For This Ridgefield Podcaster, Mid-Life Was An Opportunity

RIDGEFIELD, CT — Across a shifting, if not tumultuous media landscape, there's been one unwaveringly rising star. Podcasting has not only caught the fancy of listeners, it's become a growing side gig for creators looking to build their brand, sell a book, or sell a book to build their brand.

Successful Ridgefield podcaster Amy Schmidt says that there are now more than a million podcasts available through Apple alone. That's double the number of active podcasts from just two years ago, in February 2018, according to Podcast Insights.

Schmidt began her podcast, "Fearlessly Facing Fifty," when she began staring down the Big 5-0 a few years ago, and today she pretty much owns the niche. Her new book, "Cannonball! Fearlessly Facing Midlife and Beyond," debuted at the top of Amazon's "Mid-Life Management" chart. She now leads workshops about finding confidence behind a microphone, as well as the brass tacks of podcast creation, management and distribution.

One of the first problems a new podcaster faces is borne of its own meteoric success: With so many podcasts available for download, you need to have a plan for cutting through the clutter and noise of the competition.

"It's once again about having good content, and finding your niche," Schmidt said. "Before you start your podcast, you need to sit down and determine your 'why.' Why are you doing this? What are you really going to talk about? And who is your ideal person who will be listening on the other end?' And build it around that."

The pay-off can be huge. Podcasters can't even keep up with all the new ways to monetize their work, according to Forbes Magazine. Traditional ads and sponsorships have given away to Patreons and even live events, where the podcast is the performance, and audiences pay to be part of it. As podcasts such as Lore, 2 Dope Queens, and Serial have built their brand recognition, they've inked deals worth millions with networks like Amazon Prime and HBO. The twice-monthly podcast "Welcome to Night Vale" has branched out into a bestselling series of books.

That kind of success takes passion and commitment, but Schmidt says a podcaster without both of those probably shouldn't even bother getting into the game.

"People can hear it in your voice if you are passionate about something," Schmidt said, and that's what brings them back. Listeners come for the topic, but stay for the host, she told Patch. "It is all about the relationship you build with your listeners. They're trusting you."

Commitment and organization are also important, and often overlooked, likely because they're not as fun and sexy as content and passion. Podcasters need to figure out their scheduling sweet spot — daily? weekly? monthly? — and then not waver from it.

"Consistency is crucial: Pick a day, and stick to it," Schmidt said. "It's a marathon, not a sprint." A new episode of "Fearlessly Facing Fifty" drops every Friday.

Schmidt says she has a queue of weekly shows produced and ready for download through October. (She admits that may be a little overkill, but that's how she rolls.) She recommends that new podcasters don't even dream of hanging out a shingle until they have their first three shows fully produced and in the can.

The more granular your subject, the easier it is to tunnel through the noise. A podcast about gardening is good, but one about herb gardening is better, more distinctive and more likely to be noticed.

Wondering if your particular passion is niche-y enough to support a weekly podcast? Don't trust your gut, you need to do a little market research. "Send surveys to your network," Schmidt suggested. "Utilize the resources you have before you even launch. Send a survey out and ask, 'Hey, I'm thinking of doing this, what would you listen to?' You can build your content from the feedback you get."

But don't go crazy: keep your episodes under 30 minutes. Schmidt says when she analyzes the analytics, she sees that for her podcasts that run longer than a half hour, "I get drop-offs."

The lockdown in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic is upending media consumption. Theaters are shuttering, drive-ins are coming back, newspapers are closing and podcasting is playing both sides of the street, depending upon the show's respective audience. Podcasts that cater to millennials are taking a hit because fewer people are driving to work. On the other hand, Schmidt's numbers in the mid-life market "are soaring right now." Her subscriptions have been bolstered by the increased availability of podcasts across platforms like Amazon Echo devices, as well as audio streaming services such as Spotify, Pandora and SoundCloud.

In the meantime, established media players with deep pockets have begun to mine podcasts as older-school income streams turn to drips. Fifty percent of revenue at The Slate Group, publishers of the eponymously titled online newsmagazine, now comes from podcasts. They are the number one reason people subscribe to and pay for "Slate."

Is there any ceiling to podcasting's rise? After all, there's still only 24 hours in a day. (Although a study conducted in early 2019 indicated that 26 percent of podcast listeners in the United States increased playback speed in order to listen to podcasts faster, so time might not be the limiting factor you thought it was.) Schmidt predicts that as podcasters incorporate more video into their work, they may start giving the streaming services such as Netflix pause.