December 3, 2025 • 26 mins
If you’ve been wondering how to really launch a podcast in a way that feels sustainable, calm, and aligned with your life, this episode is going to breathe fresh air into your process. I’m sharing why slow growth isn’t a setback—it’s your long-term advantage—and how you can launch a podcast without slipping into hustle mode, burnout, or unrealistic timelines. Whether you’re just starting or you’ve been circling the idea for months, this gentle, grounded strategy will help you build a show you’ll still love six months, a year, even five years from now.
//MENTIONED ON THIS WEEK'S PODCAST:
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//MENTIONED ON THIS WEEK'S PODCAST:
- Check out episode 86 - How to Stay Consistent with Podcasting When Your Schedule is Packed- Listen Here
- My Solopreneur YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@demetriazinga
- My Faith-Based "mom-focused" YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@momzestlife
---
- ☕ Ready to take your podcast from idea to impact? Book a Coffee Chat with me! Let’s get clear on your vision and make your voice heard.
👉 Schedule your session now! - 🎁 Download the Launch Confidently Podcasting Checklist here: https://soulpodcasting.com/resources/
- Contact us for your Podcast Coaching
- Book your podcast audit- https://websuccesscoach.systeme.io/podcast-audit-sales
- My Speakpipe (pink tab on right side of the screen)- http://www.soulpodcasting.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Hey, hey, my friend. Welcome back to another episode of
the Soul Podcasting podcast, where passion, purpose, and grounded strategy
come together to help you amplify your voice without burning
yourself out. And I'm Demetria, founder of the Soul Podcasting Collective,
where my team and I support podcasters with editing and production,
and also where I coach solopreneurs, creatives and coaches who
(00:34):
want to grow their podcasts with clarity and confidence. And
if you ever want to reach out to me directly,
please head over to soulpodcasting dot com. You'll see a
little pink tab on the right side of the screen
and that's where you can drop me a voice note
and who knows, I may feature it on an upcoming show.
It really makes my day to hear your voices and
just know who's listening on the other side of the mic.
(00:55):
So please don't be shy. I love connecting with you all. Right,
before we dive in, how were your holidays? If you
celebrated Thanksgiving here in the US, I hope it was
RESTful and full of good food and good company. And
to my Canadian listeners, I know you all celebrated back
in October, but still I hope that that season brought
you moments of joy and just to pause and reset.
(01:18):
For me, it was actually a really welcome break because
I gave myself permission to just slow down a little
bit and I got involved. Though even though I slowed down,
I got involved in a few online projects, just lighter,
enjoyable and creative things, and one of those was to
revamp my vlog on my YouTube channel and switching some
things around so I can share a little bit more
(01:38):
of my personal life again. And if you don't know
this already, I actually have two YouTube channels, and one
is my solopreneur and podcasting channel. That's where you're going
to find these podcast episodes and some behind the scenes
videos and more content about running a business as a creative.
And my second channel is my faith based corner of
the Internet, and it's over ninety eight percent women. These
(02:01):
are my homeschool friends, homeschool moms, and this channel has
been my digital footprint for over a decade. And even
though I'm not homeschooling my kids anymore, I still have
so much to share from that season of my life,
and honestly, it's it was really time to help that
channel to grow up with me and catch up with
my own evolving and speaking of growing up, my youngest
(02:21):
just turn eighteen this month, so yes, it was definitely
a month of celebration and also reflection because seasons they
shift so quickly, and when they do, your creative work
has to shift with you. Not in a rushed way,
not in a panics kind of way, but just more
grounded and soulful and steady. And that's kind of what
we're going to be talking about today. But if you
(02:42):
do want to check out any of those channels, the
links are in the show notes, I would love to
have you hop on to my YouTube channel and see
what's going on over there. All right, so let's get
into today's episode, and today I want to give you
something that most podcasters never really talk about a lot
or here, and it's that you don't need explosive of
growth to have a meaningful, impactful, profitable podcast. So you
(03:04):
don't need those viral level numbers, you don't need to
be everywhere, you don't need to hustle yourself into oblivion.
And I know I just talked about all of the
projects and things that I'm working on, but these are
fun for me. Honestly, and I don't see it as hustling,
but I see it as more of these are just
things that make me happy. So this is where I
kind of want to encourage you to not necessarily slow
(03:26):
down and not necessarily bring your activities to a halt.
I mean, we have to keep things going right, and
so it's going to take a little effort on our part,
but I want to encourage you not to have the
hustle mindset. I know that the industry makes it sound
like the only way to make it is to grind hard,
(03:47):
post constantly, juggle platform after platform, and basically turn yourself
into a full time marketing machine. Okay, I know that
if you have an agency that you're working with, that
you are aligning your business with, that can take some
of that load off for you, it's going to be
a lot easier for you to get a lot of
this work done. And I'm talking social clips and repurposing
(04:11):
and all the things that I talked about in earlier episodes.
If you go back in my archives, I do talk
about the general day to day aspects of making a
podcast work and promoting that show. It does feel like
a grind. There's a lot to it. But I don't
want you to feel, as a solo podcaster or solopreneur
that you have to get on the hamster wheel of performance,
(04:32):
because I want your podcast to feel like something that
is an extension of you that you enjoy. And let's
just be honest, most of us have real lives outside
of podcasting. We have families, jobs, businesses, health to protect,
and sanity to protect. So today I'm walking you through
what I call the gentle growth strategy. It's how to
grow your podcast in a slow, steady, and deeply rooted
(04:56):
way that doesn't necessarily burn you out. The first thing
(05:27):
I want to talk about is depth over downloads, and
one thing I always want you to remember is that
depth will take you farther than downloads ever will. It's
so easy to get caught up in chasing numbers and
comparing your show to everyone else's show, But the truth
is I would rather you have one hundred listeners who
genuinely trust your voice than ten thousand who can't even
(05:47):
recall your name. So when your growth is slow and steady,
you give people room to connect with you more deeply.
