Why 2026 Will Reward Prepared Hosts, Strategic Guests, And Real Community

Predicting the future of podcasting is easy when you chase hype; it’s harder—and more useful—when you follow results. We dive into what 2026 will actually reward: clearer voices, sharper strategy, and communities that turn listeners into collaborators. After a year of industry correction, the signal is obvious—authority beats volume, and intention beats noise.

We start by reframing technology’s role. AI adoption is up, workflows are faster, and the toolset is richer, but tools don’t make taste. You’ll hear why strategy still sits in the driver’s seat, how to use AI for frameworks and speed without losing your voice, and where preparedness separates great hosts from the pack. Then we get specific about hosting craft: better questions, tighter arcs, relevant takeaways, and a stronger respect for your audience’s time. Flashy is out; intentional is in.

Next, we unpack guesting as a business strategy. It’s not about how many shows you visit; it’s about alignment, outcomes, and credibility transfer. We share a simple playbook for choosing the right rooms, turning appearances into real opportunities, and tracking what matters beyond downloads. From there, we zoom into community-led formats—public reach supported by private depth—where live sessions, co-created segments, and member feedback fuel rapid iteration and long-term loyalty.

We also preview the maturing metrics landscape and why podcast success will pivot from loudest to clearest. Expect smarter attribution, better cohort insights, and language that reflects relationships, not just raw counts. Plus, we invite you to our January Podcast Alliance session (link below) And we share details on our concierge Executive Podcast Package beta for leaders ready to scale their authority.

If you’re aiming to grow trust, sharpen your voice, and make your show count in 2026, this conversation lays out a practical path. Subscribe, share with a friend who cares about craft, and leave a review telling us your single biggest goal for your podcast this year.

Podcast Alliance Quarterly MeetUp & Mastermind
 Where Podcasters, Podcast Guests and content creators meet, collaborate and network! 
 Wednesday January 21st, 2026
 11am - 1pm EST 
 3 amazing speakers! Networking! Collaborations!
 $47 CAD
 Click the link to grab your ticket:

https://e.sparxo.com/Podcast-All

Chapters

• 0:00 Setting The Stage For 2026
• 2:00 2025 Recap And Industry Correction
• 3:45 Trust, AI, And Real Hosts
• 5:15 Prediction 1: Technology Assists
• 9:30 Prepared Vs Unprepared Hosts
• 13:50 Prediction 2: Hosting Skills Differentiate
• 19:30 Prediction 3: Guesting As Strategy

