If your goal involves
partnerships or monetization, it's vital to be clear about
this upfront. You know, potential partners and sponsors will
want to know your podcast goals to see if they align. You're listening to Podcast Insider,
a weekly podcast, bringing insights, advice, and insider tips and
tricks to help you start, grow, and thrive through podcasting. With the support of your team here
at Blueberry Podcasting. Welcome. Let's dive in. Hi, this is Mike Dell, VP of
Customer Relations here at Blueberry. And I'm Todd Cochran, c e o, and
co-founder of Blueberry Today. What is your podcast goal? Why are you podcasting? I really kinda had an epiphany
moment number of months ago, Mike, because I was doing all of
these customer calls and usually the call started out
with how do I grow my show? And that was a question that was
asked to me, and I'd be like, well, let's go take a look at your website.
And, you know, we would just, I'd kind of dive into mm-hmm.
kinda the guts, right? Yeah. Go through the tech stuff. Yeah. When the tech stuff. But then
I kind of had, you know, like I said, I had this epiphany moment where I said, I'm really not asking the
right question. And in return, you know, cuz they said the question
would be, as an example, again, you, Mike, you would say to me, Todd,
I wanna, I wanna grow my podcast. And then my return to that
would be is, well, Mike, let's, let's back up and start and say, what
is, what is your goal of your show? You know, what is the goal and
what do you want to accomplish? And about 75% of the time on those calls, there would be this dramatic pause was
almost like the content creator was thinking of. Hmm. And sometimes a person would come
right back immediate and say, I'm trying to build leads, right.
Business, or I wanna monetize. You know, they, they would ha
some folks had this immediate response, but other folks
hadn't really thought about it. So if you're listening to this episode
and you're thinking to yourself, Todd, you just hit me in the mouth because you,
you, you're asking me what is my goal? Well, this is part of why
we wanna do this episode, is we want you to think about that.
What is your podcast goal? And, and why are you podcasting? So, Mike,
what was the goal of your first show? My, well, I was a very big
fan of, of a am talk radio. And I would listen to it, you know, all
night long listening to Art Bell and, you know, all, all that stuff in the middle of the
night when I was working mid shift and, and I thought, boy, I'd
love to do a radio show. And then all of a sudden podcasting
come along. And I said, oh, well that's, that's fun. I really didn't have a goal other than
I wanted to get on the microphone. Mm-hmm. So it was kinda a
hobby for me. Now, you know, now that we're doing this more and
more, you know, we're doing this show, our goal for this show is to
inform potential podcasters and tell 'em about new stuff and all that. So there's definitely a goal for
this show. But my personal show, there was really never a goal,
at least on the main one. And then I had a couple other shows
in the past did have a specific goal. You know, there was no such thing
as like an influencer back
when podcasting started out. And so when I was doing my
show, I really wanted one thing. I had heard about this, uh, trade show called CES that
I really wanted to attend, but I had really no way to get in. So I wanted to build
authority myself in the tech space so that number
one, I could get a press pass. And ultimately though, it really
became two goals, it become, build authority in the tech space. And number two was to make money for
the show because I was spending so much money in those early days that my
wife really put the hammer on me. And she said, Hey, you, you know, you
gotta figure out how to make cash. So, you know, fortunately it doesn't cost
several thousand dollars to, you know, really, that's why I was spending a lot of money
to keep the show online because there was no blueberry that yeah, none of
that existed in those early days. So for today, we're gonna talk about some reasons
why podcasters choose to create a podcast. And, and
hopefully we'll hit yours. And if you don't have a goal for your
show, maybe maybe you're going to, uh, maybe you're gonna, we're
gonna hit a hit the mark with you. So I'll start with the first
one, sharing knowledge. You know, many podcasters are experts.
