"The Secret to Consistent Podcasting Success - From Idea to Episode: Podcasting Essentials"

Introduction to Podcasting Success

SPEAKER_01 0:00

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SPEAKER_03 0:46

Hey and welcome to the podcast about podcasting. I am your host, Gabe Leal. And in today's show, we're going to break down the real mechanics of building a podcast that actually works. Today we're going to be tackling something that separates podcasters who struggle to stay consistent from those who build and genuine momentum in everything that they do. So here's the truth most new podcasters fail because they treat

Understanding Content Pillars

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every episode like a blank slate. They wake up, panic about what to talk about, and either end up recording all over the place or skip a release entirely. It's exhausting. It kills your show before it even gets traction. But there's a better way, actually. And we're going to talk about that. Today we're going to be talking about content pillars. And more importantly, how to build them so you never have to hunt for an idea again. We're going to define what they are, walk you through exactly how to create them, and show you the framework that ties it all together. By the end of this episode, you'll have a clear system you can apply to your own podcast, no matter what your niche is, no matter how early you are in the game. This will help you build a foundation. So let's dig in.

SPEAKER_02 1:57

If you've been thinking about starting a podcast for longer than you'd like to admit, this show is for you. I'm Gabe Liel, your host, and the podcast about podcasting exists because just start is not enough of an answer. Each week, I talk to real practitioners, podcasters, producers, agency owners, and audio engineers to answer the question the industry usually dodges. Why should you actually do this? Not the hype version, the version that holds up when episode five drops and nobody's listening yet. Welcome.

SPEAKER_03 2:40

Alright, what is a content pillar? A content pillar is a core theme or topic that you return to repeatedly throughout your podcast. Think of it as the lane you stay in. Okay? Here's the critical part. A content pillar isn't just a single episode on a single topic. It's a category of ideas, angles, and conversations that all connect back to the same central idea. It's something you can explore from multiple directions, different guests, different formats, different real world examples, but it all feeds the same pillar. For example, if your pillar is productivity, you might do episodes on time management strategies, overcoming procrastination, building sustainable routines, the psychology of focus, how different industries approach efficiently. Same pillar, different angle, same audience value. The reason this matters is simple. Consistency builds familiarity, and familiarity builds an audience. When people know what to expect from your podcast, they know you're exploring themes that matter to them. They keep coming back. They don't have to wonder if this is an episode for them. They already know. This is the beautiful part about developing a content pillar. It's going to help you craft and shape that idea into a usable, attainable method to develop more episodes. It's going to help you develop um more stringent content. It's going to help you in so many different avenues. But it all starts by developing a system in place of creating content. Now, on the show, we've interviewed multiple podcast hosts. Most of them have over a hundred to you know twelve hundred episodes under the belt. And a lot of them will tell you that the reason they found sustainability

Building Your Content Pillars

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is number one, they found their niche, their content pillar, and they were passionate about talking about it. And that has been able to sustain them for so long. So a lot of new podcasters, this is a struggle that I believe they run into. You have a great idea, you just don't know how to stretch it out. So that's why we're talking about this in this episode. This is the area that you really should have to focus on when you're getting started. Because I believe, and this is just a personal belief, but from all the research that I've been doing and understanding and trying to learn more about podcasting, it is usually that comes down to your content and your niche. And I understand that throughout many of the interviews that I've conducted for a lot of podcasters, they do totally understand the idea of I know what my niche is, but there are others who are very broad in general. And I know that sometimes we don't talk about metrics, but in speaking about podcasting, you do want to be able to find an audience, a community that will follow and listen to every episode. So this is why I believe building and developing a strong content uh and a foundation will help you find that sustainability. If you can do this in the very beginning, I promise you, you will find a way to move past that wall of recording six to eight episodes easily. You'll blow through it. But it all starts here. Okay. So we're gonna go into the next step of how to build your content pillars. All right. So let's get tactical with this. Here are the concrete steps to identify and build your content pillars. All right. The first one I just mentioned, start with your passion and your purpose. Literally, this is where you have to sit down, take that idea that's been going in your head. It usually starts out with an idea of saying, I would love to talk about this, or you're sitting with a group of friends, right? And you guys have always been talking and and you have fun and the conversations are very fun and boisterous, and you figure people would love to hear us talk about this. And you get the idea, let's do a podcast about this. Great. You've taken the first step in becoming a podcaster. Now, whether that lasts, that's where these steps help you. And it's stuff, and again, it starts with your passion and your purpose. So if you know why you're creating your show, why you're creating your content, you know your why, then you're already, you know, 50% past a lot of uh beginning podcasters. Okay. So the first move is to ask yourself, why do I actually care about what I'm talking about? Now, what you have, well, what do you think people want to hear? Not what's trendy, what what do people want to hear? What genuinely energizes you when you talk about it? Write down, write this is what I say, write this down or talk to it in your phone and record it in your notes. Type it in, just put it down somewhere. Write down three to five big themes that'll keep your show, you know, that'll keep you showing up in your life, that'll keep, you know, that keep drawing your interest. These are themes again that that are constantly there. So if it's comic books, if it's movies, if it's music, if it's art, you know, if it's architecture, if it's true crime, if these themes keep showing up in your life and these are your interests, and you really love to take deep dives down rabbit hole rabbit hole rabbit holes, excuse me. If you like to go down rabbit holes, and this is again your expertise or your own unique perspective, these things should be the things that you could talk about for hours without getting bored. And these are the things that you really need to consider in you know starting your your content and writing out how far can you stretch this. And I'm telling you, start out with three to five ideas. There could be more, there could be less, but that gives you the scope. It really does give you the scope of whether or not starting a podcast would be feasible. And as somebody who's gone through and helped build and develop content for not only myself, but for others, one of the hardest things that in the beginning is sitting down and mapping out what you want to talk about, not just a just a general idea. Like I know that there are a lot of podcasters out there who will start a show and they'll start doing it with interviews. And the focus, I've done this. The focus is say human interest and people, you're bringing on interesting people, have conversations. That's great. But it's very broad, and it's solely based

