S2 E33 - Filming “shorts” for Social Media is a DREAM & the TRUTH about Podcast Growth

[Audio Diary Recorded 10.10.25] In this creative euphoria and brutal-numbers-honesty episode of Glitter Mouth Season 2, I'm working at office after hour-long podcast edit while walking on a treadmill, then shooting Blink horror short in bedroom with my daughter Evie as my DP. Finally, I’m confessing devastating Spotify analytics showing 259 total plays, 15 followers, 13-of-2000 streaming requirement while having 44-million Instagram views proving need to stay focused on scripted series despite slow-growth discouragement. I also re-posted old content for the first time with a new spin on it…which made me feel as if I was “cheating” on a test.

In this episode, I talk about:

• Hour-long podcast edit treadmill walk: Crafting particular notes for Rachel about cello timing and city soundscape fade - "episodes like mini practice for One That Glitters soundscape"

• Blink feature-to-short pivot excitement: Person seeing monsters when closing eyes - "has been in my head for so long, finally shooting it as Halloween short in bedroom"

• Everyone's Doing Great Tubi release: Season one now free, directed episodes four and eight season two - "paintings in background are my sister's art or my art for copyright clearance"

• Evie resident-DP praise: Daughter shot $16-million-view stairfall and multiple others - "good eye for framing because consumes short content, speaks YouTube language"

• $10K Call versus free Blink comparison: Spent fortune on short 18 people saw versus hour-and-half bedroom shoot potentially getting millions - "will have learned as much"

• Compliment sandwich Ian evolution: Working on giving positive-negative-positive feedback structure - "spoonful of sugar helps medicine go down"

• Devastating Spotify analytics confession: 259 total plays in 90 days, 53 consumption hours, 15 followers - "13 of 2000 streaming requirement, 18 of 10,000 hours"

• 44-million-views-to-13-listeners disconnect: "Seems crazy low considering over 44 million views on Instagram page - turnover rate reality"

• YouTube $22K versus Instagram $5 revelation: Following creator who got 3.2 million Instagram views paid $5, half that YouTube paid $22,000 - "good gravy Marie"

• Reposted 1.4-million-view dinner post: Changed "hurt myself" caption to parenting-feels-like-hard-fall because "sick of Instagram help-notifications, feel chastised every time alert pops up"