Podcast Expert Hala Taha on How to Grow and Monetize Your Show (Live Q&A)

Podcast hosts are so trusted, right? I read a stat that people Trust podcast hosts 23 times more than social media influencers.

So who's starting a podcast? You guys? You know when you've like talked to someone online a bunch and then you meet them in person and you're like, I love you.

You're.

Oh my gosh, just the sweete. Okay. And just a powerhouse. Like, I just feel so honored to have you up here. So for some people who aren't aware of just your background story and how you got to do what you're doing now, your origin story. Because YAP Media is the number one self improvement and business podcast network. Let's talk about it. Let's talk about the origin story.

Sure. So nice to meet you guys. I got the nickname the podcast Print Princess because I really know the ins and outs of podcasting from the hosting side, but really from the business side. And I think that's what makes me really unique. I really figured out how to monetize podcasts, the business behind it. And I'm one of the only podcast hosts that actually own a podcast network. So now I have the YAP Media Podcast network. I represent really big podcasters like Lori Harder, Jenna Kutcher, Amy Porterfield, John Lee Dumas, Russell Brunson, Trent Shelton. And we just keep growing and growing. And it's really funny because Kristen was just on talking about manifestation. And when I started my podcast six years ago, people would always say like, what do you want this to do? Like, why are you doing this? And I used to just smile and say, I'm going to have the biggest self improvement podcast network in the world. And I had no idea what that even meant. I had no idea how a podcast network worked. I didn't know what you were supposed to do in a podcast network. I didn't know about growing, monetizing. And then five years later, I literally had the number one business and podcast network in terms of my origin story. I started my career in radio. I used to work at Hot 97. I was Angie. Yeah, I was, I was Angie Martinez's assistant for three years. So really grew up at the radio station. When I was 19 years old, I had a really cool job. Then I started a blog called the Sorority of Hip Hop. I was president of this organization with 100 female, 150 bloggers. We almost had a show on MTV. They filmed us all summer, going really fast with my story. But basically MTV canceled the show and I was like, oh my gosh, I'm a failure. I used to really believe in manifestation and the law of affirmation. And that's how I kind of did so much at a young age. And then everything sort of shut off for me, and I was like, okay, I just got to be a normal girl. Let me go into corporate. I worked at hp and I was still like Hala, the entrepreneur at Hewlett Packard, starting organizations, interviewing the CEO at the town hall. I was still doing the same stuff, but just in an organization. And then four years into my corporate career, I started young and profiting podcast, and now It's a top 100 podcast. I really focused on LinkedIn, and I became one of the top podcasters on that platform. I really lasered in on that platform and really ignored everything else. I didn't really get on Instagram seriously until, like, a couple years ago. And I just focused on figuring out LinkedIn, dominating that platform. And the other thing that I did really differently is that I didn't take no for an answer. Like, my goal was to be a top podcaster. And when I started podcasting, like, Jenna Kutcher was dominating Apple, and so was John Lee Dumas, and all these people that are now in my network were already dominating Apple. And so I thought outside the box, and I was like, well, how can I be a top podcaster without necessarily being on Apple? And so I researched and started to become a nerd about podcasting. And I was like, there's 70 other apps out there. There's not just the Apple podcast app. There's all these other apps. So I reached out to Castbox and Player FM and Podbean, and I said, hey, I'll feature you on my LinkedIn. I've got this big following. I'm the number one podcaster on LinkedIn. In exchange for you featuring me on Castbox, in exchange for you putting me on your email newsletter, putting me on your website. And then all these apps started to promote me. Fast forward to today. I have 400,000 subscribers just on Castbox, which is like the number one Android app. And then suddenly I got on the COVID of podcast magazine. Everybody was calling me the podcast princess, and here we are today. I started my social agency four years ago, and I'm just going to. I'm just going to say a little bit because I think there's a lot of learning lessons in my story. So when I started my podcast, I didn't think you could even monetize a podcast. Funny now, like, my whole life is monetizing podcasts. I used to tell people, you can't Monetize a podcast. And the first way that I made money off my podcast was actually the guests that would come on my show. At the end of my conversation, I had these high level CEOs, entrepreneurs, and they'd be like, kala, how'd you grow your LinkedIn? How'd you grow your podcast? Can you do this for me? And I had a volunteer team of, like, interns basically, while I worked corporate and did my podcast as a side hustle. And I'd always say no, like, I've got this great job, Disney and hp, depending on where I was working. And I would just like, deny them. And then Covid happened and I found myself with no commute, all this free time. And then people started asking me that question again, like, hey, can you do this for me? And I started to say yes. And so I converted my volunteer team into a company and my company, like, took off right away. My first client was $700 a month. Her name was Heather Monahan. My second client, I had no website, I had no logo, nothing. Was a billionaire. And he paid me $30,000 a month to do his LinkedIn podcast and whatever. Then I got the CEO of Hint Water, the CEO of 1-800-got junk. And all these people that came on my podcast just became my clients. And before I knew it, my company was making six figures a month. I had 30 employees around the world, quit my job, and Y Media was born. Two years, two years ago, I started the network because I basically grew other shows to my size, started started selling out my show with sponsorships, and then I started recruiting other podcasters and getting them sponsorships. So.

