How to Choose the Right Monetization Strategy For Your Podcast

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Monetizing your podcast doesn’t have to mean chasing sponsors or hitting massive download numbers. We break down what podcast monetization actually looks like for indie podcasters and how to choose the strategies that genuinely fit your show.

We cover:

• When you’re truly ready to monetize
• How sponsorships actually work
• Affiliate marketing as a simple testing ground
• Subscriptions options: listen to the full Buzzcast episode
• Listener support and why it works for every podcaster
• How to talk about money without feeling awkward
• Why the future of podcast monetization is all about value and community

Read the monetization blog: How I Make Money Podcasting (What Still Works In 2025)

Contact Buzzcast

• Send us a text message
• Tweet us at @buzzcastpodcast, @albanbrooke, @kfinn, and @JordanPods

Thanks for listening and Keep Podcasting!

Episode Transcript

Jordan (00:00):
So, our last episode, our not so quick cast, we have a
post-show, Alban.
It was this really awesomestory where you're talking about
recording a podcast with yourdaughter and talking about
recording with family membersover the Thanksgiving break.
And we got some fan mail inresponse to that post show.
Lisa from Capturing Essence forCare said, I'm ear-to-ear

(00:22):
smiling right now, listening toAlban talking about recording
family members at Thanksgivingand hearing about how podcasting
is being encouraged for familyrecordings and play.
Thank you for sharing.
I'll definitely be adding theseideas to future podcast
episodes of my own.
And Sparkling Dee said, Alban,I love your idea of recording a
podcast with family members.
I was just visiting my90-year-old auntie and wish I

(00:43):
had thought to capture herstories.
It's also such a great way forthose of us who are just
starting out to practiceinterviewing others.
Thanks for the inspiration.

Alban (00:51):
I forgot about this, but I did record my grandmother.

Jordan (00:53):
Really?

Alban (00:54):
Yeah.
Would have been like February2020.
Kevin is telling me every daymore about COVID.
And so I go and I think I don'tknow what's going to happen,
but my grandmother was and stillis in a memory unit.
She has dementia.
And she was didn't have toomuch then, but I went and
recorded just in voice memosbecause I was afraid it would be
the last time I saw herrecorded talking to her.

(01:15):
I should go back and findthose.
I think I've honestly forgottenthat I'd done that.
I also got an email on thisfrom Matthew at the podcast
host.
And he wrote in and said,Enjoyed the last episode.
A few months ago, I got a MicroSpeak Plus recorder, uh, which
is easy enough for myfour-year-old daughter to use.
And I've been collecting a lotof her recordings, she often

(01:37):
uses it without any prompting.
And I went and looked at it,and the Micro Speak Plus is like
a $70 recorder, but it's sosimple.
Like it's turn on, hit record,and you can put an SD card in
there.
And so you could get a bunch ofrecordings.
And I was looking at it andit's on the list for my nieces
now for Christmas.

(01:58):
I thought I was like, thatwould be such a good honestly.
I should just buy one now andtake it to Thanksgiving and give
it to my daughter and nieces,and just they'll all record
silly stories and stuff whilewe're at Thanksgiving.

Jordan (02:09):
That'd be so cute.
It's funny, I was looking atthis, and my first impression
looking at the images is thatthis looks like it was made by
Fisher Price.
It's like the primary colors,like yellow, blue, and red, very
Sesame Street.
And then I looked at the priceand not Sesame Street.
It's $70.
I was like, whoa.
So it better be good.

(02:30):
Jeez.

Alban (02:31):
If you get a few really good recordings out of it, then
it's worth it.
If it becomes a piece of junkthat sits around the house, even
$30 wouldn't be worth it.
So you've got to, it's got towork for you.
But uh I loved the idea.

Jordan (02:42):
Yeah.
Here we go.
Welcome back to BuzzCast, thepodcast about all things
podcasting from the people atBuzzsprout.
I'm really excited for thisepisode.
We are talking about podcastmonetization, but we are talking
about it from more of a lens ofwhat monetization strategy is

(03:05):
going to work best for yourpodcast because podcasts are
unique and it's not one sizefits all.
I personally have had a lot ofexperience with monetizing my
podcast.
I tried really hard.
I worked really hard trying tomake podcasting my profession.
And I spread myself so thindoing every single monetization
strategy under the moon.

(03:26):
And some of it worked outreally well for me.
And some of it I absolutelyfell flat on my face.
So this is a topic that I feelvery passionate about.

Alban (03:35):
Strategy number one, get hired at Buzzsprout.

Jordan (03:37):
Yeah, that's it.

Alban (03:38):
You've made your podcast is monetized.

Kevin (03:41):
I do think we should clarify.
When I think of the wordmonetize, I think that you're
actually earning something fromyour venture.
So we're talking aboutpodcasting, you're earning money
from your podcasting, meaningthat you're bringing in more
money than you're spending.
I don't think any of us wouldsay that you could do that day
one.
I think you can start executingon some strategies to

(04:01):
potentially earn more, have morecoming in than you're spending
on day one.
But I don't think anyone'sgoing to launch a podcast on day
one, they're going to startbringing in more than they're
making.

Alban (04:11):
I think if we're talking about monetization, meaning
cash, like I'm taking effort andI'm turning it into money that
I can spend on other things,you're entirely correct.
I think you can get more valuethan you're giving in lots of
different ways.
And I think that's one of theways maybe Buzzsprout thinks

(04:32):
about monetization differently,is that a lot of the value isn't
going to go through cash to abank account.
Often what you're getting issomething else.
And the something else issomething that you would have
been willing to pay money toget.
You're just going to skip themoney piece.

Jordan (04:49):
Alban, you sort of touched on this.
So we're going to talk aboutwhen to start thinking about
making money from your podcast.
Something that a lot ofpodcasters will fall into is
that they feel like they need tohave like a massive audience or
huge download numbers to startmonetization, but that's really
not true.
I personally know plenty ofpodcasters who have audiences of
like a hundred, you know, theyget like a hundred downloads per

(05:11):
episode and they have foundways to make money from their
podcast or sustain their podcastthrough a small but super
engaged audience.
So I think if you're trying todecide if you're ready to
monetize your podcast, there aresome things you can like look
at.
If you if you can't decide ifit's right for you to monetize

(05:31):
your podcast right now, youknow, is your time becoming like
a cost?
Are you spending more time tothe point where you kind of want
to like start investing in yourpodcast or outsourcing things?
It's funny because conversely,when you're thinking about
monetizing your podcast, thereare some monetization strategies
that actually take more time.
And so it's it's kind of likethis double-edged sword.

(05:53):
So it's like, you know, is yourtime becoming a cost?
But at the same time, do youhave enough time to invest into
trying to make money from yourpodcast?
If you have a small but engagedaudience, or maybe your podcast
is taking off and you're one ofthose lucky people that's
getting like 10,000 downloadsper episode.
And then also with this one isvery, very important.
Are your listeners alreadyasking how they can support your

(06:17):
podcast?
I think that that is a reallygood indicator.
That's maybe the best indicatorthat you're ready to start
monetizing your podcast orallowing listeners to support
the production of your show.

