How To Create A Niche Podcast That Builds And Empowers Investing Women With Moneeka Sawyer Of The Real Estate Investing For Women Podcast

Wish you were one of those influencers with raving fans who binge on your every word, consume all your content, buy everything you have to sell, and demand even more. Then stay tuned while Authority magazine columnist and buzzfeed contributor Tracy Hazzard shares strategies, tips and tactics from top videocasters, podcasters, authors, and social influencers on creating that bingeable factor. Now let's join Tracy as she explores how to rise above all noise with the binge factor.

Hey, everyone. Welcome to the Binge Factor. I'm Tracey Hazard and I am talking to a blissful millionaire today. I've got Monika Sawyer on the show. She's reached her financial freedom by turning 10,000 to over 5 million, working only 5 to 10 hours per month with very little stress. Doesn't that sound like a lot of fun? You can see why her podcast is attracting people. She's now on a mission to help as many other women as she can do the same. Monika hosts the top rated podcast and radio show Real Estate Investing for Women and has interviewed prestigious guests such as Lisa Gibbons, Dr. Joe Vitale, and Hal Elrod. Monique has also been featured on stages with Suzanne Somers, Martha Stewart and Ice T and Coco at places like the NASDAQ Marketplace, Harvard, Carnegie hall, and on TV at NBC, CBS, ABC, and Fox and reaches over 150 million people. So the blissful investor, I love that. She is amazing. But I love real estate investing for women. So I wanted to make sure that you get to see how this community building podcast works and how Monika is building it to have a community surrounding it. So let's hear from Monica. Monika. So glad to talk to you today. And I really just want to get to the heart of the story. Like, how did podcasting come across your desk as like, I gotta start this, I gotta try this.

Yeah. Well, Tracy, first of all, thank you so much for having me. This is really an honor. And I actually got into podcasting kicking and screaming.

So somebody made you do it.

Someone made me do it. I did not want to do it. I was a coach and I had a coach. Here's a tip, right? Always hire somebody better than you to help you with your business. But anyway, so I had a coach, and we were looking for ways for me to get my name out there and fill my mastermind group. And she said, you know, Monica, you've got this great voice. Start a podcast, and then that'll be the beginning of your funnel, right? So you do a podcast, you invite people to get a download, then in the download you invite them to a session with you for 30 minutes, and then you upsell them to the Mastermind. So I hated podcasting.

You hated it when you started it.

I did.

I did. Tell me so much about it before we go on to the rest of the story.

Why did you hate it?

What about it?

Yeah, I don't like my voice. So, like, listening to myself and then all the tech. There was so much tech, you know? Well, for me, because I'm not really tech savvy. It just felt like so much. And then figuring out the editing and dah, dah, dah, you know, all these things, right? So I just was like, oh, gosh. Another whole thing to learn for marketing, right? But I will say this. It worked like magic. I ended up, like, within a month filling my Mastermind. I had a 75% close rate on those phone calls to my Mastermind.

Love it.

I realized, right? Like, this is magic. People get to know you, and then they want to work with you. It was amazing. So your coach was right. My coach was so right. Exactly. Then an interesting thing happened. I hated running the Mastermind. So now we do a flip, right? I hated doing the Mastermind. I was like, oh, gosh, I can't do this anymore. So after two years, I stopped the Mastermind. But I loved doing the podcast. Like, what a weird thing, right? So now I'm like, okay, now what do I do with this podcast? So I just kept doing it until I could figure out some other form to monetize it. But that's how the whole thing started. I did it kicking and screaming.

Oh, how funny. So of course, you're close to 200 episodes, right?

Right. I think a little over now.

I think a little over right now. Yeah. So you've been doing this a while, obviously, and you do two episodes a week, it looks like right now. But did you always do that?

No. So when I launched, I started with five in the bag. I did five that first week, and then for the first couple of months, I think I did two a week, and then I went down to one a week. And this was really just for my own scheduling. Like, I know that a lot of content is a good thing, but I also needed to keep it manageable for me, Right? So then I went to once a week recently. And then sometimes I'll do, like, when I had my summit, I was doing five a week. It was with all the guests from the summit or the speakers on the summit or book launch. I'll do, like, something, you know, so some. Often I Will have two a week or something like that. Right now I'm doing it because I'm doing a video journal. It's a complete experiment. Ironically, my listeners love this more than any of my other shows.

I was going to say, I really hope you're going to talk about your journal because that's why I was mentioning two days a week. So Monique has set up is she'll do an interview one day of the week. The other day is what is called her journal. And so it'll be a conversation where she's just having some thoughts. She'll talk about an idea, she'll talk about a concept. She'll talk about maybe pushing through to opportunity. There's a whole bunch of it's all over the place and all the different things that you talk about, but there is always a little bit of pushing through. The fear to getting to be an investor. Pushing through. I feel like there's an obstacle model that's going on with your journal entries, but I hadn't realized it was also a video journal because of course, I just looked at it on the podcast. So it's a video journal first and you're airing it. But this is the thing that I hear again and again that when people have been podcasting for a while, doing the guest model, and all of a sudden they start to do more one on one talking to their audience alone, the solo, the solo shows, they get great response.

Yeah, it is.

You're finding that I am.

