Is it too late to start a podcast?
Welcome to the softer cast, a podcast for small business owners and creatives who want tender podcast advice without any tech bro bullshit. I'm Amelia Hruby, and I'm the founder of Softer Sounds, a feminist podcast studio for women and non binary entrepreneurs. On this show, I answer your questions about podcasting. Things like, should I put my show on YouTube? Can I just record it on Zoom?
Amelia Hruby:How much do editors really cost? And how many downloads should my podcast be getting? Yeah. I'll even answer that question. Every episode of the softer cast is really practical, a little magical, and less than 10 minutes long.
Amelia Hruby:If you like what you hear, please subscribe to the show and share it with your podcast bestie. Then head to the show notes to check out our free resources. No matter where you're at in your podcasting journey, we're here to support you. Join us on the softer side of podcasting. Hello, and welcome to the Softercast, a podcast about podcasting for anyone out there who wants thoughtful, strategic podcast support without any of the, let's be honest, tech bro bullshit that can come along with podcasting.
Amelia Hruby:I'm your host, Emilia Hruby, and I am the founder of Softer Sounds, a feminist podcast studio for women and non binary entrepreneurs. And at Softer Sounds, we bridge the technical and the tender to support heartfelt podcasters creating soulful shows that grow their businesses. On this podcast, I answer your questions about podcasting. And this week, we have a question that has landed in my inbox a few times over the past few months. And that question is, is it too late to start a podcast?
Amelia Hruby:I'm hearing from folks a lot that it seems like everybody has a podcast now, and they're wondering, is it too late to start mine? Did I miss it? Am I too behind at this stage in podcasting itself, our media landscape, the world, everything that's going on? So in this episode, I'm gonna address that question, and I'm going to share 3 guiding questions that I think you should ask yourself before you start your show. So in softer cast fashion, we are gonna keep this short, sweet, and to the point.
Amelia Hruby:Let's go ahead and dive in. Let me give you my 2 word answer to the question, is it too late to start a podcast? In 2 words, my answer is no way. Just like there can never be too many books, I think that there can never be too many podcasts. The medium has been around in many forms since the days of radio, and I think that it will last as long as folks are willing to listen to other people speak, which hopefully is as long as we live and thrive on this planet.
Amelia Hruby:But if you're concerned about how many other podcasts are out there, I do understand There are way more shows now than there were in the 2010s. Honestly, there are way more shows now than there were in 2020. And so I do think that we're past the early adopter stage of the industry. If you were launching a podcast 10 years ago, if you made a podcast that had quality content and good audio quality, then it could likely find an audience on its own because there were a lot of people who wanted to listen to podcasts, and there weren't all that many podcasts in the podcast apps. Right?
Amelia Hruby:So there was high demand, low supply. It was really easy to grow an audience organically just by putting your episodes out there. That, to me, was the early adopter stage of the industry, and I do agree that that point is past its prime. We are past that era in podcasting, and that means that you might have to do more work now to promote your show than you would have in the past. You might have to do more work now than you would have as a podcaster 10 years ago, but there is still so much opportunity to grow a new show with a loyal, engaged audience, and there is better tech than ever.
Amelia Hruby:So while it may take you more work to grow your audience now than it did 10 years ago, it's gonna take away less work to record a wonderful sounding podcast, to edit it with ease, and to get it out there into the world as quickly as you would like. So even though I think we have to spend more time promoting our shows now, we get to spend less time producing our shows. So, you know, all of it evens out, I think, in our sort of, like, cosmic time accounting that we're doing for our creative projects. And I share all of that to say again that I do not think it is too late to start a podcast. And if you want to launch a show, I don't want you to be deterred by the existence of other shows, or how many other shows are out there.
Amelia Hruby:If you're feeling called to podcast, I want you to step up to the mic. So is it too late to start a podcast? Absolutely not. Now now that you've heard me sort of give you that, reassurance that it's not too late, I also wanna offer you 3 questions to ask yourself before you start your show. So when you're considering starting a podcast, no matter what year it is or how many other shows are out there, I suggest asking yourself these three questions.
Amelia Hruby:Number 1, do I have a strong inner desire to start a podcast? Number 2, do I have something unique and important to say that I'm not hearing anywhere else? And number 3, do I have the time to spend producing my show or the money to hire support? If you can answer yes to those 3 questions, then I think you should go for it. But let's take a minute and I'll go deeper into each one.
Amelia Hruby:So number 1, do I have a strong inner desire to start a podcast? So as a podcast producer, I find that 2 types of people show up in my world who want to launch a podcast. The first is the people who have had a podcast dream or idea, and they feel really strongly that they wanna launch that show. These are my fave creators. They have that strong internal motivation.
Amelia Hruby:Yes, yes, yes. I love that. The second type of people I hear from are the people who think that a podcast is a really smart, strategic choice, but maybe they don't actually care about podcasting that much. Like, they have certain goals they wanna achieve, and they think that a podcast can be a good vessel to achieve those goals. Now I think that it's great to be in either of these positions, but I want to warn folks who are podcasting purely for strategic purposes.
Amelia Hruby:If that is what you're doing, then I wanna let you know in advance that podcasting is a time intensive and labor intensive process. And so often, when I encounter people who don't have that strong inner desire, when they just have a sort of external desire to start a podcast, we find that the energy sort of peters out over time, and we can't stay in it together for the long haul. So I think that if you wanna start a podcast in this climate, you really want that strong inner desire, that internal motivation. If you are trying to achieve an external goal and that's the only reason you're choosing to start a podcast, there might be easier paths to that goal that I would consider before going all the way down the podcast launch process. So that's question number 1, just some thoughts on that internal motivation.
