032: Why Starting a Podcast Is Worth It (And What It Actually Does for Your Business) | Starting a Podcast, Part 2

If Part 1 helped you stop talking yourself out of starting a podcast … this is where we make the case for why you actually should. Because this isn’t just “one more thing to keep up with.” 

For a lot of us, it becomes the thing everything else comes from. Instead of constantly trying to come up with posts, emails, or blog content, this turns into your weekly anchor - the place your ideas get worked out, said out loud, and then reused in a way that actually makes sense. 

Honestly? For a lot of people, it ends up replacing way more complicated systems with something that finally feels sustainable.

Listen in for:

• Why podcasting isn’t just another platform (and why that matters)
• How it can become your weekly anchor instead of scrambling for new content
• Why talking through your ideas sharpens them faster than writing alone
• How podcasting can feel easier to sustain than trying to keep up everywhere else

RESOURCES MENTIONED

• This Week's Free Action Guide: The “Make Email Fit Your Business” Map
• The Smart Soulful Business Facebook Community: smartbusiness.thrivecart.com/soulful-strategy-community

SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW

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🎙 Thanks for tuning in to Smart Soulful Business Podcast! See you next week!

MORE FROM BECKY & LAURIE

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Smart Soulful Business Facebook Community: smartbusiness.thrivecart.com/soulful-strategy-community

Transcript

Becky Brown  0:01 
If you're a Christian woman, building a business and want it to be purposeful and profitable, we've got you covered. I'm Becky

Laurie Graham  0:08 
And I'm Laurie. We have both built successful businesses that we love without losing our faith, humor or our sanity. This is Smart Soulful Business.

Becky Brown  0:17 
Real conversations to help your business fit your life and not the other way around.

Laurie Graham  0:26 
Hey, hey, welcome back to Smart Soulful Business with Becky and Laurie, we help women build businesses that actually work in real life—not just look good on paper—but actually fit how you think and how your week even goes. So today, we're in part two of our starting a podcast series last week. In part one, we worked through the question that stops a lot of people right at the beginning, like, 'Does the world really need another podcast?' So we already talked about that. If you haven't heard it, go back and listen to it. But if you're still here today, I'm guessing that you didn't fully talk yourself out of it—which we are very glad—because we're going to help talk you into it, and today we're going to take the next step, because this is the part that doesn't always get explained well, why a podcast is worth doing, and what makes it worth doing, not in a hypey way, not in a 'you should definitely start a podcast' way, but how this would actually work for your business, your content, your week, your life, your goals, your dreams, your ambitions. So for a lot of people, it ends up doing a lot more than they even expected. 

So by the end of this episode, we want you thinking, okay, I can see how this would work. And honestly, I think I could do that. So that's my goal for you for this episode, and this week's free Action Guide, which we'll talk about a little later, is the Podcast Ripple Map. Is that still the name of it? Becky. Did we change that name? It's the name. Okay, interesting. So we're talking about the ripple in the water, like when you skip a rock, like it just ripples out. Okay, that's awesome. I love that name. I wasn't sure if we were keeping it, but I love it. Okay, so okay, let's talk about the fact that a podcast is not just another platform or a different choice. I think where people get stuck sometimes is that they assume the podcast is just one more thing to add, like 'Cool, add it to the list. Now I have a podcast, plus everything else I was trying to keep up with.' and of course, that in my heart would feel like an absolute no. Like, okay, I don't need one more thing. So Becky, let's talk about this a little bit. Do you feel like that's accurate? Like, this is how a lot of people think about a podcast at first. And maybe, did you think about it like that way?

Becky Brown  2:34 
Absolutely, 100% I totally think in tasks and time and capacity. And so for sure, that was my first thought. How long, do you remember how long you told me we need to start a podcast before I actually like, entertained the idea?

