Good vs Bad Concepts

Okay, so in my experience, the single biggest determinant of your show's success or failure in its ability to attract new listeners, which hopefully ultimately will turn into clients and customers, whether that is selling directly to your audience or selling, sponsorships or partnerships, is your show concept.

And the reason is kind of twofold.

The first is that with so much competition when it comes both to podcasting, but also content in general, people have to make hard decisions or oftentimes easy decisions based on what they're going to listen to or consume.

And that basically comes down to how unique and interesting is this thing in front of me?

And is it worth bumping out one of the shows I already know, I already like, I already listened to, I already know that I have a good experience with, to take a chance on this new show that I don't know if it's going to pay off, or is this so compelling to me that it makes it obvious that, yes, this is the thing that is now top of my queue, is going to bump out one of those two or three other shows that are already, in, that have that shelf space, space in my life, so to speak, in favor of this one and the second piece of it.

So the first is this kind of differentiation and your ability to grab attention when somebody comes across your show in the first place.

The second piece, which is related to that is your show concept, essentially dictates how easy it is for people to understand what the show is about.

And so there are a ton of shows that have fantastic content, they have great guests, they are insightful, they are educational, they are entertaining.

They are all the things that we think of when we think about great content.

And, and yet they are extremely hard to describe in a way that gets other people excited.

And it unfortunately kind of doesn't really matter if you have a great show, if you can't actually communicate that to people in a way that allows them to understand what the show is and have this kind of transparency into the show without forcing them to spend an hour of their life consuming it to test out, you know, whether or not it actually lives up to the billing.

And this is something that is, it's not unique entirely to podcasting, but when we think about long form content like movies or books or podcasting, basically the pitch, when you think about book jackets, we think about, there's the title, there's the subtitle, and there's the back, cover or the inside jacket.

That is what, basically that is what wins somebody over to at least start reading the whole book.

with movies, it may be a trailer.

It's also just the synopsis of the movie.

This character is in this situation and they are facing these challenges and they have to figure a way out.

There is the premise of the movie.

And so the premise is a big part of what makes, or gets people to buy into a podcast as well.

And that is the premise is one part of the show concept.

the other two are your focus and your format.

And so focus, format, premise, these are the three kind of building blocks of the concept.

So talking about the importance of your show concept, when you have a great concept, it is easy to talk about because you just have this structure, this format, this, this focus, format and premise that when you tell that in a single sentence, you sum it up to somebody, they're like, oh, that show sounds interesting.

I understand what it is.

I understand what I'm going to get.

I can see that this is different from other shows that are also in, the space, maybe even shows, that I'm already listening to.

And I can get excited and I can feel like, oh, this is going to be valuable.

It's not just saying like, hey, listen to these smart people talk about, you know, this topic where I'm kind of like, well, are they really smart?

And who are you as the host?

Like, how do I know that you have what it takes to back up this claim of how, insightful and exceptional this show is generally?

That's what we're looking to do with the concept is reduce the risk that somebody or reduce the trust that somebody needs to place in you as the host to deliver on the promise that you're making by spelling it out saying, hey, this is what we do in every episode.

And if that thing is interesting and compelling, they don't need to trust you as the host necessarily, that you are entertaining, insightful, or super smart or whatever it may be, even though you may be all of those things.

So concept, super important.

But talking about concepts, it's.

It's kind of a conceptual thing.

So it's kind of hard to understand.

Like, when we're talking about concepts, what is the difference between a good one and a bad one?

What does a good one look like?

What does a bad one look like?

What are some of the things that contribute to each of those?

And so I figured it is easiest if we actually just pull up a handful of concepts here.

I've got, five different concepts here, where I've got ten different concepts here.

I've got five different categories.

And so we've got life advice, business, self help, leadership, and personal finance.

And for each of these I have two shows.

One that is a kind of like, boring, generic show concept.

The kind of show that if you look in any of these categories, you will find probably dozens of shows which could also all basically just lift the same description and copy paste it right onto their show.

