Rob Greenlee, with 25 years in radio and podcasting, argues that your worth as a creator goes beyond what you charge. He addresses imposter syndrome and self-doubt, then walks through how to align your content with your values, choose guests and sponsors strategically, and build confidence through incremental milestones rather than chasing external validation.
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Well, welcome, uh, on tonight's episode of Podcast Tips. I'm going to be talking about, uh, podcasters and content creators knowing their value and knowing their worth, and that's a huge issue. When it comes to being a podcaster and a content creator today. And really, I think the big reason for that is, is that for all of us to be able to keep a show going, and it's really easy to undervalue ourselves. And, and especially in this fast-paced, competitive world that's out there, people are, are feeling pressure, right? And it's not really about, really all about making money when it comes to knowing your, your worth. Your worth extends beyond just whatever monetary correlation that you can make. Your, your, your worth is really much more broad than that. And that's what I'm going to talk about today, is really kind of diving in through this kind of filter of self-doubt unclear goals and struggles are real. And these are a lot of psychological challenges that content creators and podcasters have to face. And they're a real thing. And I think especially if you're new and you haven't done a lot of podcasting in the past or creating content, this can be a significant hurdle to actually get over and to really start to unlock the power of trying to understand what your worth is and what you are trying to accomplish and what you're contributing to the world and how it's so much more than just how much money I'm going to make. So, which I think today is really a top-of-mind topic as it relates to creating content online. Everybody goes into creating content now with a financial kind of, I mean, not 100% of the time, but oftentimes with a financial motivation behind it. And so let's explore tonight the emotional, financial, and practical steps to build an undeniable self-confidence and a strategy that is in alignment with who you are as a person, what your capabilities are, what's your strengths, and at the core, you know, really what's your core values. And this process is really about making some core decisions based on your values as a content creator and how you see who you're speaking to, who's your audience, and what do you see as their core values. As well. And that's the key to unlocking this, this hidden potential, I guess, of being a content creator is really understanding who you are. And I think that we do kind of— we're seeing a gravitation towards, you know, a lot of these things being kind of— I don't hate to use the word contrived, but maybe invented based on what what someone wants to put out there versus who they genuinely are. And I think this is a tension that we live in a world that is very motivated by influence, power, and money. This drives people, and this happened on the mainstream media side. And why we're seeing this struggle kind of come to a head to some degree is because a lot of the people and the values and stuff of mainstream media or legacy media, however you want to call it, a lot of those values are now moving to the online space. And so we're seeing a lot of core motivation that aren't always aligned with our values and this sense of worth, especially when we're not working or on a large sense, working with people that are what would be considered to be kind of professional content creators to some degree that have built their whole careers about being a host and a radio host or a TV show anchor who have basically built their whole, their whole core identity around having that role. And so there's a lot of people that are getting involved in creating online media now. And I do include myself in this, even though I've been doing it for, like being on the radio and as a podcast for 25 years. But it's always been a struggle for me to, because I didn't come from that. That's not the career that I set out to do and get trained for or go to college for. And all that kind of stuff was to be a content creator. That opportunity came about based on just what was happening in the world. For me, I'm talking about, you know, my experience with this is that the opportunity came up because of the internet. And I started in the radio, but I was really awkward when I got started. I didn't have a lot of confidence. I didn't have a lot of feeling that I personally had a lot of value to bring to it. I was actually hoping to get more from it from learning and doing. I was hoping to get more from it to learn to get better. And I think that's another aspect of this, that you have to be patient with yourself. And it is going to be a struggle. And it's going to be a struggle for your confidence. And knowing your worth is definitely linked up with confidence. It's linked up with experience. And knowing when to say yes and when to say no to things that, you know, that maybe don't allow, that don't align with your capabilities or your goals or your values. And so all of us have a kind of a unique voice, right? And that's a statement around our way of speaking, how we communicate, and also The type of voice that we have, what does it sound like? What is our capability of speaking? Is it clear? Are there a lot of filler words? Are there a lot of things that maybe get in the way of you being able to communicate smoothly and effectively? These are all elements. And I'm, you know, there's people that I've known, and I had a history of being a little bit of a stutterer myself in the early years of my life. And so me getting in front of a microphone was, you know, that was a big step for me. And I think for a lot