All the Media Growth Hacks with Chris Hutchins - [Making Media, EP.21]

Our guest today, Chris Hutchins, is a bit of a podcast whisperer and has some of the most unique ideas in podcasting and in media. Before Chris went full-time with his All the Hacks podcast, he co-founded two businesses. One he sold to Google, the other he sold to Wealthfront. He also spent time as a partner at Google Ventures before going full-time with his podcast business. For this conversation, we talked to Chris about what it's like running a podcast business versus running those previous businesses and how much differs in the podcast industry versus the tech industry. We also talked to Chris about his vision for a bigger media business, and we walk through some of the different business models that we see out there. This is an excellent conversation with somebody who's doing really creative things in media. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here. ----- This episode is brought to you by Scribe. Scribe is the presenting sponsor of this episode of Making Media and the magic behind the Colossus transcripts. One of the best decisions we made at Colossus was transcribing all of our audio into a searchable transcript library. We had been using another provider up until the summer of 2022 but we were constantly having issues with accuracy if our audio was just the slightest bit impaired. Whether it's training sessions, internal Q&As, or for media purposes, the value of transcripts is huge. And we are not alone. Scribe is the transcription service that powers all of S&P Global - like CapIQ - and the client list includes our friends at Tegus. Go to joincolossus.com/scribe to unlock 150 minutes of free transcription and test their capabilities. ----- Making Media is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Making Media, visit joincolossus.com/episodes. Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: @ReustleMatt | @domcooke | @MakingMediaPod | @JoinColossus  Show Notes (00:03:38) - (First question) - The unique nature of growing a business based off podcasting  (00:07:29) - Overall podcast business mission, growth, and execution  (00:11:24) - Hacks for finding unclaimed money (00:12:18) - Content optimization versus better business practices to grow your podcast  (00:14:03) -​​ The Points Guy (00:14:57) - Adapting to an audio-based career (00:15:51) - 1000 True Fans (00:16:50) - Content to commerce inspiration (00:20:00) - What he’s learned through quality content and audio creation (00:22:49) - Content quality and audio quality (00:24:55) - Inflections that have resulted in a sustainable jump in growth  (00:28:40) - Tim Ferriss Podcast Episode (00:29:42) - Insight into content creation following massive growth trends (00:31:20) - Various ways he promotes his podcast (00:31:34) - Chartable  (00:34:32) - Which analytics represent success and sustainability    (00:36:39) - Weekly distribution of tasks for a full-time podcaster  (00:38:58) - His decision to switch from primarily interview-based content to more solo content (00:40:38) - Building relationships and trust with existing sponsorships (00:42:37) - Finding sponsorships that work for him (00:44:06) - What it’s like building a business alone (00:45:42) - Debrief