Jon discusses the benefits of podcasting for small architecture firms and other service-based businesses that deliver complex or technical services. He explains how podcasting can help articulate complex services, build trust, and attract the right clients. Jon also debunks common myths around podcasting, such as the need for expensive equipment or being an expert before starting. He shares practical tips on getting started, including using guest appearances to ‘dip your toe’ into podcasting. Be sure to contact Jon via the link below if you’d like to learn more about how podcasting could benefit you.

Episode Highlights...

00:00 Introduction

01:51 Benefits of Podcasting for Your Business

05:59 Debunking Podcasting Myths

13:22 Overcoming Fears around Podcasting

18:08 How To Get Started with Podcasting

19:57 Conclusion and Next Steps

Key Takeaways...

🎙 Building Trust and Authority

A podcast helps you show people what you do and why you do it. When you share your knowledge, you build trust with potential clients. The right people will be drawn to you, and those who aren’t a good fit will move on.

🚀 Getting Past Common Podcasting Fears

Think you need fancy equipment or a perfect radio voice? You don’t!

✅ Start with what you have – A simple setup works fine.

✅ Learn as you go – You don’t need to be an expert to begin.

✅ Your story matters – People connect with you, not just your content.

🎯 What Does Podcast Success Look Like?

Success isn’t just about money or big download numbers. It’s about:

📅 Showing up consistently – Keep publishing, even if it’s not perfect.

💡 Sharing something useful – Help your audience, and they’ll keep coming back.

🎙 Enjoying the process – If you like doing it, you’ll stick with it!

Want to explore podcasting for your business?

👉 Book a chat with Jon to explore working with him 📞

Interested in joining our membership community?

👉 Click here to JOIN THE WAITLIST 😀

Resources…

👉 Grab the Architecture Business Blueprint 🎁

It’s the step-by-step formula to freedom for architects, architectural technologists, and architectural designers. Get it today (without any charge).

👉 Follow or Connect with Jon on LinkedIn 🤝

👇 And if you enjoyed this episode…

Please leave a 5-star review or rating wherever you listen to podcasts, and don’t forget to hit the subscribe button so you never miss an episode.

In The Next Episode...

Next time Jon chats with Jude Charles on using storytelling to attract better clients.

Have you ever felt that people just don't understand what you

do or have struggled to explain your complex services to prospective clients?

If people can't understand what you do, they won't value it.

If they don't value it, they won't pay as much for it, which means that

you miss out on sales opportunities.

Your work deserves to be better understood.

Podcasting is one of the best ways to communicate what you do and why you do it.

This is just one of the reasons that you should get into podcasting, and

there are loads of other benefits too.

I share more in this episode of Architecture Business Club, the

weekly podcast for small firm founders who want to build their

dream business in architecture and enjoy more freedom, flexibility,

and fulfillment in what they do.

I'm John Clayton, your host, and I know that building an architecture

business can feel hard, especially if you're a sole practitioner.

The good news is that you don't have to do it alone.

Last year we launched our membership community to a small

group of founding members, including architects, architecture,

technologists, and interior designers.

We meet online each week and occasionally in person to support

each other in building our businesses and to have some fun along the way.

In 2025, we opened the doors to a limited number of new members.

If you'd like to join this supportive group of like-minded

professionals, now's your chance.

Just go to architecture business club slash waitlist or click the

link in the show notes and enter your details so we can let you know how

you can join this incredible group.

And if you have any questions, just emo John.

That's JO n@architecturebusinessclub.com.

Okay, so let's find out how podcasting could benefit you and your business.

Hey everyone.

Thank you for tuning into the episode today.

Today we are talking all about podcasting.

I. How meta is that?

We're, we're on a podcast and we're talking about podcasting I'm, I'm hugely

passionate about podcasting, but I'd love to share some of the reasons why you

might consider getting into podcasting.

Some of the, the benefits for you and your business, and there are

a lot of benefits from podcasting.

Podcasting is a brilliant way to build trust with strangers,

and this is so important that.

If you're connecting with people and you are trying to secure new

clients, they need to trust you.

It's so important to do that.

Podcasting's, a great way to do this, can help you attract more

of the right clients and repel the wrong clients by communicating

what you do and why you do it.

