Episode 207

The Brutal Truth About Podcasting: 13 Hard Realities That Will Make or Break You

Podcasting is one of the most exciting and rapidly growing industries, but beneath the surface lies a brutal reality—most podcasters will never make it. In this episode, Kelly Kennedy takes a no-holds-barred deep dive into the podcast industry, exposing the harsh truths that make it nearly impossible for many to succeed. From the overwhelming competition and slow audience growth to the financial and time-consuming demands, Kelly lays out exactly why 98% of podcasts fail before hitting 200 episodes. But it’s not all doom and gloom—he also breaks down 13 critical lessons that separate the few who thrive from the many who quit, providing tactical advice to help podcasters push through the struggle and build a show that stands out.

If you’ve ever considered starting a podcast or are already in the trenches wondering if it’s worth it, this episode is your wake-up call. Kelly reveals the industry’s biggest challenges, from the rigged advertising landscape to the grueling learning curve of content creation, while sharing practical strategies for survival. He pulls from his own two-year journey of growth, setbacks, and wins, offering hard-earned insights on finding support, mastering self-motivation, and committing to the long game. Whether you’re looking to launch, scale, or simply survive in podcasting, this episode delivers the raw truth and the roadmap to success.


Key Takeaways:

1. Podcasting is a long game, and most fail because they expect quick success, but the ones who win commit for years, not months.

2. The industry is not designed for podcasters to succeed, as advertising is expensive, growth is slow, and long-time podcasters are not helping newer shows break through.

3. Ninety-eight percent of podcasts fail before 200 episodes, and the difference between those who make it and those who don’t is sheer persistence.

4. Building a personal brand through podcasting can open doors to business opportunities, coaching, and new relationships that you never expected.

5. Self-motivation is everything because when numbers are down and success feels out of reach, the ability to push forward is what separates the top two percent.

6. Creating content consistently is hard since, over time, ideas don’t come as easily, and maintaining high-quality production becomes a serious challenge.

7. Monetizing a podcast is not just a goal but a necessity for long-term success, as the costs of production, advertising, and time commitment make it unsustainable without financial support.

8. Community is critical, and having engaged listeners who support and interact with the show makes all the difference in staying inspired.

9. The podcast industry is still evolving, and platform changes, algorithm shifts, and analytics inconsistencies create unpredictable challenges for hosts.

10. If you stick with it, podcasting can change your life by building authority, growing your network, and creating long-term opportunities that you can’t see at the start.


Links referenced in this episode:


Companies mentioned in this episode:

  • Capital Business Development
  • Spotify
  • Apple Podcasts
  • AudioGo
  • Buzzsprout
Transcript
Kelly Kennedy:

Welcome to episode 207 of the Business Development Podcast.

Kelly Kennedy:

And today I'm diving deep into the podcast industry.

Kelly Kennedy:

Why it makes it almost impossible for podcasters to make it long term and how you can do so.

Kelly Kennedy:

Stick with us.

Kelly Kennedy:

Whether you want to start a podcast, are a current podcaster or someone who just wants a look behind the veil, you are not going to want to miss this episode.

Mark Cuban:

The great Mark Cuban once said, business happens over years and years.

Mark Cuban:

Value is measured in the total upside of a business relationship, not by how much you squeezed out in any one deal.

Mark Cuban:

And we couldn't agree more.

Mark Cuban:

This is the Business Development Podcast, based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and broadcasting to the world.

Mark Cuban:

You'll get expert business development advice, tips and experiences, and you'll hear interviews with business owners, CEOs and business development reps.

Mark Cuban:

You'll get actionable advice on how to grow business brought to you by Capital Business Development, capitalbd.

Mark Cuban:

Ca.

Mark Cuban:

Let's do it.

Mark Cuban:

Welcome to the Business Development Podcast.

Mark Cuban:

And now, your expert host, Kelly Kennedy.

Kelly Kennedy:

Hello.

Kelly Kennedy:

Welcome to episode 207 of the Business Development Podcast for the second time.

Kelly Kennedy:

Yes, I completely butchered the very first recording of this episode.

Kelly Kennedy:

Guys, I have not screwed up this bad on my own show.

Kelly Kennedy:

I can't even tell you how long.

Kelly Kennedy:

And it's so fitting.

Kelly Kennedy:

It's so fitting that this was the episode where I literally used the wrong microphone and screwed up the entire first recording.

Kelly Kennedy:

Because today we're talking about the power of podcasts.

Kelly Kennedy:

The good, the bad, the ugly.

Kelly Kennedy:

I can't wait to get into it.

Kelly Kennedy:

This was definitely one of the uglies, but clearly the universe wanted me to do it twice.

Kelly Kennedy:

It was so good, we had to do it a second time around.

Kelly Kennedy:

So there you go.

Kelly Kennedy:

Today's show, guys, we are talking all about the power of podcasting.

Kelly Kennedy:

And it's an interesting episode.

Kelly Kennedy:

It's an episode that I've been holding off for a while.

Kelly Kennedy:

It's one that I kind of wanted.

Kelly Kennedy:

It's one that's just very hard to do, right?

Kelly Kennedy:

It's hard to do, I think, because I'm really close to it.

Kelly Kennedy:

It's something that's right in front of me.

Kelly Kennedy:

And you know how it is when something's right in front of you, makes it really challenging to look at it objectively.

Kelly Kennedy:

And today I really took the time to look at it objectively.

Kelly Kennedy:

And I'm hoping that ultimately we leave you guys with some takeaways, especially my content creators.

Kelly Kennedy:

g to do something big here in:

Kelly Kennedy:

The incredible.

Kelly Kennedy:

I'm going to talk to you about the crap.

Kelly Kennedy:

The not so incredible.

Kelly Kennedy:

And I am going to talk to you about the reality of podcasting and the reality, if you intend to do long term.

Kelly Kennedy:

We have an incredible episode for you today.

Kelly Kennedy:

I hope you enjoy it.

Kelly Kennedy:

Let's get into it.

Kelly Kennedy:

a dominant media form in the:

Kelly Kennedy:

podcasts exist as of January:

Kelly Kennedy:

The podcast market is currently valued at 23.56 billion.

Kelly Kennedy:

Around one in four Internet users listen to podcasts.

Kelly Kennedy:

66% of consumers today prefer podcasts over TV.

Kelly Kennedy:

podcaster in the world as of:

Kelly Kennedy:

By:

Kelly Kennedy:

Podcasting has been my content strategy of choice for the past two years and has completely changed my life in a number of ways.

Kelly Kennedy:

It has also been one of the most challenging endeavors that I have ever embarked on.

Kelly Kennedy:

Guys, we are approaching two years, two full years of the business development podcast next week.

Kelly Kennedy:

It's unbelievable.

Kelly Kennedy:

It is actually completely unbelievable that it's been two full years of the bdp at this point.

Kelly Kennedy:

I can't really believe it.

Kelly Kennedy:

It's been an incredible journey.

Kelly Kennedy:

I've been blessed.

Kelly Kennedy:

I'm grateful.

Kelly Kennedy:

It has gone right in so many ways for me, but it has also been incredibly, incredibly challenging.

Kelly Kennedy:

It's had its ups and it's had its downs, and it's not for everybody.

Kelly Kennedy:

But I'm really, really excited about this particular episode.

Kelly Kennedy:

Okay, today I'm going to chat about the impact a podcast can have on your life and business.

Kelly Kennedy:

I'm going to unpack the real costs of building a successful podcast.

Kelly Kennedy:

llenges that is podcasting in:

Kelly Kennedy:

I'm really, really pumped about this one, guys.

Kelly Kennedy:

Yeah, it's a tough one.

Kelly Kennedy:

Like I was chatting about before, I'm really close to this.

Kelly Kennedy:

At the end of the day, it's my podcast.

Kelly Kennedy:

I've been doing this for a long time, but it's hard to look at it objectively when you're trying to go in a direction.

Kelly Kennedy:

So I kind of.

Kelly Kennedy:

I had to sit down and really think about Kelly.

Kelly Kennedy:

What were the sacrifices?

Kelly Kennedy:

What have been the challenges along the way?

Kelly Kennedy:

What was the Good, the bad, the ugly of this thing.

Kelly Kennedy:

Because so much of my strategy is just to put my head down, plow through, keep going, look at the bright side, look at the positives.

Kelly Kennedy:

But there are a lot of negatives that have to do with podcasting and the podcasting industry as a whole.

Kelly Kennedy:

So I'm gonna do my best, like I said, to give it to you objectively today.

Kelly Kennedy:

You may or may not want to start a podcast by the end of this episode.

Kelly Kennedy:

I'm hoping you do.

Kelly Kennedy:

I love podcasts, and I want the podcast industry to thrive, and I want to be a part of it for a very, very long time.

Kelly Kennedy:

But it is not an easy place to break out in.

Kelly Kennedy:

It's not an easy place to navigate, and I still find myself regularly questioning what the right choices are to move this thing forward in the right directions.

Kelly Kennedy:

Later this year, I actually plan on doing a podcast Playbook series, kind of like the Proposal Playbook series I did last year.

Kelly Kennedy:

Although I think the podcast Playbook series is actually going to be considerably bigger.

Kelly Kennedy:

It's actually going to be way, way larger than the proposal Playbook series was.

Kelly Kennedy:

Just because there's so many aspects to touch on for somebody who is looking to launch a podcast, whether it be a business podcast or a personal podcast of any type, I'm going to try to apply it to both.

Kelly Kennedy:

Obviously, this is a business podcast, and that's one that I can speak to really well, but I think the principles tend to apply to literally any and all podcasts that are coming out.

Kelly Kennedy:

So do keep your eyes peeled.

Kelly Kennedy:

If you do listen to this episode, you come out the other side and you're like, okay, I think I still want to do it.

Kelly Kennedy:

Or I think I'm.

Kelly Kennedy:

I'm in.

Kelly Kennedy:

This sounds like fun.

Kelly Kennedy:

ther series coming out later,:

Kelly Kennedy:

Guys, I'm gonna lay it out.

Kelly Kennedy:

I'm gonna tell you everything, exactly how I did it, all the hard lessons, the stuff I had to learn the hard way.