Laurie Graham  2:52 
That's funny. I hadn't really thought about that. So for those of you listening, if you don't have a lot of context, my name is Laurie. When I listen to our podcast, Becky, I can't always tell who's talking, so that's why I'm mentioning, yeah. I'm like, Yeah. Sometimes I'm like, lady who's talking. So my name is Laurie, and I have, I've run Small Church Ministry, a business for about five, six years now, and I started a podcast, I think in 2022. So we have a few years going. Becky convinced me to have a business. I resisted having a business at all for a long time, but you did resist the podcast thing. So Becky's been on online business a lot longer than I have, but the podcast thing is much newer for her. So I think we talked on and off maybe for a couple years, like, oh, we should do a podcast.

Becky Brown  3:39 
Yeah.

Laurie Graham  3:39 
Because we and we weren't even sure what we would do a podcast on that it would be on business, because we've talked about other things—issues and faith and parenting and life and relationships—and so I think it was a couple years before you actually said yes.

Becky Brown  3:54 
That sounds about right. Well, and I mean, that's my answer to the question, is I, wasn't really nervous about the idea of talking on a podcast, but I was very nervous about my capacity and adding another thing to my plate, exactly like you were describing. And, you know, like I have seen over the years running an online business, how easy it is to add busy work to my plate where I'm doing things but I'm not creating impact, and I'm not creating traction or income, all of those things. And so I was afraid, I was afraid that the podcast would be another 'one more thing'.

Laurie Graham  4:29 
Yeah, and we don't need just one more thing. You know, I think, when I think about what people actually hope a podcast will do, like, I've thought about that like, when I started podcast, what did I hope it would do? What do you what were you hoping it would do?

Becky Brown  4:44 
Yeah, I mean, I was hoping it would become another place to connect with my audience in an authentic way. There are a lot of places on the internet, and things, best business practices that are recommended that don't feel good to me, and I was really hoping that podcasting would be a way for me to show up authentically and and, yeah, share bits of myself personally with my people. And yeah, you know the other thing is, places like Facebook and Instagram and Pinterest and Google, all of them change their algorithms to hide your content, even when you're following all of the best practices. And podcasting, it's very different. And you kind of have more control in podcasting. And I wanted that. I wanted to not have somebody else be in charge of hiding what I was.

Laurie Graham  5:37 
I love it, and I love that you talked about like, you know, you've already talked about creating impact and and more traction or momentum for a business and more connection with your audience. And I think a lot of people, I'm just gonna throw this out there, hope that a podcast will make money. Like I think you and I both knew that that isn't the reality of podcasting, but I still run into people who say, 'How much money do you make off your podcast?' Podcast is not to make money. It's a different part of the funnel. But we're going to talk about the benefit of a podcast, because it goes so far beyond just connection. But before we get into that Becky, when did it shift for you—for feeling like this is an extra thing—to this is actually useful, or has it shifted yet? We've been doing this podcast for seven months. I couldn't believe it when I looked it when I looked it up. I'm like, 'Oh my gosh, seven months.' Has it shifted for you yet? Like, okay.

Becky Brown  6:27 
For sure, yes. I was very unsure. Even in the first handful of podcasts, I kind of was willing to take the first step and give it a try, but I wasn't all in, in the beginning. And so I think it took a good handful, I don't even know the exact number, a good handful of recordings before I felt like I could kind of relax and show up more authentically. And really the whole goal of us doing a podcast was to share our actual conversations that we're having behind closed doors with people that it could actually help. And when I started feeling like we were doing that more smoothly, fluidly, more authentically, that really shifted for me and you. You changed this for me, because when we started this, we came in with really good systems, because of you knowing how to use the podcast as an anchor for everything else we did, and it was a fantastic approach to blend systems and structure and regular rhythms, which is my jam, with creativity and impact and connection, which is your jam. And so I felt like that really happened beautifully, and we'll talk more about that in a second.

Laurie Graham  7:36 
I'm sorry. I'm just

Laurie Graham  7:37 
laughing that you said I came in with systems because I am not the system girl, I'm like, the ADHD throwing things on the wall person, so I'm like, how do you mean I helped you do that?

