← The How To Podcast Series - Podcast Co-Hosts, Practical Podcast Tips, and Podcast Community
The How To Podcast Series - Podcast Co-Hosts, Practical Podcast Tips, and Podcast Community
E578 - Crafting Your Podcast Vision - The Podcaster’s Path, 24 Steps from Beginner to Pro
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Okay, we're rolling. Hey, welcome back to the how to Podcast series. It's Dave with you. Glad you're here. We're doing The Podcaster's Path 24 Steps from Beginner to pro. I'm excited to have you back. We're going to be talking today about our crafting, our vision for our podcast. We need a vision. We need to know where we're going with our show. Very important to establish who we're talking to, what our content's about, but we need a vision like, you know, oh, in a perfect world, in a perfect world, our podcast is going to reach these people, is going to accomplish these things. Crafting a vision is super important right from the beginning. And if you've never done this, then you need to back up a little bit and focus on this. It's a great episode for you. The Podcaster Path 24 steps from beginner to pro. You can always find all of these episodes grouped together into one spot on our YouTube playlist. Links are in the show notes. Head over there if you want to get all of the episodes together. Glad you're here. So I'm recording these episodes February 13th and 14th, 2026, in a 24 hour span. Every hour on the hour between going live on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn. I'm also recording episodes, recording, editing and posting them within the hour for each hour for 24 hours straight. So it's 2:30 in the afternoon right now and I'm recording this and I've been going since 10am this morning. I still have a long way to go, but we're doing this in order and if you're listening later, all that's not very relevant for you. But just so you have an idea, this is what is happening behind the scenes and it's a lot of fun to do this. So why am I doing this? Well, because I gave myself this challenge at the beginning of the year to do something different to break me out of my routine. So talk about breaking yourself out of a routine. This is going to do it. I'm excited to talk about creating your podcast vision. Let's get into the conversation. When we talk about crafting the vision for your podcast, this is where the show stops being just an idea in your head, in your heart, and it actually starts becoming something that listeners can actually find, understand, and want to in their lives. This is more than picking a clever name for your podcast. It's about deciding what your show stands for and how clearly that comes across the very first time someone sees it in an app and presses play. Think back to any time you changed a show name, shifted the artwork, or rewrote a description and suddenly thought, oh wait, that's what this podcast really is. Often the first version of your podcast is kind of vague, especially if you do it on your own without any feedback. You're just creating the show and you hope for the best. When you create your show, you just don't have that kind of direction. As you gain clarity about your show though, you unlike who you serve, who's listening to this show, and why the show exists, the branding starts to click and the name feels more obvious. Obvious if you need to make a change too, but it becomes more obvious. The COVID art matches the vibe and the tone of the show, and the description sounds like something your ideal listener would say out loud about you in their words, not your words in their words. How they would describe you to their friends, how they would tell people about your podcast. That's how your description begins to sound over time. And you can go ahead and fix this anytime you want. The fact that you set up your show the way you did when you first did doesn't mean it's locked like that. You can go in and change and tweak things often if you need help with that. HowToPodcast CA a strong podcast vision starts with clear, benefit driven titles and descriptions. The podcast itself needs to be public facing. I know a lot of podcasts where the podcaster is navel gazing. Navel gazing. They're just so focused on themselves that they almost forget that they have an audience that somebody's going to listen to this. They just get on and do their thing. It's like a verbal diary journal they're doing in real time. And if somebody listens, they'd be shocked. Like, oh, somebody's actually listening to this. I just thought I was recording because I want to hear my own voice. That does happen. You can easily slippery slope into that where you just create because you love hearing yourself talk. Now that's not a great premise for a show because nobody's connecting with that. As an audience member, your show name, the tagline, and everything about your show should answer in plain language, who is this podcast for and what will they get from this podcast? If a stranger can't tell in three seconds what problem you solve, what stories you tell, or what transformation you offer through this podcast, they're just going to go right past you and move on to the next one. The same goes for your show description. Instead of listing everything that you Might talk about focus on the core promise and what regular listeners can expect week after week or episode after episode. After you've kind of come to that realization, I want you to layer in a few simple brand choices for your show. There's three. Here we go. Brand choice number one, the tone of your show. Are you a calm and reflective person as the host of your show? Are you high energy and playful? Are you direct and tactical? Your tone should match your topic. Your tone should match the content. The tone should match your audience that you're desiring to reach. Your first simple brand choice is your tone of your show. I don't hear people talking about this in podcasting. They don't. The tone of your show matters. That needs to come at the beginning and that's why we're doing it early in this 24 episode series, because you need to spend some time figuring out the tone of your podcast. The second one, as far as a simple brand choice, that really matters, is your cover art and how that makes people feel. The colors you use are intentional, not because you love that color, but because it has meaning. It has something about it. And then when you compare your show to all the other shows that talk about what you talk about, you want your show to stand out. You want it to be different. You don't want it to blend in with everyone else if everyone else is light blues and grays. Don't do light blue and gray. Pick something different. So when I look at my phone in a sea of sameness where everybody's copying each other, you stand out. Doesn't have to be absurd colors, but it has to be different. It's got to be something that people