January 13, 2025 • 14 mins
I have a question for you: why do people listen to your podcast?
It’s such a simple question, but it’s really hard to answer. That’s because it’s not a fill in the blank question, it’s not black and white, there’s a hundred different correct answers for why someone might listen to your podcast. But in this episode, I’m going to help you figure out the most important one.
👋🏼 Listen to Ep. 8 - How to Pitch Your Podcast in 30-Seconds:
https://morganfranklin.media/how-to-pitch-your-podcast-in-30-seconds/
👩🏻💻 Shop My Podcast Template Store:
https://podcastsforprofit.com
📌 Work with Me 1:1 for Podcast Coaching and Development:
https://morganfranklin.media/contact-morgan-franklin
📥 Download 4 FREE ChatGPT prompts for podcasters and listen to the episode on how to use them here:
https://morganfranklin.media/podschool-steal-my-4-favorite-chatgpt-prompts-for-podcasting/
👋🏽 Let's connect! You can find me on LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, Threads, and TikTok.
🙋🏻♀️ Questions? Comments? Ideas? Message Me:
morgan@morganfranklin.media
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Morgan Franklin (00:01):
One of the biggest mistakes that I've made
as a podcaster and producer istrying to make a show that
everyone will love. Now, thatseems like a harmless crime,
right? Why wouldn't you wanteveryone to love your podcast?
Why wouldn't you want to make apodcast that speaks to everyone?
And the answer, of course, isthat nothing speaks to everyone.
(00:24):
If you're trying to speak toeveryone, you'll end up speaking
to no one. In this episode,we're going to talk about the
most important strategy that weas podcasters can use moving
forward to grow and monetize ourpodcast. Hello and welcome to
podcast for profit. My name isMorgan Franklin. I'm a Podcast
(00:45):
Producer, strategist andeducator. This podcast will help
you create and grow a podcastthat cuts through the noise of
social media and speaks directlyto your target audience. If
you're ready to create a podcastthat will align you with the
experts in your industry,position yourself as a trusted
leader and create another sourceof revenue for your business.
(01:08):
You're in the right place. Hereis a question for you to think
about, why do people listen toyour podcast? It's a really
simple question, right? But it'sso hard to answer. That's
because it's not a fill in theblank question. It's not black
and white. There are 100different correct answers for
(01:29):
why someone might be listeningto your podcast, but in this
episode, I'm gonna help youfigure out the most important
one, one of my favorite episodesof this podcast, is how to pitch
your podcast to anyone in 30seconds. It's episode eight.
It's one of the episodes that Isend to people who are asking me
what they need to know beforethey start a podcast. And I
(01:52):
think that this always kind ofconfuses people, because they're
thinking, why do I need to knowhow to pitch my podcast before I
even have one, and that'sexactly the point. Think about
how much easier your entirepodcasting journey would have
been if, in the beginning,before you press record for the
first time on that firstepisode, you had such a clear
(02:16):
vision and audience and purposefor this podcast that you could
have pitched it to anyone in 30seconds. Most podcasters
struggle to explain what theirpodcast is about, even when
they're years into it. This iswhy you figuring out why people
listen to your podcast is soimportant. This is why you
(02:39):
should niche down. It tookeverything in my soul to not
name this episode, How To Findyour podcast niche, or why you
need to niche down. And thetruth is, because I didn't think
that you would listen to it, ormaybe it's just that I wouldn't
listen to it. Explaining theimportance of a niche is so
played out. In my opinion, weall know we do, but I want to
(03:02):
offer you in this episode assomeone that has made all the
niching down mistakes and morethat niching down does work in
podcasting, and it might be oneof the only strategies that
actually works, and why it worksmight not be for the reasons You
think. Let's talk about threetotally made up podcasts. One is
(03:24):
about traveling. That's all.It's about travel. This is how
so many of us explain ourpodcast. We just use a few vague
words and think that people willknow what it's about. So the
first podcast is about travel,all things travel. The second
one is about travel in theUnited States, so coast to
coast, traveling all over theUnited States. People obviously
(03:44):
travel in the USA all the time.The third made up podcast is
about tips and tricks forfamilies on a budget going to
Disney World, Orlando. That'sall it's about. Every week is
just new content on how totravel on a budget with a family
in Disney World Park in Orlando,Florida. So many of us think
(04:06):
that if we niche down, we aregoing to lose the opportunity to
reach new listeners or to createa bigger audience. And every
client that I've ever workedwith and myself has had this
same thought. And you know what?It's just it's simply not true.