Kelly Kennedy:

I'm gonna really spell it out for you guys, and I'm gonna give you a really good, detailed guide on how to do so.

Kelly Kennedy:

So do keep your eyes peeled later this year for the podcast Playbook series.

Kelly Kennedy:

When I started my podcasting journey, I was as green as could be, guys.

Kelly Kennedy:

I was green, green, green, green, green.

Kelly Kennedy:

In the media world.

Kelly Kennedy:

I knew I could speak to business development, and I knew I love podcasts.

Kelly Kennedy:

That was about the scope of my Knowledge and ability.

Kelly Kennedy:

And I am not selling myself short on this, guys.

Kelly Kennedy:

I genuinely had zero experience in media production.

Kelly Kennedy:

I didn't understand podcasting, Honestly, in the beginning, I kind of thought that I could potentially just plug a mic into my computer.

Kelly Kennedy:

Boy, was I wrong if I wanted a professional show.

Kelly Kennedy:

But I didn't know that.

Kelly Kennedy:

I didn't know that yet.

Kelly Kennedy:

There were lots of things that I had to learn.

Kelly Kennedy:

And so I had to learn, first off, what is the equipment that's even required to do a podcast?

Kelly Kennedy:

I had to learn about media interfaces.

Kelly Kennedy:

I had to learn about XLR microphones.

Kelly Kennedy:

I had to learn about audio recording software.

Kelly Kennedy:

And then once I got all that done, I still had to learn how to edit that software and spruce it up to make that sound better.

Kelly Kennedy:

And it's been a hell of a journey, guys.

Kelly Kennedy:

But I knew nothing.

Kelly Kennedy:

I knew absolutely nothing about the industry, about recording, about media.

Kelly Kennedy:

So let's just, like, take that right off the table.

Kelly Kennedy:

What you hear today is a finished, tuned version of my lessons along the way.

Kelly Kennedy:

So if you like the sound on the bdp, this came from a lot of trial and error and a lot of learning how to do audio production.

Kelly Kennedy:

But if I can do it, so can you.

Kelly Kennedy:

I was nervous, guys.

Kelly Kennedy:

I was so nervous when I started this show.

Kelly Kennedy:

As a matter of fact, I was so nervous about starting it that even after I ordered all of my equipment, it sat in the corner of my room for an entire month.

Kelly Kennedy:

I kid you not, guys, all of my audio equipment sat in the corner of my room for an entire month.

Kelly Kennedy:

Shelby one night looked at me and said, kelly, either do something with that or sell it.

Kelly Kennedy:

But either we need the money or we need the show, so figure it out.

Kelly Kennedy:

That was the level that we were at.

Kelly Kennedy:

And I went down that night and I recorded the trailer episode to the business development podcast.

Kelly Kennedy:

And that was two years ago.

Kelly Kennedy:

Two years ago.

Kelly Kennedy:

And the rest is history.

Kelly Kennedy:

I like to tell that story, guys, because I want people to understand that podcasting is not out of reach for them.

Kelly Kennedy:

I think at times people can hear a podcast and they think, oh, I could never do that.

Kelly Kennedy:

I could never figure out how to do that.

Kelly Kennedy:

Sounds so good.

Kelly Kennedy:

Like, they got it.

Kelly Kennedy:

They got their shit together.

Kelly Kennedy:

They know exactly what they're doing.

Kelly Kennedy:

Understand everybody starts somewhere.

Kelly Kennedy:

Even the best show you ever heard, they had their first day behind the mic.

Kelly Kennedy:

Even the best show you've ever heard.

Kelly Kennedy:

The biggest shows, they had their learning curves, they had the challenges.

Kelly Kennedy:

They had all of it.

Kelly Kennedy:

All of the challenge that you may experience when launching your show.

Kelly Kennedy:

Almost Every podcaster has experienced that challenge in the beginning.

Kelly Kennedy:

So please don't let that be a roadblock for you.

Kelly Kennedy:

If you're hearing a show and you're just thinking, oh, I don't know if I could ever learn how to do that, the answer is absolutely you can.

Kelly Kennedy:

You absolutely can learn audio production, you absolutely can learn video production, you can learn all about the recording software, you can learn all about the interfaces.

Kelly Kennedy:

It is not as challenging as you think it is challenging.

Kelly Kennedy:

It has its moments, but it can be learned.

Kelly Kennedy:

And all the information to do so is really available to you for free on the Internet, on places like YouTube.

Kelly Kennedy:

Podcasting has completely changed my life.

Kelly Kennedy:

Yes, podcasting has completely changed my life.

Kelly Kennedy:

Building a platform is probably the best thing that you can do for yourself, both personally and professionally.

Kelly Kennedy:

Guys,:

Kelly Kennedy:

Now this is whether you are an individual, whether you're an employee, or whether you're a business owner or an expert in something, building a platform and a personal brand is absolutely, absolutely critical.

Kelly Kennedy:

to strive for success here in:

Kelly Kennedy:

We are living in an increasingly connected world and you have to be creating ways for people to find you.

Kelly Kennedy:

You have to be working to stand out in this crazy big crowd.

Kelly Kennedy:

Okay, let's start with the absolutely incredible aspects of podcasting.

Kelly Kennedy:

I'm going to talk about 11 of them.

Kelly Kennedy:

Number one, podcasting allows me to give back and educate thousands around the world.

Kelly Kennedy:

Okay, around the world.

Kelly Kennedy:

I never saw that coming.

Kelly Kennedy:

When I launched the show, guys, I couldn't have seen that we would be listened to in 145 countries.

Kelly Kennedy:

I couldn't have seen that we would become a top 100 show in 40 plus countries to date.

Kelly Kennedy:

You cannot see the impact you're gonna have with your show.

Kelly Kennedy:

Let me just tell you that right now.

Kelly Kennedy:

No matter what you start, the impact is gonna be so incredible, it's gonna blow you away over time.

Kelly Kennedy:

Because podcasts are listened to around the world.

Kelly Kennedy:

Around the world.

Kelly Kennedy:

We have people reach out from like, we have people reach out from Germany, France, Australia, United Kingdom, Africa, United States, around the world.

Kelly Kennedy:

Guys, it is incredible.

Kelly Kennedy:

At the time that I launched the show, I would have been happy to have just been listened to in Edmonton and Calgary.

Kelly Kennedy:

I had not put two and two together at how big this thing could get.

Kelly Kennedy:

And you know, I still think we're growing.

Kelly Kennedy:

Like, I genuinely think we are nowhere near as big as we're going to get.

Kelly Kennedy:

And the impact we've had already has been incredible.

Kelly Kennedy:

So understand it allows you to give back.

Kelly Kennedy:

It allows you to share your knowledge with the world, to educate and inspire people around the world in a way that is completely free for them and allows you to showcase your expertise.

Kelly Kennedy:

It's really a win, win.

Kelly Kennedy:

Number two, podcasting has allowed me to not just prove my expertise, but it has solidified me as a leader in the business development space.

Kelly Kennedy:

Guys, because I was willing to get up here behind this mic and share my knowledge with the world and show that I have a true understanding of my craft, which is business development, it has allowed me to position myself as a leader in the space.

Kelly Kennedy:

Once again.

Kelly Kennedy:

Did not really see that coming.

Kelly Kennedy:

Was kind of just hoping to share some knowledge with the world and see what I could do with it.

Kelly Kennedy:

Did not see that essentially I would be placing myself as a leader in the business development space, which has been incredible and a lot of fun and quite frankly, an honor, a true honor.

Kelly Kennedy:

But yeah, once again, didn't see it coming.

Kelly Kennedy:

But it's been an incredible thing that came from it.

Kelly Kennedy:

Number three, podcasting has challenged me to be better in nearly every aspect of my life.

Kelly Kennedy:

There's something about needing to show up week over week, month over month, year over year, having to create my own content, having to constantly keep myself fresh and new and keep the content, though, at a consistent basis, get great guests and do great in my business.

Kelly Kennedy:

Like, you don't get to coast.

Kelly Kennedy:

When you have a public facing media, you don't get to coast.

Kelly Kennedy:

You have to constantly be getting better, you have to constantly be improving.

Kelly Kennedy:

You have to constantly be keeping up and making sure that you're doing the right things.

Kelly Kennedy:

Podcasting has continued to challenge me to be better in nearly every area of my career, of my profession, and it has been an incredible blessing and it's been a great motivator to continue to do better and better over time.

Kelly Kennedy:

Number four, podcast has given me a community.

Kelly Kennedy:

Yes, you, my rock stars.

Kelly Kennedy:

My gosh, I.

Kelly Kennedy:

I never saw you guys.

Kelly Kennedy:

You're incredible.

Kelly Kennedy:

I could not have seen the rockstar community of the business development podcast when I started.

Kelly Kennedy:

Like I said, I didn't know what to expect.

Kelly Kennedy:

And so when I kind of jumped in and started building this community around people that support what we do here, who also want to educate and inspire, who also want to enact the lessons that we talk about on the business development podcast, it's been incredible to get to know you guys.

Kelly Kennedy:

It's been incredible and a blessing to have you as part of this community.

Kelly Kennedy:

And let me just say from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much.

Kelly Kennedy:

Thank you for telling your friends and family, thanks for sticking with us these past two years.

Kelly Kennedy:

Thank you for helping me come up with show topics and ideas.

Kelly Kennedy:

Thank you for your community questions.

Kelly Kennedy:

Thank you for just being here and supporting this.

Kelly Kennedy:

We cannot, cannot, cannot do it without you.

Kelly Kennedy:

And so, my rockstar community, I didn't see you guys coming, but it's been an incredible, incredible outcome of the business development podcast.

Kelly Kennedy:

Number five.

Kelly Kennedy:

Podcasting has introduced me to people that I would have never met.

Kelly Kennedy:

Half the experts guys who've come on this show, I would have never met them, I would have had no reason to connect with them in my day to day life.

Kelly Kennedy:

And yet I've met so many incredible individuals.

Kelly Kennedy:

As you know, if you've been listening to the show for any length of time, we have some crazy good guests that come on the show, share their journeys with us, share their lessons with us, help me become a better entrepreneur, help you guys become better entrepreneurs and business developers.

