Help Me Podcast

Welcome to

Help Me podcast, a show designed to help you launch

and grow your podcast. I am your host Gino, and twice a week,

I will release a new episode with different tips and tricks for

launching and growing your podcast, from audio engineering, to planning

intentionally, to growth tactics, each episode will be a bite sized

tip to help you podcast.

Welcome back to help me podcast. I hope you are all doing

well. Today, I have a new idea about

growing your podcast. And it's called a podcast

swap. And, you know, in the past, I've talked about doing like

an interview swap where maybe you find a podcast that

is in a similar genre or the same genre or a complimentary

genre, and you kinda pitch the host like, hey, you know, let me

be on your podcast and you can be on my podcast. and, you know,

you kinda interview each other. Therefore, you know, utilizing both of

your networks. but today, I have a little bit of a tweak on that

idea. Instead of being interviewed on another podcast,

the idea of this podcast swap is actually

swapping episodes. So for example, you know,

this podcast, right, you know, what this podcast is. If I found another

podcast out there that is for podcasters, I would go and

pitch to them like, hey, here's an episode of my podcast.

You play this the next time you go to release an episode, and I'll play

one of your episodes next time I go to release an episode.

So what you're really doing is actually swapping

the episode, the whole episode itself, not just an interview.

And I know it sounds a little weird at first, but let's get into talking

about the specifics and the logistics of it. And and the more we talk about

it, I think the more it will make sense because that's how it was for

me when I heard about the idea. So one of the first things that, like,

really got me to think about this is sometimes people replay

episodes, right? Sometimes you're on vacation or maybe it's a holiday.

and you'll just replay, like, one of your most popular episodes. And, you

know, it's okay. Like, it it works fine. You know, there's nothing

technically wrong with doing that. But sometimes, you know, if people

listen to your show all the time and they've already heard it, it's not really

anything new for them. So you're not really offering anything new to

your loyal loyal listeners. You know, it may be helpful for a new

listener who hadn't heard that previous episode. But, you know, instead

of doing a replay of your own episode, what you could do

is play an episode from a podcast that isn't yours.

Right? So it's like a hand selected podcast that is

complimentary to your audience. You know, you're picking it out. You're deciding what

podcast and podcast episode it might be, and then you're playing

it on your podcast. And, you know, the the first

and obvious thing is like, well, it's not gonna be jarring for audience like

they're just gonna hear somebody else's podcast. They're gonna be confused. Right? Well,

yeah, if you if you just upload that episode, of course, it's gonna be confusing

for them. But you caveat it with creating a little bit of an

intro. So, you know, you hop on for a minute or 2 and say like,

hey, you know, we're doing something special this week. We're not gonna have an

episode for me, but what we are gonna have is I'm gonna show you

an episode from a podcast that I really like, and I think you

guys, you know, can get a benefit from it or learn something from

it, you know, kinda explain why you're showing them

this episode. And and really what it is is it's a curated, you know,

episode that you've picked and you are now sharing

with your audience. And of course, you wanna be, you know, kinda picky in in

who you're choosing to do this with. Right? You you don't wanna do it for

just anybody or anybody that approaches you, you wanna do your homework and and make

sure it's gonna be a podcast that is valuable to to your

audience. So you're gonna wanna spend some time to, you

know, do research and figure out who you really wanna be highlighting.

But like I said, after your little intro, you're you're gonna play their

entire episode and, you know, it's that easy. So so you really

only have to create that 1 or 2 minute intro saying what you're

doing, setting people up, telling them what to expect, and

then playing the show so they, you know, can enjoy it. So it's it's kind

of a win win for everybody because not only is somebody gonna be

doing this for you, and you and you can send them an episode that you

want their entire audience to hear and to listen to in its

entirety, you're also, you know, filling a

space at that that you may be needed. Right? Maybe you're taking a break or

you're on vacation and you needed to fill that space, and you don't have to

kinda just rehash your old episodes. You can give them a

new thing or a new idea. And you know, especially with

podcasting, this works so well because people really trust the host of a

podcast. Right? You're you're in their ear every week. You really build that

trust with your audience. And for being featured on

somebody else's podcast, they're really probably gonna take it seriously, and they're probably

going to listen to that episode, you know, unless terrible, you know, it doesn't make

any sense, or, you know, it's offensive or something like that,

then maybe they might not listen to it, but you know, if it if it

makes sense from a niche perspective,

chances are most of the people are gonna listen to it.

And now you have a bunch of people who are willing to

listen to who are podcast listeners and already in your niche or sub

niche, being opened to the idea of your podcast, you're sharing

them your favorite episode, and now, you know, there's probably gonna be

a high turnover of the people that actually then go to your

show and go find you. You know, it's it's really an

opportunity for two podcasts to grow

together and to leverage their own networks. And, you know, there's not

just one way to do this. I think the the great part about this is

you know, when you reach out to a host of a show that you maybe

wanna do a swap with, you know, it's kind of a negotiation, right? Like,

you can look at their show and you know, maybe they have

more downloads than you, and that's something that you guys can

leverage or negotiate, or maybe you have more than them. but I think it, you

know, approaching them in the way of like, hey, I think we

can do something beneficial for the both of us. instead of asking them for

like, hey, can you feature me? Right? Cause that that kinda comes off as like,

you know, you're only thinking about yourself and I think it's a

much better approach to be like, hey, the both of us have

something here that makes sense to go together. What can we

do to help both of our audiences. And if you're bringing that idea

to somebody and, you know, you're kinda laying it out for them, you know, it

takes all the work away for them. It it makes it easy for them to

be like, oh, yeah. I could totally see that win win. So, you

know, everybody's not gonna say yes and and maybe everybody that you approach

may not wanna do this, but I think it's worth curating a list

of shows that maybe you want to pitch this sort of

podcast swap. And remember, you know, you're sharing this with your audience. So

again, you wanna hand select it. You wanna make sure that it's

something that is offering value to your own audience.

And know, just making sure it's a win win for everybody and

kinda having the specifics of a negotiation laid

out, maybe in an email or something. So communication, super clear. And

another thing you might wanna talk about too within the negotiation is

like, how long are you gonna have this podcast episode up? Right?

Like, is gonna be a permanent thing that you leave, and it's

gonna be, you know, on on your feed forever

or another possibility is, like, well, maybe I only put it up for 30

days, and then I take it down. So, you know, maybe you wanna keep your

backlog clean or something like that. So that's the different take that I

have on a podcast swap for you today. It's swapping

an actual episode with another podcast that you support

and feel strongly about and feel that it could be a benefit to

your community. Let me know if any of you have ever done this before.

And, you know, if you've done it successfully or what your thoughts are about it,

you can always send me an email with the link in the show

notes and I will see you all in another episode. Thanks for listening.

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notes and click the link. Thanks for listening and happy podcasting.