The Hidden Trap Keeping Your Podcast Stuck

0:05 Good morning podcasting Morning Chat. Today is Tuesday, October 28th, 2025 and today monetization and audience growth. We'll explore the turning points, trade-offs, and success markers that guides every podcaster's next step. So if you're listening live on Clubhouse, hit the share button, bottom left hand side of the screen and share it. However, Clubhouse lets you. And if you're catching us via podcast, chatter, YouTube, etcetera, please share this episode with a fellow podcaster. And now give us about 30 seconds and we'll get things rolling. Thanks for being here. Good morning again podcasting.

1:22 Morning Chad. Thanks so much for being here. I am your host Mark Ronick and here with me on stage we have my Co hosts Feel better producer Ashley Feller, Dr. Faye, Sid Meadows, Nick Naubak and Alex Baelish. And yes, today, like I said, we're going to get into audience growth, monetization, maybe some re evaluating. Once again, I know we talked a little bit about where we are in our podcasting journeys in the sense that we had a whole show talking with Sid about his revamping of his show. And I think there is some of that, some of that will play into today's conversation. I know also Ralph is in the audience currently and he is going to join us as well 'cause he's going, he's doing something similar with some re strategizing. I'll say, 'cause I can't think of a better word. So with that, let me also remind you real quick that for one, we are streaming live on Facebook.

2:25 And I know I said that yesterday, yet I also know I failed to say where you can find us on Facebook or find me live on Facebook. So currently I'm streaming to my personal Facebook page. So facebook.com/markronic Mark spelled with AC Ronic spelled with ack. So you can find me over there streaming live right now waving to you. If you are already here, you can see me at on Facebook or Facebook, I'm sorry, or YouTube as well. Hi, Dr. Was that intentional? The choice of which page you do the live on which Facebook page?

3:07 Was that intentional? It was. My first thought was going to be that you were going to do it live. On Empowered podcasting. Yeah, I debated and it was honestly, I went with the easiest route. And when I was setting it up on Riverside, it was the easiest setup was to just stream it right to my personal page. And I'm not saying they make it difficult, I'm saying just for me personally, that was the quickest and easiest way to set it up. So that's what I did. I didn't know that there was a difference. Yeah, you have to set it up. That's slightly different, just different settings, you got to be in a different account, etcetera. But yeah, so I just went right to my personal page and the whole strategy, if there is a strategy here for me, is I'm just trying to do these things slowly, right?

3:52 Like it's been one at a time. First it was, yeah, First it was YouTube, then Chatter, then we stepped away from Chatter a little bit, but we brought it back. Although I don't think we're on Chatter this morning. But the YouTube thing, I just wanted to go one at a time. I did that live streaming service and then I felt like it was time to expand recently, so I decided, let's try this on Facebook as well. I also made some changes on how this show is presented live on those platforms. When you set it up with Riverside specifically, it defaults. It gives you a default title, a default description, and it's very generic. I'm talking like you'll see some of the old live recordings that are on YouTube. It starts by the title says welcome to the welcome to our live show.

4:42 And then the description is just as generic as that. So I've changed it with more keyword heavy title, description, etcetera. So sharing the behind the scenes because you know what, I know a lot of other people do this as well, right? A lot of other people determining and debating how to get on YouTube, how they want to, how many platforms they want to stream on, etcetera. OK, one more piece of housekeeping for everybody. A reminder, especially to those on stage, our moderators, we're we're evaluating another podcast on Thursday that's two days away, The podcast Unbreakable Spirit, a healing journey. And that host is also a listener of the podcasting morning chat.

5:24 Magdalena Joseph is her name and this podcast is somewhat of a diary, if you will, of her healing journey. She's had chronic illness for years. Actually, I think it's an an autoimmune disease. And she shares her journey and her, I believe, and I'm going to follow up with her too. I think her whole purpose is to share her journey so that others who are going through something similar don't feel alone. So we will dig into that show and the episode we're going to dig into is Act of Letting Go. That's the title. We'll dig into the episode specifically, but we'll also talk about things like her cover art, her title, her description of her overall series, etcetera.

6:09 We'll give her a full evaluation, which we think will also help others when they're thinking about their podcast and what maybe they feel like they're doing right and what they feel like could use a little extra attention. Now you know the runner's soul. Yes, the one we did last week. The the first one, right, she hit 500 downloads. And I would like to think that this show was responsible for a little bit of that, certainly with all the moderators listening to it, right. But other than that, I think our audience is kind of doing these valuations with us. Yeah, I think so too. Absolutely. So nice that we're maybe helping podcasters in more ways than one with the evaluation, maybe getting them a few downloads that. Looks like we're doing that.

6:58 Adopt A podcast, kind of that's right. You know what I mean? Yeah. Which I know is something we tried 1 holiday season and I don't think it worked out, but maybe we'll revisit that again. OK, today we are talking about figuring out your next steps as a podcaster. And at some point, every creator hits that moment where you ask yourself, do I double down on growing my audience, start focusing more on monetization, or maybe even step back and realign your whole strategy, similar again to what Sid shared with us last week. So we're going to dig into really all three sides of that, the growth, the monetization, and what I'm calling alignment and readiness. Because sometimes the next step isn't about doing more. It's really about getting things set up right for the stage you're in, Not the physical stage, but the stage, the season that you're in.

