Business has only 1 purpose. That is profit. To achieve profit selling is key. But how do you sell from your podcast without being too salesy or too vague with what you are creating. Its a topic that is important to gain perspective on for every business owner that has a podcast because there is no reason to just do a podcast for your business. Don’t waste time on so much effort without understanding these basics of selling from your podcast.
In this episode you will:
- Learn how to use your podcast to build your personal brand by covering repeated conversations
- Understand how to create a transformation for your audience
- Learn to partner with your podcast for sales
- Take a deeper look at sponsorships and ads
- We answer a question about gatekeepers to check the quality of a podcast
- Rethink your podcast creation by looking for subscribers rather than listeners
- Understand that working to your strengths are key to success with your podcast
- Hear us talk about your podcast driving sales for expensive products
- Learn how the foundations of creating transformations for your audience is key to growth
- Think differently about monetising your podcast
- We talk in-depth about selling from your podcast, the tips and tricks in this episode are absolute GOLD, but more importantly the perspective you’ll gain is immense.
All this and more, on this week’s episode of Should I Start A Podcast.
Make sure you listen to the end … I’ll break down this episode to give you 3 small steps you can execute right now to help you take this listening experience into execution experience. Also, if you know a business owner that needs to hear an episode about why a podcast is the best business development tool, please share an episode with them. Pretty Please. Enjoy the show.
After you listen to this episode I would love you to take these 3 small steps that will help you sell from your podcast:
- 20 minutes on the clock. Write down what is the overall goal of your podcast. Make a list of what you’d like to achieve. Take your time to imagine what is possible for you and your business.
- Sort these goals. The top 3 are key. Sort them on impact and effort.
- Next to the top 3 goals, write down a list of steps you can take right now to get you closer to that goal.
What you pick as your strategies to grow will depend on where you are at in your business. Pick the right strategy for where you are at and not where you want to be.
These are 3 small steps that if you execute, irrespective of where you are at in your business and podcasting journey will make a huge impact on your making your podcast more profitable & more impactful.
If this is the first episode you’ve listened to all the way to the end or if you are a regular, thank you … I love that you are here. Check out our back catalogue on ShouldIStartAPodcast.com, subscribe to the show and give me a review and rating, it really helps us get found more.
If you are a business owner podcaster and want to join others just like you in a group where we share tactics & ideas on what’s working (or not) for us when it comes to using our podcast in the best possible way. For more on that go to wearepodcast.com/group … it is free.
We Are Podcast 2022 – It is happening this year. For the latest announcements on Australia’s first podcasting conference for business owners, join the free group wearepodcast.com/group Stay tuned next week when we going to cover a coaching call that I had with an amazing business owner. We cover lots including using her podcast to grow her business and using a real live case study. So, don’t forget to subscribe to the show to get that episode as soon it gets released. Until then, much love.
If you’ve never heard of our work before, there are 3 things that I think you would benefit from right now…
1. Listen to this playlist of How to Podcast for Business.
2. Get the the Recurring Results Roadmap (if you haven’t already).
3. Check out this video about a business builder who is closing high-ticket clients with his podcast.
Having worked with thousands of business owners to create a podcast for their business, I’ve created The Recurring Results Roadmap for Podcasters™.
It’s a step-by-step guide to growing your business to 7+ figures using your podcast.
Importantly, it removes the guesswork so you know exactly what to focus on at all times to generate that recurring revenue.
The best part? It’s personalised, free and it lets you get started straight away.
Download The Recurring Results Roadmap for Podcasters™ here.
If this is your first time here, this is Should I Start A Podcast. I’m Ronsley Vaz. Each week you’ll hear me, and a star-studded guest lineup, dig deep into the podcasting process. We’ll bring you tactics, tips and tricks to use in your own podcasting journey. We’ll teach you how to build an audience. And we’ll show you how to keep them coming back, show after show.
So if you want to start a podcast, or expand your current audience, this is the show for you.
Here is the transcript of the entire episode for those who like to read …
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
podcast, people, business, pricing, audience, thought, sales, transformation, james, hear, listening, curation, gatekeeper, book, lip gloss, build, monetize, podcasters, courses, cookbooks
SPEAKERS
James Whittaker, Holly Shannon, Ronsley Vaz, Anna Vocino, Sophia
Ronsley Vaz 00:08
indicator one. This is launch control. Please advise when preflight checklist is complete with indicator one. Flight is complete. All indicators read Green.