It's a really great way to get more of the right clients to connect

with you, but it can also generate.

Other opportunities.

It's not just about attracting better clients.

It can generate unexpected opportunities that you, you might not foresee.

It could be opportunities to talk on another podcast.

You might have opportunities for collaborations with other businesses,

other organizations that have heard about your work, what you do through a podcast

interview that you've taken part in.

Could be the opportunity to, to speak at a conference or an event.

So there's all sorts of exciting things that can come through podcasting.

It's a great way to build your authority and credibility so that you can become

a trusted voice in your industry.

Also, to become more visible People talk a lot about the importance of building

your personal brand these days and featuring on podcast interviews or having

a podcast is an amazing way to do that.

It also gives you a platform to share your expertise, your experiences, and your

stories, all of which is helping people to connect with you on a very personal level.

It gives you currency to exchange.

If you have your own podcasts, like, an interview-based podcast such as this

one, that it's actually really valuable for the guests that come on the show.

Like every guest that comes on this show, they're getting free pr.

They're getting a really high quality podcast episode that they can then

share with their own audience.

There are often promotional assets like graphics and video

clips that you are not having to spend time or money in producing.

And actually you can, Leverage that by guesting on a variety of different shows.

And in fact, some people's whole podcasting strategy is just around being

a guest on other people's podcasts.

So it doesn't necessarily have to be that you launch your own show.

I. You get the opportunity to have amazing conversations with people

from all over, like potentially people that normally they wouldn't

have the time of day to talk to you.

But because you've got this currency to exchange, uh, inviting them on your

podcast, you get to have conversations with some incredible people and there's.

Almost unlimited opportunities to repurpose that content.

If you also record the video there's so much content that

can be pulled out from a single.

Podcast interview.

So one recording could be an audio podcast.

It could be a video version on YouTube.

You could have short video clips that you share on LinkedIn

and Instagram and TikTok.

You can pull out quotes.

You can pull out key takeaways and learnings for carousel posts

that you post out on your social media platform of choice, blog

articles, monthly newsletters.

The op opportunities are endless.

The other thing is.

Podcasting's.

Cool.

Like even my kids think so.

So your street credibility is gonna go up if you are like, Hey, did

you know that I'm now a podcaster?

But there are a lot of myths and misconceptions around podcasting.

Um, I'm gonna just quickly run through some of those with you.

So one of them is that you need fancy, expensive equipment.

That's not really true.

Like you, you need a microphone.

Quality does matter, but it doesn't cost a fortune.

You can get a really good mic that for most podcasters, would be more than

suitable for less than a hundred dollars.

Headphones and recording software you'd need.

But other than that, that's pretty much it in terms of the equipment

that you need to get started.

Another myth is that you have to be a podcasting expert before you

start, before you launch a show.

That isn't true.

This is something where you can learn as you grow, and actually that can be

something that can hold you back from getting started, so it's better just to

get started and improve things as you go.

You have to be a subject matter expert to talk on a podcast.

Again, this isn't true that there is value in your experiences.

You are the experts of your own experiences and your experiences,

your stories, that lived experience that you've had is valuable.

People want to hear those stories.

They want to hear the stories behind the work that you do.

So you don't have to feel like you have to be a guru to have a podcast or talk

on a podcast or to be a podcast guest.

That is just not true.

You are a person of value already.

You've got all sorts of valuable things that you could be talking

about and sharing on a podcast.

Another myth is that you.

You have to have your own podcast to benefit from podcasting.

I've mentioned this already, that there's a lot of benefits from being

a podcast guest and in fact that is the whole strategy that some people

use around podcasting, that they never actually launch their own show,

that their whole podcasting strategy.

It's about guesting on other people's podcasts and getting in front of

other people's existing audiences.

And if you're interested in learning more about podcast guesting, go back

and check out episode 51 from this show, how to Be a Brilliant Podcast

Guest so that you can nail the podcast interview with Colin Gray.

That was a really great conversation with Colin, and it gives you everything

that you need to get started on that.

Another myth is that your podcast has to make money to be successful.

You can define your own version of success, like the success

metrics for your podcast.

It, it doesn't have to be that this has to make money to be deemed a success.

That isn't my version of success for podcasting.

