4 Signs That God Is Calling You To Start a Podcast

You're feeling a persistent nudge to start a podcast — but is it God, or just your own desire?  In this episode, we break down the 4 clear signs God is calling you to start a podcast, and how to step into that calling without fear, doubt, or waiting until everything is perfect.

Whether you're a musician, entrepreneur, Christian artist, speaker, or writer — your voice was created to reach someone. But if you're still on the fence, or you're totally confused about how to start your podcast, you might be delaying taking the step that could unlock an incredible new chapter of your creative life. 

We discuss:
- How to discern a God-given creative calling vs. self-driven impulse
- The #1 reason most Christian creatives delay launching their podcast (and how to overcome it)
- Practical first steps to start your podcast as a Christian creative

Want to stop overthinking and finally start creating the podcast that will align you with God's will? Hit play and let’s dive in.

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Transcript

Allen C. Paul | Founder, God and Gigs (00:00)
Everyone knows that when God calls you, you're supposed to answer. But when God calls you to do something scary, new, unfamiliar, or something that just feels bigger than you, there's a tendency to question: wait, God, did you really call me? Did you call me to do this? Did you call me for this purpose? Is this just my head, something in my head that I'm saying, or is this really you?

And nothing could be more confusing than one when you hear a call to do something that you're unfamiliar with and you're not sure even how to start. And that is the way it is with most people when it comes to podcast.

Now, as a Christian creator, as a Christian content creator, as a Christian artist, I am already a musician. I was a musician long before I ever thought about podcasting. There was no podcasting back when I was growing up. And I don't think anybody in the 80s, 90s, 2000s, early 2000s, podcasting started right around then, but nobody was saying I'm going to be a professional podcaster. There was no medium for you to even consider that.

However, in the past few years, it has become one of the most powerful ways for people to spread a message, to build an audience, and to find their calling in terms of what and who they're supposed to serve. So I believe God really was in the beginnings and the purpose of podcasting. As a matter of fact, here's something really cool. I got a chance to hear from one of the co-creators and inventors of podcasting. And he said point blank.

God gave him the idea. He was saved later on in life, which is amazing that God first saved him and that he turned his life over to God. And then God revealed, hey, podcasting, that whole thing was my seed, my implant of an idea and a way to reach the masses for my gospel to be spread all over the world. And now that is part of

With that co-inventor's business plan. It is part of his mission, mission is to use podcasting to help spread the gospel. So from the beginning, you guys, podcasting was a part of God's plan. But is it a part of the plan for your life? Is God calling you to podcast?

So the question is there. So I want to get into this and I want to make sure that I cover this with a lot of detail to make sure you are hearing the right thing, that you're not nervous, that you're not scared, that you're not feeling like this is not for me. It couldn't possibly be God calling me. This must be something that is just in my head. I want to give you the details of what to expect and how to know if God is calling you. But first

Let's talk about why people delay. Why don't Christian artists, Christian creators, Christian entrepreneurs, why don't we believe that we should start a podcast at all? Why would we hesitate if we're feeling that nudge? Well, here is the first thing that comes up in people's minds why they think that they're not supposed to start a podcast. First of all, I'm sure you've heard this.

You've you've heard that people say everybody's got a podcast. This is basically comparison. You're already comparing yourself to all the other people who have done a podcast and you're thinking the keyword too saturated. Everybody's already doing it. I'm too late. Whatever the idea is, if God is kind of putting that nudge in my heart that I should start, it's too late. Here's the problem with that thinking. First of all, let's just look at the facts and the data.

If you're listening to this on any app, this is probably part of maybe 400 to 500,000 potential podcasts that you could listen to. And it sounds like a lot, right? Your app is full of them. However, if you look at just YouTube, there are millions of channels and people still start YouTube channels. There are millions of books.

And people still write books. There are millions of, I'm sure maybe there's hundreds of thousands, I'm not sure the name in terms of movies or TV shows, but you get my point. There are so many creators making things in these other niches, yet podcasting is relatively small.

In comparison to other mediums where so many people are creating them and we don't tell people don't write books. books are done. No one's writing books anymore, or there are too many books or there are too many movies or there are too many TV shows or there are too many songs. People just don't say that. And even if they realize that there's a lot of people competing, they don't

Throw away their dream, especially if God called it to them. So there's the data side. Podcasting is not saturated. There are still only about half a million active podcasts. So many people start them and then stop that if you stay in the game for more than a couple of months, a few episodes, you're already in the top 10%.

of shows so just setting that low bar and saying hey even if I make it to 1520 shows I have made it in terms of being in this top area of podcasts that actually stuck with their craft stuck with their idea secondly let's just talk about the God factor do you think God doesn't know that there's many other podcasts? You think God was s nervous that you were gonna get lost in the sea of podcasts

Or is the idea he's planting in you unique to you? Has he only given this particular way of sharing, the way of presenting this idea, this concept, these thoughts, this entertainment, this enlightenment, this inspiration, this education? Has he given it to you? Then who cares how many other people are doing it? Jeremiah says it very well. When he says, I knew you before I was in my mother's womb, God speaking to Jeremiah.

