5 Reasons to Start a Podcast in 2026

Hello, hello beautiful people. I wanted to hop on Instagram live to talk about why to start a podcast in 2016 and how starting my podcast nine years ago now radically shifted my life. So if you guys haven't peeped my Instagram stories, I'll highlight it under birthday. Yesterday was my birthday, believe it or not, your girl's 35 years old, and I had the most fun birthday of my whole entire life. Like we sing, we dance, we did like all of the 90s and 2000 classics. I'm talking, Silline Dion, I'm talking, Mariah Carey, I'm talking, Brian McKnight, like the list goes on, and I realized that every single one of my friends that I made was through my podcast. So I wanted to talk about how a podcast not just supports you professionally financially, but also with creating that dream life that you have been calling in. So when I started my podcast nine years ago, 2017, I honestly never thought it would really be a part of my career. I thought it was just going to be a safe place for me to have the kind of conversations I really wanted to have, but didn't feel like they fit into my career. So my career was being an Ayurvedic practitioner. I shared about health, nutrition, wellness, meditation, and it was a lot more Vedic, structured, I've written several books on Ayurvedic, and like that's what I felt people wanted from me. But what I was really interested in was talking about past lives and karma and soul ages and why the universe is the way that it is and true love and sacred union and just like understanding the secrets of the universe. Like that's the shit I geek out on. And I didn't know like I didn't feel like this could fit into my content or fit into my work. So do you relate to your kind of this one version of you and your work, but there's this whole other side of you that you're really excited about who's there in their life. So that's where I was in my life and I was like you know what? I'm just going to start this for me because I want to have these conversations, I want to talk about these things, it doesn't matter, it never needs to be monetized, I don't even care how many people listen to it. I just want to be talking about spirituality all the time. And I'm curious guys, share in the comments what is the topic that you want to be speaking about all the time. So I didn't know what to call it, I decided to call it highest self. And my first episode was a solo cast that I talked about, what is your highest self? What my evolution has been? Why I started this podcast and I hit publish, I recorded it on a $16 microphone that I continued to use that same microphone for probably six years and that's it, there was no video where anything. And so I started doing lots of solo cast so every week I would do a solo cast and I would do an interview, interviewing people whose book launches I would go to, people I found on Instagram and slowly from that I started to make friends. And I remember I went to a book launch of this girl named Cassandra and she wrote this book about eating with intention. I was like I would love to interview you on my podcast and through the podcast it's like you got to sit down and have a valuable conversation that you normally don't have with people and also you kind of get access to people who normally maybe wouldn't have just like met up with you for coffee. Like you know when you get messages people they're like I'd love to pick your brain, you're like no thanks but when you have something to offer them like hey I would love to interview you, people who you know we're more successful I had never written a book before I hadn't done those things yet but I was able to reach out to people who inspired me and they came on my podcast and slowly we became friends and through becoming friends I started to learn more about how the book writing space works which led to me writing I just finished my fifth book now and learning how to create an online business and membership and courses and certifications and funnels and the list goes on and none of that would have been possible without the connections I made through friendships. So that is the first reason why I was started podcast is you get to have your dream friends lots of people were watching my Instagram story of my birthday party of like I would love to do that that's my dream to have a birthday like that one day but I don't have people who would be like I'd give my all like roll on the floor and like completely you're in with their entire beings and you can only find those soul level people when you are your most express self and so through kind of me letting my freak flag fly and showing like hey I'm spiritual but I also love to twerk and dance and have fun and you know I'm just as much of an angelic yogi as I as I am sexy darkening the soul wearing my moto outfit and by me being these dichotomies but like embodied in my multi-dimensional self I started to connect with people who are the same people who had podcasts who you know one of my friends besties Rosia Costa she shares in her book that she was arrested went to jail or she was she was arrested for grand theft auto when she was in high school and then that's how she discovered meditation and became a yogi so I I love spiritual people with a little bit of an edge and so I started to find those people and it would it Rosie