And you know, I wonder and you know, Ashley, Tracy, maybe you can help us to understand this. I feel like if we had started with that where it was all about me, first of all, I have a hard time being all about me. Right. So that's okay.

You're in the right place then.

Exactly. So that sort of like me just talking thing, it didn't feel as engaging. And I find that when I listen to podcasts, I like a little bit more variety in the voices. Because it's in your ears, right?

Yeah.

So I feel like if I had started that way, the podcast would not have seen the level of success. But now after a couple of years where people have gotten to know me, now they want a little bit more of my own opinion. Do you feel like that is consistent with what you've seen elsewhere or it just happens to have been what worked for me.

So I do think that you could have started in the model in not doing a totally solo show. We find those are a little bit harder out of the gate when you don't have an Audience to start from, you don't already have engagement or a following somewhere. But if you have a show where you're doing guesting and you do a solo show and you're balancing that out, doing two episodes a week like you are, you can start that way. But if you wait until your audience asks for it or until you realize, okay, now I feel more comfortable here. I'm ready to demonstrate my curation ability, my ability to hit on a topic that people are interested in, then go for it. Absolutely, go for it. So in this particular model of the show, the binge factor is only the guest interviews, but the feed your brand are. So we used to mix them together. So feed your brand was Tom and I. Usually Tom, my partner, for those of you who don't know. But Tom Hazard and I, we would go out and we do shows together, and sometimes we do them separate and we'd just have a topic. But we always had an interview of successful podcaster, and eventually we ran it into its own entity because that was what was being asked from our listeners, was they wanted an easy way for them to just get all the interviews because they wanted to hear from you guys, the podcasters. So. And then the ones who wanted to consume us wanted to consume us and binge listen and learn all the lessons separately. So our case, we had to split it because that's what people wanted. But I think everybody's different. I think yours works for you the way that it is right now.

Thank you. Yeah, that's great feedback. And I will say this. I did wait until my audience asked.

Good.

Like, I just kept doing it. And then eventually I started getting these emails like, Monica, what do you think about this? Or when you're doing. The whole thing that started with me is, Monika, what do you do when you're starting a new project or thinking about starting a new project? Like, do you go through any fear? Right. And I just kept hearing it and I thought, huh. Then I had to wait until I was starting a new project because I wanted it to be real. I didn't want it to be like this intellectual, philosophical thing. I wanted them to see me going through my own process. And so that's how I ended up starting that.

So now, were you adding video before? Is this the first time you've sort of added the video component?

I've actually had a video component forever, so I'm on Roku. I do.

Weren't adding a new mix of something?

No, no, no, no. I just. The video has been there forever. Okay, good. Yeah.

Because sometimes that can be daunting all of a sudden and not a bad way to go. And if you want to test out and you've never done, you've just been podcasting before and you want to add videos to try this new model with the video, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's fun now because you can, you load up to Roku and then you get on like Amazon Fire. You get on all of these different platforms and it's just doing the same thing. It takes a little more focus because you can't like rub your face when you're, when you're like recording or whatever.

It's like, yeah, you gotta have the lighting just right. All of that has to go out. Yeah. And that's why I started podcasting without video, because I did not want to have my hair done.

That's right. I can relate.

Exactly. So you know, the thing about it is though, is that even if you're just podcasting out there and you are putting your, your show on YouTube, you're actually already on all the smart TVs, because YouTube is easily accessible from almost every smart TV. So if you talk to your TV like I do, because I hate to type in channel sir. If you ask your TV to play whatever podcast it is, it'll actually go to the YouTube version of the show before it will pick it up on Amazon Music or anywhere else where you go. It'll happen to pick up the YouTube version first. I don't know why that is, but it always seems to do that.

It's a fun thing to try too, because I love walking into a house, someone's house. We don't do it right now. Right. But I walk into someone's house and I'm like, Amazon, play Real Estate Investing for Women podcast now. And like my voice fills up the house and I'm like, woohoo, it works.

This is really great. Yeah. So all you real estate agents out there, go ahead and start putting this podcast on. It's going to help. That's right. When you're walking into random homes, just start playing it on Alexa. I love that. Well, so you're looking at a different model of business than when you started. So you were filling your mastermind, which I love that model because it obviously is really working for you. I mean, 75% close rate, that's amazing for a mastermind. That's really good. What of the business model are you finessing and how do you have to change the podcast to adjust for that?

Yeah, so I haven't Figured out the new business model. Like, I love podcasting and so I'm kind of feeling some things out. So the very first goal was to not be losing money, like to be able to pay for production. Right. So that now it's a fun thing. I'm not like bleeding. Right. So that was the very first thing. And then we're now upgrading to some different things. But what I ended up doing was affiliate links and sponsorships. So once I got to a certain number of downloads, I was able to start selling sponsorships. And it's a really interesting model. Do you want me to tell you how I get these sponsorships? This is really fun.

Our listeners want to know this. This is the number one. How do I monetize my show?

