Think for a minute about all the dozens of targeted ads that chase you around the internet every day.
Whether it’s on Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, or Google the companies behind the ads have clearly identified you as one of their ideal target customers.
But despite their certainty, how many of those ads do you click through on, let alone actually buy the product on the other side?
If you’re like me, not many.
No matter how persistent these companies are in trying to command our attention, we as consumers have the final say when it comes to deciding whether or not to engage with them.
The same is true of your relationship with your podcast audience.
While you can choose a niche, industry, or genre to operate in, you don’t get to choose your individual listeners.
Instead, they choose you.
If you want to grow your podcast, then, it helps to know why someone might choose your show among all the other similar shows they could subscribe to.
A lot of podcast creators behave as though their content is the primary thing attracting new listeners.
But it turns out, content is only one small part of why listeners to subscribe to a podcast.
Chances are there are dozens of places across the internet they can get similar content, after all.
Instead, the biggest reason people subscribe to a podcast is because of the host.
Specifically, the connection, affinity, or resonance they feel with the host.
This connection has very little to do with the content you share, and almost everything to do with who you are.
As a podcast host.
But also as a person.
Warts, quirks, idiosyncrasies, and all.
Unfortunately, most creators have no idea how to identify the unique traits that actually attract people to them.
Or worse, they cover up those quirks and idiosyncrasies because they don’t think they’re relevant to their content.
As a creator, this is one of the biggest mistakes you can make.
Here’s why…
If you look at the most successful creators in any niche or medium, you’ll find that they’re rarely creating the best content in the space.
Nor were they the first people to talk about their topic.
Usually, they’re repurposing, remixing, and building on the work of other creators before them.
What top creators always have, however, is a strong awareness of their personal superpowers and differentiators that give them an unfair advantage over everyone else making similar content.
And instead of covering up these unique traits, they build them into every aspect of their shows.
In doing so, they create a podcast that’s impossible to replicate and eliminate all potential for competition.
Because no one beat them at being themselves.
And no one can beat you at being you.
What might happen if instead of minimizing, avoiding, and actively removing yourself from your podcast, you leaned into the unique traits, perspectives, and experience that only you possess?
I can’t guarantee it, but I’d be willing to bet there are more than a few people for whom you might just become their very favourite voice on your topic.
But for them to find out, you have to speak up.