one of my besties you hear her on the podcast every single one I met her through through the podcasting her and I were both listed as top seven podcasts by yoga journal magazine which guys crazily enough happened a few months after I started a podcast so just because I was being my authentic self people started listening and it kind of went rapid fire and I got featured on this list I reached out to everyone on the list saying hey I would love to podcast swap with you so when you have your own podcast you can podcast swap so that actually helps get you on podcasts that normally you would not have had access to because you have something to offer them so I reached out to her and everyone else on that list saying I would love to swap meaning I interview you and you interview me and she said yes we met up and the rest is history and she's like truly my sole sister soulmate for the past nine years now and every single one of my friends that you saw me a magic you know Christine all of them have been through my podcast and so I really believe that the friends and the relationships in the community that we desire is on the other side of being our most authentic selves and there is no greater way than actually sharing your voice so the next reason why I would start a podcast is I feel like in this day and age on social media people just go through reels very very quickly I mean the attention span is very very short most people don't even stand a real for two seconds and so while you could spend all of that time trying to go viral on TikTok and Instagram instead you can create your 1000 raving fan base which is actually going to get you much farther so there is a book about that and I forget what it's called like a thousand fans and how actually to create a successful brand is not about having a hundred thousand people but about having a thousand people that are like all about it and so people can only really understand you understand your message understand who you are when there is enough space for you to speak you know if you're only experiencing me was through my Instagram reels like I'm a good dancer but you know like we wouldn't have the vibe that we have now lots of you guys have been listening to me speak on the podcast for almost a decade that's dozens two hundreds of hours we may have been hanging out on the interweb so it feels like we know each other and I've gone into my audience so deeply throughout as well and so when you have your podcast it gives you spaciousness for people to understand you to create affinity with you and that's what's actually going to lead to them being a fuck yes for joining your course your coaching your products or whatever it is that you have an Instagram reel that people are going through so fast just isn't enough time for them to develop trust so if you are a coach you are a healer you want to sell online courses you want to do membership whatever the product is something that you are being you you need to give people that spaciousness to get to know you and it takes time oh my gosh someone says I've been watching you since I was 17 years old so I'm assuming you're maybe 28 years old now so it's a lot of time and the coolest thing and a lot of people ask me is well isn't starting a podcast really hard guys it is the easiest thing I've ever done in my business and I'm not even just kidding you right now it is the easiest thing because I get to talk about what I want to talk about listen to people you know reason three you get to be mentored by the most incredible people that you want to be mentored by so I haven't been able to sit you know I'm very interested in relationships and so I've been able to sit and learn from the best teachers around the world and for me it allows me to get even more involved with like my favorite books or if I you know listen to a podcast I have more questions it's like like for example the podcast that came out yesterday is with Richard Rudd the founder of Jean Kies Jean Kies is a book I've been studying for over a decade never in my life would have I thought I would have a conversation with the author of the Jean Kies and that is only from me doing my podcast so it has led to me interviewing Sud Guru, Deepak Chopra, Marianne Williamson, Gabby Bernstein, Don McGell Ruiz like all of the top spiritual teachers but truly told the conversations that have shifted my life have been with the people who became my friends like those people that we can get really into the nuances and the intricacies of the things that I really like to talk about of you know the future of of marriage in the stay in age or free will versus destiny and it's allowed me to get to know you know reason five it's allowed me to get to know myself and my own thoughts through being able to voice it and express it and have these different opinions that I'm presented with and able to dialogue with I'm able to deepen into my own understanding so you probably have noticed or maybe you haven't I don't say the word or like at all. If I'm wrong, I'm going to be in trouble. I am speaking, I am speaking with clarity. And that is not something that I was born with, that is not something I've always had even since the first episode. You will hear a massive shift in my voice since episode one. In fact, I invite you to go listen to my first episode in 2017 and hear the