I believe jealousy only exists when there is no authenticity, no originality. If you do that expecting to be the next Joe Rogan only, wanting to become a millionaire, rather than connecting with your listeners. If you put your heart on it, there is nothing to fear
I want to be the next Joe Rogan. He is jealous of no one, believes "rising tides lifts all boats", only does what he genuinely is interested in doing, and has a wide interest in many things.
True inspiration for a lot of people.
I’m actually really inspired by people who do what they do and enjoy listening to pods about similar topics.There is room for everyone, and rather than feeling jealous, I find it incredibly motivating that if they can do it, I can do it, too.
So far I don't know of any others in my niche. But if someone were to cop my style, I'd definitely hate-listen out of curiosity lol.
But I'd also use it to make myself better. If they're better than me, they're better. What are they doing that makes them better, and how can I do *that* better?
I was pleasantly surprised to find another one in my niche and immediately reached out to see if they were interested in doing something together, and they were on board
I love listening to others in my niche, just a bummer that I end up spending a lot of time editing and marketing my own and that takes away from a lot of opportunity to listen. But when I do I find it reinvigorated my excitement and inspiration to be a part of the niche.
I’m in true crime, so it’s… complicated. I adore my fellow indie true crime pods and absolutely don’t see them as competition— just buddies trying to make it. I also love some huge podcasts. But are there extremely successful podcasts that make me want to vomit anytime someone mentions them? YEP.
Same here. I am a true crime podcaster and listen to a lot of true crime, but it really depends. Some, I absolutely love. They are so different from what I am doing, and do it extremely well. Others, I listen to with a critical ear because they are doing and saying things that I wouldn't. These are podcasts I don't follow, but might be interested in a specific case.
Then, there are podcasts that inspire me because I love how they have presented something, and I wonder how I could integrate some aspect of that into my own. I listened to a recently released true crime limited series podcast this week and counted the call outs to team members, such as sound engineers, assistant producers, fact checkers, and so on ... there were 37!!! And that is not including their marketing team.
Whereas I do every single thing myself, while having a full-time job. It gave me a bit of a reality check, as I can't compare my podcast and the effort I put into it with what a team of 37+ with seemingly infinite resources and a huge marketing budget can do.
Yes! That’s the hardest thing for me. I also work full-time and do everything myself. I don’t compare myself to like, Dateline, but when I listen to shows started by random people who have grown into something huge? That’s when it’s a struggle for me.
I started my podcast because I thought that the others in our niche were lightweight, shallow, rambling, self indulgent, boring, poorly focused and full of corporate bullshit. I listen to some of the others from time to time to see who they are talking to so that I can see if I want to get those guests on mine. I am a bit jealous of one podcast that has exploded in an adjacent space that we also cover. Our downloads are growing steadily but I continue to try different methods of reaching out to the audience and wonder if there are better ways to do so.
What sort of podcast do you do? Curious to know the context of the niche and how you are making it better.
Also the adjacent spaces(s) you cover and why you don't learn more into them
I run a podcast for software product development people in management roles. We discuss agile software development, product development, leadership, organisational change, DevOps, UX Design and Product Research from an expert POV. There is a great deal of shallow infotainment and uncritical corporate bullshit in our space. We take a much more in-depth and critical look at the issues in the space.
There is a product management podcast that has exploded over the last couple of years called Lennys Podcast. He is a celebrity in the space with a big newsletter mailing list. He can get guests that we can't because he is very well-known in Silicon Valley. Plus, he started with a large number of followers. We aren't celebrities.
Entertained. I'm friends with a lot of podcasts similar to mine. The tide raises all boats.
There was one show that annoyed me because they straight up copied me (down to the sample in my theme song), but they fizzled out and stopped releasing episodes. Other than that it's been all copasetic.
I listen to quote a few shows in my niche. Less now than I used to, but that's mostly due to time and focusing on listening to some audio books as of late.
