Profitable Podcasting

by Stephen Woessner

  What I discovered is, that the minute I again checked my ego at the door, I realized that it wasn’t about somebody listening to me, it was about me cultivating this great list of guests and serving the guests well, which serves my audience. So, I allow my guests to have the spotlight and I allow them to really share their expertise and I prep them properly so it’s like, “Look, there is no selling; this is not about you getting clients, this is about you generously sharing your expertise. Here are the kind of questions I’m going to ask. If you’re not comfortable answering those questions, don’t come on the show.” None of that was about me. It was about serving up the best content for the audience by putting the guests in the best possible light.

  It wasn’t really until I had fifteen or twenty episodes in the can that I really knew that this was something that was going to catch on and take off even though the numbers were already suggesting that that was the case. I needed that sort of, “Wow, all of my guests are consistently really good.”

  I had my own rhythm in terms of how I approached an interview, and then it was like, I can’t possibly stop doing this because it’s so awesome and successful and people love it, and it’s serving my business so well, why in the world would I stop? The only advice I have is, you kind of push through it because it’s good for your business, it’s good for your customer or clients, and it’s good for you as a person, too. I learned so much from my podcast guests. It just makes me a better professional. It makes me a better person, so there’s nothing bad about it. You just have to get over yourself to get it done.

  Q5: I know you track where you invest your time as well as your productivity—so how many hours do you typically invest each week toward your podcast? Where are you spending the time? What are your vital priorities as it relates to your show?

  Drew: The time factor was really my biggest fear. “Will I have time for this?” I own and run three different companies. I am the primary caregiver for my mom, who is in late stages of dementia, and I have a twenty-three-year-old daughter, who, any of you who are a parent know, requires time and care and attention as well. My life is very scheduled. I am going at a full speed all the time. The idea of sitting and watching a television show without doing something else—I don’t know what that’s like.

  I was very concerned about shoving something else into my calendar. So I will say this, and again in full disclosure, I quickly partnered with Predictive ROI to do the back end of my podcast. I’m a firm believer in recognizing where my own strengths and weaknesses are and doing what I do best where I can get the greatest return, whether that’s in a personal relationship or that’s money in a business or whatever it is, and recognizing that I cannot be all things to all people and so I need to pay for expertise that I don’t have.

  I had no desire to learn how to create a relationship with iTunes and do all the editing of the podcast and all of that so I turned to Predictive ROI and said, “I want you to produce my podcast for me. I will source the guests; I will interview the guests. I’ll help with the Show Notes and things like that, but the whole technical side of it, I don’t have the time nor do I have the expertise to do that really well.”

  The time investment on the front end was greater. We had to get all that stuff set up and even though I didn’t do most of it, I had to sort of at least vote on some things. I was worried because of my schedule and, I guess, let’s add to my, “Here is what my life looks like.” I was on 188 planes in 2015, so I also travel a ton and I’m in a lot of all-day meetings, so I was really worried about having enough interviews so I didn’t go dry one week. My podcast is a once-a-week podcast, so I wanted to have twenty or thirty interviews in the can before we went live, and I think I ended up with about twenty-five.

  Obviously the time investment to do that was greater, but for me that’s half a year’s worth of podcasts. After the initial push, there are some weeks where I do little to nothing. I might approve the Show Notes that someone else has written for me. I might write a little intro that is going out on my blog or on Facebook when the show goes live, but there are some weeks that I don’t do anything. For every podcast episode I would say I invest about thirty minutes to the guest, send the guest an email, which is a preset email that I just fill in a couple of blanks and sign them, inviting them to be a guest.

  Then your team has everything automated so they go and find my schedule, they choose the time that works for them, they sign up for the interview. It gets out into my calendar so I know they’ve signed up, and then they’re automatically sent the questions and reminders and all kinds of stuff that I don’t have to think about at all. I will have about thirty minutes of prep to get the intro ready and to get my list of potential questions ready and all that sort of thing. Then I spend forty-five minutes or an hour or so doing the actual podcast interview.

  I upload that into Dropbox and then I’m done. Then my team, which is your team, edits the podcasts; gets it ready; and submits it to Google, Stitcher, and iTunes; writes all the Show Notes; does all of the stuff in the background that I would never have time to do. Makes sure that the audio quality is great and coaches me on things that I can do better, all of those things.

  With today’s technology I have recorded podcasts in probably every state of the union. I have a really high-quality microphone, and it’s very portable. I can take it with me and so (A) the podcast is fluid and flexible enough that it works around the rest of my life and (B) it’s easy to do anywhere.

  I will say this, if I can pull off a weekly podcast episode, anybody should be able to—not because I’m superhuman, but my life is just so calendared and scheduled that if I can figure out a way to fit it in, it really can’t be that big of a burden.

  I thought it would take more time than it did.

