3 Surprising Secrets of a Top 100 Podcast

00:00:00 - Courtney Elmer
Today, we're doing something we haven't done in a while. We're flipping the mic. And my own mentor, Brandon Lucero, is going to interview me on what it takes to launch and grow a Top 100 podcast. So if you're listening right now and you've ever toyed with the idea of starting a podcast of your own, or if you have a podcast that, despite you doing all the right things, just isn't growing like you expect, get it to, then keep listening. Because today I'm going to reveal the three surprising ingredients that you need to launch and leverage a top 100 podcast that positions you as the in-demand thought leader in your niche. That's all coming up next, so stay tuned. 

00:00:43 - Courtney Elmer
Globally ranked among the top shows in business and education. We're known for helping overworked online business owners navigate the ups and downs on the way to seven figures each week. You're going to learn how to get the right systems, structure, and support in place so you can build a self-sustaining business that thrives in a rapidly changing digital environment and grow through what you go through to create the greater income, influence, and impact you deserve. This is AntiFragile Entrepreneurship™.

00:01:17 - Courtney Elmer
Now, if you've never heard the name Brandon Lucero, you're missing out because Brandon is an online marketing genius. He's the host of the new Generation Entrepreneur Podcast and the founder of a proven methodology that shifts how online content is created by changing beliefs and shifting perspectives and using the psychology of selling in your messaging so that you can move your audience into a buying state of mind while growing your brand. And I am beyond proud to call Brandon my mentor. Because what he's helped us do, and is continuing to help us do, has been absolutely critical to our company's success and particularly to the success of one of our core offers, pod launch. Which if you've listened to the show for a while, you've probably heard me mention pod launch before.

00:02:13 - Courtney Elmer
Because this is our program, where we help six and seven-figure entrepreneurs expand their thought leadership and reach a wider audience with their message by launching and leveraging a top-ranked podcast that not only positions them as the goto expert in their niche but also cuts their marketing time in half by becoming the cornerstone of their entire marketing strategy while driving more traffic and sales to their business. And a few weeks back, Brandon reached out to me on Instagram, and he asked if he could interview me because he's had so many people in his audience reach out about podcasting. They're either thinking of starting a podcast and haven't pulled the trigger, or they've started a podcast that they want to make an integral part of their marketing strategy. But they're struggling with the strategy part of the strategy. They don't know what to do when it comes to actually creating episodes and content that can attract, keep, and convert listeners from their show.

00:03:13 - Courtney Elmer
So that they can increase downloads and actually monetize their show, so Brandon asked me this, and I thought about it for a minute, and I replied back, no. And then I said, just kidding. Of course, I will do it, because if you know anything about me, then you know that teaching unheard experts how to become in-demand thought leaders by owning their voice to create their legacy and leveraging a top 100 podcast to do it is literally one of my favourite things on the planet to talk about. So you're about to get a peek inside my proven podcasting methodology that's generated thousands of dollars of sales in our business and has helped over four dozen coaches and consultants launch a top 100 podcast that gets listeners reaching out, asking how to buy. So without further ado, let's dive in.

00:04:15 - Courtney Elmer
You. But really, I just wanted to be able to have a way to feel like my message mattered, to feel like I could reach people with that message and that I wasn't just over here as this unheard expert, someone who knows a lot about a lot of things, but that nobody knew, that I knew anything about those things. Right. So I hired an editor, started recording, and we launched our show. This was February of 2020.

00:04:44 - Courtney Elmer
Within about 48 hours, we had over 65 five-star reviews come in for the podcast. Wow. Yes. I didn't even know about charting at the time. There are all these tools now that you can hook your podcast up to to see when you chart where in the world you chart and what categories you chart. Right. I had no idea about that. We got thousands of downloads, and I was just so thrilled because I had never had any sort of marketing thing take off like that. So that really encouraged me. And shortly after that, people were reaching out like my network.

00:05:22 - Courtney Elmer
They were like, Courtney, how did you do that? What did you do? Tell me what you did. So I just started sharing what I did with people. To me, it wasn't rocket science. We leveraged our existing community in support of the show, and I can go into more detail about what that looks like specifically and how we did that, but we rallied our existing community behind us, and it created this incredible energy, this incredible connection. People were excited about the show, and it was so fulfilling and satisfying for me as a business owner to finally feel like I was reaching people like I was making a difference. So I had enough people reaching out that they were like, tell me what you did. Tell me what you did. I'm like, Look, I'm going to put all of you in a room.

00:06:10
We're going to meet for six weeks on Zoom. I'm going to walk you through exactly what I did, and if it works through, great. And that officially became the first beta version of what is now Pod launch because I walked everyone through what I did. They went out. They got better results than I did.

00:06:28 - Courtney Elmer
There was one guy, yeah, he's a trademark attorney. And I'm like, oh, I don't know how this is going to go. Attorney, trademark. It's kind of boring. I don't know how this is going to be podcasting. He got over 105-star reviews when he launched. He landed, like, number 34 in business or something ridiculous like that is one of the most competitive categories. And he came back to me after and he said, Courtney, we had our best month in sales ever this month, and I am certain it was because of this launch and just the buz that this podcast has generated for us. That's when I knew I was onto something. So it was mind-blowing to me because, again, this is never something I saw myself doing or teaching.

00:07:11 - Courtney Elmer
But all the pieces really fell into place, and I quickly realized that what I thought were obstacles like the time and the tech and those kinds of things were surprisingly a lot easier to navigate and figure out than I had anticipated. And this was one of the most fun projects I had ever, to that point, launched in my business. And it was exciting. Well, I think today's day and age too. There's just so much more software and tools available, and the ease of tech is so much easier now than it was three, or four years ago.

00:07:45
I don't know if it's common or rare for someone just to all of a sudden get 65 five-star reviews, especially when they're just, like, throwing something up there, not really sure what they do. So I know you're very strategic with how to do that. Now, I would love to dive into how someone actually launched the top 100 podcast. How do you get those reviews? Because I know you have three pillars when it comes to a podcast.

00:08:06 - Courtney Elmer
You know how to create high-converting content. You need a launch strategy, and then you need an ongoing process as well. And so I'd love to I don't know if it makes more sense to dive into how to create high-converting content or launch actually, let's just dive into launch strategy. What does someone need to do in order to launch that top 100 podcast? I know reviews are important, but I'm sure there are other things too. Can you just walk us through sort of like a checklist of what to do and how to do it? Totally. So let me clear up a little misconception out there surrounding reviews, and downloads. What does that mean? How does it impact the podcast? How does it impact your rankings? So I look at reviews as social proof for the show. What do we do when we go look at a product on Amazon, right? We read the reviews when we're looking at a new book and whether it's worth reading or not, right? Is this worth our time to read?

