Listenable: The Content to Set Your Podcast

The Possibilities

Meet Tiffany Haynes. In the fall of 2020, she started a podcast called Permission to Enter with her best friend, Lauren Chamblin. It was Tiffany’s first-ever podcast, dedicated to such topics as wearing crop tops and going to PTA meetings, and “trying to keep our faces hydrated … and our bodies lubricated.” At first, the potential for sharing intimate details of her life intimidated Tiffany, who has a tough time being vulnerable. (Full disclosure: as of this writing, Tiffany and I are engaged to be married.)

So she stretched herself and went for it. And it’s opened her up in ways she never saw coming on a few levels.

“A year ago, if you would have asked me to rank my goals and I had to include starting a podcast to talk about my personal struggles, it would have been dead last,” Tiffany told me as I was writing this book. “Adding up the podcast interviews I had turned down in avoidance of hearing my own introspection, you would confidently bet your last dollar I would never voluntarily be a host of my own show.”

Once I started to hear Tiffany’s story, I had to hear more. So here it is:

I had gifted myself a medal of honor from the war that was my childhood. A medal that granted my conscience permission to take my struggles and vulnerabilities and “neatly” hide them away. They were in a dark room, at the basement level of a beautiful castle, with infinite stories stacked on top of “the chamber” that held what I believed to be poison. Very few could crack the cryptograph to even access the drawbridge to this castle property. Good luck getting past the guarded vestibule and armored door and finding a passage to the room where passage did not exist. Layers and layers of concrete poured around this underground room to ensure its secrets were sealed away for eternity. It would take a nuclear explosion for anything to ever enter or exit the chamber. For those secrets would expose the real truth.

The truth was that I was irreparably damaged, broken beyond repair, and a mere rag doll beaten around by the effects of childhood traumas, sexual abuse, neglect, and everything you could imagine any one human shouldn’t ever go through. Ultimately, I felt I was a fatal curse to anyone who was naive enough to believe they may be able to “fix me.” I was determined to keep this truth away from my daughter, my family, my friends, and anyone who dare get close enough to be affected by the darkness that lived in me. The ole “out of sight, out of mind” analogy. If I couldn’t see it and no one else could see it, it can’t be there, right? Wrong. Here’s the thing about keeping a real-life lethal poison hidden in a metaphorical room inside a metaphorical castle. The metaphors don’t protect your mind, body, soul, or spirit from the slow-leak that occurs when trying to harbor poison. That nuclear explosion is more likely than you ever believed, and your quarantined room has morphed all of the rooms around it into traps of anxiety, guilt, depression, shame, sadness, resentment, and paranoia. Everything is slowly losing color and the poison has grayed everything in its path. Where you eat, where you sleep, and where you live inevitably get infected and there’s no safe corner in your own kingdom.

This is what it feels like to bury your past without confronting the emotions and living the experience fully. I wholeheartedly believed I could make it through life while hiding a “truth” deep within me to protect myself and anyone around me. Turns out the real truth was shame had corroded my reality. I believed that because bad things had happened to me, I was bad. And something amazing happened as soon as I made a promise to Lauren Chamblin, my best friend and co-host, that I would do a podcast with her. I made a commitment to serve others with my experiences. Good, bad, and ugly. I thought mostly bad and mostly ugly. The amazing part happened when I turned my mic on and my thoughts, feelings, and emotions flooded out of my mouth like a dam releasing for the first time.

Unshackling myself from the prison I had created felt like taking one-thousand-pound weights off my chest and shoulders. I felt like I could finally be seen, and I could finally stop lying to myself about the bad things I had gone through to try and be strong and I could just be. Now, don’t get me wrong. Most of my initial vulnerabilities got cut out of the final edits because I may have finally been open to being open, but I was not ready to let everyone judge my openness. I let the thoughts flow, which was cathartic and its own special therapy. I thought I would be years in before I would be able to serve others with complete and total openness because I needed to build the strength it would take to accept other people’s opinions of my experiences. Again, I was wrong. The uncomfortable path usually is the expedited path. Growth happens quicker than you could ever imagine when you’re outside of your comfort zone.

