start a podcast about what you got wrong
hiring · production
Most agencies sell you a format. The right one starts with your story.
If you've never hired a podcast producer before, you don't really know what you're looking for. Price is easy to compare. A list of deliverables is easy to compare. Neither one tells you whether the person you're about to pay actually understands your business, or whether they're going to hand you back a show that sounds like every other business podcast released this year.
That gap is where most agencies live. They're set up to sell you a format, not to understand you.
the format problem
Ask most podcast agencies how they'd approach your show and you'll get an answer built around structure. A thirty minute interview format. A consistent intro. A guest booked every fortnight. It's efficient to sell and easy to deliver, and it's also why so many business podcasts sound identical.
The format isn't the problem on its own. The problem is when it comes first. A show built from a template before anyone has asked what's actually interesting about your business will always sound like a template, because that's what it is.
We've seen this most clearly in the spaces that are already full. Founder exit stories are one of them. It's a packed genre, and there's very little appetite left in it for a new entrant, no matter how good the story is. An agency chasing a format will still sell you that show, because the format is what they know how to make. An agency paying attention to the space will tell you it's not worth starting, even though that's the harder conversation and the smaller invoice.
what we actually try to understand first
Before we talk about episode length or release schedule, we're trying to understand you. What you're actually proud of. What's boring to you but would be genuinely interesting to someone outside your industry. What you'd say to us in a first call but would never put on your website. That's where the real material for a podcast lives, and it's almost never sitting in a list of services.
The format comes after that, not before it. Sometimes that's a straightforward interview show. Sometimes it's built around a single story, told over several episodes, because that's what the business actually has to offer. We don't decide the shape of the show until we know what's actually true about you.
how we know what's actually working
None of this is guesswork. We track the podcast and YouTube space closely, with real research and outlier tools, not a hunch about what feels current. That's how we can tell a client honestly that a genre is saturated, or that an angle has real appetite behind it right now, before they spend three months and a production budget finding that out for themselves.
That's the same instinct that runs through everything we make. Confidence isn't the point. Being right is.
what to ask before you hire a podcast producer
If you're talking to agencies right now, here are the questions worth asking out loud. The answers will tell you more than any pitch deck.
"What do you want to know about my business before we talk about episodes?"
Good answer: They ask about your customers, what you're proud of, what feels unremarkable to you day to day. They're looking for the story.
Red flag: They go straight to format, episode length or a deliverables list without asking you anything first.
"How do you decide the format for a show like mine?"
Good answer: It depends what's true about your business. Could be an interview show, could be built around a single story.
Red flag: "This is the format we use for every client." A fixed structure, sold to you as a solution.
"How do you know an idea is actually worth doing right now?"
Good answer: They can point to real research, to what's saturated and what has room right now, not just a feeling.
Red flag: A vague answer, or "we just think it's a good idea" with nothing behind it.
"What makes a business podcast actually work?"
Good answer: Something about the audience. A reason to keep listening. A story that outlasts the format it's told in.
Red flag: Something about gear, schedule or guest booking. Still describing logistics, not people.
Basic answers land on technical. Good answers land on psychology. That tell works whether you're hiring a producer or judging anyone else's competence, and it's worth listening for in every conversation you have while you're deciding.
where keystone fits in
We built Keystone around this exact process. Not a fixed production format we sell to everyone, but real time spent understanding your business and the story sitting inside it, backed by research into what's actually working in the space right now, not what worked two years ago.
Book a call and bring the version of your business you think is boring. That's usually where the actual show is hiding.
book a call