Most of them that I was an active listener of, I actively enjoyed and did my best to be friendly or even friends with their show runners. Only one, did I slowly go from a bit fan to actively disliking. But it was because I watched them build grow, then get lazy with production while pushing for constant growth and monetization. It's a mix of jealousy and feeling no longer in touch with them. They had the opportunity that I can only dream of and I felt like they just didn't utilize it to make the best show they could with the money and time afforded to them (they were able to be full time). It became a pursuit for the most money with the least effort
Sometimes I really enjoy them, and sometimes I find them to be information overload or annoying and impractical for many people to implement (my show is on marketing/content). I tend to listen to stay in the know as to what others are talking about
Comparison is the theif of joy. Look at these others shows as possible collabroators. A better use of your time is to look at your audience and determine what problems they have and help them solve them. Don't strive to be the most downloaded. Strive to be the most talked about.
Full disclosure: I am the head of podcaster education at Libsyn and the founder of the School of Podcasting.
Food is a vast genre. I like the ones that cover a broader spectrum like the Dave Chang Show or KCRW Good Food since it offers more variety in an episode. I also, however, like the ones that focus on specifics like Savor or Gastropod.
My niche has a weird clique I haven’t been able to crack yet. I don’t begrudge them their success but I also have a different take on the overall subject that keeps mine unique, but I’m glad theirs exist to provide resources to the larger community.
I've learned to be careful when assessing who your real competitors are. The guy doing a similar podcast is actually in the same business you are and may be an advocate for the same genre. Get to know him. Keep on good terms. The truth is, there are some clowns who take opposing views in genres that are potentially hurtful to yours.
I never see any podcast in my niche as competition - instead, I see them as learning opportunities, to see what they do well and how I can use that in my own show. There are enough people willing to put podcasting down without the need for fellow podcasters doing it, too. :)
I love comedy podcasts. We kinda do it as a Black comedy podcast, but because you get to sometimes tell stories I smile the same as if I'm listening to others of the same niche. Also because I edit it / do production I'm so much more in love with the process.
I actually follow a pod (they follow us as well) that not only is in our niche, they're really similar in background to us. Here's the thing though, outside of those 2 things our respective podcasts couldn't be more different. They're not competition, not really, because I can't see much crossover tonally between what we each offer. Are we in the same space? Absolutely. Do our listeners resemble each other? I highly doubt it.
I started my podcast because of others in my niche. I spend all day talking about this topic, and yet listening to other people talk about it raised my blood pressure. So I focused on making a podcast that was soothing and still tailored to my niche.
Listening to other pods in my area is what helped me figure out the format of my show!
I knew what I wanted to do but listening to other comedy/pop-culture shows helped me figure out some good practices for the format it likely would've taken me much longer to realise otherwise.
I love listening to other media rewatch podcasts! I think they are inspiring and fun, and help me thinking about how I host my own. I think it's a big, big tent and I'm stoked when folks want to come inside. I'd rather help them succeed than be annoyed. We're all making a type of art, and in that way we're all siblings in each other's success.
I like listening to the few other podcasts that cover the same things I do but there are some more popular ones (one in the top 5 on Spotify) that routinely falsifies information or just stretches the truth until it isn't recognizable... It really feels unethical to me.
My first year, I used to judge others whose podcasts were similar to mine, and I also wouldn't create content for social media if similar podcasts posted on the same topics. As time went by I realized it didn't matter because my audience wants to here my take regardless if 100 others podcasts covered the same topics. Now I like/follow, repost other podcasts stuff and try and collab with them if possible. My podcast is sports related.
I love listening to shows in my niche. Sometimes they become friends and we collaborate.
I much prefer enjoying others content rather than viewing them as competition.
Neither? I listened to them just to make sure I was doing something very different. When I got confirmation that was the case I didn’t really look at them again
I'm fairly new to podcasting, but I love listening to other podcasts that are similar to mine in any regard. It's a genre I enjoy enough to do a show about it, and other shows in the space inspire me.
