Top Considerations Before Launching a Health and Wellness Podcast

When I get on a call with someone who is looking to start a podcast, I do not always tell them that it’s a great idea. Sometimes I say you shouldn’t do it, and that might sound surprising considering our business actually helps people create podcasts, but I am not here to lie for the sake of generating revenue.

I’m an honest person and it doesn’t help us to start working with somebody who is not a good fit for our company. Plus, I don’t wanna see anybody waste their money on something that I just think isn’t going to do anything for them. But if you’ve got a health and wellness business and you have considered starting a podcast to generate new leads and revenue, but you haven’t started one yet, this episode is just for you.

’cause I’m gonna go over the exact same things that I would talk about with someone. Who is trying to determine whether podcasting is the right fit for them or not, and then this will help you understand if podcasting would make sense in your situation. I’m Joel Oliver. This is Profits Through Podcasting where we help health-focused entrepreneurs generate leads and revenue for their businesses through podcasting.

 We are gonna cover some things in this episode that you should think about before launching a podcast if you have already made the decision to proceed. So some considerations upfront as you get going, but before that, I want to first discuss the whole thing of if you should actually start a podcast or not. That’s the first thing. If I get on a call with someone that’s considering doing a launch and considering working with us, we want to determine if this even makes sense.

So let’s begin there. Okay. To do this, it’s useful to consider the type of business that you have. As well as your ideal client, what the structure of your business is like. Is it just you or do you have a team? What is your current revenue? What are your current priorities or struggles? And of course your ultimate goals and aspirations for your business.

And also that same question, your goals and aspirations from having a podcast. So let’s break all of these down a little bit further on the type of business if you are largely brick and mortar. The benefits of podcasting and the strategy are going to look a little bit different. Now if you have an online business where you can serve clients who are anywhere, like with coaching or education, podcasting for lead generation in those cases makes a lot more sense.

Since no matter where anyone tunes in from, they may be able to avail of your services. If your only way of generating revenue is a brick and mortar business where people have to be in your local area, this can be a little more tricky since there’s often not a value proposition for people to seek out a podcast based on the area.

Like if someone wants to take a course on gut health, for example, well, they likely won’t really care whether you are down the road or in another country so long as you can help them. It’s just not relevant. That means they are unlikely to be searching for this information in a geographical context and then.

In turn, you have no way to generate revenue from them if you’re not in the same area, if you want to reach people in a specific geographic location, while there are many other arguably better ways than podcasting to reach them, not to say it can’t be done or it’s impossible, but that’s just broadly speaking the way things are.

And it’s not to say that podcasting doesn’t make sense in these situations either. There are just some. Things to consider. I know some clinic owners who are podcasting to build up authority and they want to launch an online brand later. They haven’t done it yet, but it is a plan for down the road.

And so they wanted to get their podcast underway. Now, same with maybe wanting to do some speaking gigs there. They want to. Improve their speaking skills or start to build up their authority for that reason, just so they’ve got a bit of history of content and speaking and that sort of thing online already, even though it’s not a priority at the moment to monetize that or generate leads with it.

Okay. Other clinic owners want to help patients of their clinic by telling them to check out this particular episode or this series on a certain subject because it’s more efficient for them. And when clients are in the office, they don’t always have the full time to go over all this stuff in detail. So if they really want to help them with results, it’s great to say, once you’re home or in your spare time, check out this podcast series and this is gonna help you with your goals in ways that we can’t cover.

Completely here in this 30 minute session or whatever it may be. Others like making connections or just keeping on top of the latest news or trends in the industry. So by doing a podcast, it forces them to keep on top of that stuff, do some research or meet new people to do interviews or be appearing on other shows.

So it can be all right to do. Of course, it helps generate social media content as well through repurposing. Just would say to keep all of this in mind. If you are wanting to launch a podcast and all you have is a brick and mortar business right now, if you’re an owner of one of those businesses and you specifically want to generate new leads by launching a podcast, well, most of the time I would say that’s not the best avenue because it’s gonna be really tricky.

But if you have interest in any of those other things that I mentioned, well, it can make a lot more sense to have a podcast as a brick and mortar business. So there are many other benefits that can make it make sense. And then of course, like I alluded to already, for online business owners, we’re in a much better position to realize the benefits of podcasting when it comes to generating leads.

Next one on the agenda, there was the ideal client for you. The good news is that a huge portion of adults listen to podcasts. So in many cases there can be an audience out there for you to find and connect with. However, there are going to be niches where. It’s gonna be a little more challenging to get people to listen.

They may not even be interested in consuming content on this particular topic, even if they do work in a specific industry that you want to target or they have a certain issue. A great example would be this podcast that you’re listening to right now. Of course there are many health and wellness entrepreneurs with podcasts out there who want to grow their businesses, and that’s who we’re trying to help.

