I know last week’s email was a doozy.

So this one is as tactical but easier to consume.

I wanted to break down the fastest-growing podcast in the world with over 40,000,000 monthly downloads (a few months old stat)…

And their YouTube gets over 27,000,000 views a month (recently)…

The podcast is:

1. Social First

2. Data Driven

3. Powered by AI

Also, if you want an abbreviated version of all 33 YouTube trends for 2024 from last week’s email, then I’ll put them all at the bottom in simple bullet points.

As well as a “down the rabbit hole” of a few of my best finds recently.

I hope you enjoy this one!

- Andrew

— Case Study —

First, what is The Diary of a CEO (DOAC)? In less than 30 seconds, it’s a podcast, hosted by Steven Bartlett, that interviews the world’s most influential people:

• Richard Branson

• Barbara Corcoran

• Jordan Peterson

• Mel Robbins

• Alex Hormozi

• Bryan Johnson, etc.

In various fields across health, money, business, happiness, relationships, etc.

The team is dedicated to creating a space for open and unfiltered conversations. 

Steven Bartlett is a 30-something-year-old born in Botswana who later moved to the UK and started a multi-million dollar, leading, social media marketing company at the age of 18. 

• At 27, he resigned and co-founded Flight Story, which works with companies like Nike, Uber, Amazon, Apple, Disney, Twitch, etc.

• Thirdweb is a software platform for building web3 applications

• Flight Fund is a private equity fund that helps accelerate growth in companies like Whoop & Huel

• He’s also the youngest investor ever on Dragon’s Den the UK version of Shark Tank, plus way more.

The Diary of a CEO today gets 40,000,000 monthly downloads.

It’s not only become the largest podcast network in Europe, but in 2023 it ranked as one of the top 10 podcasts in the world.

Even though DOAC is massive with a 30+ person team now when he started it in 2017 it was small & unheard of without celebrity guests (you won’t find the videos from 2017-2019 on YouTube anymore but you can find the audio on podcast).

The last 3 years from 2020-2023 they saw a meteoric rise.

So I wanted to break down their growth strategy, everything I’ve been learning, and what we’ve been implementing from them.

YouTube

But there’s a few things they did exceptionally well on YouTube. Now many are copying them.

So, what are they doing differently from everyone else?

1. Trailers

This is where they’re a world apart from everyone else.

When you watch the first 1.5 minutes of their podcasts you notice it’s an entire story arc:

The trailers are a proven strategy just look at movie trailers.

The movie trailer teases us to watch on opening day.

DOAC takes this strategy to social and they tease the YouTube launch on their social platforms with a 90-second trailer so you go watch the full podcast.

These trailers are world class and it’s no surprise they often get +1 million views.

2. Subscribe Call to Action (CTA)

Unlike most boring subscribe calls to action “like & subscribe for more videos like this”, Steven is a marketing savant through & through.

Their subscribe CTA leverages a lot of human psychology:

3. Thumbnails

These thumbnails may seem simple, but they follow a specific formula that’s actually hard to nail really well.

That’s why they test 100+ thumbnails BEFORE the video is even launched live.

Their 3-part formula:

1. Specific - specific enough because the point is clear & concise

2. Yet Broad Enough - even though it’s specific it has broad appeal aka money, life, happiness, relationships, health, etc.

3. With Emotional Appeal - by appealing to people’s emotions you grab their attention & make them want to click 

There’s a few other key things:

• High-quality faces

• Simple but big text

• Emphasized power word with a color (red)

• Pre-research guests help identify potential topics of high interest

• They test 3 face variations with over 30 text hooks

• The best few are selected to then also test when they launch

• Using the data (views, clickthrough rate & average view durations) in the first 12 to 24 hours and even the first 3 day to swap out low-performing thumbnails.

4. Titles

The titles follow a similar formula as well.

Specific yet broad enough with emotional appeal.

