Whether you are building a business, a brand, and organization or a personal following, podcasting is a super popular trend amongst companies, nonprofits, and, well, people in general.

It sounds so cool and on trend to say you have your own podcast, to imagine your voice being heard by thousands of people around the WORLD, and to know that you have a golden opportunity to influence those listeners through one of the most powerfully intimate forms of media that exists today.

There’s definitely a wave to ride and you’re right on the edge, waiting to catch it!

But how do you know whether you are ready?

It seems easy enough — you just record your voice and somehow publish it to the internet and voila! Right?

I mean I KNOW you don’t think it’s quite that simple — or you wouldn’t be here, listening to this right now.

So I have created a checklist of 6 questions to ask yourself (or your organization) before you dive into your podcasting adventure.

Listen in and read on for more… 

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Alright here are 6 questions to ask yourself to see whether you are ready to start your own podcast!

1) Do you have a clearly defined purpose?

What is your “why?” This questions feels so played out in the entrepreneurial digital marketing space but it’s KEY to success. And I’m going to ask you to go beyond, to build more awareness, market my business, get more clients, make more money. There are a million ways to do these things and some may be easier and cheaper and faster than a podcast. Listen , I’m not trying to talk you out of podcasting. Obvi it’s my FAVE way to do some of these things — so let me give you some examples…   speaking career, innovative way to document a process, grant fulfilment, create short easily digestible highly compelling anecdotal evidence for policy makers, expand beyond your brick & mortar local demographic for your potential business clientele, proof of concept – to test new product and service offering ideas for your client base, give back to your community, add another touch point for know like trust, idea leadership, re-purposeable audio content to build into a library, etc. 

2) Do you know what your show is about?

Can you make a list of 10-15 episode topics or ideas… 50? 100? Have you tested it on other people (especially your ideal listeners?) 

3) Do you know who your podcast is for?

And how you will find them? It’s not enough to say your podcast is for everyone.

“If it’s for everyone, then it’s for no one.”

Seth Godin

4) Have you decided when and where you will be recording?

This is kind of a 2-for-1 question — but you are definitely going to have to allocate time and create space for it.

This will help you more easily find the answers to common questions like: equipment, software, workflow, team and cost. If you want to record in a professional studio, that will cost you more, but you will cut your learning curve and won’t have to buy gear. If you want to DIY you are going to have to invest in some gear learn how to create your own sound dampening and add time to your process to learn how to use everything optimally. Also let’s not forget editing — the most time consuming part!

5) Do you have a budget and is it enough for what you want to create?

This can range from $300 all in (if you are DIYing a LOT) for a straightforward simply formatted show to upwards of $40K for a high concept professional produced show to EVEN MORE! The trade off is time — I always think of this triangle I saw once — Cost/Speed/Quality, or cheap/fast/good — you can have 2 but not all 3!

6) Have you assembled your team?

,It might be a team of 1 and that’s okay, but if you are a one-woman or one-man show and you have a whole other job to do within your organization, or your business to run, or a whole OTHER job and this is a side hustle — you will burn out fast if you don’t have the proper support.

Team members to consider…. host (if not you), co-host, guests, producer, editor, audio engineer, social media, show notes, VA, cheerleaders, evangelists, coach, mentor.

Every team will look different depending on the answers to questions 1-5!

Okay… how’d you do? 

Let’s tally it up… how many “yes” answers do you have?

5-6 YES — You are READY! If you’re at 5, consider that last one for a bit and then what are you waiting for — let’s get that show launched!

3-4 — ALMOST — you’re so close!  

1-2 — You’re off to a solid start — there’s still a bit of homework for you to do but if you’re committed, it won’t be long til you’re up on that surfboard.

0  — don’t worry — all is not lost! Spend some time with these questions, do a little research  — once you have 1, 2, and 3 solid on paper, 4-6 will come more easily.

And no matter WHERE you are, don’t forget, I can help!

Connect with Andrea

My favorite hashtags #podcastenvy #podcastboss

Email or Voice (send me a question to answer on the show!)
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