Podcast Answer Man

Many people begin podcasting with the goal of launching a show and growing an audience. But after observing thousands of podcasting journeys over the past two decades, I have become convinced that the podcast itself is rarely the true desired outcome. What people really want is what they hope the podcast will help them experience. That might include more fulfilling work, meaningful income, greater...

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...

Last week, while attending a social media conference in Lima, Ohio, I heard a speaker recommend something I had never seriously considered before: Submit your podcast to IMDb. The idea was that IMDb has become a highly trusted source that AI tools and search engines often reference when gathering information about people. If that's true, having an accurate IMDb profile and podcast listing could in...

I recently came across a LinkedIn post that made a strong case for podcast hosts getting to the point more quickly. The idea was simple: if your episode could be ten minutes, don’t stretch it into forty-five. Respect your listener’s time. Say the thing. And honestly, I get it. If I’m reading a book, listening to an audiobook, or sitting in a conference room while someone gives a presentation, I us...

Welcome to episode 500 of Podcast Answer Man. This milestone episode gave me an opportunity to reflect on what podcasting has meant to me over the past two decades, how the podcasting space has changed, and why I still believe so deeply in the power of this medium. There is no shortage of commentary today about whether podcasting is growing, shrinking, oversaturated, being disrupted by AI, replace...

In this episode, I share the thinking behind my new live streaming and video content strategy. For the past several months, I’ve been very clear that Podcast Answer Man is an audio-only podcast, and that is still true. I remain a strong advocate for creating audio content that is designed first and foremost for the person who will listen later, away from the screen, in the flow of their real life....

A question came up while I was preparing for my podcasting workshop at Social Media Marketing World: Does the world really need another podcast? It is a fair question. There are already millions of podcasts out there. Many industries feel crowded. A lot of topics have already been covered. AI has made it easier than ever to create average content. And with so much short-form video competing for at...

In this episode, I recorded while out for a walk using a small wired lavalier recorder clipped to my shirt. It was not a studio setup. It was not polished. It was not carefully produced. And that is exactly the point. The recorder I used for this episode is the TASCAM DR-10L PRO - https://amzn.to/4d9vEHd In a world where AI is making it easier than ever for content to sound clean, refined, and pro...

I missed an episode last week. It was the first time since recommitting to a weekly publishing schedule for Podcast Answer Man that I failed to release an episode on Friday morning at 12:01 a.m. And you know what? The world is still spinning. In this episode, I talk through what happened, why I made the conscious decision to miss the week, and how I’m thinking about consistency, commitment, grace,...

This episode came from a pattern I’ve seen over and over again. So many people come to me asking for audience growth strategies. They’ve been podcasting for a while, they feel like they’ve hit a plateau, and they believe the answer is getting in front of more people. In this episode, I challenge that assumption. I share my own experience of going from a tiny audience to tens of thousands of listen...

In this episode, I share something I’ve been seeing over and over again in conversations with people who are on the verge of launching a podcast. There’s this belief that you need to have everything figured out before you’re allowed to speak, teach, or share your voice. I challenge that idea directly. I talk about the fear of not being experienced enough, not having the right credentials, or not f...

Over the years, I’ve told my origin story in podcasting many times. I’ve shared how I got started, how things grew, and how this work eventually became my full-time career. But what you’ve almost never heard is this story told alongside Stephanie. Recently, Stephanie and I were invited to be guests on the Our Family Invests podcast with Mike Neubauer. And after the conversation, we both agreed. Th...

In this episode, I’m sharing a conversation with Heather Bayer who was one of the first people in her industry to launch a podcast. She didn’t wait for permission. She made a decision about who she was and who she was there to serve. More than a decade later, she’s still showing up every single week. She now has over 650 episodes, a global audience and a business built through relationships that s...

In this conversation, I sat down with Jason Cabassi, someone I had the privilege of helping launch into podcasting back in 2011. Since then, Jason has gone on to produce more than a thousand episodes and build an entire podcast network centered around the shows he loves. We talked about how it all started with a fan podcast for The Walking Dead , the unexpected opportunities that followed, and how...

In today’s episode, I’m sharing a replay of a conversation I had two years ago with Alex Freeman on the UpFlip podcast. When that interview first aired, it quickly became one of the most significant entry points into my world. For several months afterward, people were reaching out to me saying they had discovered my work through that interview. Many told me they had listened to the episode multipl...

In this episode, I share one of the most important lessons I’ve learned from more than twenty years of podcasting and content creation. Success in this space, more often than not, comes down to two simple things: getting started and staying in the game longer than everyone else. I talk about how my own definition of success has evolved over the years. I’ve learned to pay attention to resonance and...

Have you ever felt like your podcast is a grind? You’ve been showing up consistently. Publishing episodes every week. Doing everything people say you should do. And yet, after months or even years, it feels like nothing is really changing. You keep telling yourself: “Once my audience gets bigger, everything will change.” More listeners. More opportunities. More success. But after helping thousands...

In this episode of Podcast Answer Man, I talk about a milestone moment that I never thought I’d see so soon. For the first time in history, audio podcasting has surpassed AM/FM talk radio as the most popular way Americans consume spoken-word audio. This episode is part industry insight, part personal reflection, and part behind-the-scenes look at what I’ve been building lately. I also share severa...

Lately, I’ve been seeing a growing narrative that video podcasting is no longer optional. That if you’re not producing high-quality video alongside your podcast, you’re already behind. I don’t buy it. In this episode, I offer a thoughtful, experience-based response to that claim. Not because I dislike video. I actually enjoy video podcasts and have been consuming them for decades. But because I be...

In this episode, I share a conversation that was recorded at the Cincinnati Podcast Studio with Brian Erickson . I originally invited Brian to join me for an episode of my What Are You Creating? podcast, which I typically produce as an audio-only show. Since Brian runs a studio devoted to high-quality video podcast production, he invited me to come to the studio and record the conversation there....

In this episode, I sit down with Scott Smith, host of The Daily Boost , for a wide-ranging conversation shaped by more than two decades of podcasting experience. This is an honest exploration of what it actually takes to stay relevant, build a sustainable business, and remain creatively alive over the long haul in the content creation world. Below, I’ve compiled a list of insights drawn from our c...

Does podcasting really take too much time and cost too much money to produce? That question came up for me after a series of conversations with experienced podcasters who have stepped away from shows they once loved. In this episode, I explore that question from multiple angles, drawing on my own workflow, my production history, and what I consistently hear from people who feel stuck, burned out,...

What if the most powerful podcast you ever create is not one you plan to produce every week for years, but one you intentionally decide to end before you ever hit record on episode one? In this episode, I share the full recording of my PodFest Expo 2026 session where I make the case for launching a limited-series podcast. A short, laser-focused show designed to solve one specific problem for one s...

If you would like to learn how to start a podcast and still be around 12 years later, you will want to listen to this episode. In it, I share a powerful conversation with Laura McClellan, host of The Productive Woman podcast , who took my Podcasting A to Z course more than twelve years ago and has now published over five hundred episodes. Laura almost never launched her show. She recorded her firs...

In this episode, I share why podcasting conferences still matter in 2026. Attending podcast-focused conferences has shaped my entire career. From the early days of missing the very first podcasting events to the way conferences eventually accelerated my growth, my relationships, and my income, this episode is a reflection on why rooms full of podcasters change everything. For the first few years o...