Despite podcasting being widely regarded as an excellent marketing solution to reach new clients and broaden your business exposure, it is not unusual to see professionals postponing their first step in the medium until the entire operation falls through. One excuse after the other.

Day 12 of my 31 Day Podcast Challenge, I am going to focus on a potential set of fears preventing businesspeople from exposing themselves through a podcast.

Here are some main reasons that are stopping you from starting your podcast.

I will become a laughing stock

When used as a business tool, a podcast reaches an audience made up of potential customers. None of them have time to lose. Everyone is focused on making the most of the content you are offering rather than finding the next laughing stock.

It is weird that many entrepreneurs who are the definition of self-confidence when doing business turn out to be completely terrified of exposing their voice to a wide audience who may comment and, eventually, make fun of it.

It has to be perfect

Perfectionism is among the main enemies of podcasting. Think about this: podcasting is time-saving. Rather than writing or creating videos, which may respectively call for long drafts or complicated post-production, podcasting can be made in real time.

Start recording, speak, stop recording. Job done, time saved. Trying to reach absolute perfection will trick you into a never ending spiral: the more you try to be perfect, the further away you will be from releasing your podcast and seeing it take off.

Maybe it’s just a waste of time

You were enthusiastic about the idea but now something is making you feel like “this may be of no use, a waste of time for my business and the listener.” Will it really gather new customers? Will someone really want to listen to it? What about other podcasts that may sound like mine?

These are just some of the questions you will ask yourself…based on deeper, unrelated insecurities which are likely to make you call it all off.

I don’t have the time

Let’s be honest, we all have time for the things we want to make time for, no matter how busy we are. Finding the space to podcast requires good time management but you also need to be honest about why you want to do it. Are you really passionate about the idea or does it just sound like a cool thing to do?

If your reason isn’t strong enough you’ll never find the time to get started. Or if you do you’ll find it very difficult to keep going because it takes a lot of time to consistently deliver content and grow an audience. We have this frank discussion with our potential podcast clients from the start.

If you really are too busy, set a date in the future you can work towards. Then try and use that time to plan out episodes.

I don’t have a "radio voice"

If you want to build a relationship with your audience it’s important to sound like you.

Podcast listeners want to feel like you’re having a conversation with them, not like you’re reading a voice over script. The more natural you can sound, the better.

If you’ve got a ‘unique’ voice that also can be an advantage. If you’re passionate about your content and can connect with your audience being you, that’s how you’ll build a listener base.

I don’t have any presenting experience

While it’s important to know how to use your voice, if you have a genuine passion for your content and want to share it with your listeners, the rest can be taught.

We work with our podcaster clients all the time with this.

Passion, expertise, knowledge and a willingness to connect are things you’ve either got or you don’t. But good presenting is something you’ll get better at as you spend more time in the...