204 | Podcasting Without Funnels: Why Great Content Beats Marketing Gimmicks

[00:00:00] You don't need a funnel, a course, or a $997 blueprint to make a podcast that matters. You need a mic, a message, and the guts to ignore the gurus. Let's break down the lies and get back to what podcasting is really about.

[00:00:22] Sound matters. Be heard. Welcome to the podcast where you get exclusive behind the scenes tips to make your own show sound truly spectacular. This is Podtastic Audio. What's happening? How are you doing today? Thank you so much for being here. I am Chris and yeah, this is the one and only, the world famous,

[00:00:49] podcasting audio. And I am Chris and yeah, I make these episodes for you so you can make an amazing show of your very own. Do you love podcasting? Because I sure love podcasting. And that is what we're going to talk about today. You know, let's, let's be real for a second here. You probably didn't start your podcast to run a digital funnel. Maybe you didn't build it to be some kind of sales machine. You started it because you had to run a digital funnel.

[00:01:19] You had something to say. Maybe, maybe, just maybe, something that could actually help people. Imagine that. That would be great. But somewhere along the way, all these podcasting gurus, all their podcasts about podcasting, started whispering in your ear. They said things like, you got to monetize. You got to scale. You got to sell something. You got to build that email list.

[00:01:44] And suddenly, podcasting became this weird marketing hamster wheel. Now, today, we're talking about that. And before I go any further today, I want to let you know that you can podcast however you want. You can do whatever you want to do with your show.

[00:02:02] And this podcast right here, being that I am also an indie hobby podcaster. I don't do this for a living. No, not at all. And so most podcasters that I talk to, you're probably one of them, is that you probably do this because you love podcasting. You love the creation process. You love getting content out there. Podcasting feels like a really easy medium to get into.

[00:02:27] And it also allows you to express yourself in a long-form conversation format. Versus if you're doing something like, say, a Instagram reel or TikTok thing, usually that's quick-paced, very fast, very chopped together, very quick, very short form. Podcasting is long-form content. It is not the same as a YouTube video. It is long-form conversations usually.

[00:02:54] But listen, your podcast can be whatever you want it to be. It's your show. Have that, have fun, and do your thing. But one thing I have noticed, because when I first got started in podcasting back in 2019, I knew nothing about nothing. And when I'm saying nothing, I mean, I didn't know what kind of microphone to use, how to record, how to edit, what to really say, how to make a good show. Like, what does that even mean? I thought you just recorded stuff, and that was it. Good to go, right?

[00:03:22] So I started listening to a lot of these other podcasts about podcasting, these other gurus as there were. Now, there's a lot of them out there right now, and some have a podcast, and some have been doing this for a long time. And some don't even have a podcast, but yet they're going to tell you how to podcast? How does that work? So I think the thing that I've noticed with some of these gurus is that they'll be talking about podcasting,

[00:03:51] and most of the time, the thing they're trying to tell you to do is market your show. Now, I'm not on here today trying to bash anybody else or any other podcast on podcasting. I'm not here to bash any of them at all. In fact, I do listen to these guys. I do listen to other shows. I am well aware that other podcasts about podcasting do exist. They may say the opposite.

[00:04:18] They may say there aren't any other shows other than theirs about podcasting. And the reason why is because these other shows about podcasting is that they are kind of like thinly disguised sales funnels. Their goal on most of these other shows, not saying all of them, I'm saying most of the ones that I have come across, is that they get you to build your show, build a show, build any kind of show for the most part.

[00:04:45] Then they'll tell you to use that show to sell some kind of product. Now, usually that product is some kind of coaching, some kind of like selling you courses or build a course, things like that. Sell that thing. And then you teach others to do the exact same thing. Hey, this smells a little bit like multi-level marketing to me, but hey, to each their own.

[00:05:11] And what seems to be apparently clear is that this is not about content. It's about the conversations they have with potential clients, customers, listeners who become clients and customers. And some of these podcast gurus, not saying all, not saying all of them, I'm saying some of them. Once their funnel machine starts churning, starts working, the podcast itself becomes something they could care less about.

[00:05:40] And they stop podcasting altogether because the main goal of their podcast from the beginning was to generate money. And once that machine of generating money kind of kicks in and starts working, they ain't got time for podcasting. No, it's about how to teach you how to podcast, how to teach you how to make money also. And there's nothing wrong with using your podcast to make some money.

