Travis Chappell is an entrepreneur and the host of the “Build Your Network” podcast. He joins Chris Van Vliet from his studio in Las Vegas to talk about how anyone can make money from their podcast, tips to book better guests, the secret to getting more downloads, how he has recorded almost 650 episodes of his show, how to bring value to everyone you interact with and much more!
Why he wanted to start podcasting:
“I wanted to make money [laughs]. But I quickly realized you have to change your strategy up because podcasting is not the thing to make money. I was at a position in my life where I was trying to make money online. I just wanted to build a lifestyle for me and my family to make money while I am travelling. At the time, I wasn’t in that position. I am a millennial, if I want to do anything in business, it has to be online. I had no experience or connections, but I had to figure it out. So I started listening to some of the top podcasts on iTunes. When I realized how much they were making I was like wow, I should be a podcaster. I started a show but realized you don’t just zoom up to 1 million downloads a month and make $100,000 a month in 90 days. I had to go back to the drawing board.”
On advice for new podcasters:
“What is the ultimate goal of starting your podcast? Do you have any existing leads or an existing business? Do you work 9 to 5 that you enjoy but you don’t want to do it forever? So you want to leave that and podcast full time in 5 years? Do you want to talk crap with your buddies in the garage? There’s so many different reasons to get into podcasting. I think you should be as clear as you can. You should take stock of the goal every month. If it is still something you want, then you should keep going. After clarity, it is important to find your niche. All the other questions will be ran through the filter of who you are creating the podcast for.”
On the success of Joe Rogan in podcasting:
“Now that he [Joe Rogan] is on episode 1341 people are now finally listening. Also with Rogan he hit the perfect timing in the right market that no one was paying attention to. He was one of the few people that was already a celebrity but became an A-List celebrity through a podcast. There’s a bunch of A-list celebrities that have started a podcast and furthering their audience like Kevin Hart. But there’s not a lot of people who did what Joe Rogan did. Before it was ‘Oh is he the Fear Factor guy?’ He was barely in the limelight, but he exploded in popularity just from his podcast.”
On how to be successful:
“Consistency is everything. The number one killer of shows is lack of consistency. The reason to start a show is like and trust. If the audience can’t trust you to release episodes consistently, how are they going to trust you to do anything else for them. We started at 3 episodes a week, then we moved to four. Now we are at 6 episodes a week that we are releasing. Consistency is super important. I tell people consistent quality content over a long period of time is the key to success.”
On people getting frustrated and stopping their content:
“I understand it. I was 18 months in and doing 3 episodes a week. Also I wasn’t doing the podcast full time, I was working to pay the bills. I understand that perspective. If I didn’t make a commitment to put a certain amount of time in, I probably would have given up on it. It makes sense why people quit. If you are fully committed, it makes sense to throw in the towel when you are 6 months or even 14 months in. You are talking into a microphone and no one is hearing what you are saying.”
On the turning point for his podcast:
“Guests. My big thing was getting guests on the show. For me, the quality content was not going to come from me. It made sense that people were not going to listen to this because of me. They are going to listen to me because I can find guests and ask quality questions. Then report that information back to my audience. You don’t have to be an expert to get started, but you have to get started to become an expert. That was the position that I took and when my podcast took up steam. I was then asked to be on podcasts with people who have big audiences, because they would look at my guest line-up. That gained traction from my show and we built from there.”
On how he books guests for his show:
“We have a 5 step process for getting people for the show. It was done through hundreds of reach outs, lots of rejection and ignoring. But eventually we got a good idea of what it is. The first thing is lead with value. I’m going to say something nice about what someone is up to lately, but it can’t be disingenuous. Number 2 is give information. This person is busy, they don’t say yes to a lot of things. If you ask for their time, you have to give them information in the reach out. If not, you give them homework. Number 3 is build your request. Number 4 is offer credibility. This answers the question of if this will be a waste of time. I write out a list of former guests that is relevant to that person. The last thing is finishing with a thanks in advance, it creates this psychological loop where they want to do it a little bit.”
On the biggest obstacle for him:
“Growth. That was a big thing for a long time. It was so slow it was like a snail or watching grass grow. I was like why isn’t this working? I was going to figure it out eventually, I just didn’t know how. Growing the audience was the biggest obstacle.”
On if people can still make money from podcasting in 2021:
“100%. It’s all about the long term. What are your goals and how will you get there. I believe that in 2021 everyone should have a side hustle, especially if your job doesn’t fulfil you. It’s an outlet that will let you create and will fulfil you. A podcast is a great way to start a side hustle, it’s a lot of fun. You can pick it on a topic you care about, and talk about it with whoever you want to. It’s 100% possible if you are prepared to out the work in. But it better be something you want to talk about in 3 years.”
On what he is grateful for:
“A supportive family, my kids and all the small things.”
More information on Travis Chappell can be found here
Featured image: American Snippets
