💸 How This Podcast Makes Money Without A Big Audience

Amelia [00:00:02] [Music begins to play, overlapping with introduction to the episode] Welcome to Off the Grid, a podcast for small business owners who want to leave social media without losing all their clients.

Amelia [00:00:08] I'm Amelia Hruby, writer, speaker, and founder of Softer Sounds podcast studio. On this show, I share stories, strategies, and experiments for growing your business with radical generosity and energetic sovereignty.

Amelia [00:00:22] Download your free Leaving Social Media Toolkit at softersounds.studio/byeig and join us as we do it all off the grid [music jams and fades out].

Amelia [00:00:37] Hello and welcome back to Off the Grid. I'm your host, Amelia Hruby, and we're in Season Two of the show. I am loving Season Two so far, and I've been super pumped to hear from listeners who are enjoying these episodes as well.

Amelia [00:00:53] If you're just tuning in, let me catch you up on what's happened so far. So, we kicked off Season Two with, “The Five Stages of Leaving Social Media,” where I walked through the emotional progression of our journey off of social platforms.

Amelia [00:01:07] Then, I talked about, “Ten Things I Hate About Content Marketing,” which was not as [chuckles] hate-y as it sounds, but it was a good episode where I worked through the myths that I think content marketing sells us and how we can avoid some of the pitfalls of a content-first approach to our businesses.

Amelia [00:01:27] In the last episode, I shared why I broke up with Pinterest and got really honest about the Pinterest experiments I was doing last year and how they didn't really pan out for my business.

Amelia [00:01:38] And today, my friends, today I am pulling back the curtain to tell you how this podcast makes money without a big audience. Because while you may lovingly believe that this show has thousands of listeners, I would like to lovingly assure you that it does not [chuckles].

Amelia [00:01:55] You are, in fact, part of a wonderful, amazing, intimate group of a few hundred people who have ever tuned into Off the Grid. And I am so grateful for you. So, so grateful. Thank you for being here.

Amelia [00:02:07] Before we dive into that how-to, I'm going to do what I do every single episode, which is ask you, invite you, implore you even, to go download the Leaving Social Media Toolkit.

Amelia [00:02:18] If you like this podcast, you need this toolkit. It's totally free and it's got my five-step plan for leaving any social platform, my list of 100 Ways to Share Your Work Off Social Media, and a great database for planning quarterly creative marketing experiments to grow your audience, nurture community, and sell your offers. It pairs gorgeously with the first five episodes of the show from Season One, and it's free. You really can't beat it [chuckles].

Amelia [00:02:44] So, go get it. Head to the show notes or to softersounds.studio/byeig to download it now.

Amelia [00:02:53] Also, that's the only way to get on the mailing list [chuckles] where I send podcast updates, special messages, and all sorts of other things. So, go get the toolkit. Can't wait to land in your inbox and thanks again for being here [jazzy sound blast].

Amelia [00:03:07] So, in this episode I'm going to tell you how much money I've made from the podcast and how big the audience actually is.

Amelia [00:03:14] I'm going to give you real numbers because I think [laughs lightly] it's super important to be transparent. I'm not here to, like, vague post about it. I'm going to give you the real numbers and then I'm going to walk you through, kind of, the story of how I made that money, of how I've grown this audience. So, you can track sort of the strategy that I've been using or how the strategies evolved over time.

Amelia [00:03:35] It's my favorite thing to do, [laughs] which is share how-to’s through reflecting on both the successes and failures of my experience. It plays perfectly into my Human Design as a 3/5, if you're familiar with the profiles and I'm really pumped for this one.

Amelia [00:03:51] I think that it's an episode I've been asked to make quite a bit. I've had lots of folks land in my inbox with some version of, "Please tell me how you've got this totally wrapped up beautiful strategy for Off the Grid. Please tell me how I can do it myself."

Amelia [00:04:05] And so, this episode is, kind of, the first step toward that, where I'm going to share how I did it. And then, you'll hear at the end, if you want me to show you how you can do it, you can come do some coaching with me. So, that's coming a little bit later.

Amelia [00:04:17] Let's start with the numbers. Let's start with the cold, hard facts of how much money I've made and how big the audience is, except I don't like the phrase cold, hard facts. So [chuckles], we'll start with the warm, soft facts of how much money I've made and how big the audience for this show is.

Amelia [00:04:36] Okay, so the warm, soft facts of the money and the audience size— as of mid-February 2023, which is basically a year after I launched, it's when I pulled these stats. As of then, Off the Grid has 5800 downloads across 20 episodes and a trailer.

