In episode 418 we hear a great story about how a podcaster who loves the band Yes gets to interview one of the original band members. We catch up with Nick Loper who has been podcasting for a year (and author of the book Work Smarter:  350 Online Resources) . I fill you on on some pretty famous people who didn't get famous overnight.

After three years of doing the Yes Music podacast, Kevin was able to interview one of the original members of the band. How did this come about? Some of his fans wore t-shirts promoting his yes Music Podcast, one of which went to a meet and great for the band. This lead to the band's publicity firm calling Kevin and offering a phone interview. This shows the loyalty of the fans (wearing their shirts to the concerts) and to the power of the nice (the band recognizes they can reach their fans through Kevin). Check out Kevin's show at yesmusicpodcast.com

More and more people hear about John Lee Dumas and they want his success in his time frame (9 months). While this is (obviously powerful if you have his resources) it is not the norm (don't you have thousands in the bank?). I saw in a facebook group that a podcaster had produced FIVE episodes and was disappointed. FIVE? Not fifty, or five hundred, FIVE. So I wanted to share some stats with you to give you some perspective.

SEVEN YEARS A Small band forms in 1959. They played crapping clubs for three years building their craft. They changed their name a few times. They decided all would contribute vocally They were UNIQUE,  and stood out, yet were passed by almost every record label. In their third year they had single hit the charts that made it to #17. Four years after having all four members in place the band had their first number single with Please Please Me. The band? The Beatles

FOUR YEARS A TV Show launches in 1989 The show aired, and the network NBC offered it to Fox who turned it down. The show’s schedule was interrupted in 1991 due to the Golf War The original pilot was not picked up as a series and was burned off in a summer slot on July 5, 1989 NBC executives remained high on the show and tried again with four episodes in the summer of 1990 The low-rated series then left the air for another couple months and returned in April of 1991 It didn’t reach number until SEASON 6 The show? Seinfeld.

THIRTEEN YEARS A comedian starts doing stand up at the age of 20. He gets not respect. He quits. Eventually changes his name, and his act and comes back 20 years later. He performs for 7 years barely making it. He gets a big break in 1967 and gets on the Ed Sullivan. Was that his peak? No. His peak was 13 YEARS later in the 1980 when a little movie called Caddyshack came out. The comedian? Rodney Dangerfield.

Howard Stern (one of the most famous radio personalities in the US) started in 1981, but wasn’t syndicated until 1986 – FIVE YEARS

Rush Limbough started in radio when he was a teenager. He played music for a few years and quit radio. He came back to radio in 1984. He wasn’t syndicated until 1988 – FOUR YEARS

In the Beyond Powerful Radio: A Communicator's Guide to the Internet Age - News, Talk, Information & Personality for Broadcasting, Podcasting, Internet, Radio Valerie Geller states it takes three years to develop an audience.

So get into podcast because you want to reach the world, talk about your subject and enjoy meeting like minded people. It is going to take the following to grow your audience:

1. Content that connects with your audience.

2. Episodes delivered over time that achieve step 1.

3. Time

4. Publicity efforts to find your audience, go there, make friends with your audience, and them them about your show.

I guess I could lie and say everyone who gets into new and noteworthy in iTunes will soon be cashing big giants checks, but its just not true. People who tell you different will take your money (typically lots of it)  and you will be the person at episode five stating , "Show me the Money!" because it won't be there.