Changing Direction with my Newsletter in 2025
I had a friend who would always announce they’re “about” to do “something,” without ever saying what it was. But before they did it, they’d announce something different, repeating the cycle of announcing and never doing.
They’d just be thrashing, hoping to find something that worked before it even had a shot at working.
Every so often I worry I do this — change directions too often, before a strategy can really take root to determine if it works.
But I’m conflicted because I also don’t want to keep doing the same thing if it’s not working.
In reflecting on 2024, I realized that I’ve done a poor job at positioning myself in a way that I can truly help solopreneurs who have podcasts.
Part of it is that I was thrashing a little bit. I was offering too many products and services that fit the bill of, “Sure, I can help you” vs. “This is the thing I really want to be known for.”
This worked out OK for my bottom line, but inhibited my growth.
Two Conversations
Two important conversations lead me to the fact that I need to change direction:
The first can in August, shortly after Podcast Movement. My friend Becky told me how business owners with podcasts likely don’t consider themselves podcasters. They consider themselves business owners who use a podcast to support their business.
This fact bore out in conversations I had after she told me that.
The second came at CaboPress, where numerous folks there told me how important my work and help in automating is, and how good I am at helping people with it.
That was almost all the convincing I needed. But before fully committing to the change, I wanted to get some data to back up my assertion.
What About my Newsletter Growth?
I looked at my newsletter growth from 2024, and was surprised, as it was bigger than I expected it to be:
I had a net gain of 332 subscribers — 25% growth. That’s less than one per day. There is one day that’s an outlier, though:
On July 18th, I spoke at Podcasting Made Simple Live, and that sole event led to 70 people joining my mailing list.
I spoke about automations.
I honestly don’t know what the industry standard is, but I’d like to gain more than 0.9 subscribers per day on average. And if we look at 2023, I accomplished that:
In 2023, I had a net gain of 389 subscribers. That’s still only 1.06 new followers per day on average. But it’s also 42% growth.
This data, while incomplete, shows something promising: my lack of focus hurt me in 2024, but people are certainly interested in improving their processes.
I’m Focusing more on Processes and Automation in 2025
That’s the big change I’m making for the newsletter in 2025. I’m going to focus more on process improvements and automation; that can be in the service of a better podcast, or more time to spend on your podcast.
I’ll also talk about how I’m leveraging my podcast in my business, and why I have the time to spend on it.
Furthermore, I’m still going to help people who have podcasters. But it won’t be strictly launching, growing, and monetizing podcasts. I’ll save that stuff for my work with RSS.com.
This is all part of a wider rebrand I’m rolling out. I promise I’ll cover it here in more detail eventually, but you can check the archive of Joe’s Audio Notes for the blow-by-blow.