Ep #253: 5 Powerful Strategies I Used to Hit 300K Podcast Downloads

Hi docs, welcome to The EntreMD Podcast, where it’s all about helping amazing physicians just like you embrace entrepreneurship so you can have the freedom to live life and practice medicine on your terms. I’m your host, Dr. Una.

Well, hello, hello, my friends. Welcome back to another episode of The EntreMD Podcast. So listen, we are having a party in The EntreMD Podcast world because less than a week ago we recorded episode 250 and today we are celebrating crossing 300,000 downloads, which happened on the same day. Both things happened on Thursday. It’s unbelievable.

Okay, so I decided, you know, I’m not a theorist, right? Literally, the whole thing behind EntreMD is I learned how to build profitable businesses. I learned how to practice medicine on my terms. I learned how to create financial freedom. I learned how to own my voice. I learned how to make an impact in an industry, right? That can’t be denied.

I learned how to serve so many people. I learned how to build a business around my passion so I never have to work a day in my life. And EntreMD is all about teaching doctors how to do the same thing, right? It’s literally what I’ve done. I’m like, “Hey, guys, this is how I did it. Let’s do it.”

And so you’ll notice even when I did my book launch I did a podcast episode on behind the scenes of a successful book launch. And when I hit my first million in my second business I’m like, “Okay, these are the lessons I learned along the way.”

And so I figured today that I would show you five powerful strategies that I used to hit 300,000 downloads, and this is in less than three years, right? And I will start by saying thank you, because I did not listen to 300,000 episodes of The EntreMD Podcast, it’s because you listened, it’s because you shared, it’s because you sent us reviews and that helped the algorithm say, “Hey, check out this podcast, it’s a really good podcast.”

And most importantly, a lot of you have taken the things you learn from the podcast, and you’ve done them. And what that has done is created wins in your businesses. And when you tell me about it, it is such a heartwarming thing. And so we’re still celebrating, and today what I’m going to ask you to do is in your stories on Facebook, on Instagram, I would love for you to go and post whatever win you’ve gotten because you listen to The EntreMD Podcast.

Post that, tag us, #entremd, that would mean the world to me. I would love to go read them, shout you out, re-share them, just have a whole big party. I know we had a party less than a week ago, but I don’t know what to tell you, you know, this is your fault. You listened a lot so here we are.

Okay, so if you could post that on Instagram, Facebook, that would be amazing, amazing. And your friends will get to listen in as well and experience the same wins because this podcast is all about helping doctors build profitable businesses so they can live life and practice medicine on their terms.

So I’m going to show you the five powerful things, and the truth of the matter is this will work whether you are a podcaster, or you’re a YouTuber, or you are a blogger, these principles will work, okay? And the truth of the matter is you can also leverage these things to promote your business as well, but for your platforms it will do wonders. So let’s take a look at these five things.

So the first thing is that I stayed true to my mission. I stayed true to my mission, I’ve been podcasting for almost three years at this point and my mission has always been to help doctors build profitable businesses so they can live life and practice medicine on their terms. And so with every single episode the episode is designed to help doctors get there, the end.

I stayed true to it and I’ve been like I want to help 100,000 doctors. I’m not quite there yet, but oh my goodness, am I on my way, right? And again, I have you to thank for that because of all the work you’ve done sharing about the podcasts like religiously, I truly appreciate it. But I’ve stayed true to my mission and because of that people know what to expect when they come to the podcast.

There is that consistency in what I’m bringing to, I was going to say cyberspace, but to, you know, the audio space. There’s a consistency to it, okay? So I’ve stayed true to that so people can build routines or round they because they’re like, yeah, this is what we’re going to get from here. This is my free MBA, as we love to say it in the EntreMD community. So that’s the first thing.

And I want to encourage everyone who’s listening your business, yes, it’s a business, but there’s also a mission behind it. And sometimes it can be intimidating to own your mission. I want to invite you to own it, okay? In the beginning it’s going to feel really weird and then you’re going to become louder and louder about it.