7:51 And as you can see, if you're here with us on Clubhouse, Ralph is already on stage with us this morning. He's going to join us too, because he's right in the middle of rebranding his own show to help content creators with exactly that, making sure that their foundation is solid before they grow or monetize. That's the way I interpret it from talking with Ralph. Ralph, is that a fair assessment of where you are right now? Yeah, good morning. Absolutely, Mark, thank you for having me join you this morning. That's exactly what I'm doing. So I've been doing accounting work for 30 years, literally since I was 8 years old, which is a whole nother story. But over the last couple years, I've really leaned into the content creator economy and I am rebranding my show. I do a weekly show, I do a Daily Show, but also do 2 weekly shows, but one of them is a weekly show called Grit and Growth Business.

8:42 And I'm what I'm really doing is I'm pivoting that now to what I'm calling the content creators accountant with the whole goal of helping fellow content creators, whether to be YouTube, podcasting, whatever there is a blog, writers, whatever that is, help them really set up their business with the end in mind. Because the truth is we've got to make a decision. Are we in business or is this a hobby? And if this is a business, then there are things that we can do as a business person to set it up right? And that's my whole focus of where I'm taking my show, where I'm taking my 30 years of experience, really leveraging that to help people like all of us really take it to the next level with their podcast or whatever their content creation is. Awesome. Thank you, Ralph, And also Ralph sounding great this morning here on the podcasting. Morning, Ted.

9:28 I know he's plugged into his Rd. Caster Pro, maybe Pro 2. Yeah, so good to have you here, Ralph. Thank you. And looking forward to digging into this more with you. And Phil, I'm checking in with you because Speaking of Rd. caster prose and sound, I know you've been working on it. So let's hear how you sound. Good morning. Good morning podcast, morning chat. I wish I could sound as smooth as both Mark and Ralph, but I'm doing it the old fashioned way just through my phone. I tried to hook it up to the road caster, didn't work so I went old school. So I'm authentically old school right now. Nice. I love it. Well, you sound good. It sounds it sounds better than it has in the past, so. I'm happy then.

10:12 Yes, and look, it could be worse. You could sound like Nick when when Nick and whenever he speaks with that awful Bluetooth headset of his. And finally, I will say, and then we will dig in. Ashley, just want to make sure you're doing well, you're safe and sound. I know you're in Florida and I know unfortunately Florida got a heck of a lot of rain thanks to Hurricane Melissa. You're doing OK. Yeah, we're OK. I just walked outside. It's actually chilly and misty outside. About an hour from here. Got some damage but we are OK. OK, good. I'm glad to hear it. OK, so let's open things up. I want to hear from either someone on stage, someone in the audience if you want to come up, or even put it in the chat. What phase are you currently in with your podcast? Are you in a building phase, a growing phase, a reevaluating phase?

11:06 I'm curious to hear where everyone is at. Let's dig in. I think that the podcasting morning chat is going to go into a back into a building phase. You know, Phil better has obviously joined the team here as a Co host. He's also joining as a producer. We have somewhat of our, we, I guess an official now production or producer team with Phil, Ashley, Dr. Nick and myself. We've been talking a little behind the scenes. We had a even a call last week just to try to get this show a little more buttoned up. Not that we're a mess. I think we do a pretty darn good job.

11:48 But yeah, I think that we're in this phase of maybe reevaluating slash rebuilding. They see Lindsaya has joined us on stage as well. And by the way, shout out to Simona Costantini in the audience this morning. Good to see you, Simona. Simona was going to join us today for a different conversation, but it didn't work out. So we're working on something next week. Oh my. God, she's here. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. I had to get coffee and then I had to go get to the gym and get the dog and then Oh my God, I had to go see Sean. Oh my God, this has been the greatest day ever but I can't talk because I got to get my wonderful company up and running because I have like 47 things to do Sorry.

12:30 I got to go a little tongue in cheek there from Alex. Thank you. And yes, Simona is literally I think right now in route to the dentist. So yes, there you go. There's one of the other things on her To Do List today. I knew she wanted to come up first. Let me go to Lindsay so we can actually dig into some content today and then we'll go back to Simona to respond. Lindsay, a good morning. What stage are you currently in with your podcast and tell us a little bit more about that if you don't mind. Well, first I wanted to come up and say you guys are all buttoned up. So I love that there's going to be an amplifying. Yeah, it's fantastic in here every morning that I'm able to come. And when I can't, I do listen sometimes over on other platforms too. So yeah, that's fun that's happened. I want to call it the redesigning because there I'm keeping so much of what fundamentally started for the Wellness Warrior podcast.

13:22 And now I paused and took care of my Mama and the most important things. And it gave me such clarity on how I want to do this next iteration of the podcast, both with consistency, who I'm going to be interviewing, and also adding in some smaller segments. I've been taking away some of what has been shared in here, especially yesterday, the topic on episodes. So I'm shifting, I'm ready to bring it forward more consistently. And I'm actually going to be doing more of my own producing. So it's all evolving and excited to learn from you guys as I continue my journey. Thank you, Lindsay. I appreciate that and congratulations.

