E600 - Should We Celebrate Podcast Milestone Episodes Without Providing Value to Our Audience, Are we Navel Gazing Too Much

Episode 600 - Should We Celebrate Podcast Milestone Episodes Without Providing Value to Our Audience, Are we Navel Gazing Too Much

Milestone episodes are a tempting moment to turn the mic on ourselves, but this conversation challenges whether that actually serves the listener. In this 600th episode of the How to Podcast Series, Dave reflects on how to celebrate big numbers without drifting into self‑indulgence or forgetting the audience altogether.

Dave starts by reaffirming his commitment to being available to podcasters one on one. The open calendar link on his site is not a marketing trick but a signal that he genuinely wants to meet, encourage, and troubleshoot with other creators. That posture of service becomes the lens for the entire episode as he wrestles with a simple question: does the audience really care that this is episode 600, or do milestone celebrations mostly gratify the host?

From there, he argues that every episode, whether it is number 2 or 600, must leave the listener changed in some way. That change can look like encouragement, clarity, a new idea, or a sense of being built up, but if listeners leave exactly as they arrived, the content has missed its purpose. Milestone episodes are no exception. It is fine to tell your story, trace your journey, or take a victory lap, yet even that reflection should model growth and invite listeners into their own progress rather than simply asking them to applaud yours.

Dave highlights Demetria Zinga’s Soul Podcasting as a powerful example of how to do this well. In her own milestone episode she walks through past shows, pivots, and lessons learned with honesty and vulnerability, always tying her experience back to encouragement and practical value for her audience. Her show, he notes, feels welcoming and genuinely listener‑focused, not like a stage for self‑promotion.

The caution running through the episode is against “navel gazing” in podcasting: hosts who talk mostly about themselves, measure their worth by awards and achievements, and slowly turn the show into a monologue aimed at the mirror. Dave points out how this can surface in both solo episodes and interviews, where the host dominates the conversation and the guest becomes a silent spectator. As a listener, it can feel like walking in on someone complimenting themselves, with no clear sense of how you fit into the content.

Instead, Dave urges podcasters to stay relentlessly audience‑focused. Celebrate milestones, absolutely, but always ask, “What does my listener get out of this?” He suggests listening back to your own episodes with that question in mind and being willing to course‑correct if you’ve drifted into self‑focus. Even “bonus” or “victory lap” episodes should send listeners away with something useful, whether that is a new resource, a fresh insight, or a renewed sense of belonging.

He closes by connecting this to consistency and growth. Regularly getting on the mic, like learning to ride a bike or a dirt bike, will feel awkward at first, but over time your voice, confidence, and creative rhythm improve. Consistency benefits listeners by building a habit around your show, and it benefits you by giving you more reps, more learning, and more opportunities to serve. Along the way, he invites listeners into his free meetups for podcasters, underlining once more that podcasting is not meant to be a lonely, inward‑looking endeavor, but a community‑driven practice centered on delivering real value to the people who press play.

Soul Podcasting: Purpose-Driven Podcasting in Business for Solopreneurshttps://pod.link/1657879891100. Celebrating 100 Episodes + My Audio Journey 2005 Throwback!https://pod.link/1657879891/episode/YTFhMjQxZDctNTlkMS00MDdmLWE3MDAtNDY4NjE2YWE5NzVi

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