I was thirty days into podcasting when I shared to the world I had spent most of my teen-adult years battling an eating disorder. I had barely even admitted this to two of the people closest to me before this. Even to my closest confidants, I danced around the subject, never fully being comfortable with discussing. To think I could morph from being so secretive to letting the world see every last inch of pain in this heart. The fear was gone. I didn’t need strength to block opinions or judgments; in no time at all, that was the last thing on my mind. New strength came from each and every person who started sharing the impact I had made on their lives. Suddenly, being concerned with needing to have a wall of defense for the critics who would judge me were small fish in comparison to the impact I knew helping just one person feel like they weren’t alone in wanting more out of life, or having a hard life, or a bad day, or feeling stuck, or not feeling anything at all. When I think of the compounding trickle effect of dismantling one toxic thought pattern in a person, it makes me cry every single time. And, to think, it all started with just allowing myself to be vulnerable. For that reason alone, I will forever be thankful for the medium of podcasting in allowing me to serve my community, be an authentic parent and partner, and show up for myself the way I finally deserve.

Whether you’re starting a podcast to make money, increase brand awareness, buy yourself more time, or just enjoy the process of learning and the sound of your voice, podcasting is a true choose-your-own-adventure process. Every adventure starts with making connections. But you have to be brave enough to dig in and be willing to share. It takes courage. Tiffany was terrified. But she challenged herself, overcame her fears, and connected. That’s freedom!

So let’s dive into some of the possibilities.

Make Your Mission Statement and Find Your Focus

Your mission statement and your focus go hand in hand, giving you a clear picture of exactly who you are, who your audience is, and what you’re trying to accomplish.

So, for example, let’s say The Bert Show was a lifestyle blog for single women looking to better themselves, spiritually, physically, and mentally. That would be our mission statement. Let that be our guide at first. Your mission statement can change as you get more experience. But I think for beginning podcasters using a one-or two-sentence mission statement as your lighthouse is pretty important.

And in a lot of cases, I’ve heard people use their mission statement as the produced intro for their podcast, which I don’t think is a bad idea either. It tells the listener immediately right off the bat who you are and what you are. But let’s get back to the focus. This book, for instance, is a fun podcasting guide that focuses solely on the content and delivery of material during a podcast.

In Forbes, Sarah Rhea Werner shares her mission statements as she writes about creating podcasts with purpose. Her mission statement for her Write Now podcast is: “I will use my podcast to share truth, creativity and encouragement with listeners to nurture, heal and inspire them—and in doing so, help make the world a better and more empathetic place.” She also has one for her fictional podcast: “I will use my audio drama to tell a fun, entertaining story that evokes beauty and universal truths and reminds listeners that no matter where or who they are, they’re not alone.”⁶

Here are some other examples of effective mission statements from some of the most well-known institutions. While they aren’t specific to podcasts, you can see how their choice of words tells followers exactly what to expect:

American Red Cross: “The American Red Cross prevents and alleviates human suffering in the face of emergencies by mobilizing the power of volunteers and the generosity of donors.”⁷

NASA: “Lead an innovative and sustainable program of exploration with commercial and international partners to enable human expansion across the solar system and bring new knowledge and opportunities back to Earth. Support growth of the nation’s economy in space and aeronautics, increase understanding of the universe and our place in it, work with industry to improve America’s aerospace technologies and advance American leadership.”⁸

Nike: “To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world. (If you have a body, you are an athlete.) Our mission is what drives us to do everything possible to expand human potential. We do that by creating groundbreaking sport innovations, by making our products more sustainably, by building a creative and diverse global team and by making a positive impact in communities where we live and work.”⁹

NPR: “The mission of NPR is to work in partnership with Member Stations to create a more informed public—one challenged and invigorated by a deeper understanding and appreciation of events, ideas and cultures.”¹⁰

Everything in this book is written with a similar focus. There are very few chapters on equestrian riding saddles. Why? Because that topic doesn’t have anything to do with “A fun podcasting guide that focuses solely on the content and delivery of material during a podcast.”

When you crack the mic each week, who are you trying to connect with and what’s the point of your podcast?