00:08:57 - Courtney Elmer
We're going to read the reviews first. Same with the podcast. Listeners are out there. If they're searching for a new podcast, what they're likely going to do before they listen to a single episode is they're going to scroll down and see how many reviews that show has. So I want to be clear that the reviews don't carry as much weight for the ranking as people think that they do, but they carry a lot of weight when it comes to the social proof and credibility of your show.
I see. Because it's totally unconscious, it's not like we're sitting there logically going, let me see if this show is worth my time. But if other people like it, when a piece of content goes viral, it's the same thing because a million other people like this, well, therefore, I better pay attention to this and maybe like it too. So that's the purpose of the reviews.

00:09:42
Downloads, though, directly impact rankings. And so the way that the Apple algorithm works apple might not want me telling everyone this right now, but the way that it works and this is something you could Google, the way that this works is that however many downloads a particular show receives in a given window of time, usually about 24 hours or so, that will determine the ranking of that show. I see. So this is why for some of the biggest shows that are out there, I like to use Andrew Huberman as an example because he is one of the top 100 podcasts of all time right now. He's usually in the number one spot of all podcasts, all categories.

00:10:28 - Courtney Elmer
He's got a very popular show. Now. When he releases an episode, all of his listeners who are following the show, most of them, that episode will automatically download. That counts as a download. And what that does is it tells Apple, hey, there's a lot of demand for this person's content. So we want to push this up higher in our chart so that more people see it very similar to when post goes viral on social media, right? Because it gets a lot of people liking it, a lot of people, all that traffic and that condensed window of time the algorithm assumes, hey, this is popular, people like it, let's show it to more people. Yeah. So, yeah, it works much the same way. So when I went to launch my podcast, I recognized that going in that reviews and downloads were super important.

00:11:14
And so I decided to treat it much like I would launch a program where you've got a runway, right? There's a period where you're getting the word out, you're creating buzz around what it is you're doing. You're telling people why you're doing it, why they should care, right, how this is going to solve a problem for them. And then what I did was I asked for people's commitment to review and download the episodes that I released on launch day. And I just picked an arbitrary day, and now I know how to actually go in and research and pick the best day to launch.

00:11:49 - Courtney Elmer
I didn't know that at the time, but I was like, look, here's the day that we're launching. I'm going to release these episodes. It would mean the world to me if you could support the show. And all you got to do to support the show is download the episodes that you see and leave a review, a genuine review. Either you're someone who knows me and so this is a character reference, or please listen to the episodes and give me your feedback. Let me know your feedback. So all very integrity-based, right? And what was mind-blowing to me was the amount of support that our community gave. Like they came out of the woodwork. I had never had that much support for any launch. Right? And what was different about this was I wasn't selling anything. There was no price attached. I wasn't asking anyone to buy anything. But the way that I communicated this and created this buzz for this show, was essentially creating that demand for it.

00:12:44 - Courtney Elmer
And people got wind of that, and they got excited about it. And the way I was communicating was how this podcast was going to solve very real problems in their life and in their business. It was something that they wanted. I was creating that desire, that demand. I love that I'm going to add something to that because the process of what you did and how you bring people through inside of Pod launches, reminds me a lot of even how we launch, just like a program where I'm always telling people, like, pick a date, and it's just like a movie release.

00:13:15
Here's the date, here's the date, here's what to expect. Here's what it's going to do for you. And we do that all the time. So now people are like chanting, like, oh, March 18, March 18. I'm ready for March 18. And it's like, you just create this buzz around the launch. But what I love about what you did, too, is you set the expectations of what you wanted beforehand. It was like, okay, we're going to do this, and here's what you need to do and download and leave the review so people are prepared and prepped for it. My question to you is actually what happens if someone doesn't have an audience? Because when someone has an audience, it's very easy to do that.

00:13:48 - Courtney Elmer
Is there anything you can do if you're just starting from ground zero? Or is it kind of like, well, you just have to do the best you can do? Is there anything strategically that they can do if they don't have an audience right now? Yes. I'm so glad you asked this because we've actually worked with clients who are like, I am just starting in business. I have zero people on my email list. I have, like, 50 people following me on social media. So can I start a podcast? Is it the right time to start a podcast? Should I wait to start my podcast till I have more experience and expertise and I know what I'm talking about?

00:14:19
Right? And, I mean, you can argue one way or another. Yeah, you should have your message totally dialed in before you start a podcast. Sure, I can see a case for that, but at the same time, I also see a very compelling case for having a top 100 podcast as the cornerstone of your marketing before you even start to grow a social media platform because of how quickly it will help you dial in your message and reach people at the same time. So I just say that to preface what I'm going to say next, because we have had a couple of clients, one in particular, who comes to mind.

00:14:50 - Courtney Elmer
She had just started her coaching business, and she was very nervous. She knew she wanted a podcast. Like, she knew she wanted to do this, but she was afraid that, just like you said, they would launch it. And then, like, I have no audience. This is going to flop. It's going to be a failure. It's going to be a total waste of my time. Right. And so what we encouraged her to do was to reach out to people in her network outside of her business. Go back to friends, family, contacts, and colleagues that you have, maybe from previous companies that you've worked with, Facebook groups that you're a member of. Right. Who else?

00:15:29 - Courtney Elmer
Are you part of any coaching programs? Are there people that you've met there that you could reach out to and kind of expand the radius of your network, so to speak, where if you don't have a community of people who already know, like and trust you and would be willing to support you, then go outside of that to people who already know you and would be willing to support you just because you're you because they have a respect for you? So that's what she did, and she broke the top 100 whoa, that's awesome. In the Apple charts when she launched. And we were all like, cheering. We were like, this is awesome. You did it. Oh, my gosh. We knew you could make it happen. And she did.

00:16:08
She just committed to the process, and she saw it through, and she didn't let that stop her. She didn't let that be the thing that kept Know not taking action on this dream of hers. And she couldn't have been more thrilled with the results. And she told me after the fact this was a few months later, she was like, Courtney, had I not launched the podcast when I did, she said, all these opportunities that I'm getting now for speaking engagements and client inquiries and workshops to be teaching in other people's masterminds and all this kind of stuff that was coming her way. It was like all these doors suddenly opened.

00:16:37 - Courtney Elmer
She said, that would have never happened had I not done this when I did. She was so grateful. Yeah, and that's the thing too. I think when we launched, we were at the top 100 podcast. I think we hit the top 40 in business or marketing or something like that, but we had like a pre-done audience, but something we did. And you let me know if you think this is not a great strategy, but even if you don't have an audience, what we did is we just interviewed people on the podcast and then gave them, like I actually created the content for them that they could share on their socials. So obviously I have a good-sized network, so we had like, Rick Mulready James Wedmore and Jim For, and then they would share it with their audience as well. But I would imagine if you don't have an audience yet, and even if you just go to people who have a following, like maybe don't have a business wrapped around their following, like influencers because they don't really make any money, and you're like, hey, if I give you, like, a $100 interview, you give you exposure, would you share this content with your would? I would imagine they would probably do it. Do you think that would be an okay thing to do?

