1. Your niche is too broad

Okay, I’m going to start with the obvious that you’ve heard a million times before, but I’m going to go much deeper and give you practical tools to get around it.

You’ve heard this so often because it’s the foundation of any good piece of content in 2025. The future of media is moving more and more towards niche content.

People still don’t know how or why they need to choose a niche and then niche down again… and again! It’s in our default to think that a product should have mass appeal but it’s a belief you need to let go of as fast as possible.

The biggest success stories I have seen with Podcasters have been when they pick a niche, but when they stumble upon an even smaller niche within a niche. This is the hidden strategic key to growing a podcast audience.

Case study: Finding a niche within a niche:

One of my clients is the Wiser Than Before Podcast with Josh Dodds, which we launched together in 2024. The niche was chronic health conditions and the target audience was people suffering from any chronic health condition that they were struggling to figure out via conventional medicine.

Each episode covered a different health condition or tips that would help various conditions. Episodes were getting 100 - 200 views/listens. About 4 months in, we dropped an episode on histamine intolerance, it hit 30,000+ views on Youtube. Over 10x more than the average.

We had found our niche within a niche. We then dropped more episodes of Histamine Intolerance, and each was guaranteed big engagement. We figured out that niching down was the answer to future growth because we knew exactly who we were talking to and their struggles and challenges.

This completely reframed the podcast approach moving forward and we are not putting together an even more specific and niche plan for 2025.

Exercise: Thinking of your niche in 3 levels:

I find it helpful to think of your niche in 3 levels. Where most people fail is thinking level 1 is enough. Let’s say you’re a personal trainer who wants to start a fitness podcast. The mistake is thinking that choosing fitness is enough, you need to find a niche within a niche, and then do it again!

Let’s take the Wiser Than Before podcast above as an example, here’s what the 3 levels look like:

Level 1: Alternative Health
Level 2: Battling Chronic Health
Level 3: Histamine Intolerance

This will be the navigator for your content. It’s important to note that this can change, and you can stray from the Level 3 topics occasionally, but your core audience should be on level 3.

2. Your ideal listener isn’t defined

A lot of people come to me looking to start a podcast and I get an immediate sense that I don’t know who it’s for. So I ask the question and I get hit with the answer I dread… “everyone would benefit from listening to it”.

By targeting everyone or a mass audience, you are sure to appeal to absolutely no one. It also makes every part of the podcast production process 100x harder.

You need to figure out exactly who your ideal listener is, down to every detail and it needs to guide you in every podcast and extended piece of content you put out. Doing this piece of work at the start and refining as you go will make every step of the process so much easier.

Exercise: Create an avatar of your listener.

This is such an important exercise. It involves creating a full-blown character profile of who you want to target. Every last detail about them and their life. Have fun with it and get creative!

Let’s take a business / self-help podcast, aimed at 30+ men who want to escape unfulfilling jobs and start a freelance career or their own business that helps them live a life of freedom and also generate more money.

You want to put more weight on the emotional connection you will make with your avatar. While traditional media used to target old-school demographics like location, gender, sexuality, age… These are becoming less important because we have become more diverse, and digital platforms have brought us closer together.

What are the emotions your listener is feeling that you think you can connect with?

The starting point for your avatar might look like this:

MEET HESITANT HARRY…

Demographics:

• Name: Hesitant Harry

• Age: Late 30’s (37 years old)

• Family: Married, expecting his first child

• Profession: Media industry job; 15 years of secure employment under a boss he dislikes

• Income: Stable, middle-class, but feels capped

Life Context and Aspirations:

• Career Dreams:

  • Desires to leave his job and build his own business using his media expertise.

  • Envisions a life where he has more autonomy, freedom, and purpose.

• Current State:

  • Feels stuck in a cycle of “good enough” but unfulfilling stability.

  • Juggling work, a side hustle, marriage, and preparing for fatherhood.

  • Overwhelmed by competing priorities and feels like time is his greatest enemy.

• Excuses/Barriers:

  • “Not enough time” is his recurring roadblock:

    • Overwhelmed by traffic, chores, and commitments.

    • Feels his schedule is already at full capacity, leaving no room for more effort.

Emotional Triggers:

• Commute Frustration:

  • Sees his daily commute as a major source of stress and wasted time.

  • Often feels angry or disheartened by the hours lost in traffic.

• Time Scarcity:

  • Feels stretched thin trying to balance his job, side hustle, wife, and future child.

  • Struggles with guilt over not giving enough time to his family or his dreams.

• Inaction Regret:

  • Deeply frustrated with himself for not making progress toward freelancing.

Psychological Traits:

• Mindset:

  • Cautious but capable: Harry knows he has the skills to succeed but is paralyzed by fear and doubt.

  • Prone to overthinking: Gets overwhelmed by too many choices and tasks.

