Don't Start A Podcast... (Or Should You?)

Should you start a podcast in 2025? Yes or no? Let's go ahead and get into it. This is one of my favorite questions that people ask me. I'm sitting here in the Howdy Studio, which is where we offer a lot of video production services, specifically turnkey podcasting. As of right now, it's a service. Basically, you come in, sit down, we do the rest. And this is a question that I get asked all the time. It's why should I have a podcast in the first place? Should I have a podcast? And how do I monetize off of this podcast? And so we're going to kind of break it down. And I hope this video brings tons of value to you. And let's go ahead and get started. So I've had tons of people come through the studio that we've helped produce their podcast for at this point, and some people stick with it, some people don't stick with it. The ones who do stick with it and are consistent see the best results. And that's just honestly common sense a lot of times. But if you are thinking about starting a podcast, the number one thing that I want you to consider is can you be consistent? Because if you can't be consistent, then you're not going to get the results that you want or need for your business. So these are some reasons to start a podcast. If you are a business owner, if you are a creative trying to grow a personal brand, this is for you. And the biggest reason is it builds authority and trust with you and your client or your audience. What does this mean? It means whenever people hang out with you and watch you on video— video is one of the only formats where they can have a visual and an audio of what they're seeing and what you're doing. And so it's the closest thing to being in person that we currently have available. Now, in the future, there may be like holograms or something crazy, but right now video is It's the best way to multiply yourself, to feel like you're having a conversation with that person, just like you and I are right now. And if you're seeing this, it's a great testimony of like, this stuff works. If you're watching this video right now, I hopefully am connecting with you in some sort of way and bringing value in some sort of way. And so I'm gaining your trust and I'm building authority in the space because I can talk about this stuff for hours. And it's showing you, the viewer, that I halfway know what I'm talking about. I have lots to learn about and I'm learning every single day. But the big important thing to realize is that I am putting myself as the authority in the space. And so if that's you and you're in that position, you're like, man, I am good at my job. I'm good at what I do. I want to help others. I want to sell more of this product. I want to show people that I am the authority in the space. I am the example that others are following. And so podcasting is a great way to do that. It's a great way to get your voice out there. And so that's the first thing that you want to think about is your voice. And this translates your expertise within that subject. The next reason is podcasting creates a content machine. And now what do I mean whenever I say content machine? This means you can come in and film 2 podcast episodes that are an hour each. You're spending 2 hours filming, but through the power of repurposing and AI, you can take these 2 recordings and repurpose them into 50 to 60 separate pieces of content. So that's like short-form videos. This is email campaigns. This is ebooks. I recently took one of the transcripts of my YouTube videos, uh, or a podcast that we did with a guest, and I converted it into an ebook that was in my tone in my voice, the way that I talk, the language that I use. The AI picked up on that. So ChatGPT being this scenario, and I had it write an ebook. I mean, it's like a short 15-page ebook, but it's an ebook that I did not have to write, but I still came up with the content inside of it. And so this is like your content machine. So one podcast can equal weeks of content. If you do it right and use the right tools. Some other things that you may not have thought about before. The next thing is going to be it opens networking doors. And so what do I mean by this? Whenever somebody comes into the studio, sits down, for example, we have podcast memberships that we sell. So we basically produce these people's podcasts and through the podcast I get to meet a lot of people. And majority of the time they're involved some, somewhat in a business or something that may need content or something that may need a podcast in the future. And so I get to meet them. It opens up my network, opens up a lot of doors that I wouldn't have had unless podcasting was a thing going on in the studio. Same thing for my episode. I'll bring people on that I've never talked to before other than on social media. And I'll get to know them. I'll get to sit down with them for an hour and talk about what they're about, what their desires are, what their needs are, like what their pain points are within their business. And it gives me a foot in the door to what it is that they're offering and how I can help them. And so this is huge. Like if you invite somebody who is a higher level than you, so like say you have 500 Instagram followers and it's sad that the world works like this, but it's true. And you reach out to somebody with 100,000 Instagram followers. If you don't give them some sort of value, or even if it's a local business owner who is like the CEO or president of a company and they have a lot of employees and they're kind of hard to access, they are more willing to come and sit in front of a camera with you because it is free marketing for them. They're getting their brand out there even further and they're not having to pay for video production or audio production. And so that's a