They're enthusiasts, you know, sometimes they're enthusiast, like
some folks are TV enthusiasts, TV show enthusiast, and they create a podcast based upon
just being a super fan of a, of a, of a show. But oftentimes, again, some folks are just an expert in
a specific field and they wanna share their knowledge and
passion with others. And again, this can range from academic subjects
to hobbies and really everything in between. So I think the first
one is, and I think oftentimes, even though we have a goal,
maybe my goal was to have, be able to be in the limelight a
little more and, and have access. It really was truly
about sharing knowledge. So some of this crosses over in each show, so maybe the goal isn't
immediately sharing knowledge, but that's part of what
you do in the podcast. And another one we have on the list
here is building community. You know, podcasting can be a great way
to find like-minded people that are interested in a
subject that, you know, you could build a community
of around, you know, I, I use the example of like a,
uh, ham radio club. You know, there's a ham radio club in my
area that does a podcast. You know, they do a little short one. Instead
of putting out a newsletter, they just do a little short podcast
that they disseminate and they make it so that it can be aired on, on the
radio. So they also put it on the, uh, weekly nets, the get
togethers on the radio. And it's a great place just
to build a little community, build knowledge in the, uh, in the
membership. You know, and a lot of, uh, nonprofits use that
for community building. Think about Danny Pena and Gamer
Tag Radio in the community he built. And, you know, they were doing stuff with gaming
before Twitch or any of this other stuff existed. And they were
taught, they were doing, they were doing an audio podcast talking
about the games they were playing, describing what they were doing in
such detail that they got their fans so wrapped up around their show
that they built these huge, huge in-person communities. They would
do events and stuff. And of course, Danny, today's in the podcast Hall
of Fame, but, you know, he was, he kind of was the one that pioneered
the ability of doing this show to specifically build this community
and a true community that would meet in the hundreds of people that would
come to events that they would hold. And I don't think they set out to do that, but it was just an indirect
thing that kinda happened. Yeah, that kinda happened with a, a friend of mine does a show called
Airline Pilot Guy, and you know, it's just aviation enthusiasts
and, and airline, you know, he talks a lot about airline
business and all that stuff, and it's now come to the point
where he's got these in, you know, in-person meetups. So, you know,
he's being an airline pilot, he is all over the world, and
he'll say, I'm gonna be in London. I'll be at this bar at this time. And
he gets 20, 30, 40 listeners. Yeah. That's awesome. Show up everywhere, you know, and he's got this huge community
built around his podcast. That's. Cool. You know, the thing, another thing people do their
podcasts for is really for the art, the creativity and self-expression. Podcasting is definitely form immediate
allows a lot of creative freedom. You can do whatever you want,
however you wanna do it. Uh, podcasters can experiment with a
format, with content, with style. And really, podcasting is a
place where you can really, truly express yourself.
And, and that, you know, runs the gamut. I know that there are folks that are
actually doing shows that are multiple characters. It just runs the
gamut of different types of shows. But again, I think everyone that does podcasting
is a little creative and obviously has the ability to do, do self-expression. So kinda goes hand in hand.
And it may not be the goal, it may be part of the
why in doing your show. And these are basically reasons
why podcasters podcasts. So, you know, and, and a lot of them can
cross over too. You know, there's, you know, more than one reason to
podcast and you may have more than one. That's right. Career opportunities
is another, you wanna get into that. Well, yeah, career
opportunities, definitely. That one hits pretty close to
home here, . That's true. I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing if
I hadn't started my podcast on my back porch in Lake Ann,
Michigan, you know, , I got into it right at the
beginning and, you know, really fell in love with the
whole, you know, whole area. But this could go for other things as
well, not just podcasting. You know, if you're, say you're doing a show
about oil and gas and you know, you're, you're really interested in the petroleum
industry and you get people in the industry listening to your show, even if
you're not currently in that industry, you might find ways to
get a job doing that. Well, I think a lot of
podcasters have picked up jobs. On our team. . Yeah. Including people on this team.
Absolutely. Including you. If you think about the, what you're really doing is you're
building a portfolio for yourself. Yeah. A portfolio of content,
a portfolio of knowledge, a portfolio of engagement, a portfolio of this is who I am. And I've always said that
content creators need to be aware that you never know who's listening. Sure. Because you could say something
that could make some individual at a company say, we need
this person on our team, we need to go get this person. And I think probably
more often than not, uh, the ability to maybe grow
in your field that you do in your podcast DN can be a great
benefit. But at the same time, um, use caution. Because if you get to the
point where you are building a portfolio and you go down a rabbit
hole and say something that you shouldn't, it could obviously
have the opposite effect. You could find yourself without a job, so you have to tow that
line there a little bit. The next thing up is obviously
monetization. You know, why not all podcasts generate
significant re revenue? Some podcasts are able to monetize
their content through sponsorships, maybe through someone that's
listening to the show or, or post endorsed ad advertising.