It doesn't have to be yours either.

People often think that the tech and software is really complicated.

It can be, but it doesn't have to be.

There are lots of options out there for you.

There is software that makes podcasting much easier than it used to be, and help

is much closer at hand than you realize.

There are lots of people that are able to help you with podcasting, and

there's lots of resources available online as well, many of which are free.

Another myth is that you have to publish weekly episodes.

That is just not true.

Like it's entirely up to you what the publishing schedule is.

So whether you choose to publish a Cap capsule podcast, which is a fully self

encapsulated limited series, so it's, bit like the, the limited series you see on

Netflix, that's just like eight episodes and it's start to finish series done.

Or it could be an ongoing series.

It could be that it's monthly, that it's weekly fortnightly.

Some people even choose to release short daily episodes, but that's

entirely up to you how you choose to do it Doesn't have to go on a

regular, uh, regular, weekly schedule.

The other misconception is that podcasts are just for

conversations and interviews again.

That is just not true these days.

There are so many different types of podcasts.

There are fiction podcasts.

There are narrative podcasts.

Podcasts that are like audio documentaries.

There are shorts, there are news, podcasts, reviews.

Podcasts.

There's just about.

Any different type of podcast format that you could imagine.

So please don't feel that if you did want to get into podcasting and

launch a podcast for yourself or your business, that it has to be

an interview based show or just a conversational podcast with you talking.

It doesn't have to be that way.

There are all sorts of different options for you, him.

The other thing that people think is that.

That you have to record video as well as audio.

Now, you might have heard from a lot of marketing gurus tell you that video

first approach, it has to be video.

It's all about video.

That is another thing that may hold you back.

It can be that it's audio only.

There is still plenty of podcasts out there that are very successful,

that are just audio only.

That's absolutely fine.

Another myth is that video interviews.

Our podcasts.

Sometimes people will say, oh, I love this podcast on YouTube.

I, I love that show.

We want to get into podcasting.

Now, as far as I'm concerned, if there isn't an audio only version,

so there isn't an audio version that is available on platforms like Apple

Music, Spotify, that sort of thing.

It's not a podcast.

What that is, if it's just a video, uh, it's a video interview that's on YouTube.

The, it's a video interview show, so there are differences.

There are some shows that are just video interview shows.

There are other podcasts that have a video element.

There are video podcasts that do also have the audio version as well.

But unless there's the audio only version, in my humble

opinion, that is not a podcast.

The other belief sometimes that people have is that it's just beyond your

capabilities that you, you can't do it.

And as I mentioned earlier, help is closer to hand than you realize.

You, you can do it, podcasting is within the grasp of most people out there.

So don't feel that it's not within your capabilities.

There's a misconception around whether the market is oversaturated.

Some people might be feeling well, look, is it too late?

There was a big boom in podcasts during Covid.

Is it oversaturated?

It isn't.

It is still a growing market, and podcasting is far less

competitive than YouTube.

Another reason for having an audio podcast in your mix, it is far less

competitive than trying to stand out on a YouTube, uh, YouTube videos.

The usually thing people think often is that you have to

have like a radio host voice.

You don't need to have a radio host voice, like your natural

voice is going to be fine.

And also that podcasting is really time consuming.

And again, it can be a little bit like the tech.

The tech can be complicated.

Podcast production can be time consuming, but it doesn't have to be.

There are certain approaches that you can take that can reduce the time it takes to

produce your show, and that is always the opportunity to bring in some help with

the bits of the production that you're struggling with to save you some time.

So what about getting started?

What are some of the common things that hold people back from

getting started in podcasting?

Classic would be perfectionism.

This feeling of, oh, it needs to be perfect, needs to be perfect

before I launch this podcast.

And I dunno how to make it perfect right now.

So I will procrastinate about this and I'll leave it on the ideas shelf for

later and I won't do anything about it.

But you don't have enough time.

That's another thing.

Imposter syndrome.

Maybe you are feeling like.

Well, I'm not good enough.

I'm not good enough to be a guest on a podcast or to have my own podcast.

Maybe you're not sure what to say.

You might be feeling like, well, who would want to listen to me?

Like, what have I got to share that anybody would find interesting?

