How to Monetize Your Podcast: Live Coaching with Dr. Bradley Block, Part II

Before we get into the episode, I am thrilled to announce that the ontram D business school is open for enrollment. The On Trendy business school is the only school of its kind for physicians who want to build six, seven and multiple seven figure businesses. Over the last two years, we have had hundreds of doctors go through the school with unbelievable results. Some of them run brands, some of them run private practices, some of them are coaches, some have other kinds of service based businesses or product based businesses. And we've had people come in and cross the six figure milestone. Cross the seven figure milestone, Cross the multiple seven figure milestone. You will be in a place where you'll get the coaching, the community, the accountability that you need to thrive as an entrepreneur, especially in the times that we're in. So maybe you've been following me for a while. Maybe you've been getting so much out of the ontremd podcast and you've been wondering, how can I work with Dr. Una and the community more? Well, this is your chance. Come join us in the Entremd Business School. It is application only, so go to entremd.com forward/business to turn in your application. I cannot tell you how many doctors have made statements like this. I recovered my investment in the first week. I recovered my investment in my bank account in the first 90 days. This is the best investment I've made in myself ever. I want you to have that kind of story. Not just a story of building a great business that serves a lot and earns a lot, but having a business that gives you the freedom to live life on your terms. So don't wait any longer. Entremd.combusiness and now for the episode. Hi docs. Welcome to the OnStreamd podcast where it's all about helping amazing physicians just like you embrace entrepreneurship so you can have the freedom to live life and practice medicine on your terms.

I'm your host, Dr. Umna. All right, so we are back. The episode before this, we started a

live coaching session with Dr. Brock talking about ways that he could monetize his podcast.

And so this is the rest of that interview. I want you to take a listen. I want you to think about how it applies to your business, and I

want you again to send me an email at the end of this Dr. Una d r u n a n trendy dot com.

Let me know how you're applying it

and how you're creating a change in your own business. Don't forget to go find Dr. Brock's podcast, so subscribe to it.

Leave him a Review. That is just your way of saying thank you for being so vulnerable and

allowing tens of thousands of doctors to

listen to Dr. Una coach you in real time. Okay. All right, now here for the. Here's the episode. So let me kind of recap what we've come up with because I think we have a number of things to work with. And so one is that, yes, we have this decision that we are going to monetize the show because you want to do it more. But then you recognize that this does need to be a win, win, a win, win situation. That's what we have to create here. You do have some ways that you would like to monetize it. And while there are many ways, like we could have talked about courses, we could have talked about masterminds, we could have talked about events, books, there's so many ways to monetize it. But I always like to start with what is authentic to you. Right. There's a reason why I do certain things. There's a reason why you do certain things. Now, there was one thing I was going to ask you. When you think about, for instance, affiliates, it is like advertising. Is that something you've thought about? Like if someone who has a course comes on your show and stuff like that, they can talk about it and there's a percentage of whatever sales happened that happens there that goes to you. Have you thought about that at all? It's very close to ads, so I just want to know.

So my problem with affiliates is then you're dependent on them to be honest about it and actually find and make sure that the people that they're that are purchasing their product, they then give you a percent of it. And so maybe like if somebody hears them on my show and then they Google search them later and find it, well, then I'm not getting credit for that. Right. There's. It depends on how hard they're working to find out who's sending them the business. And they may end up getting a lot of business and you may end up getting zero revenue from them. So affiliates I'm not a fan of. I've had one and ended up getting zero revenue from it. So that one experience has kind of put me off and I'd rather just have purchased for a specific purchase.

Got it. Okay. Now I just.

Unless it's. Sorry. Unless it's on the website. Right. Like I can have affiliate links on my website and then there's no overhead. It's not like that space is going to go to someone else. Right. I can have like, and here are some brands that I recommend. And then just. And just have a little thing that says that these, by the way, these are affiliates. And then they're sitting on the website and there's no overhead. I'm not. They're not taking someone else's space. But if they're on my podcast, then that's ad revenue that could have gone to or come from somewhere else.

