It took two years and three months.

Two and a half years ago, my wife approached me and said, “I’m thinking about starting a Scottish History podcast”.

Like a younger sibling not wanting to miss out on the fun, I looked at her and shouted, “I could be your co-host!”. Generally Spooky History was born.

Fast forward through two rebrands, a microphone upgrade, and more than one occasion of starting the show without hitting record, we reached a milestone. We crossed 100,000 downloads.

Here are the lessons I’ve learned that you can steal to grow your own podcast.

P.S. If you want to start your own podcast, then I recommend Transistor. They provide everything you need to get started on your podcast.

Don’t Try and Please Everyone

Marmite. The horrible savoury paste that crazy people put on toast. It divides opinion completely. People love it or hate it. That’s what you want for your podcast.

At Generally Spooky History, we do the deep dive. Our episodes are two hours+, and we chat and laugh our way through them.

From the 1-star reviews we get, it’s obvious some people don’t like it:

• “too much chat”
• “the jokes aren’t funny”
• “Get rid of the annoying man, then it might be a good podcast”

I’ll be honest, that last one hurt. But the bad reviews are few and far between compared to the great ones:

• “annoyed I didn’t find it sooner! I’ve binged every episode!”
• “I love the depth of research and the banter between the hosts!”
• “my new favourite podcast!”

These are the people we care about. They love the deep dive. They love the chat. And they love the tangents.

If a listener gets in touch wanting shorter episodes, we can confidently say: “Sorry, that’s not what we do”.

This is everything because a podcast that’s for everyone is a podcast for no one. Decide who your podcast is for, and ignore everyone else. It’s not for them.

When researching, I noticed all the big podcasts had a similar experience. The reviews I read were all five stars or one star. But every review tended to focus on the same thing: “Love the story choice, five stars!” vs “Hate the story choice, 1 star”. Not everyone will love it. That’s just fine.

Be proud of who your podcast isn’t for. Be marmite.

People Listen to a Podcast for The hosts

We have listeners who aren’t from Scotland, don’t have Scottish ancestors, and don’t have a love of history. But they adore our podcast.

Come again?

I don’t know why they tried it, but I know my wife and I are why they hung around.

It’s people who are listening, not numbers on a screen. If you’re guarded, people won’t connect. Be a little vulnerable and share your true self. People will resonate with you.

And don’t be afraid to be passionate. You started a podcast to share something you love, so let that show. Hearing a passionate person talk about their passion is always a delight. My wife is crazy passionate about history, and that shines through.

Growth is Exponential

Getting 100,000 downloads took two years and three months. Now we’re getting 2k downloads a week. That means we’ll get our second 100,000 downloads in less than a year. That’s hockey stick growth. Check out our follower growth on Spotify:

That’s what exponential growth looks like. And in podcasting, it comes from two places:

1. More listeners who tell their friends

One of our earliest indicators of success was a message from a listener who’d set up a group chat to discuss new episodes. Holy shit. That’s the network effect. Things are made better when other people join in.

You want to make your podcast great so people will tell their friends about it. That way, the more listeners you have, the more friends they can tell.

2. More episodes for people to stumble upon

People will search podcast players for specific episode topics. Whether it’s interviews with certain people, specific true crime cases, or in our case, the places and legends we talk about.

We cover a lot of major topics on our podcast. I’m talking the Loch Ness Monster, Edinburgh Castle, the Stone of Destiny, that kind of thing. But we also have 60+ other topics we’ve covered.

The more episodes you have, the higher the chance someone searching a topic will find you. As Seth Godin says, growth happens drip by drip — one person, then another.

Growth starts slow. Glacially slow. Stick at it and your growth will begin to explode.

There’s Always a Bigger podcast

Initially, I connected with a ton of other beginner podcasters. Every time they shared a milestone, I’d be crushed. It felt like they were always getting more downloads than us.

But then I asked myself something that changed my mindset forever. How would I feel if ours was the most popular podcast in that group?

Honestly, I’d get annoyed that ours wasn’t the most popular history podcast. And if I managed that too? Would I honestly be annoyed that ours wasn’t the most popular podcast on the planet? What a ridiculous way to live.

The goalposts always move if you’re comparing outwardly. Look at your progress and race against that. There’s always a bigger podcast.

The Fun Should Be in Making It. Not Making Money From it

This was always a passion project for my wife and I. We didn’t want a business. We wanted a podcast we were proud of.

We would have given up long ago if we’d been in it for the money. We kept showing up because we love it, we’re excited to record, and now we can’t imagine not podcasting.

Besides, our listeners trust us because we’ve been showing up for years. With that trust, we can start to make money. We started up a Patreon in February, and over 50 people have come through it. And we design merch we know they’ll love. We regularly get $100+ orders.

But it’s not why we continue showing up. We show up because we love it, and can’t imagine not podcasting.

Get lost in the process and focus on the joy of creating your podcast.

If We Can Do It, You Can Do it

The quick five:

• Aim to be a podcast people love or hate.
• Be an authentic host and let people connect with you.
• Remember, growth is a hockey stick. It takes time.
• Don’t compare yourself to other podcasts. There’s always a more popular one.
• Have fun. That will keep you coming back every week.

If you were to list podcast topics by popularity, Scottish history isn’t in the top 100. Factor in that it’s a spooky Scottish history, and the pool of listeners gets even smaller.

We didn’t have an audience or even experience. We just googled around for a guide, bought a couple of microphones, wrote a script, and hit record.

If our podcast can get 100,000 downloads, yours can too.

How I Can Help You

1) Free 5-day Podcast Marketing Fundamentals Course – Learn the basics of what it takes to grow a popular show, get more listeners, and earn more money from your podcast. The five day email course is totally free

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4) ​Recommended Tools​​– These are the tools I use to grow my podcast. I focus on tools that improve quality and save time.