Yeah. So I get an affiliate link. I don't make a lot of money on affiliates, just so you know. But what I do get is some sort of trackable link or analytic that says that people came to their show or their product or their company from my podcast. So whether I make money or not, I now have authority with the guest that was on the show. Right. Because now they're seeing, oh, Monica's listeners are responsive. They're interested in what I'm having to say. They get to do follow up calls and often they'll make a sale. So now I might get $5, $3, whatever. That's not going to really help. That much is fantastic. I am appreciative of that. But that's not the way that I'm going to pay for production. Right. But then what happens is they'll send me a check or something and I'll say, oh my gosh, how many people was it that responded to you? And they'll say, wow, we got like 15 people. That's like unheard of. I never get that on a podcast. I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm so glad my audience loves you. Would you like to be a sponsor on my show? It's already a proven entity and they're always a yes.

That's so great. Yeah, that makes it really worth the while. And I love that prove it model. So you're already like showing them the conversion and activity rate. Because what most people are struggling with today, most sponsors, I'm going to say advertisers and sponsors are struggling with, is what you're finding out is that they never get that kind of response. They do these things, they spend money or they build affiliate and they take the time to do all these things and they don't turn into Anything.

Right. A couple of good leads can be exactly what makes it worth it. But they have to know where those leads are coming from. And so it is interesting because I have had situations where people are like, monika, we don't even know each other. You're asking to make money off of me. I've actually had people say that. And I'm like, I'm not actually asking to make money off of you. I'm asking for the ability for analytics. Whether you pay me or not doesn't matter. But both of us benefit from understanding if this marketing is working for you.

Interesting. Now, we have had a few people who've mentioned over the years of doing directory. So they would do this model of they'd create a trackable link, whether or not they got permission or not for it, but something that they could track. And then what they would do from it is that they say, hey, look, here's the analytics of what's happening. I have this listing. So it's from, like, more of a directory than it would be something more on the web that you could track a little easier than it is from your show because you have to create all those links yourself on the show or the mentions, but it still works. And then they would say, look how many people went to you in the last 90 days because of clicking through my link to you. And because of that, I think you should pay for your listing. And it's 50 bucks a month or 25 bucks. I mean, it was not expensive, but they could get lots of different people to then become a member of their directory. And that really works, especially if you're created in a niche market and a curation, which in some ways you are, because there are regional title companies, they're all over the country, and you don't know where your listeners are. So by having a directory listing, that might be a future idea for you, but it is by showing them that the links happened that they sign up. Like, there's no question about it. Just. I mean, they don't even know, like, they pay that much money for Yellow Pages. And the Yellow Pages has no clear connection to. Did anyone actually look me up that way anymore? I know the Yellow Pages still exist. So that's. I'm a little old school here.

I am, too.

I know it still exists, but I don't know anyone who actually uses it anymore. Just saying.

I love that directory idea. And I've kind of looked at the possibility of a resource page or some sort of. So that's a great idea. There's A lot of different people doing resource pages in different ways, too. So that's a great way to utilize that.

Yeah. Now, so you've got a great niche. So real estate investing for women. Let's talk a little bit about your binge ability. So did you know you had a bingeable show? Has anyone mentioned that to you? Did that occur to you that it was going to happen?

It occurred to me that why would anybody even want to listen to my voice?

That is exactly the word I said. That is exactly the line I said, Monique, I'm not kidding you. When I had the first person reached out to me and said, I binged on all your 50 episodes, and I've got 50 more to go. I'm hoping you're covering this. If you're not, can you record it? So by the time I get to it, and that's. And the first thing I looked up at Tom, and I go, who wants to listen to me for 50 episodes? Like, that's what went through my head. Like, what is wrong with us that we think our voices are so bad?

Right.

But didn't occur to that person, Right?

That's right. That's right. So, yeah. So it didn't even for a moment occur to me that anybody would want to binge on this. And I get emails all the time. Or when I talk to somebody, they'll be like, I've listened to every single one of your episodes three times.

I'm like, more than once, wow.

I know. I'm like, wow. Or like, I'll talk to somebody on the phone and they'll be like, oh, there's that voice. You're with me every single morning. And I'm like, why? You know, so it's fun, but it was a huge surprise.

Do you have any sense of why they're binging on you, what your bingeable factor is?

I have no idea. I do know this. I do know this, that. And this is such a funny paradigm for me. People love my voice. Like, they're like, I hear very first thing in the morning, hello. And I'm like, yes. That's actually what people have said to me. You know, so they kind of like the uplifting, entertaining vibe of the show. I've also gotten people, they've actually posted on itunes that they hate my voice. They can't listen to the show. They wish they could get this content. They just can't stand this fake, overly enthusiastic voice. Actually, that voice is mine. I don't.

That's who you are.

That's who I Am So it's funny. We've got some people that will write horrible reviews about this woman is a crazy woman, whatever. And then we've got people that call me and like, oh my God, that voice uplifts me every single day. I do it with my workout every day just to hear the. Hello.

So who knows? Yeah, here's the thing that I'm going to give you your binge factor, right? I'm going to do a psychoanalysis of your show. That's why you're here. And this is why so many people ask send me. They were like, I just want to be on your show so you'll tell me my binge factor. And I was like, well, I hope you're going to share something exciting in addition to my psychoanalyzing your show. But here's the thing. You're in a fabulous niche where there are not enough women that are out there speaking about it, talking about it, sharing information, sharing resources. And I need to build trust with someone. And your voice is real. You're my girlfriend. You're the woman down the street who's got great ideas. It's important that you keep that personality of who you are. And that's why those new shows, the journals are doing so well, because that's why they're coming to you in the first place. They're coming to you because they know you won't put someone on that show that you don't trust, that you can't learn to build trust with. That isn't going to be something valuable for them to hear. And at the end of the day, that's we're not looking for the. And real estate is so full, especially the investment community. Slick salesmen. And I say that salesmen because most of them are men. And you're providing a niche that isn't being filled right now. So keep doing it. It's your thing. And this is the other thing I want to say to all of you women out there, you are the only ones who will receive the hate your voice messaging.

