Uncovering the Top Reasons People Don’t Start a Podcast | Episode 33

Launching a podcast can be an exciting experience for many aspiring podcasters…..and an overwhelming one! In my years in the podcasting industry, I often hear the same obstacles as to why people haven’t launched their shows and in this episode, we’re uncovering the top reasons people don’t start a podcast. Understanding and acknowledging these challenges can help aspiring podcasters work through them and make the process more manageable and less daunting.

Links:

Imposter Syndrome episode with Fiona Redding
Equipment & Software Recommendations
Instagram
LinkedIn
Facebook
Join the Australian Podcasters Collaborative Facebook Community

More about Podcasting Tips & Tricks

Podcasting Tips & Tricks is a show designed to share quick, actionable tips and tricks for launching and growing a successful podcast and is aimed at both new and seasoned podcasters. We’ll cover a range of topics from launching your podcast, editing, publishing, hosting, equipment, systems and processes, marketing, monetising, industry news and lots more.

Podcast awareness and listenership are growing year-on-year so it’s no surprise that it is still growing in 2024. And now is a great time for small business owners and entrepreneurs to launch a podcast to raise brand awareness and position their expertise whilst building authority and trust.

I’m Lyndal Harris, Podcast Consultant and founder of Podcast VA where my team and I simplify the podcasting journey. We offer a variety of done-for-support services, online and in-person training, as well as strategy sessions and health checks. At Podcast VA, we have launched hundreds of podcasts for both Australian and international clients, who collectively captivate millions of listeners worldwide. And quite a number of these shows have hit number 1 in the charts!

 

Transcript:

Uncovering the Top Reasons People Don’t Start a Podcast

[0:14] Hello and welcome back to another episode. I am your host, Lyndall Harris, a podcast consultant and the founder of Podcast VA, where we help simplify your podcasting journey.
Launching a podcast can be a really exciting adventure, but it can also be really overwhelming and there are various hurdles that I hear all the time that deter people from launching their show.
So in today’s episode, we are going to uncover the top reasons why people haven’t launched their podcast yet.
I’ve been working in podcasting since 2016 and over the past eight years I hear these same reasons time and time again and they are so common and I know people that have been sitting on their podcast idea for years and still haven’t launched their show which makes me a little bit sad because I’m really passionate about helping people use their voice and get their message out out there.

[1:11] So let’s have a look at the top reasons why people haven’t launched their show yet.
The first one is they think the podcast market is too saturated.
Now I covered this topic in episode 31 recently where I talked about the podcast stats and if you go back and have a listen to that episode you could change your mind on this one.

[1:32] Potential podcasters often believe that the market is too saturated and there’s no room for their show.
And it is a misconception that holds so many people back because we hear about how many millions of shows are currently available in the directories.
But as I said in episode 31, not a huge number of those shows are actually currently publishing on a consistent basis.
So you might be surprised that the podcast market is actually not too crowded for you to launch a show.
Another common reason is that people are struggling for content ideas.
I often will say to people, sit down and brainstorm your ideas and the topic that you want to cover and anything that’s relevant.
Now, whether that be with pen and paper, into a spreadsheet, using your project management tool, just get the ideas down.
If you’re really stuck on where to start, think about the list of frequently asked questions that you are asked over and over again.
You could also use an AI tool and ask it to generate a list of content ideas relevant to your particular topic of your podcast.

[2:44] And this one I like probably the most out of all of them, is to ask your audience.
Now, your audience might not be your podcast audience because you haven’t launched yet, but do you have people on social media?
Do you have an email list you could ask?
Clients, potential clients, really starting to gather that information from conversations that you’re having can be a great way to start to come up with a list of topic ideas.
Is. Then you can be thinking about, do you want to do solo shows where you’re sharing your expertise?
Do you want to have interviews with people where they can bring something else to the table that is relevant for your audience?
You can look at case studies. You can do news events and trends in your industry.
You might like to do learnings from a workshop or a course that you’ve done recently.
So there’s lots of different ways that you can come up with ideas.
But I think this is is a really great way that we can use AI in our podcast process.

[3:42] Another one I hear all the time is it’s too technical.
The technical side of podcasting does seem daunting and really overwhelming at first, but it’s like any new skill and it will get easier once you start practicing.
It is really easy to get overwhelmed with all the equipment and the software technology and how will you get your podcast onto Apple Podcasts and Spotify and YouTube?
But with a little bit of research, this will all fall into place quite easily.
And it’s just something that you’ve got to start doing and chip away at and you will get there.
And the good news about the technical side of things is you can enlist help with that. So you can outsource some of the technical side of things.
You could go and use a podcast recording studio if you don’t want to look at the equipment, or you could find a program or checklist or someone’s resource that will help step you through the various processes to get through the technical side of podcasting.
Going along with that is people don’t know what microphone to use because there are so many to choose from.
Start by considering your recording environment and the format of your show.
Are you going to be sitting at a desk in your office recording solo or interview shows onto your laptop or are you you going to be out and about in parks trying to catch people as they’re on their way to work and you’re recording into a portable device?

