503 - Does Every Podcast Need To Be On YouTube?

Does every podcaster need to be on YouTube? That is the question I’m answering in this episode of Podcast Answer Man. A recent LinkedIn post, sent to me by my friend Stuart Crane, talked about YouTube’s latest podcast-focused features and the growing amount of podcast consumption happening on YouTube. The post suggested that the future of podcasting is not audio-first or video-first, but audience-first. There is a lot in that statement that I agree with. YouTube clearly wants to be seen as a podcast destination. More and more people are thinking of YouTube as their podcast app of choice. Some people discover podcasts first through YouTube. And if someone wants to consume podcast content there, I want my shows to be available to them. In fact, for the first time in twenty years, I am willing to say this… If you have a podcast, even if it is audio-only, I do believe you should consider submitting your podcast feed to YouTube. But that does not mean I believe every podcaster needs to become a YouTuber. That distinction is the heart of this episode. I do not believe every podcast needs to become a video podcast. I do not believe every episode needs to be turned into short-form clips, blog posts, newsletters, and social media content. I do not believe creators should feel pressured to reshape their entire creative process around every platform’s preferences. Podcasting has no rules. That has always been one of the things I love most about it. You can create an audio-only show. You can create a video-first show. You can be audience-first. You can be creator-first. You can be purpose-first, invitation-first, expression-first, or simply create because you need to process something out loud. Not every podcast exists to grow the largest possible audience. Some episodes are created because the act of saying something out loud helps the creator understand what they actually believe. Some podcasts are created for a small group of clients, a paid community, a private audience, or a very specific purpose. That is still podcasting. In this episode, I also share the practical rabbit hole I went down while trying to bring several of my own podcasts back into the YouTube ecosystem. Years ago, I imported several of my audio podcast RSS feeds into my main YouTube channel, and it created a mess. YouTube turned each audio episode into a video with static podcast artwork, and suddenly my YouTube channel was flooded with thousands of non-video “videos.” That was not the experience I wanted for people who subscribed to my main video channel. So this time, I am taking a different approach. Rather than importing my audio podcasts into my main Cliff Ravenscraft YouTube channel, I am creating separate YouTube channels for each show. That way, people who want The Cliff Ravenscraft Show, Podcast Answer Man, What Are You Creating?, Building a Life and Business Together, or any of my other shows through YouTube can access them there, without turning my main video channel into an automated archive of static-image podcast episodes. I also share the story of trying to recover the old Podcast Answer Man YouTube channel, which was created in the pre-Google / Google+ / Brand Account era. That led me into the world of legacy YouTube accounts, Brand Accounts, and the old gaia_link claim process, only to discover that the missing piece is a pre-Google YouTube password I no longer remember. So this episode is both a response to the current “podcasts need to be on YouTube” conversation and a real-world field report from someone actually trying to make strategic decisions around podcast distribution. My conclusion is simple: Yes, I believe YouTube is important. Yes, I believe audio podcasters should consider submitting their podcast feeds to YouTube. But no, I do not believe you need to turn your podcast into a video show. No, I do not believe you need to create short-form clips. No, I do not believe you need to be everywhere. And no, I do not believe you should make creative decisions out of fear, pressure, or the belief that you will somehow become irrelevant if you do not follow the latest platform trend. The future of podcasting is the same as the origin of podcasting. It is the wild west of content creation. You get to decide what you want to say, how you want to say it, how long you want to take to say it, and where you want to publish it. Do what makes you come alive. Momentum Mastermind I also shared a brief invitation at the end of this episode for my newest paid mastermind group experience: Momentum. I have been facilitating mastermind groups since 2012, and my own weekly mastermind experience with friends like Pat Flynn, Michael Stelzner, Ray Edwards, Leslie Samuel, and Mark Mason has been one of the most powerful forces for growth and clarity in my life and business. Momentum is the most accessible paid mastermind group experience I have ever created. It is designed for entrepreneurs who are ready to gain clarity, make better decisions, simplify what they are carrying, and turn insight into committed action. You can learn more here: https://cliffravenscraft.com/momentum