089: Is the Podcast Market Too Saturated? Featuring Megan Dougherty of One Stone Creative

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This is your time. How can we earn twice as much in half the time with joy and ease while serving the highest good? That is our guiding question here at the Freetime Cafe, your home for heart based business. I'm your host Jenny Blake. Join me for conversations with authors, friends and fellow business owners as we explore ways to free your mind, time and team to do your best work. Now onto today's show.

Quick note before we get into today's show, we're doing another Takeover two part series, this time with the fantastic team behind the free time podcast, One Stone Creative. Hiring them this year in 2022 was one of the best things I have done in my business and for this show. And Megan, the co founder of One Stone Creative, has recently launched their own podcast called the Business Podcast Blueprint. It's so good, and I know that many of you either have a podcast or you're thinking about starting one, that I asked her could we do a crossover and replay two episodes in particular that I found super helpful even though I've been at this over six years and play them here for all of you. So without further ado, I'm going to hand it over to Megan for this two part crossover series. I hope you enjoy and thank you so much for being here. Listening everybody.

There's not really that much that's new in podcasting anymore. Pretty much anything you can think of to Google has a podcast of some kind associated with it. And as you're planning a show for your business, you might ask yourself or your boss might ask you, does the world really need another marketing or HR or legal or finance podcast? Can we even make a podcast successful when there are so many out there? That's the question we're answering today on the Business Podcast Blueprint show.

So you've probably heard of Blue Ocean Spaces, a big open market with very few competitors in it. That's important and desirable for some situations, but it's not really for podcasts. If there are no podcasts in your subject area at this point, you it could well be because podcasting isn't a super valuable tool for your industry. This isn't a hard and fast rule by any means, but it is an important piece of data to consider along with you know, what you know about your audience, your personal interest in podcasting, and the ways you can reuse your podcast content or use it for networking and relationship building. Rather, another way to look at it is that a lot of podcasts in your topic area can mean a few different pretty compelling things, means a lot of listeners, a lot of potential guests, a lot of different shows to be a guest on, a lot of ideas to be able to talk about and respond to, and a fair expectation of success for podcasting and the topic generally. So getting to the top of a crowded mountain is pretty hard, but it's not the only benefit of mountain climbing. Note that if no one is climbing the mountain at all, you would do well to consider why that might be. So don't worry. If there are a lot of podcasts in your space, you don't need to be the very best of the finance or whatever your topic is podcast. You need a podcast that brings real, measurable value to your business. So let's break down each of these points one by one. First, a lot of podcasts means a lot of listeners. So here is something that you can take to the bank. No listener has ever found a podcast on a topic that they care about, either personally or professionally, and thought gadzooks, I've done it. I have found the sole and single podcast on this topic I will ever want to listen to. Surely it contains every insight and viewpoint I will ever care about. My work is done and I may rest. It just doesn't happen like that. If there are a lot of podcasts in your topic, it means that there are a lot of people interested in your topic, period. And you don't need to worry about competing to be the very best unless doing so brings you particular joy, because people listen to lots of podcasts about the things that they listen to. I'm going to link to some research indicating that in the show notes below, so don't worry. Lots of podcasts means lots of listeners, and the more listeners there are, the more who might become listeners of your show and then otherwise get into your orbit. It's much more concerning if there are zero podcasts, which means potentially zero listeners. So the next item on the list is that a lot of podcasts meet a lot of potential guests, and this one is really, really huge. It can't be overstated. A much bigger problem, or at least a much more pressing problem for A lot of company podcasters is is who do I talk to? If you don't have a bulging digital Rolodex already, you can really quickly find yourself in a stressful situation of I have to record this week, but I don't have anyone lined up who am I going to talk to? If there are tons of podcasts in your subject area, then not only are there lots of other hosts who have expertise, they all have guests and you could reach out to them too. And this just feeds your relationship building and networking pipeline as well as your content. 1 so lots of podcasts mean lots of potential networking and guesting and hosting opportunities. And that brings me right to, you know, a lot of other shows means a lot of opportunities to be a guest. One of the best ways to grow a podcast is to be a guest on other people's shows, and if there aren't any in your space, you're going to be a little out of luck. Lots of shows means lots of opportunities to guests and co promote and ad swap and episode swap and generally become part of a community of podcasters and you can all help each other grow and network and build your businesses. Many podcasts, especially highly niche ones, are on the lookout for new guests to talk to and hosts are generally going to be quite open to a personalized, well thought out pitch. Now the keywords here are personalized and well thought out. You can use sites like podbooker or podmatch to find other shows to be on. They have interfaces that make it really easy to send your pitches. But whether you are going to use an interface like that or you're just going to send directly emails to addresses that you have or contact forms on websites. You always want to make your pitch personal and focus on the value that you can bring to the audience of the show that you're pitching. Hi, I'm an expert and I want to be on your show. Or even worse, I represent an expert who wants to be on your show. Are messages that get deleted without a response most of the time? Instead, take the approach of listening to a couple episodes, think of a topic that might be interesting to the host and to the audience, and send something more along the lines of hello, I found your podcast when I was looking for experts on widget production. I love what you're doing, especially discussions you've been having lately about the widget supply shortage issues. I also work in the world of widgets and if you're interested I'd love to join you on your show. I have a really interesting case study about widget recycling and repurposing that you might find valuable. The point of this is to make sure that you're focusing on the audience, you're coming up with ideas and that you're showing you've actually paid a little bit of attention to and are genuinely another member of the market and the industry that the podcast is in, rather than someone just trying to promote themselves and their services which nobody really likes. So always focus on the audience, the unique value you can bring. And again, in a topic area with lots and lots of shows, you have lots and lots of opportunities to do this. And the more you're on other shows, the more traffic you're gonna be directing back to your own. That is really gonna help you build traction for your own show.

