From Podcast to Profit

From Podcast to Profit with Jenn Trepeck

Traci DeForge: [00:00:00] When you came to Produce Your Podcast in 2020, you were roughly about 25 episodes in. And just now you’re at 566 episodes. I know.

Jenn Trepeck: Yeah.

Traci DeForge: Um, and one thing I just want to pause and applaud you for actually is that the, your absolute consistency. You have released an episode every week of every month- Yes … of every year since…

Jenn Trepeck: August of 2019.

Traci DeForge: That is amazing.

Jenn Trepeck: Thank you.

Traci DeForge: I know everybody who is watching or listening to this right now wants to know that. If they take anything away from this podcast, what is the key to you sustaining that many episodes, that many weeks, that many months, that many years?

Voice over: This is the Growth Accelerator Podcast, where your host Tracy Deforge is your guide to transforming your company’s podcast into a dynamic lead generation and marketing powerhouse.

Traci DeForge: We have seen really successful [00:01:00] monetization strategies.

Voice over: Giving you the blueprint to elevate your podcast from good to exceptional.

Traci DeForge: It really opens up this whole other opportunity for you.

Voice over: And unlock its true potential to drive your business growth.

Jenn Trepeck: I really want to make sure your foundational pillars are in place.

Voice over: Now your host, Tracy Deforge.

Traci DeForge: Welcome to the Growth Accelerator podcast, the podcast for business owners leveraging podcasting for growth in the areas of visibility, leads, and sales. I’m your host, Tracy Deford, and I have with me Jenn Trepeck, a health and wellness coach guru, and the host of my most favorite podcast name ever, Salad with a Side of Fries.

Jenn Trepeck: Well, thank you for having me. I will say, uh, it is my favorite podcast name, too. Uh, I get compliments on it a lot, but it has also gotten to the point where if somebody says, “I don’t get it,” I’m like, “I just don’t think we’re gonna be friends.”

Traci DeForge: Well, I got it- … right away, and then [00:02:00] we did, uh, actually end up becoming friends- Right

which I super love about our relationship. But I think for the audience, what I really want to highlight, what is the biggest benefit that you have seen by leveraging your podcast to grow your health and wellness nutrition business?

Jenn Trepeck: Everything I do is about changing the state of healthcare, empowering people to reclaim their health, and the podcast is the maximum of that.

It is reaching people in a way that is totally accessible, not behind a paywall, not behind any of these barriers. So it’s really about helping people reclaim their health. Not just delivering on my mission of the business, but even in terms of my business itself, I have actually completely rebranded everything to the podcast brand.

So I started the podcast about 12 years after I started health coaching, and the success of the show, the success of that branding, has really [00:03:00] evolved every piece of my business.

Traci DeForge: So our journey with podcasting together started through the podcast audit, and the podcast audit, for our audience, just a quick highlight, is we work with a business owner who has a podcast and they, they’re feeling a little stagnant.

They haven’t grown. So we do a deep dive into the, how the show is being discovered, the production values, the business development piece. Are there calls to action, potential for monetization, sponsorships? So when you came to Produce Your Podcast in 2020, you were roughly about 25 episodes in, and just now you’re at- 566 episodes?

I know,

Jenn Trepeck: yeah.

Traci DeForge: Um, and one thing I just wanna pause and applaud you for actually is that the, your absolute consistency. You have released an episode every week of every month-

Jenn Trepeck: Yes …

Traci DeForge: of every year since-

Jenn Trepeck: August of 2019.

Traci DeForge: That is [00:04:00] amazing.

Jenn Trepeck: Thank you.

Traci DeForge: I know everybody who is watching or listening to this right now wants to know that- Good

if they take anything away from this podcast, what is the key to you sustaining that many episodes, that many weeks, that many months, that many years?

Jenn Trepeck: I think part of it is I live and breathe this conversation. It is what I talk about with my clients. It’s what my friends talk about. It’s what my social media is.

So there has never been a shortage of content, and everything is frankly always evergreen. So there are always people asking these questions, and that creates the momentum around the content. The other piece, and we’ve talked about workflow before, I am booked with guests almost a year out. And so it creates a situation where I don’t have a choice but to- You have accountability

right. I don’t have a choice- You have to show up … but to keep going, you know?

