498 - Does The World Really Need Another Podcast?

Cliff (0:00): Does the world really need another podcast? That is a question that came up when I was interacting with some folks about three and a half weeks ago. I was preparing to head out to Anaheim, California, and I was reaching out to several folks who had RSVP'd for my ninety minute workshop that I was giving at Social Media Marketing World. I reached out to those individuals and said, hey. I noticed that you RSVP'd for my talk.

Cliff (0:34): Thank you for that. I'm honored that you're planning to attend. I have a question for you. Is there anything that I could specifically address for you as it relates to podcasting so I can make sure that you get the most amount of value for what you're hoping to get out of this workshop? I did this for nearly 200 people who had RSVP'd.

Cliff (0:55): There were ended up being nearly 400 people in the room. It was an incredible experience. And the number of people who actually responded to that gave me a lot of insight into the questions that are still out there today as it relates to podcasting. And so one individual said, Cliff, I'm just trying to figure out does the world even need another podcast and should I invest the time, effort, and energy into doing such a show? Well, one of the things that I did is I looked up this person's information on LinkedIn and I saw that he's been full time self employed and he's had an illustrious career since 2001 doing the work that he does.

Cliff (1:40): So he has lots of experience to offer the world. And in many ways, I'm I'm like, the answer seems to be obviously yes. The world needs another podcast from you specifically. And the thing is is that's not necessarily fair. So what I wanna do in this podcast is I wanna answer the question, does the world really need another podcast?

Cliff (2:06): And the answer is not always yes. And I think it's a fair question to ask. In fact, there are several reasons why people are resistant to the idea of creating a podcast. I'll share with you in my notes here some things that came up as I was contemplating. What are some of the reasons why many people have said, I don't know if I really wanna do a podcast because of x y z.

Cliff (2:32): First of all, there are over a million podcasts out there. I mean, there's no way to get discovered. Podcasting still has no real great discoverability algorithm. And a lot of people think that that's being addressed by the fact that so many people are starting to associate podcasts with YouTube videos, which is a problem for some in and of itself, but that's not the topic of today's podcast. So another one is it's it's crowded.

Cliff (3:08): Like there are tens or even hundreds of podcasts already out there in the niche that I'm in. It's overly crowded. Every topic that I could possibly think to discuss in a podcast has already been covered. It's been beat to death. AI has made content creation so easy today that practically anyone and everyone with a USB microphone is out there creating content and it's literally brought down the average value of a podcast down significantly over the last ten compared to what was out there, let's say, ten or fifteen years ago.

Unknown Speaker (3:56): So oh, and also the fact that podcasting tends to be and it doesn't have to be, but it tends to be a little bit more of a long form content, and a lot of people hesitate to believe that people still have the attention span that can be captured for the length of a full length podcast episode. Now again, podcast episodes do not have a set length. They don't all have to be forty minutes to an hour. They can be seven minute. You could actually have a three minute podcast episode.

Cliff (4:30): I know people who used to do one minute podcast episodes. I think I lean towards the long form content. I think there's a little bit more value with that. But the question is is does the world need another podcast if all of those things are true? And by the way, all of those things are true.

Cliff (4:50): There are millions of people out there with podcasts. There are a ton of other podcasts potentially for your industry, maybe even hundreds. Sure. Maybe most of the main topics or even some of the more esoteric topics, maybe they've been covered by someone else. And sure enough, maybe the overall impression of what makes a podcast good is it's starting to shift over the years because there's a lot of average mediocre content out there.

Cliff (5:26): And sure enough, even myself, I can tell you my attention span is not what it once was. But I will share with you that while I must say that I do enjoy a couple of doom scrolls every now and then of some short form content. I find that the dopamine that's being released is being released by some amazing short form video content creators. By the way, for me personally, I believe that short form video content is far more challenging to create than long form audio. That's my own experience.

Cliff (6:11): And also, I can't think of any short form video content creators that I have an ongoing long term relationship with, whereas I could name a lot of podcasters that I have a long term relationship with. Alright. So that's let let's go in here. But the answer to the question is with all of those things given, does the world really need another podcast? Well, here are a couple of things the world does not need.

Cliff (6:42): And if you think you're gonna create one of these, the answer is no. The world does not need this. So the world does not need another podcast that adds more to the noise that's out there. There's this I I do a lot with amateur radio. I love amateur radio.

