From 4K to 73K Podcast Downloads and $6K to $15K Months!

Hey Friend!

Welcome to today’s podcast where I have got two of my rock star Podcast to Profit graduates, Shana Robertson and Vanessa Porten from the podcast Financial Coaching For Women. These ladies are going to be sharing how they exploded their downloads from just 4600 to over 73,000 in the time that they spent in Podcast to Profit. And how they moved their $6000 monthly revenue all the way up to close to a $15k monthly revenue, how they grew their super fan number, their email list, their Facebook group and so much more.

Shana and Vanessa followed the system to a tee. They were extraordinarily coachable and their wins speak extremely highly of what can happen if you really do the work in this program.

If you have a podcast and you are ready to up-level like Shana and Vanessa, please check out my six-month group coaching program Podcast to Profit. All the details are at stefaniegass.com/podcasttoprofit for you to find out more!

But for now, let’s hear more about Shana and Vanessa’s journey.

Shana Robertson and Vanessa Porten – Best Friends and Business Partners Achieving $15k in Revenue

Stefanie Gass: Hello, Shana and Vanessa. Welcome to the show. I am so excited that you are here. Let’s begin with finding out more about you. What do you do? Who are you? Let everybody know.

Shana Robertson: We are Shana and Vanessa. We are best friends and business partners, and we are trained by Dave Ramsey. We are financial coaches and sometimes we say that we are unofficial marriage counsellors!

Stefanie Gass: I love that. And you guys obviously live in the same town.

Vanessa Porten: We do. We’ve been best friends since our boys were four. They are now 14. We started this journey together in 2019. There is a whole God story about how that started but in 2019, we came together, got our certifications and on April 1 2020, smack dab in the middle of the pandemic, we declared our business open!

Stefanie Gass: Oh my gosh, I love that. Are your boys still best friends?

Shana Robertson: Yes, they are! They’re so cute. They’re going to learn how to do balloon animals this afternoon for their church group.

Stefanie Gass: So you are family friends, I assume. You do all these things together and now you run a business together. You are really in it!

Shana Robertson: We are married, whether you like it or not!

A Business Partnership That Is Working

Stefanie Gass: That’s awesome. I have to admit that I haven’t seen very many successful partnerships. But you guys have proved that there can be a successful partnership in podcasting. I have watched the beautiful synergy between both of you and how you guys have worked together and how you both hold each other accountable. You are able to be honest with each other, which I think is a critical piece of having a successful business. So kudos to you for proving me wrong, because I watch you guys and I think that if I was to have a business partnership, I would look to you as to how to do it right.

Vanessa Porten: Thank you. We appreciate that. I have never had a sister. I only have an older brother and Shana is an only child. So coming together as two very strong women was not easy. There have been a lot of things that we have had to work through. But we’ve got stronger every day. I don’t think it is something we would recommend for everyone but finding that right person was such a God thing. He led the way for all of this. We knew immediately when He showed us that this is what we’re supposed to be doing that we were supposed to be doing it together. It’s got its bumps but it is 100% rewarding and I wouldn’t do it with anyone else.

Shana Robertson and Vanessa Porten’s Journey to 73,000 Downloads and $15K Revenue

Stefanie Gass: Let’s talk a little bit about your journey. You already had a podcast coming in to Podcast to Profit. So, let’s rewind and set the stage. How did you find me and what made you even consider joining Podcast to Profit?

Shana Robertson: I am the one who finds everything. You and I became best friends, Stef, while I was running every morning. I had been listening for years, but then we really dove in. We had already been off social media when you started your six month fast that turned into the forever fast. And I thought ‘Oh, she’s saying all the words. She’s successful. She loves Jesus. What else can we learn from her?’

We had a podcast but it was a joke. We’d record an episode now and then when we weren’t doing anything else. We made mistakes and we went in the wrong direction. And God redirected us because we didn’t get it right the first time! We definitely felt like He was telling us that Podcast to Profit was the thing to do. To work with you, to focus on our business, to take it seriously, to grow. That is when everything turned around from the sometimes, don’t-even-have-a-real-name podcast to being very serious.

The ‘Mistake’ That Led Shana Robertson to $15K in Monthly Revenue

Stefanie Gass: How long had you been podcasting at this point? Do you remember?

Vanessa Porten: About a year and a half. But let me tell you how that started. The same weekend that Shana heard you say get off social media, the Holy Spirit came to me and told me to stop posting. And so in our Monday meeting, we came together and said the same words at the same time. We decided that this was a sign so we took action and did it. And then she texted me over Christmas break and said that she had accidentally started a podcast! So that’s kind of how the whole thing started. And we did it once in a while for fun.

Shana Robertson: There was no pressure. We just thought we would throw this thing out there and see if it sticks.

