Biome Bites Ep012 - Plans for the Podcast in 2024

In this Biome Bite, Dr James McIlroy chats about the progress of the Inside Matters Podcast.

Hey guys, it's James here for another episode of Biome Bites. In these episodes, it's just me and you, the listener. So today we're going to be celebrating the fact that we've achieved some important milestones on the podcast and wanted to give a flavour of what's coming next and what we've learned so far.

On the journey through inside matters, so a couple of really key metrics that I'm excited about. One is that we surpassed 10, 000 downloads a couple of weeks ago. We've also dug into the analytics associated with where people are based, where they're tuning in from and general engagement on an episode-to-episode basis.

So I thought it'd be quite interesting to share that with the listener base. There are a couple of trends that are quite humbling and get me quite excited and motivated to continue doing what I'm doing here. with the podcast. And we set out with the vision of trying to create the best microbiome content on the planet.

As a microbiome and gut health fanatic myself, and as someone who loves long-form podcast content, I spend five, sometimes 10 hours a week plus listening to long-form content. I was frustrated that I couldn't get any gut health microbiome content in that format. After probably around six months of searching and thinking, we decided that we were just going to start one ourselves.

And I guess that's the entrepreneur in me. I see an opportunity and if I'm excited about it, just go for it and think glass half full. And if the glass isn't half full, then fill it up and have a kind of impossible, as-nothing type of mindset. And the name Inside Matters came to me early in the morning, one weekend when I was brainstorming with my friend and colleague, Ian Whalley, who helps with all the website and the graphics design.

We essentially have been fulfilling the vision since we launched the first podcast episode. And on a month-to-month basis, there's been a steady cadence of increasing engagement.

And we're seeing what I think are really quite remarkable metrics for a podcast that's really got quite a niche offering in terms of what we're talking about. Now whilst the microbiome is all-encompassing and there are microbiomes in the soil, there are microbiomes in your ear, there's a microbiome in your nose, there's a microbiome in your gut, there's a microbiome on your desk, and you could go as far as saying the whole world is a microbiome.

of sorts. It is still a topic that doesn't get as mainstream attention as something like AI. And our listening is not as easy listening for the most part as some other podcasts that are really popular. Our aim is not to try and capture the attention of as many listeners as possible because if we wanted to do that we would change our content slightly and we would talk about subjects that are really accessible and of interest to the whole population like weight loss and muscle gain and tell stories because stories get a lot of engagement.

We want to stay true to our vision at Inside Matters and that is to really create an absolute best-in-class podcast. So for anybody who's interested in microbiome, whether they want to scratch the surface. and get a bit of microbiome gut health 101. Although I want to go super deep and listen to world experts talking to me at the deepest kind of level, there should be content on our podcast platform website and newsletter for you.

It takes a lot of time, graft and grind and determination to create something from nothing and consistency is key. So we will continue to record even if life gets really busy and work gets really busy. We do have great guests lined up now for the next three months or so, and we're doing recordings in London.

We're doing recordings in San Diego. We're doing some remote recordings as well. And of course, we're doing recordings in our HQ here in Scotland. And we're diversifying a little bit. So we're speaking to entrepreneurs, speaking to academics, we're speaking to doctors, we're speaking to executives we'll speak to dietitians, nutritionists, and the aim is to try and get as broad a picture as possible of how the field is progressing and different views, opinions, and expertise, frankly.

And I have learned so much from going a little bit outside my comfort zone. So if you've listened to the episode with Aaron The amazing nutritionist who's the founder of a business called Nutrition Rewired. I learned so much in that episode because I was engaging with her as an expert nutritionist and that's not typically someone I would speak to on a day-to-day basis.

I speak to academics, I speak to clinicians, speak to potential investors, pharmaceutical partners and so on. So that was a really eye-opening episode for me. The aim is to get that breadth of experience and expertise on the podcast. We'll continue to ask and discuss a broad range of topics, try and answer the hard questions, but also give easily accessible information for you as a listener.

The Biome Bites do get a good engagement, but what we've found is that the podcasts with guests get the best engagement in terms of numbers and downloads and stuff. So we'll continue to try and get people onto the podcast as, as best as we possibly can. We're seeing hundreds and hundreds of downloads of every episode.

Some of the more popular ones get 700-plus downloads, which are unique. So that's 700 people downloading and listening to the episode. 

We don't really have a strategy to try and blow the podcast up and become viral sensations and to make me and the podcast famous. In fact, that's not our desire at all. We don't want to do that. We just want to be known for the best content relating to gut health and microbiome on the planet.

And that is our niche. We will stick to our niche and we're going to try and get better and better as each episode comes out. For those of you who have supported the podcast so far and been with us since day one, thank you so much. We can see and tell that there's a consistency in the listener base, which means that you must be enjoying it because you're spending a couple of hours once every two weeks, sometimes more listening to episodes.

We know that some people have listened to every single episode as well. So there's quite a loyal and very engaged fan base, which is quite humbling for me and very exciting. It means that a lot of people have learned a lot about the microbiome over the course of this journey. And I also know that some people have had positive health benefits.

Now, of course, the podcast is not medical advice. It can't be and never will be. But some people have taken actionable steps themselves to try and improve their diet and improve some of the symptomatology that they've been having. So that's great. Now, if you've got any suggestions for what you want to hear, or what you'd discussed, just send them in.

We've got a broad range of topics coming up. We're talking about the microbiome and the immune system. We have the founder of an awesome company who has made healthy food more accessible coming onto the podcast in a few weeks. We have how the microbiome influences responses to cancer treatment, a world expert coming on talking about their pioneering work in FMT.

And we've got environmental microbiology. And other people who are involved in microbiome testing coming on. So real breadth of expertise and experience hopefully produce awesome content for you, the listener. Now, for those of you who haven't yet, I would very kindly ask that you like, subscribe and give us a five-star review on the platforms that do help push us up the algorithm.

It allows us to connect with people who've liked similar podcasts, which means they're probably interested in their health and gut health more generally. So that is very much appreciated. We can also see just another fact that people are listening from all over the world. It's not confined to the UK, US, or Europe.

It genuinely is an international listener base, which excites me, too, because it means that there is information getting out there around the world. And everybody, no matter where they are in the world, can take control of their health through improving their body health. diet and prioritizing their gut microbiome.

So I'll leave it there for this episode, an important milestone for us celebration of sorts, but I just want to emphasize that it's just the start of this journey and we're motivated to continue producing great content and to keep this going and to grow the podcast into the absolute best in class platform for microbiome and gut health information.

Thanks to those who've written in and also those who've approached me at different events. It has happened. Some people I've never met before have come up saying they're enjoying the content and that really makes it all worthwhile. Now the next podcast will be a solo episode again announcing some very exciting news at EnteroBiotix.