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Hey, podcasting badasses. It's

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Stephanie Lynn from the highly sensitive club

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podcast. If you've ever been told you're too

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sensitive or you identify with having

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big feelings and deep thoughts, you don't always know

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what to do with my podcast. The highly

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sensitive club is the one for you. Check

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out episode 22, where I talk about five

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ways to spot a highly sensitive person in the

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wild. You are listening to

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podcasting, bad ass podcast

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tips and mindset tricks for success and monetization.

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Here's your host. Sober Steve the podcast guy.

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Hey there. Podcasting bad-ass is it's

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your host sober Steve, the podcast guy.

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And today I am going to be sharing with

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you three groups of people who

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will almost definitely never listen

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to your podcasts. This is

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a lesson that I've taken years

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to learn and accept and feel very

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comfortable with sharing with all of you.

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And I'm going to warn you that not all

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three of them are going to go down as easy as you

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think they will. A couple of them. I

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even be a relief, but one of them might hurt.

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So bear with me as

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we dive into this week's topic. And

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the reason why that topic is so important to me is

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that we're looking to make big waves with our podcasts.

1:10

We're looking to make a big difference. We're looking

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to make impact on people's lives.

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And so oftentimes we're

1:17

also at the same time trying to

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make everyone happy, or at least that's

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what I did for so long. I was so worried

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that when I went behind the microphone and started talking

1:26

into it, That what

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people would think of me when they heard what

1:30

I had to say, that I tried to make sure that

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what I was saying, it would make everyone who could

1:34

possibly listen to it happy. And

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that is not a way to succeed at podcasting.

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I've learned if you are going to be a podcast, bad-ass.

1:42

You've gotta be willing to make waves. And for that, you've

1:44

got to get loud with your not only a voice, but

1:46

with your opinions, you need to be willing

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to get raw and vulnerable and open

1:50

and honest. I'm one of

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the major stumbling blocks for me at first

1:55

with that is I was worried about who

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might hear the podcast. And that is

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why I am very happy to report

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that your family and

2:04

close friends will almost definitely not

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listen to your podcast unless your

2:08

podcast is about something

2:10

that your family and

2:12

friends are interested in. Yes, I

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was so nervous when I started podcasting.

2:17

That the people in my life that I might reference

2:19

or talk about might hear what I had to say.

2:22

And not even that I was talking shade or being

2:24

messy with it. But I

2:26

was afraid of saying something that might get

2:28

back, you know, talking with one of my podcasts, being about

2:31

my recovery journey. It involves

2:33

talking a lot about your history. And I was worried about

2:35

what my parents might think if they heard me talking

2:37

about some of the things from my childhood, that weren't great.

2:40

And I was so nervous about it. And I can honestly

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say after having over 200

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episodes of two different podcasts, over

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400 episodes of content, that the number

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of podcasts episodes my parents have listened

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to is zero. And

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not only my parents, but also my in-laws

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who also. I did an podcast

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with almost 200 episodes, but their son

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who they love and adore. And we would say, even

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listen to this episode, listen to that episode.

3:04

Guess what? They don't listen to podcasts.

3:07

They didn't want to hear us talk about movies for an

3:09

hour. So they didn't listen to our podcast

3:11

where we talked about movies for an hour. You

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know, my parents were in interested in my sobriety

3:16

attorney because they're not on my sobriety journey

3:18

with me. Unless these people that are

3:20

in your lives have something. That

3:23

they want to get out of listening to your podcast.

3:26

They're not going to be listening to your podcast. You

3:28

don't have to worry about what your mom or your dad

3:30

or your siblings, or your aunt or your

3:33

high school teacher or anyone

3:35

in your immediate group. Might

3:37

think, like I said, unless your podcast is

3:39

shit talking, my friends, I doubt your

3:41

friends are going to bother tuning in, unless it

3:43

is directly aligned with what they are looking

3:45

for in their life, from a

3:47

podcast. In which case at that point, that

3:50

relationships shifts from them

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being. A friend, who's listening

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to your podcast, like for you to being someone

3:56

who is actually your target demographic, in which

3:58

case that dynamic shifts. And

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also, again, you don't really need

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to worry about what you're going to say for them, because if they're interested

4:04

in what you want to say on this topic, they want to hear

4:07

your real thoughts. So

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that is my advice to you. No matter what it is, you're talking

4:11

about, whether it's business related, hobby

4:13

related, personal related, do not

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be afraid of what your friends and family

4:17

might think of you because they're

4:20

never going to listen to you anyway. Hopefully

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that one feels like a relief. I know that that was very

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liberating when I realized that I could just talk freely

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about whatever I wanted to say on whatever

4:30

topics that I had to say and not worry about my parents.

