Make Money Podcasting! Drive Traffic With Podcasting & Branding!

Friends!

Join me in a live Q&A covering everything PODCASTING! This fun session covers everything from how to make money podcasting to driving traffic using a list or opt-in. If you want to grow your clients or generate more leads organically, this episode is a must-listen.

Live Q&A from Podcast Pro University Course!

I pray this blesses you.

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION:

(00:00)
Hey friends. In today’s episode, we are going to learn all about how to make money podcasting. We’re going to dig into Patreon, which is charging per episode versus using passive income strategies like y’all know, I know and love. When should you do that? Which one is right for you and more? How to drive traffic to a list or a freebie using podcasting and branding yourself versus your show. And so much more today. It’s A live Q and a from Podcast Pro University. I hope you guys enjoy.

(01:17)
If you are ready to join me and the hundreds of Podcast Pro University students, where you get to sit in live Q and A’s just like this one and get your questions answered from me on a weekly basis, girl, wait no more. Let’s go. It is your time to shine. I want to see you launch your own podcast into the world this summer, because why not? You all? Why not?

(01:45)
Like I’ve said before, I truly believe that my podcast course is different from anything else you will experience. I also believe that it is priced at such a great rate where anyone can jump in and without having any fluff, without being confused, or wondering what to actually do once I have the show.

(02:06)
Literally from planning to recording, to editing to the launch process, to getting reviews and subscriptions, knowing how to track the growth of your show, knowing advanced strategies like marketing on Pinterest and a blog and SEO and all the things, you guys, that I have used to grow a top 25 ranked entrepreneurship podcast.

(02:26)
It’s in the course, all of it. So if you’ve been kind of teetering thinking, should I start this thing? Should I do my own show? The answer is yes. Let me hold your hand. I want to lead you on this journey with me. Go to podcastprouniversity.com.

(02:42)
As soon as you’re in that course in module one, I’m going to direct you to come and join us in the Facebook group where we answer live questions, just like today’s questions. And in today’s live Q and A, we are discussing how to make money podcasting, how to drive traffic to a list or a freebie from your podcast, branding yourself versus your show and so much more.

(03:03)
So if you want to be part of that, have your questions featured on my podcast, have a sisterhood of people that are going to help you launch, scale, grow and collaborate together, this is your sisterhood. Go to podcastprouniversity.com. We’ll see you inside.

(03:19)
Okay. First question from Stephanie Asher, I feel like I’m ready to monetize my podcast, but I’m unsure of how much I should ask for per episode. So what Stephanie is talking about, you guys is something called Patreon where you can actually charge for your podcast episodes. So your podcast becomes your monetized product. What? Yes, it’s a thing.

(03:42)
However, it is not a thing that I recommend to 99% of people. Why? Because podcasting is where we can show up for free and we can grow an organic sales funnel. People can trust us, learn us. Podcasting is trust tier one. Okay. So is your Facebook group. And so is Pinterest. And so is Instagram stories.

(04:05)
But then once people trust us, we can offer a paid product, something to implement, right? And that can become something that we charge for. What happens if we charge for something in trust tier one, we don’t ever get people to trust tier two, because they don’t trust us yet.

(04:21)
Nobody is willing to spend money and trust tier one. So if you guys want to make money with your brand, you have to have a way to serve and solve and show up for free in order to get people to trust you. You feel that? So podcasting is how we get people to trust us.

(04:40)
If you’re charging for your podcast, you may make a couple bucks because really what are you going to charge a dollar an episode? But it’s not going to be worth it because you’re not going to make enough profit. And what you’re going to do is you’re going to filter out the free organic traffic. So if you want to make money with your show, I would not do the Patreon program.

(05:01)
I would come up with a passive product like a mini e-course and hello, I’m a coach. Let’s do it. Call me up. Just kidding, email me. Let’s create your thing. Okay? That’s how you’re going to make money. And when you have a product and you can charge between $50 and $500 versus a dollar an episode on your podcast, I want you guys to think about that.

(05:24)
That is also why I don’t recommend you have sponsors early on in your podcast, because they’re going to pay you $.25, $.50 cents a download. Not even, not even. Like you’re gonna make a couple bucks. It’s just not worth it when your audience is small. Sure. When you guys have 5 million downloads charge for your podcast, have all the sponsors because a couple bucks at $5 million a pop sounds good.

