Innovate. Don’t Imitate. How Disruption Actually Scales a Business | #283

I was 942 seconds into The Science of Scaling when I hit pause.

Not because I was bored. I realized I had to stop and re-evaluate everything I’d written down for 2026 gaols that started for me this August.

In this episode, I’m not giving you another podcasting tip.  I’m challenging you to audit your goals, your positioning, and how you’re showing up on the mic.

Here’s what I’m sharing:

• Why the real bottleneck to scaling might be the attainability of your goals
• How audiobook release strategies may impact you (and what you should (and shouldn’t take from it)
• Why simply uploading audio with your podcast cover art to YouTube is wasting the algorithm’s time and yours
• The 3 non-negotiable questions I now ask before creating any episode
• What “innovate, don’t imitate” really looks like when you’re using AI as a refiner, not a crutch

This is a conversation about strategic audacity. We're not talking about volume, vanity metrics, and cookie-cutter podcast playbooks.

If you’re using podcasting as a thought leadership engine (not just a content channel), this episode is for you.

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Content isn’t king. Alignment is. Disruption is how we scale.

Referenced: Benjamin Hardy

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Be anxious for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. Philippians 4:6

Transcript

Simplify Podcasting

Jen Rogers | Creator of the Podcasting Power Hour | Certified Coach | Keynote Speaker

 I teach experienced Christian entrepreneurs how to leverage podcasting so they can grow their impact, influence + income.

 If you’re a successful business owner and you haven’t launched a show, it’s time to talk about how to put your voice and proven offers to work for you!

If you've launched and it's not going well, book your power hour now.

2025 is the year of PODCASTING WINS with explosive growth + booming sales! www.coachjenrogers.com/VIPCoach

📲Book a call with me when you're serious about monetizing podcasting.

Innovate. Don’t Imitate. How Disruption Actually Scales a Business | #283

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: It took 942 seconds and now I have a page of notes, a podcast episode, this one, number 283 of Simplify Podcasting and a social media post. Now, sometimes I listen to podcasts on two x. Sometimes I listen to audio books at the same speed. But this book, the one I'm reading right now. It is on 1.0 and I'm pausing to reflect on what I heard in 942 seconds.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: Are you familiar with this man? He's an organizational psychologist and an author, and no, he's not guessing on the show, although based on what I'm reading right now, I need to add him to my bucket list.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: Dr. Benjamin Hardy is co-founder of scaling.com.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: It's a performance-based training program for fast growth companies. His book, the Science of Scaling, is the one that hooked me in from the very first word I heard. It was an introduction by Tony Robbins. And if you are keeping up, Tony Robbins has infiltrated my husband's life right now. Yes, my husband has attended several events with him and Dean Graziosi.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: It's. Fascinating for us to compare notes as we work on building the Virtual Podcast School together. It's actually a lot of fun. It's also a ton of hard work. It requires vision. The same vision that Dr. Benjamin Hardy is sharing at scaling.com.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: The science of scaling, Well, it is Grant Cardone's 10 x on steroids. And I'm just 942 seconds in before recording this episode.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: Seriously, 942 seconds. That's a little bit over 15 minutes in, and I have [00:02:00] paused. Usually I plow through books. I just go at least a 1.5. Not this book.

This is what you would call a disruptor.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: Why am I listening to the audiobook? Well, at the time I received the audiobook, the physical copy was not yet available. You could only pre-order this book.

 Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: You may have noticed what I'm noticing. It's becoming a more common move where authors are giving away their audio books for free.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: It used to be buy my book and pay for shipping, and that's still going on, but this is a new thing that's coming up more frequently. You go ahead and you get the audio book for free, and it's almost like you're part of the launch party because like me, I'm doing a podcast episode about it and I'm talking about it on socials.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: Every time an entrepreneur does this for a topic I'm interested in, I'm snapping up that audio book for free. How about you?

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: Hey there. I'm Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist, avid reader, and your go-to coach to monetize every podcasting episode.In today's episode we'll talk about how you can get downright disruptive with your podcasting game plan. 

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: One way we disrupt podcasting norms is coming together in community. Have you joined us inside the free virtual podcast school community? If not, it's not too late. Come on in. We go live every Tuesday and we have great conversations in between the lives.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: This is where you get real help and real feedback so you can continue to disrupt the status quo in your industry. 