It's awful.

I had a really high powered executive give a speech once and I want to say he was like CNBC or that kind of level and he said it doesn't matter who we put on how great their voice is, who they are. But and his entire like 25, 30 year career, the only time they ever receive a complaint about a newscaster or a broadcaster is when it's a woman. And always the complaint is about the voice.

Isn't that interesting?

Yeah, it is a way to bully you. It is a way to try to undermine your confidence. So don't let it, because it is not why they're doing it.

It's so interesting because it's usually women that say it.

It's usually other women. Yeah.

Yeah, interesting. Well, my husband said something to me once. I was on a radio show and reached, like, 26 million people, and I got this huge amount of fan mail, but I got some really angry, ugly emails, too. And my husband says, if you're not getting flame mail, you're not big enough.

There you go.

I think he's right. Like, the more listeners I have, the more people are a little bit disgruntled. Right. Whether it's my voice or a topic that I cover or whatever. And that's okay because there's so many other people. I mean, it still feels bad. Like, I'm not good at it yet.

But, I mean, you know, yeah, we all take it to heart a little bit, and we should. This is the thing. It's really. Any kind of hate mail is not about you. It's about the place where that person is. And that's. I actually had to do a show about that because people who start a show, especially women, don't expect it. Like, some of it had no. How did I manage to touch nerve on something you decided to subscribe to?

I did not force you. Right. You decided to listen to the whole thing.

Like, what's with that? They just didn't expect it. But it does happen, and I'm so glad you point that out, because. And I'm so glad you didn't let it discourage you at any moment in that time, because it is your superpower here. It is your binge factor. So keep it up. I love that. Well, let's switch a little bit and talk about some of our tips, because I do want to get to talking about how you go about finding your guests, which is one of our major tips here, because I think that's part of, like, as I was saying, your specialness is the fact that you're curating this group that I can now trust.

So it's been interesting for me. I do not go after guests at all. So what ended up happening is when I did a launch, I did a really amazing launch because of my amazing community. Everybody logged on, and I started ranking very, very high in the podcast lineup. Like, if someone puts in real estate, I literally, within the first two weeks, hit the top 10. And so what ended up happening is then people started seeing me a lot, and also, who Ended up seeing me were all the agents that represent guests for podcasts. So I started getting bombarded by all of these one sheets. You have this person on my show, and there were some big names in there, and I thought, oh, my gosh, I'm just me, right? But that's how I started. And then every single time I have a guest on the show, I ask for three references. I don't always get three. Sometimes I get 10, but sometimes I might get one. But I always ask for a reference. And it turns out that I end up recording six months out now because I've got so many people wanting to be on the show.

So it's kind of how you discern that. How do you decide? I mean, this is, I think, a common problem. So when we're looking for great guests and we don't know these people, and we're being pitched with a great slick one sheet and, you know, a great publicist, how do we know if we should have them on the show without doing a pre interview and tons of work? How do you do it?

So, first of all, I listen to other shows that they've been on. Hopefully if they've got them, I think I've only had one that didn't. I also go online and I look them up. So in my industry, sort of the holding place for most of reviews and stuff is at BiggerPockets. So BiggerPockets.com I think it is. And there's all these forums and you can see who's got a good reputation, who's got a bad reputation and what's been going on. I will always look up my real estate people that way. And if it's somebody that's more of a mindset thing, then I look them up on Google and just make sure that there's no bad reviews on them. I have ended up with some people on the show that they ended up having a business problem that was not completely their fault, but still, it shows on them. And people emailed me, they're like, monica, you shouldn't be representing this person, blah, blah, blah, blah. But I did my own research. I actually called them and asked them about it, and they kind of gave me the story. And I trust them enough. And I've sort of kind of had gotten to know them that I kind of felt like, okay, I'm not going to remove that show. Because, yes, there are things that go wrong in business all the time. For us, it's impossible to run a business without things going wrong, especially in real estate.

There's going to be someone disgruntled, right?

That's right. And so unfortunately, this was really visible, but I trusted them, so I didn't remove the show. I've had one other person where I found out afterwards that they were having some problems and I know them. They're kind of in our community, like, you know, some of the people that I know. Yes, we do. Our community. And they were like, well, it just seems like he got a little bit overly enthusiastic in marketing and wasn't able to keep up. Well, I can completely relate to that. So the intention wasn't bad, but he wasn't performing during that time. He's kind of gotten that handled. So if I start to see problems, I take a look at really what's going on. There have been people that have been removed from my show. I had them on and then they treated me really badly in some way, shape or form, and I decided not to air them or to take them off of the show.

Well, that's some of the benefit of recording so far in advance. Like you have time to have some experience with them and decide.

