Venture Step's 50th Episode: Analytics & Aiming High

TL;DR

Your minimum expectation for yourself should be winning. To achieve exceptional results, set goals so big they seem insane and let the universe help you get there. #VentureStep #Entrepreneurship #Motivation

INTRODUCTION

In this milestone 50th episode of Venture Step, host Dalton Anderson takes a rare step back from interviewing guests to turn the microphone on himself. ¹ He pulls back the curtain on the podcast's journey, offering a transparent look at the analytics, the challenges, and the core motivations that drive the show forward. It's a candid reflection on what it truly means to build something from the ground up, moving beyond vanity metrics to define a more meaningful version of success. ²

Dalton dives deep into the numbers, comparing the performance of the podcast on traditional audio platforms like Apple Podcasts and Spotify with its video counterpart on YouTube. ³ He shares real download counts, listener demographics, and viewership trends, providing invaluable insights for any creator curious about the mechanics of content distribution. This data-driven analysis sets the stage for a much deeper conversation about platform differences, community building, and the strategic importance of video in an era of AI-generated content. ⁴⁴⁴⁴

Ultimately, this episode is about more than just numbers. It's a manifesto on the power of aiming high and the psychology of achievement. Dalton shares his long-term vision for Venture Step, his personal definition of success, and a powerful framework for setting and achieving goals that seem impossibly ambitious. 555It's an inspiring call to action for anyone looking to not only launch a venture but to build a life of purpose and impact. 6

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Content Has a Long Tail: Older podcast episodes create a growing repository that generates a steady stream of "random viewership" long after their initial release, compounding download numbers over time. ⁷⁷⁷⁷
• YouTube Fosters Deeper Community: Unlike the passive listening experience of audio podcasts, YouTube provides a platform for more direct interaction, feedback, and community building with an audience that wants to support creators. ⁸⁸
• Publicly Declare Your Ambitions: When you consistently tell people what you want to achieve, the universe conspires to bring you the opportunities and connections needed to make it a reality. ⁹⁹⁹⁹
• Redefine Your Measure of Success: True success isn't measured in downloads or subscribers, but in your personal growth, discipline, and the ability to positively inspire even one person to pursue their dreams. ^{10101010101010}
• "Crank Your Neck" to Aim Higher: If your goals are at eye level, you're competing with everyone. By aiming for goals far above the norm, you compete with a smaller, more exceptional group and push yourself to new heights. ¹¹¹¹¹¹

FULL CONVERSATION

Dalton: Welcome to Venture Step podcast where we discuss entrepreneurship, industry trends, and the occasion book review. ¹²We've hit a milestone. ¹³This is Venture Step's 50th episode. ¹⁴Today I'll be taking you behind the scenes, showing some podcast analytics and reflecting my journey so far. ¹⁵

Dalton: Today we are going to touch on analytics, comparing podcast downloads and YouTube views and the differences between the different platforms. ¹⁶We'll cover the next steps for the podcast and some reflections of life goals and motivations behind Venture Step and whether I think it is a success. ¹⁷And then the last item would be touching on the importance of thinking big and aiming high. ¹⁸

Dalton: But of course, before we dive in, I'm your host, Dalton Anderson. ¹⁹My background is a bit of a mix of programming, data science, and insurance. ²⁰Offline, you can find me running, building my side business, or lost in a good book. ²¹You can listen to the podcast in video or audio on YouTube. ²²And if audio is more your thing, then you can listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever else you get your podcasts. ²³

A Look at Podcast Analytics and Seasonality

Dalton: So originally I thought that there was a seasonality thing. In a general sense, when people first start their podcasts, they are attached to the numbers and the downloads and the other stuff that comes with posting episodes. ²⁴And they're excited that people are actually listening because the general sense is no one's going to listen to the things that I talk about on the internet. ²⁵

Dalton: I didn't really subscribe to those ideas of what is successful for a podcast, and I'll talk about that a little bit later, but I did at some point just monitor the numbers because I'm curious. ²⁶I was surprised that people even tune in, and it is kind of cool to see where people are listening in the world. ²⁷ I thought that was interesting.