And that depth of connection, that emotional stickiness, is what
builds a show that lasts numbers might look impressive on
social media, but depth is what sustains you and sustains
your audience and sustains the mission of your podcast over time.
(06:09):
And I can tell you right now that I'm depending
on depth and relationships, and I'm being very intentional about
how I approach my podcasting, especially now as we get
closer to the end of the year. I'm recording this
in December twenty twenty five, so I'm getting to that
point where we're getting close to Christmas, and I know
that the holidays is a time when I do want
to wind down so I can gear back up for
(06:30):
the new year. That said, I'm taking myself off of
any hamster will that I've been on and giving myself
room to kind of take a reprieve to detox from
any of the what the hustle has done for me
this year, so that I can have that break that
I need. And that also means slowing down a little
bit on my social media. I might not be as
active on Instagram as I've been back in April, and
(06:53):
it's just that season of the year for me where
I don't find it necessary to try to build as
much momentum. So I build that menum April through August,
and I started to taper off a bit because I
knew that I would be going back into the schools
to work, and I knew that my life would get
a little busier, so I put some things on hold.
And now I'm really sewing down a little bit. So
(07:14):
I haven't even posted on my Instagram in like two weeks,
and so that is not my you know, choice, necessarily,
It's just because that's what happened in life. And I
didn't get everything on the promotion calendar like I had
intended to. I got a lot of things on my
plate and some things just fell off the wagon, just
to be honest. But what's important to me is sharing
my episodes with my list, and so I've kind of
(07:36):
made my list building and promoting to my list and
communicating to my mailing list subscribers as my highest priority.
And then of course Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and all that stuff.
YouTube shorts that is just kind of like second place
for me. But I know that once it's uploaded to
YouTube shorts and my YouTube videos are up, that it's
(07:57):
there for more longevity. It's got more of SEO, building
power and all the stuff that we're looking for. All
the juicy goodness of SEO is happening on YouTube because
of the YouTube Google relationship, and I trust that to
be more sustaining for me long term than I do Instagram.
So I'm trying to put things in order and where
I think I'm getting the most leverage. And I don't
(08:20):
want to put all of my energy into Instagram. So
I love Instagram. I've enjoyed it this year, but I
still feel like when it comes down to what is
making the most traction for me, I'm going to have
to say that I need to focus more on YouTube.
So that's just my personal strategy and where I plan
to go with things in the upcoming year. And of
course you'll have to decide what, like what's best for
(08:42):
you and your brand if Instagram or TikTok is where
you are finding your audience and that's where you need
to put your emphasis. But again, depth over downloads. Are
you having those connections? Are you going into the dms
and communicating with everyone who's left you a message? Are
you responding to your messages? I know recently I had
quite a few on YouTube that I missed over the
(09:03):
past two weeks, and I realized that I needed to
respond to my subscribers, and they're asking me questions, they're
wanting to meet up for coffee chats, and so that's
a great place for me to really put my energy
because that's where I'm getting my feedback. So I'm focusing
more on the depth of relationships as opposed to how
many downloads did I get this month. Another thing to
keep in mind is that gentle growth comes from rhythms
(09:26):
and not hustle. So a lot of podcasters burn out
because they are trying to sprint every single week. They're juggling,
like I said, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, email, blogs, their podcast.
Of course, all the tools right, you got to have
everything right. Get your hands on Riverside, get your hands
on Opus clip, figure out descript, figure out Adobe podcast,
(09:47):
Adobe Premiere, Adobe Audition. There's so many tools out there,
so honestly, it's just too much. Gentle growth doesn't require
all of this chaos. It just comes from falling into
a rhythm that actually worked for you and your season
of life. And I talked about that a few episodes back,
about how important it is, especially for the women podcasters
that I talked to. We talk about rhythms and gentle rhythms.
(10:09):
That is going to be episode eighty six. I talked
about how to stay consistent with podcasting when your schedule
is packed, and I really get into detail there about
some tips on how to manage a busy schedule, a
busy life, and the rhythms and cycles of being a
woman while integrating our business into our lives as women.
(10:30):
And so if you're a woman podcaster, you're going to
find that episode especially helpful. So that is episode eighty six,
And even if you're not a woman podcaster, you're going
to still find that episode, I believe, really helpful to
you because it's going to help you to see how
to view your podcasting in terms of your personal life,
your personal rhythms, your health, your needs, your mental health,
(10:51):
your emotional health. How does podcasting fit into all of that?
And it's the same with business, how does business fit
into your life as an entrepreneur solo. All of this
to me is tied together into more of like, how
do we view our work that we do from a
holistic perspective that we're not necessarily separating all the different
boxes of our lives, but learning how to integrate these
(11:14):
things so that it makes sense for us. I think
it's all about creating content with intention instead of urgency,
and choosing one main place where you consistently show up
that makes it easy for people to share your message.
That's it, really, not ten thousand marketing ideas and not
being everywhere at once, although yes, we want to have
(11:34):
our brand be established in every venue that we possibly can.
Just to you have your user name out there, have
your name out there. I do have a TikTok account.
I don't use it, but I have my brand name
out there on TikTok just in case I've ever decided
to use it. But again, I'm not using TikTok on
a regular basis. So I just want to choose the
place where I can show up fully in my fullest
(11:55):
self and where I am today, what feels good to me,
which audience I'm serving best, and just flow with it
and just find my rhythm. And that is what I
call sustainability. And then thirdly, I think it's great to
have a twenty minute weekly promotion plan. I know that's
quite a few minutes, right. We like to say, oh,
you can get this all done in five minutes, you
(12:16):
just you know, send it off to TikTok and send
it off to Instagram. But now, if you're someone who
barely has a sliver of time each week, and trust me,
I've been there, and I'm kind of there right now,
I want you to picture a promotion plan that only
takes a few minutes, And I'm going to say twenty minutes,
because that's all you really need to start building momentum.