And it would be kind of perfectly applicable, which, is not really a good thing because it means those shows are essentially entirely interchangeable, which, especially if you are a business owner as well, this kind of positions you as interchangeable, which is not what we want.

And so if we are looking to charge premium pricing, build up a wait list of people who want to work with us, and become seen as the one and only obvious best fit for our customers and our clients, as well as the one and only best fit for listeners, we need to do something different.

We need to position ourselves in a way that is not a commodity, that is not interchangeable with other shows, and that is distinctly different, unique, refreshing, and interesting to people.

So let's look, starting with the life advice category here, we're going to zoom in on this and talk through these two different concepts and talk through a little bit about what makes the, the good one good and the bad one bad.

So starting on the left hand side, I have invented this show's name.

the description is taken from a show that is real and it actually represents.

I've come across many dozens of shows basically like this in all my years in podcasting.

And so this, this show, the, the name has changed.

It's unique.

It actually probably applies to very many shows.

So here we have a life advice podcast sharing tips, tricks and guest expert interviews to, help you move past your perfectionism and achieve your biggest goals.

So on the surface, this is not a uninteresting show necessarily.

Like, it seems like it's valuable to us.

It, addresses, we talk about like, perfectionism here.

Achieve your biggest goals.

this is interesting.

We got tips, tricks, I guess, expert interviews.

These all feel like t things that listeners would want.

And so, you know, it's like, okay, this kind of makes sense.

The problem is that there is no moat around the show.

This is a show that anybody could create.

Anybody could slap on this same description.

And when listeners go browsing through podcast apps, they're going to see many of the same thing.

And so how do they know which show to pick?

How do they know which are actually good, which are not so good.

And so it's not necessarily that this show description is inherently undesirable or anything like that.

It's just that it's extremely generic and it's easy for anybody else to create a show like this.

So the, our good version here on the right hand side, this is a show concept that I, developed an episode around of my new show Killer Concept, where essentially in every episode I take a generic idea and say, how could we turn this into a really unique and interesting show?

And over the course of the episode of Killer concept, I build out a hypothetical new show concept.

And so Good Enough is episode one of that and basically it's occupying the same space, where we're talking about a, here we have the Good Enough, a subversive life advice podcast.

So that's already a little bit interesting where in every episode we re examine a different aspect of life from relationships to health and wellness to career, finances and more, and ask the seemingly blasphemous question, what and how much is good enough?

Not perfect.

Not the most highly optimized, simply good enough.

So with this show we are now, I kind of like taking the same topic here.

So we see, over here on the left hand side, we're talking about this, perfectionism right in here.

And so this is the, the kind of idea that is at the core of Imperfectly Perfect is the idea of perfectionism.

That's the core big idea behind the show.

with Imperfectly Perfect doesn't really seem like there is a big idea.

It sounds like, okay, we're good.

Just got a grab bag of tips, tricks, experts, whatever, and we're going to just talk about this stuff.

There's not a point of view on this.

Whereas on the right hand side with Good Enough, there's a clear point of view, there's a clear through line, a clear as if we are getting technical, a clear controlling idea, which is this idea that, you know, when we're talking about perfectionism, what is that?

What's the root of that?

The root of that is when we're trying, when we are struggling with perfectionism, we are worrying about making the absolute best decision, the right decision.

We don't want to make the wrong decision.

It must be the best possible thing that we put forward.

And so this show concept is basically challenging that and saying like, hey, what if the way to help people move past perfectionism is basically do a bunch of episodes where in every episode we examine this different aspect of like life that we are inclined to optimize for.

And we say, hey, what if we don't need to optimize?

We don't want to settle for bad, we don't need to settle for like the best ever though.

It's like there's somewhere within this, there's the sweet spot that's simply good enough and we can stop worrying about that.

And so in every episode we're going to build out this catalog of all these aspects of life where it's like, yeah, you know, our culture tells you to optimize for this, but, but really you can make this, you can settle for this, you know, good enough, decision and move on and live a happier, richer, more fulfilling life because you're not agonizing over all of these decisions.