Amelia [00:04:55] So, Year One, Season One of the show got almost 6000 downloads, which is a great, you know, it's a big number, but like, what does that number mean? Like, is it good? Is it bad? Who knows? Well [laughs], I do. To put on my podcast studio owner hat for a second, let me give you some more, like, how I think about that number.

Amelia [00:05:13] So, according to Buzzsprout, half of podcast episodes published in February of 2022 were downloaded fewer than 29 times in the first seven days. So, on average, a lot of shows are getting 30 or less downloads in the first seven days, and I'm averaging 100 downloads per episode in the first seven days and closer to 250 downloads per episode average over the course of their life, like, since they've been posted on.

Amelia [00:05:39] So, compared to that Buzzsprout stat, I'm doing great [laughs] and I'm feeling good about that.

Amelia [00:05:44] That said, lots of the podcast ad management platforms out there, the ones who connect podcasters with big budget advertisers, like, the ones who are going to hook you up with Casper or Squarespace or whomever, they want you to have a minimum of 10,000 downloads per episode on average before they'll work with you, right?

Amelia [00:06:05] There is a lot of space [laughs] between the roughly 30 downloads most shows are getting and the 10,000 that advertisers want you to have. And I am much closer to the lower end of that spectrum, like by far. So, I feel great that the show has gotten 6000 overall downloads with only 20 episodes, feeling good about that. But, you know, these numbers are all relative. And I think that I feel pretty safe saying, like, this is not a big audience. I do not have tons and tons of downloads where I could, like, pitch sponsors and do that with the show.

Amelia [00:06:37] So, all of that said, stats are relative [chuckles]. If you have your own show, actually, and you want to think about your stats, I did an episode of my other podcast called The Softer Cast. There's an episode on that of how to think of your numbers, so I'll link that in the show notes if you want to go deeper into podcast stats but for now, taking off my podcast studio owner hat [laughs softly] and putting on my business owner— my Off the Grid hat, my marketing hat, again, at the end of the day, I don't really care how big the audience is for Off the Grid, as long as the show is making enough money to feel reciprocal and supportive for how much time I put into it.

Amelia [00:07:13] As long as the show is making enough money that I feel resourced and have the capacity to keep making the show, then I'm happy. And I don't need thousands and thousands and thousands of listeners to do that because I'm not making money through sponsorship and advertising.

Amelia [00:07:27] So, let's go to the money. How much money has this show made? Well, as of February of 2023, again [chuckles softly], Off the Grid has made me almost $8,000. That's great, in my opinion. I'm happy to have eight grand that I didn't have before. And I think that that's a lot of money for one season, 20 episodes of a podcast that averages 100 to 250 downloads per episode.

Amelia [00:07:51] Like, I am definitely patting myself on the back for those numbers. But before you get too excited [laughs lightly], you know, like, let's put this in perspective, as I always do. Making the podcast is not exactly what made me $8,000.

Amelia [00:08:09] Making the podcast has created the community of listeners— that's you tuning in to this. It's brought in that community, called in that community who purchased the aligned offerings I have created that make me the money.

Amelia [00:08:24] So, let me say that again. Making the podcast has not made me the money. Making the podcast has grown the community who purchased the offerings I've created that make me the money. Make sense? I'll go to the numbers again. It'll start to come together.

Amelia [00:08:38] So, of the $8,000 that I've made from Off the Grid, here's the breakdown of what that money has come from.

Amelia [00:08:43] So, $135 of it did come from ads [laughs]. When I was launching the show, I approached a few friends who I thought had super-aligned products or services with the mission to see if they wanted to purchase ads in Season One. So, one friend did. Shout out to my friend Taylor, who created the Instead Deck at Inner Workout. She bought some ads on the first season and paid me $135 for them. So, there's that.

Amelia [00:09:08] Then, there's The Refresh. So, that's the workshop series that I hosted in Summer 2022. I sold tickets to that. I think if I'm remembering correctly, it was $99 for three days and an online community and all of that, with of course, lots of discounts and everything. And through The Refresh, I made about 1800 dollars. I flipped The Refresh, and I'll talk about this in a little bit, into a self-guided course called Business Success Without Social Media. And that's brought in about $800.

Amelia [00:09:36] The rest of the money has come from coaching. So, we're looking at over $5,000 that's come in through coaching and that shouldn't be a surprise [laughs lightly]. Coaching is more expensive. It's a higher support level. It's one-on-one. But what I think is kind of cool about that coaching number is I've actually never sold the coaching publicly. I have only sold that coaching to folks who came to The Refresh or who bought the self-guided mini-course.

