Speaker 1: 0:00

You spoke and we listened. Today we're diving into the results of our first ever Wits and Weights podcast listener survey. Tune in to find out what we learned about you, our amazing audience and how your feedback is shaping the future of the show. Welcome to the Wits and Weights podcast. I'm your host, phillip Pape, and this twice a week podcast is dedicated to helping you achieve physical self mastery by getting stronger, optimizing your nutrition and upgrading your body composition. We'll uncover science-backed strategies for movement, metabolism, muscle and mindset, with a skeptical eye on the fitness industry, so you can look and feel your absolute best. Let's dive right in Wits and Weights community. Welcome to a bonus episode of the Wits and Weights podcast. This is a very special episode because we recently conducted a comprehensive survey of our listeners in the first ever podcast listener survey, and I'm very excited today to share the results with you. Your feedback is going to help shape the future of this show. And stick around until the end, where I'll be announcing the five winners of our survey prizes. Also, this is being live streamed in the free Wits and Weights Facebook community, so if you're listening to the audio version and wondering what that's all about, join our Facebook group using the link in the show notes for other live streams like this early podcast releases, live trainings, workshops, masterclasses, guest interviews, group support and accountability, and the weekly live Q and A that I do every Friday. So ton of value, ton of content and resources, all for free. Just click the link in the show notes to join the free Wits and Weights Facebook community.

Speaker 1: 1:47

All right, let's dive into the survey results. So I have the results in front of me and, for privacy, I'm not gonna be sharing anybody's specific information. I may throw some generic quotes in there that I found in the survey and I'll just kind of go through some of the main findings here today so that we can learn what you think about the show. First off, I wanna say a huge thank you to everyone who took the time to complete our survey. I know it was a fairly detailed survey and, yeah, there was some incentives, but really it's thanks to you that I was able to learn and grow from that. It's all about the data, right. It's all about awareness. That's exactly what we try to do in our fitness and health as well, and it's clear that we have an incredible community of listeners.

Speaker 1: 2:32

So let's start with demographics. I think it's fun to just see who took the survey, and about two thirds, or 70% of you identify as female, with ages ranging everywhere from late 20s to the 60s, and the biggest group, 37%, are in your 40s. So kind of a normal curve, if you will, a bell curve but I'm not surprised that a lot of you are kind of in the middle there 30s, 40s, 50s. That's generally who we speak to. That's the age range I'm in. Now there were some other demographics on, like race and things like that, but I'm not gonna dive into those. What really stood out to me here on the education side is that 63% of people listening to the show have a graduate degree and 20% of college graduates, and over half have fairly high household income. So again, I'm not gonna specify numbers. Either way, it's always an honor to be creating content for everybody who listens to the show, especially people who have high intellectual and educational standards that I try to speak to with our language, and how we approach this from the science and evidence-based perspective, also knowing that there are plenty of you who come from all different backgrounds who are also kicking butt in this space.

Speaker 1: 3:46

Whatever your background is All right. So let's talk about listening habits. Now we're starting to get into the more podcast-specific stuff. About half of you are diehards who listen to almost every episode. All right, and you are my people, right, cause I am a podcast junkie. With the podcast that I really like, I'm very loyal to them. Now, the other half tend to cherry pick the episodes that pique your interest, and that's totally cool, too, cause I also do that with certain podcasts. If, however, you're listening to this and you're one of those cherry pickers and you would like to be a more binge listener or loyal listener and there's something missing and you didn't take the survey, always reach out. Reach out to me on Instagram, at witsandweights or any of the links in my show notes.

Speaker 1: 4:29

What is interesting here is nearly three out of four listeners discovered the show in the past year, right, so we've got a lot of newcomers, and I'm not surprised because you know the growth trajectory has been kind of exponential, right, so it makes sense that the majority of people found the show, found it recently, and I hope that continues. Meaning, cause it would indicate the show is continuing to grow quickly. Right, to those of you who have been rocking with me and jamming on this show and listening for over a year. I mean, you're like the MVP veterans here of the of the show and I know a lot of you by name, by the way. So, all right, now, when an episode drops, 83% of you listen within the first week. All right, 83%. This is amazing because I know we have a lot of episodes. So the fact that that many people listen to it pretty soon, you know, is good news and you're on top of it, right In terms of frequency.