So something that. Yes, clap for that, please.

Yes.

She is such a hard worker, you guys. And something that I really admire about you and something in just the, like, three short months that we've been working together and I, I just realized I found out about you first through Heather. Her and I, like, a while back, she had mentioned you. She's like, oh, I love her. She's just a hustler. And then you came onto my radar a little later and I was like, oh, I already heard something. Such great things about you. But the thing that I really love about her is how much she thinks outside of the box. Like, we'll be texting each other and it will literally, she'll be like, okay, let me think of that. Okay, what do you have coming up? Okay, what events? How could we bundle this? How could this be a benefit for them and a benefit for you? Like, she's always thinking of how Is this of a bet, like, of benefit for them? Like, it's never. I feel like, yes, of course we're excited, like, ooh, what can we do? But always, always, like, okay, how can we really benefit them more? And like, add value. What do they want? What are they looking at? And that is why. That is why you're so successful and you always will be, is because that is where her brain goes all the time. How can we help? Okay. How could we benefit them? Okay, so let's talk about this. So podcasts first started taking off about a decade ago, but at first it was a very niche platform. But we can safely say podcasts are here to stay, right? We can safely say that, like so many. I mean, I can't even believe with the younger generation now, like, what, that they are listening to podcasts. It's insane. Can you talk to us about podcast listeners, who they are now and how they've changed?

Yeah. So like Lori said, podcasting is mainstream. Twenty years ago, when podcasting first came out, it's really like only tech nerds knew what it meant. Nobody even knew what the word podcasting meant. But now everybody has listened to a podcast before. Everybody knows what the word is. It is no longer just for, like white tech males. Some really interesting fact about podcasting is that most podcasters are new listeners. 51% of podcast listeners only started listening within the last two years. The the other interesting thing is that these podcast listeners are skewing way younger. So the people who most listen to podcasts are ages 18 to 34. Something else that's really interesting. And the reason why podcast advertising is doing so well is, is because radio and TV is no longer really reaching 18 to 34 year olds. Radio and TV is really targeting 50 year old plus. Right. So all the advertising dollars are going to podcasting because podcast listeners are skewing younger, which is pretty interesting.

So how are they consuming podcasts? Tell me about that part.

So the way that podcasts are consumed is totally changed. When I first started a podcast, like podcast was audio only. When you thought of podcasts, it meant audio apps. Now it just means a show on any platform. I polled my audience and 33% of them said that they listen to podcasts on social media. So what does that mean? It means that when people are watching little reels of your podcast, they literally think and consider it to be where they consume their podcasts. And advertisers also think of podcasts this way. Now selling podcasts as simulcast is default. So across podcasts, YouTube, social media, your email list, whatever your. Where your community is, brands want to sponsor you. So podcasts are no longer audio only. And that's the major difference.

So is there, this isn't on here, but is there a place for longer form, like reels for podcasting?

Yeah, I would say YouTube. Right. So like 10 minute videos do really well on YouTube. And so you can basically chop up your podcast content, put it on YouTube and you can have like a little bit of a longer form content and still monetize it. You can pop a commercial, video commercial on any length of content and get paid for it.

So we know podcasts can have a discoverability problem. So tell me about, you know, a lot of people you saw in here either want to do a podcast or want to grow their podcast or want to be on podcasts. But tell me about how we can have some strategies to grow and attract new people.

Yeah, so audio discoverability is crap, right? So like audio apps can't compete with YouTube. So on YouTube you can go viral, right? YouTube has this amazing search engine, has endless content. It will feed you content based on your interests and you can have videos on YouTube that go viral. It's not really like that. On the audio apps, downloads are like super consistent. It's all about bringing in subscribers and then you get these consistent downloads. So there's a big problem with audio discoverability, but it doesn't matter now because podcasts are not audio only, right? So you need to have a video portion of your podcast. The other thing is that when it comes to marketing, you need a visual element, right? So audio only doesn't have a visual element. Audiograms do terrible on social media. They're very unengaging. So you need video content to promote your stuff on Instagram, to promote your stuff on TikTok. And the biggest podcast from my network, her name is Tori Dunlap, okay? She's the host of Financial feminist. She has 2 million followers on TikTok, 2 million followers on Instagram. She is the only podcaster in my network that has viral episodes because it's her TikTok that is making her episodes go viral. It's not the audio apps, right? And so when I look at the charts, you know, I'm on the charts all the time. And I see the other up and coming podcasters, they're always TikTok people, right? Because they're bringing people from TikTok to their podcast. So having a video element is more important than ever. If you think about all the new shows that are popping up, diary of a CEO and so on. They're big on YouTube, so I would. I'm so bullish on YouTube. It's going to be a major focus for me. And I think for any podcaster, you really got to get your video game up.

