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:

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

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:

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. 

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.

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?

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.

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:

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:

There’s a few other key things:

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:

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:

Finding the right balance is crucial.

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:

But basically, this helps give him a story arc:

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.

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:

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:

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:

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

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.”

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

Also, because the content box of 1 podcast is:

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.

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:

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.

These are 33 YouTube lessons & trends for 2024 after 1,000 hours last year, and analyzing 10,000 videos:

For more detail, you can view the last email: https://www.breakingandbuildingleaders.com/p/2024-youtube-trends-lessons-from-1000-hours

That's it for today! See you soon!

If you have any questions, then reply & let me know so I can make sure that I'm not just making stuff out of my head, but answering the questions you care about!

Let's have an amazing week!

Andrew Bayon

P.S. Want to level up your marketing in 2024 & attract clients instead of chasing Leads?

Then I’ll reply with “VIDEO” and I’ll send a video showing what we do with YouTube, Podcasts, Email Newsletters & more for agents.

Or you can schedule an time to chat where I’ll give you a marketing strategy you can walk away with and implement, complimentary.

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