Episode 1 - Serving Your Audience: Providing Value and Differentiation

In this episode, Jon discusses podcast ethos, including the mission statement, target demographic, and purpose. Jon emphasizes the importance of having a clear vision and purpose when starting a podcast. He also explores serving the audience and providing something different from other podcasts in the same genre. The ultimate goal of the podcast can vary, from making an income to serving as a creative outlet. Lastly, Jon encourages listeners to think about these aspects and offers examples throughout the episode.

Takeaways

- Having a clear vision and purpose is crucial when starting a podcast.- Understanding the target demographic helps create content that resonates with the audience.
- Providing something unique and differentiating from other podcasts in the same genre can attract listeners.
- The ultimate goal of a podcast can vary, from making an income to serving as a creative outlet.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction: Exploring Podcast Ethos
02:59 - Why Do You Want to Start a Podcast?
07:24 - Defining Your Target Demographic
12:42 - Providing Something Different from Other Podcasts
16:59 - Setting Your Ultimate Goal
19:21 - Next Episode: Specifics and Genres

Resources

• Download the Wayfare Podcast Strategy Workbook
• Need help with your podcast? CLICK HERE
• Need help starting your podcast? CLICK HERE

Versions

• Check out our video version of the podcast.
• Check out our audio version of the podcast.

Acknowledgments
A big thank you to:

• Kath - Creating the podcast artwork (You can find more of her work here)
• Anna - Wayfare's Admin Assist.
• Matt - Graphics creation for the show
• Dan - Post-production work

For any additional questions, please reach out through this link.

Thank you for listening!

Transcript

Jon (00:03.212)
Hello and welcome to the first episode of the way for recording podcast. this episode, we're going over podcast ethos. if you want to think of it in relation to like a business or, something much more corporate oriented, this is kind of going over the mission statement or the, target demographic definitions, kind of going over the kind of more of the heady stuff as opposed to the, technical.

side of stuff, you know, technical being like what kind of microphone are you going to use? kind of headphones are going to use? stuff like that. So we're kind of going over much more of the, yeah, the more like. Ethereal, guess would be the word for it. and if you want to follow along with this episode, there is a guide, a strategy workbook. got my, got it on my iPad here, which is.

blurry because I'm using the portrait function feature on my camera, but I'm using it, using it along with this recording. And yeah, if you want to download it, check it out. It's on our website, which all that material links will be in either the description of the YouTube video. If you're watching this or in the show notes, if you're listening to it on Spotify, Apple podcasts,

Literally wherever. I hope, yeah. And, if you haven't caught it yet, just one last little bit of housekeeping before we dive in. this is episode one, but there is a technical pilot episode and technically an episode zero. you can find it on YouTube. but if you're watching this off of the website, I'm hoping I can get this on the website as of this recording.

pretty sure I can cause that's the only reason why I'm doing this. you can watch that on YouTube. but you won't find out on the website just because on the website, kind of want to keep it very like consistent and much more cadenced. which it still will be with episode zero. just kind of want to make it much more poignant, of a, series of episodes, I guess, you know, I don't know if that makes sense. It makes sense to me. but.

Jon (02:29.514)
Yeah, let's just get right into it. subscribe, like, leave a review. don't know. much, it's meant to be more resourceful of a series as opposed to like a entertainment fact, function, but it'd be appreciated. but yeah, so podcast ethos page three, cause page two is introductory and page one is the cover. yeah, page three. So podcast ethos, again, this is kind of like your.

heady stuff, what your mission statement is, who your demographic is. and so the first question that you'll find on here is why do you want to start a podcast? So it seems kind of silly. It seems kind of, well, no, if I'm making a podcast and obviously I'm, wanting to start it. And of course, like, because why, because, but it's, it's pretty, it's, it's pretty easy to get kind of caught up in the,

hype, I guess of, of a starting podcast. It's really exciting. It's fun. You get that dopamine hit, you know, if you're kind of into the more neuroscience side of stuff. I kind of am those with podcasts. I listened to like Andrew Huberman and I guess Rich Roll kind of talks about depending on who he interviews, but, it's exciting. It's cool. It's fun. but I mean, if you don't really have like a clear vision and you don't have a clear purpose of it,