Traci DeForge: Right.

Jenn Trepeck: So, yeah.

Traci DeForge: So when we were doing the audit together, so what were some of the things that you remember? And I realize we’re going back in time a bit, but, [00:05:00] um, in terms of what, what were some of the things you were struggling with, and then what were some of the barriers that we broke through together through the audit, and then let’s continue the journey from there.

Jenn Trepeck: Yeah. I don’t know. I didn’t necessarily come to the audit with a struggle. I came to the audit of I figured out my pattern, right? I figured out what this looks like for me, and I don’t know what I don’t know. And so it was really about saying, what does somebody else who’s been in this space see when they look at my show?

What are the pieces that I’m not noticing because I’m new or because it’s just what I’ve been doing and what I started doing? I think one of the biggest things that came from the audit- Was my weekly bonus episode.

Traci DeForge: Ah, the Nutrition Nugget. Yes. I remember the conversation we had when we concepted the Nutrition Nugget, and the strategy behind that was to be able to have a signature sauce segment, which is [00:06:00] basically a Produce Your Podcast, um, we’re known for that.

But in the case of the Nutrition Nugget, the strategy was initially was to have your long form episodes have the signature piece of content inside of it that was focused on health and nutrition specifically, and then you would be able to extract that out and repurpose it. Because if I remember, now we’re really going down memory lane, but if I remember, one of the biggest things that you wanted to do as a result of the audit was, audit was to increase your downloads.

And so that was a really good download strategy because- So- … you could go to twice a week releases basically.

Jenn Trepeck: Exactly. So in the beginning, the Nutrition Nugget segment was part of the full episode, and then we pulled it out and also published it separately. And then over the years It ended up where we’ve now pulled it out, so I’ll preview it at the end of the full episode, but it airs completely separately on its own, a separate day of the week.

It was interesting even to see the almost double in downloads from [00:07:00] people who were coming back a second time each week.

Traci DeForge: Right. That’s what I was gonna say. It was a very successful tool to, to increase those downloads, but then also to, um, as a result of the downloads, then you were able to increase the number of people who followed and subscribed to the show as well from that.

And so I think that was probably our first win that we had from the audit. But I mean, again, that was, that was our first stepping stone in the path of working together. Some of the things that I remember, well, definitely the trademark. Like, work- Yes … I mean, we didn’t work together on you getting the trademark obviously, but really you mentioned that you rebranded your entire business around the focus of Salad with a Side of Fries, and it is such a great name, as we mentioned.

And having that trademark was something that we ta- I remember going, “When are you gonna get that trademark done? When are you gonna get that trademark?” Yes. And you got it done- Yep … which was amazing. And the website URL, everything being tied into and having that consistency across all of the pieces of your branding, the website URL, and we actually even worked together on making- Yep

sure your website was reflective of the [00:08:00] quality of your show, and all of those things as well.

Jenn Trepeck: So we rebranded, you know, everything, the trademark. And then, um, I’m trying to think what came next in the sequence of things, but eventually launched merch.

Traci DeForge: Yes.

Jenn Trepeck: So.

Traci DeForge: The merchandise. Yes. So that was really fun because…

Well, let’s back into, first of all, ’cause you had a paid community.

Jenn Trepeck: Yes.

Traci DeForge: And so the paid community was something that, one of the monetization streams that you have for your show is that you have ads and sponsors, which we’ll definitely talk about. You have community. You have the merch. You’ve done live events.

So your monetization model is very robust that we’ve worked together on.

Jenn Trepeck: Yeah. And frankly, all of that is separate from the fact that the podcast itself has become sort of top of the marketing funnel that leads people into working with me as their health coach. Right.

Traci DeForge: Right? Because the goal of the podcast, just to be clear, is to get new health and wellness clients that you coach, and that’s where you’re generating the primary revenue source- Right

of your [00:09:00] brand. But then the podcast has enabled you to really have all these diversified revenue streams, like we were mentioning, the merch, the community, the, um, the working on the live events and things, and ads and- Yep … sponsorships. It’s just a, it’s a really well-rounded monetization strategy, if I do say so myself.

