A Q&A on podcasting, exporting relationships, and why nobody in a room of 40 business owners had their hand up
I was in London this week at the Great British Pitch USA event, talking to UK businesses about exporting to America. Somewhere in the middle of prepping that talk, I ended up asking a room of 40 business owners a simple question — and it told me everything about why this post needed writing.
Here’s the Q&A version of what I’d tell you if we were having a coffee about it.
Q: You asked a room full of business owners who has a podcast. What happened?
Not one hand went up. Forty businesses, pitching to American investors and trade officials, and nobody in the room had a podcast. I think in 2026 people look at podcasting and assume they need a full studio set-up before they can start. They don’t.
Q: What does your actual set-up look like, then?
Nothing fancy. I’ve been podcasting since 2017, and I do it pretty much the same way I always have — I sit down with a microphone and I have a chat with you. Editing’s changed a bit over the years, but the core of it hasn’t moved. Record, edit, upload. That’s it. It genuinely takes me about three minutes to get an episode ready.
Q: How do you actually start, if you’ve got nothing to talk about yet?
Two ways in. Either you record a consistent 10–15 minute lesson or story that helps your audience, or you interview other people — which is honestly the easier way in. That’s how I started. It was called the Social Bee Podcast back then, and I interviewed women who’d started their own businesses, to help other women thinking about doing the same. When I niched down into LinkedIn, the show shifted with me.
Q: What’s the actual business case for podcasting — beyond “it’s nice content”?
Three things.
First, one recording becomes your whole week’s content. Chop up the transcript, and you’ve got your social posts and the backbone of your email marketing sorted. You stop having to think about marketing separately from just… talking about what you do.
Second, attention. People listen to podcasts while they’re driving, walking the dog, doing the cleaning. They’re not mindlessly scrolling past you — you’ve got their undivided attention for however long that episode runs.
Third — and this is the big one — being a guest on other people’s podcasts. That’s been the single biggest business opportunity podcasting has given me. On my own show, I might spend six episodes building up to a topic. As a guest on someone else’s, I’ll tell you everything you need to know about using LinkedIn better in one 30-minute conversation, because they’re asking me the questions that unlock it all in one go. Pair that with a downloadable resource — a checklist, a guide — and you’ve got people opting into your email list who are already interested in exactly what you do.
Q: What if weekly, forever, sounds like too much?
It doesn’t have to be. You can run a capsule podcast — six to eight episodes, built around one theme. I did this with a series called Raise Your Visibility: The Expert Sessions, working with Cliff Ravenscraft. It walks people through how you work, what you teach, and it has a natural end point. Jess Lorimer, who’s speaking at my conference this October, has built her entire business podcasting twice a week — and she’ll be sharing exactly how.
Q: What does any of this have to do with exporting to the US?
Everything, actually. That’s what I was in London to talk about. People assume “exporting” means shipping a physical product, but you can export services too. One of the best examples I heard while prepping the talk came from Fluid Focus — their partner Glenn told me how they built their American network by reaching out to the Boston Irish Business Association. Slow, unglamorous, one conversation at a time. They’re now working with 28 universities across the US. That’s what relationship-building looks like when it actually pays off — and podcasting, especially guesting on other people’s shows, is one of the simplest ways to start those conversations without getting on a plane every time.
Q: So what’s the one-line takeaway?
Stop overthinking it. You don’t need a studio, a script, or a content calendar figured out three months in advance. You need a microphone, ten minutes, and something useful to say.
Want to hear more on this? Join us 7–8 October in Belfast for Raise Your Visibility LIVE, where Jess Lorimer will be speaking on exactly this. Can’t make it in person? Grab a virtual ticket — you’ll get the recordings too.