Growing Your Podcast By Solving Someone's Pain

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Every podcaster I know (including this guy) wants to grow their show. It doesn't matter if they run a gigantic show with hundreds of thousands of listeners; they want to grow their audience. It doesn't matter if they're a teeny-tiny show hyperfocused on one small corner of the world; there are always people the show hasn’t yet reached.

We all want to grow our shows’ audiences and we've all heard lots of ways -- some really great ways -- to make that happen. Build your audience first and then make a podcast that's specifically for them. Or the more difficult but perhaps more enjoyable effort of making the podcast you want and then trying to attract others who might care about what you’ve built. You can build on what other successful podcasts are doing, working hard to do it better or of a higher quality. You can get high-profile guests who will then share your show with their audience. And you can try to convince a very large show to have you on as a guest.

Or... you could solve someone's pain.

At Podfest Multimedia Expo 2020 in Orlando, which I’m freshly back from, I attended a panel discussion where several very successful niche podcasters -- all of them business-related -- were sharing the tips and techniques that made them successful.

During the Q&A portion, one of the panelists -- Joe Sanok from Practice of The Practice engaged in a dialog with an audience member who was struggling to grow their firm’s niche podcast. Joe asked a simple question of them:

“What pain does your podcast solve?”

Yes, that’s a clever statement that you might expect from a clinician. But it did the trick. There was a moment where everyone in the audience took a pause and considered the question. Me included.

When the person who asked the question gave their very good and specific answer, Joe asked another question:

“Is that the name of your podcast?”

A small chuckle spread through the room, but the person with the question agreed that, yeah… maybe that should be the name of their show.

Branding aside, that exchange got me to thinking: what pain does this podcast solve?

Which should lead you to think: what pain does your podcast solve?

Initially, you might assume that not all podcasts are designed to solve pains. I know I did. But when you look a little bit deeper, maybe that’s incorrect. Because even if you make a show that’s just there to provide some levity and entertainment to your listeners, maybe that's enough temporary pain-removal for them. Many people need an escape from their very stressful lives.

Clearly, the more focused your show is, the easier it is to understand your own answer to that question. The advice came from a guy with a podcast and a podcast network designed to solve the problems of clinicians in private practice, which is quite specific. But as a focusing device, I think we can all benefit from asking ourselves the same question.

Here's a challenge you might be facing if you are one of my listeners with a very successful show. For you and your show, things are going well and perhaps your show or your network doesn’t really solve pain, but they're all really successful. So why change?

I get it. And as much as I love change for the sake of change, you have to be very careful when you start making whimsical changes to your livelihood just ‘cuz some yokel on the internet told you to do it.

But… keep in mind that the podcast you're doing today likely isn't the podcast you’ll do for the rest of your life. Maybe if your current show is successful, maybe you could start another one that does focus more on solving pain. You can probably grow that podcast much faster because you already have a platform (hello, network-effect) of people interested in your topic. Some of them would probably love to have more related content that’s highly focused on their pains.

So how does your podcast solve pain? What pains do you solve with your podcast? These are interesting questions causing me to re-examine what I am doing with these episodes. Because while I think I do solve some pains, I think that could be better at being more focused on solving pains faced by working podcasters like you.

So I'm going to try and do that. I'm going to try to be more focused on solving the pains of working podcasters in future episodes. That's going to have some impact on this show. But it also means there might be more podcasts coming. Stay tuned.

This is a good question to bring to your podcasting compatriots. Podcasters tend to run in tight circles, in my experience. And while most of our conversations are either light or super-specific, sometimes asking these larger, more ethereal questions is healthy. So the next time you get together, either in person or on a Slack channel, ask your podcasting buddies what pains they solve with their podcasts. Tell them you got the idea for the question from this episode of Podcast Pontifications and ask if they heard it as well.

And also, I’d love to hear how your podcasting efforts are solving pain. Even if you think that’s not what you do. Leave me a comment or send an email to evo@podcastlaunch.pro.

I shall be back tomorrow with yet another Podcast Pontifications.

Cheers!

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Hello, and welcome to another podcast. Pontifications with me. Evo Terra. Look, every podcaster I know, including this guy. Wants to grow their show. It doesn't matter if we're a gigantic show that has a hundreds of thousands of listeners, they want to grow their show as well. It doesn't matter if they're a teeny tiny show that has hyperfocused on one small, small corner of the world.

There's always people out there that they haven't yet reached, so they too want to grow. There show. We all want to grow their show, and we've all heard lots of ways that we can grow our show. Some really smart ideas, like build your audience first and then make a podcast that's for them. Sure. Some more difficult, but artistic and enjoyable efforts such as building the podcast you want to build and then find anybody who might care about that thing.