Cliff (7:00): And sometimes I will go out and do this thing called parks on the air, and I'm trying to make contacts with people all over the country and around the globe. And as I listen, there's a lot of noise floor, a lot of static in there. And what I'm listening for is signal, somebody's voice that comes out and reaches above the noise. And I will share with you that when I tune into a lot of podcasts today, there seems to be a lot of noise. A lot of just people saying the same thing.

Cliff (7:32): It is AI slop. People are taking the first draft of response from an AI tool and simply reading a script from cheap it's it's almost as though there are a number of podcasts out there that are nothing more than a text to speech. It just happens to be the human who's reading the text and turning it into speech instead of an app. And they're recording it in to a microphone and putting it out as a podcast episode. And don't get me started on the people who are actually using applications, not their own voice, to turn text transcripts from AI tools that have not been edited in any way, shape, or form, and then putting it out there.

Cliff (8:18): Yes. The the world does not need that slop. It does not need more noise. Another thing the world does not need is another podcast that repeats what everyone else is saying. There are so many people out there who are sharing the same pieces of advice and it's even more prevalent today as I see people just like going down the list.

Cliff (8:44): It's like, here are the five things you need to know about this. These are the seven things. Listicles were all the rage back in blogging days. And I will tell you right now, listicles have gotten to the place where they're, I think, burdensome to listen to. I could make a case where maybe that's not always true and there could be value for listicles or here are five tips for this, here are three tips for this.

Cliff (9:14): But I'm gonna tell you right now that even myself, even though I know the value of sharing things in sets of three and sets of five and having them being organized in such a way that just keeps it all coherent. The problem is is all of that published content starts sounding like noise because back in the day, only true professionals were able to coherently put together a message. Today, anybody with a free large language model subscription could easily go in and generate something that sounds professional and then they start reading it. And then it just comes down to their level of skill in being able to read that script without sounding like they're reading that script. And even if they're the best at not sounding like they're reading a script, if they keep the formulaic, it's not this, it's that.

Cliff (10:17): It's not this, it's that. Every third or fourth or fifth sentence, It's noise. It is repeating what the other people are saying. It sounds just like everyone else. Here's a third thing the world does not need another podcast about.

Cliff (10:36): The world does not need another interview format podcast. It doesn't. The world doesn't not it doesn't need you out there creating content, talking to the same people in the same industry that everyone else is talking to. It it doesn't need the the experts who are writing a book and releasing it who have been a guest on the last five other top rated podcasts in your space. You know what the it it could be time to do a solo hosted show, my friends.

Unknown Speaker (11:13): It's a it's a possibility. I'm just saying. Anyway, the the world does not need another or I'm not suggesting that you shouldn't do interviews in your podcast, but mix it up a little bit. Just maybe. Alright.

Unknown Speaker (11:30): Now, you know what? Hold on. I take it back. I take it back. I am saying the world doesn't need another interview format podcast.

Unknown Speaker (11:39): I think they're boring. I said it. Yep. I said it. I I do.

Cliff (11:46): I think they're boring. I think they're terrible. And yet, occasionally, I produce interview podcasts. And I have interview format podcasts. And I have reasons for them, but it's never going to be an interview format podcast is never gonna be a podcast that I have as my primary driver for putting my thoughts out into the world.

Cliff (12:08): If my desire is to be a thought leader, if my desire is to be seen as a go to expert in my industry or my field. I I may have an interview format podcast, but it would be a second or third or fourth podcast that I have that I produce actively, which I do, by the way, have a podcast. It's called whatareyoucreating? And I think I finally bought a domain for it. It's whatareyoucreating.net.

Unknown Speaker (12:41): I'm just going to pull that up here just to make sure that it's .net because I couldn't get the .com. Yeah. Let me just try it one more time. What are you creating .net? So if you wanna see my interview format podcast.

Cliff (12:55): But here's the interesting thing. I'm not interviewing the same people that everyone else interviews. That is my unique angle on that. But again, this isn't about I just wanna say if I'm going out and I want to showcase my experience, my expertise, my skills, my talents and abilities, my perspective, the way that I think, all of the things that I'm attempting to do with my main shows, I'm going solo hosted because I want to feature my perspective. That's what I'm going for.

Cliff (13:30): And I recommend that the world does need more solo hosted shows that are unscripted. Alright. So anyway, is there anything else that I put on here? Let's see. The world doesn't need another interview format podcast and the world doesn't need another podcast that exists only because somebody said this is gonna be a great marketing tool for your business.