And in those twenty minutes, you post a quick clip
(12:36):
or a quote from your episode, You respond to a
handful of comments or messages, or you drop your episode
links somewhere visible like your stories, or you send something
out to your email list, and then you personally invite
one human being to listen, right, Not a mass audience,
not a campaign, just one person. Those tiny intentional steps
done consistently can bring more meaningful growth than an entire
(12:59):
afternoon and of scattered marketing tactics. Now, I chose twenty
minutes because that is the amount of time that I
feel like it takes me to do those specific tasks.
But for you, it might be ten minutes, or it
might be thirty minutes. But I do think that twenty
minutes is a reasonable amount of time to set aside
to do those things, respond to someone, send out an
(13:22):
episode link, that kind of thing. It takes a little
more than ten minutes for me to do those things.
Ten minutes it's just my warming up, you know, getting
everything opened on my screens, on my tabs, just so
that I can have a start and know what I'm doing.
So it takes a little longer than ten minutes for me.
But some people say that, you know, for them, it
is really a quick process. So figure out how much
time that takes for you. Try it out. See what
(13:45):
a weekly promotion plan feels like for you. After you've
set your pace for week one. Okay, this is my pace,
this is what I'm doing. This is what it takes
for me to roll out my promotion plan. This is
my plan. Here's my checklist things that I need to
do to promote every week. And then by week two
you'll kind of know where to go from there. And
(14:06):
it's just so much easier the second time around, the
third time around, and then it becomes part of your
routine and your flow. So after you've established it, then
you'll be able to see exactly how much time that
takes you, and then just keep doing it, rinse and repeat. Fourthly,
growth doesn't have to cost you your piece. So the
beauty of embracing slow growth is that it gives you
your piece back. You're not rushing or forcing yourself or
(14:29):
scrambling every single week to keep up with the latest
strategy or trend. Instead, you have space and breathing room.
You have the mental energy to actually enjoy being a
creator without burning yourself out. And the thing I've learned
over the years is that the shows that last the
longest are often the ones that move the slowest. They're steady,
they're grounded. For example, my homeschool podcast has been around
(14:50):
for going on fourteen years, and this show has been
the longest running show that I've had. Although I've started
quite a few before that one, but they didn't last
four or longer than five years. This one was. It's
been a fourteen year show and it's had the longest
amount of time to grow. But I have also been
able to relax, you know. And it's a steady show,
(15:12):
and it grows constantly every single month. It's a grounded podcast.
It has roots, and so when your roots are deep,
you don't have to topple over when your live shifts
or when your energy dips, or when a season changes
for you, because you've already built something strong enough to
weather It's so what I love about my homeschool podcast
is that I can step away for months if I
want to and not post a single thing, and when
(15:34):
I come back, my audience is technically still there and
they're still listening and downloading previous episodes and they haven't
gone anywhere. So I feel really relaxed in that when,
of course I'm not in a place with this particular
podcast at the moment that I can walk away for
four months. But that's something I could do, you know,
for a podcast that I've built over an amount of time.
(15:55):
Part of that is building trust and rapport with your
audience when they know why you've stepped away, or I
know that you're taking a break and you'll be back.
I don't tend to get a lot of unsubs from
my podcast itself. Now. My YouTube channel is a whole
different ballgame, and I've learned some valuable lessons after, you know,
my silence on a YouTube channel for a period of time,
and YouTube algorithms and just the way things work there
(16:18):
is very different than a podcast. Your listeners are downloading
to their devices, so they're not as likely in my opinion,
to just unsub from a podcast immediately because they haven't
seen any updates in you know, a couple of weeks
or maybe even a month or two. Sometimes they'll just
wait around to see it will something happen, And then
(16:39):
what happens is your podcast album cover shows up lower
and lower in their app. When they open their app
to Spotify or Apple Podcasts, they won't see your podcast
cover art listed as one of the first episodes to
remind them to listen to a show because you didn't
upload anything, So rather than being reminded to unsub, they're
(17:00):
just reminded to listen to the podcasts that are uploading
their content, and so they're less likely, I think, to
unsub from you just because you haven't uploaded in a while.
And I do think it takes a while for people
to start cleaning house and unsubbing from podcasts completely, so
that gives you a little leverage where you could take
a brief month or two off and not feel that
(17:23):
you're going to lose a whole lot of subscribers because
of that. Again, my point is that growth doesn't have
to cost you your peace. So if you are in
a season of life where it's overwhelming for you to
keep up with your show at the moment, you can
take a few weeks or months off and just let
your audience know, and they very likely will stay subbed
to you in their podcast player. So let's talk about
(17:44):
why slow growth actually compounds faster. And I know it
sounds contradictory, but slow growth actually compounds more powerfully over
time than these quick, flashy spikes ever could. And when
you build slowly, you're building trust, build an audience that
sticks around, that shares your episodes naturally, that recommends you
(18:05):
because they genuinely appreciate what you offer every month, every season,
every year, your influence grows a little deeper, and those
deep connections multiply far faster than any click through ad
or mass promotion. That's why I just believe in that
personal invitations to friends and friends of friends, including using
(18:28):
social media like Instagram to help you to promote, because
you really want to make connections with people that care
about what you're offering. And even on this podcast, I've
interviewed quite a few successful podcasters who are going about
things differently from each other. Everybody that I've had as
a guest on this show has chosen a different route
(18:49):
and a different way to promote their podcast. Some of
my guests run million dollar ad agencies marketing agencies where
they promote their clients through running huge ad campaigns. So
they're going through click through ads and mass promotion, and
that is what works for them and what their clients
(19:09):
need and have to have in the moment, and that's
why they've been hired to do that kind of work.
