Since it is applicable to one's fan base, what would be your first tip for if someone's trying to build a community from their podcast listeners, where should they start? You know, the biggest thing I say for everybody is know your why. And I do talk about this in the book. I have two different whys. The first one is what is the purpose of your podcast? Why are you doing it? Is it convey information? Is it to talk about your passion?
Do you just love romance books and so you want to talk about romance books all the time and share your love with that? Or is it a business podcast where you're helping people grow and develop? So what is your why? And I always use the example of Florida Swim Network. We thought we were in the live streaming business. We thought that we were live streaming swim meets. Really we were. But what we were actually doing was connecting families.
We were allowing the mom in Afghanistan that was serving overseas to get up in the middle of the night and watch her son swim live here in Florida. And not only that, she was in the chat room talking with me as I was commentating the swim meet to be able to give that shout out to her kids. Hey, Will and Lane 4, your mom's watching from Afghanistan. She said to go fast.
And then when Will gets home after the meet and he's watching himself on the replay, he hears that and he knows mom was there and we're connecting those families. So that was our why. So the first thing I always tell anybody is understand your why. Why are you doing this? Because that's going to be the basis of everything you do to promote your community, your listenership. So once you know your why, why you're doing it, then you have to decide, well, why are people going to listen to me?
And so there are three reasons really why anybody joins a community. And the first one is needs. All right. So think basic needs. Are you providing a service that they absolutely need? For example, I use Tom's shoes as an example. He provides shoes for your feet. Everybody needs shoes. And it is the basic need that we have. Unless you're me who goes barefoot in Florida all the time, but you know, it's a need. Or are you providing a want? So a want would be like Peloton. You may want a Peloton.
Doesn't mean you can afford one though. You can very easily just work out or ride a bike outdoors. So a want is more of an ego stroke or a luxury need. So you have your needs or your wants, or are you providing the third reason people might join a community is that continuing development? Are you helping them grow? Are you providing health and wellness information? Are you providing business tips for them? Are you helping them grow?
So if you can meet through your podcast, one of those needs, a need, a want, or a growth. And ideally you do all three. It's possible to do more than one. Then you have the recipe for a winning podcast that people are going to want to listen to. And they're going to want to join your community because they're getting something out of it. So it sounds like you just gave us the secret sauce to actually building a community with a podcast. Part of it, part of it.
You have to though, then have to, once you understand all that, then you have to execute with the messaging that you do and you have to make sure your timing is right. And there's all sorts of factors that go into it, but if you can start with those first your why, and then those three basic reasons why somebody joins a podcast or listens to a podcast, you're definitely on the right road. You're definitely on the right road.