Defining and Narrowing Down Pillars

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a lot on your guest of who you're having on. And if your guest isn't interesting, they don't bring the audience, they don't have a following to come along with it, it's going to be heavily reliant on you to build and promote and put this out there in the world. And the second thing is when people sit down and they and you have a show like this and they say, What is your show about? And you say, Well, I interview people. Great, okay. What's the focus? Is it about interviewing people from what? A specific genre, a specific uh career, you know, a specific field of interest. And the broader and more general it is, it's kind of hard to start building traction without again the the what we talked about in the beginning, the the familiarity. Okay. So, you know, sit down and write them out. And you know, don't just overthink this. Just list them. Okay. Look for the through line. Now, now that you've got your list, zoom out. What's the connection between these themes? Let's say you're your your list looks like this relationships and communications, personal growth and habits, navigating change and uncertainty. Okay. The through line, you know, there might be how people uh how to how people build meaningful, resilient lives. So that would be your North Star. That feeds into that. That feeds every everything feeds into that. Okay. So when you sit there and you write these things out, look at them. See if you can gain clarity from that. Okay. And then from there, really, once you've really investigated and look into it, narrow it down the two to four core pillars. You know, you might have 10 things on your list, but pick the the two to four that are the strongest. Okay? Here's where most podcasters go wrong. They try to cover everything and their show becomes incoherent. Nobody knows what you stand for, okay? Take your passion list and your through line and narrow it down to those two to four core pillars. These are the lanes you're gonna stay in. Okay. Think about that. Really look at them and examine them. Why two to four? Okay. I'll tell you why. Because it gives you it gives you enough variety so that you don't get bored. Because remember, you are gonna be talking about this, whether it is an interview show and it's a particular genre or niche, or you're doing a solo show, which is even harder. So you have to understand the more variety that you have within those content pillars, you don't get bored. It's tight enough that your audience knows exactly what your show is about. Again, the question, remember what I just said? The question that somebody, when they come up to you, what's your show about? You should have your log line, your two-sentence log line. That's one of the greatest things that I've heard from a lot of the interviewers. I mean, the uh podcast hosts that I've been interviewing, is a lot of them will tell you, have your log line, your pitch, what is that that people will want to tune in for? Okay. Again, make sure you know exactly what your show is about so that your audience will, it's manageable. You can go deep in each pillar without diluting your focus. So remember, narrow it down to the two to four strongest pillars. Again, I will use this example and I've I've shared it in other interviews, but if you go to a fine dining restaurant, like a very high-end steakhouse, their menu card is usually probably just one page. It's got about 15 items, and that's it. It's not a it's not a multifold menu. It's not, hey, here's a special menu here as well. It is those 15 things, but they are very, very they're known for it. They're very good at it. That's their niche. That's their pillar. Okay. So that's what you have to take the same approach in doing what we're doing here and talking about building your content pillars for your podcast. Okay. And the next step is easy. Define each pillar with specificity. Okay. For each pillar,

