Is It Too Late to Start a Business Podcast in 2026?
If your goal is to build business relationships and create useful content, start with the people you already know. A consistent interview format and a realistic production routine give you a practical way to begin.
A Practical Starting Point for Your Business Podcast
- Make a list of people in your professional network you would enjoy interviewing.
- Invite one person to a 20-minute conversation about their work, lessons, and experiences.
- Ask a few thoughtful questions, then follow the answers instead of rushing through a script.
- Publish the complete conversation and choose useful excerpts that make sense on their own.
- Share the finished episode with your guest and keep the relationship going.
- Choose a recording and production routine you can realistically maintain.
The Best Podcast Guests Might Already Be in Your Contacts
Somewhere in your contacts is a former coworker, mentor, vendor, or referral partner you've been meaning to catch up with. Maybe you haven't spoken in a couple of years. You see their occasional LinkedIn updates, you know they're working on something interesting, and every so often you think about reaching out. Then another week goes by, and nothing happens.
What if you invited that person onto your podcast? You could spend 20 minutes catching up, asking about their business, finding out what they've learned, and having a conversation that other people might enjoy hearing. If you've been wondering whether it's too late to start a business podcast, I'd suggest looking at the people you already know before worrying about the size of the podcast market.
Starting a business podcast in 2026 can seem a little intimidating. There are established shows with hundreds of episodes, professional studios, well-known guests, and years of experience. It's easy to look at all that and assume you've missed your opportunity.
I've wondered about the size of the podcast market myself. There's a pretty big difference between a podcast somebody started five years ago, published three episodes, and abandoned, and a show that's still putting out useful conversations every week. A total show count doesn't tell you how many of those podcasts are still publishing.
Suppose you started recording one 20-minute conversation every week. Your first guest could be somebody you worked with years ago. The next could be a vendor who knows your industry inside and out. Then maybe a mentor, an employee, a referral partner, or somebody you've gotten to know through LinkedIn or Facebook.
You're giving those people an opportunity to talk about themselves, their experiences, and what they're working on. You're also creating a reason to reconnect that feels a lot more natural than suddenly popping up and asking whether they have any referrals for you.
Afterward, you have an actual podcast episode. You might also have a few interesting moments worth sharing on LinkedIn, Facebook, or YouTube Shorts. You can tag your guest, share the conversation, and give their network a chance to discover you too.
Of course, somebody still has to edit the recording, write the show notes, create the graphics, and publish everything. That's work, and it's one reason I believe in separating the conversation from the production. Your time is better spent talking to interesting people and following up with them than spending your evening adjusting captions on a video.
When you have a recording ready, use our guide to publish your first audio podcast to see what happens between the interview and the finished release.
Before deciding the podcast market is too crowded, consider what you're actually trying to accomplish. If your goal is to build business relationships, stay in touch with people, and consistently have something worthwhile to share, the people you already know give you a practical place to begin.
How Much Podcast Competition Is Actually Active?
Podcast totals can seem intimidating. But a directory's total show count and the number of shows still publishing are different measures.
Before you give up on starting your own show, I think we need to ask three different questions. How many podcasts have been created, how many are still active, and how many new podcasts are being launched? Those numbers tell us very different things.
The answer changes depending on who's counting and what they consider active. A show that publishes monthly might qualify under one definition, while another report might count only shows that released an episode in the past 30 or 90 days.
Imagine opening a business directory that contains every company ever registered in your industry. Some companies are doing great. Others closed years ago, changed ownership, or haven't answered their phones in a decade. You wouldn't treat every historical listing as a competitor that's actively fighting for your customers today.
Podcasting has a similar problem. A show doesn't necessarily disappear from Apple Podcasts or Spotify when the host stops recording. Those old episodes can remain available for years, contributing to the total number of podcasts even though nobody is producing anything new.
For somebody who's willing to show up consistently, that's worth considering. You're not necessarily competing with every podcast that has ever existed, and your potential guests and customers aren't necessarily choosing among every show in a directory.
What About All the New Podcasts?
New shows add to the total, but launching a podcast is different from keeping it active.
