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The Situation

When Lorraine Connell joined Megan Dougherty on the Business Podcast Spotlight – that is what she wanted to talk about. She has been podcasting for a while now and has a deep passion for her content – and her guests were picking up on that energy. But she hit a point where she felt like she was ready to expand her reach and find new ways to connect with more listeners, and getting traction with them was an ongoing challenge.

About Lorraine Connell

Lorraine is the founder of Peers Not Fears, a teen leadership coaching business, and the host of Leaders of Today: Teens to Titans. Her mission? To empower young people, ages 12 to 16, by helping them build confidence, develop leadership skills, and prepare for the future. Through her coaching, her podcast, and school programs, Lorraine creates a supportive space for teens to find their voice and step into leadership roles within their communities.

What’s Happened So Far

Lorraine has created something truly special with her podcast Leaders of Today, Teens to Titans. Now entering its third season, what started as a passion project has grown into a powerful platform that’s supporting her work as a teen leadership coach. And now, she’s ready to take it to the next level.

The podcast began during the pandemic when Lorraine was still teaching. She started having deep, insightful conversations with her students about what was working (and what wasn’t) in their education experience. These conversations sparked something in her—she realized that these voices and ideas were too important to keep to herself. So, she hit record.

In the beginning, Lorraine interviewed teens directly, giving them a platform to share their perspectives on leadership. But as the show grew—and as finding teen guests became a bit tricky—she shifted gears. Now, she interviews successful adults from all walks of life, asking them to reflect on who they were as teenagers, what they learned, and how those experiences shaped the leaders they became.

Through all of these changes, Lorraine has stayed true to what matters most: highlighting the power of youth voices, exploring the concept of self-leadership, and using storytelling as a way to teach and connect with others.

The impact of these conversations has been huge—not just for her audience, but for Lorraine’s own professional growth. Insights from her guests are influencing her coaching curriculum, shaping the strategies and tools she uses in schools and during one-on-one coaching sessions.

Now, Lorraine is looking to expand her reach and increase engagement. She’s got a listener base of about 25 downloads per episode, but she knows there’s so much more potential out there. She’s been experimenting with promoting the podcast, creating guest-sharing templates, and sending out newsletters, but she’s ready to take things even further.

So the big question now is how to grow a podcast that’s already aligned with your mission, but hasn’t yet reached its full audience.

And there are many other questions that come with it.

 

• How do you turn compelling, meaningful conversations into content that spreads?
• What role should your podcast play in your overall business ecosystem?
• How do you encourage more engagement without adding too much extra work?
• And how do you keep loving the process while building something bigger?

The New Plan

As you heard in our conversation, Lorraine’s main goals for Leaders of Today, Teens to Titans are expanding her audience and increasing engagement, all while being mindful of her time. With her busy schedule—coaching, developing school partnerships, and working on curriculum—it’s clear that making big, sweeping changes isn’t realistic. So, we focused on some high-impact, low-effort ways to help her grow the show without overhauling everything.

The first step is to streamline the promotion process. Instead of relying solely on guests to share their episodes, Lorraine’s going to provide ready-to-go promotional assets: pre-made graphics, short copy they can easily post, and highlight clips packed with insights. This will make it much easier for her guests to amplify their episodes and help spread the word.

Next up, we talked about pulling out those short, punchy “aha moments” from each episode. These are those golden nuggets of wisdom that stand alone as powerful content. By focusing on these, Lorraine can create a simple, intentional social media plan—teasing upcoming episodes, posting on launch day, and even doing follow-up prompts after the episode drops. This means more content, more often, without needing to start from scratch every time.

Lorraine’s also going to lean into her newsletter a bit more. Rather than just teasing the top few moments from an episode, she’ll share those aha moments with her subscribers, offering extra commentary or reflections. This not only gives listeners more value, but it also gives them a reason to stay engaged and share the content with others.

To make things even easier, Lorraine’s going to implement a simple system for tracking key insights from each episode. Whether it’s a basic spreadsheet or a Notion board, having a log of valuable takeaways will make it so much easier to repurpose content, refer to past episodes, and even reach out to past guests when it’s relevant.

And we didn’t forget about Lorraine’s guest appearances on other podcasts. She’s planning to sharpen her call-to-action—clearly inviting new listeners to check out Leaders of Today. This should help convert listeners from those guest spots into long-term followers. If she feels like experimenting, she could even create unique landing pages for each guest appearance to track where new traffic is coming from.

All of these changes fit into Lorraine’s current workflow and will help her get more traction without completely overhauling her show. No need for a rebrand or complex tech changes—just smart, strategic tweaks that will grow with her and her mission.

How to Use This Strategy

If you’re thinking about creating a podcast like Lorraine’s—one that deepens your connection with your current audience while also building relationships with new people—here are a few things to think about:

• Who are the people you’re already serving in your business, and how are they finding you right now?
• What kind of conversations, questions, or stories help them feel more confident, seen, or ready to work with you?
• Who are some people you’d love to build a stronger relationship with—and what kind of story or theme could give them a platform while still fitting with your business?

This is where Lorraine’s podcast really shines: she’s using personal stories to bring out leadership lessons in a way that feels relatable, authentic, and directly tied to the heart of her work.

If you want to create something similar, you don’t need a huge team or a big budget—just a solid concept and a little bit of structure. Think about the kinds of stories your audience needs to hear to trust your approach, and then think about who you want to tell those stories. That’s your guest list right there.

And when it comes to sharing? Make it as easy as possible. Create graphics or audiograms with a key takeaway. Give your guests pre-written posts or snippets to share. The easier you make it for them, the more likely your show is to reach new ears.

If you’re a coach, consultant, speaker, or educator, this type of podcast isn’t just content marketing—it’s trust marketing.

And hey, if you enjoy having conversations that really matter? It’s also just super fun.

If you’re looking for a partner to help you figure out and deploy a strategy that will work for your business, we can help! Book a call, and let’s talk!

How to Track Success

When you’re creating a podcast designed to deepen relationships, amplify important voices, and connect with a mission-driven audience—it’s important to track the right things so you know your effort is having the impact you want.

Here are a few of the key indicators of success to watch for:

1. Guest referrals. When your guests start suggesting other people for you to interview, that’s a great sign that the conversations are hitting the mark and your message is getting through.
2. Insight tracking. Keeping a simple list of key takeaways from each episode makes it super easy to reuse content later—whether it’s for social media, newsletters, or even future episodes.
3. Guest follow-up. Make it easy for your guests to share their episodes by giving them ready-to-go graphics and copy. The more effortless you make it, the more likely they’ll share. Then, pay attention to what gets shared and how much engagement it brings.
4. Calls to action. Whether it’s asking listeners to follow the show, check out a specific episode, or visit the show notes for more info, keep track of who actually takes action when you ask.
5. Downloads. While downloads aren’t everything, it can be helpful to see how they fluctuate after sharing or guest appearances. It gives you useful feedback on what’s working over time.

By keeping tabs on these, you’ll have a much clearer picture of what’s really moving the needle and what’s resonating with your audience.

Connect with Lorraine Connell

Lorraine is diving into this next season of Leaders of Today, Teens to Titans with a fresh plan—and we’ll be inviting her back in a few months to hear how it all played out. In the meantime, make sure to check out her show at wherever you listen to podcasts. You’ll find powerful conversations with young changemakers and the adults who support them.

If you’re working in youth development, education, or just want a better understanding of the next generation of leaders, it’s a must-listen.

You can connect with Lorraine on LinkedIn, check out Peers not Fears and of course – listen to Leaders of Today, Teens to Titans!