So a very different way of exploring the same idea.

And this second concept is much sharper, it's much more interesting.

And if you listen through the the episode of Killer, concept that I did on this, I talked through it in much more detail how we even layer on a whole bunch more hooks, one of which is that this would be a narrative show format where essentially in every episode we look at three through, at the topic through three different lense.

And so there'd be a science based perspective, a more kind of philosophical based perspective and then a story based perspective of somebody who has actually navigated that that range between good enough and not enough.

So first, first show, comparison here, life advice.

We've got Imperfectly Perfect, Good Enough, Imperfectly Perfect is a show that basically tons of people are already making.

Good Enough is a show that nobody is making already.

And it takes a very unique and refreshing angle to it.

And so it's not something that, that other shows are likely to copy us.

And if they were, if we created the show and somebody else copied it, it's kind of already this like one of one show that it would feel a little bit like somebody could copy it, but it would feel a little bit like you're in.

They're infringing on this IP that we've already created.

So life advice number one, let's move on to show number two in the business category.

So our hypothetical anonymized show name here, Online Business Masters, a, business podcast featuring successful solopreneurs pulling back the curtain on the juiciest tactics that got them to where they are and how you can apply the same tactics to grow your business too.

So once again there are, this is like the first show concept that anybody who wants to start a business podcast if you're a business coach or something like that, this is basically the show format that everybody ends up with.

I think of these as low hanging fruit concepts where you basically take the first idea you have and say, hey, that sounds great, I'm going to do a podcast.

I've seen other people do podcasts like this and so I'm going to do the same thing.

And so you end up with dozens of people.

In this case, it may be hundreds of shows that are more or less just like this.

Again, some of the telltale signs here, it's like we saw this in the first one too.

Anytime you're saying tips, tricks and and guest expert interviews, those are giveaways that like, there's not a lot of thought that has gone into the show.

These are generic offerings.

There's not any unique way of approaching the topic.

Tips and tricks is.

What does that even mean?

It's hard for us to put any trust in that.

There's no specificity to it.

and so when we look down here as well, juiciest tactics that got them to where they are today, this is another like giveaway phrase of a generic show concept.

So what are we going to look at instead?

Here we've got our counter concept, which, I would say is a much better show titled, this Isn't Working.

And so this Isn't Working is a business podcast where in every episode we invite on a different solopreneur to unpack a specific part of their business that isn't working, trace it back to its source, and then live workshop the solution together.

This is a much more interesting show.

It's actually much more helpful to the listeners.

It's also much more helpful to the guest.

And the really beautiful thing about this show is assuming that this show, this Isn't Working is being hosted by a business coach.

Part of the reason to choose this kind of show is that it actively puts your process on display, which essentially reduces the risk to almost zero that a person who might want to hire you, they actually know how you work.

They know the types of problems you solve, they know the type of people you help.

They can see your process in action.

And so they have a high degree of confidence, if not outright certainty, that you can solve their problem as well.

Because after they listen to 10 or 15 episodes, they are ultimately going to be convinced that like, okay, they can do what they say they do.

And I can totally see the value and I want their help, workshopping my problem as well.

So not only is this second One, a much more growable show concept because it is inherently interesting.

It's much more differentiated from typical interview shows.

it is also a fantastic sales tool for the business.

And this is the type of show concept that I refer to as an infinity loop.

There's more to it than we'll get into here, but essentially how we would create the show generally is that the show is actually, it augments the paid offers as well.

And so we've got the paid offers in one place, which is where we teach more of the kind of tactical, like do these things in this order.

And then on the public side of things, so we end up, I've got my pen here, we might as well draw it out.

We've got this infinity loop.

And so over here we've got the paid side of things and over here we've got the public free side of things.

And so essentially everything feeds into itself.

And so you're, if you're in the paid program, it's actually helpful for you to consume the podcast stuff.

