This episode has been sitting on my episode ideas area of my dashboard for a while because I wasn’t sure how I wanted to say it without sounding crazy. I want to talk about this idea of “what I want to talk” about because I hear that statement attached to podcast launches, content calendar meetings, editorial calendar planning ideas, and your content, be it video or blogs but certainly here in podcasts, is almost never about what you want to talk about.
If you want to show where it is all about, what you want to talk about, then you need a different show than you have right now. If your show is built as an asset in your business, this is your content marketing, this is the way you take someone from not having a clue who you are to that know, like, and trust factor that pays you money, that’s not about you. It’s really, really not what you want to talk about.
If you think that I wanted to record an episode about this today, you are all the way wrong. All the way. Oh, you don’t know what I want to talk about today? It’s not this. It’s not. No, what I would like to talk about is my spring wardrobe which I’m currently working on. I’ll be honest. Or my birthday month is coming up. Actually, when you listen to this, it is my birthday month. Nevertheless, that’s what I’m thinking about. That’s what I’m paying attention to. Definitely, not this. Even if I were to sit and chat about my business. Narrowing it from my whole life to business. This isn’t the conversation I want to be having today. No, I’m thinking about three things I want to test next month that aren’t this podcast.
But guess what, this show’s not for me or about those things. It’s about bringing together content that makes sense for this show.
Here’s why you’re frustrated with your podcast.
If you have ever said to yourself, “Well, once I figure out what I want to talk about I’ll record this week’s show,” know that you are going to end up very frustrated by your show on a very regular basis because one, deciding what you want to talk about is a whole lot of unnecessary decisions in the day-to-day production of your content. Two, your show is never going to get you the results you want to get you, it won’t. Your show is not going to get you the results you want because you are not building assets that help your listener make a decision. Be it the big decision of working with you right now or the micro-decisions that impact the thing you help them with.
As an example, we did a show in January about updating your podcast description cover art, stuff like that. That show was to help you make the decision of whether you needed to update that or not. You know why? Because going through that process and making that decision gives you a win. It gives you some focus content or some focused podcast time. It gives you some space and reason to pay attention to your show a little differently, and more than anything, it gives you a little win. You did a thing. Good job. Even if that thing was, “Hey, everything looks great,” because you thought about it, you spent some time with it. You built a win and that was the point but you made a decision. There was a thing for you to do. In the future when I say, “Hey, this is what we help you do,” and you’re ready to have someone help you do it, of course, we’ve been winning together for a while now, of course, it’s going to be us because we’re the right fit. Because we go through this process in the same way you do. Because those are the habits you’ve already created.
The same would be true if you are a health coach and you are talking in an episode about setting down some time to work through your wellness goals that are not directly related to the way you look. This is something I did as I started my year this year because I read about it. I cannot remember where or I would credit them. I loved it. But this idea of non-scale victories—what are the things that I want to do this year to support my wellness? Cool. I spent some time with that. Now, I’m going to go after those goals. Do I need help with that? Oh, you know who really helped me make this list? So and so. I will hire them to help me reach those goals. See? It’s connecting to what’s next. It’s helping them build wins with you. That’s not going to come out of “What do I want to talk about this week?” Because if I got to pick what I wanted to talk about this week.
Strategic planning means being able to be ahead of your podcast.
I also wouldn’t be recording all of the episodes for February today. I wouldn’t be finalizing a month’s worth of content. Do you know why? Because I don’t want to talk about four things today. Four well-thought-out and valuable things. It’s causing a lot of stress not just in the end results but in the process. It’s creating a lot of unnecessary decision making, a lot of unnecessary wondering, and it absolutely decimates your ability to build assets you can use over and over again because you’re forever tied to the moment in which you thought of it like, “Yeah, this makes sense in the context of 2019,” but does it make sense in the context of 2022? Or “Yeah, this makes total sense in the context of April 2020,” but god help me if it still makes sense in the context of April 2025, I will lose my ever-loving mind; if I haven’t already lost it. We need to be separating ourselves from this idea of what do I want to talk about and instead, we’re going to shift to a focus on what do they need to hear.