of people, that's the case. You know, I think, you know, just look at a guy like an Elon Musk. You know, when I first saw him start to speak in the media, he had a very, very, very difficult time being clear without having a lot of vocal challenges., in his speech. And he's definitely gotten better because he's been doing a lot more of it. And I know Elon Musk is a very controversial character, and I'm not necessarily getting into the politics of this. I, I'm just talking about what I've observed in a variety of different people that have gone through this journey of, of, maybe when he started speaking in the media, he didn't have a lot of confidence about it, but he felt like he had to do it. And, and to some degree that would be what would align well with me. Um, you know, I wanted to market my online search engine marketing business back in those days, and I went into a radio station, really pushed my limit of my self-confidence, what I thought I was really capable of doing, and just kind of, you know, I brought in a bunch of people with me that could kind of help with that, kind of fill in for me so it wasn't so much all on my plate like this, this show is, is really a culmination of many years of being involved in podcasting and really not having that, I guess, knowing your worth or knowing your confidence to be able to host a show like this solo. And so I always had to surround myself with others to, to fill in for what I perceived as my, my weaknesses. So, and that's where we get into this kind of talk about, you know, how confident are you? Are you standing tall, you know, and be bold in what you're doing to unlock maybe hidden opportunities that maybe your shyness and your tendency to want to pull back from putting yourself out there gets in the way of your success, especially now in this whole concept of imposter syndrome is something I've been hearing for years and years in the podcast medium, that people feel this, right? They feel like what they're doing is beyond what their, what really their skills are, their capabilities are. And that's where that whole imposter syndrome is, is that they oftentimes people feel like that they aren't worthy or they can't be doing what they're doing. And they're going to be discovered one day, and people are going to scorn them and, and give them a bad time and, and kick them out, right? And say, sorry, you can't do this, you're not good enough. So that's always been the kind of feeling around this topic. And, and I know that this is, this is a topic that, you know, gets talked about a little bit, but I think as we've progressed through the podcast and creator medium, we just kind of blown through these topics to some degree. And the people that have, have really kind of been successful really don't have really, I guess, a lot of these problems, like, I guess, because we've moved toward this concept of the, the cream rises to the top is what I keep hearing all the time. So a lot of people that maybe have a lot of natural talent, natural ability to create content, are very fluid in what they do. They have big personalities. They're very quick-witted. They're very, you know, there's this kind of, I don't know if you want to say God-given talent that some of these people have as a communicator. And that certainly is an advantage for anyone that actually has that. But so as we think about this, you know, and like I say, I've been through this you know, myself, and I've had my struggles over the years with my confidence and my feeling of that I should be doing what I'm doing. You know, getting on a live video show myself all alone is something, you know, 10 years ago I probably never would have done, or done very rarely. And so it's something that I've had to gradually shift into. So start to feel more confident in doing that kind of stuff. And I think a lot of you out there probably would kind of feel the same way. And so it's a struggle, there's no question. Now granted, there's other folks out there that don't struggle with this at all, but I do think that there's some elements of what I'm gonna share tonight or what I'm in the middle of sharing that's helpful to everyone because all of us have some level of self-talk or this negative self-talk that holds us back. I mean, I played competitive basketball in college and have always kind of been a, you know, kind of like a public person of sorts. But in my younger years, I wasn't a public person from a, I guess a verbal or visual— well, it was more of a visual communicator, I guess, because I played college and high school basketball at a very high level. And so I had a lot of success on that, but I didn't have to talk. So it was always kind of like, you know, it was physical expression for me in my early years. And that put me in the spotlight to some degree to have this exposure to what it's like maybe to be on stage or to perform, right? And that's what playing basketball is to some degree. It's a competitive performance. And so in some ways, that's how I look at podcasting over the last 20 years that I've been doing it, is that I kind of look at it, it's like a mental preparation that you have to go through before you actually do a show. And I think, or start a show, there's, there's kind of preparation that you have to go through. You have to prep. And I've, I've covered a lot of these topics in prior episodes of the show. Like, I talked about outlines last week, and that's, that's a corollary to what I'm talking about too, about building confidence and to, to help build your feeling of self-worth and to build your feeling of, of the ability to, to do what your goals are. So if you have goals that you want to accomplish and one of the pathways to do that is to create online content, then these are all the other things that you have to work on, right, and think about. And it can be overwhelming. There's, there's no question