Transcript

Carl: 0:03

Welcome to Communication Connection Community, the Podcasters Podcast. This podcast takes a deep dive into modern-day communication strategies in the podcasting space. We chat with interesting people who make the podcasting and speaking spaces exciting and vibrant. We also dive into the podcasting community with news, updates, latest trends and topics from this ever-evolving space. So strap in, it's going to be one amazing ride. Let's dive into today's episode. Well, happy 2026. Last week we talked about 2025. We did a complete wrap-up of how podcasting was affected in 2025 and what we can expect for 2026. That's what we'll be talking about today. We covered off, you know, the areas of growth in 2025, despite a very explosive industry in some areas, explosive in the sense of wow, we had a you know a crazy economic market, which you know really impacted some people in the podcasting space. Um, but we even though we didn't see an explosion in growth in podcasting in 2025, we certainly saw uh correction, clarity, and intention and connection. We saw some big numbers, you know, 4.5 billion globally in spending dollars. So that ad revenue is there. We saw more trust. That, of course, with the decline of traditional media, but also with the increase in AI, uh, a lot of people are now turning to that trust, which is real hosting. Uh, podcasters who are there all the time in real form, not just in some algorithmic form or in some um, you know, artificial intelligence form, they are there all the time. So let's look ahead to 2026 and what we can expect and how you can stay relevant in this space. And by the way, if you're brand new to podcasting, this is a great time to be getting in because there are so many phenomenal things that are going on. If we look back just quickly once again, look back at last year. We we saw a lot of changes there too. We saw changes with the increase in people leveraging AI to us, you know, AI tools rather. 2025 gave us a lot of clarity. It really, really did. In a space that, you know, there was a lot of tech noise. Uh, we're now looking forward. We're not speculative of what's going to happen. We're really looking forward. And here's the thing: if you're looking at podcasting from a professional standpoint, because that's what we do, we work with coaches, consultants, subject matter experts, uh, small uh business owners who have minimum 10 employees up and again, bigger companies as well. These are people or these are companies who want results. They don't want the hype. They don't want all the, you know, they're not there to just be influencers. They're really there to push through all of that noise, the tech noise, and really be seen as the experts or the winners in their industry. So 2025 gave us a lot of clarity. There was a lot of correction. There was some political unrest, which saw a number of people diving into the podcasting space to share their positioning on how things are happening. I think we'll we'll continue to see that. This is going to be something that is going to be phenomenal this year, and that's 2026 will give us a huge bird's eye view, shall we say, into intention. Okay. So let's dive right in. Prediction number one. Technology assists. Technology assists. It doesn't replace anything. Technology is going to be there to help us on this journey. AI. Adoption rate is up 40% year over year. There's huge things that are happening in the AI space, a lot of phenomenal tools. But with all of these tools, there's also confusion. And, you know, with the work that we do, I attune it to if you take your car to an auto mechanic, you don't care what's in their toolbox. You don't care when they set your car on the diagnostics what that looks like, or you know, you all you care about is is your car going to be repaired? Can it be repaired? And what's the investment or what's the cost going to be? So even with all this AI adoption and the the rising rates of that, I think the strong or the credible will survive. I truly believe that. There are some AI tools that have been around for, oh my goodness, uh years. And I think they already have a stronghold, and those are the ones that I think are going to be around for a while. Efficiency. Efficiency is going to be important, but here's the thing: strategy is going to be a big part of that as well. So you need to put your creative thinking cap, or I'm in Canada, I say thinking toque. Put your creative thinking toque on and really don't just rely on the AI to tell you how to carve out your own episodes. This is what I mean. Technology will assist, it's not going to replace you. You still need to think for yourself, you still need to create for yourself. You still need to have the final say in the content that goes out there. We use AI all the time. We use AI in the work that we do. I used AI to create the last two episodes. Did I rely on it heavily? No, I actually told AI to give me a framework, and from there I would put in the content and I would finesse it so it sounded like it was me talking, as opposed to just the AI faking it for me. See the difference? So AI is going to be there to help you with efficiency, but it is certainly not going to replace strategy. You will still need to be the person who can look ahead and say, where do I want this show to go? Where do I want my business to go six months? A year, two years, five years from now. Uh the other prediction: tools will widen the gap between prepared and unprepared hosts. Now, full disclosure, I've been in the media space for goodness, it's going on 30 years now. So I bring experience that you had to know what you were doing. You had to know how to edit, for example, real-to-real tape. Yeah, I'm I have that many candles on my birthday cake. We had to edit real-to-reel tape. We had carts and cart machines and CD players and turntables in our media studios, our radio stations had a lot of that gear still in it. Not so much when I left the radio world. By then, automation was taking over. Not so much AI, but certainly the digital technology was in full force by then. But when I got in, it was a lot of analog. You had to be creative, you had to think on your feet. Now there are so many great tools that make it easier for you, but you're still going to need to be prepared. So here's what I want you to think about. AI didn't fix bad podcasts in 2025. It didn't make, you know, if you were not a good host in 2025, it didn't suddenly make you a better host. And it certainly will not