Let's look at the three podcaststhat we just talked about. The
first one being just abouttravel. Think about the last
(04:28):
time you wanted to find contentabout just a general category.
It's probably never happened.When we're looking for a podcast
or even a YouTube video towatch, we're looking for very
specific things that we want tosee. Unless this host has built
up content in another way orthrough another podcast, someone
(04:49):
that has a podcast that's justabout a generic topic is going
to have a much harder timefinding an audience, because who
would be looking for that? Butwhat about. The third Podcast,
the podcast about how to travelon a budget with a family to
Disney World Orlando. There isprobably somebody looking for
this podcast as I say thatsentence. See what a huge
(05:12):
difference that there is, from alistener perspective, for
someone to find this podcastversus a podcast that's just
about travel, or even justtravel within the United States.
See how every time we go alittle bit more niche, there
would be a person who would wantto listen to that podcast. You
(05:33):
aren't losing listeners if theywere never going to listen to
your podcast in the first place.And that is the hard truth that
I think all of us need to hearyour podcast isn't for everyone,
and that is okay. It's more thanokay. You need to be clear and
proactive about telling peoplewhat it is about. There's
(05:54):
currently about 3 million activepodcasts. So how are you going
to set your podcast apart andstart making a name for
yourself. I remember a workshopthat I went to early on as a
photographer. I was working fulltime in digital marketing. I
knew that I wanted to go intophotography, but I was just so
all over the place. I was doingnewborn babies, I was doing
(06:17):
families. I would do real estateand weddings, and I had no
style, and I had no real goals.I didn't know what was going on,
but what I did know is that Iwanted to leave my corporate
job. I knew I had to figure outa plan. So I went to this
conference, and of course, mostof the educators were there to
sell you something else youknow. So I unknowingly go into
(06:39):
this class about brandingyourself as a photographer. The
presenter is talking about howyou actually get clients and how
you actually make money and allthis stuff. And she said, if you
can't figure out what your nicheis, you are never going to be a
successful photographer. And ofcourse, I am freaking out over
this. I am hanging on to everyword. And so she says, imagine
(07:01):
if you need a liver transplant.Are you going to go to a family
doctor or a general physicianthat does everything? No, you're
going to go to a specialist thatdoes liver transplants. People
who care about their photographyand are willing to invest good
money are the same way. Theywant a wedding photographer for
their weddings. They want afamily photographer to do their
(07:23):
family photos. You have to be aspecialist, and that's what I
want to share with you today.You have to be a specialist
because people are giving youthe most valuable resource of
all, and it's not money, it'stheir time. It's their
attention. We live in anattention economy. That's the
(07:45):
most valuable thing that you canask from someone, and it's non
renewable, so someone is takingthe time to listen to your
podcast. The least that you cando is understand why they are
listening, and with intention,give them what they came for.
You owe it to your listener toniche down. You owe it to the
(08:07):
community you build around yourpodcast to niche down. Some of
my favorite communities onlineare built around podcasts, and
that would have never happenedif the host was lazy or sloppy
or didn't know why they weremaking the podcast. Having a
niche is a courtesy to yourlistener, so I want you to
(08:27):
reframe it as I'm not losing outon listeners by broadening the
scope of my episode niche. I'mhonoring the listeners I have
and building a strong audienceby giving them the targeted
content that they actually wantand they're actually looking for
at one point or another. Everyhost that I have worked with has
(08:52):
said, I want to go bigger. Iwant to change my audience. And
the thing that I always tellthem is that we can go quote,
unquote, bigger, but you willlose what the original audience
came for, because let's go backto our made up podcast about
Disney. What about when the hostsays, I want to cover all of
Orlando, or I want to cover allthe Disney parks. Think about
(09:15):
the original audience that theywere serving, that were coming
for that specific reason tolearn about Orlando Disney and
how to travel with a family,you've completely dissolved your
audience, and you're basicallystarting a new podcast, because
that's not what the peopleexpect from your show, and your
audience didn't come for thatinformation and that Content
(09:40):
most of the time, going widerisn't the answer, because you're
gonna lose the audience you putso much effort into creating.
