Ep #109: 7 Things You Must Do Before You Start a Podcast, Vlog or Blog

Hi docs, welcome to The EntreMD Podcast, where it’s all about helping amazing physicians just like you embrace entrepreneurship so you can have the freedom to live life and practice medicine on your terms. I’m your host, Dr. Una.

Well hello, hello, and welcome back to another episode of The EntreMD Podcast. I am so excited about this because I get to talk about one of my favorite things. I love talking about platforms. Whether that’s a podcast, it’s a YouTube channel, it’s a Blog. And I feel like doctors ought to own platforms.

And the reason for that is we have so much to say. We have the coolest stories. We have the most accurate information. We really should be out there. And what a day, right?

Think about if you had to get airtime for a TV show, if you had to pay to have weekly events at a stadium or n arena or something like that. But you could literally stay in your own house and create your own show, your own stage, your own party? Your podcast, your YouTube channel, your blog, and your voice can be heard.

What you do doesn’t have to end in the exam room. You can talk about it everywhere. You can reach ideal people directly. With these media, you have literally gotten rid of the middleman. You’ve gotten rid of the gatekeepers. You can get right to your people. So, you can tell I’m excited about it. I just think every physician should own a platform.

So, we’re going to talk today about the seven things you must do before you start a podcast or a vlog or a blog. And why am I talking about this? Because I want you to start it – or maybe you’ve already started it – I want you to revamp it. And I want you to do it in a way that it would create massive impact in your world and it will reward you. It should be fun and rewarding. Fun and rewarding. And I want to set you up so you don’t quit.

So, I don’t have the data for YouTube, but I do have the data for podcasts. And the mortality rate is a little bit over 50%. 50% of podcasts are no longer in production. So, I want you to have these things so you can go through them, you can work on them, and set yourself up to thrive as someone who runs a platform.

So, when you listen to this, you may approach it with, “Wow, this is great information. This is so inspiring. This gives me so many simple action steps I can take.” But if you’ve been podcasting for a while or you have a YouTube channel that you’ve had for a while, you have a blog that you’ve had for a while, there is the temptation to show up and say, “Well, I already know these things.”

And if you come with that attitude, the problem with it there are so many nuggets you can get out of this, and you won’t because you already know it, quote unquote.

So, I had a person who came to me and was like, “I don’t know if what you teach about speaking and all of that in the business school will work for me because I’m already doing quite a bit of speaking.” And I told him, I said, “Well, you know, Russel Brunson does quite a bit of speaking, and the last time I saw him onstage, which was a few years ago, in a 90-minute talk, he did $3 million. Are you doing $3 million?”

I know Larry Winget, for instance, you invite him – this is years ago. I don’t know what it is now. You invite hm to come speak at your event, he’s like, “I don’t move for less than $50,000,” for a 45-minute keynote. Are you making $50,000 for a 45-minute keynote? If you’re not, then that means there’s room for improvement, right? There’s still things you can learn. And these people are at the top of their game and they’re still learning.

So, I want to invite you to have a growth mindset. Whether you’ve spoke before, whether you have a podcast already, whether you run a really great YouTube channel already, I want you to show up with, “I just need a few nuggets from this that I can use to up-level what I already do.” So, that’s the attitude to show up with. Alright, so let’s get into the seven things.

Number one, I think number one is really like number one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10. But number one is define your brand. I cannot tell you how critical this is. This is something that, if you don’t get right, it makes it really hard for your platform to be fun and rewarding.

Define your brand. Now, when I say that, I don’t mean, what are your brand colors? What is your logo? That’s not what I mean. I mean the core of your brand, which would be your ideal client and your message. Who are you talking to? You have to decide that.

The temptation for you, like it was for me, like it is for most of the universe, is to say, “I talk to all the people.” And the truth of the matter is, if you talk to everybody, nobody listens. If you talk to one person, then everybody listens. This is a principle. This is a fact. And I want to invite you to embrace it.