Amelia [00:10:02] So, it's really only been available for, like, a very select group of people. The way I have been thinking about it is, like, we have this beautiful community of listeners. You can, kind of, come in through this relatively low-cost self-guided course or live workshop series, and then if you want to go even deeper with me, you can move on to coaching and things get more expensive, right? They go from free to less than $100 to packages that are just under $1,000 for three months of coaching.

Amelia [00:10:27] I share all of that to say that in my experience, for those of us with a small to mid-size audience, it is not our podcast itself that makes us money. The podcast is not the offering that's for sale. The podcast is the marketing for the offering that's for sale. Unless you are running a podcast that has those 10,000 downloads per episode, and then the podcast is the offering because you are getting advertisers and sponsors who are paying to make the show.

Amelia [00:10:57] And sometimes if you have a, you know, Patreon community or membership program, they might be paying you to make the podcast. And in that case, the podcast is the offering because your patrons or members are supporting it.

Amelia [00:11:09] But in my experience, you have a pretty decent-sized audience to do that. It's much more lucrative when you have a bigger audience, right? Like, if that's your model, you need more people, so you get paid more for ads or so you're making more per episode through members or patrons. I'm not saying this as a fact. There are totally people who have small audiences of a few hundred that can get those audiences to support and pay for their show through a membership program. Beautiful.

Amelia [00:11:36] I've seen people launch shows with small audiences and get sponsors to come on and pay enough ad money for them to pay for production of the first season. I have some clients who've done that. That all comes through relationship building, not straight-up download numbers.

Amelia [00:11:50] But if you're entering more of like the general market of podcast ads, then they're going to want to know your download numbers and you're going to need a big audience for that. So, that's kind of where my perspective is coming from. And so, this is why I'm saying in my experience, for those of us with small to midsize audiences, our podcast is the marketing for our offering, not the offering itself.

Amelia [00:12:11] This is where if I was teaching a class, I'd be like, "Does that make sense? Any questions? Want to chime in here [laughs]?" I just felt that urge really strongly. So, you know, if you have questions, send me an email reply. I'd love to hear from you [sound blast transition].

Amelia [00:12:27] So, let's move into the strategy. Now that I gave you those warm, soft, fresh out of the oven chocolate chip cookie facts [chuckles]. Let's talk about strategy. The strategy is what connects the podcast to the money, right?

Amelia [00:12:44] So, if the podcast is the marketing for the offering that makes us the money, the strategy connects the podcast to sales of the offering so that we can make some money. Now, I will pause here and say, not every person wants their podcast to make money. Some people are perfectly happy to just make the show. That's great. If that's you, cool.

Amelia [00:13:03] For myself [laughs], as someone who makes podcasts all the time for other people, I know how time-intensive, labor-intensive, and expensive it is to make a show. And so, I knew that this podcast was somehow going to have to make money for me to continue making it over time for it to be sustainable for me.

Amelia [00:13:22] So, from the get-go, I was like, "Somehow I got to get this podcast connected to an offering so it can be making some money and at least supporting me in making it." Having a strategy for that is how I made sure, it's how we make sure that our podcast doesn't fall into that trap I talked about two episodes ago for content marketing, where we're not just making content into the content abyss and burning ourselves out. You know, we're not just making our podcast and getting exhausted because we're not feeling like we're getting anything back from it. We need a thoughtful strategy so we can connect the content and our podcast to revenue in our business.

Amelia [00:14:00] So, how did I do it? Let me walk you through how I launched Off the Grid, where my mind was at at the time, a total failure of a first offering I tried to attach to it. And then, what's working right now for me in this show?

Amelia [00:14:16] I want to start by, once again, being perfectly honest [chuckles] that when I launched Off the Grid, I had no clue what I was going to sell. Like, I did not launch the show with this strategy totally figured out. I built this strategy over the course of the first year of the show. So, it is okay [laughs softly]. I gave myself permission. I'm giving you permission— not that you need my permission, but the permission is here to launch a show without being totally sure of the strategy.

Amelia [00:14:41] Like, I just said, what I knew for myself is that the strategy was going to have to come. I was going to have to figure out how to make money from the show, but I was okay launching it and working that out in the process. I work great when I just dive in and figure out how to swim [laughs lightly]. So, I just kind of threw myself into the ocean there and was like, "I will figure it out [water splashes]."