Brainstorming Episode Ideas

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write out a one sentence definition. This isn't for your audience yet, it's for you. Again, it's your North Star for every episode. It is the core of what you are as a podcast host or your content as a podcast host. Okay. So remember, define those, each pillar, the two to four that you choose. And here's an example. Again, pillar one, how to build relationships that actually sustain through real conflict and challenge. Pillar two could be the practical psychology of creating habits that stick long term. And pillar three, what it actually looks like to navigate major life changes without losing yourself. These definitions should be should be specific enough that you could pitch any episode in any of those categories and know immediately if it fits your niche or your narrative or your podcast. And your audience should know the same thing. So remember it the whole focus here of developing these content strategies and these pillars are to help you because we want you as a podcaster, every new podcaster listening to the show, we want to be able to move past that wall that podcasters get stuck at. Don't worry about them have the whole idea totally outlined and mapped out. Just brain dump it, right? Get it in there so that it fits. And this is the again, this is the part where you you as the host and the creator can shift and change those things and whether or not they fit within the pillars that you really do want to focus on. And sometimes this is where you get the the most clarity and and perspective. I mean, think about it. Think about how you can sit and just put down those ideas. Think about, like, say, specific problems your audience faces. Can you come up with the with a problem and a solution, you know, for first a particular genre or niche? If you're that that's what you're exploring. Questions they might ask. Your audience might ask certain questions, like uh again, in this uh an example that I've been using about how do how do how what if they're asking, how do I change my life if I have this? Or how do I change my life if things are like that? Okay. Things to other things too. Focus on misconceptions that you want to challenge. Again, this is what I'm doing here. I'm sitting here, this is part of my content pillar, is for new podcasters, is to move past that misconception to the six to eight episodes that where most podcasters stop. So I want to be able to move past that. And then again, the fun part is using those real world examples or case studies. You can do research on a lot of the topics that you have, whether in any particular field, again, what whether it's in movies, art, music, comics, anime, you name true crime. I I've talked to so many hosts, and you can find a lot of this, the knowledge that they've acquired and share on their show from other people, from other hosts, from other communities. So use real world examples or case studies and then guest per se excuse me, guest perspectives that fit into the pillar. Again, if you're going to do an interview show, if you find guests who

Batching Content for Sustainability

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are, say, life coaches in this example, or they're therapists who can help change and shift your mindset and your narrative, these are the these would be guests that that lay into exactly what your pillar is about. And people in your audience will find the information value-driven. It will resonate with what they're what they're seeking, what they're listening for. And again, then this is where I say that it's all important to talk about these things and get these things mapped out because different formats, right? So depending on the different formats you explore, you could do a solo, an interview, a narrative, you could do rapid fire, QA, you could do guide shows, podcasts, I mean, limited series. There's so many different ways that you can approach doing a podcast. But it helps when you have all these pillars in place that'll help you decide. Do I have enough content to do a solo show? Could I do a solo show for 20, 30, 40, 50 episodes based off the content that I have? Those are deep questions you really have to think about. If it's an interview show, again, will it fit the narrative of what I'm trying to create of having people on and just talking to guests? It's they have to fit that particular area of what you're niche as about. Again, the broader that you go, the harder it is is going to find the traction. And I'm not saying that you can't. I'm just saying it's a lot harder. And especially when you get into this game and you're looking at analytics and results. So understanding why these pillars are important and what you're trying to create is a big one. And then by the time you're done sitting down and writing out all these pillars, writing down all these ideas, all the things that you've been searching, you should have 20 to 40 episodes ideas sitting in a document written down somewhere. That's your content bank. That's the money.

Creating a Content Strategy Framework

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Okay? And for those 20 to 40 episodes, you don't have to scramble for an idea again. And here's the wonderful thing. As you go along, ideas will start to formulate. Okay. So that can grow even more. But this is just off the starting off the two to four pillars that we're talking about. And then batch your content by pillars. Here's where you find a sustainability hack. Don't randomize your pillars across episodes. Instead, batch them strategically. So you might do two episodes on pillar one, one episode on pillar two, two episodes on pillar three, one episode on pillar one again, and so on. Or you might dedicate, like I say, a full month to a deep dive into one pillar or a series. The point is, have a loose rotation that feels natural to you and to your audience. This creates

