399. How I 4X’d My Podcast Revenue by Making ONE Major Change
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Welcome back to the Boss Babe podcast. I am coming to you from the most amazing, serene British countryside. We bought a house here last year. And at the time I was like, is this a ridiculous decision? Because we had no plans to move here. We do not want to rent this place out. I mean, maybe in the future.

But we really just wanted a place we could feel at home in in the UK, knowing we want to spend a couple months a year here. And doing this has just been the best decision. It's a couple of hours from London. So we land in London and then we drive. And as soon as we start getting into the countryside, like I just feel my entire nervous system relax. It's been the best. And then we get here and we've got all of our things, like all the nice things that we like and our own beds and

The little things that make all the difference, like I just, yeah, it's been the best decision. And I remember weighing it up, like talking to friends about it, like, is this crazy? Is this a ridiculous decision? And the thing that came up was like, well, you know, what's the point? What do you make all this money for? Like, what's the point? Like, what's the motivation? And I was like, you know, it's for family, it's for experiences, for peace of mind, all those things.

When I thought about it through that lens, you know, I'm not making money to like invest it and make more money and retire. Like that's not it for me. Like I want to be free. I want to live in the present, like all that stuff. And so it ended up being a really, really great decision. So yeah, that's where I'm coming to you from. And we're here for a couple of months. We have some mini trips in between, but yeah.

Yeah. Also have my mum here to helping doing some childcare, which is great because like I've shared on the pod, I haven't had childcare for a really long time. And I forgot what it was like to not be juggling a million things at once and actually have a bit of focused work time. So that's been nice. I feel like I've had a chance to like actually execute ideas and all the things, you know, take myself out for some lunch dates, luxuries.

So that's been really, really nice. But I want to hop in and have like a just a little chat with you guys and share something that has been a massive, massive game changer for us in the business. And hopefully is something that no matter what stage you're at in your business, you can apply. So I'm going to share that. And another thing I just want to share, because I do get a bunch of messages since we've started like upping our Reels game and podcast game.

of you guys asking me who we work with so actually a reason that we spend a lot of time in the uk is stephen actually owns my husband steven actually owns a content agency and they have an office out here in the uk and so that is a reason we spend more time here too is he loves to be able to go in and um hang out with the team because they are in person so anyway it's so funny because steven had this agency for quite a while before we moved over to them

Because I was like, I don't want to mix business with our relationship. Like, I don't know if that's a good idea. You guys, moving over to their agency has been the best idea and the best thing for our business and our podcast. Like, I can't even tell you. It's been really amazing. Their attention to detail and their knowledge in this space is...

unparalleled. And previous to working with us, they'd worked mainly like in the gaming industry and create our industry. I know we're in the creator industry, but it's like create our entrepreneur industry. And they have started branching out. And I was like, you know what? Yeah, I want to do it. And it's been such a great decision. So anyway, if any of you are looking for, if you have a podcast already and you have a good budget and you're looking for

a new agency to take that on, the production, the growth, things like that, drop me a DM. And if I feel like you'd be a fit, I'm happy to just introduce you directly to Stephen and you can have a chat with him. We've actually helped a bunch of our own clients move over to them and they're just having the best experience. I want to put that out there and share because whenever I find someone, that's great. I honestly am not being biased. I'm...

I know he's my husband, but I'm not being biased. Like he's, they're just great. They're really, really great. But yeah, happy to intro. I know it's sometimes hard to find epic people. So yeah, wanted to let you guys know. Anyway, speaking of podcasts, that is the topic that I wanted to share. I mean, for years now, since we've had the podcast, I mean, from the beginning, in the beginning, we didn't have any sponsors because obviously we didn't have enough downloads and we would basically...

We pretend to have sponsors and be like, this episode is brought to you by Soul CBD. And then we just share the affiliate link. That was actually amazing for us because we were making loads of sales through the affiliate link. So we were still getting paid, but then it meant that brands could actually see where their audience are converting. And so we were then able to get podcast sponsors. Anyway, we start getting podcast sponsors and then we worked, you've probably heard a lot of our sponsors on the podcast, right?

And it's important for us to have them. You know, we're not doing this podcast just like for the good of our health. We want to be able to cover our costs. We want it to be a part of our business. We want to be able to continue doing it. So we've been working with loads of different sponsors. I mean, like people that I could only have dreamt of working with, like the companies that I put on my vision board, we were able to work with and I was just like in awe. And I will share as amazing as it is because the podcast isn't my full-time thing.

It was a lot of work working with so many sponsors. Firstly, from a project management perspective, like knowing which ads are going in which episodes. And like when you're working with like five sponsors per episode, you're doing two episodes a week and they all want to sign off on the creative. Like it's a whole process. Like, you know, they send you talking points. You then create something that's authentic to you. You send it back to them. You get it signed off, you record it. And then they want you creative every single time you record it.

And again, it's such a blessing to be able to work with advertisers. And at the same time, it was a lot. And when we were looking, so one thing that I do in my business a lot, and I really recommend everyone do this, it's like I look at all my revenue sources and like a pie chart. So I see because there's normally like the 80-20 rule, like 80% of your revenue comes from where you spend 20% of your time. Honestly, if you do this pie chart, you'll probably be like, yeah, that's actually really correct.

So anyway, I was looking at this pie chart and podcast sponsorship was such a small part of our business. And I was spending a ridiculous amount of time on it. And like, it felt like I had no freedom, honestly, because no matter where I went, even, I mean, obviously I have my mic and a whole setup here in the UK, but like, even if I was just going on a trip for a few days, I'd have to take my mic with me. Cause there's always like sponsors to record and like,

Some of them would get back to you last minute or they'd request changes. And like, I just had to have my mic with me all the time to just like pull it out and get an ad recorded. And we'd be doing this for years and years. And anyway, I did this pie chart. I'm like, wait, podcast revenue is such a small amount of our business. I know we're getting really good results for sponsors because they all want to renew their contracts with us. And like every time they renew, we generally can negotiate more money because they've gotten really good results. Like we just...

