How to Start a Podcast for Your Business

There’s a microphone that sat on the corner of my desk for six months before I ever pressed record. \

Six months of “I’ll get to it.”

Six months of watching other people launch shows while mine collected dust next to my vision board with a microphone on it.

If you’re sitting on a podcast idea right now, I want you to know that story before anything else, because it’s easy to look at 260-something episodes I’ve recorded now and assume I had it figured out from day one.

I didn’t. I just eventually decided the idea in my head mattered more than my fear of getting it wrong.

That’s really what this episode is about. Not theory. The actual process I used to start this show, the one I’d still use if I were starting from zero today.

The Market Isn’t as Crowded as You Think

Every “how to start a podcast” article wants to hit you with the same scare tactic first: there are millions of podcasts out there already, so why bother? And sure, there are somewhere between 4.5 and 4.7 million podcasts registered worldwide. But only around 15 to 16 percent of those are actually active. The average podcast goes quiet after about 21 episodes.

Meanwhile more people are listening than ever. Over half a billion people worldwide tune into podcasts, and in the US alone more than half the population age 12 and up has listened to one in the past month. That number keeps climbing every year, and almost a third of listeners find new shows through search, which means your title and description are doing real work, not just sitting there looking cute.

So yes, it’s crowded. It’s crowded with shows that already stopped publishing. The bar to still be here in a year is lower than you think. That’s not a reason to hold back. That’s the opening.

My Actual Seven Steps

1. Step one is having an idea that makes you sit up a little straighter when you say it out loud. Not “is this good on paper?” but does it light you up enough to talk about for months, maybe years, before more than a dozen people are listening? If the excitement isn’t real on day one, it will not survive to week twelve.
2. Step two is naming your ideal listener, even loosely. This show used to be called Small Minded, built for small businesses in small towns. Over the years it became The Found Podcast, built for women in small business specifically. Your listener can change. You don’t need the whole picture on episode one, you just need to know who you’re talking to and what they’re wondering when they hit play.
3. Step three is finding a mentor, a guide, or a launch specialist, because you don’t have to figure this out alone in a Google Doc at eleven at night. I used Jenna Kutcher’s Podcast Lab and it gave me in months what would have taken me half a year to stumble into on my own.
4. Step four is gathering your tools: a mic, editing software, and a distribution platform. I use a Blue Yeti, I edit in Descript, and I distribute through Libsyn and Captivate. None of it has to be fancy. It just has to work, and it has to be something you’ll actually use.
5. Step five is building your assets: cover art, your intro and outro, your URL, your social handles, your call to action. None of it needs to be perfect before episode one. It just needs to exist so you can refine it as you go.
6. Step six is building a list of at least 30 episode ideas before you launch. Not because you’ll record all 30 right away, but because you will hit episode 11 and stare at a blank page wondering why on earth you did this to yourself. Past you needs to leave a list for future you. That list is what gets you past the point where most shows quietly die.
7. Step seven is choosing your cadence. Weekly, monthly, seasonal, whatever fits your actual life right now, not the version that sounds most impressive. I publish weekly today. That hasn’t always been true, and it won’t always stay true, and that’s fine.

The Part Nobody Puts in the Listicle

Here’s what almost nobody tells you: launching the podcast is maybe 20 percent of the job. The other 80 percent is what you do every single week to get it in front of people. A podcast with no marketing plan is nice. A podcast with a marketing plan actually does what you built it to do.

For me that’s social posts every time an episode drops, a dedicated section in my email list, and collaborations with guests who share the episode with their own circle. You don’t need every channel on day one. You need one or two you’ll actually keep showing up for.

And you need to be honest about where you need support. I knew from the start that if editing and distribution depended on me alone, this show would live as a file on my computer that nobody ever heard. That’s why my editor Miranda has been beside me since episode one. We wouldn’t have 260-something episodes without her.

2019 Molly Would Not Recognize This

If you go back and listen to my earliest episodes, I sound stiffer. More careful. A little unsure of my own audio levels, which is on me, not Miranda. It took time and reps to sound like myself behind a mic instead of a version of myself I thought a podcast host was supposed to sound like.

Nobody is waiting for a perfect podcast. They’re waiting for a real one. The one where you sound like you and say the thing you actually think instead of the safe version of it.

You’ve got the idea that makes you sit up a little straighter. So go do it. Not someday. This week.

If this stirred something loose for you, an idea you’ve been sitting on, a fear you’ve been dressing up as “not the right time,” I’d love to hear about it. Send me a message @mollyknuth or molly@mollyknuthmedia.com. And if you know someone who’s been circling their own podcast idea for months, send them this one. That’s how shows like this grow, one share at a time.