Dalton: In general, my downloads on separate platforms, either it be Spotify or Apple Podcasts. ²⁸YouTube doesn't count because you can set up your RSS feed to YouTube, but I'm doing it via video. ²⁹ In general, I felt that there was maybe some seasonality when I was looking at the numbers. The thought process behind other podcast hosts is people are busy in the summertime. ^30303030Your downloads typically spike in the winter months, which makes sense because more people are inside and they need something to stimulate their mind. ³¹And so they tune into podcasts, which I think is fair. ³²

Dalton: But then when I was looking at the months, I was like, wait, these aren't really summer months. ³³I mean, this is like the end of summer. ³⁴And during the summer months, I almost had a record month. ³⁵So I was a bit confused there. ³⁶What I do think happened is my RSS feed got messed up and it messed with my downloads on Apple and Spotify. ³⁷I remember my mom calling me and saying, "Hey, did you miss a week? I don't see your episode." ³⁸³⁸³⁸I was like, "No, I published the episode." ³⁹ I checked it out and it seems like it's not there. So what I did was I just refreshed my RSS feed and reconnected it, and then everything was fixed later that day. ⁴⁰But I don't know how long that's been going on for. ⁴¹

Dalton: So if you're viewing this episode in video format, you'll be able to see what I'm talking about. ⁴²Otherwise, I'll do some short descriptions. ⁴³The first thing that we're looking at here is our all-time listeners. ⁴⁴We broke 500 downloads, which I think is an accomplishment. ⁴⁵If you just do rough numbers, that means we're averaging a little more than 10 downloads an episode because we're at 50 episodes and now at 516 downloads. ⁴⁶

The Power of a Content Repository

Dalton: I would love to get to a thousand downloads a year, and that would be a hundred a month. ⁴⁷But you have to think about it; it's not that each episode is getting a thousand downloads. ⁴⁸ These episodes are going to be here on the internet until I delete them. So people will search the internet. They'll be searching for things about Nvidia. ⁴⁹

During the release window of Decoding NVIDIA, I got four downloads. And then on the third day, I got one download. The 11th day, I got one download. And then randomly, like 30 days later, day 27 and day 29, I got four downloads and a download. ⁵⁰

Dalton: So there's someone on the internet searching something up. They want to know a little bit more about Nvidia, and they found this episode. 51So if you had a repository of hundreds and hundreds of episodes and maybe they're just getting four additional downloads a month, and you had a repository of 270, that would give you 1,080 downloads a month, just from random viewership. 52 And that's not counting the new stuff.

So you could see as your repository grows, you could easily get over a thousand downloads. No problem. 53

Dalton: But that's the next goal. I would love to get the podcast to 500,000 downloads. 54It will become easier as I improve my speaking skills, as I improve the podcast, provide better quality content, and bring on guests that are interesting. 55

Understanding the Listener: Devices and Demographics

Dalton: The breakdown of the devices is pretty cool. ⁵⁶Majority of people listen to podcasts on a mobile app, 81%. ⁵⁷The operating system that dominates my listens currently is Apple, so iOS. ⁵⁸This number has gone down recently. ⁵⁹ Normally it was 90%. Now it seems to have spread out. Now iOS is at 71%, Windows is at 4%, Mac OS is at 10%, and then Android's at 15%, which I find interesting. ⁶⁰

Dalton: And this is my favorite part where it shows not only the country that's listening, but the breakdown of the geographical areas in that country. ⁶¹The majority of my listeners are in the United States at 78%. ⁶²Close to 6% listen to the podcast in the UK. ⁶³Then we have Singapore, Australia, Canada, India, and anything under 1% I'm not going to discuss, but I find that pretty cool. ⁶⁴

