When Podcast Stats Do More Damage Than Good - The Podcast Report With Paul Colligan Episode #93

When podcast stats do more damage than good. It's the podcast report, episode 93 show notes, links, conversation and more@thepodcastreport.com 9 3. Understanding your place in the podcast ecosystem is far more important than understanding the numbers of the podcast ecosystem. This is Paul Culligan. This is the podcast report, and this is episode number 93. This is the show where I show you the podcast or how to reach more with your message and or profit more from your content. Today is definitely more about the be the profiting more from the content. The big idea is simply that sometimes podcast stats can do more damage than good. Paul, how is that bad? How are numbers ever bad? Well, let me tell you, this wasn't the plan for today's episode. I had had entirely different topic at plan. I'd had some stuff pre recorded. I was going to shoot it out, but I've been watching some conversation about some recent numbers. There was a recent report. Those of you listening to this day of release, week of release, you know exactly what I'm speaking to. But I want to keep this more evergreen. And what's happened is a number of people have been arguing about the numbers. There's been a lot of conversation about the numbers. And the thing is, this isn't about those numbers. This is never about a batch of numbers. This is about what you do with the numbers. See, part of podcasting, part of the power of podcasting is the influence, not the downloads. You know, I've always said, I've said this on past episodes. I'll say it again and you'll agree to it. You would be incredibly satisfied with your podcast if it only had one download, if that one download was the President of the United States of America, or if you're listening in a foreign country, pick the leader of your country. Yeah, if you did a podcast and the only person to listen to that was him and or her, well, gosh darn it, that would be enough. We're in this for the influence game. Profit is the key element that comes from serving the existing batch. And really it comes from easier and better and faster from serving the existing batch than worrying about the other batch. So many podcasters take the audience that's there, the audience that's listening to them, the audience that's consuming their content, the audience that subscribe, the audience that wants more. And they look aside at them and they look somewhere else. And it reminds me of an old joke. I've heard this joke a thousand times, but I do have to give the guys over back to Work the recognition they deserve for bringing this up on a regular basis. The story goes like, this guy goes out to a farm and there's a farmer, and the farmer has a pig. And the pig only has three legs. And he says, hey, your pig, what's up? Only three legs. And the farmer goes, oh, man. Well, you know, that pig rescued my wife from a burning room, dragged her out from a room on fire and saved her life. Wow. The pig lose its leg there? No. Well, how'd the pig lose its leg? That pig got my attention. My child fell down a well. That pig came to and kept squealing and squealing until I followed that pig out, got to the wall, rescued my kid, saved my kid's life. Wow. Is that how the pig lost its leg? No. Let me tell you something else about that pig. That pig stopped an armed intruder. There was a guy with a gun that the pig jumped at, knocked over, knocked the gun out. Let me get away with my money and my life. Wow. Is that how the pig lost its leg? Nah, don't be silly. Pig lost its leg cause I ate it. Well, why did you eat that pig's leg? Well, a pig like that, you don't eat all at once. But I'm bummed. I should have a laugh track or something like that. Yes. A pig like that you don't eat all at once. A pig like that people you don't eat. We come into expectations. We come into things with preconceived notions. We have this idea with our podcast what it is that we're trying to do, and gosh darn it, it gets in the way with really what we can do with it. This guy had an amazing pig, and his only concern was he didn't want to eat it too quickly. What you do with the people who listen to your podcast matters more than how many people listen to your podcast. New media is different from old media. New media lets you reach a small audience, a niche audience, a very tight audience, and lets you generate revenue from services or products, or I guess really those are the two places we generate revenue from in a way that you can't get elsewhere. Yes, Seinfeld has made a lot of money on the reoccurring beer and deodorant commercials that come from Seinfeld. And that's a fine model, but that's old media. Nobody listening to the show is here. Well, let me rephrase that. Nobody listening to this show is realistically going to see the types of numbers that make the most profitable path. Generic ad Insertion. The money's going to come from serving the existing numbers with the services and products that they need. See, what's happening is a lot of podcasters are going, well, wait a minute. I'm not getting as many downloads as this other guy is, or I'm not seeing the growth of subscribers the same speed this other guy is. Or then a batch of numbers comes out, like the very thing that prompted me to do this episode, and they go, well, I don't know if I agree with that. And I don't know. Downloads versus subscribes and apps versus this. And, oh, then there's that whole thing about the name of podcasting. Get over the petty arguments. There are people right now who may be clicking Play, might have subscribed, might have visited your website, might not have ever visited your website, but they're sitting here spending time with you. You and I, right now, we're at about six minutes. We're spending time together. You are consuming what it is that I have to say. You are thinking about what it is that I am saying. You are hopefully going to apply it later to your life. The impact I'm having on you and your podcast and you and your business is so much more than Seinfeld ever had on your deodorant choice. What happens is the podcaster spends this time arguing about subscribers or looking for more downloads or