Amelia [00:15:02] So, my first goal for Off the Grid was to build an audience. And I knew once I had that audience, I could experiment with a few different offerings and see what they needed. So, when I launched the podcast, I was like, “Goal number one, build the audience.”

Amelia [00:15:14] What did that mean to me? Make the podcast and get people who listened to give me their email address. So, I started with a podcast and a lead magnet. I had the podcast to establish expertise and build trust, and I had the lead magnet to capture email addresses and nurture community, and that was it. I was here on the podcast growing the audience, building trust with them, getting them to give me their email, and then once they got the lead magnet and I had their email address, I could nurture my relationship with them through more emails and more episodes of the show.

Amelia [00:15:47] That's what I started with— super simple— podcast plus lead magnet.

Amelia [00:15:51] Once I had built that trust, I knew it was important to start figuring out my offering. So, when did that kind of shift? I would say after I had made sort of the first five or six episodes, I was getting great feedback from people. I was hearing from peers and friends that they really loved the show. I knew I had found a really good, like, content and community fit, and so it was time to start figuring out what else that community needed and how I could support them with a paid offering.

Amelia [00:16:20] Because again, I didn't just want to keep making content forever and burn myself out and then bail on the show. I wanted to do something that was really sustainable for me. So, where did I go from podcast plus lead magnet?

Amelia [00:16:32] Well, the first place I went was a big failure [laughs], so let me tell you about it. As I was creating Season One, it was a lot of work. Like, I was launching a new show. I was working so hard to tell people about it. I was running my business and this podcast was just, like, a small piece of my business or honestly, kind of even, like, a side thing to my business that I was also in the first year of running, so I didn't have much extra energy to give to Off the Grid at all.

Amelia [00:17:04] And at that point when I was looking at my capacity, my thought was, “If I'm going to build an offer on top of everything I'm already doing, I need to feel really well compensated for my time. I can't go out here with some, you know, like $29 offering because I'm tired [laughs wearily] and I don't have the energy to build that to, you know, sell it to like ten people,” because I didn't even have 100 people listening to the show at that point.

Amelia [00:17:25] So, I was like, "That sort of model is not going to work for me. Maybe I should go, like, super one-on-one high-price intensive work with somebody and try that." Enter the VIP Day. I feel like this needs a sparkly sound effect or something [laughs and a twinkly, sparkly sound effect plays].

Amelia [00:17:41] If you're familiar with the VIP Days or if you're not, VIP Days are a common online business model where you offer a high-value service that you do with or for someone in one day and they are quote unquote supposed to cost more than $1,000. So, the formula there is minimal time commitment and maximal money is a VIP Day. Like, they get sort of pitched as, like, work four days a month and make five grand and you've got, like, a great business and you only worked four days. That's, like, the pitch for them, which sounds great, right? I was like, "Love it [laughs]. I would love to work four days a month and make $5,000 a month just for this."

Amelia [00:18:20] So I was like, "Okay, I'll try that here." So, I created a Leaving Social Media VIP Day. I made it. I announced it on the podcast, I sent it to the mailing list I created from the Leaving Social Media Toolkit, and I also shared it in a free workshop that I was doing for the Holisticism community. You might have heard me talk about before, or you might have heard me on their podcast, and that's why you're here. Thanks.

Amelia [00:18:44] So, I made it. I did those things and the response was crickets. Insert crickets sound effect here [laughs and cricket sound effect plays]. Like, literally it got, like, ten clicks to the page. Not one inquiry. And that was after putting it in front of a few hundred people. So, like, I had a decent sample size from the mailing list and the workshop and the podcast announcement. Nobody was interested. It was a failure. It failed. And that was a huge bummer. Like, not going to lie. I was bummed. I was like, "Huh, nobody wants this [laughs wearily]."

Amelia [00:19:19] And at that point, it was really tempting to just bail, right? To just be like, "Nobody wants this. Nobody thinks what I'm doing is important. I'm out. I'm tired, and I'm out."

Amelia [00:19:30] I have definitely gone through that spiral before. I have been there. I have bailed on the thing. I have not bailed on the thing. And I think the mindset I brought to this, like, instead of doing that, I put on what I like to call my— I put on my business babe pants [chuckles], and I was like, in business, we try again because things fail and we got to figure it out because we got to make some money— because we got to support ourselves and our family [laughs].

Amelia [00:19:54] So, anyway, I put on my business babe pants and I was like, "Well, that experiment failed onto the next one." I guess they could also be like— could be like my cool scientist lab coat. Put on my lab coat and I was like, "On to the next experiment. Something is going to work. That didn't work. Something else will work."