14:03 I'm curious what what got you into this phase of reevaluating and rebuilding? I'll call it what what What's the reason behind it? Was something not working well for you prior? I would say my consistency because it was a hobby, I really evaluate it from the place of hobby. And yes, if someone asks to be on the podcast, they did have to pay. So I didn't have to pay for those particular episodes. I had worked in some ways to help alleviate the expenses when someone was asking to be on the podcast. However, you know, curating that funnel to allow for simplicity and what really like changed for me, specifically on wanting to change how we're being like, how often it's happening.

14:52 I want to go from hobby to really considering monetization, bringing it in as an element of upgrade for those that are part of my community. Again, I see a bigger picture now, even in terms of sponsorship. I feel more confident and heading out and asking for sponsorship for the podcast. Love that. Thank you, Lindsay. Phil, did you have a question? I saw your mic come off mute. Oh, I just wanted to agree with Lindsay that my podcast, I'm in the I'm also in the process of going to be ending my main podcast. Oh, OK, cool. So and why, what's, what was the motivation behind that? My main podcast to invest in yourself, the Digital Entrepreneur podcast.

15:35 I started because I didn't have an idea what how to be an entrepreneur. And now I'm moving into what I believe. What I want to do is more coaching on the podcasting side. So I'm going to move that more into how to be a coach. So digital entrepreneur coaching. And Phil, is that something that you decided because you felt like you needed the change, or is that something that you feel like your audience is really wanting? Like, is that how they're evolving? What was behind that? I originally started the podcast with the idea of how to be an entrepreneur. I had no idea how to be an entrepreneur, so I started interviewing digital entrepreneurs. This was back in 2020, and as I've interviewed them over the last five years, I've come to see that I feel more aligned with coaches than just general entrepreneurs. So I want to move into talking with more coaches and understanding the coaching world. So that's pretty much what I plan on doing. Very cool.

16:34 More from Phil in a little bit. Thank you, Phil. And let's go to Simona. Simona, good morning. Do you want to answer the question or maybe fire back at Alex? Could you please remind me of the question? Well, sure. Just where are you at in your podcasting journey of specific to one of your podcasts? Is it in a building phase, growing phase? Are you reevaluating things? Those two podcasts, one of them's actually been on hiatus since August of 2024, and I honestly don't know what to do with it. I've thought about, do I regrand it into something different, into a new name, you know, do I bring it back with a different focus? I don't know what to do with it. And sometimes when you're so close to it, it's hard to like look at it in the same way that I would look at a client's job, if that makes.

17:20 Sense. No, it makes a lot of sense. You know I don't take enough of my own advice. Exactly. And I was thinking to, you know, like the name of it is happiness happens. And every time I throw out a new name to my audience or to my community or online or wherever, everyone says, no, keep the name. You know what I mean? So I'm like, I want to change it or I'll like, you know, whatever. And it never resonates with people. And so I'm like, well, I don't want to change the name of the podcast in a way that doesn't resonate with people, but the name of it doesn't fully resonate with me. So it's a kind of like a catch 22. But then in some ways I'm sure I could kind of redefine what the new name would be, but it would take time to get the audience on board.

18:00 Like I've had the show since 2018. It's a long time, right? And you know how sometimes people rebrand something and it's like the wrong brand move and then it's like it doesn't like you kind of like missed the whole mark. So that's one show. And then the other show, I've kind of refocused that podcast through a different lens, which has been really interesting. I don't do series on this podcast or like weekly podcast. It's like a weekly episode, but instead of just doing 1 off random weekly episodes, I've just been focusing in on like a topic for 11:50 weeks and then running with that. So it's been interesting. So we'll see how it goes. Yeah. And I mean, it's probably a whole other conversation, but what I couldn't help but to think while you were sharing, and I know this is probably not what people would expect me to say, but I mean, is there a point where you say maybe that the like the happiness happened ones in particular, maybe it's run its course and maybe it's time to put it to bed officially.

19:01 Yeah, you know, and that's such a good point. Like that's exactly what I've kind of been thinking. But then I go and I look at my downloads, Mark, and I have more downloads in the last four months than I had when I was actually producing the show. I'm like, well, what the heck? Is that a sign from the universe? Is the universe telling me to pick it back up? Well, with a different focus, I just kind of sit on it every single day, and one day I'll figure out what to do with it. Yeah. And then what's also interesting is, is why you're being called to a different focus if it's becoming, for whatever reason, more popular right now, it sounds like what you were doing was working. Exactly. But then I wonder, like, is it the SEO of the podcast and are people just really unhappy and looking for help and guidance in that way?

19:43 And maybe those topics like resonate. But the show was fun to do. Like everything about it was so fun to do. I don't know how to take it out of this like stuck phase, yeah, and make it into what I've always like envisioned that it would be. But I guess I'm not really making any progress towards that by not creating any content for him. Thank you, Simona. Let's check in with Ralph. It sounds like Ralph wants to chime in. Go ahead, Ralph. Good morning again. I had a couple observations. So the first thing that I think all of us need to do is we need to lean into what I'll call you to your brand promise. And this is where I think a lot of podcasters especially get lost. I think before you start doing anything to your show, you've really got to define what is your brand promise?

