Have you ever thought about starting your own podcast?  Do you have a service or product-based business or side-hustle? Are you called to finally start that passion project and encourage others?

If your answer to any of these is yes, today’s episode is for YOU, friend!

My business mentor, Stefanie Gass, is on the podcast teaching everything you need to know to build and market your online business!

Stefanie Gass is a CEO, wife, boy mom, coffee lover, and #pjsallday enthusiast! Stef helps women get clear on their niche, start a podcast, and grow a successful online business, God’s way. 

She is the host of a top .5% globally ranked podcast for Christian Entrepreneurs, The Stefanie Gass Show. Stef believes it’s possible to partner with God to create impact and income without sacrificing or buying into social media hustle. 

USE THIS LINK TO CHECK OUT STEF’S INCREDIBLE PODCASTING COURSE (this is the same course I took to start my podcast!): Podcast Pro University

To connect with Stef, head to:

• Her podcast: www.thestefaniegassshow.com
• Her website: www.stefaniegass.com
• Her socials: @stefaniegass

So many women in our community have approached me saying they’ve always dreamed about starting a podcast. I think one of the main reasons women don’t start a podcast is that they’re overwhelmed by the idea of promoting it. What do you say to the people that feel like social media is holding them back or feels overwhelming or scary?

Social Media, in my opinion, is simply a distraction. I understand it can be used for good, but in order to do that, we have to have insane boundaries around it. We have to be able to delete apps; we have to be able to go on detox from social media.

I have young children, two boys, an eight-year-old, and a six-year-old. And I felt for so many years that I was capitalizing on my kids to grow my business. I would post a lot of stories and pictures a day and likes were increasing so I thought that “my business is growing!” and it became constant. But in reality, all it did was steal my time from me; it did not produce actual revenue and income in my business.

So, on the weekends, I would delete the apps and at first, it was difficult, because it is like fighting addiction but then I felt peace and I felt present in a way I hadn’t been before.

God kept speaking to me, saying “Lay it down, lay it down” and so we committed together for 30 days, and I did a full-out social detox and no one on my team was allowed to get on social, Instagram specifically. So, [our Instagram] died, and I thought that my business and everything was going to crumble. But not only was the email list larger, the podcast downloads and the revenue had grown!

I got 15 hours of time back that I was spending on social media. It’s been a year now, everything kept growing and now I’m free from social media addiction.

I share that testimony with you because there is a better way to build a business. You’ve been told that this is the only way you can do it and I want you to know that when the world tells you stuff, it’s the first thing you should challenge.

If social media is not how you’re promoting your business, what’s working? How are people hearing about what you’re doing?

In the beginning, I was blogging and doing Facebook lives but nothing was working. I kept praying and the Lord said to me in a dream, very clearly, to start a podcast.

I’ve been an entrepreneur for six years full time and in one year of podcasting, God blew it out. We had a six-figure business the first year year and the reason was that I was able to use my voice and I could do it in 20 minutes vs. 4 hours. I could set the podcast into the world and walk away and go play with my boys. I could lay my phone down, make dinner, get back to my health. I had time to sit with God.

And then people would listen to the podcast, and they started knocking, asking for coaching!

For the moms listening who have service or product-based businesses, but haven’t started a podcast, how could they incorporate podcasting?

There’s an essential question you have to ask yourself, how do I create more impact in less time? How do I reach more people’s hearts? You have to think about the ideal avatar of your business client and create a podcast based on that. It doesn’t have to be big; it could be 5 or 10 minutes. Think of the podcast like a commercial.

When you’re putting a post on Instagram, it dies in 24 hours, and you have to sit and create 1-to-1 marketing which takes so long. It’s so much work versus 20, 10, or 5 minutes on a podcast. Some of my top downloaded episodes are from three years ago, they’re still growing, and people are still buying from an episode from three years ago!

What are some other ways people make money starting a podcast?

There’re limitless ways you can make money podcasting. Sell your own offer. So, whether you have a product or service, you would sell that on the show and then you’d ship it to your consumer.

Start thinking, “how can I monetize my show with the thing that I’m already doing well?” That’s how you make money that isn’t exchanging time for money or exchanging time for likes on a platform that doesn’t actually convert. Selling your own products is my favorite way to make money from a podcast.

I believe there are a lot of women listening whose souls are being stirred right now. So, give me the starting point – what are the baby steps that they need to take if they’re thinking about starting a podcast?

Step one is you’ve got to get clear on what your podcast would be about, right? Cause I think the piece that keeps us stuck is “I don’t know what it would be about. What would I call it? Would anyone listen?”

I actually have a course called Clarify Your Calling and in 30 days you’ll be so clear on exactly what your podcast will be. Invest in a coach, believe in their morals, and save yourself half of the time it took me.

The next step is to actually start the podcast. How do I record? How do I edit? How do I get the little pieces in place? How do I create the podcast art? How do I launch it? I teach all those details inside my program Podcast Pro University.

The financial investments I’ve made in Stef’s courses were vital – they saved me so much time!

USE THIS LINK TO CHECK OUT STEF’S INCREDIBLE PODCASTING COURSE (this is the same course I took to start my podcast!): Podcast Pro University

I can’t overstate it – if you’re thinking about podcasting, find someone like Stef who knows what she’s doing, and pay to have their knowledge condensed into this tiny little course that you can fly through. You can’t let overwhelm be your excuse or discourage you from sharing your message. There are people out there that need to hear what you have to say!

Yes! Start an online business or ministry, for God’s glory. You don’t want to do it the world’s way. You want to have peace and freedom and time in your life, and you want to make a difference in the world and make income for your family and I am all about all of that!