3 Mistakes I Made When Starting My Podcast With Lauren Najar

What does it really take to start and grow a podcast as a business owner?

After one year of Business Over Cocktails, Lauren Najar is sharing the real behind-the-scenes of building a business podcast—from deciding what the show should actually be about to figuring out podcast growth, guest pitches, downloads, monetization, and what it takes to keep showing up.

In this episode, Lauren reflects on her first year of podcasting and the biggest lessons she learned along the way. She talks about why she waited so long to start a podcast, how she finally found an idea she loved, what surprised her about podcast downloads and audience engagement, and why some episodes performed better than others—even when the guests had large audiences.

She also gets honest about the realities of podcasting for business, including batching episodes too far in advance, managing podcast guests, receiving guest pitches, hiring a podcast manager, using podcasting tools, and deciding when it's time to be more intentional about growth and monetization.

Most importantly, Lauren shares the advice that helped her finally press record: don't start a podcast just because you think you should. Start when you love the idea enough to keep going.

Whether you're thinking about starting a podcast for your business, you're already a podcast host, or you're looking for ways to use podcasting to grow your personal brand, this episode offers an honest look at what the first year can actually teach you.

In year two, Lauren is getting more intentional about podcast strategy, guest selection, audience growth, monetization, and creating the kind of deeper business conversations that Business Over Cocktails was built for.

In this episode:

• Starting a podcast as a business owner
• What Lauren learned from her first year of podcasting
• Podcast growth and audience engagement
• How to choose podcast guests
• Guest pitches and podcast outreach
• Podcast downloads, streams, and metrics
• Podcast monetization
• Batching podcast episodes
• Hiring a podcast manager
• Creating a podcast people actually want to listen to
• Building a personal brand through podcasting
• Why you should love your podcast idea before you start