Jenn Trepeck: Thank you. Yeah. So the membership launched January of 2020. So the show launched August of 2019. I started the membership January of 2020, and it was about helping people pay a little bit more to dip their toe in the water of what it’s like to have that extra support- And it created, because otherwise you had this free top of the funnel, and then really not much to offer until you got to these higher ticket paid services.

So the membership was then sort of that next tier that brought them into the ecosystem.

Traci DeForge: I think what you’re talking about is important to highlight [00:10:00] because there is a time and a place for monetization. One of the questions that we often get at Produce Your Podcast is, “I’ve got 10 episodes. How do I monetize them?”

Right. And it’s like, whoa, hold on. You can, but… And we’ve actually even had people monetize their show pre-launch. But it’s really important to, I think, set realistic expectations because what you’re saying is it’s a great top of the funnel tool for you, but then you also have to be able to reach people where they are in, in their, the areas of where they know, like, and trust you.

And health and nutrition is a very important referral-based business. Right. It’s also a, a, an important results-based business. And so how have you used the content of your podcast to really layer in that, that visibility piece, but also that trust and the credibility factor? Because that’s, to me, seems to be a really huge revenue driver for you- Yes

once you get that [00:11:00] nailed.

Jenn Trepeck: So first of all, there’s a lot of pieces to that. I think y- you mentioned before the consistency of now between full-length episodes and the bonus episodes, it’s 566, give or take. That consistency- is a big piece of somebody saying, “I want to work with that person.” Like, if you keep showing up, they go, “That’s what I get.”

And I also believe that if you over-deliver in the pieces that are free, they start to go, “Wait a minute. What do I get if I actually pay something?” Pay. Yeah. Love that. So I think that’s been a big piece, is the content, the consistency of the show. Then in terms of highlighting what we do, so half of my episodes are interviews.

Half of my episodes are what I call sort of my content, things I talk about with my clients. And joining me on those episodes, ’cause I want it to still be a conversation- Right … I think a conversation’s way more [00:12:00] compelling to listen to than just somebody talking for however long. So in the beginning, and even still, I have friends who join me on those.

Traci DeForge: Right.

Jenn Trepeck: And as that paid community, that membership grew, one of the things that I offered them is a quarterly live Q&A, so just us, not recorded. Sometimes I do it as a one-on-one because people share more and, you know, a conversation that’s just us. I started to invite them to join me for episodes. And then for the 100th, 200th, and 300th episodes, I have listeners, members, right, people, clients even, call in and leave voicemails.

So we have used then their voices to highlight the podcast, things that they’ve learned from the show, changes that they’ve made in their life because of something that’s happened from the show. So that’s also been tremendous for showing people the value of continuing to show up and listen. And this year, in the last [00:13:00] year, we’ve started doing a couple episodes in, I wouldn’t call it a series, but a couple episodes called Real People, Real Results, and it’s clients.

So it’s talking through what their experience was, what were their reservations before, what is health coaching, um, and really bringing that in so that people, again, start to see the difference between Getting information, doing it entirely self-directed, and what it’s like to really work with somebody in a personalized way.

Traci DeForge: That’s so interesting that you say that, because business owners often think that the only way that they should do a podcast is a Q&A, similar to what we’re doing right now, and that, that somebody went to podcast school and they said, “This is the way you do it- … and that’s the only way you do it.” But one of the things that has been so great about working with you is really formulating that strategy of what works best for your audience.

And I think that we always have to remember, and it’s one of the things that I talk about so often, is what’s in it for your audience? And when we were [00:14:00] looking at different formats and the ways that we could communicate with your audience, so yes, you wanna bring in those, uh, experts and have that Q&A because that is something that you wanna do as being the thought leader yourself.

But then also the short forms and being able to talk through your specific expertise and going vertical in that, and then making sure that your clients are highlighted. And they’re not testimonials or infomercials, they’re basically really good pieces of content where your clients are sharing real results that they’ve gotten.

And so as a result of that, that’s coming back to your credibility, to your expertise, and really reinforcing that to your audience. And it’s just been amazing to watch this and create and craft with you these different aspects of formats and use them so effectively. And I think it’s such an important takeaway to know that [00:15:00] you don’t have to

There’s no … I always say the, there’s no right or wrong, it’s a right or a left. And so much so that we actually reconstructed our packages this year to integrate long form and short form so that our business owners could really showcase their own expertise. It’s, it’s r- or their clients’ results, like you have.

