Episode 4 The Podcast Monetization Pyramid: Strategies for Health Entrepreneurs

Welcome to the Healthy Prophets podcast. If you love this show, which we know you will, make sure that you subscribe, leave a review because it helps us with the show. Now enjoy.

Hey, guys. Welcome back to the Healthy Profits podcast. This is Sammy Shoebox, Moses and Ray Ireland. Good to see you, honey. Alrighty, guys, this is episode four, where we get to cover a very, very important part of the podcasting system, which is how important? The most important, if you really want to make money.

Okay.

Hey, guys, we're going to talk about the podcast Monetization pyramid, a framework that I pulled from, well, poached it from Adam Scheibel, who has been an incredible resource with the podcast business school. And this was a framework that he really made crystal clear. We were doing this with our clients, but we didn't have a framework and. Or an image to look at. So I wanted to do this with our audience just to let them know what this looks like. So I'm going to let you explain the top to bottom real fast, and then we're going to dive into the nuances of each one.

Yeah, absolutely. So imagine a pyramid, right? We have the base at the bottom, the point at the top, and there's different blocks or different steps that you take to move up the pyramid. Now, these blocks and steps help you and can guide you on a path towards monetizing your podcast, as long as you actually take them one step at a time. A lot of times we see people jump around the pyramid or try to go from the top down, and that's where things can get a little bit wobbly, and you're just playing more of a guessing game at that point. So this is a really great, proven path that we've seen work time and time again that we want to share with you guys. The bottom block is Start Anytime Offers. Then you move up to campaign offers. Next you have reoccurring offers. Then Evergreen Automated Offers, Ray's favorite. Finally, at the top, we have abs, which we'll go deeper into again. In order for this to really be implemented properly in your podcast, to have a full strategic monetization plan, you move from bottom to top. So that's how we will share these with you guys. So let's start at the bottom.

Starting at the bottom. Now we're here. All right, guys, here it is. Start Anytime Offers. What does that actually mean? That means that you have a product and or service that you can get any time during the podcast. You don't even have to listen to the whole thing. You could actually get this if you looked at the show notes first. Our Start Anytime offer that we have in our podcast is an audit. So somebody could come to our show. They love what we're talking about with monetization and how to grow an audience. And they, especially in health and wellness, they might listen to part of it or even read our show notes. And they know right then in the show notes that they can get an audit with us at any time and that will help them improve their show anytime they want. And that is the Start Anytime offer. I love that because it's super easy to put in there and sometimes it's a time trade for money. We're going to go into other aspects that are not, but it is a great way to start off with the value exchange in a podcast.

Yeah, it absolutely is. And then the next block that we have are campaign offers. These are offers that are limited time. There's a clear start, a clear end date. And this is a way where you could have a limited time launch. You could do it for an event or special masterclass, something like that, where you get to drip out a campaign throughout the series of episodes that you're releasing. So, for instance, you can have something. Well, I'll use our example. So, for example, once we hit episode 11 for the healthy Prophets podcast, we're actually going to be sharing. So sneak peek, little teaser right here. We're going to be sharing that we have a special Mastermind coming up. In that mastermind, it has a clear start and end date when you can join it, when you can be a part of it. It's a clear container. There's a certain number of seats for a certain type of person. All of that is going to be dripped throughout the marketing of the Mastermind, but also it's going to go along with the episodes that we're releasing in the podcast. So this is where you can really get fun and creative in terms of how to weave in your limited time offer with the episodes that you're producing. One of our clients that does this really well is JJ Virgin. She has her Mindshare Mastermind once a year, a yearly event where she'll use campaigns before that event happens to promote it, to release that event to the public. To say there's this many tickets, once it gets closer, there's only this many tickets. Spots are going to sell out. And it creates a really healthy style of scarcity for the marketing. And it's not false scarcity. We don't ever want to promote that. We want to be integrous with our offerings and what you're putting out into the world. But it's true scarcity. If you don't join now, there will be a closing point or the event will happen and it's going to continue.

On the repercussions of not joining.

Yeah, the FOMO will kick in at some point. So, you know, it's how it goes. So this is a fun way to create a little extra spark, little extra energy in terms of your listeners really joining you in an experience. And I think it's a fun way to get creative with the marketing and how you're going to be dripping out that campaign.

Nice. All right, thank you for that. The next is actually a reoccurring. This is the reoccurring portion of monetizing in the pyramid. And what does reoccurring mean? That means membership masterminds as well. Or you can look at coaching containers. So for example, Evolve Podcasting has a container of six months. This is reoccurring. And this is a revenue model where we are excited because every six months we know that we are adding value to our clients. We know that we will be producing their shows, helping consult with them for six month blocks, which usually turns into a few years. But what's nice about having a reoccurring revenue model is that it gives you guys and the clients time to really get to know each other, gives you time to really understand your audience. But more importantly, it also gives you a Runway, knowing that you're going to have a reoccurring revenue stream and inside your business.

