Podcast Movement 2019: A Recap (plus a look back in time)

I’m starting this post before leaving Puerto Rico for Podcast Movement 2019 in Orlando, FL. Before fully recapping the event after the fact, I want to share some of our experiences with you from the previous years’ Podcast Movement events.

If you listen to my podcast, Kate’s Take, then you know I’m a huge fan of reflection. Planning time to look back on the last 3 months, 6 months, or even 1 year, I believe, is critical to our success. If we’re not learning from our experiences – whether they be filled with wins, failures, or anything in between – then how are we supposed to grow?

I’m also a huge fan of attending live conferences and events – when they make sense for you and your business. The opportunities to build relationships, collaborate with peers, and learn and experience new things is priceless for those of us working online.

So as I reflect on the past 5 Podcast Movement events, I want to share a standout moment from each before sharing with you our experience at this year’s event.

A look back at 5 Podcast Movement events

Podcast Movement 2014: Dallas

Podcast Movement 2014, in one word, was EXCITING.

It was year 1 of the event and I remember attending thinking, “could this really create a movement around podcasting?”

I very distinctly remember standing in the hallway, just outside of the main stage room. It was the closing keynote, and there was standing room only.

I looked around, and as if I was playing a highlight reel, I thought of the dozens and dozens of conversations I’d had over the past couple of days with individuals who – up until that point – I’d only known online (or in some cases not at all).

It’s as if I could feel the excitement for podcasting filling not just the room, but leaking out into the hallways of the event center.

It was then that I smiled to myself and thought, “yeah, this event DID create a movement around podcasting.”

Fun fact: at Podcast Movement 2014 we hosted our first annual Podcasters’ Paradise meetup. Podcasters’ Paradise wasn’t even a year old at the time, and we had well over 50 members join us at that meetup.

Another fun fact? It was at Podcast Movement 2014 that we announced the Podcasters’ Paradise Cruise, a 7-day Caribbean adventure we were hosting later that year with two of the Podcast Movement event founders, Dan Franks and Jared Easley.

How’d the Podcasters’ Paradise Cruise turn out? It was the best Podcasting Cruise of all time!

Podcast Movement 2015: Fort Worth

Podcast Movement 2015 was a special one. Not only was John the opening keynote, but I took the stage for the first year.

I remember preparing for the event with feelings of anxiousness; I could hardly wait to return to a space where the podcasting community was so strong and supportive.

This really shone through because of our Podcasters’ Paradise community. The meetup we hosted in 2015 brought over 100 Paradisers together before the event kicked off, and this just blew me away.

There was literally a line of Podcasters’ Paradise members waiting to get into the meetup, and John and I were standing alongside every one of them saying hi, giving hugs, laughing about memories from 2014, and living in a moment I’ll never forget.

Lucky for us, that year Matt and Alyssa Peet were along doing video for us, so we have this incredibly special Fire Reel from that meetup.

Podcast Movement 2016: Chicago

The movement continued on in 2016 when Podcast Movement was hosted in one of my favorite cities: Chicago.

From our Podcasters’ Paradise meetup, to our biggest booth in the expo area ever, to some very late-night karaoke, 2016 was an absolute blast!

And of course, we learned a thing or two along the way ;)

Another cool thing about the 2016 event? John and I took the stage together for a joint goal-setting and systems workshop. It wasn’t our first time taking the stage together, but it was the most unique in that it was a 2-hr workshop.

This was both a challenge and a huge learning experience for us both! How would we split the time? The topics? John on stage versus me on stage?

Everything turned out great, and it was a unique opportunity for us to share two topics that are both critical to every podcaster’s success: goal-setting and systems.

Here’s some other fun photos from the event:

Podcast Movement 2017: Anaheim

While Anaheim wasn’t my favorite location ever, it was pretty cool to be right next to Downtown Disney. But location aside, 2017 stands out because it’s the first – and only – year John and I hosted a full-day workshop before Podcast Movement kicked off.

The workshop was called From Idea to Launch and Beyond, and with over 8 hours of content – plus 7 presenters involved in sharing that content – we pulled off a masterpiece.