difference in the tone, texture, and quality of my voice. And that is through practicing. Reason six, you will never get as much practice in speaking and communication and conversation and listening and empathy and receptivity and feedback and mirroring, like the most important things I would make a friendship, relationship, or business work, you're gonna get through podcasting because you are listening to yourself speak. And I know you might say, oh my God, I have my own voice, I really don't want to. Like, I'm not a good speaker. I still say, I'm not still saying like, I'm not at your level, girl, I can't do it yet. I didn't start here. Sir, no, sir, I did not start here. I started exactly where you were. I did not know how to do a solo cast. I was like, how does someone just talk for like an hour without stopping? I just don't understand how that works. Guess what guys? Y'all do it every day. How long will your voice start to your friends? When you are dropping those wisdom bombs to that girl who wanted to get back with her ex, they, you are channeling, you are channeling right there. So you are speaking all the time and you're not hesitating and you're not saying, you're not saying like, you're not star-struck for what the next word is gonna be. You are always in that flow. It's just for whatever reason we think when there's like a microphone, it's like, oh God, now I can't do it. And so that's why I created my podcast mentorship. It's like, how do you become a comfortable speaker to be able to have those podcasts that feel like home-based with your audience? And more than that, how to actually choose your podcast name, a name that's going to, just from the moment people see the title, understand what your podcast is about. 'Cause that's one of the biggest mistakes I see people make is they choose a name that doesn't really describe what the podcast is. And so they miss the audience. You know, I have a friend that she was starting a podcast about love and she was gonna choose a title that was like the name of a fruit. And I was like, what does that have to do with that? She said, COVID is a very cute name. And I said, what about including the energy that I'm gonna feel when I'm wildly in love? What about including that? And it was really valuable feedback which is renaming the podcast now. Thank God I sit in the come out yet. And so I love giving feedback like that. I love branding, I love names and graphics and all of those things like putting together something out into the world. And I'm gonna be personally mentoring you in that. So it's limited to only 10 people. We already have four signed up. So there's only six spots left. I will personally be on the Zoom call with you every single week. 90 minutes working with me. And then 30 minutes of you break out grouping with someone practicing, you are speaking, practicing your podcast intro, practicing what are the questions you wanna ask people? We're gonna be talking about the graphic that you make. How can you make a graphic that stands out? Oh gosh, you don't know how many people I see have amazing podcasts, but I can't read their font. It doesn't stick out to me. You can't see it because the Spotify graphic is so tiny. People don't realize these things and it just comes through learning and through practice and I'm seeing my downloads shift based on not just the graphic of my podcast, but the YouTube thumbnails that I'm doing. So we're gonna be talking about that, like the actual visual imprint of your podcast. What is the essence? What is the tone? What's the vibe? What's the studio? Do you guys wanna come see my home studio? Let's go. Let's go on a little road trip right now. By the way, can we take a moment for this altar, please? I've never, I've, Lauren Marie Sir, I've never seen such a beautiful altar in my life. So you get to have friends that get you, me as in flowers you got, altars. So my friend Mia is staying with me right now so don't mind the mattress here. You can see, high as self. So just to catch a vibe in my home studio here, I wanted to make the vibe super just like light, clean, spacious, but still ancient, sacred. Did I start off with a studio? No, definitely not. I was on my kitchen table, but I was able to continue to develop and develop and develop until the point that now I literally anywhere I live will have a two bedroom so I can have a studio because I'm making money on my podcast. I have sponsors. That's the main way. And so that's the really cool thing about having a podcast guys is like start it because you love it. Like don't start it just because you want to make money because it's not going to work that way. Start it because you are living to have these conversations. Does it only need about spirituality? No, sorry. Could be about relationships, could be about entrepreneurship, could be about wellness, could be about design, could be about astrology, could be about whatever you want. I'm here to support you in the branding, the messaging, the, I mean your personal brand, with your voice, like all of the things you need to actually bring it out into the world. So this is a six week live container. I'll be pulling the 10 of us that are in this crew so we're going to be able to choose a day and a time that works with us. So two weeks, two hours a week on Zoom, every week for six weeks, going through these exact steps and processes. So comment the word, let's do the word mentor. Comment the word mentor below. I'm going to have this in the replay. It's also in my Lincoln bio to be able to join. It's first come, first serve. And yeah, I'm really, this is my first time running it because I have spaciousness right now and the thing that I love the most is podcasting. It's to me so freaking fun. And I'm just excited to support more people. So some of you guys are commenting it here. Comment it when I repost this because I can't message you on here. So and it's also in my Lincoln bio. And it's just first come, first serve. 