Kelly Kennedy:

My gosh, like most of these people guys, I would have never had the opportunity to meet them had I not created a platform that is the business development podcast for them to come and share their journey.

Kelly Kennedy:

And obviously created a platform that they felt welcomed and would enjoy coming on and having that conversation with me.

Kelly Kennedy:

But it's been a blessing, an incredible opportunity to meet people, to meet influencers and leaders around the world who I simply would not have had the opportunity to meet had I not put myself out there and took this leap.

Kelly Kennedy:

Gigantic benefit guys to launching your own show and creating your own platform Number six, kind of on the, on the coattails of the last one.

Kelly Kennedy:

Podcasting has brought incredible relationships to me.

Kelly Kennedy:

I can't tell you how many amazing people I now know because they reached out to me because they found me on the business development podcast and they're like, oh, hey, like what you're doing is incredible.

Kelly Kennedy:

Thank you for what you do.

Kelly Kennedy:

I've had friendships come out of this, I've had sponsors come out of this, I've had clients come out of this.

Kelly Kennedy:

Guys.

Kelly Kennedy:

It is an incredible opportunity and it allows people to find you as opposed to you having to constantly go out and meet all these other people.

Kelly Kennedy:

When you have a platform, you're like a gigantic magnet and you get to just draw these incredible people to you.

Kelly Kennedy:

It's been such a blessing, such an incredible opportunity.

Kelly Kennedy:

And I have had the opportunity to meet so many amazing people because they reached out to me, because they found me from the podcast.

Kelly Kennedy:

Number seven.

Kelly Kennedy:

Podcasting has brought coaching and contracts to my door.

Kelly Kennedy:

Absolutely.

Kelly Kennedy:

Guys, coaching was never on the table.

Kelly Kennedy:

I never had coaching as an option before I started the podcast.

Kelly Kennedy:

But I also didn't realize how much I was gonna love teaching.

Kelly Kennedy:

Podcasting taught me how much I actually love teaching because I get to come on here and I get to educate and inspire you guys and I get to see the impact that I have with that education.

Kelly Kennedy:

And it's been unbelievable.

Kelly Kennedy:

I don't think I would have ever become a coach had I not done the podcast first.

Kelly Kennedy:

And it's because I found my love of teaching through the podcast.

Kelly Kennedy:

And obviously, guys, you know, being able to separate myself and position myself as a leader in business development has been really great for my company as well because we get lots of people reaching out who want business development advice, who need some help.

Kelly Kennedy:

And I've actually gotten some contracts out of it as well.

Kelly Kennedy:

So it has been a win win.

Kelly Kennedy:

It's been a win win on multiple fronts.

Kelly Kennedy:

Being public in this way.

Kelly Kennedy:

By utilizing a podcast as a platform, number eight, podcasting has pushed me through self limiting beliefs.

Kelly Kennedy:

My gosh, guys, the level ups, the level ups that Kelly Kennedy has had in the last two years because of this show.

Kelly Kennedy:

This show just endlessly pushes my boundaries.

Kelly Kennedy:

Let me just start by saying that right now, this show endlessly pushes my boundaries.

Kelly Kennedy:

I have to be constantly improving and unfortunately, but not really more, fortunately, it makes me push my boundaries.

Kelly Kennedy:

It makes me make the uncomfortable comfortable.

Kelly Kennedy:

It forces me to do the hard thing and level up and you know, things like obviously upgrading the audio.

Kelly Kennedy:

The audio took me a long time.

Kelly Kennedy:

It was a hard fought process getting the audio right for this show.

Kelly Kennedy:

I have a standard now that is acceptable.

Kelly Kennedy:

My first recording of this exact episode did not meet that standard.

Kelly Kennedy:

And so it is a complete rerecord.

Kelly Kennedy:

Like there's a time when I probably would have just released the last episode and I was like, no, in this particular case, this show is going to be very important.

Kelly Kennedy:

I want to make sure that it is done right.

Kelly Kennedy:

ng video as we head here into:

Kelly Kennedy:

My gosh, guys, that is pushing my boundaries left, right and center.

Kelly Kennedy:

I'm really struggling with it.

Kelly Kennedy:

Some encouragement would be great.

Kelly Kennedy:

The videos have been tough.

Kelly Kennedy:

I have a level of acceptability with the videos that I'm struggling to meet because, you know, obviously there's those growing pains I have to like, I have to learn all the things that people have been doing video a long time, already know, like the back of their hand.

Kelly Kennedy:

Like audio, for instance.

Kelly Kennedy:

I know it like the back of my hand.

Kelly Kennedy:

Video I do not.

Kelly Kennedy:

And so I'm kind of struggling with that.

Kelly Kennedy:

So I do appreciate the kind words, but understand it's a growing experience.

Kelly Kennedy:

I'm having to push my limits, but there's lots of things like that where I've had to continually push my limits.

Kelly Kennedy:

You know, I've had lots of days where I've been sick and I, you know what, I wanted this show to come out come hell or high water.

Kelly Kennedy:

So I showed up and I did the show and I got through it.

Kelly Kennedy:

There's been a lot of just like pushing my boundaries, but in a good way and helping me to level up as a business owner, as a podcaster, as an individual.

Kelly Kennedy:

It's been an incredible experience for that very reason.

Kelly Kennedy:

And it does force me to constantly work to improve in as many areas as possible.

Kelly Kennedy:

It also has shown me that almost anything that I put my mind to, I can absolutely accomplish if I just put the time and effort into it.

Kelly Kennedy:

So definitely has helped me a lot with like my imposter syndrome with things and things along those lines.

Kelly Kennedy:

It has definitely helped me big time with my self limiting beliefs and my ability to just push on and push forward and continue to do better in this world.

Kelly Kennedy:

Number nine, podcasting has allowed me to pursue my passion in a way that I could have never seen.

Kelly Kennedy:

Guys, podcasting has been super, super cool in the way that it's allowed me to really, you know, talk about my passion, which is business development and business in general, and really just kind of let me do it on my own terms.

Kelly Kennedy:

And being able to do it on my own terms has just further increased my want to do it, my want to continue and improve in these areas.

Kelly Kennedy:

And like the other thing too, like, I've really learned that I love editing, I love creating content, and it has really allowed me like an avenue to be able to pursue those things as part of a career.

Kelly Kennedy:

It's been truly, truly incredible.

Kelly Kennedy:

Guys.

Kelly Kennedy:

I would say that if you like creating content or if you like the idea of content, even if your passions are something like business, it really does just open this gigantic canvas that you can play with and do whatever you want in.

Kelly Kennedy:

It's a really cool experience.

Kelly Kennedy:

For those of us who, who actually enjoy content creation as part of our passions.

Kelly Kennedy:

Number 10, podcasting has provided me a platform to allow me to build my personal brand on.

Kelly Kennedy:

I didn't really see that coming in the beginning.

Kelly Kennedy:

It wasn't actually part of my plan, guys.

Kelly Kennedy:

I didn't see it.

Kelly Kennedy:

I didn't start the podcast thinking, oh, my gosh, I'm gonna build my personal brand on this podcast.

Kelly Kennedy:

Personal branding didn't really become very relevant to me until about midway through the podcast.

Kelly Kennedy:

I would say, like, sometime last year, it really started to hit home as, like, how important personal branding was.

Kelly Kennedy:

And obviously, you know, I crusade for it on a certain level now because I understand it and I understand what it does for people and why it's critical.

Kelly Kennedy:

es have to be as part of your:

Kelly Kennedy:

I didn't start it with that plan, but I could not have picked a better platform to build a personal brand from.

Kelly Kennedy:

So it was.

Kelly Kennedy:

It's been an interesting kind of acceptance, I guess, that it's ultimately helping me build a personal brand, even though in the beginning, that was never the plan.

Kelly Kennedy:

But it is an incredible platform to start a personal brand from.

Kelly Kennedy:

And number 11, podcasting has forever changed my life for the better guys.

Kelly Kennedy:

I'm a better human.

Kelly Kennedy:

I genuinely believe that.

Kelly Kennedy:

I genuinely believe that podcasting has made me a better entrepreneur, a better businessman, a better speaker, a better person, a better partner, just better in every single category.

Kelly Kennedy:

I genuinely think that podcasting and the lessons I've had to learn and the struggle that I've had to go through to make sure that this continues to be a successful show has given me determination, grit on a level that I'm not sure I could have accomplished without starting the show.

Kelly Kennedy:

I genuinely think that it has allowed me to level up.

Kelly Kennedy:

It has really given Kelly a level up in almost all areas of my life now.

Kelly Kennedy:

Those are the incredible things.

Kelly Kennedy:

Not all the incredible things, guys, because keep in mind, there's.

Kelly Kennedy:

There's probably been tons and tons and tons of even more incredible things along the way.

Kelly Kennedy:

I'm not sure that I could have talked to all of them.

Kelly Kennedy:

I just want to, like, categorize a few of them for you.

Kelly Kennedy:

But understand your mileage may vary.

Kelly Kennedy:

The benefits to you from your podcast may be completely different than the benefits to me from my podcast.

Kelly Kennedy:

But I think either way, there are massive, massive benefits for people who are willing to start a podcast and stick with it for the long term.

Kelly Kennedy:

But.

Kelly Kennedy:

But we can't have all that good without a little bit of bad.

Kelly Kennedy:

Can we?

Kelly Kennedy:

There are some serious challenges, some real big roadblocks with regards to podcasting that we gotta talk about.

Kelly Kennedy:

Okay, let's get into it.

Kelly Kennedy:

I got 14 things.

Kelly Kennedy:

This one's a little longer.

Kelly Kennedy:

Number one, the learning curve was steep and continues to be steep.

Kelly Kennedy:

So understand the equipment.

Kelly Kennedy:

If you don't have a background in this, learning the equipment is challenging.

Kelly Kennedy:

Learning how to set it up, get your sound right even before you start recording.

Kelly Kennedy:

There's a lot of work that goes to getting the sound right, getting your recording studio set up right, removing reverberations, getting your gain set correctly, getting the connection between your computer and your audio interface right.

Kelly Kennedy:

And set up correctly.

Kelly Kennedy:

Getting your mic set up right and correctly getting all your production software on the computer set up, getting your social media set up, getting your video production.

