50. Her Downloads Doubled in 1 Month! Podcasting Growth Strategies with Lisa Oldson, MD

Nope, that's not a typo...Lisa's podcast downloads doubled in just one month! Lisa joins me in this episode to discuss how we worked together to implement a few simple changes that produced big results for her podcast!

Listen to the Smart Weight Loss Coaching Podcast or check out Lisa's offers (including her Women's Wellness Retreat) at www.SmartWeightLossCoaching.com

This episode was produced by me, The Podcast Teacher! Contact me at Hello@ThePodcastTeacher.com.

Transcript

Julia Levine:
Hey. Hey. And welcome back. This past month, I wrapped up my work with Adam Shibley of Podcasting Business School to become a certified podcast growth coach. Certification obtained. Woo hoo. During this process, I had to complete, quote, unquote, homework assignments to implement changes to 2 different podcasts based on what I was learning in the certification program. Of course, I used my own podcast as one of the podcasts, and I had several strong possibilities for the other.

Julia Levine:
My wonderful VIP client, doctor Lisa Oldson, had been persistently asking me for tips and tricks about growing her show over the past few months. So I invited her to be my guinea pig for the homework assignments, and she happily agreed to partner with me, testing out different strategies to grow her show, the smart weight loss coaching podcast. Spoiler alert. She had some absolutely amazing results, and my work with her has helped to shape my upcoming podcast growth pilot program. If you're interested in getting results like Lisa, head to the podcast teacher.com/grow, and I'll send you all the info about the pilot. But for right now, she's joining me on the show today to talk about some of the changes that we implemented together and the amazing results that she has seen. Welcome, Lisa.

Lisa Oldson:
Thank you so much. I'm honored to be picked by the teacher to talk about my podcast experience. Thank you, Julia.

Julia Levine:
I'd love to start out by just having you tell us a little bit about what you do, how a podcast fits into your business plan, like, why is this a journey for you?

Lisa Oldson:
I'm a physician, and I did primary care for about 15 years and then pivoted and changed my career to open my own small business, my solo practice to help people with weight loss. And during the pandemic, like so many people, I pivoted and changed to an online program where I created a course. I created an online presence, and the idea of starting a podcast was percolating through my the back of my head. People were saying, oh, this is so helpful. You should start a podcast. So I had been playing with the idea And after I started Smart Weight Loss Coaching, which is the name of my online program, I was invited to be on someone else's podcast. And, she and I were chatting and I was saying, I really admire you for going for it and making this happen. And she said, you should do it.

Lisa Oldson:
And I said, well, I've really been thinking about it, but I just don't know where to start. And that's when she told me about you, which is how the you know, it's amazing how it happened. I spoke with you and, boom, you know, like in a heartbeat, I had a podcast. And here I am over a year later, and, I mean, I wouldn't say I'm a pro, but I can't believe I have 70 episodes under my belt. It's just amazing. And it's thanks to you. I never, never would have pulled it together by myself.

Julia Levine:
Oh, well, you are too kind, and you are the one doing the hard work of all the recording and everything. So you deserve a lot of the credit as well. I'll take a little bit, but you deserve a lot. Okay. So thank you so much for giving us that context. And then I'd love to dive into you've mentioned that you've been podcasting for over a year. And so we started kind of this deep dive into growing your podcast, a few months ago. And so paint the picture for me before we started this work.

Julia Levine:
How did you feel like your podcast was doing before we decided to make some changes?

Lisa Oldson:
Well, I guess maybe I should say a question you did ask me is, what was the purpose of my podcast? Why was I doing it? And part of me was doing it to put some good out into the world. You know, not everyone can afford to join a program. Not everyone can work with me, and I thought I can share some of this content with people. But the other reason for doing it, honestly, was marketing. When people would join the Smart Weight Loss Coaching program, they would love it. They would stay. I got great feedback, but it was really hard for me to find people. I mean, you wouldn't think it would be hard, but I think there's a lot of skepticism about joining an online program, which I can understand.

Lisa Oldson:
And especially if it is an investment, people are a little nervous. So I felt like the podcast was a vehicle for people to get to know me and my philosophy a little bit before investing in themselves, you know, investing money, investing time, committing to a program. So I liked the idea of putting something out there that wasn't marketing in the sense of investing in an ad, but rather investing in kind of a relationship. So I think in the beginning, I'm putting it out there and, definitely, my mom listened, my dad listened, my sister listened. I mean, I had, you know, friends and family who were supportive. I think I got, like, kind of the next ring. If I think of it as 3 rings, who was listening, who was engaging. The next ring were people who had worked with me already, and I was telling them about the podcast.

Lisa Oldson:
And they loved it, and they were listening to it, but still it wasn't really serving my purpose of reaching people who didn't know me yet. That's what was really frustrating. I I felt like I was working so hard putting out really valuable content that I believe could help people, and I just couldn't break through to those strangers. So that was a little bit frustrating because it is so much effort, as our listeners know. You don't wanna just create it for your mother no matter how much you love her.

