“Without a solid foundation, you’ll have trouble creating anything of value.” – Erika Oppenheimer

When building a podcast, it is necessary to spend time considering and focusing on the foundation of the show. The stronger the foundation, the stronger the show will be. 

One of the obstacles many people face that I talk to about podcasting is burnout or lack of motivation.

In fact, the last statistic that I read said that 90% of podcasts never make it past episode seven.

Now, even if that stat is off by a little bit, that is an abysmal success rate. So one of the ways to prevent yourself from being on the wrong side of that statistic is to build a solid foundation for your show that will stand the test of time and remain valuable for your audience.

So let’s break down the three parts of a foundation for any show.

Foundation #1: The Central Idea of the Show

Find the central idea of the show. The CIS is what I like to call it.

 This should be done before focusing on the naming or title of the show. That may be the fun part, but the catchy title should come as a result of finalizing the central idea for the show.

We want to figure out what the central idea of the show is going to be, because that’s going to help us actually formulate some of those different building blocks of the show later on. 

So you say, “Ok, Travis, but how do I really do that? How do I find my central idea?”

I’m glad you asked! Let me walk you through the steps I took and have helped others to take to finalize their central idea.

Take out a sheet of paper or white board, or take out a Google doc or whatever it is that you like to use to sketch things down on and just start writing out topic ideas and themes to focus on in your show.  I like to call this word vomit.

Ask yourself four questions to help get the ideas to flow:

1. What are your interests? What interests you? Do you like talking about certain topics? 
2. What are your skill sets? What are you good at? Is there anything that you are good at or that you’ve figured out that maybe somebody else hasn’t?
3. What do you want to learn more about? 

That question was the one for me. When I started “Build Your Network”, I wanted to learn how to be a better networker. I wanted to learn how to get into the highest quality of circles of people. So I started a show about that so that I could learn more about it and directly apply it into my life.

       4. What is your current offer or business? Can you take that offer or business and reverse engineer that to have a topic or central idea that has to do with the main theme of your show?

 

Once you have written down the topics and answers to these questions, narrow your central idea down to just a few sentences that are all encompassing of these topics. 

This is a great foundation for an introduction to your show. Here’s an example of what my central idea looks like: “I talk to some of the world’s top business influencers and thought leaders and entrepreneurs in order to crack the code of networking. I believe that who you know is more important than what you know, and that your relationships ultimately determine the person who you become. So if you want to learn a new way to connect with people, if you want to fill your network with quality people, and if you want to skyrocket your results, then you’re in the right place.”

I highly recommend keeping your list of topics and themes handy as these can continue to inspire ideas and topics for episodes down the road (preferably past your seventh episode ;)) 

Now that we have a central idea, let’s look at the second building block of our show’s foundation.

 

Foundation #2: The Avatar

Choose your avatar. This will be your ideal listener.

This is the person that you want to target with your show. It’s very important to get as specific as possible with this. 

Generic ranges like you know, men and women ages 25 to 44 is not what I want here. When you pick your avatar, we want to actually come down to the most specific person that we possibly can. 

Have you ever seen the Mel Gibson movie, The Patriot?

In the movie, Mel Gibson teaches his son how to aim a rifle at the RedCoats coming in. While he is showing his son, he tells him to aim small.

He tells him this because if he aims for the entirety of the person and misses, then he would miss them completely and hit a tree behind them. 

However, if he aims for a button on that soldier’s jacket or a pocket on his coat or something like that, and he misses by a couple of inches at that point, he’s still hitting the person.

And that’s exactly the idea that we want with the avatar that we’re creating. We want to get so ultra specific here that even if we miss around where the avatar is and different people have listened to the show that for the most part, those people are going to be adopting certain characteristics of the ideal avatar.

When building your ideal avatar, ask yourself these questions:

• What is their gender?
• What is their name?
• How old are they?
• Where do they live? Is it a big city or out in the countryside?
• Do they live in the US or a different country?
• Do they have a family? Does this include a spouse or children?
• What is their living situation like?
• What do they do for a living?
• How do they spend their day? Hobbies?

These last two questions are the most important to build out in your avatar.

• What are their biggest struggles?
• What are their biggest dreams?

These questions dive deeper into the subconscious mind of our ideal listener. What is on their mind when their head hits the pillow? What do they toil over or stress out over? Do they have dreams that they wish to accomplish in the future?