  It flows nicely with the rest of my world, and now literally I’m at a conference or whatever and I’m saying to somebody, “Oh, you know what? You’d be a great podcast guest,” and I am from my phone shooting them the template email, and boom they are signing up while we’re standing there talking, and it’s all so easy and seamless and the value proposition for me.

  It’s been so good for my business. I can’t even imagine how good it’s going to be for my business three and four years from now. So the time investment is really minuscule compared to the value. I also can’t even imagine how valuable it would be to me if I were interviewing prospects I wanted to have as clients. The value would be even greater. It’s just not my business model. Even in doing it my way, the value is exponential compared to the time investment.

  Q6: What has been your most unexpected surprise during your podcasting journey so far?

  Drew: People are reaching out to me now to be on the podcast. I have people asking if they would be good guests, which is awesome. I’m getting more opportunity to speak at conferences and other podcasts, so again, remembering that one of my goals was sort of to expand my digital footprint, and today in marketing anybody who is not thinking about how to really amp up their thought leadership and demonstrate their expertise is missing the boat. In terms of a thought-leadership tool or a marketing tactic, this has been spectacular. It’s rippled a lot of other benefits for me in terms of exposure. Fast Company, Inc. magazine, and other places like that—I’m being invited on a regular basis to write for because of the podcast.

  It’s a rare marketing tactic that there is sort of no downside. There really has been no downside to this. It’s exceeded my expectations in every way possible.

  Q7: Do you have any final advice—anything else you want to share with business owners who may be considering starting their own podcast?

  Drew: The hardest part is getting started, it’s having the courage to start, to have enough faith in yourself that you can do this and do it well. Whether you’re going to do the back end yourself or you’re going to hire a company to do it, however that works out for you, you’ve got to have the courage to step into this because it is an amazing business tool.

  I have n
ot talked to any podcasters who’ve actually done it, and stuck with it, and don’t get more value out of their podcast than they put time and effort in. So it’s a very rare investment on any scale where you’re guaranteed a greater return than what you invest. I believe that podcasting is one of those things that if you do it with the right intention and you do it with the right level of professionalism there is no way you’re not going to get more from it than what you put into it.

  It has exceeded every one of my expectations, and I can’t imagine a business that wouldn’t benefit from it. So if you’re thinking about doing it, I’m telling you, you should.

  Stacy Tuschl, host of She’s Building Her Empire

  Stacy is a speaker, business coach, and the owner of the Academy of Performing Arts in Wisconsin. She is the author of Is Your Business Worth Saving?, where she reveals proven strategies for pulling entrepreneurs out of a rut and launching them toward business success. She is also the host of the brilliant podcast She’s Building Her Empire, which became the number one podcast in iTunes’ New and Noteworthy just forty-eight hours after launch!

  Q1: Give us an overview of your podcast and the advice shared during a typical episode.

  Stacy: I do three podcasts a week: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and for two of them, Monday and Wednesday, I interview high-achieving entrepreneurs and then Friday is my solocast day. I love getting in front of these entrepreneurs, asking them, “Do you believe in work/life balance? Does it exist? Define that for me?” I love it because you get such different answers each and every week from everybody, and I think that is one of the best things that I’m doing is making sure that my answers aren’t something that I’m going to get this typical cliché answer every time.

  I love mixing it up, and giving my audience just something different every single time.

  Q2: When you and I talked about platform building in Episode 174 of Onward Nation, you shared your three steps of collection, engagement, and conversion. Give us some more foundation. How do you define each of these steps and what are some of the ways they tie into the success of your podcast?

  Stacy: Those three words sound so easy and everybody thinks they’re doing it, but they’re not doing it at the level they need to see that conversion they want. For me, the collection is the opt-in. You know, always having something of such value that people are surprised and just blown away that you’re giving it away for free. That’s for sure step number one.

  Then, once you have that freebie out there, they’re opting in; now you’ve really got to engage, and I think that’s where people start to fall short. They don’t have the funnel setup, they don’t have the sequence actor, and one of my big things I do with my free-mium, my freebie, is I’ve got a private Facebook community and now these are getting to be a little overwhelming for people.

  Monday through Friday, I’m giving content so people say, “I’ve got to check it out today. I’ve got to see what she’s putting out.” That’s such a great place to engage because they’re there, they’re commenting. I can comment back, so I make it part of my daily routine where I’m in Facebook Live, giving a free video training inside that group and then engaging with everybody that’s commenting and sharing and liking. Then, once you have that setup and they’re engaged, if you can do number one and number two really well, number three of selling and converting them is so simple because they’re ready and willing because your free stuff is so great. They can’t imagine what you’re going to over-deliver on with the paid version.

  Q3: Why did you start your podcast and what are two or three of the biggest impacts it has had on your business?

  Stacy: I was already listening to podcasts and getting such amazing value out of the people I was listening to, so I immediately saw it as this amazing platform to give value to my community. That was really what made me think, “Okay, this could be something I could do.” I wasn’t positive if I would be good at it or if I would like it, but I just knew that I should try it and see where it goes. The biggest impact I’m going to tell you are the relationships that I’m building with my guests. It’s unbelievable the people that I’ve interviewed on my show.