00:17:35 - Courtney Elmer
Have you done something similar to that before? I haven't, personally. We've had some clients who have. And really, what I go back to, Brandon, is what feels in integrity for the cause. That's one of my core values. And so that's what I teach. I mean, it's infused throughout our entire program. Everything we teach is not just about it's not just about the numbers. Right. Those are important. They do help you get traction, but the two other pieces of the pillars that we haven't even dove into yet are what actually create long-term growth. Okay, I was just going to say sure. Well, the launch piece, though, yes, certainly it's important. And yes, you could potentially do like some kind of brand sponsorship deal. But the only thing that I want to just make sure is crystal clear for people here is please stay in integrity.

00:18:24 - Courtney Elmer
Don't do anything just to get downloads or numbers. That's kind of like buying followers on Instagram, right? We know that doesn't work, but if you are truly creating some kind of partnership with someone or like you did, where it was like you had these people in your network, that's almost like an affiliate thing, right? Hey, if you would promote this for me, it really would mean a lot that nothing wrong with that. So, yeah, get creative and stay in integrity.

00:18:45
Love it. Okay, cool. And that's great to know, too. I actually thought that reviews had a heavier weight than they did than the downloads. But now that I think about it makes sense because we're on charitable and stuff like that, and I can see us popping into like top 200, top one from time to time in different countries. And I always thought, like, we didn't get any reviews recently. I don't understand how that's happening. But obviously, it's because of the download. So that makes a lot of sense because the yeah, yeah. All right, let's dive into the content.

00:19:13 - Courtney Elmer
I would love to hear your thoughts on what makes really good podcast content, what people can do and all that good stuff. This is honestly my favorite pillar. We'd be here a long time, Brandon. We'd be here as long as you want. Talking about this one, this is something that most people who start podcasts give very little regard to. I call it your high-converting content system. It's pillar one of our strategy because this is the foundation upon which your entire show should rest because what will happen, is what most people do. They think, okay, if I can buy a high-quality microphone, figure out how to plug it in and where to hit record, and then figure out how to get that show published if my content's good enough, then my show will take off. People will listen logically, right? Makes logical sense.

00:20:00 - Courtney Elmer
But in the world of podcasting, what most people don't realize is that before someone can get to your incredible content inside of your episode, they've got to go through several content gatekeepers. I call them content gatekeepers. There are four main content gatekeepers that they have to go through first before they even press Play on your episode. And I'll walk through what those are in a moment. But I will say this. If you don't have those gatekeepers, metaphorically speaking, if those gates are not wide open and literally leading your listener to the Play button and compelling them and convincing them of why they should click Play and give you their valuable time to listen, then you're going to constantly and continually struggle to grow your top 100 podcast because you'll be losing listeners to your competition. So in order to prevent that from happening, we have to look at these gatekeepers. So what they are is the title of your show, your cover art, your show description, your episode titles, and also your show notes. That kind of goes within the episode itself. So these elements are all pieces of content, if you will, that a potential listener will look at.

00:21:29 - Courtney Elmer
And I hate to use this word, but judge your show based on right now, it's completely unconscious. They're not logically scrolling. They're going like, oh, this cover art is using the most amazing colors, and it's standing out in the feed. And this is why I'm going to listen to the show. Right?

00:21:47 - Courtney Elmer
It's totally not logical, but if you notice, go to any category, and I'm going to build as an example. If you go to look at the marketing episodes that are out there, right, the marketing category, and you're scrolling on your phone, it shows anywhere from the top 50 to top 100 podcast shows and you're scrolling through that and you're looking for things to listen to, you're going to look at a couple of things. You're going to notice the COVID art first, right? In fact, I should say your unconscious mind will notice that first because your eye is going to be drawn to certain artwork over others. And if I were to pull up a screenshot of Amy's cover art alongside the other nine episodes right there in the top ten with her, all the other nine I said episodes. Nine podcasts. The other nine podcasts have very warm visuals. Oranges, hot, pinks, yellows, bold text. Some of them have pictures of the post on it, some of them don't. That doesn't really matter.

00:22:52 - Courtney Elmer
But hers is the only one that's different. And I would be willing to bet it's intentionally different. Her title is Online Marketing Made Easy. She's already appealing to her ideal listeners. Number one pain point. She's clearly communicating what that show is about. Her listeners don't have to guess to try to figure out what is this show about, is this going to be worth my time? Right? And visually she stands out in the feed because, unlike the other podcasts that are all these warm colors, hers is very minimal. It's got a light gray background.

00:23:34
She's wearing this blue shirt, and the text on her screen is very clear, her title and her name. And it immediately draws your eye towards it. And that's just two gatekeepers right there, right? So if someone is drawn into your cover art and the title because the title is important, I mean, there's 20,000 mean it is a popular top 100 podcast, but if you don't know what it's about, are you really going to take the time to go figure out what that's about? Right?

00:24:06 - Courtney Elmer
I wouldn't, I'd be like, I don't even know what that is. Let's just scroll past. So the name is super important, too, especially if you're an entrepreneur and you're using this as a traffic strategy. Right. So those are the two gatekeepers. When you say title, you're talking about the title of the podcast, right? Because then there's the title of the podcast. Got it. Yes. What are our user habits? Right? If we see something that appeals to us, we're going to click, and the next thing we're going to do is we're going to read that podcast description. Yeah. Okay. That's the third gatekeeper.

00:24:36 - Courtney Elmer
So that has to be super dialed in to clearly communicate what problems your show is here to solve. Okay. And also the transformation that someone will get when they listen. Got you. It's basic marketing 101, but it has to be clearly communicated. I've seen a lot of descriptions that either they're very long and ramble on and on and on, right? They don't get to the point. Some of them include like, the full bio of the host. I'm like, come on, nobody is reading that. It should be a paragraph at the most, right? It's got to be clear. It's got to be compelling. People are skimming, so if they get past that gatekeeper, the next thing they're going to see are your episode titles. Okay. And I just want to add one thing, too, real quick, because the importance of this, I think a lot of people overlook, is like, look, if you're going to launch and you're going to get all these floods of downloads, you're going to get all these reviews, and you're going to move up the algorithm and maybe you get into the top 100 podcast, that's going to give you exposure to cold people, new people.

