188: Turn your podcast into a SALES engine

What if your podcast could do more than simply grow your audience?

Podcasting takes a LOT of work. Planning episodes, recording, editing, publishing, promoting… and then doing it all over again the following week.

So if you’re using a podcast to grow your business, there comes a point where you need to ask... is your podcast actually helping you make sales?

In this episode of Online Business Uncovered, I’m joined by Adam Schaeuble, podcasting expert, speaker and master when it comes to launching, growing and monetising podcasts.

Adam and I explore how to stop thinking about your podcast as simply another content channel and start treating it as a genuine business asset.

We talk about why downloads aren't necessarily the metric you should be obsessing over, the importance of attracting the RIGHT listeners and how to create a clear pathway that moves people from listening to your podcast to taking the next step with your business.

We also explore how your podcast can support the sale of your online courses, digital products, memberships and other offers (without every episode feeling like one big sales pitch!).

Adam is also one of the expert speakers joining me at the Online Business Growth Summit, where he’ll be sharing his session, The 3 Week Content Campaign: How to Sell Digital Products to Podcast Listeners.

If you already have a podcast but you're struggling to understand how it fits into your wider sales strategy – or you're thinking about launching one and want to make sure it actually supports your business then this episode is for you.

Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hello and welcome to Online Business Uncovered. This is episode 188, and in today's episode, we're going to be talking about how to turn your podcast into a sales engine. So let's jump right in and let's get started. Welcome to Online Business Uncovered, the show that lifts the lid on what it really takes to turn your brilliance into digital products, passive income, and time freedom. I am your host Karen, an online business strategist, course creation expert, and your go-to for building a business that works for you and not the other way around. If you are an ambitious entrepreneur feeling overwhelmed or burnt out, or maybe you're just ready for a smarter, more sustainable way to grow, then you're in the right place. Because each week I'll be bringing you inspiring conversations, practical strategies, and step-by-step guidance to help you create scalable, repeatable digital products that sell even while you're sleeping. So if you're ready to stop trading your time for money, reclaim your time, and finally build a business that gives you the freedom that you deserve, hit subscribe and tune in every Thursday. Let's uncover what's truly possible for you starting now. Hello and welcome to Online Business Uncovered. I'm your host, Karen, and I really do appreciate you hitting the play button to listen to today's episode. Now I say this every week because I really do. So thank you for listening today. Today, though, we have got a great episode coming up because we're talking about one of my favorite topics, and that is podcasting. But more specifically, how to turn your podcast into a genuine business asset that helps you generate leads, sell your offers, and ultimately makes you more money. Now, I have to say, this is one conversation that I've been really looking forward to sharing with you because today I am joined by Adam Jubal, who is an absolute master when it comes to launching, growing, and monetizing podcasts. Adam speaks to PodFest in Orlando. He's a regular on the circuit and he has helped countless podcasters think much more strategically about how their podcast fits into their wider business. Now, as a podcaster, it's so easy to get caught up in the downloads, the rankings, and constantly trying to grow your audience. If you're podcasting as part of your business, then you want to make sure that all that time and energy that you're putting into creating your show actually leads somewhere. And that's what Adam helps with. Now, in this conversation, we talk about how to attract the right listeners, how you can move those listeners towards your offers, and how to create a much more intentional strategy around your podcast so it becomes more than just another content channel that you have to keep feeding every single week. Adam is one of my fantastic experts that is going to be joining me at the online business growth summit this October, and he's going to be diving even deeper into how you can sell digital products to your podcast listeners. Now, there are some brilliant takeaways in this conversation. So let's dive in and let's get started with this conversation, which I know you're going to enjoy. Today I'm joined by another incredible expert who will be speaking at this year's online business growth summit. Now, throughout this special series, I'm chatting with our speakers to give you a sneak peek into the knowledge that they're going to be sharing and more importantly to help you discover practical ways to build a business that gives you more income, more freedom, and less reliance on selling your time. So let's dive in because today we have got Adam Shibley, who is the founder of Podcast in Business School. I am super excited about this conversation. So, Adam, welcome. Would you like to start by sharing with the listeners who you are, all about what you do, um, and how you help your audience?

