Pathways with Amber Stitt

Unlocking the Secrets to Producing a Successful Podcast with Sarah St John

• Amber Stitt

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🎙️ In today’s episode of Pathways with Amber Stitt, we're thrilled to have the multi-talented Sarah St John join us. 

💸 Sarah, a passionate entrepreneur, podcaster, author, and educator, shares her journey of creating passive income strategies and achieving financial freedom. 

📈 From starting with a photography business to exploring online business models like affiliate marketing and dropshipping, Sarah's story is filled with insights and practical advice for aspiring entrepreneurs. 

🎤 Today's conversation is a deep dive into the world of podcasting, as Sarah reveals how her podcast "Frugalpreneur" gained traction, leading her to become a top 100 podcaster in the entrepreneurship category on Apple Podcasts. 

📻 Tune in to learn about the power of podcasting, how to efficiently run an online business on a budget, and the strategies Sarah uses to monetize her content. 

✍️ Whether you're interested in writing, podcasting, or building a virtual business, this episode is packed with valuable lessons and inspiration from Sarah's unique pathway.

📽️ To watch the video podcast: https://youtu.be/GWSBI4RdBQE 

🔗 To connect with Sarah St John:

📲 Sarah's Website: https://www.frugal.show

📲 Sarah's Latest Workshop: https://www.ampmyauthority.com

📖 Buy Sarah's Books: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Sarah-St-John/author/B07R8RGP3W?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_2&qid=1741887824&sr=8-2&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

🎧 Listen to Sarah's Podcasts: https://www.frugal.show/episodes

#pathwayswithamberstitt #Entrepreneurship #Podcasting #PassiveIncome #Frugalpreneur #PodcastTips #amberstitt #SarahStJohn #authorpreneur #podcastpreneur

📻 Thank you for tuning in to Pathways!

🔗 Connect with Amber on Social Media:

📲 Be sure to visit Amber's website:

www.AmberStitt.com

And remember, let's take action today!!!

Sarah St John [00:00:00]:
And it's gonna be about the 3...I forget exactly how I word it, but the 3 things to take into account to become a top 100 podcast in your category on Apple Podcasts, or something to that effect. Because my podcast has been at times in the top 100 on Apple under the entrepreneurship category. And so I've kind of used that now. That's how I got that speaking gig. Because that's the topic I submitted. And then that's one of many things I'll be covering in the course that's coming out. And so...

Sarah St John [00:00:29]:
Yeah, I just love podcasting.

Amber [00:00:31]:
Hello and welcome to Pathways. I am your host, Amber Stitt. And today we welcome the famous Sarah St John to the show today. Welcome, Sarah.

Sarah St John [00:00:41]:
Thanks so much for having me. I appreciate it.

Amber [00:00:43]:
Like I've told you, I was really excited to get with you because not only are you an entrepreneur, over a decade, podcaster, author, and educator. So I'm really excited for you to meet the audience and have them learn really how you got into this whirlwind of creating other, I'll say, passive income strategies, which for me, financial freedom is always a great place to be, or goals to head to, to motivate. So you have motivated me and I'd love the audience to learn more about you. So how did you just decide, "I'm jumping in. I'm going to start these businesses." How did this begin for you?

Sarah St John [00:01:18]:
Yeah, so it kind of all started in 2008. I had had six different jobs that year. Not at the same time, but throughout the course of the year, and realized I wanted to work for myself at some point. I bunch of different online business models. I would say the most successful ones I had were, well, I had a photography business. That's what I started with. That wasn't an online business model. I did that for like seven years and then realized, "Yeah, I want to switch to online."

Sarah St John [00:01:45]:
And so I had an online travel agency. But then Covid happened and you don't make money until the person takes a trip. Well, all my trips got canceled. So, like, I was like, "You know what, forget this." But yeah, I tried all kinds of things. Blogging, affiliate marketing, dropshipping. And so basically in 2019, I got the idea to write a book called "Frugalpreneur" to talk about different online business models, how to run them affordably. And then I decided to launch a podcast to coincide with the book, but it was only going to be 10 episodes.

