Structuring your Income Streams & Monetizing a Brand

Sisters!

Here’s how to navigate being multi-passionate and having multiple income streams. Plus, learn all about monetizing a brand so that you can start making money from your podcast.

In this LIVE ADVANCED BUSINESS COACHING session, you will hear me coach Ashley Freehan owner of The Purpose Gathering! Together, we streamline her passions and get massive clarity on the next steps for her mission.

We focus on monetization strategies, pricing, and passive income potential. If you have a brand and you’re ready to scale it this one is for you!

If you enjoy please subscribe, review, and share. I appreciate you!

I pray this blesses you!

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION:

(00:00)
In this complete live coaching episode with Ashley Freehan, from The Purpose Gathering, you are gonna hear us really dig into how to properly monetize and big picture growth for an existing successful brand. Ashley already runs the amazing Purpose Gathering workshops. She’s a photographer, and so we really began going into how she can scale this brand. She’s now actually become an elite private client of mine, and we are working through really incredible plans. So it’s exciting for you guys to get, to see the foundation of all of that work that we’ve been doing together.

(00:37)
If you wanna find out more about Ashley, head over to her, Intagram at thepurposegathering and you can also find out more about her at thepurposegathering.com. If you’re looking for some clarity in your business, some advice on how to scale properly you wanna map out an online course together, or you’re simply facing some road blocks, maybe mindset stuff you need to work through. Please don’t hesitate to grab a breakthrough coaching session with me. I have a few left at this time for the next two to three weeks. And so if you wanna grab one of those, they do go really quickly.

(02:03)
Please email my team support@stefaniegass.com, and we will get you the latest coaching menu so that you can do the things right. I wanna help you just like I helped Ashley today kind of get out of our own way, cuz I know it’s so difficult sometimes to know A what the heck to do and then B how the heck to do it and then C have somebody just walk you through in a simple tactical, tangible step by step way that you can refer back to and you can go, okay Stef said to do this step one, step two, step three. So I am that type of coach for you.

(02:37)
I wanna help grow and create more revenue for you. I wanna help you have the course in the world, I wanna help you do all the things right. So if you invest in yourself, I’ve at least for me, I have never invested in myself and not seen that returned tenfold. So don’t let that be the reason that stops you from getting coaching, whether that be me or someone else. Investing in yourself and your business will always pay off in dividends. I promise you. I’ve never been disappointed when I’ve invested in myself. So here for you email us support@stefaniegass.com.

(03:15)
So I feel like I wanna nail down like exactly what to focus on as far as how to monetize The Purpose Gathering. I’m extremely busy in my photography business. So I need to figure out how I can kind of make up that money with The Purpose Gathering so that I can spend more time on that if that makes sense. And I don’t really need a ton of money to support my family. We only rely on like a thousand dollars a month, so it’s not crazy, but of course I want to be, you know, investing in retirement and doing other things. So a thousand is the minimum.

(03:52)
I need to kind of replace that. But then of course I wanna keep, and I don’t wanna stop photography. I think that’s the most important thing is like, I wanna keep doing that, but just I wanna shift cause I primarily shoot weddings. I wanna just do branded photo shoots now. So I kind of need to shift my gear that way. But I think the number one thing is like, I really wanna work on a tiny offer that I can sell on Facebook and Instagram. Okay. So really you want to figure out how to cover the cost of The Purpose Gathering. Yes. And then you want a separate, tiny offer to sell on Facebook and Instagram, right? Yes.

(04:32)
All in all to cover the thousand dollars that you need to run that and to breathe easy in the photography, right? Oh yeah. We got this girl. Yeah, totally. I already like am surpassing that with my own photography income. So it’s great. But I definitely want to feel like I can invest more in the moms in my community and do more, but also create income as well. Yeah. That’s awesome. And I think it’s cool because branded photography pairs perfectly with the women coming to The Purpose Gathering events, right? Yes. That’s so cool.

(05:10)
How are those events going? So then I get a visual of what that event feels like. Yeah. So the events are going really well. So we host monthly meetups that are free to the moms and I have a different speaker that comes every month and we spend like the first, probably 20 minutes, like introing The Purpose Gathering, welcoming everyone. And then we do networking so that the moms get a chance to meet other people. And then starting this month, I actually have two sponsors. So we’ll be filling in a couple of sponsor where they just come and highlight their business and kind of share with the moms what services they offer.

