Cringe! This podcast strategist screwed up his own podcast strategy

You know that thing where you give everyone in the world

great advice and then you completely ignore

it yourself? Just me. Okay,

well, welcome to my world. This episode is all about

calling myself out and getting clear on

what this show actually is and who it's really for.

Podcasting Insight.

Hi there. I'm Neil Valio, the podmaster. That's what I've been calling myself

for about three years now. And this is Podcasting Insights, the

show where I usually tell you how to get

strategic about your podcast. And today I'm

taking a big gulp of that medicine myself. You're going to be

listening as I talk myself through what I normally talk

my clients through.

So if you're new to Podcasting Insights, and you're new to me and my

world, it's probably worth me telling you that for the past,

well, at least five years, and actually a bit longer than that, been

taking payments from other people to

talk them through how to get better results from their

podcasts. And usually a big part of that,

certainly when it comes to audits, is looking at what they're doing and

telling them how they can do it a lot better to get those

1% improvements and grow their show into something

that's sustainable and gets them results. We also

look at things like clarity, audience focus, and

their consistency and quality. But here's the really interesting part

of this. This show, Podcasting Insights

hasn't really had that because I've been too close to it.

And it's that whole thing about cobbler's shoes.

The practitioner usually doesn't practice what

they preach. It's like being a diet coach and then

secretly eating a bit of cake in the car hoping nobody

notices. Now, I'm not calling you out if you are a diet coach.

I'm sure you're really rigorous about what you do, but

you take my point. I've met accountants who

have the world's worst accounts. I've met social media experts

who have terrible social media channels. And I've met a

lot of podcast influencers whose own podcasts

are pretty terrible. I'm not saying this is a terrible show. It

certainly isn't. I mean, my download numbers and the listen numbers

definitely show that this is providing value to

people regularly, every single week. But that's the thing.

It's providing value to people. But I don't know who.

And earlier this week, it really hit me when I was working with

a new client on a new show and I was

getting into the weeds with the content about who's this

for? Are you really Reaching

your ideal audience. Now, I'm obviously not going to name who this

client is, but they're pretty active in the

marketing world. So on the surface of it,

they've really got their ICPs figured out

in case you don't actually understand what marketing terms mean.

Icp, Ideal client Persona. Well, that's certainly one

definition of the acronym. And when I'd gone through this exercise with them

of like, okay, so this is what you're putting out there, but who do you

want to have listening to this? And they

really couldn't figure out who that was. And it helped us go through an absolute

in depth exercise, bearing in mind their show was already three

years old at this point. It helped them get clear

on who they were talking to or who they wanted to talk to. At

least this is what you're putting out there, but who do you want

to have listening to this? And they really couldn't

figure out who that was. And it helped us go through an absolute in

depth exercise, bearing in mind their show was already three

years old at this point. It helped them get clear on

who they were talking to or who they wanted to talk to at least.

And then it hit me. I haven't done that with my own

show, which is kind of embarrassing. But

anyway, I'm not going to dwell in the embarrassment and the shame. I'm going to

move forward. And that's what this episode is really about.

It's about me sharing that experience with you

because I'm hoping it might help you if you've had the same experience kind

of challenge recently. So, yeah, here in a nutshell is

what it is. I've been preaching strategy and improvements

to make to your podcast. Some of the insights that I've shared

have been all about growth, but I've been recording on instinct and

I don't actually know that all the episodes that I've been putting out

there are relevant to the majority audience. I know

nothing about you, not really. I mean,

I see you in numbers, I see you in the stats, but I

don't know much about you aside from the few people that I get feedback

from on Spotify. Comments, Apple podcast reviews. In fact,

we don't get many Apple podcast reviews at all. But emails, we

get a lot of emails. And other than those emails,

I'm none the wiser on who is actually listening to this.

And so I feel it's time I finally practice what I preach

and intentionally put this content out

to my ideal listeners. But who are my ideal

listeners? And that's where the challenge begins. So to

really drop the curtain, this is the second

podcast industry podcast that I have launched

and managed. Back during the COVID era, I had

another show called you'd Business Needs a Branded Podcast. And then I

recently ish rebranded that to

B2B Podcasting Insights. Up until

now, what I've been doing is literally sharing the episodes

I've published for this show right out onto that RSS

feed as well as almost like just another feed for the same

content to go on. Very lazy and not particularly

strategic. And I'm calling myself out on that because that is

literally the advice I give to clients. Don't do that.

Be intentional with your content. And then when I was thinking more

about this, I thought, okay, so what's the audience for that show?

Who would listen to B2B podcasting insights?

Well, obviously people doing branded podcasts, I would think.