[00:06:04] I've made money from podcasting too, but it's not my main drive for actually doing this. I actually love content creation. I actually love creating audio content. I actually love making a podcast, which sounds weird for some of these guys because they're thinking, why would you make a podcast if it did not directly tie into filling your wallet full of cash?

[00:06:30] And one little side note about making money with your podcast or from your podcast, it takes a very long time, a lot of work, a lot of dedication, a lot of marketing hours, a lot of content creation strategies, a lot of stuff just to make some money. And I'm not talking like millions of dollars. I'm talking some money, enough to maybe make a car payment if you're lucky kind of money. Not the millions and zillions these gurus are preaching you.

[00:06:59] Money will rain from heaven if you just make a podcast and send it out and you're good to go. But most of these podcast gurus miss the most important part. Would you like to guess what the most important part of a podcast is? Well, that would be having a good podcast from the start.

[00:07:21] Good audio quality, good storytelling, great content told in engaging, exciting, personal way that's going to grab listeners from the start. That makes a great show. And unfortunately, what I've been seeing and listening with some of these other podcasts about podcasting, these other gurus, is that their show, for the most part, has nothing to do with that. Nothing at all.

[00:07:49] Nothing to do with the most important part of podcasting. All they're interested in telling you is how to grow your show, how to build an audience, how to get millions of dollars from your audience, how to best market your podcast, which is completely fine to do. It's best to market your podcast. I market this podcast, but I don't spend any money marketing. I could. I mean, I could spend thousands of dollars on marketing.

[00:08:16] And that is what these gurus tell you to do. So did you know that really well done, well-structured marketing, well-funded marketing of any show can elevate even the crappiest of shows? The worst shows on the planet can be elevated to an elite status with really, really good marketing.

[00:08:41] So marketing essentially can make any show look great, even a really bad one, because you're paying to get that content, that show, in front of as many people as possible. You're paying for the ears and eyeballs of people to actually consume that content. And that is what I see with a lot of these other podcasts on podcasting said, not all of them, not all of them, but a handful of them.

[00:09:10] I've seen this happen time and time again, where they're basically telling you marketing advice and not actually content coaching of any kind. Not telling you if you have a good show or not. Not telling you how to structure your show. Not telling you how to make it sound great. Use sound design. Not telling you how to actually edit a conversation. Not telling you these things. Just telling you where to spend your marketing dollars to actually sell your podcast

[00:09:38] to as many marketing teams as possible to get your show in front of as many people as possible. That's all they tell you. And the reason they tell you this is because it's way, way easier for a, quote, podcasting coach to tell you that why not just buy more ads? Or why not just use this marketing service? Oh, check this out. I actually have a marketing service you can use. Do that.

[00:10:06] It's much easier for them to tell you that than it is to tell you, you know, your show isn't really that great. Your show isn't good. Maybe you should do this and that. Or maybe try something completely different. You're telling me your show is about cats, but all you talk about is something completely different. You're trying to tell me that you're having a hard time getting listeners. Gee, I wonder why. But they might tell you just drop dollars over in this pocket of marketing instead. That'll be the trick. Do that.

[00:10:36] This actually frustrates me to death because nobody ever seems to tell anybody their show isn't any good. I think that a lot of content creators, a lot of podcasters do not want to hear that our show is hot garbage. Nobody wants to hear that. So nobody tells them that either. All they tell them is just market it like this, use this marketing strategy, so on and so forth.

[00:11:00] But if your show and your content in your show doesn't deliver any value at all, then marketing it will just highlight the flaws of your show. Hey, so think of it like this. If your podcast is boring or unclear, if you pay extra for Facebook ads, well, the Facebook ads isn't going to save it, it's not going to make your show amazing all of a sudden. It's going to help more people find out what they don't already want to hear.

[00:11:27] So as an indie podcaster, I'm an indie podcaster. You're an indie podcaster. When I say indie podcaster, I mean somebody that actually does this because they love doing it. They have a small setup, not a major budget and not spending millions of dollars on this stuff. They're not running some big ad campaign. They're doing it because we love doing it and we love creating and we are small time. We're not big time. We're small time and we are okay with that.

[00:11:56] And this goes directly back to the reason why I started Podtastic Audio in the first place. Because here I am doing something that I enjoy doing, which is creating podcasts from an old computer in my old bedroom, doing it for fun, completely for fun, enjoying the content creation process, enjoying listening back to what I make, enjoying sharing it to other people, having them right back saying they love the thing I created.