You're coming from the, the paid over here, over into the free to see how other people are addressing the same problems and get it kind of build out your example library.

And if you're coming from the free side of things, then you are not getting the structured education or process or the really personal support as a listener.

But you see a bunch of these examples through all these episodes.

You start to piece together the, the picture but you really want to accelerate that with the full kind of framework.

And so you come into the paid side of things where you're going to get a different aspect of that kind of education or the problem solved.

Usually in the centerpiece we're going to have some type of lead magnet that moves people from the free side over into the paid side.

So that is, I've got separate resources on that that we won't get into here.

But that is essentially this type of show format here.

So again we've got boring, generic over here on the left and then we've got a much more interesting, much more differentiated and also much more valuable to business, show format here on the right.

All right, moving on to number three.

A self help style, show or comparison here between two concepts in the self help space.

the first one on the left we've got, you've got this this is a self help podcast sharing inspiring and motivating stories of people who've overcome hardships to build the life of their dreams and how you can too this is reflective of a huge amount of shows in the general motivational self help space.

And one of the things that we talk a lot about in concept development and podcasting as a whole, marketing as a whole even, is this idea of jobs to be done.

So essentially, people, quote, unquote, hire podcasts and all content to do some job for them.

And so it might be to entertain them, to educate them, probably on a very specific thing, or any number of other things.

And one of the things that is true is that people do hire shows to inspire and motivate them.

The problem is that this is a very hard promise to have any faith in.

I always think about it.

It's like when, when you hear somebody describe themselves as funny, you almost know, guaranteed that they are not funny.

Otherwise they wouldn't need to tell you that they.

You observe funny people.

The funniest people are people who would not think of themselves or describe themselves as funny.

They may think of themselves as funny.

They're never going to describe that.

Other people describe them that way.

And if you're around them for five minutes, you know that they're funny.

They.

But they would never describe themselves that way.

And so my sense, whenever I read a show like this, I immediately think probably it's not that inspiring and it's probably not that motivating.

And it's probably like this is what the host thought people wanted to hear and this is what they want the show to be, but the show is not actually that.

And so usually I think about a lot of times this idea of like hard jobs to be done or tangible, concrete jobs to be done versus this kind of like soft and secondary jobs to be done.

For most shows, we want to promise something tangible as the reason that people can, like, they can trust and believe that we can deliver that thing.

And part of the way we do this is through our concept.

We show that this is how we get at that thing.

And then there's this internal kind of soft jobs to be done, which is inspiration, motivation, camaraderie, connection, these types of things that it's not a really sellable kind of point thing that we can offer people that they will trust that we can deliver on as some stranger on the Internet that they just came across.

But once they come in, they're going to experience those things and those will be the things that keep them coming, coming back.

So these are not great promises.

When we're looking at some of these things here.

when it comes to inspiring and motivating, these are another red flags for Me for sure of a sign that probably you're going to have a hard time marketing the show because listeners, specifically strangers who don't know you will simply not trust that it's a hard, it basically requires them to listen to the show to back this up.

Now on the other side of things, Common Nonsense, this is a show that I have will probably do a episode of killer concept about at some point.

I really like this idea for a, show.

It's again in the self help space.

So Common Nonsense is a self help podcast where in every episode we examine a different piece of conventional advice.

So in every episode we examine a different piece of conventional advice that is actually harmful when repeated internalized, unpack where it comes from, why we fall for it, and share the better advice to follow instead.

So this is really interesting because it takes this like, unconventional approach when I think we all know that there is advice out there that is dubious to say the least.

And we don't really know, you know, which advice is dubious and which is not.

And so there's a couple of kind of baked in promises here that are interesting.

The first is that as listeners we kind of start to wonder, beginning like immediately after reading this, we're like, I wonder what common advice, what common sense out there I've actually fallen for, I bought into, that is actually hurting me in some way.