You might have a fear of just messing it up and or looking silly

in front of anybody that tunes in and listens or watches the show.

That fear of failure that we often experience, I. Or maybe just a fear of

being disliked or judged by your peers.

All of those thoughts are really common.

I recently talked with Mark Franklin on the show about the common fears

that hold us back in business.

If you haven't already listened to that episode, go and check it out.

It's episode 73, overcoming the Four Fears of Business Ownership with Mark Franklin.

So I experienced all those fears.

So how the heck did I get started?

Well, I had to do some work on myself.

To begin, I had to change my mindset, and part of that was rather than

thinking of myself as needing to be an expert, to be able to show

up on a podcast, it was a case of.

I didn't need to do that.

Like I'm the expert of my own experiences and that's good enough.

And actually by having an interview based podcast that also allowed me to

shine the spotlight on other people, when I set out with the show its aims

were to help educate and support other small business owners in architecture,

particularly sole practitioners.

I had to do a bit of work on myself personally to overcome

that imposter syndrome.

So it was, about the saying, well, okay, I don't have to be an expert.

I can just shine the spotlight on other people.

We can talk about the subject of business for architects and

architecture practices, and I can learn from those interviews myself, like

every time we do these interviews.

I'm learning with you guys as you're tuning in and listening.

The other thing is that it's okay to be disliked that you're

not gonna be everybody's cup of tea, and that's absolutely fine.

You can't please everybody, and if you try to please everybody your content.

It's gonna be so vanilla that it's just not gonna appeal to anyone.

So it's absolutely fine to just be yourself, be natural, and

just accept that not everybody's gonna like you, and that's okay.

But that doesn't mean that just because somebody's not interested in

what you say or it's not for them.

It doesn't mean that you're gonna get like nasty messages or anything

like that, like those fears.

I had those same fears before launching this show, and they

were completely unfounded.

The opposite was actually true, that if anybody did bother to take the

time to get in touch, it was because they'd really enjoyed the show or

they'd found something valuable from an episode, or they just wanted to,

to send me a message to say thank you.

I spent a bit of time planning the launch and launching the show, so

there was the preparation aspect of it.

So again, I would encourage you to do some preparation before you get started.

There are some great online podcasting courses available,

some of which are completely free.

The other thing I did was to have a think about what success would look

like for me and for the podcast.

And my success metric was just publishing consistently.

It wasn't really about download numbers or making money.

Obviously those are nice, nice things to have.

Download numbers can be a bit of a vanity metric.

If I could publish consistently and produce something of value and

continue to improve week on week, that was my version of success.

Your version of success might be different, but I think it's just

taking some time just to think about what success would look like for you.

So if you're interested in the opportunity that podcasting presents

for you and your business and you're interested in experiencing some of

those benefits that I've described in early on in this episode, what would

I recommendations be before starting?

Well, I would say just try to get clear on the why so.

So why would you want to.

Get into podcasting.

What's your motivation behind it?

If you were going to produce your own show, to have your

own podcast, who's it for?

What do you want your audience to get from it?

I would also say to be realistic about what resources you

have to produce a podcast.

So think about what time and what money you have available.

To be able to get into podcasting.

I would say consider dipping your toe into podcasting by being a guest, and I would

invite you to, to be a guest on this show.

If in doubt, ask a podcaster.

Now you might just know me as a podcast host.

What you might not realize is that I provide end to end podcast production

services from initial strategy and planning to editing and content

repurposing, and I'm actively looking for new clients to work with this year.

If you'd like to find out about how podcasting could benefit your business,

or if you'd like to be considered as a guest on this show, then email John.

That's JO n@architecturebusinessclub.com, or click the link in the show notes

for a no obligation chat with me.

Next time I chat with Jude Charles about how to use storytelling

to attract better clients.

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of architecture business club.

If you liked this episode, think other people might enjoy it.

Or just want to show your support for the show.

Then please leave a glowing five-star review or rating wherever you listen

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If you want to connect with me, you can do that on most social media platforms,

just search for at Mr. John Clayton.

The best place to connect with me online, though is on LinkedIn.

You can find a link to my profile in the show notes.

Remember.

Running your architecture business.

Doesn't have to be hard and you don't need to do it alone.

This is architecture business club.