Podcast Bestie Turns 3! 🎂
Plus, how one simple strategy changed my content game
Hey Besties!
Three years ago, Podcast Bestie began with a small but mighty mission to help indie podcasters grow, thrive, and build shows that resonate with audiences and compete with Big Podcast. It’s been an awesome journey, and I can’t thank you enough for being part of it—whether you’ve been with us since day one or just joined.
As we celebrate our third anniversary, I wanted to highlight a game-changing piece of advice from podcast marketing maven Lauren Passell, which has been core to my strategy this past year and a half.
When Lauren guested on the podcast, she shared this profound nugget of wisdom that might make you rethink your whole content strategy:
“I was talking to a client who had their best year last year, 2022, and I didn’t even realize she had reused 80 percent of her content. When you're marketing to new listeners, they often haven't seen or heard your older stuff—it's still valuable! So, instead of feeling like you’re on this constant hamster wheel, remember it’s okay to take a breath, to reuse something, to give yourself breathing room. You don’t have to put out an episode every week, even if you’re running ads.”
Listen to my full conversation with Lauren here:
This is the number one lesson I’ve learned to grow without the hustle. It’s been my north star, and I’m so grateful for it. Not only did it get me off the content hamster wheel, but it’s helped me stay true to my priorities: quality simply matters more than tilling new ground every single week.
This strategy has given me some wonderful recycled gems for The Bleeders and Podcast Bestie (like this one!), but it’s been essential for my biggest podcast, Private Parts Unknown, where I have a weekly release schedule and ongoing ad obligations. It’s allowed me to stay consistent without the pressure to constantly churn out brand-new episodes—all while giving new life to the best content in my back catalog and buying myself more time to focus on other aspects of the podcast.
So, if you feel like your production calendar is getting a little crowded or you're losing the spark, let this be your permission slip to press pause, rewind, and remix the magic you’ve already created.
Here’s what I’ve recycled for Private Parts Unknown already in 2024:
A reading of an essay I published in Open Secrets Magazine.
An interview from 2018—I gave it a tighter edit and updated the intro and outro.
In 2022, I wrote a viral essay for Cosmopolitan, which I then turned into an audio essay and used for two episodes in 2023, and I reran it again this year with updated tracking.
This was first a radio story for KCRW, then I reran the radio story on the podcast, and in June, I cut down the full interview and ran it for Pride.
This originally ran as a super long breakup episode with three guests, then I broke it apart and ran each interview separately.
This interview initially ran in 2021. I gave it a tighter edit and updated the tracking.
This Ashley Madison series was originally all one episode, which I reran once already, and it was still getting a lot of love, so I split it into three episodes and ran it as a series.
I reran this episode pretty much as-is.
I reran this episode pretty much as-is.
I gave this episode from 2021 a tighter edit and updated the tracking.
That’s 12 recycled episodes so far this year. Thank you, Lauren, for this life-changing advice!
And thank you for joining this community and making it what it is. We are now 5K podcasters strong—that’s bigger than my hometown.
Here’s to three years of becoming better podcasters together and to many more!
Here are five of my favorite posts from the past year:
If you’re ready to become podcasting BFFs, we’d love to have you join us!
One of my biggest goals for Podcast Bestie year three has been to provide more value for paid subscribers, and I’m really proud of what plasticAudio and I have been posting behind the paywall. The price is going up next week, but for this week only, you can lock in the current rate AND enjoy a special anniversary discount.
So… ROLL CALL! 🗣️
Help me plan Podcast Bestie’s fourth year. What would you like to learn in the months ahead?
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Thank you for making such a positive impact on the industry! Your work is straightforward helpful and FUN!
Congrats on the anniversary!