Anna Vocino 00:20
This is should I start a podcast, a show for business owners looking for tips, tricks and ingenious hacks when it comes to growing a business using their podcast. This is your host Ronsley. He’s interviewed more than 1400 people and has been listened to over 5 million times in 133 countries, a TED speaker, author and a podcast purist who believes that we can use our voices to grow our business and our influence, you know, because every conversion in any business always happens in a conversation. And now Ronsley.
Ronsley Vaz 01:02
Ladies and gentlemen, one of the things that comes with podcasting for business, it seems to be this crazy notion to make sales from their podcast. So I’d love to be able to get into the reasons why maybe we do not think of sales from a podcast or why there’s this aversion towards sales. And then maybe we can get into some of the stuff that we’ve done to get sales and also think about products has gone into different different types of even physical products, which is crazy. So let’s start off with the reasons why. Starting a podcast for business and making sales from it is this frowned upon notion. Anyone wanted to take that from me.
Anna Vocino 01:38
I’m happy to start. I produced podcasts for fun comedic podcasts many years ago back when we had to update XML code and didn’t have cute little WordPress plugins. So when Vinnie torta rich came to me and said, hey, where you start my podcasts, he basically was told 10 years ago, you can’t put a book out unless you have a platform. And so I didn’t even know what I was saying yes to. But I said yes. And we realized really quickly that we were on to something. And it was a way to build a platform for both of us that we hadn’t thought of or explored yet. And for me, it was definitely something different because I was used to doing whatever I was doing to get hired to go do comedy, or go work as a voice talent. So I didn’t expect the food blogging and the cookbook writing and the food brand launching to happen. It all kind of unfolded naturally. But I think now that people know that podcasting is a tool that you can use to augment your business, get your free information out there even just so much. And so you don’t have to repeat the things that you have to repeat to your customers over and over again, putting it down into a podcast that you can then send out to people is like a great introduction into the world. And obviously, there’s so many other ways you can use a podcast. But for us, it was a platform building thing, because we were trying to build ourselves as individuals build our personal brands, I guess, is the best way to put it.
James Whittaker 02:45
I love that. No, I think the people who first start off with their podcasts and they get so carried away, trying to do every single aspect of the podcast process themselves. And if they had that proper intent around the impact they would want to have, then it would lead to things like sales and a focus on sales and having more intent about those things that you want to include on an ongoing basis. And when you’re doing that, and you have that awareness, I think it’s very, very valuable. Whereas most people, they get stuck on that podcast hamster wheel of trying to do everything themselves. And they’re just so busy pushing out content that they forget, the transformation cannot occur unless there is some type of transaction like real, real, ongoing, sustainable transformation. So incorporating some type of sale event or seeding a sale event. That’s what enables the transaction to occur, which leads to that transformation, which goes right back to that impact that you want to have. So I think anyone who, who was thinking about starting a podcast or who has a podcast, having the impact, and then the intent around that is very, very valuable. I was gonna
Sophia 03:44
say that it is such a great way. Podcasting is such a great way to build the know, like and trust factor. So I’ve got some research in front of me. I serve podcast listeners, apparently, according to this research by a company called Edison 54% of podcast listeners are more likely to consider buying a product. So whether it’s 54%, or 65, doesn’t necessarily matter. But I do think that once you start listening to somebody, and you listen to them once a week, you get to know them, and you get to know what they’re like and you kind of feel like they’re your friend. And so when they do say and here’s an offer, it actually is done badly. It doesn’t feel salesy. It’s more like, you know, there’s somebody you like, and they’re already telling you, look, I’m doing this thing, do you want to be part of this thing? And sure, of course not everybody says yes. But at least even as a podcast and making the offer you don’t feel sleazy or salesy, at least I don’t.
Holly Shannon 04:34
Yeah, it’s interesting. When I think of what you were saying, James about transformation. I think there’s a nuance to the wholesale process, if you look at it from partnerships, as opposed to making sales. I think when we head into those types of relationships and seeing how we can either support our audience with some and really valuable or the sale could become a partnership or some type of relationship over and above. Just checking out at the register podcasts is so powerful in that regard.
