Table of Contents

Want 5 quick ways to improve as a podcast host or guest?

Quick Wins For Podcasters

The Strategy for Unlocking 6-7 Figures in Sales Through Podcast Guesting

Table of Contents

How are you doing in podcasting as a guest, host, or both?
Take the quiz to find out

Podcast guesting can be a frustrating experience when you’re not generating consistent sales for your online business or building meaningful relationships. The good news is the right strategy you can make a lot of money through podcast guesting and turn it into a highly profitable, personally rewarding, and fun experience! Dustin Riechmann details a proven 5-step framework and real-world case studies that you can use to generate 6-7 figures in sales in 12 months, leveraging podcast guesting the smart way.

SELECT WHERE TO LISTEN 🎵 AND PLEASE REVIEW THIS EPISODE ⭐

WATCH THE VIDEO VERSION OF THIS BLOG POST/PODCAST EPISODE:

Read the Blog Post: The Strategy for Unlocking 6-7 Figures in Sales Through Podcast Guesting

Can you make six or seven figures with your business through podcast guesting? I did just that with my e-commerce business FireCreek Snack and my coaching business called Simple Success Coaching.

I have also had over 200 clients that I have taught about podcast guesting and business growth. Why am I sharing this? Because I want you to be confident that what I am going to teach you works.

However, there is one big disclaimer, actually two. This requires work.

It also requires you to think differently about some of the efforts you may have already put into your podcast guesting strategies.

The Three Layers of Podcast Audience

To make money through podcast guesting, you need to understand that podcast audiences generally exist on three different levels. You can think of it like a three-layer cake. The base level one, as I call it, is broad and thin; it’s not very deep. Level two, directly above, is narrower and a little deeper.

Then level three comes directly above that. It is the narrowest, but it is also the deepest.

These three categories represent different audiences for any podcast you might appear on. And for each of these groups, there is a different strategy to find, serve, and sell to them.

Level 1

This is what comes to mind when most of us think of podcast guesting. These are the people who listen to the episode, maybe download the show, or even sign up for a coupon code to buy a product from you.

To connect with the level-one audience, we need to make sure we have a compelling call to action that gets them to step into our world. The downside to level one audience is they rarely go beyond that first step.

Level 2

These are the peer-to-peer relationships that can result from guest appearances on podcasts. The first and most important is most likely the host. They already serve your target market, are an influencer in the space, and may even have a brand that fits what you are selling.

Another example is people in the audience who are not necessarily customers or clients. However, they could be great referral partners or collaborators with whom you want to build a relationship.

To build these relationships effectively, you need to have the right mindset.

Think of every podcast guesting appearance as planting a seed. When you plant a seed, it may sprout immediately and yield a bountiful harvest. It may germinate just a little and give you a small result, or it may take some time but pay off again and again and keep bearing fruit for years. All these are possible scenarios.

None of this can occur unless you plant seeds.

Here is a real-world scenario for this level 2 peer-to-peer relationship. In the summer of 2020, a young man named Daniel was listening to a podcast I was a guest on. He contacted me very enthusiastically about my story and the fact that I had left the corporate world and was now a full-time entrepreneur.

We had a few Zoom conversations, and he eventually offered to reach out and see how he could help me with my snack business.

A short time later, I received an email introducing me to the lead buyer for meat snacks at Walmart, the largest retailer in the world. Although we were not in a position to take advantage of the opportunity at the time, it opened my mind to the possibilities and set us on a new path. A year and a half later, we had a product ready for their shelves!

If I had not been on that podcast in 2020, we would not have had a chance to be at Walmart. I wouldn’t even have even thought it was possible, let alone the insight and access I got from that referral. That’s the value of a peer-to-peer referral relationship. And as a fun side note, I helped Daniel and his wife leave Walmart and become full-time entrepreneurs.

Level 3

I consider the third level to be selling high-ticket sales. If you are not selling a high-ticket service, then it could be a high-value relationship, such as with a distributor, a brand collaborator, or even a potential business partner. But generally, it’s direct sales.

Surprisingly, most people do not think of direct sales as something you can achieve with podcast guesting. But it can be done. 

Another Real-Life Example of The Three Levels

Let’s look at another example to help you better understand how you can make money through podcast guesting.

Let us say you are a Facebook ads agency for craft food brands. You may ask yourself, “How can I get more customers and make more money from podcast guesting?

In level one, you would consider which shows potentially have Shopify food brand owners in their audience. There you would offer something like a free audit or checklist to get them to reach out.

Level two is about what peer-to-peer relationships might come out of this. Maybe the host has a brand or knows people who need help with their brands.

Maybe someone is listening who is a Google Ads expert for food brand owners, and they reach out and say, “Hey, we have these clients. We are just running Google ads. You guys are doing Facebook ads. We should collaborate.”

Things get really fun at level three. We have several strategies for this in our Podcast Profits Accelerator program.

A good example is the guest list. If I guest on a Shopify show, there’s a good chance that out of the last hundred guests, 10 are food and beverage, brand owners. Now I can have my virtual assistant do some research to discover which ones, find their contacts, and add them to my prospects funnel.

Then we can reach out on LinkedIn. “Hey, Annie. I heard your story on this podcast. Actually, I have been a guest as well. I’d love to connect with you.” When you get a request like this, you’ll probably say yes because you both share the implicit authority of the host.

You can start your sales process with a warm lead who already knows. He can listen to your episode and learn more about what you do. In the meantime, you might look at the Facebook ads and send them some tips on whatever your sales process looks like.

You are filling a pipeline with your target client and making direct sales. Podcasts are perfect for these strategies because they are evergreen. As long as the show is active, new founders are interviewed every week. And every show I appear on is a new pond I can fish in to draw them into my holding pond and nurture that relationship until it’s time to see if they really want to work with us.

That’s how you can appeal to all three levels of podcast audience and make money with podcast guesting.

I hope you see the value in looking at your podcast guesting in these three levels. Let this guide you in selecting your shows, in the stories you tell, in the calls to action, and in the follow-up.

So what about the return on investment on podcast guesting? I have found that a mid-sized podcast brings in about $2,000 on average w. That number can vary a lot. You might get $200 in revenue from one, and $20,000 from another. But if you look at it across the board, the average is about $2,000.

And here’s the real kicker about this.

You have to do it consistently.

This is what we teach in our Podcast Profits Accelerator program. My goal for our entrepreneurs is to guest on one podcast a week.

That puts you in front of 50 different audiences in a year. 50 audiences times 2000 per episode equals one hundred thousand dollars. That’s six figures. That’s the way it works. It’s not going to happen if you just do one episode.

It’s not going to happen if you dabble in it. But if you make it a real marketing system, you can do wonderfully with it.

If you do this year after year, many seeds will be planted. We have seen crazy, unicorn-like results come out of it time and time again. That’s where the seven-figure opportunities come in.

About Dustin Riechmann

Dustin Riechmann is a strategic marketing coach who helps mission-driven entrepreneurs rapidly increase profits and massively grow their network using strategic podcast guesting.