Kevin (06:29):
I feel like we should have some discussion around the
idea that not everybody wants tomonetize.
Not everybody thinks thatmonetization is the right path.
So I don't I don't really wantto talk about that.
The other side of that coin isthat there are some people who
say, I'm getting into podcastingbecause I want to or I need to
make money.
And we should probably prefacesome of this conversation with

(06:53):
we're not really talking abouteither one of those.
We're talking about likesometimes the stars align and
you didn't set out to makemoney, and you can.
But what happens less often isthat you do set out to make
money and then you figure outhow to make a significant amount
of money in podcasting.
That's very, very, very rare.

Jordan (07:10):
Yeah.

Kevin (07:11):
It is like so rare that I would say there's a hundred
million, like billion trillioneasier ways to probably make
money than than there are inpodcasting, including like just
becoming a social mediainfluencer.
Like that's probably easier.
I think it is probably easierjust to go create 30 second
whatever clips that are funny,and just by getting views on
Instagram, they're gonna sendyou four to six dollars a month.

(07:33):
And in order to do that samelevel of four to six dollars in
podcasting, you have to workreally hard.
And so if you just want to makemoney, I would say, I don't
know, like wash cars or set up alemonade stand or create, you
know, some Instagram videos.
They're all gonna generatearound four to six dollars a
month in income for it.

Alban (07:53):
I'm sorry, the the the easiest way to make money is to
get a job.
Like full stop.

Jordan (07:59):
So if you are in the camp of like, I want to start
making money for my podcast, Iwant to start sustaining this
hobby, you could do what I didand experiment with a whole
bunch of different monetizationstrategies and waste a whole
bunch of time and like failmiserably, or you can be really
smart about how you try to makemoney from your podcasts.

(08:20):
And all podcasts are different,all are unique.
What works for an interviewpodcast that has like thousands
and thousands of downloads isnot going to work the same for
like an audio narrative podcastthat has a very like niche
audience or a DD podcast orsomething like that.
They're all different.
They have different kinds ofaudiences with different

(08:40):
interests and different wantsand needs.
And so you have to make surethat you are gearing your
monetization strategy towardsthat so that you're not wasting
energy on something that youraudience isn't really interested
in.
So the four strategies thatwe're going to talk about in

this episode (08:55):
sponsorships, affiliate and referral
marketing, subscriptions, andlistener support.
I think that there's otherrevenue streams that we could
talk about, but it's probablyjust going to be an episode all
on its own.
So, like, we're not gonna getinto like merch or live events
or anything like that.

Alban (09:13):
Courses, digital products, PDFs, white papers.

Jordan (09:17):
Yeah.
Let's get into sponsorships.
I always feel like sponsorshipsare the end goal, all
podcasters.
They're just like, I'm gonnaknow I make it when I have a
sponsorship and when I'm doingthat like sponsored ad rate that
this podcast is brought to youby this brand.
I have done sponsorships, I'vehad a lot of sponsorships.

(09:40):
So I will explain howsponsorships work very quickly.
The first step is that you'regoing to pitch to the brand, and
it's typically in an email, andyou're gonna send like so many
of these emails, but each emailneeds to be catered to each
individual brand.
You need to have like a reallyheartfelt message in it.
You need to say, you know, whyyour podcast is a perfect fit,

(10:02):
why your audience is a perfectfit, why you love the company.
And then when you eventuallyget a brand, you're gonna
negotiate, you'll work out likenumber of spots for ad reads,
um, script points, paymentterms, and timelines.
Then you record the ad andyou're gonna insert in the
episode.
And then after it publishes,you send an air check to the

(10:23):
brand for confirmation that youdid the ad read.
So it's just an air check isjust like a timestamp and a link
to the episode.
And then in about 30 days, youwill follow up again and get
payment.
The thing is, is this is somuch work.
I spent so many weekends justsitting at my computer
researching companies orresearching how to reach out to

(10:46):
companies that I was a reallybig fan of, creating like a
one-pager or a pitch deck andtrying to get them to read my
email about why I thought thatthey should work with me.
Or sometimes I would be likeemailing companies trying to get
payment when they're likeoverdue.
It turned into like a full-timejob trying to get these
sponsors.

(11:06):
It ate up so much time.
And I would send probably like10 pitches a weekend and maybe
get a response to like one.
It was so much work.
And I think a lot of podcastersdon't realize how much work it
is to do sponsorships.

Alban (11:22):
One of the things I liked from the blog post you wrote,
Jordan, was that you had emailsin there with some like the back
and forth negotiations orpeople reaching out to you and
got to see a little bit behindthe scenes of what it looked
like.

Jordan (11:36):
Yeah.

Alban (11:37):
Your first sponsor was something like somebody reached
out and said, Hey, I donated $50to your Patreon.
Would you do an ad read?
Is that right?

Jordan (11:44):
Yeah, it was a company, like a beauty and wellness
company that reached out andthey asked, Would you do an ad
read if we donated $50 to yourPatreon?
And it was so cool because Iwas thinking about doing
sponsorships.
You know, I was like at a pointwhere I was like, my podcast is
getting big enough.
I could do sponsorships.
And I was really scared.

(12:04):
So I didn't send that firstpitch email ever.
But they actually approachedme.
And then that was myopportunity to say, oh,
actually, I get this manydownloads.
Here's information about mypodcast.
And we could work out like asponsorship, and here's how it
works, and here's how much itwould cost.
And I think I ended upnegotiating like, I don't know,

(12:26):
a hundred or two hundred dollarsfor that.
Maybe it was 300.
I don't remember.
But I ended up negotiating.
I talked about like, hey, itwould be really fun to do a
giveaway for my listeners andthen also get paid for the ad
rates and also do this.
So sponsorships can be fun.
But yeah, it was, it was reallycool having a brand reach out
to me.
And then, you know, it's one ofthose things like after I got

(12:46):
that first taste of like a branddeal and how awesome it was, I
was just like, oh, okay, this isgreat.
After that, I started pitchingmy podcast and taking it more
seriously.

Alban (12:57):
I was actually on Reddit this morning and somebody was
talking about they want to starta podcast about bicycle
photography or cyclingphotography.
Oh.
And I guess they used to do,they take photos of like Tour de
France or something.
And there's only like 20, 30people in the world who really
do this as a profession.
They were like, I want to do apodcast about it.

