Today we talk about why you should start a podcast. This whole season, I’ve been talking about podcasting and all the different ways to get your podcast going. Today I’m going to answer the question of why you should actually even be considering starting one if you haven’t already.
For my podcaster friends, you might need this too if you’re wondering why you should keep going with a podcast and if you’re not seeing the success you’re looking for.
WHY START A PODCAST?
Podcasting is not easy. I think when people think about podcasting, they get excited about this idea of having a show, using their voice, having something fun to do that puts them out there and maybe gets attention for things that they like to talk about.
Maybe they’re chasing their passion. Maybe they’re trying to be an expert. All these are exciting motivations. It does sound fun to a podcast, but you have to understand the real benefits of podcasting if you want to commit to this long-term.
Why is that? Once you get past the fun stuff, you’re probably going to hit some challenges. It takes a lot of effort to create a show, especially to consistently create something every week, to put in that work.
Also, to get it out there, edited, distributed, and promoted to people is a lot of work. It is worth it, but maybe you haven’t figured out what your goals are for your show.
PODCASTING CAN ACCELERATE SUCCESS
That’s what I want to talk to you about today: the best reasons to start a podcast and some of the challenges to expect. My hope is that some of you that never even considered it might actually consider it now because you’re looking at it with a different lens.
What if I told you that all you needed to have a great website was to have a podcast? What if all you needed to have a speaking career was to have a podcast, or all you need to build an amazing network that you can build a business from is to have a podcast?
All that is true. That’s what we’re going to dive into today.
START A PODCAST TO BUILD A REPUTATION
Let’s start with number one. Whether you are thinking about starting a business, are in a corporate setting, or just out of college, anyone out there would be benefited by finding their voice, honing their perspective, and starting to invest in their personal brand.
What do I mean by that? You have a reputation that you start to develop for what you do in terms of your career, your profession, or entrepreneurship.
A lot of people who enter the workforce are trained to do something and they build a resume. They build a history of work and they’ve learned some skills. However, that resume will only go so far. Your reputation is separate from your resume. A reputation lets people know what your perspective is and why you are good at something beyond the execution part of it.
YOUR RESUME SPEAKS ONLY TO YOUR ABILITIES
For me, I had marketing expertise. I spent eighteen years building a resume in marketing. That resume was applicable in terms of me getting jobs, but it wasn’t applicable beyond that. It wasn’t something where people would know me before they met me. It wasn’t something where people would seek me out to ask for help with anything.
If you hope to eventually grow and progress and maybe even build something of your own, you have to start thinking about your reputation. For me, a podcast helped me do that. It helped me find my voice.
Even if you plan to stay in corporate forever, work for someone else forever, or don’t want to work at all, I still think finding your voice is essential.
START A PODCAST TO DEVELOP AS A HUMAN
At the end of the day, we all have thoughts, experiences, history, expertise, and skills that we’ve accumulated over time. By using our voice, talking about the things that we have learned, what we’re feeling, and expressing the ideas that we have with communication, we develop as humans.
That development fulfills us. That opportunity to use your voice and share your perspective helps you feel like a fulfilled individual, especially when that voice and that perspective help somebody else.
If you’re able to give advice, mentor, coach, and give back what you’ve learned to someone else, that is a fulfilling experience, if nothing else. However, it is also potentially a business for those of you that are looking for that.
PODCASTING HELPS REFINE YOUR MESSAGE
Finding your voice is the very first benefit of starting a podcast. It also helps with honing a perspective. We all have ideas and opinions. Sometimes we could talk and talk, but it’s not refined.
If you consistently have to speak on a topic you are interested in, then you get better at starting to develop patterns, theses, and ways to think about things in easy-to-explain frameworks. Those ideas are crisper and easier to explain to other people. That turns you into a better teacher and helps you help other people.
For those of you that aren’t even sure what you would talk about, what I would suggest is to go back to Episode 150, my episode about 10 Podcasting Ideas for Beginners, and just look at ways that you could create a show that would be about something that you’re interested in. All the ideas are there, different ways to creatively think about what a show could be about for you.