Kelly Kennedy:

And don't even get me started on show planning, because show planning is absolutely critical and something that nobody really teaches you.

Kelly Kennedy:

You have to learn.

Kelly Kennedy:

And there's not a lot of great information out there.

Kelly Kennedy:

Like I said, I'm going to do better.

Kelly Kennedy:

I'm going to.

Kelly Kennedy:

I'm going to.

Kelly Kennedy:

I'm going to do a series later on this year to help you guys with all of these aspects.

Kelly Kennedy:

But there's not a lot of great information in one place about all of it.

Kelly Kennedy:

So there's a lot to learn and it's a steep learning curve simply to do with getting everything set up in the beginning.

Kelly Kennedy:

Also, hey, for those of you who are finding this today, you are going forward, you're excited to launch your own podcast and you do want potentially, you know, an easy step by step.

Kelly Kennedy:

If you guys shoot me an email, I will be happy to follow it up with an email.

Kelly Kennedy:

So many people have reached out and asked me, how do I get a podcast started?

Kelly Kennedy:

That I actually have a really great email already set up that I can forward over to you that will give you a nice step by step on just getting this equipment and everything set up right the first time for you.

Kelly Kennedy:

So if you have questions regarding that, shoot me an email.

Kelly Kennedy:

Happy to help.

Kelly Kennedy:

Number two, you have a ton of competition, okay?

Kelly Kennedy:

And I mean a ton, guys.

Kelly Kennedy:

There is over 400 million podcasts live right now in the world that you can search and listen to at any given time.

Kelly Kennedy:

That is a lot of content that is like Netflix overload, Amazon prime overload times a million.

Kelly Kennedy:

Okay?

Kelly Kennedy:

There are a lot of podcasts.

Kelly Kennedy:

Here's the thing.

Kelly Kennedy:

Here's the thing.

Kelly Kennedy:

98% of them never make it to 200 episodes.

Kelly Kennedy:

So here's the thing, there's a ton of content out there, but there's not a ton of players in the longevity section of podcasting.

Kelly Kennedy:

So.

Kelly Kennedy:

So understand, while people can find a lot of podcasts, many podcasts don't have more than about 20 episodes, tops.

Kelly Kennedy:

Many podcasts quit before the 20th episode.

Kelly Kennedy:

So what I'm saying is, even though you have a lot of competition in the space, if you can stick with it, you can pull ahead of that competition fairly quickly.

Kelly Kennedy:

But in the very beginning, you have a metric ton of podcasts that you're competing against, and it can be really, really hard, at least initially, to stand out in that crowd.

Kelly Kennedy:

Okay, number three, only the long and strong survive.

Kelly Kennedy:

Like I said before, only 2% of podcasts ever make it to 200 episodes.

Kelly Kennedy:

Okay, out of 4 million podcasts, guys, that's 80,000.

Kelly Kennedy:

So there's only about 80,000 podcasts that are in it for the long haul.

Kelly Kennedy:

That's really great news for you when there's 500 plus million podcast listeners.

Kelly Kennedy:

So that's incredible.

Kelly Kennedy:

But understand, you have to fight to get to that 80,000.

Kelly Kennedy:

You really got to put your nose down, put your nose to the grindstone and stick with it.

Kelly Kennedy:

Because in order to stand out in that crowd, you got to get above the noise, you got to get above the rest.

Kelly Kennedy:

So podcasting is very much a long game.

Kelly Kennedy:

Okay, number four, outsourced production is prohibitively expensive.

Kelly Kennedy:

So if you want to outsource the production of your show, let's say you just want to record and have a studio complete it for you, that's fine.

Kelly Kennedy:

But here's the deal.

Kelly Kennedy:

If the goal is for you to get to 200 episodes to start to stand out in the crowd, and you're paying $400 an episode, well, as you can see, it gets prohibitively expensive very, very quickly.

Kelly Kennedy:

The standard in Canada right now is about $400 an episode, which is fine, I guess, if you're only recording, let's call it 10 or 20 shows.

Kelly Kennedy:

But if you want to be in this for the long haul, it's going to get prohibitively expensive very quickly.

Kelly Kennedy:

Forcing you to either insource the production to your company, to someone at your company, or forcing you to learn how to do the production yourself, I think you'll find that with a lot of the long term shows, until they could make enough money to outsource that production, and they got to be making a lot to make it worth it, until they do that, they are learning how to produce their own shows, I think you'll Find most content creators that have been in it long haul, especially smaller shows.

Kelly Kennedy:

They are producing their own shows, including the business development podcast number five.

Kelly Kennedy:

Podcast growth is incredibly slow and it's a long game.

Kelly Kennedy:

This one can be a little hard for people because I think people have the idea that ultimately they'll start a show and it'll either make it or it won't.

Kelly Kennedy:

If we make it, we'll have a hundred thousand or a million downloads like overnight and we'll know we're a success and we can just keep going.

Kelly Kennedy:

Guys, that simply doesn't happen.

Kelly Kennedy:

It, I don't know, it never happened for us anyway.

Kelly Kennedy:

It's been a long and slow and drawn out process.

Kelly Kennedy:

It's been a lot of work to grow the business development podcast audience.

Kelly Kennedy:

You know, we're sitting at 230,000 downloads.

Kelly Kennedy:

I'm incredibly proud of that.

Kelly Kennedy:

It's been a lot of work and those are real people, those are legit real downloads, not bots, nothing like that because we never paid for that.

Kelly Kennedy:

We've been paying for authentic legitimate advertising along the way.

Kelly Kennedy:

But it's been a long and slow process, guys.

Kelly Kennedy:

It's been up and down.

Kelly Kennedy:

Sometimes the numbers are incredible, sometimes they suck.

Kelly Kennedy:

It's just the nature of podcasting.

Kelly Kennedy:

Podcasting is not typically an instant win solution.

Kelly Kennedy:

Like I said, there's a lot of podcasts to compete against.

Kelly Kennedy:

If you want to stand out, you just got to be in it long term.

Kelly Kennedy:

It's a, it's a content slog.

Kelly Kennedy:

It's a long game scenario.

Kelly Kennedy:

The strong survive the long survive.

Kelly Kennedy:

It's more of a game of survival than a lottery.

Kelly Kennedy:

And I think a lot of people play podcasts like it's going to be the lottery, like they're going to have the perfect idea and it's just going to take off.

Kelly Kennedy:

But I don't think that for many, many podcast guys that happens.

Kelly Kennedy:

If you look at any of the big, big podcasts that are doing incredible right now, they've been at it a really, really long time.

Kelly Kennedy:

Many of them have been at it for five plus years.

Kelly Kennedy:

Many of them have well over 500 episodes.

Kelly Kennedy:

Think about that.

Kelly Kennedy:

Think about that for a second.

Kelly Kennedy:

That is a long slog.

Kelly Kennedy:

They've been in it long term and they're reaping the rewards for it.

Kelly Kennedy:

Number seven, podcasting is a nascent industry and it leaves much to be desired.

Kelly Kennedy:

It's still growing, guys.

Kelly Kennedy:

Podcast industry is growing.

Kelly Kennedy:

The support systems are growing, the bars and measures are growing.

Kelly Kennedy:

The Spotify and Apple podcasts of the world are better understanding how to leverage them and how to utilize them and how to show them to the world.

Kelly Kennedy:

It is, for all intents and purposes, a very, very new industry.

Kelly Kennedy:

And everybody is trying to figure out how to utilize it.

Kelly Kennedy:

And unfortunately, there's a lot of growing pains with this new industry.

Kelly Kennedy:

Right?

Kelly Kennedy:

How do we measure downloads?

Kelly Kennedy:

How do we measure interest in the podcast?

Kelly Kennedy:

How do we measure real followers?

Kelly Kennedy:

Right?

Kelly Kennedy:

Like, everybody's trying to figure out how to do all this.

Kelly Kennedy:

How do we advertise a show effectively in a way that actually provides real returns to the shows that are trying to advertise.

Kelly Kennedy:

It's been a lot of mess and trial and error, and I think the industry is doing its best.

Kelly Kennedy:

But there have been some hiccups along the way.

Kelly Kennedy:

Like, for instance, like last year, Apple changed an iOS update, and it basically screwed the podcast industry because overnight, people's automatic downloads stopped happening.

Kelly Kennedy:

And so podcasts, like, even the big ones, guys, even ones that were getting like a million downloads, they saw drops in download numbers of up to 50% or higher of their listenership because of an Apple update.

Kelly Kennedy:

So understand, there's things like that that are happening in the industry that podcasters have zero control over that have a major, major impact on the podcasts that are on those platforms.

Kelly Kennedy:

So, you know, we're going through the growing pains.

Kelly Kennedy:

There's been lots of ups and downs, there's been lots of challenges, but.

Kelly Kennedy:

But it's a new industry which also provides opportunity.

Kelly Kennedy:

However, you also have to be careful.

Kelly Kennedy:

At the same time, number eight, kind of back the last thing I said, Apple podcasts and Spotify control pretty much 90% of the podcast industry.

Kelly Kennedy:

So if you look at.

Kelly Kennedy:

If you look at where your downloads come from, as a podcaster, in my experience, about 80% of my business development podcast downloads come from Spotify, which makes sense.

Kelly Kennedy:

Cause that's actually where I do the largest amount of my advertising.

Kelly Kennedy:

But Apple Podcast probably controls about the remaining 15 to 20%.

Kelly Kennedy:

And then you have companies like, you know, Tunein or Stitcher, things like that, which probably altogether take out the remaining, call it 5 or 10%.

Kelly Kennedy:

So the podcast industry as a whole is pretty much controlled by two dominating companies, Apple and Spotify.

Kelly Kennedy:

And because of that, we are at their mercy.

Kelly Kennedy:

And I genuinely say that we are at their mercy.

Kelly Kennedy:

Any type of policy updates or things like that that happen from Spotify or happen from Apple, they have a major impact on the podcast industry as a whole.

Kelly Kennedy:

And so until we get like a little more diversity in that, podcasting can be a little bit dangerous.

Kelly Kennedy:

I'm gonna tell you that right now, because at any given time, if something was to happen to Apple Podcasts or Spotify, it could have a major impact on the listenership of your show.