Your answers might be

• “I will make each and every element of the stock market easy to understand so my audience can make wise and educated investments.”
• “Through my horrific experience getting divorced, I will share both legal and emotional advice to navigate through divorce with grace and understanding.”
• “I will educate on how hand puppetry is the most effective way of educating about Pagan Witch-craft.”

No matter what, you must ask yourself, does the content you’re about to deliver fit into your focus? If not, kiss that content goodbye.

Your One Thing

By now, you probably already know your one thing, and it’s probably beyond the examples I gave earlier of puppetry, the stock market, and divorce. Maybe you envision a podcast dedicated to the science of sleeping well, where you’re hosting guests who have the art of sleeping down to a science. Perhaps it’s poetry. Whatever your subject matter, it must be your one thing for your show. Listeners subscribe to learn about a particular topic, or to be entertained by a particular style. So, as a general rule, mixing needlepoint and nutrition won’t cut it, and neither will inviting a nonfiction biographer who writes one-thousand-page bricks of knowledge onto your happy little haiku podcast.

If you want to spend more time on your purpose, which can guide the unique content of your podcast, I’ve borrowed this exercise from my friend Chris Tuff, author of The Millennial Whisperer and Save Your Asks:

This chapter is about possibilities. Now’s the chance to really think about the possible focus of your podcast, because once you get started, you’ll want to keep going, especially when you consider the other king out there in addition to content—cash.

Shake Your Moneymaker

I like money. There. I said it. I’m a fan of it. I know a lot of people say, “I’d do this job for free because I love it that much.” Man, I sure do admire those liars. For me, the key is finding something you love doing that’s rewarding. Radio has been so rewarding for me on a few levels that I won’t bore you with, but I promise you one of those rewards has been a paycheck. And I don’t think it’s terrible to say, “I’d like to make some money off this podcast.”

At The Bert Show, we increased our revenue by eight times as we went to nearly four million downloads per month. In less than a year, we were earning twenty times more than we ever had before! (Even as I wrote this book those numbers continued to grow; currently up to six million downloads per month.) How?

We learned to monetize our podcast, and man, did we learn some lessons. I’ll get into some specifics about making money in a moment, but first, a few basics.

Your show has valuable content, not only to listeners but also to outside companies. This requires a mindset shift. Somebody’s probably willing to pay you $250 to have their product mentioned on your show. So think of ways you can benefit from this. Let’s say your podcast is about house cleaning, and you discuss a locally made, organic dishwashing detergent. Listeners want to buy the detergent—but where and how? That’s where advertising and sponsorship come in. Just as companies will pay money to have their products stickered across the side of a bus or screaming from a billboard, they will pay you to help sell what they produce. Think of NASCAR with all those sponsors painted on the car. You’re the car. How many of those sponsors do you want in your podcast? The more you have, the more money you make, but you must retain your credibility. Too many sponsors or ones that don’t fit your brand make you susceptible to looking inauthentic.

I’ll discuss more returns on your investment throughout this book, and in detail in chapter 5. (Actually, someone else will discuss the returns on your investment later in this book because while I do like making money, I hate talking numbers. But there are some who do, so I’ll lean on them hard later in the book.) My focus is here: the biggest return on investment of a podcast is connection. Most podcasters started out because they needed an excuse for creating an experience and connection with people.

Take, for example, Tyler Jorgenson. Before he became the host of the BizNinja Radio Show on ABC News, he was just another eager person looking to expand his network and broaden his knowledge. There were people he wanted to connect with and learn from, but asking them to sit down for a phone call seemed like a bit of an “ask-hole” move—a term my friend Chris Tuff came up with for his book, Save Your Asks.

For Tyler, podcasting started so he could connect with like-minded professionals. He wanted both an excuse and a shortcut to learning new things while growing his network, like so many other aspiring podcasters. Now, people appear on BizNinja Radio Show out of a mutual desire to connect (they’re also often leads for Tyler—can you say quid pro quo?).

And deep down, those same people want to be heard. You’ll hear a lot about CPM and other listener-based measures, but if you’re professional and your podcast sounds good, then you can get almost anyone to join you. A podcast is a gift.

Oh, You Really Want to Monetize It?

