39. Are You Accidentally Sabotaging Your Show? Avoid This Common Podcasting Mistake!

Ever wondered why your podcast isn't gaining as many listeners as you'd like? In this episode, I’m hopping on my soapbox to unpack a really common podcasting mistake. Tune in for examples and actionable tips to help you make your podcast more appealing and accessible to your audience.

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This episode was produced by me, The Podcast Teacher! Contact me at Hello@ThePodcastTeacher.com.

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Transcript

Hey. Hey. And welcome back. Today, I'm gonna get up on my soapbox a little bit, which I don't do very often. But when I do, it's because it's something that I'm really super passionate about. So I'm gonna get up there today, and we're gonna talk about why your podcast is not about you. Yes. You heard that right.

Your podcast is not about you. I will caveat that and say if you are someone that you are doing this podcast purely for your own benefit, it's a creative outlet for you. It's a kind of verbal diary of sorts, and you don't care whether or not someone else is listening, then you can stop this episode and bounce out. The rest isn't going to be relevant to you. However, chances are that's not you. Most people who do a podcast, they're doing it because they want someone else to listen. And if you're wanting someone else to listen, your podcast can't just be about you and what you want and what you think is important. So where does this show up? Why am I on this soapbox today? When it comes to making decisions for your podcast, I have a lot of people who are very personally attached to certain things.

And sometimes, that's okay. But in most cases, their personal attachment that I'm trying to get them to break away from is detrimental to listener attraction, to getting someone to tune in to your podcast. So let me give you a tangible example. So the biggest thing that people fight me on is the name, the name of your podcast. And this is, you know, your project. It's kind of your your baby and something you're working so hard on putting your whole heart and soul into. And so sometimes people will come to me and they are really attached to this creative name. Maybe it's something that really has a personal meaning to them or is very metaphorical for the journey they've gone through.

And that's great that it's important to you, and you can find a way to weave that in. I'm not saying that you have to completely part with whatever is important to you, but remember that your podcast is about your listener. Is your listener going to understand that metaphor that's in your title? Is it gonna understand that clever creative name that was a part of your childhood? Odds are they're probably not, at least not until you explain it to them. But if you have to explain it to them, you've probably already lost their interest because they're probably not going to ask. So the name of your podcast is a big one. And in some cases, this can be mitigated by adding a subtitle. So for people who just really won't let go of their personal attachment that they have to their podcast name idea, then I suggest adding a subtitle. Ideally, we'd make it your main title, but the subtitle can be a mitigating factor, kind of a way to get around this.

And I'm not gonna go any more into that, but you can tune into episode 16, which is all about how to name your podcast, and also episode 31, which dives into podcast SEO and how to get your show discovered through search engine optimization. The other area where this really comes up is podcast cover art. A lot of times, someone will come to me and they'll be like, this is my branding font. It's this beautiful cursive handwriting font, and I want it front and center on my podcast cover. Or maybe they are the face of their business, and they think, you know, my photo needs to take up the majority of the front cover because I'm the face of my brand. I'm the face of my business. So things like that where they'll come to me and they'll have these very, very strong preferences. And so I need to walk them through and, of course, I do patiently and gently walk them through the well, if you're you're the face of your brand, but people don't necessarily know who you are, a cold audience doesn't know who you are, then it doesn't really matter if your face is recognizable or not and if it's giant on taking up 3 quarters of the square of your podcast's cover art, your podcast thumbnail.

And when it comes to things like fonts, you know, your cover art appears super, super, super, super, super tiny on your phone. Most of the time, people are listening to podcasts on their phone, and that cover art is small. If you add in the fact that it's a cursive handwriting font, there's very very low chance that that is readable at a small size from someone who is scanning the options quickly. And so even though you may love that font, you may have a personal attachment, it's all over your other branding, That's great. I'm not saying you can't use it in the other places, but it's not a great choice for your podcast cover because a potential listener isn't going to be able to read it and understand it and make a quick choice to click on your podcast to give it a chance. So I'm using these two examples because your podcast name and your cover art are the 2 first impressions of your podcast. When someone does a search or if they're recommended the podcast from a friend, the 2 first things that they're going to see when they pull up your podcast are the thumbnail cover art and your podcast name. And if there's something that's a barrier on either one of those things, maybe your face is so big that they can't read your title on your cover art at all, or they read your cover art and they have absolutely no idea what your podcast is about as a result of reading that title, then you could potentially lose a new listener.

One other area where I see this a lot is that podcasters want to attract big name guests to their podcast. And when I ask them why this is, most people say that they want a big name because they want them to bring their listenership. They want to grab new listeners. They think that they will grow their podcast by having someone who's a big name on their podcast. And that's pretty much false. I hate to break it to you, but, unfortunately, most of the time, the big name people don't promote your podcast and your episode in the way that you would want them to. And even if they do, their listenership is loyal to them. So they may come over to your podcast for that episode if the guest promoted it, And maybe some of them will stick around if they decide you'd they like your content.