do that in 2026. You're still going to need to put in the time, the legwork, the commitment, the dedication, all of those things, and leverage AI to your advantage. Don't let it replace you. Because if it's replacing you, think about this logically. We're in a world now where authenticity, I know that's a word that gets thrown around a lot, but authenticity or what's real is being eroded. So you need to make sure you are extra real. That you are the extra real version of you. This is the time to do it. All right. Prediction number two. Hosting skills. Oh, I love this one. Hosting skills will become the differentiator. This is where hosts are going to have to pull up their socks, so to speak. And again, put your thinking tokes on. Not just, you know, form, you know, create a show that has a formalaic approach to it. Come to the show. If you're a host, come to the show with better questions. Come to the show with better positioning. Come to the show with better respect for your listeners. You know, gone are the days of just, I'm doing a show, you should listen the end. Those days are, yeah, those days are slowly disappearing. If you were a podcaster back in 2002 and you're still in podcasting, you might be able to get away with that kind of podcasting because you've been doing it for so long. But the last thing you want to sound is flashy. You don't want to be predictable. You don't want to be cookie cutter. You don't want people to know exactly how to finish your sentence, how they're going to how you're going to finish your sentence. Uh, and we're seeing that. We're seeing you know a lot of creativity. Gosh, we're launching at the recording of this episode, it's literally December 30th, 2025. So I'm recording it ahead of the new year, so so it's ready to go. But we're seeing hosts who are they're not working in sidles anymore. They're working in teams or even you know, co-hosts working together on a show. So the days of just doing a show, putting it out there, no guests, yes, you're you're we're we're still going to see that, but you're going to make sure that you position it effectively, that it's better questioning, that the information you're giving your listeners, and your viewers for that matter, is relevant. Because they don't have time. They they they don't have time to waste, and they won't. If there's anything, if there's one thing I've learned rather, being in radio, listeners will not wait for you to say something, you know, phenomenal. If you don't say something that's earth-shattering, they'll move on to the next thing. They will. So the best hosts, they won't sound flashier, they'll sound intentional. They'll sound intentional, and they will have the best hosts will have your best interests at heart all the time. I firmly believe that this show has been positioned that way since day one, and we've evolved it as we go. And by all means, I welcome you to share your insights. If you have ideas how to make the show better, I'd love to hear from you. Drop us a note anytime. You're more than welcome to do that. But the best hosts won't sound flashier, they'll sound intentional, and they need to be. Prediction number three: guesting becomes a business strategy. We started doing this the tail end of 2025, and I was amazed at not only how well did we take to it, but how well did the guests that we're working with, our clients, how well did they take to it? And here's the thing it's not about how many shows can you get on. Yeah, there is something to be said about frequency, but it's the right appearances or the right podcast guesting opportunities that will get you the outcomes that you want. So it's alignment over exposure. You know, podcasts are a relationship accelerator. It's not a right to be on a show. It's not, hey, I have a book, so therefore you should buy the book, but first listen to me talk about it on a podcast episode. No, it's about really making sure that you are connecting all the dots, that you're solving a problem, that you understand that you know the listener does have concerns, or they do have needs, or they do have things that you can help them with, and that you have that solution. Okay, heading into 2026, we're doubling down on strategic podcast casting. As a matter of fact, we landed 10 clients the second half, uh, not even the second half, I'd say the the final third from so from September, the August, September of 2025, we landed 10 podcast clients. We are doubling down on that strategy to help subject matter experts be more visible, be more intentional, be seen as the expert, not just the the silent professional, but the expert. So it's not just helping professionals get on shows, but helping them achieve something meaningful um because of those appearances. Guesting with purpose, guesting with direction, guesting with a goal in mind. And if that is something that speaks to you, reach out. We'd love to help you with your game and your strategy for podcasting and see if there's a way that we can work together. Prediction number four community-led podcasts. This is this is another one that I think we're going to see this. I think we're going to see more collaborations, we're going to see more cooperative type podcasts, we're going to see podcasts as front doors, we're going to see private feeds, uh, living room conversations, collaborations, public reach supported by private depth, things like that. You know, when podcasting started out, it was it was a pretty lonely space, not only because there weren't many podcasts, but because people felt they had to go it alone. What we've realized is that the more you can collaborate, think outside of the box, the more you can bring more people along, not only from a co-hosting or collaborative perspective or joint venture perspective, but also from an audience perspective. Audiences like to feel like they are a part of things. So when you build the audience, number one, you're building community, but when you expand the community and bring them in, that's even that much better. So much stronger. Community, I think, is something we're going to see excel in 2026. And we'll see more community-led podcasts, we'll see we're see more communities stem because of podcasts. As a matter of fact, when we work with brand new clients now, we talk about community within our first two or three sessions. We talk about, hey, have you thought about the long game and building a community? And when we open that idea up, it's amazing the feedback we get from people. Unbelievable. So