January 27, 2025 • 21 mins
Never Been Promoted Podcast with Thomas Helfrich
Thomas Helfrich shares an inside look at how he successfully monetized Never Been Promoted, taking the podcast from an idea to $60,000 in revenue in just one year. In this solo episode, Thomas breaks down his strategy, tactics, and mindset for turning a podcast into a revenue-generating asset.
About this episode:
Thomas Helfrich, founder of Instantly Relevant and Cut the Tie, presented at Podfest 2025, detailing how he built Never Been Promoted into a monetizable brand. From leveraging guest sponsorships to creating a mastermind community, Thomas provides a roadmap for podcasters looking to generate revenue from day one.
In this episode, Thomas discusses:
- The Three Pillars of Podcast Monetization
Passion, proficiency, and impact—why you need all three to create a sustainable, money-making podcast. - Guest Sponsorship as a Revenue Model
How Never Been Promoted attracted guest sponsors and built scalable monetization strategies using offers inspired by Alex Hormozi’s $100M Offers framework. - The Power of Community in Podcast Growth
Thomas reveals how building Cut the Tie, a mastermind group for entrepreneurs, created a downstream revenue stream beyond the podcast itself.
Key Takeaways:
- Your Podcast Should Solve a Problem
If your show provides real value, people will invest in being part of it—whether through sponsorship, services, or community memberships. - Monetization Starts on Day One
You don’t need thousands of downloads to start making money. Creating offers that make sense for your audience and guest sponsors is key. - Scaling Requires Systems
Outsourcing content creation, leveraging automation, and reinvesting revenue back into marketing can exponentially grow your reach and profitability.
"Podcasting is more than just talking into a mic—it's a business, a brand, and a community." — Thomas Helfrich
CONNECT WITH THOMAS:
X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/thelfrich | https://twitter.com/nevbeenpromoted Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hovienko | https://www.facebook.com/neverbeenpromoted
Website: https://www.neverbeenpromoted.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/neverbeenpromoted/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@neverbeenpromoted
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomashelfrich/
Email: t@instantlyrelevant.com
InstantlyRelevant.com
Serious about LinkedIn Lead Generation? Stop Guessing what to do on LinkedIn and ignite revenue from relevance with Instantly Relevant Lead System
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Monetizing your Podcast.
I'm going to go over apresentation I did at PodFest
2025 in January of how weexplained we went from an idea
basically to 60K in revenue yearone in our podcast for Never
Been Promoted.
So I presented this and themonetization tracks at the
conference at PodFest 2025.
Great, if you're a podcaster,you need to go to that
(00:22):
conference.
Fantastic for it.
So let's get into this a littlebit of how we went from zero to
60K in one year.
Let's go to the strategy.
We're going to go over some ofthe techniques we did as well.
And if you get a minute justbefore we get going, guys, just
in case you lose your place,just hit the subscribe button
here on YouTube so you can comeback to it.
We do lots of great content andwe do about five shows a week,
(00:52):
live at least as well.
So join in, do this.
Let's dive right into how to dothis, all right.
So today I'm going to learn, orI'm going to teach you.
I hope you can learn how tomonetize your podcast from the
beginning, day one.
Our idea is to use the idea andthe power of community, of
belonging, and the value fromthat with some innovative kind
of marketing techniques as well.
You could transform kind ofwhat you're doing in your
podcast today, or what you'reabout to start, into this real
revenue generating asset fromday one.
(01:13):
All right, you need to knowwhere to focus, first and
foremost.
So you need to be able to dothree things in your podcast to
really sustain, to have enough,like you know, duration to do it
.
To really be focused, to reallymake money doing it.
First and foremost, you have tohave a high passion for what it
is you're talking about.
It's got to be so, sopassionate, driven, that you
(01:34):
know you'll never run out ofenergy.
So for me, I am just just sointo having entrepreneurs be
successful, and more of them inthe world.
It's one of the hardest thingsyou can do and the most
rewarding things you can do.
So I have an incredibly highpassion to see more kids get
into it, more young adults,people in mid-age, people who
have been corporate, anybody whowants to get out of working for
others and build something.
(01:55):
Also, proficiency so you got tobe pretty good at podcasting.
You got to be pretty good maybe, if not in the space that
you're talking about, you haveto have some a way to get better
.
And finally, you need to haveimpact.
This creates profit.
It's a little hard to read onthe slide, but if you have
impact, if you have amarketplace where people
actually want and buy what youdo, what you have a passion for,
(02:15):
you'll be able to make money.
So if you don't know where tofocus, those three things are
the first step.
You got to make sure thosethree things are in place.
Somebody will buy this stuff.
You're really good at doingthis stuff and you have a high
passion for it All right.
If you don't have this, you'regoing to really struggle
struggle to do lots of things,but you're going to have a
struggle to make money into apodcast, all right.
So our strategy I'm actuallygoing back to 2023, when we
(02:37):
formulated a strategy for 2024was to position our podcast as,
like a top tier platform thatempowers entrepreneurs to cut
ties to limiting beliefs,everything holding them back.
Our idea is we want them tounleash their entrepreneur.
We have a little cut tie, alittle metaphor, and we were
going to leverage three thingswe had as assets, which is my
marketing agency, instantlyRelevant, the podcast itself.
(02:59):
And YouTube channel calledNever Been Promoted.
And a future community that'slaunched in 2025 called Cut the
Tie.
It's a mastermind community.
The core approach behind thatwas combining authentic
storytelling and these reallykind of practical insights,
reflective moments when ourguests are speaking on the show
to be able to drive that mission, to help understand how to cut
(03:20):
a tie to something that washolding them back and how they
overcame it.