00:25:36 - Courtney Elmer
And if you're not optimizing that exposure, it's just like running a Facebook ad that has a crappy creative and crappy copy. It's not going to work, so you might as well. And I'll be honest: when we launched, I overlooked all of this. I was like, as you're going through, I'm like, wow, the title of this podcast sucks. I'm like, maybe my cover art needs some work. So this is all great information, honestly, that I wish I would have had when we launched. But I love so let's let's dive into the description. I'd love to hear what you have to say. Yeah, I will just add to that. Brandon, I made the same mistake.

00:26:12
I've named my first well, our podcast has evolved. We've rebranded it since I first launched it, but it was originally called The EffortLESS Life, and that's the name of my company. But if you don't know what that stands for and who I am and what I stand for and what effortlessness truly means, as I relate it in the entrepreneurial context, that means absolutely nothing. I mean, someone could see that and be like, what is this podcast on how to become a Buddhist monk on the side of a mountain? What is that?

00:26:35 - Courtney Elmer
Nobody knows. Yeah, it's got to be clear. But the description, that's the next thing that people are going to read. And then if that creates enough curiosity, what are they going to do next? They're going to scroll through your recent episodes, and so that's where the titles come into play. I see. And so if your titles are super long and they're getting cut off by Apple, it's one thing to take into consideration. Another thing is, is the title clear? Is it now, think about an email subject line. It's going to directly determine whether or not someone opens and reads that email.

00:27:15
Right. And it functions the same way. So if they get past the title and they find one that's like, okay, that I'm interested in, that they're going to click, and then they're going to see the description for the episode. And then, and only then, if they have made it through all those gatekeepers, will they click play, got you, and actually listen to your content. But here's another mistake that a lot of people make, is that within the episode, they're not structuring their content to create desire and demand for the call to action at the end of the episode if they give a call to action.

00:27:51 - Courtney Elmer
Oh, my gosh, some people don't even do it. I'm like, what you're missing out on all of these potential leads? Like, how could you not be doing this? Right? But then other hosts will get frustrated because they are giving a call to action, but nobody's taking action. And so the structure within the episode itself matters too because you've got to be able to lead your listener on a journey, essentially, in that ten minutes, 20 minutes, 45 minutes, however long it is to get them wanting. What you're going to offer them, whether that's come join me for this workshop download this PDF book a call with me or whatever that might be. So I spell all of this out, not to intimidate anyone, Brandon, but also to let people know you have to be thinking about these things. Specifically, if you're an entrepreneur who wants to leverage a top 100 podcast to drive traffic to your business. Because just like you said with the Facebook ad, such a good example, it's not going to work if all of these little pieces aren't dialed in.

00:28:50 - Courtney Elmer
Yeah, well, it makes sense, too, and I don't think it should sound overwhelming to anyone because here's the thing. If you guys are going to start a podcast, you're going to have to create a title anyway. You're going to have to create a cover art. You're going to have to create a description. You're going to have to come up with episode titles. But Courtney's talking about these are things you're going to have to do, whether you do them good or bad.

00:29:08
You might as well just do it good, read from the beginning and not get overwhelmed with any of it because, honestly, it's going to be overwhelming whether you do a good job with it or a bad job with it. So, what are some tips that you can give on structuring the episode to create that demand or that desire? Because as you know, it's like one of my favorite subjects is talking about how to create content and communication and messaging that does that. I feel like we've been getting better and better on our podcast, but I'd love to hear your tips and kind of recommendations on how someone else can do that. Totally.

00:29:45 - Courtney Elmer
And I love this, too, because this is where I really get to lean on my background in psychology and apply that here for your listener, this ideal person that you're looking to attract, and what's keeping them awake at night, right? What are the beliefs that are holding them back, and how can we really show that we are the guide who can help them achieve the transformation that they want and solve the problems that they're experiencing in their life? So it's a huge opportunity and responsibility, really. So this is why I love all this and I take it all so seriously because it truly is a make-or-break thing, right? It's going to either keep them listening or, so you know, it was now, earlier today, I was looking at your comment on my feedback request in the Facebook group in your program and you added something that I had.

00:30:32
Just completely forgot. Which is going to be so ironic when I tell you what the first segment is that you need to have in your episode. But it's a hook. It's a teaser. And I had submitted this post for feedback, and I was like, hey, can you give me some feedback?

00:30:43 - Courtney Elmer
I want to turn this into video content. You're like, yeah, I would add this hook at the beginning. I was like, oh, duh. Of course, we need the hook, right? We need to give people a reason to read or to listen in this case. And so what I always tell people, I'm like, you got to open up with a 32nd or less teaser, right? What are you going to cover in that episode today? And why should someone continue listening? A lot of hosts hit record, and they just start talking, and suddenly you're like, what are you even talking about? Are we ever going to get to the content?
What is this about? And people tune out, and we've got to be able to keep people's attention. And so we need to clearly communicate to them up front. It's another little speed bump in the road for them, checkpoint, if you will, to say, like, is this for me? Because all along the way of the whole listening experience, that's subconsciously what your listener is asking: is this relevant for me?

00:31:41 - Courtney Elmer
So we got to hook them in. So that little teaser or that hook is usually followed by your show intro, right? Your show intro should also let them know that they're in the right place. This is the part that is usually here. It's pre-recorded. It's set to music, right? It's like the branding intro of your podcast. That should be pretty short, too. Your longtime listeners will eventually start to skip it, but your new listeners will want to listen, right? You don't want to ramble on for two minutes, right?

00:32:06
And then what I like to do is create a connection before I get into the meat of the episode. I use what I call a personal segue. This is where I tell maybe a three to five-minute personal story or story about a client. Or maybe it was something that happened to me in the grocery store last week, but it relates to the topic of that episode, and I use that time to create deeper connection with my listener because I know that my listener who is listening at every moment, again, they're asking, is this relevant? And do I trust this person?

00:32:48 - Courtney Elmer
And so telling that little personal story in there allows you to be able to share who you are, and what you value. Again, a lot of this is completely unconscious, but if I'm telling a story about how my five-year-old had to stay home from camp this week and I was struggling between the tug of war taking care of him, do I give attention to my business? I really want to spend quality time with him, right? And just use that as an example to tie into this. Whatever.

00:33:16
Let's say the main topic I'm talking about is over commitment, right, on your calendar, not having enough white space. Let's just say that connects people to me. They see I'm a mom. They see that I value family. They see that I value quality time with my son.
I'm not just like camp. So, okay, let me call a babysitter and work all day long, right? Because that's what I value. And so my listeners are going to see that, too. So, it helps to create that deeper connection.

00:33:41 - Courtney Elmer
So I love that, and I love the teaser because we always open our episodes with some sort of intro, which is where I try to do that, but I wasn't intentionally sitting there going like, okay, I need to hook people in. It's more of like, okay, let me just talk about what we're about to talk about. But now I'm even more intentional with it. And the way I always do it is just kind of like, look, are you dealing with this? Is this a problem that you've had?