Becky Brown  7:48 
Well, because you knew, you knew. Like, when, when you described it to me, you said, 'Well, this is how it's the anchor'. So I created the system, but you had the creative and impact, creativity and impact and connection, and you did. You showed me how it wasn't just an extra thing, how it could become the core thing, and it didn't have to be a black hole of a core thing that sucked all of your time and energy. And yeah, it you really showed me how it could stop being extra once you showed me the potential of what it could be. So let's talk about for a second how it can become a weekly anchor. It kind of took us from, took me from the idea of, I'm just going to throw spaghetti at the wall in all these areas and make stuff up to connect to my audience, and then you, you showed me how the podcast could take all of that spaghetti and make it a firm anchor. So most people are creating content in pieces fragments, right? So there's a blog post here, and then there's another random email over here, and then there's something on Instagram, if I have time, and it's just something that crossed my mind, and it doesn't really create a cohesive rhythm. And so what do you think, Laurie, what does that look like week to week for most people in online business, fragmented?

Laurie Graham  9:11 
You know, I just think so many people I know in this world, in this space—whether they're doing emails or trying to connect with their audience or create products—like, it's almost like you're on a treadmill of content creation. Like it just never stops, like a rat on a wheel, like, what's next,

Laurie Graham  9:30 
what's next, what's next, what's next, and whether we're creating it or thinking about it like spinning in our head, 'Oh my gosh. I have to, Oh my gosh. I have to'. Because I know a lot of people listening right now are in that phase. They're not quite creating it all yet, but they're, they're stewing about it. Like they're stressed out. We get stressed out just thinking of creating content. And I think for most people week to week, which is what we're teaching you not to do, y'all like, like, hang on for this. Most people week to week are like, What do I do now? What do I create now. How do I sell it? Where do I put it? You know, like, what comes next? And I think that's what it's like for most people who don't have systems and structures and anchors, which is why I'm so excited to talk about this.

Becky Brown  10:15 
I know. So tell us. So tell us what changes when a podcast becomes your main starting point.

Laurie Graham  10:21 
Wow. Like it all changes. Clarity, peace, less spinning in your head, less stress about what comes next, everything—if I can say the word easy—like, everything gets easier. Like, I know we're going to talk about what this looks like for us in Smart Soulful Business, but I'll go back just a little bit further in the past, like, I started my Small Church Ministry podcast. And we're to talk more about podcasts and numbers and stats, but it's excellent and super successful. Like, it's about small churches, and it's like, in the top I don't know, 5, 6, 7 percent of podcasts. Like, I'm like, it's crazy, right? And the numbers are different. Like, we'll get into numbers in some of the later episodes, but, but the only reason I started is because my daughter told me I had to, she she is, she did. She said, Mom, you have to do a podcast. And.

Becky Brown  11:15 
Because she's young and hip and cool.

Laurie Graham  11:16 
And I will bring her name up

Laurie Graham  11:18 
probably next week's episode, and maybe the next one, because she's the reason I did one every week, and I never stopped. She is the reason I did one every weekend. I never stopped. She said, this is going to be what's consistent. And that consistency spun into making everything else, creating better like and maybe this will come out more when we talk about what it looks like for us. But everything connects. Everything's easier. You're not just pulling ideas out of your brain. You're not sitting around stewing like, what's this? What's that? Everything just gets easier when you have an anchor, which for us, we're talking about that being the podcast content, yeah.

Becky Brown  11:41 
Yeah, definitely. And so let's, let's get into what I actually looks like.

Laurie Graham  11:51 
I know I'm so excited to talk about what it looks like, because it's not theoretical for us, like we're sharing what we actually do, and this is literally how we run Smart Soulful Business. So Becky, do you want to walk through what it looks like for this podcast to be an anchor in this business, and how it makes things easier and simpler, and how we're not starting over all the time.

Becky Brown  12:28 
Yeah. So for us, our core main content is podcast. So we record one podcast episode a week, and that one episode becomes the content for everything else that we throw out there. So every email that gets sent is connected to our podcast. The social media posts that you are seeing from us—whether it's a snippet of our audio, whether it's a quote, whether it's whatever it is—comes from our podcast. Even what we share in our membership is cohesive. It's it's content that we shared in our podcast. Our polls, our engagement, all of our posts inside the community come from the content that we are talking about on our podcast. 