We are a guesting strategy.
We bring on guests into ourpodcast and downstream we'll
talk about community, of howthat involves.
But our approach and a coreapproach with that was to make
sure that the conversations wasstoryteller driven, it was
mission driven, it was on point.
We don't get off brand too bad.
The strategy really was to bearound, to have strategic guests
(03:42):
, meaning like, the guests thatare coming in aren't just random
, they're entrepreneurs that arelikely in need of a community
and they are buying into thisidea that they get to be part of
something bigger.
There are services and peoplearound them that could help them
.
They could help others.
The strategy was to have peoplebuy into that value.
Now, if you are a single showmeaning like you do, solo shows
(04:03):
and you're considering doingguesting, this is one way you
can do it, even if you're a showthat you go by yourself.
You know, as you're soloing,you still can create a community
that people could join.
A mastermind start with a freeone.
There's a bunch of strategies.
If you're not doing this, thisis a downstream thing you
consider Just remove, as we talkabout it through the day,
remove the guest.
If you are thinking of doingguesting, bearing on people to
(04:24):
your show, or you're alreadydoing it, this should really
work well for you.
All right, step one back to thedefine the mission and to build
a brand.
Our mission is to empowerentrepreneurs to cut the tie to
everything holding the back sothey can unleash their full
potential, to unleash thatentrepreneur within them.
Our brand was really clear red,white and blue and we wanted to
make sure that the tie was cutas a metaphor that you know get
(04:47):
out of corporate cut ties, thecrap holding you back.
Get out there and just solveproblems.
Go, move forward.
Stop heavy limiting yourbeliefs and the things that you
think to be real, things thatyou just hold onto.
You don't need to.
We want you to get better atentrepreneurship.
It's hard.
No need to get tied up onthings that you don't need to
focus on that.
Focus on a mission that peoplecan get behind, get a brand that
(05:09):
people can identify with andit's it's it's novel.
It gets people to ask questions.
For example, if you see me livein person at an event around
never been promoted, I will bein this shirt, or a version of
the shirt, and a tie.
If you see saw me at pondest oryou saw me at any other
conferences around this, thewhole week I wore the same thing
.
People come up to me andunderstood what that brand was.
(05:29):
They had seen me before andevery time you see me live on
the channel, I will be in thisIncredibly important to stay on
brand.
You pick yours and you make itsomething that's memorable and
it's related to your mission.
Step two focus on high valuecontent.
So make sure you're notcreating crap.
Make sure the guests you havecoming on are really compelling.
They have relatable stories.
(05:50):
They don't have to be superfamous.
They can just be the averageJoe just like anybody else, but
make sure that they are able todo the podcast Well.
They can speak.
They understand what their uh,uh, their spaces.
They understand what theirexpertise is.
They understand what theirexpertise is and they understand
what the problems they are tosolve it.
It has to align with yourpodcast mission so that content
that you create it becomes kindof the canonical, the point, the
(06:13):
top of where you are going totake the content and go
downstream with it.
But if you focus on the highvalue content and the guests
coming in that really can addvalue to your mission, you've
got everything you need to makethe social media posts and
everything that's going tohappen below it and make sure
when you're doing thishigh-value content, you're
delivering really actualinsights and practical things
that people can take away fromyour podcast.
This is really importantbecause it'll help drive that
(06:35):
mission.
That people feel like they getsomething from the show All
right when they come on the show.
Step three our show is free.
You can always apply.
If you've been asked to apply,you'll get on at some point.
But there are hundreds, if notthousands now of people that are
on a list of people who didn'tpick a sponsor path.
What we do is offer the freeroute but give people the
opportunity and a few options tosponsor their own show, and we
(06:58):
do this using the Alex Ramosprinciples of really an offer so
great.
How could you possibly say noto it?
You feel stupid saying no, Ourmethod, because we had some
assets.
I have a really good LinkedInfollowing.
I have the ability to createcontent at scale.
We created some offers thatwere no brainers.
We made sure that many peoplehad incredible exposure, just
beyond the podcast itself, with36,000 or so people on LinkedIn,
(07:23):
about 9,000 people on anewsletter for LinkedIn, all US,
all people that areentrepreneurs, marketers, people
with money.
We have 50,000 across othersocial.
We've grown up to a million onsocial media for YouTube.
I'm sorry for YouTube followers, so when people come sponsor
their show, they're going to getpromoted on a massive scale.
(07:44):
We make sure we also give themoptions to do extended reach,
meaning we could do it just fora week, we could do it for a
month, three months, six months.
They got to choose.
They also got you know, it'sincredible access that we don't
talk about as much quite yet,but they get access and they do
really well in the show.
I'm interviewing them, I'mgetting to know them.
They're going to get invitedinto cut the time mastermind
community, which is aninvite-only community.
(08:05):
They get access to things theycouldn't have got and then
they're getting also promoted atthe same time.
It's a no-brainer because theyget to have this great
conversation and all theseassets to leverage, and it's all
inspired of how they got therethrough the ideas of Alex Ramosi
.
Now, if you don't know, alexRamosi has these really great
content about entrepreneurship.
And if you don't know how hisoffers work, you can buy a book
called a hundred million umdollar offers or a hundred
(08:28):
million offer, a hundred milliondollar offers, or GPT knows it
pretty well.
You can use GPT to kind of getthrough as well.
All right, let's keep going.
Step four you want to maximizethe actual guest experience when
they're on your show before,during and after, to create
value for them.
So pre-episode, we make sure wehave like a 15 minute
(08:52):
interaction.