[00:12:25] That whole community of just being around the great content and the great experiences of just creating and enjoying what we create. Just that alone fills my cup up. I enjoy doing this. And so when it comes to being an indie podcaster, what we really need instead of like spend hundreds of dollars that we probably don't even have on marketing, on marketing crap that we probably don't even need, buying coaching crap we don't even need just to market our show to all these

[00:12:53] different places, we should probably listen to somebody who actually gets us. Somebody that actually understands what we're going through. As an indie podcaster, I get you. I understand what you're going through because I'm going through the exact same thing. We need to get feedback from our show, not more funnels, sales stuff, get you to buy my course, get you to buy my thing. We don't need that stuff. We need actual real feedback.

[00:13:22] Is the show worth listening to? Did I get value from it? And I think the thing is, is that a lot of new podcasters that jump into this thing and they listen to some of these gurus, they listen to some of these podcasts on podcasting like I did. And a lot of the time, it's all about sales pitching you this and sales pitching you that and having you buy this course or buy this other thing or sign up for my coaching plan or do a discovery

[00:13:49] call. Can't believe how many of these other podcasts on podcasting do this whole like discovery call thing, jump on my discovery call, get on my calendar, you know, sign up for my coaching thing, sign up for this, check this out, do this, do that, where I can promise you, promise you downloads and all kinds of great things and tons of money from your show without ever, ever checking to see if your show is great in the first place.

[00:14:14] You're not even checking to see if you have a microphone, have a microphone for God's sake, seriously, you know, we should be talking about how to improve the gear you already have, get decent gear, but it doesn't have to be expensive, just simple stuff and make your show sound amazing. I know there's lots of tools out there like Descript and lots of other tools that I use that can make podcasting incredibly easy for almost anybody. I think there's probably a book

[00:14:44] on like podcasting for dummies and it probably just points to Descript and get an account and let it do everything for you. And I know a lot of these podcasters, a lot of podcasts on podcasting, they either have a marketing team, a editing team that does everything for them, or they run through something like Descript, which does it all for them. But when you're starting out as an indie podcaster,

[00:15:08] you don't have those options. Usually the money that you're going to spend on your podcast probably goes to buying maybe a decent microphone, not the best, but a decent microphone. And probably maybe, you know, you're recording software if you're using something like Riverside or whatever it could possibly be. And of course you're hosting of your podcast itself. Now I know there are free places out there like Spotify or wherever, things like that. So you can get your costs down to a minimum.

[00:15:37] But even if you do, just imagine if you do get these costs down to a real minimum, we're forgetting the most important part. What are we going to talk about and who is our audience? You need to figure that out first. Figure that stuff out before you start figuring out how to market stuff. Figure out who the audience actually is and how your show can benefit them. Why would they

[00:16:00] listen? And once you figure that part out, once you actually start recording your actual real show, it takes some time to figure out your natural hosting style. Now everybody is different. Everybody talks differently. Everybody's got their different points, their different methods, their different styles. I know that some shows, they are very monotone and they have this whole,

[00:16:24] I guess kind of like the old Captain Kirk on Star Trek, how you like pause before every word and make this big dramatic thing. You could do it like that. You know, I mean, to each their own. You can podcast however you want to do it. You can do whatever you want. You can sell whatever you want. It's your show. There are no rules. You can do whatever you want. All I'm saying is that what I like to do is make something that I enjoy listening to. And I love doing this because

[00:16:52] I love helping others. That's why I do this show. You don't need a system to scale. You need to know why your show matters in the first place. So no, your podcast isn't a funnel. It's your voice. It's your message. And if you get that right first, the growth stuff, well, that actually comes later.

[00:17:15] Now, this is going to be part one. And coming next in part two of this series, we're going to talk about what growth actually looks like. How to build the podcast that people actually want to share with no gimmicks, with good content. That's next time on Podtastic Audio. And I want to say thank you once again for spending your time with me today. Like I said, I do this show for you. I love

[00:17:43] podcasting. I hope you love podcasting. And even if you're just starting out, and this is like your very first episode, and you're in episode like one, and you want to keep going to episode 101, then keep listening because this show is for you. So if you want to know more about Podtastic Audio, there's a one-stop shop with every single thing you're going to need right there on my website, podtasticaudio.com. Very easy to figure out. Link down below in the show notes. I'm sure it's down

[00:18:13] there in the show notes. So if you want to send me a message, you can do that right there. You want to find me on all the social media platforms, you can do that right there. You want to listen to other episodes, all the back catalog. Guess what? Yeah, it's all right there at podtasticaudio.com. And until next time, happy podcasting.

[00:20:03] Bye.