0:00 Hey, welcome to the hive with those podcasts. I'm your host, Mr. Daniel Martinez. Today I have a special guest, who is a podcast hosts, author and other things. Of course, we're gonna talk about that. Miss Sarah St. John, how are you doing today? 0:13 Good. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. 0:16 Where are you from? Where you were, we are having this conversation for more for the country. And 0:20 I'm in Dallas, Texas. What about you? 0:23 Southern California, so it wasn't ready. Questions. I have a minute. 0:32 So I, I usually like to find out where people are from before I actually start recording. But I forgot to ask you. And so yeah, 0:39 I usually I like doing it while we're recording because it really gives it gives the depth of field where people are from because because I talk to people from Australia, I talk to people from Canada. You never know where people are from. Sometimes you get accent? Sometimes you don't. It's kind of cool. It's interesting, where we were you. The internet is vast and broad enables us to connect with multifaceted people in different skill sets. I think it's a bit of the internet. So I like I like experiencing that and sharing that. 1:07 Yeah, I like that idea. Maybe I'll start doing that. 1:11 So tell us about yourself. How, how'd you become an entrepreneur? And how long have you been doing 1:16 it for? Yeah, so I would say the journey kind of started in 2008, I had had six different jobs that you're not at the same time, but throughout the course of the year, and decided that I wanted to work for myself. So I started a photography business. But realize that Well, I like taking pictures of animals, architecture and landscapes. I don't like taking photos of people. But that's what I was doing. That's where the money is I was doing weddings and portraits. But the bigger issue was actually the expense to maintain equipment and all that. So I decided that I wanted to move into an online business model, but I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. So I tried a bunch different things like blogging, affiliate marketing, drop shipping. And it was during this process that I discovered, like all these free or affordable tools, resources and software that entrepreneurs can use to, you know, manage an online business on a budget. So I got this idea to write a book called frugal printer, which kind of goes over like the different online business models and how to run them on a budget. Then I decided to launch a podcast also called frugal printer to coincide with the book as like an extra marketing Avenue. But it was just going to be you know, 10 episodes or something. Well, I got more leverage and traction from the podcast than the book. So I just, I kept going. I've been doing that almost four years, almost 200 episodes, love the connections and networking. And so I'm kind of all in on podcasting. Now. I've written a few books on that and have a podcast production agency. But it took over a decade of trying a bunch of different things to get to that point. So 3:00 one of the verses that I want to say is the hardest part the hardest thing about business Herbie listening here is the people. 3:08 Well, it's like I don't mind dealing with people. Now like for what I'm doing with podcasting, and things like that. But with photography, it was just a whole different thing. 3:21 It's a wedding, this is where like the type of business you run your avatar that you're targeting. Sometimes you want to deal with the type of people that you're that your businesses. So I had, I had a real estate agent, and he was like a luxury agent. And he's like, I couldn't relate to any of them because I wasn't like living a luxurious lifestyle. So as I was just talking to rich people, which annoyed me. It makes sense. 3:46 Yeah, that would, yeah. So 3:51 it's one of those things where you gotta you gotta like, find your find your people, women source and create a product around them. It's one of the big facets. So 10 years is not a small journey. Holy. How are you still? Are you self employed right now? Are you kind of doing like a side hustle thing? 4:07 Well, it was a side hustle for the longest time. But I'm self employed now as of July or August of last year of 2022. 4:20 Yeah, graduations. Oh, thanks, coffee. There's no small feat. For everybody here. I think it's always the there's always the goal to become self sufficient and have to have the heavier side hustles pay your pay your bills, but as long as things are like, a lot of people don't make it there. So congratulations. 4:36 Oh, thank you. Yeah, he had it took it took a while. But eventually if you work hard enough, and just don't give up you'll eventually get there. 4:46 I say the same thing. I'm like, It's a survival thing. If you survive long enough, you'll get there and that's what I always say. Yeah, because a lot of a lot of people they just they don't think they think they think they're doing enough work to get to the goals where they want to be And they quit. But it's really just surviving and doing it consistently for so long, but you get there eventually. 5:06 Mm hmm. Yeah, exactly. And I think trying to avoid shiny object syndrome to, like, once you finally find that thing that you know you're meant to do or are good at, or people tell you, you're good at or whatever. It but then you hear about this, that and the other thing, and you're like, oh, I want to try that one. Try that. And launching a whole bunch of businesses. Yeah, it. I think that's a struggle for most entrepreneurs. 