We get to know them a littlebit, we start getting their
personalities, we startunderstanding why they're there,
why they want to get promotedon the show, why they want to
talk.
So when you come into the showyou're better prepared to make
it a better experience for them.
And during the episode you keepit light, you make the
conversations thoughtful.
You know somewhat.
You know obviously on mission,on point, but somewhat maybe
deeper, where people feel likeconnected to their story, they
understand the pain or thecelebration.
(09:13):
You want to make sure thatpeople are really there.
They can imagine it.
It's through storytelling, it'sreally good questions and it
takes some preparation, takessome time and talent to you know
, do this as a podcastinterviewer, but just do it.
You'll get better at it.
If you don't do it right now,listen to others.
But this is some of the valueadd.
You got to be able to do isdrive a really good conversation
(09:33):
.
That's not boring.
Finally, post episode, you gotto make sure that you have good
support.
You got to make sure that youhave the value to answer their
questions.
Send them the things you'vepromised them.
So when people sign up with us,they get a Stanley, they get
this, they get that, they get,you know, all these digital
magazine cover right up.
We do a never been promotedcom.
They get a bunch of stuff.
Make sure that post episodethat you get time with them to
(09:55):
understand how it went, getreflection, ask them to follow,
for example, my only call toaction during this video.
You know it started off assubscribe, but I really want you
to follow the podcast on Appleor Spotify.
Just hit the follow button.
I don't expect you to listen toan episode Now, when they get
done with their show.
I ask them, please hit followon Spotify or Apple.
Here's the link.
And if you, they say, yeah,I'll absolutely do that.
It's like if you really likedit.
Here's a link to how to do thereview.
(10:17):
You've got to step peoplethrough a post episode to create
value on your end and on theirs.
Now step five it says utilizeinnocently relevant teams for
skill and quality.
Now, I don't want to make thatas a pitch.
We did that.
We used an outsource partner mymarketing agency to deliver all
the content.
So it was really good and Icould do lots of shows.
Now we did over 300 shows.
(10:39):
I only signed up with my team,so to speak, to say, hey, we're
going to do 50, one a week.
So many people signed up, wehad to do more.
I'll explain that a little bitlater.
But I couldn't have done that,not without knowing that I had
scale.
So for you, if your valueproposition is, hey, I'm going
to make you post.
If you're going to follow thesame method we did, we're going
to help you do promotions, we'regoing to create articles, we're
going to create blog posts andyou're going to do it yourself,
(11:00):
it'll slow your scale.
You'll probably keep yourquality up.
But if you want to get reallygood at this, where you're just
knocking out show after showafter show which helps your
downloads, helps your metrics,at some point you're going to
have to invest some of the moneythat the guests are sponsoring
you with to get the content made, to get things produced.
This is super important.
It's a step that you knowyou're going to have to make
decisions on, based on you knowwhere you are in your income
(11:21):
cycle.
But the earlier you can getoutsourced partners Fiverr,
upwork, friends, whatever orinstantly relevant, the better
you'll do to be able to focus onthat mic.
My goal in step fivespecifically was I want to be on
the mic, not making content.
I don't want to be writing bogs.
I want my teams to create theimages, the thumbnails, all that
stuff.
I want to be on the mic.
(11:43):
Step six downstream services.
That's how you monetize biggernumbers.
I'll go through some of theresults a little bit later, but
we collect the guestsponsorships.
One, to identify the people whoare really serious about
joining our community andgetting behind our mission.
Two, it helps pay for all theproduction and all the
advertisements.
We actually take an approachand I'll explain in the next
step, but that we invest it backin.
(12:04):
But we want to make sure thatdownstream we we have something
we can offer them, and for usit's the mastermind community of
Cut the Tie, but it's also someservices we do with LinkedIn
through marketing strategy andother marketing services.
This is very core, because Idon't have to sell them anything
at all.
They discover some of thisthrough conversation of what we
(12:27):
do for them.
And that downstream services issuper important because as
you're interviewing them, asthey're getting to know you, as
they see you produce the showand see what you're building,
they begin to trust you.
And they should, because you'redoing a good job for them and
they want to know what else doyou do.
Great step it's actually whereyou'll make your most money, all
right, so step seven I talkedabout this a little bit
(12:48):
reinvesting revenue for growthIn our model, because I have a
company that makes money.
We had reinvested all the moneywe could back into the community
, so about half went toproduction, paying for teams,
paying for advertisements andstuff like this.
The other half got brought backinto the community to create
additional content, additionalvalue to the guests.
So they felt like they got morethan they bargained for.
(13:10):
The reason is because I amlooking three years, five years,
10 years down the road at thiscommunity.
I've cut the tie and what we'redoing with Never Remoted and
less so as it is a revenuegeneration source for me to take
in pocket.
You have to make your owndecision with that, but I will
say the more that you can investback into your community and
the longer you do that, the moredividends it will pay that
compound interest in the future.
(13:31):
This will also help you achievemore social media proof
milestones.
So by us doing this this helpedus, you know go get to a
million subscribers in YouTubeglobally and also then a top 5%
global rating on listen notes bygetting more episodes out and
doing more investment back intothe community itself.
Step eight is really have along-term relationship focus in
building this community.
(13:51):
When I meet with our guests itis the first of many
conversations we will have Ilook at them as people that I
now work with.
I look at people that becomefriends.
They become part of a biggercommunity network where I have
ongoing engagement.
It's not a one and donetransaction.
The idea is I want tofacilitate connections amongst
our other guests.
You want to start tying ittogether so people feel like
(14:12):
they belong.