And then I thought, yeah, but surely that's kind of what

Podcasting Insights is about as well, isn't it? We're not

specifically saying Podcasting Insights is for people that are

doing a podcast where there isn't brand

affinity. It's just been kind of assumed until

this point that if you're listening, you're doing a

podcast of some description. Does it matter whether you're doing it

for any kind of business reasons or whether

it's a hobby? No, it doesn't really matter

on the face of it, but when we're talking about

growing and strategy, you do kind of need to drill

into this. So while I'm not

saying I want to get rid of all the

hobbyist podcasters that have been listening to this show,

I'm also saying I want to find out where

they should be in terms of listening. Do they listen to this

show? Is this the show for them? In which

case does that then mean the other show is for those that

are doing it for business reasons? And when I say people doing

it for business reasons, I mean solopreneurs and corporates.

If you're a CMO at a company,

you should be able to get as much out of this podcast or a

podcast of some description as someone who's just literally

doing a 30 minute episode a week to

bring awareness for their small brand. If they're a freelancer,

if they run a small business, if they run a medium sized enterprise,

they should be able to go to a very specific place to get the

content that's relevant to them to help them grow. And I feel

that this show is kind of a bit too broad. It

might have got a little bit lost I'm owning that here.

I am telling you, I don't know what content to put on

this specific feedback that you're listening to right now.

This feed is podcasting insights. That's

generic. That's not saying hobbyist podcasters

or branded podcasters. It's just saying

podcasters. But is that

of use to you? If you're someone doing a branded podcast,

surely you want that kind of level of insight. How do I take

my content and use it to lift my brand?

Conversely, if you're just doing this as a laugh and a bit of fun,

something to while away a couple of hours every week while you hide yourself away

in your study and record content for fun,

then maybe this podcast isn't useful for you if it

goes in that direction. The bottom line is I've

ended up with one foot in business strategy here and the

other in creative therapy. We've got

one show that has value for too many people.

I really think this show needs to stop pretending it's for everyone.

And so here we come to the point,

realizing who's actually listening and reflecting on

those audience insights. It's very difficult to do this in

podcasting, as you probably well know. Attribution is still

a very junior part

of podcast marketing. But I'm willing to bet the

chances are you're not a CMO or an agency

head. At the very least, you're a solo creator, maybe

a freelancer, or perhaps just a podcast nerd

who genuinely loves this medium and wants to learn everything about it.

You could be a teacher doing a true crime podcast on weekends,

or a startup founder who records in their car between meetings.

I don't know because you're not telling me, but

either way, you are my people. I just need to know where

to put you. Knowing your audience is the cheat code. It's

where we start with every new podcast. Because once you

know who's actually listening, everything else clicks into place. And

that's what I'm doing now, in real time, building this in public with you

right now. What I'm telling you is I'm going to be figuring out over the

coming weeks what this show is and who

it needs to have listening to it. That might not

be you. I'm just going to be upfront and honest about that right now.

In which case, if you are a brand

that wants to learn how to grow your brand through

podcasting, you might need to be going off to the other place,

which is currently titled B2B Podcasting Insights, but

might be called anything else in the coming weeks. Who knows? We're

still going through that. I genuinely think this show is probably going to

be more aimed at people that are not necessarily doing a

podcast as part of a brand or business. This

might become something of a lead magnet for a

membership community. I have been really seriously thinking about

launching a community over the past year or so,

and I think it might be time. I think that might become your

new home with this show being

the front window for that. In terms of, okay, you're not

going to get all the insights that you're going to be getting if you're in

the membership, but you'll get a taster for it. You'll get some of

the benefit of that for free. Because I don't

gatekeep general information and advice.

What I do gatekeep is the specific, tailored stuff.

So maybe that's what this is about. This show becomes the general

show about general podcasting and the other

show becomes more what this show has been, but for

brands. One thing I can promise you, this show will not ever

be there's going to be no top five mics you can buy under

£100 kind of episodes, no listicles,

and no SEO slop. I mean, yeah, those

topics do pull in the listens, they do get the engagement,

but they don't do what I really want to do, which is share insight

intentionally with the right people. The bottom line

is I'm choosing to go deep

rather than going wide inside over

clicks, value over viral. That's kind of

always been my thing and I'm definitely doubling down on it now. So

here's what this show more than likely will be some honest

insights for you on creative processes. Which means a lot of the

episode content which we have published up until now

will still be largely relevant. I mean, we will talk about whether or not you

need to use video for your episodes. We will talk about growth,

storytelling, the challenges of being a creator in

the modern day era. If you're an indie

podcaster who'd rather sound better than look better,

then you're still in the right place. But this is probably going

to become a more sporadic show because

the harsh reality is I need to make this sustainable.

This is what I literally preach to my clients. If you

want to do a podcast for fun, to put value into the

world, you need to be sensible about it and think about how

you can keep it sustainable, how you can commit to that

content. And of course, this show does pay for itself in a

certain way when someone books an audit. I mean, I recently

dropped the prices on Those because I slowly started to understand

that if you're someone doing a true crime podcast

for fun and it's not sponsored and you don't carry

ads, which is probably quite sensible, at least

to start while you're growing it, then you probably don't have a

mountain of cash to invest in. People like me

teaching you how to grow your podcast. You're probably

very diy and so you are going to be doing the

freebie hunting valid. I appreciate that,

but you're not paying my bills. So I think that's where I need to go

with this, is be honest and say, look, while I've loved

doing this show and putting this content out and

enjoyed the audience numbers because this show has grown a lot in the last

six months, but that's not paying my bills and that's not sustainable.