(05:48)
However, when we’re getting 50 downloads an episode or something, when we’re starting, that’s just not going to be profitable. Okay. Kallista asked a question, Kallista Andersen. I want to get a second Apple ID for my podcast management for my VA. I don’t want someone to have access to all my Apple apps.

(06:06)
I’m not too sure what you mean by that Kallista. I think that you can just use Last Pass or something to share your passwords with your virtual assistant. I would not get a second ID. Next question. Michelle Porterfield asks, I am about to record my first episode. What are the top priority things I need to say from the get go. Do I ask for reviews, etc.?

(06:32)
I don’t want to get stuck in overthinking and I just want to get it out, and I think the only Enneagram number who’s not an overthinker well there’s two is like a three and a seven. But the rest of the Enneagram struggles with overthinking. In your first episode, what do you guys talk about?

(06:47)
You want to tell people why the heck they are here? Sure. People care about you a little bit, but they’re really here to solve a problem. Right? So let me use an example. Yesterday. I had a coaching session and what Dolly Denson does is she has a podcast called Be That Mom Movement.

(07:05)
The problem is helping people with preteen and teenage children navigate a digital world. PS, if you guys have a teen or preteen, you need to go listen to her podcast. It’s amazing because my kid is six and a half and I’m already freaking out about technology and social media. My kid’s gonna be like 18 and be like, can I please have a phone now? I’m like, no.

(07:25)
So anyways, I told her, listen, this woman is here to solve one problem. How do I navigate cell phones and social media for my teenager? Right? So if she’s recording episode one, ladies, what should she talk about? She should say, “Mama, I’m so grateful that you found this podcast because I know what it feels like to want to be liked and to want to be your kiddos friend, and to want to trust your kid.

(07:49)
And to not have them shut down when you tell them they can’t have the cell phone, or they can’t have the social media account and to be fearful of the backlash that you’re going to receive. To also not want to be the only parent not allowing your kiddo to have a phone in whatever sixth, seventh grade. I mean maybe even third grade, I don’t know.

(08:07)
So I’m here to tell you that it’s okay to be that mom. I want you to protect your kids and I’ve been through it. Let me share my story with you of what happened to me. Dolly shares her gritty story and gets really vulnerable and talks about what happened to her son when they let him have a phone with no reigns and all of the things that spiraled out of control.

(08:27)
They had to do all of these amazing, not amazing, really hard things and pull them out of school. And all of these things that she just didn’t know was happening. Her biggest thing is to teach moms how to be proactive and to know what’s going to happen. If they hand over that cell phone and they hand over those social media accounts and all of that.

(08:45)
Now that mom’s in, she’s like, oh my gosh, this is the podcast for me, right? So you’ve gotten their attention, take three minutes and like trigger that person listening to care. Tell her why she has to listen. Then tell your story. Why are you here? Why is this mission so important to you? And then lastly, wrap it all up with a pretty little bow and make sure that you have some homework or a call to action for your listener.

(09:12)
Maybe what Dolly can say at the end of this intro cause now this mom is really scared and she’s like ahh. How many of you are scared right now and our kids are like five? Dolly can wrap it up and say, look, there’s hope. There is a way for us to slightly give the reigns so that our kids can easily step into technology.

(09:32)
That we can have boundaries. We can have open conversation. And if we can bring things to light, our kiddos will know what they’re getting into too. We can give them credit and then have them earn certain things over time when they’re old enough to really know what they’re dealing with and to not be preyed on.

(09:49)
So here’s what I want you guys to do mamas. I want you to come join the community with me. I want you to come share with me what’s happening with you. Come join in this safe space, this place of other mamas. So what Dolly can do is tell her, give her hope and give her homework to come join the group.

(10:04)
So every episode, even from episode one, you’re giving people a call to action. Do you guys feel that? If you never did this on your podcast and you have an active podcast, do it now, I don’t care if it’s episode 10. Why blank blank podcast or what does it mean to be blank and just do this whole thing, even if you never did it. Okay. Because we still want to grab people’s attention.

(10:29)
We want people to understand why you created this mission for her, not for you, for her or for him. Good. Next question is from An Sheree difference between branding yourself and branding your show. Is your podcast your brand? So she’s talking to me. Mompreneur Mastermind Show. Or are you your brand, Stefanie Gass?