(05:47)
So for January we have a naturopathic doctor coming and then also a massage business. The whole basis of our meetup is how to put your health first this year. So the naturopathic doctor is coming to speak for about 30 minutes and she will share like all of the things that she sees moms struggle with like adrenal health, thyroid health, like all that. And then we always have like discussion with the moms at their table so they can talk about what we just learned. And what are those sponsorships paying you? $75. It’s mostly just for like a shout out on Instagram being featured in our email, like our monthly newsletter.

(06:28)
This is the first month I’m doing sponsorships. I didn’t do it right. So it shouldn’t have included a pitch. The pitch is really only if you do the sponsorship, which is $225. Perfect. I was gonna say they get 30 minutes. We are gonna up that price? No, she gets three to five minutes to pitch and then her presentation has to be 30 minutes pitch free. So $225, is that like advanced tier and then that’s when they get the speaking part in the future? Yeah. So that’s the exclusive, meaning there’s no other sponsors at the event, but if they wanted to do the shared sponsorship, it’s $75 per person. And I was supposed to find a third sponsor, but I didn’t do that. Okay.

(07:14)
I’m hoping to make like $225 every month for sponsorships, and that basically covers the cost of the meeting, which is $50. That’s how much the space costs for me to rent every month. And then it just covers like my cost of like marketing the event and doing all the backend work. How many women come on, average Ashley to the meetup? So the room only holds 40. Okay. So between 30 – 40. Okay. Are you a hundred percent adverse to charging anything? So tried that once at one meeting and it could have been the topic. It was accounting, so it was kind of dry, but it was trying to talk about like money and finances and how to do that, and we only had 15 people come, but we only charged $5.

(08:00)
So my thought was always to end up charging. I started out doing it free because I wanted to build my community to sell my workshop. So I did an in-person workshop in July and then filmed the workshop. Now I have the workshop as a course, like ready to sell, but I don’t have any strategy, no funnel, all of that overwhelms me. So it’s literally sitting in Thinkific and only four people have bought it. I love this. Okay. This is so good. So think about this. Everybody has an opinion about everything, right. And especially if you’re already influential, you definitely have an opinion because you have done things a certain way, which is where I’m very anti there is a right way to do anything. Yeah.

(08:50)
I think the right way is your way. And I think if I was to join something and they were like, this is $5 just to cover the cost of the meeting spot. I’m like, well, here’s 10 because you’re doing all the work. And for me, when I pay for something, I show up for it. I think that there’s more of a value when I pay for something as well. Right. So I think the mindset behind you can’t pay for it, you can throw that out the window. Yeah.

(09:19)
I think $5 is a beautiful place to start. It’s a tiny ask. You can send out an ask email being like, guys, this is just covering the cost of the venue. And I really hope you continue to come. And you know, you can put a scholarship down if you want to, for someone else that can’t afford the $5 and you could have a scholarship program for these women because you shouldn’t have to pay for the venue. All right.

(09:42)
Sponsorships should be icing on the cake in my opinion. Yeah. And the math, if you had 30 people paying $5, each that’s $150. Plus if you’re getting the $225, you’re at $375 an event. And I think over time you can either scale the price or let’s talk about how your workshop fits in with the woman coming to the event. Because I think every woman at your event should be hearing about your workshop every time she comes. Your workshop should sponsor the event. You should have a pamphlet that goes out every single time. Like if it was my event, that’s how I would run it because I think $5 a month is like nothing. Okay. The majority of women that are probably coming can afford that. Right.

(10:35)
So that’s what my advice is on that one. And as far as sponsorships are concerned, I think your model is great. I love the idea of $225 for exclusivity. You get to hit up 40 women. You’re on my IG. I think that that’s a great price. And obviously you’ve already secured two so that you know that they’re finding value there. Okay. You could also think about if they wanted to come three times a year. Maybe you could offer them like a bundle. That’s a good idea.

(11:06)
Then the second tier here is this workshop. So your workshop has six modules. Yep. Business, tidying up your life, physical self care, married life, positive parenting, and leading with authenticity. And you had mentioned having clearance from the guest speakers, so do you have that from everybody? Yes. Okay. And that’s only $47? Yes. We gotta raise the price. First of all, I mean, that’s a ton of value, and also it comes with a workbook. Yeah, it is. And we only charged $97 for the actual in person with lunch. Like yeah. It was a huge undertaking. I made no money on it, but it was fun.