Yeah, that's right. That's right. And even later, sometimes we end up making bad decisions in business later. And that our new business model, and I don't agree with it, I can take you off the show.

Things change for everybody. Right.

That's so good. It's not set in stone. Right. It's a work in progress. I love that. I love that approach to it.

Well, good.

I'm so glad you're doing some great guest vetting and sharing that with our audience here, because I find that sometimes that's what really goes wrong in a show that they aren't taking the time to really find out, is this person worthwhile, Are they going to be interesting? And listening to them is one really good way to check that out.

So.

So now, besides getting great guests, the next biggest thing that most people have difficulty with is how do I increase my listeners? So do you do anything? How are you getting in listeners and how, you know, has it changed over the couple of years that you've been doing this?

Yeah. So this is not something that I excel at. I have to confess, you're not alone.

This is like the number one place everyone says, I'm gonna admit this, that.

I'm not really good at this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So in the initial thing when I did my launch, like I said, I In the top 10, like, I probably rated in the top 10 for the first year. So after the first two weeks and through the first year. And so people found me organically. You know, they'd look for real. Look for real estate on itunes or Apple podcasts and they would find me. And so a lot of the growth just happened organically. I do ask every single one of my guests to send to, you know, share it with your whole world, quote, unquote, is what I say. Some of them do it, most of them don't. Which, you know, is neither here nor there. It's just the way things are in the industry. I think maybe you've got some tips for me on that. But I have had a hard time getting my people to share. To share the podcast.

But, you know, just kind of getting it out there. The other thing that has been interesting is I've been on television a lot and so a lot of people, like, I'll just mention that I have this show and often after I'm on television, you'll see a big bump.

Well, you know, it's just so easy to, like, if you're watching it on our phone, we're watching TV because a lot of us watch it that way. We're streaming whatever it is for us to just go flip over to our app and click it so we don't forget. Right. So that happens a lot for me. I'm a reader and I'll flip over to my Kindle app and I'll save the book in my playlist, but, you know, or in my save list. And that's my way of like remembering, oh, I saw someone and I want to investigate them. It's not necessarily that I was going to read their book, but I want to remember who it was so I don't forget.

That's right.

Yeah. Podcast is really easy way for them to save you and come back to you and find out more. So that's a really great strategy. I'm going to suggest because you asked if nobody minds right now, just make a little suggestion that in order to get guests to share you more. One of the things in the criteria of when I accept guests from publicists specifically, when I accept guests from publicists specifically, I ask for who is going to be sharing this show. Is there a social media team, A social media company? Is there somebody else? Because very typically when you use a publicist to send back so and so was a part of the show and you send it to the publicist and you don't actually have the direct contact with the guests themselves, but you're going through the agent. Their job is to get the placements, not share the placements, and that's where it can fall apart. And so those people who have team are not attuned to forwarding the emails, just don't do a good job of that for you. So if you can get that in advance in any way, shape or form by whatever your intake form is, by asking at the outset before you agree to have them on the show, getting that email address of who is supposed to be sharing this, whether it's an assistant or another firm, then you're going to have a higher likelihood for success in your process. And then the other thing you can do is in your vetting process of checking them out, check out their social media and see if they actually share stuff. They only post their own stuff. Then I won't have them on the show. That's one of my cut criterias.

I love that.

Okay, you can do what you're already doing, but just add another checkbox that says, oh, okay. That makes them more worthwhile, more valuable. You've got six months of backlog, so you can be pickier.

It is true. And actually that just occurred to me. I'm like, I don't know why I'm so eager because it's six months. And it also feels bad because their show is released so long after, so sometimes they don't even remember, oh, yes, I did that show.

And that's probably also a. That's what I'm gonna say. That's a factor. And I know there's a. For a lot of you out there, there's a financial impact to producing shows. Right? So you've got an editor or you're doing production services. But if there's any way for you to shorten your timeframe to being no more than 60 days, you do have a better chance of having the excitement of the interview still leading to posting. So that's the only thing I can say is that at some point that's part of the luster of the fun they had is off. And they don't even know what to say when they share it. This time they were like, how long ago was that?

I don't know.

Their business model changes.

Yeah. And I've had that.

Afraid to share it. Right. Because they're.

So. I've seen that happen too. So, yeah, so those can help. But let's go on to some of the other things. So now, in full disclosure, Monique is a client and I'm bringing her on the show because again, this is one of the people. I've told you that I bring very few clients on the show, but the ones that I bring on is because behind the scenes, I can see the growth in their show, and I could see that they have a very stable, organic growth show, which means that it's some tips she's going to give you. You're going to be able to model. So my next question is about producing in a professional way. I want to do the stuff that you do that makes it a professional production.

Yeah. So I actually just moved over to you guys four months ago, so I had a full production process set up before that. I will just say, for your listeners, that production process is so much nicer now because I'm not in the middle of it. Thank you, Tracy.

You're welcome.

Yeah, but before that, I definitely did not do this myself here. But, you know, all of us are different in sort of what we love about podcasting. Some of us are really into the tech, like, being able to manipulate, like, how I edit it, where things slow down, where I hit music, you know, like there. I know podcasters like, oh, my God. I just love the editing process. But for me, oh, my God, it's like my whole brain would blow up and it took forever. Right. Like, it was just not the same. Yeah.