20:28 What are you promising that people are going to get from coming to your content? I think a lot of people just kind of moosy around the outside of that and they don't really focus in on that. And I think to be effective in this in this genre, you've got to know what your brand promises and everything needs to lean into that. And you mentioned, are you building or growing? Listen, my personal being, it's going to sound kind of harsh if you're not building always you're falling behind. And I know that sounds kind of mean spirited. I don't mean it to sound that way, but it's just true. And then the third piece of this is what is your measurement? Because it's easy to say, well, I'm going to measure downloads, I'm going to measure this, I'm going to measure that. If you're a business person, you measure, there's measurements. I think you need to do the same thing in your content.

21:10 What are your measurements that are going to say whether this is successful or not? I think a lot of people lose sight of that. And that's one of things I take away from business is we can measure is our revenue growing? Is our profit growing, is our exposure going, but have things that that are measurable and then look at the actual results and stop trying to figure out like what is working, what is it? It's kind of like throwing spaghetti a wall. If you don't know what you're throwing it at, and you don't have a measurement to understand what you're trying to accomplish, you're never going to get anywhere. Excellent points, Ralph. Thank you. And that first point you made, can you say that again, please? Yeah, absolutely. One of the first things I do when I work with people who are building and it doesn't matter the kind of business, the first thing I say is what is your brand promise?

21:53 I'll give you an example. I do a Daily Show. It's called Financially Confident Christian, and my brand promise is to help people break the cycle of financial shame with confidence. So everything I do leans into that brand promise. Every topic I talk about, every discussion I get into, all the things I do, lean into that brand promise. Because once you know what your brand promises, then you know the content to deliver. Because listen, if we're not providing something to our audience, they're going to leave. So we need to know what that is. I mean, understand your audience, I guess is the first step. But what is your brand promise? And once you understand your brand promise, then it all falls into place. But the thing I see people struggle with is when they don't know what their band promises. And they try this and they try this and they try this, and it just becomes frustrating.

22:37 You get burned out, you get pod feed because you don't know what you're trying to accomplish. Yeah, your brand promise, it's basically your North Star. And also, I think when you say brand promise, you were talking about audience first. And yeah, I think if you know your audience first that then your brand promise follows because then you can actually make an accurate, a valuable promise to that audience. So yeah, that's that's a really important fact. Ralph, thank you for that. And I agree with you, I think you do need to know your audience, but I think the two things kind of go hand in hand. Mark, I'm, I'm not trying to push back when you go ahead really leaning into your brand promise because listen, I've seen business people succeed if their brand promise makes sense to the person that needs it.

23:23 And I've seen brilliant business people flail because they don't know what their brand promises. They don't know what sets them aside from everybody else. And that is so critical if you're going to be successful in any kind of venture. Thank you again, Ralph. And you also mentioned a moment ago measure measuring different areas for success, right, the different. So I want to get into that. Let's get into how we're defining growth. And again, this is for the individuals, right? We're not necessarily saying there is one way to define growth. I want to hear the different ways that we here today define growth for our shows, right? For me, I think there's a couple of things.

24:06 The way I'm defining growth, sure, I'm looking at downloads and I'm looking at retention rate, but I think for me, what I, what I'm measuring most is what kind of engagement am I getting? Are we growing here live as a community? Are people actually participating besides just the hosts, All these different factors. And then when I talk about the podcast version of this show, I'm looking at similar things. Are people leaving reviews, which by the way, nobody's been leaving reviews lately. So I feel like I'm slipping there. And this is a friendly ask. Please, if you haven't reviewed this, go to Apple, go to Spotify, either. Leave us a review on Apple, give us a five star rating if you feel it over on Spotify.

24:55 That is a big area for me to measure our growth, our success. And also seeing other things like are people commenting on YouTube? Are people commenting on Spotify on the individual episodes? Are they participating in the polls that we put up there? That to me is what's super important. And of course, the probably the biggest thing I'm measuring, which we'll get into some monetization discussions. But am I getting business? Yeah, it's not not a secret. One of the reasons why I do this show, Yeah, it's to establish my influence, my authority and to get some business right to connect with podcasters who are looking for help from somebody who's experienced, been doing this a while, has seen success, right.

25:39 So those are the big factors for me. Would I like to see us getting thousands of downloads a day on our show? Sure, of course. But it's not the driving factor. If it was, quite honestly, we wouldn't be here right now. I would have hung it up because our numbers aren't earth shattering. And yes, they continue to grow, but it's been a very slow burn. I think what's kind of interesting between what Phil and Simona and Lindsay has said, you know, there are a crossroads, and in some ways you could just be in a different place. And that's a hard thing as a podcaster because, you know, you're talking about what Ralph said. You know, what's your promise?

26:20 Well, maybe your promise has changed. And I think that's the problem. Simona is a completely different person than when she first started here, and because of that, her view on what she wants to do might be changing. This isn't about you particularly, Simona. I'm just saying like we all do it. And I think that's a hard thing as a podcaster because they know you as X or Y and you're not that person anymore. And not that the content isn't important, it's just that you've changed and maybe you don't want to keep talking about the same topics or you don't want you want to change. And it's hard because people are in a certain place. I mean, in power podcasting, one of your clients, Mark, she deals with her divorce and she got to a point where she wanted to go in a different, you know, go in sort of a different direction.