(11:52)
So I would, for sure, I mean, $147 comes to my mind, like just hearing the stuff you’re teaching and that it comes with a workbook as well. And the fact that these women already trust you, Ashley, like they know you, right. They’re showing up to your monthly event, they’re following you on social media. Right. So I would absolutely monetize every single event with your workshop. What is it called? I don’t have a name for it yet. Okay. And your, your get togethers. Those are called The Purpose Gathering. Yep.

(12:30)
What if it had a play of that? Like some thing to do with purpose, because I mean, all the stuff you’re teaching in there is like life on purpose. Right? Right. I was kind of playing with the idea of finding peace in the chaos or purpose in the chaos, but then I don’t want people to be like, oh, well I’m not chaotic. So like, I don’t wanna have like a negative connote. Yeah. What if it was something like thriving on purpose? Cute. Yeah. Like thriving on purpose, a roadmap to your most purposeful life. Oh, I like that.

(13:08)
Then I think what you could do is every single time that I’m sure you stand up and welcome everyone and say something in the beginning. Yep. And you can just let them know ladies, I had hosted an event a while back and it’s got hours and hours of content. I’ve packaged it up. And this course is sponsoring these events going forward. It’s called Thriving on Purpose. It is the roadmap to your most purposeful life. It’s an online course comes, with a workbook and so I would love every single one of you to get access to this course. Here’s a $10 off coupon code for you. I put the checkout link right there at your seat and you guys can grab a $10 off coupon code if you purchase within 48 hours or whatever you wanna give. Yeah. Like to drive the urgency to go buy.

(13:59)
If you sold one every time you had a meeting, which you’ll sell a lot, once they start hearing about it every single month. Right. That’s another 150 bucks. Yeah. And it’s something they need, like, that’s a huge value to their life. Right. So I think it’s something that you can feel really good about marketing. Yeah. Totally. Okay. Any questions on that piece? No, I love that.

(14:25)
Do you do like a little gift, like a little bag or something for everybody at their seat? Cause I was thinking if you put that in there for them, with their coupon code. I haven’t just because I have made no money. So I’m like, oh, I don’t have any money to do that. But at the actual workshop, we did little swag bags. I had a mom author, I bought books from her for everyone. I mean the swag bag was awesome. So I’ve thought about doing that. Cause I want them to feel like pampered when they come out, but I just haven’t had the funds to do that.

(15:04)
Well, and you know, anybody that’s sponsoring, you can ask them, do you have a product or a sticker or like something you wanna add to a swag bag? Cuz if you did wanna start doing a swag bag model, you can raise the price. Right. $15. That’s true. $15 a women now. And this month we’ve got a With God She Rises journal from Stefanie Gass and we’ve got a coffee cup from this local coffee shop and you guys have a couple of coupons in here for whatever local businesses, maybe. Yeah. That’s a great idea. And then they wanna pay you 15 bucks cuz they want the swag bag. Yeah, exactly. So I love that.

(15:43)
I would love to pay $15 and get a swag bag versus just paying five, heck yeah. So awesome. I think you could get a lot of stuff donated. Yes. Totally. So this goes to 40 women that are in your niche and it drives local business. Would you love to donate something? I think you’d get a lot of people that would love to donate something. Totally. And like that could be a paid thing too. You can pay to put your business card or pamphlet in the swag bag. Yes, exactly.

(16:18)
We used to have to do that at the bridal show for photography, they would be like, Hey, if you want in on this swag bag, you have to bring us your stuff. And it’s like $150 bucks but you get in everyone’s bag. It’s genius. It’s genius. Exactly. I love that model. And that’s also something just, even on a whole other level of profitability, if you went to 10 local companies and are like, Hey, for 20 bucks, I’ll put your business cards in. If you got 10 companies to say yes, that’s $200 more and it’s a business card and a swag bag. And or if they wanna put something else of value, like a coupon code or an offer, right? Yes, totally.

(17:03)
So from those ideas alone, we’ve come up with a minimum of $500 a month covering your event. Yes. Okay. So let’s talk about this tiny offer to sell. Yes. I’m just trying to think if that’s your best play, I can tell you what it is. I’ve been really thinking about it. Okay. So I wanna do a parenting bundle because I feel like that where I have the most value to give. And I did the talk at the workshop on parenting. So I have that half hour audio training. Well, it’s actually video training. So I was thinking about including that in there and then up selling, like if they bought the tiny bundle, then it would automatically offer them the full, you know, workshop that we were just talking about.

