Podcasting Secrets

Over three years, Jason Barbato introduced, developed, and scaled a growth hacking program that generated more than $40 million of annual recurring revenue. This program became strategic and standard for more than 60 product teams. It's been recognized by the growth industry experts as best in class and enterprise level. 

Today, we're going to focus on how to use growth hacking to monetize a business. 

Growth Hacking

Growth hacking encompasses strategies focused on driving growth while spending as little time and money as possible. Sean Ellis, founder, and CEO of GrowthHackers, developed the term “growth hacking” in 2010 to describe a sustainable growth approach (Source: GrowthHackers). It is a creative strategy to increase website traffic, generate leads, and optimize the marketing process. 

While Jason was working as an SEO consultant for EarthLink, he attracted IBM’s attention with his digital marketing program. IBM called about a growth hacking role, which was the first time Jason had heard that term. Since Jason was so data-driven and focused on running tests, by their definition, he was a growth hacker, and they invited him to jump into a small team. 

On the team, he focused on how he could influence the buyer’s journey and create loyal customers. He’d analyze the data, run tests, and review what worked and what didn’t. 

Jason’s groundbreaking moment with IBM was developing a growth hacking strategy that became extremely profitable. He started working with an IBM SaaS product, and after producing some tests, they discovered only 1% of visitors were subscribing/purchasing digitally. So, Jason and his team asked themselves, “What can we do to get the customers to buy/subscribe on their own?”

He noticed that in the customer’s digital journey, the pricing page only had buttons to access a free trial or subscribe for free. He thought, “When people are here to look at pricing, they might want to buy right now. We should remove some of these ‘try’ buttons and replace them with ‘buy’ buttons.” After moving around some of the calls to action, they increased engagement by 8% and generated $6 million from the simple experiment. 

The product team loved the growth hack and started applying it everywhere. They ended up creating two versions of the product and made it available in 140 countries. His hack became a global standard. 

Now, he's been a marketing growth consultant for more than seven years and a growth mentor and coach for two years. He currently serves as the vice president of growth at Orange Pegs, a US-based growth, and inbound marketing agency.

“It's very foundational,” Jason said. “We looked at a data point, hypothesized about certain things, . . . and started to test against that. And again, it wasn't multivariate. It had sort of a cascade effect, where if you do one thing on one page, it prompts something new on another page. Now, this is just moving elements around the page. . . . I like its simplicity.”

Growth hacking has become a very significant tectonic shift in the market, but what it comes to is measuring data and testing. We need to have a data-driven mindset.  

“Use the data to take action and run tests, and let those tests guide the moves that you make to improve and delight your customer base, and also grow and grow your business,” Jason said. 

Jason explained that to effectively use growth hacking to monetize a business, it all comes down to curiosity. Curiosity leads to experimentation, which leads to monetization. 

Curiosity 

Jason’s top monetization secret is to be curious. In order to monetize from growth hacking, it all comes down to the foundational element of curiosity. 

“You have to have that curiosity,” he said. “Having curiosity, caring about your business, caring about the growth of your business, or your product, with a level of curiosity can be a moneymaker for you. Because if you are complacent, and things are sitting static, and you're just happy with the status quo . . . you may be missing out on millions because you're not creating and hypothesizing. You're not measuring.”

If we are complacent, we could be missing out on a lot of opportunities for exponential growth. Change is constant, so we need to constantly adapt. If we aren’t curious and looking for new ways of growth, we may miss out on increased profit. 

Studies have shown that curiosity leads to greater learning, engagement, and performance at work (Source: Human Resource Development Quarterly). As we are curious, we will naturally find better ways to run our businesses. 

“You have to put yourself in the mindset to say, ‘What if? What if this happened? What if I tried that?’” Jason said. “It could change everything. Your business could completely shift and pivot away from something you thought was good to something that's really great.”

Curiosity leads to testing which leads to monetization. We have to ponder everything and once we do that, the tests will happen naturally. 

Experiments 

Once we are curious, we will be naturally motivated to look at data to perform tests and experiments. Growth hacking is all about taking the data we have collected, measuring it, and then running experiments to try and increase growth and profit. 

We have to have a data-driven mindset. The majority of the time, we have access to the data and information that will guide us to success. We simply need to act on it. Growth hacking is taking the information, pulling insights out, and then experimenting on it. If our experiment fails, we know what not to do. If our experiment succeeds in creating growth, we know what changes we need to make.

Estimates have shown that businesses collected more customer information in 2010 than all prior years combined (Source: Harvard Business Review). Everything is focused on customer data and it is within our reach. On average, businesses receive data and metrics from 28 different sources (Deloitte Digital). We live in a data-driven world. The amount of data created by consumers doubles every two years (MIT Technology Review) and 92.3% of businesses maintain databases to host information on customers and prospects (GDMA). We need to make sure we use all the new data to our advantage. 

Success will depend on how we use customer data and information to find new ways to grow our business.

Monetization 

Once we’ve run tests on our data, we need to look at the results and determine what new insights we have to work with. Most experiments will tell us what not to do, or what to do more of. Jason increased the profit of the IBM SaaS product simply because he applied the insights he learned from his experiments. All he did was change a couple of CTAs on the company’s website. 