SPEAKER_00 4:33

Oh, well, Karen, I am really excited to be here. And I have to, I was given an assignment. I have two clients that are uh from your neighborhood. Uh that uh they are British. And I'm like, I'm going on Karen's show. I need uh give me some British terminology. So I am just chuffed to bits to be here, is all I have to say. Uh so they they they taught me that. Uh so um my homework is completed. So yeah, my name is Adam Shibley. I am a uh full-time podcaster, the host of Podcasting Business School. Uh I have been involved in podcasting since 2015, so uh 11 years now, and uh became a full-time podcaster in 2019, and uh my brand podcasting business school is really aimed at helping podcasters leverage that medium of uh of content to grow their online business to get clients to sell programs, products, and services. That's really where we focus on.

SPEAKER_01 5:25

That's what I find really interesting about your podcast. Now, I've been an avid listener, oh, I reckon probably uh maybe a good 18 months. Um, and what I find really interesting about your podcast is that it's very specific, it's very actionable. What you share is kind of down on the ground, sort of down and dirty techniques, strategies to really help people that have podcasts to help them monetize it essentially and be able to use it in their funnel to be able to connect with their audience on a deeper level, um, but as a way of leveraging it to actually make a difference in their business. Um, you know, and I think you do that brilliantly, I have to say, you know, you you know I'm I am a fan, so I have been listening for a while because the reality is when you decide to start a podcast, it's only the beginning. And getting it off the ground is one thing, but then actually utilizing it as a useful marketing tool is something completely different. Um, I know you've had got quite an interesting sort of backstory. Do you want to share a little bit about how you've arrived at um doing what you're doing now?

SPEAKER_00 6:43

Yeah, so I originally started uh in the fitness space, so I was a fitness facility owner, and um in 2015 uh we were doing really, really well. Uh I was helping a lot of people, getting great results. Uh I had a few members, potential investors wanting me to franchise, and I liked the idea of helping more people. I didn't uh like the idea of being in charge of more people. So I already had 35 employees and 500 clients, and it was just it was a lot. So um I had been really obsessed with listening to podcasts. Like, I think I'm gonna start a fitness podcast and do a kind of a weight loss show. And and that's what I launched in 2015, and uh, I mean, I had no idea what I was doing. And for the first three years, I was kind of messing around, trying different things, trying to learn. I didn't know any other podcasters. It was just kind of early days. Uh I mean, Zoom wasn't around. I used to have to, I did my interviews like this on Skype, and I but Skype didn't work by itself. You had to have eCamm recorder and they had to talk to each other, and only about 28% of the time they worked. So we'd schedule an interview and then be like, oh, e-camm won't connect. I can't hear you, you can't hear me, I can't record it, and we have to try again the next day. Uh so it was really rough. Uh, the first three years, uh, as the story goes, I made a total of $37 uh US, and so I wasn't uh paying any bills with it with the show because I was primarily focused on traditional podcasting strategy, like doing lots of interviews and focusing on trying to uh get sponsors and affiliate income. Uh at the end of that third year, I was like, I'm helping all these people like with their fitness. I can I can create an online course, I could start doing coaching online, and it's the same thing. So I started selling my own programs for products and services. So the first three years I made $37. By the end of year five, I was a full-time podcaster. I'd replaced my income, sold my gym, and went full-time into it. So that was huge. I just feel like uh your audience has a huge advantage because they are already online business owner people. So they can skip that first three years of figuring out, like, oh, I have an online business and I want to get clients with this. Uh a lot of people start a podcast because they kind of they like podcasts and they they see it as a hobby, and then down the road they're like, oh, this is really hard to grow and monetize, but your audience isn't like that. That's why I focus on online business uh, you know, and and getting getting clients selling programs and services. So I feel like that's a faster track to earning meaningful income. It sure was for me. So yeah, then in uh 2021, I sold my entire online fitness brand. Uh I packaged up my Instagram account, my email list, and the show. Uh at the time that show had grown to over half a million downloads, uh packaged it up, sold it. That show was over two million downloads that Nate Palmer kept it is keeping it going. He's still doing it. And um in 2018, so three years prior to that, I had launched podcasting business school. So I was doing both shows for three years at the same time. You know, that was a lot. Uh, but then so 2021, it's just been full-time podcasting business school, and we're approaching a million downloads of just podcasting business school. I'm at right about 1.3 million downloads as a podcaster total. So it's been crazy. It's taken me a long time to figure out what actually works. And my show, honestly, and you know this because you listen, it's like I have reverse engineered everything that didn't work into something that did work, and that's what you guys get with my content. So you can kind of hit the fast forward button. That's my goal.

