Podcasting Myths: Five Reasons You Haven't Started Your Own Show!

Why would anyone want to start a podcast? I asked myself that same question back around 2012, when I was first introduced to the concept. I was working full time in broadcasting and had a part time speaker training gig. One of my colleagues suggested I launch a show.

"Why?" was my not so educated response. "What will I do with a podcast?"

Since then I not only launched my own podcast, but I have helped hundreds of business owners learn about the value in having your own show! Still to this day, despite the rise in popularity, and the fact more and more people know what a podcast is, business owners (coaches, consultants, in some cases even top notch speakers) are turning their heads and keeping in their more conventional OR tried, tested true (even if their dated) forms of marketing and communication.

This episode explores the five myths holding YOU back from launching your show.

One of my favourite podcasts is the Knack4Business Podcast. Give it a listen here:
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Transcript

SPEAKERS

Carl Richards

Carl Richards  00:00

Hey there, it's Carl Richards you know what I want to fix of what's happening in the world of business. I listen to the Knack 4 Business podcast. Bernie and Wayne share their knowledge about a variety of topics from mind and body, finances, legal, accounting, real estate, manufacturing, and more. Oh, and their guests have a lot of insights as well. So get the knack for business by tuning into Knack 4 Business. Head on over to the show notes to find the link to the podcast. 

Welcome to Podcast Solutions Made Simple. It's the podcast that's all about podcasting. I'm your host, Carl Richards. You know, in my 25 plus years in the broadcast and speaking world, I've noticed a lot of overwhelm when it comes to podcasting. And I'm here to tell you, it doesn't have to be that way. If you're a coach, consultant, or other subject matter expert, and the thought of starting a podcast seems too technical, too confusing, too time consuming or just way out of your reach, then this is the podcast for you. On this show we give you the tools, tips and techniques to run a kick ass show and share stories from people who have been there, done that and are enjoying massive success with their own shows. Oh, and if you're an existing podcaster this show is also for you. The mics are up. So let's dive into today's episode. 

And welcome to the first official episode of Podcast Solutions Made Simple as our introduction stated, My name is Carl Richards and I'm going to be along with you on the journey pretty much the whole time here. From time to time, as I said in my introduction, we will have guests, we will have other people who will be jumping in and sharing what their experience has been in the world of podcasting, a lot of information coming your way as well as to you know, what's happening in the podcasting world right now. What are some of the changes that are happening? What are changes to, for example, sponsorship and monetization and all kinds of other things? How's the industry evolving? You know, it's still very much an untapped world as we're going to find out today. But all kinds of that information coming up, as well as if you're listening to this podcast and wondering how do I get started in the podcasting world? I have an idea for a show. But how do I bring it to the podcasting universe. So we'll be talking about some of those tips and ideas over the podcast as well. 

What I want to talk about today, though, as we launch- hard to believe this is the first official episode, and I've been talking about podcasting now as a very beneficial tool to have in your business toolkit. But what we're going to be talking about today is "why podcasting?" And moreover, "why is it a great marketing tool for business?" And this is going to lead into a five part series which will kick off in the next episode, which will be the five myths, but for today, "why podcasting as a marketing tool for business?" Because I know that you might be wondering, for example, what is a podcast? Most people by now have heard the term podcast and at least have some knowledge of it. You might be wondering though, is it a viable solution for me for getting the word out about what it is that I do? 

So we're going to talk about the benefits of having a podcast and how it can help you firstly, get in front of more of your ideal client, but also some of the things to keep in mind as you decide should I launch a podcast or if you've already launched a podcast? What are some of the things you should be doing to take it to a higher level for your business, your brand, your credibility, and to be seen as the go to expert. So the number one thing we talked about as far as podcasting and why it's a great tool for your business is it's portable. So think of that from not only your perspective, as far as the creation of it, but think of it from the listeners perspective, you can take it anywhere you can listen to podcasts while you're driving, you can listen to podcasts while you are on vacation. You can listen to podcasts while you are making your breakfast or on the treadmill out for your morning walk. I have clients who listen to podcasts every morning when they're out on their morning run. 