So, who are you talking to? Are you talking to adults with chronic diseases? Are you talking to teenagers? Are you talking to moms who have teenagers and don’t know what to do with them? Are you talking to people in marriages? Are you talking to people with a specific diagnosis? Who are you talking to? You’ve got to pick. You have to pick somebody to talk to.

And if you think about it, your podcast, YouTube channel, blog is not necessarily for you. You don’t create it for you to share our content with you. You already know what you know.

The podcast, the YouTube channel, the blog is for your audience. It’s to help them. It’s to solve their problem. So, if you’re not clear on who you’re talking to, then you cannot consistently and with excellence help your people. So, decide who is my ideal client? Who is my ideal listener? What is my message? What problem am I trying to solve?

Think of your brand this way. Think of this. When people listen to my podcast, when people watch my YouTube channel, when people read my blog week in and week out, they get X. What is X? What is X?

And you might say, “No, I talk about all the things.” Okay, but I want you to take a look at this. When you come to listen to The EntreMD Podcast, if you are a listener, you are very clear, I am a physician and I have some interest in entrepreneurship.

And when you come on, you expect me to talk about something that has to do with entrepreneurship. It could be the mindset behind it. It could be strategies. It could be case studies. It could be testimonials. Whatever it is. But you know what you get when you come to listen to The EntreMD Podcast.

But think about the things I could talk about. So, I’ve been married for 15 years, so I know a thing or two about marriage. And you can come on an episode and the episode before that is five ways to set up your YouTube channel, and the episode after is how to have a great marriage. And you’re like, “Is Dr. Una confused? Is she smoking something?”

I have four children. My oldest is 13. I mean, I could talk about parenting. What if you came to The EntreMD Podcast and you were listening to me and I’m talking about parenting? I’m a pediatrician. I can talk about all things pediatrics. I’m a person of faith. I can talk about that. I’m not a health enthusiast, like I’ll do triathlons, but I live fairly healthy. I watch what I eat. I exercise. I do all these things. I could come talk about that. I could come talk about meditation, all of that.

But for me to serve my audience, I have to be clear that I’m talking to physicians, I’m talking to physicians who want to thrive as entrepreneurs. And I bring everything on the table to help this specific group of people do this specific thing.

So, I want you to think, what is your brand? Don’t get all hung up in it. Just look and pick. And if you think about it, the greatest of the greats do this. When you go to Oprah to watch her show and all that stuff, you know what you’re going to get. When you go to a Beyoncé show, you know what you’re going to get. You’re going to get amazing vocals, amazing entertainment, amazing choreography. You know that. You’re aware.

So, if you want to build a podcast, vlog, or blog that will thrive, you must define your brand. People must know what they get when they come to you. So, that’s number one. And I like I said, it could be number one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, okay.

Number two, validate your idea in the marketplace. So, for instance, in the EntreMD Business School, I could have had everybody start podcasts the second they started. And usually, I don’t have them do that.

Why? Because anything you think up, like this is what I want to do, that’s kind of like coming up with the theory, and when you’re done, you have to go test it in the lab. You really need to go test it.

So, I decide, “Oh, you want to help physicians who want to thrive as entrepreneurs.” Well, then what do I do? I talk about it a lot. I’m a guest on podcasts. I do Facebook lives. I write blog posts. I write social media posts, see what resonates with people, see what their responding to, get feedback, see if they even care about what I’m doing before I go create a whole platform.

So, you talk and talk and talk. So, go do some Facebook lives. Go post your thought process on social media where your ideal client lives and get some feedback. Call up some people and say, “Hey, what’s your challenge around this? What’s this? What’s that?” Ask them.

Okay, so get some feedback. Don’t create your theory in the classroom and go teach it as gospel truth. You still have to go to the lab and go check it out. So, validate it. Validate it. Do some content creation, put it out there, ask questions. You could even hold a class, do a masterclass or something like that, get people in, teach some of the concepts you’re going to teach on your podcast or YouTube channel or whatever and then get feedback from them. So, validate it in the marketplace.

