In our first Brainstorming episode, Deborah joins us with the promise of a unique concept and we tackle an issue she shares is a familiar one for many of my new clients- defining your target audience.
Together we go through some exercises and advice that can help any podcaster visualize their target audience and ways for them find you with a brief overview of Keywords.
If you'd like to reach out to Deborah, e-mail her at debrmonroe@gmail.com
In our first Brainstorming episode, Deborah joins us with the promise of a unique concept and we tackle an issue she shares is a familiar one for many of my new clients- defining your target audience.
Together we go through some exercises and advice that can help any podcaster visualize their target audience and ways for them find you with a brief overview of Keywords.
If you'd like to reach out to Deborah, e-mail her at debrmonroe@gmail.com
Hey there podcasting bad-ass says it's your host sober Steve, the podcast guy here. Very excited to share with you today. An amazing brainstorming session I had yesterday. With a new friend, Debra who found and heard about me through local connections. And it was great getting to meet her the day before we had our zoom. We met very briefly, a quick kind of two ships passing in the night and she stops me and she says, I'm the one with the appointment with you tomorrow. And I have an idea for a podcast, but I need your help. And it's an idea that doesn't exist in has never been done before. And if that's not grabbing me above with a hook. I don't know what it is. And so I was very excited to get to speak with Deborah and she did not disappoint. And so with that, I will let you listen to my brainstorming session, the highlights from my time with Debra. Hey there, podcasting badasses. It's Steve here with Debra. Hello, Debra. Hello, Steve. I am so excited to get to talk to you today for our brainstorming session because I know you in real life from church. Yes, you do.
Deborah:
Real life.
Steve:
Yes, and you have an unusual podcasting concept in mind? I do. Tell me more.
Deborah:
I'm looking for a venue where people can learn about things that they've always been curious about. But perhaps a little too ashamed to talk about.
Steve:
Okay. And why does that spark a passion or an interest for you?
Deborah:
Because life shouldn't be so full of shame and fear. And it's okay to learn about things that seem to be uncomfortable. And I want to create a space for that. And I haven't seen it.
Steve:
I love that. And why don't you get a chance to share with my listeners a little bit about who you are and how you got to this point where you're interested and ready to podcast?
Deborah:
Well, I started my life off as a facilitator in corporate learning and have been very successful in that. With my own organization, and my expertise is in emotional and social intelligence, which is the brain science of emotions and how they show up in behavior. And so I coach executives on their behavior, specifically the very naughty ones. I speak at conferences and teach people, and I've found that throughout my tenure of doing this, that people will pull me in the back and ask me questions privately because they don't want to expose themselves. And over the years of hearing that, the realization of geez, you know, there has to be a safe place for people to learn about things. That they don't necessarily want to talk about in public.
Steve:
Yeah. And in terms of things that people don't want to talk about in public, who would you specifically think would be your perfect or ideal listener? Who's ready to listen to that?
Deborah:
See, that's where I have an issue trying to figure out who the target market. Or the audience is because and this happens to me at work as well. Right? And I usually say anybody with a belly button and curiosity is my audience and I usually like to stick with that. So we'll go with 18 and above. As a starting place and it doesn't matter where you are. It doesn't matter what you believe it means. It just means, are you curious and do you want to know?
Steve:
So when thinking about the idea that your listeners could be a broader range of 18 plus, I am on the record for also falling victim to that mentality when I started podcasting with my first podcast, which was about like everything that I love, because I love a lot of things. And I love talking about everything that I love very deeply. And I learned through the experience of not only seeing my show not grow as quickly as it could have, but also from listener feedback as well as professional feedback later on that at the end of the day, it is very hard to say that you have something for everyone. That's about everything. I definitely love the idea and talking to you about how passionate it is for you to be able to keep the content itself in a rotation and changing. But I would love to have you think of how we might be able to narrow it down for your target audience from 18 plus to, to maybe someone more specifically knowing that what it does is, it makes it easier for those people to find you. So one exercise that I like to do, it's called visualizing, like if you were to close your eyes. And you can do that now if you'd like, Debra, and while I'm quiet, what you're going to do is imagine your first listener, it doesn't have to be your only listener, but your first listener, the first person who finds your podcast that you don't know personally, that they just found your podcast and they listened to the first episode and they love it. So much because it is exactly what they needed to hear. Think about how old that person is. Think about their gender. Think about where they are in their emotional journey, where they are in their spiritual journey. Like, tell me more about that first person who finds you.
Deborah:
That first person is mid thirties. Male has been living a very quiet and curious life. Life, but ashamed to ask the questions about what we don't know, but that's the persona that I see.
Steve:
All right. Well, I certainly can help you with that. As a mid thirties male myself, actually.
Deborah:
How wonderful for me.
Steve:
Yes, you are talking to your ideal listener, So as your ideal listener, When I load up my podcast player, what would be some things that I would search in my search bar to find your podcast?
Deborah:
Ooh, all I'm getting is the, the concept behind plowing up the dirt of a crusty heart. I don't know how to translate that,
Steve:
so with those, with those visuals, there's pros and cons with that. The pro is that like, when people love it, they love it. I learned that with my gay A title, people think that that's hysterical when they get it. And if they don't get it, that's okay too. But at the same time, what I learned on the backend is that it's very hard for search engine optimization for people to find me because someone would need to know that they're searching for me to find it. And even then it's fighting against other things. Because for my sobriety podcast, people would search sober, queer, LGBTQ you know, they're searching for words related to my topic, but with yours being more listener driven, I believe that they'll be searching more for Who they are. And people can have a very clever name for their top. Like if you wanted it to be the plow. You're allowed to do that because it's your podcast. But what I would recommend that at the end of the day is that we would do a title extension for your podcast. So it could be the plow. And just spit balling things and we'll talk it more out. But like raw conversations for men looking to move past shame and fear. And, it could get really long but the great thing about title extensions is they really are just for search engine optimization. Because the name of your podcast is what is most likely to cause people to find your podcast.
