Choose the right topic or your podcast will never take off

If your podcast idea feels “good” but you can’t explain it in one sentence, that’s a warning sign. We see it all the time: new shows launch with vague topics, chase a trend, and fade out before they ever find momentum. Here’s the fix we use with creators every day in a working studio environment: start with what you’re truly obsessed with, then shape it into a clear niche and a promise your listener instantly understands.

We walk through how to choose a podcast topic you can stick with for hundreds of episodes, why you don’t need to be an expert to host a great show, and how an interview format can unlock relationships with almost anyone through smart guest laddering. We also break down the “Venn diagram” thinking and replace it with something that holds up in real life: passion plus nerdy interest plus mission alignment. When your podcast lines up with your goals, it’s much harder to quit.

Then we get practical with podcast SEO and topic validation. We show you how to run a fast keyword check using YouTube, Spotify, and Google autocomplete, how to do a competitor scan without getting discouraged, and how to mine Reddit, Quora, and groups for the exact phrases your audience uses. We finish by explaining why your target persona matters so much, and how being intentional about who you serve helps you “beat the algorithm” on YouTube and social platforms.

If you want a podcast niche that’s clear, searchable, and sustainable, listen through and take notes. Subscribe for the next parts of this series, share this with a friend starting a show, and leave a review telling us the topic you’re considering.

Sponsored By AzPodstudio.com

Transcript

Why Most New Podcasts Fail

SPEAKER_00 0:00

How to choose a podcast topic that actually gets listeners. 90% of shows fail within seven episodes, and it's not for the reasons that you would think. Today we're gonna go a little bit more into pillar number one. And as with last time, we're gonna use Claude as a reference because I know that you out there are searching right now for how to start a podcast or how to choose the perfect topic. So I want to help you with that, and I'll tell you where Claude's gone right or wrong. We work in media every single day with top podcasters. A lot of the tools that we've developed in this studio I've never seen used anywhere else, but they definitely cut down on the failure rate of

Pick A Topic You’ll Never Quit

SPEAKER_00 0:36

starting these shows. So Claude here is gonna tell me why the topic is your whole game. And it has some decent information here where it says your topic is your audience calling. But I would allow you to think more into it than that. First off, it has to be something that centers with you. And then you can happen to have an audience. Where I disagree with Claude here is it says you have to have this like huge audience intention. I once had a girlfriend that was a part of a knitting group that was full of thousands of people. The biggest thing here is to find something you're passionate about. I guarantee there is a group or community with it. I started a podcast for bullied kids, which feels pretty niche, but it became a top 5% show in its first season. So I'm hesitant to say this. I almost said you probably don't want to choose a topic for just people that like strawberry yogurt, but there's probably a podcast that would work for just people that like strawberry yogurt. So I want you to go with more of what you're a nerd for. I use this phrase all the time. What's a topic that you absolutely love and you could be involved with every single day? You would never get tired of it. It's the topic that you're constantly absorbing content on. Maybe you're even yelling at the screen from time to time, and this is my take on this thing. That is when you know you have something of passion. The nice thing too is there's several different types of podcast formats, but if you choose an interview format, it is a great shot at getting absolutely anybody in the world to connect with you. Now you might not start out with Arnold Schwarzenegger at first, but guess what? You do enough laddering. We'll talk about laddering in the guest approach on a later episode, but laddering can lead you to any guest that you ever had in your wildest dreams. So to reiterate here, choose a topic of passion and one that's going to keep you

Interview Shows And Guest Laddering

SPEAKER_00 2:09

consistent. So next, Claude says Venn diagram. And now I'm thinking it's it's absorbing some of the content we have around here because we always do something like a Venn diagram. Now it says passion, expertise, and audience demand. I would replace these. I would definitely say passion. It is important, put