I'm trying to remember the exact numbers. And if I remember to look it up and put it on this show notes, maybe I can find a link for it. But I mean, there's kind of the stigma, I guess, in a better way of putting it, there's a stigma amongst podcast producers and groups of people that kind of work on the technical side of editing and publishing and stuff where basically if you make it to like, I think it's episode 10 or 15, you have a pretty strong shot of.

following through and finishing or just like having your podcasts, like just going like, know, episodes like 20, 50, like you'll hit those higher publishing counts. But if you don't make it to, again, those like shorter 10, 15 numbers, it's very easy to do like one episode and drop it. It's very easy to do five episodes and drop it because at that point, again, you're kind of riding the high.

Jon (04:55.709)
Of creating a podcast, you're kind of writing the whole like, is fun. This is whimsical, but you're, you don't have like a clear purpose and you don't have a clear mission. You don't have a clear drive as to why you're making the podcast. And, yeah, you're just kind of running off of the excitement of it. And, so to define clearly, visibly why you're doing it gives you more purpose, gives you much more, freedom to just kind of go for it and do it.

And you're not just like running off of, again, neuroscience, you're not just kind of running off of a chemical, you know, like fun, crazy dopamine rush. so it can be really for anything. like for me, you know, I would write down on my, on my workbook, why do you want to start a podcast? Well, I'm starting this one. I have to, I I'm starting, I guess, technically now I have to, I'm starting this one because I want to inform people. I want to just kind of.

Set the standard. I kind of want to treat this almost like a consulting call. like, you know, I'm talking to everyone, but I'm talking to you. If you're watching video, I'm looking around the camera and I'm looking right at you. Sorry for pointing. That's kind of rude. but like I'm doing it for you. I want to make it much more consultative, consultative, but that's a word, but I want to make it much more consulting oriented. I want to give purpose. I want to give reason. want to show and give proof to you that it is okay to not have a

I almost said a podcast to not have a high end studio, to not have like this crazy thing. Slow fi. I'm using my phone to record. I'm using a sure. I'm B seven. Yeah, that's right. and I'm using Apple earbuds. I typically wouldn't do that, but you know, I want to prove and show that you can make a high end quality podcast. Not a lot. and I want to make it much more consulting. So I want to be informative. That's why I want to be informative for.

client for you. You don't have to be my client. You can just check this out randomly on YouTube if you want to, who's your audience. So that's the next question. Who is your audience? Your, your audience is kind of like your target demographic. so I'll use my other podcast as an example. So me and one of my technicians, I'm an agency podcast agency. Again, you can check out episodes here to get much more, info on who we are, what we do, who the team is.

Jon (07:24.705)
but me and one of my technicians, he's contracted, he's not mine, but he's a friend. He's a friend. Dan, you're working on this, right? need a chill kind of, kind of rambling here right now. me and Dan are, making a beer podcast for Midwesterners. So that's the target audience for our beer show. we want to make a beer podcast.

For Midwesterners to kind of keep up to date on what's going on in the craft beer world. our audience is Midwesterners, Midwestern Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Kansas. I don't know how far, how far out the reaches, for Midwest, but you know, if I didn't include you, I'm sorry. I don't think California is in that region, but yeah.

You know, the other, for this one, it would be my audiences. If I'm being candid and transparent, it's it's, for potential clients. It is for clients. those are probably the two core ones, but you know, it really can be for anyone who, who, wants to make a podcast. So, yeah, that's that, that would be who my audience is like podcast creatives or potential podcast creatives.

yeah, that'd be my audience. think about who your audience is. I can kind of give maybe one more example. you know, it can be really, it can be really, the niche too. So, you know, if you want to use a different example of, media of media, so music could be a media. you know, I used to be in the music production scene very loosely.