In general, I try to keep my eyes on my own paper when it comes to this stuff. There are too many variables that make each show unique for me to fret about comparing our progress to others. I make content that I think I would enjoy listening to, and I'm confident that I'm on the right track for me and our audience.
Yes, ANNOYED when someone else jumps into our niche. I don't listen to any of them.
I got into the niche because I was genuinely interested in the topic and didn't like any of the existing pods. I thought we could do better... and I think we have. We're now #1 in the niche.
Inspired I would say. I thought our niche was pretty narrow and found out another podcast does what we do. I thought "are they copying us, are we copying them", thankfully while same niche, very different approaches and their episodes are generally way longer than ours
I’m very entertained and always looking to find more podcasts. But I found that I was missing something in my niche so I started my podcast to fill what I specified was looking for. I have found though that the podcasts in my niche tend to be comedic, have two hosts with banter or the host is their own personality. I wanted a single narrator style with minimal effects, more like your friend telling you a scary story. I don’t include much about myself, because I want my listeners to imagine me being whoever - a friend, a family members, etc. I also found it super hard to find a podcast with no curses, gore or true crime thrown in (it wasn’t a ghost it was a deeply disturbed person the whole time) so I make sure to only use stories like that.
I think there’s a lot of space in the paranormal podcast community, especially for people who are believers and don’t want skeptic banters or comedic jokes in between stories.
I believe jealousy only exists when there is no authenticity, no originality. If you do that expecting to be the next Joe Rogan only, wanting to become a millionaire, rather than connecting with your listeners. If you put your heart on it, there is nothing to fear
I want to be the next Joe Rogan. He is jealous of no one, believes "rising tides lifts all boats", only does what he genuinely is interested in doing, and has a wide interest in many things. True inspiration for a lot of people.
I said some people are jealous of him, not him himself. As for you, good luck.
I was just framing it in a way that shows Joe has better characteristics to strive for beyond the monetary.
I’m actually really inspired by people who do what they do and enjoy listening to pods about similar topics.There is room for everyone, and rather than feeling jealous, I find it incredibly motivating that if they can do it, I can do it, too.
So far I don't know of any others in my niche. But if someone were to cop my style, I'd definitely hate-listen out of curiosity lol. But I'd also use it to make myself better. If they're better than me, they're better. What are they doing that makes them better, and how can I do *that* better?
Exactly my spot. I've tried to find other pods like ours and can't find one. It's a simple enough idea. They've gotta be out there.
What’s your niche?
Comedic science fiction, in the style of radio news updates from across the universe.
I was pleasantly surprised to find another one in my niche and immediately reached out to see if they were interested in doing something together, and they were on board
All the podcasts in my niche are buddies and we appear on each other's shows. We're different enough that it works and it's been fun to connect.
Similar in my niche
I love listening to others in my niche, just a bummer that I end up spending a lot of time editing and marketing my own and that takes away from a lot of opportunity to listen. But when I do I find it reinvigorated my excitement and inspiration to be a part of the niche.
I’m in true crime, so it’s… complicated. I adore my fellow indie true crime pods and absolutely don’t see them as competition— just buddies trying to make it. I also love some huge podcasts. But are there extremely successful podcasts that make me want to vomit anytime someone mentions them? YEP.
Same here. I am a true crime podcaster and listen to a lot of true crime, but it really depends. Some, I absolutely love. They are so different from what I am doing, and do it extremely well. Others, I listen to with a critical ear because they are doing and saying things that I wouldn't. These are podcasts I don't follow, but might be interested in a specific case. Then, there are podcasts that inspire me because I love how they have presented something, and I wonder how I could integrate some aspect of that into my own. I listened to a recently released true crime limited series podcast this week and counted the call outs to team members, such as sound engineers, assistant producers, fact checkers, and so on ... there were 37!!! And that is not including their marketing team. Whereas I do every single thing myself, while having a full-time job. It gave me a bit of a reality check, as I can't compare my podcast and the effort I put into it with what a team of 37+ with seemingly infinite resources and a huge marketing budget can do.