27:11 Not and it's still about divorce, but she moved on from that one point. And and that's a hard thing to to make that shift. Yes, you have a promise, but if the promise is not what you're doing, that's the kind of a different situation too. I'm with you there, Alex. I think as we evolve, so does our taste, so does our interests, etcetera. I think what everyone is kind of alluding to is the bigger thing. And that is what is your why? Because Mark, what you were saying is really leaning into your why do you do what you do? Because sometimes that is a bigger thing than anything else. But that's the thing. You have to understand your measurement. I'll give you an example of that. I do a weekly show called Truth Unveil. It's more of a sermon show. And my why with that is I want to reach people and have them make a decision.

27:54 I'm not even going to get into the talking about what decision is because it's not the place for it. But that's my why. I'm not. I could care less how many downloads I get, but my why is that now when I switch over to my business show, my why is like you said, Mark, I want to build business. I want to build clients. I think you have to really understand your why because if you don't understand your why, again, you find yourself searching for what do I do next? What do I do next? But when you really lean into your why and, and I agree with what Alex just said, I think what actually changes is not your brand promise. I think your why changes. And I think, you know, in the Bible talks about seasons of your life. And I think we all go through that, but I think it's more of a change in your why. That's that's just my $0.02 worth on that particular discussion.

28:36 Absolutely. Thank you. Ralph Lindsaya, did I see your mic unmute? So there's one part that I left out and it's funny because I actually realized that and maybe for someone else, it all this also connects with where the shift in the podcast comes from. And I wasn't saying it because I haven't been saying it out loud until all of the documents are signed. And the big catalyst, a big catalyst for me both taking personal responsibility and more of the producing and also excited to amp up my consistency is because I am securing a physical location and in that location is already an established recording studio rather a space that will provide an option for recording. So one of the challenges, and maybe other people have felt this too, when the podcast is more like a hobby for me, I let's find a location or take it down to my office, pull out my microphone, like get everything set up every single time versus having that space.

29:40 And my most consistent time was after my daughter moved out to college and I had her room and everything was set up all the time. And so I'm putting this out there because sometimes it really is a timing thing where simplicity finds its way and now you're ready to lean in. And I feel as though these first Four Seasons, if you will, have been all about establishing my processes, my understanding and kind of the back end game of podcasting. I think that as independent podcasters, that's a big one for all of us. I think that, you know, we start a little messy and we learn as we go and as we're learning, we're growing. And as we grow, we get more opportunities. It sounds like that's what's what's going on with Lindsay there.

30:24 I was going to say I have an office here for my accounting practice here on my farm. And one of the things I decided to do, I guess it's been about nine months ago, is I just said, look, if I'm going to do this seriously, I need to build a studio. And I did that and it has taken it to the next level because now there is a separate place where I go to do the content stuff. It's an intentional decision. That's one of the words I want to really key in on today is intentionality is what is your intention? And sometimes it's not easy to do that with a budget. But I just said to myself, look, I've got to spend the money I put in. I do camera, I did lighting, I did a ton of stuff. But like I lean into that because I said, this is something that I want to lean into and I'm going to put, you know, my resources into. And I think it that's one of the decision points is OK, if we're going to be a hobby, that's cool.

31:08 I respect the hell out of people that have podcasting and content creation as a hobby. But if you're going to take it to the next level, then listen, you got to be willing to spend some money. You got to be willing to talk to people like me to set up a business, to set up a LLC or a corporation and really get yourself set up for the next step. Because once that modernization hits, there are major ramifications. And tax and all the bookkeeping that goes alongside of that. And it's funny how many people don't want to spend a little money for a consultation to go and find the expert in that field to really know what they're getting into. I definitely hear you on that last point for sure. And I also want to say, Ralph, what to what Ralph is saying here is, yeah, I'm with him. I agree that and Lindsay, for that matter, where studio space is important in the process.

31:56 And I don't want to say you're not taking it seriously though, if you don't have a suit studio space or if you're not spending or investing a lot of money into it. I think what's important, what you can take away as an independent podcaster is what what I think we're trying to say here is creating a dedicated space, creating your content. It means you're focusing and you're creating. You have this space without any resistance. You've got a place where you can, where you know I can go For my case, I can go down to the basement, my dedicated area where I've got all of my studio, all of my equipment set up.

32:37 So essentially all I have to do is hit more or less 2 buttons, the power button and the record button, right? Then it doesn't feel to me as much like a hobby anymore, right? Because I've got that dedicated space, I know I can sit down and focus. There isn't resistance to getting things ready. I remember those days of grabbing the microphone, plugging it into the computer, setting up this camera, setting up the lighting. It was always a process. I always have to give myself a good 20-30 minutes before I even hit record because I wanted to make sure everything was set up properly. So there's something about taking it a little more seriously, having that intention set. I think there's a lot of value in that. Yeah.

33:22 Chris Baglio in the chat says turnkey is nice. Yeah, I think there's a lot of advantages to doing that. Simona, what did you want to add? Resistance, because I think that is a huge piece. We hear a lot, and I hear a lot. I'm sure you do too in your business. Oh my gosh, I don't know what tech to use. I don't know how to start. I don't know, you know what I mean? Look at it as a huge roadblock. Especially today, it's a huge roadblock because there's so many options and there's so much tech and every day there's something new and every day there's a new AI tool. And then every day there's something that you should, you should do differently, right? The keyword is should. You don't have to do it, but you like you people say you should. But so interesting because a couple of years ago, and you and Nick would probably remember this because you guys were both guests on my podcast when I first launched it, it was like camera and like all of the things that it was like it was so intense.