God knew already how you were formed and what you were formed for. And you are a unique creation in God and nobody can replace that. So that everybody's got one argument. Let's just throw that out. Okay? Let's keep it moving because there's so many other things that could stop people. Another one could be I don't know how to start. And yes, podcasting is a discipline, a craft. It is for many a business. It is a skill.

So not knowing where to start and what to buy can be a fearful subject because you just think, my gosh, I either buy all this equipment or I have to be technical or I have to spend a bunch of time or I'm gonna have to be on social media and marketing it, or all the fears and the what-ifs and how-do is pop up in your mind.

But once again, God has not called you to a spirit of fear, Second Timothy. You have power, love, and a sound mind. You can learn this. So people so s always hesitate.

And they slow down because they feel like this is too much to learn. I can't do this right now. I've already got other responsibilities. But if God is calling you, He's going to grace you with the ability to be able to do the podcast that He's calling you to do, not what you feel is the overwhelming amount of work that you're not able to do. And then third reason that a lot of Christians and believers don't step into podcasting is this idea. Very similar to the first one. My idea is an

important

or worthy. You get self-doubt because once again you feel like nobody's gonna listen. There's so many other shows and my idea is just,

It's it's it's just a little thing. It's just me talking about what I'm passionate about. No one's gonna care, no one's gonna listen, and that's the self-doubt that starts creeping in. But that's a voice from the enemy. If God is calling you, again, think about Moses, who kept saying, I'm a stutterer, I'm no longer worthy, and yet God was like, I called you to go back and to rescue and to deliver the Israelites. I'll handle all of your limitations.

I'll handle all of the things that you say will keep you from being worthy. And you just trust me and go do what I've called you to do. So those delaying tactics, those delaying voices in your head of why you shouldn't start a podcast, all have an answer from God. And they have an answer even in the landscape of podcasting, where we see the data and we see that there is room, so much room for quality shows and quality messages and people who love God and want to put their

idea forth. And let me quickly say this because this is Guiding Gigs. We're not only talking about a Christian themed podcast. As you'll see as I talk about this more throughout this

Quick conversation. So I'm trying to get to so much that'll help you. This does not mean that every show has to be a Christian podcast. It could be run by a Christian, but there's so many ways that you can bless people, even outside of the four walls of the church or ministry podcast. So, how do you know when God is calling you to podcast? That is the question for today. So here's how you can figure out is this call just something in my head, or is this really something that God is speaking?

To me about. Well, first of all, I hope you're in prayer, and this is something that automatically comes to you that you want to pray about this. But as you are praying, these are the things that should start to resonate with you, and you'll realize: wait a minute, this is not my idea, this is God's idea. First of all, you'll realize that it keeps coming back. The idea will not go away.

And this is confirmation, not just from your own idea popping back up in your head, but other people mentioning it to you. Other people saying, my gosh, if this is a comedy idea or an entertainment idea, you are so funny. I wish I could listen to you say this or do this. Many times people will say those words. You should start a podcast. But the difference is when people say it,

Not just because they just want to listen and they think that you're funny, but when you are realizing that God has been calling something out of you that they are confirming, and you probably have been running away from it. You probably have been saying, I don't know. People won't really agree, they'll find fault, and you will be trying to disagree or run away from the confirmation that other people are bringing you, and yet it will not go away.

Think about Samuel in the Bible when God called Samuel. Three times Samuel got up, and his master inside of the priest that was over him, his mentor, said, Go back to bed twice. It was the third time.

That Eli realized, my gosh, God is speaking. So sometimes you need those repeated reminders that this is God speaking and those confirmation from other people who really believe in what you're sharing and what you could say is the evidence that God is calling you to the podcast, not just yourself. I can give a personal example right here because God and Giggs is entirely about me.

wanting to get away from this idea and not being able to get away from it, starting to write a book about Christian musicians and realizing, wait a minute.