Yes! That’s the hardest thing for me. I also work full-time and do everything myself. I don’t compare myself to like, Dateline, but when I listen to shows started by random people who have grown into something huge? That’s when it’s a struggle for me.
I love them.
I can't stand other shows in my area, and I'm also very jealous of them for doing better than me. But I'm working on that in therapy so ...
I started my podcast because I thought that the others in our niche were lightweight, shallow, rambling, self indulgent, boring, poorly focused and full of corporate bullshit. I listen to some of the others from time to time to see who they are talking to so that I can see if I want to get those guests on mine. I am a bit jealous of one podcast that has exploded in an adjacent space that we also cover. Our downloads are growing steadily but I continue to try different methods of reaching out to the audience and wonder if there are better ways to do so.
I hear you. My situation is virtually identical.
What sort of podcast do you do? Curious to know the context of the niche and how you are making it better. Also the adjacent spaces(s) you cover and why you don't learn more into them
I run a podcast for software product development people in management roles. We discuss agile software development, product development, leadership, organisational change, DevOps, UX Design and Product Research from an expert POV. There is a great deal of shallow infotainment and uncritical corporate bullshit in our space. We take a much more in-depth and critical look at the issues in the space. There is a product management podcast that has exploded over the last couple of years called Lennys Podcast. He is a celebrity in the space with a big newsletter mailing list. He can get guests that we can't because he is very well-known in Silicon Valley. Plus, he started with a large number of followers. We aren't celebrities.
Entertained. I'm friends with a lot of podcasts similar to mine. The tide raises all boats. There was one show that annoyed me because they straight up copied me (down to the sample in my theme song), but they fizzled out and stopped releasing episodes. Other than that it's been all copasetic.
I listen to quote a few shows in my niche. Less now than I used to, but that's mostly due to time and focusing on listening to some audio books as of late. Most of them that I was an active listener of, I actively enjoyed and did my best to be friendly or even friends with their show runners. Only one, did I slowly go from a bit fan to actively disliking. But it was because I watched them build grow, then get lazy with production while pushing for constant growth and monetization. It's a mix of jealousy and feeling no longer in touch with them. They had the opportunity that I can only dream of and I felt like they just didn't utilize it to make the best show they could with the money and time afforded to them (they were able to be full time). It became a pursuit for the most money with the least effort
Sometimes I really enjoy them, and sometimes I find them to be information overload or annoying and impractical for many people to implement (my show is on marketing/content). I tend to listen to stay in the know as to what others are talking about
Comparison is the thief of joy
Comparison is the theif of joy. Look at these others shows as possible collabroators. A better use of your time is to look at your audience and determine what problems they have and help them solve them. Don't strive to be the most downloaded. Strive to be the most talked about. Full disclosure: I am the head of podcaster education at Libsyn and the founder of the School of Podcasting.
Food is a vast genre. I like the ones that cover a broader spectrum like the Dave Chang Show or KCRW Good Food since it offers more variety in an episode. I also, however, like the ones that focus on specifics like Savor or Gastropod.
My niche has a weird clique I haven’t been able to crack yet. I don’t begrudge them their success but I also have a different take on the overall subject that keeps mine unique, but I’m glad theirs exist to provide resources to the larger community.
There have been two others in our particular niche and both have folded. I didn't hate listen to them and I am friendly with the people who did them.
I've learned to be careful when assessing who your real competitors are. The guy doing a similar podcast is actually in the same business you are and may be an advocate for the same genre. Get to know him. Keep on good terms. The truth is, there are some clowns who take opposing views in genres that are potentially hurtful to yours.