Just like you said, build acommunity where you bring people
together.
I bring in competitors onto ourshow from some of the marketing
services that we do becausethey do it differently and
they're awesome people and theydo it really well.
So I can support, I can talkabout, I can do the things that
they need to make their businessbetter.
Bring people together that helpother people.
(14:33):
Now step nine you have tocontinuously refine and scale.
So every 90 days we look at theshow.
We say how can we improve it?
How can I make this moreimpactful?
More must download, more, justbetter for the guest, more and
more.
We do this because if we didn'tdo it, it would be stagnant, it
would not have grown.
You don't know as much 90 daysago than you did today and
(14:55):
you'll continually do this.
Look for ways to scale withautomation where appropriate, ai
where appropriate, other peopleand better ways to maybe even
run your show so you don't havewasted time on air.
You want to expand that reachwherever you can by doing
partnerships, bartering.
We trade things all the timewith other guests Say, hey, some
of them make them slantingpages.
We'll go out there and do stufffor LinkedIn.
Be smart with it, but expandyour reach.
(15:16):
Tie your network together,build that community, but always
make it a thing you're going todo and schedule for Something
that's thoughtful, conscious and, and you know, premeditated to
say I'm going to look at this,refine what we're doing about
every 90 days.
My number 10 deliver measurableresults.
Make sure what you'redelivering is good, you know,
(15:38):
even great, at the least good.
Make sure that you can show theaudience how they got
engagement.
How many views did they get?
Leads, ask them for thefeedback so they can.
They can see where they can.
You know where we can improvethings.
You got to make sure you'remeeting just being credible with
, like, a money back guaranteeoffer and some things like that,
and if people really weren'thappy, send them money.
(15:59):
We did not have to give asingle refund last year because
we delivered everything wepromised and in this and there's
a few that didn't go great, sowe just reshot it, we redid it,
we redid everything for it.
We made it right.
Make sure you're always doingmeasurable results for the
people that are sponsoring yourshow and the people you're
bartering with.
Make it actionable, make itmeasurable and continually
collect that data, because it'simportant for the improvement
(16:20):
process as well.
All right, 2024 results.
We did over 60,000 in guestsponsors, that's people coming
on the show.
Did every person pay?
No, there are some influencersthat came on that I just wanted
to have on because I enjoyedtheir time.
Some of the notables were, likeyou know, wes Bergman from one
of the bigger reality shows from, I think, real World, austin,
(16:41):
the Challenge.
Like he didn't pay.
There's others that came onthat are authors that were.
You know they have millions ofdownloads in their books.
You got to be strategic on whoshould pay, who shouldn't.
Other podcasters almost neverpay because I want to go on
their show.
We just do swaps.
People that are in businessesthat are trying to do marketing
and grow their stuff.
They typically want to come onand they pay because they want
an advertisement.
Downstream services producedover $100,000 of revenue just in
(17:04):
year one and it'll be more thanthat, compounded as they do
ongoing services.
It produced three TVappearances.
So the big reveal Boom America.
These are things that KevinHarrington has done with the
original.
He's one of the original SharkTank guys Part of his 18 now, so
when he does a shoot.
We come down, we meet with hisguests.
This is even on the blockseason 18, which is Wes
(17:24):
Bergman's baby, and it's anentrepreneurial reality show
competition, over a millionsubscribers, as we had said, and
over 4 million views andgrowing and we did top 5% on
listen notes in the first yearand over 300 episodes recorded.
We only released about 180 inthe first year or so and we're
knocking out about five a weeknow and we're going to continue
(17:46):
that going forward.
All right, 2025 is really allabout where 2024 was all about
never been promoted and buildingthe podcast and the brand 2025
shifts to never been promotedplus cut the tie community.
So we're going to involve a lotmore influencers, a lot of you
know, more known people into thestory, into the podcast.
We'll add some more downloadmetrics to attract the corporate
(18:08):
sponsors as our downloads getbetter and better.
This is the more traditionalCPM model.
We will do some affiliatemarketing as well with that.
The community is everything.
So we're going to add extremevalue in the first year for sure
, and continue it moving forwardfor Cut the Tie.
So that means the people whoget in will get in for less, but
they'll get way more thananybody else is ever going to
get ever In-person events likePodFest we did in person.
(18:31):
We're going to do more of thoseand, as we look to the thing,
we're going to do more guesting.
I'm going to go on more shows.
So last year was all aboutcoming on my show and getting
ready.
We're going adventure.
These are the actual offers thatwe do for people to get on our
show.
Now I will go through these inperson if you'd like to, if you
reach out.
But from Skip the Line to VIP3,we've sold those anywhere from
(18:53):
$150 to $1,000, from $500 toalmost $5,000.
Our prices go up as we haveless availability on the show
and we continually add more andmore and more to the VIP3.
Vip3 is the where you wantpeople to go.
The reason is because I wantthem to immediately become part
of the mastermind community.
This is where you get it.
Vip3 gets you into the innercircle, it gets you to where you
(19:15):
actually want to go and it getsyou a ton of advertisement and
a ton of interactions and a tonof access.
This was done.
These are the kind of roll-ups.
We used, like I said, the AlexRamosi a hundred million offers
kind of a formula to do this,your own version of this.
It will grow.
It's.
It's important to note that aswe've added more capability,
more value, the offer improves.
(19:37):
We didn't have the same offeron day one as we did a day 90,
day 180, day you know, 270 andso on.
Continually involve your offers, add value and you can raise
your prices.
All right, since this is aYouTube video, I can't do Q&As
like I did.
This is actually thepresentation I did at the
conference, but if you'd like toschedule some time with me,
(19:59):
grab it.