Anna Vocino 05:12
Yes, you’re talking about the different brands working with people and people also wanting to know who you are. And Vinnie and I, our audience is definitely very familiar with who we are because we leave a lot of stuff out there. We put it all out there pretty much. And it for instance, we’ve done meetups and I’ve had many experiences. There’s lots of hugging and touching and happiness and joy of meeting people because they hear my voice all the time, and they hear my stories, and they feel like they know me. And that’s a good thing. One time this lady, she took the lip gloss, I was putting Look, she’s like, gonna get a picture. And I was like, Yeah, we put on my lip gloss, and I was putting it on. And she took it out of maintenance. Oh, I need lip gloss to it out of my hand, and put lip gloss on her lips. And I was like, oh, man, we’ve really crossed a line, haven’t we? And I threw out the lip gloss when she wasn’t looking. But it is an interesting thing, how you can develop that kind of relationship. And then you’re talking about the brands and sponsorships. We’ve had some sponsors for almost one sponsor for almost the entirety of our podcast. And it was very early on when like Vinnie, and I realized we’re going to do our ads the way that we’re going to do our ads. So like, the whole reason you get into podcasting is so you can say what you have to say without that kind of filter or having to say the thing. And so we’re gonna be honest about stuff. And we might use cuss words. Or we might make sexual overtones, because that’s what’s kind of things that we do sometimes in the podcast, it’s a fitness podcast, it’s a health podcast, we go there about bodies. And so it is interesting to think about, like how people really do get to know you, but also how the brands want to show up and how maybe brands I think that are willing to go in that direction. Not like in the sense of like, hey, at least we’re being talked about, but in the sense that like a, we’re a part of an everyday life with people who you’d like to listen to. And that’s been kind of fun.
Ronsley Vaz 06:40
I just wanted to add something to this conversation. If you don’t mind, one of the things I wanted to say was just bringing it full circle in terms of like what everyone said, the trust factor is huge when someone’s listening to your voice, as opposed to like reading emails from me or seeing Instagram posts about you or reading a blog post. So even potentially even reading a book that you’ve written, I think the connection that comes with voice is a huge one especially that’s why I think right now with social media for voice and clubhouse. And what we’re here doing here now is so powerful, because you’re actually getting to hear what we’re about each one of us who speak up here, everyone listening, get to hear us and get to hear what we’re about and what we think and it’s all live. There’s no filter, there’s no made up, there’s nothing, it’s just this is this is us. So I think that translates into podcasting really well. And I think that the ability to be able to build that know, like and trust. And by the way, Sofia Edison is like probably the master researcher in these fields. So they’ve been putting out this kind of data for ages and that that 54% is quite significant. But yeah, so I would love to hear your voice. Good to have you here.
07:47
Thank you, Ron. So good afternoon. Good evening, everyone. My name is Sebastian, and I’m the technology space. So my question I believe, resonates with the thought which China was sharing. So my question is on overall, the quality of the podcasts, majorly, I’m referring to the ones which are on Spotify. So last few weeks have been exploding based upon my interest. And I see two different patterns, the one which are like of extreme quality. When I hear Neville on Spotify for five minutes, I have to think maybe 25 minutes what he’s trying to connect to, because he’s 360 degree, he talks about technology. At the same time, one piece connects to philosophy, and it takes me considerable time to connect to them. And I really enjoy that. That’s number one. Number two, there are certain podcasts, where I find a bit of factual mistake, maybe sentence grammatical mistakes, maybe things are off the topic, which was not envisioned in the podcast, probably. So I feel there should be a kind of quality check or quality control, or maybe there should be a gatekeeper. So from experts like you on the call, I want you to understand that how do you determine when and where should be a gatekeeper to check the quality goes on to the bigger audience that is the 8 million
Ronsley Vaz 08:59
people? Oh, great question. So well put any other panelists want to take that?
Sophia 09:04
I can, I can give it a go. And because I was literally just thinking about business models. So the moment you have curation, that means you have to have very smart educated people who do the curating, which means that you have to pay them. So if you have to pay them, that means you need to get revenue from somewhere. In general, advertising rates are not that high anymore, because mainly of their Facebook and Google Yoplait. So that means that it’s probably going to be some kind of subscription business. And this is what happens in newspapers, you know, the New York Times The Financial Times. They are not a cheap ticket when you can get just standard news for free. But for example, I still subscribe to The Financial Times because the curation and the editors they matter, but they’re very smart people and they get paid a lot. So when you’re talking about curation, seduction, it’s a question of Are you basically going to pay for the curation to happen because if you’re not going to pay for the curation to happen, I don’t see why it would happen. Like I can’t see the economic imperative for that to happen. And speaking of subscription podcast, that’s actually a rising trend. So Apple have been investing in the technology. for that. There are now more and more podcasts coming up on Apple center. You mentioned Spotify. But there are also other platforms where you can have a paid subscribers only podcast. And yes, those things do get curated. But Spotify as a platform as a whole entire platform, I would assume you would only be able to get curation if you start paying a subscription fee. But these are my assumptions. I don’t know if anybody else on our brilliant panel today has anything else to share on the topic.