34:18 And I honestly can't be bothered, you know what I mean? And I use my show for business. I have a dedicated space to record it in. So it's not that I'm not using it strategically in that way. This is my show about podcasting that I'm still producing today. But honestly, I just don't care for the camera. Like I don't I don't care for all of like the fancy things like it still looks good, you know, but it's so interesting though too, because in some ways it's like you kind of quote UN quote should have that higher production value. You should have the good camera. You should have this, should have this. But honestly, if you don't know how to use the tech properly, sometimes it actually doesn't look better. You know it, it doesn't it doesn't look better in the end, but I don't know, I've just found myself that I'm like, this is making me not want to do this show, having all of this stuff and this whole setup. And I moved in the last six months, so I don't have a studio space anymore.

35:09 And kind of like what Alex said, it's a totally different season of life. But I think it's really interesting because as the industry continues to shift, people tell you you need to do all of these specific things in order to be a quote UN quote successful podcaster. But at the end of the day, if you are doing all these things and they're causing so much resistance for you, you're not going to enjoy the process and you're not going to enjoy the show, you're not going to enjoy the content. So that's where I always go back to like, but if this is the thing that's going to make you not do it, don't do that. Find a different way. I'm with you there. I think that we, a lot of us creators out there, we force different strategies, different tools because we're told that that's what we're supposed to do.

35:53 And I think that the more we're resisting it, we're getting more signs that maybe we need to try something different. Yeah, I'm with you, Simona. Thank you for that. I want to move into some discussion around monetization, so let's shift gears and talk about that. Everyone talks about making money with your show and the reality is, is that I don't believe there's a one-size-fits-all way to do it. For some podcasters, it's sponsors or ads. For others, it's using the podcast to promote a service coaching community. And for some creators, monetization isn't even the goal. For them, they're doing it because they're building credibility or maybe looking to open some new doors. So what does monetization mean to you personally? That's another area for the podcasting morning chat that I really want to explore because yes, as I shared a little while ago, one of the reasons I do this show is to build my business and to get new clients.

36:57 And I know that I have other opportunities to monetize this and I don't take advantage of it. And it's actually been weighing on me a little bit lately. Why don't I have a sponsor or two for this show? It's some extra money that this show could use because I do pay people to help me with this, right? Ashley is a producer slash editor of this show. I pay her for her time to edit it because that's a that's a process from start to finish. It takes her a couple hours. And it's not just the editing that she's doing. That's that's what takes the time. So I want to be able to find some other ways to monetize the show specifically, right? Like the overall goal for me, for my business is to bring in new clients, but in order to continue to operate this show, I think it would be to my advantage to bring in some sponsors, some advertisers to help pay for itself. What I was going to say is, and it kind of goes on with what Simona was saying, you can either pay with your time or you can pay with your money.

38:00 And if you find that you're doing things that you just don't enjoy, then maybe like you're getting at Mark is you need to go find a way to bring some money into your show so that you can pay people to do the things that you're not good at or the things that you just don't like doing. You know, a good friend of mine, Dave Jackson School Podcasting, he says this all the time and it's so true. You don't monetize a show, you monetize an audience. And so I think we need to focus on, you know, if you, when you build that audience, look at the way the audience can provide for you. And if that means providing so that you can have somebody, Ashley, to do production work. I actually have a team that does all my production work because I don't, I don't have time to do it #1 and #2 it's not my area expertise. I am not a video editor.

38:42 I'm not an audio editor. I've got 30 years of experience. So I can talk about my content. But I had to realize at the front end of this, if I tried to do all those things, because I tried to do that at 1st and I was driving myself crazy. So we have to realize like either we pay with our time or we pay with our money. And that's where we have to look at interesting strategies of how to bring money into the show. And it could be different for everybody. I, I think you're so right about that, Mark. There's no one-size-fits-all. A lot of people think, well, I'm going to base it on the number of downloads. You're going to make pennies. You're not going to make money doing that unless you have a super, enormous audience. Otherwise you're lying to yourself. So you've got to be creative and look at ways to do it.

39:22 And there are interesting ways to do it, leaning into your core purpose, your brand identity, your brand promise. Thank you, Ralph. And Ralph, what are the ways that you're monetizing? Pick one of your shows, What's some ways that you're monetizing your show right now? Oh, absolutely. So my main way of monetizing my show is really doing business, coaching, helping people, set up new entities, help people establish a quote business instead of just, you know, a sole proprietorship. I'm showing them because I'm speaking on my show, I, they, they owe Ralph, I can save money on taxes. I've taken content creators who are paying a ton of money in extra tax and showed them a way to not do that anymore. So that's the way I'm monetizing it, Mark.

40:04 I'm building up clientele by using my show as a conduit for that. Thanks, Ralph. Appreciate that. Love that strategy. And I'm curious, how are others approaching monetization these days? We don't. We haven't talked a lot about that. And maybe what I'll do is, yeah, I was just going to say, let me go to Sid on that one because I know Sid talked a little bit about it last week, but let's dig into it a little bit with Sid and then I see Simona had something as well. Go ahead, Sid. Good morning. Good morning, everybody. So yeah, monetization is something that I did a couple of years ago. I had a single sponsor for two or three years and it was a great relationship and just came to a natural end.