Do we have to have a full video crew or can this also be on zoom or.

You guys are going to like my answer, but I think video is boring, right? It's sensory adaptation. Everybody's on zoom. It's like this, like, it's. It all looks the same. People will just glaze over. That type of content. It is not engaging anymore. So if you really want to stand out, I would highly recommend investing in in person video. Start with virtual. You know, get your reps in, and then I would highly recommend that you advance to in person video.

I started totally virtual for a very long time, and now I do, like 50% in person, 50% virtual. Hopefully to switch back over to all, mostly all in person. It's tough because it's hard to book everyone. But I think, like, you know what? I think what you can do a really good job of is having the video but continuing to, like, recycle those videos. So you do one interview, but you don't just post one video from it. We're working on posting like three to five videos to even more than that throughout the year. So it looks like you're constantly in person. It's way more engaging. But you don't have to be in person for everything in the beginning. That can be really overwhelming in the beginning. Like, just get your cadence, get rolling, make yourself, like, realize that you can do this and be really consistent. And then later on you can start looking at that. So let's talk about SEO in terms of podcast discovery.

Yeah, podcast SEO is really interesting. And so right now I'm specifically talking about podcast SEO in the audio apps, right? So Spotify, Apple, they have a search bar, and your goal is to get ranked in the search. And this is something that a lot of podcasters don't pay attention to. But it's something that if you really want the apps to work for you, you've got to pay attention to. And so you get ranked based on your metadata, meaning your keywords. So keywords in your show name, keywords in your show title and your show description, your episode descriptions. You also get ranked based on your popularity. So if you have a lot of subscribers and downloads, you get ranked higher. And then your engagement. So if it's super relevant and people actually click on it when they search, like they search entrepreneur. Your stuff comes up, they click on it, you get ranked higher. So you actually want to monitor how you rank for certain keywords. And you can just go on Apple, go on Spotify and check how you rank for certain keywords. They have a new tool from Asha A U S H A I'm rolling out, I'm rolling it out to network soon. And basically you can search different keywords and see how you rank and kind of place play with the keywords. And this is so important because it is so hard to get discovered in the audio apps. You really only have search and on Apple, like, you can't advertise on Apple, so really all you have is the search bar. One of my biggest mistakes was calling my podcast Young and Profiting. I am a really good marketer, so, like, I became popular, but if I had called it Young Entrepreneur, I would have had to do way less work because nobody's searching for Young or Profiting. I had to train people. So you don't want to have to train people. You don't want to put your name in your podcast title if you're not super famous. As famous as, like, Oprah or Tim Ferriss. Right? You don't want to put your name in your podcast title and you want to think about keywords.

Everyone's like, oh, shit, I'm literally up here. Like, when we were talking about this, I'm like, could I change it to, like, earn your business or what do I do? Okay, so speaking of ranking, you know, I never used to look at my rankings and now I'm like, hey, we want to look at that. Because if you want to grow, you kind of have to know where you're at. So talking about ranking, you literally are in the top of the charts. Your podcast is number 65 out of all podcasts in the US which is crazy. And you're number three in both business and entrepreneurship today. So what's the secret behind ranking high on Apple podcasts? Tell me.

Okay, well, first of all, it's a trending chart. All right? So you could be number one on the charts and be a brand new podcast with not a ton of followers, not a ton of downloads. It's all about the new listeners that you bring in daily, the new downloads that you have daily. Okay? So in order for me to stay at the top of the charts, I have my team on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a platform that I spend a lot of time on, literally sending DMS 247 very, very personalized DMs on LinkedIn you can send unlimited DMs. So the way that I drive new subscribers and this could look different for everybody, depending on where you have your following, is that we just DM every day. So if we look up titles, your social media manager. Hey, what's up? I've got this new episode with Jasmine Star on how to go viral on Instagram. I'd love for you to check out the episode. They respond back, oh my God, I learned so much. Great. Can you copy and paste this as an Apple podcast review? Right. And so we do that drip campaign literally 24, 7, 24 hours a day and bring new subs in. And it keeps me at the top of the charts.

So some of you are like, oh my God, that's a lot. And also there is like, this is a business. You guys like, podcasting can be a serious business. That's why I wanted her to chat all about this is because a lot of you don't realize that it's not that crazy. Okay. If you've been around for a while and you're really working on your numbers to make a quarter of a million dollars to well over a million dollars, like, would you not love that? To learn how to hire Vas and some team to be able to slowly work on that in the background? Like, it's been really, really eye opening working with her to actually see what works and to. I'm watching the deals come in and it's very exciting. So it's been a really beautiful ride of, you know what? I'm already doing this. Why don't I just really understand it and put my energy here? Because if I'm already doing it, I really, this is my. I'm eight years in. It's time for mama to get really paid. Like, do you know what I'm saying? And so that's why this is really important to me. And I also want you to see what's possible of like I said this, this is like a long term or very like you can, you know, you're doing a lot of work, but it's paying off for sure. Yes. Okay, so let's, let's switch gears to monetization. What are the best ways to monetize a show?