A show can launch, publish twice, and disappear. Another might have started ten years ago and still release an episode every Tuesday. You need comparable reporting periods and definitions before calculating percentages or drawing conclusions about how long new podcasts tend to survive.
What interests me more is what happens after somebody starts.
It's relatively easy to record an introductory episode, interview a couple of friends, and announce that you've launched a podcast. The harder part is keeping the show going when your business gets busy, a guest reschedules, or you haven't figured out what to talk about next.
I've also compared podcasting with book publishing. Business owners continue writing because they have particular expertise, customers, and experiences worth sharing. Nobody expects every business book to compete directly with every other book ever published.
Your podcast doesn't have to compete with every podcast either.
If you own an accounting firm, for example, you're probably not competing for the same guests, relationships, or business opportunities as somebody hosting a celebrity gossip podcast. Even within accounting, you might interview local business owners, tax professionals, commercial lenders, and attorneys you've worked with over the years. Those conversations serve a particular professional network.
Instead of having one conversation and disappearing for another year, you have a reason to keep reaching out, publishing, sharing, and following up. The podcast becomes part of how you maintain those relationships.
I wouldn't tell you that simply staying active guarantees you'll stand out. You still need interesting guests, useful discussions, and a reason for somebody to listen. But if you can build a podcast that you're willing and able to continue publishing, you've addressed one of the biggest practical obstacles.
A lot of podcasts get started. The real test is whether you're still having worthwhile conversations six months from now.
Start With People You Already Know
Think about the people you've worked with over the past five or ten years. Former coworkers, employees, bosses, vendors, mentors, referral partners, and even people you've connected with on LinkedIn but never really gotten to know.
There's probably a pretty decent guest list sitting right there.
When business owners consider starting a podcast, it's easy to assume they need famous people, established authors, or industry celebrities to interview. They start thinking about how to get somebody with 100,000 followers onto their show before they've even recorded their first episode.
Meanwhile, they might already know dozens of interesting people who have built businesses, solved problems, made mistakes, changed careers, or figured out something useful along the way.
Let's say you worked with somebody five years ago who has since started their own company. You've seen a few updates on Facebook or LinkedIn, but you haven't had a real conversation in ages. You could send them a message asking to catch up, and maybe you'll eventually find a time that works.
Or you could say something like, "Hey, I'm starting a podcast where I interview interesting people I've worked with over the years. Would you want to come on for 20 minutes and talk about what you've been doing?"
Now you have a specific reason to reconnect, something interesting to discuss, and an opportunity to give that person a little attention for their accomplishments.
I think that's a much better starting point than trying to figure out how to attract the perfect audience before you have anything worth sharing.
The Relationship Is Worth More Than the Download
Let's say you interview a former coworker who now runs a successful business. You talk about the decisions they made, what surprised them, how they handled setbacks, and what they're excited about next.
Maybe the episode gets 50 downloads. Maybe it gets 500. Either way, you spent 20 minutes reconnecting with somebody who knows you, has their own professional network, and might be somebody you collaborate with again.
Of course, downloads matter if your goal is to grow a media business or sell sponsorships. But for a business owner who's using podcasting to network, the conversation itself has value.
Think about your referral sources. These are people who already understand what you do and might recommend you when somebody needs your services. You probably know you should stay in touch with them, but the usual options can get a little repetitive.
You can send another email asking how things are going, exchange messages around the holidays, or try to schedule lunch when both of you have time. Those things are fine, but inviting somebody to tell their story gives you something more substantial to share.
You're asking about their work, listening to their experiences, and giving them an opportunity to be heard. Then, when the episode goes live, you have another natural reason to reach out. You can send them the recording, share a short clip, and continue the conversation.
A vendor might explain a problem that your customers don't realize exists. A former boss might share a lesson that changed how they manage employees. A mentor might tell you about a mistake they made 20 years ago that still influences their decisions today.
Those conversations can teach you something while producing useful material for your audience.
I wouldn't approach every contact as a potential referral commission. People can tell when you're only interested in what they might do for you. Invite somebody because you're genuinely interested in their experience and believe there's something worth discussing.
