American business magazine, Forbes estimates the average person is exposed to 4,000 – 10,000 ads per day. The demand for our attention has never been higher. Yet, the average person only has an 
attention span of around 8 seconds. Attention has never been more valuable.
According to Edison Research, the average podcast listeners spends 5 hours per week listening to podcasts. With attention in such short supply, podcast listeners have never been more valuable.
In this article we’ll discuss how to make your podcast more valuable to your listeners.
Here’s what we’ll cover:
- Show your listeners you care
- If you care, you'll prepare
- Consistency is caring
Show your listeners you care
Do you care about your listeners? Of course you do, otherwise you wouldn’t invest money and time into creating a podcast for them. One of the best ways to show our listeners we care is to show up every week consistently. When we're consistently delivering value to our listeners, they reward us with their attention. The best way to stay consistent with your podcast is to have a set schedule for creating your show. Now let’s take a look at a value robbing mistake we must avoid at all costs.
If you care, you'll prepare
Imagine you were standing on a stage, in front of 300 people, lights shining down on you, and you go blank. You forgot your whole presentation and don't know what to say. How embarrassed would you feel?
It's absolutely terrifying. How do I know? Because this happened to me. I was asked to do a presentation at the last minute and stayed up all night preparing a new talk. When I got on stage I forgot everything I was going to say. I ended up fumbling through my presentation giving my audience zero value. I still wake up some nights in a cold sweat remembering this fiasco. The problem was I tried to do it all at once
Trying to get everything done at the same time is the absolute worst way to put together a presentation. The crazy part is, I see podcasters doing this all the time. First, they don't prepare. Then they sit down and turn on a mic. That's when they cross their fingers, and hope they sound smart. This approach will leave you with an embarrassing podcast that delivers zero value to your audience. If you care, you'll prepare. Now, let's take a look at how you can get maximum value from minimum time invested into your podcast.
Consistency is caring
Trying to do everything all at once is crazy. Good news: There's an easy fix that will help you deliver a consistent podcast for your listeners. Instead of pulling an “all-nighter” to get everything done, try breaking it up into smaller pieces. Here's a simple system you can use to create a valuable podcast for your listeners in only 2 hours per month:
- Monday: Choose topics for your show (5 minutes per topic x 4 topics = 20 minutes)
- Tuesday: Find stories that work with each show and outline (10 min per outline x4 = 40 minutes)
- Thursday: Record your shows (4 shows x15 min per show = 1 hour)
Being consistent is the best way to show your listeners you care about them.Using this simple system you can record a month of podcasts in as little as two hours. It sounds impossible, but many of my clients have used this exact system to stay months ahead on their podcasts. We covered a lot of ground, so let's have a quick recap.
Make your podcast more valuable to your listeners
To keep our listeners attention we need to show up consistently. But, being consistent isn't enough. That's why we need to prepare a good show full of interesting stories that keep our listeners hooked. Creating a valuable podcast is a lot of work, that's why most successful hosts break up the planning and the recording into separate smaller pieces. This makes it easy to deliver valuable podcast consistently without stressing out.
Next Steps:
In this article we talked about creating a month of podcasts in only 2 hours. Right now that might sound crazy to you, but I assure you it's not. Check out this interview with podcaster Justin Wise to see how our team supported his podcast while he focussed on growing his business.
When you're ready to plus a podcast into your business without worrying about all the behind the scenes grunt work, I can show you how it works. Book a 30 minute call with me and I'll show you how you can plug and play with our podcasting system