Speaker 1: 5:28

About a third of you want two episodes a week. About a third are totally cool with the current five per week flow that I've got, and then the rest I have no preference. So, yeah, does that tell me anything that I need to change anything? Probably not. The way I see it is better to provide more than less, because you can always delete episodes and you may be surprised when one drops and it speaks exactly to what you're looking for. I know in podcast apps you can sometimes set how many episodes it keeps. So if you're worried about, like, keeping it up with everything, you could do it that way.

Speaker 1: 6:01

And I also number the episodes or I label the episodes in a way that helps you categorize them. So the longer solo and interview, guest interview episodes have an app number, like EP, and a number to help you separate those from all the others. And the others include quick wits, which are these three to five minute episodes that drop Monday and Thursday and then weekend Q&A, or bonus episodes, like this one that drop on Saturday, which will say like weekend Q&A, or they'll say bonus. So I try to make it as easy as possible to just filter out the ones you don't want to listen to and, for the rest, that like the five, I'm going to keep delivering and I think I think that'll keep everyone happy to be honest. But I'll always keep that in mind as I plan out the content calendar. Now here is the stat that made me do a little happy dance and that is 93% of you do like the current episode length and as someone who puts a lot of thought into the structure, the pacing, the content of each episode, you know that makes me happy to hear that you do like that. I realize that the length changes a lot depending on the episode, but I think a lot of you don't mind that because it kind of gives you an option. Do I want a quick wit where it's just, you know, three to five minutes, I'm done, that's all I have time for. Or hey, I'm doing the chores, or I'm lifting weights, or I'm in the car and I want something longer.

Speaker 1: 7:23

Okay, continuing on into discovery and engagement. I'm always curious about how folks find their way to the podcast. It's the pod. For anybody who's not like a podcaster in that world, it's like black magic. It really is like the ability to understand how people find your show so that you can grow it. It's like black magic. It's not like on social media, where they have algorithms and analytics galore. It's very much more obtuse in the podcast world. So I asked some questions related to get to understand where you're coming from and make sure I reach those channels even more frequently to keep growing the show.

Speaker 1: 8:01

30% of you heard me as a guest on another show. That's awesome. Like shout out to my you know podcast family that I've had relationships with and been able to go on other shows. All of you hosts out there, any of you who might be listening to this show as a listener. I appreciate it. Like thanks for spreading the love. Like this is amazing.

Speaker 1: 8:21

20% of you discovered it while browsing in the app. Okay, and that's one of the hard places to get found and where we try to do things like get you know, rank higher on the charts and stuff like that. And recently we ranked in the top 15 on the Apple United States nutrition chart, which is I'm very proud of that, and it took time to get there and it's not like you just stay there forever because it's since drop, drop, drop to like 50 but then it kind of went up, then it went down. But kind of cracking into that top 50 really helps people discover it when they're browsing and this is why the more of you that can follow the show not just look at random episodes but actually click, follow it tells the algorithm oh, people really like the show because they want to hear more of it. And then 17% of you click through from a social media post and they always say, oh, you shouldn't promote your podcast on social media. Nobody's going to find it that way.

Speaker 1: 9:16

I beg to disagree. I feel like I'm just going to tell you all about it wherever I am, and you know if you're annoyed by it you'll stay away. If you want to check it out, you'll check it out. I don't know. You know I'm not trying to game the system, I'm just like an old, 43 year old guy who didn't grow up with Instagram. All right, so here. Next statistic. I'm trying to make this a little bit entertaining.

Speaker 1: 9:38

Even if you didn't take the survey or care too much about the show's statistics, once you found us, once you found what's in weights, you definitely been sticking around. I really appreciate that 83% of you follow or subscribe to catch new episodes. Now, I agree that this is biased, because if you're listening to the, if you took the survey, chances are you're already an avid listener and that's a disclaimer or limitation that applies to this whole podcast episode. But look, this is not a scientific study. This is not a main analysis or anything of that. So it is what it is, right. I'm just telling you what the data is telling me. Also, you're not just passive listeners. 77% of you engage with us on social, 63% get our is on our email list, and over a third of you have joined our live events and training. So I appreciate all of that. I also love learning where and how you tune in.

