“Don’t Start a Podcast”
Advice I’m Proud That I Ignored
I got laughed at for starting a podcast at the beginning of the pandemic.
Launching a podcast in the midst of COVID was so popular it became a meme in and of itself. Did the world need another 21-year old with a microphone?
Despite everyone telling me how crowded the medium was, I decided to give audio a shot.
This week marked one full year since releasing the first episode of The Louis and Kyle Show. We didn’t miss a week. Not even one.
This short post reflects on some wins, losses, lessons, and areas for improvement from a year of running the show!
TLDR: I’m glad I ignored the haters
But First… A Quick Summary
Why Did We Start?
My cohost, Kyle, and I started the podcast for three big reasons.
1. Remembering Conversations
Before the podcast, Kyle and I started a weekly habit of getting dinners with inspiring figures in our networks. Each week, we left the meals with a sense of excitement and disappointment.
We loved the fast-paced intellectual back and forth, but wished that we could remember more of the dialogue. We thought, why not record these conversations?
2. Opening Doors
Kyle and I love books, but we could never get in touch with authors.
We loved bloggers, but they had no reason to reply to our DMs or accept our invitations to schmooze with them over the phone. Fair enough.
3. Doing Something Useful — Productive Downtime
Kyle and I were extremely clear about our aspirations: we wanted to be entrepreneurs.
We were not clear, however, about when or how. We figured that while we waited for a bright idea to come along, a podcast would be the best way to put us in a position to win when the genius insight would eventually strike.
Theoretically, podcasting would grow our knowledge, network, and following which would make executing any future idea more likely to succeed.
12 Months Later, How Did We Do?
Five Wins
In so many ways, the podcast is a massive success. Viewed through the goals of learning, networking, and getting some attention, we couldn’t be happier with where we are.
1. Getting To “Yes” With A Few Dream Guests
Well before starting the podcast, I was a Freedom.to poweruser and a longtime reader of Scott Young, Tomas Laurinavicius, and Taylor Pearson. Because of the show, I was able to connect with these awesome authors and entrepreneurs with a full-hour of their uninterrupted attention. Without the podcast, it is doubtful that these busy, successful people would have given “two curious college students” this degree of time and attention.
We have many more “day one” dream guests to cross off the list, but it is an incredible feeling to have interviewed a few so early in the show’s history.
2. A Few “Inflection Points”
When we started the podcast, we were obsessed with the idea of inflection points: a magical moment where the universe makes it obvious that our project mattered. In every early interview, we asked guests when that magic moment occured in their businesses or careers. We woke up every day hoping to experience one for ourselves.
Looking back, we experienced a few.
- Inbound requests of people asking US if THEY could come on the show.
- Positive feedback from total strangers in the form of DMs and reviews.
- Recently, an invitation to appear on another podcast, (shoutout Danny Miranda)
3. Management 101
At some point this summer, I had the idea that we needed interns. We wanted help. Specifically, we wanted other people to assist us with both time and talents that we didn’t have. Since then, we’ve had a number of great interns help with social media, graphic design, video production, editing, and many other critical tasks.
This was an unexpected way to start learning the basics of hiring and managing talent.
4. Finding Mentors
By accident, Kyle and I found this framework to work true to form. The habit of interviewing awesome entrepreneurs, creators, and investors every week inevitably sparked a few long-term mentor/mentee relationships.
Guests frequently offered specific feedback about how we could improve AND they followed up to see if we actually took their advice.
We’ve been extremely lucky to add a number of great mentors to our network through the months of making our show.
5. Positively Influenced by Positive Influences
You might be sick of me saying this by now, but we’ve all heard that we are the average of the five people we spend the most time with.
Because of the podcast, I’ve formed deeper friendships with so many incredible, high-achieving people. I think this has rubbed off on me in an extremely positive way, and I am wildly grateful for it.
Many of the people I talk to most frequently would not be in my life AT ALL had it not been for the podcast. That’s pretty awesome.
Three L’s
1. We Haven’t Had Nat Eliason on the Podcast
For no particular reason, I was obsessed with Nat Eliason last year. Nat is a blogger with a large following for his musings on productivity, business, and optimal living.
When we first started, Nat represented THE cool internet entrepreneur who ignored us. He was busy. He had no reason to say yes when random college kids asked to “pick his brain.”
I recognize this is a hilariously irrational fixation, but I’ve somehow made success in my mind contingent on bringing Nat on the podcast.