The third thing you want to do before you start is you want to create a calendar of topics. My preference is 24. You can do 12, but my preference is 24. And usually, what I get is, “24 topics? I don’t even know what I’m going to talk about, talk less of 24 topics.”

Now, when it comes to topics, I want you to think that your podcast, YouTube channel, or blog does not exist for you. It exists for your people. So, the question is, what questions are they asking? You take that question, you flip it, that becomes the topic of your content, and you answer the question.

For instance, for this episode, I have had question after question, “I want to start a YouTube channel, I want to start a podcast and I don’t know where to start from.” So, what is this podcast? This podcast is part of the answer to that question. These are seven things you must do before you start.

So, you are not the source of the content. Your audience is the source of the content. They ask questions, you produce content to answer them. Which means especially if you are an intrapreneur or you own a practice, guess what. When you see 20 patients, that’s 20 people that came to you with questions. Get into the habit of realizing that they are literally handing you gold. They are handing you all the content that you need. So, you get in the habit of writing down the questions they have, flipping that question, making it a topic of a video or a podcast or a blog, and answer their questions.

And this is what helps you create irresistible content. Because people are like, “That’s what I’m thinking. That’s the question I’m asking. She’s helping me. He’s helping me.” So, create a calendar and get the questions that people are asking, convert them into topics, and go to work.

So, every so often in the EntreMD Facebook group – and if you’re not a part of the group, you should join us. It’s entremd.com/join. It’s our free private Facebook group. Every time I’m thinking of creating a new calendar of content, I go and I ask, what are you struggling with in your business right now? And I create podcast episodes out of that. I don’t just randomly make up stuff because I’m not my audience. So, that’s number three, create a calendar of 24 topics.

Number four, define the kind of show you want to have. So, for instance, for a podcast, it could be a solo-cast like what I’m doing right now. It’s just me talking, teaching, inspiring. So, it could be a solo-cast. Or it could be interview style, which I have a number of those. I have interviewed some of my friends who are entrepreneurs. I have interviewed some of the students from the EntreMD Business School. We celebrated their wins and stuff like that. So, is it going to be solo or is it going to be interview? Make a decision.

Is it going to be a hybrid, like my podcast is a hybrid because I have both types, right? Some people have podcasts that are purely Q&A. Pat Flynn has one of those, Ask Pat Flynn. And it’s just people who ask questions and he’s answering them.

If you’re doing a YouTube channel, what are you going to do? Is it going to be solo? Is it going to be interview? Are you going to be teaching mostly? Are you going to be showing behind the scenes? Are you going to do a review style? Maybe you’re reviewing books or you’re doing some kind of unboxing or anything like that. You decide. What kind is it going to be?

And don’t overcomplicate this. Because you can change your mind. But the thing is, if you don’t make a decision, you can’t move forward. So, don’t think about this forever and ever. Just make a decision. And if you need to change it, change it.

Mine started as predominantly solo and after a year of podcasting, I added a second episode that’s predominantly interview style, so that my audience gets the best of both worlds. So, pick. Define the kind of show it’s going to be.

If it’s a blog, are you going to primarily produce your own content and people are going to binge on that? Or are you going to have guests come in and do most of the blog, like Kevin MD would do? So, decide, okay, define it, move on.

Number five, decide how you are going to monetize it. Now, remember, we are entrepreneurs here. So, don’t get the, “Oh, I just want to do this for fun. I just want to help people.”

Remember, a great business serves a lot and earns a lot. You have to do both. So, how are you going to monetize it? Your platform is not an end in itself. It’s the middle of the sequence of an entrepreneur. So, you have your idea. You have your message. You put your message on a platform, which would be your podcast or your YouTube channel or your blog. And it should lead somewhere where you can work with a subsect of that community further and that should turn into revenue. So, it’s a whole stream.