Okay. Okay, so I like that. So you're okay with affiliates, but not in a way that you have to really do anything about it. Like you want it on your website, one and done. And that's something that you can absolutely do. I'm just going to say, like, as far as revenue, that we have ads and affiliates and we have speaking and we have the medical expert work. Right. Like probably setting the stage for that. Okay, all right, so let's talk a few things here. So we have three ways that three way. I'm adding ads and affiliates as one. So we have three ways that we're going to monetize the podcast, and all three ways are viable. They can totally be done. I'm just going to walk you through some of the things that will need to happen, which we've mentioned before. So the ads, affiliates is tied to volume. Right. And so that's increasing the listener base. And there are many ways to do that. But the way that I've seen works most consistently is being a guest on other people's podcasts. Right. And since you have, you have a team that kind of helps you with this, that could be their first role

is like, I could have them pitch me to like, create a one page and then have them pitch me to other podcasters. Do you find that it works better if the individual reaches out themselves? Because I often get pitched people to be guests on my show and it's from like a PR firm that, you know, they say that they listened to one of my episodes and it really resonated with them. Yeah, exactly.

I delete, I delete those.

So often I've come up with someone and it works. And then sometimes it just.

Yeah, I do. A lot of times they are. I mean, what they're pitching is like, I'm like, have you listened to my podcast? Like, I don't interview people, like, and stuff like that. But even if they're not necessarily doing the pitch, they can do the research. Right? So you're not trying to figure it out. Like, I have these 10 people, they're my friends, and I can tell them I've been on this person Podcast and that person's podcast. I'd love to come on your podcast. You know what I mean? Like, and so.

Yeah.

So again, it's not something that's taking a lot of your time. Do you see what I'm saying?

So they can help me find the higher yield ones.

Yes, yeah. And the ones that have your audience. Right. Because you don't want to just be on anyone. Your audience is physicians. So which podcasts are catering to physicians? I'll go there, they'll listen to me, then they'll come on my own podcast.

Like, what's happening right now?

You like what's happening right now? I like that.

You like. What's happening right now is this is the list. Your listeners are physicians, right?

Yes.

And so they're potentially. Yeah. So doing more of this. Yeah.

Yes.

Yeah, yeah.

So. So it's about volume now. Of course, there are other things that can be done. Maintaining that email list and asking them to share is powerful. You, after every episode, challenging your audience to share with another doctor. Because it's so strange. If you don't tell them, they won't. And if you tell them, they will. It's the most amazing thing.

Strange.

Yeah. So asking them to share, that's the thing. Sharing about it on social media, that's another thing. So there are other things that you can do, but really, every time you extrovert into the. Like, into the marketplace, if you will, then people follow you back home. That's the way it is. So if you go out, you're a guest on someone's podcast, you go out, you're a guest on someone's LinkedIn Live, for instance, you go out, you're speaking at an event, you go out. Like any of those things where you're outside of the people who already know you, you attract new people to you.

Yeah, yeah.

Okay. So. So that's one thing.

Okay. With regards to the email now, you might be getting to that soon. Where do you even get the email addresses? Because for me, it's just people that have been on my podcast before. I don't have other people's email addresses. I mean, maybe I could put all those PR people that email me asking to be on the show, I can put them on my list. But those are not physicians. Right. That's not who I say. My emails, if I'm. If I'm selling that ad space. So that's kind of being disingenuous. So how do I get those email addresses?

So there are many ways. The bottom line is this is a way to think about it, what value can I give that in exchange for that value, I get somebody's email address. So for instance, for you, you have over 200 podcast episodes and someone may find your podcast and like, oh, my goodness, where do I start? You can pick the top 10 episodes, most listened episodes, most reviewed episodes, or whatever. And you're like, hey, welcome to the podcast. Like to. I know we have over 200 episodes and all yummy and all of that stuff, but I want to give you my top 10, right? So you can go here, start from here, and then, and then you can listen to the rest of the episodes. Or if you have somewhat of a theme, like, these are the episodes that address this issue. If you want to go. If you want to become a rock star in the exam room, best communication, getting your patients out on time and leaving them where they're like, I was heard, right? These are the 10 episodes to listen to, right? So it's, it's an opt in. And this is something your team can take care of, where that's created. And people put their email address in to get that. And that could be on your website.

So there's something on my website where if you put in your email address, this is what you'll get. Are you looking for this? Yeah. Okay. So find some value.

