Is Starting a Podcast Worth It? How to Get Over Your Fears and Finally Launch Your Show

The lights went out, and I couldn’t see a single thing.

It was a balmy, cool evening in Isabela, Puerto Rico. Youth service had just ended, and everyone was walking around this massive white tent, chit-chatting into the night.

Picture a huge white circus tent with no walls. Crickets are singing everywhere, and if you stick your head past the edge of the tent, you’d see a stunning starry sky.

For a fucking cult, it really was a beautiful place.

But one thing about Puerto Rico that is not beautiful is the electric grid. The power goes out with zero warning so often there’s a Bad Bunny song about it (“El Apagón”), and that’s exactly what happened that night.

One second we’re yapping, and the next we’re bathed in total darkness, the kind where you can’t see your hand in front of your face while your eyes adjust.

I was standing right under the edge of the tent, talking to a friend, heart already racing from the blackout, when I felt something cold, wet, and slimy fall directly into my curtain bangs.

My eyes had adjusted just enough to register a small toad, spread-eagled, bouncing off my cheek, hopelessly tangled in my hair.

So of course, I started screaming Exorcist-style, slapping my own face, and jumping up and down, which, in a church that literally believes in demonic possession, was probably not helping my case.

Seconds that felt like hours passed before the toad finally dislodged itself and hopped off into the grass, leaving me with a frog phobia that persists to this day.

If you’re thinking about starting a podcast, you might be dealing with some pretty troubling fears of your own right now. And just like naming the toad thing out loud helps me survive retelling it, naming your podcast fears helps too.

So let’s do it!

But first, is starting a podcast even worth it?

If you’re gonna go through all this trouble of facing your fears we need to make sure the whole enterprise of starting a podcast is worth it in the first place!

The short answer is YES.

People have been calling podcasting a fad for years, insisting it was about to peak, and then it’d be all downhill from there. But that’s not what has happened.

According to RSS.com, 73% of Americans age 12+ have listened to a podcast, 584.1 million people listen worldwide, and for the first time ever, the majority of American adults (55%) say they listen monthly.

Over 70% of listeners finish most or all of an episode, and the average listener spends about 7 hours a week with podcasts.

So I think it’s safe to say isn’t slowing down any time soon!

Now stack that against the bajillion benefits of podcasting:

The barrier to start is low. You can launch for free or close to it. Few mediums are this accessible.

You own your audience. Unlike social media, nobody can take it from you at the whims of an algorithm or a platform policy change.

Networking and audience-expanding opportunities. Interview guests or guest on other shows, and you get real conversations with people you’d never otherwise talk to, plus an awesome introduction to their audience.

People get to know you before they buy from you. Listeners hear your personality, voice, and work style long before a sales conversation ever happens. That builds trust on its own.

It becomes an evergreen library and content machine. An episode can work for years, answering the same audience question over and over, long after you hit publish.

You can repurpose it in so many ways. One recording becomes a newsletter, a blog post, quotes, Threads content, and more.

And finally, you get to practice a bunch of important shit. A podcast gives you your own personal stage to practice communication, confidence, creativity, and a bunch of skills. This is probably one the most underrated benefits of podcasting because it has nothing to do with growth metrics or external rewards.

Now, despite all these clear benefits, whether or not podcasting is “worth it” for YOU ultimately depends on your capacity, systems, and WHY.

It is a ton of work, but if you have the space for it, a clear WHY for starting it, and the necessary systems/support in place, it absolutely is worth it.

So now that we’re clear on that, let’s talk about your deepest, darkest fears!

Five common fears of starting a podcast (which one’s yours???)

There are so many fears that come up with starting a podcast, but let’s talk through five of the big ones, and the reframe I’d give you for each.

1. What if no one listens?

It’s highly unlikely that literally no one listens. What will probably happen is that, at first, your friends, family, and warmest leads tune in. Then your friends and family will probably drop off (if the topic isn’t relevant to them), and your true audience will start to slowly grow. Emphasis on slowly.

Podcasting is a long game. Growth takes time and strategy, but the results (as we already know!) are so worth it.

Start with realistic expectations and a solid why that has nothing to do with external marks of success, and frustration won’t overtake you before you get to reap the rewards of all your hard work.

2. Who am I to do this? I’m not expert enough.

If you have a deep desire to start a podcast, it’s because you already know you have something worth sharing. You have a unique combination of experiences, ideas, opinions, and knowledge nobody else has, and there are people out there who WILL connect with that.

And if you don’t feel like enough of an expert yet, starting a podcast will turn you into one. When I started writing my newsletter, the process of researching for each issue taught me so much.

Humans learn by doing.

3. What if I embarrass myself and people judge me? What if I sound stupid?

Bigger dummies than you have started podcasts. Trust me. And they’ve said far dumber things than you ever will. (Have you ever seen a podcast clip on TikTok?)

The good news: podcasts aren’t recorded live. If you don’t love something you said, you can always edit it out before publishing.

4. What if I start and then quit because I don’t have time to keep up with it?

Take the time upfront to make sure your podcast is actually sustainable, and that you truly have the capacity to execute your plan. A few things that make it easier: batching episodes, recording shorter episodes, and releasing in seasons or biweekly instead of weekly.

5. I don’t even know where to start.

I do. The very first step is making sure your podcast concept is unique and stands out — that it can generate endless topic ideas so you never run out of things to say, and that it actually appeals to your ideal listener.

That’s exactly what my freebie, The Podcast Starter, is designed to help you do!

Oh, and one more thing… starting a podcast is NOT embarrassing!

I don’t know where this idea came from, but it has definitely taken root. Just the other day, I was scrolling on Threads and came across this:

“Is starting a podcast a ridiculous idea? I mean has it been way overdone?”

I’ve heard versions of this everywhere:

“The idea of starting a podcast makes me cringe.”

“Everyone’s starting a podcast these days.”

“Starting a podcast is just embarrassing idk.”

I’m not totally sure why podcasting (a form of human expression and communication like any other) is currently on the hot seat.

My hunch is that people associate it with the fucking manosphere, scammy podcast bros, or the rise of AI slop shows currently flooding Apple Podcasts and outnumbering human podcasts.

Or maybe podcasting just got wildly popular seemingly overnight, and people are still reeling from the shift.

Whatever the reason, I believe the people cringing are exactly the ones whose voices we need most: people with real opinions, creative ideas, and unique perspectives. Women, queer people, and BIPOC folks, who are still underrepresented in podcasting!

As a bi Latina woman from a small town, I know I’m the first to question myself: why me? What makes me qualified to be this visible, to build a platform for myself?

But I can assure you: you have something important to say that only you can say, in your own unique way.

BONUS! Two quotes that I return to when I’m attacked by imposter syndrome:

When I need a confidence boost, I go back to two quotes from podcasters I love.

From Georgia Hardstark of My Favorite Murder:

“Bigger dummies than you have done it. So why not you?”

From Sara Joelle of Point of the Story:

“Embarrassment is a choice that doesn’t happen without your consent.”

Read those again and again. Commit them to memory, and then stop being embarrassed and start planning that podcast!!!

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If this blog helped you in any way, come hang out in my newsletter, Sounds Like Brunch! I send a free podcasting tip like this straight to your inbox every Wednesday.

And if you’re ready to DECIDE to be ready to start your podcast, grab The Podcast Starter, my free 11-minute training that’ll help you nail a podcast concept that stands out from episode one.

Thanks for reading! 🥂

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