Pull up a seat, pour your favorite drink, and join Lauren for a very honest conversation about what worked, what surprised her, and what's next for Business Over Cocktails.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Hey there and welcome to Business Over Cocktails. I'm Laura Najar, your host and hype woman, bringing you real talk about entrepreneurship. This is the podcast where we dive into the bold whys, the messy middles, and the game-changing aha moments that lead to success. You'll hear unfiltered stories from entrepreneurs plus bite-sized solo episodes inside the Business Chaser series, where we cut through the noise and get straight to what actually drives sales, visibility, and growth. So whether you're here to get fired up or finally feel seen in your business journey, pull up a seat, pour your favorite drink, and let's have a real conversation. Let's talk about starting a podcast. I'm not going to say I'm a super expert, but I am going to tell you the things I would do again and I would not do. I think that now that I have a year under my belt and I've recorded double episodes over the year. So we record two episodes a week, we release two episodes a week. So even before our year anniversary, we're over a hundred episodes already. So I've done a lot of recording. I think my biggest thing that I really liked doing is that I really took my time to launch. I did not care that I like I was like, I don't really, I don't even know what to expect because I'm not around other people with a with podcasts. I am around a few, but like one of my clients has like 15,000 downloads a month. Like that's unrealistic at this point. She's had a podcast, she has like 300 episodes. She's had podcasts for a really long time. So there aren't any, I didn't know what to expect, truly. Like I I know that downloads are important, streaming is important. And I was originally thinking that I would do this all on my own, which that was a mistake. So I love the idea. I love my approach to it. So that's what I'll say. I was so in love with my idea and I was so excited. And I still love my idea, and I still love this podcast, and I love what it's about, and I'm just gonna keep refining that. I think that's why it has been so easy to never miss a week and to never miss an episode. Because I've had the support. Not only did I have the support, but I just I get excited to talk to people um and get to know their stories because what this podcast is about has always been story driven and wanting to have the deeper conversations. And like because I'm so focused on building relationships in my business, it's easy to have those to just ask my friends to be on here. So I think like my approach and my mindset going into starting a podcast, I would recommend that to everyone. If you're just like, oh my God, I need to like have this perfect launch and this perfect episode and and focus on this. Like, I wouldn't do that. I think that what I love now coming in a year later is now kind of see numbers and I can like, okay, these numbers are for this level of effort that I've had. I have been very reactive to like what people want me to hear to say, who wants to be on my podcast. I have not like intentionally planned out or structured anything, other than of course, like over-releasing episodes on Mondays and Fridays, and then like the social media content. Like, we need to post on these days about this. So, in reality, like I haven't gone out and like I've asked people to be on be on my podcast, but they've all been my friends. Many of my guests have it's just naturally come up in conversation, and or I'll post on my Instagram and they're like, Oh yeah, like I'll be a guest because I'm like, hey, I'm looking for a guest who wants to be on there. So, and then also I get pitches all of the time. So I again I've been reactive on who I'm saying like yes or no to because I get these pitches. I'm like, yeah, sure, like I I can record again. One thing that I am proud of, um, and I actually didn't mention this in my Monday episode, is I feel more confident now to pitch myself to other podcasts. Not that I I always I've always pitched myself, I've always felt confident in that way. But now I have that collaboration attribute where I can say, I want to be on your podcast for these reasons, blah, blah, blah. And if you're open to collaborating, let's do a podcast swap. And I don't know necessarily if I'm getting more yeses that way, because I think sometimes people still are intentional about what podcast they want to go on. But I think it's really cool because if I do want to be on a podcast with somebody who, of course, I think has a really cool podcast, then I get to have them on mine, which is really cool as well. And then there's cross-promotion and that's like double visibility for you. So I think like that's a really cool thing now that I have a podcast and I can I have that as leverage, I think. And I don't think it's like I truly like I say that, and then I don't want people to get confused and be like, oh, I need a podcast for more leverage to, you know, promote myself for collaboration or any of those things. I don't think that that's the case. I don't think that you need something to offer in collaboration just to pitch yourself. You definitely don't need to do that because I definitely have a whole lineup of podcasts that I was on way before I had my own podcast episode or podcast myself. So I think the things I did really well is like consistency. I we posted and we posted content consistently. Um I definitely have had I had a marketing assistant that was helping me for a while on that. And hiring a podcast manager was to help me even launch. And then she's been with me now for close to this year. And so I think like, yeah, I think having all the help because for a large part of this past year with hosting events and traveling, I there were there were weeks I didn't even sign into my business or the podcast Instagram. There were uh, I didn't have to do any of the graphics, I didn't have to do any of the show notes, I didn't have to do any of that. And it was just so I was so passive about it. So I didn't have to worry about that. And my podcast is not making money. Uh it's not like bringing in that much money, right? So, like my business is has been able to support podcast editing and things like that up until this point. What things that I would do differently? So I was really happy with how many episodes I batched, and I just kept recording without a launch date. So I had I had close to 40 or 50 episodes. I'm not kidding. Where we were batched out until like 2026. I had episodes, like I have episodes that are airing in these last couple of months that were recorded last year. And so I am happy I batched and I'm happy I banked a lot of episodes. But I think what I would do differently, what I'm doing differently going forward is I actually took like three or four months off from recording. Um, I