(10:51)
Oh my gosh. Such a great question. I don’t know who am I you guys? Here’s what happened with me. I started stefaniegass.com because I heard about personal branding back when I was in network marketing. I became the brand as I grew and expanded and pivoted, I added things like the Mompreneur Mastermind podcast.

(11:13)
I then have new courses, Podcast Pro University, masterminds Podcast To Profit. I have all of these names, but they’re all under Stefanie Gass. So for me, my brand looks like a triangle. Okay. So here’s my brand. Stefanie Gass is at the top. Okay. Then underneath my brand, I have some subsets of things that I do, right? I’ve got Mompreneur Mastermind Podcast, the With God, She Rises journal. I’ve got courses and coaching.

(11:39)
So I have all of these things. That is a trademark nightmare. Nightmare. Okay. Not to say, it’s not a good strategy. Like if you guys look at Brendon Burchard, he has the same thing. He’s got Brendon Burchard and he’s got like a million names for things, which is fine. And if you become a large influencer and you are the brand, this makes sense.

(12:04)
You’re just going to end up, once things blow up for you, not right now, trademarking your name for example. Okay, however, if you want to have an easier time in the future and you have a lot of clarity over what you want to do, it’s easier if you guys have one name that covers your brand.

(12:25)
So for example, we were just talking about Dolly Denson. Her brand is actually Be That Mom Movement, it’s trademarked. So her brand is the title of her business. Be That Mom Movement Podcast, Be That Mom Movement courses, Be That Mom Movement books, Be That Mom Movement community. Does that make sense?

(12:48)
if you can have one name that is searchable, that is unique, you can have that one thing be your brand. You don’t have to though, you can also have your name, be your brand. It’s totally up to you. Which one will grow you faster is having a title be your brand because nobody knows who Stefanie Gass is. When they’re searching around, they’re not searching for my name.

(13:15)
They’re searching for Christian mompreneur or passive income for Christians or Christian business coach. So I have to use those keywords to bring people over to my show and over to my brand. Then what they find out is Stefanie Gass is behind the brand. So it’s a little bit more work for me to grow my brand than it would be if I had a specific little tagline or something that I used everywhere.

(13:41)
Okay. Next question is from Joy Davis. I love the flexibility of podcasting. My music is stellar and really sets a good tone. Thinking about the intro every time might be a little much on top of the episode and the outro. I thought I’d condense it after a month so I can gain a little traction.

(13:59)
I have 40 people in my Facebook group and I launched it yesterday. So I’m learning a lot. Is it more important to be consistent for a specific amount of time or adapt? Joy, I’m not too sure what your question is about the intro outro, but let me try.

(14:13)
So you’re saying that, do you need to condense, what? Do you need to condense your podcasting, so that it’s the same message every single time? Then your second part of your question was, is it more important to be consistent or adapt to your avatar?

(14:29)
Here’s the thing, guys. If something is taking you too much time, prerecord it and use the same thing. Every time I have a prerecorded intro and a prerecorded exit. And then I just talk about whatever I’m marketing or selling casually. If that doesn’t feel good to you, prerecord your sales pitch or the thing you’re marketing or your call to action and plug that in.

(14:47)
There are no rules in podcasting, make it easy on yourself. Also, I think that you are going to get a better result, you guys, if you’re different. Don’t do what someone else is doing. Be different. If you want to have a different intro every time, if you don’t want an intro and you just want to talk, great. If you don’t want to have music, you don’t have to. This is your show, it’s your platform, it’s your message.

(15:11)
You get to be you, you can do it however you want to do it. The most important thing though, Joy is to be consistent. Consistent, and what I mean by that is showing up every week with a really great solution for your people. It doesn’t matter if the intros there, you guys I’ve posted stuff from my phone.

(15:29)
I’ve posted things with no intro and no exit. Today, I posted an episode and it’s ganky, it’s missing the intro. My VA was like, um, your podcast episode has 40 minutes, 40 seconds of silence. And I was like, awesome. Like who cares? Okay. People are here for a result. And so you get to do that however you want to do that.

(15:52)
I can also communicate if I’m like, listen up guys, I’m outside. My kid’s going crazy. This episode will not have an intro, but I’m here for you. People appreciate that. And if it makes you feel better about showing up without rules, just tell them. And congrats on 40 people in your Facebook group. That’s Epic. I love it.

