2024W6: New podcast or nah?
My short answer is… it depends.
I don’t think a podcast is a quick way to fame and riches. It’s a notoriously “slow burn” for most hoping to monetize their podcasts.
But if you want to add a content-rich social media element to your business or personal brand — especially if you are a podcast listener yourself — I don’t see any reason not to try.
I am working on my third podcast at the moment. The first two were definitely “hobby” podcasts, so the new one is the only one to cover territory that I’m immersed in professionally, day in and day out: workshop facilitation (aka training, instructing, presenting, speaking, adult learning).
Look at the new artwork for my Instructor Notes podcast 👀 Won’t hurt my feelings if you follow / subscribe…
Despite the fact that my first two podcasts were mainly done out of about my need for personal expression and my desire to learn how to produce a podcast — and never about subscriber numbers and monetization — I am asked for a fair amount of advice about podcasting. So here’s some of the advice I share:
Know why you want to podcast.
If you want to get rich and famous, skip the podcast and hire an agent and a publicist. But podcasting is probably better for expanding your reach and influence, establishing credibility, exploring new ideas and approaches, finding like-minded or similarly-interested individuals, and expressing yourself. Not to mention that if you love your work and you want to podcast about work stuff, your passion will show, and people connect to passion.
For my Instructor Notes podcast, my main goal is to build a community of facilitators. I love working with facilitators, but my work often means leading a workshop and then flying home. Staying in community with those folks takes effort, and the podcast is one way to reach a lot of people I meet that I might not otherwise see in between workshops. Also, no one loses when surrounding themselves with enthusiastic, positive, growth-oriented individuals as facilitators usually are. Win-win-win.
Find out what other podcasts cover the topic you want to cover.
Listen to them. Understand the gaps: Do current podcasts miss specific perspectives, so you immediately know an angle to present that is new and fresh? Do current podcasters all go for an interview format, whereas you have a strong and distinct point of view and can podcast solo, as The Expert? Do all the current podcasts on your topic run over an hour in length per episode, so you can add an entry that comes in bite-size pieces instead of entire meals each time?
There is still probably plenty of room for you to fill a niche in the podcasting world, so a little competitive research can go a long way.
In the facilitator podcasting space, there are many resources geared toward public speakers, generally those who aim to keynote at conferences. Instructor Notes podcast will center workshop facilitation first and foremost, and other types of public speaking only tangentially.
Consider what kind of investment you want to make in your podcast.
If you self-produce your entire podcast, you will invest a lot of time. You’ll probably end up doing things you don’t like to do, or aren’t skilled / confident at doing (for me, that would be typing up show notes haha). But there are also reputable services out there that can do some or all of the pre-production, production, and post-production for you. This will require less time of you, but more money.
My first two podcasts were entirely self-produced, though the first was co-produced with a partner. That was nice because we agreed on division of labor and each of us took on tasks we were naturally more comfortable with. My second podcast was a solo effort and I did it all. I was glad to learn all the pieces, and grateful for the experience of setting up a system that ran smoothly over the course of the season. Also, I was glad when it was over because it was a lot of work!
There are so many free resources out there if you feel like you’re ready to take the next step. The resources that help me are easily 3-5 years old now, and I’m sure there are more recent and relevant sources out there. One company that produces a lot of free content for aspiring podcasters is Buzzsprout, who we chose to host my first podcast. They are still big in the podcasting space and just updated their “How to Start a Podcast” guide on 1/1/24. So go check it out! And let me know if you decide to start a podcast so I can give it a follow!