Amelia [00:20:12] So, what came next? Remember that free Holisticism workshop I just mentioned where I shared the VIP Day and no one cared about it? Well, that offer failed. But what I learned from that workshop is that I remembered that I love teaching live. I taught at a university for five years, like, I love [chuckles] teaching live with people, like, in the— well, IRL or virtual classroom. I love when I get to share that space and answer questions. You even heard me earlier this episode, right? Be like, "This is where I would pause for questions."

Amelia [00:20:45] I love that interactive-ness and it's one of my special skills. It's something I'm really good at, and I've learned that about myself over the past decade. So, I decided that I can do that through Off the Grid. Like, why was I trying to offer a VIP Day that I'd never done before, that I felt kind of unsure about, instead of leaning into something that I, like, tried and true, I love doing it and I'm really good at it.

Amelia [00:21:09] I learned that lesson over and over and over and over again in my business [laughs]. So— so, you know, you're hearing this, and you're like, "Oh, yeah, I should do that, too." Like, same. I'm still— I still learn it all the time.

Amelia [00:21:20] So, from that workshop, I learned that I should teach a live workshop or workshop series for the Off the Grid community. I would love it. They would love it. It would be great. Enter The Refresh.

Amelia [00:21:30] The Refresh was a three-day workshop series that I hosted in August of 2022, where I gathered a few dozen small business owners and I taught business fundamentals through a leaving social media lens.

Amelia [00:21:43] We did three days. The first day was clearing the fear of leaving social media and doing business differently.

Amelia [00:21:49] The second day was weaving the web of your core offers, core channels, and core community. What I think are the three fundamental pillars of your business.

Amelia [00:21:57] And the third day was mapping your business ecosystem, where you connect all of that together and you can learn where you can build better connections and really integrate that web and make it beautiful and wonderful and amazing.

Amelia [00:22:12] We did all that in three days and it was awesome. There was, like, a really cool online community. People loved it. I got such good feedback. Like, it was an amazing experience for myself and the people involved and it made money. That workshop series made just under $2,000. I felt like it was an amazing success.

Amelia [00:22:30] So, now I have a formula [laughs] — like I have something that has worked. I didn't— a failed experiment and a successful experiment. So, I know that this workshop series serves what the people who love Off the Grid need. So, I'm working with that information now. So, what came next from there?

Amelia [00:22:45] Well, two things came next. One thing was I decided to turn those materials into a self-guided mini-course. I had just created these presentations and Notion workbooks, and I knew that I wanted to keep selling them, but also, I wasn't going to offer The Refresh again for at least a year. So, I was like, "How do I keep selling this? I can turn it into a self-guided thing that people can just buy online."

Amelia [00:23:08] This is me experimenting with a more passive sort of income, right, where I sell it on the podcast, but I'm not actively pushing it and we just see what people buy it. So, that became Business Success Without Social Media, which is my self-guided mini-course that you've heard me talk about on the podcast.

Amelia [00:23:26] I share it here on the pod and I share it in the nurture sequence that follows the Leaving Social Media Toolkit. I put that out right after I finished The Refresh. I actually gave it to all The Refresh participants for free. They could have free access to this if they wanted the self-guided version.

Amelia [00:23:41] And then, I sold it to the mailing list on the podcast and now in the nurture sequence. And from that, I made about $800 since I put that on sale. So, that was one thing that came after The Refresh, like, the workshop series turned into a mini-course.

Amelia [00:23:55] The other thing was coaching. So, as I wrapped up The Refresh, one of the participants reached out to ask if I ever did any coaching because she wanted to work with me one-on-one and I had not done any at that point [laughs], but I decided to say yes.

Amelia [00:24:09] So, I built a coaching package for her. Shout out to Maureen. You're the best. Always so grateful to be [laughs lightly] working with you. Like, could not love you more. Also, she has a community called the Restorative Care Collective. Go check it out, listeners. It's amazing.

Amelia [00:24:24] I built a coaching package for her and I decided to offer it to all of The Refresh participants. I was like, "If she wants to go deeper after this experience, maybe other people do too." And two people signed up, so I did coaching with the three of them last fall, and it was a blast. Like, I loved it and we had such a good time.

Amelia [00:24:41] It was a three-month coaching package. It was 999 for the whole package. I got to gain some coaching experience. They all got supported in launching really beautiful new offerings for their businesses and it was a blast. Have I said that enough times for you to believe that it was a blast [laughs]?