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But then I also had to worry about. Friends

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and coworkers and people in my real life.

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At one point I was doing a senior living related

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podcast. It was like in my industry. And now

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that I'm podcasting. I'm

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a podcast coach. I coach people

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about podcasting. It's something that I'm sharing with

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other podcasters. I don't have to worry

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about what some of my opinions are because

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of what my peers might think, but I just have to push

4:56

that out of my mind whenever I get behind the

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microphone and we're ready to hit record. Because

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again, people are listening to my podcast

5:03

that are friends of mine or professionals in

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my industry or related industries

5:07

that are interested in possibly working with me.

5:09

They're not. Here for me to say,

5:12

here's the things that's going to make everyone happy about

5:14

everything, or, you know, they're not worried

5:16

about me ruffling feathers. They're here

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to hear what I have to say about the topic that I'm here

5:20

to talk about. Not worry about

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that. An example of number two, that was very helpful

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was when I was working in senior living and doing

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a senior living related podcast and

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talking about events and there were some events that

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I wanted to cover and some that I didn't want to cover.

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And I felt so guilty about the certain events

5:35

that I didn't cover, because I was afraid

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that they would hear that they weren't talked about on the podcast

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or that I missed that their event was happening. And I realized

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that again, unless they were specifically

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listening to my podcast because they wanted that information

5:46

every single week, they would never listen to it. Similarly,

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I do my sober podcast. I don't think

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that even everyone in my recovery community

5:54

is going to listen to my podcast, which is something that

5:56

I thought of for awhile. I assumed if someone

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is sober and queer, of

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course, they're going to listen to my sober queer podcast,

6:03

but guess what? Even a people that are sober

6:05

and queer of all of those people out

6:07

there that exist in the world, not all of

6:09

them are also podcasts listeners.

6:11

Or want to listen to my podcast

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specifically, even if they are podcast listeners,

6:16

they might already have a favorite sober podcast

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that already fits nicely into their routine.

6:21

Still never check it out, or they might not go to

6:23

podcasts. For sober related content,

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they might go for it for business related content.

6:27

So it doesn't jive with their concept

6:30

of what they go to podcasts for. And

6:32

so having to learn that even sometimes

6:34

when people are in my demographic, Of

6:37

who should be listening necessarily. It

6:39

doesn't mean that they're going to be tuning into every single

6:41

episode. And that was a hard pill for me

6:43

to swallow. Is that like, yes, these friends,

6:45

these professionals, whether they're in my industry or

6:47

not. They can all, listen,

6:49

they should all listen to some of them, but they might

6:51

not listen. And then that's okay too. That

6:54

even if your podcast is designed to specifically

6:56

for what your target audience and you know, somebody

6:58

in your life, who's that target audience. And

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you say, Hey, check out my podcast, realize

7:02

that even then you're rolling the dice that they might ever

7:05

listen or subscribe. I know what the number

7:07

of followers and subscribers I have right now in this

7:09

podcast compared to the number of people I've told

7:11

about it. Out in public that said

7:14

that they were going to be listening and subscribing. I know that

7:16

the numbers don't match up because I also know that not every

7:18

single person that I told about this podcast. Wants

7:20

to start a podcast and listen to a

7:22

podcast about podcasting or wants to take

7:24

their podcast they're podcasting about right now

7:27

and grow it or monetize it. So if these

7:29

people that I'm talking to about my podcasting

7:31

business, aren't interested in the

7:33

content that I'm producing about launching or growing

7:35

or monetizing. And they're not going to listen to this

7:37

show. So don't worry about

7:40

who's listening. In

7:42

terms of those two things. And then the third

7:45

is the one that might break some people's hearts out

7:47

there. And I apologize. But

7:49

your social media followers are not

7:51

also all of your listeners, which

7:54

is wild for some of you I'm sure. Yes.

7:56

It might make sense if your social media

7:58

personality came before your podcast,

8:01

realizing that that might not necessarily

8:03

be a one-to-one correlation. That

8:05

just because you have 1000 or 5,000

8:08

or 10,000 followers across your social

8:10

media accounts, that, that doesn't mean

8:12

that the moment that your podcast gets

8:14

published and put out there in the world, that

8:16

you're going to be having thousands. And thousands

8:19

of downloads for each and every single new episode.