And I think that's useful and needed under certain circumstances.
But I think for the average solopreneur who doesn't have
maybe the mass marketing budget, I just believe in making
those deep connections with your audience. And I don't think
slow is small, So never get the two mixed up. Okay,
(19:32):
don't think that slow growth is small growth. I believe
slow growth is strategic. I don't think you have to
grow slowly. In fact, I would rather you grow quickly,
but slowly can be more sustainable, and sustainable growth is
the kind that last. So when you're going into the
world of podcasting, which I think is a very intimate world.
(19:53):
You're sharing your life. You're sharing your hopes, your dreams,
your pain points with your audience. You're being vulnerable with
your audience. You're not just showing up as the advice giver,
but someone that is a life giver because you're sharing
your life with others. When you're doing that, it can
be either very draining or it can be very energizing,
depending on how you look at it and how you feel.
(20:15):
But again, being vulnerable is not something easy to put
yourself in the position to do. And to do this
on a consistent basis every week, that is a lot
to give. And so when you're making a commitment to
your audience by showing up, the people who are supposed
to hear your voice will hear the frequency and be
(20:37):
totally engaged with what you're doing, what you're saying, and
where you're going. You show up as a leader. And
that's something that I love talking about on this show
as well, is that leadership is a huge part of
being a podcaster. You're leading your audience somewhere. You're taking
them in a certain direction through your narrations, through your storytelling,
and through your vulnerability and choosing guests that hopefully help
(21:00):
help to add to the narrative that you're painting, the
picture and the story that you're creating for your audience.
And I believe this is strategic and sustainable, and we
want your growth of your podcast to match the energy
that you're bringing to the show. So what can you
do this week? If you're wondering where to start, I'm
going to simplify it even more for you this week.
(21:22):
Perhaps you can choose one platform where you'll show up
intentionally and consistently. You don't need to be all over
the place. If you found out that Instagram or TikTok
isn't your thing, then you don't have to stay committed
to that this week. Maybe try something new. Maybe it's
going to be YouTube. Maybe you're going to try if
you've been using TikTok. Maybe you're going to try Instagram.
Maybe you're going to switch over to YouTube shorts. Whatever
(21:44):
you're going to do, pick a place, spend some time there,
figure out if it's LinkedIn. Then set aside just twenty
minutes to promote your episode using the rhythm that I
mentioned earlier, So you create one simple, shareable piece of
content that's easy for your audience. To pass along and
then reach out to just one person who you know
would genuinely benefit from this week's episode. If that one
(22:07):
person is a friend or family member, fine, But also
that one person could also be on your mailing list.
So if you have a very small mailing list you know,
don't worry. Just send it. Send an email to them,
and just think that as you're building your less you're
making connections with your audience, whether small or large. And
above all, I want you to protect your energy. Your
(22:29):
energy is the fuel of your podcast. You need to
guard it and you need to honor that energy and
give yourself the freedom to grow at the pace that
actually works for your life. So, my friend, if this
encouraged you this episode, here's what I want you to
do next. Go ahead and subscribe to my YouTube channel
just for solopreneurs and podcasters, so I will be uploading
(22:52):
more behind the scenes over the holidays. I want to
upload more teaching videos and more resources that you won't
find specific on the podcast rss feed. So you know
that YouTube takes all of my podcasts through the RSS
feed and just automatically spits those podcasts out onto YouTube
straight from my podcast host. So if you guys are
(23:14):
listening to me right now on Apple Podcasts, or if
you're listening on Spotify or some other one of your
other favorite players on your phone right well, you can
also find that same exact episode on YouTube. It won't
be visual. You'll see my cover art for the podcast,
and you'll know that this indeed is Soul Podcasting when
you click on it. It'll be on YouTube. But I'm
(23:35):
also creating episodes that are not just you know, based
on that podcast category on YouTube. I've created some other
playlists and so you can kind of dig through and
see what I've got going. But I've got playlists about
content strategy, branding, and website tips because I used to
focus a lot of my business activity on web design
(23:57):
and branding, so I do have a whole playlist on that,
and then of course my solopreneur and mom preneur lifestyle
that was important for me. Then of course I have
all on my different podcasts. There's the Her Business Elevated
podcast there and their Soul Podcasting podcasts. I'll be adding
more playlists and categories with time, but this is what
(24:17):
I have so far. If you're interested in any of this,
especially the content strategy where I've been sharing a lot
about digital marketing and content creation helps. You might want
to check that out. I'll talk about blogging, figuring out
your content types, finding your customer avatar, creating content that
your audience will love if you want to have loyal followers,
how to grow your business organically without ads, life balance
(24:40):
hacks for busy content creators, evergreen content. How to fund
your niche and sweet spot as a solopreneur. So I'm
just listing a few of my YouTube video titles. So
that's just a few I did last year, but there's
going to be more this year as I figure out
my strategy for creating videos that actually get views on
you and I'm learning a lot about what works on
(25:03):
YouTube and what doesn't. So if you want to follow
my journey there, i'd love to have you. And of course,
if you're a mom or if you're faith based, if
you're a woman looking for faith based content, I'd love
to have you at my other channel as well, on
mom Zest mom Zest, where you'll see just a whole
repository of videos. It's basically my whole life over the
(25:24):
past fourteen years, and some of the videos I find
a little cringey. In fact, I think I may go
back and put some on private because they're just so cringing.
But it is my life as a homeschool mom and
it's how I raise my kids, and a lot of
it is just super helpful for the audience that I
was invested in at that time, and so yeah, I'd
(25:46):
love to have you check that out. And I'm currently
going to be talking about faith and wellness, my health, fitness,
my life as a solopreneur, what that looks like every day,
how I'm planning to get more into my music and
sharing that with the world. And then there's also some
Bible studies and scriptures and inspiration teaching and that kind
(26:07):
of thing, so you'll find a lot of that at
that channel. Anyway, just wanted to give you some updates
on what I'm doing. I didn't mean to start rambling.
