Episode 84
How to establish meaningful goals for your podcast
No doubt you’ve probably heard the phrase “What got you here, won’t get you there”. It was made popular by executive coach and author, Marshall Goldsmith. Whenever I’m looking to expand something in my business or life, that phrase is a guiding light.
I apply this thinking to podcast strategy too. When we’re working with clients on a more in-depth level within our PodCoach service, or facilitating high-level consultations I always ask them where they are currently, and where they want to get to.
The answer is often nuanced. A lot of the time they’re unsure really where they want to go, and they’re not tracking any results to see how far they’ve come. If you’re on this path too and you’re unsure what goals to set, or how to achieve them for your podcast, there are principles you can follow.
BAMBY MEDIA LINKS:
RESOURCES MENTIONED:
- What Got You Here Won’t Get You There - Marshall Goldsmith
- Atomic Habits - James Clear
EQUIPMENT WE USE TO PRODUCE THIS PODCAST
Aputure Amaran 200d LED Video Light
Transcript
What got you here won't get you there.
Speaker:Have you heard that before?
Speaker:So it's a book by Marshall Goldsmith,
Speaker:and I'm not talking about the book today.
Speaker:I'm just talking about
Speaker:this phrase more broadly.
Speaker:What got you here won't get you there.
Speaker:Now, if we think about that in
Speaker:the context of your podcast,
Speaker:which is the whole point of
Speaker:this show, where are you now?
Speaker:I want you to really think about it.
Speaker:Where are you now?
Speaker:And where are you wanting to get to?
Speaker:When I say where do you want to get
Speaker:to, I don't want you to focus on I want
Speaker:X amount of downloads by this date.
Speaker:I don't actually want you to
Speaker:think about the downloads at all.
Speaker:This should be one of the last things
Speaker:that you think about and focus on.
Speaker:I want you to think about the other
Speaker:metrics and the other goals that you're
Speaker:trying to achieve through your podcast.
Speaker:What are the broader level
Speaker:things that you feel like you
Speaker:want to have a real focus on?
Speaker:So whether that be building your thought
Speaker:leadership in your industry, having
Speaker:a course that sells on Evergreen,
Speaker:Selling out your memberships,
Speaker:if you have a membership model.
Speaker:Having merch that you sell.
Speaker:Improving your interview skills.
Speaker:being asked to be a speaker on stages.
Speaker:traveling the world and
Speaker:interviewing people.
Speaker:And so then when I think about that
Speaker:broader goal, and when you think
Speaker:about that broader goal, and what
Speaker:your podcast is trying to achieve
Speaker:for you, what you're trying to
Speaker:get out of it, where are you now?
Speaker:Think about that.
Speaker:And if your answer is,
Speaker:well, I don't really know.
Speaker:I mean, I guess I'm doing pretty well.
Speaker:How do you know that?
Speaker:Are you tracking any of the metrics
Speaker:so when I think about that, we
Speaker:have this free podcast audit, okay?
Speaker:We've been doing a lot of them lately
Speaker:where we get people just send in their
Speaker:shows, a link to their show, and then
Speaker:we look at their show as a whole.
Speaker:We're not just establishing whether
Speaker:the show is good, like, to listen to.
Speaker:We're looking at Everything as in
Speaker:like the brand around the show.
Speaker:And then we give people a score
Speaker:based off of that further brand
Speaker:that is supporting the show.
Speaker:We don't ask you for a bunch of details.
Speaker:We just look at the minutia.
Speaker:We look at the smaller details as to the
Speaker:things that you can be doing to achieve
Speaker:any goal that you have for your podcast.
Speaker:When you look at the bigger goal that
Speaker:you want to achieve and you're trying
Speaker:to establish what those smaller things
Speaker:are that you need to focus on, that's
Speaker:where we can come in and help you, uh,
Speaker:or you can look at those things yourself.
Speaker:So if you're trying to establish
Speaker:yourself as a thought leader in
Speaker:your industry, how many episodes
Speaker:are you doing that are solo?
Speaker:If you're doing guest episodes, how is
Speaker:that building your thought leadership?
Speaker:Is it?
Speaker:Like really?
Speaker:Because the role of an interviewer is to
Speaker:often ask questions to a guest, and it
Speaker:kind of builds the thought leadership.
Speaker:Thought leadership in the
Speaker:guest, not in the host, right?
Speaker:So that would be a small
Speaker:metric you would be tracking.
Speaker:Like how many solo episodes
Speaker:am I doing versus how many
Speaker:guest episodes am I doing?
Speaker:Now, if one of your overall
Speaker:big arching goals is I want
Speaker:to be a better interviewer.
Speaker:Okay, that's a different situation.
