With 730k+ subscribers on YouTube, it’s fair to say that Dr. Anthony Balduzzi knows a thing or two about how to grow an audience online.
Following the success of his original YouTube channel, Dr. Balduzzi, host of the Fit Father Project Podcast and the creator of the Fit Father Project YouTube channel, was inspired to branch out.
As a result, he created the Fit Father Project Podcast, which receives roughly 10k monthly listeners, and the Fit Mother Podcast, which receives approximately 2.3k monthly listeners.
Despite the incredible success these YouTube channels and podcasts have experienced, Dr. Balduzzi admits that if he could turn back time, there would be many things he’d do differently.
In this episode of Mics to Millions, we chat with Dr. Balduzzi to understand why he created a separate YouTube account for the podcasts instead of using his main YouTube account which has so many subscribers.
Alongside this, he also shares what he considers to be the challenges and advantages of having a video podcast.
From this conversation, you’ll learn why he recommends batch recording interviews, how podcast guesting has grown his audience, and why you need to be ready to adapt your episode formats even if they’ve brought you success in the past.
Spreading out recordings can eat into your productivity and decrease the quality of your interviews
Have you ever sat down to work on a project, but find your time eaten away by small tasks like sending and replying to emails? Well, for Dr. Balduzzi podcast interviews can be just as intrusive when focusing on work outside of podcasting.
“There’s little interviews here and there, and then it becomes your whole thing and zaps your productivity,” he says. So, to combat this he batch records his interviews.
“I like to batch record podcasts, so I’ll try to get those scheduled on a given day. Not necessarily always back-to-back, but a good day of podcast recording could be three to five podcasts, and that could be my show or being on other people’s shows. And I do that typically towards the end of the week, on a Thursday or a Friday,” he says.
By designating specific days for his podcast interviews, it allows him to enter a state of flow where he can deeply focus on other projects that require his full attention. Moreover, on the days when he is recording, he’s able to build up momentum with his energy, enabling him to get into the zone and record better interviews.
“I like to keep some days completely free for deep work. And that’s not related to the podcast. I like to block it out so I can do a lot of recording and get into that mode. Because when you get into the mode of having conversations it almost makes it easier to continue to do more of that. And you could get a lot of content banked out.”
🎧Check out the full episode to learn Dr. Balduzzi’s top podcast tips for growing a podcast.
Being lazy with promo content or unenthusiastic when notifying guests an episode is live will cost you
When you’re finished recording and the interview goes live, it can be easy to feel like you’ve done your job and you’re ready to move on to the next episode. However, according to Dr. Balduzzi, this is where the real opportunity to grow your podcast begins thanks to the power of cross-pollination.
He advocates that this is a vital component of the process because, if they don’t share it, you’re missing out on the opportunity to be presented to their audience and online following. To increase the chances of them sharing the episode, Dr. Balduzzi believes you should go the extra mile and give them all the material they need to do a good job of sharing it with their audience.
“If you come to them and say ‘You can promote this to your audience, here’s a little quote that you can say in a newsletter blurb. Here’s a social clip that you can share.’ If you take that extra step and make it easy for them, but also lead with your own enthusiasm, then your podcast can really grow, because now you’re in front of a new audience.”
Not creating solo episodes with YouTube in mind is a missed opportunity to boost visibility
If you already record solo episodes for your show, and you’re not uploading them to YouTube with video, Dr. Balduzzi has some advice for you (and if you don’t record solo episodes, now’s the time to start!).
Firstly, when you consistently feature guests, it can be easy to fade into the background.
“You could record with an infinite number of guests that would share valuable stuff, but the connection that you have as a host to your audience and your unique perspective could get lost in the fray,” he says.
To balance this out, he suggests that solo episodes can be a great way to show off your knowledge.
Secondly, solo episodes can be a great way to easily make content that is primed for success on YouTube.
“It’s very valuable to create YouTube success from a solo cast. There are a number of health channels that I see right now on YouTube where the setup for the videos is basically someone with a nice microphone, sitting center camera, with a good webcam or DSLR camera, and they’re basically doing what could be equivalent to a solo podcast with some B-roll on top. And that is the type of YouTube video that gets 100,000 plus views quickly and is very successful. So those solo casts would do a lot better as YouTube video content.”
🎧Check out the full episode here.