The 5Ps Framework for Creating Binge-worthy Podcast Content | Karen Roberts
May 08, 2024
Dylan Williams
#024: Karen Roberts is the CEO of Podcast Profits Limited, a company specializing in assisting individuals with podcast setup and production. With a strong background in coaching, Karen offers valuable insights into the strategies for generating consistent income through podcasting. Her expertise extends to structuring podcast content to attract ideal clients, nurturing listener relationships, and effectively monetizing podcasting efforts. With her practical approach and in-depth understanding of the podcasting landscape, Karen serves as a reliable resource for podcast hosts and creators looking to establish a sustainable and profitable presence in the industry.
00:00:00 - Income Variability 00:02:25 - Diversified Income Streams 00:05:13 - Content Creation Strategy 00:11:34 - Audience Engagement and Monetization 00:15:35 - Authenticity and Trust 00:16:21 - Achieving 10,000 Downloads 00:17:20 - Strategies for Growing a Podcast 00:20:26 - Driving Engagement 00:22:45 - Streamlining Guest Promotion 00:28:03 - Podcast Profits Unleashed
Past Guests: Chandler Saine, Daniel Martinez, Stratton Brown, Lee Maasen, Nico Lagan, Daniel Roman,Tim Branyan, David Van Beekum, Nick Hutchison, Deirdre Tshein, Sanchez Zehcnas, Christina Lopez, Keigan Carthy, Hemant Varshney, Taniela Fiefia, Jennifer Blake, Nicki Sciberras, John Chan
#024: Karen Roberts is the CEO of Podcast Profits Limited, a company specializing in assisting individuals with podcast setup and production. With a strong background in coaching, Karen offers valuable insights into the strategies for generating consistent income through podcasting. Her expertise extends to structuring podcast content to attract ideal clients, nurturing listener relationships, and effectively monetizing podcasting efforts. With her practical approach and in-depth understanding of the podcasting landscape, Karen serves as a reliable resource for podcast hosts and creators looking to establish a sustainable and profitable presence in the industry.
00:00:00 - Income Variability 00:02:25 - Diversified Income Streams 00:05:13 - Content Creation Strategy 00:11:34 - Audience Engagement and Monetization 00:15:35 - Authenticity and Trust 00:16:21 - Achieving 10,000 Downloads 00:17:20 - Strategies for Growing a Podcast 00:20:26 - Driving Engagement 00:22:45 - Streamlining Guest Promotion 00:28:03 - Podcast Profits Unleashed
Past Guests: Chandler Saine, Daniel Martinez, Stratton Brown, Lee Maasen, Nico Lagan, Daniel Roman,Tim Branyan, David Van Beekum, Nick Hutchison, Deirdre Tshein, Sanchez Zehcnas, Christina Lopez, Keigan Carthy, Hemant Varshney, Taniela Fiefia, Jennifer Blake, Nicki Sciberras, John Chan
Track 1:
Karen, how much money do you make?
karen-roberts_1_03-20-2024_182648:
Oh, it can vary. I would love it to be a consistent every single month, but it really can vary from anything between five and 10 K month. ideally, I think like everybody wants to have some kind of consistency, which can be a little bit, frustrating or You can get a little bit panicky if you're not on target, but, I'd be lying if I would, if I could say that, yeah, we can just sit back now and have a consistent load guaranteed load coming in every month. So yes, it does vary quite
Track 1:
I love the transparency. I love it. so how do you do it?
karen-roberts_1_03-20-2024_182648:
a few different ways. I've got to be honest. So primarily I'm the CEO of Podcast Profits Limited. And what we do is we help people. We don't just help. We do it. We set people up with their own podcast. We do a little bit of podcast production services, a post production work. I run a coaching program with a business partner. So that's across sort of everything. It's not down to one thing. Plus, there's a few sort of side hustles as in. Yeah, now we've built our podcast. Yeah, I get paid just for showing up, nothing I can retire on yet. then a few sort of affiliates, affiliate things, because, there's, as launching a podcast, there are so many tools out there. Yeah, there are tools that we recommend that, we'll get a little bit of a kickback, might be able to buy a cup of coffee with some of them and others a little bit more. So it's a little bit varied, if I'm honest.