You’ll notice the guest names are often not the main hook of the title, instead, the hook is:

1. The No.1 or The World No.1…

2. The (ex. Love) Expert

3. The (broad yet specific title - ADHD Doctor)

4. “The Man That Makes Millionaires” or Meet the…

5. “Airbnb CEO/Shopify President” (The company name)

6. Simon Sinek: (their name, but only when they’re big enough)

7. Sometimes a quote, “It’s An Emergency!” 

8. Sometimes it’s a magazine-esque headline, “I've PROVEN This Food Keeps You Young”

The combined title formula:

{Lead in title} + {Quote or Magazine-Esque Headline} + {the guest’s name}

But the first 2 parts are the most essential which is why they test over 20-30 variations before going live.

Then based on the click-through rates they choose the best.

This happens both before & after episodes go live to optimize performance.

The goal is to identify what:

• resonates most with audiences

• gets high clickthrough rates

• and is intriguing yet still clearly conveying what the episode is about.

Finding the right balance is crucial.

5. Research

This is the most underrated part of a podcast but Steven realizes it’s essential. 

He has team members dedicated to building out a research doc for him so that he can focus his time on going through that doc for a full hour before recording.

But he’ll even watch things like Richard Branson’s documentary late Sunday night before recording Monday.

While we don’t have a full breakdown of his research, we have a partial example from his Behind the Diary vlog:

1. Person

2. Instagram

3. YouTube

4. Twitter

5. Google

6. Trends associated with and topics

7. Most watched videos with topics discussed

8. Early life

9. Childhood

10. Teenager

11. Career

But basically, this helps give him a story arc:

1. Act 1

2. Act 2

3. Act 3

And which topics are most attractive to discuss.

I started implementing this from the beginning and I believe it helps make the podcasts better.

Now I’m just tweaking the right mix of too much prep & research, and how to pull out the best parts in the best story arc during the conversation.

6. Iterative Process

From booking guests to the production to their storytelling and their experimentations, their process is dialed in.

These are 3 things I believe are notable:

1. Storytelling

2. Production

3. Review

This won’t do it all justice but you’ll notice by now Steven and DOAC do ALL things differently.

They storyboard before & after, and are world-class storytellers. This is one of the biggest reasons their episodes do so well.

The production is nothing short of amazing. They have fake studios of his UK studio in NYC and LA so that they can make it feel like all of the guests are coming to him. But there’s multiple layers to their production process I wouldn’t do it justice.

They review everything. They optimize and iterate which is why the small 1% improvements have compounded over 3 and 5+ years now. 

They didn’t let failures stop them from progressing forward.

In a world where most podcasts quit after 3 episodes (90%!!!), and 90% of those left in the 10% quit after 20 episodes… you become the 1% with only 21 episode…

So imagine what over 250 episodes have done for the DOAC team? Let’s find out:

Other Platforms:

Let’s break down the channels they’re on:

But first, let’s focus on the next layer of their content, the short form videos: 

They tailor content format and style for each platform - Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok etc:

Now, the Team Behind DOAC:

This is 30+ and growing, here’s a quick breakdown of a few team members:

1. Jack Sylvester - Executive Producer

2. Harry Podcast booker (Now Head of Research & guest booker)

3. Emma Head of PR & Guest booker (Now Head of Communications & Distribution)

4. Berta Head video editor

5. Anthony Smith Head of Trailers

6. Grace Andrews - Social Media Manager (Now Marketing Director)

7. Dom Murray Brand Manager DOAC

8. Sophie Chapman Steven’s Assistant (Working with Steven since 2016)

9. Will Official Videographer & Editor

10. Alexandra Head of Product

11. Grace Miller Head of Failure and Experimentation 

12. Charles Lead data scientist

So, how did they grow?

1. Growth:

• Celebrity guests

• Increasing the volume (x2 a week and multiple platforms)

• Data backed decisions

• In-house tech ex. their trackpad under the table & their AI

• Culture of failure & experimentation

• Expansion

2. Experimentation:

• Obsessed with experiments and marginal gains.

• Focus on the first 1-2 hours of upload vital; the team analyzes data to keep improving visibility.

