Two years back I started a podcast[0]. By all "viral" metrics pov, it is a failure - didn't get thousands of downloads, no first page hits etc. But I became a better conversationalist.
Now whenever I interview people in my professional life (I'm a CTO and have to interview people for top level positions), they routinely tell me, they had their best interview. For long, I couldn't trace it back to the podcast. After many people compliment me, I asked one what made it a better interview. He said, you let me explain my project and you listened. That is when it clicked. Those are the skills I learned as a podcast host.
I paused the podcast last year, because I got covid and for other personal reasons. With this feedback, I'm going to restart the podcast.
Not all creative projects have to make money directly. There could be 2nd order benefits, which we may not see immediately.
I did similar but with one main difference! I bought a block of Overcast adverts in a relevant category. (https://overcast.fm/ads)
It was still doing hundreds of downloads per month a year after the last episode (podfaded unfortunately, my co-host didn't have any more free time after having a kid). The folks clicking the ad seemed to enjoy the show and from there word of mouth took over.
Like you say not everything needs to make money, but that worked for me(tm) in terms of growing the audience. YMMV ofc, could have just been lucky.
The biggest thing I got out of it (aside from dopamine in the moment of course) was the speaking skills. Just being able to project my voice better, better formulate my thoughts, etc. Well worth doing in hindsight.
Now whenever I interview people in my professional life (I'm a CTO and have to interview people for top level positions), they routinely tell me, they had their best interview. For long, I couldn't trace it back to the podcast. After many people compliment me, I asked one what made it a better interview. He said, you let me explain my project and you listened. That is when it clicked. Those are the skills I learned as a podcast host.
I paused the podcast last year, because I got covid and for other personal reasons. With this feedback, I'm going to restart the podcast.
Not all creative projects have to make money directly. There could be 2nd order benefits, which we may not see immediately.
[0]: https://jjude.com/podcast