Why Your Podcast Feels Valuable to You, But Not to Listeners

If your podcast feels valuable to you but listeners are dropping off halfway through your episodes, the issue might not be your content but the way you’re communicating it. 

Most experts think valuable podcast content means sharing more of what they know. But your listeners won't care how much you know until they understand what your knowledge can do for them. I'll walk you through the 3-part formula for turning your expertise into content listeners care about so more of the right people hit play, stay engaged, and come back for more.

Hit play and let’s dive in.

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2:33 – Why Your Podcast Feels Clear to You, But Confusing to Everyone Else

6:18 – Why Listeners Won't Care What You Know (Until You Do This)

10:37 – The One Content Mistake That Makes Great Shows Forgettable

15:21 – The 3-Part Formula That Makes Listeners Think, "This Podcast Gets Me"

17:00 – How Specificity Makes Your Expertise Impossible to Ignore

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Episode Links:

Next Thing You Know by Jordan Davis

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Other Episodes You’ll Love: 

3 Ways to Hook Your Listener Before They Ever Hit Play

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Special thanks to Resonate Recordings, our implementation partner for PodLaunch® Accelerator. If your podcasting efforts aren't bringing you the listeners or sales you expected, book a strategy call for help to fix it.

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©Ⓟ 2018–2026 by Courtney Elmer. All Rights Reserved.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

So you've heard it before. Give your most valuable stuff away for free in every single episode. Make sure your content is good. But what actually defines good content? How do we actually determine if something is valuable? Because what you think is valuable and what your listeners perceive is valuable is actually two totally different things. So if you are a podcast host or if you are an aspiring podcast host, the quicker you can develop the skill of communicating your expert knowledge in a way that your listeners will find valuable. The higher your listener retention is going to be, the more connected listeners will feel to your show, and the more growth potential your podcast will have. And in this episode, I'm going to show you how to do it. Welcome to Insider's Secrets to a Top 100 podcast. I'm your host, Courtney Elmer. Let's make your podcast binge-worthy. So deep down, you and I both know that the reason you would listen to a podcast is because you would get something from it. Why else would you spend your valuable time listening to something unless there was some sort of tangible benefit or return for you? Maybe it's more knowledge. Maybe it's help to solve a specific problem that you're experiencing. Maybe it's just a sense of connection. Or on the flip side of that, maybe it's entertainment. It could be a laugh. It could be a distraction. Maybe it's a form of relaxation, no different than why we'd pick up the remote at night and turn on Netflix or watch something on Apple TV. But as a podcast host, how do you make sure you're actually giving your listeners something they will find valuable? That's a different question. And it is an art, it is a skill, and there's a science to it. And I'm going to show you a very simple yet powerful way that you can make absolutely sure that your listeners are getting value from whatever the expert content is that you teach on your show so that they listen till the end of your episodes and so that they come back every week for more. In fact, we just got a review this week that came in from a listener over in the UK. Shout out to you, Tall CMP172. They say, I'm currently in the developed phase for potential podcast. And in the course of researching mics and sound treatment, I found Courtney's show. Turns out the tech is the straightforward stuff, and I have been binging the show ever since. And they go on to say I'm probably averaging two to three episodes a day. They're the perfect length for me 20 to 25 minutes, soaking up everything I can learn as I embark on this journey. This is one binge-worthy show. So, first of all, thank you. I read every single review that comes through, and truly it makes my day when I see that you are getting value out of what you listen to here. Because that's why we're here in the first place. That's why I'm here. That's why you're

