You’ve got a number in your head, haven’t you. The number of listeners that would finally make your podcast feel worth doing. Have a think about what it is before you carry on reading.

Wherever it came from, I’d put money on it being borrowed from shows with big budgets, big teams and a ten year head start, and it’s almost certainly far bigger than it needs to be. This episode is about where that number really came from, why it’s talking you out of starting before you’ve recorded a single word, and what a normal podcast audience actually looks like once you take away the show-off numbers you see on social media.

I go through the figures on what most podcasts genuinely get, and then I do the little bit of maths that changes how the whole thing feels, the one that works out how many listeners you actually need when you’re selling something worth thousands rather than selling advertising. It’s a much smaller number than the one you’ve been carrying around, and by the end I want you to have worked out your real one.

It’ll take you five minutes, which is about what it costs me to record one of these. New Pod Shot every weekday. Come and find me on Instagram and TikTok: @lynsaymakeswaves