{"id":34045,"date":"2025-06-10T18:50:32","date_gmt":"2025-06-10T18:50:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.duck9.com\/blog\/?p=34045"},"modified":"2025-06-10T23:25:17","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T03:25:17","slug":"from-a-multi-million-dollar-closet-to-millions-of-views","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.duck9.com\/blog\/from-a-multi-million-dollar-closet-to-millions-of-views\/","title":{"rendered":"From a Multi Million Dollar Closet to Millions of Views"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"postie-post\">\n<div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">\n<div dir=\"ltr\">Unedited by Larry Chiang<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">For the longest time, my podcast was a mega failure.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">Three years. 200+ episodes. Embarrassing download numbers. I kept telling myself &#8220;just one more episode&#8221; because I had nothing to lose.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">Somewhere around episode 150, recording in my closet, I had this moment: I&#8217;m never gonna be the next Tim Ferriss. I can&#8217;t interview like him. I&#8217;m not that smooth.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">So I figured out I&#8217;d just focus on giving out 100% sauce. Tactics that actually work. Ideas that fire up founders. Zero fluff.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">It worked.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">I went from 10k subs to 300k subs in 18 months. Today &#8220;The Startup Ideas Podcast&#8221; gets millions of listens a month.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">And most importantly, I&#8217;m always getting DMs from founders where they &#8220;stole&#8221; and idea from the show, or learned something that put them on a completely new life trajectory. How cool is that?!<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">The closet forced me to focus on the only thing that mattered: whether I was saying something worth hearing.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">And because I&#8217;m not a content creator (ive got businesses to run!), i didnt prepare much. Just shared what I was learning in real-time.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">The constraints made the content better.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">I told myself I&#8217;ll only be able to get out of the closet when I deserve it. When I see comments on yt flowing in. Not just high school friends or fam members.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">I eventually upgraded to a home office, but those 200+ episodes in the closet taught me everything. You don&#8217;t need perfect conditions.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">I just wanted to take a minute to thank you for sticking with me.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">You could have spent your time elsewhere.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">But you spent it with me.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">I&#8217;ll give you more sauce than you know what to do with.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">Teach you everything I&#8217;m learning in real-time.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">Free.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">Thank you.<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/gregisenberg\/status\/1587835138284584962?s=43\"><\/p>\n<table cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" border=\"0\" style=\"border:1px solid #ccd6dd; border-radius: 12px;\" width=\"500\" bgcolor=\"#ffffff\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td colspan=\"3\" style=\"font-size: 0px; line-height: 0px;\" height=\"12\">&nbsp;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"18\" style=\"font-size: 0px; line-height: 0px; min-width: 18px;\">&nbsp;<\/td>\n<td>\n<table cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" border=\"0\" width=\"464\" align=\"left\">\n<tbody>\n<tr valign=\"top\">\n<td width=\"48\" valign=\"top\"><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/gregisenberg?s=43\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pbs.twimg.com\/profile_images\/1577116785656139776\/5mi0qgTz_normal.jpg\" style=\"border-radius: 50%; padding: 0px;\" height=\"48\" width=\"48\" data-unique-identifier=\"\"><\/a><\/td>\n<td width=\"8\" style=\"font-size: 0px; line-height: 0px; min-width:8px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ea.twimg.com\/email\/self_serve\/media\/spacer.png\" width=\"8\" data-unique-identifier=\"\"><\/td>\n<td valign=\"middle\" width=\"388\" style=\"min-width: 388px;\">\n<table cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" border=\"0\" align=\"left\" width=\"388\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td align=\"left\" width=\"388\"><b><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/gregisenberg?s=43\" style=\"font-family: Helvetica, Arial, san-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; color: #292c2f; text-decoration: none;\">GREG ISENBERG<\/a><\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td align=\"left\"><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/gregisenberg?s=43\" style=\"font-family: Helvetica, Arial, san-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none; color: #7e8c98;\">\u2066\u202a@gregisenberg\u202c\u2069<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"20\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ea.twimg.com\/email\/self_serve\/media\/logo_twitter-1497383721365.png\" height=\"20\" width=\"24\" data-unique-identifier=\"\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td height=\"9\" colspan=\"4\" style=\"font-size: 0px; line-height:0px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ea.twimg.com\/self_serve\/media\/spacer_464x1-1582829598167.png\" width=\"464\" height=\"1\" data-unique-identifier=\"\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td colspan=\"4\" style=\"font-family: Helvetica, Arial, san-serif;color: #292c2f; font-size: 18px; line-height: 24px; text-decoration: none;\">My podcast studio is in a closet. I&#8217;m not proud of it <\/p>\n<p>The greatest productivity hack:<\/p>\n<p>Force yourself to start. Eventually, you&#8217;ll have your dream tools<\/p>\n<p>Just start <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/z88vXQj4NL\"><span>pic.x.com\/z88vXQj4NL<\/span><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td height=\"3\" colspan=\"4\" style=\"font-size: 0px; line-height:0px;\">&nbsp;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td colspan=\"4\"><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/gregisenberg\/status\/1587835138284584962?s=43\" style=\"font-family: Helvetica, Arial, san-serif;color: #667785; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-decoration:none;\">11\/2\/22, 10:52\u202fAM<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<td width=\"18\" style=\"font-size: 0px; line-height: 0px; min-width: 18px;\">&nbsp;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td colspan=\"3\" style=\"font-size: 0px; line-height: 0px;\" height=\"12\">&nbsp;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><\/a><\/div>\n<p><br id=\"lineBreakAtBeginningOfSignature\"><\/p>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">Sent from my iPhone<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Unedited by Larry Chiang For the longest time, my podcast was a mega failure. Three years. 200+ episodes. Embarrassing download numbers. I kept telling myself &#8220;just one more episode&#8221; because I had nothing to lose. Somewhere around episode 150, recording in my closet, I had this moment: I&#8217;m never gonna be the next Tim Ferriss. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.duck9.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.duck9.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.duck9.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.duck9.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.duck9.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.duck9.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34045\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.duck9.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.duck9.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.duck9.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}