Ronsley Vaz 10:31
Interesting, I thought and I would have a pet peeve about how there’s different podcasts out there that sound really amateurish, actually, James might. But Sebastian, I love the answer. So he gave in terms of like, how does the business model actually work? When it comes to that kind of curation? And then if it does get curated? To what point does it get censored? At what point does stuff get removed. And that’s the problem that we’re having in almost all the platforms in which we initially we thought social media and Facebook and Instagram, and Google was like, a fair game and fair play. And it was all factual. It was not factual. It was never factual, but it was not censored. And now we know that Facebook is censored, we know that we see what we want to see, we know that it depends on our trends. So confirmation bias in social media just is keeps reinforcing a lot of our biases and, and I think, to your point, I feel like as a podcaster, that has been doing this for eight years, and has been doing it for way longer. The ability to not have a gatekeeper has been probably the biggest thing for podcasters to put their work out there. Because that has just allowed them to get the reps and now with social media, and now with clubhouse and social media for voice, we can have these reps or these repetitions of using our voice and talking about stuff and having the conversation he alive. But before this, there was no way to do that. So the ability to have no gatekeeper, I think allowed a whole bunch of different podcasts to bloom. I wonder with the if the panelists have anything to say to that? Yeah, based on
James Whittaker 12:00
my understanding of the question, I know you had a fair bit in their solution. But I with mine, for example, I come from a technical background in writing, it’s just a skill I have, I’ve always been very, very comfortable writing. So my finished product of my podcast, the way I want it to appear on my website is more like a digital magazine article for every single one that I release. Now, you could outsource that. But it would be expensive, potentially expensive to do to get something like that. Whereas for me, it’s something that I’m good at. So I think if there are things in your wheelhouse that you can be meticulous about to get a great final result, whether that is audio, we know a ton of people who are great at incorporating video, writing, whatever you want to do to do that, I think you just got to do something that does justice to the type of finished product that you have out there. Because that product speaks to your brand. And if it’s a poor representation of what you’ve got out of there. And I think all of us up here, think about podcasts, we’ve heard where the first three seconds like oh, wow, like, I just can’t imagine myself listening to that full episode. That is also a representation of the brand. And that’s where I think the attention to detail on that level of quality is important. But you’ve also got to play to your strengths and just your own mindset around your attitude to what is important to you.
Sophia 13:07
So if you want to say something? Well, I was just gonna say that I do think that there is also an impetus on the readers and the listeners, basically us as content consumers, to also use our brains and to essentially be discerning. So if you’re reading a newspaper that has a good reputation, then you can be more trusting. But again, if it’s a podcast, by somebody you’ve never heard before, or it’s a blog post written by somebody who hasn’t been recommended to you, then be skeptical, get to know them. And it is possible that the whole point of kind of the internet, it has given us a lot of opportunity. But it’s also given a lot of opportunity to people who don’t know what they’re talking about, to essentially create fake news. And that does happen. And I think the kind of the the genie has now escaped the bottle. But that’s the thing. So this stuff now does happen. So I do think that we need to be careful and essentially, not necessarily believe everything we read or we hear unless it’s from a reputable
14:03
source. I just wanted to thank you, Ron, and thanks, everyone, for sharing your perspective. It was really helpful and insightful. Thanks so much. Okay. Hey,
14:13
this is Elizabeth McIntyre. I’m the CEO of thinkbook, Australia, host of our podcast and leader of amazing humans. I want the inside of we’re podcast members, or as we like to call it the way Emily, if you were thinking about growing that business using your podcast and your online presence. Come join us on the inside. I would love to meet you, James and Ronsley coaches to get those recurring results in our business. If you want that roadmap, which we all follow to get those recurring results you can download [email protected] are podcast.com. Now back to the show.
Sophia 14:52
I also had a question. We previously discussed that podcasting, build the know like and trust factor and helps make sales and my question was about what product? Are the people on the panel selling? And just roughly, what is the price range? And how do you see the podcast driving the sales at different price ranges? I’m especially curious if you’re doing some more expensive things like mastermind, versus if, for example, you’re selling a book.