'Cause I know we had like 10 people right now who just did that and I only have six spots left. But if for whatever reason it is filled up by the time you get there, I'll have a wait list up there so you can join the wait list for the next round. Now what questions do you guys have? Because I want to be able to really answer your questions. And I'm going to scroll and see, and please rewrite your question if you're here. Anything about podcast mentorship. And so a common question that I get is what kind of tools like gadgets do I need to start a podcast? Is it very expensive? So absolutely not. If I were to start a podcast today, for example, I don't know if you know my voice is crisp and clear 'cause I have this little mic on. That is all you need. So I'll share with you the links that I personally use that you don't need an entire microphone set up with a videographer and lights and all of that. There are apps that you can use on your phone to give you like full DSLR camera settings on your phone. So I'll be sharing with you ways that you can literally start your podcast from your phone, record it right there with video. And then my process of how do I get the podcast up on not just the podcast or but Spotify, YouTube, Stitch, Stitcher, all of the different places. What is the tool that I use? And then also my process of how do I work with an editor? So some of you guys ask, do I need to hire an editor? You don't need to. A lot of the time my episodes are not edited whatsoever in terms of taking anything out. Because the only reason why you would need to keep editing things out is if you keep saying or stopping, which may happen, but that's something that you can work through. So you don't need to hire an editor. However, if you are choosing to record it on multiple cameras, so if you see my podcast, we've got three cameras running. We've got one on me, one on the guest, and one that's the both of us. So with that, I need an editor because he needs to pan to who's speaking. And I even have an editing style that I'll share with you of how to keep the other person engaged in the video even when that speaker's speaking. So it's not like just one person at a time, but like what are the moments to pan to that other person? What are the moments to pan to both of you? So I'll be sharing with you my process of how I personally work with a videographer and editor, someone who edits my reels, someone who posts, what does that team flow look like? 'Cause y'all, that took a minute to figure out. And now it's to the place that I record my podcast and the rest is done. I am not uploading it, I'm not writing the description, I'm not making the YouTube thumbnail, I'm not doing anything. Because I've set up systems and processes. And so yes, at the beginning, I was the person doing all of those things, but I'm not now and with nine years of experience, I can teach you things that will take you many, many years to figure out, and will cost you time and money, which are the most important things that we lose every single day. And so you're buying that back. So let me know if there are any specific questions. Again, I'm gonna have this replay, and so comment on the replay mentor and also the link is in my bio and there are six spots left. And we're gonna get going as soon as the, I just opened this up less than a week ago, so I'm sure it's going to fill up really, really fast. And I'm excited to personally get to know you. I'm really excited about my gift, I would say, is to see someone and understand, oh, this is really what your message is. This is really what your voice is. This is what your personal brand should be about. Like I'm able to really kind of like be the doula, for your Dharma and to I can see you in your fullness and I can see who you're here to become and allow you to move through some of the blocks because often we don't see those things in ourselves and sometimes all it takes is like a mentor being able to see us in our full expression for us to actually quantum leap and step into it. How can we start a podcast like yours from the start like a startup? That's exactly what we're going to be going through in the podcast mentorship for six weeks. How to choose the title, how to choose the thumbnail, how to choose what questions to ask people, how to choose the commonalities, how to choose your set, how to choose who you're going to interview, how you're going to interview them to become a better interviewer, become a better listener, had a navigated conversation, what to prepare, what you don't need to prepare, all of the things that you need to actually get your podcasts up and going. So what it's not going to include this is not around finding advertisers, that's not