Speaker 1: 10:35

All right, this was like. You guys listen to this everywhere 83% listen at home, 60% while you're walking, 53% in the car, 43% at the gym, and then a lot of you are multitasking. You've got 70% that are crushing your chores while you listen to the show, 60% who are cooking, 57% getting your training in your workouts and then 50% are Getting ready or primping to take on the day. Okay, so that's it for discoverability. Let's do some. Let's do some humble brags, okay, and I guess when you, when you say you're doing a humble brag, it's no longer humble, is it?

Speaker 1: 11:13

Everyone here rated the show, not everyone, but y'all who took the y'all I don't even say y'all, but I'm doing it now y'all who took the survey rated the show pretty highly across the board, with the ratings that I asked for, and and I just can't thank you enough for that because my fragile ego couldn't handle anything other than that but you gave a decent rating for host personality. So I'm just trying to continue Infusing what I can with my crookiness and weirdness to those who like it, and if you don't, you know again, you can always unfollow. All right, you gave a 4.6 rating for the episode length, the solo and guest episodes, the audio quality and the host slash guest rapport. So this is out of five scale of one to five. The guests themselves, an overall episode frequency, got a solid 4.5. So I'm moving down the list of like highest to lowest. The weekend Q&A's and quick wits got a 4.2.

Speaker 1: 12:11

I get you know that these bite-sized episodes aren't everyone's Favorite, but a lot of you like them, so I figure, again, you can just ignore them if you don't. And if you do, I'm glad I've added them in our theme music. Apparently didn't hit as hard, but you still got a 4.1 on that and I'm gonna assume that's you know. It is what I've stuck with that music since the beginning. I'll be honest, will I change it? Maybe? I don't know that it matters too much, I guess. But here's what I'm gonna ask if you're listening to this, if there's some royalty-free music out there that you just love, do you haven't heard on a podcast? That would fit wits and weights really well. Or if you, if you make your own music and you think you want to send it to me and I'll use it on the show, send it my way. I'm all ears, like literally, that was kind of a pun, but yes, I'm all ears.

Speaker 1: 13:00

Okay, the there was a lot of open-ended feedback, all right, so I really enjoyed reading these. There was a lot. I mean you're talking 48 responses. I'm one person. Yeah, did I use AI to help me analyze this? You bet, you bet. But I also went through and tried to read all the individual comments and I just extracted a few, just a couple quotes. There are many, I'm just just a couple.

Speaker 1: 13:25

One listener said I really enjoy the longer episodes. The shorter episodes are almost too quick for me to listen to as I typically work out while listening to a podcast, and that appealed to me because it's a Little bit of a back-handed compliment. Right, it's like, yeah, I love the longer episodes, the shorter ones are just too short. You know they're too short because I I need the long episodes I work out while I'm listening. So it's funny because I get it when a short episode comes up in my feed from shows I listen to. Like I'm very Strategic about when I listen to them.

Speaker 1: 13:56

I don't like if I'm gonna go for a walk, I don't want to waste a short episode on my walk. Does that make sense? You go to those of you listening who are neurotic, like me as a podcast listener. But if I'm like between one thing and another and I just Want a quick hit of a podcast, that's like a drug. I'm addicted to this stuff. I guess then I will go for a short episode. So if I had any advice, it would be this just save the quick wits. You know they come out at 4 am Eastern, so for anybody in the in the US that's morning. Wherever you live, just make it the first thing you listen to, just get your day started on the right foot. I try to be positive every single time. Like it's, it's positive, and so I'm hoping that all you know get the day going now. If you don't like my personality or voice, then you might want to save it for another time of day.

Speaker 1: 14:43

Okay, another person wrote quote. I really like the depth. The show goes into topics on topics, providing evidence and explaining it, so it's easy to understand and digest. And I picked that quote out because it's just encapsulates what we're trying to do. And then this gem right here I enjoy all the episodes because there's something I can glean from each one. All right, you guys are too kind. Again, these were humble brags.

