Over the years, I’ve watched podcasters—including myself—get sidetracked by reasons that sound impressive, like chasing big download numbers or proving ourselves as industry leaders. But here’s the truth: those reasons aren’t enough to keep us going for the long haul.

Welcome to The Podcast Why! I’m Brett Johnson, My Podcast Guy, and today I want to cut through the noise and talk about something every podcaster faces but few admit out loud: fake “whys.”

In this episode, I’m sharing what I’ve learned from over a decade working with podcasters who feel stuck and burned out because they’ve been running on fake whys—not real purpose.

You’ll hear real stories, common pitfalls, and practical ways to spot when you’re powering your show with the wrong fuel. Most importantly, I’ll help you reconnect with your true motivation, so you can bring more clarity, confidence, and energy to your podcasting journey.

Let’s get honest, make the shift, and rediscover the real “why” that keeps us hitting record—even when nobody’s watching.

Subscribe to get my latest content in My Podcast Guy Newsletter

3 Key Takeaways:

“Fake whys” look logical, but won’t fuel you long-term. Chasing download numbers or fearing you’ll be left out aren’t powerful enough reasons to keep your podcast going month after month.

Outcomes aren’t foundations. Metrics like downloads and sponsorships are results—not your core reason for creating. Treating them as your engine will drain your energy fast.

Your true why is your North Star. When you anchor your podcast in a deeper purpose—like serving others honestly or sharing what you wish you’d heard—it sustains you even when the numbers fluctuate.

You can book a clarity call with me—just head over to My Podcast Guy and look for the Schedule A Call link. We’ll talk through where you’re stuck, what your real why might be, and how to build your podcast around it.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

Recorded at 511 Studios - Columbus, OH (and you can too!)

Music from #Uppbeat - https://uppbeat.io/t/all-good-folks/make-it-happen - License code: T0ZIBWWXBX3NLCVB

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/

Copyright 2026 My Podcast Guy

If you’re struggling with consistency, feeling stuck, or wondering if your show still belongs in your life, this episode will help you find a purpose that’s honest, specific, and powerful enough to carry you forward.

Welcome to The Podcast Why. I’m Brett Johnson, My Podcast Guy, your trusted friend in podcasting, and in this episode, I want to help you reconnect with the real reason your podcast matters—both to you and to your listeners.

After ten years working with podcasters, I’ve noticed that most of us start out with answers that sound good, like “I want to grow my business” or “I want to build my brand.” But when the excitement fades and the grind sets in, those surface-level reasons just aren’t enough to keep us going.

Today, I’ll share a story that illustrates what discovering your real, sustaining “why” feels like. You’ll hear practical advice and questions to help you cut through the noise and get clear on what truly motivates you to keep showing up behind the mic.

Subscribe to get my latest content in My Podcast Guy Newsletter

Here are three key takeaways that can help any creator rethink their podcast’s purpose:

1. Surface answers won’t sustain you. Saying you want to “help people” or “grow your business” sounds great, but if you’re struggling to show up consistently, your why might be out of date or too fuzzy.
2. Your real why is personal and current. Ask yourself: Why does your show exist today? Who would truly miss it if it were gone, and what would they miss? Getting specific makes your content—and your motivation—more sustainable.
3. Clarity is a game-changer. When you uncover your deeper why (like speaking directly to a past version of yourself or helping someone feel less alone), creative energy and consistency start to flow again.

You can book a clarity call with me—just head over to My Podcast Guy and look for the Schedule A Call link. We’ll talk through where you’re stuck, what your real why might be, and how to build your podcast around it.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

Recorded at 511 Studios - Columbus, OH (and you can too!)

Music from #Uppbeat - https://uppbeat.io/t/all-good-folks/make-it-happen - License code: T0ZIBWWXBX3NLCVB

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/

Copyright 2026 My Podcast Guy

If you’ve ever felt stuck, inconsistent, or started doubting your show, you’re not alone—and this podcast is for you.

Welcome to The Podcast Why—I’m Brett Johnson, My Podcast Guy, your trusted friend in podcasting.

After more than a decade working behind the scenes with everyone from solo creators to big business podcasts, I’ve learned that the secret to a sustainable show isn’t perfect gear, viral moments, or chasing algorithms. It’s about knowing your “why.”

I share what you can expect from each episode: short, focused, and practical ideas to help you reconnect with your purpose, clarify the direction of your show, and make podcasting feel more meaningful and manageable. Every episode includes real stories from my years of podcast consulting and simple reflection questions so you can take action right away.

Subscribe to get my latest content in My Podcast Guy Newsletter

If you’re ready to go deeper than surface-level advice and build a show that’s aligned and worth the effort, join me for season one. Let’s rediscover your why together and create a more intentional, fulfilling podcasting journey. Hit play—your mic, your listener, and your future self will thank you.

