What Comes First? The Audience or The Offer?

Most of the podcast gurus (I’m not one of them!) will tell you that if you want to have a successful podcast, you should just start. Just get yourself a mic and start recording.It sounds so simple and to be honest, this kind of terrible advice is exactly why so many podcasts end up podfading.One of the most basic frameworks for selling anything is:Create an offerDrive traffic to the offerRinse and repeatWhen you just jump in and start creating a podcast without figuring out who you serve and how you serve them, before you’ve created an offer, this is what actually happens:Gather audienceGather audienceGather audience That is exactly how a podcaster gets stuck with the creator’s curse - free content creation mode!A podcaster could take that framework and:Gather audienceAsk them what they needCreate what they needSell them what they needHowever, most podcasters never make it beyond step 1.Picture this…You see an ad in your local newspaper for a new restaurant.You turn on the TV and you see a commercial for that same restaurant.Then you pull up your social media accounts and everywhere you turn, you are seeing that local restaurant announcing their grand opening.You and your friends decide to give it a try.You go into the restaurant and all they are doing today is giving out samples.So take a sample or 3 and see which one you like best.In fact, they invite you to come back tomorrow for another sample.There’s no menu.There’s no cash register.You can’t place an order. All you can do is get a sample. But why should anyone be mad about that because the samples are free?How long will this restaurant stay in business?This is exactly the model that most podcasts are built on.They are perpetually creating samples and never going all the way to solve their audience’s problems.If you are truly serious about monetizing your podcast, you have to begin selling something.Before you bristle at the word sell, let me just remind you that nothing in this world happened today until somebody sold something.Do you have a roof over your head? It’s because someone sold something.Did you eat today? It happened because someone somewhere sold something.Do you have a job? That is because someone sold something.If no one sells anything, the world as we know it ceases to exist.The economy crashes. Governments shut down. People starve.I can surely say that selling can save the world!Don’t be afraid to sell something. All commerce in the world starts and ends with a sale.There’s no shame in it - especially if you are providing value.There must be a value exchange in order for a podcast to survive.No one wants to build a huge audience of people who only want free stuff.Freebie seekers are never anyone’s ideal customer.If you don’t already have an offer, put one together. Figure out how to serve your audience and charge for it.You can learn more about monetizing your podcast by joining our private Facebook group called Podcast Monetization Secrets.If you need help creating your offers, you can contact me at www.teampodcast.com.