Julia Levine:
Oh goodness. Yes. I think we've all been there. Okay. So thank you for that recap and kinda telling us where you were. So at this point, it had been over a year, which, dear listener, you may recall that that is my minimum commitment to podcasting. So Lisa did that. She put in the hard work over the past 12 months, and we still weren't kind of seeing that leaps and bounds kind of result that we wanted.

Julia Levine:
We wanted more. And so with my new knowledge about how to grow a podcast, I was optimistic that we could make some changes that would propel her podcast forward in those leaps and bounds that we were looking for. So there are 2 different approaches to growing a podcast. And the first is organic discoverability. And, of course, this is where we make changes to increase the chances that a listener just finds the podcast on their own without us having to lift a finger. That's the dream. Right?

Lisa Oldson:
That is the dream, and you're the expert. Yeah. It's honestly, it's amazing.

Julia Levine:
And then the other approach, of course, is effort based marketing, which, as the name implies, requires time, effort, and sometimes additional financial resources. And in an ideal world, these two approaches are used simultaneously, but, of course, they can be customized to fit each specific podcaster's needs, availability, resources, etcetera. And Lisa is one of the hardest working and busiest people that I know.

Lisa Oldson:
Or maybe I just complain about it the most. There's no way we could know. No. No. No.

Julia Levine:
She hardly ever complains. So we decided to go all in on the organic discoverability side of things first. So we worked together to update her show's name, revamp her cover art, and revise the show description. So we did as much as we could in that organic discoverability avenue of getting people just to find it without us having to do anything. And so from there, we also plan some super simple effort based marketing strategies for her to implement moving forward. And so, Lisa, kind of now that I've given that context for the listener, can you share a little bit about how this process went, the changes that we made? How did we work together to make this happen?

Lisa Oldson:
Sure. Well, first of all, you came to me with a plan. And I'll just say, as most small business owners know, we have Google. We have Safari. We look up a lot of things on our own. But that is one thing I really appreciated because I never wanted to be the person who invested all of the many, many hours to learn all of the details about what goes on with search engine optimization and, you know, how the algorithms work. I mean, I'm just beyond grateful to be able to let you tell me when we do this, it helps because of that. But I have to say, I just couldn't believe how basically in a day you made a difference with a lot of little small tech tweaks that you suggested.

Lisa Oldson:
I mean, it was just almost immediate. And then there was a whole nother category of things that you guided me on that were the things that I enjoy doing, and I really was grateful for you know, it's not always intuitive how to write the title of each episode. What should go in the description? I mean, I am writing for what sounds right to me medically, as a weight loss coach, as a weight loss specialist, what I think resonates. If I'm sitting in an exam room explaining something to a patient, that's actually a little different than the way you might explain it in a podcast description. And so you gave me some good guidance on that. Which words are important to use? Where do those words need to appear? You had great guidance there. So again, I was able to make a bunch of changes immediately. So for example, I felt like the clouds parted, the sun came out, a rainbow was over my house.

Lisa Oldson:
When you gave me a visual for how to imagine naming each podcast episode. Some of the names are speaking to 1 group of people who already know me. Some of the names are speaking to people who haven't listened to my podcast yet or don't really know me, and how I might tweak the way I name different episodes or the titles of different episodes based on that. It just changed everything for me. So from that moment forward, I named my episodes a little bit differently, but you also offered me the opportunity. Oh, and here's how you can go back and change the last 50 episodes if you'd like to to bump up your reach, bump up the likelihood of someone finding this episode when they just go looking for weight loss or wellness or longevity or women's health. You know, how can I make all these other episodes that are just sitting there? How can I make those rise up? People will find those even though they've just been sitting there for a year now. So I love that.

Lisa Oldson:
Some immediate impact and then some sort of intermediate impact over weeks and now a couple of months. And, also, I have a list of options for myself going forward. If I get a vacation, that's episode title time, and I think it's gonna be a fun project. And, you know, it's just something I can do at my leisure when I have a moment to work on my business that way.

Julia Levine:
Well, I'm also going to encourage you to put the podcast away and enjoy your vacation because that's really important too.

Lisa Oldson:
Fair enough. Fair enough. One of the things that was kind of hard for me out of all your suggestions was changing the podcast art. I loved everything about it. And in fact, one of my friends had this beautiful glass, I guess you would call it almost a paperweight made, with my podcast art, and I'm so proud of that. I have it sitting out in my office. I just thought it was beautiful. And then you invited me to change it.

Lisa Oldson:
I was like, what? Uh-huh. Okay. Deep breath. You know, I did feel some resistance to that. There's no question. And you had some specific suggestions for changes to make to the cover art. There was science behind every single thing. This kind of font, this kind of color, this kind of background, this image of you.

Lisa Oldson:
You had so many different ideas. But because they were all backed by science, by some guidance around, this is going to pop off the page more and podcast art that looks like this rather than that is gonna pop out of a sea of weight loss podcasts. Right? There are so many weight loss podcasts out there or health and longevity wellness podcast. Why is mine going to pop out? Well, a lot of it was due to the cover art. So, anyway, that was definitely a source of resistance for me. I sort of have an opinion when I'm working with you. You are the expert. You know so much about this.