(13:18):
I just don't know if it's worthit doing 30 episodes,
interviewing these people, thenshutting it down.
And I wrote them like why Ithought that podcast could be
have much more legs than theythought.
But then at the end I said, andthe monetization opportunities
there are going to be pretty bigbecause you're combining two
categories that had a lot ofgear and a lot of companies with

(13:40):
big marketing budgets that willwant to reach your listeners if
you build an audience.
Cameras, photography, drones,and bicycling.
Like multiple multi-thousanddollar item purchases a year for
their target demographic.
Very expensive.
And if they do build out a nicelittle audience, you know, DJI

(14:03):
is gonna show up when they builda new biking drone and Canon
when they come out with a newcamera.
There is some level that Ithink it's worthwhile thinking
about who could sponsor thispodcast in some format and like
not just think like, oh, I'veheard BetterHelp and AG1 or on
all sorts of podcasts, but like,are there brands or are there

(14:24):
products that naturally want toreach the audience that I'm
trying to reach and that I'mpassionate about?
Are there brands I use in thisspace?
Those might be the right peopleto be forming relationships
with.

Kevin (14:36):
You can be strategic about seeking out who would be a
good fit for the show.
So you might only be reaching50 people, 100 people, but those
50 or 100 people might be theperfect match for a company, a
product, a service, aconsultancy, whatever.
And if you can be strategicabout finding who these
companies are and thenpresenting an opportunity to

(14:57):
them to be a sponsor of theshow, and sponsorships are
they're like a partnership.
They're not, at least we don'tview them.
Um when I say we, like weBuzzsprout, we don't view our
sponsorship of the Pod NewsWeekly Review as something where
to us it's not strictly abusiness transaction.
It's not us wanting to put ourname on the Pod News Weekly
Review and run an advertisementthat then returns more than

(15:19):
we're investing.
I mean, that's part of it forsure.
But there's also this we likewhat the Pod News Weekly Review
is doing.
Like they're covering all thenews and and happenings in the
podcasting industry, they'retalking about interesting
things, they're raising up newpeople who were starting in
podcasting them and giving themthe voice and giving them an
opportunity to introducethemselves to the podcasting
community.
So they're doing a lot of goodthings in a space that we're

(15:41):
passionate about, and we've gotto know the people behind it.
So we know James and we knowSam and and we we like them
personally.
So we want to support thempersonally as well.
So there's a whole bunch ofstuff that goes into that
equation for us.
And if it was strictly a, oh,this sponsorship is going to
cost us this much, we have tosee that much come back.
It may or may not make sense.
I don't know.
But Alban and I don't run thosenumbers.

(16:01):
We listen to the show, welisten, we read the newsletter,
we're fans of what they'redoing.
Uh and then we ask them, whatwould it cost for us to support
this in a sponsorship typepackage?
They run numbers on their sideand they say, How does this
sound?
And we said, That sounds great.
It's as simple as that for usas a business to come in and
support something that we likethat's happening in our
industry.
And so when you don't have anaudience, things like that are

(16:23):
possible, but you've got to dothe legwork.
Like Alban and I are not goingout there looking for
up-and-coming podcasters who aredoing things we like that we
could approach, like not somuch.
We don't have a lot of time forthat.
But every once in a while, oneof them might reach out to us
and we'll take a look and we'llsay, Yeah, that actually sounds
like something that would begood for podcasting.
We're interested in supportingit.
And it may or may not makesense on the RO ROI side of the

(16:46):
business, but we still want toput a little bit of money behind
it and just support it anyway.

Alban (16:49):
All right.
I like the way you're talkingabout this, Kevin.
As a business who sponsorscontent, what do you want to see
from the creator to get excitedabout sponsoring their content?
I'm thinking multiple creatorsthat I've talked to this week
about sponsoring content thatthey've all been someone who
created the content first.
They were creating contentaround podcasting, around our

(17:10):
niche, and they're reaching theright audience and we want to
support what they're doing, andthey seem to know and understand
what Buzzprout's doing.
And so the sponsorships thathave not really worked for us,
to be honest, have been oneswhere we're reaching out to some
big creator going, Hey, can wesend you a bunch of money?
And then you use these talkingpoints to do a video for us.

(17:32):
But somebody who is alreadydoing content that's very close
and they have recommendedBuzzsprout in the past is
someone that I want to reach outto.
And I've done many times andsaid, Hey, I really love what
you did with this video.
We really appreciate it.
You do obviously do really goodcontent in this space.
How can we support you for yournext five videos?

(17:52):
And multiple have said, You areon my list of people I'd want
to work with because there's anatural partnership between the
person who's creating thecontent, they know which brands
they like, and they want to workwith the brands they like.
If you're a big Adidas fan, youreally just don't want to work
with Nike, and now you have toswitch out your wardrobe.

(18:13):
And if you're in whatever toolyou use, you want to use the
tool that you use and not haveto get sponsored by their
competitor.
And if the brand, you want towork with somebody who
understands your product.
Often the person whounderstands your product is
giving even betterrecommendation than you could
write with talking points.

Jordan (18:30):
Yep.

Alban (18:30):
So my advice would be if you want to sponsor, maybe just
like not ad reads, but like talkabout why you love the
products, talk about why youlike the services.
And that can be a proof pointto whoever's making the decision
of where to buy ads or dosponsorships.
They're gonna go, oh, thisperson understands us, we should

(18:51):
be sponsoring them.

Jordan (18:52):
Yeah.

Kevin (18:53):
Yeah, we've all seen those videos where somebody is
talking about something.
It happens a lot in the socialspace, but it does happen once
in a while on podcasts too.
Somebody will be talking abouta product and they'll say
something like, I love thisproduct.
I'm not sponsored by thisproduct.
I wish I was.
If anybody from this company islistening, please reach out.
I would love to be sponsored byyou, but I'm not.
But I'm just gonna tell youabout the product anyway because
it's so great.
I can tell you like if we hearsomebody talk about Buzzsprout

(19:16):
like that, we get super excited.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Now it doesn't mean that it'salways gonna work out.
But sometimes you reach outafter that.
Sometimes you do, right.

Jordan (19:23):
And I think that that is a good distinction too, with
sponsorships when you'repitching either as a brand to a
podcaster or as a podcaster to abrand, you have to make sure
that when you reach out in thatinitial message or email that
you are being very intentionalabout making it personable and

(19:45):
saying, like, hey, I like thisabout you.
And, you know, I think it wouldactually be really cool for us
to like work together.
Here's why.
Here's everything like linedout because I've received uh
pitch emails from brands thatmaybe they're legitimate, but it
could also be like notlegitimate.
It could just be like a spamemail that's like mass sent out

(20:07):
and it's just like, hi,dreamful.
We really love your podcast andwould love to sponsor.
Make sure to get in touch withour representative.
Those I avoid at all costs.
It goes straight to spam.
But when I get an email from acompany and they're like, hey,
my kids actually love yourpodcast.
And I think that our brandwould actually be a great
sponsorship opportunity.
We love to, you know, worktogether with you.