SPEAKER_01 10:03

Yeah, and that's what I find really useful about it because there are some podcasts you listen to, and it's nice, you know, you get you get some useful stuff, but it and it's all very no, you know, warm, a nice warm hug. I think with your stuff, it's very to the point, you know, it's very like do this because I've done it, I've been there, I've you know, it's it's very um grassroots almost in in terms of there's nothing it doesn't feel overly fancy, and that's what I think people need, especially in the podcasting world. I think I think that uh no nonsense approach to actually being able to do the thing they want to do. Um, and I think with podcasting, it becomes a incredibly powerful medium to be able to sort of to to deliver that direct to your your audience.

SPEAKER_00 10:54

Yeah, and my goal with every episode is to solve a problem. And uh I get this question almost daily, Karen, especially now with with the community. Like we got a bunch of people in there, newer people. Adam, how long should my episode what is the perfect length of an episode? I'm just like, you you have a problem to solve, you have a topic to solve that problem, say what needs to be said, teach what needs to be taught, and then stop recording. I don't care if that's four minutes or forty minutes or four hours. We don't need extra stuff. All right. So uh that's uh you know, when somebody listens to a podcasting business school episode, the whole goal is they can see by the title what problem we're solving. They have that problem, they want to learn how to solve that problem. I teach that usually in 20 minutes or so. I give them actionable steps. I don't hold anything back. I I treat my audience as if they're paying me, and that scares a lot of people. I've had clients go, ooh, uh uh, shouldn't I be holding a little bit back so I can make some sales? And I'm like, well, people will hire me to line all the dominoes up in the in the correct order and then help them push those over or customize the experience to their specific problems, or their because everybody has a unique business background, everybody has a unique podcasting background or content creation background, and there are different uh different sections of the timeline. So being able to customize and get hands-on a little bit, or have a specific course or a tool to sell that really aligns with exactly where they're at, that's what they pay us for.

SPEAKER_01 12:22

Yeah, and that brings me nicely on to podcasting as a way to be able to sort of make sales in a sense, because uh people see it as a a tool for marketing, which it which it is, you know, you jump behind the mic, talk about what you want to do, you promote it, you get that visibility. But there is that next layer that that sort of feeds into podcasting, and that's being able to take your audience on a journey, like you say, you're meeting them where they're at, they have a specific problem, you have the solution, you're giving them what they need, but then by doing so, you're able to bring them on a journey that ultimately takes them where they need to go to get that solution. And I think as business owners, as as for podcasting, that could be incredibly powerful, and I think you do do that really well. I know when you were um you you've done a lot of content around threads, threads is your key platform, um, but and then you did a threads course, um, and then you sold threads, your threads course on your podcast. Um, so so there's a very clear sort of way in which to get those sales. And the reason why I I I want to just dive into that is because I think sometimes people see it as a platform to share their message and to talk, but not necessarily as a way to convert. How do you find your experience with that?

