Podcasts suck. You should start a podcast.

There are more than 3 million podcasts out there. And I think your startup should add one more to it. 

Author

Brad Luttrell
October 28, 2023

There are more than 3 million podcasts out there. And I think your startup should add one more to it.

I’ve started four podcasts, recorded more than 300 shows personally, been a guest on dozens of shows (incomplete list), and edited hundreds of episodes for video and audio myself, all resulting in millions of plays and views.

I’ve had some success, but I will be the first to tell you starting a podcast is an absolute grind.

But it is worth it for one reason.

Let’s talk about the biggest advantage of having a podcast, and I’ll share our semi-secret recipe for flipping the script on podcasts to get a force multiplier for views.

Podcasts are networking gold

I’ve met some of the biggest names in our industry, all through our our podcasts.

A sampling:

This list goes on. These are big names in our industry. Rather than brag, I’m trying to show the caliber of people our podcast opened us up to over the years.

One of the most viral videos I’ve shared from UNCENSORED on my TikTok.

We had little to no prior connection with many of these high profile guests before the episode recording. Many of the episodes generated hundreds of thousands of views and downloads, such as Jack Carr (233K views on YouTube across all videos and downloads) and Tim Kennedy (162K).

Believe it or not, though, the end game isn’t just views or downloads.

The end game is legitimacy, and intros.

An accidental discovery

Our first podcast was Restless Native, a show that dove into big topics in the hunting and fishing industry that many podcasts either avoided or didn’t bother to discuss. We stayed away from the “how-to” type shows, and focused on good stories. It was truthfully my favorite podcast we’ve ever done still to this day (unfortunately the feed was accidentally removed in a migration, and we haven’t restored it—sorry for talking about something you can’t enjoy).

❝

Credibility is guilt by association. A podcast is a golden opportunity to put yourself in good company.”

We started Restless Native to extend our community and build a relationship with our core members on our social platform, GoWild. Within a few shows, though, I realized we had a chance to use it as a tool. Restless Native was powerful for unlocking introductions to big names, and therefore, big brands. Big brands were potential clients for us.

We successfully used the show to unlock multiple relationships. The recipe was simple:

  • Aim for a big name guest who was a decision maker at a target client for us

  • Record a show, which created a bond with me (the host) and the guest

  • Follow up after the show with professional artwork and the show link so they could share it

  • Circle back in a few weeks to say thanks and ask if we could meet with their team about what we do at GoWild

It sounds stupid simple because it was. And it worked.

People may not say “yes” to a stranger asking for time to talk about what they do or sell, but they will often say “yes” to an invite to come talk about themselves.

Really early in our journey with Restless Native, we landed working relationships with some power players in the industry. Today, a full five years later, we are still working with some of these brands in advertising deals and through our shop.

Legitimize and monetize

Credibility is guilt by association. When you create a podcast and are landing big names, it gradually builds respect among your industry peers as power players see credible guests showing up and being affiliated with your brand. We built a website for Restless Native (not something I think you need to do now) and leaned into the big names and brands we had featured on the show, and it was an impressive list of multi billion dollar brands.

After a few months, we started getting inquiries about sponsoring the show. I was surprised, because at that time our show was only averaging about 500 downloads per show. We had yet to create our special sauce recipe (coming in the next section), but advertisers saw that our show was quality and wanted to be a part of it. We sold multiple contracts for a premium price point that first year, and sold ads on the show up until we shut it down after about 130 episodes.

The recipe for rapid growth

Restless Native was very much a traditional podcast. We recorded audio only, and would push the new shows via email, social posts and our platform, GoWild. This is what most podcasters still do today.

All of that changed with our next show, Gearbox Talk.

Gearbox Talk was a video podcast out of the gate. We realized that most podcasters were still hyper focused on growing their downloads, but at that time, there wasn’t a good platform to help people discover new shows. Apple’s podcast player sucked (and still does), and that was where the majority of people listened to shows (Spotify saw this opportunity and has masterfully taken over the market as the leading player, much of which I think is because it’s simply a much better experience that has solid show recommendation).