Why Your Podcast Feels Clear to You, But Confusing to Everyone Else

SPEAKER_00 2:33

here. And I want to help you do the same for your podcast, not just so that you can get amazing, glowing reviews, but also so that your listeners are hooked, so that they see you as the expert and that they actually are getting the value out of the effort and the energy and the time that you are putting into creating your content. So if you want listeners to get value from your podcast, what we're gonna cover next is so key to understand. The cool part is if you were to go back and study this episode by paying attention not just to what I'm saying, but to how I'm presenting it to you, you're actually gonna be able to see the principle that I'm about to teach you in action. But first, let's talk about what not to do. That causes listeners to overlook your podcast in favor of another show who maybe doesn't even have as good of audio quality as you, or who maybe doesn't even have as much of the expert knowledge that you have. But for some reason, they're overlooking you in favor of those shows. Because here's what I know to be true about you. First of all, you're someone who is extremely knowledgeable about what you do. And my guess is you're someone who cares, that others understand that you're extremely knowledgeable about what you do. And you want to be able to communicate that knowledge through your podcast and in turn have your knowledge acknowledged in the form of revenue, whether it's through clients paying you directly for your help or through sponsors who want to get in front of the big audience you've built who hangs on your every word. So if you're thinking in your mind yes or nodding yes to any of those things, then what I say next is gonna be especially relevant for you. Your audience doesn't care how much you know. I know, probably not what you were expecting to hear. And maybe it stings a little. But at the end of the day, why do you listen to podcasts? It's not a trick question. Assuming your podcast is a podcast that is not a true crime podcast, and you have a very specific topic that you cover on your podcast as it relates to your expertise, then one of the things your listeners are looking for is to gain knowledge on that given topic. But at the end of the day, they don't actually care about your knowledge. What they care about is what your knowledge can do for them. And as a podcast host, it is your responsibility to connect those dots for your listeners. I see it all the time. One of the biggest mistakes that I see podcasters making, I mean, I made this mistake in the early days of my podcast. I don't think anyone is excluded from this, is the tendency to share from your expert level of awareness, not the level of awareness of your listener. And those are two different things. Part of the problem for me in the early days of my show was I wasn't crystal clear on who specifically was listening on the other end of those headphones. And I was trying to appeal to a variety of people because I wasn't clear on who I actually wanted to attract to the show. I was just happy for anyone who would listen at that point in time. Turns out that's not the best way to build a podcast. And it's certainly not the right way to grow an audience full of right listeners. And it's very important to have an audience full of the right listeners, because if you don't, it's going to be difficult to convert those listeners and or to monetize your audience down the road. So what happened is because I didn't have this clarity, all my content sounded very watered down and very generic. Honestly, if you go back and listen to old episodes, maybe don't do that because I will be very embarrassed. But if you were to go back and listen to old episodes, you would probably, first of all, you would hear a different version of Courtney because she was so polished and she was trying to be so perfect and so professional and like every word was literally read off of a script. And my content was not original. A lot of it was regurgitated by other things that other people said that I thought sounded smart that I tried to like pass off as my own. And it was all this stuff that I was doing to help, you know, quote unquote, elevate my authority. But at the end of the day, I probably was undermining it. All right. So I don't want that for you. Now, it's also true that I did have a lot of knowledge to share. But the way in which I was sharing it wasn't connecting with my listeners.

Why Listeners Won't Care What You Know (Until You Do This)

