Who Should Your Podcast Not Be For?
Decide who your podcast is not for, then say it out loud on the show. Narrowing on purpose is what makes the right buyers lean in, because a show that speaks to everyone gives nobody a reason to feel like it was made for them. Alan Lazaros, co-founder of Next Level University, turned about 30,000 followers into 39 one on one clients by design, and naming who the show excludes is a big part of how he did it.
Why do most founder podcasts try to be for everyone?
Because it feels like free growth. Every person you exclude looks like a listener you gave away, and downloads are the number most founders are watching.
So the description gets vague. The intro gets softer. The show ends up aimed at anyone who might possibly be interested, which means it lands on nobody in particular.
Alan Lazaros made this exact mistake for years on Next Level University before he corrected it. "If it's for everyone, it's for no one. And that's like the biggest mistake I see. And we made that mistake."
Here is the part founders miss. A broad show does not fail because it has no audience. It fails because the people listening never feel addressed. Nobody hears their own situation described, so nobody moves. You get listeners and no clients.
How do you decide who your podcast is not for?
Work backward from the person you want to buy from you, then write down the opposite.
- Name the one buyer. Not a demographic. A situation. "A founder who already has a podcast and cannot explain what it does for the business" is a buyer. "Entrepreneurs" is not.
- Write the inverse in one sentence. Who would get nothing from this show? Alan's inverse is people who want results without effort. Yours might be people who have not started yet, or people who already have the problem solved.
- Say it on air. Not once. Every episode, in the intro or the close. Alan says it in plain language: "If you don't have big goals, you absolutely should not listen under any circumstance."
- Put the same line in your written layer. Your show description, your website, your episode descriptions. The line only works if a stranger hits it before they press play.
- Point each episode at one next thing. Alan's episodes promote whatever is coming up next, a masterclass one week, a program the next. Narrowing only pays off if there is somewhere for the right person to go.
- Stop chasing the wrong listeners. When someone does not fit, let them leave. That is the mechanism working, not failing.
The line you write should be specific and honest, never insulting. You are describing a person who should skip the show, not putting anyone down.
Does narrowing the audience actually work?
Alan Lazaros has published an episode every single day since March 2017 on Next Level University, roughly 2,500 episodes, with a 25 person team behind it.
The number that matters here is the ratio. About 30,000 people follow him. He works with 39 of them one on one. That gap is not a failure to convert. It is the design.
"Of those 30,000 people, I only work with 39 one on one, but the price is way higher."
His first year produced 1,054 listens across 52 episodes. Total. He did not fix that by widening the show. He fixed it by getting more specific about who it was for and letting the wrong people go.
His framing on why the exclusion matters more than the inclusion: "Getting clear on who you don't want to serve is as important, if not more important than getting clear on who you do."
And the line he uses to do it: "I don't want to serve anyone who wants to work less. If you want big rewards for minimal effort, we are not ever going to resonate."
That is a real filter. It costs him listeners. It is also why the ones who stay are the ones who buy.
What to do this week
Write one sentence naming who your podcast is not for. Say it out loud in your next episode, and paste it into your show description on the same day. One sentence, two places, done. Then watch who stops listening, and let them.
Frequently asked questions
Should my podcast be niche or broad?
Niche, if the goal is business rather than reach. A broad show can collect listeners, but a narrow one collects buyers, because the right person hears their own situation described and recognizes that you understand it. Keep what you are good at front and center and let people gravitate to it.
Will I lose listeners if I narrow my podcast?
Yes, and that is the point. Alan Lazaros lost listeners on purpose when he stopped trying to reach everyone, and his one on one client list is 39 people out of about 30,000 followers. Losing the wrong listeners is what makes the right ones feel like the show was made for them.
How do I know if my podcast is too broad?
Try to say who it is for in one sentence without using a category word like entrepreneurs, business owners, or leaders. If you cannot describe a specific situation the person is in, the show is too broad. A second tell is that you cannot name anyone it is not for.
Where should I put my disqualifying line?
In three places. Spoken in the episode, in the show description, and in the written episode description on your site. A stranger deciding whether to press play usually reads before they listen, so a line that only exists in the audio reaches people who already chose you.
Listen to the episode
Alan Lazaros of Next Level University on The Founder Podcast Lab, on running a daily show for nine years and building a business model where the podcast feeds every layer. https://www.podpage.com/founder-podcast-lab/your-podcast-has-one-constraint-right-now-most-founders-never-look-for-it/