5:33 It spreads you thin 100% Yeah. And if you don't have the, if you don't have the inbound income to hire, it makes it even harder, because that across multiple entities and structures, also projects and it gets kind of hairy and crazy from then on. One thing I like about your story is that and I had this I had a similar epiphany to but from physical products or digital products. That is a huge turning point for me. So I kind of hear that from you. What was like you have somebody like a mentor, or you heard a video or something like, go to this start looking towards digital products, because for me, it was I heard somebody say, like, digital products gives you infinite scale to reach the world, whereas physical products and physical businesses, you have to be physically manufacturing and delivery, all the stuff. So I was like, that light bulb clicked on me a couple of early on, was that something similar for you? 6:28 Um, I think I switched into digital or online, even before, I mean, I hear plenty of I listened to a bunch of podcasts. And I hear that all the time now. But I had switched into online before I even started listening to podcasts. So I don't think I had heard that at the time. And in a way, it was like, the photography business was digital, in a sense, because it was a digital camera and like the photos are edited and delivered online. But I still had to go out physically to like weddings and stuff. And so yeah, that that can you can only scale. So I mean, unless you hired a whole bunch of photographers, I guess that like worked under you. But yeah, 7:10 it's one of those things where like you can and this is one of my first was was trucking, I can only make as much as my fifth one physical truck and pull in as long as I had a driver there to pull it. And as long as things were like I was limited based off my income. And I think there's a lot of business out there that if you're a single photographer, yes, you can only you can make great money, but you're limited by your own ability and time availability to create that income. And then if you hire people, it's limited by that thing. And you got to manage people and employees and make sure you're delivering valuable products and service. And then when it comes to the online replicatable stuff, it's just like, this is where I like like, courses, ebooks, all that digital products and digital, digital businesses in general. It's just, it's just delivering, delivering, you're delivering, delivering whatever your product is. And you can serve the masses. So tell us about your agency. What does it do? What What kind of clients looking for, for listeners here? Maybe that might need your service? 8:08 Yeah, so I originally started as pod seem.com. And that was like, more of your traditional kind of like podcast production and, and whatnot. But like, you know, the standard four episodes a month, that includes all kinds of stuff. But I realized just recently, that especially as the host of a show about frugal entrepreneurship, most of my listeners in particular, probably wouldn't be able to afford my services to begin with. And so I decided to I rebranded just like last week in the pod planet.com Now, and basically everything is 99 bucks. So like, it's like on a per episode basis, and like per service, like whether it's editing, or the show notes, or the graphics or whatever. And so I just I hadn't really seen anyone else do that. So I was like, You know what, I'm going to do that because I think, at least it makes sense for my listeners anyway. 9:17 And I think it's I think it's definitely this is where it comes down to where you have to pivot towards your audience. So I think it's a I think it's, I think it's your move because most people they always do packages for $1,000 or $200 sale. They're a little bit low ticket but medium ticket I would say try to get you for a long time but I mean, if your audience is low ticket, you got to dive into low ticket. I've seen one of my clients, he's made probably close to $2 million dollars off a $20 product. 9:48 Oh wow. What is that product? 9:51 Is his courses into he does he does courses. 9:54 It's a $20 course. Yeah, 9:57 it's like 20 to $40 Oh, wow. He's done $2 million revenue off of that. Oh, wow. 10:03 Yeah, I usually hear of course has been like 500 to 5000 or something. But is it like on Udemy? Or something? Or just? Oh, wow, just 20 bucks. And he's made 2 million from that one thing. 10:19 Yeah. Since like, 2020. 10:22 Wow, that's very interesting. 10:26 And like, it's a, I think if you have a valuable service with an affordable price point, and it opens up to the masses, even if they use it or not a lot of people like 20 bucks, Miss lunch at McDonald's with you and your mother or you and a child. And it's one of those things really 20 bucks, like, you spend that just going out to get gas. 10:47 Yeah, exactly. Wow. These days, 10:50 these days, 20 bucks is like, it wasn't 10:54 like a quarter of gas or like a half, maybe half a tank, depending 10:59 on the vehicle. It was kind of funny, because I remember as a kid, like my dad would give me like $5 and $10. And like, you get like, the quarter bag of chips, and you get a little juice. And you're like, I can get lunch and dinner with this $5 Not today. 