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Finding your unique voice and podcast topics

When it comes to podcasting, your voice is one of the key aspects that can make your show successful or break it. Sadly, the Internet is full of copycats, and there are over 500,000 active podcasts at the moment. So, to be authentic, you will have to discover, and then use your unique voice and podcast topics. While it's not going to be that easy to grow a deep voice, for example, you can learn how to avoid monotony while you are speaking. The way you speak is essential, because it has been proven over and over that people who use a proper voice are perceived as being more knowledgeable.

So, start speaking into a mic, wait for a few days, and then listen to the recording over and over. What could you say differently? Try using several voices that come naturally to you, and then see if you like one in particular. Don't be afraid to ask your friends and/or relatives to give you feedback. Find out what they think about your voice and ask them what you should do to improve it.

It's not a bad idea to borrow ideas from successful podcasters either. Just listen to their voices and compare them with what you're producing. What are some of the most common words that they are using? Do they use neologisms? And how do they communicate with their guests?

It goes without saying that you should also explore what successful podcasters aren't doing. In other words, what could you do differently? You may reach success by exploring a path that's never been traveled before. Being unique may be scary, but may also provide fantastic rewards.

Then, ask yourself this question: what am I going to talk about? Don't try to be everything to everyone, because you won't be able to do that. It's best to choose a niche, go for something you're really good at, and then explore its depths.

Try to create content that caters to the needs of your target audience. Marketers like to create personas, fictional people who match specific criteria. If you sell cars, for example, I would assume that your target audience consists mainly of men aged 20 to 50. So, try to find out the average age, gender, education, income level and occupation of your potential listeners.

Know when to change direction. If you see that people aren't interested in your stuff, choose another set of topics. This doesn't mean that you should switch from business to entertainment, but maybe there are other industry aspects that you can talk about in an interesting, engaging way.

Don't forget about content curation; it allows you to get new topic ideas by leveraging other people's work. By doing this, you will get access to lots of carefully researched materials for your podcast.

Use as many sources of inspiration as possible. Follow the industry leaders on social media and see what they are saying. Here's one of the techniques that I use for inspiration: I read an article title, and then I try to imagine what it's all about. Often, that content piece is going to talk about something that's totally different in comparison with what I was thinking, but this very process has helped me come up with a unique idea for my own content.

In the end, don't forget to measure and analyze the results of your podcasting efforts. You want to make sure that the targeted audience listens to your show, because that's why you're producing it in the first place, right?