Jenn Trepeck: Yeah. And you probably knew this, it didn’t occur to me when we talked about adding what I call the bite-sized bonus episode, but- It became another entry point. So new listeners who discovered the show didn’t have to commit to so much time to get a taste of, no pun intended, like, what this show is about.

And so I mean, you probably knew that. I might have known. But it was a piece to me… But it was, it was a gr- it was a new piece to me of recognizing some of the value of that shorter form, and even the consistency of that shorter form. Right. Because now some people show up just for those. Well- Which is awesome, too.

Traci DeForge: But I mean, I think what you’re talking about is just real-life practical, [00:16:00] um, applications to some of the things that we talk theoretically a lot in, like, our pre-launch strategy, for example. So I’m, I’m explaining, uh, when our business owners… Because, you know, they are, they’re very busy, they’re very intellectual.

They’re very kind of in their own mind about their area of expertise, which is important. But they also, again, having to think about what’s in it for the audience, and right now everybody’s audience is time-starved. So if you think about your own habits of scrolling that feed, you’re like, “25 minutes, 30 minutes, five minutes?

Okay, I can give this person that I don’t know yet, that I haven’t listened to their content yet, I’m willing to give them five to eight minutes, or I’m willing to give them twen- 10 to 20 minutes.” And then convert back to the long form, which is one- Yeah … of the reasons why we did re- redesign these packages.

But I love hearing it, like, work in, in real life, real business, right? Real life- Yeah … real results.

Jenn Trepeck: There you go.

Traci DeForge: Um, I wanna also talk through this [00:17:00] branding piece, because again, this is one of the things we identify more frequently in the audits, but we also have identified it in pre-launch, too. Should I name the show something different than the name of my business?

Should I have the show on the, on the website for my business, or should I have a separate website for my podcast? Should I… There’s a lot of should haves and should has, right? So not to pick on you. But I do remember that it was [email protected]. It was Salad with a Side of Fries podcast. It was Health and N-

Jenn Trepeck: I know

Traci DeForge: it was…

Jenn Trepeck: All the URLs, all the websites.

Traci DeForge: All the URLs, all the things. Even, I even remember we working together to get you to [email protected] for your email. Because I was like, “No one knows what Better Your Life Now is anymore.” I know.

Jenn Trepeck: Well, but that was the piece of, I had had a health coaching practice for 12 years.

When I launched the show, I didn’t know what it was going to become. It was literally me in my [00:18:00] apartment with a microphone, you know? And so it evolved organically and intentionally, but I didn’t know. So even in the beginning, I was like, “Okay, I’m gonna launch this podcast. We’ll see what happens.” And I paid somebody on Fiverr to slap a website together so that the show had a site for people to go to.

But it wasn’t integrated into my health coaching practice website. Right. It was… So there were all these separate pieces that in the rebranding- Right … and in working together when we redid my website- Right. Well- … it was putting everything under one umbrella. And

Traci DeForge: I think the key piece of that though is identifying that your podcast needs to have that consistency.

It doesn’t need to be named the same as your business, because that’s not imperative. In fact, you know, we’re the Growth Accelerator Podcast. Produce Your Podcast is my business. One of the PYP signature strategies, if you will, is to make sure you own the URL of your podcast. So that was one of the first things- Yeah

is we, um, in fact, I even [00:19:00] specifically remember that it’s asaladwithasideoffries.com for now.

Jenn Trepeck: Yes, which for what it’s worth, nobody owns saladwithasideoffries.com, but GoDaddy wanted a small fortune. Right. And I was like, “Nope, an A in front will do.”

Traci DeForge: Right, and it did. And, and so, and, like, for us, for example, it’s growthacceleratorpodcast.com, and the reason behind that is because when someone is consuming your content, they’re gonna remember how they found you.

They’re gonna re- they’re gonna remember. I literally remember our conversation about Better My Life Now is, like, live your best life now, be your best life now. I know. It was very Oprah-esque. Oprah was becoming outdated at the time. For what

Jenn Trepeck: it’s worth, in 2007 when I started, it was spot on.

Traci DeForge: Okay.

Jenn Trepeck: It just didn’t l- Okay

it just didn’t live on.