Okay, so your clients, your prospects can listen to you at their convenience, unlike a video or a blog, where they really have to be focused on it. Now there's some argument as to whether or not you really need to be focused on a video as well or that can be playing in the background. But if the audio from a video is the only part that your prospect or the listener is paying attention to, why would you do a video podcast, you know? Why would you incorporate video? Why wouldn't you just stick with audio? Now that's not to say there aren't video podcasts because there are. That's not to say there aren't live podcasts that people can watch and people can catch in the moment. But for the most part, we're going to be talking about the audio aspect of this. If video is something that is of interest to you, we can certainly have that discussion. And we have a number of clients actually that we support on a monthly basis who have a video component for their podcast. Most though go with audio only. And we're going to talk about that in upcoming episodes as well. 

But for now, think of a podcast as a portable tool that can be taken anywhere clients can listen anywhere and anytime. The other reason why podcasting is a great marketing tool for business is you get to control the content, the length of the content and the distribution of the content. Now for content creation, in general, you would typically control that anyways. But one of the things that a lot of business owners have found over recent years is that when it comes to using social media, for example, as a great way to promote their business, they're at the mercy of whatever the algorithm of that social media platform decides. So if you take Facebook, for example, you might have several 1000 people in your Facebook community or in your Facebook friends list, but you might only be reaching 10 or 15 at a time. And they might not even be your ideal clients. They might be people who are just in your fan base, they could be friends, they could be family, people that you've connected with, but they might not be your ideal client. 

Okay, so you get to control the content, the distribution of it, and the length. The other reason why podcasting is a great marketing tool for business is it's still a big playing field. And when I say that, I mean, it's still the Wild West when it comes to the world of podcasts. Even though we are at a point the recording of this episode is the summer of 2022. We know that there are close to 3 million podcasts worldwide. Now for some individuals, they throw their hands up in the air and say, well, that's a lot. And it is quite a few from where it was even four or five years ago, where there were only 750,000 podcasts. 

But think of it in another light. For every 500 blogs, there's one podcast, which means if you're thinking for an effective way to reach your ideal client and build your audience, a podcast is certainly a great way to do that there are still lots of opportunities within the podcast world for you to do that as well. Another reason why podcasting is a great marketing tool for business is really what it boils down to is it's a speaking gig. One of the things that I used to say all the time when I was focusing on speaker training for my business, and that was a part time business by the way for about eight or nine years. 

My big thing that I would say to people is the biggest most effective way to grow your business is by speaking about what it is that you do. Well a podcast essentially is it's exactly that it is a speaking gig. So imagine this, I'm gonna throw some numbers at you. But picture this, if you will. Imagine if you recorded and posted a podcast episode every single week, that would be 52 episodes per year. Let's not get into the semantics of you might take a couple of weeks off for Christmas or you'll go on a couple of weeks vacation in the summer. Let's just go with the fact that every week throughout the entire year, you're going to post an episode so 52 podcast episodes per year. Think of that in speaking gig terms. 52 speaking gigs per year. Now I know people who do more than 52 speaking gigs in a year. 

For example, I remember hearing Mike Lipkin several years ago at one of his events saying that he always vied for I believe it was 150 to 200 speaking gigs per year. All right, that's on the high end. But let's let's look at it in realistic numbers from a podcasting perspective. 52 episodes per year where you are reaching the audience with a piece of content every single week 52 episodes that equates to 52 speaking gigs per year. If the average podcast episode is between somewhere between 27 and 40. So if the average podcast episode reaches 27, to 40 people and again, now those numbers would go up. As your show builds, credibility builds momentum, and you build your audience, you can have hundreds of people you're reaching every single week and a lot of thought leaders and business owners do reach hundreds if not 1000s of people every week, but imagine low numbers, okay, let's just take it from the average numbers. 

