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

Welcome to episode 207 of the Business Development Podcast.

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

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

Stick with us.

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.

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

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

And we couldn't agree more.

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

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

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

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Let's do it.

Welcome to the Business Development Podcast.

And now, your expert host, Kelly Kennedy.

Hello.

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

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

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

I can't even tell you how long.

And it's so fitting.

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

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

The good, the bad, the ugly.

I can't wait to get into it.

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

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

So there you go.

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

And it's an interesting episode.

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

It's one that I kind of wanted.

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

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

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

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

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

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

If you guys are looking to do something big here in 2025, I'm going to talk to you about the great things about podcasting.

The incredible.

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

The not so incredible.

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

We have an incredible episode for you today.

I hope you enjoy it.

Let's get into it.

There is no question that podcasts have become a dominant media form in the 2020s.

Over 414 million podcasts exist as of January 2025, according to an article by Loop X Digital.

The podcast market is currently valued at 23.56 billion.

Around one in four Internet users listen to podcasts.

66% of consumers today prefer podcasts over TV.

And of course, Joe Rogan is the most popular podcaster in the world as of 2025.

By 2023, there were over 464 million listeners, and that was expected to grow by nearly 100 million by the end of 2024.

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

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

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

It's unbelievable.

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

I can't really believe it.

It's been an incredible journey.

I've been blessed.

I'm grateful.

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

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

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

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

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

And today we're going to unpack the incredible benefits and the underestimated challenges that is podcasting in 2025.

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

Yeah, it's a tough one.

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

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

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.

So I kind of.

I had to sit down and really think about Kelly.

What were the sacrifices?

What have been the challenges along the way?

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

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.

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

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

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

I'm hoping you do.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

So do keep your eyes peeled.

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.

Or I think I'm.

I'm in.

This sounds like fun.

Then there will be another series coming out later, 2025 for you from the business development podcast, talking all about the considerations and the steps to take when launching your podcast.

Guys, I'm gonna lay it out.

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

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.

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

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

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

In the media world.

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

That was about the scope of my Knowledge and ability.

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

I genuinely had zero experience in media production.

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

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

But I didn't know that.

I didn't know that yet.

There were lots of things that I had to learn.

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

I had to learn about media interfaces.

I had to learn about XLR microphones.

I had to learn about audio recording software.

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.

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

But I knew nothing.

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

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

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

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.

But if I can do it, so can you.

I was nervous, guys.

I was so nervous when I started this show.

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.

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

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

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

That was the level that we were at.

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

And that was two years ago.

Two years ago.

And the rest is history.

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

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

I could never figure out how to do that.

Sounds so good.

Like, they got it.

They got their shit together.

They know exactly what they're doing.

Understand everybody starts somewhere.

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

Even the best show you've ever heard.

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

They had all of it.

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

Almost Every podcaster has experienced that challenge in the beginning.

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

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.

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.

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

It has its moments, but it can be learned.

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

Podcasting has completely changed my life.

Yes, podcasting has completely changed my life.

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

Guys, 2025 and beyond, building a platform is absolutely critical to your long term success.

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.

Talk to any expert at this point and they will all tell you that working on your personal brand every single day in one way or another is critical for each and every one of us who want to strive for success here in 2025 and beyond.

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

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

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

I'm going to talk about 11 of them.

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

Okay, around the world.

I never saw that coming.

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

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

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

Let me just tell you that right now.

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

Because podcasts are listened to around the world.

Around the world.

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

Guys, it is incredible.

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

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

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

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

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

So understand it allows you to give back.

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.

It's really a win, win.

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.

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.

Once again.

Did not really see that coming.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

Like, you don't get to coast.

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

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

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

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.

Number four, podcast has given me a community.

Yes, you, my rock stars.

My gosh, I.

I never saw you guys.

You're incredible.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

Thank you for your community questions.

Thank you for just being here and supporting this.

We cannot, cannot, cannot do it without you.

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.

Number five.

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

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.

And yet I've met so many incredible individuals.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

Podcasting has brought incredible relationships to me.

