This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
Hey, what's up? This is your host, Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School. Let's talk about podcasts. On a previous extended episode, I shared some lessons that I've learned after creating more than 400 episodes now. I'll link to that episode in the show notes, but here's what today's story's about.
Pretty crazy. How does a new podcast start with no intention of monetization, then earn $100,000 in its first year? Let's write $100,000 year one, eventually earn much more, all while growing a Facebook community of 25,000 people, then making a bold decision to shut down that Facebook group while continuing with the podcast. There is a lot to this story. It features two business BFFs, best friends, besties, and despite starting that podcast with no intention of monetization, it eventually becomes their full-time jobs.
How did all of this come to be? Let's say thanks to our sponsor, and then roll out that story. Kathleen Shannon and Emily Thompson were creative colleagues. Kathleen co-founded a branding agency in 2011, and Emily's studio has been developing websites for almost a decade. After collaborating on some projects, Kathleen and Emily struck up a friendship.
Then they started meeting monthly for Skype calls. They would talk about what was and wasn't working in their businesses, and exchange ideas to take their projects to the next level. In November 2014, Emily pitched the idea of turning those conversations into a podcast. They knew their discussions were similar to what a lot of other people were going through. So less than three months later, in January 2015, they released their first episode.
Now take note, they had no plans to monetize this podcast. If anything, they hoped it might bring some awareness for Kathleen's branding agency and Emily's website studio. However, soon after that first episode, they were featured in the new and noteworthy section of iTunes. They also made it to number two in the business category. From almost the very beginning, FreshBooks has been a partner of their podcast.
And some interesting synergy made that happen. Kathleen was a customer of FreshBooks, and would talk about them as a resource on the podcast. Again, without thinking about making money. But one of FreshBooks employees was a listener, and heard the mention on an early episode. Soon after, the company approached them about partnering.
Like I said, this didn't begin with the intent to make money, but after that strong first month, getting up in the rankings, signing their first sponsor, they knew it would be silly to not try to grow. That first year's revenue was a combination of sponsorships, consulting, and what they called their being boss vacation. Oh, by the way, I should have told you, their podcast is called Being Boss. You should check it out in iTunes or wherever you listen to shows. So the Being Boss vacation is now an annual offline event they do for their community.
With that first event, they had no idea what to expect. They guessed that around 15 people would show up. 15. Well, in fact, it was a bit more than 15, 75 people came. Once again, they thought, you know what, maybe we're on to something.
Kathleen and Emily kept their expenses low by not using expensive equipment and doing most of the production themselves. As their income increased, however, they began to hire or outsource parts of the process. They invested in a sound engineer, a content director, and a virtual assistant. Speaking of income going up, the show continues to be more and more profitable as it makes more of an impact on more people. So here's how it shakes out after making a bit more than $100,000 in that first year.
They made $250,000 the next year, and last year, 2017, they brought in more than $400,000. That's right, $400,000 from a podcast. So how do you know when it's time to outsource some of those tasks? Well, Kathleen says, first of all, it's when you can afford it. When the income starts to go up and you can justify it.
And when completing the task to produce a podcast or whatever the project is, are keeping you from doing something only you can do. And for the Being Boss team, even after outsourcing a lot of their process, bringing in a virtual assistant, making some other investments, the profit last year was multiple six figures. We talked with Kathleen about how to build a brand and get more podcast listeners. She said, focus on making real content, having real conversations, and show up consistently. Since beginning in January 2015, they haven't missed a week of recording in over three years.
They've also dealt with some unique challenges. Because of that quick success, getting those rankings, getting that partner early on, they also launched a Facebook group right in those early days. That group grew to over 25,000 members, which seemed like a huge success. However, Facebook was promoting it to just about anyone, regardless of whether they were interested in building a business or not. And they felt that their brand was becoming diluted in the noise.
But going back and forth about it for months and months, Kathleen and Emily decided that shutting down that group was the best thing they could do to protect their time and energy. And so they did. Bold move. As they learned more about how sponsorships work, they also made some bold moves in that area. Kathleen's advice is if you're starting out on your podcast, don't worry too much about sponsorship.
Because it's rare to make a good income entirely from that. But if you do get sponsored, make sure your values and expectations are aligned with the brand. And think outside the box of what that partnership looks like. For example, Emily came up with the idea to rent a yacht in Miami and throw a parade in New Orleans to celebrate their community. Kathleen called up one of their sponsors and asked if they wanted to be part of it.
That sponsor said yes, and that's how they were able to pay for both experiences. Outside of partnerships and their annual event, Kathleen and Emily also monetized in other ways. They have a monthly membership site, they have a digital product, they do some affiliate marketing. But one of their biggest wins came last year when they sold a book. That book is coming out in April, it's called Being Bossed, take control of your work and live life on your own terms.
You can look for that on the bookshelf soon, and you can look for Kathleen and Emily in their studio, or perhaps on a yacht, or maybe even in a parade. This is definitely a tremendous success, big congrats Kathleen and Emily. And among other things, I thought it was really interesting how they grew that Facebook group to 25,000 people, yet decided that it had kind of gotten out of control and it wasn't really aligned with their brand, it wasn't aligned with their goals and where they wanted to go next anyway. And so they decided to shut it down. I always think it's really interesting when somebody makes an active decision to do something like that, because obviously the most natural course is just to maintain status quo.
Maybe you have some frustrations with it, maybe you think, oh, this has gotten out of control, but what can I do? There are all these people in the group. But they actually took that bold action to say, you know what, this isn't for us, we're going to focus on what we're really good at. And if you're curious about that decision, if you'd like to know more of the behind the scenes, they actually did a whole Being Boss episode talking about how they came to that decision. So we will link that up in the show notes, along with the extended cut that I mentioned, my 10 or 11 lessons since starting the podcast last year and now doing more than 400 episodes myself.
If you're interested in podcasting, come and check it out, it's free of course. And last but not least, as mentioned, the Being Boss book is coming soon. If you like what they're doing, if you want to support them, I would encourage you to preorder it from any online retailer or bookstore. And yes, I've done that myself too. As an author, I often get advanced copies of books that are coming out.
But if I ever mentioned a book on the show, if I ever do any kind of endorsement, I always go and buy at least one copy for myself, sometimes copies for friends as well, because I want to support the author. Not that they need my support because they're crushing it and good for them. I hope you enjoyed this episode as much as I enjoyed making it for you. Remember that inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. My hope is that Side Hustle School is going to support your mission, your goals, your vision, to create something for yourself.
Even if you love your job and have no plans to leave, you still need more than one source of income. And that's what I hope to help you with every single day. Those show notes that I talked about are online at sidehustleschool.com/404. That's for episode 404, Going Strong Into the Spring and Beyond. Another story is coming up tomorrow and every day after that.
I hope you'll join me for it. I'm Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School. [Music]
