sharing platform. It's the number one platform where people like to share content. If you're finding value from today's episode, you may want to subscribe to the podcast because I'm working on an upcoming episode that you might not want to miss. This episode is all about if you're over 40, how do you build a plan for yourself so that you have financial freedom by the time you retire? So hit subscribe so you don't miss that one when it comes out. Step 3, treat Instagram as your front door, not an afterthought. Guys, here's the mindset shift that changed everything for me. Instagram is not where you promote your podcast. It's where your podcast gets trialed. It's where people decide if they want your podcast. The clips that you put on Instagram, that is your podcast. It's just a short-form version of your podcast. It's not like an advertisement. Your podcast is a little in-depth, right? It's, it's more of what you're putting on Instagram. See it as sort of Instagram's the audition. It's the free trial of a product, right? You know, the podcast is free as well. But the point here is, is that it gets people a taste of what it's like to experience your podcast. A good way to know if you're doing this right on Instagram or TikTok is that you should see comments below your video that ask, Where is the full episode? What's the title of this episode? How can I learn more? This means they like what they tasted and want more, and they want to go in depth in the full episode. Most podcasters I see, they post clips like, here's a highlight from episode 214. No, nobody cares. Okay. A winning clip says something very, very cohesive. It's a piece of content in its own, like this is why people stay broke, or nobody tells you about this. When it comes to success. This mistake is actually killing your profits in your business. And you explain what that is. You have a good 90 seconds on a reel. And if those 90 seconds are gold, people are gonna share it. And then they're gonna say, hey, where can I learn more? Where's the full episode of this? Instagram earns the attention. The podcast earns you the next 20 minutes or to an hour or whatever how long your podcast is. So if you want people to pay attention and you want people to get interested in what you have, You got to show them the best of the best of what you offer on that clip, on that reel, on Instagram. Let me just say this flat out plainly. The podcasters who refuse to do this and adapt and start growing on Instagram, they will either stay small forever or just disappear. I know these podcasters personally. They are resisting this change and they just don't want to do what it takes to grow their show. They wanna just continue to do what they're doing, just publish and hope people will find them. And here's the sad truth that no one wants to admit. Distribution beats talent. You can be brilliant, you can be insightful, you can be right, you can be entertaining, but if your ideas don't travel, they don't matter. And the great thing about Instagram is that if you put in enough iterations, now there's difference between repetition and iteration. Iteration means every time I do something, I'm doing it a little bit differently. I'm improving upon I did last time. You know, I put something out, I see what worked, I do that. I see what didn't work and I change that and I iterate. I do something a little bit different every single time, and every time I put it out, I'm trying to improve and get a better result. So Instagram is really good at that because if you continue to do that and be consistent with the volume and iterate and iterate and iterate, you will begin to start to grow. And I know this because I've experienced this myself in the last year. So you don't need to be perfect, but But you gotta be willing to say, "Hey, that didn't work," or, "I gotta get better. What are some ways I can change the next piece of content to make it better?" Podcast is moving to Instagram because that's where attention and sharing lives now. It may be somewhere else in the future, but right now Instagram is the king. And if you embrace this, your podcast becomes discoverable, your ideas compound, your audience grows without you begging the platforms or spending a lot of money on ad dollars. We're not trying to chase the algorithm here. It's about respecting how humans actually consume and share ideas in 2026. And right now they're sharing on Instagram. You just got to face reality. This is what people are doing. Why go against the grain? Why go against the momentum? Use it to your advantage. Before I go, I want to leave you with this honest truth. I resisted social media in general, but particularly Instagram for a very long time, and I'm paying the price now. Kind of making up for lost time. I really didn't get serious about Instagram until the last, I would say, 18 months. And I've been running a podcast over 11 years. So I'm a little bit of a cautionary tale. Don't do what I did and neglect it for so long. You know, I really have gone all in on social and on Instagram in particular for the last 18 months, like I mentioned. And it's making such a big difference in our podcast, in the audience that we're growing, in our email list, in our brand in general. So don't leave these opportunities on the table. They won't be here forever. Okay? Because it's Instagram today, maybe the next few years, but maybe something else in the future. And like I said, what gets shared grows. Okay? So you really want to use this to your advantage. If this episode hit you, I want to recommend another episode you should check out that we published recently called How to Focus and Get Ahead of 99% of People. If you have a hard time focusing and getting things done, you're going to love this episode. It'll help you decide what to double down on so that you don't waste your time and you start making progress. I'll see you in the next one.