The Unexpected Journey: When Your Podcast Gets Sponsored

A decade-long dream finally materializes! After years of creating content and navigating the ups and downs of podcasting, the Trading Post podcast has secured its first official sponsorship deal. This unexpected milestone arrived suddenly, catching me off guard despite having uploaded only 11-12 episodes total with sometimes months between releases.

The sponsorship opportunity involves exchanging airtime or mentions for tickets, opening exciting possibilities but also raising numerous questions. I'm now working with a consultant to navigate the business side of content creation—exploring everything from legal disclosures to potential tax implications and whether establishing an LLC makes sense. What started as a passion project about trading and bartering has suddenly transformed into what I jokingly call a "side come"—where opportunities come your way through consistent effort.

Recording challenges remain a fascinating part of my podcasting journey. Despite having access to workspace facilities, my car provides the environment where I feel most authentic and animated. I've experimented with various GarageBand settings from "narrator" to "radio ready" to find the right sound quality. Looking ahead, I'm considering using professional recording spaces for guest interviews while dreaming of an ultimate mobile podcast studio—perhaps a customized RV that embodies the rugged Trading Post brand. The lesson for fellow podcasters? Stay consistent, create content that excites you, and view sponsorships as a welcome bonus rather than the primary goal. Subscribe to follow this exciting new chapter and discover how persistence eventually pays off, even when the path feels slow and unpredictable.

Send us a text

Support the show

Thanks for listening to The Trading Post Podcast!

Find all our important links—including our LinkedIn, MetroTrading.com, and Michigan Renaissance Festival info—at:
https://linktr.ee/traderstu

Questions or guest suggestions? Email us at [e-mail]

© 2025 The Trading Post Podcast. All rights reserved.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello everyone and welcome back to the Trading Post
podcast.
I am your host, trader Stu.
I have some exciting news.
I don't generally do a quickupdate like this, but I wanted
to.
I'm too excited to not sayanything and I don't know how
much I can say because oflegalities.
But here we go.
I have been offered asponsorship, like other than

(00:21):
Metro Trading Association,trading association.
Of course they sponsor mebecause sometimes we'll edit or
record during work hours.
So I kind of say that theysponsor me because they
encourage the podcast.
It benefits them, of course,because I'm talking about trade
and how it helps businesses andthings of that nature.
But the uh, you know, and ofcourse it's my full job.

(00:46):
But one thing I never reallythought that would happen to me,
especially so fast and with allof the struggles I have for
time management, to, you know,record and get things published,
and I've wasted.
You know, like I said, I don'tknow how many hours maybe six or
eight hours total, maybe moreof upload, potential, buzz,

(01:09):
buzzsprout.
Sometimes I uploaded nothingfor a month because I had some
things going on in the life oftraders too, so I just didn't
feel like doing anything.
So I think one of my 11 or 12podcast total and I've been
offered a sponsorship to inexchange for tickets for airtime
or mentions, and I can't saynothing yet I don't think.
I don't know how this all works.

(01:30):
I've already contacted, I guess, a consultant that I'm going to
pay for to see how to go aboutand traverse this new and
exciting adventure where themarketing avenue that for metro
trading and just uh, putting outthe how trade works and how it

(01:54):
benefits business and justtrying to get the word out there
again into the modern day eraabout, um, the barter groups
that are out there turned intopotentially a little side income
, side come, side hustle.
I call it side come moneybecause you know, or if come, if
the sponsorships come, you know, then you get the income you

(02:15):
know, or side come because it'sa side hustle or side income.
So, anyway, I wanted to justkind of disclose that.
All right, I wanted to justkind of disclose that.
And what was funny is that isI've been trying to get in the
game since gosh 2015.
I've been trying to do YouTubevideos and, you know, get

(02:38):
monetized and sponsored andthings like that.
So, god, it's 10 years.
Can you believe that?
10 years already, 2015.
My God, at any rate.
So it's not like I just decidedto start uploading podcasts and
became a success overnight.
Not saying that I guess I'm asuccess.
I have achieved what I guessmost people aim to achieve, so
I'd say that's a win, you know2015.