(20:29):
That to me goes, oh, this is areal person.
And then I immediately reachout and make that deal.
So it it does matter that it'sit's very intentional when it
comes to sponsorships and branddeals and stuff like that.

Alban (20:43):
So if we're talking about when should you start thinking
about reaching out to sponsors,I'd say pretty early if there's
a natural fit.
You know, if your podcastalready you're talking to an
audience and you'rerecommending, hey, here's a
product I use, here's somethingI really enjoy, here's something
you'd like, then go ahead andtalk about the products, but

(21:04):
then maybe reach out to thosecompanies and ask them to
sponsor you.
Sometimes a piece of bad adviceI hear is don't give away
sponsorships for free.
So don't like recommend stuff.
And you know, there are peoplewho would be like, I'm worth
more, so I need to get paid, andthus I won't talk about
products.
I think that's misguidedbecause you what you're thinking

(21:25):
is if I just tell everyoneabout this product, then they
will never sponsor me.
But when you're telling peopleabout products, your audience
about products that you love,they're gonna build trust with
you because they think you dohave good recommendations.
And then the companies andproducts you recommend will
know, yeah, we got one ad readfor free, one recommendation,

(21:48):
one sponsorship for free.
But what we really would likeis 12 of those a year.
And we can tell this person'san influencer, we'd like them to
influence 12 times as much.
And so I think it's misguidedto imagine like I'm holding, I'm
not going to recommend stuffunless I get paid, because
that's kind of how you do getpaid.

Kevin (22:07):
Hearing you talk about how difficult it can be to find
that right partner, you know,it's a little eye-opening for me
for sure.
And I think I would have atendency to, gosh, I don't know.
Like this sounds like the worstadvice in the world, but all
the sponsorships that we've donefrom the Buzz Sprout side have
just sort of happened.

Jordan (22:26):
There's like the option, like you could do a DIY like I
did for a long time, but at somepoint I just like didn't have
time for it.
It was just eating up like halfof my time podcasting.
And so I went to a mediaagency.
But the thing with mediaagencies is that they will pitch
your podcast for you to thesebrands.
They work with all thesebrands, and it's great because

(22:46):
you don't have to do any of thatwork.
You don't have to follow up andget payment, but you're also do
getting payment on like theirterms.
And so instead of me saying,like, hey, I want you to pay me
within 14 days or 30 days ofthis ad dropping, I would have
to wait like 90 days.
And the way that they get somany brand deals is that they
like put you all in a pool, likeall of these podcasts, and they

(23:09):
go to the brand and they'relike, hey, we will give you this
at like this rate.
And so I was taking less CPMrates than I would normally.
So when I was negotiating myown podcast, I would get like
$25 to $30 per thousanddownloads, which was great.
Or I could negotiate like flatfees, but then when it goes to

(23:29):
an ad agency, they'renegotiating like $14 to $20 for
a thousand downloads.
And so there are like upsidesand downsides to a media agency,
and there's upsides anddownsides to doing it yourself.
It's just, yeah, it's a lot.

Alban (23:43):
Sounds like there's a couple ways to do sponsorships.
I mean, one is it it's perfectif it kind of just happens.
Like Kevin, I kind of describeda few that you find someone, it
just fits perfectly.
You reach out, they alreadyknow the brand, and before you
know it, you've been workingtogether for a few years.
Um, that's ideal, thoughprobably not super common.

(24:04):
You have working with these bigad agencies where you kind of
become faceless as a podcasterand faceless as an audience, and
they're reselling your space,but it's really they're selling
you because you're big.
Or you've got this uh version,Jordan, that you're doing, which
is you're doing a ton of work.

(24:26):
I mean, you've invented anadditional job to try to start
landing sponsors, which is veryimpressive.
The grind is there for sure,but it may not always be worth
it as much.
How do we know which way ofthose three to go?

Jordan (24:40):
I'm gonna say that I really don't think that
sponsorships are for everypodcaster.
I think that it is probablyjust for podcasters that are big
enough.
If you have like, you know, afew hundred downloads, then
yeah, doing it yourself andpitching to brands yourself is
gonna be the way to go.
But if you have like 10,000downloads or 20,000, 30,000,

(25:04):
then I'd probably do a mediaagency just because, you know,
it doesn't take as much time.

Kevin (25:10):
And and when your audience is small, I don't think
you have to apologize for that.
You just need to say, you needto be upfront and transparent
about it.
It's that I don't have a largeaudience, but the people who do
listen are a perfect fit foryour product and I love your
product.

Jordan (25:20):
Yeah.

Kevin (25:20):
And so this should be about us working together in a
way that makes sense.
You're not going to sell thatad for a couple hundred dollars.
I mean, unl unless you'reselling something that's a super
high margin product.
Like if you're selling, like, Idon't know, wealth management
or something, like there'shundreds of thousands of dollars
in obtaining a new client,sure.
Or you're selling high-end ACsystems or something, yeah,
there's a lot of margin there.
But if you're just doing apodcast about podcasting and you

(25:45):
have a microphone that you loveand you want to talk more about
it, but you only reach a couplehundred people per episode,
it's just not going to be worthit for them to spend hundreds.
But you could say, I justreally want a sponsor of the
show.
I would do it for you know 10,20 bucks an episode.
Like it just helped cover someof your costs.
But I think sponsorships aredifferent than ads, and they're
different than host red ads.
They are.
And so I think it's aboutrelationship building on both

(26:07):
sides.
I don't think it's just abouthere are my numbers.
That if you're just if you'releading with numbers, that's a
tip-off to me that it's an ad.
And uh the difference betweenlike programmatic ads and host
right ads is the CPM is a littlebit higher because you're
endorsing it.
So it feels like it's gettinginto sponsorship territory, but
to me, it's still different.
It's not a sponsorship, it's ahost rate ad.

Jordan (26:31):
If you talk about a product, if you're doing
something like very niche andyou just want to make like 20
bucks an episode, I actuallythink a better option would be
affiliate marketing.
We could totally get anaffiliate link for microphones
and talk it up.
And then every podcaster wholistens to our show and goes and
buys that microphone using ourlink or using our code, we'd get

(26:53):
a kickback of like $15 or $20.
Affiliate marketing is verylucrative if you're smart about
it and you don't have to have ahuge audience.

Alban (27:01):
So when Matthew wrote in about the recorder he got for
his four-year-old at thebeginning of this episode, that
is a good example of likeaffiliate marketing.

Jordan (27:11):
Yes.

Alban (27:11):
You know, if you're recommending something, you add
on the link, it goes to Amazon.
And if I buy it, Matthew getsa, I don't know, 5% of that back
or something.
If you're recommending physicalproducts, especially ones that
are sold on BH or sold on Amazonor places like that, those are
really good opportunities foraffiliate marketing.