Why YouTube Is a Different Beast

Dalton: The next thing I would like to cover is YouTube. ⁶⁵YouTube is a completely different beast than the podcast host. ⁶⁶One of the reasons I felt strongly about recording my episodes via video and publishing them on YouTube is that I feel like there's going to be an increase of AI-generated podcasts. ⁶⁷ It's going to be difficult to know what is true and what is not. Differentiating artificial generated content and content that is curated by a human is going to be difficult in the future. ⁶⁸So I felt that starting with video and sharing my face, myself, my personality, and adding that extra bit of interaction was important. ⁶⁹

Building an Authentic Community

Dalton: Another thing that's interesting about YouTube is it's more of a community platform. ⁷⁰There's more interaction, more buy-in. ⁷¹⁷¹When you're listening to a podcast, the content might be good, but people are just trying to listen to the episode and then go about their day. ^72727272With YouTube, there's a whole group of people where they find people that don't have that many subscribers that are providing great content. ⁷³They subscribe to their YouTube to support their content, interact with the videos, leave comments and feedback and help that person reach whatever they're trying to do. ⁷⁴

Dalton: And that's exactly what people have been doing on YouTube. ⁷⁵People are subscribing to my videos, even though my videos aren't the best. ⁷⁶I'm just speaking and talking into the camera and maybe people resonate with that because there's so much manipulation when it comes to these videos. ⁷⁷

I'm not interested in going viral. I'm not interested in any of these other things. And I hope that other people resonate with what I'm trying to do. ⁷⁸

Dalton: Recently, I have gotten more than 50 subscribers. ⁷⁹Currently, I'm at 63, which is crazy. ⁸⁰I never expected that people would subscribe to the YouTube channel. ⁸¹The last 28 days, I've gotten 2.7K views and the total watch hours is 23.3 hours. ⁸²It's a long time. ⁸³My most viewed videos are all related to AI. ⁸⁴So if I really wanted to, I could just build stuff that is related to these topics and try to go viral. ⁸⁵ But once again, it's not about going viral. It's about becoming the person that provides value consistently. ⁸⁶It's easy to get eyeballs, but it's hard to keep people in your community. ⁸⁷

Valuable Feedback From the Community

Dalton: I have had some interesting interactions with the community on YouTube. ⁸⁸A standout has been a user named ABCD-MX9RH. ⁸⁹Their comment recently was, "Looks way better than the previous ones. You should compare some of your previous videos. This one's way better. I feel like I want to hear something from you. You're not some big YouTuber, but I think if you keep doing what you're doing, you'll get there." ⁹⁰

Dalton: And then I replied something like, "Thank you. I genuinely appreciate it. I hope you continue to engage with the channel. I strive to improve each week." ⁹¹

For me, it's not about gaining popularity. It's more about setting a tone of what it takes to succeed. I aim to inspire others to pursue their dreams and ambitions while setting a positive example of what that journey looks like. It would mean the world to me to know that I have inspired someone to achieve something that they never thought possible. ⁹²

Dalton: They also gave constructive feedback a couple of months ago, saying "Try to be more comfortable and look at the camera as a viewer. I don't want to see your eyes rolling everywhere... speak as you're speaking to a friend instead of speaking to a large audience." ⁹³And I think that's a great point. ⁹⁴Fortunately, or unfortunately, my mom was also saying the same thing. ⁹⁵So I've channeled my thinking into the camera and now I look at the camera, I would say 90% of the episode. ⁹⁶

Defining Success for Venture Step

Dalton: The next part is defining my success for the podcast. ⁹⁷I think success is a couple of things. ⁹⁸Long term, I would like to have many guests on the show consistently, at least once a month. ⁹⁹I would also love to create a book from what they've talked about that is relevant and provides guidance. ¹⁰⁰