SPEAKER_00 13:48

This is a great question because I feel like this is one of the um most kind of muddled up area of podcasting as a as a content creation platform. A lot of people see podcasting as a nurturing mechanism or just an entertainment or an edutainment mechanism. Like people find you somewhere else, you put their podcast in front of them, they get to know you a little bit better, and then you try to move them to something else and like a like a stepping stone. For me, my experience has been well, I'll just say it 90 plus percent of my paying clients find me because of my podcast. Not because of social media, not because of my website, not because of paid ads. They find me because of my podcast. People go on Apple or Spotify. I have an audio only podcast, so I don't even put up any YouTube content. So people go on Apple or Spotify and they search a term like podcasting tips. My show pops up, they start listening, binge listening, and then the journey begins. So I for me, uh the first lesson I'd love to kind of teach your audience is like podcasting is a discovery mechanism and it is organic discovery. I teach a lot about podcast SEO, which is different than web SEO and social media SEO and YouTube SEO. So people are finding me because of my specific podcast, you know, the name of my show, specific keywords, things like that. And now they can dive in and experience my expert positioning. So that's kind of the second pace. It's not just nurturing, I'm positioning myself as the expert. I do a lot of solo episodes, a lot of coaching episodes, really clear, short to the point. And I align many of those. If I have a thing to sell, like my threads course, I will create content that attracts that ideal customer. So it'll be like three ways I'm using the Threads app to grow my podcast audience. Teach one, two, three. Hey, want to go a little bit deeper? Buy the course. And so it's we align the content with the thing that I'm trying to sell. So they're finding me from the show. I'm building expert positioning and nurturing that relationship from the show, and I'm selling from the show. They don't have to go anywhere else at all. It's it's it's its own little sales funnel ecosystem. I just think a lot of people discount that. They're like, oh, I've got to get them from a lead magnet, move them onto my show, move them the show to this other webinar, and then I gotta sell them there. And it's like, that's a lot, you know. Uh especially if the thing you're trying to sell is under $500, like I think you can do it all right there on the show. And uh, I've been able to prove that.

SPEAKER_01 16:17

Yeah, no, absolutely. So, what what's one of the biggest mistakes you see when um somebody starts a podcast? Um, what would you would you often see happen that that doesn't get them the results that they're ultimately looking for in terms of why they started in the first place?

SPEAKER_00 16:39

So I think for your audience, for online business owners, the biggest mistake is they model it after a celebrity-based show. Like, oh, I love Joe Rogan or I love Mel Robbins, and they try to do a show like that. So a show like that, they think, oh, I'm gonna make money with sponsors, and ooh, I'm gonna have famous people on my show and have conversations, and that's how we're gonna grow the audience. But as an online business owner, you want to do the opposite. You don't want sponsors, trust me. Right? You can make okay, let's just let's just put it this way A typical sponsor will pay you, it's called CPM cost per mil. So for every 1,000 downloads an episode gets, for every 1,000 downloads an episode gets, they'll pay you between 18 and $25. Now, here's the the dirty little secret only 20% of all podcasts get over 1,000 downloads per episode. So does it work for Joe Rogan and Mel getting millions of downloads? Yeah, that's great. Great, you know, tens of hundreds of thousands of dollars, that that's great. For the person that's getting 200 downloads an episode, which is pretty typical, they don't get any money. They're getting, you know, they can't even hit that thousand download per episode. So the fastest path to earning meaningful income is selling your own programs, products, and services, not even worrying about affiliates, not really worrying about uh sponsors at all. The other thing is the interview. Uh, if you only do interview episodes, your audience will see you as the person that interviews experts and not as the expert. Big problem. They won't buy from you. I I know this. I have clients that come to me all the time that they finally see the light where usually usually they have a guest on that's a little bit too similar, of like they have an offer that's pretty similar to them. And when an audience member reaches out and says, Hey, I missed the website for so-and-so that guest you had on. I was wanting to buy their product, and their product is really close to your product, it freaks people out, and they come to me and we fix it. And we go, Okay. Uh my my two-thirds content rule is what we what I call that framework where two-thirds of the episodes need to be solo episodes, or they need to be what I call coaching episodes, where you're coaching a listener as if they're paying you on. It's a great style of an episode. And um one third can still be interviews, but you need to be the star of your own show and the expert on your own show for two-thirds uh of those episodes. So I think expert positioning and developing a skill for solo episodes, coaching episodes, that's the biggest mistake that online business owners are making. Uh, and that's the biggest, two of the biggest reasons why they aren't making sales, because they aren't the expert, and they aren't, you know, why would somebody buy from you if like you know, you can't align that call to action of like, hey, I've just made this other person the expert for an hour, but here's my thing that I want to sell you. Like it's this very disjointed. Where a solo episode, I can align everything and go, here's the topic. Like, let's say go back to that threads uh course again. I know I want to sell the threads course. I'm gonna title the episode Three Ways Threads Is Help Me Grow My Podcast, and somebody sees it, goes, Oh, I'm gonna grow my podcast. I've been curious about threads, let's listen in. I'll probably have a testimonial audio clip of somebody that's already been through the course. I do that instead of an intro. So the first thing you hear is like, uh, hi, this is Karen, and I bought Adam's Threads course, and I was able to get, you know, a hundred new listeners and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It was great. Then I do the teaching, and then I'll I'll do a call to action of like, hey, if you want to be like Karen, if you like these tips here, go get the threads course. Here's a little bonus thing thing or a link to get a discount, and I just sell it right there. I align the whole thing. You cannot do that with an interview-based episode. It's weird, it's disjointed, and it won't work. So I think that's uh if online business owners can fix the interview thing and the the being able to do solo episodes and develop expert positioning, that's gonna be huge for them.

