If an audience doesn’t ‘get’ your podcast idea, it’s a bad one
A bad podcast idea is anything idea that’s not easily definable.
Because, if a listener can’t immediately understand your concept and whether it’s for them, then it’s not a strong idea.
The most common ‘bad’ podcast idea
One of the most common pitches I get is “I want to do a podcast where I talk to interesting people.”
That’s not an interesting idea for anyone except the person pitching it.
Why? Because they know what they find interesting, but no one else does.
If your show concept is vague, undefined, or based solely on what you’d find interesting, it’s going to be really hard to grow an audience, especially when you’re starting from scratch.
Why vague podcast ideas don’t work
A bad podcast idea isn’t always a terrible idea generally.
It’s often just one that hasn’t been developed with an audience in mind.
If you’re building an audience from scratch, you need to give people a reason to listen that’s more than just “I think this show is interesting.”
Of course you do. You made it.
If people don’t already know or trust you, they’ll have no way of knowing whether your definition of “interesting” matches theirs unless you tell them.
The exception to the rule
If you’ve got an existing audience or a personal brand people trust, the rules are slightly different.
For example, Oprah could launch a podcast where she chats to people she finds interesting and I guarantee people would listen… because the niche is her.
She’s spent decades building her audience and personal reputation to the point where she’s got fans who would consume anything she makes because they’ve loved everything she’s done before.
If you’re not a household name or you don’t already have an audience of devoted fans who know what you’re about, you’re going to need to be much more specific.
How to turn a bad podcast idea into a good one
A great podcast idea is:
- Clear and easy to explain
- Designed with the audience in mind
- Focused on delivering value, whether that’s entertainment, education, or inspiration
That doesn’t mean you need to throw your idea out completely.
Often, it’s just a matter of tweaking it until the idea is right.
So, ask yourself:
- Who is this podcast for?
- Why would they listen?
- Am I keep the audience, rather than my ego, in mind?
- What problem does this show solve, or what value does it offer to a listener?
- Would someone ‘get it’ from a single sentence?
- Would this idea be enough to entice someone to listen if they knew nothing about me?
If the answer to these questions is yes, you’re on the right track.
Everyone is capable of coming up with a great podcast idea.
You just need to focus on making it clear, valuable, and easy for people to say: “That’s for me!”
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Got a question about podcasting? Send it my way so I can answer it on the podcast!
Hello. Welcome to the show. Today I am answering a question from Melinda.
If you would like to submit a question, just head to the description of the episode and click the link and you can submit it there. Her question is, what is an example of a bad podcast idea? Great question.
A bad podcast idea is anything that is not definable, anything that is difficult for an audience to grab ahold of.
One of the most common pitches that I get that I would say is an example of a bad podcast idea is the pitch of, I would like to do a podcast where I talk to people about interesting things, or I would like to do a podcast where I talk to interesting people. That's not an idea. I mean, that is an idea, it's just not an interesting idea for anybody other than you.
So the idea of a bad idea, it's not that you are bad at coming up with ideas or any of those kind of things if you haven't settled on the right idea, it's just that idea is probably not made or conceived with an audience in mind.
So those are the bad ideas, the ones that don't have an audience, the ones that are too vague and too general to really appeal to people.
If you are starting your show from scratch and you're starting your audience from scratch, you do not have an existing audience, you do not have an existing fan base, and you’re really going out there and trying to build up a listener base on your own, it is going to be very hard to do that with an idea that people cannot immediately grasp.
And if they do not know you, they are not going to check the show out unless they can work out, well, is this show interesting for me? The exception to that is if they are already interested in the person that's hosting.
So if that person is Oprah, or whoever else it is, and I follow Oprah, or whoever else it is, because I like them. I like their perspective, I like their way of interviewing, I like what they've done.
They have built up enough value in their career for me that I am willing to check out something that they want.
If they turn around to me and say, okay, well, I'm going to do a show where I just talk to really interesting people that I like, then I can understand that, because the niche is kind of them. So I get that. But if you are not known to people, they don't know what you find interesting, they don't know anything about you.
So you need to be really clear on exactly what they are going to get from this show, so that when they're scrolling through, they're like, okay, I've got this. I know why I want to press play on this.
I know what this is about and that is what I'm going to do. So that, for me, is the main kind of overarching thing of a bad podcast idea. It's not about saying you can't come up with ideas or you're bad.
Everybody can come up with a great podcast idea. You just have to think about it in the right way. You have to think about who you're doing this for.
You have to think about what they would find valuable, what they need in their lives. Can you entertain them, inform them, engage them in some way? And what is it about this that is going to make them play?
Think about yourself in their shoes. If you came across somebody that you didn't know and their podcast pitch was, I'm going to chat to interesting people, would you press play?
If you're like, it's going to take me too long to work out by listening to your content whether what you find interesting is what I find interesting, whereas you could have told me in a sentence and I could have worked it out and I probably would have pressed play.
So that is what you need to think about when you're putting your idea together. Like I said, everybody is capable of coming up with a great podcast idea.
And the idea that you have now might not be a completely different idea to what you end up with. It might just be that you need to tweak it slightly to make sure that people will actually seek it out and want to press play when they see it.
So thank you so much, Melinda, for the question. Really appreciate it. If you want to submit a question, then you can just head to the description of the episode.
And if you have some friends that you know that are wanting to start up their own podcast, have questions about podcasting, please share this show with them and I would love to help them out as well. If you would like more help with your podcast, I have an online podcasting course called PodSchool.
If you are looking for help with equipment, you can also head to podcastingguide.com.au and I have an equipment guide there that is free. You can download it. It's got all the tools and tech that you need to help you set up your podcast. So check it out and I will see you next week.
