Why most podcasts sound the same (and how to fix yours)

Most podcasts sound the same, the funniest part is half the people, making

them think they're the special ones.

When we talk about SY podcasts, you know the sound, I mean, right?

Performative thought leadership.

Everyone's speaking like they're on a panel at some mid-tier conference.

Every guest trying to outsmart the other, like a zoom call where nobody

wants to be the dumbest person in the room and nobody's figured

out the raise your hand action.

And then there's that really annoying.

Aggravating mistake that every single podcast on the planet makes without fail.

I mean, I'm talking about 95% of the podcasts that I'm auditing

when I'm dealing with clients.

The two minute bio at the very start.

Today's guest is an author, speaker, thought leader, TEDx Host

Extra in the movie Casino Royale.

Nobody cares.

By the time you are done reading through their LinkedIn profile,

your listeners has already gone.

Yeah, thanks.

See ya.

So in this episode, I wanna talk about why most podcasts sound identical, why that's

your problem, and what you can do instead.

Here's the core issue that most podcasters are never gonna ever admit to you.

They're copying what they think are successful shows.

They think, well, if I copy a show that's already done.

I mean, Richard Branson's book talks about modeling.

So if I apply that wisdom of modeling the show that I want to be as successful as

and as good as, I will by default become as successful and good as that show.

But here's the problem.

Most new podcasters are not copying good shows.

They're copying visible shows.

Which is not the same thing.

Now, I'm not gonna name and shame the particular podcast that I am using as the

case study here, because let's face it, I've mentioned it a lot in this podcast.

You've only gotta go back a few episodes to figure out exactly

who I'm talking about, and I don't wanna give this idiot any more

RSS feed time than I already have.

But you see these.

Chart cheating clip every single second of life that ever happened.

Trauma bait interview shows, getting all the attention, and

you are assuming, oh, that's what a good podcast is supposed to be.

You know, the soft lights, the emotional music, the big dramatic questions,

the crying guest, and then an hour of fairly plotting conversation.

So most people, what they do is they clone the worst bits, the long

intros with lots of different clips, montaged together over dramatic music.

The bloated interviews that could have been a quarter of the duration, the

fake gravitas, and suddenly their show.

It sounds exactly the same as every other Founder Journey podcast out there.

Most podcasts sound the same because people are copying broken formats that

were never designed with intent or the listener in mind in the first place.

It's content slop.

That's all it is.

And it's frankly so irritating.

It's got to the point where it would be incredible to hear something that

is not performative, not bland, and not designed for mass market appeal.

You don't have to do this.

Trust me, I've proven it.

Let me give you a real world example.

There's a show that I've been helping out.

It's called Don't Work Harder.

They came to us at Ponos Podcasting because their podcast wasn't growing

and it's from a big established brand that wants to be seen as the go-to.

For podcasting in the thought leadership space because that's their whole brand.

It's run by the guys that run Atomic Con.

You've probably heard of that now on paper.

Everything with their podcast seemed right.

They've got the good, strong brand.

They've got a decent roster of guests.

They have a nice studio.

And yes, they have developed a fancy intro.

They take all the clips, put them together in a really clever montage, they have

the hanging on the end of your seat, tease to end the montage and hopefully

drag you into the main conversation.

And their numbers weren't what they wanted.

And when I listened to it for the first time, it hit me instantly.

They had fallen into the let's make diary of A CEO, but make it our way trap.

Big dramatic opener.

Then a fairly plotty undirected chat.

Although the questions were great and the interviewer is fantastic, it was

lacking something that, Hmm, the engage.

So we came to the point that the guest was fine, the host

was great, the format was dead.

So what I did when they came to me for advice, I helped them tweak the format.

We stopped pretending that the most exciting thing in the

episode was having a big guest.

and we started approaching it from the listener's pain point.

And we built segments around that.

Made the guest serve the idea instead of the episode serving the guest,

the common trap that many thought leadership podcasts fall into.

so now what we've got is a podcast with the same host, similar guests, but a

much different intent, and suddenly.

It sounds like a show with a spine, not just another.

podcast.

And here's where most people go wrong, then they start with, who can

I interview instead of what is my ideal listener actually struggling

with right now, and can I help them?

You absolutely need to park to the side any excitement you might have

around the guests that you've booked and the interviews you are conducting.

Your listeners don't wake up buzzing about your guest list.

I don't care who you've got booked in.

They wake up thinking about their own personal problems.

You are not the center of anybody's universe other than your own.

So let's look at it this way.

If your audience is burned out, founders, their pain is not, I need to hear yet

another founder talk about resilience.

Their pain is.

I can't keep doing these 70 hour weeks without losing my

relationship or my sanity.

That is your angle.

And then what you do is you pick a guest who can talk about that in a

way that's not LinkedIn safe fluff.

I'm onto you.

I know why you are doing your podcast.

you're not doing your podcast because you have a strong belief

and passion around the topic.

No.

You are trying to make your life easier by having clips and content

you could easily publish on LinkedIn and get that out the way.

Nothing wrong with that, but it's not gonna lead to success.

So here's what I want you to do going forward.

identify your ideal audience member.

What do they look like?

What do they do?

What are their pain points?

Then book guests and solo topics, mix them up around addressing those

points, not the other way around.

And let's not forget about the way you package this thing up, because even if you

nail the idea behind your episode, you can still ruin it with really trash packaging,

you know, bland artwork that you've put together within five minutes on Canva.

Titles that read like internal meeting notes, 92nd intros, where you

are asking people to hit subscribe before you've even given them one

single reason to care about doing so.

Poor quality audio that sounds like you recorded it in a tiled bathroom.

Here's what I want you to think in your head as you are

recording, editing, and publishing.

This show needs to pop in the feed when it gets into somebody's podcast app.

They need to think, I cannot wait another second to hear this.

Your title needs to make some very specific person think, Hey.

They're talking about me

and your audio needs to sound like you respect their ears.

It should sound like it could be played on your local radio

station and not sound outta place.

and for the love of celebration boxes full of bounty bars, your intro needs

to get to the point in under 30 seconds.

You haven't earned any more than that at this point.

Even if they've listened for a few episodes, you don't have the

right to that much of their time.

Make every second count

and carry this mantra with you wherever you go in your podcasting journey.

If someone can't tell who your episode's for what it's about.

Why it's different from other episodes on the topic, just from the

title and the first 20 seconds of listening, go back, re-edit, rethink.

You haven't finished your episode yet, so if your show feels a little bit beige

and you're not getting the attention that you think you should be from your

ideal listener, this is probably why.

You've copied the wrong things.

Hey, listen, you are not the only one that's made this mistake, but

it's not too late to correct it.

Stop beginning with guests instead of the audience paying Stop wrapping it all up

in packaging that could belong to any one of the thousands of other shows like it.

Here's the truth, you don't want to hear.

If your podcast sounds like everyone else's.

Your listener has absolutely no reason to stay loyal to you.

You are content sludge.

Background noise, yet another voice in the echo chamber.

Find that one thing that you are doing that's different from

everybody else and go all in on that.

Build your format around it.

Then make sure the title, the artwork, and the first 30 seconds of your

episode all scream that difference.

If you suspect that your show is a bit of a clone and you want a brutally

honest ear on it, a kind but brutally honest ear, I'm yet to make anyone cry.

That's literally what I do.

There's a link in the episode description book in.

I'll give you a show, a listen.

I'll analyze it and I'll bring you up to speed on where your gaps are.

I hope you found this episode useful.

If you did, please share it with another podcaster that you know

would also get value from this episode until the next episode.

Good luck with your continuing journey to attain pod mastery.