No don't go in there, Daddy's working.
Jonathan: It's got to be one of the most annoying things I ever hear on calls when people apply to work with us over here at The Podcast Factory... They fill out an application. We've got a process, a screening process. We want to make sure that we get on the phone with people that we can help. But this idea that people talk about in their applications, I need to know how to monetize my podcast. I think I want to choke this person out right now, please. I have taken a few calls and I get agro on them so I know better now not to take those calls. But this idea of monetizing, I'm going to build the podcast first and then later someday down the road I will figure out how I'm going to make money with it. [0:01:11.0]
That's stupid and if you're thinking about doing that don't. You're welcome; I just saved you a bunch of time, a bunch of heartache, a bunch of pain, a bunch of embarrassment because you do not build a podcast first and monetize it later. That's rookie stuff. That's amateur hour. That's not the way things are done around here not if you want to profit from podcasting. That's what we're going to talk about today is the idea ... in fact, three ways you can profit from podcasting. Yes, I know. I love the number three. It's in every episode. But three ways you can profit from podcasting. I want to break them down for you and give you an idea of who podcasting can work for and how it can work for you. [0:02:04.1]
So let's dive in. I was looking at some stats from Libsyn a couple of days ago and if you don't know who Libsyn is, they are the largest podcast hosting company and in fact if you're starting a podcast I recommend Libsyn, best service I have ever used. I have been doing this for ten years and they are awesome. I was looking at some stats on average podcast downloads and they said that the average about 140 downloads per episode. 140. The reason that is funny to me is because a lot of these people who come to me talking about how they can "monetize" (doing air quotes) their podcast and the first thing that is on their mind always this idea of sponsors. [0:03:11.9]
Sponsors, somebody is going to make rain hundies on them while they perform their show while the twerk and record and twerk some more. That is a weird picture. Especially if you seen some people who do podcasts. Most of them have a face for radio, present company too. But the idea of having a sponsor come over and make it rain hundies on you is ridiculous because Libsyn says that the average show is getting 137 downloads and last time I checked most sponsors are looking for shows with 5000 plus per episode. That's a lot of work. I mean that's great for the people that do it, that's awesome. [0:04:00.8]
But it's hard way to make money and most shows ... most the people applying and saying the monetize thing, nobody is listening to them. They don't have enough people tuning in for a sponsor to even give them a second thought. So if you think that sponsorship is the way to go, I'm not the guy for you. Unless you actually have one sponsor for your show, the most aligned with your audience, the sponsor that would be most liked, the sponsor that your audience won't be able to resist...you. That's right. The best sponsor, I've said it many times before, this is not ground breaking or new but the best sponsor for your show is you. And if you're willing to run ads for somebody else why wouldn't you run ads for you? [0:04:59.9]
I'll tell you one of the big reasons why people come in and they want sponsors for their show and they won't run ads for themselves. It's because they have nothing to sell. They don't have a business. They don't have an offer. They don't have any clients or customers so they think that if they can just grow audience big enough then they can just sell the audience. I don't believe in that. I believe that your audience can be tiny and as long as they line up with your offer, it's going to be very fruitful for you. So best sponsor for your show is you and you need to have products, services, something ... something you can offer your listeners. If you want to profit from podcasting; that is the number one way to do it. [0:05:51.6]
I don't think I told you about this but I partnered up with one of my buddies; I've know him for years. We have been in Strategic Coach together for four years now. We're in different places. He's going to Toronto now, I'm still in Atlanta. For first two or three years, we were together in Coach and we were the two youngest guys. We were the two tech guys. I think maybe there was even a little competition between us but we liked each other. We always wanted to work together. We wanted to figure out how we could collaborate. So right now, it took four years but we figured it out. His name is Max. You can check him out, Beers with Max. He's not on The Podcast Factory. I was going to say yet but I don't know if he's a fit but you can find him online. He's a cool dude. I like him a lot. We decided to collaborate recently. We did a trade. He wanted to have a book and he's wanted to write a book forever and a day and hasn't ever done it. [0:07:03.6]
I showed him something that we were doing that we offer our clients. We actually don't sell this to the public but we have something called Book Casting where you can record your book. We have a process for that. It's in beta right now but it's working pretty well. If you guys didn't know this, I've got four books on Amazon. You go to DaddysWorking.com/Amazon and you'll see four books on podcasting there. That's where we learned the process and Max said, "You know I would love help with that. Can we do that?" I said, "Yeah, sure, we can do a book for you." He's got something cool that he calls The Decelerator, decelerator like slowing down. It's a process where he takes people with unique intellectual property, IP, and helps them productize it. We did a trade. I'm doing a book for him and he's helping us with The Podcast Factory offering where we will have a strategy only offering and not the production which is going to be super cool because it's the part that I love to do more than anything is just engage with our clients, set strategies, set goals and hit our numbers. [0:08:16.8]
Anyways, reason I'm talking about Max is he's got a podcast, Beers with Max. We talked behind the scenes about how he is using it. I was fascinated. I was just blown away by how he's using his podcast to make sales for his offering. He's got a whole system of who he selects to be on the podcast and how he talks to them and what he talks to them about. He only selects people that are a good fit for his business and that want to talk and that he can help. He uses the podcast as a sales call. It's the craziest thing. So the first call once he's identified and he's got a team working on this for him, but once he's identified a good prospect and he's gotten in touch with them and they are willing to be on the show... the pre-interview is like a discovery call to find out – hey is this person a good fit. [0:09:18.4]
