How to Make Money Podcasting with Paul Barnhurst

Josh (00:00:02) - All right. We got five minutes on the clock. What is your name and your podcast show?

Paul (00:00:07) - My name is Paul Barnhouse, and I host two podcasts today and the Financial Modelers Quarter.

Josh (00:00:12) - Awesome two podcast shows. So you got some experience to bring here. Why don't you get started? Why did you start two podcast shows?

Paul (00:00:21) - Yeah, so I started my own business. I always thought a podcast would be fun. The first one came about, I was planning on starting it, had some conversation with vendors. One of them came to an agreement to host the podcast, and it made a lot of sense as I was starting my business to have that, you know, kind of guaranteed stream and that relationship with the company. So I started FBA today, did the first episode, found I loved it about 20, 30 episodes in, I realized how much I was enjoying it, and so I found a way to start a second podcast and have a premiere sponsor I work with on that one as well, called Financial Modeling Institute.

Josh (00:00:57) - Nice. So before you even started a podcast show, you were working with an organization and they worked with you on getting it going. So you have guaranteed revenue. Source day one.

Paul (00:01:09) - Correct? Yep.

Josh (00:01:11) - Gosh. And then you went out and did it again with a premiere sponsor, correct?

Paul (00:01:16) - Yeah. Both my episodes from episode one have had a premiere sponsor.

Josh (00:01:19) - How do you do that? There are so many podcasters out there that would like to monetize one of their shows, much less two of them. How'd you do it?

Paul (00:01:28) - So. So the first one, I'll say, is a little bit of dumb luck. I'll be I'll be honest. You're right. I'm starting my business. I know I wanted to do a podcast. I talked to a couple vendors about it. None of them showed a lot of interest at the time. Another one wanted to start a show, and initially they said, hey, we want you to be an employee. And I'm like, I don't want to be an employee.

Paul (00:01:46) - I'm running my own business. So we parted and I was planning on starting my own podcast with no sponsor, you know, the normal way. And about a month later, they came back and said, hey, we'd like you to host it. Let's come to an agreement. And we worked out an agreement, and that's how I started it. So, you know, just made a lot of sense as I'm trying to start a business and drive income, I'm like, okay, I get to do what I want. Plus they're going to pay me. Perfect situation. Second one, I said, what's an area I could start a podcast in and who could possibly be sponsors of it? Because I was having really good traction on the first one. So I reached out to a couple companies, particularly one I really wanted to work with, somebody I'd knew I'd had on the other podcast. He loved the idea. We started talking a couple months later. We came to an agreement and launched the podcast.

Josh (00:02:27) - Cool. So before you and I start a third one for you and we're looking at like different like, what's one area that you would say, here's where the opportunity is for this guaranteed stream of income through podcasting. You're like, Josh, the next show we build is going to be here. But here's one thing we must do before building it. What's that one thing?

Paul (00:02:46) - So I think the, you know, one thing before someone builds one, I recommend you have an audience. I'd already built a following on LinkedIn, so I built in a network. When I started the second one, I had 70,000 followers on LinkedIn. So it allows you to easily distribute and get people to listen. Because I think the hardest thing is if you don't have an audience, how do you stand out in a podcast?

Josh (00:03:07) - Yeah. So you started with a community. You started with people that were already following your stuff. How did you get that following? Because 70 84,000 followers for.

Paul (00:03:17) - Now was 70 when I started the last podcast.

Josh (00:03:19) - Holy moly, Paul, how did you do that?

Paul (00:03:23) - I'm posted for 500 straight days and I went from under 5000 to about 70,000. And then I said, I don't need to post every day anymore. And now I post most days.

Josh (00:03:32) - Yeah, Paul, what the heck is PHP?

Paul (00:03:34) - And a financial planning and analysis? Corporate budgeting and forecasting.

Josh (00:03:39) - Got it. You have 84,000 people following stuff about financial modeling and such for business. So anybody out there in the community who goes, I don't know if there would be people interested in this, here's proof 84,000 followers on LinkedIn cranking it with his podcast shows. Nice work. Paul. If you were going to start up one more podcast show and it didn't have to be about business, what would that last show be about?

Paul (00:04:05) - So one I want to start right now and it is business. I don't know what the last show would be, but one's been on my mind lately. Is something around I in finance think that'd be fun. Or maybe I in general not even just business, but where I is going.

Paul (00:04:18) - The reason they say finances I think who would be the sponsor and all those, you know, the monetization side of it.

Josh (00:04:22) - Yeah, the money side of your brain is automatically going, okay, how do I get this thing paid for? I want to build something. How do I get it paid for before I launch? So it's brilliant. So Paul love you man. This is super cool. Love the beard. Where can people go to find your podcast show and connect with you?

Paul (00:04:37) - Yeah, so my podcast, they can find it on all the major platforms today. Financial modelers corner Google, Spotify, Apple. They can also go to my website, the Guy. And that's where they can learn more about me. Or they can hit me up on LinkedIn. I get messages their daily awesome.

Josh (00:04:53) - And we did this all under five minutes. Paul. Thank you everyone. Tune in to the next episode of Podcast Host Army.