When I first started, I was like 100,000, well 80,000 because the idea is to help 10% of physicians and at the time my research showed that there were 800,000. And so I was like, help 80,000 doctors build profitable businesses, and it seemed so weird and strange but that’s what I wanted to do. And that’s what I was committed to doing. And that’s what I was going to spend years doing, like whatever it takes, right?

And so I owned it even though, my goodness, like I would have episodes and 150 people would listen to it, right, but here I am talking about 80,000. But I owned it. Even with the EntreMD Business School, my mission to help doctors build six and seven figure businesses, it was intimidating in the beginning, like how can you say that? But I can say that because that is exactly what I’m doing.

And the longer I stay at it, the more effort I put into it, the more I believe in, in all of that, the more I start seeing those results, and it’s been insane, right? So you have a mission and sometimes it’s like, yeah, but can I really say that? Can I really do that? Own your mission. It’s yours, own it? Okay?

So that’s the first thing. The second thing is I focused on my audience. I really, really, really did focus on you listening, right? And so what that means is I would show up on this podcast, not to air what I know, not to just talk, not to have a good time talking, not just to own a podcast, but because I wanted to serve, because I wanted to help. And so what that means is, I am focused on who I’m talking to, which is physicians who own businesses or wants to start businesses and they want to grow them.

I would listen a lot like what are the pain points? What are the pains that my audience has, right? And so I’m listening. So when it’s like, oh man, I want to do video, but I can’t show up on video, I’ll create a podcast episode about it. When it’s like I’m embarrassed about asking for money and selling, I’ll do a podcast episode around that. When someone is like, I really am sabotaging myself in my business because I truthfully believe that wanting to make more money is greedy, then I’ll do a podcast episode around that.

And so it was all about serving, right? There is a recession coming, I’m like what can I do to empower my people so that they know that they can thrive in the midst of a recession? I was 100% dialed in to my audience. This is just for solving problems, that’s what it existed for, right? And so I continued to focus. I did not come up with content that is not relevant to my audience. I did not flip flop.

And I do want to say that if you have not necessarily done it in this way, I would really love for you to see this as an opportunity to do things better, not to see that there’s something wrong with what you’re doing. Do you see what I mean? Like it’s a subtle shift, but it’s a big shift, right? So it’s great, I’m a podcaster, I’m a YouTuber, I’m a blogger, it’s amazing, huh, I haven’t done it that way. Wow, if I tweak it, that will be even better.

Which is very different from, oh my goodness, I suck. She said five things, I’m not doing any of them. Okay, I don’t want you walking away like I suck. I want you walking away like, oh my goodness, look at the opportunity I have to make things that are great even greater, right? So that’s the way I want you to walk away from this.

But it’s a lot of focus on my audience, right? Like see what I just did? Now that I think about it telling you, oh, don’t let this be a downer for you, see it as an opportunity. Why did I do that? Because I’m tuned into who’s listening, right? And I’m like, wait, somebody’s going to take this and they’re going to think, oh my goodness, what I’m doing sucks, right? And I’m solving that problem, I’m anticipating it. I’m dialed in, okay? This exists to help you, the end.

So I was really dialed in and I think people could see that. And because of that people are getting wins and people are getting their questions answered. And I would get emails like, I needed this today. Like Dr. Una it’s like you read my mind, send me emojis like get out of my head, Dr. Una. And that’s intentional, both because I want to get those emails that say that so I can feel good, but that is just a measure of the impact that what I’m doing is having.

And so I was really, really, really laser focused on my audience. When I go into Facebook groups I listen to what the challenges are, where people are getting stuck. When I have my calls with the EntreMD Business School I’m listening, where are they getting stuck? What are the themes that I notice? What kind of challenges are happening?

And I’ll produce episodes because believe it or not I produce this also for the students in the EntreMD Business School. I’m like, listen, I do this for you guys. It is to answer your questions, it is to help you make progress, It is to help you overcome obstacles, to help you get some strategy that you need to move your business to the next level.