Rethinking The Venn Diagram

SPEAKER_00 2:26

a circle of what your passions are, right? And then it says expertise. I would not put expertise. In fact, some of the greatest shows out there are people that are non-experts. Joe Rogan isn't an expert on most of his content. Diary of a CEO isn't an expert on most of his content. They're leading with curiosity. So this is a big part where I think Claude has it wrong. Now, if you are an expert, all the more great. You can absolutely have that show. But not having expertise in a subject is not a reason not to start that podcast. And the cool part is after 200 episodes, you will be damn near an expert on it. The third thing it says is audience demand. You do want to make content that people are actually searching for. That's where we agree. And you could do a little research on this. You can get onto YouTube, what are popular topics within the subject matter that you enjoy? You could get onto Reddit, what are the forums like for things that are in your niche? When we do what we call podcast treatment here, we're touching a lot a lot of these things slightly in this video, it's basically coming up with the concept in different ways. What we're doing is digging into somebody's brain and into somebody's heart and what their missions are in life that you can attach the podcast to in order to fulfill their life goals and keep them consistent. So I like something more like passion meets nerdly interest, meets mission. If you find the intersection of these things, you'll start a show of value. As you'll start one that keeps you consistent and you'll walk two life goals that you

Four Topic Mistakes To Avoid

SPEAKER_00 3:49

have. Next, we're on to Claude's four most common topic mistakes. Podcast about life. Vague is the silent killer. I don't disagree there at all. You don't want to be too vague. Don't start a podcast just to start a podcast. Don't start a podcast just about real estate. Don't start a podcast just about business. You want a better angle than this. One thing to envision right now is if you're NBC and you're starting a show, how much research would you do into this? How much thought would you put into this? You would want to have some sort of log line that you could tell people in one sentence what the podcast actually is and then be really interested in it. Not I have a business podcast, more like the stories behind what made you start your first business. Mistake number two, Claude said, is chasing the trend. I just, I agree with this completely. A lot of people jumped on the crypto bandwagon, they just started the crypto podcast or the AI podcast. This to me is right back with a podcast about life. You're being too vague on the topic. And just because it's trending now doesn't mean it'll have longevity. Consistency is key. If you can't get to hundreds of episodes, it's not a topic worth doing. And we don't know the future of some of these things. Mistake number three, too narrow to grow. And I think this is where Claude and I agree and disagree. It labels things a little bit differently than I do. Where I think it's okay to have a podcast on just about any topic in the world, knitting, computer science, Claude implores you to look for ones with large audiences. And I think anything can have a large audience. Where we agree, it says maybe you don't want to focus on foodies in Tempe, Arizona. I think that crowd's only so big. So maybe you want to focus on southwestern foodies of the world, just as an example. So now you've kneced slightly, but you've still left a broad audience. And lastly, Claude says, don't make a podcast as a topic of you, the grandeur podcast. And I would agree with this 100%. You don't want it to be all about you. And in fact, I tell people all the time even if you have an interview podcast, it's not about you, it's not about the guest. This is actually really hard for interview podcasters to put through their head. It's not about the guest, it's about the audience. It's about those of you on the other side of the camera and who this is directed for. Every single question should be directed for your audience, not for the guest.