Jordan (27:33):
Yeah.
And I think that affiliatemarketing is exponentially
easier than sponsorships.
So with affiliate marketing,you don't have an audience
threshold.
So you don't need to have likea hundred downloads per episode.
You can literally have fivedownloads per episode and still
sign up to get an affiliate linkor sign up for a referral

(27:54):
program with a company.
You get paid per theacquisition, not per downloads.
So every time someone uses yourlink or every time someone uses
your referral code, you getpaid after they make like a
purchase.
And it's also super, super easyto sign up.
You could take an afternoon andjust go browse websites of

(28:15):
companies that you like.
And usually if you scroll tothe very bottom, uh, like the
little footnotes of theirwebsites, you can find if they
have a referral program oraffiliate links and you can sign
up really easily.
There's affiliate marketplacesthat you can go to.
And what's so great about it isall you have to do is record an
ad in your episode, or evenjust talk about it organically

(28:38):
in your episode, and then justmention that you have a link,
mention that you have a referralcode.
And if your listeners clickthat and then make a purchase,
then you make like five bucks,$20, something like that.

Alban (28:51):
If you're looking for someone to start recommending
and you listen to this podcast,you probably have a Buzzsprout
hosted show.
Go use the refer friend link.
And for every person that signsup with it, they'll get 20
bucks, but you will as well inyour Buzzsprout wallet.
So oh, we would love to be yourfirst affiliate.

Kevin (29:08):
I do like affiliate marketing.
I think it is a good testingbed for you to figure out like
how effective you are at sellingproducts that you'd like and
believe in.
And if you're successful at it,then it's a really good
opportunity for you to add thatto your email, your pitch deck
when you're approaching somebodyto move up the chain into
sponsorships where ideallythere'd be a little bit more
money involved.

(29:28):
Because affiliate payoutsusually at small scales, they're
not they're not huge.
But if you can say, I've beenusing affiliate codes on my
site, you know, for the three orsix months or a year or
whatever, and I pushed this manysales or I've generated this
much revenue or yada yada yada.
It's really good for a brand tohear that and say, Oh, they not
only have an audience, theyhave an audience that values
their opinion that takes actionon the things that they

(29:50):
recommend.
And so I I really do think itit's a wonderful place to start,
but it can also be discouragingbecause really your ability to
push.
Someone to buy a product is onething to push them to buy a
product with your affiliate codeis another.
And oftentimes you might beinfluencing them to make that
purchase.
Like I listened to a podcast.

(30:11):
I got hooked on RX bars a fewyears ago because the ATP
podcast was talking about it.
And they said to use this codeat checkout, and I couldn't
remember the code.
So I just bought it anyway.
But like ATP got no credit forit.
But really, they're the onesthat turned me on to RX bars.

Jordan (30:25):
Yeah.

Kevin (30:25):
And so that that can happen sometimes in affiliate
marketing.
I'm not poo-pooing the idea.
I'm just saying that you'regoing to push more sales than
you'll get credit for.
But if you can get credit forenough, you can really use that
to leverage brands to move intosponsorships.

Alban (30:38):
Yeah.
You can also get credit forsales you didn't really drive.
So the way Amazon works is youjust get credit for everything
the person buys after using yourlink, like within a short
window.

Jordan (30:49):
Yeah.

Alban (30:49):
And I remember somebody was like, I just got the biggest
affiliate payout from AmazonI've ever gotten because someone
bought a $10,000 gold coin orsomething on Amazon.
Oh yeah.
They did it right after they'dclicked their link for uh some
piece of camera equipment.

Jordan (31:04):
Yeah, Kevin, you mentioned something that I
actually really like is usingaffiliate marketing as sort of
like a test for podcastadvertising because no one
cares.
No one's gonna know if you signup for an affiliate program or
you sign up to get a referralcode from something and you do
an ad, it's not gonna beembarrassing if nobody makes a

(31:25):
purchase, right?
No, do you disagree?

Kevin (31:28):
I don't disagree.
I I'm just wincing a little bitbecause if with affiliate
marketing, you do have todisclose that you're using an
affiliate link.
There are rules and regulationsabout that.

Jordan (31:37):
Sorry, let me clarify what I meant by no one's gonna
know.
Listeners are not going to knowthat nobody made a purchase.

Kevin (31:44):
Yes.

Jordan (31:45):
Right.
So who cares?
It it doesn't matter.
Yes, you should absolutelydisclose that it's an affiliate.
Oh, another thing that youshould leave out when you're
doing an affiliate ad read.
So with sponsorships or branddeals, you hear this episode is
brought to you by or thispodcast is brought to you by or
sponsored by, you cannot usethat language when you're doing

(32:06):
an ad read for an affiliate codebecause the brand is not
endorsing you.
They're not sponsoring you.
So you have to make sure thatyou leave that language out of
it.
But you can naturally talkabout how you really like
something and just let yourlisteners know that, like, hey,
I get a kickback if you use areferral code and this is a way
to support the podcast, right?
Yeah, perfect.
But yeah, it is a great way totest things out.

(32:27):
I tested out several, and youknow what?
I do think that you should testout several different
affiliates or referrals to seewhat works.
I had a handful of them.
Some of them I never got asingle purchase, and I really
believed in the product, and soI was really bummed out about
it.
But I had one that I think wasreally well timed.

(32:48):
It was this like luxury uhwooden puzzle company.
And I talked about it and I hada referral code and I had an ad
read for it in like earlyNovember to late November.
And during the holidaypurchasing season, I think my
listeners just went like bananason this for gift buying.

(33:08):
And then in January, I got myaffiliate payout, and it was
like over a thousand dollars.
It was so much money.
And I was just like, whoa, thatwas for like that one ad read.
And so it can work out.
It was actually more than I gotfor some sponsorships.

Kevin (33:21):
Yeah.
And the holiday gift givingseason, at least in the US, such
a great time to do this.
So many podcasters do thingslike uh, you know, I think Oprah
started the My Favorite Thingsidea around the holiday season.
And so many podcasters sharetheir things and forget or or
just don't take the time to hookup an affiliate link to some of

(33:42):
this stuff.
Now, an affiliate link won't beavailable on every possible
product that might be on yourfavorites list, but it could be
on some.

Jordan (33:48):
Yeah.

Kevin (33:48):
And so it's a great time of year to try it.
I personally just listening toa financial podcast two weeks
ago, and the person gave fivegift ideas that they loved.
And one of them, I was like, Iwould be perfect for my wife.
I sent the link to my daughter.
She was like 100% get that frommom.
It was very expensive.
There was no affiliate link.
I would have gladly clicked it.

Jordan (34:07):
Yeah.

Kevin (34:07):
But whatever.
So thank you for therecommendation, financial
advisor guy.
But you get no.

Jordan (34:13):
That's kind of ironic.

Kevin (34:15):
Yeah.

Jordan (34:20):
Let's move on to our third monetization strategy.
And we actually have a wholeepisode on this, but I want to
touch on it.
Podcast subscriptions.
This is going to work for anysize of show.
There's certain subscriptionmodels that are going to work
better for if you don't have anyextra time put into your
podcast, or there's some thatare going to take a lot of time.

