Nour Solo: Crafting Your Podcast Niche

This episode emphasizes essential steps for successfully starting a podcast, especially in the MENA region. We explore niche identification, the importance of storytelling, production practices, localization marketing, and monetization strategies. 

• Define your niche with a regional angle 
• Emphasize storytelling to build audience connections 
• Start production without perfection 
• Market your podcast tailored to the MENA audience 
• Understand monetization and develop your unique selling proposition 

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Transcript

Speaker 1 0:08

Welcome to the Curation , a show for the culturally curious . This is your host , noor Hassan . Each week , I'll guide you through a curated edit of the finest in art , fashion , design , culture , luxury , wellness , tech and more . This is your go-to space for discovering trailblazing ideas , untold stories and meaningful conversations with innovators and creators who are shaping our world . There's no gatekeeping here , so sit back , tune in and let's discover only the best together , together .

Speaker 1 0:47

Hi guys , I'm Lene A and I get a request from one of my lovely followers and I would like to ask you if you wanted to start a podcast today , if you wanted to start a podcast today in the MENA region , in Middle East and North Africa . What do you do ? And I was thinking a lot . I said how do I do this episode without being biased , without not knowing , without telling you that the topic is really , as a disclaimer , not easy , but I decided that I will try to explain to you as much as I can what are the five points that I feel are essential if you want to start a podcast today , and we want to be a successful podcast , something to stand out . This episode is unedited , it's uncut , and hopefully you'll benefit from it , hopefully you'll learn something and I don't want to start start a podcast . I just want to say I wish you the best of luck . It's an incredible field , but it is still a new field , so the topic is still new and we still don't know where it could go . Okay , these are the five points when I start a podcast in 2025 .

Speaker 1 2:04

Number one define your niche . Okay , these are the five points when I start a podcast in 2025 . Number one define your niche with a regional angle . What does that mean ? Right now ? There are a lot of topics . A lot of people are watching podcasts these days and , honestly , I watch the show and I don't know what the topic of the show is . I mean comedians , for example . I feel that it's great to be funny , but , for example , do you talk about something specific ? Do you have a specific topic you want to explain ? Do you want to stay in a specific niche ? Because every time you choose something fashion , art , style , whatever حاجة specific كل ما you'll stand out فلازم تعملوها بطريقة زكية . تختاروا topic محدش بيكلم فيه بطريقة محدش بيكلم بيها . يعني أنا , مثلا , في the curation , أنا غيرت الاسم ليه لأن هو ده اللي .

Speaker 1 3:02

ا's what we do . We curate , we choose the things that are the best thing , from each topic , from each industry , from each field , and we present it to you . Or the best person , for example , does certain things . In Arabic , the word curate is called taqeem that you or you rate something . It's similar to rating . You give something a rating from similar to rating . You give something a rating from 1 to 10 . So our selection of the curation is always 10 . Out of 10 . Okay , and that's my niche personally .

Speaker 1 3:36

The second thing , the second point , is that content is king , but storytelling is queen . That's the typical idiom we always hear . But what does this mean ? It means that the content is really important , but you I don't know how to say this God , share your story . Understand who you are . Speak your way , for example , bilingual تفهمونا انتو مين تتكلمو بطريقة بتاعتكو مثلا البايلنجول الفكرة انتو تكلمو عربي او انجليزي , or the two . The idea is that you make some content in Arabic and some content in English . All of this makes me understand who I'm listening to . I mean , who is the person I'm listening to ? Because , as I always say , the host is 60% , 70% or more than the success of a show . Okay , and this is a very important thing , you need to show us the personality ofية .

Speaker 1 4:35

بتاعت الهوست , بتاعتكو انتو , لان انا مش هسمع البودكاست دي عشان اسمها , مثلا نور talks . انا هسمعها عشان نور اللي بتتكلم , بس مين نور . واسألوا نفسكو are you willing to share about yourself ? And this is something I really struggled with for a long time do you want to share more about yourself ? Because , by nature , having a podcast means that you will have to share more about yourself , about who you are . I'm not saying that you don't have to be a level of privacy , no but you will have to give the audience a little bit more . That's my second point . My third point is production without perfection .