So and all of the so we also create courses, because we talk about a lot of ideas on the podcast, but we know you guys want the nitty gritty, specific, practical, step-by-step details, and so we create that. We start talking about it on the podcast, and we think about, what are all the holes that we didn't have time to talk about? And we use our podcast content to create our courses from the series that we record here. So we are not sitting behind the scenes thinking, oh, what should I post on Instagram today.

Laurie Graham  13:46 
Exactly, exactly. So when we record an episode—you know, we're talking today about how the podcast can be an anchor, and how it's not one more thing, right? So out of this episode, like, we're like, what's a great quote? What did we say that people need? Oh, what do they need to hear more about? And then we do a strategy video for the membership. But it's all around this one idea. And it's easy because we're talking. There's a lot of ideas rolling off our heads. We're like, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh. Like, and it's all around this. So we're not sitting down tomorrow saying, 'Hey, what should we put in the email?' No, the email is going to point you back to this. We're not sitting down thinking, what are we going to blog about this week? Because we do have a blog on our website. The blog is our post, like it's this content right now becomes a website post because some people don't like to listen. I don't know why, but they'd rather read, right, you know? And so, I mean, I'd rather listen while I'm driving or whatever, but, you know? And so this one piece of content. This one podcast episode creates all the content for the whole week. Like, I mean, it's so beautiful. Like, I just love it.

Becky Brown  14:51 
Oh, it's so much more cohesive for my brain. I mean, just connecting everything and not having to reinvent the wheel for every piece of content and every platform that we're creating on, it has changed everything, and it feels everything. So feels way less scattered.

Laurie Graham  15:07 
I was just gonna say the word 'scattered', because I'm like, sometimes in online business, we can feel really scattered. What do we do next week, and when we when you have a plan and a system and a structure, everything changes. But when you have one piece of content, like a podcast that anchors at all. You don't have to keep coming up with new thoughts all the time, like it's such a different way to run a business. 

If you've been listening to Smart Soulful Business from the beginning, when Becky and I started, you know, a few months back, and we said we're one of the reasons we're doing this podcast is because we want to save you all the mistakes. Like this business, we are starting out the way we wish we had started our other businesses out. So like, we're literally catapulting into 5 and 10 years of business experience that we've had, more for you, Becky. But like, we're going, Hey, this is how, if we could restart it, this is how we would do it. And that's exactly how we're doing this business with Smart Soulful Business. So, yeah, awesome. 

So now this is something we kind of alluded to at the beginning, Becky, but there's another part that people don't always expect about podcasting, talking through ideas. Now with you and I, it's a partner, so we get to talk together, but my other podcast is a solo podcast, but I will still say this from this, talking through ideas is very different than writing them. And you were writer first. You wrote for years and years and years before you podcasted. What have you noticed happens when you talk it out versus writing it out.

Becky Brown  16:44 
A lot. It is very different. It is number one, way faster, way faster than writing. For me, it's it's more natural, it's easier to it's my natural voice. I'm literally talking. It's my voice, and it's just less, less overediting. When you're writing, you can sit down and you can edit and edit and edit and edit and edit, and it's kind of like a black hole. When you're talking on a podcast, it's out, it's out. And so yeah, like, as much as I love writing, and I still love writing, even though I'm podcasting now, I still love writing, but I can easily spend hours and hours working on a single post and podcasting. Yeah, there might be episodes where we run over our time by a couple of minutes, but that's nothing compared to the time that could be invested in writing a single post, right? Even a social media post.

Laurie Graham  17:38 
We don't really talk about that, but it's true, like when blog posting takes so much longer, podcasting is is faster. It's easier to produce something that's valuable, I think because you don't feel like you have to edit it, because people know you're just talking so, you know, we make a mistake. We mispronounce something, it's okay. It'll stand out there in the internet. So do you think ideas get clearer faster for you, talking?