(17:53)
So you kind of start with a tiny offer and you get one full lesson or module and all of the coursework that came with it. And then if you like it, you can upgrade and get the full workshop. Does that make sense? Oh yeah. That’s what I do with my podcast course. Oh awesome. Yeah, for $27, they get the first module out of the master course. And then basically once they buy that they they’re in an email funnel.

(18:24)
Here’s where it gets annoying. This is why I said to sell on Facebook or Instagram. Maybe the piece that might not be the right fit for you, but let’s talk it through. Yeah. Cause I’ve got lots of money going to Facebook ads. I have to set up the email funnels. It’s got the upsell inside the course as well. And then when they are ready to buy the full course, it’s $400 more dollars. Right. Right.

(18:47)
All that being said, it is super expensive to test and get a Facebook campaign to actually convert. Okay. So, full disclosure, you’re gonna spend a couple thousand bucks to really figure it out, which ads are working. Okay. It’s just a big, huge process, which is fine. Yeah. You know, if, once you get it going and it is working great, but I mean it’s taken me two years to figure out ads, to get them to convert and to get them right. And unless you can hire a company, which is thousands of dollars also. Right. So not to dissuade you from that, but the money you would make on that, I don’t think would be worth it. Okay.

(19:28)
I think is there a different way to either grow The Purpose Gathering to a larger scale or to sell this workshop that you already have that’s already extraordinarily inexpensive to an organic market. You have great Instagram engagement. You have great following on Instagram. Have you considered podcasting? Yes. Okay. I actually wanna launch a podcast in April, but I was thinking in my head like well I should get this tiny offer out. So I can start at least selling that and making money because I know podcasting takes so so much time. And right now, like I don’t feel like I have a lot of extra time laying around to trade. That makes sense.

(20:21)
Here’s the thing, your podcast, Ashley will bring you all the revenue. So I get that cuz it seems backwards like, but I need to make money before I start the podcast. But the podcast is the revenue driver. Okay. It is crazy what my podcast has done for my business. Like I had the biggest month of my entire life in December, all from the show like people hear me, they trust me. They like what I teach. And then every time I say guys, this show is sponsored by Thriving on Purpose. This is your full master course to a roadmap to your most purposeful life, to learn more about living intentionally and going through these six systems with me, so head on over to blah, blah, blah.com. Right? Right.

(21:04)
So all your listeners are hearing over and over again, how you have a workshop they can buy right away. Or if you’re local, I have an event that you have to come to. And before you know it, you are gonna have to grow that event space. You’re gonna have 200 people wanting to come. You’re gonna be selling your course. It’s so much better than Facebook ads. I mean a million percent. So since you’re already gonna do that, I’m gonna pour fuel on your fire that you need to do that. OK. Should I just table the tiny offer? I have other things that was gonna be included too. Or do you think that the tiny offer helps like lead people in? $147 is like a no-brainer buy already and you’re giving them the whole caboodle for $147. I think that is your tiny offer. Okay.

(22:00)
That just seems so expensive for me to charge anything more than that. Here’s what you do. I got it. Ashley, you give away your module on parenting for free. That’s your optin to your email list. That’s your free thing that you’re gonna gift to your community to get them on an email list. Okay. Then in that email sequence, let’s not call it a funnel cuz then it gets really weird. Just an email sequence over the course of eight weeks. Once a week, you hop in, you ask ’em how they’re loving it. You hope that they grew from what they learned this week. Have they listened to the latest episode? This week you’re teaching about mind and soul self care. And also PS. Did you know that you can grab the full master course in Thriving on Purpose?

(22:51)
Not just parenting here’s the link because they already got a taste of the first module. They want the other six. Totally. That’s your upsell. And that’s how you get people in your email sequence. Awesome. I love that. So tell me about email sequences. Cause that like blows my mind, I I’ve been hearing from everyone. You’ve gotta have an email, but when I go to think about that, that just like makes me crazy. I’m like that’s another thing I have to add is like making the sequence and like following up and so like how do you, how does that work? Okay. So let’s do this. Don’t create an email sequence. You just create the free thing. Okay. And like just use MailChimp for free for now. Okay.