40:45 And so then the last couple of years I've just kind of not done it and not really sure what I wanted to do. So as I was, I love the word redesigning, whoever said that earlier today because I was redesigning, I think Lindsay has said that as I was redesigning, it's kind of my show and what's going on with it. Monetization was at the forefront. It cost me a lot to produce my show because I have a YouTube person and I have a editor. I mean, so cost me a lot to do it. And so I leaned into creating a monetization strategy that I think it's going to be really successful for me. And so I have 3 tiers of sponsorship. I have a gold, silver and bronze. And yes, I know that's boring, but it's what I came up with at the moment. I might change it, but the gold is the top sponsor and there I have two spots available in that. And I kind of wrote out a whole checklist of what it is that you get by being a gold sponsor.

41:37 And the same thing with the silver. What do you get? And obviously it diminishes based on the amount of money that you pay. And then the other thing that I'm working on is a community, because I'm getting to know more and more of my people in my community. I sat down last night to at a bar with somebody and introduced myself, said, hey, I'm Sid. And he was like, are you Sid from the trend report? And I went, yeah, because when my wife and I were just talking about you and then he texted his wife because you'll never guess who I'm sitting next to. And it was just kind of a fun experience. I connected with both of them right then on LinkedIn, I screenshot of their profiles so I could remember who they were. And so I'm really leaning into the people aspect here. And I'm coming up with the strategy to, you know, whether it's $10 a month or $20.00 a month of what is it that I, I, I don't have the answer to this question, but what is it that I can provide that would want this, I would want to pay $20.00 a month to or $10 a month, whatever it is to support me because really what it is, it's supporting me and supporting the show.

42:41 So the sponsorships I got all mapped out. I've talked to people about it this week at a couple of conversations yesterday. I've got one this morning. I've got all my documents together. I had a call on my drive up here on Friday with a potential sponsor. So I'm actively out there recruiting and confident that I'm going to fill up my different sponsorship levels. I love this example. Thank you, Sid so much for sharing it. And I'm curious if look it, it took a while, from what I understand and know of you and your podcast, it took a while for you to jump into a monetization strategy, a specific strategy. What? What do you think was holding you back all this time?

43:24 So in the very beginning, when the, the sponsor originally approached me because I had the sponsor actually originally approached me and I said no. And because at that time, I, I viewed sponsorship as creative control. And it was this community, Amanda Pedro, others in this community, this was before Mark took over the community that really helped me see that sponsorship does not equal creative control. And once I understood that, then I leaned in and, and the first time around, he said, OK, what, how much and what do I get? And so I drafted it all out and I put a price up there. We negotiated a little bit and it was a successful, a successful partnership in this time around. So part of what I'm doing and redesigning is I'm really looking at what I'm doing, where I'm spending my time, what I love doing, and then how do those become, you know, revenue streams?

44:19 I have the collaborative network, which is, you know, the partnership that I created that's going really well. And so that's like move to the top of my list of things to do. I really enjoy that. And we just kind of get more people in there so we generate more money. I love my podcasts, but I need my podcast to be a revenue stream in my business to the point that Ralph was making earlier. And so how do I turn it into a revenue stream? Well, that equals monetization because I'm not going to do ads and CPM rates because I'll never make any money with that. So and I have a good enough brand inside the industry that the, I believe the monetization strategy is going to work. So it just was the timing of it. Mark, I because remember I said the lot when we talked about this at link, I goes to my community for half a year and just kind of stopped doing. I spent this year rebuilding that and rebuilding those relationship, those connections, being consistent with publishing twice a month, putting content out that was relevant and rebuilding and re engaging with my you know what you hope to be your thousand true fans.

45:18 And so now that I've done that and re established that the timing is right and I need to be able to get a minimum cover the expenses that it cost me to produce the show. Thank you, Sid. Appreciate that. And let me keep things moving in an effort to stay on track on time. Simona, did you want to chime in on this discussion of monetization methods? Yeah, I'll weigh in. I think one of the things about sponsorship is just to always remember that as long as you are approaching people and products and services that alot that align with your audience, it doesn't always matter how big your audience size is. At the end of the day, what a sponsor is looking for is ROI. They're looking for people who are going to either use their product or service and they want to make money, right. And so if your audience aligns to that product, that could be a very good sponsorship.

46:15 So it doesn't always have to be these like big massive companies, and it can be, but it can also be other things too. I used to produce this show and the host of the show, her strategy was really smart. So she actually created a specific sponsorship package for past podcast guests because her logic and it was really smart in my opinion, but her logic was, well, you've been a guest on my podcast, so obviously your topic aligns to what we're talking about on the show. And so she would have different coaches that would come and promote their services. If someone was doing a launch, you know, product launch, they would run ads on her show and she had a specific package for them.

46:58 It was a little bit of a reduced rate compared to, you know, other, other external sponsors. But I thought that was so smart because if you're bringing on guests to your show, that is most likely your target audience because why else would you be bringing that guest on if it doesn't resonate, right? So that I thought that was smart. And then as kind of a final thought, one way that I'm monetizing my podcast right now, this is my podcast about podcasting. I have in the last 10 weeks run a well, as we saw a couple weeks left, but I'm doing a podcast launch series. So I'm taking people through everything that they would need from A-Z to launch or relaunch their podcast. And it's been really great. And like the engagement has been really great on it.

