Can Podcasting Still Be A Profitable Venture In 2023 – PTC 449

HOW TO MAKE YOUR PODCAST PROFITABLE So many coaches struggle to make their podcast profitable, because they don't have a strategy. A strategy doesn't need to be complicated. It simply needs to be effective. PROFITABLE STRATEGY Many podcasters try to monetize their podcast with ads and sponsorships. MRI-Simmons just released data on podcast listening as it pertains to podcast ads. In the research, 42% of listeners surveyed say they will skip the ad if it is for something they don’t care about. 22% of those surveyed say they will skip if they don't support the brand being marketed. More importantly, 27% said they skip ads no matter what. That means over a quarter of your listeners don't want to hear the ads. Commercials are a negative experience for your show. It also doesn't benefit your advertiser. Why would you do that to your podcast? BETTER STRATEGY Rather than attempting to be profitable using ads and sponsors, use your podcast as a marketing vehicle for your own goods and services. Create great content on your show that will show your listeners what is possible for them. Let the content lead to the first step in working with you. This could be a lead magnet, webinar or other resource. Next, get listeners from that first step to a sales conversation. That might be a discovery call, long form sales video, or masterclass. Finally, enroll them in your program. Each piece needs to work together to be profitable. WORKSHOP I recently held a workshop to help coaches launch their profitable podcast. During that workshop, we discussed three powerful ways to attract your ideal clients with your podcast. Today, I'll share with you a bit of that workshop to show you those three ways to be profitable. Enjoy. But more importantly, take action. DON'T COMPLICATE IT Don't make it more complicated than it needs to be. After you produce and publish the episode, we need to promote it. We need to go out and tell everybody it's available and bring your audience into your world. Find your ideal target listener. Get clear on exactly who you're helping. Figure out where we can find them, go get in front of them and bring them into your world. PROMOTE So how do we promote it? We could promote it on social media. You can go get on other podcasts and promote it there. Promote it through your email list. There's a variety of ways to promote it. When you promote your show, there are two ways to grow your audience. You need to keep your current listeners coming back, and you need to go out and find new listeners who are unaware of you and bring them into your audience. You have to serve both sides of that equation. The podcast builds into your funnel, so you're creating content to show your listeners what's possible, getting them to take that first step with you by getting your free resource. And that free resource leads to your sales conversation. That could be a webinar or a strategy call, a discovery call, a long form sales video, wherever your sales conversation happens. But a lot of people who create podcasts and teach you how to create podcasts don't teach you a strategy to take your listeners and convert them into clients. They just say, "Talk about whatever you want to talk about. Go interview great people." GROW YOUR PROFITABLE BUSINESS I've had a lot of coaches come to me and say, "Erik, my podcast isn't doing anything to grow my business." When we dig into it, it's this step right here. They don't have a system in place that converts listeners to clients. They're doing a great job interviewing guests, but they have no point or strategy to be profitable. There's no reason, there's no automatic connection from the interview to working with them. And that's what I help clients do. PROFITABLE STEP-BY-STEP So, let's talk a little bit about that. Challenge number two that I talked about is they don't have a strategy. They don't have a step by step process to attract clients with their show. There are many, many ways to attract your clients with your podcast. I'm going to give you three of my favorite. There are others as well. These are not by any means an exhaustive list on how to create clients with your podcast. But I'm going to give you three. AUDIENCE The first way to attract your ideal clients is to turn your listeners into clients. That's probably the most obvious way. Build an audience, convert them to clients. This is Oscar Trimboli. Oscar's podcast is called Deep Listening Impact Beyond Words. Deep Listening is both his podcast and his business. Oscar is a mentor. He's a leadership coach, a speaker. He's an author. He's a podcaster. His book is called Deep Listening Impact Beyond Words. Oscar helps CEOs and leaders be better listeners. Typical CEOs and leaders are type A personalities. They like to hear themselves talk. They like to tell people what to do. They don't listen very well. Oscar goes in and teaches them how to listen. His goal was to bring that authority and that power to his podcast. Now, when Oscar came to me, I listened to his podcast. He said, "Erik, my podcast isn't doing anything to grow my business. Can you help me out? I've done a complete series of episodes. I have 36 episodes in the can. I'm not getting any clients from it. What am I doing wrong?" I went and I listened to his show. Oscar is a great listener. He does a phenomenal job interviewing the CEOs that were on his show. But as I listened to his show, at no point in time did Oscar tell me what he does or invite me to work with him. And that's the problem most podcasters make. They do a great job interviewing their guest, but nowhere in the show does it tell me how I can work with them. MAKE THE CONNECTION They do a great job making their guests look amazing, but they don't do anything to make themselves look amazing. So we restructured Oscar's podcast. We infused more of Oscar into the show, demonstrated Oscar's expertise, and created a way to invite listeners to work with Oscar. We launched season two of his show in a whole new way, which used Oscar as the main focus and used his interviews to support what Oscar was teaching. And when we did that, it allowed Oscar to start gaining new clients. More importantly, he started building that know, like and trust with his audience, because his show was now focused on the same material that his teaching was focused on. It wasn't simply interviewing great guests. It was demonstrating his expertise and using his guests interviews to support what he was teaching. Now, Oscar has been named one of the