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: Content alone does not close clients, disruptive strategy does. People who want to leverage podcasting, understand they need real time solutions that responds to what's going on in the market right now, without veering off from your business goals.,

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: [00:04:00] People who podcast understand their podcast is not their brand. It is a reflection of their brand, and that's where the Virtual Podcast School gives you the space, the structure, and the engaging support to connect with people who get you.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: They absolutely get what you are working towards when it comes to making money with every episode.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: Head on over to www.coachjenrogers.com/community and click the link to join the Virtual Podcast School.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: You can do this in way less than 942 seconds. I bet you can do it in about 33.3 seconds. You'll want to reflect upon your business goals for this disruptive episode. If you have them handy, go ahead and grab them. If you need to refer to them later, totally cool, I've got you. Listen into this episode, and when you get back to your goal station and you are ready to be disruptive, pull out those goals and replay this episode.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: Do you want to grow your business bigger and faster than you think possible?  let's get disruptive.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: What kind of reader are you? Are you an avid reader? Do you listen to audio books? When is the last time you were concerned about the industry of audio books being disruptive towards podcasts? 

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: You might be in competition, that your listenership might decrease because an audio book is released? Before preparing this episode I never considered that. You know the thing I did consider?... Is YouTube.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: Are you concerned about YouTube being ranked as the most frequently used platform for podcast listening inside the US? That means that it is, uh, uh, bigger than Apple and bigger [00:06:00] than Spotify. In fact, on YouTube there are 2.49 billion (billion with a B) billion users, and there's more than 1 billion hours of YouTube watched each day.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: That is, I, I cannot wrap my mind around that, can you? More than 1 billion hours of YouTube is watched each day. I suspect you are more concerned about the impact of YouTube on your podcast than you are about the impact of audio books.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: Before you say Yes, YouTube, that is the disruptive strategy; I need to align that with my goals or it's already a part of my goals. It's important you know your audience, your capacity, and your goals.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: If your show does cater to Gen Z, your show speaks to a significant portion of YouTube's podcast audience. 

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: Note this: simply uploading your audiograms and your audio podcast with your podcast art cover over for the YouTube is not going to cut it, even though YouTube is the second most powerful search engine in the world.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: This episode is not about whether or not it's time for you to go video. Instead, this episode is about Benjamin Hardy's book, the Science of Scaling. Now remember, I'm coming to you with 942 seconds in. It was enough for me to stop, reflect and evaluate the goals I have written.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: Now, I do my goals a little bit differently. I am off-quarter, if you will, so my goals are set for August, September, and October. And then in October I'll be looking at November, December, and January. Part of the logic behind this is I do not want to be stressed out about what's [00:08:00] happening over the holiday seasons, and I definitely do not want to participate in any New Year's resolutions.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: When I set my quarters up like this, I'm feeling ahead of the game and feeling ahead of the game, it gives me the confidence to go into the new year without saying, oh my gosh, I need to develop my plan for 2026. Instead, I already know what the plan is. Evaluating every 90 days, what is coming up and how does it align with the overall goals of what's happening in the next year?

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: That is disruptive.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: Planning your schedule outside of the normal quarterly timeframes gives you really a leg up because you are doing something outside of all of the noise where other people are saying, this is what I'm working on. That's what I'm working on. You are already in it.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: You are ahead of the game because you know what you're working on and wherever you are right now, it is August 7th at the release of this episode. This is the time to have a great expectation for what's happening in the upcoming year. We're not going to wait until December to plan what's coming up because we know that the work that we do, it's about a 90 day lag.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: So whatever you did 90 days ago, this is what you're experiencing right now. You're experiencing the results of what you put in 90 days ago. This is why when you are, uh, vacillating on whether or not you want to launch a podcast, it's better to launch sooner with a game plan.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: It's better to wait until you have a game plan before you launch. The game plan? It always boils down to the two questions. If you are new here. Welcome. These two questions are something I invite you to ask for every episode. Whether you host or guest: what is the business purpose of this episode and what is the listener takeaway?

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: [00:10:00] What's in it for them? The business purpose of this episode is to invite you into my community. The audience win is to learn how to be disruptive in your industry by leveraging your podcast.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: If you want help making money with every episode on either side of the microphone, this is your official invitation to join me inside a private power hour with me. It's a professional coaching environment where we both come prepared to the call to move your business forward In one hour, you experience significant momentum. 

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: Here's what Bill had to say about our experience together.

Bill Hennessey: Over the last year, I've had the privilege of knowing and learning from Coach Jen Rogers. I have to tell you, she's really helped me up my game. Her knowledge of podcasting is only matched by her dedication to the people she coaches. Jen goes the extra mile. Recently she found out that I had a last minute cancellation on a podcast episode.