Sarah St John [00:02:18]:
It was just to kind of help, I guess.

Amber [00:02:19]:
Package the book.

Sarah St John [00:02:21]:
Yeah. An extra marketing avenue. Also called "Frugalpreneur".

Amber [00:02:25]:
Yeah.

Sarah St John [00:02:26]:
But I got more leverage and traction with the podcast than the book. I love the networking and connections. And now, 5 years later, I'm still doing the podcast, and then that's kind of gotten me into the whole podcasting space. So, pretty much everything I do now is revolved around podcasting in some way, shape, or form.

Amber [00:02:44]:
I know you talk about in some of your books. I haven't read them all. But why this can be more powerful, podcasting more than blogging.

Sarah St John [00:02:52]:
Yeah. So people think that podcasting is getting saturated, and compared to how it was pre-2020, I guess that's true. But compared to blogs or YouTube channels, it's significantly fewer podcasts. And what I like about podcasting in particular, aside from there just isn't as much competition as other methods, is that people can multitask, so they're more prone to actually listen to your whole episode, whereas a blog, or YouTube video, that requires their eyes. And so they have to be totally focused on that and can't be really multitasking. And so their attention span might not be as long. And plus, there's something about you being in their ear. It just helps with the know, like, and trust factor.

Sarah St John [00:03:37]:
And podcast listeners as a whole are fairly high income, they love to learn. And you can blog too. You can have a YouTube channel, all the things. But I feel like if you have a business, podcasting is something that you would want to consider incorporating into your business at some point.

Amber [00:03:56]:
Yeah. Well, I know your books do help people see how to be their own entrepreneur. You have "Authorpreneur". If I don't mess that one up. And that's where you're encouraging people to really consider self-publishing. So going back to what you said about having a virtual business, was there this moment where you're like, "We can do it all. We just need the resources," and you want to help teach that, it's all important.

Sarah St John [00:04:19]:
Yeah, exactly. So it's like I wrote "Frugalpreneur", and then it was kind of...as I learned different things, I wrote a different book about it. And this was not something I had planned out. It just kind of happened. So after "Frugalpreneur", which I self-published, I was like, "Oh, I could write a book about self-publishing." So then that was "Authorpreneur." Then I did "Podcastpreneur", "Podpreneur", or "Podcastpreneur".

Amber [00:04:40]:
"Podcastpreneur". I have my notes.

Sarah St John [00:04:44]:
Yeah, "Podpreneur" is actually my substack newsletter.

Amber [00:04:47]:
There's too many "Pods" out there at this point. Which one? But I love that there's multiple lines and that's...so keep going. Because I think that's really encouraging people to think outside the box. You can have multiple pathways, and that's really why the name of our podcast is Pathways is there's so many ways.

Sarah St John [00:05:03]:
Yeah. So "Podcastpreneur" was about podcasting. And I don't usually talk about this, but I created like a podcast for each of them. So I started "Frugalpreneur" podcast to go with the book, and then the podcast became its own thing. But then I was like, "Well, I might as well create these other podcasts to go along with the book." And those didn't really become like...it was just basically I took episodes that were already in "Frugalpreneur" that were specifically about podcasting or self-publishing, and then created new separate podcasts and just took those episodes and put them in those podcast feeds because I had 10 plus episodes on just those particular topics. So anyway, that's kind of a side tangent, but yeah, just all kinds of different ways to kind of do things and group things together.

Amber [00:05:51]:
Back to the multiple podcasts, I'm noticing a trend. If a book is published and the producers, the publishers that are kind of that main point person, they're putting together podcasts for people to even, not voice over, but to talk about their own chapter. I mean, is that where you see the future of podcasting? It can be creating a package of educational snippets. Maybe it's not your forever podcast, but it can be a project. Sounds like that you've done that, too.