SPEAKER_01 20:25

Yeah, I agree. I I think it's really interesting with um people that start podcasts with um an intention of interviewing, um, because often that kind of stems from maybe a lack of confidence to be able to kind of run a solo show. And I know when I started my podcast, I mean I've been podcasting for about four years now, and it was never, it was never something I even considered. Um, and I think because of what I wanted it to do, it didn't make sense to kind of fill it up with loads of interviews and and what and whatnot. But I see it all the time where people are like, I've started, yeah, I've started the podcast, I'm really excited about this podcast. I'm going to be interviewing um so and so's business owner, and it's because they've they've met them at a networking thing or whatever, and it's you know, and then that becomes the content from their show. Um, so it's so it's really interesting you say that because I often think that yeah, they they're sort of missing a trick because they're not then they're not the one that has the spotlight on them. Um the thing I do think you do really well is because when you go into your episode, you have that testimonial, um, you know, that that instantly that sort of sets you up. So, you know, I I do think that and the coaching as well. But it's kind of learning these things, isn't it? That you learn as you go along, and then you and it's and and it's like in anything, especially in the online business world, I think it's being prepared to test things, to tweak things, and to refine it as it goes, to see and then to measure and And almost approach it with a with a s a scient scientist sort of cap on, where if I do this, what's this gonna turn out like? And if I do this, is it gonna give me the results I'm looking for? And I think a lot of people shy away from that because they don't want to fail. There's that fear of failure, isn't there?

SPEAKER_00 22:16

Yeah. I I think you know there are different levels of expertise. And like a lot of my strategies, like the testimonial thing, people come to be like, Adam, I just started, I don't have testimonials. I'm like, go put in the work, get results. Like my my strategies do not work well for the fake it till you make it people. Like the here's what happens a lot in podcasting. Allow me to rant for 32 seconds. Stop is someone launches a podcast, they do seven episodes, they realize that it podcast growth is too hard. Therefore, they will stop podcasting and become a coach to podcasters to teach them how to grow their podcast. I'm like, come on, y'all. Like this, this is crazy. And I'm sure you see it in online business space. Like it's it's like the the the fake it till you make it people are not gonna like my strategies when I go, oh, go and get testimonials. You have to go and help someone, and and and then you will get testimonials, and it's gonna maybe take a year. Uh, put in the reps, you know, it took me three years. So hopefully, yeah, we can cut that into a uh a third, and it only takes you a year. But one other technique with uh kind of flipping that coin to the other side, okay, you don't have a lot of experience. A great type of a con uh of uh podcast content is to take your audience on your journey with you as you become an expert and just document the whole thing. And I I did a lot of that early on with podcasting business school. I was like, I tried this, dumb idea, didn't work. Let's try the next thing. Just a lot of like my first hundred episodes, I'm kind of doing a lot of experimenting. I beg people to not they're up there, but please don't listen to them. There's some like embarrassing ideas and like calls to action and names of things. They're just so, so bad. Like so embarrassing and bad. And um themes of episodes, it's really bad. So I just but I brought everybody along with me, and there are people that have been listening since the early days in 2018, and they saw me make all those mess ups and then start to get a little bit of a foothold and oh, this thing worked, or this thing worked for a while, and now I pivoted this other thing, and I'm always documenting uh my journey along the way, and I'll continue to do that uh because I think there's an element of realism in the world of AI and and everything that really shines through. And and uh, if you can be a real person that does, yeah, I I I tried something and it didn't work, and I admit that uh that's kind of a rare thing in the world right now. So it's it's one way we we can stand out.