But, before I did podcasting, that's what I wanted to do. And a lot of people that I hung around with were kind of like much more of the CCM genre, contemporary Christian music. And that was just kind of the region that I was in in Nashville at the time, but they always kind of wanted to know they get, even gave a name for the person they named her. think it was Betty. She was a,

Jon (09:48.287)
She was a mom of kids who were in soccer, you know, soccer mom, if you want to be stereotyping, I guess. I I don't know if I want to be stereotyping, but, you know, she was a mom of kids in a van and she wanted to listen to music that was uplifting, fun. And,

think that was mostly a, yeah, that sounds about right. but like it got that specific, I guess it my point in saying all that, like it was very specific, certain there was more information, I think like, you know, age range, which was like, I think like 32 to 38 or something like that. I might be making that up, but, material like that. So, you know, if you're like, if you are a, a VP of sales and you want to make a podcast to kind of grow your network,

grow your outreach and I'm speaking more to like B2B people. your, your, podcasts could be for like sales representatives or I don't know, something like that or, true crime. Usually it's kind of the same demographic as, you know, moms who are wanting to listen to a podcast in the car while they watch their kids play soccer from a distance or something. don't know, something like that, but yeah, who's your, who is your audience?

I guess in the business world, they would say like, who's your avatar or, know, something like that. So, yeah, let's keep moving. Cause I kind of rambled on about that one and I definitely picked up on my speech cadence. So, being self -conscious here. So, how do you hope to serve this audience again? Like it's, it's kind of the, it's, it's too informed for this show. some people could say it's to entertain again for like true crime.

if you want to make like a hyper niche podcast for like your, your neighborhood, could be to, update, know, what's going on in your neighborhood. It really can be that niche. and it can be much more detailed. Like I'm just saying to blank to entertain, but like some people can get really detailed, to broaden your network, to, create credibility to, again, these are all twos, but.

Jon (12:09.291)
it can be, ideas like that. So, yeah, let's move on. got one more page. We're on page four of the workbook. Again, you can download it, in the description off our website. You can reach out to me, if you want to, to kind of get the workbook, it really doesn't matter. I hope it's on a link just so it's easy access as opposed to an email communication thing. but the next question is.

What can you provide that is different than other podcasts in this genre? So.

that, that can definitely be a bit of a tricky one because podcasting is just such a broad, medium now, a broad form of entertainment where really like, you know, a podcast or a diamond does, and you type in true crime and you can get like, don't know, thousands of shows I feel like at this point. So it's like, okay, cool. Well, how can I be different about that? And it's really like, I don't know, that's kind of me kind of sharing that it's, it's definitely hard, but.

to kind of get you thinking with examples, you know, for this show, what can you provide that is different than other podcasts in this genre? Mine, mine again, you know, I want to inform and it's different because I want to make this podcast as a low. I keep telling friends and family it's it's lo fi. This is a lo fi podcast. I may have said that in the last episode and earlier in this episode, but.

to re -emphasize it's low -fi. Again, I wouldn't normally use these headphones, AirPods, for referencing. I would use probably much more higher -end like Sony headphones or Audio -Technica headphones, material like that. But like the reason why I want to use these headphones is because I want to inform that the bar doesn't have to be so high. Again, would I recommend these headphones? Probably not. But...

Jon (14:07.243)
Do as I say, not as I do as the ism, right? the phrase, but it's meant to show you that it's not that hard. use a Shure MV7 for this. just cause I've always wanted to try it. I always wanted to use it, but you could use like a Samson Q2U. I think it is. Those are like 80 bucks, because it's not about the microphone, right? I mean, that's definitely part of it, but it's also the environment that you're in. this microphone and a little bit of post -production can make the room that I am in.

much less echo -y, much less reverb -y. And it's really about the room and the tools that you have at your disposal to make your audio quality good. Environment first, that's the most important part. I tell clients that you don't want to record in a garage, you want to record in your closet. That's a pretty big tip. I mean, you could do it literally. I know some people who do it literally.

but that's kind of the head space you want to be in is kind of more of my point. yeah. So it, to be lo -fi is my example to prove that it's not hard. I've seen a couple of podcasts that talk about podcasting where it's like, they're in this huge room. They're, they're in a very cool high end room. They're using, they're using really expensive microphones. They're, they're kind of showing that.

