Is Your Podcast a Painkiller?

I'm going to give you two scenarios here, and I want you to think about what you would do. In the first you go to the doctor and everything looks good, but the doctor gives you some recommendations. One is to start eating healthier because maybe some of your blood work showed that, uh, you have high cholesterol or your blood sugar was a little bit high. And the second was to start taking a multivitamin, something that will give you the nutrients that you're not getting from your current diet. And you think that's all well and good, but then you go to order a bottle on Amazon, or you are at the grocery store and you think. Uh, that's more money than I want to spend in. Am I really going to take. Two or four pills in some cases. Every morning. Uh, when I could just maybe change my lifestyle. And so you skip out on the vitamins. It's something that, you know, you should do, but you're not going to start doing. Now I want you to think about this situation. Let's say you wake up. It is a Tuesday morning. You have a lot of work to do. Maybe you have to record your podcast, but you have a splitting headache. A headache so bad, you can't really concentrate. And you think maybe it'll go away. Maybe I just need some water. Maybe I need some coffee. But you also reach for the bottle of ibuprofen. And you take two, maybe three, depending on the dose. Uh, pills of that. Because you currently have a pain and you want it resolved. I'm guessing a lot of us tend to take those pain killers. More often than we take the vitamins. And that's what I want to talk about with you today. I want to ask you. Is your podcast. A vitamin. Or a painkiller. Is it something your listeners feel that they should listen to? Or is it something they need to listen to? I think. If you answered vitamin. You should strongly consider making it a painkiller.

Having a profitable podcast is like having any other profitable business. You need to make money. Sure. But you also need to grow. You need to spend your time wisely. And you need predictability. A couple of sponsors won't make you a profitable podcaster. But having systems to stay consistent. Create steady growth and generate predictable income will. That's what you'll get with this show. Hi, I'm your host, Joe Casabona and my podcasts have been profitable from day one. I'll share everything i know with you here on the profitable podcaster

