With over a decade of experience working on his podcast, David Ralph is the host of the top 0.5% ranked Join Up Dots podcast with 200,000 monthly listeners and has many pearls of wisdom on how to create a popular and profitable podcast.
In this episode of Mics to Millions, you’ll hear how David’s successes and failures got him to where he is today. Alongside how burnout almost destroyed him and his podcast when starting out, and how he’s adopted a ”work hard, work lazy” approach to avoid overworking.
Moreover, you’ll find out the inspiring story of how he was forced to let go of his ego and become a takeaway delivery driver in the early years of his business after falling on hard times. And he shares how this experience shaped him to become the esteemed podcaster he is today.
Work hard, work lazy
If you want to become a top-ranked podcaster, it’s no secret that you’ll have to work hard to get there. But as David advocates, it’s not just about working hard, but how you work. If you’re tirelessly grinding away, and you’re not getting the results you want, stop and ask yourself: What can I be doing better?
“If you’re sitting on a sofa just watching Netflix all the time, you’re not going to get the results you want. But I think the mistake that I made was just working really hard, not getting the results, and not stopping to think, is there a different way?”
Take time away from work to disconnect. David believes this can give you the clarity of mind to see what isn’t working and can also allow your creativity to come back to life.
“You have to work hard, but I now say, work hard, work lazy. And what I mean by that is, it’s as good to be away from your computer and your microphone for three or four days as it is sitting in front of it. That’s where the ideas come from. Work hard, but be focused. Know your direction. And if you’re stumbling, then it’s all right to stop for a moment.”
🎧Check out the full episode to learn how David created a sustainable system to create his podcast that stops him from burning out and allows him to keep production up.
Sometimes it’s necessary to ignore your ego to achieve success
After decades of stable employment, David’s decision to quit and pursue podcasting and entrepreneurship without a clear plan might have seemed like a dubious choice at the time.
But this never stopped him. Even when finances were difficult, he remained dedicated to the path that he had chosen and knew that if he stuck at it he’d make it in the end.
To make ends meet during a particularly difficult time in his business, David began working as a delivery driver for a local Indian restaurant. While this wasn’t what he had in mind when he left his full-time work to become an entrepreneur, he knew he had to let go of his ego and do what was necessary to keep his business and podcast moving forward.
“I remember in the early days of Join Up Dots, it wasn’t going very well. I wasn’t getting clients through and I didn’t really understand the marketing and all that kind of stuff. I started delivering curries in the evening. I was always really worried that one of the people opening the door would be somebody that I used to work with. That was the only thing. And that was the ego again, that was the ego sort of saying, you want to look a success, you want to feel proud about yourself.”
He adds “But once you throw that away and you think to yourself, no, if I need to pay this bill, there’s a job out there. I think you are probably 60% towards where you want to be. I think that is the anchor that drags us around. And I think that is why people don’t try stuff, because they don’t want to look like they failed.”
Build your podcast around what you want to sell
When starting a podcast to make money, many people mistakenly prioritize downloads as the main measure of potential earnings through sponsorship.
However, exploring other options of making money through different methods, and identifying how you plan to do this early on can save you a lot of time and energy.
“I did Google Ads, then I did Facebook ads, then I did LinkedIn. I don’t think any of these things really work as marketing. And I realized then that the only thing that you can do is not worry about the audience, not worry about the listener. And I think the numbers don’t make a difference at all. You can make a very nice living on very few numbers. It’s all about understanding what you’re actually doing the podcast for.”
He adds, “I think that if you want to be a podcaster, you need to find out what you are going to market and build the podcast around that. That’s totally different from how I did it when I launched a podcast and then thought, how the hell am I going to make money from this? And went the opposite way. Start with your thing. If you’re a business owner, start about how you can express your knowledge to get leads in. Don’t worry about the numbers.”
🎧Check out the full episode here.