Amelia [00:24:56] At the end of that, so, like, late 2022, I got both an email from someone else looking for business coaching and a message from Maureen asking if I was open to extending the package. So, all signs were pointing to continuing business coaching. And so, I did.

Amelia [00:25:15] I created a quick sales page for business coaching with me, and I sent it to those folks who had asked about it, obviously, and everyone who'd taken or paid for Business Success Without Social Media. I figured that group of people is already in my ecosystem. They already get how I think about business and they're exactly who I want to go deeper with.

Amelia [00:25:35] So, I sent it to that list, and two people wanted to do it. So, those sessions and The Refresh coaching packages, all of that coaching have brought in just under or just over— I can't remember which, but around $5,000. And all of that has come from hosting Off the Grid. All of it has come from this podcast and the community that I've built around it and folks who have wanted to go deeper into this work.

Amelia [00:25:57] It's been really beautiful. Like, when I wrote all this out, I honestly, like, teared up a little bit. It felt very, like, divine, and I think some of it really does come from me working with my Human Design. So, as a generator, my strategy is to respond. And with this podcast, I've been responding at every moment.

Amelia [00:26:17] Like, even launching Off the Grid was responding to a few people who reached out to say, “I read your list of 100 Ways to Share Your Work Off Social Media. I saw it on your website. I read it. I loved it. Will you make more content around this?”

Amelia [00:26:28] And so, I said yes and I made Off the Grid. And then, Holisticism invited me to teach that free workshop. And I said, "Yes." And I remembered I loved teaching live workshops. And then, someone asked me to do coaching, and I said yes. And it was amazing.

Amelia [00:26:41] Like, it's all come from saying yes to these opportunities, which as a generator is a really good strategy for me, works well for me. If none of that makes sense to you, you're like W-T-F is Human Design [laughs]. We will have a Human Design episode on the show soon, I promise [sound blast transition].

Amelia [00:26:58] So, so far I've told you how much money I've made from this show, how big the audience is, and kind of the journey of the strategy when I first started and the strategy now. So, let me give you a couple of takeaways to wrap this up. There are maybe, let's say, three things that I hope you take away from all this.

Amelia [00:27:18] Number one is how I aligned my content and my offerings. Through Off the Grid, I cultivated an audience of folks who want to leave social media. I told them my best practices for leaving social media and finding business success without it.

Amelia [00:27:35] And then, I sold them workshops, courses, and coaching to implement those solutions. Like, the audience, the free content, and the paid content are all super aligned, and I think that's really important.

Amelia [00:27:48] Too often I see folks, including some of my beloved clients [laughs softly], create amazing podcasts or newsletters, and they're making this content and it's beautiful and wonderful.

Amelia [00:28:00] And then, when they have a paid offering— when they launch their first paid offering, it's only tangentially related to what their podcast or newsletter is about. And that doesn't mean it won't sell. Like, often the people who are there, like, really love your work and, like, vibe with it and will want sort of like— they want anything you're selling approach.

Amelia [00:28:21] I definitely have creators that I'm like that with. I'm, like, "Literally anything you put on sale, I will buy," but it's going to be a lot harder to get folks to, kind of, take that step with you and pay you for something if they don't see a really clear path from what you've been sharing with them through your free content and then what your paid offering is.

Amelia [00:28:39] And let me tell you, like, I [chuckles] have been this person, this is not me critiquing you. This is me learning from the past. So, you know, past me, had a newsletter where I wrote really lovely personal essays about all sorts of things.

Amelia [00:28:55] And then, all of a sudden, I was like, "Oh, I want to sell a selfies course to this newsletter [laughs softly]." And people definitely reached out and were like, "This is cool, but like, do we care about selfies now? Like, is this a thing [laughs]?"

Amelia [00:29:06] It was a little confusing for them. The people who were on my Instagram and saw me posting selfies all the time, they saw the selfies course and they were like, "Oh yeah, you do post those all the time and I do want to figure out how that's a radical self-love practice. Cool. I'm signing up."

Amelia [00:29:20] Right? So, for me, that was an instance of like, "Oh, I've cultivated kind of different audiences here. And one— like there's one for whom this course is super-aligned and one for whom it's kind of not, right?"

Amelia [00:29:29] So, that's one thing I really want everyone to take away from this. Like, selling is a lot easier when you've aligned your content and your offerings.

