Welcome to Podcast Suck, a podcast about starting a podcast, where we dive headfirst into the wild, wacky, and sometimes frustrating world of podcasting. If you've ever sat down with a microphone, hit record, and thought, what on earth am I doing? Or if you're just curious about the magic behind your favorite shows, then you're in the right place. Get ready for laughs, insights, and a whole lot of what not to do advice as we embark on this podcasting journey together. Let's dive in. What's happening, everybody? Welcome back to another episode of Podcast Suck. If you don't have one, it's a podcast all about starting a podcast, growing a podcast, all things podcasting. I took the month of January off from recording new episodes short of one episode, but we're back. I'm trying my best to record as many episodes every single week, not just every single month to push out as much valuable information about the world of podcasting as I possibly can. Now, if you're just tuning into the show or watching the live recording of the show on Facebook or on YouTube or on LinkedIn, then, and you're just now starting your podcast, You may want to go back to the beginning of the show because I unpacked the entire process that we use here at the podcast launch lab to take people from idea to iTunes in 90 days or less by starting a podcast with our proven podcast launch solution. So very important. If you are just getting started, you're definitely going to want to go back to the beginning. If you're already a podcaster, maybe you're already in the middle of the podcast launch process. Well, jump on into the podcast pool with us. I'm here to teach you as much as I know. about the world of podcasting. For those of you, um, that may just be tuning in for the first time, have no idea who I am. My name is Sebastian Ross. I'm a speaker, comedian, podcaster, and the founder of the podcast launch lab.com. We help folks go from idea to iTunes in 90 days or less, uh, with our proven podcast launch solution. This is one of two podcasts that I have. I do not recommend having two podcasts by any stretch of the imagination. However, when you do have a certain level of expertise in one specific area, it is your responsibility to share that. So this podcast is an extension of, uh, my book podcast suck. If you don't have one same name and the talks that I get the opportunity to give all over the place, helping people understand the power of podcasting. So enough about me enough about, um, what I'm doing, we're getting a little bit of glare on my, uh, my spectacles here. So I'm going to take them off, even though I can see a little bit better. Um, actually just kidding. I have some notes that I want to follow. I need to adjust my lighting a little bit so that, uh, they don't shine so bright on my, uh, there we go. I think that's a little better. All right. So first things first, I want to talk about and address the statement that's used often. Oh, great. Another podcast is being launched. Just what we need. I don't know what individuals, uh, where individuals are coming from when they say something like that, but There isn't a surplus of podcasts out there. It's not like there is too many podcasts. That's subjective. That is based on one's opinion. I always like to use the example, are there too many books in the world already? How long have books been around? Are people gonna stop writing books because a lot of people have written books? Probably not. Being able to start a podcast, very comparable to writing a book because it's a platform that allows you to share your expertise with a specific set group of individuals. Your podcast is not for everyone, everywhere, all around the world. Is it accessible to everyone, everywhere, all around the world? That's kind of subjective too. Yes, it is to people that actually listen to podcasts or have access to podcasts. So when we talk about are there too many podcasts out there, I don't know that that that's a valid question because there are billions and billions of people on the planet and I haven't met all of them yet and neither have you. And I know that the goal of having a podcast is to share your expertise, but it's also specifically what we teach here at the podcast onset is to make connections, build relationships and interview people that you want to do just that with. I want to build a relationship. I want to do business. I want to, uh, reinitiate a stale pipeline that we may have not contacted people in quite some time, get them on the podcast, reestablish that relationship. There's a plethora of things to do. What we teach is building relationships and interviewing people that you want to have a relationship with. And then secondly, a podcast literally allows you to get your content game in check on a consistent basis, record one podcast episode, break that podcast episode into several pieces of micro content and share that content on social media, on other platforms outside of just your podcasting platform like Apple and Spotify, et cetera. So. The podcast boom is still here, maybe now more than ever. It started off with anyone knowing really what it was because people barely knew what an iPod was back in 2002. A podcast was designed to be cast on an iPod. I'm dating myself here, but an iPod was well before the iPhone. That was the first real piece of technology that revolutionized audio. We went from Walkmans and CD players and cassette players to this little device that we could load music from our computer onto, carry it in our pocket and listen to music. That became easier and easier and easier. And then the onset of the iPhone came along and next thing you know, we don't need an iPod anymore because the technology that was provided on an iPod is now available on an iPhone. Now that whole technology has absolutely exploded and we can literally listen to a podcast in several different places. You can tell Alexa to play the Podcast Suck podcast and it'll literally play the Podcast Suck podcast. So There's and that's going to continue to get easier and easier and easier. I firmly believe that any place that we are that is going to require time for you to sit there. So travel is a great example. So get on an airplane. You got a screen in front of screen in front of you, which is already