And it builds trust and stability, which I think is a beautiful thing. Do we have trust and stability every day? We're working on it.

It's a growing thing. Right. Which is why it needs to be reoccurring.

Oh, wow. Well done.

So what are some other ways that our clients love to have reoccurring revenues specifically for health and wellness?

For health and wellness, a great reoccurring revenue stream is products. If you have a white labeled product and or a proprietary blend such as Anna Kabec with the girlfriend doctor she has the Mighty Maca product, which is an excellent product. We take it every morning. That is an amazing reoccurring revenue stream. Right. And that's what's great. Health and wellness. You guys are the best for doing this because you do have proprietary blends and or supplements. Sinclair is a great example of this too. She has her reoccurring product suite with her healthy detox and all the things that she has done. Shout out to Sinclair for doing that. Boom. Okay, Leads in your favorite.

Okay. My absolute favorite. This is block four, step four. So we're moving up. This pyramid is Evergreen Automated offers. Now, why do I love Evergreen?

Because when you were pregnant, the Evergreen offer was still running and we'd made some money.

Yeah, making money in bed with a newborn. Okay, you can't get better than that. But whatever stage you're at in life, I think all entrepreneurs are craving that evergreen revenue stream, basically, to break down Evergreen. It's where you have a product or an offer that doesn't need your influence or input. It's a set it and forget it model. So the way that this could be set up is as an online course or a product where you have a lead magnet inside of your show notes. From there, it goes into an email capturing system. You take it into some type of funnel, whether that's a webinar or maybe email series or a series of webinars, and eventually you guide your listener on a path of getting to know you through all of this content that you've created this systemized flow and eventually gets to a sales page and you get to sell an offer from there. So the coolest thing is that, yeah, you don't need to be involved. And also your listener gets to continue to say yes, Right. And opt in time and time again to get to know you better, get to know your product, your brand better. And so someone who. One of our clients who does this really well is Vishen Vishen Lakhiani. He has mindvalley and he has his mindvalley membership. So the podcast can be a stream that goes into the mindvalley membership evergreen. So he's not there selling the membership to people doing sales calls. He is able to focus on much bigger rocks for his company, his brand, his mission, and still have this revenue stream coming in.

He's. That's hot. He's super good. He's amazing at that. And just to give credit to mindvalley, what an incredible evergreen platform. Something to learn from that is you're learning along the way inside that funnel. So I learned stuff about different types of meditation modalities inside the funnel is insane. And the thing that you got to remember as podcasters, this is something that we forgotten. The other five takes that we did with this is that people listening to your podcast, if they're listening to your podcast and they get through that, there is a 70% chance that they're going to purchase something from you. So your evergreen funnel or your evergreen product is going to have so much more opportunities to be purchased with your podcast listeners, but only if you're using this pyramid to do that.

It's an amazing way. And there's a little bit of hesitancy in sharing this because a lot of people think, wow, that is a super sexy offer. I want an evergreen automated offer. But this isn't for everyone. And in fact, if you have not built up the previous blocks and those other stages that do create very consistent income streams, if you jump right into this one, I can guarantee you it will not be as successful as if instead of if you were to focus on these other blocks first. The reason being is that the other blocks give you the opportunity to actually integrate and experience, converse and get to know your ideal client. By talking to people, you get to see who is an ideal client, who is not you, your ideal client, what are their pain points, their dreams and wishes and everything that they're looking for within your company. And so all of that information is so valuable. So if you step right into the evergreen, that is cutting off your relationship, your communication, and that beautiful give and take energy that happens when you're building a business. And, you know, I think as entrepreneurs, we do tend to give, give, give a lot of. And the evergreen, in a way, does feel like a big gift because you're giving so much and you're actually not receiving a dynamic relationship or a dynamic conversation with the buyer. It's they're on their own journey via what you've set up for them. Make sure that you go and you take the time to do the other pieces of the start anytime offer, the campaign offer, the reoccurring offer, and that's how you're going to know exactly what to do and what to put inside of the evergreen automated offer. And then it'll become seamless, fun, easy. You'll be able to get your team involved and just let it fly.