And it's not just your email because it can also be the intro in your podcast. You can decide for one week we're gonna promote this lead magnet, right? It could be my 10, my, my top 10 books on communication for physicians. It could be anything. These are things that you already know. They just need to be packaged.

What are the podcasts that I listen to?

Exactly. There you go. Like my top 10 podcasts. And I will tell you what number one is. Number one is my podcast. Then you can, then these are the nine. You can go listen to them. You see what I'm saying? Like, you can do that and you can do different ones at different times. So you're just driving email lists, right? You can go when you're doing your podcast episodes and you can say, like, for instance, you know those people who are on my VIP email list, they got an email about xyz. If you're not in my email list, oh my goodness, why are you not go here? Do you see what I'm saying? Like, and so that's the thing. Because again, that gives you the opportunity to continue to talk to them, to nurture them. It's part of your business asset. It's all of that. Okay?

The hard part for me is again, the, like I would open those emails, but they're all for me to think like the person who would open those emails is where I'm going to have to change the way I think about this situation.

Yeah, that might be a writer downer for you.

People open emails. Like people open emails.

People read them. Why they do, I don't know, but they open them and this is important for me to know.

Sometimes they read them.

Yeah, so, so that's, that's for your ads and affiliates is to understand it's a volume game. So if I want to monetize this, if I want to treat it as a business asset, then I'm going to. I know that this is something that is a must do is like that's part of the business, right. So I don't like doing HPIs. You're a doctor, nobody cares. Right. You just do the hpa. That's the way that works. So that's kind of, kind of the way this works.

So the website, the email list and the episode itself are all being monetized.

Correct?

Got it. Okay.

Correct. Yeah. Okay. Then the other thing is for the speaking, this is something that I want you to think about, lean into because the topic you talked about as far as the perfect office visit and all of that is wonderful right now the question is, who will want to pay you for that talk? Do you see what I'm saying? And so the question is, if I'm talking to medical students or residents, will they want to pay me? Maybe, but not high ticket. Not the way you're thinking to make career. Right. But if you stretch it and you think about like, who would this be of value to? It would be a value to the private practice person who is drowning. Right? Because they're in forever. Patients are literally cussing them out. And you know what I mean? Like they're tired, they just can't take it anymore. But if they're like, wow, I am one communication skill away from making my work day so much better. Right. And of course the private practice person is always going to take it back to the bottom line as well because they have to pay bills. Right? And so it's like if I manage this, my office flows more seamlessly. I could probably even see more patients and feel less stressed out and all of those things. So I'm okay. And then my practice is much healthier. And if I have seven doctors working with me and I can get all seven to do this, then we have a brand new practice with a completely different bottom line. So the. With private practice owners, if they have conferences and things like that, would they then pay for that?

Wow, you are really good at selling this. You really like just the way that you. The way that you verbalize that is. Was. Is. I'm convinced. I want to. I want to.

You want to hire that. I want to.

Well, now I want to hire you to talk about that.

But that's your talk.

Yeah, but do you see.

You see what I'm saying? Like, so. So it's packaging it in a way that the value. The person on the receiving end can. Can feel the value of it. Right. So your life is going to be better. The burnout is going to go away. You're going to get. Be able to get back home earlier for your family, your patients will love you, and your bottom line will be better, which is very. You see what I'm saying? So it's packaging it in that way so that the right person will pay you for the talk.

So then the question is, where do I put that out so that person sees it and considers me for a speaking gig.

Yeah. So. So the. The first. The first thing is that you're going to articulate what that is, right? Like, this is why you need me at your conference. This is why you need me at your event. This is why you need me at your retreat for your hospital or whatever that is. So it's articulating that first, and then once you're done with that again, you have a team, they start pitching.

Got it? So the team is pitching.

The team is pitching. Like, this is your feed at your event. You're putting this on your website. If you have a portion of the talk that, you know, you have the video up or the audio, it doesn't matter, that's evidence. Like, okay, this guy, he can actually speak. You know what I'm saying? Like, he's legit. Yeah. So. So you put those things there and they can start pitching. So in the beginning is going to be a lot of. A lot of work to get the gigs coming in. But as you do them, as you then say, oh, we helped. This is the feedback this person gave us. They were at our event. Or this is how much these people change their bottom line and things like that, then it becomes so much easier to get them. Yeah.

