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Hey, podcaster, I'm Tim Wahlberg, your podcast performance coach, with another actionable tip so you can grow your podcast authority, generate leads, and convert with ease. Today's tip is if you want your podcast to be more profitable, stop trying to monetize your podcast and start using it to monetize your business. I'm going to share some strategies on exactly how to do that, but first I want to address one of the biggest mistakes new podcasters make. Chasing advertising pennies that cost you dollars in revenue. A lot of podcasters assume the way to make money from a podcast is through sponsorship or ads. I get it. They see the big shows doing this, pausing to hawk protein powders mid interview, or doing five minutes of sponsor shoutouts before getting to the good stuff. They think that's the path to podcast profitability. And while that model works for some large entertainment shows, it rarely makes sense when you're podcasting for your business. Here's why. Podcast ads typically pay based on downloads, and the going rate for most shows is somewhere around 20 to 30 dollars per thousand downloads. So let's say you have a thousand downloads every episode. That ad might make you $30. So you get three ads. Well, that's $90 times four weeks, so that's $360 a month. That's not a lot. So if you don't get thousands of downloads, we're talking pennies, not dollars. And in exchange for that, you've interrupted your listener's experience, broken the flow of the conversation, and possibly annoyed the very person who might have become your next client. So instead of trying to monetize the podcast itself, the real opportunity is to make your podcast profitable by using it as a marketing engine for your business. Now, here are three ways to do that. First, make sure your podcast leads listeners to the opportunity to work with you or buy from you. Every episode should move the listener one step closer to becoming a client, not through aggressive selling, but through what we like to call your podcast path. Your podcast path is the journey a listener takes from discovering your show to trusting your expertise to eventually becoming a client. We covered this in detail back in episode 246, and I'll leave a link to that episode in the show notes. But here's the basic idea. Your podcast episodes should help listeners understand their problem, explore possible solutions, and then naturally guide them toward the next step you offer. For example, this might look like an episode where you walk through the three most common mistakes people make in your industry, and by the end of that episode, you might say, if you're realizing you're dealing with one of these right now. The next step we usually take with clients is blah blah blue. Or maybe you're teaching a framework you use with clients and the natural next step is an audit or consultation or a program you offer. You're not pitching, you're helping the listener understand where they are and what the next logical step might be. When the path is clear, your podcast stops being just content and starts becoming a client acquisition tool. So that's your podcast path. Second, make sure your podcast attracts the right listeners. Now, this sounds obvious, but it's one of the most common mistakes I see as a podcast coach. If you want your podcast to be a marketing tool for your business, it needs to serve the exact people you want to become customers. I've talked to hundreds of podcasters and would be podcasters through my free podcast coaching call. The link is in the Show Notes. By the way, if we haven't connected personal yet, I'd love to talk to you. And this is hands down the most common disconnect I see in their revenue generation plan. It's usually because they started their show or they're about to start their show based entirely on what they feel like talking about. I see you. Don't be embarrassed. It happens to a lot of podcasters. They think the show is all about what they want to talk about. It's great, but the result is they attract an audience that enjoys the content but may never become a client. Imagine a business coach who spends most of their episodes talking about challenges only their peers can relate to. That content might attract a broad audience of curious listeners, but it may not attract the specific type of business owner they actually serve. It's a trap. They have an audience, they have downloads, but they aren't getting leads or new clients because the audience is mismatched. On the other hand, if that same coach created episodes around the exact challenges their ideal clients face, like price struggles, client acquisition problems, and leadership decisions, suddenly the right people start showing up. And when the right audience is listening, trust builds faster and the path to client acquisition is easier. Why? Because they start to feel like you understand their world, not just your own world. They start to recognize their own problems in the conversations you're having. And eventually they start to think, this is someone who could probably help me. That's where profitability really begins to show up. Now, you may notice that these strategies to increase profitability aren't rocket science, but they are counter to how most entrepreneurs start a podcast. So far, we've talked about One, having a clear path to your offer and number two making sure you're attracting listeners who might actually become customers. Now here's the third strategy. Leverage your podcast episodes. A podcast episode should never be a one and done piece of content. That's a given. You should be squeezing as much content juice out of each episode as you possibly can be by repurposing it into social media content fodder for the newsletter or resources in your courses or programs, or even curated playlists. But the smartest podcasters treat their best episodes like intellectual property, and they sell it again and again in different formats. For example, an episode explaining your core framework might become one a lead magnet so you could sell to them for your email list, 2 a workshop outline so you can sell them attendance 3 a paid mini training that includes a deeper dive OR a workbook 4 a course module 5 client onboarding material or 6 a resource inside your paid membership. I'm sure there are a dozen more ways to monetize that episode, but you can clearly see that that one 20 minute recording isn't just content or part of your podcast library. It's money. It can attract qualified leads or directly generate revenue over and and over. And here's the beauty of it. When you consistently create powerful content for your podcast and you focus on serving your listener, every episode builds trust. The kind of trust that's required for a listener to become a customer. That trust is exactly why the expanded version of content you share on your podcast is something they will eagerly and happily pay for. So instead of interrupting the podcast with ads and pissing off your listener, expand your ideas into assets and deepen relationships, generate leads and create revenue. And that's actually what we're going to unpack in the next episode. How to leverage and monetize your past episodes by repurposing them into new revenue streams without compromising the trust you've built with your listeners. Yeah, we're going to productize your podcast in the next episode, so make sure you follow or subscribe if you're not already to this podcast so you don't miss it. In the meantime, remember this. When you're podcasting for your business, your podcast should generate clients, not ad revenue. And when you design it in that way from the start, the profitability becomes much easier to see. And I hope that's just the tip you need if you want help designing a podcast that actually supports your business and turns listeners into clients. That's exactly what we help people do inside the concept of casting podcast launch program. You can Book a free podcast coaching call to see if it's the right fit for you and your podcast revenue goals. Because when your podcast podcast is aligned with your business, it becomes one of the most powerful marketing tools you have. Now here's your next move. Book your free private podcast coaching call by using the link in the show notes or the big orange button on podcastperformancecoach.com I'm Tim Wahlberg. See ya.