But we're getting into a lot of maybes, a lot of if this happens type of thing. And when I dig a little deeper, I find that a lot of times, it's kinda the prestige. It's the, like, I've made it because I had so and so on my podcast. And I'll bring it back to it's not about you. It's not about whether you have made it as a podcaster because because you've gotten this person on your show. It's not about whether you are going to have these potentially new people come over from this big name guest sharing your podcast. The reason to have big name guests on your podcast is to provide amazing value, and your audience, your listener is going to gain something from it. Even if you didn't get a single new listener, if you enhanced the experience for your current listeners, that is the reason to bring on a guest, any guest, really, but especially a big name guest to your podcast.

So your podcast, all of these things that I've given examples of, your podcast is not about you. It's about your listener. It is about your potential listener, your current listener, your future listener. It's about your audience, and I understand that people have personal attachments to things. They get mental. They really like certain things. And I just want to encourage you to ask yourself, am I willing to reduce the number of listeners? Am I willing to lose a potential new listener? Am I willing to lose a potential current listener? Am I willing to lose out on future listeners for this decision? If me or some other podcast coach is suggesting that you do or don't do something in particular and you are so super attached to it, it means something in your soul. And you say, yes.

I am absolutely willing to make the sacrifice of attracting a new listener because this decision is that important to me, then go for it. I'm not gonna continue fighting you on it. As long as you are making the conscious choice that this may potentially damage your podcast growth or make it slower than it might otherwise be, something along those lines. As long as you understand the risk that you're taking, the gamble that you're making, and you are willing to make it, then that's fine. But I find that most people don't really understand, and especially something like the font on their cover art. Once I kind of take that font and I show them a mock up and I say, this is what it's going to look like in the sea of podcasts. Are you sure this is what you want? Because this is the consequence. The text isn't readable at this small size.

And then they say, oh, yeah. Okay. And so just bring it back to that listener. Make every single decision with your listener in mind. Okay. So I think I've made my point there. So how how would you get to know your audience beyond kind of the surface level? Oh, yeah. They need to be able to read the title of my podcast.

They need to be able to see things on my cover. How do you get to know your audience and make sure that your content decisions are coming back to them, that everything you're making is with them at the forefront. And so if you are on social media, hang out where they hang out. If you've been around here for a while, you know I'm not a big social media person, and I don't advocate spending a lot of time on there and certainly not posting. But you can lurk, the introvert's best friend lurking on social media. Hang out where they hang out. See what your audience is complaining about. See what your target listener, what kind of questions they're asking related to your topic.

You don't ever need to make your own posts. You don't need to engage with them necessarily, just absorb the information. If you want to take it a step further, you could ask for a few minutes of someone's time. This could be a current listener. This could be just someone who's kind of your target client, your target listener who you want to be attracting people like them to your podcast. And so maybe you ask them and say, hey, can we sit down for 30 minutes and chat? I will offer you 15 minutes of free coaching, free instruction, help, whatever expertise you can give them in exchange for being able to kind of pick their brain and ask them some market research questions during the other half of that block. If you're not quite ready for a phone or Zoom conversation face to face yet, then maybe you want to send out a questionnaire to your email list if you have 1. Or maybe if you're on social media, you post a poll or you share a link to a survey, something like that where you're trying to get input from your audience.

And every single time you sit down to record an episode or even before that, if you're scripting or outlining, I want you to ask yourself, what is the takeaway for the listener today? What are they getting out of this episode? Why is this episode going to be worth their time today? Why should they tune in? What are they gonna get out of it? That's, like, 6 different ways to ask the same question, but you want to really have that clear in your mind before you even press record. And I'll add just one more note that a lot of the folks that I work with like to share their own experiences, their own maybe it's a healing journey, their personal growth, revelations they've had, wisdom that they've earned over the years, And I am a 100% for that. We listen and learn from other people's examples. Absolutely. I also want you to remember to still ask yourself, what is the listener getting out of this? Why is this worth their time? And when you are telling your story, sharing your wisdom, whatever it is that you feel the need to proclaim to the world through your podcast, make sure to frame it in a way that the listener knows what they're getting out of it. So tell them, today, I'm going to share this story about x experience because I hope that you see whatever it is, fill in the blank. You know, maybe I struggled with setting boundaries, examples of techniques that you can try to help you set your own boundaries. So you're telling them why hearing your story is worth their time.

So make sure before you even sit down to record that you frame that episode's content in a way that's very clear both for you and for the listener to know why it's worth their time, what they're getting out of it. Okay? And in case you're wondering, the takeaway for today's episode, the reason why this is worth your time, hopefully, if you're here at the end, you're hearing this, is that so many people make these mistakes, and I'm trying to save you the time and energy from making this mistake and making your podcast all about you. Make it about your audience. Alright. This episode got way longer than I intended. Apparently, when I get on my soapbox, I can just ramble for a little bit. Oh, we'll see if I can trim any of that down in the editing process. Again, coming back to you as the listener, it's about you and your time, and if you don't need to hear me go on a tangent or repeat myself for a point that I've already made, I'm gonna cut it out because that's what's best for you for you, my dear listener.

Alright. Until next week, happy podcasting.