Get more concrete results.

Yeah. But you will sell what you do have right now as concrete because it is. Do you see what I mean? And so this is just more social proof and things like that. But we don't wait on that to start because this is something you're. You know what I mean? And it's making a difference for you. So it's not. It's not concrete at all. Yeah. So. So for the speaking part, that's the work that will go into it. So now we're building an asset. Do you see what I'm saying?

Yes.

Yeah.

Okay. Yeah.

So we have the email list. We have what we need to do for the ads and affiliates. We have what we need to do for the speaking. We have what we need to do to grow the podcast. I think there was one more thing. Oh, I have a story for you. I don't know if you saw this, but I'm going to send you the link. I did a podcast episode on it, actually. I saw a podcast that was for sale for $15 million.

Okay.

He's like, wait, what? What just happened here? And I was like, okay, I want to read this. Okay. And I'll send you the list of the actual article. But I pulled out what I thought were the reasons why. I don't know if you'll sell for 15, 15.5 million. Have to respect the 0.5. I mean, it is half a million, but I don't know if it'll sell for that. But there were reasons why they would have the guts to do that and the reasons why they could sell it for that. Right. Okay. So the first thing that was on there is that. Well, it's like seven things. I'll give you a few. So the first is the longevity of it. The podcast has been there for 11 years. Right. And so that's part of why I was like five years. That's no mean feat. Right? Because it's saying this is a real. It's been around for a while. There's proof of concept and all of that. The second thing, which is what you're working on, is that the podcast was the profit of. It was $100,000 a month, and it had been that way for over 115 months. Right. So there was this long track record of bringing in profit. Now, two thirds of their profit came from guest sponsorships and some other so from. From sponsorships and then others for guest appearances. So that person does charge for guest as well, just like you were thinking we were talking about doing. The third thing is that there's a solid audience. So I built an email list of 18,000. You see what I mean? Like, so again, this is treating like an assets, right? Because this matters. If you wanted to sell. Now, this is not saying you'll sell, but A podcast worth selling is a podcast we're keeping. Right. Like, so it's the same principle. So 18,000 to his main newsletter, 11,000 to his podcast specific newsletter. Right. So as you're building this up, you're like, okay, this is like, of course I'm doing to serve the people and all of that. But on the flip side of it, this is what you do for a business asset.

It's not happening in a vacuum. This is not goodwill. This is a business.

Yes, this is business. And as you stated, the better you do it as a business, the better you can serve. Right. Because you're saying, I want to do more episodes. I want to do it like, I want to do it more. So it's in. Everybody can hire the team.

I need to do the best job I can do if I have some income from it. Yes, yes. Not Mother Teresa here. Yeah.

Nope. Not at all. Kind, but not her. Yeah.

Okay.

So number four is that of course there are multiple streams of income. I alluded to that. Like, so there's a sponsorship, the guest appearances. He also had courses and affiliates, but that was not where the bulk of the money came from. The bulk came from sponsorships and guest appearances.

Do. I could do a course. I'm just. I don't know.

So. So this is the beautiful thing about entrepreneurship. You don't have to.

Yeah.

Like, you have three solid ways of monetizing it. And you can always start with that. And then you can. That's the thing. You don't have to do anything. You know what I mean? You already have ways that work. Yeah. So that's why I didn't recommend it at all. You don't need to. And then the fifth thing was that it was growing like, so that goes back to that audience growth. They would demonstrate a growth, like year after year. So I think they had 15% grow year on year growth. So. So they were tracking. That's something that they tracked. And then the sixth thing is, they had a lot of opportunity for scale. So there are a lot of things they were not doing. They were not doing ads, they were not on YouTube and all these things. So for someone who is acquiring it, they're like, oh, man, I'm just going to put gasoline on the fire and just let this thing explode. You see what I mean? So if you look at that, you see that. The longevity piece, you're working on that, the profit piece, you're working on that. The audience you're working on that. The multiple streams of income, you're working on that. Working on growing it. So what you're doing is kind of like setting the stage to build this asset right. Now, of course, he'd been doing this for 11 years, so. And I'm sure there were disappointments on the way things along the way, things are difficult and all of that stuff, but, you know, here he is. Right. So again, are we trying to build something to sell for 15.5 million?