Okay, so I'll start off from low downloads to high downloads. One of the best ways to monetize your show is to actually interview your target clients. I did. I ended up doing this by accident. My social agency happened by accident. It was just because I was getting that demand. I was getting all the requests to start A social and podcast production agency. But if you can interview your target clients, what happens is that you're selling without actually selling. You're building trust, you're building credibility. I never even pitch neither my social agency or my network. Did I pitch you to. No, Lori reached out to me afterwards like, hey, I want to learn more about your network, right? So I never advertise my social agency, I never advertise my network. What happens is that people come to me from my podcast and that's my main lead generation source. So interview your target clients. You don't even need a single download for this to work. Okay. Once you have like a medium sized audience, you might try affiliates. You can sign up to like all these different affiliate programs. I'm not going to lie to you guys, you're not going to make a ton of money on affiliates. Right? It's, it's, you might do pretty well. You could have your own products and services, do like Kristen does, sell your own courses and that you just need like a medium sized amount of downloads and then sponsorships. This is where like the big bucks really come in. Really, you want to think about having at least 20,000 downloads a week to be eligible for being in a podcast network. So about 80,000 downloads a month or a hundred thousand downloads a month, that will put you in a decent spot. And the thing that you need to think about with sponsorships and commercials is the bigger the show, the more money you make. Everything's very standard when it comes to commercials. So it's CPM based. You get paid a certain amount of money per 1,000 downloads. So usually it's like 25 to $35 per 1,000 downloads that you get paid for. So the bigger your podcast is, the more money you'll make. Something else that people don't really think about is also the longer your podcast is, the more money you'll make. So it's all about stacking commercials on your podcast. So typically you can put one commercial per 10 to 15 minutes on your podcast comfortably. So if you have an hour long show, you can put six ads, five to six ads per show. The longer the show, the more money you make. This is why Joe Rogan has a two hour long show. He can pop 12 commercials on a show and you make that much more money. So when you're thinking about the monetizable downloads in your podcast, if you have an hour long show and you get 100,000 downloads a month, it's really like you're getting 600,000 downloads because one listener listens to six commercials. And that's how you really compound and make money in your podcast. You got to think about the length and how many downloads you get.

Okay. I love that. I also want to bring in for this room. You know, in the beginning, for me, while I was getting like those numbers up and for a really long time, I just monetized through my personal brand, which is what Kathryn does as well. So that's a really beautiful option, especially in the beginning, just to sell your own stuff. Like, that's why having a course or a $22 thing or a $44 thing or launches are really huge for when you have a podcast. Because what Katherine and I had said too is like, she's always sending them somewhere, right? Which means she's always sending them to something that she has. She's sending them to an option. So that's the same exact thing as sending them to an ad with a call to action on the ad. All you're doing is working in your stuff and sending them somewhere so that you can capture that email. So in the beginning, it doesn't matter if you have, you know, 20 listeners. If it's very niche, it doesn't matter if you have a hundred. Like there are some people in here, my Jackie Coke back there who has an HR podcast you guys like that is so niche, but it's helped their business so much because you find a lot of great leads through that podcast. So it's growing, but it's growing. You know, it started small because it's such a niche thing, but it can make such a big impact because it's attracting those very, very niche people. Okay, so I want to transition back to talking about how to leverage podcasts without actually hosting one. So at YAP Media, you're sold out. Tell me what that means. First of all, sold out until the end of the year. And why are brands so attracted to podcast or doing this?

Yeah, so it's pretty unique. I have a podcast network with 30 shows and every single show, including Lori's, has no more ad space till the end of the year, which is really unheard of. Right. And the reason why is because there's not that many big podcasts out there that are available for sponsorships. And if you know how to create a sponsorship model that actually converts for brands, you'll get renewed and get more sponsors. So something to note with podcasts is that they're really top level awareness. When you are seeing a commercial on your podcast, you need to repeat it a lot so people actually Convert and people are highly engaged when they listen to podcasts. People are multitasking, they're driving, they're working out, they're doing dishes, they're doing something on autopilot with their body and their mind is completely focused on you. So they're super engaged. They're absorbing everything that you're saying, they're remembering everything that you're saying. And after they hear it a bunch, they'll remember it so well that they might go online and search for it later. Click and buy. However, they're not clicking and buying right there. And then on the podcast again, they're doing dishes, they're working out. They're not scrolling, clicking and buying. They're not on a computer or a device to do that. They're just listening. So if you pair your commercials with an email blast with ensuring the link is on your YouTube with a social post and so on, if you DM retarget your reels and DM them with your CTA link, you'll get direct conversions plus the long tail conversions of your spot for your sponsors or, or your own products and services. Right. So really the key is to have a 360 approach. Again, people are not only listening on audio, most people are also following you on social media. So you're going to want to ensure a 360 approach so that you can actually get the conversions. And that's the long answer of why we're still that at yeah, media. I make that mandatory for every monthly flight of commercials. You've got to either do like an email blast or a social post and that keeps the sponsors really happy.