You can book a clarity call with me—just head over to My Podcast Guy and look for the Schedule A Call link. We’ll talk through where you’re stuck, what your real why might be, and how to build your podcast around it.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

Recorded at 511 Studios - Columbus, OH (and you can too!)

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/

Music from #Uppbeat - https://uppbeat.io/t/all-good-folks/make-it-happen - License code: T0ZIBWWXBX3NLCVB

Copyright 2026 My Podcast Guy

Email marketing has the highest return on investment when compared to all the available marketing channels. This is according to Campaign Monitor.

Here are my 3 reasons why you should definitely consider email marketing as an effective method to grow your podcast audience.

1) Strengthen the Relationship Between You and Your Listeners

2) Convert Subscribers to Listeners

3) Share Additional Content with Your Subscribers

Podcasting is a MARATHON, not a sprint. Be patient, take action and apply yourself.

Let’s talk about what podcasting can do for your business in the next 12-months. Whether you’re B2C or B2B, we can create a content marketing strategy that will work for you.

Connect with me if you would like to talk more about this. My calendar is available on my Circle 270 Media® Podcast Consultants business website.

Subscribe to my free Open The Mic and Speak Newsletter. It’s chock full of podcast news you may have missed, as well as social media, sales, and audio production tips, and insights on how to grow your business podcast.

Recorded in conjunction with Channel 511, in the Brewery District, downtown Columbus, OH.

Brett Johnson is the owner and lead consultant at Circle 270 Media® Podcast Consultants. With over 35+ years of experience in Marketing, Content Creation, Audio Production/Recording, and Broadcasting, the podcast consultants at Circle 270 Media® strategically bring these strengths together for their business Podcast clients.

Email us at [email protected] to set up a time to talk more about your new or established business podcast.

Copyright 2026 My Podcast Guy

Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/qube/fuel License code: A7OWC26WEHPAVQKP

The best time to send your emails in 2023? It’s an important question! Your subscribers have busy lives and the last thing you want is to send them a newsletter while they’re preoccupied with work, or dreaming about their weekend plans.

They analyzed over 2.5 million email marketing campaigns sent with MailerLite in 2022, and here’s what we found: 

Which day of the week is everyone sending their campaigns? 

Email marketers favor Thursday (closely followed by Wednesday) for sending out their campaigns

Which day of the week generates the most opens?

Thursday is the weekday with the highest open rate in the first 2 hours of sending, closely followed by Monday

What time of the day generates the most opens?

Most email opens occur between 11AM-12PM, with another peak between 6-7PM and an interesting late-night bump at 2AM (in the sender’s time zone).

And more takeaways in this episode.

Podcasting is a MARATHON, not a sprint. Be patient, take action and apply yourself.

Let’s talk about what podcasting can do for your business in the next 12-months. Whether you’re B2C or B2B, we can create a content marketing strategy that will work for you.

Connect with me if you would like to talk more about this. My calendar is available on my Circle 270 Media® Podcast Consultants business website.

Subscribe to my free Open The Mic and Speak Newsletter. It’s chock full of podcast news you may have missed, as well as social media, sales, and audio production tips, and insights on how to grow your business podcast.

Recorded in conjunction with Channel 511, in the Brewery District, downtown Columbus, OH.

Brett Johnson is the owner and lead consultant at Circle 270 Media® Podcast Consultants. With over 35+ years of experience in Marketing, Content Creation, Audio Production/Recording, and Broadcasting, the podcast consultants at Circle 270 Media® strategically bring these strengths together for their business Podcast clients.

Email us at [email protected] to set up a time to talk more about your new or established business podcast.

Copyright 2026 My Podcast Guy

Has your business considered podcasting?

Or is your current business podcast not growing your brand?

Circle270Media Sessions and CD 92.9 FM present Grow Your Business Podcast!

You and your team will hear tips and insights about creating and marketing your business podcast, from professionals who are podcasters and work with podcasters.

+ Why are podcast websites so important?

+ What makes your podcast unique on social media?

+ What does monetizing your podcast really mean?

+ Why should your choice of podcast equipment be the LAST thing you need to consider?

+ What do experienced podcasters wish they would have known earlier?

Learn how to focus on the WHY you're podcasting, not on the HOW to podcast.

The session is Wednesday, September 28th from 4pm-6pm in The Big Room at CD 92.9 FM in The Brewery District. Following the session, The Big Room will be the place to network and ask more questions during our infamous Beerstorming Session.

Thanks to MyPodcastGuy.com, Robles Designs, TJE Communications, Don The Idea Guy, and CD92.9 FM.

Podcasting is a MARATHON, not a sprint. Be patient, take action and apply yourself.

Let’s talk about what podcasting can do for your business in the next 12-months. Whether you’re B2C or B2B, we can create a content marketing strategy that will work for you.

