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

Hey Friend!

Welcome to today’s podcast where I have two of my rock star Podcast to Profit graduates, Shana Robertson and Vanessa Porten, from the Financial Coaching For Women podcast.

These ladies will be sharing how they exploded their downloads from just 4,600 to over 73,000 in the time they spent in Podcast to Profit. They will also discuss how they moved their $6,000 monthly revenue up to close to $15,000 monthly, how they grew their super fan number, email list, Facebook group, and so much more.

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

If you have a podcast and are ready to up-level like Shana and Vanessa, please check out my six-month group coaching program, Podcast to Profit.

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, trained by Dave Ramsey. We are financial coaches; sometimes, we say we are unofficial marriage counsellors!

Stefanie Gass: I love that. And you guys 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—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 will learn how to do balloon animals for their church group this afternoon.

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 you and how you guys have worked together, and how you hold each other accountable.

You can be honest with each other, which I think is critical to a successful business. So kudos to you for proving me wrong. I watch you guys, and I believe that if I were to have a business partnership, I would look to you on 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 powerful 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 the right person was such a God thing. He led the way for all of this. We knew immediately when He showed us that this was what we were 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 into Podcast to Profit, so let’s rewind and set the stage. How did you find me, and what made you consider joining Podcast to Profit?

Shana Robertson: I am the one who finds everything. You and I became best friends, Stef, while I ran 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, which 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 felt He was telling us that Podcast to Profit was the thing to do. We wanted to work with you, focus on our business, take it seriously, and 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 exact words simultaneously.

We decided this was a sign, so we acted and did it. Then she texted me over Christmas break and said she had accidentally started a podcast! So that’s kind of how the whole thing started. 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 think Stef said to start a podcast, so they will just YouTube this thing and create some random art or name. They throw it into the world and then wonder why the podcast isn’t working. They don’t understand that so much strategy goes into creating a podcast that will work for your business.

We’re going to get into all that in a moment. Can you first talk to me about your fears 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 it. So we went into Podcast to Profit, thinking that we had to ensure this was right and that our business had to make money. We knew we had to get a return on our investment, so there was a little fear about that.

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

But we decided to go 100% all-in and be the best students. We figured there were two of us; 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 and our Facebook page.

Shana Robertson: Of course, we had this very serious podcast!

One reason we knew you would be a good choice is that I had already implemented many of your systems because you are giving away so much tactically for free. I started to use all that free knowledge, and that’s part of why we knew this would 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 so that the videos drip out, giving you one week’s content at a time. You do that one thing, and then we have calls, implement, and coach, and new content will unlock the following week.  

People who already have a business will come in and think they are further along than somebody who has 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 talk to that? I guarantee somebody reading this who wants to take Podcast to Profit will get in and feel the same way you guys felt.

And then, please, can you tell us whether it was worth it for you to redo those pieces you didn’t think you needed to?

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

Vanessa Porten: It was worth it to answer your question. The brain is always looking for what’s next. And we realised that God was telling us to slow down, take a minute, and recheck everything we had gone through.

When we purchased Podcast to Profit, we purchased Podcast Pro University simultaneously. 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 I will say that we did skip some of the work in building your audience because we had already done that.

So, yes, you’re right. We then had that gut check moment where we had to back up and scrub and take the time to do that. My favorite thing in Podcast to Profit is the five Ws. It is one of the foundations and made everything else 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: 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 how you, Stef, have specifically designed it to work. On one of my coaching videos, I told you that the amount of systemization, time, and effort you and your team put into this was awesome, and we appreciate it.

You could tell it was very high quality with the detail you put into some of the videos. I was watching, and I would pause, watch, pause, and then do the thing, then go back and press play, watch five seconds, pause, and then do the thing. We could ensure that we had it exactly how 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 trust that everything is taken care of. And like Vanessa said, it’s spelled out and put into steps you can mimic to build your business. You can build step by step, knowing that every part is there. There’s nothing left. We followed it, doing everything step by step, and we were able to polish up our own business.