Becky Brown  18:03 
Yeah, you know, yes, for sure, just saying things out loud and putting words to the ideas that are already in my head, it does. It helps cement them, and it helps make them more concrete, more specific, more practical. And on our podcast, specifically, I always get clarity when I process things out loud with you, and so for me, just that dynamic is really helpful in getting ideas clarified faster. So yeah.

Laurie Graham  18:28 
I'm not sure this next question is even valid anymore, but it used to be that people would default to writing first. I'm not sure that's true anymore. Like I think a lot of people are jumping to podcasts first. But why do you think that has been in the past, and I think for some people it still is.

Becky Brown  18:44 
Yeah, well, for me, writing just feels—I do genuinely like writing that was true—but it also just feels a lot safer honestly, sharing your voice totally, you know, like it's almost like showing it's practically as much as showing up on video. And, you know—like, because of the lack of all of the editing and overediting—it means that you could say something that you just cringe about later, and obviously you can edit things, but, yeah, I think that writing just feels a lot safer, and that plays into why this ends up just being easier to keep going with over time, right? All of the benefits of the podcasting being faster, and not having the editing, overediting.

Laurie Graham  19:28 
Well, I think once you put yourself out there and you're, you know, it's already out there, right? Like you're kind of get over it because it's so quick, like it's just so quick, and we just keep going.

Becky Brown  19:38 
Yeah, even with blogging, like, give yourself permission to change your mind over time. Record a podcast, and 10 years later, you're probably gonna say something different, and that's okay. Like, let 10 years ago, yeah.

Laurie Graham  19:49 
Oh, I love that. That's a good statement.

Becky Brown  19:51 
Let's talk about sustaining things, right? Because a lot of us have systems that I mean, I was talking about my capacity earlier. It's hard to create something that feels sustainable. So a lot of people have tried to keep up with blogs or posting schedules or content calendars. And it's not that those are bad. I love those things, but they don't always, your plans don't always fit your real life, your real capacity. So Laurie, can you talk about where you see most people burn out when it comes to content and creating content?

Laurie Graham  20:25 
it's, it's a lot of what you just said, like writing can feel heavy. There's a lot of editing, posting on the Internet just feels overwhelming. I think it's that idea of coming up with new ideas all the thought, the thought of coming up with new ideas all the time with the amount of content many of us produce, it's also not always going to be great. Like, it doesn't have to be a plus. Like, you can't produce this much content, and everything's perfect. And I think that's one of the things that makes podcasting more sustainable. And it feels a little different, because you just get into a rhythm, because it is more natural. And I think it was Amy Porterfield, who teaches on email lists, that talked about she had started out blogging and then tried podcasting and loved it so much, had such a different energy. Took less time and things for her. But she talked about she loves being in the room with people when they're brushing their teeth, like these, the intimate moments, like, who gets to be around somebody when they're brushing their teeth? Like I do, you know? I get to go on walks with people all the time. They just put me in their ears, you know? And I think there's something you already mentioned this, more natural and organic, a little more permission to be who we are without feeling so polished. And I just think this is why it gets a little more sustainable, like, that's the part I think that people start to notice—if they really do fall in love with podcasting—is it actually fits your life. It can fit a rhythm. Becky and I get on a record for 25 minutes, and it's done, and we plan it out ahead of time, of course, you know. But there isn't a whole lot after that of overthinking or reprocessing. And I think it just fits a rhythm. It's fun. I think it's also more fun.

Becky Brown  22:13 
It's true.

Laurie Graham  22:14 
Yeah, yeah. And I do think it's worth saying that this doesn't mean everybody needs to start a podcast, Although I think if it's on your head, and you're listening to this podcast, you're probably one of them that should do what I mean, like, it's not like people, everyone in the world has a desire to start a podcast. But do you think that? You know, how do we weigh this out? When people say, 'Should I start a podcast?, Should I not?' And by the way, this is, this is two. This is part two in our series of six or seven. Like, we're gonna go deeper into a lot of questions, but Becky, what do you think about when, if it's a fit or not a fit for people?