happening on the airplane. And on that screen, you can log in with your settings and all of your podcast settings, pull up all of your YouTube settings, pop up all of your streaming TV options, pop up. Everything is custom tailored. That's the beautiful part about technology is that it makes life easier. It also makes a little life a little crazier, but that's going to continue to happen with the onset of virtual reality and VR being here and AI and artificial intelligence really helping as tools to make life just that much easier. Here's some recent stats. And again, there hasn't been. I don't believe there's 20. Let me see what this article was written. Oh, it was January 9th, 2024. OK, so podcast statistics at a at a glance, and I'll drop this link here in the Comments on LinkedIn and on Facebook so you can check it out yourself, but. This is from a backlinko.com pad podcast statistics at a glance. The podcasting landscape is booming with millions tuning in for their fix of audio and entertainment and education. Taking a look through all of our statistics will benefit your podcast, but if you don't have time to go through everything, here are a few of the top podcast stats you should know. That would be us. We don't have time to go through everything on this episode. I'd like to keep them short and sweet. And I like to make sure that we are able to keep it condensed into condensed information as much as humanly possible on here. Now, I just realized that I am recording on the right mic. OK. I've got to leave room for some error and some faux pas every now and then. I've had several episodes and I constantly teach it to the people we get the opportunity to work with. Make sure you check your audio settings and that you're not recording with your computer, laptop, computer versus here, but going live, it's a whole new animal on here. So I was like, wait a second, did I actually record this, uh, on, on, on, in the studio here? But yeah, we're working with this mic. So if it doesn't sound like I'm on this mic, somebody let me know in the comments, but Hey, it's an imperfect world. We're just trying to get the episode recorded here. Okay. podcast statistics at a glance. As of January 2024, there were over 464 million podcast listeners worldwide, which is projected to reach 504 million people by the end of 2024. Now, 464 million to 504 million, that's a significant jump within a small timeframe, which is just 12 months, which at the time of recording this episode, it's 2024. Now the average listener spends a whopping, wait for this, seven hours per week glued to their favorite podcast app. Do you realize that if you have a business, you could be sharing your knowledge, expertise, and what you do and how you do it and why you do it in conversations with people that are consuming seven hours per week? Uh, of podcast content. Does that mean they're going to be sitting around listening to seven hours of content from your podcast? Probably not. I hope that your podcast episode is not seven hours long. Hey, maybe you're doing a daily, an hour a day. I mean, hats off to you. That is a lot of work. I mean, take it from a guy who has two podcasts. It's a little crazy. The average listener spends seven hours per week listening to podcast episodes. We are digitally addicted to our phones and to technology. That's just where we're at. Social media content, Netflix, you name it. The new Griselda series on Netflix, the story of the lady who had a cocaine empire in Miami, uh, which was, she was a terrifying woman. It was a crazy, crazy story, but you couldn't stop watching. I think it was only six episodes. I burned through all six of those episodes in like two days. I mean, who hasn't binged to watch things, but that's just an example. It's the world that we live in right now. I mean, why wait until next week when we can watch the whole season tonight? Episodes between 20 and 40 minutes remain supreme. Take that to heart right there is a great stat. People ask me how long should my podcast episode be? I say the shorter, the sweeter, just like this episode, 10 minutes or less, or at least that's what we aim for. But 20 to 40, 40 minutes seems to be. The sweet spot catering to busy schedules and attention spans. If you have a show that's an hour, hour and a half long, my goodness, have you pulled up an episode of Rogan? I love Joe Rogan show. It's one of my favorite at the top of my list, but his episodes are a minimum of three hours every single episode. And I need about a week to listen to all of those episodes. Unless of course I'm on a road trip or on a long drive or whatever the case may be. So keep it short and sweet considering this stat right here. The next status podcast listenership transcends gender with women, slightly edging man out 48% versus 43%. So 43% of listeners, 48% of podcast listeners are females. 43% are males. Podcasting isn't just an American phenomenon. Sweden and Norway have the largest number of monthly listeners by percentage of internet users. Remember when you create a podcast episode, when you launch a podcast, it's global baby. That's right. We're going global with it. Why? Because that's the beauty of online content. That's the beauty of digital content, specifically podcast content. It allows your voice and message to be heard. Wow. worldwide. Who doesn't want that? You just never know. I've had crazy stories of people all over the world, not only hiring us to get their show launch, but tuning in, sending feedback, consuming my content, et cetera. It feels great to know that you can be in one specific place and you're reaching a global audience. Now video podcasts are on the rise. I don't think that video podcasts exist, but people want to watch a podcast. This episode isn't about why video podcasts don't exist because I think it's now subjective. I know the younger generation wants to watch something, which pretty much means they're watching a video, a video recording of a podcast, but somehow we've taken the term video podcast out there. offering new dimensions to audio storytelling, which is true. So a lot of people have a podcast studio and a set that is aesthetically appealing to be able to record the podcast so people can watch something like a show versus just listen to it. So it'll