So if you've gotten this far in the episode, thank
you for listening all the way through to the end.
And again, if you're really trying to grow your show
this year, I do want you to subscribe to my
business channel. So thank you truly for spending this time
(26:31):
with me today, and I'm going to be back next
week with some more grounded and soulful support to help
you build a podcast that feels aligned, sustainable, and fully yours.
So I'll talk soon. Happy podcasting,
Hey, hey, my friend. Welcome back to another episode of
the Soul Podcasting podcast, where passion, purpose, and grounded strategy
come together to help you amplify your voice without burning
yourself out. And I'm Demetria, founder of the Soul Podcasting Collective,
where my team and I support podcasters with editing and production,
and also where I coach solopreneurs, creatives and coaches who
(00:34):
want to grow their podcasts with clarity and confidence. And
if you ever want to reach out to me directly,
please head over to soulpodcasting dot com. You'll see a
little pink tab on the right side of the screen
and that's where you can drop me a voice note
and who knows, I may feature it on an upcoming show.
It really makes my day to hear your voices and
just know who's listening on the other side of the mic.
(00:55):
So please don't be shy. I love connecting with you all. Right,
before we dive in, how were your holidays? If you
celebrated Thanksgiving here in the US, I hope it was
RESTful and full of good food and good company. And
to my Canadian listeners, I know you all celebrated back
in October, but still I hope that that season brought
you moments of joy and just to pause and reset.
(01:18):
For me, it was actually a really welcome break because
I gave myself permission to just slow down a little
bit and I got involved. Though even though I slowed down,
I got involved in a few online projects, just lighter,
enjoyable and creative things, and one of those was to
revamp my vlog on my YouTube channel and switching some
things around so I can share a little bit more
(01:38):
of my personal life again. And if you don't know
this already, I actually have two YouTube channels, and one
is my solopreneur and podcasting channel. That's where you're going
to find these podcast episodes and some behind the scenes
videos and more content about running a business as a creative.
And my second channel is my faith based corner of
the Internet, and it's over ninety eight percent women. These
(02:01):
are my homeschool friends, homeschool moms, and this channel has
been my digital footprint for over a decade. And even
though I'm not homeschooling my kids anymore, I still have
so much to share from that season of my life,
and honestly, it's it was really time to help that
channel to grow up with me and catch up with
my own evolving and speaking of growing up, my youngest
(02:21):
just turn eighteen this month, so yes, it was definitely
a month of celebration and also reflection because seasons they
shift so quickly, and when they do, your creative work
has to shift with you. Not in a rushed way,
not in a panics kind of way, but just more
grounded and soulful and steady. And that's kind of what
we're going to be talking about today. But if you
(02:42):
do want to check out any of those channels, the
links are in the show notes, I would love to
have you hop on to my YouTube channel and see
what's going on over there. All right, so let's get
into today's episode, and today I want to give you
something that most podcasters never really talk about a lot
or here, and it's that you don't need explosive of
growth to have a meaningful, impactful, profitable podcast. So you
(03:04):
don't need those viral level numbers, you don't need to
be everywhere, you don't need to hustle yourself into oblivion.
And I know I just talked about all of the
projects and things that I'm working on, but these are
fun for me. Honestly, and I don't see it as hustling,
but I see it as more of these are just
things that make me happy. So this is where I
kind of want to encourage you to not necessarily slow
(03:26):
down and not necessarily bring your activities to a halt.
I mean, we have to keep things going right, and
so it's going to take a little effort on our part,
but I want to encourage you not to have the
hustle mindset. I know that the industry makes it sound
like the only way to make it is to grind hard,
(03:47):
post constantly, juggle platform after platform, and basically turn yourself
into a full time marketing machine. Okay, I know that
if you have an agency that you're working with, that
you are aligning your business with, that can take some
of that load off for you, it's going to be
a lot easier for you to get a lot of
this work done. And I'm talking social clips and repurposing
(04:11):
and all the things that I talked about in earlier episodes.
If you go back in my archives, I do talk
about the general day to day aspects of making a
podcast work and promoting that show. It does feel like
a grind. There's a lot to it. But I don't
want you to feel, as a solo podcaster or solopreneur
that you have to get on the hamster wheel of performance,
(04:32):
because I want your podcast to feel like something that
is an extension of you that you enjoy. And let's
just be honest, most of us have real lives outside
of podcasting. We have families, jobs, businesses, health to protect,
and sanity to protect. So today I'm walking you through
what I call the gentle growth strategy. It's how to
grow your podcast in a slow, steady, and deeply rooted
(04:56):
way that doesn't necessarily burn you out. The first thing
(05:27):
I want to talk about is depth over downloads, and
one thing I always want you to remember is that
depth will take you farther than downloads ever will. It's
so easy to get caught up in chasing numbers and
comparing your show to everyone else's show, But the truth
is I would rather you have one hundred listeners who
genuinely trust your voice than ten thousand who can't even
(05:47):
recall your name. So when your growth is slow and steady,
you give people room to connect with you more deeply.
And that depth of connection, that emotional stickiness, is what
builds a show that lasts numbers might look impressive on
social media, but depth is what sustains you and sustains
your audience and sustains the mission of your podcast over time.