We need to follow a similar process. As we use growth hacking effectively, we can monetize our businesses. It starts with curiosity, leads to experiments, and results in monetization.

Key Takeaways

Thank you so much Jason for sharing your stories and knowledge with us today. Here are some of my key takeaways from this episode:

1. Growth hacking is any strategy focused on driving growth while spending as little time and money as possible.
2. Growth hacking is a significant tectonic shift, but what it comes down to is testing and analyzing data. We need to have a data-driven mindset. 
3. Curiosity leads to experimentation, which leads to monetization. 
4. Curiosity leads to greater learning, engagement, and performance at work.
5. We live in a data-driven world. The amount of data created by consumers doubles every two years (MIT Technology Review). We need to make sure we use all the new data to our advantage. 
6. Success may depend on how well we use customer data and information in ethical ways to find new ways to grow our business.

Connect with Jason

If you enjoyed this interview and want to learn more about Jason or connect with him, you can find him on LinkedIn or on growthmentor.com. 

Want to be a Better Digital Monetizer?

Did you like today’s episode? Then please follow these channels to receive free digital monetization content:

1. Get a free Monetization Assessment of your business
2. Subscribe to the free Monetization eMagazine.
3. Subscribe to the Monetization Nation YouTube channel.
4. Subscribe to the Monetization Nation podcast on Apple Podcast, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher. 
5. Follow Monetization Nation on Instagram and Twitter.

Share Your Story 

Has growth hacking helped your business to grow? If so, what growth hacking strategies have worked best for your company? Please join our private Monetization Nation Facebook group and share your insights with other digital monetizers.

Read at: https://monetizationnation.com/blog/114-how-to-use-growth-hacking-to-monetize-a-business/ 

Welcome back to another episode of Monetization Nation with Kayleigh Christina. In the last episode, we discussed how to turn a first-time buyer into a repeat customer. In this episode, Kayleigh will share with us three ways we can better enjoy the entrepreneurial journey in a goal-oriented world and how we can work better with our business partners. 

3 Ways to Enjoy the Journey

• Reflect Consistently

As an entrepreneur, we have the highest highs and the lowest lows. It can be hard to remember to celebrate our successes when we’re so focused on what we have to do next. 

“I'm definitely someone who can just be so focused on the next goal or the next accolade and then once I hit it, I don't even stop and celebrate it. I just keep going like, ‘Alright, what's the next one?’ . . . And, as an entrepreneur, that can be very unhealthy to do,” Kayleigh said. 

We need to make sure we recognize the goals we accomplish and celebrate them no matter how small. Since it can be so easy to overlook what we get done in the day, it’s great to reflect on our days and remember what we’ve done. 

“To be a healthy entrepreneur and have a good mindset and have a positive mindset, you have to stop and reflect on things,” Kayleigh said. “I do that in my journaling, every single day. . . . Some days, it's easier said than done. Sometimes, if it's been a really rough day, you have to dig to find the positive experience. But it's so important to stay in that state of mind.”

As we focus on the good more consistently, it will become easier, and soon we will start to notice the positive elements in our day without trying. As we stay positive, the lows won’t feel so crushing. 

• Celebrate the Setbacks

We need to celebrate the setbacks. It can be easy to celebrate the good things that happen, but in order to stay positive and really develop a positive mindset, we also need to celebrate our mistakes. 

“The growth happens when things go wrong. You can pivot. You can figure it out. So celebrate those setbacks,” Kayleigh said. 

Mistakes are inevitable, especially when launching a new startup. We shouldn’t let those setbacks get in the way. Every mistake, every failure, is an opportunity for growth and learning. 

One time Kayleigh was in a crunch. She was about to run out of stock on Amazon, and her product bottles arrived at her house in the wrong colored labels. She panicked because she didn’t have enough time to order new product bottles with the right labels. 

She shared this story on her Instagram because she has always tried to be very real and open with her customers. After she did that, a flood of customers began messaging her saying that they actually liked the new label. Because she stayed authentic and real, Kayleigh resonated with her audience. And the only way she was able to do that is by refusing to let the negative experience take over her mindset. 

Having a negative mindset can actually create chronic stress, which upsets the body’s hormone balance, diminishes chemicals required for happiness, and damages the immune system (Source: University of Minnesota). When we get stressed, our ability to work effectively and efficiently goes down. 

Being positive has the opposite effect. Researchers have found that a positive mindset has health benefits such as lower levels of distress, lower rates of depression, better coping skills during hardships and times of stress, better psychological and physical well-being, and more (Source: Mayo Clinic). 

As we choose to celebrate our mistakes rather than be consumed by them, we will actually increase our chances of success. 

• Write Down the Positive Moments

One of the ways we can overcome our setbacks is by remembering the positive moments. 

“I keep a positivity folder in my phone,” Kayleigh explained. “Every time I get a really positive email, text message, or review of Clear Stem that just completely blows my mind, blows me away, I'll screenshot it and save it to an album. . . . If I'm having a rough day and I'm feeling like I'm struggling to find the positive in the day, I'll just scroll through and read a couple of those, and you'd be really surprised [by] how it shifts your mindset.”