be interesting to see where all that goes. It's always open for debate. I'm always constantly asking and debating with my YouTube, specifically YouTube and video enthusiasts about the term video podcast. Spotify and Apple podcast lead the pack battling the global audio dominance. So if you're just starting a podcast right now and you're wondering what's the best platform, I get asked that a lot. Apple podcast rules the roost. Spotify is a close second. I think it's 78, 78 to 80% consumed on Apple podcast between 15 and 17% on Spotify and the rest trickle down on other listening platforms that are out there. There's probably. a podcast. platforms as possible because podcast episodes get indexed on Google. So when people are searching for what you do, your name, your business, things that relate to your podcast and your business, they find you, which is very, very important. So you're understanding the, all the dynamics that are going in here. Why am I starting a podcast? I've listed about five solid reasons, networking content, search engine optimization, people finding you new listeners, a global audience. I can go on and on and on here, but, The goal of this episode is to really help you understand the fact that the statistics are out there. You can lie to the numbers all day long, but the numbers are never going to lie to you. If we look back at podcast growth trends, you can look back and see that in the beginning back when actually, actually not the beginning, but back in 2019, there were only about 250 million podcasts. So just in the period of four years, 2019 to 2023, at the time we're recording this episode, it's the beginning of 2024. There's 500 million podcasts will be out there by, excuse me, listeners will be out there. So we had not 200 million podcasts. I stand corrected. 250 million listeners of podcasts. That's, that's an important stat. You can create content, but are people listening to it? 250 million listeners. that by the end of 2024, we'll be at that number of 500 million podcast listeners worldwide, 500 million podcast listeners worldwide. If you break that down into a half of a 10th of a percent, and you had just those people, a 10th of a percent listening to your podcast, you still have some pretty solid stats for just starting a podcast and building listenership on here. So needless to say, Again, I'm going to drop this link in the comments of the, uh, of the Facebook post and on LinkedIn where we've went live recording this podcast episode. No, it's not a video podcast. Yes, we do go live on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube to provide an additional piece of content for the podcast, but the podcast is actually released on Apple, Spotify, and wherever you consume podcasts. uh, on your listening platforms on there. So I hope that this clarifies and really add some light, shed some light rather to your perspective on the world of podcasting. If you've been sitting on the fence going, wait a second, why should I start a podcast? There's enough podcasts out there. That's not your decision to make. It's just not at all because there's billions of people on the planet and you just don't know who your community and audience is and you don't know what they want. Who cares how many podcast episodes are out there? We teach that specifically to our clients. Don't worry about downloads. That's great. The people download the podcast. It's great that the podcast grows. It's good to look at those, those, those specific details. Yes, absolutely. But don't get stuck on them. Ask yourself, why am I starting a podcast? Number one, Number two, what can the podcast do for myself and my community and my business? Well, I can network with more people. I can interview people that are smarter than me. I can interview my prospects. I can interview people I want to build relationships with. What can a podcast do for my content game? Well, I can record a podcast episode and then I can create additional content from that podcast episode and post it on social media. So the list goes on and on and on and on about that. I hope you're leaving this episode with at least one or two things that you did not know about the reality of, are there too many podcasts out there? The podcast boom that we're still in the midst of after 20 plus years, you understand that we're still in a podcast boom after 20 years. What that's what technology does. but then also the power of doing it. But listen, none of this stuff matters. Statistics, strategies, game plans, none of it matters unless you actually make a decision to get started, to actually do something. I pose this question not only to myself on a daily basis, but to my talks, to my audience, to the content. And that is who's missing out because you haven't started yet. Who's missing out because you're not showing up. You have to understand, You, it's your responsibility to share your expertise, your responsibility to build relationships, grow your business, grow your network. It's our responsibility. I firmly believe that a podcast is a phenomenal way to make sure you're doing just that questions, thoughts, ideas, concerns about the podcast. Please send me a DM over on Instagram at podcast suck on Instagram. Shoot me a message on LinkedIn, Facebook. If you're watching this on YouTube comment below, I do respond to each and every one of you lovely people, by the way, If you've got questions about starting a podcast, my YouTube channel is an entire library of every question you could possibly ask about starting a podcast. So check that out at youtube.com forward slash podcast launch lab. Thanks so much for tuning in today. Hope you have a great week. Again, questions, thoughts, ideas, concerns, whatever you've got, shoot me a DM. I'm here to help. I hope you enjoyed this episode and I'll talk to you next time. Thanks so much for tuning into this episode. We sure do appreciate it. If you haven't done so already, make sure you're subscribed to the show wherever you consume podcasts. It's a way to get updates as new episodes become available. If you feel so inclined, please leave us a review and share the show with someone you know should start a podcast or may already have one. And remember, podcasts suck if you don't have one. Until next time, friends.