if you're listening to this right now and you're thinking, I don't want to approach podcasting the old way. You know, your next step isn't more content, it's better conversations. So we'd like to invite you to be a part of our community. Okay, it's the podcast alliance, it's where we explore the ideas that that I've shared today, but other professionals will be joining us. We meet quarterly. Our next meeting is January the 21st from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Eastern. We have two speakers plus myself. I always speak at my own event, of course, of course. Max Frombach, he is a creative consultant. He'll be talking about live podcasting, live on location podcasting, which is kind of cool. George Torque is a speech coach for executives. He'll be talking about best practices for podcast hosting. You know what I said earlier about hosts needing to really pull out all the stops and amp up their game. George will have some really great insights about that. And then I'm going to be talking about collaborations, joint ventures, co-ops, what we can expect from community as we move forward into 2026. So the link for that to grab your$47 ticket, 47 Canadian, by the way, the link is in the show notes. And by the way, if you can't attend live, that's okay. Click the link, grab a ticket, anyways, you'll get the recording. That's the cool thing about our community, is we don't mind sharing everything even after the fact. So click the link because you're sure to get the recording there. Okay. The other area that we're moving forward, not only with community, we've been doing community pretty much since day one. But we're moving forward with beta testing the executive podcast package. I told you a little bit about this last time. In the last episode, I shared a little bit. This is for executives. This is for business owners. I would say with I say with 10 employees or more because you have to be at a certain income level. So that's why I'm saying with 10 employees, with 10 employees or more, you might very well fit the mold and you might be three employees in your company, right? But this is for executives, advisors, subject matter experts who see podcasting as a serious authority and relationship-building platform. And here's the cool thing other than having us set it up and us having some meetings uh to get you going and strategizing and knowing what your goals are, we take care of everything. It's a concierge style um product, service, something we've never done before. Never, ever, ever. We've had production, we've had strategy, we've talked about marketing, we've talked about those things, and we've sort of had it, but we've now figured out that if we put it all together in one package for the right business, the right company, the right person, it's going to make it so much easier for you to get into the podcasting space, maintain, not sorry, not maintain, expand your credibility, and go further beyond than what you think possible right now. I know a lot of people scratching their heads saying, okay, what AI tool do I use next? What do I do with my social media? Do I bring in somebody to do all this? I don't know what to do. So if you think this is a fit for you, now is the time to inquire because we're beta testing this product right now. It is a six-figure offer. When we start selling this for real, it well, not for real, I'm I'm sharing it with you right now. But when we really hang it out there, take it to market, it'll be a six-figure offer. Right? It'll be a$100,000 plus offer. We are beta testing it right now. So if you would like to be one of our beta testers, reach out. We'd love to hear from you. Beta is about alignment, it's not about volume. So we'd love to hear from you if you think this is a fit for you. So, 2026. Oh, the other thing I should mention before I wrap up, this has been brought to my attention, and I sort of alluded to it last week. And as I get more information, I will share it with you. One of the challenges that podcasting has faced since day one. I don't know what day we're at right now, math is hard, so so bear with me on that one. But since 2002, what are the metrics? How do we measure podcasting? We're getting closer. Oh, so much closer. And with algorithms and tools that will make sense in the podcasting space. I say this because the tools available to us now are. Are based on conventional media, radio, television, print. This is all based on volume. This is based on large audiences. Podcasting isn't based on that. So these tools, these these algorithms, these metrics that are coming to the fold in 2026, exciting times. Exciting times. And as that's as it's made more available, the information is shared, I'll be sure to share it with you as well. So podcasting in 2026, it's not just going to reward the loudest of voices. Nope. It will not do that. If that was the case, if you had a big, deep voice and could reach thousands of people, you'd be successful. You'd probably be successful by now. And maybe you are, but here's what'll happen podcasting in 2026 will reward the clearest voices. Not the loudest voices, the clearest voices. And if you want to be a part of that conversation, you know where to find us. As we get into 2026, I wish you nothing but happiness and prosperity. Go get 'em. And hey, thank you for being a part of the show today. So glad you can join us. Believe it or not, I can't work this magic by myself. So, thanks to my amazing team, our audio engineer Don Corellio, our Sonic branding genius Kenton Dolborowski, and the person who works the arms. All of our arms, actually, our project manager and my trusty assistant Jillibel Tiongo, known to us here simply as July. If you like what you heard today, let us know. You can leave us a comment or review or even send us a voice note. And if you really liked it, we hope you'll share it with your friends and your colleagues. If you don't like what you heard today, well, please feel free to share it with your enemies. And if you know of someone who would make a great guest on the show, let us know about it. You can get in touch with us by going to our show notes where all of our connection points are there, including the links to our website, LinkedIn, and Facebook as well. And if you're ready to be a guest on podcasts, or even start your own show, let's have a conversation. We'll show you the simplest way to get into the podcasting space and rock it. Because, after all, we're podcast solutions made simple. Catch again next time.