Hello and welcome to custompodcasting.com and the Microphone Money Podcast. I really appreciate you visiting our site and subscribing to the show.

My name is Matt Brechwald, and this is the not the first time that I have done an initial episode, introducing a podcast. As a matter of fact, I have done this very same thing on three different shows:

• Off-Farm Income
• The Corn Revolution Podcast
• The D&B Supply Radio Show & Podcast

Doing an introductory podcast or blog post is always fun for me because I get to talk all about my vision for the show. This showhas everything to do with you. This website and the Microphone Money Podcast is all about helping you find the new future and new career that you are seeking.

Now, you probably have already noticed that the three podcasts that I listed above are agriculturally based. Well, at least for the first two that is obvious. Don't let that bother you. Microphone Money is not about farming or agriculture. It has nothing to do with that. Farming and agriculture just happens to be the niche that I thrive in when it comes to podcasting and now, radio broadcasting.

What I am going to teach you will involve yourniche. Whatever you decide that you would like to make your living talking about, I am going to tell you how to do just that!

So, let me tell you what to expect on this show and on this site by telling you about my story. To begin, back in about 2010 I was working in a career that I was no longer interested in, and I had started to consider starting my own business as a way to change my lifestyle. The only problem was that I was not a natural born entrepreneur. And, I had not even been working in business. I had been working for a city government as a police officer ever since college.

I had a lot of learning to do, and a lot of self-doubt to overcome before I was ever going to get my first business started. At the same time, my wife and I had always wanted to have our own farm. But after 12 years of marriage we were no closer than when we first got together. At around this time I started trying to figure out how to take action and change my life into what I was envisioning.

In 2011, right at the bottom of the real estate market in Boise, Idaho, we found a gentleman who needed to sell his farm fast. We were able to sell our house and get a little bit of equity out of it, and we bought that farm. For the next year I worked that same, government job, that I no longer liked. We had purchased the farm, but the desire to have an entrepreneur's lifestyle was still eluding me.

During this entire time I was listening to podcasts, both for inspiration and for instruction on how somebody like me might become an entrepreneur. Later in 2011 I actually identified a business that I believed was needed in my area and could replace my current income.....eventually. I did enough research to decide that if I were to become a business owner, this would be the business that I would start.

I wasn't expecting the "resistance" that I encountered once I identified this business. The resistance did not come from my wife, it did not come from my friends - it came from inside me. I was scared, and I found a million excuses to not take this leap. And I found a million reasons to not leave my government job with the pay, benefits, vacation, seniority, security, etc.

I knew what I really wanted. I just couldn't find a way to make myself really go get it. So, I found more podcasts that could help me realize that not every entrepreneur in the world was born that way. I found podcasts to help me overcome that resistance. I found podcasts that instructed me on how to create a side-hustle and that told me when it was right to leave your full-time job to turn the side hustle into a career.

Finally in the spring of 2012 I bought a piece of equipment and started the business I had been thinking about. The only way I was able to get the courage to spend the money and do this was by listening to podcasts.

I had taken the leap and started the business. Now I had to learn to market my business. Again, I turned to podcasts. All the sudden, the things I was learning from other people really started to work. My business really started to grow. As a matter of fact, I found myself surprised by what was happening. I had three days off per week back then, and all three of those days were packed with work on my side hustle.

By the winter of 2012 I started to believe that I really could leave my full-time career and become a full-time entrepreneur. I talked it over with my wife, and we mapped out a way to make this happen. Once she was on-board, and I knew this was the route I wanted to take I got really nervous. Giving up all the benefits and security of my career felt foolish to me at that point. However, I knew there were people who had done it and lived to tell the tale. So, you guessed it, I turned to podcasts to find them and to hear their stories.

In March of 2013 I put on my uniform and drove a patrol car for the last time ever. I left my career as a police officer and became a full-time business owner. At that point I set my sights on growing my business and really making it work. For the next year I did just that, and I was having a great time.

The business was seasonal, so over the winter I had a lot less work to do. But when the spring of 2014 hit I really ramped it up. We had been developing our farm for three years at this point. We had fences and livestock on our property. One morning I was driving out our driveway to go to a customer's property and this feeling of satisfaction and contentment washed over me. I was looking around at my own farm, and I was fully self-employed. I was inspired!

The inspiration of this moment is what led me to get behind a microphone for the first time in my life. I decided that I wanted to help other people do what I had done - start a farm, leave their full-time job and create a new life through entrepreneurship in agriculture. This is a narrow niche under the larger umbrella of agriculture, but this is where I had experience and credibility.

The "Off-Farm Income" Podcast was born at that moment. To explain, farmers in America make money from what they produce on their farms with crops, livestock, etc. But 90% of all farmers need additional income because farming alone will not support their household. This income that is not produced on the farm is called "off-farm income". This was my niche!