Okay, so I know that you do, we talked about this. But a lot of value add ons and I want to talk about that in a second. But I want everyone listening to think of it from a lens of even if you don't have a podcast, when I asked this question about adding extra value because that's what she's all about, I want you to think of this in terms of someone that you want to work with in the future, like adding that valuer or a partner or a mentor that you want to get on their radar or so Hala, you are always like, okay, what's you know, how can we add extra value to this? So tell me a little bit about what you do, what works and what's the thought process behind that.

Yeah, so basically value add just means free promotion, Right? So it's layering something on top of your podcast commercial for us. We do email blasts, we do social Posts, we'll do retargeting of the DMs with the CTA. Really, it's just up to you in terms of where your audience is and what do you think is gonna be the most impactful so that you can increase the actual conversions that happen right away? Because like I mentioned, podcasting is long tail. You need to repeat the commercial over and over and over again before people take action. But that's not to say that podcasts don't work. It just you need more repetition. And people are really going to remember your brand. It's going to really increase your brand awareness, but you need more repetition for people to actually take that purchase action. Something else that we didn't mention before with your question about, like, why podcasts? Why are they doing so well? Podcast hosts are so trusted, right? I read a stat that people Trust podcast hosts 23 times more than social media influencers.

So who's starting a podcast? Everybody. Next time is like, they come with headphones and a mic, like into the room. Okay, all right, last topic before we go to Q and A, because I'm going to give you guys an opportunity. You guys want an opportunity to ask some questions? Okay. Amazing. How about get guesting on shows? How should we go about doing that?

Okay, so I feel like there's two main avenues that you have when guesting on shows. Number one is like being highly relevant. Okay? You've got something to share with the world. You know, you're an expert. Let's say you're an expert on sales. Okay? What I want you guys to do is go on the chartable.com or the Apple charts. You can just Google it. Apple Charts. And they have categories and subcategories. And you can literally go to business marketing and then go look at every top 250 sales podcast, right? You can then go see who hosts it. Either DM them on Instagram or get, you know, an extension and grab their email off LinkedIn. And you can reach out to these people and you want to tell them, hey, I look through your feed, you don't have an episode about X. I can speak directly to this. And you want to give them a new angle of what you can speak to, related to your expertise. And you want to be highly relevant, highly personalized. And that's how you're going to approach it if you don't have a large following. The other thing that I'd say is, like, be realistic, right? I would say you want to punch above your weight maybe like four or five times, like Your number of followers. And right now, unfortunately, the only platform people still care about is Instagram. Everyone is going on your Instagram and seeing what is your social proof. Even if you have a big email list, even if you have a YouTube channel, really, everyone's going to your Instagram. You, of course, want to mention any other platforms that you have, but your social proof is in Instagram. And so you need to be realistic. If you have 20,000 followers, good, yes. Go reach out to the host with a hundred thousand followers. But if you have 20,000 followers, the 2 million follower host is not going to have you on their show. Right. So punch above your weight, but be realistic.

I love that. And one of the things that, you know, I look at when I'm looking at for people on my show is also what are they saying when they're asking me to come on. If it's like, hey, I can come on and talk to your audience about empowering women. I always try to make you guys remember, like, nobody wakes up in the morning and says, I want to be an empowered woman. It's like they're like, I have anxiety. This to do list is overwhelming me. I don't know my next steps. Like, I love when people come to me with, hey, this is like the title that we would have. This. Here's the three things I would talk on. And it's very pointed and it feels kind of fresh or it feels like a new perspective. And it's a benefit that the listener is going to get, get from it. It's like, I'm going to give your listener three tips on how to deal with all of their anxiety before 11am like, oh, do tell. Because I'm the listener, so I also want to know that. So feeling like, really, really pointed and clear on that is always huge for me. But the long. Oh, my God. The long pages of telling me everything that you have done and do, like, you can't. You don't actually have time for it. So we delete them all. So it's like very quick, very concise.

Yes.

Okay, let's do some Q A because this girl's got some knowledge that we absolutely want to extract here. Okay, so who's up? Who's got the first question for me? Okay, I'm doing the front and then we're working our way back. Hi, Hala. I am curious about how you review your podcast data analytics to then make adjustments to podcasting. I have a podcast that I host on Soundcloud and anchor Spotify and then on Apple. And I don't really understand how to look at those. The analytics to then go, okay, how should I tweak the way that I upload or post in order to help these podcasts grow?

