Another year.
Some say this is THE year of the podcast (we’ll revisit that prediction December 2015.)
Eyes and ears are upon the podcasting industry.
Some of us have been at this for half a decade or more and others of us are just starting to tap into the well of audio magic.
How can we take advantage of the momentum?
How can we step-up what we put out into the world?
Below are some ways that podcasters are calling themselves out – voicing out what it will take to make progress and masterfully iterate to get things done, which of course will equal happiness…
By the way, this is the third installment of our amazeballs podcasting collaborative series, catch up with the first one, which was all about overcoming podcasting challenges and the second one which shared some incredible podcasting lessons learned (that one alone is worth a bookmark!)
Now let’s get on with wrapping it up in a nice little bow 😀
Podcasting goals and dreams revealed
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RANDY CANTRELL from Leaning Toward Wisdom
I remain focused on word-of-mouth.
My podcast has no business or money component, but I do offer listeners some private coaching that I don’t do anywhere else.
I make it a point to know the people who are listening.
I don’t have comments open on my site, but I started a private Facebook group to interact with some of my most devoted listeners.
Email feedback is still important and I offer listeners a variety of ways to contact or interact with me.
One person telling a few more is how I’m going to measure progress in 2015. My job is to give people a remarkable podcast worth telling others about.
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AMANDA COOK from the WellpreneurOnline Podcast
Steady audience growth.
Organic sharing of episodes on social media. And hearing that new clients first discovered me through the podcast.
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DAVID HOOPER from RED – Real Entrepreneur Development
I’m going to feel happy with RED Podcast in 2015 if we continue to improve as hosts, we continue to help and engage listeners, and we continue on the pace we’re going of at least three new episodes per week.
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DAVID GERTLER from the Tennis Days Podcast
Obviously, like many podcasters, I’m looking to grow my audience.
The quality of content needs to continue to improve, and regularity needs to be maintained, not necessarily increased.
The plan for the next season of the podcast is to start incorporating themes into the season. My podcast is about tennis, and I’d like the theme for next season to be ‘drama’.
I have realized that drama is one element to most podcasts that I enjoy listening to, and I’m looking forward to finding ways to incorporate it into my main subject of tennis.
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GREG SAHADACHNY from The Debatable Podcast
In 2015, I really need to feel I’ve struck a balance between my podcasting life and my actual 9–5 career to feel happy about my progress.
With 2 podcasts, and 1 particularly that needs quite a bit of research weekly, I always feel under the gun and stressed. If I can’t find that balance, I might have to scale back on podcast release frequency.
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D LOUIS MARTIN from Science Fiction Film Podcast
Growth. Period.
I am confident that my audience will stay engaged. I am confident that I will put out great content. But audience growth is the biggest indicator that people are telling other people about your shot.
So many people asked me if I have listened to Serial. An extreme example, but I thought, “Imagine if that was my show they were talking about?”
On the personal side of things I would like to start to slowly make podcasting my career.
I want to continue to expand what I offer to my listeners, and I want to make sure that I continue to learn about all aspects of successful podcasting. I don’t think I will ever not be a student of podcasting.
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MARIANNA DU BOSQ from Bilingual Avenue
I feel like I am off to a great start with my podcast but to feel happy about my progress with my podcast in the next year, I would really like to see it grow much more.
My main goal is to help other parents raising multilingual children.
I’d love for the information that is provided in the show to reach many of the parents that are currently struggling with this worthy cause.
The second thing I am really hopeful for in the next year is being able to keep up the pace to produce two shows a week. It currently is taking a lot of time for both my husband who does the editing and for myself who does everything else.
I would love to be able to keep up the work and potentially streamline our production so that we are able to spend less time in the behind the scenes details.
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LAURA McCLELLAN from The Productive Woman
The demands of my day job nearly derail my podcasting dreams on a regular basis. So if I can just keep going, finding good topics and guests (I want to feature a guest every few weeks or once a month) and keeping up the routine of planning and recording and publishing each week, I’ll be so happy both professionally and personally.