top podcasts by Apple podcasts in his niche. He has been hired to be a keynote speaker at multiple organizations. He goes in, he conducts seminars and workshops at his organizations, and he's top of his game and knocking it out of the park. So proud of him and everything that he's accomplished simply by making a small tweak in his show. INVITE THEM I told you a little bit about TaVona Denise. She now does Conversations with TaVona Denise. She takes these nurses that she's been helping and brings them to a free workshop that she does through her podcast. Her podcast shows these nurses what's possible. Then she invites them to the workshop. Then the workshop upsells the nurses and invites them to come work with TaVona in a one on one coaching situation. She takes her listeners and converts them into clients. PROFITABLE POTENTIAL My second favorite way to grow your business with your podcast is to interview potential clients. So many times, we try and get our potential clients to take our call or to get on a conversation with us, and we just can't make that happen. There's too many gatekeepers. Or they have their guard up, and they don't want to let you in. OPEN DOORS Zoe Routh came to me. She's an expert on people stuff. Zoe is a consultant. She helps businesses break down the silos that exist in their business so departments can work better together. However, she was having a tough time getting through the gatekeeper to reach the decision maker in these businesses. When I started working with Zoe, I said, "Zoe, what kind of downloads are you getting? How many people are listening to your show?" She said, "Erik, I don't even know. I don't even care about that." Zoe says, "That's not why I use my podcast." She says, "I use my podcast to open doors to people who won't normally take my call. Rather than inviting them to a sales call or to have coffee or a quick meeting with me. I reach out to them and invite them on my podcast and I use that opportunity to build a relationship with them, because I email them to invite them on the show. Then I email them to give them all the details about what the interview will be about and when it will happen and schedule the interview. And we build a relationship there. We have the conversation where we actually conduct the interview, and then we have a follow up conversation after that when the interview is posted so they can share it with their audience. So by the time the process is over, I've had four or five conversations with them. We've built a relationship and now they will take my call to discuss working together because they've already got to know who I am and what I do." Interviewing your prospective clients on your show is an amazing way to grow your business. AUTHORS This is Jedlie. He's one of my clients. Jedlie is a clown and a magician. Jedlie used to do magic shows for schools. He'd go in and teach antibullying to schools, loves working with kids. He has now launched his podcast called Reading With Your Kids where he helps children's authors get exposure. He will interview these authors on his show, but his authors buy into his program. So these authors' books become certified. A Reading With Your Kids certified book. He finds books that he loves, that he wants to certify. He has a certification process where he puts a sticker on the front of the books they're certified. Reading With Your Kids certified. He interviews the authors and all of these people buy into his program that he's interviewing on his show. He interviews the authors as part of the package that he sells. It's a way to use your podcast to interview prospective clients. PROFITABLE PARTNERS And then the third way that I love to monetize your show and to grow your business is to interview your partners. These are partners that are promoting you or your JV partners that you're promoting them. Sadie and Sausha came to me to launch their podcast. It's called Meathead Test Kitchen. These two love working out. They're tattooed and when you listen to the show, you get exactly what you think you're going to get. They love working out. They love exercise. They love fitness. That's what it's all about on their show. They talk about what they use in their fitness routine. So all of the equipment that they use, all of the supplements and nutrients that they use, the healthy cookbooks and recipe ideas that they use. Then over on their website, they have fulfilled by Amazon connections and links on their website where you can buy all of the things they talk about on their show. So they're not producing anything, they're just selling it through their website. And they're growing their business in that way, talking about what they love selling products. PROFITABLE COACHES Marc Mawhinney runs Natural Born Coaches podcast. He interviews his JV partners, then he does a webinar with them. People buy into his JV package. If you go to JVwithMarc.com, you'll see all of his details. You buy into a package and being interviewed on his show is part of the package. Getting interviewed in his Facebook group is part of the package. Being on a webinar with Marc to his audience is part of the package. He interviews potential clients on the show, and that's how he uses it to grow his business. CAN YOU SEE THE POTENTIAL Can you see how some of these ideas can help grow your profitable business and attract your ideal clients? Can you see how you can use podcasting in one of these three ways so you can get out and start making that connection with your audience. How you can build that relationship with them and bring them into what you do, showing them how you can help them? And whether it's turning your listeners into clients, or you're interviewing prospective clients or your interviewing partners, there's multiple ways you can use podcasting to grow your profitable business, attract your ideal clients, and really take your coaching programs to the next level. LET'S TALK Can you see the profitable possibilities for your business? I would love to give you a free strategy call to help you build a system to make you profitable. There are no strings attached. We discuss you goals, determine where you are today, and build your system to reach your goals. If you'd like help implementing that plan, we can discuss how that looks. If you don't have a mentor who can take your hand and walk you every step of the way, go to www.PodcastTalentCoach.com/apply, click the button and apply to have a chat with me. We will develop your plan and see how I can help and support you to achieve your podcast goals.