Traci DeForge: It’s fine. It was top of the line at the time. But Salad With a Side of Fries, clearly more memorable. Yes. But again, from the strategy perspective, it’s all about your, that’s where your listeners or your viewers found you. That’s what they’re gonna remember. So in your call to action, you [00:20:00] wanna make sure that you tell them where to go in a way that they’ll remember, because especially with audio podcasts, people are maybe going for a walk, or they’re at the gym when they’re listening to your podcast.

Right. They’re not gonna be able to connect the dots, or you don’t wanna ask them to connect all, multiple dots. Just ask them to go point A, point B equals point C. I’m gonna pivot. I’ve v- kind of known for pivoting the, the dialogue here. And we’re gonna talk about your true leap of faith with Produce Your Podcast.

Clearly, you believed in me as a strategist. Clearly, you believed in the results of the audit. But the hard- Mm … no, I won’t say the hardest, but I will say the, in my opinion, your biggest leap of faith was going from being a DIY podcaster business owner, or business owner that was DIYing their podcast, which was very time-consuming, to hiring a full-service podcast production agency.

That was something that took a little longer than I thought it was gonna take. I’m not gonna lie.

Jenn Trepeck: I mean… Well, [00:21:00] part of it was, like so many of us when we start and we’re not really sure what’s going to come of this added venture, r- right? And I talk about it all the time as- You know, sometimes we have more time than money, sometimes we have more money than time.

And when I launched the show, I had more time than money. During the pandemic, I had more time than money. And then as life came back after the pandemic, as the show grew, as other pieces of my business grew, it got to the point where, what is the highest and best use of my time? And it wasn’t in editing the show.

It wasn’t in-

Traci DeForge: Writing the

Jenn Trepeck: show notes … writing the show notes. That one, for me especially, because we hear it all the time, y- you create your content for the listener, but you write the episode notes for Google.

Traci DeForge: Thank you, Todd [00:22:00] Cochran of- Right. … Bari. I am- We

Jenn Trepeck: quote him all the time. Right, all the time. Um, I am way too clever and a writer for Google.

So the episode notes that I would write for the show were not delivering in the same way that the copywriter’s episode notes would deliver.

Voice over: Right.

Jenn Trepeck: And so that was another piece of, like, the next level of growth too that came out of outsourcing you know, different aspects. So it was an evolution to say, “This is where my highest and best use of my energy is.”

Yeah. And that is in the content, in the strategy, in the planning, in the guest booking, you know, in all of those conversations, rather than in the editing and the show notes and those kinds of things. And I think in my own workflow, one of the biggest things that changed was the fact that I could now mentally move on to the next episode.

So I now, you know, we’re a [00:23:00] few years into this- So you

Traci DeForge: could focus on the content you- Right … wanted to create versus the workflow and the- Exactly … and the heavy lifting of the editing and the show notes and the marketing deliverables- Exactly … and all of those things. I mean, I’ve just, you know, we- Right … we, we tell people that’s the case.

But again, it’s really nice to hear somebody actually in their real-life experience share what a difference it made to them.

Jenn Trepeck: Yeah, and for, you know, I was already working with people in social media and some of these other pieces, but so they were so grateful that I was then even planning further out in terms of the content and what was happening, and, you know, able to plan in that way because I wasn’t so in the weeds on everything post-production.

Traci DeForge: That’s an interesting benefit we don’t really hear very often, is that it actually made the workflow for your team more seamless- Yes … as well. So you weren’t, basically you weren’t the bottleneck anymore.

Jenn Trepeck: Exactly.

Traci DeForge: Yeah, I love that. So you just completed our Sponsorship Circle, which is our private coaching program for business owners who want to get sponsors for their shows.

Uh, tell me your biggest takeaways from the program.

Jenn Trepeck: The biggest [00:24:00] piece about sponsorship is that it puts you in the driver’s seat of who you’re partnering with, because I am incredibly picky and diligent about the brands that I’m willing to align with and put my name on. And so with the sponsorship approach, number one, it’s not tied to downloads, so it creates a lot more freedom and flexibility, a lot greater leverage of the community that we’ve built because I really think, as you say all the time, right, downloads doesn’t necessarily give the value to what you’ve built in an audience all the time.