(23:35)
You don’t need any fancy stuff to get started. You just don’t need it. MailChimp is great. And I loved it when I had it. It’s free. So you sign up there and you set up a free landing page. It’s right there. Inside of MailChimp. It will say a signup page or a free landing page. They’ll call it something like that. I do use MailChimp. Okay, good. So you know what I’m talking about? Yeah. It’s gonna be crazy simple, like get your completely free guide to positive parenting. A 30 minute training for you completely free. Right? Right. They put in their email, you set up one email, just one that automatically once they opt into the list, you send them the free little mini training.

(24:19)
Even if you just attach it or you probably have it already in Thinkific, send it over to them, right. Yeah. Okay. Now next week you just write one email a week in real time as you do your podcast episode, let’s say episode one is Tidying up your Life. Okay. We’ll take one of the topics from your course. Hey guys, in today’s episode, we talked about three steps to really tidying up your life and your mind. And I love doing this episode because blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You’re gonna walk away with four tips to really declutter and simplify. So click here to listen to the latest episode.

(24:55)
So it’s just a blurb in the email about why they need to go listen to the show. You also have in there, are you local? The next Purpose Gathering event is blah, blah, blah, click here to grab your ticket. Wanna be a sponsor of the event? Click here. Right? And then the next piece of your email is interested in Thriving, on Purpose, ready to transform to the most purposeful life in these areas, marriage and parenting and authenticity and mind and body soul care. I’ve got a perfect workshop for you complete with the workbook, click here to purchase.

(25:29)
So you have free content at the top of the email, you have your event in the middle and then you have your upsell at the bottom. Right? Right. And you just do that once a week. And as your email list grows, it’s cool. Next week you have another email and next week you have another email and in 90 days, get us what you have, whatever that is like 15 emails already written, right. That you’re gonna save. And you’re gonna build something called an email sequence out of those 15 emails. That sounds easier like that. So much easier.

(26:04)
All this means is you’re gonna go in and Mail Chimp will have this option for you. It will say when somebody signs up to the list Thriving on Purpose podcast list, we then go send them email one and it sends them. Here you go. Or they get the freebie, right? Send them the freebie. That’s the first email. Then it will say, wait blank amount of time, wait one week. Send them email two. You already built email two. It’s already there. Boom, wait one week, send them email three. That’s all it is. And you’re gonna do that for all 15 emails that you had already created. Perfect. That sounds good.

(26:46)
It’s no pressure. There’s no open cart crap. I hate that stuff. I’m like just being authentic and talking about something that I know will help somebody. That’s all you have to do. There’s no complicated secret to like making it convert. Cause this is your authentic audience. They already know who you are. They probably follow your Instagram. They’re gonna be listening to your podcast, coming to your events. It will be a no brainer buy for them. Okay.

(27:16)
So where do you think I should host the workshop? Cause right now it’s on Thinkific, but it’s their free version. So I don’t know if I should keep it there cuz I don’t wanna start selling if I’m gonna move platforms. Thinkific is great. I mean really there’s only three major players. That’s Thinkific, Kajabi and Teachable. Okay. And as far as I know, they’re all really similar. I use Teachable only because it interfaces with my checkout software and I love their app. So that’s why I chose them, but okay. I think Thinkific is really similar and they probably all charge pretty similarly to each other cuz they’re major competitors of each other. So I think you’re fine. Okay.

(28:04)
Anything else on this stuff, cuz I totally wanna talk about getting your podcast going if we’ve covered all your other questions. Yes. That sounds good. Okay. Do you have any ideas for the show? Like what you would call it? You kind of have a vision for it already? So I was thinking about what I would name it, but then I don’t really want to necessarily name it something like completely different. So I was just kind of thinking like The Purpose Gathering podcast. I don’t know if that’s a mouthful. Oh yeah.

(28:36)
I wanted it to be something having to do purpose, you know, with purpose, like thriving on purpose. I don’t know if that’s taken though. It’s not. There’s thrivingonpurpose.com the website is taken, the podcast name is not, but the website is yeah. You probably already have the domain for the purpose gathering? For the actual meetup you mean? Yeah. I just call it the purpose gathering meetup. Okay. Is the purpose gathering available as a domain? Oh, I have that domain. Yeah. Okay. Then that makes the most sense.