Stefanie Gass: Which I think a lot of people do. They’ll listen to my show and they will think that Stef said to start a podcast so they will just YouTube this thing, create some random art or random name. They throw it out into the world and then they wonder why the podcast isn’t working. They don’t understand that there’s so much strategy that goes into creating a podcast that’s going to work for your business.

We’re going to get into all that in a moment. Can you first talk to me about any fears you had about joining the course? Were there roadblocks for you?

Overcoming Fears With the Decision to Be the Best Students Ever

Shana Robertson: We had just paid a lot of money for a coaching program we did not get a lot out of. So we went into Podcast to Profit with the thinking that we had to make sure this was the right thing and that our business had to make money as a result. We knew we had to get a return on our investment so there was definitely a little bit of fear around that.

Vanessa Porten: Yes. We had some reservations for sure. As Shana says, we had literally emptied our bank accounts six months before for a different program that cost a lot more where we didn’t get the returns that we wanted. That was heart breaking. So we did have a little bit of reservation.

But we decided that we were going to go 100% all-in and be the best students. We figured that there are two of us and most people do this with one person. The other part is that this was not the beginning of our business. We already had a fairly decent list of clients that we were working with. And we had our Facebook page.

Shana Robertson: And, of course, we had the very serious podcast!

One of the reasons we knew you were going to be a good choice is that I had already implemented a lot of your systems because you are giving away so much for free tactically. I started to use all of that free knowledge and that’s part of why we knew that this was going to be a good investment for us.

Go Slow and Follow the Process to Get the Results

Stefanie Gass: Amazing!

I have to talk to this one point for 30 seconds. I have set up Podcast to Profit in such a way that the videos drip out so that you have one week’s content at time. You do that one thing and then we have calls and we implement and coach and then we have new content that will unlock the following week.  

People who already have a business will come in and think that they are further along than somebody who’s just started their podcast and business and hasn’t made any money yet. Sometimes those with a running business will say ‘I want to skip this’ or ‘I don’t want to do this part’ or ‘We’ve already done this stuff. We want to skip over this. Just unlock the course for us.’ And I don’t unlock the course for them. Even if they have started, they are going to redo it because there’s something in there that needs to be optimized.

Can you please to talk to that because I guarantee you somebody’s reading this who wants to take Podcast to Profit who will get in and feel the same way that you guys felt?

And then please can you tell us whether it was worth it for you to redo those pieces that you really didn’t think you needed to do.

They Took the Time to Scrub and Polish Their Business and It Was Worth It

Vanessa Porten: Yes, to answer your question, it was worth it. The brain is always looking for what’s next. And we realised that God was telling us to slow down, to take a minute and recheck everything that we had gone through. When we purchased Podcast to Profit, we purchased Podcast Pro University at the same time. So we went through and did PPU right before we started and then, when it opened on April 1, we dove into Podcast to Profit.

Shana Robertson: We did speed through it. I wouldn’t say that we necessarily wanted to skip everything but we didn’t give attention to detail. And what I will say is that we did skip some of the work in terms of building your audience because we had already done that. So then yes, you’re right. We then had that gut check moment where we had to back and really scrub and take the time to do that. My favourite thing in Podcast to Profit is the five W’s. It is one of the foundations and it just made everything else so much easier when we had those systems in place. But you do have to slow down and take the time to build those foundations first.

Stefanie Gass: So did it help you to have the content dripped weekly after you got used to that pace?

A Step by Step Guide to Achieving the Success of $15k Revenue

Vanessa Porten: It forces you to slow down. It forces you to do it at the same pace as everyone else and the way that you, Stef, have specifically designed it to work. On one of my coaching videos I told you that the amount of systemization and the amount of time and effort that you and your team put into this was really awesome and we really appreciate it.

You could tell that it was very high quality with the amount of detail that you put into some of the videos. I was watching and I would pause, watch and then pause and then do the thing and then go back and press play and then watch five seconds, pause and then do the thing. We could make sure that we had it exactly the way that you wanted us to.

Shana Robertson: The program was very high class and very polished. We have been through enough programs where that’s not the case. You can absolutely trust that everything is taken care of. And like Vanessa said, it’s spelled out and put into steps that you can literally mimic to build your own business. You can just step by step build knowing that every part is there. There’s nothing left. We followed it, doing everything literally step by step and we were able to polish up our own business.

Vanessa Porten: The SEO itself was priceless. The amount of information we gained on SEO and how to convert it and what it meant for Pinterest and what it meant for the Facebook group was incredible. Suddenly on our Facebook group, we had people joining and we wondered where they were coming from. We aren’t advertising our Facebook group but we must get three, four people a day wanting to join and, yes, some of those are bots but it’s pretty consistent and we 100% believe it’s the SEO and how you taught us to set it up.