(16:12)
All right, next question. Tanya McKinney. What’s the best way to promote the podcast once you’ve jumped the hurdle and you’ve already launched? What do you do? How do you keep promoting Facebook lives, posts Instagrams, all the things? Definitely not all the things, because you’re going to go crazy. Here’s what I do.

(16:30)
I create one little blurb that goes in the description area of my podcast, right everybody? You all do that, right? And you all use your keywords, right? The little search terms that people might be looking for. So for Dolly’s example, the mom might be looking for how to communicate with my teenager. My teenager, isn’t talking to me, social media tips for teenagers. Do you let your kids have social media?

(16:53)
So those are the type of things. Dolly wants to integrate into her descriptions. She’s going to take that one description and just repurpose it, put it in a Facebook post with a graphic, put it in Instagram with the same graphic, pop it into Instagram stories with a quick graphic or without a graphic.

(17:09)
I don’t care. We don’t care. It’s about getting the message out then what is she going to do? She’s going to take that same little blurb and put it in Pinterest with the graphic. You guys, you can create one graphic in Canva and just change the title every time. Your graphics should take you one minute once you’ve created the template.

(17:28)
If you need to create your templates or you need help with that, Ale has a special offer that she’s putting together for all of you right now. That is insane. And you’re going to love it. And I’m sorry, Ale, that I’m talking about it right now. Cause we were supposed to wait, but here we go. So if you need some help with all your templates, let Ale know and she can set them up. And then all you have to do is go into Canva and change your title.

(17:50)
That’s where you promote. Everywhere but with one thing, just copy paste. It doesn’t matter if you post it all on the same day. I don’t care if you guys space it out, just put it wherever wherever. Okay. And then finally the most important place I believe that you should be promoting is on Pinterest.

(18:09)
I have a Pinterest masterclass that you guys need to take. It’s at pinterestmasterclass.gr8.com. It’s a hundred bucks. People see thousands of percent growth in a couple of days. It’s super worth it. A hundred bucks to transform your Pinterest, pinterestmasterclass.gr8.com.

(18:28)
Why Pinterest? Because Pinterest is the evergreen marketing. It grows forever. On Instagram, you guys are posting one thing and in 10 minutes, it’s obsolete because nobody cares. Nobody can see it. It’s buried in the algorithm. It can’t reach new people. No it’s dumb.

(18:44)
Pinterest, you post one thing and it grows for the next five years. It’s Epic. You have to be patient though. Be patient and let Pinterest and your podcast work for you and not get distracted by shiny object syndrome. Cool. Next question. Siv Priscilla. When we ask people to subscribe, does it matter where they subscribe? If they listen in Overcast, do they hit subscribe where they listen or in iTunes?

(19:08)
Okay. This is a great question. I don’t think anyone has ever asked this before. You want people to subscribe wherever they listen, right? We want people to leave reviews on iTunes. That’s the only place I care about reviews, Apple podcast in iTunes. Why? Because that is where people go to research me.

(19:29)
That is where people go to search for me in the search bar. That is where people go to decide if I’m good size show for them to ask to be on their show. Having all your reviews in Apple podcasts is all that matters there. On the other side, when someone subscribes, that’s not helping us really, we can’t see subscription numbers. So I don’t care where you subscribe. I just want you to hear me every week.

(19:53)
So I don’t care if you listen on Spotify, on Google Play, on Overcast on wherever, just subscribe to me so that I’m front of mind every week. All right, next question. Beatriz Vargas. Hey Stef, I went out for a morning run. I was struck with inspiration, but I want to record a podcast episode from my phone. Help. How?

(20:13)
Okay you guys, when I record an episode from my phone, I have an iPhone and I use voice notes. And when I use voice notes, you don’t want to talk like this into your phone because you want to hold it here flat and like maybe six inches away from your face and just talk normally here’s the thing about using a phone is that it will pick up every background noise.

(20:37)
So be sure that you let your listeners know that you’re recording from a phone. And also if you can, I would do it inside. If the times I’ve used my phone outside, it is pretty distracting. I recorded an episode from my car one time using my phone. That was really bad.

(20:53)
So if you’re going to use your phone, try to be inside and then let people know you’re recording from your phone. Okay. And then how do I get it off of my phone onto my editing software? You can use Airdrop if you have an iPhone and a Mac book or you can just email it to yourself. Okay. Next question.