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.

Thank you for what you do.

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

Guys.

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.

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

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

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.

Number seven.

Podcasting has brought coaching and contracts to my door.

Absolutely.

Guys, coaching was never on the table.

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

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

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.

And it's been unbelievable.

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

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

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.

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

So it has been a win win.

It's been a win win on multiple fronts.

Being public in this way.

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

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

This show just endlessly pushes my boundaries.

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

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

It makes me make the uncomfortable comfortable.

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

The audio took me a long time.

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

I have a standard now that is acceptable.

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

And so it is a complete rerecord.

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.

I want to make sure that it is done right.

And so understanding audio production, understanding what I am happy with, what I'm not happy with learning video as we head here into 2025.

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

I'm really struggling with it.

Some encouragement would be great.

The videos have been tough.

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.

Like audio, for instance.

I know it like the back of my hand.

Video I do not.

And so I'm kind of struggling with that.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

It's been truly, truly incredible.

Guys.

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.

It's a really cool experience.

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

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

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

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

I didn't see it.

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

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

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

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.

It's even part of the business development mastery coaching program that I do now because it has to be, in my opinion, it really does have to be as part of your 2025 and on strategies for business development specialists, business owners, or anyone in between.

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

So it was.

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.

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

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

I'm a better human.

I genuinely believe that.

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.

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.

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

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

Those are the incredible things.

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

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

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

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

But understand your mileage may vary.

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

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.

But.

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

Can we?

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

Okay, let's get into it.

I got 14 things.

This one's a little longer.

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

So understand the equipment.

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

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

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.

And set up correctly.

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.

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

You have to learn.

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

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

I'm going to.

I'm going to.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

Happy to help.

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

And I mean a ton, guys.

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

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

Okay?

There are a lot of podcasts.

Here's the thing.

Here's the thing.

98% of them never make it to 200 episodes.

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.

So.

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

Many podcasts quit before the 20th episode.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

So that's incredible.

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

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

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

So podcasting is very much a long game.

Okay, number four, outsourced production is prohibitively expensive.

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.

But here's the deal.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

Guys, that simply doesn't happen.

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

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

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

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

I'm incredibly proud of that.

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.

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

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

It's been up and down.

Sometimes the numbers are incredible, sometimes they suck.

It's just the nature of podcasting.

Podcasting is not typically an instant win solution.

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

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

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

It's a long game scenario.

The strong survive the long survive.

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

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.

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

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.

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

Many of them have well over 500 episodes.

Think about that.

Think about that for a second.

That is a long slog.

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

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

It's still growing, guys.

Podcast industry is growing.

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

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.

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

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

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

Right?

How do we measure downloads?

How do we measure interest in the podcast?

How do we measure real followers?

Right?

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

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

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

But there have been some hiccups along the way.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

However, you also have to be careful.

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.

So if you look at.

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.

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

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

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%.

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

And because of that, we are at their mercy.

And I genuinely say that we are at their mercy.

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.

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

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.

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

Number nine, time is a real challenge, guys.

This is like a perfect example.

A perfect example.

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

So the first version of this was done at noon.

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

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

Shelby's feeling sick.

We got a bit of a bug going through.

I've been healthy so far, fingers crossed.

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

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

It's 6:13.

I have officially been working since 6 this morning.

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

So that's it, guys.

An average day for most podcasters is probably 12 hours.

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

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.

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

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.

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

Podcasters are killing themselves.

They're working really, really hard.

And it's a passion, right?

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

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

You can't treat it like a side gig.

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

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

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

Number 10.

It can be lonely.

And rewards in the beginning are few and far between.

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

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

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

You're getting like 15 downloads.

That's just the reality.

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?

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?

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

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

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

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

Like, this is so much work.

And just feeling, like, discouraged and disgruntled.

Thank God.

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

It's amazing.

You're like, seven episodes.

Great job.

Keep going.

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

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.

Love what you're doing here.

You're at 21 episodes.

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.

Anyways, it was incredible.

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

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?

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

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.

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

I was like, why am I doing this?

