My Favorite Podcasts & What We Can Learn From Them

In today’s episode I’m sharing with you a list of my favorite podcasts that I subscribe to and listen to every week. In episode 103, I talked about discovering new podcasts and focused on how to discover new podcasts in iTunes but most people listen to new podcasts because their friends recommended it to them. I want to share with you all the podcasts I listen to so you can get to know me better and so I can share the big lessons learned from these shows. All of the podcasts are linked to their iTunes page so click through, listen and let me know which of these podcasts you start listening to!   1.  RED - The Marketing Podcast for influencers The number one lesson I get from this podcast is consistency. David Hooper is the host and when the podcast started (he’s over 200 episodes in now) he had a co-host, Laurel Staples, his now wife. She started focuses more on other business ventures but that wasn’t the end of the show. David kind of refocused the show and kept it going mostly as a solo show with some interviews. This podcast teaches me a couple lessons: Number 1- David grabs your attention with the topic of the episode before the intro song starts Number 2- He KNOWS his target audience and he tells you who the podcast is for every single episode. Number 3- His is BIG on actionable content and big lessons but I believe places entertainment value over that. In one series he talked all about the IRS phone scam and even though he didn’t see a clear business lesson come out of the first episode in that series, he continued. I subscribed because I was so entertained. 2.  LadyGang This is a guilty pleasure show for me. It’s hosted by 3 women in Hollywood: Becca Tobin, actress most known for her role on Glee, Jac Vanak, CEO of clothing line Jac Vanak and Keltie Knight, an entertainment news reporter Each week they interview a female celebrity in Hollywood about what it’s really like to be in ‘the business’ They have total girl talk on air and are NOT lady like at all; they are snacking while they’re recording and they share super embarrassing moments like having an itchy butt after a wax or pooping your pants (I think those were both from actress, Becca Tobin). I am in their private facebook group for fans of the show and the biggest thing I learn fro this podcast is how they also know exactly who their listeners are and their listeners are HUGE FANS. Their listeners can’t WAIT for Tuesday; they end each episode with “See you next Tuesday”. Most importantly, they have fun recording. You can tell the three co-hosts look forward to their time together each week and listeners do too. 3.  Congressional Dish In my last episode of Rhodes to Success, I interviewed the host of Congressional Dish, Jennifer Briney so you’ll hear in that episode exactly why I like this show so much! The biggest lesson you can take away from this podcast and from Jennifer is: She did almost no marketing for several years and has over 10,000 listeners an episode. How much time do you spend promoting and marketing your show vs. creating a quality episode? As a guest, I agree with Jason Swenk, who I interviewed for a client feature video. Jason said 80% of the work is promotion, 20% is the interview. If you are the HOST, I believe 80% of the work is creating a high quality show, 20% is the interview. The more time you spend on creating a high quality show, THE MOST people will share it organically! And that is what happened with Jen. Listen and learn! 4.  Sounds of the Trail A podcast about the ups, downs and switchbacks of trail life. This podcast is an audio journal of lots of people who hike trails for long periods of time. Host, Gizmo (that’s her trail name) runs the podcast, but she has correspondents, listeners of the show who now take part by recording their story while they are hiking and send it to Gizmo to use in the podcast. Have you ever considered having correspondents on your podcast? What a creative way to include your listeners and create more content. 5.  Respectful Parenting Oh what would I do without my virtual parenting coach, Janet Lansbury! Each week Janet answers a listener question about a parenting struggle for those with babies, toddlers and 3-4 year olds. The episodes are short and to the point but because they’re actual questions from real parents, you can relate to them. The marketing lesson: without fail, at the beginning and end of every show, Janet reminds you that both her books are available on audible.com, apple.com and Amazon. It’s smart that she’s only telling you about the audio books because as podcast listeners we are MOST likely to want an audio book; we are auditory learners! 6.  The Biz Chix podcast Natalie has allowed her podcast to change and evolve over the years as her business has grown and evolved. She didn’t get locked into a format or consistency that didn’t work for her and because of her focus on her target audience her downloads have grown dramatically.   Below are the podcasts I recommend you check out, but not podcasts that I talked about in detail on today’s episode: The Messengers Reply All Science Vs. The Way I Heard It The Feed: The Official Libsyn Podcast Homeschooling IRL On Air With Ella She Podcasts Mostly Mom with Tia Mowry Profit Boss Radio School of Podcasting Happier with Gretchen Rubin Serial Podcast Movement Sessions Start Up Podcast The Walking Dead ‘Cast The Ask Gary Vee Show ParentCast Glambition Radio with Ali Brown Slate’s Working Slate’s Mom and Dad are Fighting    My other podcasts: The Parenting Rhodes The Podcast Producers   Join me for my live webinar! Text ‘rock’ 72000 Jessicarhodes.biz/webinar   The music in today’s episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at <a href=...