I do honestly think that the show that's currently known

as B2B Podcasting Insights is the logical

home for the marketing heavy client side

episodes that we tend to go deeper

into on this show. Currently, this one's going to be about craft

and creator. That one's going to be about cash in the

bank. This show is going to be more about the art and the

headspace, not really the metrics. I don't know.

Again, I'm building in public right now. I'm thinking aloud and I'm sharing

that thought with you. Do you think I'm

crackers? Am I insane? Let me know. Your

feedback is really important and if you do actually

contact me at Podmastery Co

contact or leave me a voice note.

Podmastery Co Voicemail.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on what I've shared with you and

certainly I would love to know what you're actually doing in the world of

podcasting. Do you do your podcast for a brand or are you

a hobbyist? And when I say brand, I don't necessarily mean you

have a company that your podcast represents. It could be that you're a

speaker or a trainer or a coach. You

could be an influencer who's using your podcast to get more

influencing opportunities. It's all valid, but that's what

I'm trying to establish. What is it that you've been using this podcast

for? Again, please do let me know podmastery co

Contact or podmastery co Voicemail if

you're feeling particularly brave.

I got this message that hit me square in the gut this week

and in a good way. It's from Libby Langley and she

hosts the podcast Unstuck. She is a B2B business

podcaster who is a business coach and offers business coaching

insight for free to her listeners. She says

in response to the episode about not needing

video and YouTube to grow your podcast that we did last

week. Interesting. I love the audio side of mine but

do video just because it is simply a raw

video recording banged on YouTube and will never be

anything more than that. A few people do watch it and

that is increasing. So perhaps that slightly shit style is so

achingly authentic. My audience loves it.

But yes, this is something I wrestle with. I much

prefer not to do video. I could record

an audio podcast every single day, but the video

aspect takes a whole lot more mental energy just

because I have to be aware of how I am sitting and all that. When

I stopped the videos for a while I had the audio RSS going to

YouTube. Never felt there was much point in that, but your email

seems to imply that may be enough food for

thought. As ever, Libby and that email from. Libby

summed up exactly what so many creators do feel that we wrestle with what's

expected instead of what feels right for us. And

honestly, that authenticity. She describes that slightly shit

style. As she puts it, that is what audiences connect with.

But I think your listeners will get it. They will care about that realness

over polish when it comes to video. When it comes to audio, I

think audiences are a lot less forgiving. They will care if

the audio sounds not great

glitchy muffled Anyway, this email

right here is why Podcasting Insights does exist.

To remind people like Libby that it's okay to do things your way

and forget the bros.

The Experiment for this episode, I want you to think about

potentially a recurring reflection segment

on your show. A little bit like what I've done today, but

more the lessons that you've taken from the specific episode in its

creation. You could even do it as a bonus episode. So it's almost like a

follow on from what you've published that creates a great safe space for

creative testing and meta reflection. So sometimes it might be

you, you know, thinking about the new sound format

or storytelling trick that you've tried. Sometimes it might be about

exploring what happens when you break your own podcast's

rules. Think of it as an audio

sandbox. You know, like I recorded this entire episode while

walking outside for the first time. Actually quite liked it. Or

I'm gonna try an episode where the background noise is actually part of the story.

Experimentation is all about keeping the medium alive and evolving.

Well, thanks so much for listening to this episode or watching. If you've got this

on YouTube. I wanna thank you once again. You've stuck with me through the

messy middle which has gone on for a couple of years now. It is scary

to pivot publicly and expose my shame and vulnerability

around being a so called podcasting expert who might have got

this all wrong all the way up until now, this episode

being proof of that. But the thing is, I'm clearer now and I

can finally say that I'm back on it. I'm back with the strategy.

I'm going to give this show purpose again and I think that's more

valuable as an insight for you, the audience, than

me protecting that and then just quietly changing things and

you going, okay, this show used to be for me, but I'm not sure it

is anymore. I wanted to be transparent about that.

So again, let me know what you think. Do get in touch with me.

I won't be defensive if you turn around and say to me that yeah, you

agree? You think the show sucked up until now. I welcome that

feedback. Good or bad? Podmastery co

Contact Podmastery co voicemail

who knows what we're going to be doing next week on this episode feed? Who

knows whether or not everything's going to shift over to the other show? One

thing's for certain, whatever that show becomes, you can hear

the trailer on this feed if you stick with it. So don't

unfollow whatever you do just yet. I'm Neil

Velio, the podmaster. This has been Podcasting Insights

and now I'm actually starting to know who this is for

and whether or not you should be listening. Until next time,

Podcasting Inside

Podcasting Inside.