My eyes were glazing over, and I own a production company, so, like, you.

Know, there you go. I know, I know. Right? And there were so many moving parts. So the very first thing that I did was to start to get everything into one place. And guests push back on this all the time. But it is the key to my success, which is they get a form, and when that form gets filled out, it all goes into a spreadsheet. And then my va, my production guy who manages production gets to go to that spreadsheet. This was before I was working with you guys, because you have a different system. Right. But my VA would go over and he'd take a look at the spreadsheet, and that's where he would pull my show notes. That's where he would pull what we talked about. That's where he would pull the guest affiliate links. That's where he would pull the picture he pulled. It was all in one place. If it wasn't fair, it didn't get put into the notes, and then that would upset the guest. But people need to be really clear that there's a process. We all have really, really busy days, and there's so many moving parts that if you're constantly scrambling, it's too hard to run a business to run the show right.

You have to streamline it to do the one thing that you are good at. And I love that you're about that process because it is. I don't need to gather those things. It just makes my life more stressful later. But it's going to make for a better show. Everybody benefits from it. And if they just can't afford the time to fill out the form, then maybe they're not the right guests for your clients anyway. Right. Your listeners won't be fully served by them. So, yeah.

And I've had people say, monika, you didn't put my link in the show. Well, you said you'd get back to me and you didn't. And I don't remember every single thing that I had to follow up on every single guest. I just don't. And so if you wanted it and I said it when I used to.

That'S why I have notes over here that you see me occasionally write to. Because if I, like, don't do it, I won't. If I don't do it right now, right when I upload the episode, I won't remember to do it either. So it'll be, this is trash. As soon as I've uploaded it, it's gone. It's of my head and I'm never going to think of it again.

Right. We need that real estate for other stuff. The real estate between our ears. Right. We need that for other stuff. So. So. And I say it in the instruction form. So anyway, so that's the very first thing. And then I have somebody that manages the rest of the process. So he was the one that he did the editing personally, but he had a team member that did the graphics. He had a team member that did video. He loaded everything up to Libsyn back then. And then he did the show notes. He put together my email that would go out to the guest and he also put together the email that went out to my list when the thing released. So he did all of those things. So he managed that whole process. And then I would just once a week I would sit down and edit whatever he had done. Not edit, but review. And it became that I trusted him. So that I would do it once every two or three months. I would just kind of do an audit. But that's kind of how that worked.

Wonderful. So you made some space in there for being able to make sure it was professional, but you don't have to stay involved in every little detail along the way. Love that. That's great. Now you are hearing from your. I mean, you're obviously hearing from your listeners because they're the ones who said that they love your journal shows. So how are you getting them to engage with you? How is that working?

I asked them to call me on the show. I'm like, you know, you can contact me. I'd love to hear from you. So I'll say that frequently. I'm starting to do a new thing and this is kind of a test because so originally they would get the free download and in the free download it would give a link to get on my calendar. And I used to get probably three to five a week in the early days, which was amazing. And I'm not sure, like, I've got exponentially more listeners now and fewer people sign up. So I'm like, okay, I'm not sure what's going on there, but whatever. So I've started to ask and then I'll talk about people that called. So when I'm on the show, I'll say, I had a listener that called me and wanted to know this and that's why we're covering this in this show today. So people kind of know that I'm paying attention and I'm wanting to give them what they're asking for. Recently I've started when I do a call because it's a free call. I'm now recording that call and I'm letting everybody know that this is a coaching session with so and so I wanted to share it with you because I think it's valuable if you want to be on the show or if you have a question, please let me know. I'd love to record you so that we can help the audience. So I'll say something like that. And the ladies are loving that. There's some women that are like, I just want to talk to you and we can't record. And so whatever. That's neither here nor there. But most of them are really so there are.

Just to let everybody know out there because I've interviewed two of them that I think have a really great model. And Monique is talking about this here. Hers is great as well, is that these are three models by which you can do on air coaching, which helps to sell people into your normal coaching. Kim Seltzer does that on she's the Charisma Quotient. It's her third episode that she does in the week. So she does an interview, she does a solo show and she does on air coaching. Pat Flynn also does that with his podcast, his smart passive podcast.

Smart passive income podcasting show. So anyway, I always mess it. It's spi. Like, that's what I think of it because that's what it is on my phone.

Anyway, Pat Flynn, who's been on our show and I've been on his show now, and he does that as well. And he has a model where if they choose not to do it on air, then there's a payment model. And it's not huge. It's just, this is like, you're going to pay me for my time to do this. And I used to do that on the product launch hazards podcast that we used to have for the product side of our when we used to do a lot of product stuff and I used to do it there. And I would charge if you didn't agree to the on air guest model and on air coaching, which many of them did not because they didn't want their idea stolen, so they didn't want to talk about it publicly.

Stolen.

Yeah, because this is a lot of inventors. I used to charge $500 an hour for that and now I charge over a thousand. But almost no one. I do it so that no one will take me up on it, but about once every three months someone will take me up on it. And so I'll be like, okay, I got to have the call then. But that's a way to value your time in terms of setting what the value of it is as well, which I think is really important for you. And, you know, this is the thing, the next question that I asked, the fifth thing that we look for tips on is monetizing your show. And you've been through multiple and are moving into another model of monetization. So obviously the mastermind was the first one and obviously was really successful monetization. So in your estimate, like, can. Do you think you can get there with sponsorship? Could you think you can match that? Or do you think you're going to have to do that with other things as well, like perhaps coaching?