Speaker:Then you want to have
Speaker:lots of guest episodes.
Speaker:You want to get lots of practice in.
Speaker:And not only having guest episodes, but
Speaker:have I got some sort of interview coach?
Speaker:Or am I subscribed to a YouTube channel
Speaker:that I look at all the content for
Speaker:good interview skills every week?
Speaker:Am I following someone that's
Speaker:going to help me achieve that?
Speaker:And am I taking that action every week?
Speaker:This also comes down to that
Speaker:book, which will probably help
Speaker:you atomic habits by James clear.
Speaker:And he talks about, you know, just making
Speaker:these small habits where you can tick
Speaker:these things off fairly easily that
Speaker:then bring in over time a much bigger
Speaker:goal, like a much bigger achievement.
Speaker:Podcasting is no different.
Speaker:Whatever the larger goal is that you want
Speaker:to achieve, you need a small measurable.
Speaker:Actions that you can take
Speaker:to achieve the big thing.
Speaker:So, what got you here,
Speaker:won't get you there.
Speaker:That means, whatever you're doing
Speaker:now, if you're not achieving your
Speaker:result, then you need to change things.
Speaker:This can be where we can help, so
Speaker:as in, we have a service, which is a
Speaker:pod coach service, where we hold your
Speaker:hand for three months or more, it's
Speaker:a minimum three month commitment, and
Speaker:we have a consult with you first up
Speaker:and go, okay, where do you want to go?
Speaker:And then we look at what you're
Speaker:doing, and we go All these things
Speaker:need to be And then we focus the
Speaker:action on one or two things every
Speaker:month to go, okay, building this up,
Speaker:building up, building up, building up.
Speaker:Because if you try and take too
Speaker:much action all at once on too many
Speaker:small things, then you're not going
Speaker:to do very well in any of them.
Speaker:It's better off to focus on one
Speaker:thing, build that thing, build it
Speaker:over time, get it right, get it
Speaker:established, then move on to the
Speaker:next thing to then focus on that.
Speaker:And so you're building these blocks.
Speaker:Every month and every week
Speaker:to achieve the bigger thing.
Speaker:And podcasting is a long game.
Speaker:It is not something that you're just
Speaker:going to be, unless you've got a giant,
Speaker:you know, audience already, uh, and like
Speaker:your social media is quite large and
Speaker:you've got maybe an established YouTube
Speaker:channel or something, you're not going
Speaker:to achieve these huge goals straight up.
Speaker:You're building a brand.
Speaker:In support of the business that you
Speaker:are operating within, if your podcast
Speaker:really is just to entertain and all
Speaker:you want to do is maybe have like
Speaker:a, a good subscriber base, you've
Speaker:got a newsletter that people pay
Speaker:for, you've got merchandise, that's
Speaker:all fine that you can build that.
Speaker:That's awesome.
Speaker:It doesn't need to be a supporting
Speaker:like a business business.
Speaker:It just needs to be supporting
Speaker:whatever it is that you've got
Speaker:that somehow turns into money.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:At the end of the day, most
Speaker:podcasters get into the business to
Speaker:build some sort of money out of it.
Speaker:And that is not a bad thing to do.
Speaker:once you've established the bigger
Speaker:goal, and then you've also established,
Speaker:okay, well, off of that bigger goal,
Speaker:I need these things to be done.
Speaker:I need these actions to be taken.
Speaker:I need these metrics to be tracked.
Speaker:Who's going to do that?
Speaker:Who is the who?
Speaker:in the journey of getting
Speaker:the big thing done.
Speaker:so that will be you, potentially
Speaker:someone on your team, if you're keeping
Speaker:it in house, or outsourcing plain.
Speaker:To a company, to an agency, or
Speaker:someone like us, to help you achieve
Speaker:not just the bigger goals, but the
Speaker:smaller things in the middle there.
Speaker:Once you've established who,
Speaker:then you can move on to why.
Speaker:And I really, really, really
Speaker:want you to think about this.
Speaker:Why do you want that big thing?
Speaker:Is it because you want money?
Speaker:Is it because you want to make impact?
Speaker:But I want you to be
Speaker:honest with yourself.
Speaker:Like, you know, people say they want
Speaker:to make more impact all the time.
Speaker:I mean, what does that actually mean?
Speaker:What does impact mean?
Speaker:they want to change someone's
Speaker:life through the content
Speaker:that they're delivering.
Speaker:They want to build that over time.
Speaker:Like, why do you want
Speaker:this podcast to succeed?
Speaker:Once you've established the why,
Speaker:Then you need to think about,
Speaker:okay, well I know who I need, and
Speaker:I really know why I'm doing it now.