Track 1:
yeah. I, I launched a podcast and I didn't do it for the money. I did it, just to build connections and everything like that. But with no intentions to making money right now, we just started in December of last year. I actually just got a commission check. I think last month, the first money that I didn't even know, I was For, affiliate links and, granted it was only a hundred bucks, in two months I made a hundred bucks. I was like, huh, that's cool. I didn't do anything. I was just doing what I needed to do. So that was pretty cool. pre precost stuff on that end. So
karen-roberts_1_03-20-2024_182648:
Yeah. anything, all of these things, because they will be consistent, You, at least now you can see where this can go. If you've only been going since December and trust me, there are many people that aren't even doing that. give yourself a pat on the back.
Track 1:
yeah, what do they say? It's like when people start podcast, all you need to do, you'd be in the top, like 10 percent or so, if you just produce 21 episodes, I want to say.
karen-roberts_1_03-20-2024_182648:
Wow.
Track 1:
like that.
karen-roberts_1_03-20-2024_182648:
didn't even
Track 1:
Yeah.
karen-roberts_1_03-20-2024_182648:
stats. but the truth is that many don't actually make it past the first 10 episodes. And even with us, when I took this on, I took, actually took on a whole radio station, a digital radio station, and then I created a podcast network. So I thought it was great because I had this idea because I was interviewing so many coaches. Consultants, therapists, healers, from the conventional to the more woo. And I found, you know what, none of you lot are in competition. Why don't we collaborate more? I had this idea of creating some form of directory for the public to come and find the right fit for them. some people, they might think they need a business coach, but actually maybe they need to deal with some money blocks or deal with some. a child work or all this stuff that maybe some people have never heard of. And literally 10 days after I had this sort of aha moment, the owner of the radio station that I had my weekly 60 minute show on said, I'm packing it in at the end of your contract, do you want it? And I went, Hey, yeah. And I had a platform then for other coaches to go and get their message out there to the people who need to hear it. But I would say I failed because just providing a platform was not enough. If people don't
Track 1:
Yep.
karen-roberts_1_03-20-2024_182648:
a clear strategy and a process, and they don't have the full understanding of what they're doing. It needs to be done because there's a little bit more than just speaking into a mic. They were giving up. They were giving up. Some gave up after just three episodes. They got overwhelmed with it all. And I'll be honest, there's a few that signed up that never ever published because they thought it was a good idea. They wanted to launch. And then they. Okay. Got overwhelmed with what needs to be done, overthought everything and talked themselves out of it. that's what we felt we needed to fix.
Track 1:
Somebody there to hold your hand to get it through to the next step. And that's what we all need. Break down like a customer journey. Tell me what it's like, what somebody, when they come in, what are they going to get?
karen-roberts_1_03-20-2024_182648:
So with us, like we have quite a simple, and this is what we teach. We say there are four steps. Step number one. Yes. You've got to prep. if you have your podcast alignment with your vision and your purpose, Because we didn't write me like you said earlier, I started this out of lockdown. I'd put on an online summit, had 20 coaches and I just loved it because I'm genuinely interested in why they're doing what they're doing how, what inspired them to do what they were doing. And I was offered a weekly radio slot and I just said, yes, I'm there was no plan, there was no strategy, and I just thought, I'll figure it out as I go. I, it was, my whole business, the problem with that was, it was very disjointed. My, my podcast was called A Coffee with Karen, a cup of positivity with just a sprinkling of woo. I thought it was a cool name, but did it? Really showcase what it is we did. I didn't know what I was going to do in the beginning. So no. So what we say is ideally your podcast to be in alignment with whatever your giveaway is and whatever your signature, if you're a coach, your signature online program, so it's crystal clear to the listener. So now our podcast is called. The podcast profits unleashed podcast, is in sync with the website, with our workshops, with everything. So it's crystal clear. So our step one, once obviously you've got to think of a name and it's, it needs to be in alignment. all about how to structure. The content that you create for your podcast in a way that's actually going to attract your ideal client or even create them because again, that people don't know what they don't know, right? So if they're listening to your content bit by bit, they may become a client and how we share how to structure it is so many people will say, I don't know. I'm a mindset coach. I'm a financial coach. I'm a this coach, but that doesn't really exactly what you do. So we say, think about what is the big promise. that you offer people after working with you. Nobody cares what it is you do, unfortunately. They don't care what you do. They don't care what your title is. They care what's in it for them. So for me, like people would be bored if I explained what it is I do. I'm sure you know this, post, Post podcast productions, pretty dull. They don't want to hear that. so what
Track 1:
Yeah.