• Pain Points:

  • Time Pressure: Feels like there aren’t enough hours in the day to pursue his goals.

  • Overwhelm: Struggles to prioritize and feels buried under responsibilities.

  • Impatience: Hates inefficiency and unproductive moments and wants results too fast.

How the Podcast Can Help Harry

Primary Value:
The podcast will turn Harry’s biggest pain point—his wasted commute time—into his most productive and empowering moments of the day. By delivering motivational and strategic insights in concise, digestible episodes, the podcast will provide Harry with:

1. Clarity:

   • Help Harry focus on small, high-impact actions that move the needle in his freelance journey.

   • Break down complex strategies into manageable, bite-sized steps he can absorb and act on.

2. Motivation:

   • Reframe his commute as an opportunity for growth rather than wasted time.

   • Share relatable success stories of people who overcame time and fear constraints to build their businesses.

3. Practical Guidance:

   • Provide tips on time management and work-life balance specifically tailored for busy individuals.

   • Offer actionable strategies to grow his side hustle without adding more overwhelming tasks.

Podcast Structure to Fit Harry’s Needs:

• Episode Length: 15-20 minutes, ideal for commutes or short breaks.

• Content Focus:

  • Motivational Mindset Shifts: Address Harry’s fears and insecurities head-on.

  • Actionable Steps: Break down how to scale a side hustle in small, manageable increments.

  • Time Optimization Tips: Teach Harry how to maximize limited time without sacrificing his family life.

• Recurring Themes:

  • “Winning Back Time” – Practical strategies to reclaim wasted time in his day.

  • “Courage to Leap” – Stories of others who took calculated risks and succeeded.

  • “Family and Freedom” – Balancing family commitments with the pursuit of personal dreams.

Examples of Podcast Topics for Harry:

1. "How to Build a Freelance Business in Just 5 Hours a Week"

2. "The Power of Micro-Steps: Achieving Big Goals One Tiny Step at a Time"

3. "Winning Back Your Commute: Turn Wasted Time into Success Time"

4. "How to Overcome 'Not Enough Time' Syndrome and Take Control"

5. "Real Stories: How I Left My 9-to-5 While Raising a Family"

What the Podcast Means to Harry:
For Harry, this podcast isn’t just background noise; it’s a lifeline to progress and hope. It transforms his frustrating commute into a daily dose of empowerment and actionable guidance. By listening, Harry will:

• Feel less overwhelmed by focusing on small, achievable steps.

• Gain confidence to take calculated risks, knowing he’s not alone.

• Develop strategies to prioritize what matters most—his family, business, and well-being.

Ultimately, the podcast will be the catalyst that helps Harry push past his fears, overcome time constraints, and finally make his dream of freelancing a reality.

Once you have an Avatar, even a rough one, everything you do now should align with it. Consider what type of podcast name or artwork would resonate with Hesitant Harry and what words would connect with his emotional frustrations (use them in your episode titles). What topics would he want to hear about? Which experts can help him the most?

Chatgpt can help you with your Avatar exercise, just feed it as much information as possible in your own words. You will need to understand or experience how your avatar feels. This will likely come from them going through an experience or emotions that you have also been through.

3. Your episodes don’t have a clear value

This is very much a follow on from the previous point. While a podcast needs to have a very defined listener, each episode must have a very defined topic.

Far too often, I listen to podcast episodes centred around a guest instead of a topic. This is very hard to package neatly to a listener, and it’s also really hard for the listener to wrap their head around exactly what’s in it for them. Listeners don’t care about the guest, they care about what they can learn from the guest.

What you need to avoid is going into a podcast episode with going into episodes and thinking chatting to a guest about what they do or what they have done is enough. To demonstrate I’ll use myself as a guest.

Let’s say someone wanted to interview me for the freelance self-help podcast because I have made a success of my freelance business. It might not be the worst starting point, but the big mistake people make is thinking that chatting to me about my story or my services will make it enjoyable to listen to.

If someone was to interview me without any prep, they’ll most likely end up with a podcast title like:

Bren Russell - The Founder of Podlad
Bren Russell on how he took Podlad.com from idea to success
Bren Russell - “How I built a podcast business”

BORING!!

All of the above focus on the guest and not on the outcome or learning for the listener.

Now, let’s say the host did a bit more research. They learned that I left a secure and stable job because I wanted to fulfill a dream of working for myself, now suddenly there’s a different, more emotional angle that has the potential to connect with an audience.