Okay, so let's say it's, let's say it's 40. Let's be generous and say you're going to connect with 40 people every single week with that podcast, and some of them will be new. Some of them will be people you've never spoken to before. Some of them will be your raving fans that follow you everywhere you go. But let's say the magical number is 40. That means you're speaking in front of 2000 people over 2000 people actually every single year, do you think out of those 2000 people that you're speaking to, and let's be generous and say maybe half of those are brand new people. Do you think out of those 1000 people you're speaking to every single year, again, 52 episodes equals 52 speaking gigs, 1000 people, if we factor in half of them are already our raving fans and follow us. Is it safe to say that of those 1000 people maybe 10% or even 1% could equate to being your ideal client, your prospects, the people who you really want to connect with on a regular basis? I would say those are realistic numbers, indeed. 

All right. So think of it as a speaking gig. And you know, the main reason why people speak and get in front of audiences who are savvy business owners is it's to build their business. So if you think of your podcast episode as a speaking gig, and you're going to continuously get in front of new people and your existing audience every single week, it's going to build your numbers out, okay? It's going to reach out and build your business and we're going to talk about some of the myths surrounding audience and celebrity those kinds of things when we talk about the five myths starting in the next episode, the other thing and the final thing I want to leave you with today is a podcast is a great way to create partnerships and alliances and see if you are aligned with other individuals. 

I remember interviewing somebody on my podcast, her name is Case Lane. I interviewed Case, Lane in I believe it was November of 2020. And I found out that there was a great opportunity there for us to partner together. And we have talked about it and there are some opportunities that we're looking at. But that potential partnership didn't happen instantaneously. It happened because I had an episode, a podcast, rather, it happened to because Case reached out to me and said, "Hey, Carl, I want to be on your podcast." And after interviewing her, we agreed that we should have a follow up discussion. And we have had a follow up discussion. And we're having more follow up discussions as we go to see what kind of partnership there is. And we're looking forward to having Case Lane on this podcast, by the way in future episodes. But there are partnership opportunities there which could lead to more business, which could lead to more clients, which could lead to a full appointment calendar of prospects. All of those are great things for your business. 

So again, let's do a quick recap of why podcasting as a marketing tool for your business. It's portable, you can take it anywhere. And that means your clients can listen to you and engage and you know, really get those touch points develop that Know, Like and Trust factor anywhere you control the content, not only the length of the content, but the distribution of it, and you get to beat the algorithms because really, there aren't that many to navigate through. You also get to be in a big playing field where there are huge opportunities to grow your brand and your business using your podcast. Again, for every 500 blogs, there's one podcast and yours could be another one that's added to the podcast universe. It's a speaking gig 52 speaking gigs a year, wouldn't that be fantastic to be able to say that, hey, I published 52 podcast episodes, which means I spoke in front of audiences at least 52 times this year. 

And then the final part I wanted to talk about today, as I said was the partnership piece, the Alliance building piece, the are you connecting with other people who could lead you to other prospects could lead you to other clients or who could be partners in business in some capacity. So that's what we have for you today. Now in our next episode, we're going to kick off the five myths that are stopping you from launching your podcast and they are in no particular order, by the way, but we are going to start with the first one which is the money myth. And that will be in our next episode. And we're looking forward to sharing that information with you. 

And thank you for joining us today. Special thanks to our producer Aidan Burrows, our production lead Kieran Doherty, our music guru, Nathan Simon and the person who works the arms, all of our arms actually my trusty assistant, Stephanie, Gafoor. If you liked what you heard today, leave us a comment and a review. And be sure to share it with your friends. If you don't like what you heard, please share it with your enemies. 

Oh, and if you have a suggestion of someone who you think would make an amazing guest on the show, let us know about it. Drop us an email. AskCarl@Carlspeaks.ca. Don't forget to follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter as well. You'll find all those links in the show notes. And if you're ready to take the plunge and join the over 3 million people who have said yes to podcasting. Let's have a conversation. We'll show you the simplest way to get into the podcasting space because after all, we're Podcast Solutions Made Simple. We'll catch you next time!