What happens when a successful CEO gets tired of the social media circus?
We’re taking her private coaching call completely public to find out.
During our live session, Jodi shared an incredible breakthrough she had while taking the Podcast Health Checkup.
If you are an entrepreneur hosting a podcast right now, you’ve probably felt it.
You are doing the work. You are recording the episodes. But the platforms you are using to promote your show that is slowly draining the life out of your business.
You want community, but you don’t want to manage another exhausting Facebook group.
Today, I went live here on Substack with my private client, Jodi Silverman. Jodi is the CEO and host of Dare On with Jodi, leading a massive midlife rebellion. She is tech-savvy, she is established, and like so many of us, she is completely fed up with the social nonsense.
She booked a coaching call to ask the necessary question: “Should I move my podcast and my community to Substack?”
Instead of keeping the strategy behind closed doors, we did it live. If you missed the session, here are Jodi’s top questions, the exact mechanics of how Substack works for podcasters, and what you need to know before you make your next move.
1. “What is the difference between a Note, a Post, and a Podcast Episode?”
If you are new to the platform, the terminology can feel a little muddy. Let’s clear it up:
A Note: This is your feed. It’s a short-form post (like a tweet or a Facebook update). This is where you get discovered. You can “restack” (re-share) other people’s notes to build mutually beneficial relationships.
A Post: This is a long-form article or newsletter. Pro-tip: Substack will automatically attach an AI voice to read your post to your audience. Don’t let them do that. Instead, get 18 inches from your listener’s ear to their heart and record your own voiceover directly into the post so they hear you.
A Podcast Episode: This lives in a dedicated tab on your Substack page, complete with its own RSS feed, show notes, an audio player, and a transcript.
2. “If I move my podcast, what happens to my RSS feed?”
The big worry: You are are going to lose your listeners.
Think of your RSS Feed like your podcast’s Social Security Number. It is a unique code that tells Apple, Spotify, and everywhere else exactly where to find your audio.
If you decide to move from a legacy host (like Buzzsprout or Libsyn) over to Substack, you don’t have to start over. You simply do a “redirect.” You tell your old host to point your RSS feed to Substack. It takes about 30 minutes, it’s not clunky, and your audience will never even know you moved. When they open their Podcast app, your new episodes will just be there.
3. “How do I build actual community here?”
Jodi asked a brilliant question: “I want interaction, but on my current host, I can’t even reply to my listeners. How does Substack fix this?”
On legacy podcast hosts, you are talking to a brick wall. On Substack, every time you drop an episode, your listeners can comment directly on that specific episode’s page. You can reply. You can send direct messages. You can even host subscriber-only live streams (just like the one Jodi and I did) to connect with your most loyal listeners face-to-face.
You don’t need a separate Facebook Group or a Circle community. Your podcast, your newsletter, and your community all live under one roof.
4. “Wait, Substack podcast hosting is FREE? How do they make money?”
Yes, hosting your podcast on Substack is zero dollars.
Substack makes money when you make money. When you eventually turn on paid subscription tiers (which you have total control over), Substack takes 10% of that subscription fee.
Because of this, they are heavily incentivized to help you grow. They automatically generate tracking codes (UTMs) so you know exactly where your listeners are coming from. They auto-generate video clips and social assets for your episodes. They are building an asset-generating machine for you, because when you succeed, they succeed.
The Strategy: Don’t Rush the Launch
After we went through the mechanics, Jodi and I mapped out her strategy.
She isn’t going to just impulsively burn her old platform to the ground today. She is going to test it. She is going to bring some special, exclusive content over to Substack around her 60th birthday to let her audience experience the new platform with her.
As entrepreneurs, we like can sometime suffer from “quick-start” syndrome. We want to implement immediately. Use Jodi as your permission slip: You do not have to rush. Build the foundation, test the waters, and bring your audience along for the ride.
Your Podcast Needs a Health Checkup
During our live session, Jodi shared an incredible breakthrough she had while taking my Podcast Health Checkup.
She realized her messaging was slightly off. She used to talk to midlife women about their lack of confidence. But the Checkup forced her to look deeper, and she realized: “Midlife women aren’t lacking confidence. We are lacking clarity.”
That one shift changes everything about how you market, how you pitch, and how you convert listeners into buyers.
If your podcast is flatlining, or if you are preparing to launch and want to make sure your foundation is rock solid, you need to run your show through this self-diagnostic tool. It is the equivalent of $1,000 worth of private coaching with me, distilled into an assessment that will force you to ask questions you’ve been avoiding.
Go to thevirtualpodcastschool.com/healthcheckup and use the code SUBSTACKTLC at checkout to save 50%.
Make sure your message is clear, your foundation is healthy, and you are building your business on a platform that actually serves you.
Thank you Margaret Williams, MS, ACC, Florence Acosta, Ana Murby, and many others for tuning into my live video with Jodi Silverman! Join me for my next live video in the app.