Because of a corollary fear of failure, we haven’t even asked.
2. Audience Growth & Monetization
I could just as easily chalk this up as a HUGE win. When we first started, I had exuberant expectations of instant success. Publish a few episodes and listeners would flock by the thousands, right? The delicious ad-revenue would surely follow the trail of millions of eyeballs and ear-holes! No?
While we haven’t blown up in proportion to my naive projections, we’ve had a positive time trade-off by a comfortable margin. For example, our one-hour interview with Dr. Jaquish has been viewed for over 40 hours — just on YouTube. In aggregate, much more time has been spent listening to our podcast than has been spent making it. In my opinion, that’s a good, initial bar for content creators to clear.
As far as finances, we are actually in the green for the year. Because of generous funding from our school, our low expenses, and sponsorship for our “How To Grow a Podcast Audience Summit”, the podcast has been cash-flow positive.
3. Forgetting About “Easy” Interviews
This last “loss” is that we strayed away from “easier” interviews.
The first 15 episodes were people in our personal networks. This was partly because we wanted to learn more about our successful friends and family, but equally, it had to do with our lack of confidence and skills to participate in cold outreach.
That being said, some of my most cherished conversations were these early, wholesome episodes with friends and family. The medium of a podcast forced us to think deeply about our friends and family and give them our undivided attention for styles of conversation that probably would have never otherwise happened. This lead to deeper respect and appreciation for their approaches to life and work and vastly improved mutual appreciation for everyone involved. Kind of beautiful honestly.
Our (mostly my) fixation on growth for growth’s sake made us forget the value of these “easier” conversations despite their awesomeness.
This next year, we should take a step back and continue these personal network interviews regardless of the “clout” they are likely to add.
Three Unexpected Lessons
1. Overcoming Fear
Through the podcast, I’ve overcome a lot of fears.
- Fear of cold outreach.
- Fear of making introductions and “dot-connecting”.
- Fear of listening to my own voice and watching myself on video.
- Fear of asking for help.
- Fear of publishing content.
2. Random Skills
Through the podcast, I’ve acquired or improved a lot of skills
- Copywriting
- Audio/Video Editing (very basics)
- Graphic design
- Cyberstalking (for good reasons only, I assure you)
- Active Listening, Interviewing, and Public Speaking
3. The Power of Consistency
Whenever I’m feeling down, I consult this list of every guest we’ve had. Scrolling the massive and impressive list usually doesn’t even feel real to me. How have I done THAT many interviews? Charlie Munger has the answer.
Charlie famously said, “take a simple idea and take it seriously.”
It’s extremely powerful to see how much we accomplished by simply sticking to one interview every Tuesday.
Three Ways We Could Do Better
1. Processes/ Efficiencies/ Standard Operating Procedures
I still manually do a lot of things that should be automated or systematized.
We send a ton of repetitive communication (pitching, following up, publishing, etc). This could be drastically simplified with some solid work-process documents and a library of possible pitch copy depending on the context.
2. Explicitly Asking for Reviews/ Subscribers/ Shares
We’ve had a few guests with HUGE followings. Hundreds of thousands of followers on this platform. A million here. This many tens of thousands on their email lists.
Trying to toe the line between polite and assertive, we’ve often not directly asked for a social share or other “free” publicity from guests. This has left a lot of hypothetical exposure on the table.
Likewise, if we had tried something simple like asking every guest to leave a review, we’d have 50 more reviews than we have now (almost double).
3. Gender Balance
If you didn’t click the link thirty seconds ago, this list of every guest we’ve had tells another story besides just the power of consistency. It shows a strong bias we have had toward male guests.
In the first year of the show, we interviewed 5 female guests and close to 50 male guests. This huge imbalance is a glaring opportunity to improve what we are doing.
If you have any recommended female guests we should consider reaching out to, please let me know! Also, if you have a connection to Mikhaila Peterson, HIT ME UP, I’m dying to get her on the show.
Ignore The Haters
Remind yourself how cool the modern world is.
Kyle and I went from “let’s start a podcast” to episode THIRTY before ever being IN THE SAME STATE.
The internet enables any person to acquire permissionless leverage. Two kids can start a show, spend a few hundred dollars, and gain access to an incredible learning experience.
While the world is far from perfect, it is full of opportunities IF you have the right mindset.
Use modern technology to amplify your life, not distract you from it.
Thanks for reading!
Louis from The Louis and Kyle Show