11:16 Yeah. Yeah, it's quite different now than it was when I was a kid too. 11:22 So it kind of the times have changed. And I think it's, you can still you can still it's probably product and positioning, and seeing what you can do with it. I like I like the digital agency. I have a digital agency. I love I love it. It's one of my I like serving customers that I can. I can reach a lot in a lot of different places. Like I've had clients or four countries. I just wanted to close things. Because Oh no, I would never like reach them physically. Like it'll take me forever to reach people from Canada. But I'm doing it. So the I want to I want to dive a little bit of podcasting because I think some of your free books is like how to monetize podcasting tips and podcasting, less terrible than about podcasting. Because I love podcasting. For me it was I started it because I knew I needed to to reach more audience and more market share, but actually grew to light like love it. So what, let's start off with beginners, what are some tips and tricks to like, maybe get your first 10 episodes out there, there's a determination and just making a decision to start. Let's start off with new people. And we'll kind of dive on down towards the experience and people that do this a lot. 12:34 Oh, sure. Yeah. So when you're first starting out, I definitely recommend launching with at least will definitely no less than three, but really more like five to 10 episodes like have that many already recorded, edited and ready to go. When you launch I started with, I think I launched with seven episodes. And that just first of all, it kind of helps get the momentum, but it's more like well, you know, we all watched Netflix or whatever. And although they're kind of starting to release episodes in like two parts now, but for the most part, they like release all the episodes at one time for a season. And it's like, has that binge factor to it. So if you were to release one or two episodes right out of the gate. I mean, if you release several episodes, it just gives, there's a better chance that someone's gonna watch 13:39 five episodes versus the wildlife release one. 13:41 Yeah. And then like, get hooked to it and subscribe and all that stuff versus one or two. So that would be my first recommendation is and then like, you know, continue to batch really, that because I think pod fading that's a term used is like, Oh, really? Yeah, that's where someone releases a bursary podcast, and but they only get out like 10 episodes at most. And then they fall off. 14:12 Yeah, there's a sauce. There's like, there's like 80,000 podcasts and only like 80% of them have more than 10 episodes or like 20% of them only I have more than 10 episodes. Stuff like that. Well, 14:25 I think it's there's like almost 3 million podcasts, but only but 80% of them like fall off after tonight. Yeah, I think it's like there's only maybe 80,000 or 300,000 or so it's a crazy 14:38 number of activists that don't make it past 10 episodes. Right. This is out there. I heard the similar thing and I'm like that's crazy to me. And for me, I did I think I launched four but already have 50 pre recorded. 14:53 Okay, oh wow. So you have 50 pre recorded when you launch but you are at least for it. Okay? Yeah, yeah, I definitely recommend like batch processing, the only the only thing like, okay, so during the pandemic and everything, when we were all at home and had more time, and at least in my situation I did. So I was like taking advantage of it and interviewing. I don't know, I had up to six interviews a day it seemed. And, and I started releasing like an episode every day. Anyway, I still got four months behind. And I think at one point, maybe even six months behind in the sense that like, the episode I'd recorded with, someone wouldn't actually go out for four to six months, because that's how many episodes had been recorded in the meantime, or whatever. So I recommend batching, but not to the point where, especially if you have guests on your show anyway, if they're solo episodes, it doesn't matter. But people get a little frustrated with that if they're like if their episode doesn't go out for that long. So but and then batch editing, I still do that. So yeah, those that helps keep the momentum going is if you can batch stuff. 16:14 So how did you address your problem with four to six months of inventory, you just release it all? 16:20 Well, I mean, I started releasing one a day for a while, because I was on a one episode a week. And then when I started recording a whole bunch of episodes, I started releasing them like every day, but even then, or at least for a while. And then it was like two a week and three a week. But basically now the way I have it set up is well I do it a couple of different ways. Like you were a guest on my podcast, but it was through like an automated. Like rumbled off studio, it was an app sumo deal. Where like, I asked questions in written form, and then you respond and audio. And then I like, it ends up being like a 10 minute episode, and I edited it and release it. So I'm doing that. And then I'm also doing like when I actually interview someone like one a week, so that they don't have to wait more than maybe a month at most for their episode to go out. So, but I batch edit them, I don't really batch record them now, but I Batch Edit them. 17:28 Now, one thing I really want to hit on too is that I had the same issue. This is where like I think your your podcast in general has it does better with seasoning. So if you're six months out, just release them. Just get rid of whatever you have to do to release them. So I had the same issue. So I jumped to like one a day, just releasing them because I like if it does better with aging. Why? Why am I going to hold on to for three months? I just let them all go. And like right now. I was on a I did I did seven days. I did seven a week for like 90 episodes. Crazy. 