Speaker 1: 15:09

I am gonna get two suggestions from the more constructive criticism that I received, which is why mainly why I did the survey 60% of you feel the show is getting better, 40% think it's maintaining high quality and exactly 0% said it's gotten worse. So we will call that a win and now suggestions and next steps. So, even though these survey results were overwhelmingly positive and I get there's a confirmation bias, because if you took the survey, you probably already listened to and enjoy the show and then you took the survey, so it is what it is but there's always room for growth, right, that is an important thing. We all recognize there's always room for growth. Some of you want to hear more about Specific topics, and so I'm definitely gonna make changes in that area because I think that's really the core of Substance of the show.

Speaker 1: 15:58

Some of you want to hear more about menopause, hormones and female specific training, and I I love my women who listen to the show clients, the women in my life. I've talked about some of the issues that you guys have, you ladies, have brought up. We're actually doing an episode soon about gaslighting. I had a. I've had a bunch of women guests on, so for those of you who may have answered that question and haven't listened to the whole library, what I'm gonna do in the show notes for this episode on the audio version is include some resources to Either guests or episodes that you can look up. So, for example, menopause, hormones and female training. We had Karen Martel twice, we had Lauren Kalenzo, simple. We had Steph Godrow recently, had just had Megan Dahlman and so and I have a bunch of women guests in the lineup.

Speaker 1: 16:48

It's kind of weird because I, when you look at my recording calendar, I might have like seven guys in a row and then I might have like six women in a row. It I'm not trying to alternate or anything artificial like that, I'm just letting it go with the way it gets scheduled. So there will be more on those kinds of things. But now that I know you've brought it up as maybe a gap, I want to continue finding guests like that, and I know there's a cardiovascular specialist who DPHO Dr DPHO that I reached out to she. She wants to be on as well. We still need to hook up on a date, but anyway, I want to get some experts to dive in on topics that you care about. So those came up. There were also requests for topics like breaking through plateaus, which is, if it hasn't been clear that that, like the vast majority of my episodes, are really about that. I need to do a better job, because that's exactly how we try to help people, both in coaching and in the free community, is.

Speaker 1: 17:43

You've got all this information coming in from podcasts. You've got all this misinformation and conflicting information. Your body is changing with age. We all know this, men and women, especially women, right with hormones. But, men and women, you know you start to lose muscle, you start to gain body fat, your chronic stress catches up with you. Maybe you've been going to the gym for many years, maybe you haven't, but you're stuck. You're stuck. That's the plat. That's when you buy a plateau and I know people overuse the word plateau but whether you're a seasoned lifter or just getting started, you feel like he can't move forward because either the information is not right and you've taken action, or your body doesn't seem to be responding, even when you think you're taking action on the right information and you might be and your body is not responding.

Speaker 1: 18:25

There's something else that needs to be discovered, which is what we do like we work to help you discover your body, what works, experiment, take a flexible, sustainable approach and break through those plateaus, because the plateaus are not the be all end all like. A plateau is really just Information that hasn't been discovered. How about that. I don't know if that's like a profound quote or just you know nonsense, but a Plateau is just hidden information. It's something you don't know whether it's about your mind, like you know, when we talk about the subconscious mind or about your metabolism, right, about your you don't even know how much protein you eat, right. It could be a number of reasons. There's a, there's a Lack of information. Once we discover that, we help you break through that.

Speaker 1: 19:14

So I want to be more clear on that in future episodes. I've got a lot of strategies there so I want to bring them to you. We're also going to bring on guests who've, who've, who are not like how was it put here, I had Guess who are like everyday folks, relatable, relatable, everyday folks, not just the elite. I mean, somebody said elite, which is interesting because, yeah, I've had some big names and that's part of the cachet and the Draw of the program, because some of our best performing episodes are the bigger names. Plus, they're the ones who they've got the respect out in the community, in the fitness community and industry, and that's why they've made a name for themselves.