SPEAKER_01 24:42

Oh, absolutely. I think when you go online and you see the picture perfect results that people are getting, I mean we we see them all the time on on you know Facebook, Instagram where people are sort of showing things and and there's no, you know, there may not be any truth in it. A lot of it could be overinflated, but but that's the angle they come from is they want to only show the good side. And and you know, I've been in the online business space now for six years, I've been in business ten years, and and and a lot of the stuff you have to go through that figuring out stage, and you have to mess up, or or you know, you're not necessarily going to get the results, but but it's the constant trying to see what works and and then being upfront about it. And um I sometimes it's that messy middle of figuring things out um and be and being really upfront about it. And I've tried to do that with the summit, because uh, you know, as you know, you're obviously speaking at a summit, and I've been really upfront with everybody. I this is the first time I'm running on a summit, you know, I can completely mess it up, and and hopefully I won't, but I'm putting it out there, you know, it's not necessarily going to be this is my baseline. So if I do it again next year, it's gonna give me the data that I need to be able to improve and and all of that. But you know, you've got to start somewhere and and like you say, give things a go, see how they go, um, and and stay with it through the journey of getting it done rather than giving up um so early on. And I find I don't know if you find that, but I've I've definitely spoken to people where they've started a podcast and then they've not necessarily got the results after a handful of episodes, and then they've they've given up straight away. And you know, it's it's such a shame, really, isn't it? Because it's such a powerful way to really get in front of your audience.

SPEAKER_00 26:29

Yeah, yeah. I mean the stats are are just staggering and depressing at the same time. Like only uh 17% of podcasters get past episode 10, only 5% make it to episode 100. And I'm here to say, like, I've been podcasting since 2015. I've got 1.3 million downloads, and 99.99% of those downloads came after my first hundred episodes. I mean, just how it is.

SPEAKER_01 26:55

That's really interesting. Yeah, that's really interesting, isn't it? Because I think there's a school of thought that 100 episodes you should be kind of absolutely smashing downloads, but it's like you say, it it almost takes time to warm up a little bit and to to stick, um, which is really interesting. So, so obviously with the online space, um, there's there's loads of ways to sell, and of course, we've established that podcasting is a great way to do that. Um, so tell us about the session that you're going to be delivering at the summit and what that's going to mean to um to people that want to create digital products, but they're sitting there thinking, right, how can I get it out there? How can I get the sales? How can I build my audience? How can I do this in a way that aligns with who I am but but gets me the results?

SPEAKER_00 27:49

Yeah, so I'm really excited. Uh first of all, because this will be a uh a technique that's uh a little bit newer but proven, and this will be the first time I'm I'm like group teaching it uh at your summit. So this is gonna be kind of the debut in a group format. So I'm very excited, but I've got individual results. Uh, but the the goal of my talk is going to be uh teach your audience what I call uh what I refer to as a three-week content campaign. And we're going to work on aligning specific call-to-action testimonials, and I have a very specific three-week uh three specific types of episodes in a specific order that I will teach them to sell. And um it's really different than anything, anything else you'll see in the podcasting space. But uh, like an example, this will work for a smaller niche and a smaller audience. So the example, I've I've written about this in my newsletter recently. People freaked out, and I've got an episode coming out uh that people are gonna love. But my client Amy is in the real estate, uh it's not real estate investing, she helps people raise capital for real estate investing, so it's even a smaller niche. And uh she when she came to me to to teach her how to do this, she was averaging uh 97 downloads per episode, which is solid. I mean 100 people, but it's not a million, it's not a thousand, it's 97. It's a very typical show. She had 32 episodes, 97 download episode. We did the three week campaign when I'm gonna get your audience summit, and at the end of three weeks, she made uh $15,000 with digital products. So she had a LinkedIn course, uh, a course about LinkedIn to teach people how to use LinkedIn to raise capital for real estate. So it's really small niche, and she did excellent with it. She she totally smashed it uh with that small audience. So uh that's just a great example of somebody that she had never sold on her show before, and I taught her a specific way to do it uh that doesn't feel salesy. We're not holding anything back. She's developing expertise, and we have a very simple, clear call to action with zero distractions, and it works extremely well. I've got several other clients that their campaigns are active right now, so hopefully, uh, you know, we're recording this ahead of time, so uh maybe by the time the summit happens, I've got more stories to share. But I I've used this technique over and over and over again, and uh it works for me because I am not a big, I'm not a skilled seller. I'm not like let's get you in a room and a webinar, and I'm gonna just it's like shooting fish in a barrel. Like I am not that person. I if we use like um uh uh an American football analogy, I will be running with the football, get to the one-yard line, and I'll just throw it in the stands. Like that it's not, it's uh that's what I do when it comes to selling. And uh so this technique allows me to not have to be salesy, it's just it's expert, it's expert and expertise driven, and it's kind of a short window. We give people an opportunity to get in or or or not, and uh it works extremely well for people that aren't really skilled sales people. So I'm very excited to teach it.

