Reflection: How can your “how” answer your “why”?

I know. I’m sorry. It’s almost a nonsense sentence. But it makes sense. And it made me chuckle, so I kept it. Don’t come for me. I’m just a kid who loves playing with words and worlds.

But let’s get back to the point. As creatives and leaders, if you're serious about starting your podcast but are hesitant about taking the leap, consider asking a different question: Don’t ask "why should I launch a podcast,” but “how can it help me reach my goals.”

Is this upside-down world? It’s not, I promise. Hear me out. Let me tell you a story.

I was walking a creative professional through the process of ‘why launch a podcast.’ Believe it or not, it’s one of my favorite questions to ask at the start of each process. I like to challenge people to answer me honestly before we dive in.

The creative pro kept getting stuck on the ‘why.’ It was like they wanted me to answer the question for them. I say that because all they kept asking me was ‘how. How could I help them create a podcast that would amplify their leadership, promote their main project, and spark conversations with their audience?

As I saw them grappling with that question, one thing became clear: They had become bogged down with what they couldn’t do and what they didn’t have. Looking up at that mountain of ‘why’, they couldn’t see how they could take even one step toward achieving their podcasting goals. And that was sending them into a panic about how to market their work.

But what they saw as a lack, I saw as an opportunity. They had already had a story because they had developed a storytelling project that they wanted to promote. They already had content. And they already had expertise because of all the work they had done prior to this point.

The question they needed to ask, but did not, was actually this: how could they leverage all of this work to develop a podcast-ready story? How could they create a podcast-ready narrative that didn’t echo their previous work, but instead supported, complemented, or amplified it? That was the podcast-ready story they needed to develop. Could they create something that could help them:

• Meet potential fans in new spaces?

• Inspire new conversations?

• Create new content to inspire those longer-term conversations?

So, I asked it, and once I did, we came up with new, action-oriented, empowering answers that took them one meaningful step closer toward their goals. They could:

• Identify content to repackage, or inspire new questions in interviews

• Share unused content as exclusive content.

• If the goal was to market the show, they could tell the story of the show and their journey to drive people toward their project.