Podcasting Basics and Tips for Business Beginners

Hey Friend!

Let’s discuss podcasting basics today. I’m doing a power coaching call with my friend Jeri Bisbee, a Podcast to Profit student.

Have you ever wondered if your podcast is as viable and optimized as much as it could be? Have you ever thought about podcast art, taglines, or messaging? Are your podcast titles set up correctly to attract new listeners?

These are some of the podcasting basics you should consider. Today, we’re diving into her podcast. We rip into it, not in a negative way; we’re just looking at the details.

I want to encourage you to consider this coaching call with your podcast’s vision in mind. Do you have these podcasting basics in place?

As I’m auditing Jeri, audit yourself and see what you need to tweak or refine. Maybe this will encourage you to start a podcast. As we begin this conversation, I will answer Jeri’s question about podcasting basics.

Jeri asks, “I don’t know what I don’t know. For someone who is just beginning and is wildly teachable, what advice would you give them? I’m not motivated by money, but I would like to shift and provide value and not miss meeting the clients who struggle financially.“

In this coaching call, I want to help Jeri understand podcasting basics such as:

• Beginning a podcast
• Title
• Tagline
• Art
• Podcast titles

We also talked about business beginners, making money, and serving the people you are called to serve. I know you are going to love it. Let’s go!

Podcasting Basics Coaching Call

Stef Gass: Hi, Jeri! It’s so great to meet you. How’s everything going?

Jeri Bisbee: It is going!

Stef Gass: Welcome to Podcast to Profit. I’m excited to spend fifteen minutes with you. I aim to clean up any podcasting basics and clarity pieces for you. I love your art. It’s very catchy. Good job!

Jeri Bisbee: Thank you!

Stef Gass: Here are a few things I noticed. The tagline is hard to read on a phone because it’s small. I want you to pull the tagline statement across the bottom of your art. Use boring and clear text. Then, we can make your wake-up call bigger and take up the entire top space of the art.

Jeri Bisbee: I like that idea.

Stef Gass: Your title is good. Let’s make sure your tagline is clear. A Podcast for Addicts in Recovery and Those Who Love Them. It will be easier to read once you stretch it across the bottom of the art.

I want to ask you this, and it’s okay to say, “I don’t know.” What are your main tools for addicts in recovery? How are you helping them? What are you teaching them? Tell me more.

Jeri’s Tools for Addicts in Recovery

Jeri Bisbee: My father, my spouse of thirty years, and my adult son have struggled with addiction. I’ve been codependent throughout that stream. I’ve been in Al-Anon for ten years and have recorded people who’ve been in recovery both as an addict alcoholic and those of us who are parents of addicts.

Stefanie, I had a Yeti microphone show up on my doorstep! I asked, “What’s this, Lord?” It was as if God was telling me to do a podcast. The microphone was a gift from another entrepreneurial program I was in. So, I dismissed the whisper and said no to a podcast.

It had been a decade of trauma. One of the hardest things was my former spouse of thirty years had taken his life. But a year and a half later, after lots of healing, I felt the Lord telling me, “It’s time.”

JERI STARTS HER PODCAST

Jeri Bisbee: I picked July 8th as the start date for my podcast. July is my month of recovery, and it’s also my birthday month. When my oldest son went into recovery on March 8, 2018, I learned that eight is the number of new beginnings. It’s been a journey.

I want to share hope, help, and healing through testimonies so people know they’re not alone and resources are available. So far, there has been phenomenal feedback. This podcast wasn’t something I set out to do.

Stef Gass: It’s not your podcast; it’s God’s podcast. One of the podcast basics I want to help you with is your tagline. Let’s replace “A Podcast For” with what it is. The thing I keep hearing is hope. What about this? Hope for Addicts in Recovery and Those Who Love Them.

Jeri Bisbee: Yes!

Stef Gass: That felt good to me. You offer hope. Sure, you’re giving resources and tactical tips, but your underlying theme is giving people hope.

Podcasting Basics: SEO and Keywords

Stef Gass: The top of your art is for SEO keywords. Coming up for you in Podcast to Profit is keyword and market research. My coaches will help you with this. You and I can guess and get some placeholders until you get through that step.

When people are struggling, keywords are the things they search for. One is probably recovery. I don’t know if they would type Alcoholics Anonymous. What else would they search for?

Jeri Bisbee: Addiction and sobriety.

Stef Gass: Is there a term parents refer to themselves as when there are addicts in their families?

Jeri Bisbee: Codependent.

Stef Gass: That’s a great one! Starting with those four to five words, use them as temporary placeholders. Separate them by commas: first word, second word, and third word, etc. Place those keywords all the way across.

Podcasting Basics: Edification

Stef Gass: There is space for edification next to your name, Jeri. Do you call yourself anything yet? Are you a coach, a recovery coach, or a recovery mentor?

Jeri Bisbee: Back in the day, the Lord spoke change agent over my life. In the work that I do now, I’m a coach. One idea is Hope Catalyst.

Stef Gass: You want your title to be searchable. I like Recovery Coach. That’s a good one. Did you say you were a recovering addict?

Jeri Bisbee: No, I’m the codependent.

Stef Gass: Okay, you’re the codependent. I’m trying to think of another term to define you.

Jeri Bisbee: Would change be one?

Stef Gass: No, that’s too vague. Challenge yourself and ask, ”Is this an apple I can pick up off the shelf, or am I in the fruit department?” Hope is a department. For example, inside of that, you would have a Bible scripture. Now you have an apple inside the Department of Hope.