47:39 And the only call to action that I have in this entire series is to download my free podcast launch blueprint because that blueprint goes deeper into what we're talking about. And my goal with that is to bring people out to my e-mail list because this ten week podcast launch, you know, series, if you will, goes into a sale at the end of November, like a Black Friday, Cyber Monday sale. And then I'm going to do it again in the new year for my podcast growth staff. And then I'm going to do it again in the new year for the monetization side. So we're going to see how we're going to see how it works. But we've had a lot of people join our, our list like it's not astronomical members by any stretch.

48:21 But I think there's, there's something to be said about take a look at what you already have in your, you know, in, in everything that you do. And how can you leverage what you already have without having to go and recreate something and bring people back into your community, back into everything else you're doing with what you already have? Thank you, Simone. I see several people want to chime in. Let me go to Ralph and then we'll check back in with Sid. Go ahead, Ralph. Yeah, I just want to say something real quick, Simona. You nailed something that a lot of people don't think about, and that is you need to make sure that your sponsorships match your audience. I see so many podcasts and it frustrates me when I go to listen to somebody's show and I hear a mattress ad or something that just absolutely is irrelevant to the content. That's a sure way to destroy your relationship with your listeners.

49:07 You always have to pay attention that so somewhere I I think that is so critical. Thank you, Ralph. Sid, go for it. Well, if none of you are or if you are in the office furniture industry or the interior time thin industry, then you would know who my sponsors will be. If you're not in our industry, you have no clue who they are. But everybody that listens to my podcasts, which are predominantly people in the industry, will know exactly who my sponsors are. My, I believe my, my flagship sponsor will be a software company and people know his brand. He's really working hard to grow his brand. I think my second sponsor will be a buying group that is also really well known and that my audience will know who they are. So to the point of both Simona and Ralph making sure that the sponsors of my show are aligned with my audience. Because when I'm charging what I'm charging, I need to be able to show that my audience can engage with that content and my audience knows who they are.

50:08 My audience is going to lean into whatever the call to actions might be. And so it's so important to align the sponsors with the industry and with my audience. I'm also going to say it's been difficult for me to make this list. I've got about 20 brands on this list because one of the things I can't do is I can't have a product brand be my sponsor because I interview product brands. So I can't interview product brand A who's a direct competitor with my sponsor and say this show is brought to you by blah blah, blah. And then I go straight into interviewing one of their direct competitors. So I can't have and product brands are easy for me to get to, but So what I had to do is go look at non product brands that provide services or things of like that software services, things of that nature, consulting to the industry. And so it took me a while to get a list of I'm going to have 16 spots available in my sponsorship packages. And so I right now have a list of 22 brands that I can talk to that don't make product.

51:14 And that was really important to me to not have a direct conflict on this show with competing product brands. That's awesome, Sid. Thank you for sharing all the details. I think it's so important for people to hear just that all the different details that are involved in these decisions that we make to monetize, to grow, etcetera. So that was really helpful. Thank you, Sid. And here's how I want to wrap up. I'm going to go back to Ralph, I think because this is an area for you that I know you like talking about and you're you teased it or touched on it earlier before growth or monetization, how do we make sure our foundation is solid? What do we got to look into there? That's where you need to spend a little money or spend a little time and understand, do you need to create an entity? Is that an S corporation?

52:01 As an LLC, put your legal ducks in a row because what you don't want to do is set yourself up for a problem down the road once things start to click, because a lot of people that I work with don't think about that at the front end. It's kind of like when you build a house, you start with a strong foundation and when you're doing this type of work, you've got to start there as well. So that would be my key take away is meet with somebody. You're welcome to reach out to me and just sit down and talk about like, what do I do to structure this in a way that I'm not going to give myself heartburn later on? A lot of people get them. You know, a lot of content creators end up in tax evasion issues because they don't understand what it means when people send you free products, what it means when you talk about products. You get paid for that.

52:44 All those things, all those monetization strategies require you to do some reporting. So I'm not going to be the the curmudgeon, you know, tax guy over here, but pay attention to that because it's got a lot of creative people in trouble. Thank you, Ralph, appreciate that advice as well. And anyone else want to chime in about your foundation, how do we make sure that we do have a solid foundation or how do we create a foundation in the 1st place? If anyone wants to chime in, doesn't look like anyone's jumping at the opportunity. OK, well, it's a great place anyway to wrap up. So thank you and 1st thank you, Ralph. Appreciate all your insights today. And as always, you're you're welcome to join us anytime up here on stage and be a part of the conversation. And that goes for any of you listening live or listening via podcast.

53:32 Join us at 7:00 AM Eastern live on Clubhouse or YouTube chatter, Facebook, all the places. If you want to join us, feel free. But if you want to be a voice on our virtual stage, you got to join us over here on Clubhouse and you can get that information in the show notes tomorrow. We are talking all the different podcasting headlines around the world, things of interest to you as a creator, things that you probably want to be in the know about South. Come join us tomorrow, Wednesday, 7:00 AM Eastern for that. And until then, make it a great day. Everybody take care.