Starting A Podcast Can Feel Scary, These Hosts Say Start One Anyway

According to Statista, it’s projected that more than 100 million people will listen to podcasts in 2024. While the industry is booming with new episodes every day, it can daunting to launch a show. Jessica Abo sat down with two hosts to hear how they got started and learn how you can, too.

Dr. Krystal Conner’s Story

Dr. Krystal Connor says the road leading her to where she is today was pretty bumpy. She started as a pharmacist and then went to work for her family’s company, where she became the CEO. But at some point, the job didn’t feel right. “I started wondering, ‘Why am I doing this? What am I supposed to be doing?’ It didn’t feel purposeful. I didn’t feel fulfilled. And I felt guilty.”

Searching for Answers

Looking back on her life, she felt like she did all of the things she was supposed to do. “I went to school, got my degrees, had a family, and the house, and yet, I kept asking myself, ‘What are you good at? What do you want to do?’ I had a friend who was seeing a life coach. And at the time, I was like, life coaching is so dumb.’” But once she started working with one herself, everything changed. “I tell you, it just completely blew my mind,” she says. “For the first time, it put the responsibility of where I was in my life on me.” She knew other people who could benefit from this type of self-work and that inspired her to become a life coach herself.

How to be a Dangerous Woman

Today, Dr. Connor helps women learn how to take ownership of their own lives, and take back control without looking to the outside world to tell them what they need to be happy and fulfilled. She supports female entrepreneurs through her company, K Connor Consulting, and her podcast, How to be a Dangerous Woman. She does solo episodes on themes like self-sabotage, and mindset, as well as interviews.

Her Advice to Aspiring Podcasters

Dr. Connor says she made mistakes along the way, and she had to accept that her episodes weren’t going to be perfect. “The biggest challenge for me with anything new that I do is being okay with not being good, especially when you have the standard of ‘I want to be good at everything’”.

Her advice to people who are thinking about starting a podcast is to just do it.

“I think sometimes we get discouraged because we feel like, ‘What do I have to offer? What do I have to say that hasn’t been said before?’ And I just believe that we are all called to help certain people. And we may be saying the same thing, but somebody may receive it from you differently than they receive it for me. So I feel like if you have something to say, and you have something that needs to be heard, go for it.”

Richelle Fredson’s Story

For people who don’t have author friends, or book industry experts in their inner circle, Richelle Fredson says it can be hard to piece together the roadmap of what it takes to get published. Having spent more than two decades in the publishing space, 15 of which were at Hay House, she has had an up-close view of the process. “I got to really sit with agents and aspiring authors and read their proposals and decide what we would buy, what we’d invest in, and then also be able to vision down the road to when my PR team would be launching these books.”

She decided to go out on her own in 2018, after she gave birth to her son. “I really wanted to help the people that didn’t know the right next steps, didn’t know how to develop the right idea, be competitive about it and get it into the right hands,” she says.

Today she helps people who want to pursue the traditional publishing path through her Book Proposal Blueprint Program and her podcast called “Bound and Determined”

Empowering Writers Through Her Podcast

In some episodes, it’s just Fredson and the mic. “I’m bring them my 20 years of tried and true career wisdom.” In others, she invites industry experts to come on the show and she chats with them about what’s happening in the industry at this moment. “What are they looking for as editors who acquire books or literary agents or marketing agencies? Then we also have conversations with authors. What was it like to go through this process? What have they learned? What recommendations and tips do they have for people who may just be starting?”

Fredson says if you want to create a successful podcast, you should make it transparent, informative, and inspiring. In her case, she’s also trying to bring a sense of community to her listeners who feel alone. “Some people will feel like, am I the only one feeling this way or am I the only one stuck at this point? I’ve hit this roadblock and I don’t know how to overcome it. The podcast is really there to be the kick in the pants and the warm hug at the same time.”

Setting Yourself Up for Success

Fredson says there are small steps that you can take that will have a big impact on your show. First she says, do your research. “Like launching any brand, ‘competitive analysis’ is essential. Listen to other podcasts and understand what you like, what you don’t like and what’s missing. Then figure out how to serve your audience and their needs well.” Next she says, keep it conversational. “Having an organic conversation with a guest instead of a formulated interview actually helps hold a listeners attention for the entire duration of the episode, and lets your wisdom shine more naturally.” Finally, she advises to go easy on the edit. “It’s very tempting to heavily edit your podcast to remove any sounds of flaws, but it’s the human moments during a conversation that can be the most memorable and fulfilling. I prefer to keep it natural.”