12+ Steps to Creating Your Award Winning Podcast

The most important questions you must answer:

Who is your show for? Who are you trying to serve? 

To answer that question, create an ‘Avatar’…let’s call him ‘Bob’.  Bob is your target listener; he’s who you’re trying to reach.

Who is Bob? Describe Bob. How old is Bob? Where does Bob live? What does Bob do on the weekends? What are Bob’s hopes, fears and ambitions? What is Bob’s annual gross income (podcast listeners are often older, well educated and well off financially).

How does Bob want to feel after listening to your show? Is Bob like you? If yes, that’s easy. Make a show you would listen to. When considering a topic: Ask yourself, why does Bob care about this? If you have to tell Bob why he cares then it is a crap topic. Bob has to already care; it has to be meaningful to him without you explaining it.

In our case, we aim to motivate, educate and get you into action.

Mindset drill-down:

Imagine Bob is in the room with you and you’re having a conversation with him. You truly care about Bob and want to make his life better.  Make the show about helping Bob…not trying to make yourself famous.

Worth repeating, make your WORK famous because of all the people (your) work product helped…don’t try to make yourself famous. That is the mindset that wins, 100% of the time.  When in doubt, lead with this mindset.

The Accumulation Effect: 

Hard work, authenticity and making it all about your listener will pay off assuming you are very consistent.  Keeping at it is the key. Don’t even start a show if you aren’t going to commit to at least the next 12 months and at least 12 shows, ideally 12 months and at least 30-40 shows. Don’t leave digital breadcrumbs that you are a quitter.

Action Items:

1) Do I need expensive equipment? No.  Don’t waste money on pricey equipment. We use a RODE Lavalier mic and our i-phones. No mixing boards, no editing.  If you want to video your show, use your i-phone. The i-phone app we use is Ferrite. We also use Podbean.

2) Do I need a studio? Years ago the audio quality, production quality mattered…now, not so much. Some of the best podcasts are the shows that are the least produced. That isn’t to say that the audio volume can be too low or too high, or pops and other noise can be overly present. What matters is the overall quality of the content. If the content sucks and the audio is stellar they won’t listen. If the audio is just OK and the content is stellar, they will listen over and over again.

3) How formal should I be? The best podcasts are the most conversational. We always have notes and/ or an outline. That said, 50% of our shows are where we are just being ourselves and talking about random things.

Occasionally we talk about things that we have been studying that have nothing to do with real estate….aliens for example. People want to feel they are there with you, being part of the conversation. The best podcasts aren’t read like audiobooks or college lectures, instead, they feel interactive.

Your #1 goal should be to become part of their lives. We do our show DAILY because we know that we have thousands of people who listen to us daily….they tell us.

4) Choose a name for your podcast. Why should I listen? Have a hyper-focused topic or overarching theme. Ours is: Real Estate Coaching Radio. It says what it is. We stay on target to topics about real estate 90% of the time. You have to keep to what the show claims to be about. (When we veer off course listeners complain!) They want to listen to us because they came for content and stayed for the atmosphere. 

Think of it like a restaurant….if the food was amazing and everything else (atmosphere, people, environment) was just OK you never go back. If the food was just OK but the environment, people, how you felt while there was amazing….you go back.

Remember, people will easily forget what you said…but will never forget how you made them feel.   Think about a really great looking actor or actress…then you meet them and they’re a jerk.  Suddenly they aren’t that attractive anymore, are they?

5) What’s your format?  Do you want to go solo and do interviews (very common) or have a partner or partners? Interview based shows are great for many reasons. Mostly the person being interviewed creates the content. However, 75% of your guests will be boring, and it can be hard to predict how they’ll interview until it’s happening.  The show will never develop its own vibe. The best option is occasional interviews and having a partner or partners. We intentionally jib-jab and keep the conversation between us real. We don’t have an on mic persona. People can tell.