about that. So that's why I'm doing this episode is I don't think it's as appreciated as a challenge. And I think a lot of people just blow through it and just, you know, it either works for them or it doesn't. They don't really think about it that much. And if it doesn't work for them, oftentimes they'll just quit, right? If they don't immediately pick up all these steps and get them down and come across like, you know, like a professional, you know, Larry King or somebody like that who actually isn't as, you know, I think I, I knew Larry King, that's the guy that was on CNN, um, and I didn't, you know, I, I knew him a little bit personally, and, and I know he did a couple of podcasts that did not do very well, um, so he had a hard time translating his skills that he had earned for many years on CNN over to the more personal type of authentic format of podcasting. And they, you know, he and his wife kind of floundered on that a little bit. I know, you know, he's gone now. Rest in peace, Larry. And it's— but it was an interesting contrast for me to see from this big mainstream media successful star that made an attempt at podcasting, and it never it never worked. And I've seen many, many celebrities fall on their face because they're just not that good at being, I guess, kind of off the cuff, right? And everything that they've done has been fairly scripted and fairly laid out for them, and it was easy for them. All they had to do was show up to some degree. They didn't have to do any prep, or they didn't really have to do a lot. And if it— if they went off of their own personalities, they probably wouldn't be very successful. That is certainly the case with some actors that I've been around that have tried podcasting. So unless they have a script, they're not going, going very far successfully in being a podcaster because they just don't have the inherent, I guess, personality to connect with people in this medium, which it does kind of require that. And I think you need to think about that too. I didn't really have that too much in my outline here, but, but having, you a personality that people can relate to and trust and understand too. They speak in a language that's easy for people to understand and accept, and it's validated based on people's own kind of perceptions of the world. These are kind of the X factors, what I like to call it, when it comes to being a content creator. And it doesn't work for everyone. And that's okay. Though I think a lot of people want to be content creators these days, and some of them probably shouldn't be. So I think let's, I'm going to dive a little bit deeper in this next topic, which is self-worth and building that, right? And being guided by your values. Like what I'm doing in this podcast series, I'm guided by my values. This, this series that I'm doing, Podcast Tips, may not be the most popular podcast series in the world, but I'm following my values and the, the topics and issues that are important to me in my journey. And I feel that my obligation to my audience is to share that real world experience, right? And not, um, not make a program that's all focused on, you know, topics that are clickbait and, and very superficial. And sure, it's probably going to get a lot more views, and I'm not playing that game as much, but I would rather get into more substantive topics. And that's, that's what I try and do here. I see that I have a comment in here from Randy, who I can bring this up here before I dive too much into core values. So let me see, Randy S. writes from X and says, "In my first podcast, I was so nervous about it. I could tell it in my voice. What got me over it, it was an audio pod." I thought that I am just recording it. My voice isn't even on the net yet, right? Exactly. It's just going into a recording. Why am I nervous? Doing it over 200 shows, it is a one-man band show. So kind of like this one. And those have a unique challenge to it. I mean, it's easier to do a conversation Um, and so anyway, he, he continues here. I've done some open stage stuff at a comedy club, and I thought if I can do that in front of a lot of people, I can do this. Yes, I, I agree with you, Randy. I think you do have the ability to do it. It's a different psychology though, and I think that's probably why you're drawing a distinction here, because I'm I'm the same way. I've done a lot of onstage stuff and I've done a lot of stuff in group, you know, like co-host as well as host and guest type of scenarios. And all these are very different and very— require a little different skills, right? And require a little different confidence too. I mean, If you're confident up on stage doing a comedy act or being involved in presenting at, let's say, a comedy club, that can be a little bit more off the cuff. It can be a little bit more tap into your personality. But oftentimes when you're doing a podcast, it's usually a little more structured, right? It's a little more— there's maybe an outline, maybe a little bit of a script that you're trying to trying to work with, and that's different than probably what you're doing at the comedy club. So, and it's also being in front of a live audience brings a whole different kind of energy, and that's, that's what I love about doing this show live and the other show that I do that's live as well. And I've done a few other ones too, is, is that the live has a different energy to it. It also, it's almost like stepping out on the basketball court that I did for 13 years. It's like you're walking on stage, man. It's what you do once you get on the stage is what matters. There's no redos, there's no editing, there's no way out, right? When you're on the stage, you're on display and you're being tested. Every decision or action that you take on the floor can have a direct implication into the success of the team that you're on and the people that are around