(29:32)
I just finished my website too. So after we are done talking, you can look at it if you want. I just pulled it up. I love it. So all we’re gonna do is add another little clickable podcast. Okay. And it’s The Purpose Gathering podcast? A million percent. Yes. Okay. Perfect. I love that so much and obviously you’ll just stay within brand of this whole idea. I love your graphic at the top where it’s like two girls linking arms with no face on it. Like Purpose Gathering, how to juggle all the things, that’s your channel art. Yay. Awesome.

(30:13)
Obviously we wanna have your name, Ashley across the bottom. And then I think we wanna work on a promise a little bit more like a tagline. Okay. If we were to tell the women coming to your event, a one sentence promise. I’m just trying to think of like, how would we phrase that one promise to her of what is this? What is she gonna find because the podcast I feel like is kind of gonna be what’s happening with The Purpose Gathering. It’s like a virtual replica of it.

(30:50)
There may be a way for you to figure out how to record the speaking that’s happening at your events so that they’re getting recorded. I’ve been thinking about that. I’m trying to figure out how to do that. I know there’s a way to do it because people do it all the time. You know, when they speak at a live event and then they repurpose it to their show. I know there’s a way to do that for sure. We can Google that and we’ll figure that out. But anyway, so the promise that I’m kind of thinking of could be something like claiming or we can stick with that thriving theme, thriving through motherhood, business and purpose. I like that.

(31:29)
You have down here strength and empowered support, and exactly like we really wanna have like a promise to her. Like what is this? You know, this is a community so that you can be strengthened, empowered, supported, you can thrive in motherhood and business. I think really wanna hit ’em too with like the community aspect of it. Because I think that’s your whole focus here is like you wanted to create this gathering of these fired up women who wanted to live their best lives. Right. I’m excited.

(32:08)
I could totally see this going to other cities and growing globally, like The Purpose Gathering in other locations and like other cities, oh, I already have people on the west side who are like, do you do any events on the west side? And I’m like, oh, that’s so far like, but maybe we can branch off and you can help me plan like meetups and play dates with all the moms on the west side who want communities. So I’m already like trying to branch out with another girl to kind of reach the west side cuz I can’t do both yet. That’s amazing.

(32:45)
This is a little bit more big picture, but if it’s your name and somebody wanted to pay you like a licensing fee, kind of like a franchise model where you’re like, look, you get to use my name, which is already recognized this Purpose Gathering event. I send you the packet of like how to run the event, how to structure the event, how to find a great place, how to host, how to fill out your event. It’s like a whole kit of how to make this successful.

(33:13)
Then they would pay you like a licensing fee every month to use your name and to use your sources, not paid resources, but your expertise cuz you’ve already done it. Yeah. That’s cool. I like that idea too. Yeah. And I don’t know what you would charge for that. Maybe like you could do like 10% profit of every event. Oh yeah. That’s awesome. And that’s passive. So love that. Yeah. That would be totally cool. Cause yeah, I was thinking, I always think big picture and I’m like, what is the end goal or where I would feel like I had arrived is if this was happening in other places. Heck yeah, that’s amazing.

(33:55)
The bigger you build your brand, which the podcast is gonna help you do, the more people that will be interested, but then also to raise that price in the future, cuz it’ll have brand recognition. Totally. Yep. So other than that on the podcast, especially if you can figure out a way to start recording these episodes, I mean you’re gonna have a lot of the content there cuz you can break it out into like 30 minute chunks and make three episodes out of it. Okay.

(34:28)
You can also charge more PS because the sponsor, you can say also you can sponsor the episode for another a hundred bucks. Awesome. It can be an upsell if they wanna add that. Right. So the podcast sponsorships and then as far as content is concerned for the show, I think you know, the women coming to your event really well, probably right. Yeah. You’re talking to her, it’s all the stuff in this workshop. It’s the stuff you guys talk about at your event. Like I think, you know, the content even better than I do because you already have a solid foundation of women coming and you just do one of those once a week, 30 minutes or less.

(35:09)
As far as the equipment that I need, what do you recommend that I get started with for a podcast? So you could totally start a podcast from your phone. I record often from my phone and you guys probably don’t really notice. IPhones are amazing these days. So depending on your budget, that is totally a thing. You also need a podcasting host, which I use Podbean. I’ll send you an email with like my little signup link for Podbean. Okay. And that’s where it’s like 10 bucks a month and you have to have that. It hosts your show.

