Everyone has a podcast… So what?

“Everyone has a podcast these days.”

I hear this all the time. Usually accompanied by an eye roll and the implication that the last thing the world could possibly need is another person sitting behind a microphone waffling away.

And my response is always: so what? Everyone has a book. Nobody walks into Waterstones, looks at thousands of titles and thinks, “Oh good God, not another author”.

Everyone has an Instagram account. There are millions of newsletters, YouTube channels, blogs and businesses. We accept that different people have different stories to tell, and they can choose a medium that suits them best.

So why have we decided podcasts are different?

The problem isn't that everyone has a podcast. The problem is that we've somehow started measuring whether something deserves to exist by whether their format is completely original (when almost nothing is nowadays).

Buying two microphones, inviting your mate over and talking for an hour isn't necessarily a podcast strategy. It's a recorded conversation.

The podcasts that work (whether they have 500 listeners or 5 million) give people a reason to come back. They have a point of view. They understand their audience. They create familiarity. They make you feel something. They have new perspectives.

And increasingly, the best ones aren't really just podcasts at all. They're brands, communities, formats and intellectual property. They're ideas capable of living in different rooms, on different platforms and, potentially, without the person who originally created them. That's the difference between starting a podcast and building one.

But aside from that, starting a podcast means finding an audience that hasn’t heard your vision yet and not getting distracted from the noise along the way.

Here are my tips to change your thinking:

You don't need millions of listeners to matter

I think this is where our definition of a “successful” podcast has become slightly warped. We've become accustomed to measuring everything through scale.

• Millions of downloads.

• Celebrity guests.

• Viral clips.

• Enormous studios.

• Global tours and live events.

But what if 500 people listen to your podcast every week? And 100 of them genuinely care about what you're saying? And 20 eventually attend something you've created? And five become clients, collaborators, customers or friends?

Is that unsuccessful?

I'd argue you've built something incredibly valuable. Especially if those people keep coming back. That is something nobody can take away from you.

Not everything needs to become ‘The Diary of a CEO’ or Steven Bartlett.

There's another slightly unfair comparison happening in podcasting. Someone launches episode three from their spare bedroom and subconsciously compares it to a global media brand with an enormous operation behind it. Of course it doesn't look the same and it shouldn't.

Your first podcast doesn't need a huge production team, a £50,000 set and a celebrity guest strategy.

It needs a reason to exist! It needs a host people want to spend time with, and it needs something worth saying.

There is still room for you

I don't believe creativity works on a one-in, one-out policy. Someone else starting a podcast about entrepreneurship doesn't mean you can't (you have lived experience that is valuable to you). Someone else writing about motherhood doesn't mean the subject is finished (if it helps one mother, that is amazing). Someone else interviewing creatives doesn't mean there are no conversations left to have.

The question isn't: “Has somebody done this before?”

Because they obviously already have. The better question is: “What happens when I do it?”

• Your perspective is the differentiator.

• Your curiosity determines the questions.

• Your experiences shape the conversation.

• Your personality creates the tone.

• Your community changes where it goes next.

That's why two podcasts can cover exactly the same subject and feel completely different.

So, should you start a podcast?

Now I know i’ve just been preaching that there is room for everyone but my answer to this is…maybe.

Not everybody needs one. Not everyone is natural on camera, confident, good at hosting, curious or disciplined for it. And you definitely shouldn't start one simply because somebody told you that you “need to be doing content.”

However, if you have something you're genuinely curious about, a community you want to create, conversations you want to facilitate or an idea you can't stop thinking about?

Make the thing. There are already millions of books.

I'm personally very glad people keep writing them.

And yes, there are already millions of podcasts, but I'd still quite like to hear yours.