But even with that being the case, not all of them are going to want to or have time to listen to this show, or they might drop by and check out a few specific episodes on something they’re trying to resolve or something they’re trying to learn, they might binge a few episodes, but not subscribe.

So it’s just not a long-term thing that they’re gonna keep coming back to and really be engaged in. But the podcast serves a certain purpose, and of course it does help us get out there. It demonstrates authority, it creates trust. We get social media content for our pages. Make some great connections, have great conversations.

And many people used to actually ask us, ’cause we’re a podcasting company, why don’t you have a podcast? So for that reason as well, it was a great idea to start one. So we had a lot of reasons to start this podcast that don’t all rely on download numbers. It’s just one of the things, it’s just the way it is.

Certain niches are not going to have these massive audiences or people who are engaged and coming back week, week after week for years at a time. It’s just not the way it is. But there are a whole bunch of other benefits. The point of bringing this up here is it’s just something you should consider before you make that leap and launch a podcast.

If you do some market research and you find out that for whatever reason your ideal client type doesn’t really consume podcasts, or it’d be a real tough sell for them to listen to your content, like they’re just busy with other things, or they’re high level people that may have an issue, but they’re not really concerned about listening to podcast episodes about it, then maybe in that case it’s not a great idea.

At least if you were really hoping to use the podcast as a marketing tool to grow an audience, then maybe that’s a strike against it. Maybe in that case, focusing more on social media or paid ads or starting a YouTube channel could be better. Or maybe you’ve gotta actually do cold outreach or networking in situations like that to reach those people.

It’s just something you want to keep in mind. Although generally. In the health and wellness space, it’s not really an issue whether it’s uh, business coach. So you’re coaching other health and wellness entrepreneurs, or you’re putting information out there directly for, I’ll use the word consumers, but you know, people that would buy from you for health coaching or courses, things like that.

They’re, they’re not entrepreneurs themselves. You’re just helping improve their lives typically, not an issue in that case because they do want to take in that sort of content and it is a big deal in their life. So we usually don’t come across that issue, but. It is something to think about.

Next was the current structure of your business and also your revenue or your income. Podcasting does take time, possibly money, and like with anything in business and life, you want to get your priorities straight. So let’s say you’re a solo printer, you just launched a business, but you don’t have any revenue yet.

We’ve likely all been there. And in this case would mean that if you start a podcast, you would likely have to DIY, it. You’re in that stage where there’s no budget, but there’s lots of time. So you’re gonna be doing all the editing yourself, perhaps the show notes, making social media clips.

Isn’t that inherently a bad thing on its own to have to do that stuff? We’ve all gotta slug it out when starting businesses and the situation can be different for everyone. Maybe you’ve got a bit of savings or some funding or something like that that you can use to help yourself out, but uh, I’ve seen many people try to do this DIY thing and end up spending four, six, or even 10 hours creating a single podcast episode every week, all on their own.

You know, it’s valuable time. Yes, we could be strapped with cash, but if you think about 10 hours a week or something absurd like that, 40 hours a month, that’s a lot of time. You could have spent on the business doing something that would’ve got you exponential returns later. Like creating systems or finding new clients, generating more money directly.

That’s sort of thing. So you really wanna watch how you’re allocating your time when you’re doing stuff all on your own. And in these cases, if you are doing the DIY route. Consider as well that the content created could be of questionable quality. it is totally possible to do it, and like I said, all of us know this as entrepreneurs.

When you, you start out, you gotta do a lot of things on your own. The big consideration to keep in mind is just what is most beneficial for my business and my situation right now? What are the things I should really be spending my time on? And maybe it is making a podcast. Okay? I’m not saying here that it’s not.

It’s just something we want to think about. Uh, and then of course, once you’ve built the business up a little bit, perhaps you can have an assistant or you’ve at least got a bit more of a steadier income where you can think about then delegating some things like your podcast production. And you can do the podcast with much less of a time commitment.

Instead of spending all these hours producing it all on your own, you can just do the recording, which maybe takes 30 or 60 minutes. Throw that out to your team and then move on to something else. And that kind of ease of production ensures that you can do podcasting for the long haul, which is really required, but most importantly lets you get back to the important things in your business.

 Versus if you’re just starting out on your own, you’ve got no budget. You’ve gotta do everything on your own. That can be okay, but just keep it in mind. We’re thinking, what is my biggest priority right now in my business?

What’s going to get me the most results? What’s going to move the needle the most? What now? What should I be thinking about? Is it X number of hours per week trying to create a podcast, or is it something else? The next thing to think about is your current business goals and priorities, and ultimately what you are hoping to get out of starting the podcast. Why do you want to start a podcast?