If you made it at this pointand you want 30 minutes with me
and you're serious about eitherbecoming a VIP guest, monetizing
your podcast, you want to seethe offers, maybe I'm coming on
to yours.
You want to join the Cut theTie community?
You just want to work with me?
Scan that book time, but beserious about it.
Don't come in there unprepared.
Come in there ready to have aconversation about how I can
(20:19):
help you grow for real.
If you want to join the groupfor free facebookcom slash group
, slash, cut the tie is how youget on there, and if none of
those work, you just kind ofhave some other questions.
Just email us or actually Iwill reply to that one at
contact, at cut the tiecom.
Thank you, listen, get out there.
I want you to go, try tomonetize your, your show and if
(20:39):
this helps you do this through aguesting way awesome.
I really hope you get valuefrom it.
I want more podcasters.
It's a form of entrepreneurship.
I want more of you out there.
I want you to do kick an ass,adding value and chasing your
dreams and becoming everythingyou wanted to become.
Thank you for listening.
Get going, and I'll say what Isay every time go out there and
unleash your entrepreneur.
Welcome to Monetizing your Podcast.
I'm going to go over apresentation I did at PodFest
2025 in January of how weexplained we went from an idea
basically to 60K in revenue yearone in our podcast for Never
Been Promoted.
So I presented this and themonetization tracks at the
conference at PodFest 2025.
Great, if you're a podcaster,you need to go to that
(00:22):
conference.
Fantastic for it.
So let's get into this a littlebit of how we went from zero to
60K in one year.
Let's go to the strategy.
We're going to go over some ofthe techniques we did as well.
And if you get a minute justbefore we get going, guys, just
in case you lose your place,just hit the subscribe button
here on YouTube so you can comeback to it.
We do lots of great content andwe do about five shows a week,
(00:52):
live at least as well.
So join in, do this.
Let's dive right into how to dothis, all right.
So today I'm going to learn, orI'm going to teach you.
I hope you can learn how tomonetize your podcast from the
beginning, day one.
Our idea is to use the idea andthe power of community, of
belonging, and the value fromthat with some innovative kind
of marketing techniques as well.
You could transform kind ofwhat you're doing in your
podcast today, or what you'reabout to start, into this real
revenue generating asset fromday one.
(01:13):
All right, you need to knowwhere to focus, first and
foremost.
So you need to be able to dothree things in your podcast to
really sustain, to have enough,like you know, duration to do it
.
To really be focused, to reallymake money doing it.
First and foremost, you have tohave a high passion for what it
is you're talking about.
It's got to be so, sopassionate, driven, that you
(01:34):
know you'll never run out ofenergy.
So for me, I am just just sointo having entrepreneurs be
successful, and more of them inthe world.
It's one of the hardest thingsyou can do and the most
rewarding things you can do.
So I have an incredibly highpassion to see more kids get
into it, more young adults,people in mid-age, people who
have been corporate, anybody whowants to get out of working for
others and build something.
(01:55):
Also, proficiency so you got tobe pretty good at podcasting.
You got to be pretty good maybe, if not in the space that
you're talking about, you haveto have some a way to get better
.
And finally, you need to haveimpact.
This creates profit.
It's a little hard to read onthe slide, but if you have
impact, if you have amarketplace where people
actually want and buy what youdo, what you have a passion for,
(02:15):
you'll be able to make money.
So if you don't know where tofocus, those three things are
the first step.
You got to make sure thosethree things are in place.
Somebody will buy this stuff.
You're really good at doingthis stuff and you have a high
passion for it All right.
If you don't have this, you'regoing to really struggle
struggle to do lots of things,but you're going to have a
struggle to make money into apodcast, all right.
So our strategy I'm actuallygoing back to 2023, when we
(02:37):
formulated a strategy for 2024was to position our podcast as,
like a top tier platform thatempowers entrepreneurs to cut
ties to limiting beliefs,everything holding them back.
Our idea is we want them tounleash their entrepreneur.
We have a little cut tie, alittle metaphor, and we were
going to leverage three thingswe had as assets, which is my
marketing agency, instantlyRelevant, the podcast itself.
(02:59):
And YouTube channel calledNever Been Promoted.
And a future community that'slaunched in 2025 called Cut the
Tie.
It's a mastermind community.
The core approach behind thatwas combining authentic
storytelling and these reallykind of practical insights,
reflective moments when ourguests are speaking on the show
to be able to drive that mission, to help understand how to cut
(03:20):
a tie to something that washolding them back and how they
overcame it.
We are a guesting strategy.
We bring on guests into ourpodcast and downstream we'll
talk about community, of howthat involves.
But our approach and a coreapproach with that was to make
sure that the conversations wasstoryteller driven, it was
mission driven, it was on point.
We don't get off brand too bad.
The strategy really was to bearound, to have strategic guests
(03:42):
, meaning like, the guests thatare coming in aren't just random
, they're entrepreneurs that arelikely in need of a community
and they are buying into thisidea that they get to be part of
something bigger.
There are services and peoplearound them that could help them
.
They could help others.
The strategy was to have peoplebuy into that value.
Now, if you are a single showmeaning like you do, solo shows
(04:03):
and you're considering doingguesting, this is one way you
can do it, even if you're a showthat you go by yourself.
You know, as you're soloing,you still can create a community
that people could join.
A mastermind start with a freeone.
There's a bunch of strategies.
If you're not doing this, thisis a downstream thing you
consider Just remove, as we talkabout it through the day,
remove the guest.