(35:50)
Then that host sends out something called an RSS feed to everywhere that people listen to podcasts so that all you have to do is upload one. And it automatically goes everywhere. iTunes and Google and Spotify and Alexa will play it and like all the places. Okay. Then other than that, really the only other investment would be, if you don’t wanna edit yourself, you would have somebody edit for you. And that can be as low as like $40 an episode. Okay.

(36:23)
Or you can edit yourself depending on how techy you are. And if you’re not a perfectionist, if you’re a perfectionist, I would highly recommend not doing it yourself. So when you do a podcast, do you just, do you ever like start and stop and like pause it? Oh yeah. Mostly cause my kid comes in and talks about poop and I’m like, oh crud, pause the episode. It’s hilarious. Yeah. Cause I was talking to Chelsie about that and she says that she just starts and stops and like that makes it easier. So you don’t have like a ton of dead space or like you don’t have to go back through and like listen so much. Yes. Okay.

(37:14)
If you end up doing Podcast Pro University, Chelsie has a affiliate link. I think if not, make sure you tell her, get your link cuz I’m gonna buy it. Okay. So that she can get credit for that. If you end up wanting to do the course. Okay, cool. So equipment wise, that’s really it. If you do wanna invest in a microphone, I have a hundred dollars. I’ll put it in the email as well. It’s just called the blue Yeti, but I’ll put that in the email for you. And it’s like a hundred bucks and then that’s it. There’s really not a huge overhead investment. Okay. That sounds good.

(37:56)
So this all sounds great when we’re talking, but then actually putting it into practice and like doing all these things, like what tips do you have for like, how do I keep all this organized? Because I have like, literally this is my second business. Mostly my photography business is a lot of emailing clients, editing photos. And like right now I haven’t been doing any marketing with Instagram, but I know that because I still am getting residual business from like being invested in my Instagram prior. Yeah.

(38:39)
So I guess my question for you is, what advice would you give me as a mom juggling two businesses? Like how do I do this? Yeah. I would totally outsource, do you have a VA yet? Okay. There are people. And I know it’s like, oh, I can’t afford that, but really you can. Or an intern. Okay. I mean, you could find people for free that you’re like, look, come and learn photography or come learn about events and get an intern or a $15 an hour virtual assistant that literally handles whatever you can hand off in your photography business. Cause probably a lot of that is like client correspondence. You know, those pieces better than me, but that piece.

(39:26)
Then in this business you can totally have somebody outsourcing the editing for me is like a must just so time consuming. And it’s not that expensive. You can use, I’ll put it in the email Fiverr and just sort by reviews and find someone that’s like 40 bucks an episode, cuz it’s not about perfection. It’s about the content, right? So it’s outsourcing the stuff that you can so that you have more hours to sell your workshop at $147 bucks an hour. Right. Or blow up an event and have a hundred people coming to an event versus 30.

(40:01)
So you need more time and space to make more money. Think of it that way. How do I make more money and scale by outsourcing the little stuff at a very low price. Okay. That’s my first advice. That sounds good. Yeah. Second advice is automate everything you can. So anything and everything I can automate. Like I batch out podcast episodes. If I have an open day, I’ll record five they’re prerecorded. Okay. Send ’em off to be edited. They’re already uploaded.

(40:30)
Then I have my virtual assistant create the Pinterest graphics for me. She posts it in Facebook for me and Instagram. She can create my graphics and I just outsource all of that so that I just show up and it’s already posted. That’s awesome. Yeah. So automation and then what else do I automate? Um, you can also automate like your email. If you’re gonna do the once a week email, Hey, I’m gonna batch out my email. I know what three episodes are next. Create them ahead of time. They’re already scheduled. So you can do that ahead of time. You can schedule out Instagram and Facebook content. Same thing.

(41:07)
I don’t create new content for social media. I reuse the email I already wrote. Okay. So I’m not creating three different things that say different stuff. About the same episode. It’s like same paragraphs going everywhere. Okay. That sounds easier. Yeah. What else? You definitely need a virtual assistant. Could start working on sponsorships for you. Hey, hit up 10 local businesses. This is the email we’re gonna send them. I want you to call ’em and follow up. Once we get interest funnel ’em to me. Okay.

