What Your Podcast “Why” Really Is (and Isn’t)

What's your podcast why really Is and isn't. Welcome to The Why Podcast. I'm Brett Johnson, My Podcast Guy, your trusted friend in podcasting. This show is here to help you reconnect with the real why behind your podcast so you can keep showing up with clarity and confidence. Let's start with the most basic question that almost no podcaster answers clearly. Why does your show exist? Not why did you start it three years ago? Or why does everyone say you should have a podcast? I mean, the deeper, current, honest reason this show should still have a place in your life and in your listener's life today. Over the last 10 years working with podcasters, I've noticed something When I ask, what's your why? Most people give me the answers that sound good, but don't actually keep them going. They'll say, I want to grow my business or I want to help people or I want to build my brand.

Those aren't wrong. They're just not enough. They're too vague, too distant, too fragile to carry you through the grind of creating episode after episode after episode. So in this episode, I want to do two things. First, I want to show you what a real sustaining podcast why looks and feels like. And second, I want to help you see the difference between the answer you think you should give and the answer that will actually get you back to the mic when you're stuck. Because if you're feeling inconsistent, if you're dragging your feet on recording, if you're quietly wondering whether you should just let the show go away, there's a very good chance your why is fuzzy, secondhand, or. Or just plain out of date.

Let's bring it into focus. I'm going to tell you a composite story built from a lot of conversations I've had over the past decade. Imagine a host. Let's call her Sarah. Sarah launched her show about a couple of years ago. She had energy, she had ideas, she had a decent mic, she had that early rush we all get new cover art, new intro music that first we're live post on social. If you'd asked her back then, why are you starting this podcast? She would have said, what many people say, I want to grow my audience and build my business. Fair enough.

That was her surface why. And for a while, it worked. She put out episodes, she got some nice comments, and she saw the download numbers tick upward. Things looked fine from the outside. Then slowly, the friction started to build. Recording day kept getting pushed back. She'd stare at her outline and think, have I already said this? She Began to feel guilty every time she opened up her podcast app and saw her own stale feed. And eventually, she did what a lot of podcasters do.

She quietly stopped. No announcement, no explanation, just silence. When we sat down to talk, I asked her the same question. I'm asking you, why does this show exist? And she gave me the old answer. Well, I started the podcast to grow my business and reach more people. And I said, okay, that's why you started. But that answer clearly isn't strong enough to get you back behind the mic right now. So what's the real why? Underneath that, it took a while.

There were some long pauses. She talked about clients she loved working with, conversations that lift her up, episodes where she forgot about the numbers because the topic mattered so much to her personally. And. And eventually, she said this. Honestly, my favorite part of having a podcast is that it gives me an excuse to sit down and say the things I wish someone had told me 10 years ago. That was the moment. That's a different why. It's not grow your business or build my brand.

It's I want to talk directly to the version of me who was struggling a decade ago and give her the words she needed back then. That's human. That's specific. That's something she could feel in her gut. Once we had that, everything else started to shift. We changed how she thought about topics. We adjusted her intro to speak directly to that earlier version of herself. We let go of some episodes that were only there because everyone in my niche talks about this.

And not surprisingly, recording got easier again, not because the workload changed, but because the why changed from a vague business outcome to a clear personal purpose. That's the difference. I want you to see a real why feels like a person, a moment, a problem you care about, not just a metric you'd like to hit. So let's turn this into something you can actually use. For now, I don't need you to come up with the perfect polished why statement. All I want you to do is notice the gap between the answer you usually give and the answer that's actually true for you right now. Here's a simple way to do that. Grab a piece of paper or open a note on your phone and write this question at the very top.

Why does my podcast exist today? Not when you launched, not in some ideal future today. Then, without overthinking it, write down the first answer that comes out. It'll probably sound like one of those standard lines. Grow my business. Help people, build my brand. Fair enough. But now, here's where the real work is. Underneath that first answer, ask yourself today's why.

Question if your show disappeared tomorrow, who would actually miss it and why would they miss it? Sit with that for a moment. Don't rush past it. Think of real people. A specific client, a listener who emailed you once, someone in your life who you know listens. What are they getting from you that they couldn't easily replace with another show? When you start to name that what they would actually miss, you're getting closer to your real why. It might be the way you tell the truth about your industry. It might be the way you make them feel less alone. It might be the way you explain complex topics without talking down to them.

That's the level we're aiming for this season. If you'd like help putting real language around that why and turning it into a direction for your show, this is exactly the work I do with podcasters. You can book a clarity call with me. Just head over to my podcast guy online and look for the Schedule A Call link. We'll talk through where you're stuck, what your real why might be, and how to build your podcast around it. Thanks for listening to the WAI Podcast. I'm Brett Johnson, My Podcast Guy and I'll talk to you in the next episode.