Did you know that for the first time in history, Americans are listening to more on-demand audio (like podcasts and music services) than live, linear audio (like radio), according to data from Edison Research?
With so many listeners tuning into on-demand audio, there has never been a better time to get into podcasting. However, when starting out, you may find yourself asking the difficult question Should I be a guest on other podcasts or should I start my own podcast?
In an ideal world, you’ll want to do both to achieve maximum exposure and impact. But in the real world, we’re often faced with limited time and resources.
With this in mind, we’ll explore three questions to ask yourself to help you make this decision faster and more effectively.
Do you have a well-established online community already?
Have you already built a well-established online community through a channel outside of podcasting? If your answer is yes, then starting a podcast is the way to go! By creating a podcast, you can give your current audience more content to enjoy, and capture new followers by diversifying into a different medium.
For example, if you look at Well Made with Kat, a show hosted by Kat Kamalani, a wellness entrepreneur with 1M+ followers on TikTok, you can see the show has only 16 episodes, but it already has 100+ five-star ratings on its US iTunes page. For context, that’s a lot of reviews for a young show, especially given that most shows in Apple Podcasts have zero US ratings.
As the PodWritten Team, we asked Kat how her social media following helped her launch her podcast. She said,
“Whether it’s 1M followers or 1K followers, having a social media following doesn’t matter. What matters is a community. When you build a personal relationship with your community, a truly intimate relationship, that is when magic happens.”
She added, “It starts with being authentic to yourself and not posting just the pretty pictures or highlighted reels of your life. Once you establish that, then you can launch a podcast with a dedicated following that is willing and interested in listening to you in a longer format.”
On the other hand, if you’re just starting out and developing a following, your best bet will be to focus on podcast appearances to get in front of existing audiences. Using this approach, the host—someone the audience already knows, likes, and trusts—can introduce you to their community, passing this trust onto you while giving you the opportunity to share your message and present yourself as a thought leader.
Do you have the capacity to take on creating a podcast?
When you have a well-established podcast, you’re sitting on an asset that can be hugely influential and lucrative. But like everything in life that is highly valuable, achieving this can take a lot of time and work.
To put this into perspective, building a successful podcast requires three ingredients: consistency, value delivery, and top-notch quality. This demands a lot of research, work and time, with many tasks to complete such as editing episodes, writing show notes, and scheduling them. Making sure you hit the mark on all three of these ingredients will take up a lot of your time, and you need to be ready for that. If you don’t have the necessary knowledge, you can always join forces with a podcast production agency to do the heavy lifting.
If committing to publishing regular episodes isn’t your cup of tea, why not try out podcast guesting? It gives you the freedom to do as many or as few appearances as you like, and you can stop at any time. All it depends on is how many hosts you can get to say yes to having you on.
To do that, you can find a podcast that speaks to your target audience, locate the host’s email or guest submission form, and send a pitch. You can also use services like HARO or Qwoted to contact podcast hosts when they advertise opportunities. Alternatively, agencies like PodWritten can also help you secure guest spots without you having to do any of these time-consuming tasks, all you need to do is show up for your podcast interviews.
Do you have experience behind the mic?
Let’s face it: Stepping into uncharted territory can be daunting, and you might not get it right the first time, but that’s okay!
In an interview on Creator Science, YouTuber Ali Abdaal said that when he first started out, he accepted that the first 50 videos he created would be bad. He admitted that creating and publishing these videos was a learning experience, and he knew he wouldn’t get it right straight away. Now, years later with 682 videos on his channel, he has built up a huge following of 4.64M+ subscribers. This shows that with commitment and experience over time, it’s possible to create a great body of work that builds a solid following.
So, if you want to get some experience behind the mic, you have two options:
#1: Find smaller shows that you can cut your teeth on, because these are likely to have a low number of listeners. This makes securing guest spots easier than the bigger shows, as there is less competition for guests trying to get featured. Using a free podcast match-making service like Match Maker can be a great way to start.
The benefit of this is that you can practice on other people’s shows, and you can prioritize how you present yourself and your message because all the other jobs such as editing, writing show notes, and scheduling episodes, are not your responsibility.
#2: Start your own podcast to become more comfortable practicing on your terms. This can be hugely beneficial because you control how the show is edited. This means you can make yourself sound more professional by cutting all those umms, ehhhs, and you knows… you know?
It can take a long time to create a truly successful podcast, and the early you get started, the better! To steal the age-old saying about investing and put it in the context of podcasting—the best time for you to start a podcast was yesterday, the second best time is now.
If you’re interested in seeing how creating a podcast or guesting on podcasts can help drive sales, growth, and awareness for your business, then schedule a call with us today.