Vanessa Porten: The SEO itself was priceless. We gained an incredible amount of information on SEO, how to convert it, what it meant for Pinterest, and what it meant for the Facebook group. Suddenly, people joined our Facebook group, and we wondered where they came from.

We aren’t advertising our Facebook group, but we must get three or four people wanting to join a day. 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 most incredible 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 part of the core curriculum that I’m teaching that day.

But you can guarantee that these girls caught that and 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 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 favorite part was being on the same level with other people as we were at. We had struggled to find people going through what we were going through the way 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 incredible. Not just one person would respond to us. It wasn’t like your team saw that one person had responded, which was good. They would all give their input and suggestions, which was helpful. And they were always so on top of things, giving us help with whatever we needed, whenever we needed it!

It was also invaluable 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 many things to do in a business. I loved having somebody who has been there before, is ahead of us, and has mastered this foundational stuff. It was so good to have you tell us exactly what to do, when, 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: I haven’t mentioned that we built the course we now offer our clients and 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.

Being given these guardrails as business owners is good 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 many people, but you are a mom, love Jesus, and want to build an empire. Those are things that we wanted to do. So many people we listen to who are single and tell us how to do it. I would think that would seem easy if I didn’t have kids. But you were doing the things that we want to do while being a good mom and a fantastic wife and while supporting your team. That was 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. When you entered Podcast to Profit, you said you would be one of Stefanie Gass’s largest success stories. You guys put that out into the world. You decided it would be true, and I believe you are well on 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 realized they were even bigger than we thought. The first metric is that we went from 4,000 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 you told us to.

Vanessa Porten: We launched a budget series in September and are doing a grocery budget series this month. The first series had 6,500 people listen in that one week alone, and it jumped by 2,000 just by doing the series. That was interesting.

We talked about revenue. At the end of March, our revenue was $6,200. I waited until September 30, when everything had cleared, and our revenue was close to $15,000!

Stefanie Gass: So you guys doubled your monthly revenue!

Shana Robertson: Our course made $7,000 in passive income throughout Podcast to Profit. When we started, we only had one-on-one as an offering and our prices were 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. Then, it increased with the passive income from the course, which is part of the goal!

Stefanie Gass: So, you doubled revenue and brought in $7,000 of completely passive income, which you had not done before, Podcast to Profit through the course we created. That is so fun!

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

Secondly, you were extraordinarily coachable and did not do extra things that I asked you not to do. Sometimes, we sabotage our 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 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 were willing.

So, if you are going to take this course, anybody reading this, take it. Do it like these girls did and 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 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 it is from our podcast! Our open rate is at 60% which, as Stefanie has taught me, is above the industry standard.

We started 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 were ranked number four in all U.S. ‘how-to’ shows.

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

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

We did so many things wrong for so long. There were a lot of tears, heartache, and frustration because we did so many things instead of doing the one right thing. The one piece of advice I can give is to pick one thing and stick with it, because we made so many mistakes getting 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 weekly 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. We are going to keep using the systems that are working exponentially.

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 considering a purchase but worried about the investment or the time 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 to spend this money, be the best students, and get the most ROI from every dollar we spent.

We agreed 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 will invest in your business and your family’s financial future. So look at it that way.

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

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

Shana Robertson: To find our podcast, search for Financial Coaching for Women. It’s on all the platforms where you like to listen.

Vanessa Porten: Our Facebook group is the same name, Financial Coaching for Women. We would love to connect 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. Please keep us posted on your future success. God bless.

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

Friend, if you know in your heart that it is time to do the work and get your podcast where you want it to be, I want you to come and apply for Podcast to Profit. I’ll show you how to be in Biblical alignment while building a business.

You’ll learn how to create income, grow an audience, and turn your podcast into a passive income generating machine. This program has given these women incredible results.

Don’t wait one more minute to do the work that will get you the results you desperately and deeply desire. I can’t wait to be your coach, mentor, and friend over the next six months. Let’s do this!  

I pray this blesses you!

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