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Hey Reader! - Did anyone see the Northern Lights last night?!? I had an incredible display of reds, blues, and purples right over my house. I love living in the country.

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Anyway, today I'm sharing a story about where I went wrong with my new podcast today. I hope it's helpful!

Premise vs. Hook for Your Podcast

Last Friday, my wife and I sat down to record a pilot episode of our new podcast, and it was a shit show.

We had the idea for our show, brainstormed ideas, and figured out how to bring listeners from our old show to our new one. We did the 10-word description, figured out our USP, sat down to record… And it felt wrong.

It was going to be an unscripted chat show, but after about 10 minutes, we realized a problem…

It was boring.

We’d missed something crucial and needed to find out what it was ASAP.

The premise

In our first show, Eilidh scripted the episode and I blind reacted to the story. We’d heard from listeners that they loved our chemistry and a few who said they’d listen to anything that we talked about, so long as it was us doing our thing. Good news.

We also got messages from people saying they listened because it felt like we were keeping them company. More good news.

We combined both of those to come up with the idea for our new show, Staying For Dinner? Here was our explainer - “Come and join your favorite couple, Eilidh and Kieran, as they keep you company with a chat over dinner.”

We’ve built up a following, so we’re confident we can have more of a “personality podcast.”

But what we have above is a premise. It’s the framing of the show. It’s how the content will be delivered. But we were completely lacking any meat. The premise is great and gives us a story we can tell to promote the podcast. But it’s not enough for a podcast.

You have to open and close a loop per episode

Eilidh brilliantly pointed out that each episode has to open a loop in the listener's brain and then close it again. All the two host podcasts we listened to had some sort of goal per episode or somewhere they were moving towards.

• Jenna and Julian Podcast - each episode, they play a game
• Shagged Marreid Annoyed - navigating marriage and parenthood
• Help I sexted My Boss - “agony aunt” advice from two polar opposite hosts

Each show has a complete topic per episode that they talk about. They had something to offer that you come for and get delivered every week.

All we had was us showing up each week and talking about our lives. And while our lives are unusual, we faced the problem Vloggers had, having to do interesting things just for the content.

We needed a hook.

The hook

The hook is the reason to show up. All the podcasts above get listened to for the hosts, just like all the celebrity podcasts out there. But you need a focal point in the middle for the hosts to organize around. You need to make a promise of what you’ll get. Keeping you company is a promise of how you’ll feel, but we had no promise of what we deliver to make you feel that way.

We had ideas for different segments we wanted to do, we each have interesting jobs as digital entrepreneurs, we read lots of books we can talk about, and we’ve been married for a long time. But those aren’t enough.

However, we also love telling each other stories. We consume a lot of different media and always tell each other what we’ve been learning while we’re in the car or having dinner.

Then we cracked it - Each week, you learn something new. That’s a hook.

We agreed that every other week, we’d present a story to the other person, teaching them something new, and the other person would listen and react. Around that, we can show our personalities, banter, chat, and generally be the people we know our audience loves.

By combining the premise with the hook, we have a full podcast idea.

I hope that’s useful to anyone whose podcast isn’t clicking. By being able to answer:

• Who it’s for
• What they get
• How they’ll feel

You can craft a great show that will stand on it’s own and start to spread.

Community Wins

If you have a win you want to share, hit reply!

How I Can Help You

1) ​​How to get your first 100,000 downloads ebook – Learn what it takes to grow a podcast and make sense of podcast marketing.

2) ​​Work with me 1:1​ – I am an experienced podcast coach, and I want to help you master your podcast marketing. Check out my full list of services and discover how we can work together.

3) Growth Machine Podcast Audits are now available. Don't be blind to the mistakes holding your podcast back from the growth it deserves. Get an experienced and critical eye to give you feedback on everything from show notes to podcast quality and delivery.

4) ​Recommended Tools​​ – These are the tools I use to grow my podcast. I focus on tools that improve quality and save time.

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