With Gearbox Talk, we were focused first on video, and the audio was a second priority. This show immediately surpassed Restless Native’s average download volume, and within weeks was doing 5-6X that of Restless Native. YouTube also gave us data on where people were dropping off from the show, and by watching and learning from this information, we were able to optimize our show to hold viewers and listeners better.

Recording a Restless Native episode with YouTuber “Outlaw” and Bobby Stoker in Alaska.

Along the way, we realized short videos were doing really well (to be clear—I’m not talking about YouTube Shorts, those were not a feature yet). We started cutting our full length videos into shorter clips about one specific topic, and uploading these with headlines that answered niche questions like “How to retrieve a spinnerbait,” targeting people searching for this exact content.

The show exploded.

Gearbox Talk has several episodes that hit just shy of 100K views, and it was not uncommon to top 20K views on an episode. Every show was jam packed with our commerce links, promoting our store all along the way.

After about 130 episodes, we put Gearbox Talk to bed. The process of recording with guests remotely was not creating the high quality product we wanted. We then launched another show called [UNCENSORED] by GoWild, right around the time TikTok was eating the world.

UNCENSORED (still active and just hit episode 100) is a show where our team sits down every Monday and discusses our weekend outings with the woods, waters and whatevers. The format removed the need for expert guests, and instead leaned on highlighting our team’s quirks. We talk about our failures (the first episode was me sharing the story of my worst hunting mistake of my life), wins and sometimes nothing at all about hunting or fishing.

With UNCENSORED, we took put Gearbox Talk’s recipe on steroids. We realized the goal wasn’t getting people to even watch full episodes—the goal was having short content to share on TikTok and YouTube. In the first 60 episodes, UNCENSORED racked up 1M views on TikTok. We soon had videos popping for 500K views each, usually with zero ad dollars behind them. If we put any money behind them, it was usually just $10 or $20 total to put fuel on the fire of a video as it was already going viral.

Recording with Sixsite founder, Stephen Holley, in Texas.

With each UNCENSORED episode, we get 4-7 clips to share on TikTok and YouTube Shorts. When we attended the Great American Outdoor Show in Pennsylvania this year (the world’s largest outdoor show for consumers), we had people walking up to the booth and saying “Oh, you’re the guys from TikTok.”

We recently launched a new show with GunBroker.com called “No Lowballers.” The show’s host is firearms historian Logan Metesh, and it’s cohosted by someone on the GunBroker.com team, one of our team members and usually a guest. We’re applying this same recipe—video content first—and in only 14 episodes, we’re topping 10K views per episode.

This recipe works.

Still, very few podcasters have adopted the mindset of “shorts first.” It’s a total miss, in my opinion, and a looming branding opportunity for your company.

Put this advice to work

Your startup needs awareness, relevancy, connections and content. A podcast is a great tool to unlock all of this. A show can bring industry experts and advocates to your door, and create awareness along the way.

And it’s not that hard to get started. And maintaining a show is easy once you get in a rhythm. If you’re not organized though, it will become a burden.

Today’s post is already too long for me to tackle the full process for actually starting a podcast. If you’re interested in that, please share this post on LinkedIn, and give me a tag letting me know you’d like to hear more.

With that said, keep this in mind for your show:

  • See what other creators are already talking about—look for voids

  • Look at what people are searching for

  • Find patterns in topics that have high search volume but low results

  • Think through who you want to listen to your show and how you can create content they would actually need

  • Don’t worry about big numbers—depending on your market, resonating with 50 people a month could be what you need

I do have a parting thought, if not an outright warning: You should know a podcast is a commitment. Most podcasters quit a few episodes in because the editing, scheduling of guests, promoting—it’s all a ton of work. Find a format you can replicate week in and week out, and something you can stick with. For No Lowballers, we record once a month and bang out five episodes in one day. It keeps our work load manageable, and the output high quality because we’re able to get organized in the weeks in between, versus the all-too-familiar burden for podcasters of trying to find a last minute guest.

Remember, credibility is guilt by association. A podcast is a golden opportunity to put yourself in good company.

Are you a podcaster?

If you’re a podcaster, please do reach out to me. We’re launching a new product for Holler Commerce that helps podcasters monetize. I’d love to put you in touch with our team.

Who I’m listening to: My Halloween Playlist

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