Because the wider you go, theless relevant it is to everyone
listening. Instead, you shoulddig deeper into the topics and
guests and series and. Wouldserve your current listener. Why
(10:03):
do they listen to your podcast?How can you provide them with
even better content that wouldreinforce why they are listening
to your podcast in the firstplace? I've also heard
podcasters say again, includingmyself, what if I run out of
things to talk about. And let mejust tell you that simply will
not happen if you are trulyinvested into something enough
(10:27):
to make a podcast out of it.There are always gonna be new
things. There will always betopics to cover and opinions to
give. You will never run out ofthings to talk about. And I know
you're probably thinking,Morgan, you don't know what my
podcast is about, and I don'tcare, you will find more things
to talk about. The more time andenergy and thoughtfulness that
(10:49):
you put into your podcast andyour podcast audience, the more
that you will get out of it, Ipromise. Finally, and not least
significant of all is gettingsponsorship deals and monetizing
your podcast. The thing thatwe're all here for, the more
specific that you can be aboutthe content of your podcast, the
(11:09):
more niche opportunities thatyou have to advertise, the more
of an authority you are in yourniche, and the more valuable the
brands see you as to advertisewhip. So let's go back to our
three made up podcast examples.So let's say that the podcast
about the United States andtraveling in the United States
(11:30):
versus the podcast about DisneyWorld, let's say the one about
travel in the USA has 10,000weekly downloads, and the Disney
World One has 3000 weeklydownloads. And I am a boutique
Mickey ear business in Orlando,who would be most valuable for
me to spend my money with thepodcast about Disney World,
(11:51):
right? I mean, they're bothabout travel, but I have to look
at where my target audienceactually is, and when you have
such a vague topics, it makes ita lot harder for a business to
know if you're the right personto partner with or not. And
again, we think that we'retaking away opportunities by
niching down, but really we'rejust creating new ones that
(12:12):
would have never been there. Sowhat can we do? What steps can
we take this week to startniching down our podcast in a
meaningful way. The first thingis ask yourself, why people
listen to your podcast? It's sosimple, but it's gonna be so
informative for you. Please dothat second, ask yourself, how
(12:36):
you can better serve thelisteners of your podcast with
the content that they actuallywant to hear. And lastly, ask
yourself how you candifferentiate and define your
podcast to be even morespecific. So when someone asks
you, Hey, what's your podcastabout, you know exactly what
(12:58):
it's about. You know exactlywhat to say if you want to
listen to that episode eight,how to pitch your podcast in 30
seconds or less. It is going tobe linked in the episode
description. If you want one onone, help from me on finding
your niche and learning how tospeak directly to your target
audience. I have one hourconsultations made exactly for
(13:20):
this purpose, to help you withthis kind of strategic planning.
The link will be in the episodedescription, and as always, I
can't wait to listen to yourpodcast. Hey, thank you so much
for joining me on this episode.If you enjoyed the podcast and
you'd like to hear more episodeslike this one, go ahead and
subscribe to the show. NewEpisodes air every Monday
(13:41):
morning. And if you found thisepisode valuable and you want to
help other business owners andpodcasters, will you leave me a
five star review. It helps theshow rank higher in the charts
and brings more entrepreneursthe information they need to
start making money on theirpodcast.
One of the biggest mistakes that I've made
as a podcaster and producer istrying to make a show that
everyone will love. Now, thatseems like a harmless crime,
right? Why wouldn't you wanteveryone to love your podcast?
Why wouldn't you want to make apodcast that speaks to everyone?
And the answer, of course, isthat nothing speaks to everyone.
(00:24):
If you're trying to speak toeveryone, you'll end up speaking
to no one. In this episode,we're going to talk about the
most important strategy that weas podcasters can use moving
forward to grow and monetize ourpodcast. Hello and welcome to
podcast for profit. My name isMorgan Franklin. I'm a Podcast
(00:45):
Producer, strategist andeducator. This podcast will help
you create and grow a podcastthat cuts through the noise of
social media and speaks directlyto your target audience. If
you're ready to create a podcastthat will align you with the
experts in your industry,position yourself as a trusted
leader and create another sourceof revenue for your business.
(01:08):
You're in the right place. Hereis a question for you to think
about, why do people listen toyour podcast? It's a really
simple question, right? But it'sso hard to answer. That's
because it's not a fill in theblank question. It's not black
and white. There are 100different correct answers for
(01:29):
why someone might be listeningto your podcast, but in this
episode, I'm gonna help youfigure out the most important
one, one of my favorite episodesof this podcast, is how to pitch
your podcast to anyone in 30seconds. It's episode eight.