Finding your voice is the first benefit. Once you’ve found your voice, being able to use it and implement it, whether you want to speak at an event, speak to your friends, express yourself in a debate, or present yourself in a corporate board meeting, all of that is an opportunity for you to develop.
IF YOU WANT COMMUNITY, START A PODCAST
Number two is to build a community. At the end of the day, if you want to have a message that impacts people, you have to gather those people around something that you believe in, that you want to make a change for.
My friend, Mike Kim, has a great saying: if you think about different questions, what pisses you off? What keeps you up at night and then what change do you want to see in the world?
PODCASTING GATHERS PEOPLE AROUND YOU
Those questions help you tap into what might be your purpose, the things that actually matter to you. Tap into that and start to create content around it via a podcast or a format like that. There are going to be other people in the world that also have those same thoughts and those same feelings, or at least would be benefited from you sharing your perspective on those things.
Building a community around your message is important. The best way to do that is by creating content. People that align with that content will start to listen and want to be in your world. Creating content to form your message, your voice, and build a community are great reasons to start a podcast.
Gather people together with similar like-minds and feelings and passions. Then once you’ve gathered those people, you get an opportunity to help them.
START A PODCAST TO MAKE AN IMPACT
That’s number three: you get to make an impact. You get to ask your community, those people that have gathered around you, what they need help with. You get to hear what they’re struggling with and have a dialogue where different ideas come up. Together you guys can come up with ways to either help each other or for you to help other people.
All these are very lofty goals, but I know a lot of us out there are looking for ways to implement and impact the world in a different way. Some of us are built to serve the people around us. Some of us are built to serve the world.
When you have a tool like this, when you have figured out your voice and how you like to help people, found your skillset, the toolkit you bring to the table, all of that becomes a lot easier.
PRACTICAL REASONS TO START A PODCAST
Beyond all that, let me talk about some of the reasons that are more pragmatic and practical.
Maybe you are already a business owner or you’re someone who’s looking to start using their voice and create content. You already know you want to build a blog or you want to send emails out to an email list. Maybe you’re a small business owner, a coach a consultant, or a speaker.
For all of that, a podcast could be the easiest way for you to create a massive amount of content. It is an engine for content creation. That engine can be used for you to establish your brand footprint.
RELATED: Build your personal brand with the Content Marketing Starter Guide.
A PODCAST IS A CONTENT CREATION ENGINE
In other words, whatever your business is, you can use a simple podcast to create content that fills your website pages. That helps you be found on search engines and helps you put ideas and graphics and messages onto social media. It helps you send emails to your list.
All of that can be filled with content from the podcast. All it takes to create a podcast is thirty to sixty minutes of time per week. You can do that in a batch and record for a whole month, just your four hours in one day, and get that done for the month.
It’s the easiest, fastest way to create content that can create opportunities to be repurposed and fill all these other buckets of content. It won’t be you trying to figure out every day what to put on your social media or what random newsletter you’ll email your list.
It will be very organic because it all comes from source material that was very concise and in the right format to be repurposed to other people.
A podcast is an amazing content engine for you to fill other channels with. For some people, you could simply do a quick interview. Maybe an expert in your field can help fill your website with expert information. There are lots of ways to use that.
START A PODCAST TO BUILD YOUR NETWORK
One of the things that I never even thought of was, if you’re an entrepreneur or a solopreneur, your business is going to be driven by your ability to network and create relationships. A podcast is a networking catalyst. The reason is that a podcast allows you to have a place to talk to people that you don’t know in a form that feels safe.
When you reach out to someone and you say you have a podcast, you can ask them to come on your show to tell them about your business. That opens the door to a relationship, as opposed to you reaching out to someone and pitching them your service.
You can reach out to someone, ask them to tell their story about their business, and then let them know what you do without pitching it.
As a matter of knowledge, people will ask you who you are and what you’re up to, or they’ll just look you up on your social media to find out what you’re all about. You don’t even have to pitch. They just understand what you do and you become known as the guy who does that.
It’s a great way to reach out to anyone in your community that may be a potential customer for you. It’s also a great networking tool to reach out and get to know your heroes, the people you look up to. You can start a show that interviews the people that you really look up to in your industry.