Ronsley Vaz 15:20
Yeah, thank you, I’d say everyone would have something to say about that.
James Whittaker 15:24
Yeah, I can, I can jump in on that one, Sofia, specifically. So when you’re talking about this transformation that you want to have for the audience, I think it’s important to recognize that you can have price points to move them along that journey. So maybe the very first thing is to give them a bit of confidence to give them a few tips that they can implement to start to get a bit of momentum. And then if they want more help from you, you need to provide that extra to some type of higher value product where they can do that, and perhaps at some type of transformation, like individual transformation in a group setting. So an example that might be something like a mastermind, so you could move them from the book onto like a legion on your website. And that will offer some type of free assessment tool, there’s a guy called Dr. Michael Bruce, who is the sleep doctor, he’s got a really great lead gen on his website, it talks about finding your Chrono type. So he can then reach out to you with a whole bunch of valuable information to help you sleep better. And of course, pretty much everyone wants that. So he’s got almost one and a half million people on his mailing list. Now as a result of having that, that lead gen. So then if people want to continue, you can have some type of Yeah, mastermind product, or even for people who want more of a specific one on one thing you can have, then it’s got to be just a much higher price point where you probably really only want two or three of those people because that could be 50 $60,000 a year. So that’s how you can map it out from like a lead gen to $20 book, those can obviously switch around depending on where the user first finds you. And then build that up online course, is another way that you might have something it’s a cheaper price point. So if you had four or five different tiers like that, to give increased transformation for the audience when they want it, it’s a great way, not just giving them that transformation, but being able to build your tribe of raving fans. And that is why I love things like masterminds so much. Because when you give people that great result, and create a community where everyone else gets established his friendships from the people that you have brought together, then really, really, really big things can happen.
Anna Vocino 17:12
That’s awesome. And yeah, I was gonna say too, even if you back up the question from a really high view, because there’s a lot of different ways you can monetize. And only so many hours in the day that you can focus on giving care and feeding into that monetization. I had to decide for me how I wanted to spend my time do I want to have a I can easily do a cooking subscription group or like behind the paywall zoom cooking class thing, and I’ve thought of a million different ideas that would be super fun. And ultimately, for now, I focused on selling my books which sell for the prices of books. And by the way, if you are going to come up with any products, I definitely think make sure you’re pricing yourself in the pocket with your competitors. Like for me personally, I don’t want to be too crazy expensive. But I also don’t want to undersell myself either. So I compared what other cookbooks were doing what my competitors were doing. And I say competitors, but really, people who buy cookbooks will buy all of our cookbooks, because we love cookbooks. So you want to kind of do what’s in the pocket. And then as well, for now, I’ve launched three flavors of tomato sauce, and I’m about to launch three spice mixes, I’m pricing those a little bit higher, because I’m doing all organic and no GMO and everything has to be very high quality. So it costs a lot of money to make a lot more than I wanted it to be. So those are priced kind of high. It took a long time. By the way, I would say if you’re gonna do a physical product, it takes a long time to develop it to put out a really good physical product. So I just want to make sure that I am not like saying like, Oh, it’s just so easy. Like, I just put my marinara recipe out there, which it is my marinara recipe. And by the way, I’m very clear with everybody on the internet, my marinara recipe is still for free up on my website, you can get it in my cookbooks, you don’t have to buy my sauce. Like it’s a free for all have at it. But for those of you who do want to support the work I do, and you want to have some convenience at home, I have it available there. So it’s interesting because I have been asked in approach to do different mastermind groups that have nothing to do with cooking, I built a investment in single family homes. And I’ve been asked like, Hey, speak to this group on this and talk about voiceover because I have a voiceover career and, and I will do paid speaking engagements. And I haven’t developed my own mastermind group yet. But I find it very interesting, because there’s a number of ways to monetize. So my biggest advice would be like, figure out what feels the best what resonates literally in your solar plexus, like what would I feel great cashing the check of because something that doesn’t feel great cashing the check of, you’re never gonna, like really fully grow anyway, or you’ll grow it so big and then something will happen in the rug will come out from under it because it wasn’t a sustainable thing. And you’ll know it’s sustainable by how you feel in your gut. Honestly,
Holly Shannon 19:33
I have a small item that I sell. So maybe that doesn’t seem interesting. You know, I sell my books, zero to podcast on my podcast and on my website and so forth. But I actually almost kind of reverse engineer the thought process on that, that it’s not so much that it’s a small item for sale. I’m always thinking of different ways to market things. I just basically cannot shut off My marketing brain it goes all night long. So even though it’s summertime and a lot of schools are on break, I’m actually building my credibility through doing things like clubhouse and selling my book. And then what I do is I market it to universities to bring the book into the classroom for Business Communication courses, public speaking courses, legal departments that use the power of podcasting for their students, and to teach them about being behind the mic and being ready to go into an interview that there might be getting hired for in their senior year or Co Op program. So I introduced it to schools, so that I might be able to sell maybe 200, to that public speaking class one at one at a university, or at the very least get on your bookshelves, I noticed your you Chicago person, so minds in the Chicago bookstore by so I just thought I’d share that.