Did I mention I’m a fan of getting paid? This is next-level moneymaking stuff:

Nick Loper of Side Hustle Nation came up with this nifty list of cashing in on your expertise, which I’ve edited to provide some easy explanations.

Twelve Ways to Monetize a Podcast

1. Referral sponsorships: By mentioning a company’s products, you can often get free products or services from them for yourself.
2. Traditional sponsorships: These generate money through the CPM. You can find sponsors through such sources as AdvertiseCast, Libsyn, True Native Media, Adopter Media, and Ad Results Media.
3. Sell your own products: Maybe you’ve written a book, or you have some hot new merchandise. What better way to advertise than through your podcast?
4. Sell your own services to listeners: This is the perfect opportunity to attract people to coaching, courses, or masterminds.
5. Sell your own services to guests: Build the kind of relationships where guests are willing to buy something from you after appearing on the show.
6. Sell your guests’ products as an affiliate: And now the relationship is reciprocated.
7. Sell your guests’ services as an affiliate: See above.
8. Listener donations: You can set up a pledge page on Patreon.com. If listeners like you enough, they may send Amazon gift cards or PayPal donations.
9. Repurpose your content: As Nick explains, his original Side Hustle Path series on Amazon was almost entirely derived from podcast content.
10. Syndicate your show to YouTube: Built-in advertising services allow you to earn even more money in passive income.
11. Charge your guests: This may not be your cup of tea, but if you have a loyal, dedicated audience, some guests may want to pay to reach those listeners for forty-five minutes so much that they consider it a wise investment of their advertising budget dollars.
12. Paywall old episodes: Charge a couple of bucks for past recordings, and it adds up.¹²

Meditate on This

So, sure, you’re going to make some money from your show. But the beauty of podcasting lies in its ability to allow hosts to pursue passions that have been slowly smoldering while they work their day jobs. “I don’t know why everybody thinks they have to do something forever,” says Chris Krimitsos, whose wife, Katie, is a prime example of making her little niche pay off in big ways.

As an early mover in the podcast industry, Katie was one of the first businesswomen to host Biz Women Rock, earning close to a six-figure income while working only thirty-five hours a week and raising a family. But after five years, with a second daughter on the way, Katie decided she was ready to sunset her role at Biz Women Rock and make a transition. “When we looked into the meditation niche, we found there was nothing specifically geared toward women,” says Chris, who, with Katie, began listening to as many meditation podcasts as they could find. Many of them failed to state the intention of the meditation, which can leave listeners confused. Others were too complicated for people looking for a simpler way to get started, which made up a large percentage of her desired potential audience. So when they launched the Women’s Meditation Network, they made sure to include intentions and create meditations that speak to millennials.

“As simple as it sounds, these were groundbreaking things for this space,” says Chris. “And then because she takes it seriously, she’s consistent. She’s always launching.” So the Women’s Meditation Network then branched out and launched sleep meditations for women. From the sleep meditation, it took only three and a half months for her entire network to hit a million downloads, which is incredible. Katie was able to generate revenue by attracting a unique audience with her specific topics, gaining listeners who then referred her podcast to friends and family members. Her shows also immediately convey benefits to the audience, walking them through exactly what they’ll get out of the show, whether it’s a morning meditation or a guided relief from anxiety and stress.

Katie also practiced the mantra of “start ugly,” calling her show Women’s Meditation Network, which is the name of the business. But then she and Chris realized through search engine optimization (SEO) research that when searching for meditation information, the first thing people type is “meditation.” So the show is now called Meditation for Women. Says Chris, “It was a very simple transition, but it worked.”

Okay, you have a solid grasp of the possibilities of podcasting, right? Because it’s time to move on to the people who are going to make these possibilities a reality: your audience.

NOW HEAR THIS

• Start ugly. Think about the “long game” when cutting your first podcast. It won’t be good, and that’s okay. Have patience. Most podcasts “podfade” because of impatience.
• Create a mission statement.
• Focus on one thing. Your thing. Not the thing you think people want to hear. Focus on what you want to say!
• Learn the right way to monetize your podcast.
• Get as specific as you can. The riches are in the niches in some cases.