karen-roberts_1_03-20-2024_182648:
is I help coaches and experts get their time back whilst scaling their business and having fun through podcasting. That's the big promise. All the little bits that we do along the way is actually really boring. So we say when you're creating your content, that's the initial thing. And so I call this the five Ps. First P, frame. Like you set up the podcast. What's coming? Who's your guest? you going to be talking about? To hook people in to listen to the whole podcast. second P is the promise. What is your big promise? What's the end result that you are offering if they come and work with you? The third P stands for the process. So because there might be many different mindset coaches out there, many different financial coaches. So what sets you apart from the other guys? What's your process? And I suppose that's what I'm sharing with you here. The fourth P stands for paradigm shift. Because as we've just said, or as I've just said, many get overwhelmed. Even if they want to start podcasts, they think it might be a great idea. And then they get overwhelmed with everything that they need to think about and they talk themselves out of it. in your content on your podcast, me, I can talk about those kinds of things about people being overwhelmed and how we help them overcome that so that we shift the belief in the listener. To, okay, if they're having those internal limiting beliefs, I've demonstrated how we help people get over that. make sense? Then there are other things that would stop people like time, So again, we might discuss throughout the podcast about overcoming those objections. And then finally proceed. That's a fifth P. What should the listeners do next? Now, I don't know about you, but when I interview guests. I get to that stage, What should the listeners do next? They wanna give everybody their Facebook link, their LinkedIn, their Insta overwhelm. When there's confusion or overwhelm, nothing gets done. And how do you even know that someone's gonna go and check you out on LinkedIn? So we say you just wanna give them, you're not trying to sell anything on your podcast, but what would be the next logical step for the listener to take? So that's the content process. So that's the number one, you want to create content. That's going to attract your ideal client covering all that I've just shared the five P's, right? Because the idea is that you start to shift belief in the listener and for them to think, actually, was feeling like that once to start a podcast thinking, Oh, is too much going on. Oh, Karen's actually how easy her process is. Oh, maybe I will take that next step. Right. that's the first part in completion. The second part is okay. Now you've done that. How do you turn the listener into the lead? Because you want to bring them into your world. And as I've said, not via your social media platforms, bring them into your world so that you can nurture the relationship, whether you have a free community on Facebook, maybe Facebook group, but primarily get them on your email list. Because we have no control over social media, only assets are your website, your email list, and your podcasts. That's what you own. So you want to bring them into your list. And what we recommend is rather than, because again, people might not like to hear this, but nobody wants a workbook or a cheat sheet. Or a download. And there's too many steps far better to give them an immersive experience, audio course, video course, something they can binge actually gives them a result because so many people want to hold back good stuff, but the best way to show that you can help someone. Is to actually help them. Sounds obvious. So that's
Track 1:
Give everything away for free.