Start there. That’s good enough for now. You will discover more as you work through this with my coaches. They are great at sifting through ideas with you.

Podcasting Basics: Episode Titles Example One

Stef Gass: Let’s look at your episode titles. You will learn a lot about titles in Podcast to Profit. So, don’t panic. This is not an emergency. These are easy tips for you to think about. Your titles are another place to get found in searches online.

For example, this title, “It’s Okay to Not Be Okay,” will work well for people who already subscribe and know who you are. However, it will not generate new listeners. You want to do both.

What is this episode about? Tell me more, and I’ll give you an example of how we would title this in a sticky, transparent way.

Jeri Bisbee: I pulled a line from the person I interviewed for the title. In the blurb below the title, she’s an addict in recovery for thirty-seven years.

She shares her story—the good, the bad, and the ugly—and talks a lot about the hope she found in the AA rooms. Somewhere along the way, she discovered it was ‘Okay to Not Be Okay.’

Stef Gass: Got it! It’s okay to have “It’s Okay to Not Be Okay.” I would put that in quotes. The next section of the title would say, Addict in Recovery for Thirty-Seven Years Shares Her Story, or Addict in Recovery Shares Her Take on AA After Thirty-Seven Years. Think of ways to add more. Addict and recovery are search terms.

You want to use AA because it’s another search term for your audience. The thirty-seven-year line adds curiosity. People will wonder how she did it.

Episode Titles: Example Two

Stef Gass: Let’s look at a second example: Nothing is Unredeemable. It’s probably the same story, correct?

Jeri Bisbee: Yes.

Stef Gass: Tell me more. Who is this person? What was her journey?

Jeri Bisbee: She is a young bride. In the first decade of her journey, her prince charming comes along, and she thinks everything is wonderful. She doesn’t know anything about addiction. Pretty soon, her husband is drinking like crazy, and things are not okay.

When she finds out about his drinking, the life she thought was a fairy tale is now falling apart. Things she thought were easy no longer are. She is a person of faith. My examples are typically faith-based, but I want to reach a wider audience.

Stef Gass: That’s fine. As Christians and persons of faith, we must remember not all of us are called to a secular space. I think you should stay where you are right now.

HOW TO ADD SPICE TO YOUR EPISODE TITLES

Stef Gass: What about something like, “Nothing is Unredeemable” – put that in quotes. For the rest of the title, you could say something like Her Husband of a Decade Falls Into Addiction, or How Addiction Stole Her Husband of Ten Years. See how we’ve made this interesting? The word addiction is in the title.

Wives living with an addicted spouse will find your podcast and listen because they can relate. That’s how to add a little spice to your episode titles. You’ll learn more about the psychology of titling from my coaches and me. We are good at helping you nail them down.

Never panic that your titles aren’t exactly right. You can always go back and fix them.

Jeri Bisbee: Awesome!

Monetization with Coaching and Courses

Stef Gass: In our last three or four minutes, let’s discuss monetization. What questions do you have? You’re not far enough in Podcast to Profit for me to bless anything yet. Let’s brainstorm.

Jeri Bisbee: I am a former DISC and leadership coach with the John Maxwell Group. I want to add the DISC profile. The Lord has put in my heart a vision to have a retreat for women once or twice a year. My goal is to have a course with optional coaching.

Stef Gass: I love that. All of those things are possible. The structure of Podcast to Profit is to go with coaching first. You’re getting paid to help people. But simultaneously, you learn what they need and how to position it with your messaging and marketing.

We always start with coaching because it’s the easiest way to begin monetizing. As we build your coaching offer for these women with addicted family members, we’ll pull the DISC in. My coaches and I will help you package and position your coaching offer in less than 45 days.

FROM COACHING TO COURSE

Stef Gass: Based on what’s happening in the coaching calls, we’ll look at your course. That’s the process you’ll go through.

After you have coached around ten people, you will notice some patterns.

• You’re saying the same thing
• You’re walking clients through the same framework
• Your coaching has some of the same hope elements
• You’re getting breakthrough after breakthrough

That becomes the course you will build and launch. It then frees you for other things or partners with your coaching. The retreat and things like that are easy to add on because they supplement the people who are already paying and working with you. I’m so excited for you.

Jeri’s Journey is Just Beginning

Stef Gass: I’m so excited to help you build this. I can’t wait. I’ll meet you in the spotlights. Be sure to try to come to all the calls with me so we can keep strategizing this with more information and clarity.

Jeri Bisbee: Yes, Stef. I appreciate you!

Hey, friends. If you want more coaching like this, I invite you to join my group coaching program, Podcast to Profit.

We take business beginners through podcasting basics and help them build a business that helps others and honors God. You’ll get power coaching like what I did with Jeri. I hope you enjoyed this conversation. I’ll see you soon.

APPLE PODCAST | SPOTIFY | YOUTUBE

---

---

LISTEN TO RELATED EPISODES:

Podcasting Q&A: Your Top Questions About Length, Batching, Reviews, Sound, and More Answered

Live Coaching: Finalize Your T.S.O. Statement and Tagline For Your Podcast

Leverage Your Podcast for Relationship Marketing with Veronica Romney

---

WATCH RELATED EPISODES:

3 Must-Dos For A God-Led Business in 2025 (That Makes Income)

How To KNOW What God Wants You To Do

10 Reasons Podcasting Is The Best Way To Make Money Online

---