You can certainly meet new people through podcasting too. But when you're getting started, consider making a list of 20 people you already know and would enjoy talking with again.
At one episode per week, that's nearly five months of potential guests before you need to worry about recruiting a single stranger.
Ask Better Questions and Let the Conversation Do the Work
"What's your secret to success?"
That's a pretty simple question, but think about how rarely somebody actually asks you that. Most of the time, when you're talking to coworkers, customers, or business contacts, there's some immediate problem to solve. Somebody needs an answer, a decision, a favor, or an update.
How often does somebody sit down with you for 20 minutes because they're genuinely curious about what you've accomplished, what you've learned, and what you're working on?
That's one of my favorite things about interviewing people. You get to make somebody else the interesting person in the room. You give them permission to talk about experiences they might not otherwise get an opportunity to share.
You also don't need to be some brilliant interviewer who spends three hours preparing questions or memorizing a guest's entire biography. A handful of good questions, followed by genuine curiosity about the answers, can take you a long way.
You could ask somebody how they got started in their industry. Maybe they planned to do something completely different and ended up running a business almost by accident. Maybe they've been doing the same thing for 25 years, but their approach has changed dramatically.
Either way, there's usually something interesting to explore if you're willing to listen.
Follow the Answers Instead of Rushing Through Your Questions
One question I especially like is asking somebody how they've failed and what they've learned from it.
Everybody can tell you what they're good at. They've probably answered that question on their website, their LinkedIn profile, and every introduction they've given at a networking event.
But ask about a mistake that changed how they operate, and you might get a much more useful conversation.
Suppose you're interviewing a business owner who mentions that they hired too quickly during a period of growth. They could give you a generic answer about the importance of hiring the right people. Or you could follow up by asking what went wrong, when they realized they had a problem, and what they do differently today.
Now you're getting into the details somebody listening might actually use.
The same thing happens when you ask what drives somebody crazy about their industry. Maybe your guest works in real estate and is frustrated by unrealistic seller expectations. Maybe they're an accountant who's tired of business owners showing up in April with a shoebox full of receipts. Maybe they're a consultant who keeps seeing companies purchase expensive software without changing the processes that caused their problems.
Those are hypothetical examples, but the principle is simple. Specific frustrations often lead to specific stories. You give somebody room to explain what they've seen, why it bothers them, and what they believe should happen instead.
I also like asking what somebody's working on right now and what has them excited about the future. That gives the guest an opportunity to talk about something current instead of spending the entire interview recounting their career history.
You might learn about a project, a new direction for their business, or something they've been experimenting with that hasn't turned into a formal announcement yet.
There's no requirement that every answer be profound. Some conversations will be funny. Some will get technical. Sometimes a guest will say something you disagree with, and you can push back a little. That back-and-forth is part of what makes the conversation worth having.
You Don't Have to Script the Best Moment
One of the traps with podcasting is trying to manufacture an amazing interview before you've even started recording.
You write 25 questions, arrange them in the perfect order, and decide exactly what you want the guest to say. Then you spend the entire conversation thinking about your next question instead of hearing the answer to the one you just asked.
I'd rather have a real conversation with a few thoughtful questions and see where it goes.
A guest might mention something unexpected about an old boss, a failed project, or an industry practice they can't stand. You can ask them to explain. You might disagree, laugh about it, or connect it to something you've experienced yourself.
Nobody planned that moment, nobody rehearsed it, and you couldn't have written it in advance.
Twenty minutes is enough time to get into a meaningful subject if you stay curious and don't waste half the interview reading a long introduction.
Your job is to ask something worth answering, pay attention, and give the other person room to surprise you.
Turn One Conversation Into a Week of Content
You've just finished recording a 20-minute interview. Your guest told a funny story about a mistake they made early in their career, explained something frustrating about their industry, and shared a piece of advice that probably would have saved them a few years of headaches.
You could publish the entire episode, put a link on Facebook or LinkedIn, and hope somebody listens. That's fine, and you should absolutely make the full conversation available. But you probably have several smaller pieces of content hiding inside that recording.