Speaker 1 5:25

Here I will tell you a story about how I started podcasting . I was in 2020 , before the corona . I was sitting with myself and suddenly I got the idea . I thought to myself what is this ? You need a podcast , noor . I don't know why , but I felt that I urgently need to start a podcast , and that was a very strange feeling and to this day , I don't know what inspired me to do this . Subhanallah .

Speaker 1 5:48

But I did something I've never done before , even though , even though this is my personality I got down and I got two mics and an interface and I grabbed the mic and I started recording and I taught myself how to audio edit and I taught myself how to share the podcast online and how to do everything , and I built a platform for myself , honestly , in one night , and this is what I want to tell you the first podcast , the sound , of course , wasn't right , the editing wasn't right . There were a lot of friends , they took the risk and , honestly , they're amazing and they agreed to be some of my first guests , but I started without perfection . I started before the product was finished and this is something Really , really , really . These days , we feel on social media that it's impossible . We have to start with everything perfect . All the production , styling , hair , makeup All of this will delay you . It will delay you to no end Until you finally start . So , of course , now I have my own production team . I don't need to do everything , but I'm going to start .

Speaker 1 6:59

In the beginning , it was me , two mics and my laptop , and that was it . So the third point is production without perfection . Start with what you have . Start with what you have right now , okay .

Speaker 1 7:14

The fourth point is marketing for the MENA region and standing out . I mean , look , I'll explain something to you right now , and this is something I wish I could understand better than this . You have to market your podcast to the audience around you . At the end of the day , algorithms are based on the location where you are sitting , where you are based . I am based in Cairo , between Cairo and Dubai , so this is my audience core . Although I have a lot of listeners , many people hear from America , uk , europe and on the contrary . Actually , because I talk on international topics , I have an English accent , so basically , people understand the podcast , they can tune in , but at the end of the day , my audience is regional and I was very confused about this topic and in the end the day , the audience is regional and I kept fighting this topic a lot and in the end I told myself okay , noor , talk to them about the topics they want to hear about . No matter how old I was and I felt westernized . You need to give yourself a reality check and know where you are and who is the audience and what they want to hear .

Speaker 1 8:27

The last point is monetization . Everyone asks me do you make money off the podcast , etc . Etc . And I will tell you honestly yes , I do , but it took years for that to happen and it is not my main objective . But at the end of the day . This is what will happen .

Speaker 1 8:41

Only if you build a brand that has strategy , that a brand that has a strategy , that has differentiation , that has you're not afraid that if I don't have enough followers or there are a million podcasts , then I'm done . I'm done with the Moga or whatever . You have a first mover advantage . If you started years ago and that doesn't go away , I'm alone . I do not care about competition .

Speaker 1 9:06

I don't look left or right عندي advisor , زي بتاع الكامل ده ولا الحصان and I don't care . I know the quality اللي أنا بقدمها , بالprices that I ask for , بالaudience caliber that you will not get anywhere else . وده اللي أنا بخش . That's my USP . But what do you have ? You have to think , because today the currency is not the followers . The currency is who follows you , who are your followers . You can have 10,000 followers from the strongest people in the region and you can have 1 million followers , a luxury brand , if دل your goal .

Speaker 1 9:47

مش عايزين يوصلوا لهم . مش التارجت بتاعهم أصلا أنا . I'm a niche show and I want to stay that way . مش عايزة معص . مش عايزة تعامل بالمعص . مش عايزة أمثل إن أنا معص . فهي دي الفكرة . وكل ما تزيرو ان تعرفوا ايه الUSP , الunique selling proposition . بتاكو كل ما فعلا your show will stand out . فthese are the points , and my biggest advice is if you want to start , do it as fast as you can , because the minute you start you hit the ground running and you just have to keep going , لأن في حاجة اسمها accountability فبست of luck . لو عندكوا أي أسئلة على كلمت علي دلوقتي , please ابعطولي and , as always , make sure to subscribe like comment . Dm me أي أسئلة عندكوا and make sure to listen to next week's episode of the Curation . Thank you , guys . Talk to you soon .