Validate Your Topic With Search

SPEAKER_00 6:00

Now Claude takes us through how to validate your topic in under 60 minutes. Says the keyword check. Go to YouTube, Spotify, Google, type in your topic and the questions your audience would ask. If autocomplete fills in five plus related searches, that's a green flag. I don't disagree with this at all. I am a huge search engine optimization nerd. If you make content that is about the questions that people have in this world or what they're searching for, you will make good content that people want. In fact, this should happen with every single episode that you do. You want to do a little research on. If you're a health podcaster and you're going to have a sleep expert on, you probably want to research what are the top questions that people are wondering about sleep. What are the videos that hit really hard on YouTube about sleep? A keyword check or an AI search is an incredibly good idea. There's also, as a side note, answer the public, Neil Patel. You could go onto that website and do some topical research as well. Claude says here, the competitor scan. Find the top five podcasts in your space. Absolutely agree with that. Don't get discouraged if they exist. Absolutely agree with that. Audiences on average listen to seven podcasts a week and then generally do it in the same categories, which means podcasting is actually a team sport. If you are a health-related podcast, you can actually go on to other health-related podcasts as a guest and share audiences. Podcasting is one of the places where you don't necessarily have to worry about competition. And there's actually a lot of ways to work together. So if there's a bunch of podcasts in your space, just figure out a unique angle on that space. The forum dive, love this. Absolutely. Reddit, Quora, Facebook groups, Discord servers. There's so many ways to get a grip on the terminology people are using and things that people are actively searching for. Do some dives in the forums. If you're already part of one, you're way ahead of the show. And step four, Claude says, the five-person test. Talk to five people who fit your target demographic, pitch them your one-liner and see what they say. Gosh, it's tough here because I can tell you as a bootstrapper of businesses, nobody ever thought my businesses were a good idea until they actually succeeded. Chances are your podcast is going to be the same. So I disagree with Claude here. I think if it's something you're passionate about, if you've chosen a niche, if people are looking for it, then you have enough info there. Talking to your five friends about it will not help you. Your mom is going to be way, way over-supportive, and your dad is going to be way, way critical, for instance. I don't know, your parents. So I would not use this as one of your key indicators of whether you can be successful with it. But what I do like is it says to condense it into one sentence that you can describe to people

Niche Down Until It Clicks

SPEAKER_00 8:27

easily. The next tier of the concept that Claude says is the niche down exercise. It talks about layers. Layer one, business. Layer two, small business. Layer three, first-time founders. Layer four, first-time founders bootstrapping under 100K revenue companies. Layer five, honest weekly conversations with founders who hit 100K bootstrapped. What worked, what didn't, and what do they do over? Claude says most podcasters launch a two-layer and wonder why nothing sticks. I don't disagree with this either. I think if it's too broad, then you aren't developing your target audience appropriately. And if you aren't developing your target audience appropriately, then you're not talking, then you're trying to talk to everybody. And if you try to talk to everybody, you talk to nobody. So from there, I'm going to add on to the concept.

Mission Alignment And Target Persona

SPEAKER_00 9:14

We talked about the Venn diagram, and I think that's really important in finding something you're going to be consistent with. When I asked to go speak at podcast seminars, I spend 30 minutes of an hour just talking about passion and life-changing events that will happen through this podcast. If you're doing something that is changing your life, it's going to be hard to give it up. If you don't give it up, consistency will lead to success. Podcasting will absolutely change your life through the connections. And a lot of you are facing fears through the camera. Not only that, but those of you business people out there, this is the number one way in the world now to reach anybody for free. When you're talking about podcasting, really find a way to fit in your life mission alignment. That will be the biggest hack that you can absolutely do. And then really bleed in to the target persona. Who are you trying to speak to? And what is something that you need to get across to them? Every single episode that you do should be thinking about the value you're gonna offer your target persona today. This has such a positive impact on not only you from a mental standpoint, because you'll get better at your camera work if you're talking to a person as opposed to the camera, but it will also help you train algorithms, which I know you guys are all interested. How do we beat the algorithm? The way you beat the algorithm is being real intentional about the audience and telling YouTube, Instagram, and everybody else who you're trying to speak to. If you're lost on it, it's gonna be lost on it. Traditionally, when we work with a new host, we spend three hours asking questions that will probe their heart and their mind. Most of them come in wanting a business podcast. In the end, they leave with something intentional within their passions and then will also promote their brand and positively affect their business. It should be a show that stands alone outside of all the value it's going to offer your business life ambitions. Outside of the three hours we spend with the host, we then spend six to nine hours outside of that doing target research, doing demographics, creating the first 10 episodes and what they look like, doing a guest hypothesis if it's a guest podcast, developing a log line, and really fine tuning the target persona. As you can see, too much to include in just one video. So we'll section these out again.

Wrap Up And Upcoming Seminars

SPEAKER_00 11:18

Coming at you from Backlot Studios, AZ Pod Studio, and Business Radio X in beautiful Phoenix, Arizona. Pay close attention because we'll have seminars coming up. Can't wait to meet you. Hope this was helpful.