looking for more listeners, or this type of thing is taking all that energy spent on the wasted things, spending on how should I cook that pig? And not realizing what it is that you have in front of you, what do you do about this? Well, the first thing you got to figure out is you got to figure out what are the numbers that matter to you and your business. What do you want out of this? And I'll tell you this right now, if what you want out of your podcast is to do a show, have somebody else put an ad on it and collect a paycheck, I'll tell you, A, it's a really bad strategy because there's a lot of people doing a lot better at this than you are, and it's a lot more work than any of the other options of just actually serving an audience. But B, if that's your model, and let's face it, that's not if you've gotten this far, or at least you're investigating other models, if that's your model, this might not even be the show for you. I worry about how many people give me their opt in when I offer the opt in. I worry about the Clients who call me and say, hey, Paul, I listened to the most recent episode. How can we integrate this into my strategy? How can we integrate this into what I'm doing? I am worried about the podcasters who consume this and lift me up not as an authority on which microphone to buy or which hosting platform to go with, but authority about what to think about and what to do. I realize there's only a small amount of podcasters and you're one of them, who takes their podcast this seriously, but that is my audience. That's what I'm doing. If I get opt ins, great. If I get clicks, great. If I get mentions in the media, great. If I get phone calls and emails in response to what it is that I'm doing, great. That is what I'm looking for. You've got to figure out what the numbers are that matter to you and your business. If I do an episode where I get no response, I do less of those kinds of episodes. When I do an episode where I get a lot of response, I do more of those episodes. I look at the numbers of people who have opted in on different episodes and my goodness, this is where people are interested. This is where people excited. That's what I do. What are the numbers that matter to you and your business? And then are you tracking the numbers that don't matter? I don't care how many people download this episode. Sure, it would be great, but I could create this in such a way that more people downloaded it. I could add the type of stuff that would get more downloads, you know, and of course, if I wanted to do what's popular amongst a lot of podcasters, I could even set things up in Twitter and whatnot. So I would get more downloads. But what I'm worried about is I'm worried about the impact. I think you should be too. Here's what you do with this. Here's the focus you take on it, and I would really, really encourage this. When this episode's done and we're going to make this short, ask yourself what numbers really matter about the show? What numbers really matter about the show? Then number two, what numbers really don't matter about the show? Does it matter if you're getting less or more growth than the average podcast? Does it matter if your podcast is shorter or longer than the average podcast? Does it matter if your podcast makeup is more more one platform than the other? No, of course not. But what are you tracking? What are you doing with that versus how are you serving the existing audience and going from there? That will change. So what numbers matter? Mix that with what numbers don't matter, and then ask yourself quite simply, how do you track that? If you want to make an impact, you believe you're making an impact, you believe you're making an impact on a smaller group, well, then you probably want to think through that process of figuring out if you're making that impact. Maybe it's come to my website and let me know. Maybe it's they sign up, maybe it's they purchase a system, maybe it's you are looking for a certain amount of consulting revenue every month or that type of thing. But just figure out the numbers that matter, the numbers that don't matter, how you can track them, and you'll be at a happy place. And gosh darn it, if you stop listening to the podcast stats, you will produce a better show. Much the same way if you stop listening to the evening news, you will live a happier life. Not talking about being ignorant, I'm talking about being focused. Talking about knowing why you are in the game, why you are playing the game, how you will win the game. You figure these things out and you're going to be a much better podcaster who, like I said, reaches more with your message and profits more from your content. Focus on the stuff that matters. Ignore, run away from, flee from the stuff that doesn't, and you will be a better podcaster. We'll chat next week. Bye. Thanks for listening to this episode of the podcast report. I love interaction. Head out to the podcastreport.com and interact with this episode or any other that you might listen to. But don't just visit the website and click play. Subscribe to the podcast report thepodcastreport.com iTunes thepodcastreport.com Stitcher thepodcastreport.com Google once you subscribe. Once you set it up so that every time a new episode comes out, you are automatically updated. You are experiencing, you experience the power of podcasting. It's not that you have to come out to my website. It's not that you have to go anywhere. It's that the content comes straight to you. Once we understand that power of podcasting will get to a better place for all of us. So please do subscribe. Once you subscribe, let's interact. You can do it at the website or you can do it on social. ThePodcastReport.com Twitter ThePodcastReport.com Facebook Pick the social network of your choice and we are there to interact with. The website's great too but when you do social, the world sees more. Find out about podcasting more. Find out about how to make their podcast better, and the world becomes a better place. So go ahead, interact with us on social. This is the Podcast Report. My name is Paul Culligan. I'm thrilled you've been listening. Please subscribe, please interact, and I'll chat with you next week. Bye.