And then the third thing I did, which you might find this funny, is that I embraced the boring, okay? Embrace boring because there is no way to be super excited about podcasting consistently for two and a half years. There were times I did not feel like podcasting. There were times when I was not super excited about it. There were some times I was tired.

But you see, if you only do the things that are exciting in your business, you’re not going to build a wildly successful business, it’s just not possible. And so the days I was excited about it, I did it excited. And the days I was not excited, I did it not excited, right? I embraced the boring. So it’s boring, but we do it. And you talk to most entrepreneurs who’ve been entrepreneurs for a while, there’s a lot of boring to embrace, right? So I embraced it.

And of course, like everything else, when I’m done I’m excited and all of that stuff. But there were some times I didn’t feel like, I did not feel like. There were even some episodes I was like, I don’t know, like that felt different, that didn’t feel very exciting. And it’s so funny, it is so funny that those are typically the episodes I get the greatest feedback on.

And so now I’ve learned, so I don’t go by how I feel. I just go and solve problems for my listeners. That’s it, I solve problems for you, that’s it. So, boring, I embraced that. I did not record when I was excited, I recorded when I was supposed to record, the end.

Okay, number four, I promoted it a lot. Now, of course, I could promote it a lot more, but I promoted a lot. And the idea is this, if you’re going to create content and you’re not going to promote it, don’t create it. It’s a lot of hard work for not much, right?

And so promotion for me looked like for most Monday episodes there will be an email saying this is the episode that went live and this is why you should listen to it. And again, it’s all about solving problems. So if you have this kind of problem, you have this kind of challenge in your business, then this is the episode you’ve been waiting for.

And so I would do an email for it, I would do social media for it either on my page or in the EntreMD Facebook group. Which if you’re not a part of you should come join us, just look for EntreMD on Facebook and click to join and that’s it. All right, so I would put it there, again with a why, why people should listen to it. And so I did that.

Sometimes, I would have people ask me questions and I’m like, “Man, I’ve done a really good podcast episode on that,” and so I would send them the podcast episode and say, hey, listen to this. If you have any further questions after it, I’m happy to answer. And so I used that, I used it as a resource. That was part of the promotion, I did that a lot.

And then sometimes, this was once in a while though, I would do a Facebook Live and I would reference a podcast episode that people could go to to get more information. And really, anywhere I met doctors and I’m like, oh man, listen to this, this is amazing, anywhere I met doctors. Because again, I was producing a resource, I’m not producing just to talk. And so if someone is a physician and is an entrepreneur, there’s a lot to get from the podcast, you know what I mean? So I did that, I did that quite a bit.

So I promoted it that way, I never really used any ads specifically for the podcast. But I leveraged social media, I leveraged emails, and I used it as a resource. And so those are probably the biggest ways that I promoted it, but I did that consistently. And so that’s the way I did that.

And then at events, right? And so being on other people’s platforms, so whether I was a guest on somebody else’s podcast, or I was at an event, or I was speaking or I was networking at an event, I would talk about the podcast quite a bit. And I don’t see it as, it’s not a sleazy thing to start with.

It is a free resource and to be honest with you there are many people who do fluffy podcasts, meaning that they don’t really do a lot of training and teaching. It’s a lot of why, you know, they’ll show them the why, not the how, save the how for your paid stuff. But I’ve done a lot of how’s, I’ve done a lot.

And so truthfully, there are many things that if I package them, I could make it a course and people would pay a nice amount of money for it and things like that, but I don’t. And so I really give a lot of great value on the podcast. Really I leave it all out there. And so I’m not afraid to tell people about it. It’s a free resource, it’s a free MBA and I created it for it to be a tool for the transformation of the physician community. So I talk about it quite a bit, okay?

All right. So that’s what I did with promotion. And then the last one is I never missed an episode. I never missed one episode. The first year, we had an episode a week. And the second year and this extra half year we’ve had two episodes a week, so on Monday and Thursday. And I haven’t missed one. And again, if you have missed one, that is not a problem. Going forward you can start planning not to. And so I never missed an episode.