you, the audience or the people in the crowd are expecting, if they're a fan of a particular team, they want to see that team win. So you have pressure on you as a player, just like I do in this podcast, to deliver value to you. I don't have to jump around and make jump shots, but that's certainly something that I did a lot over the years was, and then play defense. And there's a lot of tactical skills and a lot of kind of mental skills that have a lot of connection to what I'm doing with podcasting. And that's what I've really tried to tap into was those many years of experience with that. And get over my confidence issue about my presentation abilities, right? My spoken capabilities, my pronunciations, my use of filler words or duplicate words or whatever that are now being brought clear to bear as I use these AI tools to help edit. So which, it's a whole nother conversation, but so I think let's, Let's go back and Randy, thank you for the comment that kind of took us off into another area, which is very, very important too on this topic. I appreciate that, Randy. And, but centering on your core values of who you are as a person is really, really helpful, especially in the early days of being a podcaster, because it's tapping into who you are at the very very beginning of what you're doing, which grounds you in some level of reality. Now, I think as you look at bigger shows, ones that are produced by big media companies, they tend to be a little more contrived, right? So they come up with a show concept, they bring in some talent, the talent just kind of makes that show happen, and it's not really— chances are the the purpose of the show or the topic of the show doesn't necessarily have to align with the values of the host in that type of environment. But I think when you're just getting started as an independent creator, um, and even with a brand, uh, so let's say you're working for a company, one of the reasons that you got hired at that company is because you probably align with the, with the values of that brand. And so you can kind of correlate that to some degree. But sticking with the values of that brand and what is important to them and what needs to be communicated, what kind of relationship that you're building with your audience. You know, I think these values also take you down different paths, right, like picking sponsors, or picking sponsors that align with the, with your values or align with what you feel comfortable being associated with. And I think to some degree, that's what's going on with this brand safety and suitability efforts that are going along, going on out there in the podcasting space today. There is a little bit of goodness that is helpful there, but oftentimes that brand safety and brand suitability kind of framework tends to create an environment of censorship too, and that's not necessarily helpful for this, but it does take you down this path of kind of like values alignment, right? So one thing that you can do is just kind of, if you're looking to identify what those values are with your podcast, then, you know, create a list and write them down. You know, write down your like your top 3 or 5 core values of what you believe in, in the concept of who you are as a creator and what this podcast is about and what's important to you. That there is and there isn't, as they say, or the yes or the no, which is the other thing I mentioned earlier, is that having confidence to say no and having confidence to say yes around topics, around guests, around sponsors, around distribution are all important too. So, you know, at the core, it's about your values as a creator. And sometimes your values are, are not going to be the most popular values out there. But, but you know what, that's the decision that you have to make because it could have an impact on how much money you make or how big your show gets is what those choices are of your values. Because your values may not be as popular as other values. And I think we've kind of been through that a little bit with the political stuff that's been going on for the last couple years. You can kind of see that playing out right in front of you, right? And it turns into being a little bit of a popularity contest to some degree, and people taking sides of sorts, and that's kind of what you're forced into doing with a podcast too, is taking sides. I'm advocating for that you take your side, whatever that is, but oftentimes you do have to consider the side of culture and the side of society and what the norms are, what people are expecting,, it should be thought of as a consideration for, for your involvement in helping build your, your show and corollary to your self-worth. But I think these, these concepts of being able to say no and be able to say yes, uh, are, are very important. You know, and as you think about, like, like what I just mentioned about selecting guests, Yes, no, or overbooking on guests and stuff. It depends on your values, right? Some people will book multiple people for an episode because they've been burned once because if they book one person and that one person backs out the last minute, then they're messed up. Or are you, willing to kind of commit to someone, and if it doesn't happen, then you have to adjust at the last minute. And so it all gets back to— and then also other people selling guest spots on your show. That's, that's a strategy that some people are taking with podcasting now, is that they'll, they'll say, you know, if you want to be a guest on my show, it's going to cost you $200, or it's going to cost you $500. So it gets back to what your values are. How do you value what you're doing? And do you feel good about charging a guest to be on your show? Because you're going to have to— ideally, you're going to have to disclose that to your audience to be in compliance with the FTC, uh, because that will be, by the