There's a number I'm going to share with you in this episode that is, honestly, keeping me in business. It's a bit uncomfortable to say out loud.

Of all the podcasts launched in the first half of this year, a huge proportion had already stopped within six months. The wider picture is worse than that, and I take you through both sets of figures, including how many of the six million shows being tracked are still publishing anything at all.

But I'm not sharing it to frighten you, because every one of those was somebody who had the idea, bought the mic, made the artwork and pressed record. They weren't lazy and they weren't rubbish at it. In this episode I explain what actually got them, why it's the best possible news for you, and what happens to the people who try to come back to a show they've let go quiet.

I also tell you the one thing I'd change about how you design your show before you launch it, and it's the opposite of what most people do.

Then there's something to think about today about your worst week, and what it tells you about the format you should really be starting with.

New Pod Shot every weekday. Come and find me on Instagram and TikTok: @lynsaymakeswaves

Join the waitlist for my new challenge starting in September

Can I tell you the four places people actually listen to podcasts? It's the same four every single time, and every one of them means the woman listening to you cannot write a single thing down.

New research this year surveyed over 5,000 people on where podcast listening actually happens, and once you know the answer it changes how you record. In this episode I go through what those four situations are, why they're the reason audio still beats everywhere else you're posting, and the things you've been assuming your listener can do that she genuinely can't.

I also cover what to do with a number so it survives, why you should say the name of the thing rather than pointing at a link, how to build an ask that doesn't need her hands, and a trick I use on you in nearly every episode without you noticing.

Then there's something to think about today. It takes about ten seconds and it'll change the next episode you make.

New Pod Shot every weekday. Come and find me on Instagram and TikTok: @lynsaymakeswaves

Join the waitlist for my new challenge starting in September

Join the waitlist for my challenge starting in September

Somebody has told you the podcast market is saturated. Maybe you've told yourself. There are four million podcasts already, so what would be the point.

That four million number is real, and it's also doing an enormous amount of lying. In this episode I take you through the real figures, because a registered podcast and a running podcast are two completely different things, and almost nobody tells you the second half of that sentence. I've also broken it down for business podcasts specifically, which is the category your show would sit in, and the number that comes out of that is the one I'd like you to hear.

I explain why saturated is a feeling rather than a fact, why the bubble you're posting in has skewed your sense of how many people are really doing this, and the one thing about audio that means it still outperforms everywhere else you're showing up.

Then there's a two minute job to do in Apple or Spotify that will show you the real size of the pool you'd be swimming in. I'd be surprised if it's more than three.

New Pod Shot every weekday. Come and find me on Instagram and TikTok: @lynsaymakeswaves

What actually kills a podcast? After ten years of producing other people's shows, I can tell you it's almost never the thing you're worried about.

I'm a fortnight into recording a daily podcast episode, and I've just changed how I'm making it. Not because it stopped working, but because I sat down and looked at my calendar and saw what was coming. In this episode I explain what I've changed, why batch recording is what I recommend to every client in my agency, and the exact number of episodes I'm going to record in one sitting to stay far enough ahead.

I also tell you why I'm not switching to batching permanently, even though it would be easier, and the one thing that makes a podcast stop that has nothing to do with running out of things to say.

Then there's something I want you to do today with your calendar. It takes about two minutes and it'll show you the exact date your buffer has to exist by.

New Pod Shot every weekday. Come and find me on Instagram and TikTok: @lynsaymakeswaves

Join the waitlist for my challenge starting September!

How long have you been getting ready to start your podcast?

Not thinking about it. Actively getting ready. Sorting the branding, working out the niche, planning the first twelve episodes, and somehow still not pressing record.

I've launched over a thousand podcasts in ten years, and the ones that never happened were almost never the ones where the woman couldn't do it. In this episode I tell you what they did have in common, why the way podcasting gets taught keeps you preparing forever, and what I've decided to do about it.

I also tell you what happened ten days into my own experiment. It's two numbers, and one of them is much smaller than you'd expect, which is exactly why I want you to hear it.

Have a listen, then go and do the thing I ask you to do at the end. It takes about a minute and you can do it on your phone.

New Pod Shot every weekday. Come and find me on Instagram and TikTok: @lynsaymakeswaves

Do you hate the sound of your own voice? Nearly everyone does the first time they hear it played back, and it stops more women from starting a podcast than any other single thing.