00:34:03
You've likely been doing this. And we work together, so you understand the problem and the mistakes. I always try to incorporate problem mistakes, and that usually leads to a pretty good hook. But I think I can do a better job with the personal segue and connection because I kind of do it, kind of don't. But I now see what you're saying is, again, it's what we talk about with messaging.

00:34:23 - Courtney Elmer
It's like we have to release our values; we have to release our beliefs to form that connection. And you're intentionally doing that. What I love about the way you do it is it's like a story. It's like I'm using stories to release values. So instead of saying, here's my value, you use the story to demonstrate the value.And people can get that subconsciously. So that makes a lot of sense. Did I sum that up pretty nicely, or is it very nicely? Better than I could have. Gosh, that was great. Also, I will say this, too: that personal connection piece, it's your listener, the trust. I just want to zoom out for a minute here. If we were to look at this with a macro lens for most people, at least the ones that we work with anyway, they're those heart-centered entrepreneurs who are here to make a difference in the world, right? They want to leave a legacy. They want to make an impact.

00:35:10 - Courtney Elmer
The money doesn't motivate them. Yeah, they want to have a successful business and keep the lights on and all that kind of stuff, but they're not like just money hungry. And so for these people, it is all the more important that if you want to make an impact with your message, with your voice, to catalyze positive change in the world, there's no better place to do that than with a podcast. And the trust that you can develop with your listener is what's going to lead to the sales, the revenue, the traffic that you get, and the leads that you get from your podcast; it all ties back to this element of trust, which we know. We know this as business owners.

00:35:49
That's super important. But if you omit that segue, for example, or you just kind of dive right into your content, you're always teaching, teaching, teaching. You're actually missing out on that opportunity that your listener needs to connect with. Totally. And that's what I love about the process that you're bringing people through.

00:36:07 - Courtney Elmer
But also, what I love about podcasts is that when it comes to messaging, I always tell our audience, look, there are certain elements that need to happen in order for a sale to happen. So it's like the two types of trust. We need connection, we need to have that thought, leadership or perspective-shifting sort of message. We also need the teaching, the educational, and the authority. But my biggest question to people is, how do you expect to do that in an image or a three-minute video?

00:36:32
And people always ask me, Brandon, how do I incorporate all these into a three-minute video or an image? I'm like, you don't. You literally need like five to ten short-form posts to be able to achieve all of those things. And so, messaging is something that people have to sit in your ecosystem for a while. However, with a podcast, you can start to do that because you have 30, 40 minutes, an hour of uninterrupted time, hopefully, where people are just like, listening to you, and you can incorporate all those different elements, which is what you're talking about right now, is like, you have the hooks, you have the connection.

00:37:09
And I'm assuming as we dive deeper into what else we need, I'm sure it's going to be like the educational, the authority, there's going to be other things you need. So that's what I personally love about a podcast so much, is that one episode can encompass so many elements of what you need in order for a sale to happen. So, with that being said, after you do the personal segue, the connection, what else needs to go into an episode to make it high? Converting or engaging. Yeah.

00:37:38 - Courtney Elmer
So after that segue, this is what I call your body content. This is your opportunity to shine as an expert. So this is where and I know your listeners know about thought reversals, right? This is a beautiful place to plug those in. This is a place where you can bust beliefs. This is where you can show people the old way of doing something that you think they shouldn't be doing it that way, right? And here's a new way to help shift perspective. You can use these as teaching moments if you have something that comes to you. A lot of my episode content for our solo episodes comes to me when I'm journaling, or I'm on a walk, and I'm just jotting down ideas that just kind of come through. And there was one, actually.

00:38:17
I'm going to record this weekend on the two deadly sins of entrepreneurship, overthinking and over-committing, that we do to ourselves as business owners. And so that is where you have that opportunity to showcase your expertise, right? It builds your authority and credibility and reinforces that trust for your listener in you, that you are the person to help them, that you're the person who knows what they're talking about. And so that's the meat of your episode. And there's a variety of ways we have several ways that we teach our clients how to structure that.

00:38:53 - Courtney Elmer
But that's essentially what's going on in that middle section. That's the meat of that episode. Okay. Then, after that, I bookend it with more connection. So, if you're following along so far, we've had a teaser, and we've had your intro track. You've given that first connection bookend, which is your personal segue. You've delivered tons of value by helping shift perspective. And then we're going to book in that with more connection, and we're going to invite your listeners to connect with you off of the podcasting platform because that's the one thing, Brandon, you know this as a podcast host, we don't know who's listening. We don't see their name in our DMs. There's nowhere for them to comment on that episode and ask a question or leave feedback.

00:39:38
We know they're listening because we can see the downloads, but we don't know who they are. And so I like to invite them into my world. Like, look, I hang out on Instagram every week. I'm there sharing content on how to launch top 100 podcast and how to make it successful. Come hang out with me.

00:39:54 - Courtney Elmer
Send me a DM. Let me know what jumped out to you about this episode. What was your biggest takeaway? And I'm always telling my listeners to do that. Right, and you just send them to your main platform, right, whether it's LinkedIn, Instagram, or your email list.
Join you for, well, no, that'll come next in The Call to Action. I was going to say join you for a workshop, but I call this section The Call to Engage, and this is really what you're asking them to do, is it's a soft call to action, but it's like, hey, come connect with me. I'm a real person; let's hang out. So that follows your body content, and then you give your call to action. Because by now, if you've done a good job in your body content, they should be curious, they should have the desire, and they should have some sort of internal urgency already created that demand for what you're going to give them, what action you're going to give them.

00:40:48 - Courtney Elmer
So whether that's to download something, this is more of your hard call to action, right? It could be to make a purchase, maybe you're an author, and it's like, hey, go buy my book, where I go into this in detail or register for our upcoming workshop or book a call with me. If this is a real problem that you're struggling with and you want help, let's talk about it. That's where you give that call to action. And then we don't just end the episode; we tease the next episode.
Of course, this does require that you've planned a little bit ahead, right? And you know what's coming up the next week. But we want to open a loop in our listener's minds that they have to listen next week to close. So smart. Love that.

00:41:29
And that's what keeps them coming back. So, if you were to go listen to my top 100 podcast, it's called Antifragile Entrepreneurship. You can find it everywhere. You will hear these segments in any episode, whether it's solo or guest, because the guest interview just takes the place of the body content, right? It just gets plugged in.

00:41:48 - Courtney Elmer
Everything else stays the same. And you will literally hear this at work. And once you hear it, you won't be able to unhear it. But that is the process, right? And what this does is very strategic to create demand, to create desire, and to help you not just attract listeners and keep them listening, but to convert them. Because, at the end of the day, that's what the high-converting content system is. It's a system to attract, keep, and convert your listeners. I love that. So I need to do a better job of the teasing, which means I need to do a better job of the planning because I literally just like, all right, what do I want to talk about this week? And I am very similar to you, like a journal or I'll go for a walk and let the idea come to me.

