Where do you fit in as a creator? There's SO MUCH out there to watch, listen to, scroll... what's your unique angle as a podcaster?
Hopefully, this optimistic field guide will give you a few concepts, tools, and ways of thinking to help you carve out a niche, reach the right audience, and engage with them meaningfully.
Here are 21 concepts to try on for size.
1. Abundance Means You Get to (and Have to) Be Specific
There are more than 4.5 million podcasts. Good! That means you don’t have to create something “for everyone.”
You can make something for urban gardeners who love sci-fi. Founders who cry while cold plunging. History buffs who teach at public universities. People who listen at 1.8x speed and take notes.
Be specific. You’re not limiting yourself; you’re committing to serving a particular audience.
2. Community Can Be Your Distribution Strategy
Podcast growth doesn’t come from shouting into the void. It often comes from speaking intentionally inside smaller, more intimate rooms.
Guest on other shows. Arrange feed drops with complementary podcasts or YouTube channels. Create crossover episodes or articles. Host live tapings, swap newsletter mentions, join panels, organize dinners, and send the DM that becomes a call that becomes a collaboration.
These efforts take time, but one guest appearance can lead to another. One panel can lead to several introductions. One curated list can put your name in front of 20 new creators, AND their audiences.
3. Your Podcast Isn’t Just the Episode. It’s an Ecosystem
Your latest episode might be the anchor, but the ecosystem can extend into:
- A newsletter recap or a full article with insights and visuals
- A LinkedIn post
- Short clips
- Longer YouTube cuts that offer more context
- A listener reply that sparks your next episode
- A live event involving collaborators and fans
- A Slack or Discord conversation
Publishing audio and then intentionally building related assets around it gives each idea more ways to find an audience.
4. Loyal Fans Are More Valuable Than a Big, Passive Audience
You don’t necessarily need hundreds of thousands of monthly downloads. You need people who care enough to:
- Open your emails
- Attend your events
- Buy tickets
- Respond to your calls to action
- Explore the products and services you advertise
- Reply
- Forward your work
While you’re at it, get comfortable tracking (and reporting on) more than just the downloads. More on that here.
5. Curation Builds Trust and Gives You Room to Rest
A lot goes into publishing a podcast, newsletter, or video series regularly. Curation can relieve some of that pressure.
You could publish a playlist of your best episodes for new listeners, create a webpage featuring complementary creators, or strategically share an episode from another show in your feed.
When you introduce your audience to work you genuinely love, you’re doing something nice for another creator while becoming a more valuable resource for your own audience.
6. Become Part of Your Listeners' Lives
You’re with your listeners while they do chores, walk their dogs, commute, or handle preschool drop-off.
Speak directly to the people who choose to put your voice into their ears. Refer to them directly. Ask about their lives. Give them clear ways to interact with you.
7. Being Consistent Helps Build Routine
Whether you publish weekly, biweekly, monthly, or even daily, establish a rhythm your audience can understand. If you need to change that rhythm, tell them.
Humans build habits, but your schedule should still be sustainable for you.
This might not be for everyone though! More on that here.
8. Collaboration Beats Competition Every Time
Sending your audience to check out another show via a cross-promo doesn’t mean they’ll stop listening to you.
Introducing people to something entertaining, helpful, or simply good can strengthen their relationship with you. You become a trusted connector.
More on this back at #5. If you’re concerned that your audience will leave you for someone else: a. make your show / newsletter as amazing as it can possibly be, b. find collab opportunities that are complementary to your work, not exact matches.
9. Events Turn Internet Consumers Into Actual Humans
When an audience member attends a live show, meetup, panel, or networking night, they stop being a download statistic and become a person in a room. You get to see who you’re actually talking to.
Event attendees will represent only a portion of your audience, but their questions, feedback, and willingness to show up can teach you quite a bit.
Here's a conversation on how to carve out your show's IRL offering.
10. Reply-Driven Growth Is Underrated
If you publish a newsletter or host a podcast, ask for replies. Actually, don't just ask for them... insist on them.
- “What did you think about this episode?”
- “Hit reply and tell me _____.”
- “Text me!”
Don’t take those responses for granted. And make sure the questions you ask when seeking responses are genuine questions you have for your audience. We can tell when you're engagement-seeking just for the sake of it.