Yeah, it's a really good question. First of all, I'd say you definitely want to forget about SoundCloud off the bat, because you can't monetize it. It's not connected to your RSS feed. It's something separate. Okay. So you're growing your soundcloud, you're never going to really be able to monetize it super effectively with sponsors because they can't track it with pixel tracking. Okay, so SoundCloud is separate. It's not really like a place for you to focus. And then eventually you want to graduate off of anchor because there's a whole lot of like, in terms of growth. Right. But in terms of analyzing your podcast numbers, what you want to do is actually look at your user agents. So where are all the downloads coming from? Are they coming from Apple, are they coming from Spotify, are they coming from Podcast Addict, wherever it's coming from, and see if there is any sort of traction. You may want to advertise with some of those podcast platforms and try to see, like, is there any opportunity for you to kind of milk any sort of traction that you're already having on these platforms. The other thing that you might want to consider is that there's some new platforms like co Host that let you see into your listener data, like pretty cheaply. Like it's $50 a month and you can see like, what their age is, what their income is, what are they searching on social media, what are their behaviors, do they have pets, do they have kids? And you can get some insight on your audience. You can also use Chartable to get some insight on your audience. And then you'll actually know, like, who am I talking to if I want to attract younger people, what do I need to talk about? If I want to attract older people or if this is, I just want to keep attracting the people who are interested in this content, then you can do that. But aside from that, like, there's not much like, like I said, it's not like things go viral on your podcast. It's really all about bringing in a consistent flow of subscribers. And then your. Your downloads are always consistent for the most part. They're not really going to spike based on, like, your topic. It's all about, like, what subscribers you're bringing in. Unless you're going super viral on YouTube or social media. Okay, you're welcome. Awesome.

Who's next back here?

Okay, we're switching to in person podcast recordings. So are you seeing host pay for the guests, like travel and lodging, or is it more of a you're on the show and then they learn about you and learn about what you sell and so it's more of a trade off. Yeah, it just depends on how big you are. Right. And I would say I would try to avoid, you know, it's going to get really expensive really fast to pay for people to fly out lodging. I'm in the process of trans transitioning to in person video, and what I found is that it's much easier to actually travel to other people. So what I'm going to be doing is like flying to LA, doing 10 interviews, getting an Airbnb, making it look nice, doing the interviews and flying to the next city and coordinating it that way. I also know a lot of friends who, like, have a studio in Miami or New York and they just are constantly in advance and it kind of takes a while to get there. But like, just like, hey, when are you coming to Miami? Let me put you down. When are you coming to Vegas? Let me put you down. And you can kind of also have like a in city studio where you're constantly telling people like, hey, I'm here. If you're going to be in the city, let's coordinate a time. I will say that one of the most difficult things, even with me having a big show, is actually getting people in person and it's way easier to go to them. Great, thank you. You're welcome.

That's what I do. And it's so much easier to go well, like, even just bring a team and do it or find a studio. It's like so much easier that way. Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay, great question. All right, thank you so much. This has been amazing. Being a guest on a lot of podcasts. What have you seen as the most.

Effective giveaway to really encourage people to.

Reach out to you afterwards? So I have heard people doing things like a free call, right. Like, if anybody who wants, you know, to learn more, get a free, like, consultation, you can just call me and they just like, link people to a website where they can book a call. So like, that works well for me. When I guess on other podcasts, and let's say I have like a LinkedIn course, a LinkedIn masterclass, I'll work with the host beforehand and be like, hey, like, let's do a 30% discount for your followers. And then on it, I'D be like, okay, Everybody go to yap media.com course use code LORI for 30% off. Hey, we can do that right now, right? Like, so basically you could just, like, on the fly, coordinate with the host and say, like, I'll have you as part of my affiliate. You'll get paid out X. And sometimes I have the conversation before the podcast, and sometimes I just do it live. And then afterwards I'm like, hey, if you want to get an affiliate, like, fee for. For anybody who does it, this is what you do. So, yeah, great question.

Okay, you're going to help me pass the mic here.

Hi.

Hi.

You're on camera.

Also cool.

I am not a podcaster, but I am a video creator. So I love to capture podcasters, and I've noticed that a lot of them find it pretty, pretty pricey to invest in video for every podcast episode. So what would you say to podcasters who are afraid to make that investment and don't quite see the ROI on getting video for every podcast episode?

I think getting video for every podcast episode is absolutely essential. Audio has a discoverability problem. The way that you're going to get new fans, new subscribers, new listeners is by pulling them from social media to your audio app. It is one of the only ways to promote and market your podcast on social media. You need a visual element. So video is so key. Video is shareable. Video is engaging and super important to grow your show.

So good. Who's next?

I was just on Joe Ducey's podcast, ABC15 News, and he's now at the BBB and he said it's the most popular episode they've had, but I haven't even put it out. When I retransmit that episode, how do I do it on all the platforms in the best way and to get the most people to love the BBB and Joe Ducey and me. And what do I give them from me? What do I do to do better on all the platforms and market better?