FTC's, uh, guidelines, it will be considered to be some level of a, of a sponsorship and a commercial endorsement to have a guest come on your show that paid to be there. And let's say they're a book author, and one of the reasons they're coming on your show is that they want to plug a commercial product, which is a book. There are podcasters that are doing that. Or let's say it's a CEO of a, of a company that has a product that maybe aligns with the audience of that show. And that CEO talks about, um, that product and gives its price and talks about its features and all this kind of stuff, and that CEO paid $1,000 to be on that show. I think most people would consider that to be a sponsored ad of sorts. So, you know, I think we all have to decide how far down this, this this path of trust and being transparent. And that gets back to core values, which gets back to your self-worth, right? How do you value your self-worth? And it goes into all these other areas that may not necessarily be something that you've entirely thought about. So, you know, and it can be tough Tough sledding to actually know where to draw these lines because you may give up something. In this case, you'd be giving up income. You're trading your income for your core values, right? And if your self-worth is linked up with how much money you make, then based on what your actions are, then you can see the connection here. That takes you down a path that may not be as— and it depends on how you handle it, right? If you handle it up front and you're, you're honest about it, you're a, a fair trader, and everybody's— everybody knows what's going on, there's no funny business going on, then, then it actually can work. But not everyone's willing to make the sacrifices that need to be made to make it all work. So those are things to think about too. And this whole concept of loose change, which I've been hearing about, it's basically understanding your resources. So loose change is a metaphor for undervalued time, energy, and money. So, if you've got this bag of loose change, right? What is the value of that loose change? What's the value of your time? What's the value of your energy? And how much do you value the money? You know, how many hours does it take for you to produce your show, plan your show, publish your show, market your show, and work with sponsors. You know, I think these are principles that are all part of building your worth with doing a podcast or, or even a YouTube video show like this one. So, you know, and all these elements, right? You're, you're your time, your energy. And, and with the energy side, it's knowing what your limits are. How far are you willing to go? How hard are you willing to, to work? Will, will have a direct connection with, um, your perception of your self-worth. It's like all of us, when we have a, like a full-time job or something like that, Oftentimes men will link up their success in their jobs, which can translate into money. It can translate into the feeling that you have inside of you. And are you on the path to be burned out? These are all things I think we all have to overcome kind of self devaluation, which is another end of the spectrum, especially when you get involved in this kind of negative self-talk, which I think is a big part of this conversation as well. And, you know, overcoming common pitfalls that devalue your, your self-worth. You know, by going out there and comparing what you're doing to another podcast and saying that, well, I'm not as successful as Joe Rogan, then maybe I'm not contributing enough to be, to continue, right? So, you know, not considering the path that Joe Rogan has had to his success and what he had to go through in the early years and what he currently has to do to achieve the success that, that they have. So sometimes we can mentally devalue, um, what we're doing based on a comparison to someone that we're not really being fair to ourselves or ourselves by comparing ourselves to other shows or other successful people out there because we are all unique and what we bring to the world. And that's where this gets back to understanding what your values are and understanding your goals and charting forward a confident path that may have a different path to success. I think a lot of people think, well, if I just go out and create a show just like Joe Rogan, I, I just copy everything that Joe Rogan does. That's gonna, that's gonna mean that I'm gonna find success. I'm gonna be a multi-millionaire. I'm gonna be able to sign a contract with Spotify for a couple hundred million dollars. And, you know, it's just going to be that simple, you know. So, but the reality is, is that Joe Rogan is a unique individual that had a a journey, um, that was built on the back, probably in the early days, of probably a little bit of an imposter syndrome about being a podcaster. I, I'm sure he had a big ego about being, you know, uh, on TV and all this kind of stuff, but I'm sure he didn't have a lot of confidence in being on the radio because he didn't have any background around that, or being in audio program. And then over time, he evolved into being more of a, more of a video person with this podcast. But when he started, it was a very humble starting for Joe Rogan. I was involved in the podcasting space when he got started. It's the same thing with Adam Carolla. I followed his career, actually worked on his podcast when I was working for PodcastOne. But, you know, so don't compare yourself to other, other successful people. Only compare yourself to your goals and what you want to do. You can learn from people out there that are doing similar things to you out there in the market and be observational and learn from them, but realize that you're not going to achieve the same thing they're going to achieve going down a different path, because that's exactly what's going to happen. You know, and