Everything you’ve heard about podcasting is a lie. Okay, that sounds dramatic, but today I want to talk about the things nobody tells you when you’re thinking about starting a podcast (specifically, the cons of starting a podcast).
This is episode 99, which means I’ve been podcasting for almost two years. That feels wild, because the time has actually gone by pretty fast. This episode was originally supposed to be episode 100, but it got bumped to 99 — and I’ll explain why, because it’s one of the many things people never mention about running a podcast.
I also know this is the time of year when we start setting goals and thinking about what we want to bring into our businesses for the new year. Maybe you’re considering launching a podcast in 2026, which is exciting. Or maybe you already have one and you’re wondering whether anyone else feels the same way you do. Honestly, these are things people rarely talk about unless it’s in very private, behind-the-scenes conversations.
Anyway, let’s get into it.
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Table of Contents
These are a few cons about starting a podcast nobody really tells you about podcasting, especially when you’re creating a show for your business. That’s the world I’m in, and it’s the type of podcasting I work with most. B2C shows can be a little different, but what I’m sharing here applies primarily to the B2B space, since that’s where my experience is.
I didn’t put these in any particular order. I literally opened my notes app and kept adding thoughts whenever something came to mind.
1. Podcast Data is TERRIBLE
The first thing is that podcast data is terrible. It’s extremely limited. I use Buzzsprout as my host, and my clients use a variety of others, so I’ve seen several dashboards. In most cases, you only get download counts: total downloads, plus downloads in the first 7, 30, and 90 days.
You can create accounts with Apple Podcasts Connect and Spotify for Podcasters to get a bit more information, but that data is siloed. Apple will show you things like follower counts and engaged listeners. One metric I do like from both Apple and Spotify is listen-through rate, because it shows whether people actually finish your episodes. For someone without a massive audience, though, it’s frustrating to check multiple platforms and then dig into each episode to see where listeners drop off. It becomes such a cumbersome task that you end up skipping it altogether. I’m someone who genuinely likes data, and even I find it discouraging.
Realistically, most podcasters keep an eye on two numbers: how many downloads their latest episode got in the past week, and the total downloads their show received during that same seven-day window. People do look deeper, but you can’t get very deep without third-party tools, and even then the insights are limited. I’d love more concrete information, but it just isn’t available.
Getting Clients Through a Podcast
I talked about this back in episode 28 about starting a podcast, which I recorded after my first six months of podcasting. At that point, I hadn’t gotten a single client directly from the show. I wasn’t expecting a big rush of clients that early, but now, almost two years in, I’ve had only two clients tell me they found me through my podcast. That still surprises me.
I recently talked with one of my favorite clients about this as one of the cons of starting a podcast. We agreed that people rarely say they discovered you from your podcast. What does happen is that current clients tend to listen, and potential clients often listen before they hire you. So it may not be the place where people first find you, but that doesn’t mean it has no financial return. It’s just nearly impossible to measure.
Every now and then a client will reference something I said in an episode that week, and I’ll be shocked because I had no idea they even listened. So podcasting isn’t very gratifying in that sense. On Instagram, for example, you get likes, impressions, DMs, and visible proof that people are responding to you. That’s a whole other conversation about dopamine, but at least you get feedback.
With podcasting, there are weeks where you genuinely wonder if anyone is listening. You may not get a single comment about your latest episode. And as I mentioned, I’ve had only two clients in almost two years explicitly say they came from the podcast, even though I put real effort into it: I hire a professional editor, I plan helpful topics, and I mention my offers without constantly selling.
I do put real effort into my podcast, and I’m fine with that. Getting clients from it was never the primary goal. It has always been more of a brand play so people can get to know me. Still, if someone had told me early on that I’d get almost no clients directly from the show, I probably would have paused. That doesn’t mean the podcast hasn’t been valuable, but there isn’t a clear, trackable path between the podcast and revenue, and I don’t love that. It’s one of those things nobody in the online space really talks about.
2. People Rarely Find Your Show Organically
Another reality is that people rarely find your show organically. If you look at the (limited) data, very few listeners arrive through direct search. Most people who discover my podcast do so through another person or through Google. I do see listener growth from blog posts that are based on podcast episodes, because I link to the show in those posts. I know that works because the episodes tied to blog posts that rank well on Google consistently get higher downloads.
It’s a strange situation where I’m constantly interpreting clues: traffic on my website rises, and certain older episodes get more downloads, so I can piece together that people are finding those episodes through Google. I think people assume podcasting works like YouTube or blogging, where you build a library of searchable content. It’s not terrible for that, but it’s not naturally a strong search-driven platform. You have to put real effort into being discoverable.
One of the most common ways people find new shows is by searching for a particular guest inside Apple Podcasts or Spotify. If someone is interested in a guest, your episode with that person might come up. That tends to be a more reliable path than hoping someone searches for a specific topic you’ve covered.
3. Guest Episodes Can Be Challenging
That leads to the next point: guest episodes are challenging. Not because of the guests themselves — I’ve had many wonderful ones and will continue to invite guests on — but because of the logistics. You have to coordinate schedules, and last-minute rescheduling is incredibly common because recording a podcast often feels low-priority for people. Others won’t fill out required forms, and some won’t promote the episode at all once it’s live. That last part is the most frustrating.
