How do I know it’s time to start my own podcast

Aug 23

I love podcasting. I love listening to them, I love making them, I love helping my clients make them.

But I don’t think everyone should have a podcast.

If you’re thinking about starting a podcast, whether it’s to help grow your business or just for fun and giggles, there are definitely a few things to think about before you take the plunge.

In this episode I chat about how to know if it’s the right time for you to start a podcast and share some of my thoughts on how to know you’re ready.

It’s a lot of effort to run a podcast, so you need to be able to invest time and resources into doing it properly.

Instead of rushing in and doing it because everyone else is doing it, take your time to do your research and put the groundwork in. Make sure you’re doing it for the right reasons, be consistent and most importantly, have fun with it.

Resources mentioned:

Listen to “How much time does it take to run a podcast”

Transcript:

00:00
Welcome to Pump Up Your Pod.

Well, hello, and welcome back to Pump Up Your Pod with me Brianna from Bamby Media. So today I'm going to be chatting to you about when is it the right time to start a podcast? Because I certainly am not of the belief that you can just Yeah, you should just start a podcast, everyone should have a podcast. I don't feel like that is super good advice. And I'm going to tell you why.

Number one, podcasting is a lot of effort. It is a lot of effort. If you're doing short episodes, it's less effort. And if you go back through some of my previous episodes, I have one that's called something about, you know, how much time does it take to run a podcast, it's one of my first episodes, within that you can kind of get a gauge as to how much time it takes to actually put together a show every week. That's number one. So it does take a bit of time out of your schedule. So you have to have some areas carved in to allow for that podcast to do its job by actually getting recordings done and getting recordings out for you to have the consistency and the momentum that is necessary to actually keep people coming back for more.So that's number one. If you don't have a lot of time right now, then don't start a podcast.

If you're like, No, no, I want to I want to make the time, then make the time properly as in, use a schedule, map it out, you need to block some time and give yourself a couple of hours in the week to actually do it. Especially if you're doing your own editing and that sort of thing. You need to commit to it properly, if that's the case. So that's number one. If you don't have time right now, then don't try and squish it in because it's just not going to work. It's not worth doing unless you can be consistent and proactive with it.

Number two is what's the purpose of your podcast? Why do you want to have one, if you're having one, because everyone else has one. And they're like, oh, it's doing great things for me in my business. That's not a reason for you to start a podcast, you need to be aware of who you're trying to target, and who the podcast is for. If it's just for you to have a laugh and, you know, connect with people and be humorous and entertaining and that sort of thing. There's less, that's kind of necessary, I suppose you can just start it and just have fun with it. But even when I say that, even if the whole point is to have fun with it and to just be entertaining, you've still got to have consistency and a purpose for the podcast, and know that you're going to keep coming back for more. So think about why you want to have one, the answer definitely does not need or have to be. Everyone else has one. So I should have one, your answer should be, I really want to start my podcasts because I really want to connect with my audience. And I know that they listen to podcasts. And I know that I have things to say that I feel like you're going to service them. And I've done my research. Do you see what I'm getting at here? So it has to be more involved, then I just feel like maybe it's a good thing for me. No, that's not the reason to start a podcast. So that's number two.

Number three is to really feel like you're ready. And when I say that, I mean, you have to have something like if your podcast, the purpose of the podcast is to sell something is to help you with your business, then you should be making money somewhere else that is going to be supporting you in this mission to start a podcast. Because once you get going with a podcast, you'll realise what an awesome marketing tool it is for your business. Like there's nothing that is better than this, that I've found, from a marketing perspective for you to be able to get in front of your target audience and sell to them in a really natural way that they enjoy listening to that they feel connected with and all that sort of thing.

So if you don't have anything right now that they can actually buy from you. Because you've the first thing you've done is started podcast, then he that's a wasted opportunity. It's wasted. You got to have something in there that people can buy, that you can mention on your podcasts, so that people go oh, I like her and it might take like 2030 episodes before you get any sales maybe more depending on what the like the price point of what you're trying to sell is. But the point is, is that you need to have something there for people to go and buy because the podcast supports your business.

