10/13/2022
Imagine for a minute that you are a person that is responsible for producing a podcast, and doing so is how you earn your living.
There are questions you are likely asking yourself every day:
If you are the ambitious, go-getting type, you might answer some of these questions for yourself. Otherwise you’re going to look to other people for answers.
How do other people in the podcast industry define success? How do they know if a show is “good” or not?
The leaders in this space are the people answering those questions, or at least trying to answer those questions.
Audience growth and income seem to be the primary metric for a lot of people. We have top charts, and revenue.
But have we considered other metrics?
Do you determine the success of your life only based on income and audience growth? Shouldn’t there be other considerations?
How might things be different if we approached defining the success of a podcast in terms of the strength and health of the relationship between the producer/hosts of the show and the show’s audience? What kind of data would you need to determine if you were building healthy relationships with an audience, and if you are helping them have healthy relationships with each other?
What could you do to create new relationships in a healthy, sustainable way? What resources would you need to support those relationships?
How would you know if it was time to end a show and the relationship? What’s the best way to do that with the least amount of damage? Could you do something more to help the producers and the audience find a replacement show?
Do you have the answers to all of these questions written down somewhere people can reference them and talk about them and debate them?
This is the opportunity I see, and I think it’s worth thinking about if you want to be a leader in podcasting.