Bill Hennessey: She immediately contacted me and offered to help out, and it led to the most amazing conversation I could imagine. We talked about what we wanted to accomplish that day, and it wound up that Jen took the role of Host and I became her guest explaining the goals and dreams behind the Finding Meaning and Purpose in Retirement Podcast.

Bill Hennessey: It was incredible. If you get the opportunity to coach with Jen Rogers, do yourself a huge favor and sign up. She's the best.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: In one hour, you can experience significant momentum. Head over to www.coachjenrogers.com/powerhours, P-O-W-E-R-H-O-U-R-S to book your first hour.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: Let's jump back into being disruptive. The first thing that comes to mind as I'm looking at my notes from listening to the audio book is to innovate, not imitate. In fact, I released a social post about this very thing when it comes to chat, GPT or other AI resources that you're using.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: When you [00:12:00] use AI to create your episodes, you are doing a huge disservice to your own thought leadership. You don't need AI to come up with what you can share. Instead, you can use AI to refine the work you have already done. You can ask questions to help you present something in a way that has more impact.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: However, it's not to be the first step. You cannot be innovative when you are relying on something artificial to tell you what is innovative. Okay, so as you're looking at your goals, take a look at your goals or recall them to mind.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: Here are three things when it comes to scaling.

#1: Is your goal on reasonable?

#2: Is there an urgent timeline?

#3: What emotionally compelling reason to succeed do you have?

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: Let me share those three points again. In order for you to be innovative and not imitating something else, look at your goals and assess. Is it unreasonable? I mean, really, it's really a stretch out there. Is the timeline urgent? What emotionally compelling reason do you have to succeed? So it's, it's this massive, seemingly impossible goal, and that's what moves the needle.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: Have you ever achieved a massive, seemingly impossible goal before? Take a moment to pause this episode and think about those times you've experienced this huge disruptive shift where you've achieved something beyond your wildest dreams. And when you're done, hit play. Come on back to me and let's keep going.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: Let's close out this episode of being disruptive when it comes to setting our goals.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: [00:14:00] Disruption is an interruption or a disturbance to the usual flow of events.

Disruptions stop something from continuing as usual.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: In the podcasting context, you hosting and guesting can be disruptive. Your innovations can supplant currently accepted norms and thinking, know this. Disruption is not synonymous with rapid fire or fast action.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: It could be; however many times, it's more like the dormant volcano that recently erupted in Russia for the first time in centuries. I'll spare you butchering the volcano's name. Just know that well, okay. It's not, I'm not predicting that it's going to take several hundred years to experience the disruption of your work.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: What I am saying is that it doesn't happen in a day. It does take time. It takes intentionality. Your thought leadership, your goals must disrupt the status quo to gain attention and momentum.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: As Tony Robbins shared, businesses that stop pushing the envelope become stagnant and that lack of innovation and disruptive goals is the cause. Benjamin Hardy puts it another way.

Your entire reality is filtered by your goals. 

So these aren't rose-colored glasses. These are your goal- colored glasses. Think about it. What did you do in the last 24 hours? How do your activities relate to your goals? Which goals?

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: If you are in the “I have not created any goals yet camp”, how does the lack of goals or the lack of clarity on leveraging podcasting impact your reality? Goals that redefine the game require a resolute mindset to be radically disruptive. Medium dot com calls this strategic [00:16:00] audacity. I like that!

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to plan one hour within the next week to review your goals through a disruptive lens.

Ask yourself:

Who are you becoming?

How can you make the existing model in your industry obsolete?

How would you describe your commitment to seemingly impossible goals?

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: Without clear answers to these questions, you and I are likely to fail. Why? Because we are relying on attainable goals. That nugget from the book shook me because I've been using the Smarter goals system for years. That "A" in smarter, that's attainable. I'm forced to evaluate: Have I been setting the bar too low?

I've got 16,458 seconds left to read in this audiobook.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: I'm now asking this question, how do I make each podcast episode disruptive? I'm also asking, How do I make the Virtual Podcast School disruptive so Indie podcasters benefit and benefit big?

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: More on this as Future episodes are released. You've been listening to Simplify Podcasting with me, your host, Jen Rogers. My mission is to help you grow your business as you monetize every episode. The best way to do that is in community.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: If you haven't joined us inside the free community, what are you waiting for? Click the button to join us at www.coachjenrogers.com/community or click the link in the show notes. I cannot wait to see you on the inside. Thank you so much for putting me in your earbuds today.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: Do you want to be disruptive? Share this episode with a friend and or leave an honest review on your favorite podcasting platform. Be disruptive and [00:18:00] invite others to the party. Until next time, God bless you, your goals and your disruptive innovations.