karen-roberts_1_03-20-2024_182648:
Yeah. them into your world so that you can nurture the relationship. Step three, is okay. How are you going to monetize it? So yes, once they're in your world. What we recommend is bringing them into some form of monthly recurring revenue package, whether it's a group coaching or where you just meet once a week, once a month, whatever that looks like. That's going to help them a little bit more. And actually, I don't know about you, how you run your business, but for me, I used to run a load of discovery calls with people who weren't a good fit, right? Draining, exhausting. And if somebody comes in on a call, they're a little bit anxious maybe because they don't want to be sold to. And it's your job to move them to a place of absolute certainty that you have the solution to their problem. And that's difficult to do if it's a 15 minute call or even a 45 minute call. And most people want to go on how amazing they are and might want to try and motivate them along, but you might install more fear, right? Whereas
Track 1:
them, yeah. Is
karen-roberts_1_03-20-2024_182648:
is. Why not bring them in to another immersive experience, like a, a monthly zoom note. I'm not talking about a webinar. Yeah, no slides. Don't need for that. Just show up and serve who's in the room. A deep dive into what it is you do so that you're demonstrating exactly how you can help. Then you have the option to sell one to many.
Track 1:
that the community aspect of that? Yeah.
karen-roberts_1_03-20-2024_182648:
that can be, that, that's part of the community. I would say, it's, there are other ways and Facebook groups, there's lots of other tools out there that you can use to create community, but I think that's what people are, that's what they want these days. Yeah. The way I see it is, You can scroll, you're scrolling through social media and with all the tools that are available, AI can write a post, AI can create anything. In fact, AI could create a course.
Track 1:
Yeah. Thank
karen-roberts_1_03-20-2024_182648:
if you're turning up live and having this community, you get to show up as you, your authentic self. You're not following a script that AI has written, it's conversational, you're showing up and serving. I think the way things are going, people are going to want that more and more because you're building on the know, and trust factor. we talk about that a lot. Everyone, you've got to build the know, and trust factor. And the trouble with AI, it might be saving us time. However, I think, The no and trust factor is dropping because people are realizing that anybody could create those posts. And they might not
Track 1:
you.
Guys, real clear. Think about this. Share this episode with someone. It could create an ideal and you'd be responsible for that. You never know what opportunities that could create. All right, guys, I'll let y'all get back to it. Thank you.
karen-roberts_1_03-20-2024_182648:
what they're talking about, whereas if you turn up live on zoom and you're there to answer, off the, you've got to know your stuff, right? You're going to get caught out.
Track 1:
Oh, yeah.
karen-roberts_1_03-20-2024_182648:
Does that make sense?
Track 1:
No, for sure.
karen-roberts_1_03-20-2024_182648:
and then once you've got all that set, it's just a case of get out there and increase your downloads, increase the listeners, and you've got your whole ecosystem in place, filling your pipeline. Right.
Track 1:
you guarantee 10, 000 downloads. 10, 000 downloads is a lot to hit. I can attest to that. That's a lot for a new podcast. how are you getting that growth and ensuring that's hit?
karen-roberts_1_03-20-2024_182648:
can't take credit for that. It's our team. So we do use organic methods. So it will be down to, because every podcast is different. categories are different. The audience is different who they're, out there looking for. Because, and there's only so much, if you're on social media, that there's only so many posts a day, you can physically post one person. For different things. So we have a team it doesn't happen overnight. That can take six months. To get there, It's not our, because it is organic. then there are other strategies that we also, just because if we're getting that first bit, they've still got to continue. So we still have our strategies for growing the podcast, are mainly. Really on other podcasts, because, bit like what I said about the giveaway being an immersive experience, one thing, about people who are listening to your podcast is that they are consuming audio content. So if you have an audio course. video, because video is audio as well, rather than a cheat sheet or something like that. People are going to respond to that better. And then of course, if you want more listeners and more downloads, why not go to somebody who's ahead of you? Because their audience are consuming audio content and listening to podcasts. It makes sense. And look, I didn't get this myself. I didn't create this myself. This came from who was my original, he was my coach and brought my business into alignment because as I said, it was all over the place and he now actually is my partner with a podcast profit school. and this is what he teaches, And when I heard it, I was like, duh, why haven't I been doing this because I wasn't guesting. Everything was about my guest, not about me. And yet then I was going and doing other sales trainings and things on social media. It's duh, what have I been doing? Why am I not using my platform me? But as I said, it started out as a passion project, didn't really know what I was doing. I was just figuring it out. And now we have all the ecosystem in place and it's working, it's Oh my goodness. Now we can like. Bring that time in for people. And we say, yeah, go and guest, but also something that, you know, many I think miss, when they think about setting up their podcast and doing post podcast production, they might post it on social media, but blogging is just like in the way it's evergreen. And you can actually create very easily. Using AI. So that's where we do use AI saves us time from the transcription of a podcast. We can get it to create a blog post, create a hook sentence question to encourage people to listen then actually. Embed the episode directly into the blog post, rather than a link. Oh, go and check my podcast out. No, actually embed it so they can listen then and there. That will help increase your listeners and your downloads. And as I said, it's evergreen and it gives the, binge watch Netflix, don't they? Or they binge box sets. People do that with podcasts too,
Track 1:
Yeah.