I don’t say that to brag…

I say it because the number of pieces we were able to successful pull together – and the amount of value that was packed into that day – made it a STEAL for anyone who signed up and invested the $50 to attend.

Honestly, if we ever re-created that workshop, I’d charge upwards of $2,000 to attend.

Here’s my full recap – and a fun photo collage below – from the 2017 event.

Podcast Movement 2018: Philly

What stands out to me about Podcast Movement 2018 is our launch of The Podcast Journal: Idea to Launch in 50 Days.

Inspired in big part by our workshop at Podcast Movement the year before, The Podcast Journal had been a year in the making.

Thanks to Richie Norton and his team over at Prouduct (the same team who helped us bring The Freedom Journal and The Mastery Journal to life as well), we were able to come out strong with The Podcast Journal right on time!

This was the first place The Podcast Journal was ever sold, and to launch it at Podcast Movement was really special.

We also had an awesome time exploring Philly, rockin’ the stage, and of course hanging out with the incredible community of podcasters who attend this event every year.

Podcast Movement 2019: Orlando

Alright, let’s break this down! Podcast Movement 2019 was hosted in Orlando at the Rosen Shingle Creek resort. And wow – the Rosen Shingle Creek is incredible!

Everything from the restaurants, to the amenities, to the actual event space was great.

But what’s always so special about this event – which you’ve probably picked up on from my recap of the past 5 years – are the people.

We were able to spend a lot of quality time with great friends from past years, and also meet new ones we know will be in our lives for a long time to come!

All of the after-parties and evening events aside, here’s what went down at Podcast Movement 2019…

Day 1: Tuesday

John and I both arrived on Tuesday and got right to prepping for our Podcasters’ Paradise meetup. Luckily we were able to host it right in the hotel lobby at Headwaters Lounge.

We had a great turnout and were able to catch up with a lot of friends from our community, both old and new.

We also had the opportunity to grab dinner with some of our Revenue Crew members before heading to the opening night party.

Both myself and John spoke Wednesday, so we made it a pretty early night :)

Day 2: Wednesday

I kicked my morning off with Pat Flynn on the Live Stage, and he had some massive value bombs to drop! Here are a few I jotted down…

Guest podcasting is so underutilized (John and I are big believers in this!)
The riches are in the niches! (I’m sure you’ve heard this from either myself or John 1,345+ times)
Follow up, follow up, follow up!! …which was my biggest lesson learned from April 2017
Put a schedule in place to make it fun!! (Pat’s golden advice from his book launch party for Superfans!)
It’s not the media hit that gets you a bump – it’s how you leverage it!
It’s not about sharing the actual thing (your podcast), it’s about sharing your knowledge that’s inside that episode. That’s what you should be marketing.

I followed Pat’s talk up with my own, which was titled: Overcoming Overwhelm

With the help of a couple great friends, Andy and Ben, I was able to start my talk off by handing out 80 Podcast Journals to those in the first several rows, which I was really excited to do. I can’t wait to hear from those who take action and dive into their Journals to start creating their podcast!

Journals aside, my talk started off super smooth – and it’s always the first minute or two that I’m most nervous about. But about 5 minutes into my talk, the fire alarm went off!

Everything ended up working out in the end, but I have to admit – standing in the parking lot, evacuated next to hundreds of attendees, I wondered whether I’d be giving my talk at Podcast Movement this year.

Great news: we were back inside with 10 minutes, so while my talk was done at 1.5x, I had a great audience who was ready to learn! I mean come on… check out these notes!

Shout out to Johnny Gwin for his amazing creative skills – and his excellent note-taking abilities :)

I’d say one of the things I covered that seemed most impactful for many in the room is one simple statement:

You don’t have to do everything

Along those lines, give this audio clip a listen – I used it to help set the scene and tone for my presentation.

Next up was John’s talk, where he covered the Top 10 Actions World-Class Interview Hosts Take

John came to Podcast Movement with a completely new presentation this year, and holy wow – it was SO WELL RECEIVED!

