Simply Making The Podcast You Want & Your Audience Needs [S3E44]

Complexity creep happens. Especially in creative endeavors like podcasting where we have at best a set of guidelines and maybe a roadmap, but not a clear, step-by-step set of instructions to follow. 

When things in our lives get too complicated, it stresses us out. It's not good at all for our self-worth (“How did I let this happen?”), and ultimately we may decide to up and quit the show as a way to escape the complexity we put upon ourselves. Maybe you need a little help un-complicating your show. Not necessarily stripping it down to the basics, but stripping out the needlessly complex pieces that aren’t good for you or your audience.

The challenge you’ll face is one of making your show less complex without impacting your livelihood or your audience's enjoyment of the show. 

Start with an examination of wants and needs. Specifically, I mean your wants as a podcaster and your audience’s needs as the consumers of your content. Do this by asking two questions:

What Do You Want Out Of Your Podcast, Podcaster? - You’re the most important listener of your show. And if the show isn’t fulfilling to you, you’re not going to keep doing it for long. What Do Your Listeners Need From Your Podcast? - Try to put yourself in the shoes of your audience as you dig into their needs and how your show fulfills those needs currently. Not what needs of theirs your show could fulfill, but what it's actually fulfilling for them right now. 

Now you’re much better equipped to take a critical look at all of the elements of your show as you seek out needless complexity through all the elements and aspects of your show. Things that should be simple, like your intros and outros. Or maybe the actual contents of your episodes and your involvement with those sections. Look at your production process and all the things that have to be done to make the show, from pre-production all the way to post-production. And again with collaborations with other podcasts and the entire publishing process. Do you want to do all of them? Does your audience need you to do all of them?

Staring at all these discovered complexities, it’s normal to want them all to go away. Now, please. And while the goal is to get rid of all needless complexities for your podcast, you should take it slow and incremental. 

Take away one needlessly complex element at a time, and let it soak for an episode or two. Then another. Then another. 

Also, don’t make a big deal out of this with your audience. In fact, I posit to you that your audience need not know that you’re making these changes. This is about what you want, and what you want isn’t really really something you want to crowd-source to your listeners anyhow.

This is about simplifying the process of podcasting, allowing you to make the podcast you want and the podcast your audience needs. 

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Read the full article and share with a friend: https://podcastpontifications.com/episode/simply-making-the-podcast-you-want-your-audience-needs

Follow Evo on Twitter for more podcasting insights as they come.

Buy him a virtual coffee to show your support.

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

Mentioned in this episode:

Support For Abortion Rights

While Americans...

Complexity creep happens. Especially in creative endeavors like podcasting where we have at best a set of guidelines and maybe a roadmap, but not a clear, step-by-step set of instructions to follow. 

When things in our lives get too complicated, it stresses us out. It's not good at all for our self-worth (“How did I let this happen?”), and ultimately we may decide to up and quit the show as a way to escape the complexity we put upon ourselves. Maybe you need a little help un-complicating your show. Not necessarily stripping it down to the basics, but stripping out the needlessly complex pieces that aren’t good for you or your audience.

The challenge you’ll face is one of making your show less complex without impacting your livelihood or your audience's enjoyment of the show. 

Start with an examination of wants and needs. Specifically, I mean your wants as a podcaster and your audience’s needs as the consumers of your content. Do this by asking two questions:

What Do You Want Out Of Your Podcast, Podcaster? - You’re the most important listener of your show. And if the show isn’t fulfilling to you, you’re not going to keep doing it for long. What Do Your Listeners Need From Your Podcast? - Try to put yourself in the shoes of your audience as you dig into their needs and how your show fulfills those needs currently. Not what needs of theirs your show could fulfill, but what it's actually fulfilling for them right now. 

Now you’re much better equipped to take a critical look at all of the elements of your show as you seek out needless complexity through all the elements and aspects of your show. Things that should be simple, like your intros and outros. Or maybe the actual contents of your episodes and your involvement with those sections. Look at your production process and all the things that have to be done to make the show, from pre-production all the way to post-production. And again with collaborations with other podcasts and the entire publishing process. Do you want to do all of them? Does your audience need you to do all of them?

Staring at all these discovered complexities, it’s normal to want them all to go away. Now, please. And while the goal is to get rid of all needless complexities for your podcast, you should take it slow and incremental. 

Take away one needlessly complex element at a time, and let it soak for an episode or two. Then another. Then another. 

Also, don’t make a big deal out of this with your audience. In fact, I posit to you that your audience need not know that you’re making these changes. This is about what you want, and what you want isn’t really really something you want to crowd-source to your listeners anyhow.

This is about simplifying the process of podcasting, allowing you to make the podcast you want and the podcast your audience needs. 

-----

Read the full article and share with a friend: https://podcastpontifications.com/episode/simply-making-the-podcast-you-want-your-audience-needs

Follow Evo on Twitter for more podcasting insights as they come.

Buy him a virtual coffee to show your support.

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

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