3. Crucial First Steps To Take Before You Start Your Podcast

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Knowing your ideal listener helps shape your content and overall podcast strategy

Laura: Are you ready to launch your podcast but feeling overwhelmed by where to start? Wondering who your ideal listener is and why it even matters? In this episode, I talk about the crucial first step of identifying your perfect audience, and why skipping this part could lead to regret down the line. Knowing your ideal listener not only helps shape your content, but also guides your marketing and overall podcast strategy. By the end of this episode, you’ll have a clear understanding of how to define your ideal listener and how this foundational step can set your podcast up for success.

The first thing you need to do before you launch your podcast is work out your ideal listener

The first thing you need to do before you launch your podcast is work out who your ideal listener is. I know it’s the least sexiest part of podcasting, but it’s so important many people skip this part and then regret it later down the track. If you don’t know who your ideal listener is, then how are you going to work out what content to create? You can’t talk to a nameless, faceless crowd. You need to think of a specific person who’s your ideal listener. That could be a real life person, say one of your favourite clients, or it could be your dream client. But you really need to have an ideal listener in mind. By having an ideal listener, it makes it easy to create content for your podcast. It also helps you work out how long your podcast episode should be. And you’ll also know where to market your podcast because you’ll know, for example, what social media platforms they’re on.

I’m going to tell you who my ideal listener is for this podcast

In my course, the podcast launch programme, this is the first thing I ask people to do in module one, I’ve got a list of questions that you fill in that helps you work out who your ideal listener is. If you’ve been following me on social media, you know that I’ve been doing all the steps in my own course to create this actual podcast. And I’m m going to tell you who my ideal listener is for this podcast. Podcasting for business owners. So I’m not going to read everything out because that could be quite boring. So I’m just highlighting a few parts that I’ve pulled out from who I believe my ideal listener is. So I’ve basically created a bio for this person. It’s a fake person, it’s not a real person, but it’s someone who I believe has the characteristics for being my ideal listener. So her name’s Rachel Thompson. She lives in Floriat in Perth, and she’s 42 years old. She’s a balanced introvert and extrovert. And she’s ambitious, empathetic, driven, creative and thoughtful. Her values are integrity, growth, authenticity, empowerment and connection. And her favourite quote is feel the fear and do it anyway. She’s a coach or consultant and she typically works from 09:00 a.m. to 03:00 p.m. and then again in the evenings. She works from home, but occasionally goes out and visits clients. She loves her work. She’s highly passionate and fulfilled by her work. So now I’ve done a section on learning. So this section tells you how my ideal listener likes to learn. So through my podcast, she wants to learn more about podcasting, digital marketing and personal branding. She participates in online courses, webinars and professional development workshops. When it comes to content consumption, she prefers listening to podcasts over video tutorials. She’s got an intermediate understanding of digital marketing and podcasting, and some experience with content creation. But she’s fairly new to podcasting. She actively seeks advice on podcasting and content strategy, and when she’s looking for information, she generally goes to online forums, industry blogs, and listens to expert podcasts. When it comes to health and fitness, she’s a bit like me, really. She’s generally healthy, but struggles with finding time for regular workouts and occasionally skips meals due to a busy schedule.

Think about your ideal listener and cover topics that they’ll be interested in

Now let’s talk about her pain points. She often struggles to balance work, family and personal growth because she’s so busy. And um, one of her struggles is possibly overcoming fear of public speaking and technology related anxieties when it comes to podcasting. Like many of us in podcasting, she has a fear of failure. She’s worried that people won’t listen to her podcast and that she might get negative feedback. And the uh, way I plan to help Rachel through this podcast is to provide her with guidance on launching her podcast, overcoming her fears, and any technical aspects of podcasting. When it comes to social media, she’s active on LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook, and she follows influential business leaders, successful podcasters and motivational speakers. She’s also in online communities and may even have her own communities. And she’s a member of podcasting and business coaching groups. And then I have a little section on free time. So in her free time, she enjoys watching business related documentaries and drama series. Her favourite celebrities are Brene Brown and Gary Vee, and she likes to read self help books, business strategy guides, and, uh, motivational literature. So these are just a few points for my ideal listener. I’ve got more details

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on it, but this podcast will go on for too long. But I wanted to give you a basic outline of what an ideal listener bio should include. So what I’ve also done, I’ve printed this out and I’ve got a photograph of what Rachel Thompson looks like. So like I said, she’s not a real person. So what I’ve done is I’ve gone onto canva and I’ve just found a stock image of what I think Rachel would look like. And I’ve put it in the bio and then I’ve printed it off and I’ve stuck it on my wall. So when I’m thinking about what content to create for my podcast, I have a read through of the bio and I’ll think of something that Rachel will like. And that’s what I recommend everyone do with their podcast. I know it’s quite a boring activity and it can take some time, but it’s so important to do this right at the beginning before you do anything else. And the second thing you need to do after you’ve written your ideal listeners bio is to decide on what your podcast goals are. The most common reasons for starting a podcast is to build connection and trust, entertain, market your product or service, broaden your reach and monetise. Or it could be a mixture of a few of these. So again, this is part of module one of the podcast launch programme and I’ve done the homework myself too for this podcast. So ways you can build connection and trust. Make sure that you cover topics that are relevant to your audience. So, like I said earlier, think about your ideal listener and cover topics that they’ll be interested in. Invite credible experts onto your show. So, for example, if there’s something that Rachel, my ideal listener, might be interested in, I might not be an expert in that particular topic. But I still want to help Rachel. So I’ll find a credible guest or expert and invite them onto this show so that they can give that knowledge and expertise to Rachel. So I know I’m not giving the expert advice, but then Rachel can trust me to find the expert for her. So I’m inadvertently being the expert by finding the information for her. Share your own thoughts and insights on your podcast. So even when you have a guest on your show, make sure to talk about your own experiences too. But don’t try and overshadow the guest. Ways you can entertain your listeners again. Research topics your listeners are interested in. You could ask in groups if you’ve got a Facebook group. Or you could put a poll in your Instagram Stories with a list for people to choose from. Or you could just ask an open question for them to answer, asking them what topics they would be interested in. Also, we all know that telling stories entertains people. Stories help us to empathise. So try and tell stories when you can and make sure to stay on topic and don’t wander off. I know this can be tricky, especially when you have a guest on your show who starts talking off topic, but it’s your job as the host to bring them back on topic, and you can always edit those parts out as well where they wander off track. But what I recommend you do in your podcast is to have a list of bullet points of what you want to go through, and this can stop you from wandering off track. If this is something you’re prone to doing, there are ways you can market your product and service. If you’ve got a mailing list, ask people to subscribe to your mailing list and have the links in your show notes. And then once your listeners are on your mailing list, they’ll be in your sales funnel and talk about your product or service on your podcast. And make sure to have links in your show notes to these products and services so that your listeners know where to go if they want to purchase them now ways to broaden your reach the best way to broaden your reach as a podcaster is to get on other podcasts. By being on other podcasts, you’re leveraging somebody else’s audience. Make sure that that podcast audience is the same as your audience before you make the effort of being on the podcast, you don’t want to waste your time. And also, if you’ve got your own podcast, do some interviews and get guests onto your show. And then hopefully these guests will share the episodes that they’ve been on with their audience. And again, you’re leveraging from their audience, but you can’t guarantee that this is going to happen. Not every podcast guest promotes the podcast that they’ve been on, unless it’s a podcast episode that really stands out. But the guaranteed best way to broaden your reach through podcasting is to be a guest on other people’s podcasts. But there’s an etiquette to pitching yourself as a guest on a podcast. You can’t just do the spray and pray approach and use the same email and send it out to every single podcast host that you can think of. You need to customise each email that you send out. I’m not going to go into too much detail about that now, because I could go on about that for ages. But make sure to listen to episode six where I, uh, talk about podcast guest pitching for now I’m just going to stick to talking about podcast goals.

If you want to make money from your podcast, you need to set goals

So let’s talk about monetizing. Being a business owner, you probably want a podcast to help you monetise, but I’m going to be honest with you. It might take you a while to make any money out of your podcast. Podcasting is for the long game. If you want to make money out of your podcast,

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you’ve got to not set your goals too high from the start. I’ll be realistic with you. It can take podcasters a couple of years to make any significant money out of their podcast, but ways you can make money from your podcast you can build a membership through sites such as Patreon. Patreon is a site where you invite your audience to become paid members for extra exclusive episodes. And obviously there’s adverts you could partner with a brand that pays you to put their adverts on your show, but like I said earlier, this can take some time. Often advertisers aren’t interested in podcasters until they’ve got a really established audience and they’ve been going for some time. Unless of course there’s a company that you’re associated with already and would be interested in advertising with you straight away. Affiliate links is a great way to make money. So if you don’t know what affiliate links are, it’s when you become an affiliate partner with brands that you recommend to your audience. So you could recommend a product or service from another company within your podcast episode and put links to this product or service within your show notes. And then when any of your listeners purchases from that company, you get a commission. It’s an easy way to make money, but the best way to make money through your podcast is just to promote your own products or services. If you sell a product or service online, you can promote them on your podcast and put links to the products and services in your show notes. And this is what I recommend you do straight away. If you’ve got a ah, product or service that your ideal listener would be interested in, talk about it in your show and build your content around these products and services. And as long as you’re giving value to your listener, you’re inadvertently promoting these products and services to them. I hope you found some value in this episode. If you’re in the process of starting a podcast, then now’s the time to start writing your ideal listener bio. And if you’ve got a podcast already and haven’t done a bio, it’s not too late. Create one now that will help you create content for your future episodes. Like I said before, I know it’s a boring task, but it’s something we all really need to do. It’s so important. And it’s also important to set your goals for your podcast. The most common goals for podcasters are, uh, to build connection and trust, entertain, market your product or service, broaden your reach, or monetise. And it could be a few of these mixed together. But it’s important to set your goals before you start your podcast so that you can celebrate when you meet these goals and keep your podcast on track. I’ve only outlined a few ways on how you can meet these individual goals because I don’t want to bombard you in this episode with lots of information.

Two things you need to do before you start your podcast are your listener bio

I just wanted to tell you today about the two most important things you need to do before you start your podcast. And that is the listener bio and your goals. These are two of the steps I go through in my online course, the podcast launch programme the podcast launch programme is a self paced online course that goes through all the steps you need to take to launch your own podcast. I’ll put the links to join in the show notes. Thank you for tuning in. That’s all for this episode. In our next episode, we’re going to be speaking to our first guest, Sally Prosser. Sally’s a voice coach who’s really supported me in my podcasting journey, and in her episode, she gives practical advice, uh, and tips on how to prepare for your podcast episodes and how to learn to love your own voice, speak to you, then.

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