What's the point?

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.

It's a fight, right?

You got to fight your way through it.

You got to get through the struggle.

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

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

Number 11.

Let's lead into it.

Everything is against you, including the podcast industry.

This is absolutely true, guys.

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

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

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

It just doesn't really exist.

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

The results suck, right?

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

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

The results suck, guys.

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

However, you can't stop advertising your show.

And I want real listeners.

That's where I can find them.

So I got to jump through their hoops.

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

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

It's a lot of work.

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

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

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.

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

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

No one can tell you.

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

What's going on?

No one can tell you.

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

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.

I don't really need to help you.

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

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

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

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

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?

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.

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

That's added cost to advertise it.

Way added cost.

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

Guys.

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

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

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

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

So you have to have the grit to not stop.

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.

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

You know, we're getting into this after.

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.

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

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.

Number 13, content creation is flipping hard.

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

I did not start out a content creator.

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

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

Okay, like heavy and content creation is hard.

Creativity is hard.

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

Creating content in the beginning would have been so hard.

Nope.

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

This was awesome.

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

New things, right.

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.

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

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.

And so Writer's block is a real thing.

Happened to me multiple times.

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.

I'm not there.

Like, mentally, I'm not there.

I have to take some space.

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

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

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

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

This is good content.

I'll put out to the world.

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.

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

Why?

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

And the big dogs have massive advertising budgets.

They have entire teams.

And you try to.

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

So understand that content creation is hard.

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

They just have it made.

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

Content is incredibly hard, hard.

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

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

And last but not least, advertising is flipping expensive.

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

It is a total mess in the podcast industry.

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

AudioGo would be a safe bet.

Spotify is definitely a safe bet.

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.

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.

It's all bullshit, guys.

It's all bullshit.

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

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

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

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.

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

It is not fast.

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.

Right.

Is definitely not 200 or 2000.

It's nothing like that.

That is not how it works.

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.

They got 500 plus episodes.

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

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

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

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.

I totally get it.

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

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

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

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

I actually want you to start podcasts.

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.

So here's the thing.

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.

Okay, what are the realities of podcasting?

Success.

Number one, your grit is everything.

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

What?

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

Okay?

Success in podcasting is simply grit.

It's simply internal strength, okay?

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?

But you got to stick to it.

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

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

I talked about this a little bit before.

It is a full time job, okay?

Podcasting is a full time job.

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.

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

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

I'm working 12 plus hours that day.

It just is what it is.

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

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.

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

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

Okay?

Things are evolving so quickly.

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.

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

Okay?

Now that exists.

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

Audio programs are changing all the time.

Video editing software is changing all the time.

You have to keep up with it, guys.

You have to keep up with it.

You have to keep challenging yourself.

You have to keep learning and never stop.

If you stop in this industry, you are dead.

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

Okay?

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

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

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

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

Okay?

It's going to be challenging.

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

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

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

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.

You have to keep yourself excited and motivated and inspired.

You have to find that within yourself.

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

Okay?

There's me.

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

Okay?

Number five, you have to find partners.

You have to find partners.

You will need help.

Remember, I said it before.

The whole podcast industry is out to get you.

It really is.

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

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

You're going to need to find partners.

You're going to need to find sponsors.

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

You need to build community.

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

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

You have to find partners.

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.

It's been incredible.

It's been incredible.

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

I didn't realize that in the beginning.

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

You're going to need partners.

You're going to need help.

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

Even the biggest shows have big partners.

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

You, my rock stars.

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.

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

Oh, it's hard.

It's almost hard to talk about it.

It's so powerful.

It's so incredible to hear from you.

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

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

I know it's a hell of an Ask.

But my gosh, does it just change everything?

It really does.

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.

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

It will inspire you.

You have to do it.

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

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

I'm just gonna tell you that right now.

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?

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

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

Okay?

That can just be the end.

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

You can just hit a wall and be done.

And I've heard it happen way too often.

Way too often.

So here's the thing.

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

Understand the signs and make a plan.

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

Guys, I.

