Help Me Podcast

Welcome to Help Me Podcast, a show designed to help you

launch and grow your podcast. I am your host, Gino, and twice

a week I will release a new episode with different tips and tricks

for launching and growing your podcast. From audio engineering to planning

intentionally to growth tactics, each episode will be a bite sized

tip to help you podcast.

Hey. Good morning, and welcome back to Help Me Podcast. In

today's episode, I want to talk about the purpose

of your podcast and goals and

alignment and really like a deeper conversation about

evaluating your show and if you should be

doing it or if maybe there's another idea that you can move on

to and we'll get more into it. But

basically this idea kind of came from I was listening to a

webinar by Jeremy Ends and Justin

Jackson. It was for transistor and I found it on YouTube.

Transistor is my podcast host, and they were kind of just talking

about how to get more listens as a podcast, but it was a really

good conversation and they went really deep into

the why of podcasting. So I really wanted to have this episode

to kind of discuss that more and to go a little bit more in depth

about why are you podcasting? And hopefully you

can ask yourself those questions and maybe come to some answers

and maybe come to some realizations about your own show.

So first off, I really want to talk about why are you

podcasting? I think a lot of times it's not something that's

really thought about or maybe it's like a vague kind of concept of like, oh,

I want lots of listeners and that's why I'm podcasting.

And I think that could be one reason why you're

podcasting. But I think that I would challenge you to

dig a little bit deeper and figure out why are you

podcasting other than that and what does more listeners mean and

what does that give you in return and what is it that you're really looking

for and just being brutally honest about what it is that you

want from your podcast? And maybe I'll do a little test with

myself and my own podcast here to kind of like show by example

of what the ideas I'm talking about are. And

there can be many reasons why you podcast. Some are to

entertain, some are to maybe teach. Some are

to share an experience or to share some

life lessons. Some could be for

business and for growing a business, finding new

clients, that sort of thing. I think you really have to think about

why it is that you're podcasting and what gave you the idea to even start

your podcast. Maybe think back to why did you want

to have a podcast, where did the initial idea come from? And then maybe if

we think about that, we can think about the motivations behind

that. Maybe you saw something that inspired you, maybe you heard a

podcast that inspired you, maybe you had a conversation with somebody that inspired

you. So for me, I want to do this little experiment

with my other podcast working towards a purpose. And for me, if

I really think back to why I wanted to start that podcast, it was

multiple reasons. I do own a podcast production company,

Pleasant Podcast, and one of the reasons was I

worked on people's podcasts all the time, and some people would always

ask me like, well, what's your podcast about? And then I would always be like,

I don't really have one. So one of them was to

show by example how I could help people, like, hey, here's an example of my

podcast and what it sounds like I could help you to do at least what

I've done in the past, right? So that was one part of it.

The second part of it was my kind of ever growing

journey of trying to figure out what my purpose

is, right? And that's kind of like where the name came from and

intentionally using the word purpose versus passion and kind of

just trying to learn from others about what their purpose is.

And really the idea first kind of

came from me doing a lot of networking and

realizing that there were some people that I met that I just had really strong

connections with and they either really inspired me to do something or

I was impressed of what they did. And I was like, wow, that's awesome

that you did that thing and kind of wanting to learn

more about it. A podcast is a really great way to

get a one on one with a person like that and really ask them the

questions that you want to ask them. So that was another reason why I wanted

to start a podcast, was to dive into people's

stories and to basically kind of get mentorship

from them and in a selfish way, help

myself by learning from these people. And I

kind of looked at it as like it was a win win sort of thing

because I'm learning from them and then I'm also

having other people who listen to the show learn from them. That's kind

of the hope. The hope is to also inspire

other people, but then also to support them, right? Because I think that

there's, especially in an entrepreneur community,

I think it's important to support each other and to support each other's good ideas.

And even just as humans, if somebody's doing something that you really

think is cool, the best way to help them is to support them.