Ronsley Vaz 20:54
Yeah, thanks. The variety is amazing, it’s severe, I have been creating podcasts for different types of people for the last six years. And we’ve created some really interesting strategies for different types of people. For example, we had a strategy for a client who’s a starting price point was $45,000 a year, so any client that they got was $45,000. And above. So their strategy for their podcast was their marketing team would be very specific to figure out who their potential clients will. And the strategy was that they would caught their prospects, get them on the podcast, and see if they were a good fit. And then they would convert into clients. So, for example, they did 52 of those in 2017. And they converted I think, 13 of those. So that’s like a crazy sort of return on investment, not even thinking about how many of those might convert in the following year or the year after, like that we had a politician that we created a podcast for. And it was very specific that the politician was interviewing potential donors to his cause. So in that respect, at a price point, it doesn’t matter. Right? It depends on the strategy, and depends on how that all comes together. So what James was talking about from a transformation perspective is if you get to be known as the high fat, no sugar sort of person, then you have different ways to serve your audience, you can, they can listen to the podcast for free, or they can get the marinara sauce for free in the recipe and make it themselves or they can go down the whole path of actually buying stuff. So I think that’s what James was referring to. So there’s a lot in there. I was just, I’m curious what landed the most.
Sophia 22:37
Oh, so actually, I have books, and I have courses already. So I was just wondering what other people have done, what’s worked for them. So obviously, something that’s like 20 $30. But just given the price, it’s sells much more quickly, course, my courses starting from about $3,000. So they’re not as expensive as it would be studying with me if I was teaching one of the business schools I teach. But it’s definitely, definitely not a cheap ticket. And it was literally after about nine months of podcasting, that the first ever students signed up to one of my courses for you know, several 1000 through the podcast. And it was interesting, because she already knew me, like she knew the jokes that made me laugh. Because people who listen to podcasts, they get to know you, and they do kind of become your friend. And when that sale happened, I was incredibly proud. Because I knew that this person really wanted to buy and that they really got to know me and so that they were making this investment based on what they really wanted, rather than a high pressure tactic. That’s why I really wanted to understand how other people on the panel had approached the same.
Ronsley Vaz 23:43
Yeah, and I love the question. And I’m happy to stay on the topic of pricing, because I think it’s one that most podcasters struggle with, but on pricing like James and I, we’ve got a mastermind of our own autonomous is more of a coaching, we coach podcasters and we have a client MC who just returned, I think 150 grand from his podcast, and it was two clients that signed up for his top and coaching and he is a coach for builders and tradespeople. So it’s really fascinating. I just remembered that case study in terms of like, he can directly say that these two people have signed as a result of listening to his podcasts. So I think there’s all these different levels, because what is also going to happen is he keeps saying that he doesn’t even know how many people have signed up listening to his podcast, but not saying that. They have listened to his podcast and have signed up as a result. But these two people said that they were like Avid listeners of his podcast. So that’s why they were signing up. And that’s a crazy return on investment. I think. I think he might be 20 episodes in if I’m correct. Or maybe 30 episodes. James, do you know?
