Your Podcast Focus Based on Your Podcaster Type
Today, I want to talk all about the four different types of podcast hosts. In this week’s blog, I am sharing insight on the four types of podcasters I’ve seen throughout my years of teaching and helping entrepreneurs grow their podcasting platform. This is an important topic because you should know where you’re currently at as a podcast host and where you want to go.
In case this is your first time tuning in, let me introduce myself. My name is Tara Counterman. I’m the founder and CEO of Profitable Podcast Productions, the creator of Profitable Podcast School and basically, 1000% obsessed with helping online entrepreneurs step out of the busywork, stop struggling for paying clients and actually get their message out there.
So if you’re ready to dive into this post and hear more about the four types of podcast hosts, check out the points I share below!
TYPES OF PODCAST: THE FIRST TYPE OF PODCASTER IS THE WANT TO BE.
This is the very first type of podcaster and an obvious one. It’s the Want to Be podcaster. In my experience, this stage is the longest stage most people keep themselves stuck. They have this idea of launching but they sit on it without taking action. So they sit and wait months and months. If you are in this category, the biggest thing you need to focus on is launching your podcast. Yes, there is planning and tech behind it. When I created my first program, the Profitable Podcast School, I threw so much information at my students and they struggled with being able to implement. They felt like they had to perfect everything before they could get started.
So if you feel you are the Want to Be podcaster, we must focus on the basics and we know we will go through this path and build. You have to start somehow, so go with the basics. Your goal is going to be planning your launch and getting between 4-10 episodes ready. When we think about podcasting, we want to think about it like Netflix. Netflix doesn’t release shows one at a time like cable tv, it’s a binge-able platform. They want you to get hooked and connect with the characters, the story, it takes more than one episode. This same principle can be applied when it comes to launching your podcast. You don’t want to launch with only 1-2 episodes, you want a built and binge-able platform.
This may seem like a lot of content, but what you can do is make sure you’re batching. The Want to Be podcaster needs to become a batching professional to get things done quickly and effectively. The more we take on one task at a time, we are losing efficiency. It’s not that you have to be a robot but you’ll want to get good at batching. When we can focus more on recording, graphics all at once, we’ll be so much more effective with our time. This is so important for you because you want to be sure you get your show launched and don’t get stuck in overwhelm. The person getting ready to launch can get overwhelmed really quickly, if this is you, I completely understand. I was there, it took me months of research and learning all the tech details to podcasting. The reason for that was because I thought I had to do everything at once, this is why in my membership I break down launching in 14 days.
PODCAST FOCUS: THE SECOND TYPE IS THE TRADITIONAL PODCASTER.
If you are a Want to Be podcaster, you go through any of our programs or courses, this won’t be you. However, the Traditional podcaster is someone who has already launched but hasn’t been strategic in doing so. They don’t have a lot of planning or strategies going on behind their podcast, and they tend to mimic what others are doing in the podcast space. I’ve been working on auditing a lot of podcasts and something I hardly see is that high-level business strategy.
The Traditional podcaster typically just launched to have a podcast or maybe they had a coach suggest that they create one. If you are in this stage, you have to focus on evaluating what your current elements are. Also, figure out whether those were intentionally created or if you’re truly addressing what your ideal client needs to hear. As a Traditional podcaster, this is your time to take a deep breath and evaluate what you have been doing, why you’ve been doing it, and how you can improve from this point. You also want to make sure you have effective systems in place for organization, batching, and not wasting valuable time. A lot of the same qualities for the Want to Be podcaster will apply to this because they’re both doing things without strategies or plans.
PODCAST FOCUS: THE THIRD TYPE IS THE HOLISTIC PODCASTER.
The Holistic podcaster is someone who is starting to incorporate launch strategy into their podcast. I just had a call recently with someone who I’d classify as a Traditional podcaster, and the whole time during our intensive, we focused on moving her from that traditional space to a more holistic approach. For me, utilizing your podcast in a holistic way for your business is all about taking a look at your entire business, the way you’re creating content, the way you’re showing up for your audience, and implementing your podcast into all those things. The Holistic podcaster is bringing that launch strategy and implementing ads for themselves. I see with a lot of podcasters, usually the traditional mindset, they are hoping to grow their show so that one day they can have sponsorships and people will pay them to put their ads within the show.
As for holistic, you are focusing on promoting your services and the things you offer. You have to evaluate, the Holistic podcaster is constantly evaluating what they are launching and working on to incorporate into their podcast strategy. They are also starting to think about leveraging guest interviews for affiliate marketing, appearing on other people’s podcasts with affiliate marketing, and they are being more strategic in the way they structure their episodes. A huge misconception that I see is that launching is only during that period where your cart is open. Launching happens so much more before that, we have to prime and nurture our audience to get them to a place where they can say yes to what your offer is.
PODCAST FOCUS: THE FOURTH TYPE IS THE CEO PROFITABLE PODCASTER.
The CEO podcaster is when the only thing they have their hands on in regards to their podcast is recording and planning. They’re only concerned with planning the content to align with launches, then having everyone else handle the rest. A CEO Profitable podcaster has a team of support that understands their vision, how to leverage the podcasting platform so they can be fully supported and not have to worry about all the details. A CEO podcaster can sit down when they’re planning their launch, batch record their episode content, and have their team create the rest of the launch content. When you are podcasting through the holistic lens, we’re always able to repurpose our content and promote our podcast.
I see this happen a lot where podcasters spend all this time recording and editing but then they don’t promote the show when it’s launch time. They are talking about separate topics and not strategically planning as they record their podcast content. So with the CEO Profitable podcaster, they can plan and map out their launches. They don’t have to keep saying the same thing over again. Their team knows how to take their voice and message and be able to amplify that even more. It’s so vital you stay in your zone of genius, and that doesn’t have to be worrying about repurposing content, you can outsource that to someone else. This is also when you’re able to spend 30 minutes up to an hour in front of the microphone and pull multiple social captions, emails, shownotes, or even a blog post all from that. You can also share the podcast on Pinterest, use it as a guest blog, or even a PR feature. You are taking that recording and also turning it into IGTV videos, repurposing that one piece of content in so many ways.
The CEO Profitable podcaster also knows time is something they can’t get back, therefore they are willing to invest. They’ve gone through the journey and they know they’re able to create more by being intentional when they sit down in front of the microphone. They also know they can leverage money to create more while saving more time. Especially with repurposing and podcasting, there’s so many things we could be doing. We could make our lives so much easier, but we let this mindset block of paying to get help stop us. Whether that’s someone like our agency, Profitable Podcast Productions, or you building your internal team to help. The CEO Profitable podcaster knows this investment is worth it because long-term they get their time back.
YOUR PODCAST FOCUS BASED ON YOUR PODCASTER TYPE: THE BOTTOMLINE
I hope you found this blog post helpful. I want you to make sure that if you are a Want to Be podcaster, you aren’t getting overwhelmed and keeping yourself from starting. Jump in and take action. If you are a Traditional podcaster, don’t be afraid to change things up. There is a way you can leverage your podcast so much more. If you’re a Holistic podcaster, I am so proud of you! I am so glad you’re able to leverage your podcast for your launches and structuring your episodes in a way that makes sense. If you’re ready to be a CEO Profitable podcaster, focus on leveraging your time, creating content, and making so much more from that.
And if you love this blog post as much as I do, don’t forget to take a screenshot, share it on your Insta stories and tag me @profitablepodcastproductions so that we can spread this important message to even more entrepreneurs and online business owners!
