2 audiences? 2 podcasts. Don't water down your message.

Yesterday I met with the folks at the Missouri Bar Association. I'll be helping put together 2 podcast series for them, starting in a couple of weeks -- and I'll have more to share as the start date rolls around. But a couple of things from yesterday's meeting have some application for you and your organization:

1. They understand that even though this is legal stuff, they should make it informal and conversational. They really want to talk with people in this effort -- not just talk at them.
2. They understand that they want to communicate with two very different groups of people -- lawyers and members of the public. And they're going to create 2 podcasts, instead of one, to achieve that goal.

That second point may seem obvious, but it's not. Most people decide first that they want to do a podcast, then decide who they want to talk to, then decide what they want to tell those people. Even if those people are in completely different groups. They treat their podcast as a catch-all for all the messages they might want to get out to anyone, anywhere. By doing that, they simply guarantee that at least 50% of their podcast will be boring to everyone, every time.

Instead, you should go about this like the Missouri Bar. Identify who you want to talk with. Figure out what those people want to hear. And give it to them -- without a lot of other stuff thrown in. And this applies to your overall communications effort, too. Never water down your work here by trying to reach different groups of people with different messages at the same time. Your podcast, like every other piece of communication, is only valuable to people if you're engaging them in a conversation they want to have.

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