(34:42):
So, you know, if you are doingearly access to episodes and
you're already ahead ofschedule, you always have your
episodes scheduled to bepublished two weeks, three weeks
before they're supposed to bepublished.
Early access is no skin offyour back.
And that is a really easy wayfor you to offer an incentive
for your listeners to subscribeto your podcast.

(35:04):
If you are creating like asubscriber-only podcast or bonus
episodes, obviously that'sgoing to take so much more time
because you're literally makingan entire extra podcast or an
entire you're increasing yourpublishing frequency.
And so you're making moreepisodes, there's more content
planning.
Things like that are going totake more time.
But yeah, so that's somethingthat you can turn on regardless

(35:25):
if you have like one listener ora thousand.

Alban (35:28):
I love subscriptions because you're connecting people
to the content that they reallywant.
The audience is helping pay forthe content that they think is
most valuable in the world.
Obviously, we'redifferentiating this from
listener support, which would begiving without there being a
kind of like a paywall.
But I subscribe to somepodcasts, and they're some of my

(35:50):
favorite, and I'm very excitedto keep paying for them because
there's certain content that isso much better for me than the
stuff that's out there for free.
And there's some reallywonderful, great, big podcasts
that you can just get for free,but it just isn't my favorite
stuff.
And my favorite stuff happensto be subscriber podcasts.

(36:10):
And if you're creating reallygood content and you've built a
good audience and people areasking for more episodes, I
think subscriptions are a reallyinteresting thing to experiment
with.
It's tough in the beginning,though.
This is one of the points Kevinand I talked about a lot when
we launched subscriptions andlistener support in BuzzProw was
at the beginning, subscriptionscan be tough because people

(36:34):
will promise, I'm gonna startdoing two episodes a week, one
that's free, one that's paid.
Well, now even if two peoplesign up for the paid version,
you're doing a paid episode forthem and you've doubled your
workload for, I don't know, sixdollars a week or something.
It may be pretty small in thebeginning.
So you want to have a littlebit of a customer base that is

(36:56):
clamoring for more contentbefore you start making promises
about publishing futurecontent, especially if time is a
bit tight.

Jordan (37:04):
I think that's a really good point, Alban, because if
you're thinking about monetizingthrough a subscription, it's
really important to be like,okay, does my audience actually
want this?
Is there a demand for this?
Is this something that they'rewilling to pay for?
That's a really good questionto ask yourself.
Because if you are not runningads in your podcast and you're
thinking about doing an ad-freesubscription, well, that doesn't

(37:27):
make sense, right?
But if, like I said, you arealways ahead of schedule with
publishing, maybe early accesswould work best for you.
What can you deliverconsistently?
If you are promising like oneextra bonus episode a month,
that might be more doable thanone extra bonus episode every
single week.
Try to give yourself somegrace.

(37:48):
Try to think about your futurepodcasting self when you're
making these promises tosubscribers, to paying
listeners.
And then another thing that Ithink is really, really
important is thinking about willthe subscription support your
ability to keep podcasting orwill it completely burn you out?
Because you can't monetize apodcast that doesn't exist

(38:09):
because you burned out andyou're not even podcasting
anymore.
It it that doesn't matter.
So those are just some reallyimportant things to keep in mind
with the subscriptions.
And like I said, we have awhole episode on subscriptions.
We deep dive in every singledifferent kind of model you can
go into.
And I'll link to that in theshow notes too.
This is my absolute favoritelistener support.

(38:32):
This monetization strategyworks for absolutely anybody,
regardless of your audiencesize, regardless of how much
time you have to devote topodcasting.
And this is like donations ormonthly pledges or the value for
value model.

Kevin (38:47):
Listener support, huge fan.
Love this model.
Like you said, it scales reallywell, whether your audience is
tiny or whether it's large.
But oftentimes people thinkthis is the the gotcha here is
some people think that they canturn it on and it will just
start working magic.
And it doesn't work like that.

Jordan (39:03):
Yeah.

Kevin (39:04):
You have to talk about it.
You have to pitch it.
And I think oftentimes peoplemaybe more so like in this than
I don't know, doing ad raids orsponsorships or affiliate
marketing or whatever.
You're maybe more comfortabletalking about other people's
things than you are about yourown stuff or your own time and
effort and energy that goes intoproducing this show.
But you have to get comfortablewith that because it doesn't

(39:26):
work if you don't tell people itexists, first of all, and why
it's valuable and important andnecessary for you to be able to
continue doing the show,producing this high quality
content.
Takes time.
You have to talk about it.
And my favorite case studyexample of this is the Pod News
Weekly Review.
And I wish we could get Jamesor Sam to come and give a
testimonial about this at somepoint.
But I I remember as soon as werolled out the listener support

(39:48):
feature, they turned it on.
And I think they had like oneor two.
Like I think I was one of thefirst power supporters for their
show for like a year.
There was like three of us.
There was hardly anybody.
And at some point, they startedtalking about it.
And then they started doing atthe end of the year, they do a
podcast predictions episode forlike what do you think is gonna

(40:08):
happen this next year inpodcasting?
Yeah.
And they started saying, How doyou get interviewed for that?
How do you give your likepresent your idea?
You're a power supporter.
That's like one of the thingsyou get.
So they're they just talkedabout that last week.
Is that if you want to be onour predictions episode for 26,
you better sign up and become apower supporter?
And they're gonna startreaching out to those people in
the next couple weeks.
And so they're using it to be apart of their show.

(40:30):
They're talking about howvaluable it is.
Every time they get a new powersupporter, they say, like, you
know, the sweet 16 and thesuperfluous 17 and the elite 18.
I don't know.
They give they give differentnames every time they get
another one.
I think they're up to 20something now, but they're
making it fun, they're making itpart of the show, and it's
working, it's growing.
Like just over the past year,it's just grown and grown and

(40:51):
grown and grown.
Every episode they have anothersupporter or two.

Jordan (40:53):
Yeah.

Alban (40:54):
The reason people feel uncomfortable about this is one
of the few areas of our liveswhere people are asking you to
give the money is panhandling.
And we imagine that's what I'mdoing, basically.
I'm just saying, please, I justneed a little bit of money.
Can you give it to me?
And so it feels like wrong.
We're not saying I need it forfood, we're just asking for some

(41:14):
money.
But it's not panhandling.
What you're doing is you'resaying, look, I'm putting a lot
of effort into this.
I really want to keep doingthis.
I want to dedicate even moretime to it.
If you think I'm good at it, ifyou think that what I'm
providing is valuable, I'd lovefor you to be a part of it.
Then people have theopportunity to join you in that.