Most people dream of leaving their day job for more freedom but fear what might happen. Here’s where you can use your avatar for more specific language, but your titles might become:

Quitting the 9-to-5: How He Doubled His Earnings Working for Himself
Overcoming Fear: The Mindset Shift He Used That Finally Led to Financial Freedom
Finding Your First 10 Freelance Clients To Replace Your 9-5 Income

Compare these titles to the previous ones and ask yourself, which is going to be more appealing to the eyes of your listener? They don’t know or care who Bren Russell is, they don’t care about his background or day-to-day life. That’s not to say he’s not a good guest, but by focusing on how what he has done can directly help the listener, you can flip the narrative to be about the listener instead of the guest, and that automatically makes it more appealing.

Every episode requires this level of thought BEFORE you record. While your guest may have a few things to cover (finding clients, overcoming fear, mindset tricks), it’s better to focus on just one and allow that to be the episode's focus. This makes it much easier for the listener to understand what they are going to get.

4. Your audio quality is poor

I have written about this in so many other blog posts, but again it’s because it continues to be a huge problem across the podcast space.

Bad audio is an epidemic in podcasting, but it’s not difficult to fix

If you don’t use a mic: my go-to, fail-safe, cheap as chips recommendation is the Jabnecter headset mic

A lot of people I speak to tell me “my audience doesn’t care about bad audio”, as an audio person this was always hard for me to hear but I have become more open-minded because I have seen evidence of some of my most viewed YouTube videos have been a guest with lousy audio… but that’s where my argument comes in, it was a guest!

I think people (even subconsciously) have become more tolerant and accepting of bad audio on the guest side, as long as the content is strong. However, poor audio on the host side is a massive turn-off because it’s the first voice you hear, it’s represents the brand and it’s just unprofessional. We don’t expect guests to have expertise in audio, but if you are calling yourself a “Podcaster”, you damn sure better have acceptable audio standards.

In the video below I explain some of the simple options available to hosts and where they often go wrong. You need to learn or get help on making your audio as professional as possible. There is STILL a gap in the podcast market for strong audio!

5. You Are Relying Too Much on AI

“In this section of the blog, we delve into the fascinating and pivotal role of AI in shaping the future of podcasting. Don’t miss this exciting conversation”

Okay, that was my joke attempt at an AI style first line. The point I’m making… the language is clearly different to every other part of the blog that I’ve written in my style. I’d never use the word “delve” and I’d never claim for something to be pivotal or exciting because it’s an overpromise.

While AI is great and has made many tasks easier, it’s not a replacement for needing to think. Far too many podcasters rely on it and let it take over everything, damaging the standard of their content.

AI Titles, AI show notes, AI clip selection. I’ve seen it all and analyzed it and my conclusion is that right now, AI blends your content into a generic crowd in a space where you must stand out!

There are tons of AI platforms now that analyze your content and give you titles, show notes and clips based off what they read in the transcript. While I think it can be helpful, it lacks personality and the specifics that are core to marketing a podcast episode.

AI-Generated Titles

Let’s have a look at some real AI-generated titles, versus ones I wrote myself:

AI: The Path to Personal Fulfillment and Balance
Manual: Why Women Struggle with Authenticity at Work & How To Change It

AI: Embracing Self-Acceptance: Transforming Your Relationship with Food and Body Image
Manual: What You’re Really Losing to Diet Culture (It’s Not Weight!)

AI: From the Cockpit to Cosmos: Tim Solms on Space Security and Innovation
Manual: Aerospace Is Vulnerable, Are We Ready for the Fallout? (Tim Solms)

For me, the place AI lies is in ideation, but using elements based on the reading of a transcript makes everything look bland. It’s got to a point where I can now see AI titles straight away; they have a generic and cliche sell, a colon and a broad summary: “From Rags to Riches: A Struggling Founders Success Story”

AI-Generated Show Notes

Similarly with show notes, AI-generated show notes always look the same; they recount a list of discussion topics. They never write them from a listener's perspective; it’s just a menu or list of what was discussed, which again is bland.

I believe you are better served if you wrote much shorter show notes (1 or 2 paragraphs) in your own words. Write as you would speak, even if that means using broken language or slang. This adds personality, and in a world of AI-polished content, this is now what stands out!

Again, AI-generated show notes are ridiculously easy to spot; look for the word “delve”; the show notes will massively overpromise with “an exciting conversation” and give a menu of the different things discussed, “in the last part, the conversation moves to…”

AI-Generated Clips

AI-Generated clips are perhaps the worst of all. Podcast reels and shorts are a great way to share content but where most people go wrong is that they use “clips” instead of “shorts”.

What’s the difference I hear you ask?

Clips are a segment of 30-60 seconds lifted directly from the content, they are 60 seconds played back exactly as they were on the podcast itself. It’s extremely difficult to make that entertaining, often they feel like clips without context that are difficult to grasp. Because they are based off reading a transcript, the AI is simply looking for power words and phrases and taking whatever is around it as being “good content”

Shorts / Reels are different because they are edited! They don’t play exactly as they were recorded. They are cleverly edited to provide context, and give value. So, taking 60 seconds “clip” from a part of the conversation doesn’t work. You have to take 15 seconds from one part, 15 from another etc, and edit them together to make something interesting. THIS is what performs on algorithms and this is not something AI does.

