How I Landed My First Podcast Sponsor (And What Comes Next)

I've landed my first podcast sponsorship with the Michigan Renaissance Festival and will be recording commercials for them through September. This milestone comes while I'm still recording from my car and figuring out audio settings.

• Received VIP/media passes for August 13th networking event before the festival opens
• Might conduct my first podcast interviews with Renaissance Festival performers
• Planning to give away festival tickets to followers and listeners 
• Shared story of attending the festival dressed as Jack Sparrow during post-COVID crowds
• Found myself entertaining people stuck in traffic, which was more fun than the festival itself
• Recently helped two people set up their own podcasts on different topics
• Emphasized that starting a podcast requires time, commitment and just hitting record

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“Whistles In The West” was written, recorded, and produced by Durracell, exclusively for use with Trader Stu’s platform, always rocking the cowboy hat. The track is protected under U.S. Copyright rights to use have been granted specifically to Trader Stu for content and promotional use related to his brand and media presence.

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The thoughts and views expressed in this podcast are solely those of the host and do not reflect the official policy or position of Metro Trading Association. Although the host is an employee of Metro Trading, this podcast is intended to educate entrepreneurs on the benefits of professional trading, regardless of their location. Additionally, the host reviews various pieces of camping gear due to the association of trade, barter, and prepping.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello everybody and welcome back to the Trading Post
.
I am your host, trader, stu.
A couple of updates here.
I feel like I had to do aseason three type episode, which
is the experience of using apodcast to market your business,
and that is what I do forseason threes.
Like I said, I use them ascategories, not for seasons.

(00:21):
We'll see how it works.
Heck, I don't know.
It seems to be working becauseit keeps me organized and I
think that hopefully it willkeep everything else organized
too in the future.
So here we go, first andforemost, with me recording in
the car.
I have enough fight the airconditioning sound, so I like to

(00:41):
pull into parks, like I said,and record.
We'll see how it goes.
So far it sounds good on myheadset.
I had to change the receiverand transmitter gain, and if you
don't know how to do that, Iwould just go ahead and look
that up on perplexity, becausethat's what I had to do and, uh,
just to see what the best is,take a shortcut without having
to fool around too much of thesettings, because I used to have

(01:01):
this set up for my podcaststudio.
So, that being said, let's getstarted.
I mentioned last week that I gotnot monetized but sponsored,
and now I can finally say whatit is.
I signed all the paperwork andI'm really excited to say that I
have been sponsored by theMichigan Renaissance Festival.

(01:23):
How cool is that.
So I'll be recording a mid-rollfor those guys.
I'll be hearing my commercialsfor them all the way through
September and each week,updating with the new theme
weekends and what the themeweekend is.

(01:43):
I've been invited to the beardcontest by I think they said it
was the Viking group, so I knowthere was one of a beard contest
in Ovi.
I should have gone, so might begoing to that.
I also got a VIP slash mediapasses for August 13th, which is
before they open, and I get tonetwork and meet with everybody

(02:03):
else in the media and, uh, maybeyou get to interview, might
hear some interviews by, uh,some of the performers, which is
really cool too.
I haven't done an interview yet.
That maybe, maybe my first one.
I don't see why not.
I'll try it out.
Heck, if it works, that'sawesome.
If not, well, hey, at least Itried it right.
But I've been to the rena a fewtimes.

(02:24):
It's there in Holly and it'salways a good time, even with
the lines.
I say the lines because thelast time I was there I think it
was the last time I was therewas post-COVID and it was
everyone had the rain checks youknow from.
Of course, you couldn't.
Everything was shut down in2020 and 21 or whatever.

(02:45):
So I think it was.
They finally got to reopen on22 or 2023.
One of the two, I think it was,had them in 22 at any rate.
It was a madhouse and that yearwe I never dressed up before.
I was like we're gonna dress up, let's dress up.
So it was, uh, jack Sparrow,captain Jack Sparrow, and we I

(03:08):
was in traffic for two hours,two and a half hours, on Dixie
Highway, trying to get into thefestival and get parking.
So finally we just startedparking along the side roads and
the dirt roads, illegally, Ithink it was, but it was like a
mile or two walk and to get in.
But I tell you what it wasworth it and the reason why I

(03:30):
had the most fun messing withthe cars on the way in.
So people were walking fasterthan the cars, of course, right,
so my family and friends,whatever, got out and started
walking to go.
You know, let's say so.
We went to the bathroom,whatever out in the woods, and

(03:50):
then we had a kid with us, ofcourse my stepson, and he was
Darth Vader and oh man.
So as I was walking along thesecarts, I had this like bottle
flask thing of water that lookedlike rum.
I dyed it to look like rum andI'm walking along like Jack
Sparrow and just having a ball.
Dude, I had more fun walking inthe mile walk or whatever it