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.

Like, we have to leave immediately.

And literally, we drove to Saskatoon, guys.

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

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

I got a reset.

I got like, just like the reset I needed.

I came back fresh and ready to rock.

That's what it takes for me.

I need to get away for a couple days.

Reset can come back to it and be good.

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

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.

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.

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

Okay?

Have a plan.

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

Because guess what?

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

Number eight, learn to do things yourself.

Okay?

Learn to do things yourself.

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

I put out eight to nine episodes a month.

It isn't happening, okay?

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

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

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.

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

Okay?

So learn how to do production.

Even if you don't always do production.

That's fine.

Learn how to do production.

Learn how to use audio plugins.

Learn how to cut and edit a perfect show.

Learn how to produce a perfect show.

Master a perfect show.

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

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

Learn what all of the different functions and features are.

Learn how to do it.

It just puts you at an advantage long term.

So understand the costs are prohibitive to produce a show.

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

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

Number nine, double down on free advertising.

Okay?

Use your platforms, guys.

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

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

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

With LinkedIn leverage groups.

Start to share that information far and wide.

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

Start to leverage free advertising.

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

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

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.

So figure out how to leverage LinkedIn.

LinkedIn has been an incredible place for us.

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.

What we talked about, it's all there.

Everything for the BDP is happening on LinkedIn.

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

We'd love to have you there.

Follow me.

Follow the bdp.

But that is.

That is the platform that we leverage the most.

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

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

Number 10.

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

Okay, here's the thing.

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

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

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

Your time is so expensive.

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

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

So here's the thing.

It's hard to make easy to spend.

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

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.

Okay?

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.

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

Okay?

If you use them right.

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

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

We absolutely need support.

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

And so we have some pretty incredible programs available.

We got sponsorship packages that are really awesome.

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

But absolutely, shows need support.

Podcasts need support.

They don't grow without them.

The costs are just too prohibitive.

You need partners, you need friends.

Number 11.

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

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

Podcast success is not overnight.

Okay?

It's not overnight.

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

But growing a show is a long game.

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

It's going to take time and effort.

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

There's no shortcut to that other than time.

So lots of time, lots of episodes.

That's the true secret to success here.

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

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.

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

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

And you know, I genuinely think we will.

I think we will hit five years.

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

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

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.

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

Okay?

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

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

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

Number 12.

You have to always provide value.

Always provide value.

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

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.

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

But always provide value.

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

Did I provide value?

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

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

And if so, then end the show.

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

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

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

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

And it's providing value the whole way along.

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

Number 13.

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

It's a long game, okay?

The numbers can be really hard.

I'm going to tell you that right now.

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

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

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

You know, start really gauging yourself.

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

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

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

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

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

They're exciting to watch.

Trust me.

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.

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?

Why is nobody listening?

Is my show dead?

Right?

It's just the nature.

It's the nature of podcasting.

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

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.

Nine times out of 10, there's no rhyme or reason for why your numbers are at 2000 one day or at 20 the next.

There's literally no reason at all.

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

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

I'm sure you will.

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

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

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.

But ultimately, give yourself enough Runway to succeed.

2025 could be the year that you change the world.

You are enough.

You can do it.

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

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

All right.

My gosh.

Longest episode.

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

That was quite a long one.

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

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

We're sitting at 234, 4000 downloads, 3, 300 followers on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

LinkedIn is growing fast.

We're nearly at 3000 followers and growing.

Our Community Questions is open for February of 2025 and if you've enjoyed this show and you would like to chat with me about one on one business development coaching, I would highly encourage you to check out the Business Development Mastery Program, which will be linked in the show Notes to this and on all posts Shout outs this week John Pelly, Chris McCarty, Seb Coombs, Matthew West, Mark Antony Tishop, Elia Flores, Ricardo J.

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.

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

This has been the Business Development Podcast with Kelly Kennedy.

Kelly has 15 years in sales and business development experience within the Alberta oil and gas industry and founded his own business development firm in 2020.

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

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

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

see you next time on the Business Development Podcast.