How The Jordan Harbinger Podcast Will get 10 Million Downloads A Month

Jordan Harbinger’s podcast will get between 5 to 10 million downloads a month.

These numbers might be eye-popping to most podcasters, who understand how troublesome constructing an viewers will be. Simply how exhausting is the duty? Contemplate this: If a podcast publishes a brand new episode, and that new episode will get solely 4,588 downloads within the first seven days, that places the podcast within the high 1% of all podcasts. (That is Buzzsprout knowledge as of January, 2023.)

In different phrases, 99% of podcasts do not get 4,588 downloads within the first seven days — not to mention many tens of millions a month.

So how did Harbinger construct the viewers he has? By diving deep into how the podcast ecosystem works, and what brings listeners again to his present. He is a former Wall Road lawyer whose present, The Jordan Harbinger Present, is designed for curious folks: He interviews a variety of fascinating folks, and produces different episodes with completely different codecs that discover listener questions and fashionable myths.

On this dialog on the Entrepreneur podcast Downside Solvers, Harbinger tells editor in chief Jason Feifer how he constructed his viewers, together with:

• The way to entice new listeners
• The way to create new codecs to maintain listeners engaged
• What it takes to create one thing genuinely value listening to
• And extra!

Hearken to the dialog right here, or learn an edited model of the transcript beneath.

On the very starting, how did you construct the viewers for the present?

I had an present viewers from a earlier present, however the bulk of my viewers discovered me within the years since. What I did was I went on as many different podcasts as I may. I talked about issues that had been exhausting for me, issues that had been going nicely for me. I shared data.

I additionally traded loads of advert swaps with different exhibits. I do not see different folks doing this. It is underutilized and it is free. I do know the explanation loads of exhibits do not do it is because folks say, “What if I like to recommend a present and other people cease listening to my present?” I perceive that, particularly for those who’re a brand new creator, however folks know that there are different podcasts. When you suggest a present and it is a good present, you are constructing your platform as an authority. What you may discover is that most individuals won’t ditch you. I actually do not see a internet loss from this. When you are available with this shortage mindset, it does not allow you to develop.

When you get that listener, how do you create a connection and hold them round?

I attempt answering each piece of fan mail that is available in, each DM, each message. Over time this creates long run listeners, which is nice as a result of buying a brand new listener is pricey. Once you lose a listener, you must exchange that particular person. So I can cut back the quantity of folks that go, “I do not care about this man, I do not care about this present,” as a result of I work together with them ultimately that makes them really feel heard or particular.

And albeit, lots of them are fairly attention-grabbing! Then it turns into like they’re part of the present. Folks go, “Wow, he took my suggestion. He listened to my suggestions.” That creates relationships together with your followers and your present grows over time.

You do that attention-grabbing factor on the finish of your episodes — you run a produced trailer for one other episode of your present. Why?

I run a trailer for an additional present on my feed. So if somebody’s like, “Wow, that episode concerning the spy cult was actually cool,” I will run a associated trailer and I will ship folks again to episode 700 or no matter it’s.

These price cash to make, however I determine over time what occurs is — and what I hear from viewers suggestions — they go, “Man, I listened to your episode with so-and-so as a result of they promoted it, then on the finish I heard a trailer for an additional episode from one other man who I like, after which I heard the trailer after that one…” and other people simply go down this rabbit gap the place they’re like, “Then I listened to twenty episodes and I used to be like, ‘That is my favourite podcast. Oh my god, how did I not find out about this earlier than?”

That is what you need, since you’re telling folks what to take heed to subsequent. They do not go, “Oh, that Jordan episode is over. Let me see what else I received saved on my cellphone.” They go, “I am simply going to go get episode 44 of the Jordan Harbinger Present as a result of I already heard a trailer and it sounds cool.”

It is such as you’re lowering friction the place folks could not even notice there may be friction. The friction is that if an episode of yours ended, and also you did not inform folks what different episode to take heed to, then they’d need to resolve themselves — or perhaps not pay attention in any respect.

Precisely.

Your present is an interview present — and I do know from private expertise, having been a visitor in your present, that you just do a ton of analysis in your visitors. Not many individuals try this.

I watch the film or learn the e-book, no matter it’s. I take a bunch of notes. I manage the notes in a manner that is sensible. Folks will go, “Oh, you need to have a free-flowing dialog.” I disagree with that. I feel anyone who’s humorous may have a free-flowing dialog, however congrats — you’re in the midst of the pack of all different podcasts, and nothing units you aside except you’re pals with Joe Rogan and also you go on his present and he sends his viewers your manner. In that case, congratulations. In any other case, you are screwed. So what I attempt to do is put together greater than all people else and have a fairly entertaining dialog.

You will have completely different codecs in the identical feed, which I am seeing extra of within the podcasting world. Typically folks run longer episodes, generally shorter. Typically a dialog, generally a solo episode. Are you able to inform me about that technique and the way you’ve got seen it work?

Yeah. Each Friday I do an recommendation present. And I began including debunking episodes on Sundays referred to as Skeptical Sundays. That is one thing in 2023 that we’re actually leaning into, the place it is like, why the Olympics are type of a sham, why dietary supplements and nutritional vitamins are type of BS.

Now, why did not I spin that off into one other feed? I do not need to run two exhibits. And most of the people go, “I do not take heed to the recommendation exhibits. That is not one thing for me.” They begin off with an interview after which finally an recommendation present begins enjoying whereas they’re cooking hen they usually go, “Wow, that was extra attention-grabbing than I assumed,” they usually begin to binge these. So you do not need to make friction the place they have to go and subscribe to one thing else.

I suppose podcasters may fear about doing this, as a result of they do not need to violate folks’s expectations. It is like, folks subscribed for one type of present — and now you are giving them one thing else. They may unsubscribe.

One particular person has written to me and stated, “I want these different episodes weren’t within the feed.” And it is like, that is one one that cannot skip an episode? That is a bizarre downside to have. I do not actually care about these outliers.

Some folks may skip sure episodes; I do not actually care. However what you need is a present the place folks go, “I am not going to get sick of this as a result of, even when one is an interview and the following one’s recommendation, I can simply push ahead and it’ll be one thing in a special format.”

It retains folks , and that is what you need. You need stickiness. When you’ve ever gotten sick of a podcast, it is most likely as a result of it is gotten to be the identical factor again and again. As an alternative, you add selection in a manner that is sensible for the persona kind which may take heed to the present.

One other factor that I most likely should not say out loud, however I will do: Once you subscribe to a podcast and also you obtain the episode, I would love it for those who listened to that episode, however for those who do not, I nonetheless receives a commission. Not the best-case state of affairs, but in addition higher than nothing.

So what number of episodes are you placing out per week now? And the way many days is simply too many days to launch an episode?

I put out three. I’d say three is the max, and never only for the listener. I suppose you possibly can do extra in the event that they had been shorter. My interviews are over an hour, my recommendation exhibits are about an hour, Skeptical Sundays are about an hour. So that could be a format the place folks can binge it in the event that they need to, however there’s additionally room for different issues of their life, or different podcasts.

For me, it is not simply selection. I like doing the recommendation, doing Skeptical Sundays, and doing the interviews. However I am not simply mailing it in. I do not try this. I’ve received a bunch of notes. If I am doing two interviews per week, I’ve received to learn two books per week. That is loads. I’ve received two little youngsters. I’ve received three episodes that I am releasing. I can not do greater than that.