I think we just have built an audience that trust us. Like we're not going to lead them astray when we turn down sponsors if it's not something that I would use. And like, I can't share it. Honestly, like we have always, always had a lot of integrity with the brands we work with. And we generally try to work with the same brands over and over again.

So anyway, looked at this pie chart, like, okay, it's a small percentage of the revenue, but it's taken a huge chunk of my time. This doesn't actually make sense. And I didn't fully just like want to cut off the revenue from the podcast because, you know, we have an agency to pay. It's not cheap. All the equipment, all the time, all of that stuff. I didn't want a podcast to become something that's actually...

you know, losing us money. I know as a whole, it supports the business, but I still wanted to see that coming in every month on the P&L and be able to justify the cost and the time that's going out. And so I was thinking about it and thinking like, what would be a solve for this? Because I'm such a big believer in business that you simplify to amplify. That's always, always been my motto in every quarter.

I put a pie chart together of where all of our revenue is coming from. And there's always like loads of little pieces and then like loads of little chunks in the pie chart and then really big ones. And I'm like, okay, I want to get rid of those little ones. And I want to focus on the big ones. Unless like those little ones are, you've got like a low ticket that's actually selling into your big offer and it's crushing and you want to keep it for that reason. Like I have to be able to justify to myself that,

why focus is diluted. I have to be able to justify that. If my focus is diluted or the business focus is diluted, business marketing is diluted, I often know I'm getting diluted results unless I can really analyze it and see why we're doing it. So I do this every single quarter. I've always done it.

And so last year, as we were going into Q4, I did this again. And I thought, this doesn't make any sense to me. Like there has to be a smarter solution. And so I had an idea. I was like, okay, what if I pick one brand that I feel so passionate about that I could talk about effortlessly every single episode, you know, every newsletter, I could talk about them.

What if I just did, instead of all of these different sponsors, what if I just pitched one sponsor for a really big package? And probably, you know, I'm making less overall having one ad versus like five or 10. And you'll notice we still have some ads because we had contracts that we weren't going to cancel, but yeah.

Eventually, we'll go down to just having one ad and then our own ad. I was like, what if I can just work with one sponsor? That means I'm going to be making money, definitely covering my costs. I get a big chunk of the money up front. This would be amazing. So I sat down like vision board. I was like,

Vision board, what would feel amazing is if I could go and pitch a sponsor and like lock in a really, really fantastic deal, like something high ticket money that would be consistent, guaranteed. And I'm not having to create like do new creative every single week.

They're not super picky. And I truly would like, I would talk about the brand for free. And so that's what we actually did. And so we pivoted, we started this in Q4. And like I said, we're sometimes on six to 12 months contracts with other sponsors, which we've decided, you know, we're not going to break contracts. So we're going to see them out. But as of the beginning of this year,

We started working with way, way fewer people, way fewer sponsors, because most sponsors will book on for a certain number of episodes. And we actually pitched a brand, a really big package. It was actually the biggest partnership of my career that I've ever sold. I was like, so proud. We sold them a really big package and it was for a whole year. And it was across our newsletter and our podcast.

And that was one of the big needle movers. And like when I keep talking about, you know, we 6X'd our profit, we doubled our revenue and I'm working less. It's from making decisions like this. It's from actually looking at the business with an analytical lens and saying, how could I continue to make this level of revenue or make even more and make more profit by doing less?

And it was a decision like this because not only am I making more money doing it,

I'm having to spend less time and my team spending less time. Like the project management is pretty much non-existent when you're just working with one partner like that. And I'm doing way less. I have way more freedom. And it was such a no brainer. And I want to share it because I am sure if you put together a pie chart of your business revenue, you probably could look at this and make some similar decisions yourself. And I was so terrified pitching a deal like this. But the way I thought about it was like,

The worst thing that they can say is no, no, we don't want to do this. No, we don't have budget for this. But I actually went to them and I put together a whole pitch deck and I was saying, you know, I'm so passionate about your brand. I've already promoted your brand and we've had really, really good results. I think I could really crush it over 12 months. Here's what my dream package would look like. Are you interested? And

And I sent it to them and they were, and we negotiated and we got to a really good number and it just felt great. So yeah, I'm sharing this because there are so many ways that you could simplify to amplify in your business. You could do less and do it better, do less with less stress and actually bring in more revenue. Like it's not this myth that you hear like, yeah, that sounds good. No, it actually is possible. And it often just takes time.

having that analytical lens and having that look at your business to say, yes, this is exactly what is going to help me to grow without taking on more and more and more. And it's what's going to help me grow without putting more hours in. So yeah.

Wanted to share that. I hope it's helpful. Maybe an exercise that you could do as we're going into new quarters is pull together a pie chart of all your revenue from this year and last year. I actually do it from the inception of our business. And every single year I compare all the pie charts.

I've said pie chart so many times this episode, it could be like a drinking game. But I put them all together in Google Slides and I look at them every single year at how it's changing. And what I will say is every year as my revenue grows, the pie chart gets simpler and simpler and simpler. Like,

The first year was very simple. Second year, I had revenue coming from every source you can imagine. And then as I started stripping that back and making it more and more simple, the revenue went up, the profit went up, all of that stuff. So yeah, hope this was helpful. Really wanted to just drop in and share that. And like I said, if you're looking for an agency too, just drop me a DM with a bit of info about you. And if I think you'd be a fit, I'm happy to just make a direct introduction because they are awesome. Anyway, have an amazing day and I will speak to you next week.

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