There’s no denying that podcasts continue to be a fast-growing and highly influential mediums. Whether you work for a brand looking to build an audience, or you’re just a person with a mic and something to say, this is the hot space in which to do it. Still, it’s one of the more misunderstood corners of media. So, we asked Alisha Sawhney and Kyle Fulton, two of our podcast producers in the Studio, to help us bust some myths about what it’s really like to work in the biz.

MYTH: You need to study broadcasting to become a podcaster.

Alisha’s career path is probably the traditional one you’re picturing: journalism school, internship, freelance, and behind-the-scenes gigs at many media joints before getting a big break. When HuffPost Canada wanted to turn a popular digital series into a show, she was tapped to produce and co-host. “For years, even before podcasts took off, I essentially just kept trying to brush with audio-based projects in newsrooms wherever I could - even if it wasn’t in my job description - because I was just dying to work in this medium. That’s what eventually led to my first real podcast gig, and later, here to the Studio.”

Kyle, on the other hand, had a totally different entry point. “My interest in podcasts came out of having… really… boring jobs,” he laughs. “But those days sitting in front of a computer gave me the ability to listen to lots. I started noticing that all sorts of people were launching indie shows, with no radio background or anything, and that was pretty inspiring.”

Kyle had a few friends who worked at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), and it just so happened that they were building a new digital studio right as he was getting into the space. “They reached out and were like, ‘hey, we heard that you're interested in making podcasts. Is this something you'd help us get off the ground?’”

He didn’t have much experience, but his passion and ideas were enough to get in on the ground floor. He eventually produced more than 200 shows there. “Getting that repetition under my belt was so important. They might not have sounded like the most professionally made things at first, but from the start, we took it seriously. I learned a lot about production, sound quality, how to storyboard a compelling narrative for audio; by the end, we’d put out some really cool stuff that I’m still proud of.”

MYTH: Unless you’re making, like, The Daily or something, podcasts don’t make money.

With the economy being so … gestures vaguely at everything … some publishers and brands may worry that audio is too resource-intensive. But maybe not as much as you’d think? “With recent advances in technology, the ability to produce something of reasonable quality - almost as good as what you’d hear on CBC or NPR - is really not out of reach these days,” Kyle says.

Big shows like The Daily, Joe Rogan or Smartless make it seem like frequent, always-on formats with megastar power are the only ones that break even. But, Alisha says, “not everyone has to have that model. In fact, the limited-runs series format is more of what I see people listening to, sharing, recommending right now. Like a four- or five-episode narrative about a unique story, or even something like Stress Test - which touches on current financial news and trends, but in seasonal, eight-episode bursts.” That flexibility makes it a great way to build awareness and audience, even in lean times.

MYTH: People only * listen * to podcasts.

What’s the biggest podcast platform? Would it shock you if the answer was YouTube? Studies often say so. Spotify took the note, adding video uploads a while back; it seems to be going well. Time to “pivot to video”… again?

“To be honest, I see a lot more videos that I wish were podcasts than the other way around,” says Kyle. “They’re still more of a passive experience. We play podcasts while we’re at the gym, in the car, out for a walk or multitasking, so prioritizing that audience is still important. But if you’re looking to grow from a good base, it could be worthwhile. You’d just need to do assess the cost versus benefit - videos can require more hours, sets, equipment and, frankly, money.”

“To me, the success of a visual show is in the marketing, or the social-media potential,” Alisha adds. “I will say, Call Her Daddy's TikTok is very good - her energy and personality just work for both screen and sound. If you can make sharable clips like that, video apps are great discovery engines. But I still wouldn’t make that the first priority.”

MYTH: Success can only be measured in number of downloads.

As we know, digital media types tend to obsess over numbers. For podcasters, that number is usually “downloads,” and the time frame is “instantly.” Are those still the best metrics in 2024?

“It really does depend on the podcast,” says Kyle. “For instance, our show Ahead of the Game covered World Cup 2022. We knew it had to be incredibly immediate - the success of each episode was measured within 24 hours, because the tournaments move fast and games become old news. On the other hand, for a show like City Space, we take time to develop more evergreen topics, because we know they will continue to be discovered (and relevant) months, even years later. We’re not looking at first-day downloads as much as the build of subscribers over time, the word of mouth, the mentions on social media, even in other podcasts. I don't fixate on the first day or week the way that I used to. Seeing the growth of our shows over time informs the type of content that I want to make.”

Shazia Khan is the social strategist for Globe Content Studio.