What are the three biggest things that they want for their lives? Is it freedom, income, or impact? What are the things that they truly desire? 

If we can start understanding what our ideal listener wants then we can speak in the language of our avatar. Your avatar will then really resonate with the messaging that you have in the show.

The more that you get to know that person, the better the show you are going to have, because your messaging is going to be tailored to the exact person that you want to attract into your audience. 

Choose your avatar, and choose your avatar carefully. 

Foundation #3: Formulate Your Worldview

Once you have found the central idea of the show and chosen your avatar, the last step in building your show’s foundation is to formulate your worldview. 

I’ve mentioned this before on my blog, but there’s a very popular study done by Kevin Kelly called “A Thousand True Fans.” I highly recommend reading it. 

Essentially what his essay is saying is if you have a thousand true fans of what you do, then you will always be able to create whatever you want to create and be successful with it to a certain extent.

I would second that and say with a thousand true fans you could build whatever lifestyle that you want.

But you can even start creating with more freedom with 25, 50, or 100 true fans. 

In order to build true fans, you have to be willing to be polarizing.

And that’s what this topic of formulating a worldview is. If you’re always very gray with all of the messaging that you put out, then you’ll just have a bunch of people kind of like you.

That is not the goal. The goal is to have people who really like you —  who love you. The true fans that love the value that you create for the world.

They want to be a part of whatever it is that you’re doing.

But to attract these true fans, you have to be willing to repel the opposite of those people, and you have to be willing to put out something that might be polarizing enough for some people to completely disagree with you.

If you realize now that having a polarizing message or worldview on your show will cause people to disagree with you and perhaps not like you, then it will be much easier to let it go and be okay with it.

Understand that the end goal is not to have an audience who “kind of” like you but who really love what you are doing!

So how do you formulate your worldview?

My definition is a polarizing statement of belief that draws a line in the sand and forces people to pick a side. Here’s the format that is pretty easy to follow.

“I believe that ____________ is the only way to _____________.” 

Start with the second blank. This is where you put the results. 

Think back to your avatar. What was the main result that they wanted to see and put that in the second blank. 

For the first blank, write in what main activity that is going to get them to that result.

For example, my show, Build Your Network, would have a statement like this- I believe that purposeful and persistent networking is the only way to achieve success in life.

That would be a polarizing statement of belief because it is technically not the only way.  But because I said that I believe it is the only way, I will ping the ears of the listener and force them to think.

The listener will have to look inside and think about their view of that statement. 

“What do I believe about that? Do I believe that this person is correct? Or do I believe that this person is incorrect? What experiences have I had that would give me evidence to either of those two results?”

Now my worldview has turned more into  the who you know or what you know side of the equation. I’m very clear about picking a side when you first listen to my show. I want you as the listener to think about what you believe. Do you believe that who you know is more important, or do you believe that what you know is more important?

I believe it’s who, and I try to bring on people who also believe it too, but let’s have an open discussion and talk about it. 

The caveat here is that this cannot be a statement of fact. It has to be a statement of belief. 

A statement of fact isn’t polarizing.

Saying that the microphone pictured below is black is not a statement of belief that is polarizing. It is a fact.

So your worldview cannot be a fact. It has to be something that is a belief system of yours that can be debated from somebody else who maybe has just experienced life a little bit differently than you’ve experienced it.

You will attract those who truly believe what you believe, and if you share your belief well, even change the minds of some who originally thought differently.

When you are building your foundation for your show, formulating a worldview is imperative because it will ultimately help you be crystal clear in your messaging. No one will wonder what your show is about and what you as the host believe.

Conclusion

When you think about a podcast show, think of it like building a house. The fun stuff like designing the paint colors and whether it’s brick or siding is like the title and the guests on your show. But it doesn’t matter how pretty a house may look, if it doesn’t have a strong foundation, it will not last.

Your show may have a catchy title, and you can even have really great guests lined up, but if you do not take the time to really build your show’s foundation, it will crumble.

Do not be part of the statistics! Build your show on a solid foundation by determining your central idea, finding your ideal avatar, and formulating your worldview.

If you want to know more about each of these areas, and learn more podcasting secrets, check out and sign up for my FREE live webinar here. 

I’ll share more secrets to the podcasting space, and you will even hear about my new online course that will help you build a profitable podcast!

Let me know in the comments below who is going to be there.

See you soon!