And I didn’t realize how people would respond to consistent content. And so what happened was I started getting people telling me my Monday commute is The EntreMD Podcast, my Thursday walk is The EntreMD Podcast. So what people started doing is they started doing habit stacking with the podcast. So they link it with something they do every day. When I get ready for work on Monday I listen to The EntreMD Podcast, right.

And so when people start doing that, they’re doing that because it’s almost like a reward for consistency. But then if they’re not sure what Monday you can be their commute to work, then they no longer have you as part of their routine. It means they listen to you when they listen to you, right?

And so I think, because I got so much feedback where people are like, this is when I listened to your podcast who were habit stacking. And so if you’re not consistent, you remove yourself from that opportunity to be somebody who has a platform that people build a routine around, right? And so never miss an episode.

Now, that does not mean that I recorded podcast episodes twice a week, every single week. That’s not what that means at all. There was a lot of batching, where I would produce four or six episodes at the same time. And so I did have breaks here and there for podcasting. In fact, my first year in podcasting I had two months that I took off podcasting completely. But now I have three podcasts, so that’s a little harder, it’s a little harder to do.

So I have this, The EntreMD Podcast, I have the Doctors Changing Medicine Podcast, and I have the God and Your Business Podcast. And so I’m not taking whole months, but I am taking a significant amount of time off podcasting.

So those are the things that I did that I think accounted the most for the 300,000 downloads that we had in less than three years. Stayed true to my mission, focused on the audience, embraced boring, promoted it a lot, and never missed an episode.

And if you are a content creator, I want to tell you this, I was looking at data a few days ago that really blew my mind. And it showed that there are 4.4 million podcasts, okay? 4.4 million. And so people tell me, oh my goodness, there’s so many podcasts, it’s saturated and all of that. But it really isn’t. Of the 4.4 million, 157,000 podcasts only had had more than 10 episodes and an episode in the last week.

And I’m going to say that again because you need to get this. 4.4 million podcasts, out of the 4.4 million they tried to find out how many podcasts had at least 10 episodes and had an episode in the last week. Only 157,000. 3.9%. It’s not saturated at all. And so if you’re here and you’ve been putting out content consistently, whether that’s on a podcast, a YouTube channel, or a blog, I want to say congratulations, you’re doing great work. And it’s not easy to do, but you’re doing it.

And if you’re here, you’re like, man, I’m not one of the 3.9%, I did this, I did that. Well this is a time you can make a quality decision that you know what, I’m going to do it like I mean it. I’m going to be part of the 3.9% because my mission matters, because my audience matters, because the work that I’m doing matters. I’m going to promote my podcast because what I put on it matters, okay?

And if you do that, it’s going to change the impact you have and it’s going to change the revenue that you can create in your business. It’s going to make a big difference.

So those are the five things and I am beyond grateful. So on this day I would love for you to make some decision. Like I’m already doing this, I’m going to stay consistent or I haven’t quite done it, I’m going to up-level, whichever, but make a decision. Your voice is needed.

I am a firm believer that physicians should be the thought leaders in the healthcare space, inside and outside the exam room. But being a thought leader starts with owning your thoughts and putting them everywhere. And this is why I’m a firm believer that we should all have platforms, right?

And so I want to celebrate you, I want to see you at the top, I want to see you doing TED Talks, and I want to see you on TV. And I want to see us having some of the best podcasts, the best YouTube channels. And we can, we have so much to give the world. We have so much, okay? And the nice side effect is it will do wonders for your business, okay?

So make your decision, can’t wait to celebrate you. Don’t forget to go to your stories on Facebook and Instagram, tag us, #entremd or @drunachukwu and let us know how this podcast has changed your life and your business. And I will see you on the next episode of The EntreMD Podcast.

Hey, if you love listening to The EntreMD Podcast I want to invite you to join EntreMD On Demand. It is my signature subscription program that gives you access to a library of business courses designed to help you do one thing as a physician entrepreneur, and that is to thrive. Just head out to entremd.com/ondemand and I’d love to have you join us. See you on the inside.