15. Podcasting Strategies for Coming Up With Episode Content

Are you putting off starting your podcast because you're afraid of running out of ideas? It's a concern that I hear a lot. In today's episode, I'm giving you some strategies, prompts, and words of wisdom to overcome this content hurdle.

Resources Mentioned:
Ubersuggest
Answer the Public

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Transcript

Hey, hey, and welcome back. Today, we're going to talk about episodes because they are the heart of your podcast. One of the common concerns that I hear from aspiring podcasters is that they're afraid they'll run out of content. I also hear from others that they just don't know how to break their big ideas down into individual episodes. So today, I'm going to give you some structure for planning episodes, some prompts to help you organize your content, and a few words of wisdom. If you're an aspiring podcaster, I very strongly encourage you to create a list of at least 25 episode ideas before you even press record for the 1st time, more if you can. That's because there's a phenomenon known as pod fade, which is when a show gradually or suddenly stops releasing new episodes and falls off the map altogether. With pod fade, there's no planned ending, wrap up, or goodbye.

The content just stops coming. One of the biggest causes of pod fade before a podcaster reaches episode 10 is lack of planning. By creating a list of 25 or more before you even press record for the 1st time, you won't encounter this problem. Okay. So here's how we do it. The first thing is to break your big content topic down into 3 to 5 subtopics. These are still going to be fairly broad, but they help to create categories for you. I often call these content pillars.

For example, if your overall podcast topic is weight loss, you might choose nutrition, exercise, and habits as 3 subcategories or content pillars. Once you have those, start with your 1st content pillar and list 5 to 8 even more specific subtopics that could each stand alone as an episode. Repeat the process with your additional content pillars. And you wanna do this stream of consciousness style. Don't stop to analyze each one. Just get the ideas out of your head and onto a document. You can refine them later. It's also important to note that these are not episode titles at this point.

Just content ideas. And while I'm suggesting that you brainstorm roughly 5 to 8 episode ideas for each content pillar, please know that you don't need to have an equal amount for each content pillar. It's okay to cover some subtopics more heavily than others, And there will probably be overlap between your topics. Don't get caught up deciding whether creating an exercise routine should go under the exercise pillar or the habits pillar. It doesn't really matter. As introverts, we are often overthinkers. So this exercise can be challenging. Do your best to jot down ideas in general Even if you think it might be a bad idea, you're not sure if people will be interested, or if you can't figure out which pillar to categorize it in.

If you're having trouble getting started, here are a few prompts for you. Start by listing 5 core concepts in your industry, then list 5 common struggles that your ideal listener currently experiences. Think about what are 5 questions that you get all the time. What are 5 myths about your industry that you could debunk? Then you can list 5 complimentary professionals that you'd like to interview. A complimentary professional is someone whose niche is adjacent to yours. So for example, my client, Lisa, whose podcast is about weight loss, for her, this might be someone like a sleep expert or a personal trainer. It's not exactly the content that she covers, but it's close enough that the same audience is going to be interested. But, also, those professionals are selling or educating on a slightly different topic.

They have a different product to sell to the person, so you're not in direct competition with them. And last couple of prompts here, list 5 past clients that you could interview if you have them, and also list 5 mindset challenges that you could speak about overcoming in relation to your niche. It's also a good idea to periodically browse Facebook groups around your topic to see what people are talking about and what kinds of questions are being asked. Keyword research using a tool like UberSuggest or AnswerThePublic may also help you generate some ideas if you're feeling stuck. Before we wrap up, I want to assure you that it's unlikely that you're going to run out of ideas even though that's a common concern that I hear. You'll continue to learn new things, evolve, and have experiences with your own clients or students. All of those experiences will continually give you new ideas. Finally, I find that many aspiring podcasters believe that they can't repeat content, and that is 100% false.

Most podcast listeners don't go back and listen to all of the old episodes. So as your audience grows, you'll continually be talking to new people who haven't heard you say things before. Additionally, it often takes many exposures to a concept for it to sink in, or it needs to hit at the right moment. I'll share a quick story about how when I was thinking of starting this podcast and was wrapped up in a lot of what if fears that I listened to a Mel Robbins podcast episode. And she flipped the typical what if spiral of negative outcomes into the question of what if it all works out. And I've heard that flipped question dozens of times. But when I heard it in that exact moment when my head was in the space of thinking about starting a podcast, it clicked, and it helped me have the courage to take action. And if you're a regular listener, you have probably heard me tell that story before, but I'm not afraid to repeat myself.

So what I'm trying to get across is you never know when the right moment may be for someone, so keep saying it. Okay. That's it for today. Use those prompts and the structure that I just went over to create your list of 25 plus episode ideas. And I'll talk to you again soon.