As we touched on already, if it’s a brick and mortar business. But you want the podcast to bring you new clients. That’s one of the least ideal situations. It’s one of the the times when podcasting is going to be the least beneficial for you. If you are considering launching a podcast ’cause you want to get rich or get to 10,000 downloads overnight, or you want fame, anything like that, that’s not an ideal mindset to come from either. It’s not a great intention because you’re gonna get very frustrated very fast when that stuff doesn’t happen.

Quickly. And if that’s how you’re measuring your goals, you’re just gonna want to give up. If you realize, well, I don’t have 10,000 downloads. I suck, I give up. Like, we don’t wanna be measuring by that or, or having that as an expectation too soon. And you may never get there either. But so long as we can get the goals and achieve the goals that you have in mind when you’re considering starting a podcast, if it’s a realistic expectation and you’re realistic about the timeline, well that’s much better.

So, yeah. One of the reasons that I ask these types of questions is to see if you’re up for the long-term commitment, because like anything, you know, building a business, building a social media following, or anything worth doing, podcasting takes time to see results. If you’re going into this thinking, what’s the easiest and quickest way I can get this goal so I, I can get a bunch of clients or get my business out there?

Nothing, no matter what anyone tells you is going to bring those results overnight or in a week or very quick. It all is a hustle. It all takes time and patience and effort and podcasting is no exception. So keep that in mind. Yes, absolutely it can work and if you do things properly and for the long term, it will work.

But you can’t just go in with unrealistic expectations.

So with that in mind, over this long period of time, if you’re not gonna be able to push episodes out weekly, even if you’re seeing very small download numbers, which is gonna be the case in at least the initial period, then it’s very unlikely that you’re going to have the motivation to do this long enough to actually ever see those results, the fruits of your labor.

And that’s usually a big red flag. And a reason not to start when I hear people tell me that, yep, I’m ready to do this for a year. I don’t care what the download numbers are. I know it’s gonna be slow start. That’s what I want to hear. Obviously we’re motivated to grow that, but if the answer is something else, like, no, I want to see an ROI in a couple of months, or I quit.

There’s just no point in starting because you are almost never going to see that type of situation where you get ROI after a couple months. If you already have a big following on social media or something like that, then yes. More possible in those cases. But if you’re starting out from a, a lower level, not too many followers, not much of a mailing list or anything like that upfront, while your podcast, like everything else is going to take time to grow, uh, it’s not a small venture to start.

I mean, it can be, but if you want to do it properly, it does take effort. And if you’re gonna go through all that effort and then end up just quitting after a couple months ’cause you didn’t see what you wanted. It was pointless to ever begin with. So as I mentioned, when I’m doing these calls with potential clients or people who want to start a podcast, I will always be very upfront about this ’cause it, it’s not beneficial to me either to have someone start a podcast and stop after a couple of months.

So we wanna be very clear on that understanding and the expectations and the commitment required. If a person feels like they’re just gonna do an episode here and there, and they’re not devoted to doing one every week for the next year or two years. It’s not gonna allow for growth, and you’re just gonna end up in the same place.

So essentially that’s the conversation that I would have at the very beginning to determine if it makes sense to recommend that podcasting could be a good avenue for you to pursue or not. So let’s assume at this point that we have decided, yes, it makes sense. I would like to pursue this. I’m up for the challenge.

I’m excited, I’m gonna do it. You do wanna launch a podcast? Well, there are a whole bunch of considerations and things that we would look at in the launch process, but I’m not gonna get into the small details like that, hear uh, about say what kind of microphone to buy or whether to do video or audio only.

But I just wanna talk about the big picture stuff for the rest of this episode. First thing to consider when doing your podcast launch, are you gonna do it on your own or are you going to hire some help? What to think about when making this decision? Well, it can be a lot of time to learn stuff that you only need to do once, you know, learning the ongoing production of the podcast is one thing, because you could, do that every week if you, uh, if you want to do it on your own.

But when we’re looking at a launch. It can take a lot of research, a lot of figuring stuff out, a lot of technical stuff that maybe you just, you don’t see the value in doing that all on your own one time and then never again. So that could be a point for trying to hire it out, getting some help. Also with do it yourself.

You’ve gotta make sure that you’re doing it properly. I see this quite frequently, and I’m trying not to be too biased here, but I do come across it where people have done it on their own or maybe hired an experienced help and just wasn’t done right. Stuff wasn’t set up correctly. Their website has no subscribe links on it, uh, whatever.

