Georgie Healy recorded two episodes of a podcast that never saw the light of day. The editing killed it — eight hours an episode, on top of a full-time job. Eighteen months on, her show In the Blink of AI has passed 350,000 downloads, and this is the post-mortem on what changed the second time around. Georgie traces the habit to a freezing 2017 in Detroit, walking to Ford's headquarters with the beauty podcast Fat Mascara in her ears. That lo-fi, scrappy era — hosts who openly forgot anyone was listening — is the one she still defends against today's three-camera, high-gloss productions. Polish, she argues, can stop a new host ever developing the harder skill: carrying an hour-long conversation. She wanted to get behind the mic for a year before she acted, pulled by admiration for the hosts she listened to and curiosity about what it actually takes to build a show. Her first attempt collapsed on the edit — a sound booth, a recording kit and a network of startup guests already in reach, and still two episodes recorded and none published. Her hot take for anyone starting now is to stop looking at the data. Early download numbers only disenfranchise you. The useful work is listening back to your own episodes and critiquing the hosting — she trained herself out of the reflexive "yep, yep, yep" that interrupts a guest — not refreshing the stats. Before the mic, she says, you need to be a genuine fan of the medium and have something to say week after week. Her guest strategy has shifted with the market: from the founders she admired at the start to a broader cast of AI thinkers — journalist Tracy Spicer, ethicists, even ARIA-winning musicians — because AI now reaches well past the technologists. Promotion was the part that made her break out in cold sweats. The fix was a rule: every post has to teach something. Consistency built the trust that made self-promotion stop feeling transactional — to the point a stranger at a Google event told her, "I'm used to hearing your voice at 1.5 speed." On whether it pays off, Georgie is clear-eyed about attribution. You can't draw a clean line from a podcast to revenue. What you can see is a LinkedIn audience that filled with CTOs, founders and execs, doors that opened to guests like a VP of Dropbox who would otherwise never take the call, and a newsletter that finally gives the direct line a podcast can't. The bigger return, she says, was on herself: a sharper brain from learning a new industry every week, and a confidence that did not exist at the start. Which is her closing point for anyone still hesitating — confidence is not a prerequisite. Don't let the lack of it be the reason you never start. Georgie Healy is the host of In the Blink of AI, a Day One Network show covering artificial intelligence through long-form interviews with founders, operators and thinkers. She works at Google and came to podcasting from a background in tech consulting. Links and mentions: - In the Blink of AI — dayone.fm/show/in-the-blink-of-ai - Georgie Healy — linkedin.com/in/georginahealy - Earning Ears — w2d1.media/earning-ears - Day One Network — dayone.fm - Also referenced: Fat Mascara; Ballpark Music; Acquired; Startup (Gimlet); Ira Glass; Gary Vaynerchuk; Tracy Spicer New on Earning Ears, from W2D1 Media and the Day One Network. Earning Ears is brought to you by W2D1 Media and the Day One Network. Episode Summary Georgie Healy built In the Blink of AI from two shelved episodes into a show with more than 350,000 downloads in about 15 months. She and Adam Spencer break down the craft and the business of growing a podcast: why the early metrics lie, how to promote without the ick, the guest strategy that widened past AI technologists, and why confidence is not a prerequisite for starting. Time Stamps 00:00 - Cold open: back behind the mic 01:28 - Fat Mascara and a freezing walk to Ford 04:11 - Scrappy lo-fi versus high-gloss production 05:00 - In the Blink of AI: 350k downloads in 15 months 07:05 - The eight-hour edit that killed her first attempt 10:43 - Stop staring at the metrics 12:33 - What to know before you start 14:07 - From guests she admired to AI thinkers 17:30 - Promoting the show without the ick 30:21 - Measuring a podcast that won't attribute 36:07 - What podcasting did for her career and confidence 40:06 - Closer: confidence is not the point About the host Earning Ears is hosted by Adam Spencer, founder of the Day One Network and W2D1 Media. He has recorded more than 200 interviews with founders, operators and creators, and built Day One into a network of Australian startup and tech shows. Earning Ears is his show about building an audience — the craft, the business, and the long game of earning people's attention. About Day One Network Day One Network is Australia's home for founder and operator podcasts — in-depth, in-person conversations with the people building the country's startup and tech ecosystem. Find every show at dayone.fm. This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Spotify Ad Analytics - https://www.spotify.com/us/legal/ad-analytics-privacy-policy/