How to Build a Thought Leadership Podcast

Here’s how it usually goes. A business owner knows that they need to get more authority in their space. They want to be mentioned more. They want to be a change maker. They want to be referenced by others. They want to be seen as one of the thinkers in their space. Usually it’s because they’ve got great ideas, and they’re bringing really interesting things to the table.

So they think about different ways that they can do it. How are they going to get their message out there into the world? You do any research on that whatsoever and podcasting is going to come up as a possibility for how you can do it. Then what happens is you look at it and think ‘’okay, I want thought leadership, I’m going to have a podcast. What’s a podcast?’’

And very often what a podcast seems to be, or what the most popular podcasts are, is a host and a guest having a conversation about some kind of topic. And that’s the show. That’s the podcast. It’s what we think of when we think of podcasting. And so a new podcast or a business owner is going to find great guests, and they’re going to have really interesting conversations, and they want their guest feel comfortable and to be happy that they spent the time and to get some attention on their own work.

So the interview is going to be really largely focused on the guest. And you, as the host, will be asking questions of the guest. They’ll be answering. It can be great content, but there’s one really important thing that that show is not doing, and that is putting the spotlight on your own IP.

When you, as the host, are talking to a guest and you are asking them about their business and their ideas and what they would do in this situation, and what’s their story and how they came to be doing what they’re doing – you’re doing a great job at building a relationship. And maybe you’re making great content to engage your audience. But you are not getting your IP out there. To get your ideas out there, you need to be talking.

And often this means you’re going to have to suck it up and do a solo episode once in a while, or you’re going to have to be really careful to make sure that you’re talking to business owners who are at a similar professional level as you are. At a level where you can have a sophisticated conversation that goes two ways on a topic of mutual interest to you and your audiences, rather than kind of being an interviewer, running down a list of questions and extracting information from the guests that you’re speaking with.

And this can be a little challenging, especially when you’re first getting started. No one is born knowing how to have a really great conversational style podcast. It takes practice. But if what you want to have is thought leadership, then I strongly recommend you make sure that at least either half of your episodes are solos, or that when you’re having conversations, you’re talking for at least half of the time.

Because if you’re not, then while you may be getting really great things out of your podcast for a lot of different areas of your business, the thing that it’s not doing is the reason you started it in the first place. Getting your own thought leadership out there.

Watch:

How Do I Build Thought Leadership with a Podcast?

More Podcast Questions? More Podcast Answers!

How Often Should I Release Episodes of My Podcast?

What Are the Business Podcast Blueprints?

How Do You Use a Podcast to Get Business Referrals?

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