value exchange. You get the value of sitting in front of them and hopefully being able to help them in some sort of way. And they get the value of free video production, free branding, free marketing. And so it's a win-win for both parties. So this allows you to get in front of people that you normally wouldn't be able to get in front of if you're just starting. And so another thing, whenever you talk to these people, like, this can be a client magnet. And so if you are just starting and you're a business owner specifically, and you're wanting to do a podcast, invite your ideal clients on to be a guest on your episodes. And then you can start building that relationship and it just gets you an excuse to film for an hour, hour and a half straight talking one-on-one with them. And then obviously the more time you spend with somebody, the more trust they build with you and that relationship grows and flourishes. And then eventually they'll want to work with you after a while. And so that's— we're going to talk about that here in a little bit, the monetization. But that's how you can monetize right off the bat. Don't rely on Google AdSense. Don't rely on getting paid from YouTube and Facebook. Those are perks and they can be very hefty checks, but it's going to be a while if you're just starting out with the podcast. So at the beginning, think about how you're going to leverage it. In order to get in front of your ideal clients, how you can provide value to the listeners that are watching. So if that sounds all dandy and you're like, man, I am completely in to start a podcast, we actually provide a turnkey podcast service. Or if you're out of town, if you don't live in the state of Texas and you can't travel here to the studio, then we can always help you figure out what gear to buy and teach you how to run it as well. So there's going to be a link in the description for you to contact us if that interests you whatsoever. The reasons not to start a podcast, and I think this is an overlooked thing because I, I don't think everybody should have a podcast. And the reason being is if you're getting into it and you're just wanting to do it for the clout, as kids say nowadays, I think that's what kids say. If you're just getting in it to become an influencer, you're not really wanting to do anything with it other than get views and following. Like, it's an option, but I would encourage you to maybe go try some short-form content first, or just regular YouTube videos, not specifically podcasting. Podcasting is if you want to build a brand that stands out from the crowd, that people can build a relationship with you and start to trust you over time. That's the best way to use podcasting. And so that's the wrong reason to do it. If you're just doing it because your friend is doing it or if everyone else is doing it, you're seeing it's a trend, then really think about what it is you have to offer the marketplace and the world. What's the value that you could bring to your own business, your own situation, and the viewers' situation? Because if it's just a a bunch of gossip, you can do that. It's going to take a long time before you can actually monetize. And there's obviously unicorn situations and there's anomalies in the space of podcasting. But for the most part, about 95 to 98% of you are— it's going to be a trek. And so you want to be able to use this podcast in a way that's going to be able to leverage your business and you're going to be able to monetize off of it because it is an investment. It's an investment into you. It's an investment into your business. The power of communication itself is it takes time, it takes, it takes money, it takes practice. And so that's another thing that you're gaining whenever doing podcasting. It's communicating with each other, with the camera, all the above. If you don't have a strategy in place before you start it, then either contact us and we can help you figure out a strategy, or just don't do a podcast because you're going to have a lot of wasted time, a lot of wasted effort. You're going to be focusing on your logo too much. You're going to be focusing on the merch too much. You got to have an end goal in mind whenever you're starting something of this caliber. So yeah, if If that sounds like you, then you may want to start with short-form content. Now you ask, what is short-form content? Short-form is Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, anywhere that you can post like a vertical video that's considered short-form, and it's usually under 5 to 10 minutes. YouTube is a big long-form platform. So podcasting and longer videos, I mean, I've sat and watched a podcast for 3 hours before. And it flew by like nothing. And so this is the difference. Go try out short form. And then once you figure out like a business model or get a plan together of how you can actually bring value to your business or whatever it is that you're going on and to the consumer, then that's whenever it would be time to jump into a podcast. So I want you to remember this 3-part framework whenever going through these questions in your mind, I want you to ask yourself this. The first question is, do I have something valuable to say regularly? If you don't, that is okay. Go and get experience. Go and get those stories. Like, do the things that you're going to be talking about on the podcast in the future. Learn the skills. Go and develop a certain skill in software engineering or business or entrepreneurship, whatever it is, your craft. Go and get the experience first, that is okay. And that is honestly something that I had struggled with at the very beginning. I was trying to do a lot of content and I was running out of things to talk about, but that just proved that I didn't— I wasn't a professional. I couldn't talk about it for