James Whittaker 24:51
Yeah, I’m not sure. But I know certainly the goal is to monetize. We hear people talking about how many followers and things that they want. But the truth is you don’t want to have 10,000 people who don’t really care about He would be much more valuable to have 10 people who are a perfect fit for what you’re doing. So he has a really great straight line for his podcast. So he tries to provide really specific actionable value for a audience that have a very real problem. He’s not trying to solve a problem that Nick thinks exists, he’s solving a problem that actually exists for a very specific audience. And then he leads into a whole bunch of things that ends with a very high ticket product. And if you’re comparing that to someone who’s selling widgets for $1, or has a whole heap of complexity and what they’re doing, it’s very, very different. So mix got it dialed in, and you just need the right people on your podcast, rather than it’s about like followers on social media, what’s the point of having a million followers on it, if no one cares, you need to make sure that you have the right people on their site, especially if you can provide them more value and help lead them to a transformation that they really want to have or help them solve a problem that’s very urgent for them.
Anna Vocino 25:48
I think that’s great, too, about solving the problem. Because technically, I’m in the weight loss space. And I’m providing recipes for people to make that are free from processed sugars and grains. Okay, that’s fine. But after doing this, for the better part of 10 years, I now realize that the people who find my work are ready to make a change. So you could be a little argument of like, well, there’s the 700 million people in the United States, and if over 60% of them are overweight or obese, that means I have a pretty big audience. And it’s like, well, not really, if people aren’t ready for your message. And so really kind of dialing that all in and realizing like that don’t matter, he’s really ready to hear the answer. So I know we’re talking my pricing gonna get back to that. But just it made me think about that, and how much I’ve learned, because I’ve gotten frustrated, like, why why why hasn’t grown faster? Why is it you know, that thing that you do when you’re like, I’m doing such great shit, where, where’s the people, and knowing that they come when they’re ready to come, and they do. And then you want those people who are so ready that they’re all in, and then the responsibility, I feel as on me, because I’m not going to, I’m not going to rob people or rip them off or sell them something they don’t need, I’m always going to sell stuff to people that I feel that is gonna be beneficial to them. And that’s just kind of where we all have those ethics, you know, just within us that inner thing. And as far as pricing to is, and again, it’s everything is different. And everything’s different for everybody. I always say, Oh, my time is so valuable, right? My time is so valuable. But the truth is, there is stuff that I’m happy to do for free. And clubhouse is one of them. And I have no problem with that. And I do my weekly club houses, and I host other club houses because I enjoy that interaction so much. I don’t care if I get paid for it. But there’s other products, I guess you could say that I offer and consults where there definitely is a price. And I always say it, especially with consults and stuff that’s going to take your one on one focus, think about what that price is for yourself. You can always lower your price. But I say I always say start at the higher end. And the market will tell you first of all, if nobody books, anything with you, you can always lower it. But there is what I call the pain in the ass factor. Like there’s a part of you that’s like I would do this for free because it’s not a pain in the ass. And I just love doing it. And there’s other things where it’s like it’s a horrible pain in the ass. But it is a lot of focus to just focus on one person for me and do a concert, make sure because I want to make sure they’re really well served and, and everything’s really growing for them and Poppy and then I get my undivided attention. That’s going to cost a lot more money. That just is so and that’s me. And that’s how I operate. But I just want to throw that out there for pricing. Again, I don’t know, I guess I’m coming back. And then we will kind of move because I keep coming back to the use your gut for pricing.
Ronsley Vaz 28:17
Yeah, I mean, there’s also a really important point there about pricing an audience. And because you could have and again, going back to James’s point about having all the followers you could have, like this great audience or number of audience, but it could not be the people that are looking to make the change, it could be the people that are just looking for entertainment. And if they’re looking to just be entertained and consume your content, then the chances of them going on to the next step is there’s a real problem for business owners and entrepreneurs when it comes to offering that transformation to the right people. And we want to help everyone in the sense that we want we know that everyone can use the stuff that we’re trying to sell. But the lowest hanging fruit is probably the best way to go about that. Because there are people that actually want the transformation. And if the call to action in the podcast isn’t specific to those people, then you could have the biggest audience in the world. And it just would not translate and it will be extremely frustrating. And we know of people James and I have people who are extremely frustrated by having an audience and but also they’re extremely not self aware. And they would say things like, I’m doing everything I can or I just have to keep grinding and you’re like, Okay, that’s like putting your finger in a socket, getting a shock and doing it again expecting it not to happen. It’s extremely weird, but it’s one of those defense mechanisms that we come up against kind of go, but I have the audience. So that’s a really important point, our audience specific audience from a pricing perspective for your podcast.