8:22

Those numbers don't correlate. And

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hopefully that's something that a lot of people can

8:26

come to terms with and grab. Because.

8:30

Your podcast might've come afterwards, but even

8:32

something that was difficult for me to wrap my mind

8:34

around was that I had people who follow my social

8:36

media content for my gay Abe

8:38

podcast, specifically about queer sobriety.

8:41

That have never listened to episodes.

8:44

And they've been following me and commenting on

8:46

my posts and they're queer and they're

8:48

sober. And I was like, of course they listened to episodes

8:50

every single week because they're commenting on all these

8:52

posts. That I have and all these conversations

8:55

I'm having in my stories about sobriety

8:58

and being queer and like living out loud and recovering

9:00

out loud and all these people who are so

9:03

engaging in my social media account

9:05

for. My podcast.

9:09

And then when I had talking with them in messenger,

9:11

where I bring up like an episode or this episode

9:13

or that episode there, oh, I don't listen to your podcast.

9:15

I'll have to check it out sometime. But it's

9:17

because people will find us on

9:19

social media because of the content that we're

9:21

producing. And again, To convert

9:24

them to listening to a podcast. There's

9:26

going to be barriers there depending on

9:28

the way that we're talking about our podcasts

9:30

on our social media. And the way we're talking about

9:32

our social media on our podcasts, that

9:34

relationship might not be as mixed as we

9:36

would think it might automatically be. But

9:39

also just realize that there are some people

9:41

where you will have to meet them where they are,

9:43

because they won't meet you where you are. You

9:45

can be talking with people on Tik TOK

9:47

or Instagram or Facebook or whatever

9:49

social media is your favorite platform.

9:52

And talk to them about your podcast until

9:54

you're blue in the face. And they'll engage with you

9:56

and constantly bat back and forth and always respond

9:58

to your messages, but they might never ever

10:01

listen to an episode because they don't

10:03

listen to podcasts. And that

10:05

is okay. It is okay that

10:07

your followers don't listen to your podcast. It's

10:09

okay. That your coworkers

10:12

who should be listening to your podcast or your industry

10:14

professionals who should be listening, or your friends

10:16

who would really benefit from it or all

10:18

these people that you know, should be listening to your podcast

10:20

might not be listening to. It and

10:23

your friends and family that have no interest

10:25

in your podcast content. I sure as

10:27

hell are not listening to your podcast. So

10:29

those are people who are not listening to your podcast.

10:31

So you might be left wondering who is listening

10:33

to your podcast. And that is your

10:35

target audience of the people that you are

10:38

speaking to, which is why it's so important

10:40

for you to be very specific in the content

10:42

that you're producing to make sure that you know who

10:44

your audience is, so that when you're talking

10:46

to them, you're talking to them as

10:48

yourself, comfortably and authentically.

10:51

And you're talking to the audience with the message

10:53

that you feel and that

10:55

they need to hear. And you're not worried about

10:57

all those other people out there who were

10:59

never going to listen to your podcast.

11:02

You need to be able to feel comfortable just talking.

11:04

To the right people, because at the end

11:06

of the day, there was over 8 billion people

11:08

in the world. Let's pretend

11:11

that your podcast is so nice

11:13

that you. Can only possibly

11:16

have 1% of the world will actually

11:18

want to listen to your podcast. That

11:20

still means that there's over 80,000 people

11:23

in the world right now, waiting to listen to your podcast.

11:26

So you are not necessarily talking to

11:28

8 million people when you get behind the microphone.

11:30

You're talking to that 1%. You're

11:32

talking to your people who need to hear

11:35

your message. So make sure that when

11:37

you are getting behind the microphone, you're not worried

11:39

about the people that aren't listening. You're worried

11:41

about the people who are, those are your

11:43

listeners. And that's my hot take

11:45

on your listeners versus non

11:47

listeners. I'd love to hear your thoughts on that.

11:50

You can let me know by engaging with

11:52

me on all the social medias I'm on Instagram

11:54

at podcasting. Bad-ass. And

11:56

also check out my website where you can schedule

11:59

your own tune-up or brainstorming session. Or

12:01

a consult with [email protected].

12:05

Until then. Keep on podcasting.

12:07

Bad-ass is.