Now, some of you won’t be direct, and ill talk about that in a second. But I want you to think about it. So, if you have a YouTube channel or a podcast or a blog, are you going to run ads on it? Are you going to do that? There are many people who do that and do it very, very, very successfully. So, are you going to do that?

Is it going to be a funnel? So, maybe you have courses or you have services or you’re a consultant of sorts and stuff like this, is it going to create opportunities for people to find you and then sign up to use your services and stuff like that?

Or is it going to be something you would use to create more opportunities for yourself? So, maybe your thing is you just want to be a paid speaker. Well, on a podcast, people get to experience you. People get to go, “Wow, he’s an amazing speaker. She’s an amazing speaker. We should sign her up.” Is that what you want to do with it?

Or do you want to purely use it for positioning? And this is perfect for an intrapreneur. So, maybe you don’t want to throw ads at it. You want to educate and all that stuff. But you want to use it to position yourself as the expert, the thought leader, the authority in the field, like hashtag you’re a big deal, then you can use a podcast to do that. You can do a YouTube channel. Now, can you do that and still do ads? Absolutely.

So, decide, how am I going to monetize this? And if you have anything about, “I don’t know that I really want to monetize it,” I want you to go back to the whole why. The why is that you want to help people. And if you monetize it, you have the infrastructure to build a team around it, which means the reach will be more. You have the finances to throw ads behind it so that your reach can be more. You can do so much with it. So, it’s actually in the best interests of your audience that you monetize your podcast, or your vlog, or your blog.

Number six, decide – now this is almost as important as number one. Number one, define your brand. This is decide to market as hard as you produce. I wish I could stand on the rooftop and yell this one, but hear me out.

There are so many people who would say, “I’m producing this episode. I’ve done 40 episodes. I’ve done 60 episodes.” But they have done nothing to market it; nothing at all. And I’m like, “You need to slow down on production. This needs to be 50% production and 50% marketing. Do not produce an episode and spend the time to get the right gear and spend the time to create a great outline and spend the time to do the research and spend the time to record it and spend the time to edit it and spend the time to make the cover art and do all of this stuff and not tell anybody about it.”

You must spend as much time and effort telling people about it as you do producing it. If you are not going to market it, don’t make it because it will be the world’s best kept secret. Nobody’s going to find your podcast or your YouTube channel or your blog if you don’t go out and tell people about it. You have to produce. You have to produce. And you have to market. You have to do both of them. Okay.

Number seven, create a launch team. So, whether you’re going to launch or you’re going to relaunch, you want to create a launch team. And this should be people who have access to your ideal audience who you’re going to say, “Hey, I’m launching this on X, Y, Z day. Can we all come together? We’ll be in this WhatsApp group or Facebook group or Slack group or whatever and we’re going to spread the word together. This is a target. We want to have 1000 downloads the first week or 10,000 or 100,000 the first week,” or whatever your number is.

Create a launch team. When I did The EntreMD Podcast, I had about 17 doctors, shoutout to all of them, who came together and were like, “Okay, we have to spread the word about this podcast. The first week, this is what our goal is,” and all of that. And it was amazing.

And these are people who are all physicians, so they have access to my ideal audience. Now, you can have a secondary launch team. And that could be your friends and family who will support you anyway. They may not be your ideal audience, but they will share it with people in their lives.

And even if they don’t, you have the views and the shares and the reviews and all of that stuff. So, they’ll help with your engagement. But create a launch team. And it’s easy to do. There are people in your life who will help you. There are people who are already there, but you have to ask them.

So, I’m going to go through it. These are the seven things you have to do. Number one, define your brand. Number two, validate our idea in the marketplace. Number three, create a calendar of 24 topics. Number four, define the kind of show you want to have. Number five, decide how you’re going to monetize it. Number six, decide to market as hard as you produce. Number seven, create a launch team.

And the ultimate thing you must do is decide not to quit. Because in the beginning, it’s so exciting. But after a while, not as much. And not because there’s no fun in it. For instance, I’ve been podcasting for 18 months at this point. The first year, it was an episode a week. And for the second year, it’s two episodes a week. That’s a lot of episodes. That’s a lot of recording.

