Making Your Podcast Better By Controlling The Narrative

Far too many podcasters cede control of the narrative of their episodes to their subject. Here’s how to take that power back, make better episodes, and wind up with even more content to share.

Lots of podcasters struggle with content creation, especially as deadlines approach. When an episode has to get published, less-than-strategic approaches show themselves in an interview that feels forced or an angle on a topic that seems out of place and quite different in a not-good way to the audience.

At the root of these problems of bad fit lies the same problem: the podcaster allowed the subject of the episode to dictate the narrative of the episode. 

But you can do a better job than that. A podcaster’s superpower over other media formats is this: Once you know—deeply—what your audience wants, you can shape almost any subject into a narrative that your audience wants to hear.

Done right, those crappy, unresearched guest pitches turn into a content fountain! All you have to do is figure out which stories you can pull out guests that your audience wants to hear. You do this by controlling the narrative. Don’t just turn the mic over to your guest and let them run the show. That’s your job!

This same approach goes well beyond sorting through unsolicited guest pitches. Because you know your audience and are in charge of the narrative of your episodes, you can build an episode out of almost every trending topic. Content ideas galore! 

You're the podcaster. You’re in control of the narrative. You’re in control of your listeners’ experiences. Never forget that.

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Boostagram Corner

Thanks to Casey Broda for a nice episode review. Links in the next section.

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Links:

• Getting more than 10K downloads per episode? Talk to Gumball.fm! 

• Tom Webster - http://twitter.com/webby2001

• Edison Research - https://www.edisonresearch.com

• Danny van Leeuwen - https://twitter.com/HealthHats

• Health Hats - https://health-hats.com

• Bill Risser - https://twitter.com/billrisser

• The Real Estate Sessions - https://therealestatesessions.com/

• Keith Bacon - https://twitter.com/madewithbacon

• All Ways West Seattle - https://www.allwayspodcast.com

• Casey Broda - https://twitter.com/CaseyBroda

• Her review on Podchaser - https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/podcast-pontifications-740003/episodes/authentic-podcasting-is-the-be-100070794/reviews/73991

• Value-for-value for this show - https://podcastpontifications.com/value-4-value

• Now booking sponsorships for 2022! - https://podcastpontifications.com/sponsor

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A written-to-be-read article and a full transcript of the audio of this episode can be found at https://podcastpontifications.com/episode/making-your-podcast-better-by-controlling-the-narrative.

Visit https://twitter.com/evoterra for more podcasting insights from Evo Terra as they come.

Return the value-for-value of the podcasting wisdom of this episode and more at https://PodcastPontifications.com/support

And if you need a professional in your podcasting corner, please visit https://Simpler.Media to see how Simpler Media Productions can help you reach your business objectives with podcasting.

Allie Press assists with the production and transcription of the show. Learn more about Allie at http://alliepress.net.

Podcast Pontifications four times a week to provide ideas and ask questions every working podcaster should...

Far too many podcasters cede control of the narrative of their episodes to their subject. Here’s how to take that power back, make better episodes, and wind up with even more content to share.

Lots of podcasters struggle with content creation, especially as deadlines approach. When an episode has to get published, less-than-strategic approaches show themselves in an interview that feels forced or an angle on a topic that seems out of place and quite different in a not-good way to the audience.

At the root of these problems of bad fit lies the same problem: the podcaster allowed the subject of the episode to dictate the narrative of the episode. 

But you can do a better job than that. A podcaster’s superpower over other media formats is this: Once you know—deeply—what your audience wants, you can shape almost any subject into a narrative that your audience wants to hear.

Done right, those crappy, unresearched guest pitches turn into a content fountain! All you have to do is figure out which stories you can pull out guests that your audience wants to hear. You do this by controlling the narrative. Don’t just turn the mic over to your guest and let them run the show. That’s your job!

This same approach goes well beyond sorting through unsolicited guest pitches. Because you know your audience and are in charge of the narrative of your episodes, you can build an episode out of almost every trending topic. Content ideas galore! 

You're the podcaster. You’re in control of the narrative. You’re in control of your listeners’ experiences. Never forget that.

-----

Boostagram Corner

Thanks to Casey Broda for a nice episode review. Links in the next section.

-----

Links:

• Getting more than 10K downloads per episode? Talk to Gumball.fm! 

• Tom Webster - http://twitter.com/webby2001

• Edison Research - https://www.edisonresearch.com

• Danny van Leeuwen - https://twitter.com/HealthHats

• Health Hats - https://health-hats.com

• Bill Risser - https://twitter.com/billrisser

• The Real Estate Sessions - https://therealestatesessions.com/

• Keith Bacon - https://twitter.com/madewithbacon

• All Ways West Seattle - https://www.allwayspodcast.com

• Casey Broda - https://twitter.com/CaseyBroda

• Her review on Podchaser - https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/podcast-pontifications-740003/episodes/authentic-podcasting-is-the-be-100070794/reviews/73991

• Value-for-value for this show - https://podcastpontifications.com/value-4-value

• Now booking sponsorships for 2022! - https://podcastpontifications.com/sponsor

-----

A written-to-be-read article and a full transcript of the audio of this episode can be found at https://podcastpontifications.com/episode/making-your-podcast-better-by-controlling-the-narrative.

Visit https://twitter.com/evoterra for more podcasting insights from Evo Terra as they come.

Return the value-for-value of the podcasting wisdom of this episode and more at https://PodcastPontifications.com/support

And if you need a professional in your podcasting corner, please visit https://Simpler.Media to see how Simpler Media Productions can help you reach your business objectives with podcasting.

Allie Press assists with the production and transcription of the show. Learn more about Allie at http://alliepress.net.

Podcast Pontifications four times a week to provide ideas and ask questions every working podcaster should be thinking about. Subscribe/follow today at https://PodcastPontifications.com.

Photo by John Schnobrich on Unsplash

Mentioned in this episode:

Support For Abortion Rights

While Americans overwhelmingly support the right of an individual to make their own decisions about abortion, unfortunately, that right is no longer protected everywhere in the U.S. The Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade on June 24th.

Abortion is a basic healthcare need for the millions of people who can become pregnant. Everyone should have the freedom to decide what’s best for themselves and their families, including when it comes to ending a pregnancy. This decision has dire consequences for individual health and safety, and could have harsh repercussions for other landmark decisions.

Restricting access to comprehensive reproductive care, including abortion, threatens the health and independence of all Americans. Even if you live in a state where abortion rights are upheld, access to safe medical procedures shouldn’t be determined by location, and it shouldn't be the privilege of a small few.

You can help by donating to local abortion funds. To find out where to donate for each state, visit donations4abortion.com.

If you or someone you know needs help, or if you want to get more involved, here are 5 resources:

1. ShoutYourAbortion.com is a campaign to normalize abortion.
2. DontBanEquality.com is a campaign for companies to take a stand against abortion restrictions.
3. Abortion.cafe has information about where to find clinics.
4. PlanCPills.org provides early at-home abortion pills that you can keep in your medicine cabinet.
5. Choice.CRD.co has a collection of these resources and more.

We encourage you to speak up! And spread the word.

This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:

OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy
Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy
Podsights - https://podsights.com/privacy