One of the hardest decisions to make is deciding what to talk about on your podcast. With lots of ideas floating around its difficult to choose one or a few. Lots of questions floating in your head like will it help me build an audience? Will people like it? Am I good enough? All these and more are running wild in your mind.
But if you take a step back and look at the situation the real issue is not about your ideas. The real issue is insecurity. You are not sure if podcasting or social media can help you to tell your story.
The fear of not knowing the end result is crippling. Criticism is something that can make you hide. But hiding and running away won’t make you find the answers to your questions. Being curious will.
In Seth Godin’s book poke the box he says the greatest skill a person can have is initiative. Taking the initiative to ship what you’re working on. Poking the box and try to figure out how it works. The more you do it, the more comfortable you’ll be with the idea. The better you’ll get at doing.
Austin Kleon calls it being an amateur in his book share your work. Always have an open mind to learning new things. And then trying them in public to learn what works for you.
So you see deciding what to talk about is not the issue. Because your aim is always to share a story that solves a problem for your customers. Or in other cases talk about what you’re interested in. Once you do that and analyzing the reaction to your work is a better approach.
How do you choose the best ideas?
It all starts with who will enjoy the idea and who you think your ideal listener is. What I mean by that is choose the ideas that help you show customers how you can help them. How your product/service helps them. If you’re not selling anything choose ideas that interest them.
Start with those ideas first. Because you will get to the heart of the matter. You will gain trust over time. It also helps if you are passionate about those ideas as well.
So what do you do with the other ideas?
Group them. That is it. If they have a similar theme group them for use later. It can be a series of episodes. It can be a talking point on your podcast. Even the ideas you’re going to start with group them. Then turn them into podcast episodes. So spend some time to group the ideas and plan out your shows.
But don’t forget the most important thing, record it, and publish it.