156: How to monetize a hobby with Maria Failla

If you feel you don't know enough about the topics you want to podcast about, you are in good company

Maria Failla began her podcast, Bloom & Grow Radio because she DIDN'T know enough about how to care for her plants and saw it as a great opportunity to talk to experts who did. And by the way, isn't that a GREAT name for a podcast? It comes from a line in Maria's favorite song from the musical, "The Sound of Music" - Edelweiss.

I was eager to talk with Maria about her journey because as a client, I've seen her go from almost no audience to an amazing following and enthusiastic membership community that's quite astounding. The lessons she's learned are ones any podcaster can benefit from, especially if you're looking to serve your audience in bigger ways, build relationships with sponsors that benefit them long-term, and therefore, fuel your podcast, AND make your podcast a full-time living kind of thing eventually.

All of that is true of Maria and it just might be possible for you too. Give her a chance to convince you of what's possible!

What you'll learn from Maria's story

• [2:32] Maria's monetization story: Where she's at now
• [4:32] Niche podcast ad sales | speaking opportunities | membership community
• [7:18] The wandering path: Why Maria thought 10 episodes would be it for her show
• [11:10] The first steps of monetization Maria started taking
• [14:35] How to leverage the power of the fact that you are your target listener
• [19:36] How to move affiliate relationships to sponsor partnerships

🚨 Set up a MEMBERSHIP for your podcast

In this episode, I mentioned that I have a very successful membership once your podcast is rolling. You'll hear Maria speak about how she's doing that if you listen (you ARE going to listen, right?).

I use a platform called Supercast, which I describe at the midpoint of this conversation. HERE IS MY AFFILIATE LINK to Supercast... and remember, if you use my link to sign up for Supercast, I'll send you my "Supercast Walkthrough" video to help you get it set up and get started.

And to see how Supercast works, here is the link I share with my podcast listers that provides more information about my podcast partnership (what I call it instead of a "membership"): https://CareyGreen.com/partners

• [27:17] The membership Maria has created sounds amazing... she shares how you can build one too!
• [33:06] Premium tiers are coming to Maria's membership... here's how she's setting it up
• [36:01] How Maria's self-doubt and ignorance led her to a vulnerable approach to her topics (that has been SUPER successful)
• [38:10] Getting past the fear of asking people for money to support what you're doing
• [42:01] Being friends with your sponsors removes the tension from the financial relationship and makes things more fun
• [44:51] Why "Bespoke" podcast ads are THE WAY TO GO with your sponsor relationships (it's a game-changer for you and your sponsor)

If you're not an expert in your niche, that may be an IDEAL reason to start a podcast

• Maria says that she never expected her podcast to get past 10 episodes. There were a handful of reasons for that but the main one was that she thought she would probably run out of questions and guests by then. But as she got into things, it became clear to her that not only did she have more and more questions as she went along, but the audience was benefitting greatly from the content she was producing.
• That led her to one of the key insights that have...