(06:09):
And I can tell you right now that I'm depending
on depth and relationships, and I'm being very intentional about
how I approach my podcasting, especially now as we get
closer to the end of the year. I'm recording this
in December twenty twenty five, so I'm getting to that
point where we're getting close to Christmas, and I know
that the holidays is a time when I do want
to wind down so I can gear back up for
(06:30):
the new year. That said, I'm taking myself off of
any hamster will that I've been on and giving myself
room to kind of take a reprieve to detox from
any of the what the hustle has done for me
this year, so that I can have that break that
I need. And that also means slowing down a little
bit on my social media. I might not be as
active on Instagram as I've been back in April, and
(06:53):
it's just that season of the year for me where
I don't find it necessary to try to build as
much momentum. So I build that menum April through August,
and I started to taper off a bit because I
knew that I would be going back into the schools
to work, and I knew that my life would get
a little busier, so I put some things on hold.
And now I'm really sewing down a little bit. So
(07:14):
I haven't even posted on my Instagram in like two weeks,
and so that is not my you know, choice, necessarily,
It's just because that's what happened in life. And I
didn't get everything on the promotion calendar like I had
intended to. I got a lot of things on my
plate and some things just fell off the wagon, just
to be honest. But what's important to me is sharing
my episodes with my list, and so I've kind of
(07:36):
made my list building and promoting to my list and
communicating to my mailing list subscribers as my highest priority.
And then of course Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and all that stuff.
YouTube shorts that is just kind of like second place
for me. But I know that once it's uploaded to
YouTube shorts and my YouTube videos are up, that it's
(07:57):
there for more longevity. It's got more of SEO, building
power and all the stuff that we're looking for. All
the juicy goodness of SEO is happening on YouTube because
of the YouTube Google relationship, and I trust that to
be more sustaining for me long term than I do Instagram.
So I'm trying to put things in order and where
I think I'm getting the most leverage. And I don't
(08:20):
want to put all of my energy into Instagram. So
I love Instagram. I've enjoyed it this year, but I
still feel like when it comes down to what is
making the most traction for me, I'm going to have
to say that I need to focus more on YouTube.
So that's just my personal strategy and where I plan
to go with things in the upcoming year. And of
course you'll have to decide what, like what's best for
(08:42):
you and your brand if Instagram or TikTok is where
you are finding your audience and that's where you need
to put your emphasis. But again, depth over downloads. Are
you having those connections? Are you going into the dms
and communicating with everyone who's left you a message? Are
you responding to your messages? I know recently I had
quite a few on YouTube that I missed over the
(09:03):
past two weeks, and I realized that I needed to
respond to my subscribers, and they're asking me questions, they're
wanting to meet up for coffee chats, and so that's
a great place for me to really put my energy
because that's where I'm getting my feedback. So I'm focusing
more on the depth of relationships as opposed to how
many downloads did I get this month. Another thing to
keep in mind is that gentle growth comes from rhythms
(09:26):
and not hustle. So a lot of podcasters burn out
because they are trying to sprint every single week. They're juggling,
like I said, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, email, blogs, their podcast.
Of course, all the tools right, you got to have
everything right. Get your hands on Riverside, get your hands
on Opus clip, figure out descript, figure out Adobe podcast,
(09:47):
Adobe Premiere, Adobe Audition. There's so many tools out there,
so honestly, it's just too much. Gentle growth doesn't require
all of this chaos. It just comes from falling into
a rhythm that actually worked for you and your season
of life. And I talked about that a few episodes back,
about how important it is, especially for the women podcasters
that I talked to. We talk about rhythms and gentle rhythms.
(10:09):
That is going to be episode eighty six. I talked
about how to stay consistent with podcasting when your schedule
is packed, and I really get into detail there about
some tips on how to manage a busy schedule, a
busy life, and the rhythms and cycles of being a
woman while integrating our business into our lives as women.
(10:30):
And so if you're a woman podcaster, you're going to
find that episode especially helpful. So that is episode eighty six,
And even if you're not a woman podcaster, you're going
to still find that episode, I believe, really helpful to
you because it's going to help you to see how
to view your podcasting in terms of your personal life,
your personal rhythms, your health, your needs, your mental health,
(10:51):
your emotional health. How does podcasting fit into all of that?
And it's the same with business, how does business fit
into your life as an entrepreneur solo. All of this
to me is tied together into more of like, how
do we view our work that we do from a
holistic perspective that we're not necessarily separating all the different
boxes of our lives, but learning how to integrate these
(11:14):
things so that it makes sense for us. I think
it's all about creating content with intention instead of urgency,
and choosing one main place where you consistently show up
that makes it easy for people to share your message.
That's it, really, not ten thousand marketing ideas and not
being everywhere at once, although yes, we want to have
(11:34):
our brand be established in every venue that we possibly can.
Just to you have your user name out there, have
your name out there. I do have a TikTok account.
I don't use it, but I have my brand name
out there on TikTok just in case I've ever decided
to use it. But again, I'm not using TikTok on
a regular basis. So I just want to choose the
place where I can show up fully in my fullest
(11:55):
self and where I am today, what feels good to me,
which audience I'm serving best, and just flow with it
and just find my rhythm. And that is what I
call sustainability. And then thirdly, I think it's great to
have a twenty minute weekly promotion plan. I know that's
quite a few minutes, right. We like to say, oh,
you can get this all done in five minutes, you
(12:16):
just you know, send it off to TikTok and send
it off to Instagram. But now, if you're someone who
barely has a sliver of time each week, and trust me,
I've been there, and I'm kind of there right now,
I want you to picture a promotion plan that only
takes a few minutes, And I'm going to say twenty minutes,
because that's all you really need to start building momentum.
And in those twenty minutes, you post a quick clip
(12:36):
or a quote from your episode, You respond to a
handful of comments or messages, or you drop your episode
links somewhere visible like your stories, or you send something
out to your email list, and then you personally invite
one human being to listen, right, Not a mass audience,
not a campaign, just one person. Those tiny intentional steps
done consistently can bring more meaningful growth than an entire
(12:59):
afternoon and of scattered marketing tactics. Now, I chose twenty
minutes because that is the amount of time that I
feel like it takes me to do those specific tasks.
