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. We've reached the end of the episode, and if you enjoyed this podcast or you got something from it, you might be interested in my weekly newsletter that I send out every Monday morning full of
podcasting tips, tricks and news. So if you like this show, you might like this newsletter. To sign up, just go to the show notes and click the link. Thanks for listening and happy podcasting.