karen-roberts_1_03-20-2024_182648:
if the content is right, if content is right,
Track 1:
Yeah. How do you engage the, or how do you create engagement? it's one thing to, have a show and it'd be good content, but how do you drive that engagement factor?
karen-roberts_1_03-20-2024_182648:
you've got to ask for it. See, so it's so funny. So many people say, Oh, how do I'm not getting any reviews. I'm like, have you asked? Yeah, people need to be told what to do and then they don't mind doing it. However, here's the thing. It's I speak to many hosts who say, they're going to give up doing interviews because their guests never promote their podcast, because I suppose the idea is that hopefully you're getting in front of other people's audiences, but people are busy. They don't mean it. They're not being malicious. They're not deliberately not promoting you, but if they're busy building their business, anyway, they've come to be a guest on your show. Quite often, once the recording's over, it's gone out of their head, but it's down to the host. You've got to keep the engagement up and many want, they want to avoid, it's like they're afraid to over communicate. It's do you know what? I want reminders, please. Otherwise, because I'm going to forget a host says this particular episode is airing then, And they give me the blurb for the new course, I'm going to send it out. So do the work for them. And don't expect your guest. To create social media post to create, they're not going to, what we do is we give it to them. We give it to them. There you go. We'll create stuff from the perspective of the guests, not from my perspective. So I'll create stuff for me from my perspective as the host. And then for my guests, I will also create some social media posts, blog post from their perspective, because I'm not expecting them to do it because they won't. And then I give it to them. So if they have a VA, their VA can deal with it. And again, reminding them a week before it airs here. Do you want to send this out? This blurb out for your newsletter. Or this email out and the day before send this out, make sure you're connected on social media platforms. I know I've done it or I've gone to promote the episode and then I can't even tag them because we're not even connected. it's all about prepping in advance, having a very clear strategy and process. And if you want reviews, something as simple as doing a screen share video on your phone of how to do a
Track 1:
Yeah.
karen-roberts_1_03-20-2024_182648:
because again, people are busy. how do I do? Oh, I can't. Oh, can't be bothered. not going to do it. Show them. Ask them. And even better, if you've done it for them, they're more likely to copy and paste. Because I don't know about you, I've been asked to give testimonials in the past. I think, oh, what am I don't know, I don't know what to write. I'll do it, but I haven't got time to think about what to write. why not give it to them? Give them as much as you can they're more likely to copy and paste.
Track 1:
That's a good idea. We send out a bunch of, so for instance, this episode right here, we'll. Create a bunch of content and create a bunch of rails, create all that. And we put it all in a shared Google drive folder for everybody to share as well. You did, you do it in a different, you do it for the guest side on that end. We just have a big mix of everything. We need to start splitting that up then. That's a really good point. And then only putting that stuff for them that they would be, that they would, that's
karen-roberts_1_03-20-2024_182648:
because they
Track 1:
perspective.