Speaker 1: 19:53

I try not to bring on big-name guests who are like controversial influencer types, but rather, you know, reasoned, evidence-based types. Sometimes they may have ideas or hypotheses that disagree with mine to an extent, but not very much, but it's okay to have disagreement. Obviously we need to be challenging ourselves as skeptics of the industry, but I do recognize that I've mostly brought on professionals and a few times we brought on clients and Everyday people in the community, and it's I just have to be somewhat selective and make sure that they are comfortable sharing their story, that they, you know, have the right personality for this show, because we definitely want to keep it energized. I'm not saying that I'm what do you call a snob when it comes to that. I try to prep people and help them Get ready to come on an interview. If they're nervous, for example, they've never done it before, but usually what happens is it ends up being great. It ends being awesome because they tell their story genuinely and from the heart. I'm just trying to say, I'm just trying to explain my thought process as to what types of guests I've preferred over others Generally, because I have to think of all the listeners and I have to think of when you're listening to an episode.

Speaker 1: 21:05

Are you going to stick with the episode to the end, right and make the best use of everybody's time. So those are the kind of things that come to mind. I'm hopefully not sounding like I'm defending myself. I'm actually saying that, yes, I want to bring on some more relatable and everyday folks rat, not just the professionals and the elite professionals and experts. Okay, a lot of you are also looking for practical tips on hitting your macros and fueling your gains while Traveling.

Speaker 1: 21:34

All right, this actually comes up more than I would imagine, even though it's one of the most common challenges my clients face, and I've addressed it on the show maybe twice. There was a very early episode I did, and then one Mid-last year that was about eating out, and there's a guide that goes with it. So if there's a resource that you want right away, go to witsonweightscom, slash free and you'll see there's a guide to eating out. It's eating out parties and traveling. Okay, eating out parties and traveling, and it has a whole laundry list of strategies, all right, okay, so I get you. That's definitely a struggle. It even came up today on on our Facebook group as a Comment. I said, hey, I'll send you that guide. You know, don't stress about I think they're going on a cruise.

Speaker 1: 22:19

So I will dedicate some more episodes to specific topics like that if it seems that we're not covering it. The other thing being, like there's a lot of things that one talk about, a lot of things you guys want to hear, so it's sometimes it's just a matter of getting to it. Like I have a list of maybe a hundred topic ideas. I just need to get to it eventually. Okay, what else do we have here? I don't want to miss anything, let's see.

Speaker 1: 22:41

We also had a suggestion that this person wanted being to provide episode transcripts or detailed notes for easier searching and reference. All right, we already have that. We already have that. So that's exciting. There's two ways you can get those. The first way is to go to witsonweightscom, slash podcast, or go to witsonweightscom and click podcast and on that page, if you scroll down, there's a search box. It's called the podcast finder and in that finder you can find it's Google, it's powered by Google, so you can find any topic across any of the long episodes. So the EP episodes, the transcripts, are in there and there's an individual article for each episode and that search box searches on that. Okay, but if you want to get access to every transcript of every episode, including quick wits, and we can Q and A's, everything. Go to listennotescom and search for my podcast, look up witsonweights, and every single episode has a transcript, because I either generate one using a tool or my podcast host will generate one with a service that I pay extra for, and so every episode has it embedded in the behind the scenes code. So when you go to listennotescom and you go look up my podcast, you can look in an episode and you will see the transcript. So, and you could search the episodes of a podcast on that website as well. All right, so that one's done, that one's there.

Speaker 1: 24:05

I just want to make you more aware of it. And then you know, most of you dig like the variety and frequency of the lineup. A few of you thought less could be more, like quality over quantity, and it's a. It's a fine balance right Between. I want to bring on all these great guests, but I also want to do a bunch of topics in a solo episode. It's just trying to keep the right balance. So I'm going to keep working on that.

Speaker 1: 24:32

I appreciate you guys reaching out to me whenever you want If you have feedback on the podcast, as long as it's constructive, like I don't. I mean, obviously, if you want to send me hate, you can send me hate and I'll just click delete, but if you want to send me something, that'll help, just be constructive about it. Say, hey, I heard this in the podcast and I have a cool idea for you. Like, I think this can be done better, or I observed that this happened and here's a suggestion to do something different and I may take it. I may not right, it's my show, but I want to listen to you and do what you're looking for If it makes sense. Okay, that was a lot. It's a lot longer bonus episode than I expected, but I wanted to make sure that I thoroughly address all the key findings from the survey and, honestly, there's actually a lot more in there and I will probably need to do extra analysis over the coming months if it's helpful on that.