I would love to build more of a community around the podcast, but I’m still trying to figure out how to do that.
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PATRICK KELLER from The Big Séance Podcast
I’ll be happy if I continue to hear from my supporters, and hear that they love the show! I know I’m totally not supposed to be a stats addict, but I’ll be happy if that little orange line continues to incline, even if it’s just slightly.
I’ll be happy if I continue to meet amazing people! I’ll be happy if I can continue to go at this pace and have fun with it, while supporting myself with my main gig at the same time.
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JODY PETRONELLA from The Live Happy Podcast
I’d like to think that if I can grow a small base of subscribers who are interactive and appreciate my message I can consider my my progress sufficient.
Eventually if I could monetize just enough to cover my costs, through affiliates or a sponsor it would also make the whole effort feel like something less than a money pit!
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DONNA PAPACOSTA from Trafcom News Podcast
My professional podcasting (for clients) is going fine. I need to be consistent with my own show. It’s a matter of prioritizing! I know this, but I don’t always act on it.
In 2015 my book, The Business of Podcasting, will be published. I hope to convert some people to podcasting with this book.
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JOHN CORNELISON from Snarky Movie Reviews by Nantan Lupan @ the Drive-In
While I strive to put out the best information possible I am recording these podcasts for my enjoyment and have no plans to ever make a dime off of these recordings.
What has made me the proudest this year is when I look at my USA geographic distribution on Libsyn.com and see that over half of my downloads are coming from areas where I don’t have any family or friends.
I am very pleased that people that I don’t have direct contact with are downloading and enjoying the show.
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DARRYL WATTENBERG from GeoGearHeads
The production of the show has grown past the time I have available if I want to grow the show.
We’ve started working with a couple of the dedicated listeners to help with tasks like writing posts for social media. With any luck we’ll add a couple more and be able to lean on them for some of that work.
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GREG CURRAN from Pushing The Edge with Greg Curran
I want to continue to grow in confidence in my podcasting voice – taking risks – trying out new things – within the podcast.
I want to continue to develop my expertise in podcast production and hosting. There’s so much scope for learning – at so many levels. That really excites me.
I want to produce quality shows that resonate at a deep level with my audience.
I want them to come away from the show inspired – and knowing that they have solid tips and strategies that they can implement.
It’s also important to me that they know they’re not alone – that there are others out there that have worked through the issues they’re facing.
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MATT HURT from The Obsessive Viewer
I’d love for more listeners, more interest in our live events, and more exciting opportunities in general.
But most of all I just hope we still enjoy doing the podcast. That’s the most important thing about it, in my eyes. It can be stressful and tiresome but if it isn’t fun, then it’s not something we should be doing.
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CHRIS ROBERTS from The Entre Era
- I aim to have developed an engaging community who support each other along there entrepreneurial journey.
- Attract more inspiring podcast guest with some interviews being broadcast as video.
- 5000K Listeners per month.
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LISA ROWAN from Pop Fashion
Monthly growth has been important to us in our first year, and it would be great to continue that steady growth in 2015.
Our job may be to keep convincing people that fashion can be discussed in an audio format and still be enjoyable and informative.
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HEATHER ORDOVER from Craftlit
I need to feel that I’m more in control of the path my show takes.
For a long time (because of kids and moves) I made zero adjustments, updates, or changes, to my show.
When I found “The Feed” it became immediately clear how much podcast workflows, software, and affordable hardware had changed.
And how far behind I was.
In my previous lives… I started by working behind the camera in Hollywood, got disillusioned, started teaching high school English and found my place.
But.
Being a teacher does not, in any way prepare you to run a business or think like a business woman or marketer.
I mean, I sure had to “market” books and “sell” the value of homework to my students, but they were a captive audience. Word of mouth might get some kids to request you for their Junior English class, but you’re not going to get strangers in off the street.
So progress and happiness are going to be found in getting on top of how better to control the trajectory of the business side of podcasting.
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