Creating Valuable Content to Grow Your Podcast with Andy McDowell from Generate Your Value
An Engineer by trade, with 22-years at Boeing, Andy McDowell knows his industry well. Along with those decades within a massive organization, came a deep understanding of not only business but entrepreneurship. When Boeing approached him to build a business within their business, his inspiration and excitement for building business and generating value exploded.
On his show, Generate Your Value, as the title suggests, Andy digs in deep to bring out wisdom his listeners really need. This is intentional. In fact, every element of the show itself is built on intention. When Andy started his show, it was to show listeners what he could bring to the table as a coach. He knew if they could experience him in action, they would be more inclined to hire him.
Let’s Talk About Intention
Most podcasters, starting out, focus on the details they need to begin their show. For instance, which microphone or equipment is best, what day of the week they will record, whether or not they will batch record, etc. There is nothing wrong with this at all. However, in the midst of the miniscule details, plenty forget to get intentional and put that same focus on the things that are really going to matter.
“I chose my co-host for very specific reasons. I set up my show for very specific reasons. I looked at the format and who I would interview, all for very specific reasons. I wanted to be intentional about the content I was creating because I know intentional, focused content generates value.”
Andy is onto something about intention and you probably already know that. We’ve all listened to shows that were kind of all over the place and we usually leave those episodes early or without a real takeaway.
Pro Tip: Valuable content looks different for each one of us, depending on our goals and even our niche — but intentional content looks the same for all of us. Look at your format, your guests, your episodes, and make sure it ties together. Make sure you are being intentional about what you put out for maximum value generation.
Use Your Intro and Outro
Sticking with this same theme of being intentional, Andy does something wonderful with each episode intro. He keeps the clips short and sweet and is absolutely sure to include the one golden nugget he wants listeners to take away from the show. This lets listeners know what they’re in for when they listen and it’s actually a great way to introduce the episode and then tie it all together at the end, on one piece of important wisdom.
Three Top Tier Tips from Andy McDowell
I love to ask every guest about these three topics, and Andy’s answers did not disappoint.
Encourage Engagement: Focus on starting actual conversations over selling.
Choosing Great Guests: Focus on creating great content, then the guests will come to you.
Monetization: Build the show with an end goal in mind, whether that’s coaching, book sales, course sales, etc.
One thing I would like to add, that came up during my conversation with Andy was how important it is to really push your content where your audience spends their time. Yes, we talk about this often, and that’s because it just saves so much time and effort for you as a host. Andy revealed that he knew their next big undertaking was to work smarter when it comes to engagement.
Knowing his show and therefore his audience, I suggested he dive into LinkedIn and utilize the Newsletter and Group features through their platform. Both are underutilized and with much less competition and noise than other platforms. So I will say to you also, if engagement is on your to-do list (which it should be) spend some time figuring out where your audience spends their time, that way you can make the most of your time online as well as your engagement.
You can watch Tracy Hazzard’s full on-air podcast coaching with Andy McDowell below or listen to The Binge Factor on your favorite podcast player.