This is similar to the concept of when a room is dark, the only way to get rid of darkness is to fill it with something else—we have to turn on a light to replace the darkness. If we're in a spot where we feel a bit of negativity in our life, we can choose to combat that by filling our life with a little bit of positivity. 

By keeping ourselves in a really good mental state, we're going to do better for ourselves, as well as our teams. 

“Staying in a positive mindset doesn't mean you're never viewing things as a negative. It's just taking those negatives and shifting them on how you can be better. How can you improve?” Kayleigh said. “And I think that helps you carry yourself better, lead your team better, and communicate with your consumer better.”

Working Better with a Business Partner

Just as a positive mindset will help us grow personally, it will also help us grow in our teams.

Kayleigh and Danielle run Clear Stem Skincare in a partnership. While they both operate differently, they have found that staying positive, and having the same goals helps them work together effectively. 

Kayleigh gave six strategies for how to partner up and crush it. 

• Be emotionally intelligent and kind.

When we work in teams or in a partnership, it is essential that we communicate with each other. Kayleigh and Danielle both have days when their energy is lower than others. To make sure the other person doesn’t feel like it is because of them, they make sure to communicate and tell each other when they feel off. 

By communicating and being emotionally intelligent, we avoid misunderstandings that could blow up out of proportion. But above all else, we need to remember to be kind. In partnerships, disagreements are guaranteed. No two people are the exact same. However, even when we don’t agree, we still need to be respectful and kind. 

• Follow the 80/20 rule. 

“We've had a lot of communication around who's making decisions on what because some decisions need to be made together, but the other ones [follow the] 80/20 rule,” Kayleigh explained. “We each know our expertise, and so each has the autonomy to make decisions within those spaces.”

We need to understand that each partner will have their own roles and talents in the business. We won’t be able to agree with each other 100% of the time on everything we do. And we shouldn’t have to. We need to find our roles and have the autonomy to make choices as long as one person is 80% in. 

“Clear communication is always best and that's what propels the business forward,” Kayleigh said. “What can really hold a business [back] is not agreeing on something. At some point, you’ve got to let your ego go and just understand [your] partner has more expertise in this.”

• Reconnect to your passions. 

This strategy goes back to step one in having a positive mindset. We should reflect on why we started our company in the first place. We can remember the passion we had when we first started a partnership and remember what our main driving force is. 

“I think sometimes people can get so caught up in business [that they] lose sight of [their passions]. It's good every once in a while just to come back to it and remind yourself why you started in the first place,” Kayleigh said. 

For Kayleigh and Danielle, that passion is helping people feel confident in their own skin. Their goal is to educate their customers so that they can have control over their health. As they reflect back on their first passions, they will have more motivation to go forward together to achieve their goals. 

• Remember the consumer matters most. 

In our businesses, meeting our customers’ needs should be our number one priority. Everything should go back to the question, what’s in it for them? A lot of businesses forget this and focus on themselves. They talk about why their products are so great or why they’re so amazing. However, this isn’t going to work. Instead, we need to focus on how our products will help our customers, and how we can serve them better. 

“We should clearly communicate to the customer what's in it for them,” Kayleigh said. 

• Celebrate the big moments together. 

This strategy is key when developing a positive mindset. We need to take moments to celebrate with our partner. When we take time to see how far we’ve come together, our motivation to keep going will increase. 

“Celebrating those big moments right then and there, in the present, really helps keep you healthy, keep you excited, and keep you motivated and positive,” Kayleigh said. 

• Remember our baseline. 

As we said in the beginning, the life of an entrepreneur is filled with highs and lows. Things rarely stay constant. We need to make sure we don’t get too caught up in the success that we overlook how we can improve, while also making sure we don’t get caught in the failure and overlook our achievements. 

While we can dream big, we need to make sure we still execute the small day-to-day things that need to be done. We need to remember our baseline. 

Key Takeaways

Thank you so much Kayleigh for sharing your stories and knowledge with us today. Here are some of my key takeaways from this episode:

1. We need to make sure we recognize the goals we accomplish and celebrate them, even the small ones. We can reflect on what we’ve done each day. 
2. We should celebrate the setbacks. Every mistake, every failure, is an opportunity for growth and learning. 
3. Researchers have found that a positive mindset lowers stress and increases our health. As we develop a positive mindset, we will actually increase our chances of success. 
4.  If we're in a spot where we feel a bit of negativity in our life, we can choose to combat that by filling our life with a little bit of positivity. 
5. Just as a positive mindset is essential to personal growth, it is also essential to growth in a partnership or team. 
6. In our teams, we need to be respectful, emotionally intelligent, and kind. 
7. Each partner will have their own roles and talents in the business. We won’t be able to agree with each other 100% of the time on everything we do and we shouldn’t have to. 
8. We can take a moment to remember why we started our business in the first place to reconnect with our passions.
9. The customer should be our first priority.
10. We need to celebrate the big moments together, while also remembering our baseline. 