(41:40)
And if you had somebody helping you for five hours a week, you know, doing all this stuff, that’s yeah $150, $200, but you could sell one course, one workshop and make that up. Right. So yeah, automation, outsource. And then the last piece for me, I don’t know if this would work for you in your business model, but I have a paper planner and then I also use Calendly. Like as far as keeping my life in order, I’m so intentional about, I know what I’m doing next week on Thursday, like right. That helps once you have a lot of balls in the air, I’m just so intentional.

(42:24)
If I have an open 15 minutes, I know where it’s going. Absolutely. So I really wanna listen. I haven’t listened to your Instagram podcast yet, but I really need too, because I feel like it’s such a time suck. Instagram is dumb. I hate it. And I love it at the same time. So it’s gonna be interesting once you listen to it. Tell me what you think because I have this whole theory on Instagram and I think we all think that it’s doing so much. And I think that it’s actually like hurting us cuz we’re wasting all of these open hours that we could be making $147 a sale over here. Right.

(43:01)
Then Instagram hides you because you used the wrong hashtag or whatever. And I’m like, this is not the platform for businesses anymore. It used to be, and it’s not. And I wanted to give everyone permission to let go of it cause blowing up my business is bigger than it’s ever been. And my Instagram is worse than it’s ever been. That’s so crazy to me. I love it. Yeah. Put that on your to-do with everything else. But as far as order of operations, before we go, Ashley, I would say the first thing for you is get your event to be profitable, right? Yep.

(43:39)
So I would definitely start charging. I would lock in the next couple of months’ sponsors because we want, like you said, some money in the bank. So you can feel really great about launching the podcast. So give yourself 30 days to like knock all of that out. Okay. Then the second thing is to then get the podcast going because you already have the workshop that you’re gonna monetize your events with. You already have everything in place. You need the thing, that’s yours, the funnel. So the next step is the podcast and you had an April date, but I really think there’s not a lot to launching a show.

(44:18)
There’s a lot to making a great successful show, like strategy of launch and content ideas. Like it’s more about the long term play. I’ve started it. Okay. And you’re a photographer. You’re gonna be able to create channel art. Like you don’t need to do a lot of work up front to get it started. Okay. So I would actually pull that in and try to have like maybe a March 1st launch date. Okay. And then the only other thing you need right before you launch would be that free landing page of how they get the free parenting workshop. Okay.

(44:53)
You want it from day one. You wanna say welcome to The Purpose Gathering podcast, this is sponsored by or not sponsored by cuz that’s gonna be your event and all the things. But I have a free gift for all of you. It’s a 30 minute training on purposeful parenting. And if you guys head over to blah, blah, blah, I will send it to your inbox right now. Completely free, no strings attached. I want us all to thrive as parents. And I think that this is the first step to growing trust together is by gifting you this workshop. Right. Okay.

(45:26)
So you’re capturing emails from day one and then once they start the email, they learn about The Purpose Gathering event and they learn about the Thriving on Purpose roadmap course. Okay. Awesome. That sounds good. Cool. Thank you so much. This was so helpful. Oh, I’m so glad I will send you the replay. And I would listen a couple times. Cause there’s so many things you just can’t write down the first time. So you know, re-listen and see if you pull any nuggets out and I’ll send you that email with those links that I had mentioned. Okay. That would be great.

(46:04)
Then we’ll just go from there, but I’m excited for you. I think there’s huge potential for you to be really profitable this year. And you just need to give yourself permission to like claim all of that, that you’re worth it because you are, and your event is worth that as well. Thank you. I’m so excited. That was so much fun. Ashley is an incredible businesswoman. She is so smart, you guys. And she asks some really amazing questions. I hope that this episode helped bring you clarity as well about potential for maybe what you can do in the world.

(46:36)
I think Ashley has such a cool business model that is super unique. Hopefully you loved it. Listen a couple more times. All right, beautiful. I’m gonna send you off now with an abundance prayer. Let me just tell you that God wants favor over your life, so He wants to pour the provision and gift of every single thing that you need to do His work well here, I pray that whatever it is that you seek today to grow your business, to scale your brand, to live the lifestyle that you desperately want to get out of debt, to not have to worry.

(47:13)
I pray that God gives you that provision and that you trust that He has your best interests at heart and He will provide whatever needs to be provided for you to continue doing His work. Okay. I want you to trust and believe and pray and know that He is here for you in every way, including financially sis. Sending you a huge hug. I’ll see you soon. As always, love and light, Stef.