Image by Paxton Woebler[/caption]
Over recent years, one of the fastest growing branches of media has been podcasting. The great virtue that podcasting holds over traditional media is twofold: The first is that it is asynchronous, meaning that people can listen or watch podcasts whenever it is convenient for them. The second is that the equipment and technology required to create a podcast are very inexpensive.
What all of this means is that it is now easier than ever for anybody to podcast your passion and reach a massive audience of potential listeners.
The question that each of must ask ourselves is what we will do with this fantastic opportunity? How will we use the podcasting medium to express our personal beliefs and passions to the world? What is the personal mission that we will fulfill through creating and publishing a podcast? The answer to these questions can have a profound impact on the future of your personal and professional life.
To go about successfully pursuing your passion through the vehicle of podcasting, there are three fundamental rules to consider when creating and growing a podcast and audience. The first is to pursue a personal mission, the second is to create a persona brand, and the third is to change the world:
Pursue a Personal Mission
The fundamental cornerstone of creating a meaningful podcast is that it be a personal mission. The importance of pursuing a mission is that it will animate you beyond a simple business or job. People on a mission are driven by a force that cannot be understood by people who do not share their mission. To successfully accomplish your personal mission, there are three fundamental steps to undertake. The first is to define your niche, the second is to rally against a common enemy, and the third is to build a community with your audience.
Defining your niche is a critically important part of pursuing your mission because broad audiences are very difficult to lead into inspired action. To attract an audience of highly engaged followers, it is necessary to focus the scope of your mission to something that will hold a high level of appeal to a specific cross-section of people. The reason why this is so important is because an engaged audience is highly critical to pursuing your mission.
The next part of pursuing your personal mission is to rally your followers against a common enemy. The reason for this is because a common enemy unites the people within your movement. In many cases, this enemy will be scam artists in or around your niche area. In other cases, the enemy will be a bigger problem or idea. It is generally better to rally against an idea than a person, since despicable individuals have a tendency to come and go with high frequency. In every case, it is important to keep the focus of your movement and mission fixed on its goal and avoid infighting between the people who are a part of the movement that you are leading.
The net result of all these activities will be to build a community with your audience. The power that you create from a community comes from the common bond that is formed with the people who follow your mission. Podcasting provides a unique value to people from the sense of community, since it creates an outlet for people who do not feel the same bond with the people in their physical community. The internet allows podcasting to remove geographical constraints from the notion of community and make it easier for people to organize around ideas instead of organizing within an area.
Create a Personal Brand
To truly establish your vision, it is important to create a personal brand. This brand is highly important, because it is how your listeners will identify with you. It is what will attract people toward your vision and ideas. It is the shared worldview that will draw people into the podcast you are publishing, and inspire them to become part of the vision that you are creating. There are three main factors to consider in the process of creating your brand: 1) Connection with your niche, 2) A shared worldview with your audience, and 3) That you be trusted as a source of information.
Creating a connection with your niche audience is an absolutely critical part of successfully podcasting your passion. To do this, you must establish your credibility in the niche subject area by communicating your expertise so that the audience can “feel” the power of your knowledge. This will serve as the foundation for communicating your philosophy and point of view. The connection you generate with your niche audience is what will allow you to inspire them to take action toward the attainment of your mission.
Another key tenant of your personal brand is creating a shared worldvew with your audience. This is an item of critical importance because the shared worldview is how you will attract followers to your mission. To accomplish this most efficiently, it is important to communicate the reason for your worldview to the audience. In addition to this, you should always be seeking to reinforce the worldview of your listeners, and deliver your content with a style that your listeners and followers will identify with. By rallying people around a shared worldview, it will allow you to successfully create a “tribe” of followers who are animated toward the attainment of your mission.
The third factor of your personal brand is to become a trusted source of information to your audience. This is absolutely critical, because mindshare in the podcasting world is very highly concentrated at the “top” of the distribution. What this means is that the most popular podcasts enjoy much more influence than the ones in the middle of the pack. One of the characteristics that all of these top podcasts share is is that they are highly trusted by their audience. This trusted information can be valuable or educational in nature, humorous, or ideally both. The stronger you build the bond of trust with your audience, the more influential your podcast will become.
Change the World
The notion of changing the world is scary to a lot of people … and justifiably so. The world is a big place, and there is only so much that a single person can do. Of course, that is the trick … changing the world must become bigger than you as an individual person. You must inspire others to take action. To do this, there are three key principles to always keep in your mind: 1) Focus on the big vision, 2) Never stop selling the vision, and 3) Always pursue new goals.
Focusing on the big vision is absolutely critical to being a force of change in the world. The vision is your “why” … it is the force that drives us to continue moving forward. It cannot be rational … it must be deep and emotional. It cannot be about money or recognition. All of the world’s great visionaries were driven by an infinite internal force to accomplish their life’s true calling. Martin Luther King dreamed of equality for African Americans, and Gandhi dreamed of India becoming a free state. Neither of them were animated by a desire for personal gain, and both gravitated people toward them by the power of their vision.
Once your vision has been established, you can never stop selling it. This is a critical step, because nobody else will feel your vision as strongly as you do. In order to animate others to take action and give your vision power to change the world, they must be reminded of the vision constantly. This means that it is not possible for you to talk about your vision too much. You must take every opportunity you can to enhance, describe, and communicate the meaning of the vision to your listeners.
As your vision grows, it will also be important to ensure that you are always pursuing new goals. This is absolutely critical, because a vibrant and living vision must always be moving forward. The reason for this is because new goals prevent your vision from becoming stale and lifeless. The “why” of your vision should always be pushing you toward new horizons and new challenges. It is the pursuit of these new challenges that will keep your audience animated to continue working to change the world.
Congratulations … you are now equipped to podcast your passion to the world. Now step out and create something wonderful.