Connect with Kayleigh

If you enjoyed this interview and want to learn more about Kayleigh, listen to part one of this episode or connect with her on Instagram or her website, clearstemskincare.com. 

Want to be a Better Digital Monetizer?

Did you like today’s episode? Then please follow these channels to receive free digital monetization content:

1. Get a free Monetization Assessment of your business
2. Subscribe to the free Monetization eMagazine.
3. Subscribe to the Monetization Nation YouTube channel.
4. Subscribe to the Monetization Nation podcast on Apple Podcast, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher. 
5. Follow Monetization Nation on Instagram and Twitter.

Share Your Story 

How do you add more joy to your entrepreneurial journey? Please join our private Monetization Nation Facebook group and share your insights with other digital monetizers.

Read at: https://monetizationnation.com/blog/113-how-to-enjoy-the-entrepreneurial-journey-and-work-better-with-business-partners/ 

In today's episode, I am joined by Kayleigh Christina. Kayleigh is a holistic nutritionist and the co-founder of Clear Stem Skincare, a non-toxic skincare line that targets acne, anti-aging, and scar reversing utilizing premium ingredients. 

She's a published author and co-host of the Balancing Your Hustle podcast, which interviews thought leaders, entrepreneurs, and wellness experts, diving into their individual stories and journeys. In this episode, Kayleigh will share her entrepreneurship journey and how she builds relationships with her customers to turn a one-time customer into a repeat customer. 

Kayleigh’s Journey: Solving a Problem

Kayleigh and her business partner, Danielle, created Clear Stem Skincare in response to a problem. 

About five years ago, Kayleigh broke out in bright red, inflamed, painful, cystic acne. Every doctor and dermatologist she went to couldn’t find the root cause of her acne and told her the only options were Accutane, antibiotics, or birth control. However, she refused to take any of those options because she wanted to get to the root of the problem. 

As a last resort, she found the San Diego Acne Clinic, where she met Danielle. Together, they were able to find the core cause of her acne which included 11 different triggers such as products in her conditioner, supplements, and makeup she was using. Once they found the root of the problem, they were able to clear Kayleigh’s skin without any scar damage. 

After this, the two of them felt they were onto something. They began to create amazing products that would help with acne and anti-aging at the same time. The issue was that there were no skincare lines that effectively dealt with adult acne. The anti-aging products often caused acne, and the harsh acne products often increased skin aging. Together, they were able to solve that problem and created Clear Stem Skincare to help with both acne and anti-aging at the same time. 

“If you have dealt with [acne], or a family member or a friend, you know what I'm talking about. It changes the way you carry yourself, your confidence. It hits you pretty hard,” Kayleigh said. “My favorite part of the success of it all is the impact that we make with people. Danielle and I both got into this line because we wanted to help people clear their skin and feel confident and in control of their own skin. And the part I attached success to is the testimonials.”

The reason Kayleigh and Danielle created their business was to help people with their problems: acne and anti-aging. They discovered a problem, found a solution, and then built their business around that. 

Since day one, their business has been profitable, and they have seen continuous exponential growth. Not only is this because they found a niche audience they could help solve a problem for, but also because they were able to constantly learn from their mistakes and adapt, as well as stay focused on their customer relationships. 

Pivots and Tectonic Shifts 

One of the most important things we need to do as entrepreneurs is to learn from our mistakes and make pivots when we need to. Every time we make a mistake or encounter a failure, we should take it as an opportunity to learn and change from it. 

When I asked Kayleigh what her biggest mistake was, she told me that she doesn’t like to call them mistakes. “Every time I've made a decision and it hasn't panned out correctly, we just pivot from it. Okay, what do we do now?” she said. 

One of the “mistakes” she made early on was not doing enough research. They used to self-fill every bottle of skin care product and print every label themselves. And when they first got a warehouse to ship out their products for them, they just went with a recommendation. However, this caused them to get looped into a contract that cost them way too much money. 

They didn’t do enough of their own research to know for themselves exactly what they were getting into. Since then, Kayleigh has learned from her mistakes and now they ask the right questions, get references, ask for reviews, and do the research. 

Part of being an entrepreneur is learning from our mistakes and making pivots when we run into something that doesn’t quite work for us. We also need to be able to pivot and adjust to tectonic shifts. 

Kayleigh said that one of the biggest tectonic shifts we have to learn to adapt to is COVID-19. With that, the customer is also becoming more educated and isn’t trusting marketers as much anymore. “Companies need to speak to the consumer more instead of about themselves,” Kayleigh said. 

Customer Relations 

As I mentioned before, Kayleigh’s business was profitable within their first month. So many entrepreneurs aren’t able to pull that off, but it can happen when someone implements a strong business strategy. When I asked Kayleigh to share some of her monetization secrets, she gave me two, both focusing on the importance of the customer. 

One of the only ways to have repeat customers is by owning their information, staying in contact with them, and making sure they are happy with our products. If we can get them to leave a review, this will not only bring in more first-time buyers, but also remind them why they love our product and encourage them to return.  