In extreme cases, they’re not on Apple Podcasts, so people couldn’t even find them on the biggest platform in the, the world for podcasts, stuff like that, or it’s just not a good quality. It’s, yeah, if you value having things done right and coming across as credible, it can be really good to get some help upfront, even if it’s not paying a company for a full launch, but just maybe running through things or you’re paying for an hour consulting call, something like that, just to make sure you’re on the right track and not making any mistakes that you’re going to realize a year or two years down the road have been really holding you back and you had no idea.

But again, like we’ve been talking about a little here, budget wise, if you’re newer and you just don’t have the money to spend, DIY might be the only option. So I would just say, be cautious of how you do it. Try to cover all those bases of you don’t know what you don’t know, and do it properly so there are no regrets or mistakes that come to light later on.

Next consideration when launching your podcast. Think about the content specifically, who is it for? And really who is your ideal client? The podcast does not need to be perfect starting out. Don’t expect it to be. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself. Don’t be a perfectionist and then never actually get it going because you, you feel like it’s not good enough.

You are going to improve and adjust over time, no matter how much you prepare. And try to do it perfect outta the gate, you’re going to get better over time. That’s just the way it is. But we, we do want to consider, at least when we’re starting, who is your ideal client. And this, this is gonna pivot over time as well.

And it’s totally fine to re be reevaluating your business, your strategy, your podcast, and adjusting who your ideal client is or the type of services you’re offering or who you want to serve. But we wanna have it in mind so that we can make content that would be valuable to these people. So if you’re just making a podcast and you have no clue who you’re really speaking to or who your ideal target client is, then how can you make content for them that’s going to resonate with them and be valuable to them?

So really get a clear picture of who that person would be. And then when you’re looking at your content ideas, your topic ideas, the guests that you might wanna invite on, think about is this useful? Is it really speaking to this person, or is it not very valuable to them?

And then act accordingly in terms of what you actually publish on your feed. But starting out, don’t put too much pressure on yourself. You will learn as you go and you’ll adjust as you go. But just something to keep in mind. Don’t just put content out there willy-nilly, uh, because you enjoy talking about it.

For example, have that end goal, your client in mind.

Another consideration before launching your show. How will you promote it? Because podcasts need promotion to help with growth. So do you have any existing social media following? Do you have an email list? Do you have other people in your network that could help you promote it? Either if you exchange something with them, like uh, newsletter swap, for example, where you get promoted on their list, you promote them on yours, whatever the case, be creative.

Think about it, but. Main thing is you wanna strategize and set out a plan for growth. Just having a podcast on its own, it’s not really gonna grow just by sitting there in some cases. Sure. But we’re talking about reality and the general way things work. You need to be able to promote it. So social media, paid ads, we have a lot of resources on this. But main thing is don’t just expect the podcast to be a great marketing tool all on its own. Without help, you’ve gotta actually step in and help foster that growth.

 And the final thing that I wanna touch on here before you go ahead and launch your podcast is the commitment aspect and sticking to a schedule. Once in a while, podcasting not gonna cut it.

It’s not going to give you the momentum to grow an audience. And if that’s one of your goals, to generate leads and grow the show, grow the revenue for your business you need to think about this. Now, if that’s not a priority and you’re just wanting to make connections and just, uh, maybe get some video footage for social media or improve your speaking skills, that kind of stuff, well then.

You can kind of, you can do whatever you want. You can publish episodes whenever you want. But if you really are serious about growing an audience and getting some real ROI from your podcast, in terms of leads and revenue, it’s gotta be consistent. It can’t just be fly by night here and there. Whenever you feel like it.

It’s just not going to work. So before you start, think about that. If you are in that situation where doing it consistently is what you need to achieve your goals, get thinking about that now. So before you even launch, do two or three episodes maybe even more.

Then you’re ahead. You’re never coming down to the wire getting stressed, you can figure out your systems, understand how is this gonna work, get everything smoothly operating before you even start, and then you just keep that system going.

However you do it with your team, your content strategy, your recording schedule, and you don’t have to worry about this. You just know and you can feel confident that for the next multiple years, I’m gonna have an episode out every single week. No doubt about it. Versus if you just start and you don’t have a plan and you’re, you’re not systematized, just gonna all fall apart. So consider this upfront. How do I make sure that I set myself up for success right from the beginning?

Okay, so I hope this has been useful. If you’ve been considering launching a podcast to compliment your business and generate leads and revenue, and you want it done right, you don’t want to have to learn any technical stuff upfront.

You wanna look and sound great. You don’t want to get into the weeds on anything. That’s what East Coast Studio is here for. We’ve got a really cool launch package to help get you started on the right foot. So feel free to reach out anytime. And there’ll be a link to book a call for that in our show notes.