Connect with me if you would like to talk more about this. My calendar is available on my Circle 270 Media® Podcast Consultants business website.

Subscribe to my free Open The Mic and Speak Newsletter. It’s chock full of podcast news you may have missed, as well as social media, sales, and audio production tips, and insights on how to grow your business podcast.

Recorded in conjunction with Channel 511, in the Brewery District, downtown Columbus, OH.

Brett Johnson is the owner and lead consultant at Circle 270 Media® Podcast Consultants. With over 35+ years of experience in Marketing, Content Creation, Audio Production/Recording, and Broadcasting, the podcast consultants at Circle 270 Media® strategically bring these strengths together for their business Podcast clients.

Email us at [email protected] to set up a time to talk more about your new or established business podcast.

As you know, I call this podcast Note To Future Me because I needed a theme around why I do my business podcast. And recording future notes to myself seemed a reasonable and very practical way of reminding my future self of podcasting tips I should take note of, and implement.

Well, of course, these Notes To Future Me are just my way of talking to you, my listener, about what I see working, or not working, for podcasters. Whether they are my podcast clients, or I see and hear comments made by other podcasters in podcast groups.

In the end, we all learn from the successes and the misses.

Since the beginning of the year, I have been making quick notes to myself, observations as they are, about the successes and the misses I have experienced with my clients, as well as what I see commented on by other podcasters. And I now have enough to where I think they should be placed on a Note To Future Me episode - for you and for me.

Here we go…

My favorites? If I HAD to choose, I would say #20, #30 and #33.

Podcasting is a MARATHON, not a sprint. Be patient, take action and apply yourself.

Let’s talk about what podcasting can do for your business in the next 12-months. Whether you’re B2C or B2B, we can create a content marketing strategy that will work for you.

Connect with me if you would like to talk more about this. My calendar is available on my Circle 270 Media® Podcast Consultants business website.

Subscribe to my free Open The Mic and Speak Newsletter. It’s chock full of podcast news you may have missed, as well as social media, sales, and audio production tips, and insights on how to grow your business podcast.

Recorded in conjunction with Channel 511, in the Brewery District, downtown Columbus, OH.

Brett Johnson is the owner and lead consultant at Circle 270 Media® Podcast Consultants. With over 35+ years of experience in Marketing, Content Creation, Audio Production/Recording, and Broadcasting, the podcast consultants at Circle 270 Media® strategically bring these strengths together for their business Podcast clients.

Email us at [email protected] to set up a time to talk more about your new or established business podcast.

Copyright 2026 My Podcast Guy

Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/qube/fuel License code: A7OWC26WEHPAVQKP

Google is finally cleaning up its product portfolio and merging services that just make sense to merge.

YouTube is embracing its position as the most-used podcast platform, though unintentional by YouTube, by launching a dedicated podcast page.

The podcast page doesn't do much right now. It shows "Popular Episodes" and "Popular Podcast Playlists" for random shows. Clicking through still only gives you the normal YouTube interface. This is all part of a slow rollout plan, which looks like a major push into podcasts from Google's media brand.

As the lines between podcasting and YouTube blur, any step the company takes toward consolidating listening could pose a challenge for competitors Spotify and Apple Podcasts. But an opportunity for podcasters.

So what does this mean for podcasters today? We think it means podcasters need to be ready to know how YouTube works for search, and be prepared for this platform to be a great tool to brand and market your business podcasts.

YouTube is the largest search engine out there, so we might as well make it work in our favor! We have done some research for you and our clients, and we are breaking it down into 8 tips for YouTube SEO.

1. Keyword research

2. Optimize your podcast episode titles for discoverability

3. Use common search phrases for discovery and naming

4. Write smart video descriptions

5. Use both tags and hashtags

6. Use SRT files or closed captioning for YouTube SEO

7. Strong content is key to YouTube SEO for podcasts

8. Engage and encourage Interaction with your YouTube audience

Podcasting is a MARATHON, not a sprint. Be patient, take action and apply yourself.

Let’s talk about what podcasting can do for your business in the next 12-months. Whether you’re B2C or B2B, we can create a content marketing strategy that will work for you.

Connect with me if you would like to talk more about this. My calendar is available on my Circle 270 Media® Podcast Consultants business website.

Subscribe to my free Open The Mic and Speak Newsletter. It’s chock full of podcast news you may have missed, as well as social media, sales, and audio production tips, and insights on how to grow your business podcast.

Recorded in conjunction with Channel 511, in the Brewery District, downtown Columbus, OH.

Brett Johnson is the owner and lead consultant at Circle 270 Media® Podcast Consultants. With over 35+ years of experience in Marketing, Content Creation, Audio Production/Recording, and Broadcasting, the podcast consultants at Circle 270 Media® strategically bring these strengths together for their business Podcast clients.