Lisa Oldson:
So whatever you tell me to do, I'm going to do. I can't promise I'm gonna do it in the next 30 minutes, but when you tell me to do something, I'm going to do it. And so I just kind of swallowed hard and trusted the process with you.

Julia Levine:
I'm so glad that we pushed through that resistance. That's a common point of resistance for a lot of podcasters, and I totally understand. But, you know, when we're thinking about talking to the stranger who doesn't know us yet, you know, that is the most important thing. So I'm so proud of the fact that you hopped on board and we got these changes rolling. So we made these changes at the very end of May 2024. And since then, we have seen some tremendous results. I'm so, so super excited and happy about them. And I would love to turn it over to you to share all that good news.

Lisa Oldson:
Oh, thank you. I mean, it it's actually really amazing. From May to June, the number of downloads doubled, and that's after being pretty stagnant for a while. So the amazing thing about that is not only did they double, but then the numbers stayed up. Right? So it wasn't a fluke like I might have worried about back in June. Like, is this just some random summer thing? No. The numbers have stayed high, and they're growing. And I'm so excited to say we are gonna hit 10,000 downloads.

Lisa Oldson:
I mean, I never imagined we would get to that. So that's pretty exciting. And then one thing you really helped me to see, to track, to understand is the way in which my reach is growing. So, you know, I was so excited the first time someone from Texas reached out and someone from New Jersey reached out to say they had listened to the podcast. I'll never forget the very first time I got a client who signed up for the program, and we always ask when they register, how did you find us? And she said, podcast. And she was from, you know, halfway across the country. So that was amazing. And and she's not the the last one, but she was the first one.

Lisa Oldson:
But now the audience for the podcast is in 62 countries. I'm in 62 countries. That is incredible to me. I I feel like I'm bragging, but it's really just that I'm shocked and humbled by it. It really is.

Julia Levine:
Awesome. You should be bragging. It's this is something to brag about.

Lisa Oldson:
This is really cool. Well, it just feels like something bordering on, Juliana podcast teacher miracle. I'll take it. And then this concept of Apple Podcasts charts is so interesting. So I didn't know anything about this at all. This has been part of the education that you've given to me by saying, hey, Lisa. Congratulations. Your podcast is now ranked in the top 100 for Apple Itunes in 12 different countries.

Lisa Oldson:
And so that's just mind blowing, but I guarantee I never would have known that if you didn't tap me on the shoulder via email and give me a heads up. But that kind of reach would not have happened and wasn't happening until all of these suggestions, came from you for how to improve our organic reach.

Julia Levine:
I'm so, so proud of all of your hard work, all of the accomplishments. I I'm honored to be your partner on this journey. I feel like this has truly been a partnership. I've put in effort. You've put in effort. We have done this together, and I feel like it's only going to get better from here.

Lisa Oldson:
I couldn't agree more. I really feel that way as well. It's such a pleasure working with you and Julia. Oh, thank you.

Julia Levine:
I could sit here and talk about your podcast all day long, but we do need to wrap up. So I'd love to ask if people want to learn more about you and your particular approach to weight loss, where can they go?

Lisa Oldson:
Well, I guess I better lead with the podcast, So my name is Lisa Oldson, Oldson, o l d s o n. You can find my podcast, The Smart Weight Loss Coaching podcast on Spotify, Itunes, or wherever you listen to your podcast. You can also find me at my website, smart weight loss coaching.com. And also, if I can make a little plug, we have the most amazing women's wellness retreat coming up this fall. It will be in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, which is just a 90 minute drive from Chicago. And one thing that's really, time sensitive is the deadline for registration is October 18th. The women's wellness retreat is in November. But whether or not you join us at the women's wellness retreat, please take a listen to the Smart Weight Loss Coaching podcast and help me get to 10,000 downloads.

Lisa Oldson:
Woo hoo.

Julia Levine:
Oh, thank you, Lisa, for sharing all of that. I know that we're gonna have a lot of people out there listening who are super excited to go over and check all those things out. I am so jealous that I have a conflict for the retreat because it sounds so super awesome. And so if you're out there listening, definitely go check it out. Lisa is absolutely amazing. And if you, dear listener, are out there thinking that you would like results like Lisa had for your podcast, you are in luck. I am putting together a brand new program to teach these skills to you and support you as you implement them. If you're listening to this at the time of release in early fall 2024, head to the podcast teacher.com/ grow to tell me that you're interested in learning more, and I will send you all of the details.

Julia Levine:
Lisa, thank you so much for taking the time to come on the show, share your results, and all of your thoughts about the process. This has been great.

Lisa Oldson:
It has been absolutely my pleasure, and everyone who's listening should go work with Julia, The Podcast Teacher. You will not regret it. It is so much fun, and I love your combination of guiding, teaching, nudging, dragging me. No. Just kidding. It's been such a pleasure. Thanks for having me on your podcast. Thanks, Lisa.