I don’t think you would believe that there’s never been a day that I didn’t feel like recording. Those things happen, but you make a decision not to quit. You make your decision that you’re going to serve your audience. You’re going to serve your ideal client. You’re going to help them get rid of problems. You’re going to help them have new experiences, know new possibilities, that’s what you’re going to do, so you decide not to quit.

Alright, so this is what I want you to do. You might be launching, or you might be relaunching. Two kinds of people listening today. This may be, “You know what, I’ve been talking about this forever. I’ve been talking about taking this to the next level forever.” Your message is important to the world. Your message matters. You need to go put it out there.

I want to read you a review and this is a review form, it says NewBlogger23. You have to PM me and tell me who you are. NewBlogger23, I want you to listen to this review. So, five beautiful starts, which you know I love. And if you haven’t written us a review, come on. Come on. Okay.

So, this is what this doctor says. It says, “A must-listen for all MDs who are feeling stuck or yearn for more. A few months ago, I found Dr. Una’s podcast at a time I needed it and I’m thankful each time I listen. Dr. Una is a powerhouse of information that aspiring EntreMDs and IntraMDs didn’t know they needed because they don’t teach this in medical school. I have been burned out for a few years and left academia in December 2018. I yearned for quote unquote something else, but had no idea where to start. I needed a roadmap to get out of overwhelm and Dr. Una provides that. I wish I had found her sooner. I can only imagine where I would be now.

“Her knowledge is deep, her laugh makes you smile, and her passion is infectious. And you often cannot help but holler yes, I’m in, or heck yeah because she pumps you up with each episode. I come away feeling ready to take on anything and I know exactly what I need to do to seize the day. I love the podcast so much that when the EntreMD Business School doors opened this last time, it was a no-brainer. I knew I needed a deeper dive and would benefit from group coaching from one of the best.”

And then, all upper case, she says, “I’M SO GLAD I DID. If you’re yearning for something else but don’t know what to do or how to start, subscribe to this amazing podcast and you’ll begin to feel relieved as I did, because Dr. Una’s got your back.”

First of all, NewBlogger23, you have to tell me who you are. This absolutely made my day. And I say in the EntreMD world, they know how to make me cry, this was so heartwarming to think that me deciding not to quit, showing up to share what I know, to share my experiences, to share the experiences of other doctors who are doing this entrepreneurship thing, to think that it provided you with relief, provided you with inspiration to think that, it’s the absolute best.

Thank you so much for taking the time to write this review. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. And for everyone listening, who’s on the other side waiting for you to deliver your message so they can have relief? Somebody’s waiting. And I want to challenge you today. You’ve heard these seven things. I want you to make a list of the seven things and I want you to go to work so you can finally start your podcast, your YouTube channel, your blog, or you can revamp it.

I need you to imagine – you guys know my BHAG is to help 80,000 doctors. Imagine 80,000 doctors each owning a platform. Think about the dent it will make with the misinformation in this world. Think about the people who will be inspired. Think about the life-change that will happen if we just own our voices.

So, make the list. Go to work. And remember, it’s 80,000. So, take this episode and share it with another doctor in your life and say, “You need to listen to this and we need to do this together.”

You can even create little accountability groups with five or six doctors, and you guys share, like, “This is the date I’m going to be done figuring out these seven things and then we’re going to go ahead and start. What are you doing? A blog. What are you doing? A YouTube channel. What are you doing? A podcast. Let’s do it.”

Okay, so that’s what we’re going to do. We are going to change the world one platform at a time. So, thank you so much for listening and I’ll see you on the next episode of The EntreMD Podcast.

Hey, if you love listening to The EntreMD Podcast I want to invite you to join EntreMD On Demand. It is my signature subscription program that gives you access to a library of business courses designed to help you do one thing as a physician entrepreneur, and that is to thrive. Just head out to entremd.com/ondemand and I’d love to have you join us. See you on the inside.