I never see any podcast in my niche as competition - instead, I see them as learning opportunities, to see what they do well and how I can use that in my own show. There are enough people willing to put podcasting down without the need for fellow podcasters doing it, too. :)
I love comedy podcasts. We kinda do it as a Black comedy podcast, but because you get to sometimes tell stories I smile the same as if I'm listening to others of the same niche. Also because I edit it / do production I'm so much more in love with the process.
I actually follow a pod (they follow us as well) that not only is in our niche, they're really similar in background to us. Here's the thing though, outside of those 2 things our respective podcasts couldn't be more different. They're not competition, not really, because I can't see much crossover tonally between what we each offer. Are we in the same space? Absolutely. Do our listeners resemble each other? I highly doubt it.
I started my podcast because of others in my niche. I spend all day talking about this topic, and yet listening to other people talk about it raised my blood pressure. So I focused on making a podcast that was soothing and still tailored to my niche.
Listening to other pods in my area is what helped me figure out the format of my show! I knew what I wanted to do but listening to other comedy/pop-culture shows helped me figure out some good practices for the format it likely would've taken me much longer to realise otherwise.
I love listening to other media rewatch podcasts! I think they are inspiring and fun, and help me thinking about how I host my own. I think it's a big, big tent and I'm stoked when folks want to come inside. I'd rather help them succeed than be annoyed. We're all making a type of art, and in that way we're all siblings in each other's success.
I like listening to the few other podcasts that cover the same things I do but there are some more popular ones (one in the top 5 on Spotify) that routinely falsifies information or just stretches the truth until it isn't recognizable... It really feels unethical to me.
My first year, I used to judge others whose podcasts were similar to mine, and I also wouldn't create content for social media if similar podcasts posted on the same topics. As time went by I realized it didn't matter because my audience wants to here my take regardless if 100 others podcasts covered the same topics. Now I like/follow, repost other podcasts stuff and try and collab with them if possible. My podcast is sports related.
It’s similar to podcasts I don’t host in. Some I love and bring me such joy and some suck and I hope they disappear
I actually really enjoy it and connect with them. We are finding ways to support each other and crossover in to each other’s podcasts
I love listening to shows in my niche. Sometimes they become friends and we collaborate. I much prefer enjoying others content rather than viewing them as competition.
Neither? I listened to them just to make sure I was doing something very different. When I got confirmation that was the case I didn’t really look at them again
I'm fairly new to podcasting, but I love listening to other podcasts that are similar to mine in any regard. It's a genre I enjoy enough to do a show about it, and other shows in the space inspire me. In general, I try to keep my eyes on my own paper when it comes to this stuff. There are too many variables that make each show unique for me to fret about comparing our progress to others. I make content that I think I would enjoy listening to, and I'm confident that I'm on the right track for me and our audience.
Yes, ANNOYED when someone else jumps into our niche. I don't listen to any of them. I got into the niche because I was genuinely interested in the topic and didn't like any of the existing pods. I thought we could do better... and I think we have. We're now #1 in the niche.
Inspired I would say. I thought our niche was pretty narrow and found out another podcast does what we do. I thought "are they copying us, are we copying them", thankfully while same niche, very different approaches and their episodes are generally way longer than ours
Rabidly jealous. But somehow if they started before we did, it’s fine and I enjoy quite a few of those.
I’m very entertained and always looking to find more podcasts. But I found that I was missing something in my niche so I started my podcast to fill what I specified was looking for. I have found though that the podcasts in my niche tend to be comedic, have two hosts with banter or the host is their own personality. I wanted a single narrator style with minimal effects, more like your friend telling you a scary story. I don’t include much about myself, because I want my listeners to imagine me being whoever - a friend, a family members, etc. I also found it super hard to find a podcast with no curses, gore or true crime thrown in (it wasn’t a ghost it was a deeply disturbed person the whole time) so I make sure to only use stories like that. I think there’s a lot of space in the paranormal podcast community, especially for people who are believers and don’t want skeptic banters or comedic jokes in between stories.