There's a reason for it, and it's physical rather than anything to do with your voice being bad. When you talk, you're hearing yourself two ways at once, and one of those two ways is something a microphone can never pick up. So the first time you play a recording back, you're hearing a version of yourself you've genuinely never heard before.

In this episode I explain what's actually happening in your skull when you speak, I tell you about a study where they played people their own voices without telling them whose they were, and what those people said about them is not what you'd expect. I also tell you why your fifth take is nearly always worse than your first, what the woman listening is actually judging (it isn't your voice), and the one thing I want you to do with your phone today.

It takes 60 seconds and you can do it before you've finished your coffee.

New Pod Shot every weekday. Come and find me on Instagram and TikTok: @lynsaymakeswaves

If you've been trying to work out how to name your podcast, you've probably given that name more hours than you've given any single episode you'll ever publish. That's the wrong way round, and I want to explain why.

There's a show title and there's an episode title, and they're two completely different things doing two completely different jobs. One gets you found. The other gets you picked. After ten years and more than a thousand podcast launches, the split I see almost every time is weeks agonising over the first one and about thirty seconds on the second.

In this episode I go through what your overall show title is actually for, why the clever, quirky name you've fallen in love with might be working against you, what I want you to check before you write another episode title, and the one podcast naming habit that is my absolute ick. I say all of it with love. I also tell you what my own shows have been called over the years, and not one of them is clever.

Have a listen, then go and have a proper think about the title that's been floating around your head.

New Pod Shot every weekday, and you'll find me on Instagram and TikTok at @lynsaymakeswaves.

How many times do you reckon somebody has to hear from you before they'll buy from you? Have a number in your head before you press play, because I'd put money on it being too low.

Nearly everyone still quotes the rule of seven. It came out of 1930s Hollywood, it was about filling cinema seats, and it was never even seven in the first place. The research has moved a very long way since then, and in this episode I take you through where the number actually sits now, why it goes up again every single time somebody studies it, and what that means for you if you're running your business on your own and don't have the hours for 50 separate conversations with everyone who's thinking about hiring you.

I also tell you exactly how many pieces of content I made from last week's five episodes and how little time I spent recording them, plus how the one unusual way I'm measuring this whole experiment is going, eight days in. And there's a two minute job I want you to do today that'll tell you why one particular person hasn't bought from you yet.

It's six minutes. Which is quite a lot less than 50 conversations.

There's a new Pod Shot every weekday. Come and find me on Instagram and TikTok: @lynsaymakeswaves

How long do you wait to find out whether your podcast is working? If you're publishing weekly, the honest answer is weeks, and by the time you know, you've already recorded the next four episodes.

I said at the start of this experiment that I'd tell you exactly what happens, good or bad, so this is the first week's report. Twenty five minutes of recording, five episodes, and a set of numbers I've just sat down and worked out. Some of them are what you'd expect from a show starting from zero. One of them isn't, and it happened on day five.

In this episode I go through what those 25 minutes actually turned into, the thing I genuinely hadn't anticipated that's changed how I'm choosing what to record next, and the one unusual way I'm measuring whether any of this is working, which isn't downloads. I also give you a two minute job to do before you go and do anything else today, and it'll hand you your first episode.

It's shorter than the time you'd spend deciding whether to listen.

New Pod Shot every weekday. Come and find me on Instagram and TikTok: @lynsaymakeswaves

Should you start a podcast? You've been saying you're going to for months now, so let me ask you something else first. If nobody listened for the first six months, would you still be recording?

I run a podcast agency, so this is the episode where I talk you out of hiring me. In ten years and over a thousand launches I can usually tell on the first call who'll still be going a year in and who'll stop by episode 10, and it's almost never about confidence or kit. It's about a handful of things being in place, and if they're not in place yet then starting now costs you more than waiting does.

I go through what those things are, why stopping at week 10 does more damage to how people see you than never starting at all, and what to do instead if it turns out you're not quite there. There's also a five minute exercise at the end that'll tell you more about whether you've got a podcast in you than six months of thinking about it will.

You can do it today, on your phone, and nobody ever has to hear it.

New Pod Shot every weekday. Come and find me on Instagram and TikTok: @lynsaymakeswaves