00:42:28
And I usually just do it on to weekly basis, but if I plan it out a little bit more, I can do that. So super smart. Absolutely love that. And then the last pillar is kind of like growing growth. Is that kind of tied into high-converting content, or is there something else once you're up and running to continue the growth? Are there any sort of things to focus on there?

00:42:49 - Courtney Elmer
Yes. So I love that you asked this because the high-converting content is definitely going to play a role in your long-term growth. Again, going back to that Facebook ad example, if you're not able to keep the listeners who are coming to your show, it's kind of like having a leaky bucket, right? If those listeners are always falling out because you have holes in your bucket, it's going to be very hard to grow. So first, we want to make sure we've got a non-holy bucket.

00:43:12
That is what your high-converting content system takes care of. Then we launch it because what that does is it gives you instant credibility for your show. It gives you that social proof gives you a chance to land in the charts, which is going to help improve your visibility and discoverability and get in front of new audiences. And then the goal from there is to keep charting. If I were to pull up Apple podcasts on my computer right now, and scroll, pick any category, and scroll all the way to the bottom, what you're going to see is a total of 200 podcasts.

00:43:47 - Courtney Elmer
Okay, that's it. There might be thousands. Let's just pick the business category. There might be thousands, thousands upon thousands of podcasts in the business category, but you will only ever see the top 200 on Apple. So podcasting starting to do a better job of being more searchable, right? But it's not Google. It's not YouTube. So unless someone knows you or they're looking specifically for your type of content, this is why the name is so important, right? Put a keyword in there if you can. Online marketing is made easy. Like that's strategic, too, because someone might be typing in online marketing and what's going to pop up. Oh, Amy Porterfield. Great. Let me go. Listen.

00:44:38 - Courtney Elmer
So that's important because if you're not ranking consistently, then how do you grow the show, right? And this is what usually trips people up. And we'll get people who come to us, and they're like, courtney, I've been podcasting for six months, for a year, for two years, however often, right, they've stuck with it. But they're like, I am still only getting 30 downloads an episode, 50 downloads an episode. I might get a new review every month or two.

00:45:08
Maybe people tell me they love the show, but I can't grow it. I can't get past even for some of them, it's even 100 downloads per episode, right? And that's frustrating for how much time and heart that goes into a podcast. That is really frustrating for people. So long-term growth has to do with a couple of things. It has to do with, like I mentioned, continuing to rank, which guess what you just launched. And if you ranked, then you know how many downloads it took to rank. That becomes your new benchmark. That becomes the download goal to start working toward. So that you can rank consistently.

00:45:50 - Courtney Elmer
That's number one. But then how do we actually drive traffic? And I'll hear this from people, too. I'm like, so what are you doing to drive traffic to your show right now? And they're like, well, I'm posting about it on social media, emailing my list about it. When I remember I'm asking my guests to share the show, a lot of them don't. I'm thinking about running some Facebook ads. I don't know. I mean, I tell people about my podcast, but I don't know, what else do I need to be doing, right? I'll be a guest on shows sometimes, but I can't say that I've gotten any new listeners from that.

00:46:25
So I'm like, all right, here's what we need to do. First, we need to back up, and we need to look at the different ways to potentially drive traffic to a podcast. Then, based on your specific goals how we need to come up with a strategy for the best ways that you need to focus on because that might look going to look different for everyone.

00:46:51 - Courtney Elmer
There are over,20 ways that you could potentially drive traffic, but we focus on seven foundational elements. So first is podcast directories. Okay, podcast directories are the lowest-hanging fruit, and for a lot of people, it blows my mind, and it actually makes me sad because a lot of existing podcast hosts don't even know what I'm talking about when I say that. So, a podcast directory is somewhere that releases your top 100 podcast to the public. So your big directories are Apple, Spotify, and Google, but there are a lot of small ones too.

00:47:26
And there's a lot of them that are popular in some countries, but maybe not here in the US. Where I'm based, know might be popular in Europe or India or somewhere. So, you want to make sure that your podcast is listed in every directory that it possibly can be. It's free to be listed there, so why wouldn't you be? And often, depending on who's hosting your podcast, whether you host through libsyn or buzsprout or whoever hosts that RSS feed, it's usually a click of a button, and they will submit your show to those directories for you gotcha.

00:47:59
So get it listed everywhere that you can. The next thing is website traffic. So website traffic is something that is often overlooked, too. Chances are, if you're a business owner, you have a website, and you might want to put your podcast on your website, but a lot of people will say, okay, this is a lot of work because now I have to create a new blog page for every episode, like duplicate publish this content, right? We're pushing it out here in our podcast feed.

00:48:29 - Courtney Elmer
And now I got to have someone or have my VA put this on my website, too. And it can become very tedious and time-consuming and almost seem like more trouble than it's worth. I'm going to plug a tool that we love called Podpage. And what Podpage does is it's a website platform that is built for podcasters. You connect your RSS feed to it, you pick a template, and it will automatically import every single episode. Create a beautiful episode page for that episode. Gives you all kinds of tools to capture traffic that's finding you. And it was built by a guy who worked at Google. So a lot of the SEO type of stuff, which usually tends to make our eyes cross and make us want to go, like, hide under a know it's all built-in. So, if you have a podcast and you don't have a Pod page, please go set this up.

00:49:27 - Courtney Elmer
It's extremely affordable. And then what you can do is you can just link at the top bar of your existing website podcast, add it to your menu, and then link to your Pod page. This will give you dual web exposure because you'll have your existing site, and you'll have your podcast site; they'll be connected so you get those backlinks, which Google loves. You can also extend your exposure, so to speak, and know people who are searching for your episode might pop up in their search. They'll find you that way, and then they'll get back to your main website or vice versa.

00:50:08
If they're visiting your main website and they click through the podcast, then they'll land on that page, and they'll see you there. So, if you want to check out our Pod page, you can go to antifragileentrepreneurship.co I dare you, just go, look, we didn't build this site. We used to do it the old-fashioned, very time-consuming way. We like to create a blog post for every episode.

00:50:27 - Courtney Elmer
But website traffic is another underrated strategy for getting people to your podcast. Okay, cool. So those are two that are like the lowest-hanging fruit. Then we've got a few more. There's short-form content, there's email marketing, there's SEO, and there's podcast Guesting.There's also a guest promotion that kind of falls into number seven, right? I mentioned there were seven, but these are the ones that we tend to say, okay, if you're going to focus on anything, focus on layering in each of these until you have your strategy dialed in. And then you can start adding some of the more advanced stuff like paid advertising or ad swaps, or joining a network, or brand partnerships or industry events. There's a ton of things you could do cross promotions, but these are the ones that I say every podcast host needs to get dialed in first. Yeah, I mean, I love all these.