Sophia 29:45
Well, you know, I’ve actually found that my audience becoming more diverse than what I originally expected, has actually taken my business in a different direction and added a new part to it. So the original audience were non technical founders, so people who don’t have technical debt grand, but want to build technical businesses because that’s what I did my first company. And then I just started hearing from people who are listening to the podcast, but who had no intention of becoming founders. So for example, there were some investors that were listening. But that made sense, because that’s the other side of the coin. But what really struck me was when I spoke to somebody who actually I knew not very well, but I knew who is an investor in in a large fund that invest in publicly traded equities, and he was listening to a podcast. And he told me that he actually listened to the podcast, and then he gets those two college insights. And he used them to essentially make trading and investment decisions. And I thought, hang on a second. So I’m putting out this free podcast, and this guy is making millions from what I’m saying, Okay, I’m very proud. But I want a little bit of that, right. And that’s when I thought, okay, the founder stuff, that’s great, and I love doing it. But essentially, if this stuff is useful to people who are in large fund management organizations, why not take the founders content that I’ve created, and essentially, still keep that, but then also have another version for people who are also looking at technology companies, but at a much, much bigger level. And that’s essentially what I’m focusing on now. And so there are now two products, there is a product for the founders. And now there is a product for the corporate. And I would say that it was really the conversations that I began having with podcast listeners that I started thinking, okay, who’s actually reading my emails. And then I started seeing that not everybody who’s buying the courses actually intended to use them to start companies. They wanted to do other things with this knowledge. So I do think that sometimes your audience takes you somewhere where you otherwise wouldn’t have necessarily gotten yourself. Huge.
Ronsley Vaz 31:36
All right, team, we’re gonna land this plane. Thank you, everyone, for being here. Thank you, everyone for playing. And a lot of people have been used to start so I appreciate you James. Anna Holly, regular suspects. Amazing to have you here. Sophia. You’re an absolute legend. Please join us same time next week. We’d love to have you as part of the panel. We love having these discussions around podcasting. So please join us. Thank you, team for being here. I really, really appreciate you and your time and your expertise. You’re all awesome.
James Whittaker 32:00
Thank you. Hey, everyone. My name is James Whitaker, host of a podcast called when the day runs. And I have a business where we help podcasters monetize their passion, grow their audience, and really just build a business that they love by being able to help a lot of people along the way. I love being here with Ron’s and Anna and Holly and anyone else that comes along every week. So if you’ve got any thing that you’re struggling with, for your podcast, or for your business more than happy to help as much as possible.
Anna Vocino 32:23
Hi, I’m Anna chino. I’m a comic and voice actor. And I’m also the co host of the fitness confidential podcast, which has grown into me writing cookbooks and stuff and launching a food line. I don’t know, it just keeps going. I’m here to share my expertise, it will most likely come in the form of me telling my failure stories because I seem to kind of get off on that on clubhouse like, Hey, guys, here’s all the ways that I failed to you don’t do that don’t make my mistakes. I’m looking forward to it. Thanks.
Holly Shannon 32:48
Hi, everybody. I’m Holly Shannon. I am a podcaster culture factor is my show. And I’m the author of zero to podcast also recently working with the media and a few projects. I’m pretty excited about that as well. But I started my podcast by myself. So I’m the type of person that could be pretty scrappy about putting it all together. So feel free to ask me any questions, and I’ll support to help you.
Sophia 33:14
Thank you. Hello. Hi, good evening. Good morning, good night, wherever everybody is. So I’m severe. I’m a serial tech entrepreneur. And the company I spend most my time on is tech non techies. And we teach smart, non technical professionals what they need to know about technology in order to build businesses invest in them, or innovate in their careers. And I’ve taught at London Business School, and University of Texas and various other fancy places. And the tech for non techies podcast has been a really big part of my business, and has been a great way to build my network during the pandemic, when we will be in start to our screens.
Ronsley Vaz 33:53
All right. So you still till the end, you found this useful, and you have a business and you have a podcast and a business. And you kind of want to make it work for you and grow your business using this podcast will you know what, that’s something that I have helped 1000s of people do and 1000s of businesses do in different forms, through an agency and a one on one fashion through a conference in the group and obviously courses and stuff. So please, I want to be able to give you something that you can use to get recurring results in your business using a podcast. We call it the recurring results roadmap. It is yours of putting this in practice. It is the blueprint to get results in recurring results using our podcast if you’d like that, send me a message [email protected] I want to hear from you. I want to hear your voice or want to hear from us. If you’ve listened to this and you want that roadmap, please send me an email [email protected] I want to hear from you. Much love. I’ll see you here. The next episode
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