So that's kind of like where the ideas came from for

my show there. And I didn't really look at it as

like, I want to get thousands of listeners and then start getting ads

and start making money. I looked at it more of like a

mentorship sort of thing where, yeah, it's great if

more and more people listen. But it's also great just having

the conversations and the conversations themselves are super inspiring

to me and that's what I'm getting out of it, right? That's the goal

of my podcast is to learn and to be inspired and to make a connection

with somebody and that's happening. But I will say

that I'd be lying if I said that I don't want more

listeners now that I've started, right? I really don't get

that many listeners. It's probably less than 100 per

episode on average. And although

the reception has been nice, people have

reviewed and given me good feedback on it and my

friends and the network of entrepreneurs that I'm a part of have given

me good feedback on it and that's been lovely. But

like I said, I would be lying if I said I didn't want more people

to listen to it. So kind of getting back to

the topic of why are we starting a podcast, I think for me,

the reasons that I started a podcast keep me going and keep

me podcasting. Because although I would like more listeners and I

don't necessarily have them right now, what's keeping me going is the conversation,

right? So for me, the thing that I'm getting out of the podcast and

thinking of it in a selfish way, what I'm getting out of the podcast

is these great conversations with people that I really look up to

and that's what's going to keep me going because I like

the actual conversation that we're having. That was kind of an

experiment of why I got into podcasting and

what drives me to podcasting and what is my goal, right? And if

I were to refine it even more and say what is my goal? My goal

is to have better conversations with people I connect with even

more, to have those awesome conversations with people that are super

inspiring and help me find out more of what

my purpose is and where I want to be in life and what I want

to do with my businesses. So that's my overall

goal of my podcast. Now, your podcast may be wildly different than that and

that's totally fine, but I think it's important to figure out

what that goal is. And I think a lot of times I've had conversations

with people about what their goals are and I always try to ask them

what their goals are and a lot of times people just say, like,

I just want to get lots of downloads, I want to get paid to

podcast. And those aren't all bad things, but I think

that they're not things that are going to keep you going when times get

tough. And I think to just push further past

that, to me, it's not a good enough answer. To me, you need to

push further past that. Well, why do you want 100,000 downloads? Why

do you want to get paid to podcast? Keep asking why it's like the

seven whys or there's some book or something out there. You got to ask why

seven times to get to the root of why you're doing something.

So all that to say kind of rambling on here. All that to say that

I think it's really important to think about why you are podcasting. And then the

second half of this conversation is there was a stat that was

brought up. I haven't fact checked the stat, so take it with a grain of

salt. But one of the guys on the video that I was watching said that

80% of podcasts don't get to 1000 listens per episode,

which is a huge number. Only 20% of

podcasts get 1000 listens per episode. And really, 1000 listens

per episode isn't even that big. That was interesting for me to

get context of like, okay, maybe my 50 people

an episode isn't horrible for just starting out.

Maybe if 1000 is really good, then

maybe it's not that bad to have less than 100. But either

way, it kind of gave me some context as like, okay,

it is really hard to get listeners out there and it is really hard. And

only the top 20% of the podcast are getting more than 1000 listens per episode.

So that for me was almost a motivational

stat. But then the second half of this conversation was

talking about, is your podcast in

alignment? Is it in alignment with your audience? And is it

in alignment with you? And I thought that this was a very interesting idea

of is your podcast, right? A podcast

is an idea and you can have thousands of ideas, right? And

just because you went with this idea doesn't necessarily mean it's the

right idea or the wrong idea. I mean, what's that saying

about Edison trying the light bulb? And it worked on the thousandth

time, right? So it's almost a little bit arrogant

to think like, oh, my first podcast is going to be a success and it's

going to be amazing. That's almost kind of an arrogant thought. And I'm talking

to myself too. It may be a little bit harsh to think

about it in that way, but I mean, it's true. If it's your

first idea and you got it started, maybe it's not

the right idea. Maybe you're not connecting with your audience. Maybe if you're 30 episodes

in and you're still only getting like

50 downloads, or you're not getting the reception, or you're not

getting the goal that you are wanting out of your podcast, maybe

it's not connecting with the listeners. And to think about

how to connect with listeners and I think that goes back to

a lot of marketing tactics and finding a need in

the market, right? Finding a need in the podcast niche is there

just too much competition in what you're trying to do, especially if you're like

in entertaining podcasts or you're a comedy podcast or something like that.