Recap and Action Steps

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rhythm. Listeners know that if they loved episode three and episode seven, probably episode eight or nine has something similar. You're building anticipation for them. You're drawing them back in. Okay? So batch your content by pillars. That's why I said these are important to put down. And then the framework underneath, okay? So now that you got your content pillars, here's where the actual work, the framework underneath begins. Content pillars create a system of leverage. Once you've defined your pillars and populate them with ideas, you're not making random content anymore. You're executing a strategy. That strategy does three things. First, it saves you time. You're not reinventing the wheel every episode, every week. You already know what you're talking about. The research gets reusable. Your guest network grows with each pillar. Second, it builds your authority. When you constantly explore a theme in depth, you become known for that. People think of you when they think of that topic. That's how you differentiate in a crowded podcast space. And this is what they call the saturated market. This is how the ways you're going to learn to stand out. Third, it compounds your audience growth. New listeners who find you know your episodes don't have to wonder if your ex your if your next episode is for them. They can listen backwards through your pillar and find more content that speaks to them. Every episode doesn't just serve itself, it serves the whole catalog. That's what this is about. It's the sustainability. That's ease. That's how you build an audience without burning out. Okay. So just again, we'll go very quickly, do a quick recap before we get you out of here. Because I again I want this to be very concise and very quick, but enough for you to be able to sit down. Again, number one, figure out what your content pillars are. Okay. That's going to be the first step. You're going to sit down and figure that out. And then the next step is, you know, how to build these content pillars, right? And this is where you get into the steps, the action steps. Start with your passion and purpose. Remember, you're you're that's gonna be a big thing that you're going to lean into, right? That's what's gonna sustain. And then look for the through line again, right? This is where this is where it's gonna be important. So again, look, look, look for the through line. And then the step three, narrow it down to your two to four core pillars, right? It's not hard. Get

Looking Ahead: Future Episodes

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down what it is that you really want and focus and and and tighten up on those. And then you define each pillar with specificity. Again, give a definition to what those pillars are. And of course, step five, brainstorm episode angles for each pillar. This is what helps build it out even further. And then the last step again, batch your content by pillars. Okay, those are the six actionable steps. And again, the last part is just the framework underneath. And these are going to help you as a beginning or emerging podcaster, how to find your audience, how to find your niche, and how to find growth in what you're doing. So here's your homework, podcasters, aspiring podcasters. Grab a piece of paper or document and work through those six steps. Find your two to four pillars, define them, brain dump your episode ideas. Remember, they don't need to be perfect. You just need to be able to start with them. Because the moment you have a system in place, the moment you know exactly what you're about, Your podcast shift, it changes. It goes from something you're figuring out week to week to something that builds on purpose. And that's the difference between a show that fades and a show that grows. And that is my purpose here as your host of the podcast about podcasting. Is we're gonna go step by step on how to get started in this world of podcasting, understanding why each step is vital. And hopefully building again your podcast to what you want it to be, what you dream it to be. So each week, what we're doing is we're interviewing podcast hosts who've built long-standing podcast shows who have used a lot of these core pillar ideas and have found a way for it to work for them to find a sustainable way to do again elongated episodes for uh 100, 500, 700, 1200 episodes takes a lot, and understanding how to develop these content pillars will help sustain, and even sometimes along the way, they they might change, but having these pillars down to your core at least gives you the roadmap of where to start. Now it might shift, but I'm telling you, this is where it starts. So having these things are very strong. We're launching, we've launched episode number one with our friend and host Janae Demed, April 2nd. Thursday, April 2nd, uh is our first official launch episode, and he has a lot to talk about. He he shares a lot in in that uh episode. And it would be great to go listen because he's done over 700 uh episodes himself starting back in 2018. So he's been in the game for a while, and he's very good at what he's he what he does, been very precise. You can learn a lot from Janaid, and hopefully a lot from what I'm sharing with you today. This will be the uh second episode. So what our strategy is here is we're gonna each week we're gonna release two episodes. We'll have our our interview episode, which we're doing with uh these different podcast hosts, and then the next episode, the subsequent episode, will be something like this that is very thorough and technical because there's something more about just getting from perspective from them. It's taking that acquired knowledge and then building out something that can be applied to any new podcaster starting out there in this world. So hopefully you guys get a lot of value out of this. And again, that's your homework. If you're a new or aspiring podcaster, sit down. Let's develop the content first, let's get that idea out, let's draw it out, let's see whether or not we have something on paper that we can build upon, and then we will move to the next steps. So until next time, guys, thank you again for tuning in. If you like this kind of podcast, you like the content that we're sharing, you love what we're doing, do us a favor, please leave a review on our uh Apple Podcast or Spotify. You can also subscribe to our YouTube podcast page. And again, we will be putting out different blogs based off of all this information. And we will be eventually hosting a uh hopefully like a small summit or workshop where we can bring in uh a lot of veteran podcasters to help a lot of new and upstart podcasters learn their way around this world because we're not here about gatekeeping, we're here to help each other lift each other up. Okay. So until then, I'm your host, Gabe Leel. Thank you for listening to the podcast about podcasting. We'll see you soon. Bye for now.

SPEAKER_00 25:33

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