18:03 Oh, yeah. I don't think I did that many that. Yeah. Wow. 18:10 I did seven a week for like 90 episodes. And then right now, I think I have a scheduled going out tomorrow. And I took like a month off because I really started. And I'm just that's my thought I was tired. I mean, it's terrible. Because all my episodes were like 30 minutes to an hour. Like I'd mostly totally get 4045 minutes. But man, everything's 30 minutes to an hour and I'm just smoked after that. 18:34 Yeah, yeah, it gets exhausting to have to record and edit that many that back to back. 18:41 Well, I don't have anything anywhere. I'm gonna have a team though. Oh, full time editors that everything which kind of makes it easier. Most things really, I knew I wanted to create content, so I had to get a lot of content out there. Then have the editors full time editors. I've had full time editors. I've had two full time editors for probably a year now. Which is why Okay, content out in general, because that's a priority for me. So for me to record it and then have them to edit it and get the short form out of it. It's a full time full time part of my business. 19:15 Have you I'm just curious, have you found that like when you release daily episodes like that, that the episodes get fewer downloads overall than like when you release one a week? 19:28 I I've seen that but for me, I don't care per se because I feel like when you hit that wave of audience that binge watch it you're going to have all the episodes there that consume I have I hit a wave about a month ago and then I'm waiting for like it comes in waves. I mean, I really don't care about the downloads per se per episode, but it's more of just getting if I have the concept I'm a release like you Yeah, exactly. I don't want to hold on to it. He's gonna do it. 20:04 Right, exactly. 20:06 If I record it, it's already edited. It's going out. It sounds sketchy. That's how I that's how I treat it. Because I'm like, for me, it's just like I've tried to put into, it pushes me to go out and create more if everything's going out and scheduled and like, I have it in my calendar full again. 20:23 Yeah, I had it set up. So like those ones were there like the 10 minute episodes. I was releasing three a week, Monday, Wednesday, Friday. And I had, like, I batch edit them, and I batch scheduled them with like the show notes and everything, the graphic, all that stuff. And for like a month in like, I would get an alert that I released a new episode. And I'm like, oh, yeah, I guess I did. Like you forget that you schedule them out? And yeah. 20:58 It's just, you get to get in a rhythm. And usually the rhythm is it's good for you. I think I think the biggest reason why I do it is it's one of those things where like, most people don't make it past episodes, the people that make it past 100 is very minimal, and you just get smaller and smaller, the more you do, and like I said, I'm not trying to I'm not trying to monetize 100% Right now, I know it'll hit eventually. So just keep doing what you're doing. And this is what this is where I tell I tell a lot of clients soon, like, if you start a podcast, it's like a two to five year play. If you're doing two to five years. If you're not don't do it. 21:34 Yeah, exactly. Yeah, you won't see results. And I think they say at least Yeah, three years. Last, I knew that could be be more like five now. 21:47 But that's just how it works. I think a lot of people they they have like the get rich or get results. Now terminology and like if I do this, and I'm gonna get results, and they're all hyped up and they hype themselves up and they do it and do it. Do it. Do it. And then it's not working. What am I doing wrong? And I'm like, You got it. You got to do more of it. 22:06 Yeah, exactly. 22:09 Are you tired already? Come on, you gotta do more of it. And this is where like, I always like, I I try and push people to start a podcast in general because there's huge benefits to it. Very, very huge benefit. What have been your biggest benefits you've been you've received from the podcast so far. I mean, self employed now. Number one, 22:29 yeah. The networking, like meeting people. And then especially when you meet them in person, like at podcast conferences, or whatever it might be, and just the friendships that I've formed and then the ability to like interview people that I never thought that I'd be able to like Pat Flynn, John Lee Dumas Jordan Harbinger. Mike McCalla wits, all these people. I don't know if you're familiar with any of them, but they're big in the entrepreneur space, or podcasting space to? And just, I don't know, I feel like it just opened so many doors. I had my first speaking engagement last month at pod fest. You know, just things like that. It's just like, even if you're not directly monetizing it. I feel like there's just so many benefits of doing it. That the connections or whatnot. 23:23 Yeah, no, it's a, it's definitely a unique experience. Were you always like, are you introverted? Or extroverted? 23:33 You know, I should probably take like a test or something that tells me I think I'm probably more introverted. If I had to pick I don't know, I'm kind of a little bit of both. It depends, like on who I'm around, I guess. 23:48 So. I'm very introverted. 100%. And I know because I'm, I mean, I don't even leave the house. 