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10 Critical Questions Every Podcaster Needs to Answer About Their Show

In this episode of "Podcasting Success Secrets," Hector discusses the ten questions that podcasters need to answer in order to create a successful podcast. These questions cover a range of topics, from identifying your unique selling point and creating transformative experiences for your listeners, to measuring podcast success and building meaningful connections and partnerships. By answering these questions and setting clear goals and metrics, podcasters can create a podcast that stands out in a crowded market and attracts a loyal audience.

These are the questions:

  1. What are the central themes or topics your podcast will focus on, and how do they relate to your niche or personal brand?
  2. What unique knowledge, skills, or background do you bring to your podcast that sets it apart from others in your niche?
  3. What experience or results will your listeners gain from your podcast episodes?
  4. How does your podcast support your business’ strategy and growth goals?
  5. What positive influence or transformation do you aim to create in your listeners' lives through your podcast?
  6. How do you envision your podcast's success in terms of reach, engagement, and influence?
  7. Which quantifiable metrics will you use to evaluate and track the success of your podcast?
  8. How will your podcast help you establish meaningful connections and partnerships within your industry?
  9. What potential challenges do you foresee in achieving your podcast's core objective, and how will you address them?
  10. How will you ensure your podcast episodes consistently meet the needs and interests of your target audience?



Links And Resources:

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Transcript
Hector:

Pod fam, what is up?

Hector:

My name is Hector Sanon and I am your host and I've spent much of the last decade

Hector:

helping to f well, trying to figure out what makes a successful podcast and then

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going out there and trying to do it.

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And I gotta tell you, I have, I.

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Probably failed more times than I've been successful, but I've learned

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a lot of things along the way.

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And this show is to help you so that you don't have to make those same

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mistakes by giving you the tools, the tactics, the resources that you

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need to go out there and succeed.

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And on some of the other episodes, we're introducing you to some of the people that

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can go out there and help you as well.

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Now, today's episode is, Well, we'll look at it as like an exercise, and you

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might come back to this episode again and again, you might favor it or bookmark

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it because this, what we're gonna do is we're gonna cover 10 questions that

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I put together for someone who's has a show and we're kind of working through

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and, and helping to evolve their show.

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And this is great for anybody who's got a show, starting a show.

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I mean, these, these are just really foundational questions that

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I think can really help you to get.

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Centered on, on your show.

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And so I call these the, you know, a podcast focusing exercise, and I

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probably should come up with a better name for it, but I find that too many

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podcasters, they get out there and they don't have these questions answered,

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and so they end up just getting started.

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Because yes, getting started is, is a big part of it and you definitely

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need to make sure that you do it and you do it consistently.

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But also if you just get started, But you don't have any direction, you don't have

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any focus, or you don't actually apply any intentionality to any of it, well then you

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can end up a hundred, 200 episodes in and feel like you have nothing to show for it.

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And I don't want that to happen for you.

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I want you to feel like you're moving somewhere, like you're progressing,

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like you're getting traction.

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And although it may feel like slow traction at first, that there is

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something moving and I gotta tell you.

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That traction, that movement, that progress can feel a lot of different ways.

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And I'll tell you for me, you know, one thing that that really got me, if I'm

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being honest about this episode today, we.

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Had gone a couple of weeks and we got filled up and I'd been

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doing some interviews for a bunch of other shows and hadn't been

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focused too much on, on this one.

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And I, and I felt bad because, you know, I'd been not following my own

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advice, but just the other day my wife came and said that she ran into

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somebody out in, you know, in the real world at an, uh, at an event or

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a convention who listened to the show.

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And she's like, I met one of your listeners and, and I had

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no idea who that person was.

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And so if that's, That's you.

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A I I appreciate you and, and you, um, you know, being, being awesome, but if you're

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out there listening, I, I appreciate you and I, and I am sorry for, Hmm.

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Not treating our schedule with the reverence that it deserves and, and

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you as a listener and you as a, as an audience member, you deserve better.

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And so that's why I'm here and I'm literally recording this

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probably, you know, an hour before it gets published and released.

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So just, just know that, um, if you're out there and you're hearing this, you

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matter to me and, um, I appreciate you.

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So let's get into these questions though, because I thought that

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these were super valuable.

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And I'm gonna be honest, I'm gonna be honest, I didn't write these, I actually

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got these from chat G P T, and I plugged them in and I gave them a variety of

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prompts and I, you know, I helped the, the chat G P T to understand what I wanted.

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I.

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And it gave me 10 better questions than I could have ever written, way quicker

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than I could have ever written them.

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And so, you know, let's, uh, let's give a little thanks to the ai, to

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the Ai gods here, and, uh, appreciate them for, for what they can do,

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because they can really create some great, you know, things like this.

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So question number one.

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What are the central themes or topics that your podcast is gonna be focused on?

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And the important part of the question is how do they relate to

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your niche or your personal brand?

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And I think that this is a really great, it's a really great question because

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podcasts, they have, there's two things.

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That we're, that maybe three variables that we're working with, right?

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The first is the audience, right?