Obviously normal advertising, maybe programmatic host red
ads. Again, Patreon support, selling merchandise value for value runs the gamut on how monetization and
monetization is one of those things. When someone tells me immediately
they wanna monetize, it's almost, we have to have the, the ugly
baby conversation. . Yeah. The, the horse in the right order. And I will look at the show, and
let's say the show says, well, I wanna do host endorse ads, and I'll
go and look at the show size and, and we'll have a conversation about that. But oftentimes podcasters overlook
what's right in front of them. Um, maybe they're already in this field and
maybe they should be their own sponsor. Uh, maybe again, someone that's listening to the
show would like you to pitch their product. Um, a lot of
people fall into this. They, they end up finding a sponsor, finding someone that will help
underwrite their show often by accident. And it often starts with an email that
says, Hey, I love your podcast and, uh, I work with this company and we,
we wanna, we wanna work with you. So the monetization piece can
happen multiples of ways. And again, if you're creating great
content, creating great value, you can get money back from your audience
just in pure the Patreon slash model. So, uh, don't get too
wrapped around monetization. Yeah. And, you know, and, and be patient. It takes a little while to
build an audience unless
you're famous for something else, which some people are education, podcasts are great tool for educating
people or educating yourself as the podcaster. You know, so many times people are
interested in a subject and through having their podcast about that subject,
they learn a lot of stuff about it. So it can go both ways. But you know,
a lot of, uh, educators, you know, teachers and professors and whatnot, put their lectures out as podcasts
or, you know, even, you know, the old iTunes, you, you know, they'd have the whole class
on podcasts and you know, of course you don't get credit
for it. You get the knowledge. Another one, of course, is
storytelling. Some podcasters. And I think a lot of us are
natural storytellers, you know, spent so many years in the
Navy, I've got lots of stories. And podcasts can provide a new unique
platform to share these stories. They can range from true
crime to science fiction, to just everyday things
in life. And of course, oftentimes that delves into
interviews and conversations where you can have this opportunity to
have these long in-depth conversations with interesting people and ask them
questions that no one else has. And again, podcasters enjoy the ability
to, to learn from their guests. It goes back to, you know, you're getting educated in the process
and at the same time provide those guests a platform to, to be heard.
And this next one, Mike, is one that's one of my favorites. Advocacy podcasts could be a
real powerful tool for raising awareness about, you know,
social issues, causes movements, and it gives you a
platform that's, you know, for people that are un
underrepresented. And, you know, think of it this way, you know, this
goes into the free speech thing. Podcast is the last bastion of being
able to say what you wanna say. Now that isn't, doesn't mean you're not gonna have some
repercussions as we talked about before, but there's nothing that prevents you
from saying what you wanna say about a particular subject. And I, you know, definitely it's a great way
to advocate for, you know, a cause that you are passionate about. Another thing too is obviously podcasts
can result in personal development. The process really is, can result in
valuable, valuable personal growth. And, you know, and it goes both ways. So I've often been told my audience
over on new media show, I've said, if you listen to the show long enough,
you'll get a PhD in podcasting. But again, it can grow your skills in
public speaking. Audio editing, marketing, networking can all be honed really
through podcasting. And of course, podcasting is largely about entertainment. And you can put a podcast out
and have it be fun, enjoyable, whether it be a comedy show,
movie review, role playing game. Many podcasters really enjoy
entertaining the listeners. I think we all want to do that. Yeah, a lot of hoists,
podcasters out there, you know, that aren't interested in
the making money with it, they just wanna get on the
microphone and have some fun. And of course, it's important to
note these motivations often overlap. And single podcasters might be
driven by several of these following reasons. You know, setting a
goal is really the key here. And we've been talking about a little
bit about, not necessarily goals, but why people create podcasts. But again, the goals can be about, well,
it's not necessarily goal, but knowing a clear
direction for your show, have a clear goal on what you
want to accomplish with the show. And it really helps you determine what
content you're gonna produce. It's gonna, you need to know who your
target audience is gonna be in, how you're gonna reach them. And
again, without a clear, clear goal, you may find yourself kind of wandering
and producing content that feels disconnected or, or inconsistent. Yeah. I kind of create, remember the old commercial about
you gotta make the donuts. You know, sometimes if a podcast gets to
that point where it's like, oh, it's another chore, you know, that's
if you don't have a clear goal, that's gonna happen quicker. And
along with that motivation, you know, creating and maintaining podcasts
requires a lot of work. You know, a lot of time, you know, you just don't
throw these things together. You know, we, we spend time prepping for, for
these shows, and we record them, and then we send 'em to the editor
and they spend time, you know, it's, it's some work, especially if you're
doing it all yourself. That's. That's a fact. You know, if you have a, a clear set goal for
what you want to do with your show, you're gonna be
more motivated to keep going. And at the same time determine what
your KPI's gonna be. If people said, what's the KPI measurement, what's
your measurement of success? You know, goals give you a benchmark really
to measure your progress in success. And again, if your goals are reach
a certain number of listeners, or you're trying to get that press
pass like I was trying to get, or you building authority,
it really, again, what is going to be the success
metric that you're gonna say, yes, I had a success for the show. And that's gonna be
different for everybody. Too. Everybody, but oftentimes people get wrapped around
the numbers too much is, oh, Todd, I've only got 180 people
listening to my episodes. And the thing I always tell folks is, is just imagine that you are actually,
this is the best way to do it. Google what 180 people look like,
and it'll show you a picture, right? Imagine, print that picture out and put it
somewhere you can see it in your studio or wherever you record your podcast. And as you're getting ready
to turn the microphone on, imagine you're walking onto a stage and
they're sitting in a chair in front of you. If you can visualize that, not a lot of people get to go up and
stand up in front of that many people on a weekly basis or however often you're
publishing your show to talk to them. And if we think about that, you'll actually create a better podcast
cuz you'll be better prepared to go out there and present to those
folks. It's like going to, let's say you're gonna go speak to Rotary,
and what's a typical rotary meeting? I would expect in small
towns, it's 40 or 50 people, they're at a rotary meeting, and if
you get asked to speak at Rotary, you're probably gonna spend a little
extra time to be prepared to go speak to those 50 business people.