But for you, it might be ten minutes, or it
might be thirty minutes. But I do think that twenty
minutes is a reasonable amount of time to set aside
to do those things, respond to someone, send out an
(13:22):
episode link, that kind of thing. It takes a little
more than ten minutes for me to do those things.
Ten minutes it's just my warming up, you know, getting
everything opened on my screens, on my tabs, just so
that I can have a start and know what I'm doing.
So it takes a little longer than ten minutes for me.
But some people say that, you know, for them, it
is really a quick process. So figure out how much
time that takes for you. Try it out. See what
(13:45):
a weekly promotion plan feels like for you. After you've
set your pace for week one. Okay, this is my pace,
this is what I'm doing. This is what it takes
for me to roll out my promotion plan. This is
my plan. Here's my checklist things that I need to
do to promote every week. And then by week two
you'll kind of know where to go from there. And
(14:06):
it's just so much easier the second time around, the
third time around, and then it becomes part of your
routine and your flow. So after you've established it, then
you'll be able to see exactly how much time that
takes you, and then just keep doing it, rinse and repeat. Fourthly,
growth doesn't have to cost you your piece. So the
beauty of embracing slow growth is that it gives you
your piece back. You're not rushing or forcing yourself or
(14:29):
scrambling every single week to keep up with the latest
strategy or trend. Instead, you have space and breathing room.
You have the mental energy to actually enjoy being a
creator without burning yourself out. And the thing I've learned
over the years is that the shows that last the
longest are often the ones that move the slowest. They're steady,
they're grounded. For example, my homeschool podcast has been around
(14:50):
for going on fourteen years, and this show has been
the longest running show that I've had. Although I've started
quite a few before that one, but they didn't last
four or longer than five years. This one was. It's
been a fourteen year show and it's had the longest
amount of time to grow. But I have also been
able to relax, you know. And it's a steady show,
(15:12):
and it grows constantly every single month. It's a grounded podcast.
It has roots, and so when your roots are deep,
you don't have to topple over when your live shifts
or when your energy dips, or when a season changes
for you, because you've already built something strong enough to
weather It's so what I love about my homeschool podcast
is that I can step away for months if I
want to and not post a single thing, and when
(15:34):
I come back, my audience is technically still there and
they're still listening and downloading previous episodes and they haven't
gone anywhere. So I feel really relaxed in that when,
of course I'm not in a place with this particular
podcast at the moment that I can walk away for
four months. But that's something I could do, you know,
for a podcast that I've built over an amount of time.
(15:55):
Part of that is building trust and rapport with your
audience when they know why you've stepped away, or I
know that you're taking a break and you'll be back.
I don't tend to get a lot of unsubs from
my podcast itself. Now. My YouTube channel is a whole
different ballgame, and I've learned some valuable lessons after, you know,
my silence on a YouTube channel for a period of time,
and YouTube algorithms and just the way things work there
(16:18):
is very different than a podcast. Your listeners are downloading
to their devices, so they're not as likely in my opinion,
to just unsub from a podcast immediately because they haven't
seen any updates in you know, a couple of weeks
or maybe even a month or two. Sometimes they'll just
wait around to see it will something happen, And then
(16:39):
what happens is your podcast album cover shows up lower
and lower in their app. When they open their app
to Spotify or Apple Podcasts, they won't see your podcast
cover art listed as one of the first episodes to
remind them to listen to a show because you didn't
upload anything, So rather than being reminded to unsub, they're
(17:00):
just reminded to listen to the podcasts that are uploading
their content, and so they're less likely, I think, to
unsub from you just because you haven't uploaded in a while.
And I do think it takes a while for people
to start cleaning house and unsubbing from podcasts completely, so
that gives you a little leverage where you could take
a brief month or two off and not feel that
(17:23):
you're going to lose a whole lot of subscribers because
of that. Again, my point is that growth doesn't have
to cost you your peace. So if you are in
a season of life where it's overwhelming for you to
keep up with your show at the moment, you can
take a few weeks or months off and just let
your audience know, and they very likely will stay subbed
to you in their podcast player. So let's talk about
(17:44):
why slow growth actually compounds faster. And I know it
sounds contradictory, but slow growth actually compounds more powerfully over
time than these quick, flashy spikes ever could. And when
you build slowly, you're building trust, build an audience that
sticks around, that shares your episodes naturally, that recommends you
(18:05):
because they genuinely appreciate what you offer every month, every season,
every year, your influence grows a little deeper, and those
deep connections multiply far faster than any click through ad
or mass promotion. That's why I just believe in that
personal invitations to friends and friends of friends, including using
(18:28):
social media like Instagram to help you to promote, because
you really want to make connections with people that care
about what you're offering. And even on this podcast, I've
interviewed quite a few successful podcasters who are going about
things differently from each other. Everybody that I've had as
a guest on this show has chosen a different route
(18:49):
and a different way to promote their podcast. Some of
my guests run million dollar ad agencies marketing agencies where
they promote their clients through running huge ad campaigns. So
they're going through click through ads and mass promotion, and
that is what works for them and what their clients
(19:09):
need and have to have in the moment, and that's
why they've been hired to do that kind of work.
And I think that's useful and needed under certain circumstances.
But I think for the average solopreneur who doesn't have
maybe the mass marketing budget, I just believe in making
those deep connections with your audience. And I don't think
slow is small, So never get the two mixed up. Okay,
(19:32):
don't think that slow growth is small growth. I believe
slow growth is strategic. I don't think you have to
grow slowly. In fact, I would rather you grow quickly,
but slowly can be more sustainable, and sustainable growth is
the kind that last. So when you're going into the
world of podcasting, which I think is a very intimate world.