They Soaked up All They Could and Implemented Each Step

Stefanie Gass: One of the greatest things I noticed about the two of you is that you were avid students. There would be something that Shana would pick up from one of the videos and she would mention it in one of the calls. For example there is one point where I say ‘Make sure you are utilising the preview space in the email marketing’. No one has ever, to my knowledge, picked that up because I say it in passing very quickly. It’s not actually part of the core curriculum that I’m teaching that day.

But you can guarantee that these girls caught that and that they implemented it. They were so good at that. They followed every little thing that I said and were A plus students.

All that said, for those who might be curious, can you tell us what the program was like? How would you explain it? And then tell me what your favourite part was.

Support From Those Who Have Gone Before

Vanessa Porten: My favourite part was being on the same level with other people as we were at. We had struggled to find people that were going through what we were going through the way that we wanted to go through it. It was great to be surrounded by a community and to have their help. The support from the team in the Facebook group was awesome. Not just one person would respond to us. It wasn’t like your team saw that one person had responded and that was good. They would all give their input and their suggestions and that was really, really helpful. And they were always so on top of things, giving us help with whatever we needed, whenever we needed it!

It was also really helpful to have the other women who have already gone through the program and are alumni offering us support in that space.

Shana Robertson: My brain will easily squirrel and there are so many things to do in a business. I loved having somebody who has been there before, who is ahead of us, and who has mastered all of this foundational stuff. It was so good to have you tell us exactly what to do, when to do it and how to do it. You can’t ask for more. You offered us a step by step plan which we could then implement.

Building and Revamping Their Offer With the Help of a Mom Who Loves Jesus

Shana Robertson: The other thing I haven’t mentioned is that we built the course that we now offer to our clients. And we revamped our one on one offer. You teach both and you teach when to do both. You tell us when to do what at various points in the business.

As business owners, it is so good to be given these guardrails because the world is your oyster. You could do anything. But you want to follow in the footsteps of somebody who has been successful and do what they tell you to do. That’s what you pay money for.

Vanessa Porten: I want to add to Shana’s point that we have watched and followed a lot of people but you are a mom, you love Jesus, and you also want to build an empire. Those are things that we wanted to do. There are so many people that we listen to who are single and tell us how to do it. If I didn’t have kids I would think that yes, that seems easy. But you were doing the things that we want to do while being a good mom and an amazing wife and while supporting your team. That was really inspiring for us.

Stefanie Gass: Thank you so much. These girls would shoot over an email here or there and just say something so encouraging. You guys were just the absolute best. So thank you for all that.

Let’s talk about your wins now. Both of you said when you entered Podcast to Profit that you would be one of Stefanie Gass’s largest success stories. You guys put that out into the world. You decided that it was going to be true and I believe that you are well on your way to making that a reality. So talk to us about these wins. They are crazy.

The Big Wins – 73,000 Downloads and $15K in Revenue

Shana Robertson: They are! When we wrote them out, we realised they were even bigger than we thought. The first metric is that we went from 4000 downloads to 73,000 downloads in six months. It has only been a couple of weeks since we graduated and we will probably hit 100,000 downloads in another couple of weeks. Our audience size went from 232 to 2 577 people tuning in every week. And it’s exponential because we’re implementing everything that you told us to.

Vanessa Porten: We launched a budget series in September and this month we’re doing a grocery budget series. With the first series, we had 6500 people in that one week alone listen in. It jumped by 2000 just by doing the series. That was really interesting.

We talked about revenue. At the end of March, our revenue was $6200. At the end of September, I waited until 30 September when everything had cleared and our revenue was $14 600, close to $15k!

Stefanie Gass: So you guys doubled your monthly revenue!

Shana Robertson: And over the course of Podcast to Profit, we also made $7000 in passive income with our course. When we started, we only had one on one as an offering and our prices were really low. We followed the Stefanie Gass model on how to increase your one on one prices and our revenue increased with one on one coaching based on the systems we put in place. And then it increased with the passive income from the course which is part of the goal!

Stefanie Gass: So, you doubled revenue and in addition, you brought in $7000 of completely passive income which you had not done prior to Podcast to Profit through the course that we created. That is so fun!

And what I love about this is that it is just the tip of the iceberg. When you really think about it, we spent six months fine tuning and plugging in the things that you learnt. Why did you have such explosive revenue? I would say that you were willing to do the work at a higher level than most people.

Secondly, you were extraordinarily coachable and you did not do extra things that I asked you not to do. Sometimes we will sabotage our own success. You had each other for checks and balances and I think that helps too. But you didn’t say ‘Stef said do this and I’m also going to do this, this and this behind Stef’s back’. That actually dilutes the sales but people don’t realise that.

You were also willing to follow all the frameworks to a tee. We had to change the title of your show. That stinks and really isn’t fun to do. But you did it and you were willing.