There’s this idea that hosts need guests more than guests need hosts because guests are the ones bringing the information. In reality, it’s much more of a partnership, but the perception creates tension. Every guest episode costs me money or time. I pay to have it edited, I handle the promotion, and whether I do it myself or a team member does it, it’s an investment.
Plus, no one is going to buy from me because I hosted a guest well. Solo episodes are what build rapport and make sales. Guests serve a different purpose: ideally, they cross-promote the episode so new listeners discover my show. When that doesn’t happen, it’s discouraging. Even friends and clients with large podcasts experience the same issue. They’ll feature a guest with a big audience, that person won’t promote it, and it feels genuinely insulting.
To be fair, sometimes hosts don’t tell guests when the episode goes live until the last minute, and the guest already has a full promotional calendar. I’m completely fine with late promotion. I don’t expect anyone to rearrange their schedule for my show. But resharing a tagged story is the bare minimum, and some people don’t even do that. Again, this isn’t aimed at anyone specific. It’s a pattern I’ve discussed with friends and clients who also run shows.
Mis-aligned Values with Guests or Poor Customer Service
Something else that has become complicated in 2025 is the political climate. Inviting guests now carries a sense of responsibility. I’ll interview someone and genuinely enjoy the conversation, and then months later I’ll realize our values don’t align at all. People say to keep politics out of business, but the truth is that if I had known certain things earlier, I wouldn’t have invited some guests. It feels uncomfortable to have an episode performing well when I no longer feel aligned with the person featured in it.
I’ve also recommended guests’ products on my show, bought their stuff myself, and then had listeners buy it too — only for them to have a bad experience. That’s a terrible feeling. It makes me want to be very intentional about who I bring on because it’s essentially a public endorsement.
Hosting a podcast means publicly aligning yourself with each guest, and that deserves care. But it isn’t always easy to vet people. Sometimes you’re busy and say yes quickly. Sometimes you assume someone shares your values. And sometimes things change months later, especially in a chaotic political year, and you suddenly realize you aren’t aligned after all.
Guest episodes typically have less downloads and completion rates
If I set my feelings aside and look strictly at the data, my guest episodes consistently get fewer downloads. The only time they outperform my solo episodes is when a well-known guest shares the episode with their audience.
When I sort my episodes in Airtable by total downloads, the top of the list is almost always solo content. There are a few exceptions, and they aren’t tied to audience size. One of my best-performing guest episodes came from someone with about two thousand followers, simply because he shared it multiple times. He’s also one of my favorite people online. Shoutout to Danison if you’re listening — his episode is number 56 if you want to scroll back. It was a great conversation about what it actually takes to get better at marketing.
Aside from those exceptions, solo episodes perform best. One of the metrics I pay attention to in Apple Podcasts Connect is listener retention, and people tend to drop off much earlier during guest episodes compared to solo ones. I recognize that this may be unique to my show, and I’ve asked myself whether I need to improve my interview skills. There are definitely things I could refine, and that’s part of why I’ve taken a break from guest episodes while I rethink my approach.
When I started this podcast, I wanted the conversations to be more advanced, but I also know the people I’m creating content for are extremely busy. I try to keep episodes around 30 to 40 minutes, and it’s difficult to get beyond surface-level discussion within that timeframe during an interview. That misalignment is something I’m paying attention to.
I also know I could do a better job preparing guests, and that could be affecting the depth of the conversations. So I’m sharing what my data is showing me: listeners simply don’t finish guest episodes as often as they finish solo ones. But I also know that won’t be true for everyone.
4. Most Listeners Do Not Engage
Another thing I’ve noticed — and this is a big one — is that most listeners do not engage. For me, this has been one of the biggest cons to starting a podcast. Podcasters love to say “send me a DM if this resonated” or “leave a review,” and I do encourage those things too, but the truth is that I get very few messages about the podcast. I don’t have many reviews either. I touched on this earlier, but it still surprises me because my listener numbers have grown steadily over the last two years. Not every single week, but consistently overall.
That leaves me with the ongoing question: is my show growing slowly because I’m not using enough growth tactics, or is it growing slowly because listeners aren’t staying? That’s something I’m trying to evaluate as I look more closely at the data.
When I look at my own habits as a podcast listener — and I’m an extremely avid one — I almost never leave reviews. I don’t DM hosts. I don’t engage at all, even with shows I love. So when I remind myself of that, it makes sense that my own listeners don’t engage much either. Still, it can feel discouraging, especially early on, and honestly it still stings a little even two years in.
5. You’ll Have To Constantly Re-sell Your Show To Your Audience
Another thing I’ve noticed is that you have to constantly resell your show. There’s a myth in the podcasting world that once someone subscribes, they’ll listen every week forever. That just isn’t how people behave. Even now, two years in, I still see big spikes when I nail the title or pick a topic people are genuinely excited about. If the topic isn’t relevant or interesting to them that week, they skip it. And that’s completely fair. I do the same thing.
