Launch and grow
Create enough initial value for sampling, then grow through repeat listening and aligned distribution.
How to Start a Podcast
From Riverside. Watch here or open it on YouTube .
Treat the video's launch checklist as infrastructure; growth still depends on making a show that a defined listener chooses to finish and recommend.What this lesson is really solving.
Launch with enough material for a listener to understand the habit, then make discovery assets from the strongest episode moments. Ask for a specific listen or reply, label ads and affiliate relationships, and measure completion, follows, returning listeners, and direct feedback over a meaningful window.
Understand the idea before touching the steps.
A podcast grows when the right person samples, finishes, returns, and recommends—not when a clip merely gets views.
Follow these steps in order.
Take the action in each step; then use the deliverable below to prove the lesson is finished.
- 1
Launch with a trailer and multiple strong episodes so a new listener can continue immediately.
- 2
Create platform-native clips, quotes, articles, guest assets, newsletters, and community posts tied to each episode’s real value.
- 3
Build guest and partner distribution plans before recording, making participation easy and optional.
- 4
Review starts, completion, consumption, followers, returning listeners, referral sources, and qualitative feedback by episode.
See the standard in context.
Rae releases a trailer and two episodes, gives each guest permissioned clips and links, emails a small trades newsletter, and asks listeners which decision they want unpacked next. At 30 days, the review changes the cold open but keeps the biweekly cadence.
Inspect before you move on.
- Every promotional clip accurately represents the episode and has permission.
- The call-to-action is specific and easy to complete.
- Growth tactics never use purchased reviews, fake downloads, undisclosed incentives, or spam.
Your deliverable
A four-week launch calendar and six-episode scorecard with one growth hypothesis.
Watch for this
Chasing download totals without learning whether the same qualified listeners return.
Prove it—don’t just recognize it.
You can trace listener growth to a specific episode, channel, and repeat behavior.
Quick knowledge check
Answer from the lesson—not from confidence alone. Score at least 2 of 3 to unlock completion.
This curriculum-aligned check is scored automatically and stored with your account when signed in. It is an objective learning signal, but it has not yet been independently validated as a standardized assessment.
Tools, templates, and references
Pass the knowledge check above first.
Completion unlocks after a score of 2 out of 3. Then confirm that you produced the lesson deliverable.
Go to the knowledge check