Kelly Kennedy:

So being a new industry, this is something that we're facing as well.

Kelly Kennedy:

Number nine, time is a real challenge, guys.

Kelly Kennedy:

This is like a perfect example.

Kelly Kennedy:

A perfect example.

Kelly Kennedy:

It is 6:12pm this show was actually recorded originally at around noon.

Kelly Kennedy:

So the first version of this was done at noon.

Kelly Kennedy:

I was hoping to be completely done this show by 3:00.

Kelly Kennedy:

You know, hang out with my boys for the evening.

Kelly Kennedy:

Shelby's feeling sick.

Kelly Kennedy:

We got a bit of a bug going through.

Kelly Kennedy:

I've been healthy so far, fingers crossed.

Kelly Kennedy:

But, you know, was hoping to be done, but unfortunately it didn't go right the first time around.

Kelly Kennedy:

So here we are, right, we're recording again.

Kelly Kennedy:

It's 6:13.

Kelly Kennedy:

I have officially been working since 6 this morning.

Kelly Kennedy:

So I am at a 12 hour day at this point.

Kelly Kennedy:

So that's it, guys.

Kelly Kennedy:

An average day for most podcasters is probably 12 hours.

Kelly Kennedy:

They're doing, you know, day job stuff.

Kelly Kennedy:

They have lots of meetings throughout the day and they have to plan and produce and edit shows and get the social medias ready for release.

Kelly Kennedy:

Guys, I'm gonna be working on this probably until at least 8:00.

Kelly Kennedy:

I have at least two more hours to get this show finished up and processed and edited and to you guys first thing tomorrow morning.

Kelly Kennedy:

So that's just the nature of it, guys.

Kelly Kennedy:

Podcasters are killing themselves.

Kelly Kennedy:

They're working really, really hard.

Kelly Kennedy:

And it's a passion, right?

Kelly Kennedy:

I love what I do here, but it's a passion, but it also takes a lot of time.

Kelly Kennedy:

So understand, if you are going to start a podcast, it's going to be like another full time job.

Kelly Kennedy:

You can't treat it like a side gig.

Kelly Kennedy:

If you treat it like a side gig, you're going to fail.

Kelly Kennedy:

You got to give it effort, you got to give it determination, you got to give it the time.

Kelly Kennedy:

Which means that a lot of days that you have to do podcast stuff, you're going to be working 12 plus hour days.

Kelly Kennedy:

Number 10.

Kelly Kennedy:

It can be lonely.

Kelly Kennedy:

And rewards in the beginning are few and far between.

Kelly Kennedy:

So in the beginning, guys, like I said, you're talking to your wall in the basement, right?

Kelly Kennedy:

Like, you know, you're talking to the wall in the basement.

Kelly Kennedy:

You're producing and editing a show, you're releasing to the world.

Kelly Kennedy:

You're getting like 15 downloads.

Kelly Kennedy:

That's just the reality.

Kelly Kennedy:

That is just the simple reality of starting A podcast, all of the work, it can feel like, why the hell am I doing this?

Kelly Kennedy:

Why in the world did I, you know, work six hours last night planning, editing, creating, producing, recording a show just to get my, like, 12 downloads?

Kelly Kennedy:

Like, in the beginning, that's just the reality of the podcast world, right?

Kelly Kennedy:

Like, for the longest time, we couldn't break 80 downloads.

Kelly Kennedy:

I was months before we got, like, more than 80 downloads in a single day.

Kelly Kennedy:

And I remember just being like, oh, my gosh.

Kelly Kennedy:

Like, this is so much work.

Kelly Kennedy:

And just feeling, like, discouraged and disgruntled.

Kelly Kennedy:

Thank God.

Kelly Kennedy:

From the very beginning with the show, we had listeners who started reaching out really quickly who were, like, just found your show.

Kelly Kennedy:

It's amazing.

Kelly Kennedy:

You're like, seven episodes.

Kelly Kennedy:

Great job.

Kelly Kennedy:

Keep going.

Kelly Kennedy:

Like, we had lots and lots of people reach out and give me that feedback.

Kelly Kennedy:

At episode 21, you know, Colin Harms, who's a current sponsor of the show through Hypervac, reached out and, like, sent me, like, the most encouraging video, just kind of letting me know, you're doing incredible.

Kelly Kennedy:

Love what you're doing here.

Kelly Kennedy:

You're at 21 episodes.

Kelly Kennedy:

You know, you're in the top 1%, because at that time, for whatever reason, you could be at the top 1% for, like, 21 episodes or something.

Kelly Kennedy:

Anyways, it was incredible.

Kelly Kennedy:

It was the motivation I needed to keep going in that incredibly hard time.

Kelly Kennedy:

But in the beginning, so many podcasts quit, guys, because it's a lot of work, and they realize it by about episode 10 or 11, how much work it's going to be and how little reward there is, at least in the very beginning, right?

Kelly Kennedy:

It takes a long time before the rewards of the show start to pay off.

Kelly Kennedy:

It really is a long game, and it's designed in a way to really weed out the people who don't want to be there.

Kelly Kennedy:

And there were plenty of times, guys, like, I want to say, like, even, like, episode three, I was just about done.

Kelly Kennedy:

I was like, why am I doing this?

Kelly Kennedy:

What's the point?

Kelly Kennedy:

But I'm so thankful that I stuck with it that I got to see this episode 200 and where the show continues to go.

Kelly Kennedy:

It's a fight, right?

Kelly Kennedy:

You got to fight your way through it.

Kelly Kennedy:

You got to get through the struggle.

Kelly Kennedy:

But if you can do it, it becomes worth it.

Kelly Kennedy:

But understand, in the beginning, it can feel like the world is against you, and in a lot of ways, it is.

Kelly Kennedy:

Number 11.

Kelly Kennedy:

Let's lead into it.

Kelly Kennedy:

Everything is against you, including the podcast industry.

Kelly Kennedy:

This is absolutely true, guys.

Kelly Kennedy:

Nothing about the podcast industry is really designed to help you succeed.

Kelly Kennedy:

And I hate to say that because I've been in podcasting and I love podcasting.

Kelly Kennedy:

And if there were more ways or more help out there to help us succeed, I would have found it.

Kelly Kennedy:

It just doesn't really exist.

Kelly Kennedy:

Okay, the advertising agencies, they're kind of there to screw you.

Kelly Kennedy:

The results suck, right?

Kelly Kennedy:

And I'm talking about Spotify, I'm talking about Audio Go.

Kelly Kennedy:

I'm talking about like the legit places that you can advertise.

Kelly Kennedy:

The results suck, guys.

Kelly Kennedy:

You spend a lot of money advertising your show for very little reward.

Kelly Kennedy:

However, you can't stop advertising your show.

Kelly Kennedy:

And I want real listeners.

Kelly Kennedy:

That's where I can find them.

Kelly Kennedy:

So I got to jump through their hoops.

Kelly Kennedy:

But things like Instagram, that doesn't really help you to grow your show that much.

Kelly Kennedy:

You can get new followers, but it doesn't necessarily translate into listens.

Kelly Kennedy:

It's a lot of work.

Kelly Kennedy:

Let's talk about hosting platforms and stuff like that.

Kelly Kennedy:

They don't really care whether you make it or not.

Kelly Kennedy:

Sure, they want you to make it so that you stay on their hosting platform, but there's not a lot of, like, services that they provide to help you along the way.

Kelly Kennedy:

I've noticed that like analytics could be up and down sometimes from hosting platforms.

Kelly Kennedy:

You're like, what the hell's going on?

Kelly Kennedy:

No one can tell you.

Kelly Kennedy:

Analytics have been up and down from Spotify and Apple podcasts.

Kelly Kennedy:

What's going on?

Kelly Kennedy:

No one can tell you.

Kelly Kennedy:

And really the long term podcasts kind of want you to quit because they don't want the competition.

Kelly Kennedy:

So I found that like, with larger podcasts trying to get help or trying to reach out or like collaborate, they're not really interested in doing so because they're like, ah, I made it.

Kelly Kennedy:

I don't really need to help you.

Kelly Kennedy:

Like, there's a very interesting conundrum happening in the podcast industry.

Kelly Kennedy:

But understand, unfortunately, there's not a lot of incentive for you to succeed beyond your own.

Kelly Kennedy:

So it really starts to become a bit of an intrinsic battle.

Kelly Kennedy:

If you want to succeed in a podcast, you have to really, really want to succeed in a podcast.

Kelly Kennedy:

And there's a lot of variables that go into your success, which include can you financially upkeep the cost of a podcast, which also over time becomes incredibly expensive, right?

Kelly Kennedy:

Even just to, like, get a really great audio set up, get your hosting platforms, pay for your audio subscriptions for a year, you're probably talking about 4 to $5,000 in upfront costs to get a great podcast.

Kelly Kennedy:

Off the ground and then to keep it running every single year.

Kelly Kennedy:

That's added cost to advertise it.

Kelly Kennedy:

Way added cost.

Kelly Kennedy:

We're going to get into that later, but it's prohibitive.

Kelly Kennedy:

Guys.

Kelly Kennedy:

Like, unfortunately, the podcast industry, it's not set up for your success, it's more set up for your failure.

Kelly Kennedy:

And so you have to overcome that, which makes it hard.

Kelly Kennedy:

Number 12, self motivation and big picture long game thinking will be all that stops you from quitting.

Kelly Kennedy:

Like I said before, guys, the industry is out to make you stop.

Kelly Kennedy:

So you have to have the grit to not stop.

Kelly Kennedy:

You have to have the grit to push through, to understand, you know, what the industry's against me, there's not a lot of help in this space, but I'm going to figure it out.

Kelly Kennedy:

I'm going to figure out how to get out the other side.

Kelly Kennedy:

You know, we're getting into this after.

Kelly Kennedy:

This is where, like support, community support starts to become very, very important because you'll realize very quickly that there's not a lot of support for you in the podcast community or in the podcast services because they're really in it for themselves.

Kelly Kennedy:

So ultimately, when you're trying to grow your show, you have to start to find outside support.

Kelly Kennedy:

And so finding that support is absolutely, absolutely critical to your long term success and being able to stay motivated and look at the big picture, look at long term thinking will be all that stops you from quitting.