I want to just let this be, but I can't because musicians keep coming up to me after the gig. Musicians keep saying, I wish there was a resource. I wish there was someone talking about this. I wish there were people that were talking about how to blend my artist career with my faith. I wish there was that. And people kept asking. And finally it was like, okay, I can't keep running from this. And the same thing happened with other shows that I've helped launch. The problem was there and the confirmation kept coming. And it wasn't going away until

We actually follow through and be obedient with what God was calling. The second, and this goes right along with that: the idea just isn't about you, it serves others, it solves a problem, and it feels a need. This is so important when you realize that God's calling you because God doesn't call you just for you, He calls you for a purpose to serve, to bless, to find His will inside of the path.

That will actually lead you to the purpose that you are called to. So your podcast idea, your idea of starting a podcast is a calling to someone. And it's not just a selfish need to build your following, to just build your business, to just get more people listening to you, your voice. You'll realize that God's calling when it actually is about other people. And again, there's nothing wrong with growth. You should be trying to grow things like the parable of the talents. You should be doing more with what God gives. So I'm not saying that just grow.

Growing your business is not evidence that God is calling you. But at the core of His call is a purpose for something greater and someone beside yourself. And when you realize your podcast is really about blessing others, whether it's through entertainment, enlightenment, whether it's through inspiration, education, whatever your actual theme of your podcast is, when you realize that you actually have a desire to help others more, to love your neighbor as you love yourself through serving your podcast, that will be evidence.

Evidence

that God is actually calling you that it's not just an idea of your own. The third reason is it's aligned with what you're passionate about. Your idea should not just be out of thin air where you're doing something or trying to talk about something or doing a podcast about something you've never talked about before. Now, of course, God can do whatever, but most times he works with the design that he's already given you. And you will feel this.

connection. Now that doesn't mean it'll always be comfortable to start a podcast about this subject, but it will be aligned with who you are, what you share, and why you feel so passionate about it that you'd want to share it with other people. This is exactly the case with the God and Gig Show is exactly the case with the shows that I'm helping to launch with my church's podcast studio. Every single time it's been hey this is who we already are.

This is what we already feel passionate about. We may need to learn some new things to be able to share this podcast correctly, to record the right way, to get the right feel and the music and all those things. Those details come along with time. But the actual alignment of why we're doing this or why is sure. We are already about this. If we weren't doing a podcast, we would talk about this. So now we're just going to talk about this with our podcast. That's a clear sign that God is working with your alignment to bring out something that He wants to go into the world.

world do a podcast. And finally, the fourth reason that you can know and be sure that God is calling you to start this podcast and it's not just your idea, is that it requires greater faith on your part. This is huge. I've always said that when there's a fork in the road, when I'm not sure if God is calling me to go A or B, the easiest way for me to tell which one God is calling me to is to ask myself, which direction takes more faith?

As I've said many times, sometimes it takes more faith to not do something. It takes more faith to say no. But then other times it takes more faith to say yes.

And when God is asking and calling you to start this podcast and you are feeling like, wow, I don't know what to start with. I don't know what to buy. I'm going, this is a God problem that only God could have the solution for. Well, now you're on the right track of realizing that God is calling you to start this. You're not doing this out of your own desire. You're not doing this because you just want more people. You're doing this because you're realizing this will force me to depend on God more.

And anytime you are leaning into your faith, leaning into your desire, when you realize that when you are weak, he is strong and that his grace is sufficient, that is a perfect example and evidence that God is calling you to start this podcast. So now that I've given you the delays and I've given you the reasons why people

sh or why God is calling you, I want to make sure to talk about the practical things you can do to actually start. Because this is where a lot of us get hung up. So many people say, I I okay, God is calling me. I've I this idea won't go away. It's a line. It's about other people. It's not just an idea that I just have in my head. But now how do I actually get started? Well I'm going to give you some basic principles that you can start with no matter what and no matter what your show is about. First of all, first of all, sorry about that.

First of all, submit your plans in obedience and pray for wisdom. Our example is Solomon and Isaiah, both of them, when they were called to a huge task, they first said, Hear am I, send me. Yes, Lord, they answer with submission and obedience.

And that's what you gotta do when you realize that God is calling you to start this podcast. You have to lay it down. You have to say, I don't understand. Maybe I don't know how this is gonna go. Maybe this feels like it's way too big for me, but Lord, I will be obedient to your call to start this.