They're doing X and they're telling Y and I, and I get it. Like I have a studio that I easily could use that I could easily, you know, this is like what I use, but I just don't want to make the bar daunting for people. I I'm in this room right now, but I could be in the studio, using this gear, my dog is, just sleeping on a chair right now, huffing and puffing and that's totally fine.

just cause again, like, I don't know, it doesn't need to be that hard. So, yeah, it's could be as expensive as two subscriptions. I'm using Riverside for the recording and we'll probably use bus route for the hosting and one microphone is really all you need, to get started. Of course you want to elevate. Of course you want to get better. Of course you want to improve, but to start out.

Jon (16:31.029)
does not take too much. And that's why I want to be different. That's how I want to be different to this for this podcast. So yeah, get thinking about it again. It's, it's really low pressure to, think how you're different, but it's really to kind of get your mind moving to get your mind cooking on really settling in that you are going to do this show. so yeah. And then lastly, for the section, and then we can wrap up here. We're starting, we're

Yeah, we're going a little bit over than what I thought we would. what is your ultimate goal for the podcast? And this is on the workbook. Again, you can check it out in the description. can message me to look, look at it yourself. there, there are five check marks because I want to make this one a little bit easier. Cause I feel like at this point in the section, you're kind of writing a lot, kind of make it a little easier. there, there are five chip boxes you can check it's.

You can, you know, the ultimate goal can be to make an income via ads or crowdfunding, to gain an audience and recognition in my industry. Talked about that a little bit earlier, to serve as a marketing outlet for my company. Podcasting is a great marketing tool. it's a really cool like way to funnel again, to be candid. If I, earlier I said, you know, this could be for potential clients. That's kind of more just like, this is what it is. Like,

Yeah, that'd be cool, but I also want it to be a free resource. but that is inherently what this podcast is doing. The one that I'm recording to show you guys. and then lastly, to be a fun hobby or creative outlet for myself. That's what me and, the technician on the team, Dan, that's what we're doing with our beer podcast. It's fun. it allows us to hang out and chat and be

Really awesome. We try to chat a lot about video games, especially, further into the show, but, but, it's fun. It's cool. It's chill. It's a hobby of ours and it's, it's just nice. It's cool. It's very low pressure on that show. It's really just a hobby. I listed out four and I said five, the fifth one is just other, like, that's really just kind of being open for the person who's filling this out to think about, you know, like, yeah.

Jon (18:51.892)
If you're a true crime podcasts, could be a fun hobby, creative outlet. but maybe, you are a different show absolutely entirely, and you have a different purpose. That's great. The goal again is to list out and flesh out your podcast, make it a reality and really meditate on what you are exactly doing with the show. So, try and think of there's anything else with this section. the next section.

The next episode is going to be on more specifics and genres. That one's going to be a pretty quick episode. I bet it's going to be like, I don't know, 10, eight minutes, maybe even less. I don't know. I feel like it takes five minutes just to do the introduction and housekeeping stuff. yeah, if there's, there's a little tip here on the bottom right corner, you can check, you can check it out if you download the thing. But, yeah, I think that, I think that's it for this episode. If you.

have any questions for me again, feel free to reach out, email us. you can do that by, there should be an email right on the, on our website, wayfarer recording .com W a Y F a R E not W a Y F a I R like the furniture store. Get that a lot. Totally fine. I get it. I was a younger when I thought of this name, but whatever.

Yeah, but you can reach out. should be an email on the website. If you have any questions, if you're watching this on YouTube, you can feel free to comment, create a discussion, get some ideas going and be kind of cool. If the comments could be more of like a forum type thing, but, I don't know. And yeah, I think that should be about it. Subscribe, follow, leave a review. the more follows and shares yet, the more those can spread and.

Inform people and yeah, I will see you in the next episode. Bye.