So your business needs to be generating income you need to have some offers, you need to have some things that then you can mention in your podcast that create the sales. That is the biggest, one of the biggest reasons to start a podcast is when you're at that point where you've got like online programs, or you're a service based business like we are. And you've got a lot of stuff that you can offer to people, that's like a really good time to start a podcast because you have things that people can purchase. And it's not that you're wanting to just sell, sell, sell the time, I don't think you should do that at all in your podcast as well, I don't think that you should be constantly, you know, shoving selling down people's throats, actually, it would be their ears, down people's ears, trying to get them to buy stuff within your podcast, having ads and that sort of thing. I don't think you should do that at all, for quite some time, I think you should enjoy the process of podcasting. And feel really, like you're getting the hang of it. Before you even necessarily mentioned, the stuff that you have to sell. You can mention your website and things like that. And they can go and look at it if they want. But take your time really building that trust and that audience before you start selling things to them. But it is one of the best ways. And one of the best reasons to actually start a podcast is because you want to sell things.

The other reason why you would start a podcast, you feel like okay, you know, it's the right time for me is if you want to be putting yourself out there as a thought leader in the thing that you're good at.

06:34
So if you are a nutritionist, and you, you know, want to rise above the noise of other nutritionists in your field, that are your competition, then that would be something that you would actually go okay, well, I'm going to start a podcast because I haven't seen many in my niche, start a podcast. So I'm going to start one now. And that's going to put me above everyone else, because I'm going to be starting to build that thought leadership. And when I say build thought leadership, it means that you're providing, like the content that you're providing on your podcast is really good. And it's stuff that you've researched, or that you know really, really well so that when you talk about it, it's so easy for you to talk about. And it's so easy for you to come across as someone that knows a lot about that thing. That is another really good reason. And that's a good time to start a podcast.

The other time that it is good to start a podcast is if you are thinking about or if you are a speaker. So if part of your business is that you want to do more speaking and get more speaking engagements. Podcasting is a really good way to showcase how you sound how you come across how you speak. So that's another way that you can kind of get your message across. And if people are interested in hiring you for speaking a lot of the time they will go to your podcast and listen to some of your stuff. And if they feel like they like the way you talk, you know, the like the language that you use, or they feel like the way you talk will resonate really well with their audience, they will book you for speaking engagements. Again, if you haven't known somewhere that you are interested in speaking at places, speaking events, and that sort of thing. So that's another really good reason to start a podcast.

And then I guess one of the other really good reasons to start a podcast is if you love audio yourself. So if you listen to a lot of podcasts, and it feels like such a natural thing for you to do, then that would be another reason that I would say to start a podcast if you feel like it's something that you're really going to get into, if you really like connecting in that way with people. Not everyone likes listening to the sound of their own voice, which is something that you have to do when you are in podcasting, especially if you're editing your own stuff. So you need to become comfortable with that aspect of it. But if sound and audio is something that you love, then podcasting is going to gel really well with you. If you do a lot of Instagram stories and that sort of thing. It's going to transition really easily into podcasting as well, because you're already good at just talking. Yeah, so that would be my kind of tips on that.

So there's definitely a lot of reasons to start a podcast. But the main thing I want you to think about is your time. How much time do you have? Are you going to be committed to it? And do you have support around you to help you do it, whether that's a VA, it doesn't need to be a fancy producer, you know, anything like that, but you do need to have enough things in place for you to actually feel like once you start a podcast, you can keep going with it. Because there's a lot of stuff that you need to set up when you first start one and it would be a shame for you to get you know 10 episodes in and go okay, I'm dropping off little bit, I'm not really sure if I can continue when you've put so much groundwork in.

So don't ever make it a rush job to start a podcast, really think about it, really do some investigating. And take your time actually starting one, and getting all the systems and the processes and the support in place. Because once you start, it is such a fun thing to do is just awesome. It's really, really cool to do.

10:28
So take your time, do your research, make sure that you are doing it for the right reasons. And then have fun with it. Now if you need any support in doing so you can contact us Bamby media.com, we have a whole bunch of done-for-you type one-on-one services. Although our capacity is limited at this point, we are very heavily booked. We have over 70 clients worldwide, which is really, really cool. But you also can work with us or work with me in a course capacity. So if you're wanting to start a podcast, you can join a course called Let's get launchy. And that is available through our the pod lovers community. So the podlovers.com is a free community that you can join. If you're interested in starting a podcast or if you have one already, then you can jump in there and get advice from people. I jump in twice a week. And I will give you some tips. I might answer some questions that's in there. And then you can join Let's Get Launchy from within there. So if that's something you think you might be interested in, then go and do that for sure. And yeah, just good luck with it. It's a great tool. It's a great thing to do. And I hope you have a lovely day. Bye