#246 – Doing Content Right with Steph Smith of Trends.co

What It Covers

Steph Smith explains why she launched her podcast "Shit You Don't Learn in School," covering podcast growth strategies, the thirty-day challenge method, content distribution tactics, and building deep audience relationships versus surface-level reach.

Key Questions Answered

• •Audience depth over breadth: People listen to six podcasts regularly versus dozens of newsletters and hundreds of blogs annually. Podcasts create best-friend-level relationships through hour-long conversations, making them ideal for deep trust but poor for mass reach or quick monetization.
• •The thirty-day validation challenge: Record, edit, and publish one episode daily for thirty days to test commitment and content depth before fully launching. This method reached 200 listens per episode and validated audience interest while building production skills through real-world practice.
• •Twitter-first distribution strategy: Tweet controversial takes on episode topics first, let them gain traction organically, then append podcast links to viral tweets. One tweet with 10,000 likes about the forty-hour work week drove 1,000 downloads to the corresponding episode alone.
• •Realistic success metrics: The average podcast gets 27 listens per episode. Reaching the top 1% requires just 3,200 listens per episode. Understanding these benchmarks prevents discouragement and helps creators set achievable growth targets rather than comparing themselves to Joe Rogan's 7 million downloads.