Dalton: But what I deem as success for the podcast short term, I want to inspire someone. ¹⁰¹This has happened over the last couple of months, that people have messaged me privately and said, "Thank you for pushing me and having me ask more for myself and believing in me. That's changed the trajectory of my life." ¹⁰²That kind of stuff means so much to me. ¹⁰³

Dalton: Another thing that I would deem to be a success for the podcast is that it improves me. ¹⁰⁴It allows me to stay disciplined in my learnings and my lifestyle, my routine on consistent improvement. ¹⁰⁵If you're trying to be exceptional, the best way to run fast is to run with fast people. ¹⁰⁶And if you are trying to be exceptional and want to be an entrepreneur, the best way to do that is to interact with entrepreneurs. ¹⁰⁷The long-term goal is to use this podcast as a catalyst of self-improvement. ¹⁰⁸

The Power of Making Your Goals Public

Dalton: I saw a video recently talking about how if your minimum expectation and requirement is winning, then when you win, you don't feel like it is an accomplishment. ¹⁰⁹It just feels like you're doing what you're supposed to do. ¹¹⁰And that's how it feels to me. ¹¹¹

There's no doubt in my mind that this podcast is going to blow up. There's no doubt in my mind that I am going to be successful and found a company. There is no doubt in my mind. ¹¹²

Dalton: But I have to prepare for those moments. ¹¹³I have to be ready for what's to come. ¹¹⁴And it's a weird thing that happens when you ask the universe for something and you constantly think about it. ¹¹⁵If you're telling everybody that's what you want, society, the universe, God, whatever you believe in, something just clicks and you'll get the right opportunity for you to execute on your ambitions. ¹¹⁶But you have to be constantly thinking about it. ¹¹⁷

Crank Your Neck: Why You Should Aim Higher

Dalton: Ask more from yourself. ¹¹⁸I would phrase it as cranking your neck. ¹¹⁹

If your goals are eye level, you're competing with everyone else around you. And the people that you're competing with are not asking as much as they could be from themselves. If you crank your neck and you look up to the sky, you're not seeing that many people. You're competing with a select few. And those people that you're competing with are exceptional. ¹²⁰

Dalton: You can improve and you can become more well-rounded. ¹²¹Make a crazy goal, a crazy goal that you don't even think you could do. ¹²²And you're like, how am I going to do this? ¹²³When you have goals like that, then you are reaching the level that you need to be to obtain those goals. ¹²⁴And overall, it's going to change your life. ¹²⁵

A Final Message on Finding Your Purpose

You know what it takes, just get it done. ¹²⁶

Dalton: You've seen all these athletes, these famous people, and they all talk about all the time they put in. ¹²⁷You have some kind of dream that you think you can't do. ¹²⁸My parents said no, or my family isn't supportive, or whatever your excuses are. ¹²⁹Just shed them away, one at a time, and just get started. ¹³⁰That's the hardest part. ¹³¹

Dalton: Life is so beautiful. ¹³²This world is just breathtaking. ¹³³There's something for you in this world. ¹³⁴There are plenty of resources for you to take what you really wish for. ¹³⁵Ask more than what you think you're capable of and the world will fill you with the tools and opportunities to obtain what you're looking for. ¹³⁶

Dalton: And I truly believe that. ¹³⁷I hope that you enjoyed this episode and I hope that you tune in next week. ¹³⁸And wherever you are in this world, good morning, good afternoon, good evening. ¹³⁹Thank you for listening and hope you listen in next week. ¹⁴⁰Goodbye. ¹⁴¹

RESOURCES MENTIONED

• Apple Podcasts
• Spotify
• YouTube
• Transistor
• Nvidia
• LinkedIn
• Khan Academy
• Merrill Lynch
• Morgan Stanley

INDEX OF CONCEPTS

Dalton Anderson, Venture Step, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Transistor, RSS feed, Nvidia, LinkedIn, iOS, Android, Mac OS, Windows, ABCD-MX9RH, senior product manager, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, data scientist, Khan Academy