SPEAKER_00 6:18

The other problem was, the bigger problem, was that I was teaching from my own expert level of awareness, which my listener could care less about. What do you mean, Courtney, by expert level of awareness? I promise you, I'm gonna make this very concrete. But when you do this, when you teach from your level of awareness, it actually causes listeners to stop listening and even deeper to not trust you. Why? Because they don't feel like you understand them. They don't feel like you truly get it. So, as an example, look at this podcast. If you and I were standing in line at a coffee shop and we were standing next to each other and we happened to strike up a conversation, and maybe you mentioned to me, like, oh, I'm about to start a podcast, or that you had a podcast, you were working to grow, and I was like, oh, you should listen to my show. It's all about understanding listener psychology and using it for your podcast. And you'd probably politely nod and give me a really genuine fake smile, and you'd say, nice. And unless you were just an extreme people pleaser, you probably wouldn't go listen. So if I had named this podcast, Insider Secrets to Podcast Listener Psychology, you'd probably pass it up in favor of another podcast about podcasting. Because while I know that most of the problems that podcasters experience stem from a lack of understanding of listener psychology and not having a podcast strategy dialed in that's aligned to your listener psychology, you are walking around right now going, I need help growing my podcast because I'm putting in hours every week and I literally cannot get past 22 downloads an episode. Or I want to launch a podcast, but I have no idea where to start. I've Googled, I've YouTube, there's so much conflicting advice, and I want to do this right because I don't want to waste my time and I want people to actually listen. So, as the expert, in order to get people to care about what you know, you first have to show them that you care and understand what they are experiencing right now. And like I said at the top of the episode, those two things are related, but they're very different. So if I was sitting down to audit your podcast, which if you want me to do by the way, I'm happy to do it. Go to the show notes, click the link, you can book a podcast audit with me. And if I were auditing your podcast and I said, okay, here's how you need to look at the content that you present on the show. What is the specific problem that you solve? Now, for the sake of an easy example, let's say you're a mechanic who specializes in fixing timing belts. Random example, but we're gonna go with it. And I say, okay, cool. So it sounds like you know a lot about timing belts. And I'm your ideal listener, let's assume. But I don't know that I have a timing belt problem. How would you help me understand that I need your podcast? And so going down this hypothetical scenario, you might sit there and you might think for a second and be like, well, you're gonna hear a really loud squealy sound coming from under your hood when you drive over 32 miles an hour. Or you might say, Well, this little orange check engine light's gonna come on on your dashboard and you're gonna know there's a problem. So you would bring the car in for me to look at and I'll diagnose what's going on. And if you were to say any of those things to me, I would leap out of my chair and I would jump up and down for joy because you would have just done the one thing that you as the expert need to do, which is not speak to the problem you know your listener has, i.e., a timing belt is loose, but speak to the problem that they know they have, i.e., there's a squealy sound coming from under my hood when I go over 32 miles an hour. I know, as the expert, that you haven't learned how to tap into your listener psychology to create binge-worthy podcast content that people can't stop listening to. But you know that your existing podcast of two years is stuck under 50 downloads an episode, no matter what you do when you're thinking of giving up. I know that the cause of your burnout patterns is because as a child your parents held you to impossibly high standards. And now you hold yourself to a bar so high you push yourself to exhaustion in this endless, relentless pursuit of good enough. But you, as a listener, know that no matter how many hours you put in at your desk, you still never check everything off in your list in a day. As the expert, I might know that the pain you feel in your neck is actually referred pain from your jaw because you have TMJ. But what you know is that you've got a crick in your neck that will not go away and it is driving you absolutely nuts and it's interfering with your quality of life and ability to function. So, as a podcast host and as an expert, the sooner you can begin to realize that there are always two sides to a problem: the problem your listener is experiencing versus the root of it, or the actual problem, which is your level of expert awareness.