During the summer of 2014, in addition to growing my business, I bought the equipment needed to record podcasts with decent audio quality. I spent about $1,000 on this equipment. I then went about learning how to use it, I developed a website for this future podcast and figured out what I was going talk about.

During this same time I also wrote down my goals. I just put them down in the notes app of my iPhone so I could glance at them anytime I wanted. Here is what I wrote:

• To have a productive and beautiful farm and to be well integrated and known in the "real" agricultural community - nation wide!
• To be an expert on starting small agricultural service businesses
• To be writing, speaking and coaching with my expertise as my platform

As of today I have achieved all of those goals, and am still pursuing them at an even higher level. However, I have added goals to my list, and the Microphone Money Podcast is among those.

In the fall of 2014 I recorded my first interviews with guests. And in December of 2014 I published my first ever podcast, Episode 001! Publishing this first ever episode was difficult for me. I suffered from "imposter syndrome" - "who am I do this"; self-doubt - "who would ever want to listen to me"; and insecurity; "I don't have a radio voice or dynamic enough personality to do this". But I clicked publish on the website anyway and put it out there.

People actually downloaded the show. And you know what? It was fun! I really liked the feeling I got from creating a show, publishing it and then getting proof that people were actually listening. It was these feelings that pushed me to keep going and to improve my performance as a speaker, interviewer and writer. Something was happening here.

I continued podcasting, vowing to never miss an episode, and I was having a lot of fun. I was still running my agricultural service business, but I could see the writing on the wall. That first business had been the vessel that led me to podcasting. Podcasting is really where I wanted to be.

Pretty soon I added a second, weekly episode to my podcast, then a third! The podcast was opening a bunch of doors for me, and it did not feel like work at all. Then it happened. I received a telephone call from a producer at the cable television network, RFDTV. RFDTV is part of the "Rural Media Group" and they have a satellite radio network called Rural Radio. One of the shows on that network is called "FFA Today" and is all about The National FFA Organization.

I was interviewing FFA students about their entrepreneurship projects at that time, and the producer at Rural Radio had found out and started listening to my episodes. When he called he wanted to know of if he could use my content as segments on the show in exchange for promotion of my podcast. I jumped at the chance and went for it!

I started providing content, a lot of content, to the show "FFA Today". Then, I was able to update my resume to include radio broadcaster as one of my professions. I was blown away by this. Never in my wildest dreams did I see myself as a radio broadcaster. I was pretty excited about it, so I kept sending them segments and great interview ideas. It did not take too long until they asked me if they could start paying me as a freelance journalist! They wanted me to conduct interviews for them that were outside of my niche, and they were offering to pay! I jumped at the chance again.

Once this happened with the radio show "FFA Today" I realized what I had done, and I figured that I could replicate this. Before long I found myself hosting, editing and producing a radio show and podcast for D&B Supply. Then I found myself adding advertisers to my own podcast! Then I found myself editing and producing a podcast for Bulkloads.com.

I was getting so busy podcasting and broadcasting that I knew I was in another transitional period. Only this time I was not transitioning from a job to entrepreneurship. I was transitioning from one business type to another. I needed to give something up, and that was the gopher extermination company. I sold the company to my employee and became a full-time podcaster and broadcaster in 2017. Since then I have added another client and another show, "The Corn Revolution Podcast". I have retained all of my previous clients, grown my advertising income and developed products that I sell.

I had known for a couple of years that I wanted to teach people how to create a custom podcasting business. However, having credibility before putting myself out there as an expert is important to me. It was when I was hired by the marketing firm, Bader Rutter, to host The Corn Revolution Podcast, and they flew me out to Iowa for a week of interviews, that I knew it was time.

That is when I started developing the Microphone Money Podcast and bought the domain name custompodcasting.com. I now have the business, the experience and the credibility to put myself out there as the expert in building a custom podcasting business. Actually, I believe I am the only person in the world doing this, and I am here to teach you how to do it too!

So, that is who I am. Just 6 years ago I was a police officer with no broadcasting experience and no idea that I could make my living this way. Today I have an unbelievable lifestyle, work on my own terms and have replaced my police officer salary.

What I have done is replicable by anyone in any niche. The Microphone Money Podcast will paint a picture of how I did this with broad strokes and will be a free resource for anyone who wants to listen. For those of you who are really serious about changing your life and podcasting for your living, I have created the Microphone Money Membership Website. It is here, on this site, where you will gain full access to me and monthly webinars to learn everything that I know about building this type of business.

I hope you will subscribe, like the Facebook page and get on the waiting list to join the membership site during the enrollment period in August of 2019. I look forward meeting and working with each and every one of you!