• Email Marketing

We need to own our customers’ information. When we get their email or phone numbers, this gives us control of the conversation. We can stay connected. Repeat customers rely on this, and it’s one way to really increase our revenue. 

“You can do all the Facebook, Instagram, [and] Google ads that you want, but you don't own any of that information. But when you have people's emails and phone numbers, you can control the conversations. . . . You can educate them about your product. You can give them updates. It is so important to be connected with your consumer because repeat purchases and building a family [or] a community with your brand is how you increase revenue and become successful,” Kayleigh said. 

If a customer just makes a purchase, once they leave the store we’ve essentially lost them forever. We have no control in whether they come back and make a repeat purchase. However, if we get their email we suddenly have a way to contact them and send out more information about our products to encourage them to come back. 

Kayleigh and Danielle have considered selling their products through retail stores so many times, but they eventually determined it’s not for them because they won’t have any connection with their consumers if they do this. They made the decision to keep the consumer with them so they can get their information and give information directly. They want to maintain stronger relationships with the customers and be in direct contact with them. 

They’ve completely stayed away from the retailers and do everything themselves. They focus on providing the education and bringing the consumer to them because they can serve them better and maintain stronger relationships with them by providing that education and support directly. 

• Reviews

Reviews are everything. This is what gives our product credibility. As we mentioned before, customers are less trusting of marketers and businesses. They are starting to put more research into our products and services before they buy them. Most times they want to see good reviews before they make a final decision.

The best way to monetize what we are doing is to first have a good product and then have good reviews to back it up.

When Kayleigh first launched Clear Stem Skincare, they were selling their products online through Amazon and Shopify. “We always knew that reviews were important from day one,” she said. “And we use that same tactic for our website as well, because people are going to research your product, and they're going to think about buying it. They're going to go to the reviews and see what other people are saying, and that's how they're going to make their decision.” 

In order to get our customers to give us reviews, we need to really connect with them. The more of a relationship we have with our buyers, the more likely they will want to leave a good review to show their appreciation.

According to research done by DataBox, “customer proof” is the most important factor when evaluating two software products. This applies to other products as well. As customers become more focused on self-guided research, they rely heavily on reviews—customer proof. 

DataBox asked more than 100 marketers to share their best tips for getting reviews, and some of them included simply asking for a review, engaging with current reviews, and offering an incentive. This is another example of where email marketing comes in. When we have our customer information, we can email them requests to leave a review as soon as they use our product. 

Kayleigh will send out an email two weeks after a customer purchases their project. The email encourages them to write a review and provides an incentive such as a discount for their next purchase. This not only helps with credibility, but encourages the buyer to become a repeat customer. 

When customers reflect on their satisfaction with our product, they will also remember all the benefits of what we offer and be more likely to return and buy again. 

Key Takeaways

Thank you so much Kayleigh for sharing your stories and knowledge with us today. Here are some of my key takeaways from this episode:

1. We need to discover a problem, find a solution, and then build our business around that. If we do that, we will be more successful. 
2. We need to learn from our mistakes and make pivots when necessary. Every time we make a mistake or encounter a failure, we should take it as an opportunity to learn and change from it.
3. Companies need to speak to the consumer and get reviews, instead of marketing about themselves.
4. We need to own our customers’ information. When we get their email or phone numbers, this gives us control of the conversation. 
5. To maintain stronger relationships with our customers, we should be in direct contact with them. Email marketing is essential in turning a first-time buyer into a repeat customer.
6. As customers become more focused on self-guided research, they rely heavily on reviews—customer proof. 
7. Reviews are key in giving us credibility. 
8. When our customers write reviews for us, they reflect on their product satisfaction and will be more likely to remember us and return in the future. 

Connect with Kayleigh

If you enjoyed this interview and want to learn more about Kayleigh, listen to part two of this episode or connect with her on Instagram or her website, clearstemskincare.com. 

Want to be a Better Digital Monetizer?

Did you like today’s episode? Then please follow these channels to receive free digital monetization content:

1. Get a free Monetization Assessment of your business
2. Subscribe to the free Monetization eMagazine.
3. Subscribe to the Monetization Nation YouTube channel.
4. Subscribe to the Monetization Nation podcast on Apple Podcast, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher. 
5. Follow Monetization Nation on Instagram and Twitter.

Share Your Story 

How do you encourage customers to return to your business? Please join our private Monetization Nation Facebook group and share your insights with other digital monetizers.

Read at: https://monetizationnation.com/blog/112-how-to-turn-a-one-time-customer-into-a-repeat-customer/ 

Kate Erickson is the engine of Entrepreneurs on Fire, an award-winning podcast where John Lee Dumas interviews inspiring entrepreneurs. Kate is also the co-author of the podcast journal, Ideas to Launch in 50 Days. Her goal is to help entrepreneurs achieve financial and lifestyle freedom.

Today we’re going to discuss the systems and processes of running a podcast and digital business. 

