How to outlast 99% of podcasts: four simple rules

Seven years ago, my first podcast fizzled out after a trailer and three unpublished episodes. My second attempt, a co-hosted show, managed two episodes before dying quietly like something out of T.S. Eliot’s 'The Hollow Men.' When I launched a wine cocktail kit business, I hesitated to try podcasting again. But a year and a half ago, I went for it. This time, I succeeded. Here’s how I used a simple plan to make failure impossible.

Three Horsemen of the Podcast Apocalypse

First, I wanted to find out if my story was different. As it turns out, I do suck. But, so do most others. If I wanted to be like the 99% of podcasters out there, then that was encouraging.

Scroll through any podcast directory and you’ll find a graveyard of dead podcasts. Many display the same abysmal one or two episodes that mine did. On average, 200,000 new podcasts get minted every year. Yet, statistics suggest that only about 2,000 still exist a year later. What gives? It turns out there are three big reasons for the podcast apocalypse.

• Burnout - Going too hard, too early. Heavy investment in the early stages causes more stress than expected. Scheduling recording sessions. Editing. Marketing. Publishing. Script writing. Studio build out. Hardware research. Hardware purchasing. The list is long, and many tasks repeat every episode.

• Time - Starting out, recording takes longer than expected. Editing is more complicated than you think. So is publishing and figuring out how to best market. What started out as something easy - “Let’s mic up, talk, and people will love it” - turns into real problems that take time to solve. What started out as a ten hour a month commitment, turns into forty hours a month.

• Despair - Start with all the planning to get a podcast off the ground. Add in time that’s 3x what you thought it would be. Finally, put your audio idea baby into the world and get… two listens. Cue frustration and despair. The final horseman that makes you pack the mics away in a box and shove them into a closet.

Many industry sources report that 90% of podcasts don’t make it past three episodes. Of the 10% that do make it past three episodes, 90% of those podcasts don’t make it past episode 20.

Those statistics alone reframed everything. The answer was now clear. Outlast everyone else and avoid the three horsemen. So, I formed a plan. It’s a plan that, if you’re starting out, you can easily implement to avoid what 99% of podcasters do. If you’re a veteran podcaster, it’s a blueprint you can use to launch a second show or mentor a beginner.

I now had a goal of publishing enough episodes to put me ahead of 99% of podcasters.

Keep It Simple

If you want to never do something, make it complicated. To avoid the three horsemen of the podcast apocalypse, I had to make things so easy I could not fail. So, I set up four rules.

Rule 1: Start Publishing Now

One of the things that was a downfall in prior podcast ventures was planning. It’s easy to get caught up in what you think you need to be successful in podcasting. The studio. The microphones. The production equipment. The right podcast art. In fact, studies show that planning extends the enjoyment of things. It’s true for travel and it’s true for any venture we’re excited about. But planning also kills action. Besides, we live in a world now where authenticity, not polished perfection, is valuable.

So, the week I had the idea to podcast was the week I recorded. The first episode was a ten-minute story about a famous drink that impacted history. I wrote the script on my laptop, then used my iPhone and the free Anchor podcast publishing app (you can now use Riverside). It was rough, but it was done. That’s what mattered.

Within days, I published three more episodes, each under fifteen minutes. One week, four episodes, and I’d already done more than 90% of podcasters.

Make podcasting so simple you can’t fail. Use minimal gear and focus on publishing.

Rule 2: Create a Clear Goal

Even veteran podcasters can use this rule to set new milestones. For me, starting out, I committed to doing thirty-five episodes over six months. I knew reaching twenty episodes would put me ahead of 99% of podcasters in the world. I also knew the average active podcast produces one episode per week.

Starting out, I needed to put more time and work in. That meant more episodes. Plus, there was another factor that seemed important. I rarely listen to podcasts that have only a few episodes. Most shows I follow generally have at least fifty episodes already published or a second season. They have longevity, authority, and trust. If I wanted credibility, I needed a backlog of episodes as fast as possible.

So, six months and thirty-five episodes. With a goal and a timeline in mind, I focused on doing whatever I could to get there.

Rule 3: Follow the 1 Push-up Rule

What is the easiest way to achieve success podcasting?

Answer: Publish at least twenty episodes and outperform 99% of podcasters.

An episode could take any format. It could be an interview. It could be me ranting for ten minutes. It could be a five-minute story I’d written.

I didn’t have to follow a specific format. An episode could take any form.

So, I chose a format I felt most comfortable doing, even if it wasn’t the most popular. I settled on short form (around 10 minutes) and scripted. I wrote an episode, turned on the mic, and recorded it with the Anchor app. I used their in-app editing feature. Then I hit publish.

I followed the one push-up rule. Most people who start out saying they are going to do a hundred push-ups a day quit after a few days. Instead, if you decide to do one push-up a day, that would ensure you’d likely succeed. You might do one push-up every day for a week. You might do three the next week. Then five. Until you get to one hundred push-ups per day.

This works because you’re reframing the goal. With push-ups, the game is health. It’s a game you win by continuing to live. If you’re dead, you can’t do push-ups. So doing fifty push-ups for the next forty years is still better than doing one hundred push-ups for three days.

For podcasting, the lesson was clear. Make it simple and add complexity (a.k.a. quality enhancements) for listeners later.

I recorded the first thirty-five episodes with cheap, wired headphones and no studio. A handful were recorded in my truck. Some were in a camping tent. Quite a few were in a closet to muffle the sounds of screaming kids in the house. Any quiet place can be your recording studio when you’re starting out. Don’t let the failure of a perfect solution stop you from implementing an imperfect solution.

Rule 4: Good Today, Better Tomorrow

I assumed my first thirty-five episodes would suck, like my early writing. Since I sucked, it also likely meant no one was listening. By accepting those ideas, I allowed myself to improve over time and try new things.

I didn’t need to come out of the gate sounding like a top podcast. I needed to come out of the gate and strive to become a top podcast in the next five years.

The first six months of a five year project represented only ten percent of the way toward that goal. Ten percent into any goal and you’re still figuring things out. You’d be mental to expect success at that point.

This mindset shift helped me cut the despair arising from not having listeners. After all, how could I expect listeners if I was only 10% into the project? I was still wrapping my head around it!

Beat the 99%

Today, sixteen months later, I still produce at least one episode a week. In fact, I’m over 70 episodes into my show. My Drink Me A Story podcast has also expanded beyond its original scope. What started out as a way to drive traffic to my wine cocktail kit business now has its own identity with three distinct storytelling segments around drinks, murder, and adventure.

I’ve layered in more complicated processes. I do interviews now and again. Some of my content is longer. I have fancier mics, although I still don’t use a studio. But these things were the next iteration. Not the starting point.

The first goal was to put myself into the category that 99% of podcasters never reach. By creating simple rules, I got there. I hope you take the above rules and use them to start the podcast you’ve always been considering and prove to yourself that you can create uncommon results too.