If you are thinking of doingguesting, bearing on people to
(04:24):
your show, or you're alreadydoing it, this should really
work well for you.
All right, step one back to thedefine the mission and to build
a brand.
Our mission is to empowerentrepreneurs to cut the tie to
everything holding the back sothey can unleash their full
potential, to unleash thatentrepreneur within them.
Our brand was really clear red,white and blue and we wanted to
make sure that the tie was cutas a metaphor that you know get
(04:47):
out of corporate cut ties, thecrap holding you back.
Get out there and just solveproblems.
Go, move forward.
Stop heavy limiting yourbeliefs and the things that you
think to be real, things thatyou just hold onto.
You don't need to.
We want you to get better atentrepreneurship.
It's hard.
No need to get tied up onthings that you don't need to
focus on that.
Focus on a mission that peoplecan get behind, get a brand that
(05:09):
people can identify with andit's it's it's novel.
It gets people to ask questions.
For example, if you see me livein person at an event around
never been promoted, I will bein this shirt, or a version of
the shirt, and a tie.
If you see saw me at pondest oryou saw me at any other
conferences around this, thewhole week I wore the same thing
.
People come up to me andunderstood what that brand was.
(05:29):
They had seen me before andevery time you see me live on
the channel, I will be in thisIncredibly important to stay on
brand.
You pick yours and you make itsomething that's memorable and
it's related to your mission.
Step two focus on high valuecontent.
So make sure you're notcreating crap.
Make sure the guests you havecoming on are really compelling.
They have relatable stories.
(05:50):
They don't have to be superfamous.
They can just be the averageJoe just like anybody else, but
make sure that they are able todo the podcast Well.
They can speak.
They understand what their uh,uh, their spaces.
They understand what theirexpertise is.
They understand what theirexpertise is and they understand
what the problems they are tosolve it.
It has to align with yourpodcast mission so that content
that you create it becomes kindof the canonical, the point, the
(06:13):
top of where you are going totake the content and go
downstream with it.
But if you focus on the highvalue content and the guests
coming in that really can addvalue to your mission, you've
got everything you need to makethe social media posts and
everything that's going tohappen below it and make sure
when you're doing thishigh-value content, you're
delivering really actualinsights and practical things
that people can take away fromyour podcast.
This is really importantbecause it'll help drive that
(06:35):
mission.
That people feel like they getsomething from the show All
right when they come on the show.
Step three our show is free.
You can always apply.
If you've been asked to apply,you'll get on at some point.
But there are hundreds, if notthousands now of people that are
on a list of people who didn'tpick a sponsor path.
What we do is offer the freeroute but give people the
opportunity and a few options tosponsor their own show, and we
(06:58):
do this using the Alex Ramosprinciples of really an offer so
great.
How could you possibly say noto it?
You feel stupid saying no, Ourmethod, because we had some
assets.
I have a really good LinkedInfollowing.
I have the ability to createcontent at scale.
We created some offers thatwere no brainers.
We made sure that many peoplehad incredible exposure, just
beyond the podcast itself, with36,000 or so people on LinkedIn,
(07:23):
about 9,000 people on anewsletter for LinkedIn, all US,
all people that areentrepreneurs, marketers, people
with money.
We have 50,000 across othersocial.
We've grown up to a million onsocial media for YouTube.
I'm sorry for YouTube followers, so when people come sponsor
their show, they're going to getpromoted on a massive scale.
(07:44):
We make sure we also give themoptions to do extended reach,
meaning we could do it just fora week, we could do it for a
month, three months, six months.
They got to choose.
They also got you know, it'sincredible access that we don't
talk about as much quite yet,but they get access and they do
really well in the show.
I'm interviewing them, I'mgetting to know them.
They're going to get invitedinto cut the time mastermind
community, which is aninvite-only community.
(08:05):
They get access to things theycouldn't have got and then
they're getting also promoted atthe same time.
It's a no-brainer because theyget to have this great
conversation and all theseassets to leverage, and it's all
inspired of how they got therethrough the ideas of Alex Ramosi
.
Now, if you don't know, alexRamosi has these really great
content about entrepreneurship.
And if you don't know how hisoffers work, you can buy a book
called a hundred million umdollar offers or a hundred
(08:28):
million offer, a hundred milliondollar offers, or GPT knows it
pretty well.
You can use GPT to kind of getthrough as well.
All right, let's keep going.
Step four you want to maximizethe actual guest experience when
they're on your show before,during and after, to create
value for them.
So pre-episode, we make sure wehave like a 15 minute
(08:52):
interaction.
We get to know them a littlebit, we start getting their
personalities, we startunderstanding why they're there,
why they want to get promotedon the show, why they want to
talk.
So when you come into the showyou're better prepared to make
it a better experience for them.
And during the episode you keepit light, you make the
conversations thoughtful.
You know somewhat.
You know obviously on mission,on point, but somewhat maybe
deeper, where people feel likeconnected to their story, they
understand the pain or thecelebration.
(09:13):
You want to make sure thatpeople are really there.
They can imagine it.
It's through storytelling, it'sreally good questions and it
takes some preparation, takessome time and talent to you know
, do this as a podcastinterviewer, but just do it.
You'll get better at it.
If you don't do it right now,listen to others.
But this is some of the valueadd.
You got to be able to do isdrive a really good conversation
(09:33):
.
That's not boring.
Finally, post episode, you gotto make sure that you have good
support.
You got to make sure that youhave the value to answer their
questions.
Send them the things you'vepromised them.
So when people sign up with us,they get a Stanley, they get
this, they get that, they get,you know, all these digital
magazine cover right up.
We do a never been promotedcom.