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That's your audience.

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The second thing is your topic, because your audience is generally interested

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in your topic, or they should be interested in your topic, right?

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But the third variable that you can play with is your perspective, because

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there can be a lot of podcasts about your topic, but there can only be

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one podcast with your perspective.

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And so if you really want, you really wanna think about how do

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your, how does your perspective.

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Fit into the topics of the podcast, which ideally should be speaking

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or relate to your ideal listener.

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So that's question number one.

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What are the central themes or topics of your show and how does

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your niche or personal brand, what is your perspective for it?

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Right?

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If I can add onto it, number two, what unique skills, knowledge,

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or background do you bring?

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To your podcast that sets you apart from others in your niche.

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And this is going into that perspective thing because again, your unique

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knowledge, your skills, your background, what, what knowledge do you have?

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Right?

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Perspective.

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What skills do you have?

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What experience do you have?

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What background do you have?

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All of this.

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Nobody can.

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Replicate that unique makeup of skills, knowledge and background experience.

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Nobody has your experiences, nobody has your perspective.

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So really getting clear on what that is and how that's different from other people

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in your niche can be really helpful.

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Question number three, what results.

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Or experience do you want your listeners to gain from your podcast?

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Now, this is interesting because this is a shift from you and now all of a

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sudden we're shifting to our listener and I, and the interesting, or the,

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the key word here is experience.

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What experience or results, right?

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Your results is another thing that you can think about in terms of after they take

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action or after they have this experience, what results are they gonna have?

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But I really like to think about shows as an experience at, at

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the end of the episode, what are they gonna come away feeling?

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How are they gonna feel?

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And, and in doing so, what do you need to do in that 15, 30, 45

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minutes to create that experience?

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So think about that.

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Question number three, what experience or results.

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Number four.

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How does your podcast support your business's strategy and growth goals?

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Now, once again, this is a little different, but when I'm working with a

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lot of podcasters, we are, we have to focus on the bottom line at some point.

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I was just talking with one of our clients the other day and we were talking

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about the fact that we might make some decisions that favor the bottom line over.

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Growing our audience, we might, we might make some decisions.

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We might decide to have some guests on that actually help the business more than.

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Directly helping the audience.

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And you know what?

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I want to encourage you to be okay with that and to understand

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that it's your show, and your show needs to be sustainable.

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So if you need to make those decisions, those are your decisions to make.

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And also, we can't cash judgment on anybody who does or does

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not make those decisions.

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But we've gotta think about it in advance because.

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I've also seen a lot of shows start be 20, 30, 40, 50 episodes in a

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hundred episodes in, and then look up and try and think, okay, how am

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I gonna make some money off of this?

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Because it's already taking a lot of time.

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It's already this big production, so now they've gotta monetize it.

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Well, if you think about it in advance, you don't necessarily have

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to turn that faucet on, but you can start to build the plumbing.

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You can build the infrastructure to make sure that you're ready

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to turn it on when you do.

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So three has to do, uh, with, uh, the experience that you're creating

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for your, your listeners, or excuse me, number check that you can see.

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I'm, I'm going back and forth here and we're not editing,

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but that number four, okay.

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Is supporting your business and your growth goals.

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Number five.

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What positive influence or transformation do you aim to create in your listeners?

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Now, this goes back to now we probably could have swapped these around and

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switched 'em up a little bit, but this goes back to that experience one, right?

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So it's another thing.

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What kind of transformation do you wanna have?

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Now, I think about experience.

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Experience is, uh, a one episode type thing, right?

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What, what can you make them?

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Experience in one episode.

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Now a transformation, it's gonna be really hard to create a

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transformation over one episode.

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But if someone creates a habit out of listening to your show, if someone is

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consistently tuning into your show week in and week out, well then you have an

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opportunity to create a transformation.

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So what does that look like, right?

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That's huge.

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Okay, so.

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We're jumping around a little bit, but hopefully this is giving you

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some ideas and, and if you've thought about these, these things, great.

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If you haven't, that's okay.

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Right?

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Um, reach out to me.

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If you guys want this document, I put it in a Word doc and I

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can just share that with you.

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Find me on LinkedIn or Twitter, and, and I'll, I'll send it to you.

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The next couple of questions tend to talk about metrics and and measurement,

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because another big thing to think about at the beginning is how are we

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going to know if we're successful?

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And we, it's really helpful to decide that at the beginning and to not make

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up the rules or pick the score at the end because you may not stick to.

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That's scorecard in the sense that you may decide that you're gonna

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track downloads and you're gonna track rankings to see if your show is working.

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And you may decide that three months in, six months in that those are not the

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metrics that you want to track, but that still doesn't mean that you shouldn't

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track those things or that that tracking doesn't provide any value because it does.

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You're able to have a benchmark, you're able to have a, some sort

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of barometer on where you're at.

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So once again, even if you're not sure what's gonna be the final metric

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or kt I or the final thing, pick something and then assess and think

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about, okay, is this, once again, is this actually leading toward my goals?