Kelly Kennedy:

Number 13, content creation is flipping hard.

Kelly Kennedy:

I'll be the first to tell you guys, I, like I said, I never started out a content creator.

Kelly Kennedy:

I did not start out a content creator.

Kelly Kennedy:

Not with social media, not with video, not with audio.

Kelly Kennedy:

I have learned to be a content creator in the past couple of years.

Kelly Kennedy:

Okay, like heavy and content creation is hard.

Kelly Kennedy:

Creativity is hard.

Kelly Kennedy:

It's funny because you would think that with the business development podcast, that in the beginning would have been the hardest, right?

Kelly Kennedy:

Creating content in the beginning would have been so hard.

Kelly Kennedy:

Nope.

Kelly Kennedy:

It was actually super easy for me because I was excited, I was super motivated.

Kelly Kennedy:

This was awesome.

Kelly Kennedy:

Something brand new, you get that, like new excitement, right?

Kelly Kennedy:

New things, right.

Kelly Kennedy:

But over time, after you've done it for 100 episodes, 150 episodes, it starts to get harder and harder and harder to write great content.

Kelly Kennedy:

I'm sure there's some scientific reason behind it, but it doesn't actually get easier.

Kelly Kennedy:

I find that my content creation, coming up with incredible topics starts to become harder and harder and harder and take more brain power and more energy than it did in the beginning.

Kelly Kennedy:

And so Writer's block is a real thing.

Kelly Kennedy:

Happened to me multiple times.

Kelly Kennedy:

I would say there's a lot of times during the week where I might want to write a show, but I just can't.

Kelly Kennedy:

I'm not there.

Kelly Kennedy:

Like, mentally, I'm not there.

Kelly Kennedy:

I have to take some space.

Kelly Kennedy:

I have to maybe create an atmosphere that's conducive to creativity.

Kelly Kennedy:

But, like, over time, you have to learn how to do that because the content won't flow as.

Kelly Kennedy:

As easily, and your expectations for good content changes as well.

Kelly Kennedy:

I think maybe one of the problems that I had in the beginning was I was just like, oh, of course.

Kelly Kennedy:

This is good content.

Kelly Kennedy:

I'll put out to the world.

Kelly Kennedy:

After you put out 200 episodes, you start to be a lot more critical about the content that you're willing to put out, about the level of content you're willing to put out.

Kelly Kennedy:

You start to become more critical of your videos, of your social media.

Kelly Kennedy:

Why?

Kelly Kennedy:

Because you're trying to compete against the big dogs.

Kelly Kennedy:

And the big dogs have massive advertising budgets.

Kelly Kennedy:

They have entire teams.

Kelly Kennedy:

And you try to.

Kelly Kennedy:

You try to do it at that level, but it just makes it more challenging.

Kelly Kennedy:

So understand that content creation is hard.

Kelly Kennedy:

Don't look at any content creator and think like, oh, wow, they just have it all figured out.

Kelly Kennedy:

They just have it made.

Kelly Kennedy:

Trust me, they struggle the same as the rest of us.

Kelly Kennedy:

Content is incredibly hard, hard.

Kelly Kennedy:

And over time, it becomes harder and harder and harder because your expectations of yourself start to get higher and higher and higher.

Kelly Kennedy:

So understand, content creation is flipping hard, and it's everything in podcasting or any type of media.

Kelly Kennedy:

And last but not least, advertising is flipping expensive.

Kelly Kennedy:

And like I said before, it is a total mess.

Kelly Kennedy:

It is a total mess in the podcast industry.

Kelly Kennedy:

I would say at this point, there's probably only a handful of legitimate podcast advertising platforms that will truly get you real listeners.

Kelly Kennedy:

AudioGo would be a safe bet.

Kelly Kennedy:

Spotify is definitely a safe bet.

Kelly Kennedy:

I'm sure working with, you know, with Buzzsprout or something like that to get on other people's podcasts probably also a safe bet.

Kelly Kennedy:

But there's a lot of industry out there trying to sell you crap, trying to sell you bots coming on, telling you they'll get you a million downloads overnight.

Kelly Kennedy:

It's all bullshit, guys.

Kelly Kennedy:

It's all bullshit.

Kelly Kennedy:

If it sounds too good to be true, it is.

Kelly Kennedy:

If they're promising you massive, rapid growth, it's a lie.

Kelly Kennedy:

It's impossible, because that's just simply not how podcasts work.

Kelly Kennedy:

I think the only way that you could maybe get something similar to that would be to guest appearance on a really popular podcast and have their audience, for whatever reason, absolutely love you and think your content's incredible and want to check it out.

Kelly Kennedy:

But just like natural advertising, it's slow and steady.

Kelly Kennedy:

It is not fast.

Kelly Kennedy:

You know, I would say at this point, when I advertise on Spotify, I'm probably lucky to grow by about 15 to 20 followers a day.

Kelly Kennedy:

Right.

Kelly Kennedy:

or:

Kelly Kennedy:

It's nothing like that.

Kelly Kennedy:

That is not how it works.

Kelly Kennedy:

The advertising and growth of your show is a long game thing, which is why when you look at the top podcast, they've been in it for five plus years.

Kelly Kennedy:

They got 500 plus episodes.

Kelly Kennedy:

They've been in it, they've been in it long enough to grow that massive audience in an organic and paid way.

Kelly Kennedy:

But understand, even with paid growth, it is typically not rapid.

Kelly Kennedy:

And the advertising industry for podcasts, like I said, leaves a lot to be desired.

Kelly Kennedy:

All right, I feel like now I have to give, like, a little bit of a caveat because I think, like, on a certain level, you guys are like, oh, Kelly, you're being a really big bummer.

Kelly Kennedy:

I totally get it.

Kelly Kennedy:

This is not a typical episode of the business development podcast.

Kelly Kennedy:

But there was no way, there was no way for me to do this right without giving you the good and the bad.

Kelly Kennedy:

So now I think we're gonna, like, level set it a bit.

Kelly Kennedy:

Okay, look, my goal with this episode is not to scare you away.

Kelly Kennedy:

I actually want you to start podcasts.

Kelly Kennedy:

Believe it or not, even after all that crap, I still want you to start a podcast, but it would not be fair to you if I did not show you the good and the bad.

Kelly Kennedy:

So here's the thing.

Kelly Kennedy:

If you really want to be successful with podcasting, the truth is, the world is your oyster, but you gotta grit it and get through it.

Kelly Kennedy:

Okay, what are the realities of podcasting?

Kelly Kennedy:

Success.

Kelly Kennedy:

Number one, your grit is everything.

Kelly Kennedy:

You will have a million reasons to quit your podcast, guys.

Kelly Kennedy:

What?

Kelly Kennedy:

And how strong your willingness to succeed are will make all the difference.

Kelly Kennedy:

Okay?

Kelly Kennedy:

Success in podcasting is simply grit.

Kelly Kennedy:

It's simply internal strength, okay?

Kelly Kennedy:

If you're willing to stick with it long term and grit through this crap, because there's a lot of crap, you will come out the other side successful, all right?

Kelly Kennedy:

But you got to stick to it.

Kelly Kennedy:

And your internal grit is going to be absolutely critical to your success.

Kelly Kennedy:

Number two, you can't treat it like a side gig if you want to win.

Kelly Kennedy:

I talked about this a little bit before.

Kelly Kennedy:

It is a full time job, okay?

Kelly Kennedy:

Podcasting is a full time job.

Kelly Kennedy:

There's plenty of days where I put in a full eight hours producing, editing my podcast, doing the show stuff on the side that I got to do the non pretty stuff, making sure that my guests are booked, making sure that they have everything they need.

Kelly Kennedy:

There is a lot of work that goes into creating your podcast.

Kelly Kennedy:

Like I said, most days where I'm doing podcasting stuff and work stuff, I'm working 12 plus hours.

Kelly Kennedy:

I'm working 12 plus hours that day.

Kelly Kennedy:

It just is what it is.

Kelly Kennedy:

I have to treat it like a real job because it is.

Kelly Kennedy:

And the moment you stop treating it like a side gig and start treating it like a real job, your success with it is going to start to go through the roof.

Kelly Kennedy:

But if you treat it like a side gig, there's no way you're going to make it long term.

Kelly Kennedy:

Number three, you have to learn and never stop learning.

Kelly Kennedy:

Okay?

Kelly Kennedy:

Things are evolving so quickly.

Kelly Kennedy:

Even in the last two years with podcasting, the editing platforms, the Script, Riverside, all things like that have been growing by leaps and bounds.

Kelly Kennedy:

ChatGPT didn't even exist when I started the podcast.

Kelly Kennedy:

Okay?

Kelly Kennedy:

Now that exists.

Kelly Kennedy:

Plugins are changing all the time and can make all the difference in the sound of your show.

Kelly Kennedy:

Audio programs are changing all the time.

Kelly Kennedy:

Video editing software is changing all the time.

Kelly Kennedy:

You have to keep up with it, guys.

Kelly Kennedy:

You have to keep up with it.

Kelly Kennedy:

You have to keep challenging yourself.

Kelly Kennedy:

You have to keep learning and never stop.

Kelly Kennedy:

If you stop in this industry, you are dead.

Kelly Kennedy:

You will be dead, you will fall behind and you won't be able to catch back up.

Kelly Kennedy:

Okay?

Kelly Kennedy:

Things are changing so quickly that you have to keep your nose to the ground.

Kelly Kennedy:

You have to understand the trends and you got to work with them to keep up with your competition in the space.

Kelly Kennedy:

So learning is a must and you can never, ever stop.

Kelly Kennedy:

Number four, you have to find ways to stay inspired.

Kelly Kennedy:

Okay?

Kelly Kennedy:

It's going to be challenging.

Kelly Kennedy:

It's going to have its times where inspiration is hard to find.

Kelly Kennedy:

You need to find ways to keep your positivity up when the numbers are down.

Kelly Kennedy:

You need to find ways to motivate yourself when things aren't motivating.

Kelly Kennedy:

You need to find ways to keep yourself excited about the process, about the next guest, about the next interview, about what you're doing for your listeners.

Kelly Kennedy:

You have to keep yourself excited and motivated and inspired.