I like to say that quantity leads to quality. If you have a decent 20-minute conversation, you might end up with four or five interesting moments that are 30 or 60 seconds long. Those moments don't necessarily happen because you planned them. They come from having enough of a conversation that something worthwhile eventually comes out.
Maybe your guest says something surprising about how they manage employees. Maybe they explain a common mistake their customers make. Maybe you ask a follow-up question, and they give you an answer that's much better than anything either of you expected.
Those are the moments you want to find.
Give the Best Moments Their Own Life
You've probably seen the short videos I'm talking about. You're scrolling through LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok, and somebody is speaking directly to the camera. There are captions across the bottom, sometimes white and green, with individual words lighting up as the person talks.
The clip gets right into something interesting. You don't have to watch a five-minute introduction, sit through an advertisement, or figure out who the guest is before hearing the useful part.
For example, suppose a guest explains that their biggest hiring mistake was choosing somebody who interviewed beautifully but couldn't handle the actual work. During the full interview, that story might take three minutes to develop. But somewhere in those three minutes, they might deliver a particularly useful 45-second explanation of what they changed about their hiring process.
That could become a short video.
Another excerpt might show the guest explaining what business owners misunderstand about their industry. A third might capture an unusual answer about what they're excited to work on next.
Somebody who wouldn't commit to watching a complete interview might still find that one-minute explanation useful. If they're interested enough, they can watch or listen to the full episode.
Of course, every interview won't produce five amazing clips. Some conversations work better as complete episodes, and some individual moments need too much context to stand alone. You don't want to chop up somebody's explanation so aggressively that it changes what they meant.
The goal is to find genuinely useful excerpts, give each one enough context to make sense, and publish them where your audience already spends time.
Let Your Guest Help the Conversation Travel
There's another advantage to interviewing people instead of sitting alone and talking into a microphone every week. Your guest has their own connections, and some of those people might be interested in what they've shared.
When you publish a clip featuring somebody, you can tag them on LinkedIn or Facebook. You can send them the finished video and make it easy to share. Maybe they repost it. Maybe a colleague comments on something they said. Maybe somebody in their network discovers your business for the first time.
None of that is guaranteed, and I wouldn't expect every guest to promote their appearance. But you're giving them something useful to share rather than simply asking them to advertise your podcast.
You're also giving yourself a natural reason to follow up. Instead of sending another generic check-in message, you can tell your guest that you enjoyed a particular part of the conversation and wanted to share the finished clip with them.
Over several months, those recordings can become a collection of full episodes, short videos, guest stories, and useful observations from people throughout your professional network. Some clips might get considerable attention. Others might reach only a handful of people who happen to be interested in that specific subject.
Either way, you have something concrete to publish and a person you can reconnect with when you share it.
That's a lot more interesting than opening LinkedIn on Monday morning, staring at the empty posting box, and trying to invent something clever to say.
Build a Podcast You Can Actually Keep Publishing
You record a great interview on Tuesday. Now somebody has to edit the recording, clean up the audio, write the show notes, create the graphics, make a few short videos, upload the episode, and schedule everything to go out.
If you're running a business, where exactly are those extra hours supposed to come from?
That's one of the practical problems with podcasting. Recording the conversation might be the easiest part. You sit down with somebody interesting, ask a few questions, enjoy the discussion, and 20 minutes later you've got an episode. Then you realize how much work is involved in turning that recording into something people can actually find and watch.
A business owner can be excited about podcasting and still find that production work competes with everything else they're supposed to be doing. You have customers to take care of, employees to manage, emails to answer, and probably a dozen other things that need your attention.
Adding another complicated weekly project isn't especially appealing.
That's why I like keeping the hosting side of podcasting as simple as possible. Have one good conversation every week and build a repeatable process around it.
Borrow the Talk-Show Model
Think about Johnny Carson, Jay Leno, David Letterman, Conan O'Brien, or Jimmy Fallon. Different personalities, different styles, different audiences, but they all use a format that's remarkably easy to understand.
A host shows up, welcomes interesting guests, asks questions, tells a few stories, and has conversations that other people want to watch.
