How Steven Bartlett broke Podcasting (Genius Strategy)
I love this playbook
Hey team!
Hope you’re rocking it where ever you are.
One question I had from a couple of you was:
Can you explain the success of ‘The Diary of a CEO’ Podcast with Steven Bartlett?
It’s a super interesting case study because 4 Years ago Steven recorded the first episode:
with a £90 microphone from Apple
in his bedroom
with a duvet over his head
Now, it’s one of the most popular podcasts out there:
10 million+ monthly downloads on Apple/Spotify
15 Million+ monthly views on YouTube
$2 million in direct revenue per year
So how did he do it?
I’ve studied the growth in depth and had the privilege to work with his team last year.
Here’s the 7 things they nail:
1/ Fix Distribution:
Podcasting sucks for distribution.
Apple & Spotify do nothing to help you find an audience.
Steven fixes this by designing the podcast for social media:
Records with video
A set that pops on social
Each episode produces:
1 Podcast = video and audio
1x Short form trailer for the 5 major social platforms
10 Shorts for Instagram, TikTok and YouTube
5x 3 Minute clips on Facebook
5x 3 Minute clips for LinkedIn
6x 10 Minute Clips for a YouTube Clips channel
Multiple Static Carousels & Quotes
One podcast = 60 pieces of content (at least) generating millions of views.
This isn’t a podcast.
It’s a content engine.
2/ Treating A Podcast Like A Movie:
Steven makes an event out of every episode.
Creates hype around the release.
Teasers
Insane Trailers
PR
Guests promote their appearance with collaborations.
It’s all designed for the whatsapp group chat:
“Have you seen the Diary of a CEO with Davina McCall”
“This looks epic!!”
People love the build up to an event often more than the event itself.
Steven is a master at creating hype.
3/ Booking Guests:
High profile guests are hard to pin down, especially if you want to record in person.
How do you fix this?
Steven records at home.
Not only does this fix the scheduling problem - he can record any time he wants.
It has an added benefit:
If you’re on a tv show with a live audience are you going to share your most intimate secrets and stories?
Probably not.
But you might if you’re in a quiet room, 1-2-1 with Steven in a homely environment and a carpet under your feet.
(notice how Steven and guests often don’t wear shoes)
This leads to amazing conversations.
4/ Data Led Experimentation
The Diary of a CEO team is always running 1 focused experiment.
Example: Trend Jacking
Steven hired a Data scientist and it shows in his thinking.
The most searched topic in the world right now?
AI.
Who drops an emergency podcast on this topic?
Steven.
Unsurprisingly it’s one of his top 10 episodes of all time.
We’ll see more of this.
Another favourite of mine is the thumbnails.
Six months ago the channel had 600k subscribers.
Then they made a change:
The channel went on a crazy run to to 2 million subscribers in 6 months.
5/ Question The Convention: Why Settle For Mediocracy?
Steven does everything different.
And everything he does he takes it to the next level.
Here is a great example:
Merch - the convention is, you do t-shirts and hoodies.
Steven? He creates a totally unique product that is deeply integrated with the podcast.
‘Question cards’: a card game where you can ask questions left by Diary of A CEO guests.
Everything Steven does - he asks why it’s done that way?
Can we do it different?
Can we 10x it?
6/ Hard Work Beats Talent
Being smart and best in class only gets you so far.
One of my favourite stories is Steven is doing a workout challenge with some friends.
Every day whoever burns the most calories wins.
He’s out for dinner in Monaco with one of the richest people on the planet, Philip Green.
It’s 11:30pm and he notices that someone else in the challenge is doing a workout that puts them in the lead.
Most people would be happy to enjoy the dinner.
Not Steven.
He excuses himself and runs back to his hotel to start a Hit workout.
He can’t face the thought of losing.
This guy likes winning.
How do we see this with the Podcast?
Once he thinks he has the best quality podcast in the world and the marginal gains are diminishing…
Diary of a CEO moves to put out 2 episodes per week.
Hard work + talent = a deadly combination.
7/ The First Billion Dollar Podcast?
I think this Podcast is actually worth a billion dollars.
It allows Steven to build relationships with Founders of the most valuable companies on the planet.
Those relationships have led to investments:
Huel = £1 Billion+
Zoe = £200million+
It’s going to make him rich.
Better than that?
He is sitting down twice a week with the smartest people on the planet.
It puts him in the top 1% of thinkers world wide.
It gives him billion dollar thinking.
The real value of Podcasts isn’t in selling adverts.
It’s that they are a unique experience generators.
An excuse to build relationships with the best and brightest on the planet.
Ok… that’s a wrap.
If you enjoyed this, check out my deep dive on YouTube:
Let me know if you read this far.
Have a great week and speak soon.
Callum
Late to the game on your article Callum but I enjoyed it. As a future podcaster, it's good to benefit from this info and see how Bartlett's appeal resonates. Thanks!