00:51:26
Some of them we haven't been doing, which I'm sure as my team listens to this, we'll start doing. One that has worked really well for us as well is incorporating episodes into our launches. So my philosophy has always been like, if we're going to do lead generation four weeks out from our launch, and we're going to spend 100, $200,000, let's use that traffic to grow the top 100 podcast. And so every time we launch, when they opt in for something, it's like, go, listen to this. To prepare for the live training, this episode.

00:51:56 - Courtney Elmer
And then we just see a huge spike in downloads, and then it comes down a little bit after launch. But I would say like 80% of them actually stick. And that's how we've grown our podcast over the last two years, is just by incorporating it into the marketing we've already done, is like preparation for webinars or preparation or even after training, like, hey, if you love that training, this episode would be really helpful for you. Do you guys do anything like that as well? Like, incorporate it into current marketing or anything along those lines?

00:52:25
That's awesome. That's definitely one that would fall into that advanced bucket. And I say that because, for us, we don't do live launches anymore. I used to, we used to be totally launch-based, but now we're evergreen. And so that's changed a bit for us.
So we don't actually have the opportunity to plug it into a live launch. And I think if you do that, that is genius. I mean, why not, right? Because the traffic is already coming for the launch. So yeah, send them to the podcast too.

00:52:53 - Courtney Elmer
I mean, that's a definition of leverage right there. Moving cyber green is an open enrollment, too. And so part of me is kind of like, no, because now our top 100 podcast growth strategies, it won't happen as much anymore. We still might do it one launch per year, but anyway, we're getting there. Okay, great.

00:53:12
So just to sum everything up, let me just kind of look at my notes here. We talked about when you start. You want to prepare people, get the date. You want to build momentum, use your audience, and all of that good stuff. One thing I forgot to ask you about when we launch: how many episodes should we launch with? Is there a certain amount of episodes? Like one episode 4510? Is there a certain number of what you should be doing when you first launch?

00:53:41 - Courtney Elmer
Yeah, great question. So this is what I recommend. If you're wanting to launch a podcast and you know already now that downloads drive rankings, then what I recommend is that you launch with as many episodes as you can comfortably launch with. I know that's not an exact number for most of our clients. If you want exact figures, that's usually between five and ten episodes.
You don't want to burn yourself out before you get started, right? Don't recommend that because this is something that you're going to have to stay consistent with. But if you launch with one episode, and let's say it's simple math at this point, let's say you have 50 people in your community who have given you their commitment that. They will support the show on launch day. And we didn't dive too much into this, but that commitment is really important.

00:54:28
You got to get there. Yes. Like, yes, I will support you. So let's say you have 50 people supporting you, and you release one episode. Well, that's about 50 downloads.
If you release ten episodes, it's 500, right? So that is just simple math at that point. But that is, what are your launch goals? How many downloads do you want? And then how does that math break down for you to know how many people you need to have in your launch community and how many episodes you need to release to comfortably hit those numbers?

00:54:58
Have I seen people launch with two episodes and still rank? Yes, it can be done, but it does depend on a variety of factors. It depends on how competitive your specific category is. Some of the more competitive categories are definitely business, marketing, fitness, finance, right? Those are super competitive.

00:55:20 - Courtney Elmer
So you may have to shoot beyond the moon to hit your goals with those. Right. Usually, say shoot for the moon, land among the stars. Right. You might have to shoot a little further just because, you know, going into it, your category is more competitive if you have a less competitive category, right? Maybe you're in like visual arts or something, right? History. Sure, there are plenty of podcasts in those categories, but it's not as competitive. Doesn't mean take your foot off the gas. But it also is a factor.

00:55:47 - Courtney Elmer
You can consider that. So, yeah, I would say launch with as many episodes as you comfortably can and have at least two to three episodes batched out, ready to go post-launch, because you're going to want that breather. If you've ever launched anything, whether it's a program or a podcast, you know, after the launch, like when that adrenaline lets off, you're like, I'm tired. You need a day; you need a couple of days. So if you launch and you have this amazing launch and then suddenly have to turn around and record another episode, just consider your energy, consider your capacity.

00:56:20 - Courtney Elmer
It's nice to have a couple of episodes back. It makes a lot of sense, and it's like, look, if you're going to launch, don't make it harder on yourself than it needs to be, and having more episodes is going to make it a lot easier. And what I've always realized, too, is your first five episodes, even ten, aren't going to be as good as the next ten because you're going to get better and better. So it's kind of like if you just launch with five, you kind of get the jitters out, and you get comfortable with it. Then, when people come back after the launch, and release, your episodes are even more fire than they were before, which I would imagine helps carry that momentum as well.

00:56:55 - Courtney Elmer
So I love that. And then, we talked about high-converting content. So we start with that sort of teaser or hook in the beginning, 30 second personal story or the personal segue, which moves into the body content. Then we do another connection and callback. Is that correct?
And leave anything out there. Yes. And then up on the episode teaser. Don't forget that one. Yeah, because you want to hook those listeners to come back, keep them coming.

00:57:22
And then we talked about the ongoing success. You have seven kinds of elements to go through. I don't know if I'm going to nail all of them, but we had podcast guessing, SEO, podcast directories, website traffic using short-form content, email marketing and stuff like that, which I think is all great. Those cover, yeah. And look, can I add Brandon, can I add to that real quick for those listening who have a podcast?

00:57:48 - Courtney Elmer
And if you're listening and you're frustrated because your show isn't giving you the results that you want out of it yet, you're not getting the downloads you want, right. You're not meeting your goals, I would say focus in on first, just make sure you're on all the directories because that's so easy and it'll take you 15 minutes to do. Second, make sure you're emailing your list every week. And your email should be structured the same way as your episode. You should hook people in, you should give them a quick summary, and bullet points of why they should listen, and then give them a call to action to go listen.

00:58:20
That's really important. We have noticed when we don't send those emails, it does directly impact download and it might impact them just a little, but a little bit over a lot of time is a lot of negative impact. So those two things are super important. And then if you want to throw a third one in there, I would say aside from anything else, focus on top 100 podcasts. Guesting we didn't talk a whole lot about this, but think about it.

00:58:44 - Courtney Elmer
A lot of people say, okay, I'm going to post on social media, and they repurpose their content and they try to get it out there in social media. And what they don't realize is that to drive traffic to long-form content like a podcast with short-form content like social media, there's a strategy that has to go into it. It's not as simple as just taking a clip and posting it to your Instagram, like a clip from the episode. Most people won't pay attention to that. So it requires a little more strategy.