The question podcast hosts must ask themselves about their content.
This is the question when we sit down with our production clients and we talk about our next quarter’s content because we sit down and we meet with our clients the last month of each quarter to plan the content for the following quarter. In March, we’ll meet and we’ll talk to everybody about Q2. One on one with each of them, I will sit down and we will talk about Q2. I’ll ask them, “What are we selling? What programs are we opening up? What courses are we selling? What services do we have availability for? What are we selling?” Then I’ll say, “Great, what do they need to know to make that decision?” Because when I focus on what do they need to know, to make the decision about buying the course, joining the mastermind, going to the event, hiring for the service, when I think about what do they need to make that decision, then I’m building something I can use again later. Then I’m building an asset, then I’m building something I can include in my sales sequences. Then I am creating things that I can send to people who are referral sources.
I am helping people make decisions so that they can move through whatever they’re dealing with now and move on to the next thing. If you’ve ever hated the assignment from business coaches or whatever around identifying the pain points of your ideal client, this is where I want you to draw on that because the reality is they’re in some kind of pain. They have some kind of itch that needs to be scratched. Are we going to help them make the decision to get out of that pain point? Are we going to help them make the decision that moves them through? Whether that’s actual pain like, “I have a cracked tooth,” or figurative pain like, “Man, wouldn’t it be fun to go on a vacation to the Caribbean?” Whatever the thing is, am I going to let them sit in that or run into someone else who will help them identify their problem and make the decision to solve it, or am I going to help them decide to solve it?
When you create content that helps them decide, you help move them through that pain more quickly.
If you hate this idea of having to identify your ideal client’s pain points, use it. Break it down so that you can help them move through it as quickly as possible. Whether that’s with you or finding out that it’s not with you so that they can go check somewhere else, or identify what their pain actually is because maybe they’re just uncomfortable and they don’t know why. I’ve been there. I know you have to. Make sure you’re focusing on what do they need to know to make a choice. Remember that this is as much for those ideal clients, being able to see that you’re the right solution, as being able to move away those clients who aren’t the right fit.
If in 2021 you struggled with sales calls that week after week you’re getting on sales calls and they’re not yeses, and they’re not yeses because they won’t hire you. They’re not yeses because they’re not ready to work with you, or they work in a different way than you do. They’re just not the right fit. Doesn’t make anybody right. Doesn’t make anybody wrong. We all have our styles, but you want to find a match and they want to find a match. If you’re finding, you’re getting on sales call after sales call where it is not a match, that’s probably because you’re talking about what you want to talk about and not what your ideal clients want to talk about. You are confusing the listeners. I want you to be looking at, “Where can I be answering the questions that my ideal clients need to be answered to buy from me, to book with me, to join my membership to whatever?”
This is not about what you want to talk about. Not now, not ever.
If that’s the show you want, build a second hobby show where you just at will, randomly vent, or get excited, or whatever into a podcast mic for a while and release episodes. Maybe someday it’ll get a big enough audience and you can monetize it through ads. You can keep talking about whatever you want to talk about. Cool. Send me the link. I’ll listen, but that’s not what this show is for. This show that is built to drive traffic and gain sales in your business is not about what you want to talk about. It is about what they need to hear so that they can decide and solve their problem. That’s it. All right. If you want to make sure that you are on my list of people who get those one-on-one calls come March for our quarterly planning sessions, you have to be a production client. Let’s have a chat and we can decide if now is the right time for you to start working with us. I’m really excited to be welcoming some fun new clients in 2022. I truly, truly hope you are among one of them. Also, be warned that if you tell me that you’re trying to figure out what you want to talk about, I will push back with what do they need to hear. It’s just ask anyone, ask any of our clients. I mean this deeply. I would love, especially with these episodes, they get real ranty, I would love to hear from you. Head over to Instagram. Drop me a DM and let me know what you thought about this episode. Good, bad, whatever, I want to hear it and I will chat with you there.