AI fails to understand the nuances of a podcast conversation, by reading a whole transcript it takes every element as equally important, so fails to figure out what the key selling point is to the target listener.

6. You’re not on Youtube

The power of YouTube has been a massive eye-opener for me in the last 12-18 months. There is a misconception that putting a podcast on YouTube means a fancy studio, high-end equipment and movie-style intros. This is not the case. A lot of remotely recorded podcasts are getting huge views on YouTube.

I have firsthand evidence of this growing the Wiser Than Before Podcast. This podcast launched in March 2024 with zero audience base and a host with no profile. We launched audio and YouTube at the same time, here are the numbers as of January 2025:

Listens on Audio Only Platforms: 6,634

YouTube views (on same content): 49,700

Total YouTube views (including repurposed content): 137,400

While these numbers are relatively modest, they show the power of leveraging the algorithm. If you have an audio-only podcast, you must rely on word of mouth or an existing audience. Whereas YouTube will put your content in front of your desired audience… it basically does all the marketing for you.

The data in YouTube analytics is also so powerful. It will tell you how many viewers watch to the end, where they drop off, if they are engaging with the content. With that if you look at it honestly you will be able to tell where the problems are in your podcast.

Why You Need Strategy For YouTube

Posting aimlessly and wildly on YouTube won’t work; you need a strategy to consider all the elements laid out in the previous points.

Generally, a podcast fails to perform on YouTube because the algorithm deems no audience. If you don’t have an audience for the 2nd biggest search engine in the world, then you may have a fundamental problem.

Because the YouTube algorithm is so clever, you can use YouTube to refine your content and use it as a navigation tool to improve your podcast. If you keep working on your content based on reading analytics, you will slowly but surely create a better podcast.

The first part of the process is to start releasing your content on YouTube in whatever way, shape, or form you can. After several months of consistent releases, dig into the analytics and learn what they can tell you. Here is a snapshot of the main areas to look at:

Reach: This is the number of people the video has been placed in front of in the algorithm. For brand new channels, this usually remains relatively low for 2/3 months; you need to build up some authority and consistency, and as you do, YouTube will slowly increase your reach bit by bit.

If your content remains to have a small reach (under 3k is very small), it is because YouTube cannot find an audience. This is your first indication that you need to change what you are doing or how you are doing it.

If you see bigger reach for specific videos then these might be the topics/areas you need to double down on.

CTR (Click Through Rate): The percentage of the Reach who clicked on your video. So if your reach was 1,000 and you have 100 views, your CTR would be 10%

A low CTR suggests that your titles and thumbnails are not interesting enough.

What a good CTR is remains debatable, but based on my experience, over 5% is a good CTR for a relatively new/small channel.

Engagement / Watch Time: This is the most important metric for YouTube and why “views” are not as important as they seem. Engagement shows a chart of how long people watch. It’s not uncommon to see a massive drop-off in the opening 30 seconds. When you see this, it likely means you have a problem with what you are promising vs. what you deliver in the opening moments, or it may show that you are failing to hook people in fast enough.

Comments are an extension of engagement and a great way to tell if people genuinely resonate with a video.

Suppose you are researching other channels, niches or topics. This is one you can use to judge true engagement.

I often see videos with thousands of views; they are seemingly performing well, but then I look and see no comments or a small amount of generic comments like “great video”. This is a red flag that the views could be paid for or that the “promote” button has been used to push the video in front of many people who have clicked on and quickly clicked back off.

You can fake views, but you cannot fake engagement. Engagement is the true measure of good performance and your podcast will never grow without it.

You cannot monetize content that has enormous views but no engagement. YouTube values watch time massively in terms of its payout system and algorithm.

7. You don’t have a Podcast Producer

As you can see from above, there is a huge amount of thought and preparation that needs to go into producing a podcast consistently; most people simply don’t have the time to a) learn all about the process or b) carry out the process to the level needed.

A producer should be able to help you make the step up technically, creatively and mentally. Giving you more time to focus on the more important aspects. A producer should be an investment and should be there to grow your podcast not just churn out the next episode.

A producer should not be confused with an editor. An editor takes your content and packages it into something and looks and feels like a podcast, it’s a purely technical job. Conversely, a Producer should be able to help you with everything mentioned in this article.

Having a dedicated producer can also help lighten your headspace, having someone else to bounce ideas off and collaborate with makes the process more enjoyable and ultimately more successful.

If you are looking for a podcast producer, I am always happy to have a quick call with people to see if I could be a good fit. I never hard sell or push my services, if I am not the right fit I will be honest and tell you. Reach out today and book a 30-minute free call to see if we are a match.