It's one of the episodes that Isend to people who are asking me
what they need to know beforethey start a podcast. And I
(01:52):
think that this always kind ofconfuses people, because they're
thinking, why do I need to knowhow to pitch my podcast before I
even have one, and that'sexactly the point. Think about
how much easier your entirepodcasting journey would have
been if, in the beginning,before you press record for the
first time on that firstepisode, you had such a clear
(02:16):
vision and audience and purposefor this podcast that you could
have pitched it to anyone in 30seconds. Most podcasters
struggle to explain what theirpodcast is about, even when
they're years into it. This iswhy you figuring out why people
listen to your podcast is soimportant. This is why you
(02:39):
should niche down. It tookeverything in my soul to not
name this episode, How To Findyour podcast niche, or why you
need to niche down. And thetruth is, because I didn't think
that you would listen to it, ormaybe it's just that I wouldn't
listen to it. Explaining theimportance of a niche is so
played out. In my opinion, weall know we do, but I want to
(03:02):
offer you in this episode assomeone that has made all the
niching down mistakes and morethat niching down does work in
podcasting, and it might be oneof the only strategies that
actually works, and why it worksmight not be for the reasons You
think. Let's talk about threetotally made up podcasts. One is
(03:24):
about traveling. That's all.It's about travel. This is how
so many of us explain ourpodcast. We just use a few vague
words and think that people willknow what it's about. So the
first podcast is about travel,all things travel. The second
one is about travel in theUnited States, so coast to
coast, traveling all over theUnited States. People obviously
(03:44):
travel in the USA all the time.The third made up podcast is
about tips and tricks forfamilies on a budget going to
Disney World, Orlando. That'sall it's about. Every week is
just new content on how totravel on a budget with a family
in Disney World Park in Orlando,Florida. So many of us think
(04:06):
that if we niche down, we aregoing to lose the opportunity to
reach new listeners or to createa bigger audience. And every
client that I've ever workedwith and myself has had this
same thought. And you know what?It's just it's simply not true.
Let's look at the three podcaststhat we just talked about. The
first one being just abouttravel. Think about the last
(04:28):
time you wanted to find contentabout just a general category.
It's probably never happened.When we're looking for a podcast
or even a YouTube video towatch, we're looking for very
specific things that we want tosee. Unless this host has built
up content in another way orthrough another podcast, someone
(04:49):
that has a podcast that's justabout a generic topic is going
to have a much harder timefinding an audience, because who
would be looking for that? Butwhat about. The third Podcast,
the podcast about how to travelon a budget with a family to
Disney World Orlando. There isprobably somebody looking for
this podcast as I say thatsentence. See what a huge
(05:12):
difference that there is, from alistener perspective, for
someone to find this podcastversus a podcast that's just
about travel, or even justtravel within the United States.
See how every time we go alittle bit more niche, there
would be a person who would wantto listen to that podcast. You
(05:33):
aren't losing listeners if theywere never going to listen to
your podcast in the first place.And that is the hard truth that
I think all of us need to hearyour podcast isn't for everyone,
and that is okay. It's more thanokay. You need to be clear and
proactive about telling peoplewhat it is about. There's
(05:54):
currently about 3 million activepodcasts. So how are you going
to set your podcast apart andstart making a name for
yourself. I remember a workshopthat I went to early on as a
photographer. I was working fulltime in digital marketing. I
knew that I wanted to go intophotography, but I was just so
all over the place. I was doingnewborn babies, I was doing
(06:17):
families. I would do real estateand weddings, and I had no
style, and I had no real goals.I didn't know what was going on,
but what I did know is that Iwanted to leave my corporate
job. I knew I had to figure outa plan. So I went to this
conference, and of course, mostof the educators were there to
sell you something else youknow. So I unknowingly go into
(06:39):
this class about brandingyourself as a photographer. The
presenter is talking about howyou actually get clients and how
you actually make money and allthis stuff. And she said, if you
can't figure out what your nicheis, you are never going to be a
successful photographer. And ofcourse, I am freaking out over
this. I am hanging on to everyword. And so she says, imagine
(07:01):
if you need a liver transplant.Are you going to go to a family
doctor or a general physicianthat does everything? No, you're
going to go to a specialist thatdoes liver transplants. People
who care about their photographyand are willing to invest good
money are the same way. Theywant a wedding photographer for
their weddings. They want afamily photographer to do their
(07:23):
family photos. You have to be aspecialist, and that's what I
want to share with you today.You have to be a specialist
because people are giving youthe most valuable resource of
all, and it's not money, it'stheir time. It's their
attention. We live in anattention economy. That's the
(07:45):
most valuable thing that you canask from someone, and it's non
renewable, so someone is takingthe time to listen to your
podcast. The least that you cando is understand why they are
listening, and with intention,give them what they came for.