Well, I'm not going to do coaching, so that's not in the realm of what I'm going to be doing. So I'm very, very clear on that.

You have a clear path.

I love that I have a very clear path. So I'm already cut even on the podcast, so I'm good with that. Some of my affiliates are really, really, what do you want to say? Like, kicking butt. Right. They're doing an amazing job with my audience. And so I'm starting to get some very nice affiliate links now. I just want to be clear that I Don't pick somebody because they have an affiliate link. I pick somebody and then we have a conversation about how they can support the show and how we can figure out what the response is going to look like.

It's really more like a partnership than an affiliation. And I like that you're really joint venturing.

Exactly, exactly. And now, after two and a half years of doing this, I've developed some really close relationships with guests that have been on my show several times. I actually do business with them, those sorts of things. And so then I can bring them on and we can start to do, like, now we've got a couple of webinars that I'm doing. I've got a couple of, like, classes or if they were on my summit, and then they had an affiliate link especially for that summit or some things like that. So those are the things that I'm starting to really look at. But as far as, like, covering production cost, I'm cut even on that now, so.

Wonderful. Well, so you found some ways to monetize your show.

Love that. Yeah.

So you said that your voice was holding you back when you, you know, you were like, I just don't want to do this. What's your advice to someone aspiring out there, especially the women out there who are thinking about podcasting but haven't pulled the trigger yet.

Just do it. It's really, really fun. And you know what? You're not getting married to it. You know, you can start your podcast for 150 bucks. You need a good mic. You know, you need a computer that you can store it on. Right. You might need a Zoom membership. Right. There's not a lot that it takes to get started. So you're not married to this project, but try it. And the other thing is, once you try it, there's a couple things. If you try it, be consistent. Because if you're consistent, people know to listen to you. You're gonna start to see responses and reviews. That's very inspiring. Right. And it kind of pulls you forward to keep doing it. Right, Right. So do you do that? Be consistent and give yourself three months. Like, if you hate it the very first time, don't allow that to be the thing that stops you, because you get better. Like with anything else, you get better. Give it three months and you'll get to see, like, is this a skill I want to continue to develop? Is this still going to fit in my marketing model or whatever you started it for? Is this gratifying for me? And then, you know, you can revisit that you can revisit that. Most podcasts don't go past two years. You know, people kind of grow out of it.

I'm going to plus what Monica said there and just say if you can, because Monika did this way 25 episodes. She did 25 episodes in 90 days. You did more than that. And so if you can give it 25 episodes, commit to that amount, you will have a better sense of commitment level from your audience. You'll feel like you've settled into a place. But if you only do 90 days and you only do one a week, it's not quite enough to hit that place. Is what I found over time from the consistency of my clients, that a very quit spot tends to be 11 episodes is the low level quit spot. And it's because they didn't really. They dipped their toe in, but they didn't fully commit to stepping in the water. And that's really what that is. So if you're going to do 90 days, do more episodes like Monica did, because you want to commit to that, boosting it to giving it everything you can from the beginning. So that's really what you did that was so well. That really, I think, served you because you also forced yourself into pulling off the band aid, getting all the stuff, figuring it out because you got to do it right. And so you actually made that happen in that period of time because of the amount of episodes you did. So good for you.

I didn't even know that.

The follow up to that that I really want to ask is thank you. Sit for saying consistency, because I say it to this audience all the time about the consistency. But do you have any recommendations for especially those that have been podcasting for a while, but to avoid burnout? Like, what's your recommendation for trying not to get to that place of like, God, I can't do this again.

Yeah. First of all, make sure you really enjoy the conversations you're having. So if you're using the guest model, make sure you're talking to people you enjoy talking to. That's why I have repeat people come when I start to feel burnout. We all get there. Right. I'll call one of my past guests that I love and say, hey, you want to do a spontaneous show together? And then we get to have a really great conversation. Right.

That's a great idea. I love that tip.

Yeah, it's really fun for me. You know, for me, this show is really about expansion for myself. Like, I'm serving my ladies and I'm serving My guests, but my guests are serving me. They bring new ideas and new vision and new excitement into my life that I didn't even know was possible. And so just make sure that the people you're talking to expand you and give you what you need and fill you up. I used to think when I started this show that it had to look a certain way. It had to be all real estate all the time, which would make me absolutely nuts. But I was listening to a really big podcaster. I'm not remembering his name right now, but I was listening to a really big podcaster. And he said, you know what? At this point, I just do shows that make me happy. I talk about what I want to talk about, and the listeners can be happy with it or not. And he's got a hugely successful show. And I just thought, you know what? I'm going to talk about what I want to talk about. And that's when everything kind of changed for me because now I get people on the show that I'm just like, wow, I get to have that conversation. So that's how I keep myself really inspired.

Well, you can see why I invited Monika to be on the show here because she is truly serving in her niche. But before we go, I want to make sure that people get to understand why you're so passionate about investing for women. And you told us a story about how you started really investing in education for girls at the age of 16. Could you tell that story to my audience here? Because I think this is the key to why this is in your DNA.

