Is Podcasting Worth It in 2025? Discover the Secrets to Success!

So I'm going to answer some podcast questions today.

One of them is, is it even worth it?

Starting a podcast in 2025.

Hit it, ladies.

The school of Podcasting with Dave Jackson.

Podcasting since 2005, I am your award winning hall of fame podcast coach, Dave Jackson.

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So I got this question off of Reddit and I was like, you know what, let's talk about that.

Because a lot of it's funny.

It's either it's too crowded, right?

Some people will say that's too crowded to get into podcasting, or podcasting is dead.

A lot of, lot of companies that have serious stakes in video are telling you how great video is.

Keep that in mind.

But I can get that you're, you're new podcasting.

Like, is it even worth it?

And as always, every podcast question begins with two words, and that is, it depends.

Because if you think about it, if you're a person that has, I don't know, a couple hours a night free time, kind of bored, you got plenty of time to, to play and experiment.

Somebody with three kids, two jobs, a spouse, maybe don't have that much free time.

And so consequently, your time might feel like it's worth more because you have so little of it.

So it's hard to answer this question, but I thought I would share some stats because here in the States, there was a guy named Tom Brady, and he's considered the greatest quarterback in American football of all time.

He was amazing.

I talked about him, I think, like episode 600 and something.

I haven't really talked about this subject since 2016.

And so if you're around for that, this is a bit of a repeat, but Tom was a guy that got, didn't even think he was going to get drafted.

He thought he was and then he didn't.

But the whole point is, when he was at his height, I could see people going, well, should I even play football?

Because, you know, Tom Brady I'm never going to be as good as Tom Brady.

In fact, I looked into this and you know, there are these.

We have a.

My junior high, I often walk by it.

I see these little kids playing football where the helmet is bigger than they are.

And I'm always thinking, does that kid think, why should I even play football?

I'll never be as good as Tom Brady.

And so I looked into this and they say the odds of making it to the NFL, they're slim.

So for instance, they say only about 1.6% of college football players make it to the NFL.

That is a very small margin.

But they say for high school players, the chances are even slimmer with basically 1 in 133,333 people get to make it to the NFL.

And that is a small number.

You'd have to have a lot of passion to really think I'm going to do that.

Now, if we break it down even further, right, so you had 133,000 people in a really big stadium.

Picture that a whole stadium, giant stadium.

And one person gets to make it.

And it's one from every city, right.

They say about 7.3% of high school players again go on to play college football.

So again, very small percentage of those college players, only 1.2% get drafted to the NFL.

And even the highly rated recruits, the, you know, the odds are really challenging.

If you're a five star, five star recruit, you have about a 50% chance of being drafted.

But that again is like, remember, it's 7.3% of high school people that are in football that go to college.

And then only 1.2% of those, so this is 50% of the 1.2%, which is 0.6%.

And they say a five star recruit has a 39%.

So that's 39% of the 0.6% that are left of sticking in the league.

And this means that, you know, you can get drafted and then there's the practice squad, there's the actual squad, and then there's the, you didn't make it and you're, you're gone.

I went to school.

He was a drummer occasionally for bands that I played in.

And in high school he was like, I don't know, six, two.

And he was crazy.

I watched him once headbutt.

He threw a metal trash can up in the air, threw it up and then headbutted it.

And it just so happened that the corner of the trash can, which unfortunately was sharp, cut him in his head as he headbutted it.

And he then put a.

They put this Ace bandage across his whole forehead because he had this big old gash and blood's going everywhere.

And he later drew like a kamikaze kind of thing from Japan on it because he was crazy.

And he went on to play it in a high college.

He played at Ohio State.

But the thing that was interesting, he was the biggest guy on our team.

And then when he got to Ohio State, he was one of the smallest guys on the team.

And I don't think he even got on somebody's practice squad, but he was a really good football player.

He's all state, if I remember right.

But he was small.

And so again, what happens is people see other shows and they go, I can never be.

I can't compete with espn.

I can't compete with Mel Robbins.

I can't compete with whoever.

And a couple episodes ago, I interviewed Doc G about the book the Purpose Code.

And this is again where I'm just going to repeat the main theme of that is, don't do it because you want to make $200,000 and you want to be famous.

That's a really big goal.

And because it takes so long to achieve that goal that you lose hope and you die, do it because you love the craft.

Like my buddy Craig Vanders, like does.

AI goes to college, and he is a big tech nerd, teaches at Louisiana Tech.

Loves AI.

Just loves it.

Just swims in it all day.

Never gets bored of it and the possibilities that they bring.

Kim Pash does a show with her mom called Old Testament with my mom.

Guess what the show's about?

Yeah.

Her mom has a tremendous understanding of old time history and the Bible and stuff.

Kim loves podcasting, and I get all sentimental when I hear about family members doing podcasts together, because that lives on forever.

So that's really cool.

That actual show we talked about, you know, you do it until you run out of stuff to talk about, and that's the end.

And so they just wrapped that up, and they've got the episodes they needed.

They went, peace out.