Amelia [00:29:39] The other thing that— that can happen in this instance— I said one thing I see is like there's, like, a misalignment there. Another thing that can happen is sometimes we create a really aligned offer, but it's too big a leap, an investment. Like, that's my diagnosis of why my first VIP Day idea failed. Like, it was way too big a leap from free podcast and lead magnet to $1,000 day with me. That's such a huge step [laughs].

Amelia [00:30:04] If you listened to the last episode on Pinterest, this was my same diagnosis of why Pinterest didn't work for me. It's like I was asking people to go from free to really expensive. Like, lots of people pay me for my podcast services, but it's not the same ones who just want the free stuff from me.

Amelia [00:30:20] And similarly, I think the audience I was cultivating with Off the Grid was not an audience of folks who desired to pay a lot of money for one-on-one support leaving social media. Like, it's definitely an audience of folks who are interested in doing business differently, want a sort of low-cost offer to think that through, and then once they come into that and really trust me more, are willing to spend a lot more money on one-on-one support.

Amelia [00:30:44] So, takeaway number one is align your content and your offerings. This will help you not fall into the content marketing abyss that I talked about a lot in, "Ten Things I Hate About Content Marketing," episode.

Amelia [00:30:59] Number two— takeaway number two is all about, like, how I was willing to experiment when my first idea failed. Again, I put on my business babe pants, I put on my cool scientist lab coat.

Amelia [00:31:11] Another thing I see too often is that when one idea fails, we give up on the whole thing. And I get it. Like, it's exhausting to put something out there. And when it doesn't do well, it can be so demoralizing and, like, take some time, rest, recoup, lick your wounds. Like, that's very real. I'm not saying you just need to be constantly selling things all the time until something works. It can be slow, it can be a process, it can be gentle. But we have to keep going.

Amelia [00:31:39] Like, your work is too important. I believe that. Whoever you are listening to this, your work is too important to give up on it when one offering fails. So, if one idea fails, try, try again. And if the next one fails, try, try again, again [laughs].

Amelia [00:31:56] And if that's not working, then I would suggest try asking your audience, like, what do they want? Why didn't they buy this thing? What would they love to see from you? You know, remember that you don't have to just function in the vacuum of producing your own work. There is an audience, a community for this. If you're trying to sell it to other people, who are those people? How can you connect with them and ask them what they might desire?

Amelia [00:32:19] Or you want to be really brave, ask them why they didn't buy it, and get that honest feedback. So, take away number two. Try, try again [laughs]. Experiment even through and beyond failure.

Amelia [00:32:32] Takeaway number three is to take away how I promote free things. I really haven't mentioned this one yet, so [chuckles softly] we're going to add in a new— brand new takeaway at the very end. But something I think is important about growing an audience like this is that when you're just beginning— when you're just getting started— when you're in growth mode, it's important to get out there and sell the free thing.

Amelia [00:32:56] When I was launching Off the Grid, I also did a lot of other things to grow the audience. Like, I was marketing this podcast, even though it was a totally free thing. I did free workshops for other folks' communities. I did podcast interviews on other podcasts about leaving social media. I ran a giveaway during Season One to encourage folks to spread the word about the show. You know, I'm still doing a lot of those things, and I would say the show is still in growth mode.

Amelia [00:33:22] And I think the important thing is you don't have to be in growth mode forever. You have likely heard my, "Ten Things I Hate About Content Marketing," that is selling free things forever. I want you to have an offering eventually. But when you're brand new, when there's no audience or very small audience there, we really need to cultivate that trust. This is the magic of content marketing, where we can offer something that is valuable and keep selling it, selling it, pushing it, pushing it.

Amelia [00:33:49] Be your own PR person, be your own marketer for the content that you're making, for what you're creating. And then, as you grow, you can move more and more into maintenance mode. You know, it's, like, getting that momentum. As the momentum builds, you will likely not have to do as much to be promoting or selling the free thing you're making.

Amelia [00:34:08] You'll get to sell the paid offering and then even the momentum will grow for that. And it will, in my experience, it can become easier and easier. It ebbs and flows. It's still hard sometimes, but I think that it's important to remember that when you're just launching, you're going to have to promote the thing. You're going to have to do the content marketing. That's what it's good for [laughs softly], growing that audience and building that trust. And then, we just never forget to sell the offerings [sound blast transition].

Amelia [00:34:32] So, let me recap how the strategy has evolved over time and these takeaways. I started with a podcast and a lead magnet. Then, I had a podcast and a lead magnet and some email updates that I would send when new episodes came out. Then, I had a podcast and a lead magnet and email updates and a workshop. Then, I had all that and coaching. And now, I have a podcast, a lead magnet, nurture sequence, email updates, a mini-course, and coaching [laughs].

