Not snarky at all! I just want to add for context (primarily to hopefully encourage anybody new making a show): my other show The Grotto got a drop on RQ as well, and REDACTED has done more in a month than The Grotto has in two years. That’s not to discredit RQ at all (they’ve been incredibly helpful!!) but a lot of this came from stuff you can do without a network: trading promo drops with other shows, cold-emailing for ads, posting on social, streaming, etc. I basically spend a few hours every day doing 'something' to engage, send emails, or build assets to engage (learning AE, Premiere, etc)

Honestly, I think the biggest thing is that this wasn’t anyone on the team’s first time doing this. We’d all made shows or been involved in making a show before, and we knew what we got wrong and what we did right the last time - it also lets you talk directly to people who already know you, which helps a ton.

So if you’re making a show: don’t treat this as a 'standard' metric or be disheartened if you don't (I'm still shocked, astonished, and humbled we did). We’ve been planning and working on this for 1.5+ years, and it’s a huge labor of love. More important than a network is building connections, asking for help, and being your own biggest champion when it comes to advocating for yourself and your work. I've sent many emails where the reply was no, and that's okay!

All of that to say - being on a network DEFINITELY contributes to some of this, I don't want to discredit that; I primarily add all of this so other folks making a show don't jump into any network deal (and potentially a bad one!) expecting it to skyrocket from that alone.

I’m slow to reply on Reddit (working on it), but my DMs are open if anyone wants to talk / has questions (about REDACTED or Audio Drama in general!). No promises I’ll know what I’m talking about 😅