(19:53):
You're sharing your life. You're sharing your hopes, your dreams,
your pain points with your audience. You're being vulnerable with
your audience. You're not just showing up as the advice giver,
but someone that is a life giver because you're sharing
your life with others. When you're doing that, it can
be either very draining or it can be very energizing,
depending on how you look at it and how you feel.
(20:15):
But again, being vulnerable is not something easy to put
yourself in the position to do. And to do this
on a consistent basis every week, that is a lot
to give. And so when you're making a commitment to
your audience by showing up, the people who are supposed
to hear your voice will hear the frequency and be
(20:37):
totally engaged with what you're doing, what you're saying, and
where you're going. You show up as a leader. And
that's something that I love talking about on this show
as well, is that leadership is a huge part of
being a podcaster. You're leading your audience somewhere. You're taking
them in a certain direction through your narrations, through your storytelling,
and through your vulnerability and choosing guests that hopefully help
(21:00):
help to add to the narrative that you're painting, the
picture and the story that you're creating for your audience.
And I believe this is strategic and sustainable, and we
want your growth of your podcast to match the energy
that you're bringing to the show. So what can you
do this week? If you're wondering where to start, I'm
going to simplify it even more for you this week.
(21:22):
Perhaps you can choose one platform where you'll show up
intentionally and consistently. You don't need to be all over
the place. If you found out that Instagram or TikTok
isn't your thing, then you don't have to stay committed
to that this week. Maybe try something new. Maybe it's
going to be YouTube. Maybe you're going to try if
you've been using TikTok. Maybe you're going to try Instagram.
Maybe you're going to switch over to YouTube shorts. Whatever
(21:44):
you're going to do, pick a place, spend some time there,
figure out if it's LinkedIn. Then set aside just twenty
minutes to promote your episode using the rhythm that I
mentioned earlier, So you create one simple, shareable piece of
content that's easy for your audience. To pass along and
then reach out to just one person who you know
would genuinely benefit from this week's episode. If that one
(22:07):
person is a friend or family member, fine, But also
that one person could also be on your mailing list.
So if you have a very small mailing list you know,
don't worry. Just send it. Send an email to them,
and just think that as you're building your less you're
making connections with your audience, whether small or large. And
above all, I want you to protect your energy. Your
(22:29):
energy is the fuel of your podcast. You need to
guard it and you need to honor that energy and
give yourself the freedom to grow at the pace that
actually works for your life. So, my friend, if this
encouraged you this episode, here's what I want you to
do next. Go ahead and subscribe to my YouTube channel
just for solopreneurs and podcasters, so I will be uploading
(22:52):
more behind the scenes over the holidays. I want to
upload more teaching videos and more resources that you won't
find specific on the podcast rss feed. So you know
that YouTube takes all of my podcasts through the RSS
feed and just automatically spits those podcasts out onto YouTube
straight from my podcast host. So if you guys are
(23:14):
listening to me right now on Apple Podcasts, or if
you're listening on Spotify or some other one of your
other favorite players on your phone right well, you can
also find that same exact episode on YouTube. It won't
be visual. You'll see my cover art for the podcast,
and you'll know that this indeed is Soul Podcasting when
you click on it. It'll be on YouTube. But I'm
(23:35):
also creating episodes that are not just you know, based
on that podcast category on YouTube. I've created some other
playlists and so you can kind of dig through and
see what I've got going. But I've got playlists about
content strategy, branding, and website tips because I used to
focus a lot of my business activity on web design
(23:57):
and branding, so I do have a whole playlist on that,
and then of course my solopreneur and mom preneur lifestyle
that was important for me. Then of course I have
all on my different podcasts. There's the Her Business Elevated
podcast there and their Soul Podcasting podcasts. I'll be adding
more playlists and categories with time, but this is what
(24:17):
I have so far. If you're interested in any of this,
especially the content strategy where I've been sharing a lot
about digital marketing and content creation helps. You might want
to check that out. I'll talk about blogging, figuring out
your content types, finding your customer avatar, creating content that
your audience will love if you want to have loyal followers,
how to grow your business organically without ads, life balance
(24:40):
hacks for busy content creators, evergreen content. How to fund
your niche and sweet spot as a solopreneur. So I'm
just listing a few of my YouTube video titles. So
that's just a few I did last year, but there's
going to be more this year as I figure out
my strategy for creating videos that actually get views on
you and I'm learning a lot about what works on
(25:03):
YouTube and what doesn't. So if you want to follow
my journey there, i'd love to have you. And of course,
if you're a mom or if you're faith based, if
you're a woman looking for faith based content, I'd love
to have you at my other channel as well, on
mom Zest mom Zest, where you'll see just a whole
repository of videos. It's basically my whole life over the
(25:24):
past fourteen years, and some of the videos I find
a little cringey. In fact, I think I may go
back and put some on private because they're just so cringing.
But it is my life as a homeschool mom and
it's how I raise my kids, and a lot of
it is just super helpful for the audience that I
was invested in at that time, and so yeah, I'd
(25:46):
love to have you check that out. And I'm currently
going to be talking about faith and wellness, my health, fitness,
my life as a solopreneur, what that looks like every day,
how I'm planning to get more into my music and
sharing that with the world. And then there's also some
Bible studies and scriptures and inspiration teaching and that kind
(26:07):
of thing, so you'll find a lot of that at
that channel. Anyway, just wanted to give you some updates
on what I'm doing. I didn't mean to start rambling.
So if you've gotten this far in the episode, thank
you for listening all the way through to the end.
And again, if you're really trying to grow your show
this year, I do want you to subscribe to my
business channel. So thank you truly for spending this time
(26:31):
with me today, and I'm going to be back next
week with some more grounded and soulful support to help
you build a podcast that feels aligned, sustainable, and fully yours.
So I'll talk soon. Happy podcasting,
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