Fair warning: we did not set out to convince anyone to start a podcast.
Dr. Julie Marty-Pearson joined me on Stream Like a Boss TV for what we fully intended to be a measured, honest conversation about whether podcasting actually makes sense for your business. Julie hosts two podcasts, including Story of My Pet, a top 5% globally ranked show. I’ve been in the livestreaming and video space long enough to know that the “hot new thing” conversation can go sideways fast.
And yet. By the time we wrapped, comment after comment rolled in from people ready to launch something. One viewer literally typed: “Y’all are going to make me start podcasting.”
So if you’re on the fence about audio or video podcasting for your business, this recap is worth sitting with. Because what Julie and I talked about was the stuff most people skip before they spend $300+ on equipment and record six episodes that go nowhere.
Thank you Margaret Williams, MS, ACC, Jim Fuhs, Mary, and many others for tuning into my live video with Julie Marty-Pearson! Join me for my next live video in the app.
The Challenge: Launching Without a Why Costs More Than You Think
The current noise around podcasting is real. Apple is reintroducing and expanding video podcast support. YouTube sits at the top of discovery charts. Every coach and consultant with a ring light is apparently launching something.
And most of them stall out before episode ten.
Julie has watched it happen repeatedly. She’s also experienced it firsthand. She launched a podcast once without a clear purpose, produced six episodes, realized mid-production that she wasn’t sure what she was building or for whom, and made the call to pause. She came back when the strategy was clearer, relaunched with focus, and built something sustainable.
The pause was the smartest move she made.
We talked about this because the danger of trend-driven launches isn’t just wasted time. It’s that your audience notices when content has no throughline. A show without a clear “why” eventually becomes an obligation. And nobody wants to be obligated to their own podcast.
3 Questions That Change the Conversation
When someone comes to Julie and says they’re thinking about starting a podcast, she doesn’t ask about their equipment or their cover art. She starts with one word: why.
Simple, yes. But the answers that come from that question are almost never what you’d expect.
We talked about how there can be twenty perfectly reasonable reasons to start a podcast. But without identifying the primary one, you end up serving all of them poorly. Is the goal to generate leads? Build a community? Create speaking credibility? Establish a content library that does the heavy lifting between client work? Each of those has a completely different structure, format, and success metric attached to it.
The second thing we uncovered in our conversation is something Julie recommends to almost everyone who’s on the fence: be a guest on three shows before you host your own.
It sounds counterintuitive, but it’s the best market research you can do for free. You learn how the format feels in your body. You find out whether solo episodes energize you or whether interview conversations are where you come alive. You build real relationships while you’re figuring all of this out. That’s leverage.
The third piece is one we both felt strongly about: have 5 to 10 episode outlines ready before you make any public announcement. If you can’t fill that pipeline before you launch, you don’t yet have enough to sustain a show. Episode three is where most people start improvising, and listeners can tell.
What Happens When You Do This Right
Julie’s Story of My Pet podcast hit the top 5% globally not because she went viral, not because she had a massive launch, but because she showed up consistently with a focused point of view for four years.
Four years.
That kind of compounding consistency is hard to argue with. And the doors it opened were ones she couldn’t have predicted or planned for.
She told us about attending CatCon in Pasadena, surrounded by around 3,000 other cat enthusiasts, and running into three different guests she had previously interviewed on the show. People she’d only ever spoken to virtually. Standing right there in the expo hall, recognizing each other in real life. That’s what purposeful podcasting builds over time.
We had our own version of that story to share. Julie and I met at PodFest. Early on, she came into the Stream Bosses Academy community and taught on livestreaming. There was nothing transactional about it. She just showed up and shared what she knew. That’s the kind of network that podcasting and live video build when you approach them as relationship tools, not marketing funnels.
What We Want You to Walk Away With
Know your metric before you announce anything. Pick one measurable goal for the first 90 days. Downloads, email subscribers, workshop signups. One. Assess at the 90-day mark and adjust from there. Launching without a benchmark means you have no way to know if what you’re doing is actually working.
Guest before you host. Get on at least three shows in your space. Use it as research. Notice what lights you up and what drains you. Build relationships while you’re doing it. The format that works for you will become obvious.
Prepare your runway. Have 5 to 10 episode outlines with titles, topics, and guest or solo format decisions mapped out before you go public. This is how you launch with momentum instead of scrambling.
Let your format match your energy. If solo episodes feel like homework, your listeners will hear it. If you come alive in interviews, build around that. The format you’ll stick with is the format that fits how you actually think and communicate.
Use tools like ListenNotes. See where your topic lives in the landscape. Understand what’s already out there and where the real gaps are. You want a specific lane, not a crowded category with nowhere to stand.
The Shift: What This Conversation Changed for Me
We closed the episode with a lightning round because things were going so well we forgot we even had a structure.
One word for why you shouldn’t start a podcast, Julie said: Work.
One word for why you should: Empowerment.
One word for the kind of podcast to create: Authentic.
Favorite gear? A cheap pink mic cover that gets compliments constantly. Make of that what you will.
The gear question always tells you something, though. The barrier to launching is almost never the equipment. It’s the clarity. Once you know what you’re building and why, the logistics are the easy part.
Julie’s final words in our conversation were the ones that landed the hardest:
“If you feel the passion, the urge around it, there’s something there. You should see where it takes you.”
No pressure. No performance. Just a clear why, some patience, and the willingness to show up even when the downloads are still modest and the algorithm has shifted again. That’s the foundation everything else is built on.
Connect with Dr. Julie Marty Pearson at JulieMartyPearson.com where you will find her newest podcast, Still Becoming: Women Unmuted, and also look for Story of My Pet wherever you listen to podcasts.
Let’s Stay Connected Beyond This Article
If you want weekly strategy that goes a little deeper than what I share here, I send out In The Stream every Saturday. It’s where I get into the real behind-the-scenes of building authority through live video, and it’s where subscribers hear about workshops and resources first. You can find the link in my bio to get on the list: https://streamlikeaboss.tv/subscribe