And once again, this might be a soft nudge. It may not be a thunderous voice. Most times God's call is confirmation through other people, a faith leader, your tribe, people who are saying what your spirit is saying, but it's not this grand announcement. And you're just gonna have to do the same thing when you submit this to God. You're gonna say, Whatever this is, I'm following you. And then you can pray for the wisdom on how to conduct and execute.

on what his will is for this podcast. Secondly, I want you to start gathering information. And this is about the actual subject matter that you're going to talk about. And here's what most people do wrong. They go into starting a podcast and they just turn on the microphone and they just go. Instead of saying, wait a minute, just because God gave me the idea doesn't mean that I can just jump in without organizing, without thinking through what am I actually going to share? So what you need to do

Is map out 10 put possibilities for your first 10 episodes and just say, hey, if I only did 10 episodes, what would be a successful episode? What are topics that my friends in my industry, in my community, in this particular genre, this niche, what do they want to know about? What do they ask about? What do they want to hear? Most likely, you can talk to people. This is like market research.

write them down and then map out what would be 10 great episode titles and 10 ideas that I could start with.

Once you start gathering the information and realizing, wait, I do have something to say, and I have a unique way to say it. And I don't have to be scared necessarily of the tech, which we'll get to later. I could know that I could at least do this many. So preparing in advance with just getting comfortable with the alignment and the vision and the information that you already know will make a huge difference when you actually start the podcast. Here's my third tip, and this is one that a lot of people don't realize you should do even before you start.

Join podcast communities to learn. You would be so far ahead of the curve.

If you start hanging out with other podcasters before you start your show, I've seen people join the pod match movement, which pod match is something we are an affiliate of. It helps you find guests. If you're going to start an interview show, highly recommend you jump into Pod Match. You can find it at PodMatch. I'm sorry, at GodandGifts.com/slash podmatch, because we are affiliate an affiliate, a proud affiliate. We've used them forever. Alex and the team and Alicia are so amazing over there, and believers as well. Now

You can join one of these communities as well as sign up for something like Buzz Sprout and check out their Facebook community, check out their tutorials. There's so much stuff inside most of these podcast apps, including especially Buzz Sprout, who does an amazing job of tutorials.

and get into the world of learning about this skill and this craft of podcasting. It is not just like turning on a mic. And the more people you have around you and you're joining communities and you're learning and you're talking, you're going to be so much farther ahead. And then after you do that, my recommendation is record what I call MEEs or ME's, minimum effort episodes.

This is where you are not trying to release anything right away. These are the first draft. And a lot of people don't do this. They just, again, start the podcast and then they wonder why did no one listen the first couple of times? It's because your first ones are always gonna be not that great. Your first episodes are always gonna have glitches. Your first episodes are always gonna be a little bit where you're learning your cadence, learning how to talk, learning what the intro is, what the outro is, all of that.

And it's just so much easier just to get on a Zoom and practice and say, okay, here's one of our ten episodes. Let's just try and see what we would talk about. And then throw it away. Erase it.

Never let it see the night a day. Or use it and kind of re-evaluate it. But don't go into this without recording some minimum effort episodes that don't take so much editing and worry and what's going to be thing. And then you release it and you're like, my gosh, like I would have made so fewer mistakes. Again, this doesn't mean you're not going to release. That's going to be the very, very next comment. But before that, I would recommend two or three just minimum effort episodes to try it out.

And then once you kind of feel like you know where you're going with this with equipment and with the very, very easy stuff that doesn't take any kind of marketing, then you go back and you release the first episode in obedience to God, whether you feel ready or not. So many people get stuck in perfectionism here. You don't want to get stuck in perfectionism. Go ahead and release the episode.

You can't give God something that's still tightly in your fist and you're holding on to because you're nervous about what people are going to think. You have to release it and let God help you be the CMO, the chief marketing officer of your podcast. Of course, you're gonna have to do the things. Of course, you're gonna share. Of course, you're gonna tell your friends. Of course, you're gonna learn about social media and clips and all that kind of stuff. But before you can do that, you have to release it. You gotta let it out. You gotta share it. Once you do that, you'll learn so.

Much from the first few times that you have posted that you've shared, and especially if you do this right and you listen to some of the feedback you'll get from the experts like PodMatch and Podfest and from Bus Brought. Once you get all of that, you will then know which direction to go to. Continue to fulfill the call that God has on your life to podcast. So I believe God can call you to start podcasts, and if you do so, with the right

resources with the right mindset and most of all starting with prayer and ending every moment, realizing that you are giving this idea back to God.

to help you steward it, to help you put it out to the people that will be blessed, that will be entertained, enlightened, and educated by your podcast. And remember, it doesn't matter how many shows are out there, there will be no one like your show because there's no one like you. You are uniquely called, uniquely gifted, and uniquely equipped by God Himself. So whatever you put out your podcast can be a reflection of that glory and that individuality that he's placed in you.