SPEAKER_01 30:53

Yeah, I'm excited about that. I think um I think it could be really interesting because I get a lot is um when people are excited about their idea because you know they want to create something that they can sell and repeat and and generate that income from. But then the next question is always but how do I sell this? Um, so it's being able to kind of use things like podcasting to really be able to sort of leverage it to get those results. Um, and I feel like, and I don't know if you feel like it, but but it's with podcasting, it's still like almost underestimated um in terms of the thing to use, because it is still a discovery platform, it's it's a it's a discovery search engine. And I don't think people realise that. I think when I speak to people and they're like, oh yeah, I'm on YouTube, and I was looking at the stats, and you know, the amount of YouTube channels there are and creators and all that is huge, and then you've got podcasting, which is a fraction, so then that opens up opportunity, but then it's it's knowing how to approach it in the right way, and essentially that's what you're going to be teaching. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm super excited about that.

SPEAKER_00 32:03

Like when you compare YouTube channels, there's millions of active YouTube channels, and it seems like everybody has a podcast, you hear that a lot, but uh there aren't very many people podcasting, as I say. So there's been over six million podcasts launched, but only 10% of those have any content that's been released in the last 90 days and has over 10 episodes. So about there's about 600,000 active podcasts compared to blogs and newsletters and YouTube channels and Instagram and and TikTok users and all that. I mean, it's really uh the opportunity is there because it's it's not easy. You can't go viral with an audio podcast, even like you can on YouTube. So it's a little bit harder path. Um, so there's less people that that stick it out. That's why the attrition rate is so high. And that with that comes opportunity for the person that's willing to commit and go, yeah, Adam said 100 episodes, so I I can't quit before I get my reps in. And it's just like when I own my fitness studio, I'm like the most important exercise you can do is walk through that door at a certain cadence every week. You have to come and plug in. If you stop walking through the door, the results will probably go out the window at the same time. Uh, if you if you stop brushing your teeth, you get cavities. I mean, like that's that's like there's there's reps that you have to do to get the result that you want. So yeah, I I love podcasting. It's been a complete game changer for my my online business and entrepreneurship uh career, and I'm super grateful and excited to be a part of the summit. I I'm appreciative that you know think enough of me to invite me to share a stage. And am I the only guy in the summit? I thought I saw all the pictures, I was like, okay, okay, I know. That was pressure. That was some pressure. I was like representing the male population on earth, Adam.

SPEAKER_01 33:44

Yeah, and I did think that when I originally um when when when I sort of was having conversations with the speakers, um, but no, there are a few other sort of guys in there as well. So um, yeah, it wasn't intentional, but when I sat and I went through the list and I was like, right, who do I want? Um, you know, when it came to podcasting, I it like I wanted to, that's why I reached out to you and I was like, well, look, would you do this? Um, and I was so pleased and excited when you said yes, because your style of teaching so for being in the online space, naturally we see a lot of rubbish. I'm just gonna put it out there. There's a lot of rubbish, there's a lot of overhype, a lot of BS, a lot of inflated um stories around results and stuff. And I think the things that I suppose why I think you what you do works so well is because you are very grassroots. This is what needs to happen, and I always respond well to that. I don't want the fluff, I don't want you sort of giving false promises on what is possible in my own style of teaching. I try and keep it real, so to speak. So I respond really well to that style of teaching, and when I thought about the podcasting session, I want to just keep it grounded, like it is such a powerful way of connecting with your audience, but let's be real about what it takes and what you can do. So, so yeah, you were the guy for that. So thank you. I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 35:23

Adam the podcasting bloke, that's that's what I'm absolutely, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 35:28

So before we finish, I have some quick fire round questions. Oh yes. Um, so yeah, I'm just gonna I'm just gonna shoot from the hip, so to speak. Are you a coffee or tea drinker?