(41:35):
If they don't like what you'recreating, then they're probably
not listening.
But if they're listening,they're probably interested in
it.
And if they have the means,then they should be excited to
offer you some amount of moneyto support the show.
So it's really you're giving anopportunity to people to
support the content you'recreating by opening up listener

(41:56):
support and talking about it.
And as Kevin said, the morethat you can make this part of
the show, the better.
It works well on pod news.
I think of No Agenda with AdamCurry.
They do lots of, they'rereading off the boosts and they
read all the funny names andthey have all the stuff built
into the show.
There's so many podcasts thathave figured out unique ways of

(42:20):
bringing in the audience that'ssupporting and highlighting them
and celebrating them.
And I think it's not just goodfor the podcast, it's good for
the listeners too.

Jordan (42:31):
This is actually perfect because we did get a famous
message from Abby, who we uh sawat the meetup in Tampa.
And she said that she justadded the Buzzbrot subscription
to her podcast, but she said,now I need to tell people about
it, which makes me feel like I'masking for money, which I am,
but I feel a little awkwarddoing it.
And she's asking for tips.
And I actually think that'sperfect.

(42:52):
Um, another thing that I tellpeople all the time is yeah, it
feels really awkward askingpeople to support your podcast
because especially if you onlyhave like a small audience, you
know, you're getting like fiveor 20 downloads every episode.
It feels really weird to belike, hey, you guys, can you
give me money for the show?

(43:14):
Cause I'm working really hardon it, even though there's just
like a few of you.

Alban (43:17):
My advice is not be did not ask that way.

Jordan (43:21):
You guys it feels that way.
It really does feel that way.
And yeah, you can have abravado about it or just be
really like courageous.
But inside it does feel reallyawkward.
It does.
But I'll tell you what, likewhen you get that first email,
that notification of likeconfetti, you got a subscriber,
or so-and-so sent you like $10,$20.

(43:41):
You immediately go, this is notawkward anymore because they
are like buying what I'mselling.
They understand that I'mbringing value.
And me telling people I wouldreally love your support
actually worked.
And then you start doing itevery single episode and it
becomes habit and it's no longerawkward because it's actually
working.
So I mean, it might take awhile to get there, but yeah,

(44:04):
once you once you get that firstemail that you got a subscriber
or you got a supporter, theawkwardness goes away.
I promise.
But I love the idea of likeintegrating it.
And I think that that's areally creative way to create an
additional value add, eventhough with listener support,
you don't have to create anadditional value add because
you're already bringing value.
Your podcast is bringing value.

(44:25):
You are entertaining people,you're accompanying them on
their commutes, you areeducating them, you are
uplifting them, or whatever thepurpose of your podcast is, you
are bringing value to yourlisteners.
And so you don't have to do anadditional value add, but I do
think it helps to incentivizepeople a little bit more when
you work in thank yous, when youwork in creative ways to like

(44:48):
really highlight yoursupporters.

Alban (44:50):
Yeah.
You're not asking from a placeof need.
You're not saying, I need $5.
You're asking from a your it'san opportunity.
Do you want to support thisshow?
Do you like this show enoughthat it's worth supporting?
If so, please do.
We want to incorporate you intothe show.
But it's not like a I'm runningout of money thing.

(45:10):
It's a, I'm just putting in asmuch effort as I can because
it's a hobby.
But as I get more money fromthis, I can put in more and you
can be a part of it.

Jordan (45:20):
So just to summarize, when you are deciding what
podcast monetization strategy isgoing to work for your show,
just think about your audiencesize.
How engaged is your audience?
You know, are they constantlysending you fan mail or are they
like leaving lots of rating andreviews?
If they are engaging with yourpodcast or engaging with you on

(45:42):
social media, then you can kindof tell how engaged they are.
How much time do you have toinvest in making money from your
podcast?
Or what makes sense with yourcontent?
So, sponsorships, they're bestfor large engaged audiences.
It takes so much time and youwant to only work with brands
that align with your podcast.
Affiliate marketing, it takes alot less downloads, but you

(46:06):
want to have an engagedaudience.
And it takes some time to findbrands that you can get
affiliate or referral codes for,but it's way easier than
sponsorships.
It's a good way to test thewaters.
Subscriptions you can use withany size of audience.
And if you wanted to offer likeadditional perks, that can
sometimes be like a low workloadto a higher workload.

(46:28):
And then, of course, supportgreat for everyone.
Go turn it on immediatelybecause it's awesome.

Alban (46:35):
Like the summary, Jordan.
That's great.

Jordan (46:40):
All right, we got a couple fan mail messages.
Damien the DM said, You canstill leave a review on the PC
for Apple Podcasts.
You need to go to the iTunesapp.
I have to be completely honest,I didn't know iTunes app still
existed.

Alban (46:55):
A lot of people listen to podcasts on iTunes still.
So do they?

Kevin (46:59):
A lot of pots listen on iTunes.
We weed out a lot of iTunesdownloads.

Jordan (47:04):
So when you leave a review on iTunes, does it carry
over to the Apple Podcasts app?

Alban (47:09):
I'm sure.
I think from the uhinfrastructure standpoint, Apple
isn't differentiating thosesystems.
A lot of like the APIs oriTunes APIs and the naming
schemes, they it all seems likeit's still built on the same
platform.

Jordan (47:23):
Okay.
Blake wrote in and said,question that came from a
previous episode.
When Alban has come to Kevin tosay he would like to see
something fresh or somethingchange with the podcast,
specifically between episodes 50and 100, what things were
adjusted or added that broughtnew life in the energy to the
pod?
I think I was somewhere inthere.
That's what I joined.

Kevin (47:45):
Yeah, these are these are regular conversations that all
any any of us have with anybodyelse on the team at any given
time.
Yeah.
Which is we say, oh, thatepisode felt really good.
This one felt really bad.
This one felt, you know, thiswas hard, this was easy,
whatever.
And so it's like a constantdialogue, and we constantly make
micro adjustments.
Every once in a while, like weget on to record at one o'clock

(48:06):
and we're like, let's changeeverything today.

Alban (48:09):
Those are rare.

Jordan (48:09):
Yeah.

Alban (48:10):
Once in a while.
I've got a few examples since Iread this.
I thought of at least three.
One thing that used to bereally painful for me is we
didn't do an outline.
In the early days, we'd kind ofshow up.
It was Kevin, me, and Travis,and we'd get on and we'd kind of
be like, What happened thisweek?
And we're pulling up pod news,and we're someone's got a tweet
that they saw, and we would kindof fumble our way through an

(48:33):
outline, writing it up as agroup.
And that was just so painful.
Took an extra hour, and Iremember a specific episode,
like the energy would just getso low, and then we'd hit
record.
So after that, we did much moreinvestment on making the
outline on the front end.
Another was just when we didn'thave a set schedule for when we

(48:53):
recorded, we just kind of gotit some point in the week.
There's just a lot of back andforth messages where we're like,
hey, can you do it here?
Can you move it this way?
Just setting that all up oncesaying we're going to record at
this time unless someonespecifically asks to move it.
That was something I reallyliked.
And I remember a time whereKevin, I think it was
mid-episode, you go, I've hadenough on Spotify.