So anybody reading this, if you are going to take this course, take it. Do it all the way like these girls did and just look at what’s possible.

Shana and Vanessa, you are not done. Tell us the rest of these incredible wins.

They Are Talking To so Many People Who Need Their Help

Shana Robertson: We cleared out our email list and started out the course with 160 people on the list. We are now at 444. Again, I have been wondering where these people came from but I know that it is from our podcast! Our open rate is at 60% which, as Stefanie has taught me, is high above the industry standard.

To be fair, we did start our Facebook group over halfway through. It drips in later and we did have some resistance. But the Holy Spirit worked on us and we went from zero to 176 people and now have a very engaged Facebook group. Another win is that I don’t remember where we started but when we looked at it yesterday, we are ranked number four in all of the US ‘how to’ shows.

Stefanie Gass: I hope you guys are celebrating these things?

Vanessa Porten: It is huge. We have had to sit and let it sink in. When our income hit the $14 600, we looked at it and thought ‘Is that ours?’ It was so nice to show our husbands a profitable pay check that could do something with the budget and help out.

We did so many things wrong for so long. There were a lot of tears, a lot of heartache, a lot of frustration for so long because we did so many things instead of doing the one right thing. The one piece of advice I can give is pick the thing and just stick with it because we made so many mistakes to get to this point.

It’s been so rewarding. And yes, this is the tip of the iceberg. We’re not slowing down. We have other things to do.

Shana Robertson: We get podcast reviews every week because we ask for them. We are not doing anything special to keep growing. It’s just compounding because of the six months we spent with you, being diligent. And we are going to keep using the systems that are working and that are exponential.

Don’t Let Your Indecision Make You Anxious

Stefanie Gass: Congratulations, you guys. I’m so happy for you!

What would you say if you had to say one thing to somebody who’s sitting on the fence but is worried about the investment or the time that it might take?  

Shana Robertson: I would say make it the right decision. The indecision is a decision and that is what is making you anxious. Go all in and stop the self-doubt. This is what we did. Together, we decided that we were going to spend this money and we were going to be the best students and get the most ROI out of every single dollar that we spent. We decided that we will never be able to consider it a mistake or look back. We will only be able to see it as an investment. It’s going to be an investment in you and your business and your family’s financial future. So just look at it that way.

Vanessa Porten: We had reservations at the beginning. The initial investment was huge for us. The compound interest that came with it in six months was exponential. But just make the decision to do it and you won’t regret it.

Stefanie Gass: How can you help my listeners and how can they come and connect with you and learn from you?

Shana Robertson: For our podcast, you can search for Financial Coaching for Women. It’s on all of platforms where you like to listen.

Vanessa Porten: Our Facebook group is the exact same name, Financial Coaching for Women. If you want to come and find us on our website, go to myidealbalance.com. We would love to connect with you and show you how you can afford to take Podcast to Profit!

Stefanie Gass: Yes, exactly. I love it!

All right, ladies, thanks so much for pouring out today. I’m excited for you. Keep us posted on all your future success. God bless.

Jump in and Create Income and Impact Like Shana Robertson and Vanessa Porten

Friend, if you enjoy today’s podcast interview and you know in your heart that it is time to do the work to get where you want your podcast to be, to be in alignment with Biblically building a business, to know exactly what you are supposed to do step by step, module by module, moment by moment, to actually create income and impact, grow an audience and make your podcast into your passive income generating machine, I want you to come and apply for Podcast to Profit, the program that has got these women these incredible results.

You can find out more about this program at podcasttoprofitmastermind.com. Don’t wait one more minute to do the work that’s going to get you the results that you desperately and deeply desire. I can’t wait to be your coach, your mentor and your friend over the next six months together. Let’s do this!  

I pray this blesses you!

Xo,

Stef

APPLE PODCAST | SPOTIFY | GOOGLE PODCAST

---

Before you go, be sure to watch the free workshop!

This free workshop is for you if you want to grow an online business in less time.

It will teach you how to explode your audience without the social media hustle, make consistent sales using a podcast, and plan, record, and launch a podcast with ease!

---

RELATED EPISODES:

How She Got 29K in Revenue and 5 High Ticket Clients in 90 Days – Student Spotlight with Juliana Page

Behind the Business: PODCASTING – How I Grew My Podcast to Over 1 Million Downloads

3 Reasons Having More Offers Won’t Increase Revenue. Why Less Is Better in Your Online Business

The P.R.O.F.I.T Formula! 6 Things You NEED to Put More MONEY in the Bank as an Online Business Owner!

6 Ways to Build a Podcast Audience & Get More Podcast Downloads

---

---

Join our Facebook Community!

Online Business for Christian Women with Stefanie Gass