The One Content Mistake That Makes Great Shows Forgettable

SPEAKER_00 10:37

And the more you can acknowledge your listeners' problems first throughout all of your messaging and all of your content, the more your listeners will pay attention, the more value they're gonna get from your content, and the more downloads, listens, and reviews and revenue overall that you'll get from your podcast. And that's the other piece of this. Always tying back whatever you're telling them they need to do to what they'll get or gain by doing it. So if I had just said right there that the more you acknowledge your listeners' problems, the more effective your communication would be, you'd be like, okay, cool, I guess. But as soon as I said the more downloads, listens, reviews, and revenue you'll get from your podcast, now it anchors why you should pay attention to this. Now your brain goes, Oh, okay, because something I know that you care about is downloads, listens, reviews, and revenue. So you gotta be thinking about this from both sides. I've got to do a little bit of mental gymnastics here as the expert, understanding first and foremost what is the problem your listener is experiencing. And when we work with clients, the very first exercise we do before we build a podcast strategy, before we design cover art, before we pick a name for a podcast, before we build a launch strategy or a relaunch strategy, we do an ideal listener psychographic. And this is an exercise where we challenge our clients to get very clear and specific on the problems that their podcast is here to solve. Now, what happens a lot of times is people who are not used to communicating in a very specific way will tend to add lots and lots of words to try to communicate what they are seeing and what they think their listeners are experiencing. But at the end of the day, your problems should be so specific that they are one sentence. You can communicate them in one sentence. And ideally, you would have three top problems that your podcast solves that all of your content then falls within. So I have an episode on how to make something specific. I'm gonna link it in the show notes for you. Because a lot of us are not used to communicating in this way. But when you learn to communicate in this way, it makes your communication so much more effective. This is what makes people lean in and actually want to learn more about what you do. And always framing it. Here's what you are gonna get out of this. Here is why this should matter to you. Not just sharing the expert knowledge and being like, here's what you need to do, but also here's why you need to do it, because here's why this matters to you. So I had a client the other day who was asking for some constructive feedback on her episodes. And I listened and I said, overall, these are really strong. I said, You have come a very long way in terms of what your content was before to what your content is now. I said, but if there's one thing that was missing, it's bringing home the points you're making with the why they should care. Back to our mechanic example. Your tech engine lights on. And guess what? It's totally normal. I see this all the time. And it's because of your timing belt. And once it's fixed, this light's gonna go off. You're gonna be able to drive your friends around at 70 miles an hour on the interstate without being embarrassed by that annoying squealy noise. Or right now, chances are your podcast is stuck under 50 downloads an episode because your messaging is off. And so what's happening is listeners are overlooking your show. And I guarantee you you're not alone because this is a mistake that 99% of podcast hosts make and don't know how to fix. But guess what? Once you learn how to fix it, you're gonna have a binge-worthy top show that listeners can't ignore. And you're gonna be able to grow your audience and finally be able to convert that growth into real revenue. Or right now, I know you've been skipping lunch. You've been working weekends, you've been putting in as many hours as you physically can to grow your business. You are questioning why it never seems to be enough. But guess what? A lot of people have been in your shoes. I've been in your shoes before too. And once you understand why this pattern keeps happening, and once you have the tools to fix it, you're gonna be able to set boundaries with your clients without guilt. You're gonna be able to take real time off away from your desk without your laptop. Imagine going on vacation without your laptop, without needing to bring in. And you'll see your revenue grow because you're running your business like the leader you're meant to be. Or, you know that annoying pain in your neck, the one that's driving you crazy? Well, I see it all the time. And guess what? It's actually referred pain from your jaw. Here's what happens, here's why it happens. And once we address the underlying jaw issue, your neck pain is gonna go away. And you're gonna sleep better, you're gonna feel better, you'll be able to turn your head from side to side, and you'll also know how to treat it if ever it started to occur again. So, do you notice what I did there? Not only did I meet the listener where they are at with the specific problem they are experiencing, and then bring in the expert level of awareness with the problem I know they have. But then I also tied it back to, and here's what'll happen when we solve this problem together. Here's what you're gonna get out of it, and here's why this should matter to you. You ready? Here's the formula. First, acknowledge their problem, the specific problem that you know they're experiencing, i.e., your car is making a loud squealing noise over 32 miles an hour.