(49:14):
We've talked about Spotify inlike a hundred times in the last
40 episodes.
Too much.
I don't want to talk about itagain.
This will not be fun for me.
And we were like, yep, I thinklet's just take, you know, a
self-imposed Spotify band for abit.
And you just have to kind ofnotice like this is something
that is taking the energy out ofit for me and be honest with

(49:38):
your co-host so that they getthe best version of you, not the
version of you that's tired andworn out.

Jordan (49:44):
So actually, when thinking about what our next
episode topic should be, youmentioned a few things I think
would tie into a great episodeabout podcasting workflows.
So, like outlining, scheduling,things like that.
And I think that we shouldreally dive into what our
podcasting workflow is.
And it would be really cool ifour listeners could send in like

(50:08):
tips or things that theyadjusted in their podcasting
workflow that made theirpodcasting process so much
easier.
Don't send us your entireworkflow, but just send us one
solid tip about what you've donethat worked for you by tapping
the text show link in the shownotes and sending us in.
All right.
I'm excited about that.
Until next time, thank you forlistening and keep podcasting.

Alban (50:35):
All right.

Jordan (50:43):
Is everything all right?

Alban (50:46):
Today I caught my wife listening to a podcast for the
very first time, the first timeI've ever seen Marie or heard
her listen to a podcast that wasnot a podcast playing on my
phone.
Oh my gosh.
You don't listen to podcastswhen you drive together?
No, we'll listen to podcaststogether when we drive, if it's

(51:08):
a long distance drive.
So, like when we go to NorthCarolina and we'll go there for
Thanksgiving, we'll be in thecar for six plus hours.
We'll listen to some podcasts.

Kevin (51:19):
Okay.
I mean, that's you, you'repushing that.
So you're trying to introduceher to podcasts.
You've never experienced herseeking one out and listening on
her own.
Yes.

Jordan (51:27):
Now I have to know what was her first like sought-out
podcast.

Alban (51:32):
Um, she was telling me something that she'd learned
about sleep, and I was like, oh,that sounds like a podcast um
from Diary of a CEO.
She's like, Yeah.
And I start talking about uhMatthew Walker.
I was like, Oh, I just listenedto an episode of Diary of CEO
with Matthew Walker, and we'retalking about it, and so many of
the things she'd said remindedme of that podcast, and I'm like

(51:55):
in the middle of listening toit.
It's two hours and I'm an hourin.
And then I called her on theway.
Um, I was driving across townyesterday, and I called her and
I was like, Yeah, more of thispodcast is stuff you told me.
She's like, Oh, that's strange.
What?
And then later on, I see herand she's like, you know,
there's this guy I really like.
I don't know if you know who heis, Stephen Bartlett.

(52:17):
I'm like, Stephen Bartlett.
And I'm like, that's the diaryof a CEO guy.
That's the it's a podcast.
Dude, no, no, no.
They're like videos on YouTube,they're just like short little
videos.
Well, good for her forrecognizing the difference.
Like very those short littlevideos are part of a big video
that a then is a podcast aswell.

Jordan (52:38):
Yeah.

Alban (52:39):
And she's like, Oh, I've never watched the whole videos.
And I'm like, You're that's thegateway drug.
You're in on the three,four-minute videos.
She's like, I mean, he's great.
He talks about, you know,there's health and there's
fitness and there's stuff aboutmindset and psychology.
And she's like, and they justYouTube just shows me all these
videos now because I click everyone of them.
And like, probably helps a lotthat he's got a British accent.

(53:02):
And so I'm like, You're you'regonna listen to it.
And I go, let me have yourphone.
She goes, uh, don't put it onmy phone.

Jordan (53:08):
I don't want that.

Alban (53:09):
And so I sent her a link up to the podcast episode, and I
walk downstairs today to grab acup of coffee, and I hear it,
and I know the two voices, andI'm like, You're listening to a
podcast, baby.
That's it.
Yeah, so YouTube.
She was listening on a on aspeaker, she's listening on her
phone, speaker playing.

Jordan (53:29):
Nice.

Alban (53:30):
Can we get this girl some AirPods, please?
She's got AirPods, she's got apair of AirPods and AirPods
Pros, but she's downstairs byherself.
She doesn't need to have themplugged right into her brain.
It's still a better experienceto have them in your ear.

Jordan (53:44):
I've got like a cute little Bluetooth, old school
looking radio.
I've got one, and yeah, I don'tdo AirPods or my AirPods Pro.
It's it's gotta be the uhlittle Bluetooth speaker.

Kevin (53:55):
Oh, for real?

Jordan (53:56):
Yeah.
And I don't care if the rest ofmy family has to listen to it.

Kevin (54:00):
I I only like headphones unless I'm in my car alone.

Jordan (54:03):
Really?

Alban (54:04):
Yeah.
I think AirPods are like one ofthe greatest inventions of my
lifetime.
Maybe.

Kevin (54:10):
I wonder if you're gonna say that in 20 years when they
realize we all have weirdgrowths in our heads because we
have AirPods in all the time.

Alban (54:16):
Yeah, I'm gonna have like an AirPod-shaped tumor in my
ears.
For sure.
Well, as long as I don't getcancer from it, I just think
they're so nice.
I mean, you pop AirPods in, youdon't yank the cord, and you
can work out, and it makes everybit of working out, doing
chores, cooking so much moreenjoyable.

(54:37):
Even if you're not listening toanything.

Jordan (54:39):
Oh my daughter does that.

Kevin (54:41):
Yeah, and keep on the noise canceling.
It just your world is so muchmore serene when there's all the
noises cut out.
And the new ones, as soon asyou start talking, they
automatically go to transparencymode.
So you don't even have to takethem in or yeah, I've got
another story on this, Kevin.

Alban (54:55):
I went to the golf range, and I'm trying to get better at
hitting and like when you playgolf, you can only work on one
thing at a time.
And you really can't work onmore than one.

Jordan (55:06):
Okay.

Alban (55:06):
And this like 90-year-old guy sits behind me and starts
coaching me.
He was not ever a golf coach.
And I'm trying to berespectful, but I don't have any
headphones in.
So as long as I keep hitting,he's still giving tips and I'm
still wanting to respond toevery comment.
And I thought, you know, theonly solution I could think of
is next time I might have towear some AirPods to not get

(55:27):
free uh golf tips.

Kevin (55:29):
I wear them to the store now in Publix because people
will talk to me when I'm groceryshopping sometimes, and I don't
want that.
So now I always put AirPods in.

Jordan (55:36):
Well, if you didn't look so friendly and approachable, I
guess that's the problem.

Kevin (55:41):
All right, you guys, enough of me, enough roasting
me.