(04:18):
was to go to the festival than Idid at the festival itself
because it was, oh my god, Idon't know.
It was kind of like I was likean entertainer, I was an unpaid
for entertainer to like get thecrowd riled up.
You know, like they do at spookhouses, when there's a queue
and there's a long line and theyhave the ghouls or whatever you

(04:39):
know go around and mess withyou as you're waiting in line to
help pass the time.
I felt like I was doing aservice and helping pass the
time to all the other poorschmucks that was in traffic
waiting to get into this parkinglot.
So, at any rate, if you haven'tbeen, you've got to go, and of

(05:00):
course you're not going unlessyou go into those turkey legs.
They're awesome and I found arecipe for I think they're
called Disney disney worldturkey legs.
You know copycat recipes.
I haven't done it yet.
It's kind of a lot of workactually and uh, but they have
the same flair.
You know, at the renaissancefestival, killers to get the
beer cold pickle, and uh, Idon't know, it's like you get

(05:24):
the same performers there thathave been there doing the same
thing for years and it's almostlike I don't say it's like
seeing old friends that don'tknow them or whatever, but it's
old familiarity.
I don't know, it's just fun.
You can get locked up in jailand pay to get them out.
The kids always have funanyways.
That's enough of that.
I'm just really excited.
I got sponsored by theRenaissance Festival.

(05:46):
I don't know if I can give awaytickets.
They're going to give metickets to give away.
I've got to figure out how togive away these tickets to.
You know, I don't know whatlisteners, followers, are going
to contest or heck.
I'll just walk around and sayfollow my show and I'll give you
a Renaissance Festival ticketor two.
You know what I mean.
So anyway, it's exciting.
I can't wait.
So I'll be recording that, theshoutout or the commercial for

(06:09):
them here soon.
And then I wanted to get thisone rolling right away, because
it's Tuesday morning, traderTuesday or Trade Tuesday, and I
had to give them a shout-out.
So for sure, All right On thenext business.
I also wanted to mention thefact that I happen to find
myself in territory to helppeople set up their podcasts.

(06:36):
Now, this has already happenedto me twice and something that I
, you know, I've been chargedfor.
I'm not a pro by any means,heck, I'm still figuring out
sound settings and maybe that'sjust something that you figure
out constantly as you go alongand no one ever talks about it,
because everyone thinks they'reprofessional right away and they
don't want to, like, revealtheir secrets or whatever, or I
don't know, I don't really care.
So I I'm going to talk about it.

(06:57):
So, anyway, this guy I postedon the next door app if you
don't know what that is, it'slike a facebook, but you know,
local community only, sort ofit's, I don't know.
I think there's me and like 52neighborhoods that are, you know
, and my surroundingneighborhoods that are that I've
listened to or can talk to orget post updates for not just

(07:18):
everybody on Facebook anyway.
So, uh, this guy uh, happens tobe a Haney man uh contacted me
and said hey man, uh, I want tobuy you some lunch because I
want to start a podcast as welland I don't know anybody who
does it except for you, and youlive in the same city as I do,

(07:39):
so I'm buying you lunch and Iwant to sit down and, uh, you
know, help me figure this outright I'm like it's cool, dude,
you don't got to buy me lunch,whatever, because it was just,
you know, aligning schedules andstuff like that.
But it ended up being anawesome meetup, like it was like
this guy's got some storieshe's going to do a podcast about

(08:01):
and I hope he launches it.
I hope I didn't overwhelm him.
Brandon, if you're talking, ifyou can hear me, so do it.
Just hit record and upload itright.
So it's going to be aboutgetting falsely accused by the
judicial system Very interesting, kind of like a true crime,
almost, maybe Experiences ofpeople he's going to have some

(08:24):
interviews.
He's going to have interviewsright with all these guys that
have been in faults to theaccused, spent time behind bars
and shouldn't have, and thingslike that.
So it'll be a reallyinteresting podcast because he's
going to have all these coolinterviews on.
And then I also helped anotherguy which was a couple months
ago, I guess it was now, whichwas a couple months ago, I guess

(08:45):
it was now and it's the.
He does virus cleanouts on, youknow, computers, upgrades,
softwares cleanout and whatever.
So I don't know what hispodcast is going to be about.
I never launched but you know,nonetheless, I helped him get
set up with the Buzzsprout andhow to record it and gave him a

(09:06):
demo and got him an account and,you know, did all that stuff
and um, but you know, honestly,it's, it's a tough, it's a tough
gig.
You got to have time andcommitment and you know you got
to have you know bottom, youknow bottom, uh, we're barely
there equipment.
I guess you want to say, uh,just to get started and uh.
But you know the big thing ispush record and just get your

(09:28):
voice out there, which can berather intimidating for most
people, but definitely easierthan YouTube, because I tried
YouTube and there's a wholeother dynamic when you introduce
video into the series, right.
So, and that's it for this one.
Like I always say, be good orbe good at it.