would be interested in. And I hear podcasters say this a lot. I totally agree with this. People will see you before they hear you. So you need something that stands out on a player app because nothing plays automatically. Somebody has to use their thumb, push a button and hit play. What makes people push your podcast and play button? You start with your cover art. Think about the colors you use, the fonts you use, imagery that's in your podcast cover. It's all got to fit your tone, which we just talked about. It's got to match the tone of your show. One strong idea is better than a crowded design with way too much and it's way too busy. Make it simple, make it straightforward. Make it easy for people to understand at a glance. People are busy. They don't have time to do a breakdown of your artwork. They make a decision whether or not to buy when you see something, a lot of people are looking by impulse. When you go grocery shopping, I can tell you there's things in that buggy in front of you that were not on your list. Those are impulse items. Your podcast is an impulse item. Nobody comes to podcasting because of the name of your show. They don't even know you yet. So your show has to jump off the shelf and into somebody's cart. That's when we cover art. The last part here, under simple brand choices, is the episode length for your show. So, yes, I'm going to say this out loud and it's going to sound really weird, but length matters. It does matter how long your show is. Now. What doesn't matter is if you're famous, you can do whatever you want. Joe Rogan can do whatever he wants. Why? Because he's Joe Rogan. You could have a 12 hour podcast if he wants and people would still listen because he's Joe Rogan. Now, is that a great model for you and your show with no audience and you've never done this before? No. That's not a good pattern to emulate. You need to make your time to understand. Again, going back to the tone, the COVID art, and your audience. How long is a good length of episode? So that's the question, Dave, what is the great ideal length for a podcast episode? I hear everybody talking about it needs to be the length of a regular commute. A commute from where? Like My commute is 15 minutes to work. My wife's commute is like seven and a half minutes. I used to drive three hours to work one way. So a commute is. That's not a great factual foundation for creating the length of your episode. We need to decide on a default range. For example, 10 to 15 minutes is snackable. 30 to 40 minutes, more of a deeper conversation, something that we can really sink into and keeps us company so listeners know what kind of time commitment they have and the gaps in their calendar they're trying to fill. So if I walk my dog for seven minutes, I'm looking for a seven minute podcast or a 14 minute podcast that I can listen to on two walks. People will adjust. It's fine. What I would tell you is make sure that your podcast is the right length. How long is a rope? As long as it needs to be right. How long are pants? As long as they. They fit right. Your podcast just needs to fit, have enough content to make it last. Don't go too long, don't put too much content in there. If you can break your podcast into four different podcasts instead of one mega podcast. You'll get better listen time, better engagement by making it smaller. So don't be afraid of shorter podcasts and don't think you have to emulate Joe Rogan because it's not going to work for you because you're not Joe Rogan. Three Hour podcasts not required in Podcasting Just keep that in mind as you get started in podcasting. You need a clear picture of who you are talking to, how you're going to help them, and how that should look and feel in their podcast app. Here's your action step. I want you to draft out one show description for an upcoming episode, three to four sentences, and a working title for that episode that clearly says who this episode is for and what it's going to deliver the promise that you're making to your audience. Then share it with one trusted person or an inside a podcast community like our meetup group, for example, which you're invited to anytime. Come join us and then ask them, what do you think this show is about and why would or wouldn't you listen to this podcast just based on the words, the title of the episode and the description, the promise. And then their reaction is really going to help you to refine your vision until it truly clicks. Dream out loud. Build in public. Don't be afraid to show people a messy middle. Let people in, people that you trust. They care about you. They want to see you succeed. Surround yourself with good people. Surround yourself with someone who is there to challenge you. Surround yourself with people who are there to cheer you on and surround yourself with people who can coach you. These are three people that every podcaster needs and I'd encourage you to find these people. And if you need help finding them, reach out to me. I've got some great friends in podcasting who could love to help you. HowToPodcast Cat, you're now crafting and building up your podcast vision for your podcast, part of the 24 steps from beginner to Pro of the Podcaster's path. I'm glad you're here. We've got a long way to go on this path we just started, so stick with me. Come back. We've got a next episode coming up next. Appreciate you being here. Take care. If you're looking for more information about podcasting and you're looking for a community around podcasting, come check out howtopodcast ca. It's my website where everything we do around podcasting, this show, our community or meetup resources. There's a lot of great stuff there for you. A whole list of free tools that you can use as a podcaster to save yourself some money. That's based on my website, podcastforfree.com which just leads you back to my regular website. And if you want any more information as well, there's a calendar link on my website website where you and I can meet anytime. It's always there. It's always available. Whatever you see available on your end. I'm ready to talk podcasting with anybody. I'd love to help you no matter what your questions are. We can grab a virtual coffee and we can talk through what your big idea is. Maybe some of your struggles in podcasting, maybe some motivational things, maybe some growth things. Happy to help you over at how to Podcast. Come check out the website. Let's connect. Stick around because we have a bunch more episodes here on The Podcaster's Path. 24 episodes here in a row. That's meant to be kind of your starting point for your journey as a podcaster or if you're going to start a new show or you want to refresh your journey and catch up on maybe some of the things you might have missed. That's what this show's about. I'm glad you're here. My name is Dave. Love to help you reach out anytime. HowToPodcast CA take care. Talk soon.