what this mentorship is about. We can do further because we only have six weeks together, we can do further cohorts that are more about that. But right now this is really about you having like an amazing podcast because ultimately you don't have the downloads first. And then I see a lot of people in questions I get is I'm afraid of starting a podcast because what if I don't make money doing it? And I want to say your first focus needs to be how can I just create the most aligned and authentic podcast that people are really finding value in listening. And I guarantee if you focus on that the listeners will come and the sponsors follow. And it's not only about finding sponsors, you can also sell your coaching, your courses, your membership, your readings, your healings, your retreats. These are all things that you can sponsor on your own podcasts. If you hear on my podcast, I barely have any sponsors. I don't really like working with them that much. I'd much rather just sponsor it with my speak with SoulCourse, which is all about speaking and becoming a conference speaker in 21 days, which if you comment speak, I can send you the link to that. I have my membership Rose Gold Goddesses. I had my entire coaching certification school for six years. And all of these things were actually built from the back end of my podcast through the listeners. I started to be able to offer more value through these deeper learning dives that we were able to take together. And so I actually have made way more money from using my podcasts for my business than I would have from just sponsors. So that's another thing. I feel a lot of people are very small-minded and they only know the model of like podcast sponsor. But you know, and I can share more about this, but the space has really, really shifted in the past couple of years. I mean since COVID, which can you believe was six years ago, but it's really shifted. And I don't feel building a podcast to get sponsors is really the way I feel building the podcast to gain an authentic community that wants to buy what you sell because it's a value to them because your podcast has been a value to them. Like that's the way that you're going to be able to create something that's not replaced by AI. Like AI can never be you, can never be your voice, can never have your story. And that's the thing that a podcast allows you to have. You know, a lot of people right now who are teaching on Instagram Reels, it's something that I could just look up on chat GPT. It's like how to, you know, build your audience in this way. And it's like, if your entire message is something that has no persona to it, no story to it, that's something people are going to get from AI. The more you make yourself you, the more you show your story, the more you show your messiness, the more you show your process, the more you show your in idiosyncrasies. These are the things that people will connect you with. And it was funny because I was talking to my friend who was the girl I met through my podcast 10 years ago, Cassandra Bodzac, who's one of my besties. She dressed up because by the way, my birthday theme was you have to dress up as a version of me. And so she was Sahara at the airport, which I always wear this like aloe yoga set with like a braid on one side of my hair and I'm have my keto chocolates and I'm running late. And so anyways, so we were talking about how when we first started writing books, my first my first book came out in 2017 as well, that it was all about don't share your story. No one wants to hear it. Give people value. Make it about the reader. That's very much what the book advice was when when a lot of us were reading these books. And I'm not just talking about spirituality either in any of this anywhere. Now it's entirely shifted. It's like how real can you be? Like can you even like be on a little bit of a ledge of how authentic you are? Like y'all, I'm sharing stuff in this new book of mine that I never thought would see the light of day. Like I am copy-pacing things from my notes out that I'm just like, "Hello Jesus, can't believe I'm sharing this shit." But I'm like, "You know what? That's the thing I can't replace. My pros and cons list about everything in my life." Like the things that are just so freaking human that a robot will never understand. And that's your opportunity. So the messier, the better. The less of an expert you are, the better. The less polished you are, the better. So gone are the days that you need to be an expert in a PhD and like got your hair done and like all these things. You don't need to at all. Like we actually want to see you in the mug. Like if you just had a kid and you're barely sleeping and you're like, "I want to make something for mom's, but I feel not the perfect mom." It's like, "That's who wants to hear it." We don't want to hear it from Shirley who had the perfect motherhood story. It was like 20 years ago. We want to hear it from Emily who literally got two hours of sleep last night, but here's how she still was able to find time for herself care. That's who we want to hear it from. So the fact that you're still in the mess, the fact that you still don't know the total answer is what makes it relatable. Because I don't want to hear it from someone and then you don't want to hear it from someone who pretends they got it all figured