![Why How I Built It Worked [Day 14 30 Days of Podcast Notes]](https://images.beamly.com/fetch/https%3A%2F%2Fmedia.rss.com%2Fstreamlined-podcaster%2Fpodcast_cover_20260916_122857_a7aaeae9723ee3f8a0758f9d13809543.jpg?w=365)
For a long time I couldn't work out why How I Built It took off, and a few people insisted I was just riding NPR's coattails. The download graph said otherwise — coattails give you spikes that fall back, and what I had was slow, sustained growth. My best answer is three things: I was genuinely curious and asked good questions, I was stubborn about audio quality at a time when most shows weren't, and I actually acted on criticism. When a listener said she wouldn't listen without transcripts, I added them and paid to have the roughly fifty-episode back catalog done too. Downloads and site traffic both went up.
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Disclosure: this episode description was generated with AI.
00:00:00 --> 00:00:05 Hey, everybody, and welcome to episode 14 of
00:00:05 --> 00:00:09 30 days of podcast notes. Today we are talking
00:00:09 --> 00:00:16 about why how I built it worked. This was it
00:00:16 --> 00:00:22 felt really accidental to me. I. Which, first
00:00:22 --> 00:00:24 of all, I hope, you know, I mean, you're 14 days
00:00:24 --> 00:00:26 and I hope you're enjoying this little retrospective,
00:00:26 --> 00:00:29 but. I think that it's really important to understand
00:00:29 --> 00:00:34 like where I was when I first started podcasting,
00:00:34 --> 00:00:37 really where podcasting was when it started to
00:00:37 --> 00:00:39 kind of move more into the mainstream versus
00:00:39 --> 00:00:43 where we are today. And I became a podcast coach
00:00:43 --> 00:00:46 at some point. I was very hesitant to use that
00:00:46 --> 00:00:50 term. And part of it was for a long time, I couldn't
00:00:50 --> 00:00:55 figure out why how I built it worked. And some
00:00:55 --> 00:01:00 people said, and had continued to say for a long
00:01:00 --> 00:01:03 time, but those people are douchebags, that I
00:01:03 --> 00:01:07 was just trading off of NPRs how I built this.
00:01:08 --> 00:01:12 And I would have thought that as well if I would
00:01:12 --> 00:01:15 see spikes in downloads that would quickly come
00:01:15 --> 00:01:19 back down. But I didn't. I saw sustained growth
00:01:19 --> 00:01:23 over a long time and the main person who was
00:01:23 --> 00:01:25 saying that just like didn't. Openly didn't like
00:01:25 --> 00:01:28 me, which was very weird. I feel like I'm generally
00:01:28 --> 00:01:33 likable But that guy was is a troubled person
00:01:33 --> 00:01:40 So Well, like I really couldn't figure out why
00:01:40 --> 00:01:45 it worked and I thought about it because I didn't
00:01:45 --> 00:01:48 feel like I was doing anything special. I Really
00:01:48 --> 00:01:52 didn't and I think it boiled down to this I was
00:01:52 --> 00:01:59 genuinely curious. I was doggedly dedicated to
00:01:59 --> 00:02:06 great audio quality. And I was asking good questions.
00:02:07 --> 00:02:10 You know, it wasn't just me talking to a friend.
00:02:10 --> 00:02:14 There was a very focused mission. And we were
00:02:14 --> 00:02:18 serving a very specific audience. And so I put
00:02:18 --> 00:02:22 the time and effort into the show. And yeah,
00:02:22 --> 00:02:24 like, I mean, there were, you know, there were
00:02:24 --> 00:02:28 detractors. Not a lot and not vocal. I mean,
00:02:28 --> 00:02:30 it was really detractors probably isn't even
00:02:30 --> 00:02:32 the right word. It was constructive criticisms.
00:02:33 --> 00:02:37 And so there was the person who told me I had
00:02:37 --> 00:02:39 too many dudes on the show and I fixed that.
00:02:39 --> 00:02:41 Somebody said that they wouldn't listen to the
00:02:41 --> 00:02:46 show until I got transcripts. Now, back then,
00:02:47 --> 00:02:48 transcripts were expensive, right? They cost
00:02:48 --> 00:02:55 about a dollar a minute. And I, I very glibly
00:02:55 --> 00:02:58 said, if you want to support the show, I'd be
00:02:58 --> 00:03:03 happy to dedicate your support to transcripts.
00:03:03 --> 00:03:07 Like if you want to sponsor transcripts. And
00:03:07 --> 00:03:08 that was the truth of the matter at the time.