They get a bunch of stuff.
Make sure that post episodethat you get time with them to
(09:55):
understand how it went, getreflection, ask them to follow,
for example, my only call toaction during this video.
You know it started off assubscribe, but I really want you
to follow the podcast on Appleor Spotify.
Just hit the follow button.
I don't expect you to listen toan episode Now, when they get
done with their show.
I ask them, please hit followon Spotify or Apple.
Here's the link.
And if you, they say, yeah,I'll absolutely do that.
It's like if you really likedit.
Here's a link to how to do thereview.
(10:17):
You've got to step peoplethrough a post episode to create
value on your end and on theirs.
Now step five it says utilizeinnocently relevant teams for
skill and quality.
Now, I don't want to make thatas a pitch.
We did that.
We used an outsource partner mymarketing agency to deliver all
the content.
So it was really good and Icould do lots of shows.
Now we did over 300 shows.
(10:39):
I only signed up with my team,so to speak, to say, hey, we're
going to do 50, one a week.
So many people signed up, wehad to do more.
I'll explain that a little bitlater.
But I couldn't have done that,not without knowing that I had
scale.
So for you, if your valueproposition is, hey, I'm going
to make you post.
If you're going to follow thesame method we did, we're going
to help you do promotions, we'regoing to create articles, we're
going to create blog posts andyou're going to do it yourself,
(11:00):
it'll slow your scale.
You'll probably keep yourquality up.
But if you want to get reallygood at this, where you're just
knocking out show after showafter show which helps your
downloads, helps your metrics,at some point you're going to
have to invest some of the moneythat the guests are sponsoring
you with to get the content made, to get things produced.
This is super important.
It's a step that you knowyou're going to have to make
decisions on, based on you knowwhere you are in your income
(11:21):
cycle.
But the earlier you can getoutsourced partners Fiverr,
upwork, friends, whatever orinstantly relevant, the better
you'll do to be able to focus onthat mic.
My goal in step fivespecifically was I want to be on
the mic, not making content.
I don't want to be writing bogs.
I want my teams to create theimages, the thumbnails, all that
stuff.
I want to be on the mic.
(11:43):
Step six downstream services.
That's how you monetize biggernumbers.
I'll go through some of theresults a little bit later, but
we collect the guestsponsorships.
One, to identify the people whoare really serious about
joining our community andgetting behind our mission.
Two, it helps pay for all theproduction and all the
advertisements.
We actually take an approachand I'll explain in the next
step, but that we invest it backin.
(12:04):
But we want to make sure thatdownstream we we have something
we can offer them, and for usit's the mastermind community of
Cut the Tie, but it's also someservices we do with LinkedIn
through marketing strategy andother marketing services.
This is very core, because Idon't have to sell them anything
at all.
They discover some of thisthrough conversation of what we
(12:27):
do for them.
And that downstream services issuper important because as
you're interviewing them, asthey're getting to know you, as
they see you produce the showand see what you're building,
they begin to trust you.
And they should, because you'redoing a good job for them and
they want to know what else doyou do.
Great step it's actually whereyou'll make your most money, all
right, so step seven I talkedabout this a little bit
(12:48):
reinvesting revenue for growthIn our model, because I have a
company that makes money.
We had reinvested all the moneywe could back into the community
, so about half went toproduction, paying for teams,
paying for advertisements andstuff like this.
The other half got brought backinto the community to create
additional content, additionalvalue to the guests.
So they felt like they got morethan they bargained for.
(13:10):
The reason is because I amlooking three years, five years,
10 years down the road at thiscommunity.
I've cut the tie and what we'redoing with Never Remoted and
less so as it is a revenuegeneration source for me to take
in pocket.
You have to make your owndecision with that, but I will
say the more that you can investback into your community and
the longer you do that, the moredividends it will pay that
compound interest in the future.
(13:31):
This will also help you achievemore social media proof
milestones.
So by us doing this this helpedus, you know go get to a
million subscribers in YouTubeglobally and also then a top 5%
global rating on listen notes bygetting more episodes out and
doing more investment back intothe community itself.
Step eight is really have along-term relationship focus in
building this community.
(13:51):
When I meet with our guests itis the first of many
conversations we will have Ilook at them as people that I
now work with.
I look at people that becomefriends.
They become part of a biggercommunity network where I have
ongoing engagement.
It's not a one and donetransaction.
The idea is I want tofacilitate connections amongst
our other guests.
You want to start tying ittogether so people feel like
(14:12):
they belong.
Just like you said, build acommunity where you bring people
together.
I bring in competitors onto ourshow from some of the marketing
services that we do becausethey do it differently and
they're awesome people and theydo it really well.
So I can support, I can talkabout, I can do the things that
they need to make their businessbetter.
Bring people together that helpother people.
(14:33):
Now step nine you have tocontinuously refine and scale.
So every 90 days we look at theshow.
We say how can we improve it?
How can I make this moreimpactful?
More must download, more, justbetter for the guest, more and
more.
We do this because if we didn'tdo it, it would be stagnant, it
would not have grown.
You don't know as much 90 daysago than you did today and
(14:55):
you'll continually do this.
Look for ways to scale withautomation where appropriate, ai
where appropriate, other peopleand better ways to maybe even
run your show so you don't havewasted time on air.
You want to expand that reachwherever you can by doing
partnerships, bartering.
We trade things all the timewith other guests Say, hey, some
of them make them slantingpages.
We'll go out there and do stufffor LinkedIn.
Be smart with it, but expandyour reach.
