2 Podcasting Lessons After 100M Downloads

👾 Leveling Up 👾

Welcome to Leveling Up. Today’s newsletter is a 4-minute read. 

Here are some things we’re going to cover: 

• All types of storytelling content
• How Burger King leveraged McDonald’s
• The two lessons I learned from podcasting

Are you looking to hit any specific growth goals in 2024?

Request one from our marketing experts for free here (link).

Thanks,

Eric Siu :)

Actionable Tip

AI video is slowly starting to look more professional.

You can now create a video commercial for your business within ChatGPT by using the Visla plugin

Here’s the guide you need (link).

Links You Might Like

Here are some of the best links I’ve found since our last email. 

🎯 Marketing

Do you know the 11 types of storytelling content? (link)

✉️ Email

Some quick ‘urgency email’ templates (link)

🏢 Business

Burger King leveraged McDonald’s for marketing (link)

🤖 AI

7 AI predictions from Zuckerberg (link)

✏️ Writing

A recap on one of the most important business skills (link)

Deep Dive: Two Podcast Lessons

I've accumulated over 100M downloads over a decade of podcasting. 

Not top-tier status, but decent. 

I do both an interview pod and an educational pod (Leveling Up and Marketing School, respectively). 

The problem is there's now a glut of interview podcasts. What was previously differentiated content now looks the same. This is deadly in a world where attention is becoming increasingly scarce. 

11 years ago, interview podcasts were relatively novel. I remember @AndrewWarner was leading the way with his Mixergy interviews. He always had amazing guests and he always asked thoughtful questions. 

Today, you see multiple athletes starting podcasts -- JJ Reddick and Lebron James do a great job with their deep analysis on basketball. But what about all the other players starting their own pod? They're starting to sound the same. 

And so in a sea where everyone is zigging, it's time to zag again. 

Especially if you're trying to use your pod to grow your business. 

A few months ago, someone had reached out to partner on a project. When we got on the call, he made the comment that 'you're actually more legit than I thought you were.' 

Puzzled by that comment, I asked him to elaborate. He said that my interview pod YT channel, Leveling Up, had amazing guests and the content was great, but he didn't really know anything about me as a person.

It's because I focused on asking questions instead of making the pod conversational. Had I been bouncing back and forth with the guest on topics, the audience would've gradually learned more about me as a person. 

Okay, so that's Lesson One – focus on making interview podcasts more conversational. 

@gregisenberg does a good job with his pod. He sent me a list of questions to prepare ahead of time and we just brainstormed for about 40 minutes. It was fun and engaging. 

It was different. 

But to me, making my interview podcasts 'more conversational' isn't enough. 

After hearing that @hubermanlab spends 12-100 hours researching for each of his solo episodes and 3-11 hours producing, it got me thinking... 

Lesson Two – If you're a credible person and you have interesting stories and research to share, people want to hear from YOU. 

That can be in the form of reactions to trending topics. 

That can be in the form of well-researched topics and case studies. 

That can be in the form of sharing your own experiences and stories. 

For the 'Leveling Up' pod, moving forward, I'll be focusing on not only making the interview pods more conversational, but decreasing the number of interviews and adding in solo episodes where I'm sharing learnings and research around business + marketing and whatever else I'm interested in. 

The most important thing to understand is once something starts to feel a little 'off', you take action and experiment. Some stuff will work, some won't. 

The worst thing will be if you stay stagnant.

How I Can Help You

If you enjoy this newsletter and would like to collaborate with me, there are a few options available:

1. You can apply to work with my agency (link)
2. You can join my Skool community (link)
3. You can apply to join my mastermind (link)

Interested in working at Single Grain? We have some new open roles:

• Paid Media Manager (link)
• SEO Manager (link)