Hey, and that's valid. You can do that. Maybe you could build on what other successful podcasts are doing and then try and do it better or try and one up them either by their caliber of guest or the equipment or effort you put into the show. Speaking of guests, maybe that's a good idea. In fact, it is a good idea.

Get high profile guests who will share your show with them, or you go get on a very large show as a, as a guest. Sure you can do that. Or. And the idea of the topic today, you could solve someone's pain. Now I got this idea from pod Fest evolution. No, because the names are all confusing. Pod Fest, multimedia expo 2020 in Orlando, which I just came back from and I was sitting in a session where niche podcasters.

P podcasters who have been successful in building their own niche, all of them business-related. So I was keen, really interested. We're talking about how they've done it, how they've made it, how they've been successful, and they had a lot of really great tips from there. But there was a question from the audience towards the end that I thought really stood out to me.

And someone asked this question about how their show could be grown and they're explaining what their show is and what they've done. And one of the panelists, Joe Sanok, Joe has a, he is a, he has a hardest to describe what Joe does. Uh, he has a podcast that is all about growing private practices for counselors.

That's what Joe does. Joe asked that person one question, whatever their w and what their question was. I don't really remember because I was too busy trying to get my friend Drew's attention to hand me the microphone, which he never did, so I couldn't ask my question. It's all your fault, drew kidding.

Question that that was asked or my interpretation of the of the question that Joe asked was this, what pain does your podcast solve? And I think everybody in the room went, Oh, you know, it's one of those clever little things that makes you, that you weren't expecting to hear. And so you kind of spin your head around and you go, Whoa, what was that all about?

And the person who asked the question thought, and then gave what I thought was a pretty good answer about what their, what pain their podcast solves. And then Joe's question was. And is that the exact name of your podcast too? Which was a little chuckle in the room and they said, well, maybe it should be, and yeah, maybe it should be.

And it kind of got me to thinking, what pain does this podcast solve? What pain does your podcast solve? Hopefully, hopefully you're thinking about them now. Not all podcasts are designed to solve pains. Although if you unpack that and and look a little bit deeper, maybe we're not true. Maybe if you're just there to provide some light levity and entertainment, maybe that's pain enough.

Just being light and entertaining in a very stressful day. I think it works a lot better. The more focused you can get, obviously. I mean, here's a guy who's got a podcast and a podcast network that is designed to solve the problems. Of clinicians in private practice and it gets pretty specific. I'll bet many of you don't even know what that means.

I might be one of those that didn't know what that meant. So yeah, what Hayne does you are a podcast solve. Now, here's the challenge with that. Let's say that you are one of my listeners who's got a very successful show. Things are going well, and you asked yourself that question and you say, you know, my broadcast doesn't really solve.

Pain. None of my shows really solve pain, but they're all really successful, so I'm not going to change. Totally get it. I totally don't think you should change if you are really, really successful. Maybe all. However it does spark the idea that you could grow bigger because of them, but also keep in mind that the podcast you're doing today likely isn't the podcast you're always going to be doing.

And maybe if that one is successful, the one you're doing right now, maybe you could start another one that does start to solve pain and maybe you can grow that podcast even faster because a, you already have a platform, and B, if it is tangentially related to the show that you have right now with a big platform, letting those people know that if they would like very specific answers to questions and problems, that they might have solutions to them.

You've got them over here. Could it be a way to grow? How does your podcast solve pain? What pains do you solve with your podcast? It's an interesting question, and it's caused me to have a bit of a think, have a bit of a look at the things that I am doing in the episodes that I'm putting forth here, and I think I do solve some pains, but I think that could be better at solving pains.

I think I'd be more focused on solving pains, so I'm going to try and do that. I'm going to try to be more focused on solving the pains of podcasters, specifically working podcasters, and that's going to have some impact on this show and a bunch of other shows as well. Well, and by a bunch of other shows, I mean, there might be more shows coming.

There might be more podcasts coming, more actual programming. Maybe we'll see where that goes. Have you asked around to your peer group, the people that you podcast with? Cause we've all got podcasting buddies and friends that we run ideas off of typically in the same circles. I know that I have a close relationship with two or three of the other people out there whose podcasts are for podcasters.

And we talk on a regular basis. I don't think we talk about this question of what pains do we solve enough so. I'm going to bring that up. I suggest that the next time you're talking to your podcasting circle of friends, you bring up that you heard this episode of podcast pontifications talking about pain and solution and see what they say.

You know, every time you mentioned my show to another working podcast or it helps me grow and which is a good thing. More ideas get spread around the world. Tell me also what you think about solving pain. If you think that's a great idea, leave me a comment or just send me an email. evo@podcastlaunch.pro always reaches me as well.

You know, so that's it. I shall be back tomorrow with yet another podcast. Pontifications cheers.

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