Amelia Hruby:Question number 2 was, do I have something unique and important to say that I'm not hearing anywhere else? So with the rise in the number of podcasts out there, I am finding that the sort of general interview show where you just talk to people that you enjoy about anything that you wanna talk about is seeing less success than it did in the past. I think that at this point, because podcast listeners have so many options, your show needs to have a unique POV, a unique point of view, or it needs to be on a topic that people are really excited about and that grabs their attention. Additionally, it's helpful if that POV or topic don't have a lot of other podcasts about it. If you're not hearing it anywhere else.
Amelia Hruby:Right? If you have a show that you love and you wanna make something just like that show, that's great, but they may already kind of be serving the audience you wanna serve. How can you bring your unique point of view and say something that you're not hearing anywhere else in the podcast landscape? So here, I think it's important to be doing some research when you wanna launch a show, finding other shows that you're interested in that are similar but different so that you can differentiate yourself from them, knowing what it is that you're really bringing to the table because every voice is unique. Every podcaster has something specific and special to share, but I think it's important to reflect on that and know it when you go into the podcast process, rather than, you know, making a show for weeks weeks weeks and then being like, wait, why am I not growing a listener base?
Amelia Hruby:Well, it may be because your show is kind of framed too generically, or it's not capturing people's attention in the crowded podcast landscape. So, again, I don't think it's too late to start a podcast, but I do think that we need to work on positioning earlier in the process so that we know what it is that you have to say that only you can say, and that isn't And question number 3, do I have the time to spend producing my show or hiring support? Money to hire support, I should say. So as I've already mentioned here, podcasting is a time and labor intensive process. One of my favorite clients, shout out to Janine of Retail For the Rest of Us, once said to me, I thought podcasting was gonna be just like blogging, but it is not.
Amelia Hruby:Podcasting is not blogging. It takes a lot more work because there are so many more moving pieces. You know, if you're writing a blog post, you can have an idea, type it all up, do a quick edit, and get it out there on the Internet. When you wanna make a podcast, you have an idea. You write up some notes.
Amelia Hruby:You record in your voice. You do the editing. You may have to rerecord some pieces to get it just right, you process the files, export the files, write the show notes, schedule it to go live, then release it, then promote it. Right? That's a much more involved process.
Amelia Hruby:Now, I love podcasts. I love that process. And I think that it leads to really unique and special products that pay dividends in the long term for your work and your business. But it does mean that before you go to start a show, I want you to think about if you have the time to create a podcast right now or the money to hire a team to do it for or with you. So again, here are those 3 questions to ask yourself before you start your podcast.
Amelia Hruby:Do I have a strong inner desire to start a podcast? Do I have something unique and important to say that I'm not hearing anywhere else? And do I have the time to spend producing my show or the money to hire support? So if you can answer yes to those three questions, then I think you should go for it. I think you should work on that show, launch it, bring it to life.
Amelia Hruby:I wanna hear it. I can't wait for your voice to hit the airwaves. If you want more support traveling the path from, I've got a great idea, I said yes to those questions, to my podcast is out in the world, I'm gonna invite you to head to the show notes and grab our free podcast launch checklist and workshop. Just click the link drop in your email, and it'll cruise into your inbox momentarily. That will help you see our 8 step path from idea to launch.
Amelia Hruby:And then if you need more support than just the free checklist and 20 minute audio workshop, I've also created an entire podcast launch course called Your Podcast is a Portal that will help guide you through that process step by step with really supportive videos, lots of materials like templates and workbooks and PDFs, and some additional support and fun things along the way. The course includes both technical support and tender practices to help you develop confidence in your voice and in sharing your work with the world. And, honestly, it's just one of my favorite things that I've created. So if you're interested, head to the show notes, get the free resources, join me in the course. It's available anytime, and I just truly can't wait to hear your show.
Amelia Hruby:And if you didn't answer yes to those three questions, that's okay too. Maybe you need to think about it a little more, maybe there's still some more creative what do I wanna call it? Like digestion, but that's a weird metaphor. Maybe you just need some more time to let those creative ideas simmer. There we go.
Amelia Hruby:That's a better one. Let those creative ideas simmer as you decide exactly when and how you want to bring your podcast to life. As always, I'm so grateful that you joined me here on the podcast, and I can't wait for more episodes of the softer cast and shows that you launch and I get to listen to. I'd love to answer your questions in upcoming episodes. So head to the show notes as well, where you'll find a SpeakPipe link, where you can submit a voice message and ask me any questions that you have about podcasting, and I will answer them here on this feed.
Amelia Hruby:Thank you again for tuning into the Softercast. As always, there are lots of great free resources on our site and in the show notes. Until next time, my friends, I will see you on the Softer side of podcasting. Thanks so much for listening to the Softercast. If you enjoyed this episode, please send it to your podcast bestie.
Amelia Hruby:And after you do that, go ahead and drop us 5 stars in Apple Podcasts or Spotify. If you'd like to submit a question, head to speakpipe.com/softercast to record a message or email us at hi at softer sounds dot studio. And last but not least, we made some awesome free things for you. Head to the show notes to download our free podcast launch toolkit or our 3 step podcast audit. No matter where you're at in your podcasting journey, we're here to support you.
Amelia Hruby:Thanks again for tuning in and joining us on the softer side of podcasting.