Nice. I couldn't have said it better myself. Nicely done. All right, guys, we are now at the top of the pyramid. The top of the pyramid is funny because that's where a lot of people start and we always tell them when we come into audit shows that you're probably starting in the wrong spot. And the reason this is because the top of the pyramid is the abs, which would be affiliates, brand partners and sponsors. Why do we think that this is not the best place to start? There's a couple reasons. One, trying to find affiliates, brands and sponsorships for a podcast if you're still not in the tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of downloads is not going to ultimately one, make you a lot of money, nor is it going to build a lot of trust and reciprocity with your audience. What we like to suggest and why we love this framework, thank you again, Adam. Is because when you start at the top like this, you don't have the relationships. A lot of times, a lot of times you don't even know the brands that you're trying to market. We see this happen a lot when people come into the megaphone ecosystem and they try to promote something that they're not totally used to or might not even be in congruence with your brand. We see that happen a lot, too. So you want to be careful. But the biggest reason why we don't suggest people start with brand sponsorships, affiliates in this is because that takes the eye off the prize of you being the thought leader expert. And you want to make sure you position yourself in all your podcasts, even when you have an interview as the thought leader expert. And that sometimes is challenging if you're trying to promote somebody else's product, somebody else's service. So when you become the thought leader expert, you're talking about your products and why that transforms your audience. You're talking about your services and your. And your special sauce. And that's why we say really start at the base with what it comes down to with this pyramid. And you want to make sure you're careful when picking an affiliate and picking a sponsorship or picking a brand partnership, because sometimes that can get run away with you. We found that out the hard way by trying to put ads on the front of Ray's podcast. I remember listening to some of the ads that was inside of that network. And this is actually leading into the next thing is you can make this work when you come into a good network. And that is, yeah, the network is where this actually can work for you. And just a little sliver, a little sliver of something fun coming up is we're going to go deep into how networks work in the next episode.

Yes.

And so that's what's really cool. It can work. Let's say you become part of the Evolve podcasting network. For example, we have an entire cadre of. Of health and wellness shows. And that means that almost every product, every service inside of our podcast network is going to serve or be of service to another show in that network. So the things like I know Quebec is Mighty Maca might work really well with Betty Murray's Menopause Mastery Show. JJ Virgin's Virgin Diet course are things they might work really well with Sinclair's missions, Mindshare or mindvalley, all his courses are going to be universally accepted, especially when health and wellness and mental health and wellness is a big thing. But that means you have to be in the correct network. So we're going to get into that, which I'm very excited to do in the next episode. But to recap, I know we've given you a lot of amazing content in this episode. This is really probably one of the most valuable episodes, which is why it took six times to do this. Right. Because there is so much, there's so much stuff in here. Right. And just to recap here, let's just start at the bottom again. Ray, tell em again the pyramid.

And so from the bottom, start anytime offer, then campaign offers, then we go up to reoccurring offers, then evergreen automated offers, and finally abs. So when you take that full pyramid, if you can implement all of that, of course you're gonna have an epically monetizing podcast. But if you even just take the step that you are in currently and you start working, that you're actually going to see your podcast monetized as well, that's what's so exciting. This is a five fold monetization strategy where you're going to be bringing in multiple streams of revenue, which I think is really important in such a changing tide and environment that we're in today, especially in the podcast space, especially in the health and wellness space. And so if you are listening to this and you might be thinking about where you would fit in terms of the podcast pyramid, then dive deep into that, put all of your energy in that, and then once that's totally filled up, then move on to the next spot. And one thing, if you're also starting out and this is maybe the first time you've heard about this pyramid or these different pieces, I would say take a moment and write this out. Write out your entire business plan and see how it matches and falls into alignment with this pyramid.

Ooh, that's a good idea.

Yeah, you gotta do that because you gotta see maybe there's some holes in your business plan, or maybe there's actually some holes in your podcast plan. And so align it out and then don't be scared to play around with who would my affiliates be or what kind of evergreen offer would I want to do. But also if you're not there yet, don't spend all your time and energy and effort and money and team going into that space. Play around with it. We want to give you that framework and then also give you the energy to be able to focus on wherever you're at. There's no right or wrong or the beginner isn't as good or anything like that. Everyone starts somewhere. And actually, everyone that's successful is starting at the bottom of the pyramid.

Start at the bottom. Now you're here. Wait, started that? You know what I mean? Guys, thank you so much for joining us on this episode of the Healthy Profits Podcast. Join us next when we come into or we show you guys and explain and teach to you what a powerful network means.

Yeah.

Where you can apply this entire pyramid and really take your show to the next level. So until then, happy podcasting and happy Healthy Profits.

See you later.

Now that was a great episode. Thanks for joining us and tuning in to the Healthy Profits Podcast.

Sami and I are here to help you turn your health podcast into a treasure trove of opportunity for your listeners and your business. So join us twice a week as we unleash our favorite tips and strategies that have helped our clients at Evolve Podcasting turn their show into a thriving part of their business.

And make sure you subscribe and listen in as each episode builds upon each other. And I know that you're a generous leader, so make sure you share this podcast with your fellow wellness entrepreneurs so we can all grow together.

Until next time, stay healthy and keep thriving.

Bye.