It’s- driving that growth separate from this one number, and allows me to reach out to the brands that I already know are a hell yes for me. And so I’m super excited. I, there’s a couple that are in the works, so, you know, we’ll see what happens, but And

Traci DeForge: your beautiful presentation deck, and your packages.

Thank you. Yes. I mean, that, we worked together on that, and, and really be- seeing that presentation deck [00:25:00] come to life with the sponsorship language all integrated into it, I mean, I’m, you know, I’m taking a win. Right. But, but I thought it was a win- Yes … ’cause it looks like-

Jenn Trepeck: Well, it’s all because of what we learned with, you know-

Traci DeForge: In the

Jenn Trepeck: program

the Sponsorship Circle.

Traci DeForge: Yeah. Okay, so monetization, quick hit list because, and, and probably of all of our clients, you have one of the most diverse revenue streams for monetization. Let’s hit them really quickly. How do you monetize your show?

Jenn Trepeck: All right. So in chronological order, I did the membership, ads for a f- brands that I have affiliate relationships with already, then merch, live events, soon to be a book.

Oh, sponsorships. So, you know, we’re just tackling it all as we go.

Traci DeForge: You’re just hitting all of the goals of the dream monetization podcast strategy. I love that.

Jenn Trepeck: Doing what we can, you

Traci DeForge: know? And, and more to come. Speaking of more to come, if you were to identify a gap of an area [00:26:00] of growth, either between your podcast and your business or your business and your podcast, what would that gap be, and how can I help you with it?

Jenn Trepeck: Free coaching. Um… So I think with the launch of the book, I’m actually not naming this book the name of the show. And so it is sort of going to be another piece of this brand, kind of with a different name. And so I guess the question is around bringing the book into the ecosystem of everything else, you know, marketing the book and making sure that while the book brings new audience, because they’re readers, maybe not necessarily listeners, there is certainly that crossover.

So how do I launch? How do I grow? How do I leverage and market the book?

Traci DeForge: Okay. So I think the audience first would want to know, since we’ve talked so much about branding and consistency, and also was the very first question that I asked you when you told me that, which is why aren’t you naming the book Salad with a Side of Fries?

Because [00:27:00] that’s the-

Jenn Trepeck: Next

Traci DeForge: book … second book. So- So the first book-

Jenn Trepeck: So the, it really, it’s interesting because this could be also a whole separate podcast onto itself, but the whole book strategy, a- I felt like, initially when I started thinking about it years ago, I felt like everything I knew had to be in this one book.

And so in working on it, one of the pieces was that we need to think of this as a book portfolio, not as the one book. And so because it’s not the one book- It’s not the salad with a side of fries secret to health and wellness. That’s the next one.

Traci DeForge: How do you bring your audience in and help grow your show?

I think in, in five seconds or less, which you know I can’t do, I will say the most important piece of this is as you’re writing the book and as the book is being developed, you wanna bring your listeners and your, your audience into the process. So tell them about the book in your episodes. Ask them to send in questions.

They’re very familiar with already [00:28:00] calling in for your 100th, 200th, 300th episode, so they’re gonna be willing and excited to be a part of your creative process. T- bring them in so that you’re seeding the excitement for the book pre-launch, and then once the book launches, they’re already gonna be so excited about what’s coming and being a part of it.

And then you can utilize the things that they provided for you in your marketing for the book. You’ve already done a live event, so I would look at your downloads, and I would figure out what cities are your top three to five cities that you have the most downloads from, and target those cities for book launch events and book signing events.

And you can probably get a sponsor for that book tour. Just saying. Jenn, you h- have been an amazing guest. Thank you so much for being here today and sharing all of your amazing podcasting journey with us. How can people get in touch with you?

Jenn Trepeck: Yes. Well, all social media, I am @jenntrepeck, J-E-N-N-T-R-E-P-E-C-K, and my website is asaladwithasideoffries.com.

Wherever you’re listening, Salad with a Side of Fries [00:29:00] podcast.

Traci DeForge: Yes. That name is unforgettable. Don’t worry. But in case you can’t write it down, it will be in the show notes, and links to all the resources and how to get in touch with you will all be there. And for more insights, tips, and resources, go to growthacceleratorpodcast.com, and we’ll see you there.

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Traci DeForge: Let’s get started