Sound Strategy with Lucas Dickey: The Most Meta Podcast About Podcasting Ever - Deep Connections: How Authentic Podcasting Creates Waves of Influence with OG Dave Jackson

Deep Connections: How Authentic Podcasting Creates Waves of Influence with OG Dave Jackson

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04/25/25 • 62 min

Sound Strategy with Lucas Dickey: The Most Meta Podcast About Podcasting Ever

IN THIS EPISODE: Veteran podcaster Dave Jackson provides a comprehensive overview of podcasting's current landscape, offering strategic advice on content creation, audience development, and maintaining authenticity in a rapidly evolving media environment.

KEY FIGURES: Apple, Spotify, YouTube, TikTok, ChatGPT, Joe Rogan, Muhammad Ali, Bill Maher, Claude, Libsyn, Podcast Movement, Zoom PodTrak P4, School of Podcasting
SUMMARY:
Jackson, podcasting veteran and School of Podcasting founder, chronicles the medium's journey from obscurity in 2005 to today's mainstream status where 55% of people consume podcasts. Jackson stresses authentic passion, audience service, and community building over mere listener counts, noting that monetization stems from earning audience trust. He advises creators to solve specific problems for listeners through entertainment, education, or experiences.

The discussion explores emerging technologies in podcasting, with Jackson recommending tools that enhance rather than replace human creativity. He cautions against over-reliance on automation, instead advocating for unique perspectives and personal storytelling. Jackson remains optimistic about podcasting's ability to forge global connections and provide a platform for distinct voices and experiences. He quotes, "When your need to serve is greater than your fear of looking stupid, you will press record," highlighting that authentic connection remains the cornerstone of successful podcasting.

BLOG POST: Want to re-familiarize yourself at-length with this episode later? Take a look at the companion blog post for this episode.

KEY QUOTES:
• "Every overnight success is not overnight." - Allison Melody
• "If you want to do a podcast like Joe Rogan, step one is be Joe Rogan." - Dave Jackson
• "You monetize an audience, not a podcast." - Dave Jackson
• "When your need to serve is greater than your fear of looking stupid, you will press record." - Dave Jackson
• "You don't have to do video. The podcast police are not going to knock on your door." - Dave Jackson
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
• Every overnight podcast success typically takes 2-3 years to build a meaningful audience, requiring consistent passion and commitment
• Audio podcasts continue to outperform video formats, with audio downloads often 15 times higher than video views and deeper listener connection
• Successful long-term podcasters focus on serving their specific audience, understanding their 'why', and solving a particular problem for listeners
• Podcasting's true power comes from building a community, not just accumulating downloads, with word-of-mouth still being the primary discovery mechanism
• Monetization happens by first building trust and delivering consistent value, not by rushing to generate revenue from a new podcast

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Be sure to visit www.soundstrategy.fm for full transcripts, other insights, and interactive content. You can also contact us with feedback (we'd love to hear it!), guest bookings (Want to be on our show? Want Lucas to be on your show?), advertising/sponsorship opportunities and more.
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BLOG POST: Want to re-familiarize yourself at-length with this episode later? Take a look at the companion blog post for this episode.

Previous Episode

Podcast Marketing Tides with Joe Rubin: Staying Afloat in a Sea of Content

IN THIS EPISODE: Joe Rubin reveals the complexities of podcast growth, emphasizing the importance of strategic marketing, community networking, and finding unique ways to stand out in a crowded landscape.
GUEST: Joe Rubin, CMO & Co-Founder of Mowpod, a podcasting & newsletter marketing and technology firm. Find Joe at MowPod.com or at @itsmowpod. Joe's go-to karaoke song is any he can croon to slightly intoxicated or any Disney song with his daughter.
TOPICS: Monetization, Startup, Technology, Marketing, Podcasting
KEY FIGURES: AI, ChatGPT, Morning Brew, Acast, Streamyard, The Hustle, DeepCast, Pod Match, Friday Night Karaoke, charts.mowpod.com
SUMMARY:
Joe Rubin, CMO and co-founder of Mowpod, shares his journey from venture capital to podcast marketing, discussing how he and his team entered the podcasting space by creating their own podcast as a learning experience. He emphasizes the importance of understanding the industry from the inside and experimenting with different marketing approaches, highlighting their transition from working with newsletters to developing podcast marketing strategies.
Joe discusses the podcast marketing landscape, noting that while podcast creation is easy, growth and sustainability are the true challenges. He showcases Mowpod's AI-powered ad creation platform and emphasizes effective monetization through targeted sponsorships and host-read ads rather than relying solely on dynamic insertion. Rubin highlights the importance of community engagement, networking, and conference attendance as crucial strategies for podcasters looking to build sustainable audiences in an increasingly crowded market.
KEY QUOTES:
• "If you're in this space and you don't have a podcast or didn't have a podcast, like, how could you be really good into a space if you aren't in the thick of it, right?" - Rubin
• "Ideas are a dime a dozen but like actually executing it and doing it like that's where it's worth it. Right? That's the money." - Rubin
• "I think that there's just too much fallout sometimes. I think people start this. It's almost too easy to start." - Rubin

