The Tim Ferriss Show #296: How to Build Popular Podcasts and Blogs
Master Pre-Interview Preparation
- Prepare thoroughly by chatting via video before interviews to ensure comfort and clarity.
- Ask questions you genuinely care about and let silence encourage deeper answers.
Let Silence Work in Interviews
- Let silence during interviews do the work to prompt richer responses.
- Pause for about five seconds after a question before intervening to avoid rushing guests.
Batch Recording and Buffering
- Batch podcast recordings on specific days and schedule content creation weeks quarterly.
- Maintain a buffer of at least four pre-recorded episodes to handle interruptions or illness.
Many of you have asked me how I have built a popular blog and podcast. I've contemplated writing a long post about this, and then Mari Takahashi (@atomicmari) -- a successful ballerina, gamer, and content creator -- sent me some very good questions that I decided to answer in this episode.
The Tim Ferriss Show has almost 300 million downloads and is the first business interview podcast to cross a hundred million downloads -- but with its fair share of mistakes and trials by fire along the way. Additionally, my blog receives between three and four million unique visitors per month.
There are certainly bigger podcasts and blogs, but I share how I've been able to grow both with only a couple full-time employees and a few part-time assistants. Enjoy!
This podcast is brought to you by Four Sigmatic. While I often praise this company's Lion's Mane Mushroom Coffee, I asked the founders if they could help me improve my sleep. Their answer: Reishi Mushroom Elixir. They made a special batch for me and my listeners that comes without sweetener; you can try it at bedtime with a little honey or nut milk, or you can just add hot water to your single-serving packet and embrace its bitterness like I do.
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This podcast is also brought to you by FreshBooks. FreshBooks is the #1 cloud bookkeeping software, which is used by a ton of the start-ups I advise and many of the contractors I work with. It is the easiest way to send invoices, get paid, track your time, and track your clients.
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Past guests on The Tim Ferriss Show include Jerry Seinfeld, Hugh Jackman, Dr. Jane Goodall, LeBron James, Kevin Hart, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Jamie Foxx, Matthew McConaughey, Esther Perel, Elizabeth Gilbert, Terry Crews, Sia, Yuval Noah Harari, Malcolm Gladwell, Madeleine Albright, Cheryl Strayed, Jim Collins, Mary Karr, Maria Popova, Sam Harris, Michael Phelps, Bob Iger, Edward Norton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Neil Strauss, Ken Burns, Maria Sharapova, Marc Andreessen, Neil Gaiman, Neil de Grasse Tyson, Jocko Willink, Daniel Ek, Kelly Slater, Dr. Peter Attia, Seth Godin, Howard Marks, Dr. Brené Brown, Eric Schmidt, Michael Lewis, Joe Gebbia, Michael Pollan, Dr. Jordan Peterson, Vince Vaughn, Brian Koppelman, Ramit Sethi, Dax Shepard, Tony Robbins, Jim Dethmer, Dan Harris, Ray Dalio, Naval Ravikant, Vitalik Buterin, Elizabeth Lesser, Amanda Palmer, Katie Haun, Sir Richard Branson, Chuck Palahniuk, Arianna Huffington, Reid Hoffman, Bill Burr, Whitney Cummings, Rick Rubin, Dr. Vivek Murthy, Darren Aronofsky, and many more.
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