While Americans celebrate their independence on July 4, we podcasters can celebrate our independence with every episode! Here's what makes the independence of podcasting so powerful.
Direct connection with your audience
Never before podcasting have you been able to consistently and directly communicate with a global audience using the authenticity of your own voice. Your message is being communicated directly into their ears, and often exclusively and individually.
Additionally, there's no âmiddle manâ in podcasting. Your audience can subscribe to your show from their own location and with their own app preference. They don't have to go to authorized distributors, be part of a membership, or use a particular app.
Even if you never listed your podcast in catalogs, such as Apple Podcasts, your audience could still subscribe directly to your content without needing Apple's approval.
Authentic passion
The written word can be altered and perfected. You can write something, refine it, have others edit it, get an authority's approval, and repeat the process until everything is perfect.
That doesn't really happen in podcasting.
You're speaking with your voice. You can edit or script, but such things are evident in the final results. But you can't edit passion and authenticity. It's raw, relatable, and powerful.
When you speak a message, even if only through audio, others can hear your confidence, your passion, and your skill to communicate. If writing was like one dimension, speaking is like three dimensions!
Power of the niche
I recently spoke about podcasting to a group of IT professionalsâmost of them above 40 years old. I asked, âHow many of you played video games in the '80s?â and most of the hands went up. I then asked, âHow many played video games on a computer at home during that time?â and about half the hands went up. I narrowed it down further and asked, âHow many of you played on an IBM PCjr (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_PCjr)?â Then, only two hands were raised.
Up until that point, the response had only been raising and lowering of hands, and maybe some grins. But then I asked those two people, âDid either of you play King's Quest on a PCjr?â And without hesitation, the one remaining person answered, âOH YEAH!â
(Side note, one of my guilty-pleasure podcasts is Upper Memory Block (http://umbcast.com)âall about these kinds of DOS-era PC games.)
There was the niche; and with it, the passion! None of those attendees expressed enthusiasm when I asked about video games during the '80s. But when I got into the niche, then someone got excited.
Popular broadcast media is designed to appeal to a broad audience. It has to, or else it won't pay its own bills!
But as podcasters, we can, âBoldly go where no man has gone before.â
You may find a niche and hit an audience ceiling of 100 people. But those 100 people are much more passionate about that niche than about the broad topics. And in that passion is great power: power for intimate connections, power for influence, and even power for profit.
This is how âsmallâ podcasts can have a more loyal following that the podcasts topping the charts. Your podcast may not be #1 in any public ranking, but it could be #1 to your audience.
And that's true power!
Your rules
Although there are some technical rules to follow for your podcast to be compatible, you can set your own rules for everything else. You can say what you want, when you want, and how you want.
You can be as holy or profane as you want. You can be as tolerant or prejudice as you want. There are, certainly, recommendations and principles to consider, but you can make your own rulesâor even break your own rules.
(Yes, there may be platform restrictions, but I'll address those later.)
Your agenda
As a podcaster (especially an independent one), you can choose whom you let advertise on your showâor take no sponsorship at all! You can be uninfluenced by the agendas of advertisers,