Continue the conversation, use what you learn to inform future episodes or newsletter issues, and tell your audience when an idea came from one of their replies.
11. You Are the Element That Stands Out
AI can summarize, outline, and draft. It cannot be you. People want to connect with a real person. That real person is you.
Your quirks, oddly specific interests, local references, opinions, and imperfections (make mistakes! it's ok!) are the things people remember.
12. Stats Are Signals, Not Predictions
Sure, email open rates, conversion rates, listen-through rates... all of these things are important. They matter.
But they’re inputs, not verdicts. The numbers you track should inform your next move without automatically dictating it. Use them to guide you.
13. Be In It For The Long Haul
This is a big one for me.
Other creators (and audiences) will come to know you because you continue to show up. Oh, and... other creators will come and go. But you stick around!
14. OWN Your Channels
Or at least own some of them. Algorithms change. CPMs fluctuate. Platforms pivot, disappear, or change their priorities. Your email list, website, and archive are the pieces you control.
At minimum, add an email signup form to your website so interested people have a direct way to stay connected with you.
15. Podcast Clips Are for Discovery, Not Replacement
This one is for audio creators who don’t want to embrace full-scale video production. I see you.
You can still use short-form video to invite new people into your work (if you want). It doesn’t have to replace what makes audio powerful.
16. Give Generously and Contribute Real Value
If you find a resource that helps you make your podcast, newsletter, or video series, tell people about it. The creator industry remembers who makes room for others.
Don’t log into social media once a week, drop links to your latest episode in a few comments, and then wonder why your social media "efforts" aren't delivering new fan.s
Spend time participating. More importantly, demonstrate that what you bring to the conversation is worth checking out. People will seek you out.
17. Some People Will Pay You
Not everyone has the time, money, or interest to pay for what you make. That’s ok. As a consumer, I love free stuff. I listen to and read a lot of it. But when I deeply value something, want more of it, and want to support its creator, I put my money where my ears are.
Create an offer that is genuinely enticing... not just a pile of bonus or behind-the-scenes content. And make sure the free podcast, newsletter, or show remains amazing on its own.
18. Go Local
Experiment with meetups and collaborations involving local businesses. Not every path to growth needs to be on a huge scale. Sometimes a strong audience begins with a room full of interested people.
Look beyond your podcast’s exact branding when designing the collaboration. If you host a baking podcast, your bakery partnership doesn’t necessarily need to be called “The Spoon Podcast Meetup.” It could be “Soup Sundays with The Spoon.”
Lead with the experience or value you’re offering, not only the brand you’re building. That way, the event stands on its own and attracts people who don't yet know about the show.
19. Build Sustainability Into Your Production Workflow
Inspiration comes and goes depending on the season, your life stage, and... a ton of other elements.
Build systems: a calendar, a realistic cadence, repeatable formats, and manageable workflows. Those systems can protect your creativity and reduce burnout.
And don’t be afraid to take a break, explain that break to your audience, experiment with lighter formats, or bring great older work back into circulation. More on that here.
20. Mess Up. Often.
Publishing a newsletter or podcast regularly means constantly testing ideas to see what resonates.
Sometimes an idea won’t land. You might even have negative growth from time to time. That’s OK. It’s information you can use to adjust, iterate, and decide what to try next. Everything is data.
21. This Is Still Fun!
Podcasting is one of the few mediums where:
- You can start making a show without the fanciest equipment (although please respect your audience’s ears and time)
- Collaboration is relatively easy, and people are often generous with introductions and outreach
- You can build real relationships with both your audience and other creators
- The definition keeps expanding, giving you more formats to experiment with
- Audio, video, clips, newsletters, social posts, and events can all support the same idea
That’s the opportunity. Have fun with it.
Yes, there's a lot you can be doing in this crazy podcasting world. And it's easy to feel overwhelmed by all of the possibilities, tips, tricks, courses you can buy...etc. But hopefully these tips give you a framework that you can base your content philosophy on.
How 'bout those 21 concepts?
Test them. Try them on. Talk about them.
This article was adapted from a similar one I wrote earlier this year for Podcast Plunge. If you're interested in some caveats to the above, read Caveat City.