Amelia [00:35:02] It's kind of a lot. Like, I hear that as I'm saying it, I'm like, "Wow, this is a lot of things." But because it's a line, I'm hoping as you experience it, it actually feels just, like, really supportive and good, right?

Amelia [00:35:16] You're listening to the show. Maybe you've downloaded the Leaving Social Media Toolkit. Maybe you got the three emails that came after it. Maybe you're really glad that I send emails when new episodes come out so you remember to tune back in and maybe then you consider purchasing the mini-course and eventually becoming a coaching client.

Amelia [00:35:32] I want that to feel really supportive and if it's not for you, cool. You don't have to buy anything from me. I'm here from a resourced and radically generous place, offering this support and advice for free because this strategy allows me to bring in the funds that keep me resourced so I can do it.

Amelia [00:35:52] Now, the three take takeaways for that whole strategy [laughs softly]. Three takeaways from this episode were align your content in your offerings, experiment— try, try again when those things fail, and don't forget to be promoting your free things in the growth stage.

Amelia [00:36:10] [Sighs deeply] Anybody else need to take a deep breath. I need to take a deep breath, let's take a deep breath, y'all [laughs]. So, let's go ahead and inhale together [inhales]. And exhale together [exhales deeply].

Amelia [00:36:25] I think sometimes I— me— Amelia Hruby personally can make things look pretty easy when there's actually a lot of effort behind the scenes involved. And as I just talked through this whole episode, I definitely felt that, like, this was a lot of work.

Amelia [00:36:43] Making this show look so aligned and smooth and clear. It's a lot of work, but that work did not happen all at once. That strategy evolved over the course of a year and I was making money throughout the process.

Amelia [00:37:02] Again, that's not the end all, be all of it. I understand you might do all this just to have a beautiful offering. That's amazing. But making money has made it easier for me to cultivate the capacity to keep doing the work. And that's been important.

Amelia [00:37:16] So, if you would like to build your own strategy like this, I would love to help you [laughs]. This right here becomes the first time that I will share my coaching offerings publicly. So, thanks for listening.

Amelia [00:37:32] If you'd like to work together— if you would like to have a podcast that's bringing in money through aligned offerings the way that mine is, your first step is to buy the Business Success Without Social Media course [chuckles] now.

Amelia [00:37:46] It doesn't matter if you want to leave social media or not, that mini-course will teach you my business foundations. It's kind of where I share my approach to business fundamentals. And right now, if you're listening to this, when it comes out, it's a self-guided course and it's only a $44 investment.

Amelia [00:38:03] You'll have to move through that course first. And then, if you like it, you will probably love coaching with me. I think of it as an inexpensive way for both of us to see if we're a good fit. And if we are, then I'd love to coach you. And if we're not, then you spent less than 50 bucks and it's cool.

Amelia [00:38:20] If you're listening to us in the future and you're like, "Amelia, Business Success Without Social Media is not for sale right now. I would like to work with you [laughs]." Well, that might be because I'm currently registering for The Refresh, so you can sign up for The Refresh. Come do the live edition, get to know me, come hang, and then we can move into coaching.

Amelia [00:38:36] Or it might be because I'm in a different place and I'm just offering coaching more generally. Either way, you can check out the show notes, go see what's there. All the links will be there and we can figure out if we're a good match to work together.

Amelia [00:38:49] This has been so fun to talk through. I hope you enjoyed listening to this episode. If you did, I would love if you would go download the Leaving Social Media Toolkit so I can send you some emails. If you've already done that, I would love if you would give the podcast a five-star rating in Apple or Spotify. Leave us a really kind review on either of those platforms as well. I'd appreciate it.

Amelia [00:39:10] I will be back next week [outro music begins to play] with another episode continuing Season Two of Off the Grid. And until then, my friends, I'll see ya off the grid.

Amelia [00:39:29] [Music continues to play] Thanks for listening to Off the Grid. Find links and resources in the show notes and don't forget to grab your free Leaving Social Media Toolkit at softersounds.studio/byeig. That's softersounds dot studio slash b-y-e-i-g.

Amelia [00:39:44] This podcast is a Softer Sounds production. Our music is by Purple Planet and our logo is by n'atelier Studio.

Amelia [00:39:52] If you'd like to make a podcast of your own, we'd love to help. Find more about our services at softersounds.studio. Until next time, we'll see you off the grid [music fades out].