(15:16):
Tie your network together,build that community, but always
make it a thing you're going todo and schedule for Something
that's thoughtful, conscious and, and you know, premeditated to
say I'm going to look at this,refine what we're doing about
every 90 days.
My number 10 deliver measurableresults.
Make sure what you'redelivering is good, you know,
(15:38):
even great, at the least good.
Make sure that you can show theaudience how they got
engagement.
How many views did they get?
Leads, ask them for thefeedback so they can.
They can see where they can.
You know where we can improvethings.
You got to make sure you'remeeting just being credible with
, like, a money back guaranteeoffer and some things like that,
and if people really weren'thappy, send them money.
(15:59):
We did not have to give asingle refund last year because
we delivered everything wepromised and in this and there's
a few that didn't go great, sowe just reshot it, we redid it,
we redid everything for it.
We made it right.
Make sure you're always doingmeasurable results for the
people that are sponsoring yourshow and the people you're
bartering with.
Make it actionable, make itmeasurable and continually
collect that data, because it'simportant for the improvement
(16:20):
process as well.
All right, 2024 results.
We did over 60,000 in guestsponsors, that's people coming
on the show.
Did every person pay?
No, there are some influencersthat came on that I just wanted
to have on because I enjoyedtheir time.
Some of the notables were, likeyou know, wes Bergman from one
of the bigger reality shows from, I think, real World, austin,
(16:41):
the Challenge.
Like he didn't pay.
There's others that came onthat are authors that were.
You know they have millions ofdownloads in their books.
You got to be strategic on whoshould pay, who shouldn't.
Other podcasters almost neverpay because I want to go on
their show.
We just do swaps.
People that are in businessesthat are trying to do marketing
and grow their stuff.
They typically want to come onand they pay because they want
an advertisement.
Downstream services producedover $100,000 of revenue just in
(17:04):
year one and it'll be more thanthat, compounded as they do
ongoing services.
It produced three TVappearances.
So the big reveal Boom America.
These are things that KevinHarrington has done with the
original.
He's one of the original SharkTank guys Part of his 18 now, so
when he does a shoot.
We come down, we meet with hisguests.
This is even on the blockseason 18, which is Wes
(17:24):
Bergman's baby, and it's anentrepreneurial reality show
competition, over a millionsubscribers, as we had said, and
over 4 million views andgrowing and we did top 5% on
listen notes in the first yearand over 300 episodes recorded.
We only released about 180 inthe first year or so and we're
knocking out about five a weeknow and we're going to continue
(17:46):
that going forward.
All right, 2025 is really allabout where 2024 was all about
never been promoted and buildingthe podcast and the brand 2025
shifts to never been promotedplus cut the tie community.
So we're going to involve a lotmore influencers, a lot of you
know, more known people into thestory, into the podcast.
We'll add some more downloadmetrics to attract the corporate
(18:08):
sponsors as our downloads getbetter and better.
This is the more traditionalCPM model.
We will do some affiliatemarketing as well with that.
The community is everything.
So we're going to add extremevalue in the first year for sure
, and continue it moving forwardfor Cut the Tie.
So that means the people whoget in will get in for less, but
they'll get way more thananybody else is ever going to
get ever In-person events likePodFest we did in person.
(18:31):
We're going to do more of thoseand, as we look to the thing,
we're going to do more guesting.
I'm going to go on more shows.
So last year was all aboutcoming on my show and getting
ready.
We're going adventure.
These are the actual offers thatwe do for people to get on our
show.
Now I will go through these inperson if you'd like to, if you
reach out.
But from Skip the Line to VIP3,we've sold those anywhere from
(18:53):
$150 to $1,000, from $500 toalmost $5,000.
Our prices go up as we haveless availability on the show
and we continually add more andmore and more to the VIP3.
Vip3 is the where you wantpeople to go.
The reason is because I wantthem to immediately become part
of the mastermind community.
This is where you get it.
Vip3 gets you into the innercircle, it gets you to where you
(19:15):
actually want to go and it getsyou a ton of advertisement and
a ton of interactions and a tonof access.
This was done.
These are the kind of roll-ups.
We used, like I said, the AlexRamosi a hundred million offers
kind of a formula to do this,your own version of this.
It will grow.
It's.
It's important to note that aswe've added more capability,
more value, the offer improves.
(19:37):
We didn't have the same offeron day one as we did a day 90,
day 180, day you know, 270 andso on.
Continually involve your offers, add value and you can raise
your prices.
All right, since this is aYouTube video, I can't do Q&As
like I did.
This is actually thepresentation I did at the
conference, but if you'd like toschedule some time with me,
(19:59):
grab it.
If you made it at this pointand you want 30 minutes with me
and you're serious about eitherbecoming a VIP guest, monetizing
your podcast, you want to seethe offers, maybe I'm coming on
to yours.
You want to join the Cut theTie community?
You just want to work with me?
Scan that book time, but beserious about it.
Don't come in there unprepared.
Come in there ready to have aconversation about how I can
(20:19):
help you grow for real.
If you want to join the groupfor free facebookcom slash group
, slash, cut the tie is how youget on there, and if none of
those work, you just kind ofhave some other questions.
Just email us or actually Iwill reply to that one at
contact, at cut the tiecom.
Thank you, listen, get out there.
I want you to go, try tomonetize your, your show and if
(20:39):
this helps you do this through aguesting way awesome.
I really hope you get valuefrom it.
I want more podcasters.
It's a form of entrepreneurship.
I want more of you out there.
I want you to do kick an ass,adding value and chasing your
dreams and becoming everythingyou wanted to become.
Thank you for listening.
Get going, and I'll say what Isay every time go out there and
unleash your entrepreneur.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.