over an hour. I would run out of things to say. And so I went on a deep dive for the last 4 years trying to figure out how this content stuff works. And now I can talk about it for hours. We've had people in the studio come in who are members or one of our video partners, and we'll just end up talking for like an hour about social strategy and how they can monetize. And I kind of guide them like, hey, there's 5 different ways that you can monetize this thing online using video. And we'll just talk about it. And it reminds me how far that I've come personally because I have put in the extra effort and the extra time to research this stuff and figure it out. And also a lot of trial and error. Whatever it is, just make sure that you can talk about it and provide value on a regular basis. And the second question I want you to ask yourself is, can I commit for over 6 months to this podcast? If you start something like this and you don't stay consistent, it won't work. Like, that's a 100% guarantee it will not work because this is something that it continues to build level by level and you reach new heights and then you set new goals constantly. So if you're just starting out, you're like, okay, our goal is 8 episodes. Then you start those 8 episodes. Well, guess what? You're going to start to get a little bit of viewers, a little bit of fans, a little bit of traction, maybe even get a little bit of monetization. Perks from those 8 episodes. And that usually takes 1 to 2 months. And so I want you to continue. Think, think big whenever planning out your podcast. Think a year from now, 2 years, 5 years, 10 years. Where do we want to be whenever we are down the road still filming podcasts? Because if you stop before 6 months, then none of that— all your time and money and resources will be wasted. Because it's, it's never going to take off. Like, you cannot fail if you never quit. And the biggest podcasters, I mean, Joe Rogan, for example, he's probably the biggest one, um, and he's a unicorn for sure. But he's at, I mean, he's had like a few thousand episodes. And so how many episodes have you put out? If you put out 12 episodes, you can't expect all the results that you want. So there's been a lot of podcasters, um, David Shands, there's there's a stat that he brought up at the Podcast Summit in Atlanta. He's— I think it was like he had to put out 164 podcast episodes before anything took off. That was the first time that he saw traction. And so he stayed consistent for years putting out this content. And so just think about that. Can you commit to this for over 6 months, even 12 months? I would encourage you, like, try to commit for longer than a year. And your life will look completely different if you stay consistent. The last question I want you to ask is, do I know how I'll repurpose or monetize? We talked a little bit about that, and the quickest way to monetize is to get a business model or have a service or product that you can sell to the people on your podcast or to the people listening. And so if you only have 10 views an episode, Make sure to be intentional about who you bring on the podcast because you can build that relationship. And if your service is $5,000 a month, then that's a $5,000 opportunity whether you get a lot of views or not. And so really take that into consideration of who you're bringing on. Be intentional about it. Don't just bring any random person on. That's something that I struggled with for a while because I didn't really understand the power of podcasting. I knew it was going to be big. I knew it was on the rise. But now that I can, like, I can look back and see, man, if I would have done this different, if I would have done this different, if I would have picked more intentional guests, what would my business look like today? What would my life look like today? And so that's what I want you to think about. Can you monetize? And do you have a service or a business that you can feed that stuff into? And how do you repurpose it? So make sure to familiarize yourself and go to my YouTube channel if if you aren't familiar with repurposing, but you can basically take this video, cut it up into 30 short-form reels using AI, and there's tools to make this very quick. I mean, this video would take 5 minutes in this platform to get edited with captions, cut up, ready to post. And so make sure and, and know that you can repurpose this stuff and create with the intent of repurposing as well. So after you ask yourself these 3 questions, is it a yes or is it a no? If it's a yes, then you need to have a podcast. If it's a no, try something else for a little while till you can say yes to all 3 of these questions. And so I am a very passionate person when it comes to creating videos online. And so we're actually, I put together a 5-day Build with Video Challenge. And so If you're an entrepreneur, a business owner who is interested in this video stuff and this content stuff and you don't know where to start, but you know it's valuable, there's going to be a link in the description that is specifically to sign up and apply for this challenge. It's 5 days, 45 minutes per day, one-on-one, me and you. We're going to talk about all kinds of stuff. And podcasting is just a fraction of the potential that you have with social media nowadays. And so if that interests you, make sure to click the link in the description to learn more. And yeah, let me know in the comments, what do you want to learn about next? What questions do you have about podcasting? Because I want to be a resource to you guys and I want to bring this value to you the best that I can and as often as I can. So let me know. Make sure to subscribe if you're watching on YouTube. If you're on Facebook, make sure to give me a follow and we'll see you guys in the next one. Peace.