Rapid testing with podcast pilots

I get asked often by founders and VCs who want to launch a company podcast, “what should we talk about on our podcast” “who should we interview”?

My answer is? It depends on a few things.

First, what is your intended audience interested in hearing?

Second, what are you (the host) interested in chatting about over and over.

So, it’s a two way road of interest. These two points are vital to understand, and once answered spark a whole new host of questions which i’ll address in later posts.

It’s important to remember that;

To build an audience, if they aren’t interested in your content

“then, you aren’t going to build an audience”.

And

If you (the host) aren’t interested in the subject,

“then, you aren’t going to build an audience”.

If you aren’t going to build an audience, then what’s the point?

So how do you figure out the two way road of interest for your podcast? The simple answer. Create a few high-quality pilots.

Pilots are important and serve three very important purposes.

First, it gives your test-audience a finished product to listen to and provide feedback on.

Second, it tests the vision of your podcast and whether it’s interesting to you.

Third, it tests the content production system and if you have enough of it to produce in a reoccurring manor.

If your podcast is weak in any one of the above three, the podcast will most likely fail.

The next question I get is. “How do I produce high quality pilots?”

The ability to rapid test high-quality pilots is a product of a high-quality audio production system.

It seems a little counter-intuitive to have a production system first. But having a high-quality audio production system allows creativity to flow. It also lowers the cost to produce. Over the past 5 years my production team have perfected this and it frees us up to rapid test any new ideas.

Learn more about the ListenDeck audio production system.