Lindsay McMahon is the co-host of the All Ears English podcast, a show with over 200 million downloads. The show focuses on solving a big problem. Understanding and speaking language. Lindsay is an education entrepreneur in the field of ESL (English as a Second Language), and leveraged her experience to provide massive value to listeners.
She started the podcast in 2013, just over 9 years ago. She recognized the internet, and podcasting, presented a great way to scale her communication and build know, like, and trust with the audience.
Lindsay focuses on building “connection, not perfection.” In fact, this message fits her audience so well, she uses it as a catchphrase for her show.
Through her podcast, she provides valuable insights and ideas, and encourages her listeners to take quizzes to generate leads. She talks about how to monetize a podcast by selling courses, products, and transcripts, as well as using ads and donations. Finally, she recommends asking for ratings and reviews in order to indirectly increase downloads and get listeners.
Action tips:
1. Turn the purpose of your podcast into a clear phrase that you can trademark.
2. To grow your show, treat your podcast as a business and build systems that enable you to be consistent. Make sure you have a team to support you!
3. Build relationships within your industry and collaborate with other podcasters.
Quotes:
- “We have a motto and we call it connection, not perfection. Native speakers of English resonate with that because we all want to connect as human beings. It's very important to understand why you're podcasting and it has to be in your heart.” (03:44)
- “Every day I'm thinking how to grow my podcast. How do we break into an audience that doesn't know us yet. Eventually you're going to need to move more into the mainstream market.” (10:59)
- “Quizzes really work very well naturally for an English language adult learning community. Even a business podcast could create a quiz. It's basically a lead generator. But it's a real challenge for podcasters to get listeners to a browser.” (14:13)
- “One of the biggest challenges is to get people to give you ratings and reviews. Ratings and reviews don't directly factor into your rankings or your downloads. But they do indirectly, though. To get those listeners so they can review you.” (17:35)
- “There are almost 8 billion of us in the world, so I think there's plenty of room for everybody. If you know you're making great content, you have a relationship with your audience. Don't worry about them stealing your audience, just make friends.” (31:23)
- “Q: Please share five steps on getting your podcast strategy right. A: Number one would be putting together your meaning, the purpose. Be consistent with your content so it's not just dropping the episode on the days you say you will. Make friends in your industry.” (40:50)
Links:
Connect with Lindsay McMahon:
- Website: https://www.allearsenglish.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/all_ears_english/
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/AllEarsEnglishPodcast
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/allearsenglish
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/allearsenglish
- Lindsay's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindsaymcmahon/