E812 - The One Question Every Podcaster Needs To Answer - No, Not How To Grow Your Show or How To Make Money As A Podcaster

Episode 812 - The One Question Every Podcaster Needs To Answer - No, Not How To Grow Your Show or How To Make Money As A Podcaster

The One Question Every Podcaster Needs To Answer

Before choosing a podcast name, buying a microphone, or planning your first episode, answer one question: Is this podcast for you or for an audience?

That decision shapes almost everything that follows. It affects how you define success, create content, promote the show, measure growth, choose guests, and decide how long you want to keep podcasting.

A Podcast Can Be For You

A podcast can serve as a creative outlet, a place to think out loud, a personal journal, or a way to document a journey. You might create it for yourself, your family, or your community.

If you are the audience, downloads become far less important. You can experiment with the format, talk about whatever feels meaningful, and skip the marketing. If you enjoy making the show, you have already achieved your goal.

The trap comes when you create a podcast for yourself and then judge it using audience or business metrics. An audience of one can represent success when you intentionally built the show for yourself.

A Podcast Can Serve An Audience

When your podcast exists to serve listeners, the strategy changes. You need to understand who those listeners are and what they need from your content.

Specific audiences create clarity. A podcast for new dads, first-time authors, or Canadian podcasters gives you a much clearer direction than a show designed for everyone.

From there, your topics, format, promotion, and calls to action can serve that audience. You can measure engagement, listener feedback, action, and growth because those measurements connect directly to your purpose.

You Can Blend Both

Some podcasts serve the host and an audience. That can work when you approach each purpose deliberately.

Ask yourself: If only fifty people ever listened, would I still make this podcast?

Your answer can reveal what you are really building. You might create a personal show alongside an audience-focused show, or bring some personal reflection into an audience-focused podcast.

Before you worry about microphones, downloads, podcast promotion, or monetization, decide who your podcast serves. If the answer is you, give yourself permission to create for yourself. If the answer is an audience, get specific about who they are and what your show helps them accomplish. Once you know the purpose, the rest of your podcast strategy becomes much clearer.

_____

Helping Podcasters Everyday!

⁠https://howtopodcast.ca/⁠

We would love to hear from you - here is our listener survey!

⁠https://forms.gle/GbrFv9DGszV8N4PW6⁠