Here are those 10 actions John covered:

Ask unique questions
Make sure your guest knows the q’s ahead of time
Start the convo on fire so people are comfortable
Nail the pre-interview chat
Do your guest intro after (you’ll give a much better info after you’ve interviewed them / know more about them … so it’s not a bio page read)
Repeat the points your guests make throughout the interview (translate and reiterate and question for the sake of your audience)
This audio recording can be edited! (Scratchy mics, background noise, rambling guests)… Respect your listeners first and foremost.
Get a clear and concise CTA from your guest
Engage in a post-interview chat (feedback, interview live date, ask for the share)
1-week follow up with your guest (thank you and R&R request)

Because no one else was presenting in John’s room after him, he was able to keep his presentation going and offered up a bonus: 4 Growth Tactics for podcasters!

Those 4 podcast growth tactics are:

Guest podcasting
Being an active & engaged member in online groups
Repurpose your content! Short clips = great reminder for people to tune in later
Ratings & Reviews – credibility and authority + ranking … ask when your listeners engage!

But things didn’t end there…

After John delivered his bonus section, he dove into a 1 hour Q&A session! It was really cool to see the engagement and dedication from those still in the room, and they asked some amazing questions!

Day 3: Thursday

I started Thursday morning off with Jordan Harbinger recording his show from the Live Stage.

A couple of major points I took down from his chat with Ben Hardy were:

People have experiences, and if they’re bad experiences (or good) they start to identify with those moments. For example, we take a shot and miss and our coach says “why’d you take that shot?” …You start to identify with not being able to make that shot and begin to think that you shouldn’t take it. So you start playing it safe.
The past isn’t objective. When you change the context the thing changes, and we make meaning in our life based on experiences we have. When it comes to reframing negative experiences, you’re living in the gain or the gap. The gap is focusing on what you didn’t get. You focus on what something “wasn’t” versus what you gained.

Jordan and Ben had a super engaging and deep chat, which I believe will be posted on Jordan’s podcast. You can check out The Jordan Harbinger show here.

Next up was Azul Terronez on how to leverage influence to create authority.

This was probably one of the most straight-forward and well-presented talks I’ve been to. Zero fluff and a great story surrounding it.

Here are some of my notes from Azul’s talk:

Acts of service is how you grow as an apprentice
What you can do today: find someone you can serve
Influence comes from action and serving others
If you had a magic wand, and you could make everything happen for your podcast you want, what would that look like? Think about it…
Someone can take away your downloads, but they can’t take away your influence
Authority is created from your unique perspective, commitment and experience
Transformational versus transactional
You can’t read the label from inside the bottle. To find your uniqueness or to uncover your story – sometimes that takes talking to others you’re close with

The rest of my Thursday afternoon consisted of walking the expo area and having more great hallway conversations with friends both old and new!

Day 4: Friday

Friday was the final day of Podcast Movement, and I was very excited for the closing keynote: Guy Raz from How I Built This and Wow! In The World.

It was really cool to see Guy in all his awesomeness live!

During the closing keynote he chatted with Reza Aslan about working with NPR, his feelings about podcasting (and what an amazing medium audio is), and he shared his excitement for a new podcast project he’s working on with Luminary called Wisdom From the Top.

We wrapped Podcast Movement with a lot of good-byes and an excellent lunch before hopping our plane to Toronto (Podcast Movement was the start of our 90-day world adventure!)

If you want to continue following our travels in Toronto, Fiji, Latvia, Poland, and France, be sure to check us out on Instagram! @katelerickson and @johnleedumas

Podcast Movement 2019 in a nutshell

All in all, Podcast Movement 2019 has showed so much growth over last year’s event.

I heard a stat from a volunteer at the event that this is the first year in its history that “first time attendees” outnumbered those returning for a 2nd, 3rd, 4th, or 5th time, which was really cool to hear.

The overall vibe from the attendees and the hundreds of podcasters I was able to chat with over the 4 days was high, and the biggest thing that stood out to me was the progression that continues in the podcasting space.

In previous years there were an overwhelming amount of attendees who were brand new to podcasting, which isn’t a bad thing at all – in fact, it’s great that the medium continues to expand! But this year, you could tell the awareness the attendees had – plus their podcasting experience – was well above previous years.

Here’s cheers to Dan, Jared, and the entire Podcast Movement team for creating another incredible event, and a space where podcasters can come together and share their love for impacting millions!

Be sure to mark your calendars for Podcast Movement 2020!

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