KEY TAKEAWAYS:
• Successful podcast marketing requires a multi-channel approach, including social media, targeted advertising, and active community engagement across platforms
• The podcast industry has a significant challenge with podcast creation versus podcast sustainability, with a massive gap between total podcasts created and actively maintained shows
• Monetization strategies for podcasts include dynamic ad insertion, sponsorships, host-read ads, and creating podcasts as corporate marketing channels
• Emerging marketing tactics like Instagram Reels and AI-assisted ad creation are becoming increasingly important for podcast discovery and promotion
• Independent podcasters should experiment with multiple marketing channels and be willing to invest time in learning different promotional strategies
• Podcast growth is less about having a perfect initial product and more about consistently improving and adapting based on audienc

Next Episode

Anchoring Knowledge: Metacast's Journey to Transform Podcast Retention with Arnab Deka & Ilya Bezdelev

IN THIS EPISODE: Metacast founders explore the potential of transcript-based podcast technology to enhance content discovery, retention, and user experience while preserving the authentic connection between podcasters and their audience.
TOPICS: AI, Podcasting, Discovery, Transcripts, technology
KEY FIGURES: Google, Apple, Artificial Intelligence, Spotify, YouTube, Jason Fried, 37signals, ChatGPT, Joe Rogan, Neil de Grasse Tyson, Tim Ferriss, Descript, Josh Waitzkin, Whisper, Transistor, Overcast,
SUMMARY:
In this episode, hosts Lucas and Allison interview Metacast co-founders about their app that enhances podcast listening through transcript technology. Frustrated with platforms that don't help users navigate content effectively, they identified podcasting's key problem: linear audio is difficult to reference, while transcripts offer interactive, searchable engagement. The conversation explored transcription challenges, AI's potential, and preserving authentic host-listener connections while improving discovery and retention.

The founders also discussed podcasting's landscape, noting its decentralized nature as both strength and weakness. This openness enables barrier-free content creation while complicating discovery. Their vision for Metacast is making podcast content more accessible and valuable by addressing retention needs current platforms don't fulfill, while maintaining the authentic human connection listeners value.

BLOG POST: Want to circle back around later to re-familiarize yourself with this episode? Have at it here!

KEY QUOTES:
• "The beauty is the decentralized nature of podcasting. I don't need a sponsor to go create a show, unlike I would need to for TV." - Arnab Deka
• "If you want to humiliate someone, publish what they said verbatim." - Ilya Bezdelev
• "I want to listen to Neil DeGrasse Tyson talking eloquently in a hilarious way about the historical mishaps that has led to us doing this. I'm there for that connection to his voice and the way he describes this rather than just the facts out of it." - Arnab Deka
• "The cool thing about podcasting is that it's not censored. During COVID, while YouTube would shut down anything not approved by CDC, in podcasting you could always get the RSS feed and load it into another player." - Ilya Bezdelev
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
• The decentralized nature of podcasting is simultaneously its greatest strength and weakness, allowing anyone to create content while making discovery and quality assessment challenging
• Current podcast apps fail to adequately leverage transcripts, often treating them as a passive feature rather than an interactive tool for navigation and information retrieval
• Podcast discovery remains a significant challenge, especially for niche or new shows, with most listeners currently discovering podcasts through recommendations from other podcasts
• Knowledge

Sound Strategy with Lucas Dickey: The Most Meta Podcast About Podcasting Ever - Deep Connections: How Authentic Podcasting Creates Waves of Influence with OG Dave Jackson

Transcript

Allison Melody: Every overnight success is not overnight.
Dave Jackson: Well, it's like Joe Rogan. Everybody talks about Joe Rogan, and I'm like, please realize that Guy started in 1988. If you want to do a podcast like Joe Rogan, step one is be Joe Rogan.
Allison Melody: I thought step one was Eat Bugs. Isn't that how he started?
Lucas Dickey: Why do we as podcasters willingly subject ourselves to hours of editing, awkward ad reads, the existential dread of shouting into the void? If