YOUR PODCAST BRINGS YOU RECOGNITION
Guess what? By having them on your show, you start to build clout in your own right as being associated with those people. Along the way, you get to learn all this amazing information from these experts in the field. If you can bring industry experts and influencers to your show, you get this amazing network of people that challenge you to know more about your industry.
It also gets to introduce you to more and more people in your field. Because you have to consistently produce a podcast, you are now consistently forced to network, which a lot of us avoid.
You don’t just network with anybody that’s in your vicinity; you network with the higher caliber people that will make your show better. A networking catalyst is another great reason to start a podcast.
IF YOU WANT TO BE A PUBLIC SPEAKER, YOU SHOULD PODCAST
There is one more on the list here: public speaking practice. A lot of you are looking to be public speakers because that’s going to open the door for your business and other opportunities. Having to create a show every week and talking about the things you talk about helps you form frameworks in your mind.
It helps you to get used to talking about different ideas and gets rid of some of those bad habits you might have with all the “Ums”, “Uhs”, and “Likes” that you might say in your sentences. Now you’re speaking every week, getting used to using your voice, and speaking in a way that conveys an idea.
Not only will the form and format of your speaking get better, but the actual use of your voice and your public speaking will get better over time because you’re doing it all the time and getting practice. Public speaking is not easy. Most people try to get on stage without having any practice at all, or they stand up in a room by themselves and try to talk to a mirror.
That’s not a great practice, or at least it’s too little too late. In a podcast, you have a safe form. You don’t feel judged to practice over and over and over again. You get to listen to it back and refine and get better.
YOUR PODCAST NETWORK WILL OPEN DOORS
Public speaking will also open doors for you in terms of your business over time. It’s great practice for that. Also, because you have a show, you might get to meet people in your network that are already public speaking and interview those people.
They might introduce you to the people they know who run the shows, who run the conferences and the events; they can introduce you to them and refer you to them as the next speaker that should be on their list.
You can also go on their shows. Most of these people that you’re interviewing might already have a show of their own. You might be able to go on their show now that you’ve developed a relationship. That’s more PR that helps build your reputation that might open doors for you to have public speaking opportunities.
A lot of those public speaking opportunities I’ve had to start with all came to me because I already had a show. They can see what I talk about. They already know what I’m about and see that I know how to convey my ideas.
I built this network of people that might be referring me to the people as the next person that they should consider to speak. It’s a great door opener for that overall.
CHALLENGES TO CONSIDER WHEN YOU START A PODCAST
Lastly, I want to talk to you about a few challenges that come up along the way. At the end of the day, there’s a lot of work that goes into creating a podcast. I alluded to that at the top of the show.
I think the first one is the motivation to continue on and on. It can be a lot of work to come up with ideas every week. However, if you understand the impact of all the reasons we just talked about to start a show, those challenges go away, because now you have motivation. You know what the benefits are.
When a lot of people start shows, they don’t tap into all these opportunities or they don’t have those goals in mind. They don’t have a good reason to keep them going when things get a little challenging.
HOW TO COME UP WITH CONTENT IDEAS
One of the challenging things is to come up with ideas every week, to have something that helps you generate ideas week after week, that fills a show. That is actually something we all are struggling with, but if you can design these things upfront, (I have some ideas for that) it’s a lot easier.
I design an entire season of shows, twenty-six episodes, all at one time. I sit down, write down my ideas, and come up with what the whole season’s going to be about. When I get to the recording stage, it’s easy. I already know what my topics are going to be for the next twenty-six episodes.
If you guys are interested in any of that, or you’re having challenges yourself with podcasting, I coach people on both how to start podcasts, how to grow them, how to create more content each week and how to repurpose it to other channels.
I can work with you in one sitting or on a weekly basis, depending on what you’re looking for. If you’re interested in that, please reach out to me at Brandsonbrands.com/coach. Let’s set up a time to chat. I’m happy to work with people and help them out. You can email me anytime: Brandon@brandsonbrands.com.