You owe it to your listener toniche down. You owe it to the
(08:07):
community you build around yourpodcast to niche down. Some of
my favorite communities onlineare built around podcasts, and
that would have never happenedif the host was lazy or sloppy
or didn't know why they weremaking the podcast. Having a
niche is a courtesy to yourlistener, so I want you to
(08:27):
reframe it as I'm not losing outon listeners by broadening the
scope of my episode niche. I'mhonoring the listeners I have
and building a strong audienceby giving them the targeted
content that they actually wantand they're actually looking for
at one point or another. Everyhost that I have worked with has
(08:52):
said, I want to go bigger. Iwant to change my audience. And
the thing that I always tellthem is that we can go quote,
unquote, bigger, but you willlose what the original audience
came for, because let's go backto our made up podcast about
Disney. What about when the hostsays, I want to cover all of
Orlando, or I want to cover allthe Disney parks. Think about
(09:15):
the original audience that theywere serving, that were coming
for that specific reason tolearn about Orlando Disney and
how to travel with a family,you've completely dissolved your
audience, and you're basicallystarting a new podcast, because
that's not what the peopleexpect from your show, and your
audience didn't come for thatinformation and that Content
(09:40):
most of the time, going widerisn't the answer, because you're
gonna lose the audience you putso much effort into creating.
Because the wider you go, theless relevant it is to everyone
listening. Instead, you shoulddig deeper into the topics and
guests and series and. Wouldserve your current listener. Why
(10:03):
do they listen to your podcast?How can you provide them with
even better content that wouldreinforce why they are listening
to your podcast in the firstplace? I've also heard
podcasters say again, includingmyself, what if I run out of
things to talk about. And let mejust tell you that simply will
not happen if you are trulyinvested into something enough
(10:27):
to make a podcast out of it.There are always gonna be new
things. There will always betopics to cover and opinions to
give. You will never run out ofthings to talk about. And I know
you're probably thinking,Morgan, you don't know what my
podcast is about, and I don'tcare, you will find more things
to talk about. The more time andenergy and thoughtfulness that
(10:49):
you put into your podcast andyour podcast audience, the more
that you will get out of it, Ipromise. Finally, and not least
significant of all is gettingsponsorship deals and monetizing
your podcast. The thing thatwe're all here for, the more
specific that you can be aboutthe content of your podcast, the
(11:09):
more niche opportunities thatyou have to advertise, the more
of an authority you are in yourniche, and the more valuable the
brands see you as to advertisewhip. So let's go back to our
three made up podcast examples.So let's say that the podcast
about the United States andtraveling in the United States
(11:30):
versus the podcast about DisneyWorld, let's say the one about
travel in the USA has 10,000weekly downloads, and the Disney
World One has 3000 weeklydownloads. And I am a boutique
Mickey ear business in Orlando,who would be most valuable for
me to spend my money with thepodcast about Disney World,
(11:51):
right? I mean, they're bothabout travel, but I have to look
at where my target audienceactually is, and when you have
such a vague topics, it makes ita lot harder for a business to
know if you're the right personto partner with or not. And
again, we think that we'retaking away opportunities by
niching down, but really we'rejust creating new ones that
(12:12):
would have never been there. Sowhat can we do? What steps can
we take this week to startniching down our podcast in a
meaningful way. The first thingis ask yourself, why people
listen to your podcast? It's sosimple, but it's gonna be so
informative for you. Please dothat second, ask yourself, how
(12:36):
you can better serve thelisteners of your podcast with
the content that they actuallywant to hear. And lastly, ask
yourself how you candifferentiate and define your
podcast to be even morespecific. So when someone asks
you, Hey, what's your podcastabout, you know exactly what
(12:58):
it's about. You know exactlywhat to say if you want to
listen to that episode eight,how to pitch your podcast in 30
seconds or less. It is going tobe linked in the episode
description. If you want one onone, help from me on finding
your niche and learning how tospeak directly to your target
audience. I have one hourconsultations made exactly for
(13:20):
this purpose, to help you withthis kind of strategic planning.
The link will be in the episodedescription, and as always, I
can't wait to listen to yourpodcast. Hey, thank you so much
for joining me on this episode.If you enjoyed the podcast and
you'd like to hear more episodeslike this one, go ahead and
subscribe to the show. NewEpisodes air every Monday
(13:41):
morning. And if you found thisepisode valuable and you want to
help other business owners andpodcasters, will you leave me a
five star review. It helps theshow rank higher in the charts
and brings more entrepreneursthe information they need to
start making money on theirpodcast.
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