In 2021 I started a podcast called, “Develop Yourself”. Within a few months it was doing 10,000+ downloads a month and had become the #1 driver of revenue for my business - an online coding bootcamp that taught career changers how to code and become software engineers - and I did it all in ~1 hour/week.

Before I started the podcast, I knew nothing about podcasting and I had nearly 0 expectations for it.

It wasn’t until I sold the business (and podcast - which by the way, has only grown since) did I reflect on why the podcast worked.

A friend of mine who owns a podcast studio here in Austin (where some of the biggest podcasts record) helped me see that all great podcasts (Develop Yourself included) work off a 3-part formula:

To plan a great podcast (or any great content strategy) do these 3 things:

1. Identify the massive, measurable goal your audience wants to achieve.

2. Identify your unique strategy for achieving that goal (your niche within a niche)

3. Make every episode a deep dive into your strategy

I’ll break these steps down below, then re-cap with a few notes on how ANY founder can invest in a content strategy like this.

1. Identify the massive, measurable goal your audience wants to achieve.

The best podcasts are all about ONE thing - helping their audience achieve a massive, measurable goal.

What massive means: Life-changing goals are best - health, wealth, and relationships.

What measurable means: The less abstract, the better. Did you make $1M? Did you land that awesome job? Do you now have visible abs?

Here are some examples of podcasts and the massive measurable goals their audiences want to achieve:

My First Million: Making your first $1M.
Andrew Huberman: Becoming fit and healthy.
Develop Yourself: Landing your first job as a Software Engineer.

2. Identify your unique strategy for achieving that goal (your niche within a niche)

It’s not enough to talk vaguely about achieving your audience’s massive goal. You need to provide YOUR unique perspective.

There are thousands of podcasts about health, wealth and relationships. What’s your unique take and expertise?

For example, when I started “Develop Yourself”, there were already dozens of podcasts on learning how to code. And to be honest, I’m not great at coding. So it wouldn’t have made sense for me to build a podcast talking about the ins and outs of programming languages.

But I’m great at talking about personal development. So, my podcast became hyper-niche - a podcast about personal development strategies for career changers who wanted to become software engineers.

Other examples:

My First Million: Unique strategy for making your first $1M: identify lots of great new business ideas.

Andrew Huberman: Unique strategy for becoming more fit and healthy: explore science-backed protocols.

Develop Yourself: Unique strategy for landing your first job as a Software Engineer: work on personal development.

3. Make every episode a deep dive into your strategy

With your “Massive Measurable Goal” identified for your audience, and your “unique strategy (niche within a niche)” identified, simply make hundreds of episodes that branch off from this idea.

They ALL point back to the one goal, with your unique strategy.

You can do this by developing a “content pillar”.

A content pillar is a core topic or theme around which a lot of related content is created. It serves as the foundation for a content strategy, providing a central theme that can be broken down into smaller, more specific subtopics. Think of it as the main "pillar" holding up your content structure, with supporting pieces of content branching out from it.

Example from “Develop Yourself”:

With this, you should be able to generate HUNDREDS of content ideas for your episodes.

The benefits of podcasting for founders that you’re not considering

The obvious benefit of having a podcast is to grow a massive audience - monthly downloads (streams) is the main metric most track.

But even if you’re podcast doesn’t get massive, there are other reasons (really great reasons) to start a podcast.

Content Engine
The hardest part of creating content is generating ideas. A podcast allows you to bank a library of content ideas and then convert those ideas into dozens of pieces of content including social posts, YouTube videos, video shorts and newsletters.

A Sales Tool
Podcasting is long-form content - which means it allows you to go in depth on topics. If you’re podcast is good, potential clients will spend HOURS with you. You’ll get a chance to answer every one of their objections and they’ll come to know you, like you and trust you. No other content gives you this opportunity.

Establish Authority
Go ahead, roll your eyes because everyone you know is starting a podcast. But if you’re 30 episodes in and know what you’re talking about, you have an opportunity to position yourself as an expert in your space.

An Excuse to Connect
I’ve been able to get meetings thanks to podcasting that I’ve would have never been able to get otherwise. These interviews may not have led to massive growth (large guests rarely share their episodes with their audience as you may expect) but “want to come on my podcast?” is a much better request than, “can I pick your brain over coffee?”.

How to podcast with just 1 hour a week

I get it, you’re a busy founder - you don’t have time to become a podcaster. But if you adopt the right systems, you actually do.

I spent (on average) about ~1 hr/wk when I was growing “Develop Yourself” - this was in addition to being the full-time CEO of the business.

How? The only thing I did was show up and record. I delegated every other part of the process to my Assistant.

Delegate the Schedule
My Assistant was in charge of the podcast schedule. She would make sure she knew the calendar and when I needed guests (and when I didn’t) and she held me accountable to recording on time.

Booking Guests
My Assistant would search guests and would regularly (and proactively) reach out to potential guests, on my behalf, from my email and LinkedIn profile. She did all the booking and correspondence. I just showed up.

Editing
I ran the entire podcast with a $100 Blue Yeti microphone and edited in Garage Band. In the early days, I did it all myself, but the editing process was super simple. I would simply record an intro (that I read each time), then I’d overlay the intro music, then paste the episode content, then record an outro and overlay the outro music. To delegate this editing process, I simply recorded a Loom video of myself doing it and sent it to my Assistant. She edited it from then on.

Splitting Hosting Duties
Once I had things humming, I decided to split the work up by bringing on a co-host. We got into a groove where I would host 2 episodes a month and he would host 2 a month, then we do one together every ~5 weeks. Yep, twice a month! The ROI of this small time investment was MASSIVE.

Getting Started

If I were you, I’d get with my co-founder (if applicable) and go through an exercise to map out the above 3-part formula by answering these questions:

1. What is the massive, measurable goal that your “ideal customer profile” has?

2. What is your unique strategy for helping them achieve that goal (your niche within a niche)?

3. What are 15 episodes that you could create that would be dives into your strategy?

Then, make your first 5 episodes. Record them all before you publish. Then, publish 3 at once (so listeners can binge, if wanted) and schedule the other 2 for the following 2 weeks. It’s a good idea to start with a bank of content and get ahead of schedule.

Then see what happens:

Is your ICP listening? Is it becoming easier for you to talk about your subject, in sales and marketing and to your team? Is it becoming easier to generate content ideas elsewhere?

Then keep going! Delegate everything you can, and just show up once a week for an hour to record.

P.S. If you want me to review your answers to your exercise, send them over!

P.P.S. If you want systems and SOPs for delegating to any of the above processes, reach out!