I can’t believe 2024 marks the 10th year of publishing The Fertility Podcast and rather than getting too sentimental here, I thought I’d share what I’ve learnt here:
1. Don’t be afraid to change podcast hosts, during the last decade, I’ve gone from Libsy to Acast back to Libsyn then to Captivate
2. If you do move hosts make a note of the downloads you’ve had before moving platforms and store them somewhere safe as the numbers don’t carry over. Over the last decade The Fertiity Podcast has had over 1 million downloads that I have on record and I know for a fact i’ve lost some of my figures along the way
3. Celebrate the milestones, I have done this over the years, but nowhere near the level that I’ve seen others doing it. This might be a confidence thing but if you’ve got skin in the podcast game, share your successes. Make sure you enter awards – you’ve got to be in it to win it!
4. Share the load, if you’ve embarked on your podcast solo and have found yourself wishing there was someone to bounce the banter off, have some conversations with potential pod pals, you never know who might have aspirations to pick up the mic. I did this in 2019.
5. Go for sponsorship early. I got my first lot of sponsorship two years into making The Fertility Podcast as I thought I needed numbers to prove my worth. I know of niche podcasters launching with sponsorship based on the subject matter and their social reach (which isn’t necessarily massive just engaged) Podcasting costs money – you need the kit to record and edit or the funds to outsource, you need the platform to record on and host the pod, you need branding, a website and you need the time – so think strategically about how much of yourself you can invest in it.
I’ve made and lost money with my podcast over the last decade.
5. Don’t be afraid to change things around. In 2021 we relaunched The Fertility Podcast as we’d been approached by a network keen to have more female-led content and they talked to us about what we would do if we could start again. Since launching in 2014 The Fertility Podcast content plan had gone all over the place and we decided to take everything off the main feed and we mapped out the journey people might find themselves chronologically. The archive was added to new feeds which were signposted throughout the newer content.
6. Think about your social media. I spent a lot of time creating templates with a social media person and scheduling my content and at times it works for me and the engagement was good but I’m not the biggest fan of having to work the algorithm and found myself getting in a tizz about the whole experience. So decide how you can manage that side of things.
7. If you think you’re podcasting in a niche, it won’t be long until there’s other following suit – take it a compliment, you’ve lead the way. When I started The Fertility Podcast it was the UK’s only podcast talking about the topic and today there are double figures, i’m delighted it’s a thing as I spent such a long time talking to the sector about what a ‘podcast’ was and why they needed to consider it in their marketing. As the media grew so did the ease in getting sponsorship
8. Embrace the video if you want to reach more people. Having worked in radio, I loved being able to rock up with no makeup on, wearing whatever as nobody saw you then. Then it all started to change with the line fading between audio and video content and the podcast advice was to publish on you tube which I did.. but without video just the audio as I didn’t have the software. Then came Zencastr and Riverside which changed things but that meant I had to be seen. Again the chimp inside has struggled with this and I don’t think I’ve maxed the opportunity but I’m changing that for 2025. I’m planning on changing my recording set up to invest in a space so the content looks good. Whether you do this on day one is down to your funds, I don’t think it’s a necessity as we’re so used to seeing people at home but it’s something I’m embracing.
9. Show prep/ Workflows and schedules / Contracts for sponsorship /Story Arcs/ Discount codes – there’s a whole world of behind the scenes work that you need to get your head around
10. Hand over the mic – for the last 18 months of The Fertility Podcast my co-host took centre stage and ran the show for me as I didn’t have the capacity and didn’t want it to just stop. My advice on this is to not be too precious here, yes the numbers changed and there were niggles with how we managed it on different social accounts but it kept going and my co-host did me proud and got a lot out of the process.
11. Never underestimate where your podcast might take you – since penning this blog, I’ve been approached to speak at a festival in 2025!