I was a late adapter (not a spelling mistake) of podcasts. I might have watched a live recording here and there and put a random podcast on from time to time to hear if there was anything good in the podcast world, but ultimately I selected music or a book over them.
Yet, the industry continued to grow. There had to be a demand for the all the supply of podcasts, right?
So as good practice has it to understand something you don’t already understand, I started a podcast with a friend. We recorded 57 episodes over the span of a year.
It was both some of my greatest work and my worst work.
Greatest because it changed the way I thought about things and saw the world… for the better.
Worst because we had an average of 10 listeners at the time for each episode.
I shared that same worst with 80 percent of the podcasters out there. We all found that we could create a lot of content but not get a lot of listeners.
Podcasts finally got people to realize that you have to connect and build an audience in a more personal way before you can expect listeners to show up.
Podcasts changed marketing in that we couldn’t bet on being found and having random fans show up.
That concept applies for nearly any business or marketing idea.
A brand new coffee shop in which you’ve connected with no one in the neighborhood might succeed for a bit (because it’s shiny. And admittedly, we had the most number of listeners [more than 10] to our first few episodes), but then you need a core to be there for you after the polish is rubbed off.
The caveat (and the thing podcasters knew before they started podcasting) is that you can’t expect to build an audience without constantly creating work, either.
We had a few followers who listened to our podcast at the start because they liked the work we were putting out on our blogs and neighborhoods.
And the coffee shop owner wouldn’t have been able to run a successful coffee shop without having made coffee for friends, families and foes before opening.
With marketing – the kind that works and changes the world, – you need to run a parallel path of creating art even when no one is there to listen and connecting with others in ways that may not always relate to the art you’re creating.
You build an audience by making art and you make art by building an audience.
One of those pieces was clear pre-podcasting world, but post-podcasting it’s more clear than ever.
Perhaps you’ve heard the expression “rocket to success.”
It’s used because the rocket part is a great analogy. Not only does it incorporate ideas around preparedness and determination and science and art, it also highlights gravity in a unique way.
Gravity, in the context of making the change you seek to make in the world, is all of the failure, doubt and uncertainty we feel. It all works its force to pull us down, to stop us from rising.
But like any solid rocket, we must break through that pull and get on with bigger and better things.
Gravity will always be there.
What we choose to continue doing in lieu of that is what really matters.