Interesting, something going on there.

the second thing is we look at like, okay, well, if there is stuff and we can probably all point to people in our lives that we know and we could say, oh, man, that person, like they keep, you know, they're, they're full of these aphorisms and all these quotes and we know that their life isn't that great and that they really shouldn't be following this stuff and, or following this stuff or falling for this stuff, they should be really doing something else instead and we can't convince them otherwise.

This show kind of helps us unpack some of these things and say, okay, I know I don't really believe that everybody says that, but I don't think that's true.

And I know a lot of people follow it, but it doesn't seem to work for them.

So why does this keep getting repeated?

And so part of this show is that it explains something about life that we might be wondering about or we might have noticed.

It also kind of calls into, calls our attention to something that we've maybe not drawn our attention to in the past.

But as soon as it says it, we're like, oh yes, of course, there's all these things.

This, this makes a lot of sense.

And then we unpack that.

See where does this come from?

What's, what is the root of the advice?

Why is it no longer relevant?

Why do we actually fall for this?

Is there something we want to believe that actually you know, is harmful to us?

Are we wired in some way, that makes us fall for this?

And then, you know, what is the better advice for the situation?

So this, I would, I would listen to the show today if this was live.

I think it's really interesting, and I think somebody should make it and probably I will make an episode building up the concept.

but I think it is a fascinating show concept that avoids.

It probably is going to incorporate some of the inspiring and motivating content.

not as directly as this, this other show over here.

You've got this claims to do, but it is a probably much more helpful self help, self help style show.

and it's got a really interesting novel original concept that no other show has.

And that is essentially what we're looking for when we're developing our killer concepts is a show that there is currently no show doing that right now.

It would immediately be the one of one different from everything else out there.

And if somebody else tried to copy us, we would have this kind of defensible IP around it saying like, hey, you know, this is a clear, there's a clear process here that we have outlined and whether or not it's legally defensible in the court of public opinion, people would know like, eh, like they already did that thing.

You're kind of like ripping them off.

Which happens all the time on the Internet.

Whether or not there's like legal ramifications, audiences can tell, they're like, yeah, we've already seen that one before.

You're just a knockoff.

And it actually lowers the status of the new copycat show, which is what we want here.

Which is impossible with a broad show saying like giving self help advice.

There's nothing defensible about that.

There's dozens or hundreds of shows already doing it.

Not something we can really build around.

All right, next up, we have actually a real show on the right this time.

We're going to get to that in a second.

but first let's start off with the generic.

This is just like you think of leadership podcast.

This is probably just one of the most boring categories you can imagine.

Unless you're into leadership, which you know, in case maybe it's not so much, we'll actually look at this.

The good example is quite.

Not boring.

but let's look at the generic version, a leadership podcast, where in every episode we interview a business leader from a different industry to help uncover the timeless leadership principles that will elevate your company to greatness.

Ooh, sounds scintillating.

And like many, many, many other shows that are already in leadership, there is nothing to differentiate this show on the surface.

Nothing, that only this show could do that other shows couldn't.

What does this mean?

Business leaders from different industry.

okay, like, what does that mean?

What, what types of roles are they in?

What types of industries are they.

Is there a certain quality bar for who gets to come on the show?

We don't.

This doesn't really give us a lot to trust that this is going to be a great listener experience.

It also is not a memorable show format.

There's no way that we're going to think of this and be like, oh, wow, that original show that featured business leaders from, different industries, and was uncovering the timeless leadership principles.

It just all sounds generic and cliche.

So let's look at the.

Our actual version.

This is a real show, which is Starfleet Leadership Academy.

And so this is a very fun, interesting off the wall take on the leadership category.

And so here we have a leadership podcast where in every episode we break down an episode of Star Trek, from the original series to Discovery and beyond, and point out examples of great leadership management, Lean, Six Sigma communication and more.

Wow.

So here we are taking a interesting lens into the category of leadership by looking at this thing that is kind of you interesting, a little bit zany and a little bit fun as well.

We're saying, Star Trek is full of examples of leadership.