Yeah. Oh, thank you so much for asking that. I'm honored. Yes. So When I was 16, I went to India as a foreign exchange student. And one of the things that horrified me is the way that women were treated there, and even me. There was an expectation that I would have an arranged marriage. My parents were going to pick my husband if we had to put together a certain amount of dowry in order to make that happen. And I was like, you're going to pay somebody to marry me? Are you kidding me? And then they would brag about how when a husband dies, a woman who really loves her husband will jump onto the cremation pyre and burn herself. And that became like the thing is called Sati. This is horrifying, isn't it? And so now women were thrown onto the pyre. Right? So women are burned alive. Right. Horrible. Just horrible. And that's not even talking about day to day abuse and all these other things. As a 16 year old child, I Was horrified, traumatized. I mean, there was so much emotional stuff that happened for me. And I started to study about what was it that was different in the United States or in more of the first world countries. That was not happening in a place like India. And a lot of it was just the education of the girls. Girls were brought up to be married off and make babies and cook in the kitchen and be a source of dowry to some guy. Like it was. They were brought up just with a different mentality, and I couldn't stand it. And so at the age of 16, I found a school in Puna where I was living that support that was really about the education for girls. And in India, there's public schools, but the public schools are not what you think of as here. The kids don't get books, the teachers often don't show up. They usually don't get their lunches. They're often sitting on the mud. Like, they don't even get desks. They don't have pencils or pens or whatever. So public education is not what you think. Even though they say they had free education, they don't. So then you have to go to the private schools. And there are certain, most of the private schools, parents will only pay for their sons. And there's a whole traditional thing around why that is too. But there are some schools that really focused on scholarships for the girls, and then those girls are allowed to go to school. So I started at the age of 16, giving my little $5 a month, right? My little five American dollars a month to one of these schools. And then through the years, I actually became kind of a founder of a school down by Bangalore. Now I'm kind of a, like, what do you say? Like, I give quite a lot of money there because that's where my heart is. So that's kind of how my path has been. That is the education. India is my homeland, so to say, even though I was born here in the United States. So to me, it was something that was very close to my heart. And I have continued that since I was 16. So for me, my whole mission since of being a very young woman was to uplift women to be able to live a life of their choosing. Right.

Which is why you're so passionate about investing, because then you get to live a life of freedom and choice, right?

That's exactly right. And that's why I focus on women, because there isn't a lot of leadership for women because we do deal with different things. You know, I'm going through menopause right now. It's hard, right? And what guy is going to talk about that? Like, how do you figure out how.

To, like, the male listeners on my show are going, what.

What you're talking about? What are you talking about? Like, literally, you plan your schedule based on your hot flashes. I'm not kidding.

I'm way too close to that to not know what you're talking about. Like, I wish I could pretend I was. I didn't know that, but. So this is why I wanted her to end with this for all of you, because Monika, this is the heart of what she's bringing into her show. And this is why those more personal journal episodes are working, because there's true passion here. So thank you, Monica, for bringing your passion to the real estate investing space for women. I think that's really critically important. Thank you for bringing your passion to podcasting as well.

I love doing this and thank you so much for having me on the show.

You know, so often here on the Binge Factor, we bring on podcast hosts who have really great shows. Like Monika's going on the 30 plus thousand listeners. And, you know, she's got this really great show going on and a really tight, narrow, niche audience, but yet she's still ready for what's next, how am I going to get sponsors? How am I going to grow this show? What's next on it? And I love that we can bring people who are just like you, just like all of us, struggling to figure out what the next step is, what that looks like, how we're going to do it out there, experimenting. And so maybe Monica's about, maybe she's one step behind you and she can learn from you. So that's the part of what I love about the binge factor community. And I love that you all reach out to me and send me messages and tell me about great shows and great hosts that you've been learning from and ask me questions about what you'd like to learn more about. And community building is the one thing I hear again and again. And I think that Monica Sawyer is onto something with her real estate investing for women. She's got this tightly defined audience and community that she wants to serve, and in serving that community, she's curating her message to perfectly match it. That's a recipe for a great investment of your time. It's a recipe for a great result, for finding sponsors that want to reach that community as well. So while she may not have find the right formula for getting that monetization moving, just yet she's on a really good path to do that. So thinking about that ahead of time is maybe a great strategy for your show. Planning that in from the very beginning with that perfect niche audience, with your curation and careful, deep knowledge of how to serve that community, that matching those things together could be a great path for future monetization of your podcast show Poditization, like we like to call it here. So, as always, thank you for joining me. Don't forget that you can find out all about real estate, investing for women and Monica Sawyer at the blog post for this episode@thebingefactor.com and you can also apply to share shows with me. You can nominate shows, you can share your show and tell me why you should be the next guest on the Binge Factor. Thanks everyone for listening. I'm Tracee Hazzard and I'll be back next time with more Binge Factor.

You've been listening to the Binge Factor Podcast. For more information on podcasting and videocasting success tips and tactics, please go to thebingefactor.com and be sure to listen to our other show for podcasters called Feed you'd brand. If you'd like to be interviewed on this show as well as featured in Tracy's column, please go to thebingefactor.com guest and apply.

Sam.