The Beginning

From the beginning, Kate was very passionate about her time. To her, time equaled freedom. While she worked a day job, she applied for time-off for a vacation, but it was denied. And that was a big issue for her. That moment helped her gain a new perspective. She wanted to be in control of her time which meant making a change in her life, and so she quit her day job to help John Lee Dumas, with his podcast, Entrepreneurs on Fire.

Starting a digital business isn’t easy. In 2019, the failure rate of startups was about 90%.  21.5% of startups failed in the first year. Of those who make it to their second year, 30% failed. Of those who made it to the fifth year, 50% failed, and finally, 70% of startups that made it to their 10th year failed (Source: Investopedia). John Lee Dumas and Kate Erickson didn’t just stumble upon success, they worked hard for it. Now, John is a multi-million dollar podcaster with 100 million listens. 

In episode 81 of the Monetization Nation show, John explained how his podcast started with the goal for him to become a person of value. Albert Einstein said, “Do not try to become a person of success but try to become a person of value.” We need to make sure we are starting a business with the intent to create value for others, not just to be successful. That’s the beginning—find a way to add value to your audience’s lives. 

The Content

Once we’ve determined a purpose that will add value to our digital business, we need to start creating content. For a podcast, this doesn’t just mean recording, editing, and publishing a podcast episode. It also means writing blog content and creating social media content on every platform. 

According to a study done by DemandMetric, content marketing costs about 62% less than traditional marketing tactics, and it generates about three times as many leads (Source: AssetDigitalCom). Content has become an essential part of businesses, even if we’re not a content-based company. For example, a law firm can still create blog posts or an ebook to attract customers. 

Since running a podcast relies so heavily on content, it may be a good idea to establish a team to help with everything. Creating content is a process. Whether it’s a blog, podcast, or video, most content undergoes these seven steps:

1. Generate Ideas
2. Research 
3. Content Creation 
4. Editing and Review
5. Prepared for Publishing (includes captions, feature photos, keywords, etc.) 
6. Scheduled for Publishing
7. Promotion 

And this same process happens all over again when we repurpose the content. 

Entrepreneurs on Fire has a team of five. Each team member helps with a different part of the content creation process. For example, John does all of the recording and editing of the podcast, their team member in Pakistan helps with uploading, and another helps with scheduling, descriptions, and repurposing show notes. Kate manages the blog content and then another team member helps with anything community-related. Having a team to help with the content process makes a digital business run a lot more smoothly compared to doing it all ourselves. 

Currently, Kate and John’s main source of content is their podcast and blog. All the content on their other channels is repurposed. Anything that’s on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, or email is repurposed from a podcast episode or blog post. 

John and Kate post a podcast episode every day with new content, but they don’t have time to create new content for every other platform they are on. It’s impractical. This is where repurposing comes in. Repurposing content is a great way to save time and resources while still providing value to our audience. For example, Kate can take the main idea discussed in their podcast and create a 30-second video clip for Instagram. Or she could take their blog, and create an infographic on the same topic.

Repurposing content not only saves time, but generates more reach, increases online presence, improves SEO, and strengthens our messaging. 

The Tools

Once we’ve produced the content for our digital business, we need to get it published. Here are a few of the digital tools John and Kate use to manage their podcast, Entrepreneurs on Fire. 

WordPress

Kate schedules all their blog posts two weeks in advance for publishing on WordPress, a system their website is built through. WordPress is a free website builder and content management system that includes features such as plugin architecture and page templates. It is the most popular website builder with 41% of the web built on WordPress (Source: WordPress). 

Hootsuite

Kate schedules all their social media content through Hootsuite. Hootsuite is a social media management platform that allows you to schedule and post content on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube all from one place. It also allows you to track and analyze trends, monitor and engage across all social channels, and manage security to reduce digital risk. It currently has 18 million customers (Source: Hootsuite).

Libsyn 

John and Kate schedule all of their podcasts 30 days in advance on Libsyn. Libsyn is an official podcast host for many popular podcasts. It allows you to publish your podcast from anywhere to platforms such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Pandora, and more (Source: Libsyn). 

Repurpose.io

John and Kate manage all of their YouTube posts through Repurpose.io. This software helps you to automatically get podcast content onto different social media platforms. It allows you to take a single video or audio file and repurpose it on other platforms by publishing it directly to YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, or Twitter (Source: Repurpose.io). 

Google Sheets and Google Docs

John and Kate use Google Sheets and Google Docs to help with the overall system of things. They can create tables that schedule podcast episodes and track what stages content is in. It is easy to share with every team member as they can work on documents at the same time. 

Asana

John and Kate use Asana for project management. Asana is software designed to help teams organize, track, and manage their workflow. It helps teams create visual maps of projects so they can spot complications easier and track the progress of their goals. Teams have reported they are 45% more efficient using Asana (Source: Asana). 

Lessons Learned 

Starting a digital business takes a lot of work, but once we have established processes and systems in place, it can be a lot easier to manage. 

“Don't get overwhelmed at the thought of trying to create systems around everything at the same time,” Kate said. “[Find the] most regular content that you create, or [what] has the highest ROI for the business, and take that one thing, and have your full focus be to create a system around how that content is created, scheduled, published, and shared. Once you have done it with that one thing, then find what that next thing is.”