Deborah:
I love the word raw. Raw, funny storytelling conversations about life and stuff, But so. For me, it's not so much, and this is where I'm struggling on clarity. It's the curiosity and the desire to laugh and listen to stories about topics that nobody wants to talk about in public. And since I don't have any shame or fear about that, I will bring that to whoever wants to listen. That's where I'm struggling.
Steve:
Yeah.
Deborah:
Right. Yeah. And, it's interesting to me because this happened with my book too. I had a very prestigious publisher in London query and work with me. They met me, they're like, Oh my God, these stories, this concept, you're amazing. But who's your target market? And I said, a belly button with a curious heart. They're like, we can't help you. I'm like, But it's true of everybody. So that's, it's hard to whittle me into a spot when I don't want to go in a box, right? Yeah.
Steve:
Yeah. And I mean, as we go through with that though, and talking that out, that, that does give me some more ideas actually, if we're trying to combine the three things now that you want and tell me as I go through them, I'll make sure that I'm correct. But what I'm hearing. Is that the first thing that you want is you want to be able to talk about anything from week to week. Best case scenario, having the listeners kind of help you figure it out. Correct. Number two, while your very first listener might be someone in their thirties at the end of the day, most of your listeners, the thing that they probably all have in common in addition to their belly button is that they're ready to open their mind
Deborah:
and start
Steve:
questioning things.
Deborah:
Yeah. Okay.
Steve:
We're good. So, they're looking to open their mind and you love the idea of keeping it broad for everyone. But the goal, number three, is that you want to have the chance to speak more at more places because that also fills up your heart and your cup
Deborah:
yes. And I just thought of another little keyword bank talk about secrets,
Steve:
secrets. Okay.
Deborah:
All right. This is so much fun. I love doing this with you. Thank you. Yeah. So whatever a great mind and can focus people.
Steve:
Well, and even with secret plow: tools you need. To help break free of shame and help grow your mindset. I feel like we're on the path. How does that all sound and feel to you? It's starting to formulate. Excellent, Debra. And while we'll definitely need to be workshopping more of the specifics of the name of your podcast, what I think I saw even with your eyes lighting up as we were talking about and workshopping those names is that the more we add those keywords in about what it is that you're speaking to and who it is that you're speaking for, the more it feels real or that it feels correct. Would you say that's true?
Deborah:
Very, very true. It needs to represent people, concepts, and ideas that, again, we're overcoming the fear and shame about.
Steve:
Excellent. Yeah. And so keep on building up as you over the next couple of days, think of more keywords to write down that can kind of, you can work into it because you can't have too many keywords, because whatever ones we end up not using for the podcast title, we'll then be able to then work into the podcast description. And the episode show notes. And like, you'll get to use all of your keywords eventually, but the more that we have, as we're brainstorming, what your podcast will and could look like one day, I think is going to make it really easier because it gives every one of those keywords is you just establishing your identity a little bit more of who this podcast is for. So keep on adding as the words come in and some of them are going to be very specific to just one or two people who might listen and some might be a whole new demographic, but like, well, in the end, sort through kind of what feels right to you and what does it.
Deborah:
Thank you. That's brilliant. I appreciate that.
Steve:
And to wrap up, what will having a podcast add to your life?
Deborah:
This is the culmination of what I've been thinking about and seeing myself do for a very long time, and it gives me the freedom to step out. And talk about the things that I've been hearing from other people that's been squashed and it'll bring me such satisfaction purpose and gratefulness because that's where we live.
Steve:
So I love that we're closing on the fact that this is something that I think, can definitely and will definitely come true for you. And as my listeners are possibly thinking about or sending you good vibes or urging you on how might they reach out if they wanted to reach out about that podcast that might be happening or coming soon?
Deborah:
I suppose we could use the Gmail, which is simply Deb R. Monroe at gmail. com. And I'd be interested in hearing what they want, what topics have they stayed away from because they were afraid to dive into them and then we can have a conversation about how to make that happen.
Steve:
Excellent. So, yes, listeners, if you love the idea of Deborah's future podcast, send her an email saying, I heard about you on podcasting badass and I really hope you're making that podcast where can I follow and subscribe and hopefully she'll already be having it well underway for you all. All right. Well, thank you so much, Debra. It's been a pleasure.
Deborah:
Thank you so much, Steve. This was an amazing experience. I hope a lot of other people decide to do this with you.
Steve:
Thank you so much for checking out my brainstorming session with Deborah. I am happy to report afterwards when we discuss when she'll have the time to put into podcasting the right way that we can all expect her podcast to launch in August. So stay tuned for updates. And the meantime, if you have a podcast in mind that you're looking to talk out and have a brainstorming session with me. You can book that on my website www.Sobersteve.com. And if you already are podcasting and looking for ways to grow or monetize your podcast. You can also book a tuneup session there as well. So for either purpose sober, steve.com is your place to go. Thanks for listening and keep on embracing your inner bad-ass.