SPEAKER_00 35:39

Cold brew coffee every morning. Love it. Never hot. Yeah, is that gross? Never hot.

SPEAKER_01 35:45

Is that an American thing?

SPEAKER_00 35:47

I don't know. I I I don't even know how I got into it, but I I did it. I blame Starbucks. Uh I was probably I was probably at a podcasting event, somebody was like, hey, try this, and then like, oh now I'm addicted to caffeine. Thanks. Podcasting.

SPEAKER_01 36:01

Um what's one business book that you think every entrepreneur should be reading?

SPEAKER_00 36:08

My most recommended book is The One Thing by uh uh Gary Keller and Jay Popassan. And uh yeah, I love that book.

SPEAKER_01 36:16

Okay, brilliant. And and what's the one tool or ad that you just couldn't run your business without?

SPEAKER_00 36:24

I mean, I'm pretty simple. Uh I think Zoom, because I do all my coaching on here, I record podcasts, uh, you know, I do all my discovery calls on Zoom, and coming like I said, back from the days of Ecamm plus Skype, like this Zoom, people make fun of Zoom and like, oh, I use StreamYard and all these fancy things. I'm like, Zoom is a huge upgrade from what I experienced back in the olden days of podcasting. So I love Zoom.

SPEAKER_01 36:50

Yeah, Zoom's brilliant. Everybody knows Zoom, so yeah, win-win. Um, what's the one best piece of business advice that you've ever been given?

SPEAKER_00 37:00

Ah, yes. So uh I was coached by a man named Dan Sullivan. He is the creator of a company called the Strategic Coach based out of uh Toronto, Canada. And he writes a lot of cool business books too. But he I worked with him for seven years and he told me, Adam, you have to simplify so that you can multiply. And I guess sometimes we get too hyper-focused on scaling our business when the real move is simplification at first. And you and I have had kind of side conversations about how much I've simplified my business and how much I've gotten rid of, and that has freed me up to multiply the things that are actually working. So that's uh that's the tip.

SPEAKER_01 37:40

Yeah, that's brilliant. Because you're right, normally it's the other way around, isn't it? People are constantly adding, I need another funnel, I need another platform, I need another this, that, and the other. And you're absolutely right. If you simplify, then you can focus and you know, sort of make that into a success. Um, Adam, thank you so much for joining me today. It's been amazing. Thank you. Um, if you have enjoyed this conversation, then you are going to love the online business growth summit because this is just a small taste of what there is to come. Now, alongside today's guest, you'll be hearing from over 18 incredible experts covering everything from digital products, marketing, automation, sales, visibility, audience growth, and so much more. And it's all designed to help you build income beyond selling your time. Thank you, Adam. Thank you very much for being a part of the summit and coming on and speaking with me today. And I look forward to your session. Thank you so much for tuning into today's episode. I really hope it's given you something to think about and perhaps inspired you to look at your business a little bit differently. Now, if you've enjoyed this episode, then I'd be grateful if you could share with a friend or a fellow entrepreneur. It really helps more people discover the podcast, and you never know who might need to hear this message today. And if you're ready to start building a business that gives you more freedom, then I would love to invite you to join me at the online business growth summit. Now, this summit is taking place on the 6th to the 8th of October online. It's completely free to attend and it's going to bring together over 18 expert speakers who will be sharing practical strategies to help you create a business that you love, a business that truly supports your lifestyle. You can register your free place today by visiting www.sellybulingsonline.com. I will be back next week with another episode, but until then, have a wonderful week. Thanks for tuning in to today's episode of Online Business Uncovered. If today's conversation has sparked an idea or gave you a dose of clarity, then please make sure to check out the show notes for all the links and resources mentioned. New episodes land every Thursday, so hit follow or subscribe to stay in the loop. And if you're loving the show, a quick rating or review goes a long way in helping more brilliant entrepreneurs like you find this show. Until next time, keep showing up, keep sharing your brilliance, and remember, freedom in business is possible, and it starts with taking the next right step.