Curating your content

Let’s throw down a challenge.

Let’s commit ourselves right now to do 4 months of shows. Sounds like a lot? Actually it’s only 16 shows. 

Scared? Don’t be! 

A lot of podcasters run out of steam too early, before they hit success, because they run out of ideas. 

If you’re planning to make a show people love, you want to plan for the long term right from the start. 

Here’s another reason to make 16 episodes. Statistically, a lot of people give up before their 10th episode. If you stick it out, the vast majority of your competition will have melted away by then. 

But you might be wondering how you’re going to fill so many shows.

How to find ideas

The secret to finding ideas is to live and breathe the topic you’re covering.

This is why it’s so important that you genuinely love your topic.

It doesn’t mean you need to think about it all day long, but if you think about it at least once a day, you’re already on course for a successful show.

When you live and breathe a topic, you find ideas everywhere. Everything you read about it, see about it, or do in relation to it will provide potential content. 

Try this exercise:

Think about what you have done this week in relation to your topic.

Did you: 

• read a book? 
• meet someone? 
• see a TV show about it? 
• talk to a client? 
• listen to another podcast? 

Maybe you dreamt about it, or chatted about it with a friend or coach?

What ideas were you thinking about when that happened? What did you discuss? 

Almost every moment in our lives that relates to our topic could be an idea for an episode. 

Top podcasters and producers walk around with notebooks (electronic or physical) and write down ideas all day long. 

One of our team members has a Google doc full of hundreds of ideas — and growing by the day — for his show. In fact, there are decades of ideas in there!

But what if, even after all that, you feel there still aren’t enough ideas out there? 

Well, think about who you could start meeting or hanging out with in the real world or online that also talks about this topic. You could join a Facebook group, or go to a conference or Meetup group. Are there bloggers out there who write about your topic who you could engage in conversation by commenting on their blog?

You could expand your ideas by going to theater shows, parties, launch events, even night clubs. Would it help to read more books or magazines on the topic? What lectures could you go to? 

The key is to live your topic. Be around it. Experience it.

Still stuck? 

1. Google your topic. 
2. Look at social forums. What are people asking about in relation to this topic? What could you be answering in your episode?
3. Set up a Google alert to inform you when new content appears on the web about your topic area: https://www.google.com/alerts
4. Subscribe to newsletters in your field.
5. Search YouTube.
6. Check the WordPress reader for blogs on the topic.

You can use all these ideas to prompt your own thought process. 

Learning Action

Grab a drink and take a seat in your most comfy chair. 

Open up a notebook or your phone and brainstorm until you have at least 10 episode ideas using the techniques above.