Cliff (13:51): Podcasting is not going to be a great marketing tool for your business in the way that other tools are seen as marketing tools for your business. It's not as trackable. It is more of a long game play. This isn't going to get you instant results. You're not gonna be able to measure quick ROI.

Cliff (14:19): It it there are if you're looking for the biggest bang for your buck of time, effort, and energy and seeing results that are trackable within a relatively short period of time of hours, days, weeks, or even months, podcasting is not the best tool for that. But it is a great long term relationship builder and we'll get into that. But if if you're looking for another podcast because you feel like this is a great marketing strategy, the world doesn't need another infomercial from another business owner. It just doesn't. So if you're thinking about creating a podcasting, adding another podcast to the world for any of those reasons, just don't.

Cliff (15:03): It's not worth your time. However, if you happen to be someone who has lived through something significant and as you have gone through that significant situation or multiple significant situations and you were paying attention to what was going on, if as a result of that over time you have developed a very unique perspective on your work, your niche, your industry. If you are somebody who has actually served real people doing the work that you do, if you have documented the patterns that you've witnessed that people go through, the cycles that are happening, the churn, the the turnover, the the starts and stops and where people stall and break down and where people give up. If you have observed patterns and and you have a point of view to share with the world And if you're willing to show up with generosity and honesty, truly authentically yourself, not overly polished, not overly performant, and if you are willing to be useful, the world is desperate for that kind of podcast. The world desperately needs more podcasts from you if that's you.

Cliff (16:49): Let me speak for just a moment about this idea that there are far too many podcasts that already exist within your niche out there in your industry. One of the things that I love to do is to reframe this for folks and tell you that this could be proof that there's some sort of demand for that kind of content. It's an indicator that there are people out there who genuinely care about this topic and there are enough people that actually are listening and gathering to learn about that niche. And it may mean that this category of podcast already exists in the minds of those who are listening to all of those shows. So there's already an audience out there and the great news is that a majority, an overwhelming majority of the podcasts in your niche are terrible.

Cliff (17:47): It is a great thing. It doesn't take much for you to stand out among all the rest. Go and look at the top podcasts in your niche. Count how many of them are interview format podcasts. One of the things you could do instantly is to stand out and not do an interview format podcast.

Cliff (18:08): That alone might make you stand out. If you have something to share. If you've gone through some things that are significant. If you have all of those other things, you've got so much going for you. If you have a point of view, if you're willing to be authentic, if you're willing to be unpolished, but you've got experience And the way that you communicate, it's going to show through.

Cliff (18:30): So the question is is if there are so many out there, how do you stand out? Well, the questions I would have is what is it that I see when I listen to all of these other shows, what these other people in my industry are saying, what is it they all seem to miss? I could create a long list of things that people in various industries that I podcast about, such as podcasting, online business, mindset, all sorts of personal and professional development. These are the things that I podcast about, and I see all sorts of blind spots. Nobody seems to be talking about some of the things that I know are important because some of them are they're vulnerable topics.

Cliff (19:18): They're taboo in certain areas. And I'm like, you know what? I can speak to that. I will speak to that. And I believe the world needs someone to speak to that.

Cliff (19:31): So, what do I see that others miss? Another thought that I have here is what is it that my clients are asking me in my private one on one conversations with them that the public content out there in the industry doesn't seem to address honestly. For example, in my space, I do a lot of work with online entrepreneurs. I work with established entrepreneurs, people who have exceeded what most people think is possible, And I also work a lot with early stage entrepreneurs. And out there in the industry, there's this whole, you know, I can help you get to 6 figures or 7 figures in six months and all of this other stuff.

Cliff (20:18): And there's all of this rage about I can help you understand how to create AI so that you can get 10 times the amount of things done without paying any people to do this. And there's all of these different things. But very few people out there speak about the costs that are associated with the pursuit of so many of these things that everyone in my industry and in several different industries seem to be pointing to as some arbitrary goal that we all agreed is important for us to feel successful in life. I say baloney on all of that. So I wanna speak honestly about how the pursuit of many of the things that are just accepted as the go to goals for my industry are destroying the lives.

Cliff (21:10): I'm having the private conversations and nobody seems to be talking about this stuff publicly. I do that with my content. Another one is what have I learned through direct experience? More importantly, where have I failed? You know, a lot of us like to create content and share about things that we have learned that have succeeded and I give you the five steps on how to do this.