(03:03):
Oh, just the side hustle factof getting sponsorships and
maybe making this an incomepotential.
I need a lot more money to comein to get the vehicle that I
need to get a mobile podcastwith this new uh avenue I'm

(03:25):
getting into with uh buying orpaying for a uh podcast, I guess
consult, uh.
I'm making some upgradesprobably to everything you know
the, the mid rolls and the,maybe the musics or I don't know
.
Uh, my, my car, uh, where I'mpodcasting at, seems to be the

(03:47):
best avenue for me, but I needthe audio to get better.
I've listened to the lastcouple and to me it sounds a
little tingy.
So I've tried all the differentmixes in GarageBand.
You've got the narrator andthen the radio ready.
And this one, if you're justwondering, is the clean version,
so I'll see how this one works.
And this one, if you're justwondering, is the clean version,

(04:07):
so I'll see how this one works.
And I've also moved mymicrophone a little bit away
from me because I move around alot, so I can't exactly hold a
microphone to talk with my handsin the car.
I get more animated than I doat work.
So that's why, although Ithought that I was going to have
a podcast studio at work, itdoesn't work Because, you know,

(04:28):
I can't be myself and talk theway I want to.
So, uh, keep all in that inmind when you start your um
podcast journey.
Because, oh, the other thing istoo is that I saw yesterday, I
was at the verizon center andsterling heights and they have a
new podcast studio that they'rebuilding and I just, out of
curiosity, I asked them how muchit was per hour or however it

(04:50):
works, and they don't know yetbecause it's just finished.
They just completed it.
It's really cool.
It's like a radio, like a radiodj booth or whatever.
Uh, it's got the on air, youknow thing, that light that
glides up, it's got all themicrophones, couple of seats, um
, and which, by the way, mightbe potential for me to utilize

(05:10):
anyways, in case I do, uh, getguests on the show.
Because, uh, with thesponsorship potential that I
have coming up here, notpotential, it's a, it's a thing.
I just gotta, you know, solidifyeverything that I can, uh
interview guests through themand uh pitch and promote the
tickets, ticket sales, andhopefully I find out more today

(05:31):
and what I can and can't do,what I can and can't say and all
the tax implications and ifthere is any, and if I got to
start an LLC now and it's allkind of escalated so quickly to
where, caught me off guard, likeit's one of those things where,
yeah, it'd be always kind ofdreamed about as, oh, it'd be
cool if it happened, but my god,did it happen fast?
And so that just goes to show,like, I guess, if you're looking

(05:52):
at doing something like this,just consistency and keep, keep
it up and keep at it and don'tuh look aim for it and have it
in your side, your sights, Iguess, but make it so.
If it happens, it's cool, ifnot, that's cool too.
You're gonna do it anyways, youknow I mean.
So, um, the next step would be,of course, to get, uh, you know
, income, actually cash, insteadof just trade, um, which it's

(06:15):
funny that I'm, uh, trade andbarter is great and all, but
also, you know, it's, it's aside I will always take the
trade and whatever, but ofcourse you also still need to
pay, have cash for you know uh,expenses.
Unfortunately, um, usaa doesn'ttake trade for insurance
payments, not yet anyway.

(06:36):
Maybe we will one day, uh, ifwe get go there, um, with the
way things are going in theeconomy anyways.
So I don't know, I'm just gonnajust joking around, being
mischievous, so anyway.
So yeah, I just wanted to givea quick update and let you know
what's going on, and there willbe some changes, hopefully, in
the quality of my audio.

(06:56):
There's a big upgrade coming.
I have some ideas on what I cando in my car, because that's
where I want to be, and thenalso with everything, maybe
commercials and more, maybe I'llget guests.
But the whole thing is I don'twant to use the studio yet.
Maybe I will, maybe that's mystepping stone Use the studio
for guests, right, and then Ican eventually get my mobile

(07:18):
podcast studio, which is my NBLgoal.
I'd like to get somethingthat's more mobile and not the
two of us just sitting in a car,be like in an RV situation or
something like that.
What I really, you know, have mysights on is that patent.
Um, it's like a hummer.
That is a uh rv as well in theback.
So, and those are made incolorado, actually by a veteran,

(07:40):
which is very cool.
The problem is they're likehalf a million dollars, so not
exactly something that I can getyet, uh, anywhere close to
being at that level.
But it fits everything.
You know the persona right, soit's like the trading post.
It's kind of like the back inthe day, the wild wild west, so
to speak, and you knowruggedness and terrain and

(08:01):
trading and barter and I don'tknow.
I think that really fits thevibe of the channel for the
podcast.
But the problem is I got to getthere and get the half million
dollars.
So, at any rate, we'll see howthis one worked out and we'll
talk to you again.
I'm going to upload this one isThursday and then.
So, yeah, trade Tuesday.

(08:22):
I'll talk to you again nextweek.
All right, have a great weekend, be good or be good at it.