There are many different systems set up within a business, but we don’t have to try and set it all up at the same time. We first need to focus on creating a system for the most important thing. For example, at Monetization Nation, our most important content is our podcast. Once we set up a system for creating and publishing our podcast content, we move to create a system for our other content such as our blog, video, and social media posts. 

“Dive deep into every single step that happens [in your systems] and then you can start to find efficiencies,” Kate said. “That is really helpful.”

At the end of the day, we need to remember that we are responsible for everything that happens within our systems. When something fails within our business process, we need to accept it, learn from it, and move on. 

One of the biggest mistakes Kate made happened while changing a business process. When she and John moved to Puerto Rico, they had to change their credit card processing and bank management. While they were switching, their bank merchant failed to let them know they didn’t take American Express. 

While Kate was going over their expenses, she found a big disparity in what was actually being deposited into her account, and it was because the American Express payments weren’t coming through. This was a very hard mistake to make, but Kate took responsibility for it. 

“The biggest lesson I learned from that [experience] is you have to take full responsibility for everything that happens in your business. We can hope and pray and rely on consultants, companies, services, and software to do certain stuff for us, but we can't rely on them to be responsible for how our business is running. [My experience] has really taught me to have a closer look at what's going on, on a day-to-day, month-to-month basis in our business,” Kate said.

Key Takeaways

Thank you so much Kate for sharing your stories and knowledge with us today. Here are some of my key takeaways from this episode:

1. When starting a digital business, first find a way to add value to your audience’s lives. 
2. Content creation has become an essential part of businesses. We should develop systems to help with the process of creating and publishing content. 
3. Repurposing content saves time and resources, generates more reach, increases online presence, improves SEO, and strengthens our messaging. 
4. Digital tools are a great way to help with publishing and management and do a lot more with fewer resources. 
5. At the end of the day, we need to remember that we are responsible for everything that happens within our systems.

Connect with Kate

If you enjoyed this interview and want to learn more about Kate or connect with her, you can find her on her LinkedIn. If you want to learn more about Entrepreneurs on Fire, you can visit their website, eofire.com. You can also subscribe to her podcast, Kate’s Take.

Want to be a Better Digital Monetizer?

Did you like today’s episode? Then please follow these channels to receive free digital monetization content:

1. Get a free Monetization Assessment of your business
2. Subscribe to the free Monetization eMagazine.
3. Subscribe to the Monetization Nation YouTube channel.
4. Subscribe to the Monetization Nation podcast on Apple Podcast, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher. 
5. Follow Monetization Nation on Instagram and Twitter.

Share Your Story 

What systems and processes have helped your business run smoothly and grow faster? Please join our private Monetization Nation Facebook group and share your insights with other digital monetizers.

Read at: https://monetizationnation.com/blog/111-the-systems-and-processes-of-running-a-podcast-and-digital-business/ 

Travis Chappell is a podcasting consultant, professional connector, author, and international speaker. He is the creator and host of Build Your Network with 1.5 million downloads and almost 600 episodes. Travis has been featured in publications such as Forbes, Entrepreneur, and NASDAQ, and he has appeared as a guest on more than 50 shows, such as Entrepreneurs on Fire with John Lee Dumas. 

In today’s episode, Travis shares his journey of becoming a successful podcaster and entrepreneur. 

Transitions 

Travis grew up in a strict religious household. From kindergarten to high school graduation to college graduation, he spent nearly every day on the same church campus, including church on Sundays, and door-to-door sales for the church on Saturdays. Within that community, he felt pushed into full-time ministry and decided to go to college with a double major in Biblical studies and church ministries. 

It wasn’t until his senior year in college when he questioned his life’s path. “I was getting ready to graduate and go out and finally do this thing that I've been prepping for since I was like 12 years old, and I started to realize that I didn't want to do it,” Travis said. 

He and his wife moved from Southern California to Fresno to get away from the bubble he grew up in, and after deciding not to do ministry, he transitioned to door-to-door sales. He made good money, but it wasn’t something he wanted to do for the rest of his life. 

“For the first time in my life, I was just kind of forced to jump into personal development and figure out what that new path was going to be. That's when I started listening to podcasts for the first time,” Travis said. “And then I started my show a few years ago and have been rocking and rolling ever since.” 

After deciding sales wasn't the path for him, Travis started a podcast where he speaks with successful entrepreneurs. That podcast now has 1.5 million downloads and almost 600 episodes. It took a lot of hard work, a few life transitions, and a lot of persistence, but he eventually made it to where he wanted to be. 

“In the absence of clarity, ‘Take Action’ has always been the mantra. It’s like, ‘Okay, I don't know what I'm going to do, but doing nothing isn't going to get me there so I may as well try something,’ and you just fail your way into figuring out what the next step is going to be,” Travis said. 

Based on his own journey, Travis wanted to help make transitions easier for others, so he created Guestio, a software designed to give access to the inaccessible. Travis’s podcast is focused on guest interviews with successful entrepreneurs. That’s what helped him take off. But, it wasn’t easy. Sometimes it can take months just to get in contact with the person you want to connect with. Sometimes it took years. The platform he created helps people get guests on their shows. Instead of chasing someone for months, we can get in contact with them right away in order for people to get better interviews and increase their credibility. 