Cliff (21:38): Well, guess what? Sometimes a podcast episode on here are three things that I will never do again and why they caused me to lose a $160,000 in annualized revenue. You know, are valuable experiences to share as well. What have you had as direct experience and are you willing to share the hard won truths as much as the ones that were, you know, that felt great when you learned them? Alright?

Cliff (22:13): So those are a couple of ways to stand out. And really, honestly, all you need to share out is you have to be somebody who has earned perspective. Meaning that your perspective on what you're sharing is not coming just from what you've read in two or three books. It's not because you just got certified by such and such program and you picked up a bunch of new knowledge. It's earned perspective.

Cliff (22:43): I've I've been having these conversations. I've been doing this work. I have some experience. Share your lived experience. Share your earned perspective and speak the language of your people.

Cliff (23:00): If you truly are an expert in your field, if you truly have ten, fifteen, twenty years of experience, you're going to be able to speak the language of your people. And if you can do it without sounding like you're reading from a script, you are going to stand out. If you wanna know what the world needs, they need people who understand their world and who can speak into it with lived experience. You know, as I'm sitting here recording this episode, I realized that I have under nine minutes before I'm scheduled to be on another coaching session, and it's somebody that I'm well prepared for that conversation. But I'm gonna wrap this up very quickly and just tell you that, you know, the 100 k YouTube plaque is not the goal of a new podcaster.

Cliff (23:59): There's far too many people who are now filtering their decision to start a podcast through what I like to call a distorted lens. This idea that all of a sudden podcasting equals YouTube. It requires a video. It requires a fancy studio, multi camera angles, better branding, bigger guests, more polished production. It needs stronger hooks to get their attention at the beginning and I need to be more aggressive with promoting my clips out in short form video form content and who's got all time for that?

Cliff (24:38): You know what? There is so much power in developing a podcast where over the course of three to six months, you earn 300 subscribers to your audio podcast. 300 downloads per episode. That has so much power. You know, I just stood on a stage in Anaheim, California three weeks ago and there were just over 300, nearly 400 people in the room.

Cliff (25:08): And I even told them this in my podcasting workshop. I said, listen, could you imagine if I go to the speaker party tomorrow night and somebody says, Cliff, how was your talk? I was like, you know what? I prepared for it. I was so excited to deliver so much value, and I gotta tell you, I am beginning to question whether or not it was worth my time to put in all of the time to create an outline for that workshop, to decide what I would say, to invest in trying to find out who these people are, what's most important to them, what are their questions that they have, because I got into the room and I got up on that stage and I did all I traveled all the way from Kentucky to California.

Cliff (25:48): All of that, and there were only about 300 to 400 people in the room. Imagine that. Look around you and put yourself on this stage and what would you give to get this sized audience of people in a room every week to hear what you have to say? This is powerful. You see, the power of 300 downloads per episode, you're building trust before the very first sales conversation you ever have with the person who found you through your podcast.

Cliff (26:26): You are shortening the time it takes for somebody to feel like you know them. You help referrals understand how you think. You give prospects language for their own problems. You're better at describing their problems than they are because you've worked with so many people like them. You create authority in a very narrow niche through your podcast.

Cliff (26:55): You deepen relationships with existing clients by creating content that actually speaks to what they're dealing with. You create long tail discovery over years. I can't begin to tell you the number of times people have come to me and says, Cliff, you know what? I first started listening to you, I think it was right around 2007. You were still working in insurance.

Cliff (27:19): And here I am in 2026 and here's my $15,000. I can't wait. I've it's been a dream of mine to be in your Next Level Mastermind. It's amazing. Anyway, the a podcast with 300 people listening every week is a a place to share your body of work of all of your lived experience.

Cliff (27:40): Does the world need another podcast? Well, no, the world doesn't need just another general podcast, but there is a better question to ask and it's this. Is there a specific group of people who would be better served in your industry if you consistently shared what you have learned in your journey? A podcast by you may be just the thing that helps your clients, your prospects, your peers, your referral partners, and other people with future opportunities you haven't even considered yet. It may be what helps all of them more consistently experience how you think.

Unknown Speaker (28:37): That my friend is worth exploring. Until next time, I encourage you to take everything you do to the next level. Podcast, Answer Man.