karen-roberts_1_03-20-2024_182648:
to use that verbiage it's about them, isn't it? It's about them, the guests. It just makes it easier. this is actually quite new to what we, we weren't doing that. We would like you to just do it. shoving it out there and expecting them to use it. But again, you learn as you go and you tweak as you go. And I now even say, days after it's aired. I say, on a live stream, I use StreamYard. It means they can connect two of their social media platforms. I can connect my social media platforms and we can say, look, we had a fantastic conversation the other day. Thank you so much for all that value you gave about XYZ. And guys, if you want to listen in. Put the link to the Apple podcast link or the Spotify podcast link, whichever is your biggest one, put it in the description and then that means you've got in front of their audience Before they've even created a post for you. So you, it's a double whammy and it's a
Track 1:
That's,
karen-roberts_1_03-20-2024_182648:
For the guest and the host. So it's got to be a two way street. I feel so many, maybe want to be a guest on my show when it's, they are leaving everything up to me.
Track 1:
you know, man, that's good. Yeah.
karen-roberts_1_03-20-2024_182648:
it's gotta be a two way street, It's gotta be a two way street.
Track 1:
And I'm thinking here too, as we talk of, some of the process changes we'll probably make right after this, just for, just because you mentioned that, that's really smart. If I, in, in thinking of as being a guest, even if somebody just gave me a big folder of a bunch of stuff, like I don't even want to go through all that stuff, but if it's, Hey, just copy and paste this is already created for you. Like it's already done for you. I'm more likely to do that then.
karen-roberts_1_03-20-2024_182648:
Yeah. Yeah. and I think it is the, I think many even with their business, they, they don't want to be spammy. They don't want to harass people, but we're busy. I need reminders. I have no problem. Cause I might've missed an email. I might have missed some notifications, some, there's so many different ways, aren't there, of communicating with people. It's very easy to lose track. So don't be afraid to over communicate. And then more likely they're going to want to reciprocate, because you have been, you've showed professionalism, you've, you've done the work. they're more likely To then promote it to their audience.
Track 1:
Yep. Karen, where's the one place somebody can go to find out more about you?
karen-roberts_1_03-20-2024_182648:
I would say for us, the next logical step, if anybody is about launching a podcast and wants to know a little bit more about how we work, because the thing, right? There isn't a one size fits all, our process might be very different to somebody else and it's You've got to find the right fit for you. There's no right or wrong. They're all great processes. So if you'd like to find a little bit more out about that process that we teach, then very simple podcast profits unleashed. And a short mini course where we dive into what I've shared there with you. And the thing is, all we do, the only thing we actually do is the implementation of that blueprint. Because you could read a book about what to do. You could go to YouTube and scroll through a ton of videos of what you should do. Make you take action. And so what we're all about is stop it guys. Let's just do it. So with implement implementing the blueprint, I actually co host the first episode, which would be you. your business. We do all the post production, everything that is needed. And on the implementation day, we go through the whole process from booking guests to getting them on to recording, to editing, to post production, to podcast promotion, everything so that you have a checklist, tick, tick. And then it's easy. Then there's no overwhelm. Cause if I told you all the steps, you'd be like, I haven't got time for this. But when we show you and we do it with you, it is okay, I could do this. I can do this.
Track 1:
Makes it a lot easier that way. Karen, I really appreciate you coming on today.
karen-roberts_1_03-20-2024_182648:
Thank you for, thank you for having me. See, I'm not used to being the guest. yes, this is a bit of a new experience for me. So thank you for having me.
Track 1:
Good. I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Hey, if you're still listening, hopefully you got some value out of this or amusement. Either way, I really appreciate you for listening. My goal with this podcast is to build something of value while also showing others that it's possible to do the same. And what I mean by that is, I'm not perfect at this. I fumble, I stutter, and I just want to show that it's okay. If you've been putting something off, This is me telling you to go for it. So I need your help in growing this and there's two main ways a podcast grows. One is through ratings and reviews and two is through word of mouth. So I can only do it with your help. If you can leave me a five star rating and review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify as well as post this to your social and it doesn't grow without you. Thank you. Talk to you all next week.