also maybe Believing that your niche isn't valuable. Well, you know, that can easily be gauged by the success of the show, the number of downloads or the monetization of it, but I'm not sure that's helpful either. And it gets back to what your values are. If your values are making money first, or are your values making content that's helpful to people? And, and doing things for others. Um, that is actually— that is the path of most of the early podcasters that you see. I mean, not all of them, but a lot of them that started out that humbly in the beginning have found success because they've just been at it a long time. So, you know, and that's where the self-doubt comes from, and you know, thinking that what you're doing isn't, isn't valued in the market. Um, it's just, it's very possible that you just haven't, uh, reached a kind of like an inflection point. Because what I've seen over many years is that success in being a media creator doesn't happen in a linear fashion. It doesn't happen in a, like, a step-by-step process. It goes in spurts. So you go for a long period of time where it's like everything's flat, you're just not making any progress at all, and then all of a sudden it'll start to clip up one, one episode, and then, you know, 5 episodes further down from that it'll jump again. And then you'll go through 10 episodes where it will be kind of flat and things won't be doing as well, and you'll just find at some point down the road that you'll start to grow faster and your show will start to catch on. You as a creator will get better. And, and I think, you know, one other thing as far as a way to think about this is milestones and what you're doing. If you set reasonable goals for yourself, uh, ones that are not like, I'm going to be as big and as popular as Joe Rogan in 3 months, then you're going to be able to achieve some sense of success and accomplishment over a period of time. So, I think that's really, really an important way to actually think about this. And then, so if you can celebrate every win, right? So, let's say you start a podcast and you get like, 10 downloads, right, in your first or second or third episode, and then you drop back to 5 episodes the, the next 2 or 3 episodes, or, and then one episode you go up to, let's say you go up to 50 downloads, and then the episode after that you drop down to 25, right? Are you making progress? So, you know, I think that's kind of how you have to look at it, and a lot of And this is kind of what I advise to content creators is to think about it as you're basically investing in what you're doing. You can't really expect to have a big audience very quickly. So that has to be earned over time. It has to be worked on consistently. You can, you know, choices that you make will have an impact on what level of success that you, you know, you're going to reach with that. And you may never reach if you set very lofty goals, and, and it may take years for you to get there. And you have to be willing to accept that that could be what happens. So it's, it's definitely a challenging process. And, um, live podcast media, um Sonya, thanks for, for joining the show. And I see she posted on her other social account, how long is a podcast considered survived and successful? Um, I don't know. I think it's really a gauge of, of the podcaster and what they've set for themselves as goals. Um, I think a successful podcast is a podcast that you you feel like you're infusing your goals, your values, and your mission, and you've delivered on that. I think it's a challenge to expect people to watch or listen. And having high levels of expectation of that is a path towards disappointment. If you really focus on being— creating the best content that you can, and get better at it and learn from your audience, learn yourself from actually doing. Over time, what you'll find is that audience will find you. Now, granted, this is a little contrary to what you will normally hear from the larger podcast media platforms that will, will want to take you down this path of, of investing in your show, building a team, having a lot of people people behind you that can push. And a lot of this, um, gets, gets conflated with that, is that a lot of the shows that maybe you're comparing yourself to and feeling disappointed about have, you know, 5 or 6 people working on it, um, to drive that to success. Or maybe the show that you're doing, you're the only one doing the show and you're doing everything. You're even taking out the garbage can. In your, in your studio and you're sweeping the floors and you're doing all the, the publishing and the posting. That's a different situation than, let's say, a Joe Rogan who's got a, you know, he's got at least probably 4 or 5 people that work for him. And then there's other creators that have larger teams. But, you know, if you're doing this alone, You know, your expectation doesn't have to be as high also as, as a person that's got a team behind them that they have to pay. So, you know, shift your focus from external validation really to more personal growth, content quality. Expectations is the advice. Don't look for outside validation like follower counts, things like that as much. Build a system that has feedback pathways that you can actually hear from people and get their impressions about what you're doing. And then also ask for help, ask for support, ask your audience to to share your show with their friends. If they're there and they're a fan of the show, then they're probably going to be confident that sharing it with a friend is something that they can pass on their recommendation to someone else. And just keep in mind that recommendations from audiences to other potential audiences is a significant thing and it has a significant impact on the growth of your audience too, because what that person, that listener that's sharing your show with another