(21:10)
Last question is from Stephanie Parenza. Is it possible to create passive income early in this process? I need to decrease my service based side to rid my life of toxic relationships, but I can only do that if I replace some of my income. I can most likely go get new service clients, but it’s not my end goal. It is never too early to create passive income in your podcast for your show.

(21:34)
Here’s the thing. If you create passive income from day one, which I did. So again, you can just know you’re probably going to have to create more stuff because it’s probably not going to be the right stuff. Why? Because what we think people need is not usually what people want. Like I created a Facebook and Branding Bootcamp course before my show and it was fine.

(21:58)
But then once I launched my podcast, I realized that I wasn’t just talking to network marketers and everything changed. I’ve created seven or eight courses, now you guys. In the course of three years, I’ve created seven or eight different passive products because you’re going to grow.

(22:13)
So here’s your choice. Make one based on what you think it is and you think your person needs, which is great. But don’t go crazy, because you’re probably gonna have to redo it. Or wait six months and know for sure what people are asking for. So how do you determine which one is right for you? How quick can you get something out?

(22:33)
Like if you’re Enneagram one and you’re going to get stuck in overthinking and it’s going to take you six months to create the perfect product, wait until you know what people are asking for. If you’re an Enneagram three and you’re like, I can throw something up in a month and start making profit off of it. And then I’m ready and willing to create something else six months from now, great.

(22:51)
The other thing you guys can do is create a mini product that takes you only a couple of weeks to put together at like $47 or $97 and start there. I see a question two Jose what’s question one? How can you record the intros after you’ve already created your episode?

(23:05)
So what you can do is I use Audacity to record and what I do is if I have an episode, I just pop in my little cursor and then I record like, okay guys, in today’s episode, I’m talking to Jose who is so amazing. And he is just great, you’re going to love him so much. And he helps people with this and that and blah, blah, blah, blah.

(23:23)
I finish my intro. I just select the whole thing, cut, and I go paste it at the beginning of my episode. Then I can pop in my intros and exits and then download the whole thing as a brand new file. So what I actually do, you guys is I have episodes that are edited without intros in them because I don’t know what I’m going to be promoting at the time.

(23:42)
So I get my episodes edited. And then I add my introduction later, right before it goes live, so that it’s fresh so that I know what I’m marketing, so that I’m excited. So that if I have a specific prayer, like a prayer about what’s going on right now in the world, it’s relevant. Cool. Does that make sense?

(23:58)
Okay, next question. What’s the best way to edit, this is also from Jose Longo. What’s the best way to edit audio when you’ve recorded in Zoom. So if you record in Zoom, just save your file as your MP4, MP3, whatever it is. And then I import it into Audacity if I’m going to edit. Which I still edit, even though I get things edited, I still end up adding my intro and exit later, I just like to do it that way. And I put it into Audacity.

(24:23)
That’s my preference. I never upgraded to Catalina Operating Systems. So I’m sorry, those of you that did that. I know that you’re having trouble with Audacity. You can use Garage Band. I’ve never used Garage Band except in my tutorial, in the course. So I’m not super great at Garage Band, but I prefer Audacity. Okay?

(24:42)
I hope you guys are having a great Thursday, and I just want to leave you with a quick prayer of encouragement right now. Wherever you are right now, mentally, spiritually, emotionally know that God’s got you. Know that you’ve gotta be brave, know that you’ve got to keep going, know that you have a voice that has to be shared. Know that we also have to check ourselves and learn and grow and notice if we have weak spots that need to be highlighted, that need to be changed.

(25:14)
We can ask hard questions to learn, know that wherever you sit right now, somebody else is feeling the same way as you and you don’t have to hide. You don’t have to hide in either direction in any direction, you get to keep going. Okay? So just know that and know that God is with, know that you can just pray every day. Pray for strength, pray for courage, pray for grace, pray for forgiveness, pray for whatever. Pray over your posts, pray over your Instagram, pray over your live you’re about to do, pray over what passive product to create.

(25:44)
I think that every time I’m stuck, when I get out of the way and I pray, I get clarity. Maybe not tomorrow, but I get it. I get an answer every single time. So I pray that you guys take the moment to just have enough silence and peace to not be led by emotion, but to be led by Him. Be led by our Father to be led by God. And to know that he’s got your back here, every day, tomorrow, everywhere. Yes. Okay. Amen. I love you guys so much. I’ll see you guys later.