And if you are a person of a certain age who grew up with Star Trek, and you love the show, this is probably going to be your favorite leadership podcast for one, because it's not boring.

And also because it takes this angle into leadership that is just naturally and inevitably going to uncover all these insights about leadership that you're not going to get in a typical CEO style leadership podcast, which tend to be pretty boring.

and it is.

So it's bringing this whole new lens that is going to allow you to get at things that you wouldn't get at if you were just, you know, reading a leadership textbook or, interviewing people who are talking about leadership.

So this is a fantastic example of a very Original and compelling show concept that is immediately unlike every other leadership show in existence.

And also, it is, like, entirely defensible.

Nobody else can create this show without it being a clear ripoff.

So our final category here, personal Finance.

We've got two shows here.

a very kind of classic generic Millennial Money with Michael.

Again, this is made up, although I did swipe this from a real show, the description.

So we have a personal finance podcast for Millennials by Millennials.

We do have a little bit of specificity here, which is not bad.

but then we get to the promise, the show to help you spend less, save more, and make smarter moves with your money, to set you up for long term financial success.

So the main problem here is that this is what every show in personal finance essentially aspires to do.

And so spend less, save more, make smarter moves with your money, set you up for long term financial success.

The main problem here is that, like, this is not controversial in any way.

It is exactly in alignment with every other show.

And so the way that it talks about it, it doesn't have a unique format of how it does these things, and it also doesn't offer a unique promise.

And so these are all the things that, of course, any personal finance show would do.

And so there's no reason to pick this versus any others.

And so, on the other hand, we have this show, other people's pockets.

This is, again, a real show.

And so this is a personal finance podcast where in every episode we ask a different random stranger to get radically transparent about their personal finances in order to learn more about who we are and what makes us tick.

So this has a couple of interesting hooks already right off the bat.

The first is that we're asking a different random stranger to open up about their personal finances.

Of course, all of us know that money is this taboo topic that we don't even talk about that much with our close friends, or family members.

Family members, or let alone publicly.

And so here is this fantastic hook, which is we get a random stranger to open up about their personal finances.

And we use that as a way to explore who is this person, like, what are their values, what is their, you know, life situation.

We're using their personal finances as this lens into their life, their values, their, decision making, who they are, and also as a mirror to reflect back, you know, as we're listening, you know, what makes us tick.

And we start to think like, oh, how would I answer these questions if it was me put on the spot and forced to, or maybe not forced, but if I agreed to open up, about my public finances or my personal finances in public.

So five different concepts here.

from life advice, we had Imperfectly Perfect and Good Enough.

In business we had Online Business Masters and this isn't working.

In the self help category we had you've got this and Common Nonsense.

in leadership we've got the Art of Leadership and Starfleet Leadership Academy.

And then finally in the personal finance category we had Millennial Money with Michael and Other People's Pockets.

Again, these final two, Starfleet, Leadership Academy and Other People's Pockets are real shows that you can go out and search for and look at.

Good Enough is a episode on my show Killer Concept.

And these other two, this isn't working.

And Common Nonsense are likely to be future episodes, on Killer Concept as well.

So those are two of the concepts, of my list of over 300 of shows that should be made and that would likely do better than most shows in their category.

So hopefully this has been helpful in seeing some real concepts.

Well, some, some anonymized real concepts and some, potentially, much better, much more focused, much more interesting killer concepts.

and you know, as you are looking at shows out there, one of the things that I would just encourage you to do, is pay attention to the shows that you love, to the shows that catch your attention immediately when you're scrolling for a new category, when somebody tells you about a show and think about, whoa, what just happened there?

Why was that so interesting to me?

And what are the shows that when I come across them, they feel generic and boring and that they don't grab my attention and, and start to piece the pieces together and see what are the commonalities of shows that I don't find interesting and what are the commonalities of the shows that I do.

So I hope that this was helpful to talk through some of the traits, and examples of good and bad concepts and I will talk to you more real soon.

Yeah,