According to Podcast Insights, there are over 700 000 podcast shows, and that number will likely continue to grow. People are listening to podcasts more than ever before, and they are becoming a regular activity when people are at home, commuting, or even just walking around. Here are three reasons why you should jump on the podcast train (choo! choo!) and what are the most important reasons to have a podcast in 2019, read below.

Having A Podcast Will Improve Your Business

Having a podcast can drastically improve your business in various ways. Podcasts are a lot more personal than blogs, and audio/video and will give you an opportunity to build a relationship with your audience. Podcasting can present you to the world in a way the written word isn’t able to. That will help people to trust you more, and more trust equals more business opportunities.

Networking is another business reason to have a podcast in 2019. Industry leaders, entrepreneurs, authors, and artists are all busy people. If you invite them out for a lunch or a business meeting, you’ll less likely get a positive response than if you invite them to do a podcast appearance. Podcasting gives them the platform to talk about themselves and their projects, and it allows you to meet successful people and possibly collaborate with them. It’s a win-win situation. For example, I was fortunate enough to interview -  Isaac Rudansky which ultimately lead to this guest post as well.

Owning a podcast puts you in the position of authority and helps to establish you as an expert in your field. If you have a lot of knowledge about something, putting it out in the world gives you credibility and influence.

For example, if you wanted to hire a social media marketing agency, and you have a choice between the one that doesn’t have a podcast and the one that has over 100 episodes with various marketing experts as guests – you would probably choose the latter.

A Podcast Will Improve You

To have a successful podcast, it doesn’t take a lot of expensive equipment or a fancy studio. However, you will have to invest in yourself and make sure you are constantly learning and improving, to be prepared for the show and to continuously bring value to your audience.

A podcast will give you the motivation to stay on top of industry news and trends, therefore opening you up to new ideas and opportunities. Let’s say that you had a podcast in 2016 when Bitcoin was still relatively unknown to the general public. You heard about it and wanted to make an episode about Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, which made you research all about it. And that got you interested, and you have decided to invest a 10 000$ in Bitcoin at the beginning of 2016, which would turn into 500 000$ when it peaked in 2018.

Also, you can bring in notable experts and learn from them. Successful people get paid thousands of dollars for a couple of hours of consulting, which you can get for free if they end up as a guest on your show. Moreover, it gives you an opportunity to build relationships with them, which is invaluable.

A couple of years of talking to a microphone will surely put some shine on the things you didn’t even know about yourself. Through guest appearances and public feedback, you will undoubtedly have more insight into your character and what can you improve about your professional and/or personal life.

It will help your audience

If you provide value and your podcast reaches people and helps them solve their problems, gives them motivation or enhance their life in some other way – you have made it. Your podcast was successful in what should be the core of every podcast, blog, or a product – to help people.

If you have quality material and you stick with the podcast and manage to build up a big enough audience, your show can become quite profitable as well. However, if you are just starting out, monetizing shouldn’t be on your list of priorities. Even though podcasting is relatively simple and cheap to start, it will surely take a while for it to become an income source.

In fact, if you are not ready to commit to a podcast, it might be better not to do it at all. According to Amplifimedia, more than 50% of the podcasts faded away and stopped producing episodes. If you quit after a while, that's all right. It's your decision and you can still say to people that you had a podcast, and it can stay online. But you’ll only fully reap the benefits that we mentioned above if you keep recording, so remember that podcasting is a long term commitment.

About The Author

My name is Michael Coombe, I'm an entrepreneur in the self-development space and I also run the motivational podcast  - Who Is Going To Stop me. We focus on bringing on knowledgeable experts in business, health, wealth and more to help create positive and pragmatic change in your life.