Speaker 1: 25:22

But this is scratching the surface and kind of giving you a peek behind the curtain to see. You know I definitely value your input and it's very hard on someone's pride. I'll be totally vulnerable and honest to receive any criticism. It's hard, right, it's always hard. You guys know what I'm saying. It's hard but it is the only way we grow. That's how we challenge ourselves. This is like proximity to failure and progressive overload on the podcast. So thank you.

Speaker 1: 25:51

All right, here's what you can expect in the coming months of things I'm going to consider changing or improving about the podcast. All right, more deep dives on women's health and hormones. More strategies for busting through plateaus. Maybe it's training plateaus, nutrition plateaus, or at least making sure I call them plateaus and what those are and how to get through them. You know practical tips for like the common problems people have, like nutrition on the go, travel, eat it out A good mix of relatable everyday guests, along with these aspirational experts that I've been bringing on. The searchable episode notes we've already got I already explained how to get that on ListenNotescom or on WhitsandWeightscom click the podcast link.

Speaker 1: 26:34

Of course, always in-depth, high impact content. I'm doing my best. I may look at getting some voice coaching. I may look at getting some marketing coaching along the way. I have my own coaches for my business to become a better podcaster for you. So I just want to get better and better and better and keep growing as you grow with me. So, in a nutshell, I see you and I hear you and I got you, and together we are going to keep learning, growing and lifting not just weights but each other up, so I couldn't ask for a better community to be on this fitness journey with All right. Now, I know you've been sticking around.

Speaker 1: 27:14

Before we wrap up, I do have an exciting announcement as a token of my appreciation for everyone who participated in the survey. We randomly selected five lucky winners to receive some awesome prizes. So here we go. I'm going to say first name, last initial, and then I'm going to be emailing the individuals directly on. Well, I'm not going to say the day, but depends on when you're listening to this. They're going to get an email First up. Alisa or Eliza I think it's Alisa A and Sarah S you have each one a one-year subscription to Macro Factor and if you already subscribe, I'll send you a credit. Either way, it covers a year of Macro Factor and, as we know, that is the best app to dial in your nutrition, to dynamically adjust your targets based on your metabolism, like no other app can do, and then ultimately crush your nutrition goals as a result.

Speaker 1: 28:07

Next up, we have Paul oh and Adrian K. You are the proud new owners of $50 gift cards to first form one of my favorite top notch supplement places to fuel your gains to eat protein. They have protein sticks, they have powders, they have supplements, they have magnesium, they have vitamins, minerals the whole deal. And last but certainly not least, joseph L, you've won.

Speaker 1: 28:33

I think this is the best prize of all, but maybe you're disappointed, I don't know. You've won a one hour Zoom call with yours truly where we can talk about anything. This isn't a coaching call. I'm not selling or pitching. I'm just asking you. This isn't even a breakthrough session, unless you want it to be. This is hanging out. If we want to have a beverage while we're doing it, you let me know. We could do it at a weird time of day that makes sense for both of us. Definitely not going to make it business and professional, it's just going to be fun. We could talk training, nutrition, life, movies, we could talk sports, beer, whatever Anything else on your mind. So, joseph L, I don't know you yet, but I can't wait to get to know you and connect with you.

Speaker 1: 29:15

All right, congratulations to all our winners. A huge thank you again to everyone who shared their thoughts in the survey. The prizes in the mail, the electronic mail, as they say. But the real reward is, I think, knowing that all of you helped make Whitson weights the best it can be. That was the cheesiest line of the show. As always, keep the feedback coming. My DMs, instagram at Whitson weights, email Philip with 1L at Whitsonweightscom. Carry your pigeons Always open. Open the cage and just give them the note. Until next time, stay witty and never skip squat day. Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Whits and Weights. If you found value in today's episode and know someone else who's looking to level up their Whitson weights, please take a moment to share this episode with them and make sure to hit the follow button in your podcast platform right now to catch the next episode. Until then, stay strong.