• Thumbnails testing:

  1. 30 to 100 thumbnails

  2. 3 face variations

  3. 30+ hooks

• Ads to test thumbnails before launching

• Other thoughts:

  • The small stuff is the big stuff

  • For experimentation, I see:

    • Data + Bold Curiosity x Rapid Iteration + Fearless Failure = Innovations (then repeat).

  • “Our culture is one of extreme testing, extreme experimentation, and extreme failure because we believe the path to the correct answer is out failing your competition.”

3. AI:

• Hiring a data scientist

• Building In-house AI - translation tech, podcast performance data, a podcast testing platform, in-house AI-powered translation technology and tools to streamline the entire podcast process, a cross-platform promotion system, and more.

4. Expansion:

• PR:

  1. Media Appearances

  2. Books

  3. TV Shows

  4. Radio appearances

  5. Professional Talks

  6. Other people’s podcasts

  7. Live DOAC, live episodes with Simon Sinek

• BBC Iplayer

• Airlines: Qatar, British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus

• Prisons

• Billboards

• Podcast network

• Behind the Diary Vlog

5. Sweating the small stuff:

• Guests’ favorite music as background sound

• Personal Luxury Mercedes Car Driver

• Multiple studios in London, NYC, and LA

• Surprise and delight

• Audience engagement:

  1. Q&As

  2. Live (offline & online)

  3. Dinners

But how do they make money?

1. Dragon’s Den - deal flow

2. Flight Story - marketing and communication company for top brands

3. FlightFund - Strategic partnerships with Sponsors like Huel, Whoop, Until, Zoe, etc.

4. Premium Subscriptions on YouTube, etc.

5. Ad sense from YouTube

6. Products:

   1. Journal

   2. Conversation Cards

   3. Merch

   4. Books

7. All of the other companies Steven launches (or partners with) like ThirdWeb which he founded, this brand creates traffic for every other brand

The Diary of a CEO is:

1. Social First

2. Data Driven

3. Powered by AI

But Steven equates the growth to 1% improvements and the small details more than anything else. Obsessing over the details and experimentation.

“You are remembered for the rules you break.”

So, why Podcasting?

It’s a win-win for business-to-business (B2B), and business-to-consumer (B2C):

1. Networking

2. Brand

3. Client acquisition

4. Talent acquisition

5. PR

6. Monetization

7. An owned asset, even possibly sellable

8. Great for fundraising (as you see Steven is a prolific investor with is PE firm)

9. Tons of content

Also, because the content box of 1 podcast is:

1. Weekly YouTube video

2. Weekly audio podcast

3. Multiple (2, 3, 5+) short-form clips

4. A blog

5. An email

What other content medium can do all of that in one?

That’s why I also created a podcast. That and my love for storytelling. And maybe a slight bit of laziness with short form lol.

How This Realtor Sells +$15M/YR Directly From YouTube

Meet Dan Parker, a San Diego real estate agent who's building his entire business using YouTube based on attraction instead of chasing leads.

Dan Parker's Best Life in SD team ranks among the nation's top real estate teams. His YouTube channel has over 9,100 subscribers & he gets 67% of his $30M+ business directly from his channel. His goal is to be the go-to resource and leader for anyone relocating to San Diego & South California. And in our conversation he breakdown his plan to make this happen.

We discuss:

• 00:00 - Building a real estate business through YouTube

• 01:31 - Why Dan started on YouTube

• 05:34 - Focusing on attracting clients instead of cold prospecting

• 11:55 - Relocation lead strategies

• 17:02 - Dan's YouTube content strategy

• 22:20 - Targeting luxury clients

• 27:00 - Repurposing YouTube content

• 35:30 - Dan's video creation process

• 41:00 - How Dan optimizes his videos to perform

• 45:50 - Prioritizing lead gen strategies

• 49:48 - Avoiding burnout & setting boundaries in business

• 54:14 - Building the go to San Diego resource

If you want to learn YouTube then I highly recommend this conversation plus the one I had with Ken Pozek. Dan is practically building his entire business with YouTube.