Sarah St John [00:06:16]:
Yeah, I think that is a good idea. A lot of people, when they have a book out, it is becoming more common to either have like a mini-series, a podcast that's just to incorporate with the book that's maybe 10 episodes, or a course, like a short mini-course that goes with the book. Those are good lead magnet ideas because, like, for me, my lead magnets are my e-books. And basically that just means that someone gives you their email address to get a free PDF of it. So they get on your email list and you can continue to nurture them, so to speak. But another way people have done it is if the book itself isn't the lead magnet, well, they have a lead magnet in the book about, "Hey, check out this free podcast or this particular podcast feed." And some of the podcast feeds are private to where you have to provide your email and go through this process to actually listen or, sign-up for this free mini-course, so there's all these different ways to having a podcast, a course, and a book. Kind of finding a way to incorporate all of those together.

Sarah St John [00:07:22]:
I think it's a smart strategy.

Amber [00:07:24]:
You talk a lot about doing things in "Frugalpreneur", but lower budget, to really get things jump started. Can you talk about when you had that "A-ha" moment when you're like, "I can do this and we can do it within a certain budget."?

Sarah St John [00:07:37]:
Yeah. So my budget has always been under $100 a month, and that's just for software and stuff like that. Of course, if you decide to run ads, or take a course, or buy a book, I don't really take that into account. But I'm thinking more like in terms of to actually literally run the business, an online business that is with different software programs. And so, what I did in the beginning and still do, is I'll use free software, or the free plan, because a lot of software, they'll have a free option. So I'll use that as long as I can, basically until and unless I have to upgrade, or if you can work out a deal. This is a whole other kind of tangent and topic, but if you can work out a deal that's mutual to where maybe you can get the software for free, say you do have a podcast, well, you could use them as your sponsor, or put them in your newsletter, whatever. So I've done that a couple times.

Sarah St John [00:08:33]:
So yeah, I've been able to maintain under a $100 a month, sometimes even under $40 or $60 a month, just on the software end of things, because it can get expensive. And I also recommend, if you're going to pay for software, maybe a platform that includes a whole bunch of stuff in one platform so you're not having to pay $10 here, $20 there, for 10 different softwares.

Amber [00:08:55]:
Yeah. Now, is this in that realm of affiliate marketing where you can use your community and find ways to support each other? Are we segueing into your experience with that?

Sarah St John [00:09:07]:
So affiliate marketing, if we're talking about podcasts specifically, there's several ways to monetize. But I think some people get confused on the difference between affiliate marketing and sponsorships. So, a sponsorship would be you getting paid up front for something like having a ad on your podcast or maybe a spot in your blog post or your newsletter. An affiliate would be that they don't pay you upfront, but you still promote them. And then if anyone clicks on that link and makes a purchase, you make a certain percentage, or dollar amount for any kind of sale. And so yeah, you can really do it either way. Most companies won't do this, but if you can find a way to do both, where they sponsor your show, for example, or your blog post, or whatever it is, but you also, if someone clicks on it, or goes to that link or uses your coupon code or whatever, that you make a commission, as well, as an affiliate. So, if you can use both, that's like the best scenario.

Amber [00:10:08]:
Have you ever just called up and asked to be, "I'd like to have an affiliate link."

Sarah St John [00:10:13]:
Yeah. So with affiliates, most of the time, say you want to be an affiliate for a particular software program, course, whatever. If you scroll to the bottom of the website, usually it'll say affiliate, or referral, or partner, one of those three words and you can just sign up right then and there. There have been maybe a handful of people or businesses that I didn't see that anywhere. And so then I'll either contact their customer support and ask.

Amber [00:10:42]:
There you go.

Sarah St John [00:10:43]:
Yeah. Some people have created affiliate programs just because I asked.

Amber [00:10:48]:
Mm.

Sarah St John [00:10:48]:
I created one because. Yeah...

Amber [00:10:50]:
Unless you ask. Yeah, well, and that's where it's so neat to see how you've been able to build out strategies, being able to work from your own machine and using some of the resources that are available to any one of us and at lower cost options, but really using resources in the community. And we'll talk about community towards the end. I do have to ask, out of all of these things, what's your favorite? Is it writing? Is it speaking, podcasting, or strategic planning, or teaching through your course, what's your favorite? I'm just curious.

Sarah St John [00:11:20]:
Oh, probably podcasting.

Amber [00:11:22]:
Okay.