The guests change. The subjects change. Sometimes a conversation is hilarious, sometimes it's serious, and sometimes something unexpected happens that becomes the most memorable part.
But the basic format stays the same.
I think business owners can borrow a lot from that approach without pretending they're running a late-night television show.
You're not hiring a studio audience or booking celebrities. You're inviting somebody from your professional world to spend 20 minutes talking about their experiences.
One week, you might interview a business owner you've worked with. The next week, it could be somebody who supplies an important service to your industry. Another week, you could invite a mentor or former employee who has an interesting perspective on how things have changed.
You already have a format, a reason to invite somebody, and a general direction for the conversation. There's no need to reinvent the show every time you record.
Separate the Conversation From the Production
There's another piece of this that I feel pretty strongly about. I don't think you should have to become a video editor, graphic designer, SEO writer, and social media manager just because you want to host a podcast.
Those are separate jobs, and they take time to do well.
That's why my company, Done for You Podcasting, handles the backend for business owners who want to focus on having conversations instead of producing all the content themselves.
My team and I can take a recording and work on the SEO show notes, graphics, short-form reels, posting, and scheduling. We can help get that material published to your website, YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and other platforms where it makes sense for your business.
The idea is to take something you already did, a 20-minute conversation, and give it several opportunities to reach the people who might find it useful.
Of course, 20 minutes a week isn't the entire commitment. You still need to decide whom to invite, coordinate schedules, prepare enough to have a worthwhile discussion, and follow up afterward. Even with somebody handling production, you're responsible for maintaining those relationships.
But there's a big difference between spending your time on those activities and spending an afternoon figuring out why the captions on your latest video won't line up properly.
I'd much rather see a business owner use that time to invite another guest, reconnect with somebody they've lost touch with, or follow up on an interesting conversation.
You might also choose to do the production yourself, especially when you're getting started. There's nothing wrong with that. Just be realistic about what you're signing up for and whether the workload will still seem reasonable after you've published 10 or 20 episodes.
A weekly podcast should fit into your business instead of constantly interrupting it. If you can make recording, production, publishing, and follow-up predictable, you have a much better chance of continuing long enough to develop relationships beyond a single interview.
Your First Guest Is Probably Closer Than You Think
Go back to that person you've been meaning to reconnect with. The former coworker who started a business or the referral partner whose LinkedIn updates you keep seeing but never quite get around to commenting on.
You could spend another six months thinking about whether podcasting is too crowded, comparing microphones, looking at download statistics, and trying to come up with the perfect show concept. Or you could invite that person to have a 20-minute conversation.
That's where I'd start. Pick somebody you genuinely want to talk to, somebody whose experience you find interesting, and ask if they'd be willing to come on your podcast. Tell them you'd like to hear what they've been working on, what they've learned, and what they think other business owners should understand about their industry.
You don't need to promise them thousands of listeners. You don't need an elaborate studio or a perfectly rehearsed introduction. Give them a chance to talk about themselves, ask questions you actually care about, and see where the conversation goes.
When you're finished, you'll have a recording you can turn into an episode. Maybe there's a particularly interesting 45-second moment worth sharing on LinkedIn. Maybe your guest explains something that would make a useful short video. Maybe the best part is something you learned that changes how you think about your own business.
Then follow up. Send your guest the finished episode, share a clip if there's something worth highlighting, and thank them for spending the time with you. Keep the relationship going beyond the recording.
Some interviews will be better than others. Some clips will get more attention, and some guests might eventually become referral partners, collaborators, or customers. Others will simply be people you enjoyed catching up with.
The relationship doesn't have to produce a sale to make the conversation worthwhile. You've spent time learning about somebody, given them an opportunity to share their experience, and created something you can both look back on.
You can do that again next week with somebody else.
Your first guest might already be sitting in your contacts.
About Robert Plank
Robert Plank is a podcaster, author, entrepreneur, and podcast producer who helps business owners turn recorded conversations into published content. He hosts Marketer of the Day and works with the DFY Podcast team on editing, audio finishing, publishing, and repeatable production workflows. Contact Robert and the DFY Podcast team to discuss your podcast.
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