Why I started a podcast Pharmacist's Voice

There are two main reasons I started a podcast.
I was encouraged by another pharmacist podcaster.  My podcast is a business tool.  
Mentioned in this episode
Medipreneurs Conference is a business conference for pharmacist entrepreneurs and healthcare entrepreneurs. Dr. Erin L. Albert is a pharmacist, entrepreneur, and podcaster. Dave Jackson and The School of Podcasting (course and podcast) So, You Want to Start a Podcast:  Finding Your Voice, Telling Your Story, and Building a Community That Will Listen by Kristen Meinzer At the 2nd Medipreneurs Conference (Asheville, NC) in April 2019, Dr. Erin L. Albert gave a talk about becoming a thought leader through writing and publishing.  She also mentioned that podcasting can help you become a thought leader.  Dr. Albert encouraged me to start a podcast. 
That was 14 months ago, and I barely knew what a podcast was.  I barely listened to them either.  Audiobooks were more my thing.  That has changed!  Now, I listen to both!  I don’t know that I ever would have looked into podcasting if it weren’t for Dr. Albert.  I didn’t understand how podcasting could help my career, and I didn’t know how to start a podcast.  
Why start a podcast then?  When a successful pharmacist entrepreneur gives you advice, it’s important to at least consider it.  Plus, I wanted to see if Dr. Albert was right.  Should I start a podcast?  
The second reason why I started a podcast has to do with my business, The Pharmacist’s Voice.  When I tried to connect podcasting and being a thought leader to my business, it didn’t make sense.  It didn’t fit because I’m so early in my voiceover career.  How can I be a thought leader already?  But, I kept an open mind and researched podcasting more.  Eventually, I learned that I could use my podcast as a business tool. 
I learned how to podcast from Dave Jackson and his online course The School of Podcasting in October 2019.  I built the podcast in November, and I launched it on December 4.  Because I already knew how to record, edit, and produce audio from my voiceover industry training, building a podcast using Dave Jackson’s process was pretty straightforward.  All I had to come up with a name, a format, and the other details. (This episode won’t dig into all those details.)
If you are interested in starting a podcast, I would recommend doing three things.  
Join The School of Podcasting Listen to The School of Podcasting Podcast Read Kristen Meinzer’s book, So, You Want to Start a Podcast:  Finding Your Voice, Telling Your Story, and Building a Community That Will Listen.  GREAT BOOK! There is more than one podcast format.  Examples include roundtables, daily news, list shows, advice shows, recap shows, documentary shows, fiction shows, and more. 
One day,  I heard about journey-style podcasts.  That’s a format using story to tell how they got from point A to point B and what they learned.  In my case, I was on a journey from pharmacist to voice actor.  It was easy to pick the journey-style format for my podcast.  A journey-style podcast would allow me to share how I used my voice as a pharmacist, where my journey took me, who I met along the way, and how they use their voices too.  It was a great choice for me.  
The Pharmacist’s Voice Podcast is a podcast, not a statue.  Down the road, I could change the format of the podcast to something else, like an advice show. 
What I learned from both Dave Jackson and Kristen Meinzer’s book is that I can use my podcast to get the word out about my business!  I’m a pharmacist, voice actor, and audiobook narrator.  When I put that out into the world on a podcast, I position myself as those things for the world to see.  That’s how it’s a business tool.  I may have accidentally become a thought leader too.  People interested in doing what I do contact me all the time.    
During my career - both pharmacy and voiceover - I have