Becky Brown  22:51 
Yeah, I don't think that. I would boldly proclaim everybody should start a podcast, not as boldly as we say everybody should write a book.

Laurie Graham  22:59 
Oh, that's really good point. I agree with that. Everybody should write a book. I don't know that everybody should start a podcast. I totally agree with you.

Becky Brown  23:07 
Yes, but I think you have a really good point that if you have already kind of felt a nudge or a curiosity about podcasting, then you should probably at least try it. So no, podcasting doesn't necessarily fit every personality style, every like, the way you want to run your business. It might not fit into your business plans, and that's fine. It's not necessarily the right way to connect to your audience, but it's a really good one. It's a really good one to try and so yes, account like, take into account strengths, weaknesses, different preferences, what you enjoy, what you don't, but don't write it off right away, either as, oh, I don't know, yeah, I think, I think this is an issue, less about podcasting 'you should do this', and more about 'don't write yourself off', or the idea of podcasting off to.

Laurie Graham  24:02 
I do think that if you, you know when we say not everyone should have a podcast. I do think if you have a business, if you want to grow an audience and a platform, I do think this is way more than just a whim to consider. Like I think many, many people—if you're wanting to grow a platform and audience and have a business that's sustainable over time—I think a podcast is a really great option to look at. And we're going to walk through how this is sustainable, how it's doable. A lot of the details, like Becky said, we have a we're creating a course with all the step-by-step stuff. 

But big picture, podcasting is not just another platform. It really isn't. It can actually become the place where everything else flows from, that makes content creation easier in all, instead of all the separate pieces and places, we have an anchor for a conversation that flows into all the other kind of media, right? And for a lot of people, this is what showing up consistently feels like. This is when it feels finally doable, and Becky, I just want to say this, you said earlier that we record one podcast a week. I just want to clarify this for everybody. We batch things. So we often will batch, will record three podcasts at a time, and then we, you know, we batch ahead of time, because we also teach batching. We're considering putting an entire course together on why batching is great and how to batch better and all this kind of stuff. Because, you know, I mean, realistically, you could have a week when you're on vacation you don't want to do a pod. We're not saying you have to record every week. We're just saying there's a weekly rhythm of when it comes out. So, yeah.

Becky Brown  25:39 
Yeah, absolutely. Okay. So your next step now is simple, the same as it is every week. We don't want you to just listen and consume content. We want you to listen to this, consider it, and then take a few minutes this week to walk through this week's free Action Guide. The PDF is called the Podcast Ripple Map, and it'll just help you see how one episode idea can turn into a full week of content without starting from scratch and throw in spaghetti.

Laurie Graham  26:04 
It's so good. Get the download. Learn, do. Learn, do, apply what you're hearing. Okay, if you're listening to this, thinking, okay, I can see how this might work. I just don't want to figure it all out on my own. Of course, that's exactly why we've created this course, how to start a podcast from tech to topics. If it's not released yet, it will be released by the end of this series. So if you're listening live, if you're listening later, you got the link is in show notes. If you're listening live, watch for it. It'll pop up soon, within the next couple weeks. We walk through the setup, the structure, what to talk about, all of it without making it complicated. 

And if you want support as you're building something like this, we talk about this kind of thing all the time inside the Soulful Strategy Community. The link to join that is also in the show notes. If this episode helped you sparked some ideas. You're like, 'Oh, these girls are cool. I want to learn from them.' Please leave us a review. Get those reviews flowing. Just give us some stars and put some reviews down, especially if you are listening on Apple, the more reviews we have, the more people can find the show and honestly find the help and the support that they're craving. Because we were craving it too. We want to make sure to share it as much as we can. So next week is part three. We're going to get into why a lot of podcasts stop and don't make it very far. What happens after you say yes, and how to avoid some of the reasons why some people don't stick with it. So that's what we got. Okay, we'll see you again next time, go team.