After I launched the Feminine Startup Membership podcast on the finish of 2019, I didn’t have any grand plans or intentions for what it would appear to be sooner or later. On the time, I used to be studying Tim Ferriss’ Instruments of Titans, and I observed that hardly any girls had been featured. Whereas I loved the ebook, I wished an area to listen to that very same vitality from girls.
I attempted internet hosting IGTV interviews with feminine founders however shortly realized that many viewers battle to look at a protracted dialog, so I pivoted to podcasts. I reached out to everybody I knew with a narrative to inform, sat down with a mic on my bed room ground, and began recording. I had no expertise in reporting or journalism. I used to be not assured in public talking (the truth is, I used to be terrified!). However I additionally had nothing to lose and an entire lot of ardour when it got here to amplifying these voices.
Regardless of my lack of expertise or strategic planning, the podcast took off. Inside only a few years, I’ve not solely grown it right into a present within the prime 0.5 p.c of podcasts globally, however I’ve additionally constructed a enterprise across the podcast that makes multi-six-figures of annual recurring income from sponsorships, advertisements, and our personal neighborhood, Majic.
Learn on to be taught a few of the methods that helped me shortly develop an viewers and generate profits from my work. I hope it evokes you to go forward and launch your thought, too!
1. I acquired assist earlier than anybody instructed me I might
There’s a whole lot of podcasting recommendation on the market that claims you need to wait till you’ve gotten tens of hundreds if not a whole bunch of hundreds of downloads earlier than going out to pitch sponsors. However, once I was at about 4,000 downloads, I knew I wanted a distribution companion (and a few money to make this undertaking sustainable). So, I went forward and began pitching sponsors anyway. I got here up with an inventory of ten manufacturers that aligned with Feminine Startup Membership and despatched all of them a message about my imaginative and prescient and audience.
As luck would have it, one among these manufacturers was in search of podcasts to sponsor concentrating on my precise viewers. One surprisingly informal name later, they signed a $25,000 deal to sponsor us for a yr. Because of a mixture of the best message touchdown on the best desk on the proper time, I now had the money and the accountability to place out a minimum of three episodes per week for the subsequent yr—and it by no means would have occurred if I hadn’t been keen to leap earlier than I felt prepared or earlier than anybody gave me “permission” to.
The excuse to not get began on *that factor* is all the time going to be there. If I hadn’t simply gotten began, I wouldn’t have had a whole bunch of interviews underneath my belt at this time, wouldn’t have a thriving enterprise that’s using 5 extra folks (two full-time, three contractors), would not have been awarded Younger Australian of the 12 months in 2022, and a lot extra.
2. I leveraged the networks and reputations of my friends to develop
In the case of constructing a profitable enterprise, I swear by the ability of collaboration and amplification. This podcast wouldn’t exist with out my friends, and the built-in distribution channel they gave me has been so key.
As an illustration, once I landed Sarah Lee and Christine Chang from Glow Recipe—two of the largest entrepreneurs I’d had on the present but—by way of some dogged chilly outreach, I knew I needed to profit from this chance to develop our credibility by sheer connection. I emailed all my dream friends in our database saying, “These persons are approaching the present. Do you wish to come on the present too?” Sarah and Christina grew to become an anchor that led to extra curiosity from different influential folks as a result of they wished to get in on that bandwagon.
We additionally collaborate with every visitor to leverage their viewers for selling their episode and rising our attain. After every episode, I’d create property for social media and ship them to the visitor, encouraging them to share with their audiences. I ultimately discovered that almost all friends had been gradual to publish themselves, however once we posted one thing on our channel and tagged them, they had been very happy to repost.
Extra just lately, we’ve ramped up this technique so we will assure leveraging our friends’ viewers. We’ve included a clause inside our visitor onboarding course of that reads: “By agreeing to our Podcast T&C’s, friends verify they’ll settle for Instagram collaboration requests for at least seven days to their largest viewers (founder or model account).” This has been an actual game-changer: A assured look on our friends’ feed can simply earn us a whole bunch of followers in a few hours.
Over time, this give attention to connection has compounded to develop our viewers to over 100,000 followers throughout channels, and set up us as one of many thought leaders within the business.
3. I market the way in which I would wish to be marketed to
In all of my advertising and marketing, I’m primarily creating the kind of content material that I might be desirous about, as a result of that’s the content material that was lacking once I was impressed to create the podcast within the first place. (I additionally, fortunately, am my very own audience.) If I’m ever caught, I simply ask myself: If I had been a listener, is that this one thing that will attraction to me?
As an illustration, when naming the podcast, I thought-about together with my very own title, however then considered how I seek for content material on-line. If I used to be seeking to discover a podcast like mine, I’d go to Google or my podcast app and seek for issues like ‘feminine entrepreneurship,’ ‘feminine founders,’ or ‘feminine startups.’ Utilizing these key phrases, I got here up with Feminine Startup Membership. 9 out of ten instances once I ask a listener how they discovered the present, they are saying it was from an analogous key phrase search, and good naming positively helped me achieve a whole lot of early traction.
I additionally love looking across the podcast library to see what catches my eye. Taking this into consideration, making a daring visible model for FSC grew to become an enormous precedence. A number of years in, it is this vibe that followers usually say attracted them to affix the neighborhood.
4. I remodeled my viewers right into a thriving neighborhood (and a brand new income stream)
One of many many joys of launching this platform is studying from our neighborhood of listeners. I’m all the time asking folks to hop into my DMs on Instagram or ship me an electronic mail about how we will higher assist them, and I frequently maintain one-on-one buyer analysis interviews with founders and future founders to actually perceive how we will finest assist them.
These conversations have led to the most recent massive evolution in our enterprise: the creation of Majic, our paid membership neighborhood for small enterprise homeowners and entrepreneurs. I saved listening to that our entrepreneur listeners had been feeling lonely and wanting extra alternatives to community, discover mentorship, and bounce concepts off folks. Since its official launch in 2022, Majic has develop into essentially the most superb group of ladies who’re the last word hype women for one another. Plus, it’s offered a brand new stream of recurring income that permits us to take a position into the way forward for the enterprise and hold the workforce working.
The lesson: When you’ve gotten a neighborhood invested within the model, constructing the enterprise into its subsequent stage can be a collaborative effort between you and your viewers.
These approaches have helped Feminine Startup Membership develop a ardour undertaking right into a profitable enterprise quicker than I ever might have imagined. And whereas I do know we now have a lot extra to go, I’m assured that the identical mindsets—leaping earlier than I’m prepared, pondering like a buyer, and harnessing the ability of connection and neighborhood—will proceed to take the enterprise to new heights.