So is your question, you went on this podcast, you're getting the content, you want to figure out how you're going to disperse it to your followers. Yeah.

Everywhere. And. And I can even, like, ask all my friends in the DMs, hey, go like this and share this and, you know, whatever you want to do.

Yeah. So I would chop it up into Instagram reels and leverage the collab feature. So collab with the BBC so you can get double the exposure potentially. So that. That could be. So the collab feature. I'm sure a Lot of you guys know about it, but if you don't know about it, basically you can invite people to be a collaborator and that Instagram reel will show up on their page and your page. So we, for example, we do that with all of our episodes so that our guests are also promoting it on their platforms as well. And we actually ask them in advance. And you'll want to ask, you'll want to tell them in advance, hey, heads up, we're going to ask you for a collab on these days. Please make sure you accept. And then we DM them like, hey, can you please accept this collab? And we, like, annoy them until they do it so that we can get that double promotion. So I would recommend that if you have an email list, you know, create an email blast specifically about this. And here's another hack that we didn't talk about. Is anybody here active on LinkedIn? Okay, so one of my the best ways for me to grow my show and get subscribers is to actually play my fully recorded episodes on LinkedIn Live. So you just download Restream Streamyard. I put my fully episode pre. Like, it's not live. They're just my YouTube episodes and I play them on LinkedIn. And then anybody who likes and comments on it, I retarget in the DMs. Hey, thank you for watching my live stream. If you want more content like this, go subscribe to my podcast. Right? And I monetize those episodes as simulcasts too. So, like, brands will pay for commercials on your live stream.

So good. Okay, who's up?

Okay, thank you. This has been so helpful. What would you say to someone who has been on a lot of podcasts, wants to start her own, but is afraid the niche is too saturated? Everybody told me that. Like, when I started a podcast, people told me, what are you doing? It's. This was six years ago. People told me it was saturated. Now I'm a top 100 podcaster. It is never too late to start. You don't want to listen to other people. Are you creative? Are you a good marketer? Are you going to try hard? Are you going to be consistent? Are you going to think outside the box? If so, you're like way ahead of everybody else who's starting, right? So as long as you're willing to really learn and put in the work, it's not going to happen overnight. But if you get creative, if you listen to people like me who have done it before and you don't just cross your fingers and hope for the best, and you actually proactively are pulling listeners in and trying really hard. You're going to be successful. Thank you. I'll start one. Awesome.

I love that. And that's so true. Do you know the stats by chance on people who quit podcasts?

Yeah, I believe that 50% of podcasters pod fade within the first year, and so a lot of people will quit. I believe that. It's like more than 50% of people don't even get to their 10th episode. There's so many podcasts out there that are no longer existent. There's only like 500,000 active podcasts. And I believe there's like 6 million published podcasts, but only 500,000 are about active.

Yeah, I love that. So you guys really think of that, because if you are someone who is consistent, this is like, a really good thing for you to be in.

Okay, what would you recommend as far.

As a cadence, like a weekly daily, monthly?

Like what?

What do you see for the best? If you want to compete with other podcasters, you got to post at least twice a week. All right? So once a week doesn't cut it for advertisers. The closer you get to a daily show, the less desirable you are. So you actually don't want to go over three episodes a week, and you want to do about two. So, like, two is the sweet spot. And one of the reasons is also because, again, the podcast charts are trending, right? So if you're getting a lot of downloads twice a week, you're going to rank higher than everybody who's posting once a week or once a month, even if they have a bigger show than you. So it's important for ranking, and it's important in general just to compete. Also, when you layer in a second episode per month, you'll get about 30,000 more downloads overall for the month. It's not going to double your downloads, but it immediately gives you a jump. So if you're doing four a month and you add a second episode, you'll immediately, for the most part, from what I've seen, you get about 30% more downloads.

Okay, so you were talking about the categories of podcasts where it's, like, not as many downloads yet. So I would be in that category of my podcast, but I am consistent and I'm regular with it. And I actually have a brand that's interested in being a sponsor, and they're very aligned with my audience and my message. How do I go about doing my very first sponsorship with somebody?

Well, first of all, congratulations. The best way to do it is to get out of, especially when you're small. So I used to get sponsorships even before I had like a huge show. And I would bundle things outside of my podcast and get really creative so that I wouldn't have to play this CPM game. Because if you don't have a lot of downloads, charging $30 per 1000 downloads, you might only make 200 bucks for your commercial. And that sucks, right? So why not think of a branded series that you could do for them? Now suddenly you can charge what you want. It's not a commercial. You're gonna do a 10 minute series within your podcast, feedback, maybe every other week. And now you can charge $2,000 an episode and sell them six episodes, right? Or you can, you know, bundle in social media, bundle in an email blast. What I would do is I would make it a360 campaign that includes branded content, which means like original content that you record that may include commercials and then you can charge what you want for it.