Email us at [email protected] to set up a time to talk more about your new or established business podcast.

Copyright 2026 My Podcast Guy

Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/qube/fuel License code: A7OWC26WEHPAVQKP

Podcasting Is The Future For Your Business

Podcasts can be used for many different areas of business.

In our experiences with our business podcast clients, here are four ways that podcasts can benefit your own business.

Traffic Generation

Not only can podcasts be shared internally, but they can also be used to target your audience of consumers. Think about what your ideal target market wants to hear from you in 10, 15, 20, or 30 minutes. It’s as if you’re talking to them one-to-one and they’re absorbing all you have to say. That is an incredibly powerful tool to have in your arsenal. The added bonus is that, if they like your content, they’ll talk about you, your brand, and your business to others, increasing your traffic.

Convenience

Once your listener subscribes to your podcast, your episodes will automatically be added to their library, meaning they don’t have to search for each new episode using keywords. Your brand and your words will already be waiting for them.

Brand Building

Giving your market and audience different ways to consume your content and showing that you are an expert in your field gives your brand power.

Additional Revenue Streams

If you become successful in publishing and engaging different audience types, the industry can be quite lucrative. In the U.S. alone, podcast ad revenue is expected to reach $4 billion this year by 2024. The more consistent you are in your efforts, the more you will grow. Omnipresence and consistency are key.

Podcasting is a MARATHON, not a sprint. Be patient, take action and apply yourself.

Let’s talk about what podcasting can do for your business in the next 12-months. Whether you’re B2C or B2B, we can create a content marketing strategy that will work for you.

Connect with me if you would like to talk more about this. My calendar is available on my Circle 270 Media® Podcast Consultants business website.

Subscribe to my free Open The Mic and Speak Newsletter. It’s chock full of podcast news you may have missed, as well as social media, sales, and audio production tips, and insights on how to grow your business podcast.

Recorded in conjunction with Channel 511, in the Brewery District, downtown Columbus, OH.

Brett Johnson is the owner and lead consultant at Circle 270 Media® Podcast Consultants. With over 35+ years of experience in Marketing, Content Creation, Audio Production/Recording, and Broadcasting, the podcast consultants at Circle 270 Media® strategically bring these strengths together for their business Podcast clients.

Email us at [email protected] to set up a time to talk more about your new or established business podcast.

Copyright 2026 My Podcast Guy

Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/qube/fuel License code: A7OWC26WEHPAVQKP

It is now being reported from FTC disclosure rules that podcasts guests are paying hosts up to $50K for an interview. The disclosures around that exchange aren’t always clear or even existent. The broader podcast industry hasn’t discussed standards around disclosures, and some podcasters don’t know this is happening.

The concern many podcasters are expressing is that it taints the medium. That "we are going astray from the core podcasting values that built this space."

Or are we now maturing as a medium? Do we now have a better grasp that the content that podcasters create has value? Though it would be argued that it's not the content being sold, the listeners are. But doesn't content and listeners go hand-in-hand? If you don't have great content, you don't have listeners.

We need to start giving our listeners and podcasters more credit.

Listeners have all the power to make a podcast worth something to the podcaster, whatever that may be. It may be monetizing the content, or just creating and nurturing a community of followers. And give the podcasters credit as well. They know to have a following, they need to deliver content that keeps listeners engaged and respected.

Why this matters: No one likes to be misled. But. As this article on The Big Lead pointed out, it’s not necessarily a bad thing if people want to pay for more exposure. There are a lot of ways to make money from podcasting. Whatever you do, keep the FTC’s guidelines in mind. Regardless of the medium you work in, the FTC says deception occurs when consumers are misled about the nature or source of advertising or promotional messaging.

Podcasting is a MARATHON, not a sprint. Be patient, take action and apply yourself.

Let’s talk about what podcasting can do for your business in the next 12-months. Whether you’re B2C or B2B, we can create a content marketing strategy that will work for you.

Connect with me if you would like to talk more about this. My calendar is available on my Circle 270 Media® Podcast Consultants business website.

Subscribe to my free Open The Mic and Speak Newsletter. It’s chock full of podcast news you may have missed, as well as social media, sales, and audio production tips, and insights on how to grow your business podcast.

Recorded in conjunction with Channel 511, in the Brewery District, downtown Columbus, OH.

Brett Johnson is the owner and lead consultant at Circle 270 Media® Podcast Consultants. With over 35+ years of experience in Marketing, Content Creation, Audio Production/Recording, and Broadcasting, the podcast consultants at Circle 270 Media® strategically bring these strengths together for their business Podcast clients.

Email us at [email protected] to set up a time to talk more about your new or established business podcast.

Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/qube/fuel License code: A7OWC26WEHPAVQKP

Copyright 2026 My Podcast Guy