out a million years ago and doesn't actually know what that problem is like today. Because dating today is very different than dating 10 years ago. Wellness today is very different than wellness 10 years ago. Business today is very different than business 10 years ago. Guys, 10 years ago it was just 2016. So the world has shifted so much in the past couple of years in ways that we just can't fathom. And when I'm saying it out loud, I know you're probably like, yeah, I noticed that. Yeah, that's so true. Yeah, that's right. But maybe I'm just finally saying it that you're like, oh, wow, that actually means that this is the time for me to start my podcast. Wait, that actually means that everyone's been telling me to do it and no more waiting around. Wow, that actually means my childhood dream of being Oprah is no longer just a far off fantasy. It can happen literally next month if I want, if I'm ready, if I'm willing to say yes. So that's all it takes. Every single person gets to be their own Oprah should they choose to hit publish. And the journey will prepare you might say, I'm not ready. Imagine if I never went running and I said, you know what, I'm going to run a marathon, but I'm not a good runner yet. So I'm just going to wait. I'm just going to sit around and wait until I'm a good enough runner and then I'm going to run a marathon. Now I become a better runner by trying to run every single day. And maybe today I run a quarter of a mile and next week I run half of a mile and the week after that I run a whole mile and then the week after that I run three. And that I keep going. And then before I know it, I'm running 26 miles. But if I sit around and I wait until I somehow get the skill set to run 26 miles when I'm never ran one, I'm going to be waiting for rest of my life. Friends, that's the majority of people. Have we noticed this? People are waiting around for something to happen that they're making no effort towards. The dynamism that you might say, but you're an amazing speaker. I'm only an amazing speaker because I've been broadcasting for nine years because I've just practiced more than you have. That's it. That's it. And you can be too. And it doesn't need to take nine years. Like it can literally be in two months. You can amaze yourself by the strides you can make because I guarantee you if you're listening to this, you are a great speaker. You're a great listener. You ask great questions. You're interesting. You're aware. And it doesn't need to be around spirit. It could be around anything. But you're a curious person because people who are muggles don't follow me. Let alone listen to this. Like if you were listening to this deep in like, here's your owl to hog warts because you all wait for a wizard. You have something something different about you. You know, so I'm just saying you're different. If you haven't noticed yet. And people like us do very well on podcasts. People who are a centric, people who are offbeat, people who live life in a different way. Like these are the people that we want to hear about. So you might be like, but I'm too weird. People will relate to me. I'm like a little like which in my house? Like great. That's what the people want to hear. Even if they don't know it yet, they want to hear it. And so the things about you that are different show us your altar, show us your, you know, your practice, show us your whimsy, show us anything about yourself that makes you different and have conversations with people learn from them. And it's like a new side of you comes online too when you're talking to someone else because you might say, well, sorry, I for sure can't do the solo cast, but the interviews. It's like you don't have to prepare anything. You get to just have a conversation with someone. It could literally just be your friends. It doesn't need to be some author that you read the book of one day. It could be, you know what, me and this friend always have such an amazing conversation. That's someone I want to have on my podcast. So it doesn't need to be this awkward thing that you have to reach out to someone you don't know. It could, you could even have a podcast as you and your friend just talking in every episode. and you talk about different topics every week. So I'm saying there are so many different ways that you can start a podcast, and that's why I'm gonna be supporting you with what's the best way for you? Do you wanna do podcasts or interviews? How and then actually practicing every week for six weeks? So I'm really excited for this mentorship to start again. There are only six spots left. It's live with me. I don't know if I'm gonna be running this container again. So be sure to head over to my link in bio. Also comment the word mentor and I'll DM it to you. And it's just first come first serve. We're gonna be getting started right away. And I can't wait to say yo and invite you and support you inside. And here's your owl. Ooh, you've been accepted to start your podcast. The time has come, no more lullaggging around. Hop on, train nine and three quarters. Let's go. All right. (imitates gunfire) Two to Lou Dawlings. Thank you for the both I wishes. Look at this alter. Yay! And I'll also be showing you how to make beautiful sets around you. So the visuals match the vibe. Thank y'all so much. Can't wait to see you in the mentorship. Bye.