I took your LinkedIn class and so I just want to tell everyone to take it. It was so helpful, especially if you're building a business on LinkedIn. And I have two questions, one I think I know the answer to, but I just need you to break my heart. There's no like many chat feature for LinkedIn, right?

Well, are you gonna save my Life?

Okay, so LinkedIn is very strict, so it is against terms of service to use automation. And if you use automation, you're at risk for getting your account deactivated and all this stuff. So psa, right? However, there are lots of automation tools, like Linked Helper is one, and a lot of people use that. There's like Octopus, which a lot of people use, and there's automation tools that you can use to grow your platform. So when I first started, I was using automation tools and like Linked Helper for example, will let you scrape everybody who likes and comments your posts, or even lookalike profile posts. So I used to scrape Gary Vee's posts, all his likes and comments, and then I'd send automatic DMs 24, 7, 24 hours a day. Hey, I noticed you follow Gary Vee. If you like his podcast and content, you're going to like mine too. And I had that automated before I had a team. Now I know better that you can get your account restricted. And I've got too much money invested in LinkedIn that I use virtual assistant because you won't get in trouble the same way that you would with automation. You get More of like a slap on your wrist. You're not going to get your account deactivated. So I would highly recommend virtual assistants. If it wasn't for vas, I would not be as successful as I am today. Now I have 60 people all over the world that work for free. Start not for free. 60 people, not for free. Trust me. That was before, but I have 60 employees. Some are US employees, some are in the Philippines, India, whatever it is. But when I first started, I would just pay people like $500 a month in the Philippines to work eight hours a day for me. And that's how I really scaled before I had a lot of money. And so vas, to me are so powerful. I feel like they're so underutilized people. International are. They work so hard, they're so appreciative. And so I would Recommend Getting a VA to help you with your DMs. Okay.

Awesome. I do. I have a recruiting firm, so I can't lose LinkedIn, so I'll have to do that.

Yeah.

So then my second question is, I'm the one with the HR podcast and all of my episodes are very focused either on hiring, like being a good people manager, or like compliance and systems. Is there any benefit to like rotating topics throughout the week or like doing eight in a row of hiring, like eight in a row of benefits or, you know, something like that. Do you think there's a benefits on like grouping topics?

I don't think so. I don't think there's any benefit. I think generally if you're sticking within the topics of your podcast, hr, I think it's actually more entertaining for your listeners. So again, like podcasting, you don't go viral. It's. You've got the same listeners listening this week, next week, so on, and then new people kind of enter the flow. So if you're talking about the same thing, that actually might get boring. It might be better to like rotate the topics a bit so that it feels fresh. And the other thing you should realize is that people listen to about 10 to 15 episode and then they drop off. So you might want to resurrect some of your old content because it's probably new listeners anyway.

Hello. So I have a podcast where I do walk and talks in different cities and travel to their location and highlight their cities and all that. So it's a lot to, you know, on the note of in person, it's a lot to go to their cities, like set up everything. I was doing a walk and talk, like publishing One every single week. I back down to one a month and then do three solo episodes. Is there a specific balance between doing solo episodes and guest interviews?

Have you looked at your downloads to see what does better? Probably the same, right?

Well, so far the guest episodes have, because I just started like a month ago with the solos.

Yeah, I mean, I would lean into the things that are, are getting you the best results. But what I've seen is that typically the downloads don't change that much depending on the format. And a lot of the times if you train people and if you are speaking valuable things, your listeners will want to hear you more than anybody else. And so your solo episodes, probably what I'll guess is, will end up doing better and better. So for example, when I play, sometimes I'll play me guesting on another podcast and those will be my best performing episodes because my listeners are just like, you're always interviewing people. We want to hear from you, you know, and so I think your solo episodes will end up doing better overall. But in general, it doesn't really, like you're not going to see some like drastic increase. It will be like a slight increase for you to judge what's doing better.

Okay, awesome. And then going off the VA now I have to ask you, where do you find your VAs?

I'm like super scrappy and I'll just go on LinkedIn and so on LinkedIn, you can search for virtual assistant, you can search Philippines, you can search India. I can look at their profile, I can see the posts that they write. And honestly, guys, some of my best employees that I've had for like five years now are people that I just found on LinkedIn and shot them a DM, had a brief interview and was like, okay, you, you, you're. I have to train you anyway. You seem like you've got to write the right personality and work ethic and then, you know, we go from there. So just poach them off LinkedIn.

LinkedIn, everybody. Thank you so much.

So you guys go follow her because truly that's what happens for me. Like when I started working with her and Brianne and Danny, like I got very re inspired working with people. And my biggest takeaway today was just like the under utilization of VAs. Like people can, you know, maybe when they get that first advertiser, they can just take that money and put it back into VAs to grow it and continue to do that. And it's crazy how quickly I'm sure that that could grow. So you guys, everybody on your feet. You know what's coming. You know that we give the best standing ovations of a lifetime. So let her know with your energy. And you're clapping and you're screaming how great she was.