If they are then they go on to the next step which is the actual interview. Inside the interview is almost like a sales call. That's like the discovery call then the interview is the sales call and then he's got a followup sequence that he does on the back end with some video and email followups where it's the close. I saw this system and I'm like, "I got to have that." In fact, if you look at what we're going to be doing in the future here at Daddy's Working, a lot of that is inspired by Max's system. So we're going to be doing interviews and we're going to be strategic about them. That was always the plan for Daddy's Working Phase II was going to be the interview phase. [0:10:00.9]
Just taking Max's system and bolting it on to what we are doing over here. Super interesting stuff. This is another way, this is the second way. This is a super under the radar way that you can profit from podcasting is by using your podcast and using the platform you build as a sales tool to make direct sales. So in the last section we talked running ads to your listeners; what's different here we're talking about using it as sales tool for your guests. Let that sink in for a second. Using it as sales tool for your guests. So image if you're doing both of them, you're running ads out there and you're getting your audience to buy thing and then you're using the actual podcast as a sales tool to engage with prospects. How powerful is that? That's already so much leverage from one streamlined bit of work. I will tell you right now, there is a book about this process coming up because I love it, I love it, love it. [0:11:03.5]
Really, I mean interview anyone that's a perfect prospect. Be intentional about what you talk to them about and make an offer, I mean what better way to profit from your podcast than that? When I got the phone with James I talked to him about his business and what he was doing and it sounded like he had a lot of things going well. Where I discovered the problem as I spoke to him a little bit more and he knew it too. He came on the call knowing it was a problem was the conversions. Such a small percentage of his list was buyers. The guy has a good email list. He's engaged with them. He's communicating with them regularly. But his sales number were just seem to be lower than they should be and that was what we decided to focus on when James came on board to work with us. [0:12:04.8]
I've talked about him on the show before, James Pollard, Financial Advisor Marketing. You can find him over at The Podcast Factory. Really he wanted to work on conversions. I said, "James that happens to be my specialty." Conversions is where it's at. When you're thinking about podcasting, we talked about earlier converting your audience then we talked about converting your guests and then here we're doing this again but we're talking about conversion on your database. Right? Because sure your listeners is going to be one group of people and usually the listeners group is bigger than the group that is on your database and obviously your guests, another group of people. But the reason that we are so particular about who we work with and we want to make sure that you have an offer that is converting. [0:13:06.4]
We want to make sure that you have an audience and email list is because most people come to us and they are not converting as much as they could be and what we do is help you put together a system that knocks out objections and indoctrinates your listeners, builds trust and respect – something we call Speed Influence, by using audio content. So the third way that you can profit from your podcast is better conversions and being intentional about what you record and what you put out there and how you deploy it because it can't just go to new people; it's got to go out to the people who already know you. They are the one most likely to buy from you. Not only that but we found that podcasts also help with clients. It helps with the relationship you have with them to make it deeper and also helps in getting them to buy more of your services or your products. [0:14:07.0]
They already know you. They already like you. This is just another reason for them to buy from you. So if you're not using your podcast to email your list, if you're not doing social posts, if you're not doing call followups with your podcasts, if you're not doing retargeting, I mean you're leaving huge money on the table because there is big conversions there for you. So let's go back and do a quick recap on three ways to profit from podcasting. [0:14:41.8]
Gurus want you to believe that you can just create a show and you're going to get millions of listeners and you're going to be able to sponsors throwing money at you to get at your audience. Not true. In fact, Libsyn, Rob Welch at Libsyn said, "The average show gets about 137 – 140 downloads". That's not even going to interest a sponsor. It doesn't matter. Why? Because the best sponsor for your show is you. You are the best sponsor for your show and by the way, the most profitable sponsor because you get to keep the money on the sale you make which is kind of nice. So ads is the first way and ads for your own offers that's the first way to profit from podcasting. Sales, I told you about how Max is using his interview system to get prospects to agree to meet with him and he's got a three-step system where the discovery call is a pre-interview and the actual interview is like the sales call and then there is a followup at the end. He's converting really well using this system; direct sales: that is a super way to make a profit from your podcast. Last but not least conversion, there's people who know you, there's people who like you, you want to make them know you, like you, trust you more so they will buy more if they haven't already bought then you got to use podcasting strategically, email, social posts, call followups, retargeting. Podcasts are a powerful tool for conversions when you use them correctly. So that's three ways to profit from podcasting. [0:16:37.8]
I don't know what we will be talking about next time but I do have a call to action. I should have put this earlier. Anyways look, if you don't have your podcast yet and you do have an audience and you're looking for a guide, someone who has proven ways of using podcasting to get a profit out of your business, you know that's me. You know that all you have to do to find out how we can help is to book a call. ThePodcastFactory.com/call. Grab a call now and we can talk about your goals, what you want to accomplish and I will tell you either yes this will work for you or no it will not and then we can take it from there. That's all for this edition of Daddy's Working. I will be back in your earbuds next time.
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