This is where mindset meets reality. It can be a terrifying or a liberating moment. The choice, as with most things podcasting, is ours. From our point of view, we producing content we enjoy and assume/hope our listeners will too. It’s just stuff we know.
The point to remember is this: We actually know more about our passions than many other people. It’s our passion because we are drawn to it. We understand it at a visceral level. True enough others will know more than us but they aren’t our target listeners.
Think about education. By the time I reached the last years of my schooling, I’d already developed a passion for history. Military history, in particular was my focus. I could and indeed, at times, did wander off into the minutiae of small unit infantry tactics in the Ancient World explaining the economic differences between the upper middle class hoplites of Greece and the more egalitarian Roman legions after the Marian reforms. You see what I mean. It’s like a reflex. I’m better at stopping it nowadays but it’s still there. It was an area of interest, a niche, in marketing terms and it infuriated some teachers and enthralled others.
Our podcast niche is the same. We will infuriate some, they are not our listeners and enthral others. They are our listeners. So even if you do not yet realise it, you are an expert. We can all grow in our expertise but in our passions and our niches we are at a point where our knowledge is of value to others.
One of the great benefits of podcasting is that we can craft our knowledge, our understanding and deliver it without having to look anyone in the eye. This is not a lack of courage but an artifact of the medium. [See The Medium is the Message.] It allows us to refine our understandings and present them in a meaningful way. This is why I tightly script my World Organic News podcasts because I am presenting a point of view based upon, hopefully, a logically argued position.
I do this for other reasons. I think it disrespectful to ramble on and dance around an idea while I work it out and to so in my listener’s ears is the height of rudeness. I know there are podcasts like that. occasionally there are episodes in a feed like like. The infamous “Live to Drive!” which is, to my mind as second rate as a “live” LP used to be compared with the studio alternative.
I’ve wandered a little off topic, sorry. The point is you know stuff. You know it depth. Listeners, most listeners anyway, already assume you know what you’re taking about. Give them your knowledge and do it in a respectful, thoughtful, life changing way.
Takeaways
- You are an expert in your niche
- Accept this and run with it
- Think carefully about how you deliver your expertise
- As ever, always consider your listener’s experience