All right. I hope you're doing well. I want to tell you a little bit about vitamins and painkillers and why I think. Your podcast should be a painkiller. So this, this analogy is a very often used when it comes to startups, businesses. Or products and there is a great article by Kyle Sandberg over on medium. That I will link to in the show notes for this episode, which you can find over at three O. I'm sorry, you can find it over@profitablepodcaster.fm slash 3 0 7. You can also find it in your podcast app of choice right now. Uh, but he talks about the difference between vitamins and painkillers and he, he breaks it down in this neat little table. Right? So a vitamin is a nice to have it improves an existing solution. And it's something that you should. Do. Examples he uses are, this is very app centric technology centric. And so the examples he gives are. To do list apps. Fitness trackers. Uh, or the app next door. These are all nice to haves. They improve a solution, right? Some people would consider a podcast transcripts, a vitamin. I think it's a painkiller, but that's neither here nor there. So, when you think about the things that you consume in your life, how many of them are nice to have how many improve an existing solution versus the painkiller? The painkiller? Is a need to have it solves an unmet customer need. And it's something that the person, the customer, the listener. Once. To use. So examples, he gives here. Our Google maps. Amazon echo and Lyft and Uber. Again, these are maybe painkillers for him. Google maps, I think certainly is one. So is Lyft and Uber, right? If you. Uh, if you don't have a ride from the airport, Lyft or Uber. Are going to be a massive pain killer for you. Uh, and then he goes on to talk about. Uh, building killer products, right. And, and. He makes it, he asks you, what are your favorite products and what makes them so special? So he talks about the first, his first iPhone. Spotify Netflix. Uh, overcast and dark chocolate, right? There are other product products that have unmet needs, but these are the ones that stood out to him. And I think this is really important, right? Because you might say looking at this list. Spotify. Is a vitamin, not a painkiller, but he talks about the importance of streaming music and choosing the music that he wants to listen to. And how Spotify makes it easy for him to find that and find new music. So. Going into this. Painkillers and vitamins are going to be subjective. Right? So. Uh, for me. I would say that my stream deck. Is a painkiller. Because it makes me do a lot of things. Uh, it helps me do a lot of things a lot easier than I normally would. I think descript, which is what I'm recording this episode in is a painkiller. Because. Editing a podcast is literally painful for me. I usually hire it out. I usually, so I have an editor for my other podcast. But descript makes editing this podcast. A lot easier. So. I want you to think about this? What is your podcast? Because here's the thing. Let's start here actually. Think about the podcast that you listened to. Are they for fun? Are they for growth? There's probably a mix. But. If you're like 74% of podcast listeners, you listen to podcasts to learn new things. And I think that's why your podcast should be a painkiller. I've talked about the need for defining a mission statement. In that mission statement. The first thing we talk about. Is who you help and what problem you solve. This position is your podcast to be a painkiller. It should solve someone's problem to the point where they need to listen to every episode. One example of this for me. Was. Nicholas skull Lisa's landing page school podcast. I was terrible. Terrible. At making landing pages. Terrible. But thanks to his podcast. I, I actually don't think he's producing it anymore. But it ran its course. Um, Thanks to his podcast. I started building much better landing pages. So, yeah, he stopped producing this in 2021. Uh, 2021. And some people would say, but. There were a lot of, there was a lot of great content and very short. I think that's the perfect, like a perfect mini podcast. So landing page school was a painkiller for me. If we look at some of my other podcasts. Uh, 1865 that's entertainment. I would say that's a vitamin. Um, of course I listened to it on long car rides. So maybe it was a painkiller, right? Cause it kept me awake and engaged. Uh, advisory opinions as a legal podcast, I would consider this one, a pain killer, because I'm very interested in how our legal system works, especially the. Uh, in the United States, especially the Supreme court. And the hosts, Sarah and David. Uh, make it. Uh, easy to digest. They do a good job of explaining it. Ask pat 2.0. Bad-ass courses. Those are both painkillers for me. And so the list goes on and on most of the podcasts I listened to. Are painkillers. And so I want you to do that exercise, to look at the podcasts you listen to and think about why you listened to them. Are you trying to learn something new or are they solving a problem for you or is it purely entertainment, right. Cereal or a suspect? Um, the Trojan horse files is, is another the Trojan horse affair. Uh, those were entertainment for me. And so those were vitamins and I usually binge those, but my daily drivers are painkillers. So there are a few benefits to making your podcast a painkiller. First of all, you're creating a great product with a specific audience in mind. Again, this is your show's mission statement. If you haven't defined your show's mission statement, you need to do that. Check out. Uh, the episode. Of this podcast where I talk about that, I'll link that in the show notes as well. This will also allow you to connect with potential sponsors who are also solving that problem and trying to reach the same audience. So if your podcast helps people solve a specific problem. Uh, let's say it helps them. Um, Fixed bicycles. Right. So let's say that your podcast is all about how to fix bicycles. Right? These are bicycle enthusiastic. Maybe they have an electric bicycle. And they want to DIY fix themselves, fix it themselves. You are a painkiller for those people, they have a broken bike. They want to maintain it properly. They want to fix it when they can. So maybe you find a sponsor that has like a bicycle fixing kit, or they sell this spout a special wrench to fix. Um, spokes on a bicycle, right? You're both solving the same problem. So there's really good audience alignment there. Uh, and then it will also allow you to build an audience you can sell directly to this could be a product, a course coaching services, whatever best serves your listeners. Because again, if your podcast is solving a problem, And you're helping your listeners solve a problem. They are developing trust in you as the authority. For solving that problem. And so when you're ready to sell a course or consulting or some products, they're going to look to you and they're already going to be a warmed up audience. So by making your podcast a painkiller. Your telling people that you understand their struggle. And you will help them. I think there are a few ways you can do this. One is by building in public. Right? So something I like to do is publicize the experiments. I'm trying with my podcast. Things that I'm doing to maybe get more sponsors or build my mailing list or sell more of my product. So building in public shows people that you are doing the things you're talking about. Number two answering questions you get from your audience. Some of my best content comes from that. People comment on my LinkedIn posts or my blog posts, or they email me with a question. And I put together those questions and every so often I will do. A listener feedback episode. You can do this by repurposing content. I a little behind the scenes work right here. I am building in public. This episode is part of my newsletter already. I was thinking about what I wanted to talk about today. And this came up. I posted it on LinkedIn. Uh, almost verbatim from the newsletter and it's being very well received. And so I thought this is a great topic to cover, no matter what stage of podcasting someone's in, whether you're starting or whether you're a hundred episodes in. You can make some small tweaks to two. Make your podcast, a painkiller. So repurpose your content, show people what you're always talking about. Right. Dickie Bush says you don't want to say a thousand things. You want to say one thing, a thousand different ways. And then do case studies for me on this show. We've had one, I have a few more lined up, but as far as case studies go, I'm doing live coaching calls, right? So I'm recording coaching calls I have, and I'm releasing them as episodes. On this podcast. I'm also working on some content for success stories for people who have gone through. The podcast liftoff program. Or who have gotten one-on-one coaching with me. And then as a result, they've gotten a sponsor of theirs or they've lost, launched their podcast. So these are the things that show people, you understand their problem, you understand their struggles and you can help them a pain killer podcast. Opens up lots of doors for direct and indirect monetization. It opens lots of doors for you to be a consistent podcaster, to put the right systems in place to get. To a point where you are batching your content because you are talking about problems, you know, how to solve. This is why I think a mini podcast is great. And I think your mini podcast should be a painkiller. This I believe is the path for most people. To a profitable podcast. So that's it for this episode. I hope you liked it. Let me know, write in@profitablepodcastor.fm slash feedback. Tell me, is your podcast a vitamin or a painkiller? Have I convinced you. To turn your podcast into a pain killer. Again, that link was profitable podcast or.fm. Slash feedback. Thanks so much for listening. You can find all the show notes over@profitablepodcastor.fm slash 3 0 7. And until next time, I can't wait to see what you make.