23:55 Oh, yeah. Yeah, so maybe, yeah, I like to stay at the house most of the time, except for, 24:01 you're probably introverted. It's the people that do. Like, they're very introverted. And it's like coming out of your shell. Like, like, if you would have told me in high school that I would do speaking speaking engagements, podcasts, and like, You guys are crazy. Getting in front of a video camera would never I'd never in my thought in my life. I would be doing this. But here I am. 24:24 Yeah, exactly. That's how I feel too. Like, I had a speech class or whatever, in high school. And it's like, yeah, I can't see myself doing this. And now I'm speaking in front of people. 24:37 It's a weird thing. And like, a lot of it like, if you go back to my early episodes are a little rough. For good reason. But now but now it's a I think you grow when you get uncomfortable. And you get uncomfortable, you grow a lot more. You grow faster, like people that are already out there. Like they're like I'm afraid to speak from like what I this is easy. 25:01 Yeah. Yeah. When people say or they say the two biggest fears people have, as are one of them is speaking, I guess, in front of people, but I don't know. I haven't had that experience. 25:16 What is a quote? That is something yours or somebody else's that you resonate with? 25:22 Oh, that's a good question. I've heard so many good ones. Um, I mean, I guess I'll just say one of mine, which I hadn't really thought of this as a quote before, but like, you need to spend as much time implementing something as you do learning. Because we can spend so much time like listening to podcasts, taking courses, reading books, and all those things are good. And we should do those things. But like, I feel like as entrepreneurs, we spend so much time doing that, and not actually implementing what we're learning. By the time we need to implement that thing. We've forgotten how to do it. Or we just waste so much time learning, I think then actually implementing what we're learning. 26:15 I will Harmsen agree with that. The, a lot of my I'm a real estate investor, too. So one of the things is like, the the smartest person never gets a deal because they never make the offer. Yeah. Just looking at the numbers 26:32 are like, you don't get what you don't ask for something like that. I don't know. 26:41 It's a it's such a funny analogy that I think a lot of people struggle with. And sometimes if you just have a thought and just take action, I mean, it's gonna resolve your your fear, it's gonna resolve your, what about this, because you're going to find out really quick, and you're gonna figure it out. Yeah, you're gonna learn a lot more than you ever could, by doing and taking the action than you are by figuring out the steps. It's such a cool, it's such a cool thing. And it's so simple to like a lot of people, overcomplicate it, just take action, whatever it is, whatever it is, take action. And the results will come out, you'll find you'll find this is what I've learned is that when you go out there and create a mission big enough people will come out and support you. 27:29 Yeah, that's good. That's a good quote right there. 27:35 I'm inspired today. But like, this is where like, if you if you create your own way people understand and will recognize that you're creating your own path. And the people that wants to support you will. Crazy how it works, but like, oh, I need help. I need help. I need help, please. Well start doing it in the helpful calm. 27:59 That's a good point. Yeah, yeah. And don't and don't get upset at the people who don't end up supporting you. I guess. 28:12 Those Those one I heard yesterday, those are so so good. It was that that people people are following you protect them and protect them at all costs. If people are next to you supporting you, respect them and appreciate their effort, and people are opposed to you fight them to the death as well as in like businesses, war businesses were treated accordingly. It is what it is. A lot of people get the feelings because you shouldn't have done that, like, standing in front of me. Standing in front of me, you're gonna get walked over. It was crazy. Like, I'm a nice guy. Just don't stand in front of me. 28:58 Yeah, exactly. Don't get in my way. 29:03 That's crazy. So tell us a little bit more about your podcasts. How many episodes you ran. When did you say you lost that four years ago? 29:10 Yeah, well, not quite four years ago. It was I think, like summer of 2019. And then I I think I'm like 180 Some episodes in. Now Awesome. 29:24 Awesome. We're frugal. frugal.com or frugal? That show? 29:30 Yeah. fearghal dot show is the podcast website 29:33 Roula show frugal printer. Is that what it's called? Ross can people find you online? And tell us a little toast word about your pod planet again, your website? 29:46 Yeah, so the the website is the pod planet.com And I'm actually giving away some of my books for free the the PDF version at the pod planet.com forward slash free The book 30:00 and those links will be down below. So please go check it out. Thank you, sir, for coming on. I appreciate you and appreciate your contribution to the community. Like I said, I always like talking to fellow podcasters. Because it's I think it's a small community, in my opinion, walking into actually produces results. So I think there's very few of many of those. So I appreciate you producing and creating content and educating the masses about entrepreneurship and being a shining light to other people that want to be just like you and I. Thank you. 30:31 Well, thanks for having me. I appreciate it. 30:33 I hope you enjoy the show. Please go like subscribe, go share with your friends. Leave us a review and go check out the frugal that show was Sarah here. And I will see you on the next episode. Thanks, guys.