There's so much competition out there from successful and

famous comedians or actors or whoever it may be,

there's a lot of competition. So just thinking about the

idea of are you filling a hole in the

market, just how you would think of it in business, right? You can

have a great idea in business, but if there's not a need in the market,

it's not going to succeed and you're not going to get customers because the

customers don't need what you think is a good idea. And it's that

hard balance between coming up with an idea and then finding

the need for it. And sometimes that's tough and

sometimes maybe it is a great idea, but there isn't a need in the market

for it and you got to move on to the next idea. So I think

also thinking about your podcast in this way just as if it were a business

and just as if you were marketing that business or

you're marketing that podcast to the group of listeners and is

it something that the listeners want? And of course, you can't

only make a podcast for other people and completely

tailor it to what other people want. It's a balance, right? But I think

it's important to think about, like, are you in alignment with a specific

audience? Are people connecting with it? That's the most important part. Are people

connecting with your show? And then to take it even further

than that, are you connecting with your show? Right? Because you could also build

a show that maybe is connecting with people and is successful,

but you hate creating it. And in that case,

that's not really in alignment with yourself. So I think it's

important to think about is your podcast in alignment with an audience

and a group of people? And also is your podcast in

alignment with you and what you want to be doing, and are you reaching the

people that you want to speak to? So, all in all, this whole

conversation, maybe it's a bigger conversation, but I think I'm going to kind of cut

it short here because we're getting a little long. But I

think it's really interesting to think about your podcast in

this way and all this stuff is hard. And I think that that's why

making a podcast that really resonates with people is difficult

because you have to think about all these things. You have to think about

specifically the alignment. I think that was a very cool

visual for me to hear that. When I was listening to this video with Jeremy

Enns and Justin Jackson, it was very interesting

to like that made so much sense to me when they said that you have

to be in alignment with your audience and then you also have to be in

alignment with yourself. Because Jeremy Ends was actually saying he gave

an example of a podcast that he started that he resonated with

people and he found a hole in the market and people loved it,

but he hated making it, so he eventually had to stop making it.

So that's also something that you want to make sure that it's

something that you want to be doing. And then last thing that I want to

say about this as we wrap up this episode is that if you

decide that your show is something that maybe you need to end and maybe you

don't want to be doing it anymore or maybe you need to start with a

new idea, that's okay too. Because I think a lot of times

people look at failure as a bad thing or get down on

yourself. Or maybe you say, oh, I shouldn't be a podcaster now because my first

idea didn't work. I think that's not a good way to

look at it. I think it's more productive to be like, you know what, first

idea didn't pan out, that's okay, I'm going to stop doing this

idea. And now I'll have all this space to go full

force into a new idea, and maybe the new idea will be the one that

sticks. Maybe it won't, maybe it will. But all of that work

that you did for your first podcast, it wasn't lost. You

can transfer all of those skills to your next podcast and make it even

better. And I challenge you to look at it like look at it

as a positive instead of a negative one thing's ending. Yes, but

it's also now giving me the space and the time to start something

new that I could be more excited about now. So

it's not always a bad thing. And if you've listening to this episode

and you do this little experiment and you figure out that your

podcast maybe isn't the right thing for you, it's not a bad thing, you can

still continue to podcast, and you can still continue to express yourself

in this way and create something that's even better than you created

before. I also really liked the idea

that your first podcast doesn't have to be a success, your first idea doesn't have

to be a success. And that's something you learn in business and

entrepreneurship is like, you constantly have to pivot, you constantly have to

keep changing. And the more you figure yourself out and what you want,

the closer and closer you'll get to something that fits and that strikes a

nerve with people, and that is something that you really

connect with and align with. So hopefully this episode wasn't too rambly. I

know it went a little bit longer than normal, but hopefully it was helpful and

hopefully you could take something from this. As always, I appreciate you

listening and taking your time to be here with me, and I will see

you on the next episode. We've reached the end of the

episode, and if you enjoyed this podcast or you got something from

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link. Thanks for listening and happy podcasting.