✊ Anatomy of a big idea

​

Great podcasts—the kind people resonate with, remember, and talk about—are built around big ideas.

Brands have known this for ages.

Patagonia. Nike. Apple.

Each of these brands—and countless more—are in the business of selling ideas as much as they are selling products.

In fact, it’s the idea itself that often sells the product.

And the same dynamic applies to selling listeners on your podcast.

See, there’s an incredible amount of friction in selling someone on your show itself.

To buy, a listener must spend a significant amount of time (at least a few minutes, at most several hours) to sample a new show and assess if it will deliver what they’re looking for.

In a world where your listeners have podcast feeds already filled to the brim with shows they know, like, and trust to deliver, it’s a significant risk to spend their time trying something new.

And so it's easier to stick with what they know.

A big idea on the other hand…

A big idea can captivate a listener in a matter of seconds.

And once it does, they’ll be compelled to listen to the show that embodies and explores that idea.

Because while decent content is ubiquitous, big ideas are rare.

And as consumers, we’ll pay a premium for them, moving the shows that revolve around and explore them to the top of our feeds, following the hosts on every platform we can find, and eventually, perhaps even signing up to work with them—where we’ll then happily pay above market rate.

So what exactly constitutes a big idea and how do you develop one for your show and brand?

While every big idea is different, they tend to be built around several of the following traits:

Progressive – Not in the political sense, but in that they build on the existing knowledge and ideas of their space and add something new. They are not simply rehashing old ideas.
​
​Example: I Will Teach You To Be Rich — Personal finance advice is everywhere, but no one is talking about couples’ financial advice, whose approach to money has major ramifications on both their relationship and their finances

Timely – Taps into the current zeitgeist and/or trends. Is highly relevant and perhaps even urgent.
​
​Example: Wiser Than Me — Older women are often relegated to the background, but they have a wealth of wisdom to share. Especially relevant now as the Baby Boomer and Gen X generations—the first two generations where women played a more prominent role in the work force, politics, and society—are aging out of the workforce.
​

Refreshing – Usually by proposing a novel, non-obvious solution to a known, perplexing problem.
​
​Example: Acquired — Instead of softball CEO interviews, what if you approached a business podcast like Dan Carlin approaches history?
​

Subversive – Challenges conventional wisdom, sentiment, and rhetoric in its space.
​
​Example: How Stories Happen — Storytelling is not an innate talent. Great stories happen to those who can tell them. And anyone can learn to tell them.
​

Raises the Stakes or Expectations – Suggests that more is possible than people previously thought... and calls them to action.​
​
Example: Billion Dollar Creator — Is it possible to build a billion-dollar creator business? And if so, how?
​

Specific – The idea—including the status quo, problem, proposed solution, and (bad) alternatives—has been thoroughly defined and mapped out.
​
​Example: 80,000 Hours — We spend 80,000 hours working. Which means our careers are the greatest lever we have to make an impact. We’ve done all the research to help you maximize the impact you make in your career.
​

Simple – Can be understood by the intended audience easily without much (if any) additional context, background, or explanation.
​
​Example: You’re Wrong About — The media often gets pop-culture phenomena wrong, especially those involving women.
​

Well Articulated– Can be encapsulated in a clear, concise, punchy way that makes it memorable and easy for others to share.
​
​Example: Freakonomics — Exploring the hidden side of everything.
​

Opinionated – Takes a stand and proposes a direction that others can (and will) disagree with.
​
​Example: Everyone Hates Marketers — Another trendy marketing tactic won’t help you, building a personal brand that stands the f*ck out will.
​

Your big idea is the foundation of your show.

It guides your content strategy and can provide a powerful hook for listeners.

But it’s format-agnostic.

There are many (perhaps infinite) ways you could construct a show around any one idea. How you choose to use your show to explore or amplify your big idea is up to you.

Some shows, like 3 Books use every episode as an direct vehicle to explore the big idea (uncovering the 1,000 most formative books in the world).

Others, like On Being, allow the big idea (what does it mean to be a human alive in the world today?) to hover in the background as subtext, always present but rarely addressed directly.

Regardless of which method you employ, the show itself should be useful, enjoyable, or entertaining. It must do a tangible job for listeners.

Because while a big idea can be a vehicle for a podcast, the podcast is also a vehicle for the idea.

Many big idea shows lean too heavily on the idea, failing to wrap it in a compelling show concept that makes for an engaging listener experience. The result is a show that feels academic, preachy… and often self-serving.

No matter how important the idea, no one wants to listen to that.

To find the root of your big idea, start with the following prompts:

1. What specific change do you want to see in your space?
2. What question or hunch do you have about a problem in your space that you can follow and explore?
3. What idea, feeling, or sentiment do you want to be associated with you and your brand?

Any of these questions can uncover the ore that will form your big idea.

That’s the beginning.

Then comes the work of excavating, pressure testing, and polishing it into something that catches your listeners’ eyes and draws them in.

It’s not easy.

But if you want to grow, it’s the hard work worth doing.

Stay Scrappy, If you’re looking for an honest, no-punches-pulled assessment of why your show isn’t growing and/or converting clients & customers, followed by a personalized step-by-step gameplan for your show, consider signing up for a deep-dive podcast audit from me. On these audits, I spend 10-15 hours studying every aspect of your show and then put together a 1.5–2-hour video report detailing the precise issues that are stifling your growth… as well as the opportunities hiding in plain sight, waiting for you to take advantage of them. Following the audit, we’ll meet for 90 min to discuss the findings and next steps, then I build you a hyper-actionable, step-by-step growth plan showing you exactly what to do to get moving in the right direction. There’s currently a 4-week waitlist to get started, but if you’re interested in getting more info and saving your spot in the queue, reply with the words "Podcast Audit!" and I'll send you all the info. ​What happens when a human illustrator attempts to generate AI image prompts?​

​