might have done one episode here or there if I wanted to. But now is when I'm actively recording with guests again, just for a little bit because I think we're already out into November. So this is I'm recording this in August. This is coming out in August. So like we're still three months out. And I don't think I want to be more than three or four months out when I have a guest on. Because, and also, too, this just kind of goes deeper into like the PR thing and going on like podcast tours when you want to promote stuff. I want those people to be on my podcast in a timely manner. So, like if they're launching something, say in three months' time, I want to be able like, and I've gotten pitches for that. I'm like, oh I'm sorry, like I can't have you on. It's like your up six months. Um, I already have all these people lined up. I want to be able to be that podcast that is like, and I don't and I know I can like switch things around and like delay episodes, things like that. I don't really want to do that. I want to be fair to the guests that do come on and have expectations of when their episode is gonna air. So I think that I would do that differently, and I am going to do that differently. I think that my mistake that I had made was thinking that I could do all of this myself. And I think that did further delay my launch because I was trying to edit my first episode and I'm just like, I don't even know what I'm doing. Now I need an intro, I need an outro. How do I get my podcast on all of these platforms? And so, like, it's a lot of like looking things up and research. You can figure it out and you can do it, but I think like my ability that I didn't want to reach out and do any of that stuff. Like, I didn't really care to do any of that stuff. So my podcast manager came and saved the day, and that was the first thing that we did was we picked a launch date. I'm like, okay, we're gonna launch in a month from from the month in a month since the date I hired her. In one month we launched, and we got four episodes launched. And so then she was just like editing and doing all this stuff for me, and it was really cool. The next thing that I'm gonna be doing going forward, and I I don't know if I would say this is a mistake. I think maybe like I would do it differently, and I was starting to get this urge, maybe like earlier this year, to do things differently, is I want to be more intentional with who I have on because I for a while I was just saying yes to pretty much every pitch, and I think it was a mix of like people pleasing, but also like, oh wow, they're pitching to be on my podcast. Also, like not feeling like I want to read their whole pitch, but now I'm saying no more because I'm more interested in having people that I'm inspired by and that I actually have a relationship with, and I have gotten away from that, and so I think like I am wanting to have more people on and I want the opportunity to have people on again, which I actually am gonna have someone on for a second time, and her episode hasn't even aired yet. Her first episode hasn't even aired yet, and we're talking now to schedule another time for her to be, and she's a really cool business owner doing things completely different. Um, I'm excited for you to hear her episode when it does air the first time, and then we're talking we're in the middle of scheduling a second episode as well. But I want my friends to come on here again. I want, you know, even like my sister to be on here. I want my brother to be on here. So I I want, I think like I loved my attitude and my mindset going into it. Like, I don't know what to expect. But now a year in, and even maybe like seven or eight months in, I could see how being reactive or kind of lazy around this is like, well, that's why it's not making any money. You can be more intentional with this. And I don't think it's necessarily like, oh, the guests, you know, whatever guests you get are gonna bring you in money. I don't see that. I've had pretty big guests on here with large followings, and the episodes that do better are the ones that are like local business owners or have a local engaged community, not someone who has, you know, 40,000 Instagram followers or 500,000 TikTok followers. So I think like going forward, I'm excited because I want to be intentional about not only how to monetize it, but how to have how to have guests on here. And I'm gonna bring in partnerships and sponsorships as well, which if you are familiar with how I do growth and connect retreats and events, I really want to partner with brands who are going to make my clients' lives better and who makes my life better. And so, like, for instance, Flowdesk. I never talk about Flow Desk on here, and I am a huge partner with Flowdesk. I recommend that to all of my clients, and all of my clients have been there for years. And that's something that, like, if you're looking for an email marketing platform, like I have a code and I can give you 25% off. And you can have one of the best email marketing platforms out there for just like simple use and business and all of the things. And every day they're getting stronger. So, like, that's just a little example of like what I think is to come. I want it to be beneficial for whoever's listening. I want, I want to make sure that we're telling really good stories. And, you know, I want to make sure I'm interviewing people that I not only know for the most part, but I really want to get to know maybe people that you want to hear from. And so um, I said this on my Monday episode, but I would absolutely love if you gave me any feedback of who you want to hear from, what stories you want to be told, what do you want to hear from the podcast as a whole. And also, like, do you have a favorite episode? Do you have a favorite guest? Because I would love to have them on again and dive deeper into something else. I think that there is a lot of room for growth here with business over cocktails. I think that, you know, these are the things that I'll do differently. These are things that I love that I did in the first year. Um, I'm excited for the new year. I'm excited for year two. I'm excited to see how big we can go and seeing if our numbers can grow a little bit more. But thank you again so much for listening over this past year. I I'm so interested to know if anyone has a favorite episode or a favorite guest or a favorite topic we talked about. Please message me on Instagram at Lauren Najar at businessover cocktails. And here's to year two. Cheers. Thanks for tuning in to another episode of Business Over Cocktails, where real stories and bold business moves come to life. If this episode lit something up in you, share it with a friend, tag me at Lauren Najar or the podcast page at business over cocktails. Make sure to leave a quick review as well. It helps more than you know. Until next time, keep chasing what matters and building the business that feels like you. Cheers.