Kelly Kennedy:

You have to find that within yourself.

Kelly Kennedy:

Because there's going to be a lot of times when the show isn't going to do it for you.

Kelly Kennedy:

Okay?

Kelly Kennedy:

There's me.

Kelly Kennedy:

A lot of times when you're going to want to quit, and you got to dig deep to find that inspiration.

Kelly Kennedy:

Okay?

Kelly Kennedy:

Number five, you have to find partners.

Kelly Kennedy:

You have to find partners.

Kelly Kennedy:

You will need help.

Kelly Kennedy:

Remember, I said it before.

Kelly Kennedy:

The whole podcast industry is out to get you.

Kelly Kennedy:

It really is.

Kelly Kennedy:

It's just the way it is at the moment.

Kelly Kennedy:

I don't get it, but that's the way it's designed, okay?

Kelly Kennedy:

You're going to need to find partners.

Kelly Kennedy:

You're going to need to find sponsors.

Kelly Kennedy:

You're going to need to find people that motivate you, that are part of your community.

Kelly Kennedy:

You need to build community.

Kelly Kennedy:

You need to find people that can lift you up because you need people fighting for you.

Kelly Kennedy:

You need people fighting for the success of your show that isn't just you, okay?

Kelly Kennedy:

You have to find partners.

Kelly Kennedy:

And I've been blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed to have found so many incredible partners along the way who still show up when it's hard, who still throw money at us when we need it, who still sponsor us, even though maybe it doesn't always make sense for them.

Kelly Kennedy:

It's been incredible.

Kelly Kennedy:

It's been incredible.

Kelly Kennedy:

But I can tell you right now, we would not have made it to 200 episodes without partners.

Kelly Kennedy:

I didn't realize that in the beginning.

Kelly Kennedy:

So now I always say, look, you know, you got to plan your show with the idea.

Kelly Kennedy:

You're going to need partners.

Kelly Kennedy:

You're going to need help.

Kelly Kennedy:

It's a lonely industry, and you need all the help you can get.

Kelly Kennedy:

Even the biggest shows have big partners.

Kelly Kennedy:

Trust me on this, number six, you have to build community, and they will inspire you.

Kelly Kennedy:

You, my rock stars.

Kelly Kennedy:

I can't tell you how many times I've been having an absolute shit day, and I get a message come through from a rockstar listener of the BDP who's just telling me about incredible things that they've implemented and the successes they've had with the show and just thanking me for the lessons and telling me about the incredible things them and their companies are doing.

Kelly Kennedy:

I can't tell you how inspiring that is, guys.

Kelly Kennedy:

Oh, it's hard.

Kelly Kennedy:

It's almost hard to talk about it.

Kelly Kennedy:

It's so powerful.

Kelly Kennedy:

It's so incredible to hear from you.

Kelly Kennedy:

I, like, I can't even tell you guys, like, if.

Kelly Kennedy:

If every single one of you would take, like, just like, a minute and write to me, my God, I would sure appreciate it.

Kelly Kennedy:

I know it's a hell of an Ask.

Kelly Kennedy:

But my gosh, does it just change everything?

Kelly Kennedy:

It really does.

Kelly Kennedy:

Every time you guys leave a review for us, every time you guys rate us, every time you guys shoot me a message on LinkedIn, comment on LinkedIn, follow us on LinkedIn, I could have never seen how powerful that would be, guys.

Kelly Kennedy:

But the community keeps me inspired to keep going and building a community and listening to them and participating with them.

Kelly Kennedy:

It will inspire you.

Kelly Kennedy:

You have to do it.

Kelly Kennedy:

Number seven, know when you're burning out and plan for it.

Kelly Kennedy:

Look, content creation, you're going to burn out.

Kelly Kennedy:

I'm just gonna tell you that right now.

Kelly Kennedy:

I, I can't think of anybody in content creation that I've talked to who didn't hit a wall or it hasn't come out publicly and said, you know what?

Kelly Kennedy:

Like, I really hit the wall, like, I was toast.

Kelly Kennedy:

And if you're not careful, that can be the end of your show.

Kelly Kennedy:

Okay?

Kelly Kennedy:

That can just be the end.

Kelly Kennedy:

You can get sick, you can get mentally sick, physically sick.

Kelly Kennedy:

You can just hit a wall and be done.

Kelly Kennedy:

And I've heard it happen way too often.

Kelly Kennedy:

Way too often.

Kelly Kennedy:

So here's the thing.

Kelly Kennedy:

Before you burn out, before you even start this journey, make a plan.

Kelly Kennedy:

Understand the signs and make a plan.

Kelly Kennedy:

When I am experiencing this, I am going to do this to bounce back for me.

Kelly Kennedy:

Guys, I.

Kelly Kennedy:

You know when I hit a wall, like, back in June, and like, literally I looked at Shelby and I was like, I have to get out of here.

Kelly Kennedy:

Like, we have to leave immediately.

Kelly Kennedy:

And literally, we drove to Saskatoon, guys.

Kelly Kennedy:

Like, that's where Shelby's parents are from.

Kelly Kennedy:

We drove to Saskatoon, hung out for the weekend with the parents.

Kelly Kennedy:

I got a reset.

Kelly Kennedy:

I got like, just like the reset I needed.

Kelly Kennedy:

I came back fresh and ready to rock.

Kelly Kennedy:

That's what it takes for me.

Kelly Kennedy:

I need to get away for a couple days.

Kelly Kennedy:

Reset can come back to it and be good.

Kelly Kennedy:

But had I pushed through, I might have hit a wall.

Kelly Kennedy:

I might not have been able to do the Wednesday show, I might have not recorded my Sunday shows, thrown a big monkey wrench in the show and really screwed me up.

Kelly Kennedy:

Here's the thing, you're probably going to hit burnout if you're a content creator, if you're working 12 hour days in your podcast days, if this becomes your life, you're gonna have hard days.

Kelly Kennedy:

You're gonna have days where you're really hitting the wall, where you're exhausted.

Kelly Kennedy:

Okay?

Kelly Kennedy:

Have a plan.

Kelly Kennedy:

Make a plan upfront on how you're gonna handle your burnout.

Kelly Kennedy:

Because guess what?

Kelly Kennedy:

If you're not careful, it'll take you down.

Kelly Kennedy:

Number eight, learn to do things yourself.

Kelly Kennedy:

Okay?

Kelly Kennedy:

Learn to do things yourself.

Kelly Kennedy:

Listen, $400 an episode for production, it's just not feasible.

Kelly Kennedy:

I put out eight to nine episodes a month.

Kelly Kennedy:

It isn't happening, okay?

Kelly Kennedy:

We would need a lot of sponsorship, some really big sponsors for that to even make sense.

Kelly Kennedy:

So understand right now, the more that you can learn how to do yourself, the more protected your show is, okay?

Kelly Kennedy:

Because the more things that you know how to do and that you can learn how to do and do great, the less things you have to ask other people.

Kelly Kennedy:

And when, for whatever reason they're unavailable or can't do it, you can do it.

Kelly Kennedy:

Okay?

Kelly Kennedy:

So learn how to do production.

Kelly Kennedy:

Even if you don't always do production.

Kelly Kennedy:

That's fine.

Kelly Kennedy:

Learn how to do production.

Kelly Kennedy:

Learn how to use audio plugins.

Kelly Kennedy:

Learn how to cut and edit a perfect show.

Kelly Kennedy:

Learn how to produce a perfect show.

Kelly Kennedy:

Master a perfect show.

Kelly Kennedy:

Trust me on this, these skills will pay off in leaps and bounds in more ways than you could imagine.

Kelly Kennedy:

If you're doing video, learn how to edit your own video.

Kelly Kennedy:

Learn what all of the different functions and features are.

Kelly Kennedy:

Learn how to do it.

Kelly Kennedy:

It just puts you at an advantage long term.

Kelly Kennedy:

So understand the costs are prohibitive to produce a show.

Kelly Kennedy:

Learn how to produce it yourself, and you will save yourself a lot of hassle and a lot of money.

Kelly Kennedy:

And frankly, you're gonna come up one step ahead everyone else because you did it.

Kelly Kennedy:

Number nine, double down on free advertising.

Kelly Kennedy:

Okay?

Kelly Kennedy:

Use your platforms, guys.

Kelly Kennedy:

When you start a podcast, start a LinkedIn podcast platform.

Kelly Kennedy:

Start an Instagram podcast page, start a Facebook podcast page if you want, whatever, depending on your show.

Kelly Kennedy:

But, you know, start leveraging these free platforms, right?

Kelly Kennedy:

With LinkedIn leverage groups.

Kelly Kennedy:

Start to share that information far and wide.

Kelly Kennedy:

Start to invite as many people as you can to your pages.

Kelly Kennedy:

Start to leverage free advertising.

Kelly Kennedy:

Remember how I said before, advertising is ridiculous in podcasting and it's ridiculous in general.

Kelly Kennedy:

Like, I get that, but it's really ridiculous in podcasting.

Kelly Kennedy:

So the amount of money you're gonna spend to get very minuscule growth, you need to find ways to supplement that, because you're not always gonna be able to spend 2 to $4,000 a month on your advertising.

Kelly Kennedy:

So figure out how to leverage LinkedIn.

Kelly Kennedy:

LinkedIn has been an incredible place for us.

Kelly Kennedy:

Speaking of LinkedIn, if you want to figure out where we're at with the bdp, what's going on, what guests we have coming up, clips from our episodes, what episodes are coming out this weekend.

Kelly Kennedy:

What we talked about, it's all there.

Kelly Kennedy:

Everything for the BDP is happening on LinkedIn.

Kelly Kennedy:

So feel free, go over to our LinkedIn, check it out, join us.

Kelly Kennedy:

We'd love to have you there.

Kelly Kennedy:

Follow me.

Kelly Kennedy:

Follow the bdp.

Kelly Kennedy:

But that is.

Kelly Kennedy:

That is the platform that we leverage the most.

Kelly Kennedy:

And I would say it's been a massive, massive advantage in growing the business development podcast in a very free and organic way.

Kelly Kennedy:

So I'd highly recommend leveraging platforms and finding free platforms to advertise on.

Kelly Kennedy:

Number 10.