The 3-Part Formula That Makes Listeners Think, "This Podcast Gets Me"

SPEAKER_00 15:21

And then you're gonna help them as the expert diagnose why that problem's happening. Here's the root problem that you had no idea was going on. But guess what? When we solve this, here's what's gonna become possible when that's fixed. And you're gonna speak to their unmet desires, the desires that they have not yet been able to achieve or attain, because they didn't know why the problem was happening in the first place. All they knew was that they were experiencing this problem and it was unpleasant and they didn't like it. So this is an episode that I hope you come back to again and again and again and study it. Study not just what I'm saying, but study how I'm presenting it to you. Because there are always two sides to a problem. There's your expert level of awareness, and there's your listener's level of awareness. And the more that you can speak to the problems and the exact experiences and the desires that your ideal listener has and tie that into whatever you're teaching, the more they're gonna pay attention, the more value they're gonna get, and the more ROI you're gonna get from your podcast. So from here, your next step, if you know what your expertise is in, you know, you're the mechanic, you're the burnout coach, you are the doctor who understands why the TMJ is happening. And you also know, therefore, the deeper root problems that people are experiencing that you can help them solve. Well, the good news is you're halfway there. So the work here for you is to actually sit down and write out the ways in which that deeper problem shows up for your ideal listener. And then you're gonna list out their unmet desires, the things they really want, but that they haven't been able to achieve. Because the clearer you can get on that, and the more you can begin to work that into your messaging and actually connect those dots for your listener, the more your listeners are gonna lean in and the more value they're gonna get out of the content that you share.

How Specificity Makes Your Expertise Impossible to Ignore

SPEAKER_00 17:00

So, what I'm sharing here in this episode is just the first of many steps to dialing in your podcast messaging for a podcast that can grab your listeners' attention, but it's one of the most powerful. And the more specific your problems are, the better you're gonna be able to communicate them and the more valuable your content's gonna be. And as a bonus for your homework, I also want you to go and look up the song Next Thing You Know by Jordan Davis. Now, fair warning, this is a country song. If you are not a country fan, that is okay, but tolerate it, suffer through it, okay, listen to this song. Because every time this song comes on, the level of specificity that is covered in the two minutes and 54 seconds of this song absolutely blows me away. It is the perfect example of how to be specific. And how to be specific is not lots and lots of words trying to explain, you know, exactly what you see that the problem is happening. It's pinpointing. It's dialing in exactly what you see is happening and saying it in very clear language where there's no room for interpretation. You're getting less than 50 downloads an episode. That's pretty specific. You have Googled and YouTube how to start a podcast, but the advice is so conflicting that you're left with 14 open tabs and no real answers. Pretty specific. So go listen to that song to get an understanding and an idea of how to make something specific. And of course, there's an episode below that I'm linking for you too, where I tell you exactly what you need to do in order to communicate those problems to your listeners in a way that their brain understands, that they go, oh my gosh, you get me. You get it. Finally, someone who is saying the thing that I needed to hear because no one else is saying it. So I hope this episode was helpful for you. I hope you come back and study it. And if it was valuable for you, I would love it if you would scroll down, tap the five stars on Apple or on Spotify, and bonus points when you write a written review on Apple, letting me know your biggest takeaway from this episode or from the show. And speaking of two-sided coins, knowing something and communicating it effectively are two completely different skills. And if there's one thing that today's content-driven world has made clear, it's that expertise alone isn't enough anymore. It's not enough to win someone's attention and it's not enough to win someone's trust. Your ability to communicate your expertise is what's ultimately gonna determine whether a listener is gonna perceive value in it. And that communication doesn't stop with your messaging, it doesn't stop with how you frame problems. It's something that's gonna show up every time you hit record, whether you're teaching solo, whether you're interviewing a guest, the way that you lead the conversation has a direct impact on the value that your listeners walk away with. And when it comes to interviews in particular, the difference between an average interview and one that listeners cannot stop listening to usually isn't the guest. It comes back to the host. And so in the next episode, I've got a special guest joining us who has studied hundreds of podcast interviews to uncover the seven hosting skills that separate forgettable interviews from ones that audiences can't wait to finish. So if you've ever wondered how to ask better questions, how to get more out of your guests, how to lead more engaging conversations so that listeners listen longer and share your show with their friends, that's all coming up next to help you make your podcast binge worthy.