Whereas your podcast, you're reaching this audience
of very direct folks. So your success doesn't have to
be 10,000 listeners or a hundred thousand. It could be that 180 and, and Hoffman does the people we
work for actually reach 180 people. This is a small company, Mike,
we're under 20 and, you know, who do I reach on a weekly basis? 20
people. But my podcast reaches a much, and this podcast reaches
a much bigger audience. Right? For sure. You know, and having a goal also helps you
figure out what resources you wanna allocate to your podcast.
You know, for, you know, if your goal is to maximize
listener engagement, you may choose to invest
time into creating some
interactive content or building a community on social. If your
goal is to generate revenue, you might invest in advertising
or some high quality production or equipment or whatever. So, you know, your goal kind of dictates how much
you're gonna spend on it money-wise and other resources, time. You know, how much time are you gonna
spend if it's just hobby? You know, I think branding's a big piece of
podcasting and it's something people often overlook. You know, your your goal
can help shape your podcast brand. And if your goal is to be
the go-to source for a topic, this will influence the tone
of the content and, and, and the marketing of your podcast.
Again, it's, it's what you know. So when, when we say Podcast Insider,
what does that really mean? That means we're talking about
what's happening inside podcasting, helping you grow your show. It's really about the inside guts of
the do's and don'ts of podcasting. Now, when I do my show, it's
called Geek New Central. So what is that branding Invoke?
It's about, it's a new show for, it's a tech show, it's a geek show. It's, it's a show that talks about technology. So your branding of your show name and, and the art that goes along with
it really has to invoke again, what your goal is. But the biggest challenge in long-term
podcasting is probably the next topic. Yeah. Audience retention. If you have
a clear goal, it helps you create, you know, consistent experience for your listeners
and they're more likely to stick around and they're, they may tell other people
about it, so it may help you grow, but you know, growth is only part of it. You wanna also make sure you keep the
people that are listening now, you know, audiences come and go, you
know, that's kinda normal, but having that clear
goal definitely helps. That audience retention
piece is important, um, to keeping them engaged and
giving them a fresh look and, and, and keeping it entertaining.
But really in the end, I think the last topic we've got to
talk about here is about strategic partnerships. If your goal involves
partnerships or monetization, it's vital to be clear about
this upfront. You know, potential partners and sponsors will
want to know your podcast goals to see if they align with your own or that
partnership could be a business or maybe it's your own business
where you're trying to, um, that strategic partnership is I'm creating
content to get leads for my business. And you have to make sure that those meld
together in a, in a, in efficient way. So, you know, I think we've covered a
bunch of stuff here. Again, there's, there's probably a lot more topics
we could cover in strategies and goals, but your goals should be specific
and they should be measurable, achievable, and relevant to set
yourself up for success. Did, did I miss anything, Mike? No, I think, uh, good here. So, uh, hey, we really would like to hear
from you, you know, what, what was the goal when you started
or what is the goal? If you're, uh, currently thinking about starting
what you know, let's talk it out. There's probably some other goals and,
and stuff in here that we didn't cover. Yeah, let us know. It's
Mike, Todd, or McKenzie, any one of us@blueberry.com. Thank you so much. Happy podcasting. Thanks for joining us. Let's meet
up next week. And in the meantime, for more information to
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