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Is this actually helping towards, uh, creating the effect that I want,

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the transformation that I want, but, Question number six is how do you

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envision your podcast success in terms of reach, engagement, influence?

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And this is a good question to ask because a lot of people, they come

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in thinking they wanna be a Joe Rogan or they wanna be, you know, the next

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call her daddy, or whatever it is.

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And that's, that's great.

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And knowing that you want to do that is helpful and then some people don't.

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But, but knowing what that looks like, knowing what you know, what

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does your vision look like, who, where, where do you aspire to be,

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I think is also really helpful.

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Right?

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And, and to not.

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Set your sights too low either, so what do you envision?

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And then seven, question seven is, if that's the vision, what

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metrics can you track to make sure that you are getting there, right?

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If your, if your vision is you wanna impact, You know, millions of people.

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Well, if you're gonna do that, you're gonna need to start getting listens

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and downloads and subscribers.

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So once again, that's not the end all be all.

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But it can start to tell you if things are going in the right direction.

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Because if you see growth, you know you're doing something right.

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If you're not, well then.

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It's not that you're doing something wrong per se, or that your content

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isn't good enough or not worthy enough.

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What it usually means is we need to do something differently.

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We need to change it up.

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We need to tweak, we need to evolve, we need to adjust.

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Uh, and that can happen in a variety of ways, but tracking your metrics

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is really helpful so that you know whether or not things are working.

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So number seven is what quantifiable metrics are You gonna track?

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Some just, uh, some, um, ideas for you just to kind of throw a little more out.

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There are, you know, the obvious ones are downloads, subscribers.

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Other ones that I like to do are things like watch time or completion

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percentage or, uh, unique subscribers or unique listeners, right?

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All those things start to, to give a little bit better of a picture of

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what's actually going on with the show.

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Number eight, how are you gonna create meaningful connections and

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partnerships through your podcast?

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Because this is huge for a lot of newer hosts and even people

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who are already in the game.

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But a lot of times we get into a podcast thinking that our audience

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is gonna be our customers, or we're gonna monetize our audience when.

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We're actually missing the biggest opportunity, especially early on,

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which is not necessarily the listeners, but it's actually the guests and the

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relationships that can be cultivated between those conversations.

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And, and I, I missed out on this so much and I just thought that because

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I was next to, or I was interviewing somebody, Important that, that, that

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all of a sudden meant that people were gonna think that I was important.

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And, and to an extent that happens a little bit, but that's, that you,

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that's missing the biggest part.

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The, the biggest part of being able to interview or connect or, or have

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a conversation with these people is the relationship that it starts.

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And I've had the opportunity to interview.

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Bestselling authors and, you know, world famous experts and just

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thinking that the interview was the value that I was gonna get.

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That I was, and I, and I, and I asked great questions and I learned

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a lot and I took in a lot of notes, but I didn't do any follow up.

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I didn't reach out again afterwards.

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I didn't say thank you, you know, enough times.

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And, and I'm re I really kick myself in, you know, for it.

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And I've gotta give myself a little grace, but, That is, that is such

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a big part of podcasts that I was missing out on for for years, right?

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Until really recently did I start to see the value of that.

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So, How are you gonna create connections and partnerships through your show?

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Number nine is what challenges or pitfalls do you foresee?

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Right?

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What sort of things can you think through that you, you know, you might run into,

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whether it's time or money or consistency.

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I mean, there are things that if you think through it enough, you can go,

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well, that might be a problem, that might be a challenge, and how can you start

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to build in solutions and frameworks and things to, to stay ahead of that.

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The last question, number 10 is how are you going to do this consistently?

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How are you gonna, how are you gonna make sure that week in and week out

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that you're able to consistently put out an episode, right?

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Or, or, or whatever your cadence is.

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But how can you stay consistent?

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What are, what are the things that you can do, whether it's mentally,

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emotionally, pr, physically, financially?

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Like what are the things that you can start to do and put in

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place that are really gonna help?

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These are 10 questions that.

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I know spanned all over the board and we're a little, you know, I,

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I apologize for them not being in the most logical of orders, but.

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These questions can really help.

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So I'm curious for you, are there any that resonate, especially with you?

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If there are, come let me know on Twitter or LinkedIn at Hector underscore podcast

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if you've got any value at it today.

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If you've been a part of the Pod fam for a while, we would love a rating or

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review wherever you get your podcast.

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If you know someone who is, has a podcast or is in the midst of starting one,

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I'd love for you to share them, share with them this episode and bring them

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into the pod fam, and, uh, If there's some something that stood out, right?

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I, I hope that there was, but, but take action on something

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and let me know how it goes.

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I, I want to know about your successes, like I mentioned.

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Come find me on LinkedIn or Twitter and let's chat about it.

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But I appreciate you being here as always, and par as the pa pod fam and I appreciate

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you bearing with this unedited episode because we're just throwing it up there to

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make sure that you guys know that you guys are important and I appreciate you so.

Hector:

Thanks for being here.

Hector:

Thanks for sticking with me.

Hector:

We'll see you on the next one later, y'all.

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