No.

But at the same time, those are some pretty good best practices. You know what I mean?

Yeah, some of. Yeah, those same principles still apply, even on a smaller scale. Yeah. I don't understand how you can sell a podcast. And the reason is because, like, when people come to your show, they're there not to hear someone else on your show. They're here to hear you. They log in. They downloaded this episode because they want to hear Dr. Una. Right. And so if you then sell your show, they're not hearing Dr. Una anymore. So I don't understand how you can sell a podcast.

So. So there are number. There are a number of ways around that. So one is that the person may decide, I'm gonna stay on and do episodes, and you guys just deal with the rest of the headache of it because I'm done. So my thing is just I sit and record once a week, and that's the extent of my involvement. I'm paid or I have a percentage of the company or whatever. Right. So that's the way people do it the other way for this podcast. Because I know which podcast this is. There's only one podcast like it.

You're not gonna tell us, are you?

I will not tell us, but I will tell you once we get off.

Okay.

Yeah.

And if you want to find out who log in to Dr. Una's website, entre md.com put in your email address, and she will tell you over your.

There you go. See?

See?

Now you know.

I don't know if that's true.

You're selling my email is better than me. Right. So. But the thing is, his podcast is about interviewing entrepreneurs. That's primarily what it is. And so it is possible to bring in another face who interviews the entrepreneurs. You see what I mean? It's not quite. His content is kind of like him interviewing other people. So there is a way to kind of ease that. I'll bring on a second person, the person will do some, and then you quietly, slowly but surely phase them out. Yes. Yeah. So. So that's another way that it can be done. So there. There are many ways to. There are many ways to do that.

Yeah. Okay.

Yeah. But the important thing, and this is why I talk about building sellable assets from the beginning. The important thing is to build it in a way that when that time comes, you have options. You can say, no, I never wanted to sell it. But what if you did want to? Then it's not the time to start figuring it out, but you start building the foundation right from the beginning. So then it is an option. You see what I mean? Like, we don't want to end up with things because at the end of the day, we are all going to exit our podcast at some point. We're not going to live forever. So clearly, at some point, we're going to need to exit it, and we just want to make sure we build it in a way that we have options. We can choose what we want to do. Yeah.

So makes sense. Makes sense. That's one of the reasons. Not that I have some, like, famous name or something, but that it's called Physician's Guide to Doctoring. Again, for the listeners. That's Physician's Guide to Doctoring and all your podcast players and not the Brad Block Show. Because if at some point I wanted to step away from it and maybe have some. And actually, that's one of the things I'm going to be doing. Soon as I'm going to have guest hosts, I'm going to have people that are looking to build their own brands, drive audience members towards their stuff, but can bring value to the show because they have different interests than me, different expertise than me that they're then going to bring and have their own set of guests on. So they're going to. So then we can just, as you said, we can kind of phase them in more and more. Then eventually I step away. But first I've got to build. I've got to build something worth selling.

You got to build the asset, but you got to do it.

Yeah.

So we lifted up the hood of your podcast, if you will. It went over. It went under and played all over the place. So talk to me about what you're thinking about it and then what your decisions are, and I'm excited for you. This is exciting.

So I was thinking, actually, that I was going to be a guest on a bunch of podcasts, and that's what I've been doing recently, but it was going to be just for a little while, and so I need to rethink that. So that's one of the big changes I'm going to have from this conversation, is it's not Gonna be a singular push. It's gonna have to be a continuous process. Four a month is a heavy lift, especially if I'm gonna be now putting out eight episodes a month instead of four episodes a month. But I'm gonna have to just continuously be on more podcasts. I'm gonna have to change the outro to my podcast so that I am asking the audience to share it. And I think a good way to do it and more in line with just how I think would be telling the audience to just share it with one person. Because you're not sharing like the specificity of the ask, I think is more likely to make it happen. So just tell one person about it, share it on social media, shoot them an email. Just if you could just share it with one person, that would really be a huge help to me. And then creating that email list now I have some things I need to start including in my episode to create these. And I'll have to come up with a bunch of different things that I can put in. And it's not just going to have to be. And the first E or the. I'll pick an email at random and you'll get a yeti mug with Physician's Guide to Doctoring on it. Like, it's not going to be that. Because I thought that's what people have giveaways. That's how they're getting mail is just do a giveaway Physicians Guide to Doctoring. Although that's not a bad idea. Having Physicians Guide to Doctoring branded more swag than merch. Because merch you sell and swag you give away. Right? I think I've got that right. So some PGD stuff because then they could bring it to their office and they're drinking out of it and people are going to ask them about it. So that's actually not a bad idea.

