Ep 118: What If My Podcast is Rubbish? – Breaking Down 3 Worries When Starting a Podcast

Hello, everybody, and welcome back to another episode of Podcasting for Indie Podcasters with myself, Verity.

If it is your first time here, welcome to the show.

And if you are a longtime listener, then welcome back to the show as well.

If you are not subscribed, I would love it if you could just hit the subscribe button on whichever platform you are currently listening to this episode on.

So then you are ready for the next time a new episode, new content drops on the show.

Today, I'm not going to lie to you.

I was really, really not feeling the vibe for recording a podcast episode for today.

But it is a Monday, and the episode for this week is due out on Wednesday, as it always is.

And so I thought, you know what, like, the weather's just awful outside and it's just cold.

And I was all snuggled in a blanket on the sofa.

Normally I record at my dining room table, was just not feeling like moving over there.

But then I thought, you know what, why not just grab the microphone and just record on the sofa?

So that is what I'm currently doing.

And to be honest with you, I think it sort of fits the vibe for today's show anyway, because today isn't a how to.

We are going to be looking more at.

More kind of like the.

Not touchy.

I was gonna say the touchy feely side of podcasting, but that sounds a little bit weird, but like the emotional side of podcasting, I suppose.

Because the thing that I wanted to talk about today was nine things that you need to do before starting a podcast.

And I've written this whole blog post to kind of guide me as to what I wanted to talk about this episode.

But then when I looked at it this morning, and I was thinking, actually, I think that's too in depth.

There's always too much to cover in an episode.

So what could I go over instead?

And there was this part of the blog post at the bottom, which is around telling people about your podcast.

When you've either started your podcast, you're just at the beginning of launching it, or if you've got an established podcast, just this idea about telling people about your podcast.

And I thought, I'm not sure if I've actually covered that particular topic on the podcast, so how about just zoning in on that for the episode?

So what I want to do, as I said, is talking about how you tell people about your podcast, but I want to cover three questions in particular, which I think will resonate with a lot of people.

So first of all, what if your show is rubbish?

Second, what if no one listens?

And third, what if people laugh at you?

Because I think these are really legitimate questions.

I think we do get that fear of, well, what are people going to think of my show or me if I suddenly podcast about something?

Especially if I podcast about something that has nothing to do with my job or it might seem a little bit of a left field.

People who know me, I thought it'd be really nice to just sit on the couch.

I would say I've got a cup of tea, but I've actually just finished it and I think.

And.

But just to sit on the couch and just go through these questions and hopefully if you're worried about telling people about having a podcast, this episode will put your mind a little bit at rest.

The other reason why I wanted to cover this as a podcasting topic or a topic on the podcast is because the number one way to still find new podcasts and to get your podcast in front of people is through word of mouth, recommendation.

It doesn't matter what you're doing with SEO, doesn't matter what you're doing, like paid ads, all these different things.

The number one way of finding new podcasts, of sharing podcasts, is through word of mouth.

So you are more likely to discover a new podcast because somebody has recommended it to you than through any other method.

And yes, I know I talk about SEO a lot.

SEO is a strong part of my strategy.

But we've got to be talking podcasts as well, because as I said, this is.

This is how people discover new content.

So first of all, first thing that might be thinking why you don't want to tell people about your podcast is what if your show is rubbish?

And I think for this question in particular, I'm looking at anybody who is new to podcasting and maybe is just about to launch or has only launched a few episodes.

You're thinking to yourself, what if my show is rubbish?

And what I would say to you is the first few episodes that you do probably will be quote, unquote, rubbish.

And I say quote unquote because actually the fact that you've got to creating a podcast is absolutely amazing.

And I don't think anyone should take that away from you at all.

You've got some episodes published, but what you've got to remember is that podcasting is a journey.

And so it doesn't matter how much money you do or don't put into those first episodes, what your studio setup looks like, anything like that.

What you've got to remember is that your first Few episodes will never be as good as episode 10, episode 20, episode 50, episode 100, because you haven't developed those different podcasting skills.

Be it from a presentation, a research point of view, a editing point of view, you know, you haven't developed those skills yet, and there's nothing wrong with that.

Podcasting is the craft that you need to work at and you need to develop.

So if you're thinking, oh, my gosh, what if my show is rubbish?

Don't stress about that too much.

You.

You kind of.

You need people to start listening to it because you need that feedback so that you know where to improve.

And you also need to listen to your own content to know how you want to improve as well.

The next point about what if people laugh at you, or maybe not laugh at you, but maybe like, you know, sneak behind your back or think like, you know, what the hell is he or she doing?

What they do?

Why do they think they've got the right to talk about that topic?

Or like, who are they thinking that they can be?

A podcast or whatever it is people thinking, you know, maybe not very supportive things behind your back can be quite a legitimate concern for anyone starting a podcast.

But I have to say, in my experience, and maybe I've already had a narrow experience, but in my experience, nobody's done that.

People are much more likely to come along and be like, oh, my gosh, that's amazing.

Like, how did you learn how to do that?

Or, can you show me how to do this?

Or, wow, you know, how do you fit that in with the kids?

Or how do you fit that with your job or what have you?

And I think anyone who does laugh at you, just ignore them because they're probably a little bit jealous.

That's what I tell the kids anyway.

And that third concern of what's the.

If no one listens?

I think when you're.

Maybe when you're starting a show, maybe when you're a couple of episodes in, wherever you are on your podcasting journey, I would really, really beg you to not go into a podcasting project with the mindset that no one's going to listen, because I think then you're just going to be quite overshadowed with the idea and the obsession of getting an audience, as opposed to the idea of putting out really, really good content.

And that's the important thing.

You need to be producing good content and kind of ignore the little voice you had been like, what if no one listens?

Somebody is going to listen to your podcast.

I promise you, there are like, what's the statistic?

And there's 7 billion people on this planet at this point.

Somebody is going to listen to your show.

And if your nan is the only supporter you have, which is very unlikely, that she will be your only supporter, you know what?

Good for your nan.

But as I said, you know, depending on how you market it, it might take you a while to build up an audience, it might take you a while to g wide listener base, but somebody is going to listen to your show.

And I think that goes back to what I was talking about, and I think it was episode 109 A few episodes ago.

I'll have it linked down in the show notes, but episode 109, where we talked about why unique listeners are more important than a lot of podcasters probably give them credit for, because, you know, what's.

What's better when you think of, like, you know, download numbers or something, would you rather have a thousand people download one episode and then only listen to the first 10 seconds, or would you prefer to have 30 people download your episode but listen to, like, 95% of it?

I know personally which one I would prefer, and it's definitely the smaller number who are engaging with the content.

So I think when people are worried, oh, what if no one listens?

I think what a lot of people actually mean is, what if I don't get thousands or tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of downloads per episode or per month or whatever?

And I don't think that that's necessarily a concern that you need to.

You need to be having, especially in the beginning.

You just need to be enjoying the craft that is podcasting and getting into it, building those skills up and enjoying the learning process that that comes with it.

On that note, as I said at the beginning, this has not been a how to or a tutorial this episode, but I hope it's given you something to think about around those thought processes that we sometimes have around why we might not be starting our podcast or what might be holding you back from developing your podcast in further ways.

If you've enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you could hit the subscribe button so that you are subscribed for the next episode.

Thank you.

And I will see you next episode.