person is that they're basically handing off the credibility of the person doing the sharing. So let's say I like a particular podcast and I tell a good friend of mine that they should go listen to this podcast. That recommendation is followed with my credibility behind it, right? So if I make a recommendation to someone to go listen to a show and that show doesn't really deliver or isn't of the quality that maybe the person that got the recommendation was expecting, then somewhat there can be a hit to the person doing the recommendations. So at the end of the day, it's really about the quality of the show and what value it brings before you're going to see an acceleration of recommendations. So people have to be really excited about your show. They have to be deeply engaged. They have to listen all the way to the end. Those are the people that are gonna be most likely to recommend your show.. And then, and then once you kind of can see that starting to bubble, then I think you can really start to feel more confident that you can ask for sponsorships too. So as you kind of move through this, this timeframe of building your self-worth, building the content, building relationships with your audience, you can start making steps forward into building other types of relationships around your show that that may be able to be turned on to monetize and to help bring in revenue. So, and then the other big thing is really no audience is too small. Now that may sound a little unintuitive, and I totally recognize that, but consider what you're doing when you're doing a show like this, you're speaking to one person. Really, at the end of the day, especially if it's an audio podcast, because, you know, there's earphones, right? That person is listening to you in their inner ear. If they're listening to you on, let's say, a phone or something like that, I'm sure watching a live video like this is a different experience, right? It's more like television, right? And I do watch a lot of video podcasts on my big screen television, but the audio experience is very personal, right? So you're speaking to one person, and if you can deliver value to that one person, then you have a higher likelihood of that one person telling a second person, and that second person tells a third person. And you start to create this kind of, um, networking effect of sorts that starts to, to spread. And so even if you have 5 listeners, those 5 listeners, if it's a good show, will convert to 10 or 8 or 7 or whatever over some episode time span. And then once you start start that chain reaction, it's kind of like a— it can turn into like a chain reaction nuclear explosion of sorts. Maybe it's a little slower than a nuclear bomb, but it's— it, it kind of has that effect, right? Is that once there's confidence in people that they can share it to their friends and not feel embarrassed about that share, they're, they're more likely— that's more likely to continue to happen. So, that should be the goal here of trying to achieve that. So anyway, that's pretty much what I wanted to talk about in the episode tonight was just these core things, you know, aligning your core values and be strategic about what you say yes or no to. And then also, you know, don't talk yourself down. Don't do that negative self-talk about your, your worth. And ask for what you, what you need. You know, that's a topic that I haven't really talked about here around the whole concept of self-worth or, or the worth of you as as a content creator has to be really determined by your values and your core goals, beliefs, and what you think is important. And that'll have to evolve over time, and that's how it should work. So I wanna thank you for being with me here tonight and watching the, the live version of Podcast Tips. And this is going to be on, on replay off of all of the big social platforms, um, X and LinkedIn and, um, Facebook as well as YouTube. So you can find it there. And this is also an audio and video podcast on Apple Podcasts. You can also get this show, um, as an audio podcast in Spotify. And all of the other significant, uh, podcast listening apps. So, and if you wanted to send me an email, you can certainly do that to, um, here. It's just rob.greenlee@gmail.com. And I'm also on X @RobGreenlee. And my, my YouTube channel is just @RobGreenlee as well. And I'm on LinkedIn and Instagram and all these other, other platforms. I do have a website myself, robgreenlee.com, that has all my podcasts that are listed on there. So, so, well, thank you, and I appreciate you joining me tonight, like I said earlier. And thank you for all the comments that everybody left, left for me, um, that were fantastic. I thank you so much. And if you have any other comments or questions, go ahead and post them into the, the kind of chat area of any of the platforms that you're watching this on., and, um, would love to hear from you. So thank you so much, and I hope you have a wonderful evening. Uh, let's see here. It looks like I've got a new comment in here. It looks like Barbara Tomlin wrote also. Uh, she writes, thanks for sharing your insights, uh, with us, Rob. I appreciate it, Barbara. Thank you so much for popping on here and checking out the show tonight. And so if you wanted to watch any of the past episodes, like I said, this is the 49th episode of Podcast Tips, and they're all in the RSS feed. So you can go listen or you can watch. Um, if you go to podcasttips.blueberry.com, I think I have that. Let's see if I have that here. Yeah, this is it here. It's podcast tips blubrry.net if you want to get access to all of the, the video and audio all in one place across all the episodes. So like I said, thank you so much. I appreciate you being here, and I'll be back again next week with another episode of Podcast Tips. Thank you so much. Good night.
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