Sarah St John [00:11:22]:
Yeah. Cause I love kind of that one-on-one, or even if you do a solo episode. I mean, I love teaching, but also conversations. But in high school it's funny because my English teacher told me that I should be a writer, or a journalist. And so I got an associate's in journalism. And then I got married pretty young and so, and we're divorced now, so I didn't end up going on for my four-year. But it's kind of interesting because like the initial plan was journalism and then I changed it to radio, tv, film because I was going to go on to another four-year school that had a radio, tv, film program.

Sarah St John [00:11:57]:
And it's, okay, so I never did get that degree. I never did officially work in any of that. But then I just recently had this thought that, okay, well, I'm using journalism in a way because I'm writing these short books and then I'm kind of doing the whole TV/broadcast/film, or more like broadcast radio because of podcasting. So it's like I kind of used it, but in my own way.

Amber [00:12:19]:
Yeah. So neat. And that's where people have heard me say it, so I won't go too far into it, but I'm in financial services and I'm the girl that would get B's and C's in math. There is a way to be in an industry and excel. It's just you have to find your own way. So I like learning about that. But yes, when I read your writing, I felt like, yeah, you are a great writer. So it must have been around for a long time.

Amber [00:12:40]:
But it's neat to see that you get to pick and choose how you want to plug that into the world. Can you talk about listen scores?

Sarah St John [00:12:45]:
Yeah. So, Listen Score, the website for my podcast is Frugal.Show. And so I have on there, if people want to see what we're talking about, there's this website called Listen Notes. You can find podcasts on there and all of this, but it also can rank your podcast. And so I think at one point I was at like the top 5%. Now I'm at the top 2.5%. And then the listen score, I mean...

Amber [00:13:11]:
That's kind of a big deal. You're just being very nonchalant about this, Sarah. I might have been like 5%, maybe 2.5%. It's, you know, it's almost 1%, but until, you know, pretty awesome. So that's a goal.

Sarah St John [00:13:25]:
Yeah, I hope it gets to 1% at some point.

Amber [00:13:26]:
But I mean, that goes back to you've tried and tested different ways and methods, and now you're teaching about it. And so when people can read with you, learn from you, hopefully that's going to improve the listen scores for all.

Sarah St John [00:13:39]:
Yeah. So I'm actually doing a...and I don't know when this goes out, but in late March, I'm going to be doing a speaking session at Podcast Movement Evolutions in LA. And it's going to be about the 3...I forget exactly how I word it, but, the 3 things to take into account to become a top 100 podcast in your category on Apple Podcasts, or something to that effect, because my podcast has been at times in the top 100 on Apple under the entrepreneurship category. And so I've kind of used that now. That's how I got that speaking gig, because that's the topic I submitted. And then that's one of many things I'll be covering in the course that's coming out.

Amber [00:14:19]:
Awesome.

Sarah St John [00:14:20]:
Yeah, I just love podcasting.

Amber [00:14:22]:
I love the story about the media, tv, radio, and you just wouldn't have thought that this could be available just from anywhere, right?

Sarah St John [00:14:31]:
Yeah, that's true.

Amber [00:14:33]:
So I know you've mentioned one of your websites, but we're going to obviously put everything in the description box. What's the best way for people to find you? Let's go back through and mention your podcast. And then one of your websites people can find you outside of Amazon, too, where you have books.

Sarah St John [00:14:49]:
So the podcast is "Frugalpreneur", and so you can find that in any podcast app that you listen to. Or, you can just go to www.Frugal.Show. That's the website.

Amber [00:14:59]:
Awesome. Well, I will be subscribing here once we wrap up, so I'm so excited to do that and then continuing to follow you and collaborating. So I'm really looking forward to that. Well, I really appreciate you being here today, Sarah, and I'm excited for the listeners to get to know you more.

Sarah St John [00:15:16]:
Well, thanks so much for having me. I appreciate it.

Amber [00:15:18]:
Thank you for joining us on this episode of Pathways. For more information about the podcast, books, articles, the blog, and so much more, please visit my website at: www.AmberStitt.com And remember, let's take action today! Thank you for listening!