Speaker:What kind of investment
Speaker:am I able to make?
Speaker:This investment can be
Speaker:money, or it could be time.
Speaker:Or it could be both.
Speaker:I would argue it is always both.
Speaker:Because even if the investment
Speaker:is just your time, your
Speaker:time is still worth money.
Speaker:Yeah?
Speaker:So, establishing what your investment
Speaker:can look like will help you also
Speaker:establish the time horizon that it
Speaker:may take to achieve not only the
Speaker:big thing, but the small things.
Speaker:I am of the opinion that small
Speaker:investment equals small reward.
Speaker:Now the reason why I say that
Speaker:is because I've been in this
Speaker:business now for nine years.
Speaker:And I've seen all levels.
Speaker:I have a bunch of case studies
Speaker:for all levels of investment.
Speaker:The ones that have a small investment,
Speaker:yes they grow, yes they build.
Speaker:But it is slow.
Speaker:It is much slower.
Speaker:Because they can only invest
Speaker:a small amount, they can only
Speaker:achieve a small amount back.
Speaker:There's luck, there's virality,
Speaker:there's other things involved,
Speaker:and sometimes that means that, you
Speaker:know, things take off bigger than
Speaker:Ben Hur, that you didn't expect.
Speaker:But most of the time, that's
Speaker:why you see big businesses that
Speaker:have big budgets do big things.
Speaker:Because they can invest
Speaker:in the right people.
Speaker:That have already done the thing that
Speaker:has already been tried and tested most of
Speaker:the time or that are super creative and
Speaker:can put a lot of time and energy into.
Speaker:They offload, they allow
Speaker:those people to do their job.
Speaker:there's always collaboration involved.
Speaker:Everyone's focused on the metrics and
Speaker:the day to day and the smaller things
Speaker:and then the big picture stuff as well.
Speaker:depending on who it is.
Speaker:Everyone's got their role.
Speaker:And they're able to achieve big things
Speaker:because it's not a small investment.
Speaker:It's a bigger investment.
Speaker:And I had this conversation with a
Speaker:potential client a little while ago,
Speaker:where they were achieving a certain level
Speaker:of success, but it felt a little stale.
Speaker:It felt like it wasn't
Speaker:really going anywhere.
Speaker:And then when I looked at what they
Speaker:were doing small scale and what
Speaker:the overall big scale was, they
Speaker:can't achieve what they want to get
Speaker:without making a bigger investment.
Speaker:What I'm trying to get you to think
Speaker:about is, where is my investment point?
Speaker:Does that investment point make sense in
Speaker:relation to what I'm trying to achieve?
Speaker:And if you've got a big mission, big
Speaker:goals, it can be hard or at least take
Speaker:longer to achieve the big goals if you've
Speaker:only got a little pot to work with.
Speaker:so it doesn't need to be
Speaker:money, it may just be time.
Speaker:Your time.
Speaker:time from your team members to build up
Speaker:the things that you need to build and
Speaker:put focus and energy on those things.
Speaker:If you want BAMU media to be involved
Speaker:with this, and you feel like you're ready
Speaker:to invest, Then you can reach out to us,
Speaker:go to the contact page and we can start a
Speaker:conversation as to what that looks like.
Speaker:If you just want to have a one on one
Speaker:consult, like kicking off point, there
Speaker:is consult options there for you as well.
Speaker:Or if you want to join us in our pod
Speaker:coach service where you join up with
Speaker:us for three months where we have
Speaker:a consult with you to begin with.
Speaker:We look at where you want to
Speaker:go and we look at what you
Speaker:need to do to achieve that.
Speaker:From there we establish the
Speaker:metrics that need to be tracked.
Speaker:We look at the actions
Speaker:that need to be done.
Speaker:and we look at who's
Speaker:available to actually do
Speaker:those things within your team.
Speaker:From there, we give you an action
Speaker:point to focus on for the next couple
Speaker:of weeks to build that up and then
Speaker:build and build and build over that
Speaker:three month time frame or longer
Speaker:to look at what actually happens.
Speaker:So I want you to play a bigger game.
Speaker:I want you to think about
Speaker:this at a higher level.
Speaker:We've entered a new year at
Speaker:the time of recording this.
Speaker:This is the perfect time for you to
Speaker:get smarter on what you're trying to
Speaker:achieve this year in your business
Speaker:and in your life, and how does
Speaker:the podcast support those things.
Speaker:Who are you going to get to help you?
Speaker:Why are you doing this?
Speaker:And what is the investment
Speaker:that you're willing to make?
Speaker:They are the three key areas to focus on.
Speaker:Thanks for joining me and
Speaker:I'll chat with you next time.
