Why Small Podcasts Make More Money

Speaker A00:00:00

I'm going to tell you something that sounds completely backwards. A podcaster I know has 800 listeners. That's it. Just 800. Last month she made $15,000. The show sitting next to her in the charts.50,000 Listeners, guess how much money they made? $2,000. 62 Times the audience, but 170 income. Now you're probably wondering how's that possible.Well, that's exactly what we're going to unpack on today's show. Hello, I'm Ralph Estep Jr. I'm a licensed accountant and I've been doing this for 30 years.I'm a business coach and I'm known as the content creators accountant. My job is pretty simple. I help creators stop chasing downloads and start building income.And today's episode is one I wish existed when I first started. Here's the belief that is quietly killing most creators income potential. It's what I call the big lie.I need a bigger audience before I can make real money. So so many creators chase it. I gotta get more downloads. They perfect that SEO. They post more, they guest more, they try to grow more.And the income still doesn't come. Because in the end, growth isn't the problem. The business model is the problem. And I say that not to be harsh.I say that because, guess what, it's fixable. And it's fixable right now without a single new subscriber. So let's get into what I call audience economics.Because I want to give you a framework that will change the way you think about your show. What each listener in your audience is actually worth to your business, not how many show up. So think about it this way.1000 General business listeners, each one might be worth a few cents in ad revenue. 200 Business owners who are actively looking for help with their finances.Hey, each one of those could be worth thousands, thousands of dollars in services, thousands of dollars in coaching, and yes, thousands of dollars in consulting. And the best part, it's the same amount of effort for you, but very different income. That gap, that gap is the audience economics.So let's get into two podcasts, the same amount of effort with very different results. We'll call this first one Podcast A. Now, podcast A had 50,000 downloads an episode. It was a general business advice and motivation show.Now, that particular revenue model for them was sponsorships and ads, and they were making about $2,000 a month. But now let's look at podcast B. 800 Listeners per episode. But the topic here, high independent consultants landing high ticket clients.Now, their revenue model was totally different. Their revenue model was coaching and consulting and a digital course. Their monthly income, are you ready for it? $15,000 A month. Do the math.Podcast B has 1.6% of the audience and earns seven and a half times the income. That's not a fluke. That's a business model. Sure, Podcast Day is building an audience. We'd all be envious of that many listeners. But Podcast B is.Is building a business. So let's talk about the objection you're already thinking. Because I can hear you going and already saying, but, Ralph, I got to go too narrow.No brand will ever sponsor me. And you're right about that. But that's the whole point. You don't need a sponsor. You need a client. What?I have seen sponsors pay you pennies to rent your audience. But those clients, they pay you thousands to solve their problems. One of those models requires scale, requires a ton of downloads.The other one just requires some alignment. You got to stop and shift to stop asking, how do I get sponsors? And start asking this, how do I get clients?So let's talk about why narrowing down makes you more money. Because this is the thing that a lot of people don't understand. Niche is the word that most creators fear.I remember somebody said to me one time, Ralph, you got a niche down, and say, oh, I'm going to make my audience so small. And most of us think that, and we hear that, we think, smaller pie, fewer opportunities. I'm going to be boxed in some little box.But here's what actually happens. When you do niche down and you do it effectively, when you do it right, you become more relevant to the right person.And when you're more relevant, guess what? You're more valuable. And when you're more valuable, you can charge more. Sure, broad content creates attention. People will know. They'll see you.But specific content actually creates income. So let's talk about the Service Driven Show. There's a category of podcasts that most creators don't even know exist.It's called the Service Driven Show. It's not built to attract advertisers. It's built to attract clients. And here's the secret sauce to it. Every episode does three things.It demonstrates your expertise on a real problem your audience has. So that's where it starts. It frames you as the expert on a problem that the audience actually has.The second thing it does, it builds trust with the people who have that problem. So we identify who that person is that has the problem, and. And they come to you. And it builds trust.The third thing it does, it points you as the person who can solve it. You become the problem solver. And when you're able to do that, your podcast becomes a lead generation engine.I'm talking about this thing is firing on all cylinders. And it's not because you sell on every episode. It's because you solve something on every episode. And guess what? People, People pay for solutions.They pay big for solutions. Now maybe you're sitting there thinking, Ralph, I've been doing this all wrong. You haven't been doing it wrong. You just haven't had this framework.And I'm going to encourage you right now I do something called a content monetization audit.It's a focus session where you look at your show, we look at your audience and we look at your offer and we map exactly where the income opportunity is. If you want to get one of those and listen, I'm going to encourage you to do it right away.Go to contentcreatorsaccountant.com audit and you can apply right there. Again, it's content creatorsaccountant.com audit.I'll take a look at your submission and decide if it makes sense for us to work together and if we can. Let's talk about how to actually build this. So let's get into our four step framework. I'm going to lay it out for you right now, what you need to do.Here's step one. Make sure you're taking notes. We'll have it in the show notes also. But here's step one. Name one person. This isn't the time to name a demographic.I want you to narrow down to a single person. Who is your show actually for. You got to get specific enough that you could describe them in a single sentence. And that takes a little bit of work.It's not something you're going to decide. Oh, in five minutes I'm going to figure this out, but narrow it down. Describe that one person in a single sentence. That's step one.Step two, you got to find the dollar problem. You might be saying, Ralph, what in the world are you talking about? What is costing that person money right now? That's what you got to figure out.Or even a better one. Or what could they earn more of if they solve this problem they have? I'm going to tell you right now, my main job, I'm an accountant.Money adjacent problems are the easiest to monetize. Things like people's time, their revenue. I do this every day. Tax exposure, cash flow for small businesses or growth. So that's the second step.Figure out what they need to pay for. Here's step number three. And a lot of people miss this one. Build one offer.What is the service or product that helps your ideal listener solve the problem you figured out in step number two? What is that problem they have? And what is the service or product that they need? Maybe you need to do coaching, need to show them how to get there.You need to consult with them. Maybe you need to build a course, or maybe it's a service done for you. And here's the best part.It doesn't have to be complicated, it just has to be real. So that's step three. Build that piece of the pie. Here's step number four. And a lot of times people miss this one as well.You've got to align every single episode. Yes, you heard me right. Every episode. Every single episode you record from this point forward should reinforce that problem.And then it's got to demonstrate your ability to solve it. And then it's got to make a clear path towards your offer. That's it. It's really that simple. That's the whole model.In the end, you don't have a small podcast problem. You might have a business model problem. And the good news of this, that's the easiest thing to fix.So before you record another episode, I want you to do one more thing. I want you to write down the name of one person your show is for, just one real person. And then ask yourself this. What would I sell them tomorrow?It's really that simple. What would I sell that one person tomorrow? And if you can answer that question clearly, you don't have a small audience.You've got a business waiting to launch, and I would love to see you launch that. And if you want help answering that very question, that's exactly what I do in my content monetization audit.So again, go to content creators accountant.com audit. You make an application there. We'll put a link in the show notes, but we'll look at your show together and find the income that's already there.And I promise you, it's already there. That's at content creators accountant.com audit I'm Ralph Estep Jr. And I am the Content Creators Accountant. And I'll see you in the next episode.