00:03:08 --> 00:03:10 Like, I mean, I get where she was coming from
00:03:10 --> 00:03:13 and I added transcripts shortly after that. And
00:03:13 --> 00:03:16 I paid to have the entire back catalog, which
00:03:16 --> 00:03:21 I think at the time was about 50 episodes. Transcribed
00:03:21 --> 00:03:24 as well. So there are full transcripts for every
00:03:24 --> 00:03:27 episode of what is now the streamlined solopreneur
00:03:27 --> 00:03:31 And I that is very important to me And I knew
00:03:31 --> 00:03:34 it was when I got that feedback, right? I think
00:03:34 --> 00:03:37 the thing that bothers me about shows today is
00:03:37 --> 00:03:38 there are people there are people who will say
00:03:38 --> 00:03:41 well Why do you need the transcripts? It's consuming
00:03:41 --> 00:03:44 this content isn't good reading it and that's
00:03:44 --> 00:03:46 not the point, right? That's just a sorry excuse
00:03:46 --> 00:03:48 for I don't want to add transcripts, which is
00:03:48 --> 00:03:52 a sorry your excuse today Because now, you know,
00:03:52 --> 00:03:55 machine generated transcripts are pretty good.
00:03:55 --> 00:03:57 I'm not going to say good enough because I am
00:03:57 --> 00:04:00 not the consumer of the transcript. So I'm not
00:04:00 --> 00:04:03 going to say it's good enough, but it gets you
00:04:03 --> 00:04:07 a lot of the way there. And so I will have a
00:04:07 --> 00:04:11 machine generated transcript of my shows and
00:04:11 --> 00:04:17 then my VA will go in and fix them. And so. You
00:04:17 --> 00:04:21 know, I think I was open to feedback. I added
00:04:21 --> 00:04:25 transcripts. I did see, I will tell you, I saw
00:04:25 --> 00:04:30 an appreciable increase in downloads and website
00:04:30 --> 00:04:34 traffic when I added transcripts. Is that because
00:04:34 --> 00:04:37 it was more accessible? Possibly. Is it because
00:04:37 --> 00:04:40 now more of the show was getting ingested by
00:04:40 --> 00:04:46 Google? Probably. But I think, you know, I think
00:04:46 --> 00:04:48 if I had to boil it down to three things, it's
00:04:48 --> 00:04:50 that I was genuinely curious and asked good questions.
00:04:50 --> 00:04:54 I was doggedly dedicated to good audio quality.
00:04:54 --> 00:04:59 And I was constantly improving the show through
00:04:59 --> 00:05:02 my own observations, but also through some of
00:05:02 --> 00:05:06 the constructive feedback I got. So I think that's
00:05:06 --> 00:05:09 why it worked. And the thing is those things,
00:05:11 --> 00:05:14 maybe the audio, maybe less the audio quality.
00:05:15 --> 00:05:19 because now good audio quality is very easy and
00:05:19 --> 00:05:25 I feel like too polished now sends the wrong
00:05:25 --> 00:05:32 signal so maybe that one doesn't hold but genuinely
00:05:32 --> 00:05:37 curious and constantly improving those are things
00:05:37 --> 00:05:40 that will always be true of improving your of
00:05:40 --> 00:05:46 growing a podcast of launching a podcast so I
00:05:46 --> 00:05:49 want to think about the audio one a little bit
00:05:49 --> 00:05:51 more. That's interesting. I just kind of thought
00:05:51 --> 00:05:53 of that here. If you can't tell, these aren't
00:05:53 --> 00:05:56 scripted. I'm just kind of talking. I want these
00:05:56 --> 00:05:59 to be like voice notes, which I guess really
00:05:59 --> 00:06:02 lends credence to the thing I just said. But
00:06:02 --> 00:06:06 that's it for this episode. Day 14 of 30 Days
00:06:06 --> 00:06:08 of Podcast Notes here on the Streamlined Podcaster.
00:06:08 --> 00:06:10 If you're enjoying this series, be sure to subscribe
00:06:10 --> 00:06:13 wherever you're listening. If you are a solo
00:06:13 --> 00:06:16 business owner who is doing everything themselves
00:06:16 --> 00:06:18 and you want to stop doing everything yourselves,
00:06:18 --> 00:06:20 but you don't want to hire a team or rely on
00:06:20 --> 00:06:25 AI, then you should join my mailing list because
00:06:25 --> 00:06:27 I help solo business owners with something I
00:06:27 --> 00:06:32 called solo ops. That is removing things from
00:06:32 --> 00:06:33 your plate. So you're not doing everything yourself.
00:06:33 --> 00:06:37 So your business doesn't fully rely on you, but
00:06:37 --> 00:06:41 you also are not hiring an entire team. or overly
00:06:41 --> 00:06:44 relying on AI to do the work for you. You can
00:06:44 --> 00:06:46 join my mailing list over at streamlined .fm.
00:06:46 --> 00:06:50 That's streamlined with a D, streamlined .fm
00:06:50 --> 00:06:55 slash join. Thanks so much for listening and
00:06:55 --> 00:06:56 I will see you tomorrow.