Kelly Kennedy:

Spend your money wisely because it's hard to earn and easy to go.

Kelly Kennedy:

Okay, here's the thing.

Kelly Kennedy:

Sponsorship dollars are incredible, but you're gonna need a lot of them.

Kelly Kennedy:

And it's very, very easy for that money to go.

Kelly Kennedy:

Because advertising is so expensive, Keeping your show going is so expensive.

Kelly Kennedy:

Your time is so expensive.

Kelly Kennedy:

So understand, money is hard to come by, even if you're a business.

Kelly Kennedy:

Like I said, you don't have unlimited budgets to throw at your podcast.

Kelly Kennedy:

So here's the thing.

Kelly Kennedy:

It's hard to make easy to spend.

Kelly Kennedy:

Make sure that you are spending all of your podcast earnings wisely.

Kelly Kennedy:

And by wisely, I mean improving the show, making your sponsorships better, getting new audio equipment, advertising on legitimate platforms like AudioGo and Spotify to legitimately grow your show.

Kelly Kennedy:

Okay?

Kelly Kennedy:

Make sure that all the money you got coming in for your show, that you are reinvesting it in your show's growth, because you are going to need all the help you can get to succeed long term.

Kelly Kennedy:

And those sponsorship dollars, they go a long way if you use them right.

Kelly Kennedy:

Okay?

Kelly Kennedy:

If you use them right.

Kelly Kennedy:

And I'm going to stop right now and just pitch.

Kelly Kennedy:

Look, if you are a business and you love what we do on the business development podcast, we absolutely need support.

Kelly Kennedy:

We absolutely need support.

Kelly Kennedy:

I don't know a podcast on Earth that doesn't need support.

Kelly Kennedy:

And so we have some pretty incredible programs available.

Kelly Kennedy:

We got sponsorship packages that are really awesome.

Kelly Kennedy:

Feel free to reach out to me and we'll chat further about it.

Kelly Kennedy:

But absolutely, shows need support.

Kelly Kennedy:

Podcasts need support.

Kelly Kennedy:

They don't grow without them.

Kelly Kennedy:

The costs are just too prohibitive.

Kelly Kennedy:

You need partners, you need friends.

Kelly Kennedy:

Number 11.

Kelly Kennedy:

Believe in yourself and commit to the long game, okay?

Kelly Kennedy:

We've been talking about it from the very beginning.

Kelly Kennedy:

Podcast success is not overnight.

Kelly Kennedy:

Okay?

Kelly Kennedy:

It's not overnight.

Kelly Kennedy:

I'm not even sure that if you're a celebrity, podcast successes overnight, maybe they have a little more luck than we do.

Kelly Kennedy:

But growing a show is a long game.

Kelly Kennedy:

Guys, it's not going to be an insta win, it's not going to be an overnight win.

Kelly Kennedy:

It's going to take time and effort.

Kelly Kennedy:

Like I said, the biggest podcast, five plus years, many of them, 10 years, okay?

Kelly Kennedy:

There's no shortcut to that other than time.

Kelly Kennedy:

So lots of time, lots of episodes.

Kelly Kennedy:

That's the true secret to success here.

Kelly Kennedy:

I came to that conclusion really early on, guys, probably about 50 episodes.

Kelly Kennedy:

I think I started to realize, oh crap, if I want to succeed here, it's going to be a long game, it's going to be a long term game.

Kelly Kennedy:

I'm not really sure if I ever really like committed to like a length of time with the bdp.

Kelly Kennedy:

I think initially I was thinking it would be really, really amazing if we could hit five years.

Kelly Kennedy:

And you know, I genuinely think we will.

Kelly Kennedy:

I think we will hit five years.

Kelly Kennedy:

You know, we're heading into our third year here, which is pretty incredible.

Kelly Kennedy:

I think we'll hit five years at least with this show.

Kelly Kennedy:

But I don't think I would want to give up before five years because you're not giving yourself an adequate amount of time to win.

Kelly Kennedy:

You're not giving yourself an adequate amount of time to stand out in a very, very big crowd of shows.

Kelly Kennedy:

Okay?

Kelly Kennedy:

So understand from the very beginning it is a long game.

Kelly Kennedy:

It's a long game and you have to believe in yourself and just stick to it.

Kelly Kennedy:

Believe in yourself, believe in your mission, stick to it, and you can find success.

Kelly Kennedy:

Number 12.

Kelly Kennedy:

You have to always provide value.

Kelly Kennedy:

Always provide value.

Kelly Kennedy:

The whole point of you doing this show is to provide value.

Kelly Kennedy:

Whether that's an entertainment show and you're providing entertainment value, whether that's an educational show and you're providing business development advice or tips like this.

Kelly Kennedy:

Whether you're just interviewing people to gain great pieces of knowledge.

Kelly Kennedy:

But always provide value.

Kelly Kennedy:

And keep that in mind when you're producing a show for your audience.

Kelly Kennedy:

Did I provide value?

Kelly Kennedy:

If I didn't provide value, the show was probably going to be a flop.

Kelly Kennedy:

If I've provided value, have I provided enough value?

Kelly Kennedy:

And if so, then end the show.

Kelly Kennedy:

It's not about time, it's not about how long the episode is.

Kelly Kennedy:

This is probably the longest single episode I've done in a hundred plus shows, at least.

Kelly Kennedy:

Guys, I haven't done an episode this long on my own and I can't even tell you how long.

Kelly Kennedy:

There was no way to do it without doing it this way though.

Kelly Kennedy:

And it's providing value the whole way along.

Kelly Kennedy:

So I'm okay with it just make sure that you're ultimately providing value.

Kelly Kennedy:

Number 13.

Kelly Kennedy:

Watch the numbers, but don't let them dictate your success.

Kelly Kennedy:

It's a long game, okay?

Kelly Kennedy:

The numbers can be really hard.

Kelly Kennedy:

I'm going to tell you that right now.

Kelly Kennedy:

Watching your numbers go up and down and up and down and crazy apple things and they go way down and up and whatever.

Kelly Kennedy:

It can be a emotional rollercoaster watching the numbers all the time.

Kelly Kennedy:

Look, the number I want you to watch is the number of episodes you've released, okay?

Kelly Kennedy:

You know, start really gauging yourself.

Kelly Kennedy:

When you've released a hundred episodes, give yourself at least 100 episodes.

Kelly Kennedy:

Don't worry about the numbers, don't worry about the metrics on that way.

Kelly Kennedy:

Worry about the amount of content you put out to the world.

Kelly Kennedy:

That is going to be the measure long term of your success, okay?

Kelly Kennedy:

Don't worry so much about your day to day download numbers.

Kelly Kennedy:

They're exciting to watch.

Kelly Kennedy:

Trust me.

Kelly Kennedy:

I've had plenty of days where I'm nail biting because we're at like 2, 000 downloads for the day and it's super exciting.

Kelly Kennedy:

I've had plenty of days where I'm like at like 20 downloads a day and I'm like, what the hell is going on?

Kelly Kennedy:

Why is nobody listening?

Kelly Kennedy:

Is my show dead?

Kelly Kennedy:

Right?

Kelly Kennedy:

It's just the nature.

Kelly Kennedy:

It's the nature of podcasting.

Kelly Kennedy:

Podcasting is like seasonal, sometimes, is absolutely crazy and for no reason whatsoever.

Kelly Kennedy:

Like, understand the other side of this is like when we were talking about the podcast industry as a whole and trying to understand what's happening.

Kelly Kennedy:

n for why your numbers are at:

Kelly Kennedy:

There's literally no reason at all.

Kelly Kennedy:

And it's very hard to figure out why they're up or why they're down or what's going on on.

Kelly Kennedy:

So while it's super exciting to watch those numbers, I do encourage you.

Kelly Kennedy:

I'm sure you will.

Kelly Kennedy:

But the number I want you to measure is your episode number.

Kelly Kennedy:

Get that episode number up to 100 plus episodes before you start making any decisions one way or another, okay?

Kelly Kennedy:

I think at that point it'll give you a good idea of who your show is for, who's listening, what your average numbers are and how to improve.

Kelly Kennedy:

But ultimately, give yourself enough Runway to succeed.

Kelly Kennedy:

2025 could be the year that you change the world.

Kelly Kennedy:

You are enough.

Kelly Kennedy:

You can do it.

Kelly Kennedy:

And for those of you who take the leap, it may just completely change the path of your life.

Kelly Kennedy:

And I really hope, guys, I really hope you take the leap.

Kelly Kennedy:

All right.

Kelly Kennedy:

My gosh.

Kelly Kennedy:

Longest episode.

Kelly Kennedy:

Like I said, I'm sure over a hundred episodes.

Kelly Kennedy:

That was quite a long one.

Kelly Kennedy:

We're gonna end it today with a show update, guys.

Kelly Kennedy:

We haven't done that in a really long time.

Kelly Kennedy:

,:

Kelly Kennedy:

LinkedIn is growing fast.

Kelly Kennedy:

We're nearly at:

Kelly Kennedy:

tions is open for February of:

Kelly Kennedy:

Flores, Susan Paseca, Daniel Sonnenberg, Monte Patterson, Gary Noseworthy, Tara Beherens, Jason Chakalakal, Victor Petsch, Tatsiana Zamettalina, Lauren Graff, Nellie Del Castillo, Gordon Shepherd, Hisham Kilani, Colin Fagnan, Colin Harms, Rodney Lover, Jamia Zagel, Tim Zagel, Nathan Plum and Michelle Sammy Wieb.

Kelly Kennedy:

Until next time, this has been the Business Development Podcast and we will catch you on the flip side.

Mark Cuban:

This has been the Business Development Podcast with Kelly Kennedy.

Mark Cuban:

business development firm in:

Mark Cuban:

His passion and his specialization is in customer relationship generation and business development.

Mark Cuban:

The show is brought to you by Capital Business Development, your business development specialists.

Mark Cuban:

For more, we invite you to the website at www.capitalbd.ca.

Mark Cuban:

see you next time on the Business Development Podcast.

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About the Podcast

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The Business Development Podcast
The Business Development Podcast is an award-winning show dedicated to entrepreneurs, executives, sales, and business development specialists.

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Kelly Kennedy