It's not a bad idea.

So maybe both to. To build the website. So as far items now and as far as the speaking gigs, I think right now my team is going to help me with building the website and building Listen, once these things are up and running, I can put something on my website that says I'm available for speaking gigs and I can make a better pitch for it based on what you told me. But as far as going out and actively searching for opportunities, especially when it costs so much for me, not financially, but just to step away from my family for a weekend while the kids are this young, I'm not really going to make a big push for that. But I'll at least put it on the website as a possibility. I think that's going to have to go on the back burner, but it gives me a great way to think about it.

That's good. That's good. I like all of that. And as, as you with your. And what you just talked about is doing this in phases. So you're like, okay, I'm going to focus on the growth, the email list, the ad and affiliate piece and then we'll get to the speaking piece which is, which is perfect. Right? Because we're not going to do everything at the same time. So I love that. I just also going to say, because I forgot to mention this, like, and you talked about it with ads for when you have a physician audience, sometimes they say you get X number of dollars per thousand downloads and all of that. None of that applies to you because you have a really high value audience. So you get to call your shots and decide on what you want and all that. So you're actually fine to start pitching for ads and stuff like that. Like as soon as you've tweaked whatever it is you want to tweak with your website and stuff like that.

Yeah. For all the physician listeners out there, there is a number. There is a number and it is much, much higher than a general audience. Although it varies per sponsor. Some are willing to pay more, some are willing to pay less. But yes, you're totally right about that. And I have someone who is specifically doing that for me. She has a lot of connections within that space because she's been doing it for a while and so she's really facilitating that. So the ads are coming, but I need a bigger audience to make those ads really make a difference. And so I'm going to have to get out there and be on more shows.

Let's do it. All right, so how does this feel? You ready to go get it? Monetize the best.

It's nice having a concrete plan. It's nice having instead of just hope. I think James Cameron said hope is not a strategy. And I was just putting out episodes and hoping that the audience would grow, but the strategy. Now we've got some strategies in place and more ways to monetize. And the more team members I can hire and experts I can hire to help me, the more it'll grow and it'll just snowball from there. So thank you, thank you for taking all this time out to help me with this, to really check under the hood and help me help other physicians.

Love it and thank You. I will say this, thank you for being vulnerable and open and just letting us go under the hood, like in front of the whole world. So thank you so much for doing that and for everybody listening. The way you say thank you to him is you go to his podcast, you subscribe. Subscribe to the podcast, you leave a five star review. He did not give us options. He said five stars and leave that to support. And that's your way of saying thank you for letting me learn so many lessons from hearing you talk about your business and is true and raw state. So thank you so much. I appreciate that.

Thank you. And thank you. And just so the audience knows, it's either a 5 star review or nothing, I feel like a 4 star review is such a dig. It is such, like, if you're going to be a one star review, okay, I understand you were really up, something really bad happened. But a four star review, like, and you're bothering to write a review, so. But come on, just give it to us. Just give us the five stars.

All right. He told us all the things, okay? So five stars, that's what we're doing for him. So. And for this episode, make sure you take this and you share it with another physician in your world, especially if that person is a podcaster. You're like, you can thank me forever. Here you go. Okay, so share the episode with them and I'll see you on the next episode of the Entre MD podcast.

Hey, if you love listening to the Entre MD podcast, I want to invite you to join Entre MD on Demand. It is my signature subscription program that gives you access to a library of business courses designed to help you do one thing as a physician entrepreneur, and that is to thrive. Just head out to entrend.com forward/on demand and I'd love to have you join us. See you on the inside.