Japanese listening input. What should I be focused on?

I’ve studied Japanese in the past for about two years in college, almost a decade ago.

I’ve been told that the best way to learn is to get input, but I don’t really know how that works, especially with a limited vocabulary.

I do understand some Japanese, and there are very basic videos on YouTube that I can understand perfectly, but trying to get on a podcast, I find that I don’t know what they’re saying.

I guess in a sense it helps solidify the words I already know. I’m also watching v-tubers with subtitles, and it’s really cool when I recognize a single word in a sentence I don’t fully understand. (Watching horror streams cemented the word 戻る and 走る for me, which I thought was really funny)

How else is constant input supposed to help? I would really like to maximize my learning somehow, and I feel I might be doing things the wrong way.