Podcasting is a powerful medium to connect with your audience, share your message, and create an impact. But how can you inspire hope and motivation in your podcast listeners, especially in challenging times? In this article, you'll learn some tips and strategies to make your podcast more uplifting, engaging, and inspiring.
Before you start recording, ask yourself: what is the main goal of your podcast? What value do you want to provide to your listeners? How do you want them to feel after listening to your podcast? Knowing your purpose will help you craft your content, tone, and style to align with your vision. It will also help you stay focused, authentic, and consistent.
This advice is so simple it can actually be offensive. Most people know what their purpose is when deciding to podcast. They just don't know how to create a good show. However, if you don't know what you are going to podcast about then you shouldn't be trying to podcast. But as simple as this is, there are thousands of podcasters out there that have this exact problem. Podcasting is a passion project. Many do it to share information, some podcast to provide entertainment. The word "value" mentioned here is not for you to decide. It is the listener who will determine if your content is "valuable". What will make it more valuable to them is how accurate, useful, and passionate your delivery of the content is.
The topics you choose for your podcast episodes can have a huge impact on how your listeners perceive your podcast and how they feel after listening to it. Choose topics that are relevant, interesting, and helpful for your audience. Avoid topics that are too negative, controversial, or depressing, unless you have a positive spin or a solution to offer. You can also mix up your topics with some lighter, funnier, or more personal ones to balance out the serious ones.
Stories are one of the most effective ways to inspire hope and motivation in your podcast listeners. Stories can capture their attention, spark their imagination, and touch their emotions. They can also illustrate your points, show your credibility, and build rapport with your audience. Share stories and examples from your own experience, from other people you know or admire, or from books, movies, or history. Make sure your stories are relevant, clear, and concise.
Sharing a story is good as long as it has a point. If you are trying to motivate or inspire hope, the story should be an example of the situation where you or someone triumphed over the obstacles. For example, if you have a guest on your podcast who is afraid to have a surgery they need because the risk of death is possible, don't tell the story about the cousin who died from that very surgery. You are thinking your relating to the guest, but your just feeding the very fear you should be calming. Minimize related stories about you as much as possible. Don't make everything about you. That is not inspiring. In fact, that is quite annoying.
The language and tone you use in your podcast can also influence how your listeners feel. Use positive, affirming, and empowering words and phrases. Avoid negative, blaming, or judgmental ones. For example, instead of saying "You can't do this", say "You can do this". Instead of saying "This is a problem", say "This is an opportunity". Use a friendly, warm, and enthusiastic tone of voice. Avoid a dull, monotone, or harsh one.
One of the best ways to inspire hope and motivation in your podcast listeners is to invite them to share their feedback, opinions, and stories with you and with each other. This can create a sense of community, belonging, and support among your listeners. It can also help you understand their needs, interests, and challenges better. You can invite feedback and interaction by asking questions, creating polls or surveys, encouraging reviews or ratings, or creating a social media group or a newsletter for your podcast.
Finally, don't forget to provide your listeners with some actionable tips and resources that they can use to apply what they learned from your podcast, achieve their goals, or overcome their obstacles. This can help them feel more confident, empowered, and motivated to take action. It can also show them that you care about their success and happiness. You can provide tips and resources by sharing your own strategies, recommending books, courses, tools, or podcasts, or creating a cheat sheet, a checklist, or a workbook for your podcast.
Wisdom comes from experience. A 20 year old motivational speaker better have some amazing experience that they can rely on for consistent content, verses someone in their 40's and beyond. One of my podcast class students wanted to do a "relationship advice" show. She had never been married, no schooling or work experience in the field, nor was she in a current relationship. Needless to say, this idea blew up on the launch pad. To be a great motivator or inspiring to the audience, you should at least be successful in your topic. Use failures as a lesson, but not as a source of hope and inspiration.