“Running a software company is not easy; it's difficult. It's a long treacherous road at some points but somebody else has figured it out. A lot of people have navigated that road successfully. All I got to do is to get the map from them, and then retrace those steps and add my own little spin on it,” Travis said. 

Monetizing Relationships 

90% of startups fail (Source: Forbes). Starting a business is not an easy thing we can do on our own. In order to fall into that 10% of successful startups, we should be building relationships and looking at the examples of those around us. Learning from the examples of our mentors will help us monetize our businesses faster. 

“Get around to the people who are doing it at the highest level, and learn what [you] don't know, and then implement those things,” Travis said. 

We don’t have to pioneer the road alone. Chances are, someone has already done what we’re trying to do and succeeded. When we hit a roadblock or when we're trying something new, it can save us so much time to just go to someone for advice. They can help us avoid the mistakes they made, and give us advice that will help us be so much more successful than if we tried to do it on our own. 

“90 people will fail. 10 will succeed,” Travis said “You have the ability to control which part of that group you end up in. If I want to end up in the group that's successful and beat the odds . . . then I know that I have to outdo what most people are willing to do.”

We need to be willing to do more than everyone else. Unfortunately, one thing a lot of people don’t do is ask for help. We need to set our pride aside and be okay with accepting the fact that we can’t build a business on our own. 

“Too many things out there are going to try to prevent you from being successful. If you're not proactively trying to put yourself in positions around people who can help you achieve that success then it's going to be much, much more difficult,” Travis said. 

If we want to start a small business, we will need to put in the work and take risks. And if we’re taking risks, why not get help from someone who has done it before? Why not take advantage of the resources around us? We should constantly try to form relationships that can help us navigate the road we are walking on. “You get the results based on the work that you put in, so you better put in more work than everybody else so you can get better results than everybody else,” Travis said. 

We can also monetize our relationships. For example, in a podcast, people will pay to be on someone’s show for promotional reasons. People will also pay others to come onto their show for the same reasons. On Travis’s app, Guestio, we can go and pay $300 to interview someone on their show. That person monetizes simply for having a relationship with us. 

Monetizing Knowledge  

A great way to monetize a business is to sell knowledge. We don’t need to be an expert to sell knowledge, we simply need to know more than the person we are selling to. 

In terms of monetizing a podcast, Travis said that the first thing we want to do is use our knowledge to help our clients, and then find a way to monetize our guest list through the products and services we offer.  

“The core of it is, do you have an offer, and do you have an audience for that offer? That's really what it comes down to, especially if you're in a knowledge business,” Travis said. But even if we aren’t in the knowledge business, we can find ways to use our knowledge with some of the products we are offering. Before we even offer a product or service, we can go one step earlier in the customer journey and provide our customers with informational value that will entice them to take the next step and purchase our product. Providing free knowledge will also help with our credibility. 

One of the big tectonic shifts in the market today is independent content creation and virtual, online businesses in general. The power is shifting from big corporations and businesses to the people. Celebrity status is so much easier to accomplish now because we can create a media presence and develop a fan base without even leaving our house. Travis calls this process decentralization—taking away the power from one person and putting it into the hands of multiple people. Instead of a few wealthy powerbrokers, we now have thousands of micro-influencers with power, credibility, and influence. 

There are YouTubers and influencers on Instagram that make six figures just from building their own brand online. They do this through content creation and sharing knowledge.

Key Takeaways

Thank you so much Travis for sharing your stories and knowledge with us today. Here are some of my key takeaways from this episode:

1. Transitions are a part of our journey. We may fail, but if we keep moving forward, we will eventually find where we need to be. 
2. We need to continue to take action, even if we feel uncertain about where we want to go. We won’t get anywhere if we do nothing. 
3. We should find people who are doing what we want to do at the highest level and learn from their example.
4. We get results based on the work we put in. If we want to be successful, we need to put in more work than everybody else so we can get better results than everybody else.
5. Selling knowledge is a great starting part in monetizing a business such as a podcast. 
6. One of the biggest shifts in the market is independent content creation. 

Connect with Travis

If you enjoyed this interview and want to learn more about Travis, connect with him on his LinkedIn, subscribe to his Build Your Network podcast, or visit his website, travischappell.com.

Want to be a Better Digital Monetizer?

Did you like today’s episode? Then please follow these channels to receive free digital monetization content:

1. Get a free Monetization Assessment of your business
2. Subscribe to the free Monetization eMagazine.
3. Subscribe to the Monetization Nation YouTube channel.
4. Subscribe to the Monetization Nation podcast on Apple Podcast, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher. 
5. Follow Monetization Nation on Instagram and Twitter.

Share Your Story 

Who are your mentors? What have you learned from them? Please join our private Monetization Nation Facebook group and share your insights with other digital monetizers.

Read at: https://monetizationnation.com/blog/110-how-to-monetize-a-business-through-relationships-and-knowledge/