We'll be right back just after this.

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Next up, we've got a lot of podcasts. Meet a lot of potential ideas right after oh no, who do I talk to? The issue of what am I going to talk about comes up pretty frequently. So while you never want to steal content, looking to other shows in your niche for inspiration can be a great way to keep your ideas flowing. Keep up to date on what the other experts in your field are talking about. You and your company probably have something important and valuable to add to that conversation. If there's news that is impacting your industry, you should have your say about it. If another podcaster is making great points in your topic area, point your people at them, mention the show, what they said, add your spin or additional information and tell people where they can hear the original. And then of course tell the host of that show what you did so you can possibly collaborate and co promote in the future. You can get interesting ideas from all kinds of podcasts, of course, not just the one in your subject matter, but niche company podcasts have the benefit of audience sophistication. They know who they're talking to, just like you do. And that audience is probably going to be familiar with the nuances of your industry. And that means that you get the opportunity to really dig deep into sophisticated subject matter that you're passionate about. And that's a really great thing, too. And being part of the community of podcasters in your topic area means that you're part of a much broader conversation than the one that you're leading yourself with your show and your company. Now, finally, let's talk about a fair expectation of success. Unlike hobby or passion podcasters or podcasting as a business in and of itself for a company show, the more podcasts that exist in your industry, the more likely you are to be successful with yours. But note that I said here successful and not popular. Just because there are a lot of podcasts on a topic doesn't mean that there are unlimited listeners who will all flock to you as soon as you start releasing. But lots of podcasts indicate the presence of the factors that together can lead to success if you're creating great content and promoting it well. In other words, a lot of shows mean that all the variables for success exist. Other people are using them, and you can too. As I always say, success means a lot of different things. You need to know what they mean for you and how you're going to be tracking and measuring it. I'm going to link in the show Notes to our Business Goals to Content Metrics blog post where we go into some great detail about how to turn your business goals into measurable content metrics. So if you get what feels like a kind of disheartening 200 downloads a month, you know, you feel like you're not being successful, you're not getting anywhere, but your sales team is starting to use your episodes to really help educate leads in the pipeline. And so they're closing their deals more quickly. That's a major success. Likewise, if your content team is able to repurpose episodes into social and video content, that's connecting with your audience and increasing the engagement on those channels. That's huge success too. If you're talking to experts who are becoming, you know, promotional and JV partners or referring new business to you, that's also success. All of the other factors that make it feel like you're shouting in a room that is just too crowded and noisy for anyone to hear, you actually mean that you have an endless supply of the resources that you need to see all of these other kinds of success come to your business. So that is why your podcast idea is not in too saturated of a space. No matter how many other similar shows are out there or how you may feel like you're just going to be one of many, many voices in a crowd, the world at large may not need another show in your space. But if your show is serving you and your company and your audience well, that is all that matters.

As always, thank you for joining me on the business podcast Blueprint. I'm your host Megan Doherty. I create this show in collaboration with my business partner Audra Casino. It is edited by Irwin Galino and Jensen Galino, Notes are written by Hazel Ann lafortune and and the show is managed by Darla Fields. If you're thinking about a podcast for your own business, find us at onestonecreative.net that's O N E stonecreative.net.

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