And that particular podcast lives on, but they were never about getting advertising.

It was just something fun to do.

Let's educate people.

There are people that are into the Bible that probably found out some things about that, and they had fun.

They got paid in fun.

So is podcasting worth it?

It really depends on what you want out of it.

Kim got a lot of fun with her mom and memories that will last forever.

You know, Craig AI goes to pod.

AI Goes to podcasting.

That's.

That's his next podcast, AI Goes to College.

He's now with a co host, and they're both fielding trying to keep up with AI.

That's a job.

My buddy Ralph over at Ask Ralph Podcast, I just listened to an episode of his.

He is all about serving his audience.

Does he want to have a bigger audience?

Of course, we all do.

But he's talking about something he's been talking about since he was 8 years old, which is finance.

And then he combined it with a Christian perspective.

You know what we did Old Testament stuff.

And now Ralph.

Hold on.

Do we need one of these?

You guessed it.

Invisible Sky Buddy Alert.

Invisible Sky Buddy alert.

Beware.

By the time you hear this, I will have inducted George Raab of the Geologic Podcast into the Podcasters hall of Fame.

And George did it because he's one of the most creative people I've ever met.

There are about seven people on George's show, and all of them are George.

It's one of those things.

It was a challenge because George has been podcasting since 2007.

And I'm not complaining, because otherwise the ceremony would be, you know, 12 hours long.

But I had to summarize what makes George George in three minutes.

And that was a hard assignment because he's just super creative.

But he didn't get into it.

He just was like, hey, I think I can make people laugh.

And he does.

And through this, his show got attention because it's so different.

It is so different.

The early shows especially was really just George going, I'm going to put clips together that make no sense and see how far we can push people going, what am I listening to?

But back in 2006, people would listen to that because you're like, I don't know what's going to happen next.

And he does things like in his, I don't know, probably 10 episodes ago, he always starts off with a story, just a cold open.

And it went on for 17 minutes.

And if somebody brand new was starting out, I would go, don't do that.

Because very few people that are brand new can hold somebody's attention for 17 minutes.

But George does.

And what was interesting is his show started to get momentum.

And George is a skeptic.

In fact, one of his.

He was on my show a while ago because he does his show in different segments.

And one of the segments is the religious moron of the week.

And I always tune in because I am not a skeptic.

George is.

But I'm not To make sure that I am not the religious moron of the week, but through.

Here's the thing.

Opportunities, those come from your show.

So you start a podcast.

The podcast leads to relationships, and the relationships lead to opportunities.

Then those opportunities often lead to more listeners of your show.

So there's more relationships, which lead to more opportunities, which lead to more relationships, which lead to more opportunities.

You get the idea.

And George was asked to emcee this thing called tam now that is short for the amazing meeting.

And it is basically, if you're in the skeptic circle, the skeptic Super Bowl.

And here's the thing, when you get these opportunities, you have to take advantage of them.

So this week, this whole week as I record this, I'm going to PodFest tomorrow, but this whole week I was redoing.

Just practicing and redoing and practicing and redoing.

Especially the.

I'm doing two inductions for the hall of Fame.

I guess I can say this now because by the time you hear this, it'll be done.

I inducted Tom Webster and George Robb.

Both these guys have insanely long careers, and I wanted to do them justice.

And it was an opportunity.

And I don't want to, like, I don't want to show up.

I don't want to make it hard to follow me.

But on the other hand, I don't want to be boring.

That's my number one rule, right?

Don't be boring.

And so I practice these three minute speeches, making sure they're clocking in at about 2 minutes and 50 seconds.

Why?

Because I always forget to leave room for people to laugh.

And then I'm doing a presentation on, keeping your show real means keeping it really boring.

And why it's important to edit, because I know some people, like, oh, I don't edit.

And I go, so let me get this straight.

There are book editors, magazine editors, TV editors, movie editors, and yet newspaper editors for those that remember those.

And yet your show is perfect.

Oh, I get it.

And yet you're asking me, how do I get my show to grow?

I don't think that's a coincidence.

I often hear that I'd like to hire you because I need help growing my show.

Great, let's talk about your workflow.

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Yeah, I don't do editing.

Not saying that you have to.

It's your show.

Do what you want.

Just everybody else edits.

And so I practice that over and over.

In fact, as I record this, it is Tuesday night, and I will continue to practice those Till Friday.

Why?

Because it's an opportunity.

And when you over deliver on an opportunity, it leads to more opportunities.

And people will hopefully go, who is that Dave Jackson guy?

Oh, he is the guy from the school of podcasting.

And then they'll go listen, and then they'll tell two friends, and they'll tell two friends, and somebody will go, we should have him go talk here.

We should give him a book deal.

We should, whatever it is, over deliver on the opportunities.

Your podcast leads to relationships.

The relationships lead to opportunities.

The opportunities lead to more relationships, which lead to more listeners, which leads to.

You get the idea.

It's a big old circle.

And so is it too late to start a podcast?

Well, the old joke was, the best time to start a podcast was in 2005.