  These are the people I’ve actually looked into some of them to consult with. I would have to pay $500 an hour to get on the phone with some of these people that I’m interviewing, and it’s crazy that I get to, for free, pick their brain for thirty to forty-five minutes. It’s just unbelievable, the content and the information that they’re giving to me. It’s like free mentorship with these incredible, high-achieving millionaires.

  I think another thing, too, with this is the opportunities that are coming out of it, when they go, “Hey, would you like to be on my podcast?” So now they’re on my show, they’re starting to like me and go, “She could really give value to my audience, too,” so I’m getting opportunities like that and then affiliate opportunities. People are emailing me and saying, “Hey, I loved your show. I love your audience. Would you mind doing this type of promotion coming up and be a partner with me and get an affiliate?”

  It’s just amazing what has come off of this. My foot is now in the door to getting into an hour with them over lunch or just something to work my way in that I don’t know that I would have the opportunity if I didn’t have that podcast.

  And last week alone, I had two different people email and say, “Hey, I’ve got this going on. Are you interested in partnering?” These were just two occurrences that happened last week as a result of the podcast.

  Q4: What is the most critical skill for a business owner to master in order to be successful at podcasting?

  Stacy: I struggled in the beginning with how much do I say, how little do I say, what should you be giving out, and I think if you could practice interviewing somebody, it doesn’t have to be on a podcast. Practice is crucial. I’m at episode number 90 right now, and I can just tell when I’m listening, when I’m going back and listening to certain podcasts, how comfortable I’m feeling talking with somebody and communicating and it’s really just a conversation between two friends. If I could have understood that in the beginning, I would have realized how much I should be talking, should I give my point of view, or do I say, “Oh, very interesting. Next question.” It was just that balance of how much I say, how much do I give, and you have to realize people are listening to your show.

  Q5: You’ve had some impressive success like reaching number one in iTunes within forty-eight hours of your launch. But, what do you consider to be your biggest obstacle or challenge to building momentum?

  Stacy: Understand that everything is a system, everything is strategy, and you just have to have the right people on your team, and the right guidance.

  Hitting number one in iTunes wasn’t something that just happened. That was a strategy. That was me really putting a system in place and pushing, and to hit number one, and to try to be on that top of the charts, it all comes down to four things and it’s rating, reviews, subscribers, and downloads. You’ve got to create that list before you even launch. I made a list of all these different people that I could personally email, personally reach out to, and write emails that didn’t feel like a mass email. It felt like I was one-on-one saying, “Hey, Stephen, is there any chance you could go and rate and review my show?”

  There was just that conversation, too, to really sit back and go, “I know I need to hit X amount of people and I know I need to try to get that credibility of having ratings and reviews,” because let me tell you, I’ve been trying to get on certain podcasts or have people on my show, and they’ll say, “We don’t get on a certain podcast until they have at least fifty ratings and reviews,” and not in a way that they’re better than me, but they’re saying, “A lot of podcasters will start and they’ll stop and this just shows that they’re sticking around, they’re serious about it, and this podcast is really going to get aired.”

  Q6: I know you track where you invest your time as well as your productivity—so how many hours do you typically inv
est each week toward your podcast? Where are you spending the time? What are your vital priorities as it relates to your show?

  Stacy: I have been doing just once a week on Wednesdays. That’s my podcast day and I batch them. I just find that when you’re in the groove and you’ve got that set of interview questions, it’s just so easy to flow from one interview to the next versus trying to do this actually one on Monday, one on Wednesday. Batching has been great. I typically interview three people a week to keep me staying on top of my calendar. Now, even though only two air a week, you’d be surprised how many people reschedule at the last minute, apologize, and say, “Hey, I’m so sorry. I can’t do this today, but I’m on your calendar for next week.”

  Q7: What has been the most unexpected surprise during your podcasting journey so far?

  Stacy: I think we all have that self-doubt of, “Am I going to be good enough? Do people want to listen to me? Will guests want to be on my show?” We don’t give ourselves enough credit. I thought in the beginning, “Who am I going to get on the show when I don’t have anything out there, there is no podcast, and I’m asking people to be interviewed on a podcast?” but I mean, even right out of the gate, I was able to get some amazing people in episodes 1 through 10. Don’t sell yourselves short. People will look into you, they’ll look into other things that you’re doing, so they were checking out my live broadcast and my website, and my book, and that was giving me credibility.

  Q8: Do you have any final advice—anything else you want to share with business owners who may be considering starting their own podcast?

  Stacy: One of the big things people don’t realize is that that first email invitation needs to look so professional and it needs to have everything in it. I get so many of these emails now because people are asking me to be on their show. I can’t believe sometimes that I have to email back and say, “Well, who is your audience? What questions? What can I bring? I need to know what I can bring to your audience, because I don’t want to waste your time and I don’t want to waste my time either.”