[5:09] And then also thinking about, is your space echoey? Does it have high ceilings and tiled floors and a lot of reverb in the room?
Start to consider those kinds of things before you look at the microphone that you want to use, because you can buy the best microphone, but it might be completely wrong for your recording environment.
And then you’re not going to have good quality audio from the beginning, and you’ll have wasted money buying a microphone that isn’t right for your situation.
Now, I actually have an equipment and software recommendations PDF that you can download. I will pop the link for that in the show notes.
Again, what I would say first, though, is think about your recording environment and the format of your show and whether it’s interviews and solo episodes and things like that.
Then consider the microphone and the headphones and the various bits of equipment from there, because it’s really easy to spend a lot of money on your podcast

[6:04] equipment and then realize that podcasting is not for you.
So I always say start with the bare minimum because you can always upgrade it down the track.

[6:15] The next big reason is that people don’t like the sound of their own voice.

[6:21] And this one makes me laugh because I’m guilty of this I work in an industry where a lot of podcast consultants and a lot of podcast people come from a radio background and they’ve got got beautiful voices for radio and I don’t have that, but I can’t change my voice.
It would be far more stressful for me to sit trying to talk in a way that’s not natural for me.
So I can’t do anything about that.
You need to remember that your voice is uniquely yours and you need to embrace it.
And I guarantee you, this is such a common thing I hear from podcasters.
I I hear it from nearly every podcaster I have worked with, that they don’t like the sound of their own voice.
And here’s something else for you to consider with voice that I hadn’t really thought of before, but I heard it somewhere and it’s very true.
When you hear your own voice, it is coming up through your throat, your vibrations into your head, into your ears, through and out of your mouth is different to how every single other person hears your voice.

[7:31] They don’t hear it like you because it’s not coming up through their head and out of their mouth and I know that’s not a very technical way to put it but it’s true so the way that your voice is coming across is how every single person in this world hears your voice so the fact that you don’t like the sound of it is because it’s not the way that you hear it so please don’t let that stop you.

[7:56] And the last one, which is one of the most common reasons I have heard in the eight years of podcasting, and that is imposter syndrome, battling that pesky little voice in your head.
And I promise you, you are not alone on this one.
So many podcasters have had to navigate it, whether it be the fear of criticism for expressing their beliefs or opinions or whether you don’t feel like you’re expert enough or interesting enough, that imposter syndrome, you just need to ignore it and push through it.
It really is the only way because if you think about it too much, you’ll sit and listen to that little voice in your head.
And I can say this from personal experience because I very much had imposter syndrome when I launched my podcast years ago, and I even had it when I relaunched it a few weeks ago.
I ran a survey a little while ago in my Facebook group to ask how many people dealt with this when they launched their show, and it was absolutely massive.
The percentage was over 80% of podcasters who had to deal with imposter syndrome, and I would hazard a guess that that’s actually even higher.

[9:15] I heard a really great podcast episode on imposter syndrome a few months ago, and it was talking about a way to reframe it.
And instead of listening to the voice in your head that is constantly going to make you feel negatively about doing your own podcast, ask your friends, your family, your colleagues, people that you trust in your world, what they think about you launching a podcast.

[9:43] Because if they think it’s a really bad idea, they’re probably going to tell you that.
But if they believe that you can do it, stop listening to the voice in your head and remember to put your faith and trust in the people who believe in you.
And that will make it slightly easier to push past that little voice go past the imposter syndrome and keep going on your podcasting journey.
I actually recorded an episode with Fiona Redding years ago about imposter syndrome, which was a great episode.
So I’ll link that to the show notes as well. But if that’s something that you’re dealing with in launching your podcast, please don’t let it stop you.
And please don’t let it couple up with perfectionism. And I’ve got to get it all right because the imposter syndrome is making me feel worse about it because, with podcasting, it’s not necessarily the case.
You can start your podcast and refine it along the way.
Now, I’m not suggesting that you just plug your microphone in and start recording anything.
Have a plan, have a strategy, but then just start because you will get more confidence along the way.
And with practice, it does get easier.

[10:57] So they’re the main reasons that people haven’t launched a show.
And as I said, I know people who have been sitting on their podcast idea for years and haven’t been able to push through these hurdles and overcome them.
So if you’re thinking about launching a podcast and any of these kinds of challenges or issues are stopping you, sit down and think about each one of them and work out how you can just push past it or push the worry to the side.
You can get through all of these and so many podcasters have done it when they have felt exactly the same way.
I put my hand up. I am one of those. I probably didn’t get stuck on the technical side of things as that’s what I’ve been doing for a long time, but all of the other hurdles I have.

remember, you have your unique voice. You have a message that you want to share with the world. So don’t let any of these reasons that are so common with all podcasters, stop you from launching your show.

If you’re quite new to podcasting, I have a perfect podcast planning checklist on my website over at podcastva. com. If you’d like to jump over there and download that, that can give you some tips and tricks on how to actually think about getting started. And if you’ve got any questions, I would love for you to either reach out via social media or via my website. I will get back to you because I would love to hear from you, but I’d also love feedback on my podcast episodes, any topics that you might like me to cover or just reaching out to say hello.

 

Lyndal Harris

About the author

Lyndal Harris, Founder of Podcast VA offers podcast editing and production support services making podcasting easier for everyone. We’ll look after the techy stuff for you… All you need to do is record your episode and we’ll do the rest. Ready to start?