The next best time to start a podcast is right now, because I brought up Tom Brady, greatest quarterback of all time, not the greatest broadcaster of all time.

He's getting a lot of flack about that.

I personally just don't like the sound of his voice.

Boy, that's a scary thing to say on a podcast, because there might be people.

Is it you that's going, oh, that's what I'm afraid of.

I hate my voice.

Well, first of all, we all hate our voice.

That's a science thing, by the way, because when we hear our voice, normally, when we talk, we hear our voice through our ears, but also through our skull.

It's called bone conduction, which just basically means your skull is a big subwoofer that adds a lot of bass to your voice.

So when you hear your recorded voice and it's only going through your ears and not your skull, it sounds thin.

It just sounds different.

Doesn't sound bad.

It just sounds different.

And so for me, he's.

I'm not a huge fan of Tom Brady as a broadcaster, but here's the thing.

After I get done with that tangent, of course, Tom Brady retired.

Someday, Joe Rogan will retire.

Rush Limbaugh.

Love him or hate him, that guy retired.

Somebody had to take his slot.

And that could be you, if your skill set is ready.

But to be ready when the greats retire, you better start now.

So that question is that we're starting a podcast in 2025.

There is no absolute answer, because for the person that has no time for anything, no, it's probably not worth it, because it's a marathon, not a sprint.

And stats show that you might start, do less than 10 episodes, and quit.

And that's fine, by the way.

That doesn't Mean, you're a bad person.

It means you tried something and it didn't work.

You ever, you know, did you marry everyone you dated?

No.

Some of them didn't work.

And you moved on, took your lessons.

I doubt that I will ever.

I'm assuming I will go on a date, but I'm not sure if I'm ever going to get married.

I got two of those under my belt.

I'd be really good at it because I've learned a lot from those two marriages, especially the second one.

But when you do something and it doesn't work, that's it.

Said the old teacher here.

Right.

That's a learning opportunity.

But how do you know if it's worth it?

All right, the first thing you have to ask yourself is, why am I doing this?

And you're like, oh, is he going to do the whole why thing again?

Yeah, I am.

It's always, why are you doing this?

Who is it for?

What are you going to talk about?

And how are you going to measure your success?

But you have to answer that question, and there's only one way to find out, and that's to start one.

And I know you're like, oh, says the guy who wants to teach me how to podcast.

But that's just logical.

Have you ever had.

I know somewhere in this house is a recipe card with my mom's meatloaf, and I'm sure in there it had some sort of green pepper stuff or something.

I'm not a big green pepper guy.

Sorry for all those that love green peppers.

But I thought, you know what?

I really miss mom's meatloaf.

I gotta get that card.

I'm sure it's around here somewhere, but I would.

If there's green peppers in it, I'm taking it out.

Well, how do you know if it's gonna be Mom's meatloaf if you take out the green pepper?

Well, you got to do it and try it and see what you think.

If you like it, you keep doing it.

If you don't, you put it back.

And so I just wanted to pop in.

I thought it was going to answer more than one question, but I'm at that part where I look up and I'm like, all right, we're at 20 minutes, and I could ramble here for another 20 minutes to get to 40, which is kind of usually where I am.

But I want to bring value.

Hopefully I got you to think.

Hopefully I got you.

If you're already podcasting, you may realize a lot of times, because we get focused on other people's goals.

Oh, that guy's making lots of money, and that guy got a job.

Yeah, but you started your podcast for fun.

Are you having fun?

Don't overlook the fact that you may have a highly successful podcast.

I just want to talk to people about sales.

Okay, well, what do you do every Wednesday night?

Oh, I get a bunch of my buddies and we talk about sales.

Congratulations.

Your show is a raging success.

It's worth it to you.

And what's kind of funny is some people go, is it worth it?

And I'm like, well, everybody's dropping everything they have to run to YouTube because, you know, video, video, video.

You gotta be in video.

Well, when I asked Perplexity to look into this, it said it's an estimated.

There are 65 million active YouTube channels.

All right, 65 million active YouTube channels.

It's a fair amount of competition, if I do say so.

Because if you go to audio, According to podcast index.org, if you go all the way out to 90 days, 468,000 active podcasts versus 65 estimated million active YouTube channels.

That's something to think about.

And yet everybody's willing to drop everything and go to YouTube.

Maybe they should ask, is that worth it?

If you need help with this, I would love to help you.

I help podcasters.

It's what I do.

Come see me.

Schoolofpodcasting.com.

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30 days in day 29, you're like, Ah, you know what?

It's not going to be worth it for me.

It's harder than I thought.

Send me an email, get your money right back, no questions asked.

Thanks for giving us a try.

I'm Dave Jackson.

I help podcasters.

It's what I do.

And I would love to see what we could do together.

Until next week, take care.

God bless.

Class is dismissed.

Hey, are you still here?

Holy cow.

I forgot to do the question of the month.

Hey, thanks so much for listening.

I will see you next Monday with some reflections on PodFest.

And you can always go to schoolofpodcasting.com follow and never miss an episode.

Take care.