I posted about this recently, but I’ve been curious about what people’s listening habits look like now. Back in 2017, when I first started my business, there were fewer podcasts. I had my regular shows that I’d listen to every Tuesday or every Wednesday, no matter what the episode was about. I was early in business, so almost everything felt relevant, and I consumed every episode whether it applied to me that day or not. I think fewer people do that now. There are so many options, and listeners are much more selective. They weigh the topic before hitting play.
That means you constantly have to create content people actively want to hear. It needs to feel interesting and worth their time, and what qualifies as “interesting” changes from week to week. It’s different from YouTube, where you can repeat ideas more freely because people watch individual videos, not every upload. YouTube lets you revisit the same frameworks or tips in slightly different packaging. Podcasting doesn’t work that way. Listeners tend to follow along week after week, so you have to bring something fresh and timely more often.
6. Batch Recording Is Not As Easy As You Think
That leads to the next point: batch recording is not as simple as it sounds. In theory it’s great, but in practice it often falls apart, not just for me but for my clients too. This is one of the biggest cons to starting a podcast. Recording multiple episodes in a row is physically hard. Talking nonstop for an hour or more can wipe out your voice. Even batching five short episodes means talking to yourself for two hours, and that’s a lot.
When I first started my podcast, my early episodes were around seven minutes long because it was genuinely hard to talk for fifteen minutes straight. It felt like I had to cram in so much just to reach that length. That gets easier over time, but it still doesn’t make batching simple.
The other challenge with batching is related to what I mentioned earlier: podcast content often needs to feel timely for your regular audience. Yes, podcasting is evergreen, and most of us want episodes to stay relevant long-term. But many listeners are tuning in because they want to hear what’s happening now, in your world or in the industry. That makes it tricky to record too far ahead.
Most people find my older podcast episodes through Google, not through Apple or Spotify search. I often title the blog posts differently from the podcast episodes because the platforms work so differently. A more intriguing title might work well inside a podcast app — something like “The Secret Q4 Marketing Strategy You’re Missing” — but nobody is searching for that phrasing on Google. On the blog, I’m more direct, because that’s what ranks. That’s where podcasting becomes evergreen: old episodes can get steady traffic if the blog post connected to them performs well.
Another problem with batching is that excitement fades. When I batch too many episodes at once — and I see the same thing with clients — the content can feel stale by the time it goes live. There’s something energizing about recording when a topic feels current and top of mind. When you batch too far ahead, you lose that spark. And in my case, things are rarely that far ahead anyway. I’m recording this on Monday and it’s going live Tuesday. If you have a team, you also need time for editing and production, so batching can create its own challenges.
Re-records and Tech Issues
A perfect example: I recorded an Ask Me Anything episode last night. It was over an hour long. This morning my editor, Natalie (who is incredible and unbelievably patient), told me that something must’ve changed in my settings, because the entire thing was echoing. She could try to fix it, but an hour-long episode with bad audio is not something people will sit through. So now I have to rerecord it.
And that’s another issue with batching or recording in general: the magic is never the same the second time. The first take usually has more energy and flow. I’ve had this happen with guests too. Once, Riverside wasn’t working, so we switched to Zoom. I forgot to hit record because I’m used to Riverside doing it automatically. Mortifying.
We ended up having a great conversation — but the second time around, it felt different. We kept asking ourselves, “Did we already talk about this?” and it just wasn’t as natural. Rerecording almost always loses something.
You also end up dealing with more tech issues than you think you will. That’s been my experience, at least.
I saw a thread recently where someone said they had their podcast episodes planned out through the end of the year — and it was June. I commented and asked them to check back in at the end of the year and say how many of those episodes they actually used. Because I can’t count how many times I’ve planned episodes that I never end up recording. I have a ClickUp list with 41 episode ideas. Some of them have been there since day one. And I still don’t feel like recording them.
7. You Need To Plan Out Your Episodes
Instead of batch-planning my episode topics, I’ve found that the best podcast content happens when you show up with something that’s truly on your mind. When you’re passionate, excited, and ready to talk through it, the energy translates. But here’s the part people don’t usually admit: better episodes almost always come from outlining and preparing, not just turning on the mic and talking about “what’s on your heart.” A lot of people say they riff their episodes, but most of us need some form of structure.
That doesn’t mean a full script or hours of prep. But it does mean taking time to think through what you want to say. For example, the Ask Me Anything episode I mentioned earlier took me about three hours to outline before I even recorded it. Sometimes I’ll go off the cuff with a loose list of ideas, but those episodes rarely perform as well as the ones I plan more intentionally. My data makes that pretty clear: the more effort I put in, the more listeners stay engaged.
And if this all sounded a little negative, that’s not my intention. There are so many great things about having a podcast. I obviously believe in podcasting — I’ve put nearly two years into this show. I just think honest information is helpful and that’s where the cons of starting a podcast come in. These are normal parts of running a business and creating content. Every channel has downsides, but people tend to talk only about the exciting wins. So I wanted to share the parts no one mentions.
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