Sarah St. John is an entrepreneur, podcaster, author, animal lover, and world traveler. Her goal is to show people how to launch and manage an online business on a budget. https://www.thesarahstjohn.com/about/
Employee to Entrepreneur to Podcaster
Sarah started her entrepreneurial journey back in 2008. She decided that she wanted to work for herself and realized that she liked taking photos of architectural landscapes and animals. She didn't like taking photos of people. But that's where the money was, so was doing portraits and weddings. Over time, she decided to do something online. She tried different things like drop shipping, affiliate, marketing, and all these different things. But it was in the process of trying these different things, she discovered many free or affordable tools and resources that can help you run a business on a budget.
Sarah got the idea to write a book called FrugalPreneur, where she would talk about the different types of online businesses and how you can run them affordably.She decided to start a short-term podcast to coincide with the book.
Sarah realized she was getting more traction leverage from the podcast than the book. So she kept doing podcasts and like just basically fell in love with the medium and the connections I was making.
As she kept podcasting, other people told her that she is pretty good at it. She figured why not get paid to do it for other people? That was the moment Sarah decided to launch a podcast production agency.
Using Giveaways Strategically
Every month Sarah does a new giveaway on her podcast. Most often, the prize is a book that her audience would enjoy. She uses the same url each month, thesarahstjohn.com/giveaway and uses a free tool called King Sumo for the giveaway.
Sarah shares that it is important to giveaway something that's relevant to your audience. For example, if you were to give away an iPhone, well, everyone is going to want that. But as soon as the giveaway is over, like probably 99% of the people who signed up for the prize are going to drop off. So it really helps to giveaway something that your audience would actually like.
What Podcast Production Looks Like
A lot of people might want to start a podcast, or they're thinking about starting a podcast. But many people may find it overwhelming due to technology and the post-production. So when Sarah is working with clients, the client records their podcast episode and then sends it to her. Sarah then does the editing, producing and the mixing.
She then uses a service called Chartable To track podcast statistics. This service gives more information than most other podcast services and then each month she sends a report to each client.
Why Podcasting Is Important For Business
Podcasting is great because it's a way to get your content out there. And Google transcribes podcasts now. So even if you're searching for something in Google, it's a possibility that a podcast might show up. Of course, every podcast directory is a search engine too. In addition, podcasting has a shareability or viral aspect to it, because people will actually share podcast episodes.
When you interview guests or being a guest on someone else’s podcast, you're getting access to that person's audience and you can cross promote. You're reaching people you wouldn't otherwise. Sarah also says that she thinks podcasting is only going to continue to grow and get bigger. In the same way every business needs a website, Sarah says that every business is going to need a podcast at some point. A podcast can act as a business card, but it also forms relationships. You get to know the person, and people do business with people that they know, like and trust.
Consider These Things When Starting A Podcast
It is important to niche down as much as you can. For example, Sarah’s Frugalpreneur podcast is about entrepreneurship, which is broad, but it's about building a business on a bootstrapped budget. And so it's very niche in that regard. You don’t want to create something that is too vague or general. In addition, don’t overlook the importance of podcast cover art. You want it to look clear and professional. The cover art is how your audience will find out about your show, so make sure it looks good.