00:59:12
And honestly, the people who are on short-form platforms are not going to be likely to go jump over and listen to a 30-minute podcast. Interesting, okay, they're on the short-form platform to consume short-form content. It doesn't mean they don't listen to podcasts, but that's what they're on the platform for. So I always say go where the listeners already are. Where are your listeners?

00:59:37 - Courtney Elmer
They're listening to others. So if you can guest, I will do 810 twelve podcast interviews as a guest every month. I love it. That's probably a lot for some people, but I could do this all day. This is my thing. I love this. But even if you're just doing one a week, it's better than none. Do two a month, I don't care. Pick your number, but get in front of where your listeners are already listening and I guarantee you will see a greater impact, even over SEO or website traffic or anything else that you could be doing. That's the lowest-hanging fruit.

01:00:15
It'll give you the most impact the fastest. It's really interesting about the short form content because that's what we do is we obviously film it as video and we put it onto our Instagram. And originally our thought was like, well, let's put the podcast content on Instagram and they'll come over like, listen. And that hasn't really been the case. What we've saw more of is it wasn't that we would take Instagram following and move them over the podcast.

01:00:40
It was more of we let the podcast be a content creator for our Instagram following. And that's what it turned into is like, okay, let's just use the podcast as a content generator. It's going to give us stuff so we can keep our IG people or Instagram people happy. Or what it's done is it's just provided as a reminder to current listeners who also follow us on Instagram. There was a new episode, so it'll be more of like, oh, really cool, sounds interesting, can't wait to give it a listen or something like that.

01:01:10 - Courtney Elmer
But they have already been listeners and it was just kind of like another reminder, hey, the episode got released this week, so that's been kind of our experience. I'm glad to know that that's normal short form isn't necessarily going to be a podcast grower per se because that's kind of what we've experienced as well, right? Yeah, and I'm glad you said that. I have this visual, so use your imagination with me here. Okay.
So I want you to imagine a funnel and I want you to imagine your podcast is at the top of that funnel. It's positioned at the top 100 podcast. Underneath that are JV partnerships, your live launches, sales, and email list growth, right? All of those direct conversions fall under that. Above that are all of your short form content platforms.

01:02:01
So if you're looking at this image on my screen, if you were to look at this, you would see like all the little short form content platforms, top 100 podcast, then all of your conversion stuff, sales, leads. Your podcast is going to be the driver of those sales and leads because of the trust that it can create in so short a time. Someone now has to spend I think I read over 7 hours with you before making a purchasing decision. That is a lot of TikTok videos. It's a lot of, you know, so it's only a few podcast episodes that's going to be your main driver.

01:02:35 - Courtney Elmer
And just like you said, Brandon, I just want to make sure people hear this, is that it will also become the source of all the other content you create. So it will cut your marketing time in half, because no longer are you trying to come up with three different types of content for twelve different platforms that you have to post 24 times a week. It's just you come up with your top 100 podcast episode, and then you can cut that up into your short form content. I don't mean repurpose like a clip. I mean, there's a strategic way to do it, but I mean use it as the basis for your short form content.

01:03:12
Just like the example earlier I said when I posted in the Facebook group today, and I'm like, here's the email I want to send out, but I also want to send this for a video. And you're like, cool. Send this as an email shorten. It like this for the video. Same kind of thing.

01:03:24 - Courtney Elmer
Okay, that makes a lot of sense, even for me. I'm picking up a lot of tips, and we've been podcasting for four years, and I learned a lot just from this episode as well. And I know you offer way more, you have a ton more strategies on all this stuff. I'm sure you have frameworks and processes for titles and content and all that stuff. So where can people go to learn more about you? Or what are your social handles? Do you have any workshops coming up, all that good stuff? Plug away, my friend. Away. Absolutely.

01:03:53
So I host a workshop every month, usually it's every three weeks or so, where I will walk you through this entire process, literally everything you need to launch an Apple Top 100 podcast. There's no pitch to this workshop. This is not some big sales pitch. This is just me showing you what's worked for me and dozens and dozens and dozens of the clients we've worked with. So if you've listened to this episode and you're like, wow, okay, this kind of blew my mind.

01:04:21 - Courtney Elmer
I didn't know there was so much to it. But you're also kind of feeling excited because you're like, okay, I can do this, right? There's a process to it. There's a strategy. Give me the strategy, then come join me for the workshop. The link to find out all the information for the next upcoming workshop. It's a live page. We keep this up to date with the latest workshop information. So you always have the latest date, and time is antifragileentrepreneurship.Co/workshop. And as you heard me mention at the end of that episode, I teach these workshops on a regular basis because we have had so many people reaching out, asking us about our top 100 podcast methodology because it's completely different than anything you're going to find out there today.

01:05:07 - Courtney Elmer
And I have taken many podcast courses. I've sat through many podcast workshops, I follow many podcast experts, and I can tell you right now that this methodology addresses the one biggest problem that we see in the podcasting industry, which is a lack of awareness around your ideal listener psychology. And I will be the first to tell you that without it, you will struggle to attract, keep, and convert listeners long term to your podcast. You might have some short term success, but long term, it's going to be very difficult to grow without this piece. So we're going to dive into the ingredients that I shared here today in a much deeper way at the upcoming workshop.

01:05:55
And again, I host these on a regular basis. So whether you're listening right now or you're listening at a later date, just go to antifragileentrepreneurship.co/workshop to get all the details for the next upcoming live event. And save your seat. That's antifragilentrepreneurship.co/workshop. And if this episode was valuable for you, it would mean the world to me.

01:06:22 - Courtney Elmer
If you would take 60 seconds to leave a review, scroll down in your Apple app, tap the five stars and write us answer two, and let me know what your biggest takeaway was from this episode or from any of the episodes that you've listened to recently. Here's the thing about reviews. A lot of times, people don't leave them because they don't think they're that important. But I want to let you know just how important your review is, because not only does it let me know that the content I'm providing you is valuable for you, it also helps me and my team continue bringing you the kind of content you want to hear. But even more importantly, it helps other listeners who are looking for valuable podcasts to listen to know that this show is worth their time.

01:07:10 - Courtney Elmer
So it'd mean a lot if you take the time to leave a review on the show today and then join us back here next week, because we have a psychologist and behavior expert joining us to explore where mental health and entrepreneurship intersect. This is another topic that I could talk about all day long. It's fascinating to me, and specifically, we're going to explore where burnout actually comes from and what you need to be aware of, including what could be lurking under the surface that might be preventing you from scaling your business as quickly as you want to. And spoiler alert, it's not childhood trauma. This is going to an eye opening episode that could transform your entire entrepreneurial journey.
So make sure you join me back here next week, and until then, let's go out and grow through what we go through together.