HOW TO OVERCOME EDITING CHALLENGES
One of the challenges is being motivated to keep going because of the content creation part of it. Another is because of the editing part of it. For me from the beginning, I pretty much outsource my editing every week to someone who is better at it than I am.
If you find someone who’s a freelancer, (maybe they’re overseas, maybe they’re not,) it could be as little as $20- $25 an episode, up to $40 or so, depending on what you’re looking for. Even that cost could be a challenge for someone. Or, if they’re going to do it themselves, it might take them a couple of hours to edit an episode.
Those are challenges. If you have the motivation and you know what the benefit is, then you understand that’s the challenge you’re willing to take on, or that you’re willing to pay for.
If you’re not, then there are ways to build your podcast to limit the amount of editing so that all you’re doing is turning it on, running the intro, recording, and being done with it, and throwing on your outro. You can reduce the amount of work that goes into it, and that might keep you motivated.
Again, I think it’s all about having the right mindset and motivation to begin with to get past those challenges. However, it is true that editing is not easy. Recording new content every week is not easy.
UNDERSTAND GROWTH WHEN YOU START A PODCAST
Another challenge is growth. People will start their podcast, do seven or eight episodes, and then they’ll quit because they aren’t seeing an audience that is worthwhile. In other words, they might have thirty to forty listeners.
The average podcast has about one hundred and seventy to one hundred and eighty listeners to each episode. That’s for people that are doing it well. That’s the average, but it’s people who’ve committed to doing it for a long period of time.
One hundred and eighty people is not a lot of people. It can be a valuable amount of people if you have the right people listening and they’re potential customers, that’s great. However, for some people that doesn’t seem worth it when you can be getting thousands of listens and watches on other social media types.
Again, if you know the reasons you’re creating a podcast and how easy it is to create a podcast, these challenges seem to wash away. By the way, if you create the podcast, now it’s easier for you to do these other channels that do have more eyeballs.
Understanding going into it that a podcast is not a great discovery tool is helpful. You’re using your podcast as a content engine, not as something that gets you an audience. That means that you’re going to design the show to then be repurposed to those other channels.
START A PODCAST FOR QUICKER CONTENT CREATION
Why create a podcast to begin with? Because it is faster than creating a video show. It’s faster than writing blogs. It’s faster than just posting on social media and having to come up with something every week.
It is the most normal natural way to communicate, to speak your mind, or to have a conversation with someone via an interview. In my mind, it is the easiest, fastest way for the average person to get started creating content. Then you can upgrade to other things so that the content engine piece matters.
If you don’t see an audience and you’re only doing podcasting, that could be a challenge. If you understand that this is a networking catalyst that helps you find your voice, make an impact, opens doors for public speaking, and is an engine for you to put that content onto these other channels that will get you found, suddenly that challenge washes away.
START YOUR PODCAST AND IT WILL DEVELOP
Beyond that, I think a lot of people are afraid that they don’t know what the show should be about. They are afraid that they can’t think of the perfect idea for a show. This is the last challenge I’ll leave out there for you guys.
You can figure out the vicinity of your show. Think about the category that you generally want to talk about: do you want it to be a marketing podcast, a business podcast, or about finance, parenting, health, or wellness?
If you can pick the general vicinity, look at Apple iTunes podcasts and at their categories. Pick one to be in. As long as you know a general category, you’re fine in terms of getting started. Create content that stays within the bucket of that category and just come up with topics that make sense.
JUST BEGIN AND FIND YOUR VOICE
Start using your voice. Start recording things. You don’t even have to distribute them or release your podcast; you can just record episodes. In the process of recording episodes and using your voice, you will find your voice.
It’s not by you planning the perfect show that you’re going to have this great show. It’s by you starting using your voice and then you honing that. Over time you figure out, “This is what I really like to talk about.” Getting into the habit of creating content is going to help you hone and find your voice.
That is going to help you find the perfect niche for your show over time, but you have to start. You can’t just suddenly, in your mind, come up with a perfect show. You have to start creating content every week and then refine what that show’s about over time. That’s my advice for you to get started.
CONNECT WITH BRANDON
Free Resource: BrandsonBrands.com/resources
10 Podcasting Ideas for Beginners
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