Fewer than 1 in 10 podcasters publishes on a regular schedule.

👋 Welcome back to Content to Commas, the weekly playbook for turning content into authority, audience, and income.

I've built audio marketing and podcast strategies a few times in my career.

I even worked at a music tech startup and was deeply involved in the music, tech, and audio creator industry. The booking of podcast talent, the studios, the sponsor decks, the promo plays, the marketing & episode rollout, monetization … everything.

1 podcast episode can be sold in 7 different ways, and it excites me to even think about it.

In this issue, I’m teaching you how to build a podcast that pays for itself.

📍 In this issue:

Let's get to work!

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There are 4.71 million podcasts around the world … only ~450,000 publish regularly.

In order to keep a schedule, you have to spend money. In order to spend money, you got to make it, and no revenue means you're running on your own cash.

So before you start anything, I want you to consider consistency and really ask yourself if you want to start a podcast.

Below are a few tips, but you have to see this as a longterm play, not quick gains.

Let me guide you on how to improve or plan a great podcast.

It’s not just an audio experience, act like it’s a show.

Sometimes, people might be tuning in while they clean the house. Other times, they might have it playing on their TV, fully engaged and soaking it all in.

The goal is to be the most entertaining or engaging source of news or media in your category.

Here’s 3 ways to start right now (low to high).

Free? Record on Riverside's free plan and publish straight to YouTube plus a free-tier host like Spotify for Podcasters. Total cost is whatever mic you already own.

Podcast studio? Rent one by the hour once the format is worth repeating: a treated room, multiple mics, a camera you do not have to own. A half-day session covers a month of episodes if you batch them.

(if you're in NYC, Chicago, or Boise, you can use the Kit Studio. It's where I record all my content. Just need to be a Kit customer.)

Podcast agency? Full production hands off booking, editing, artwork and distribution. You show up and talk while a team runs everything else. This is the tier that buys back the time but it cost.

Other tools to check out: Descript for editing, OpusClips for clipping, Uppbeat for music, Later for social media.

This will increase your awareness, but it's also the last thing to worry about.

Clips (aka shorts or cutdowns) are a second product with their own audience.

They work on their own in the feed and bring people to your podcast or make money on their own.

… trust me, I know how crazy it sounds, but the game is really changing that much.

Before or while you record, consider your plan for handling clipping.

Once there is traction, the offers start. A tour, a meetup, a digital community, a book, longer episodes, a live show.

it's a distraction, cosplaying as growth.

Multiple formats can build community or split your attention, and in year 1 it usually splits it.

That tile is the whole first impression on Apple and Spotify.

It does the work your audio cannot do until somebody presses play.

Open your podcast app and shrink the screen. At the size a tile actually appears, three or four words survive and a face survives. A subtitle does not.

If your show name is set small enough to read comfortably on your laptop, it is already too small.

If you film, the room is the same argument with a bigger budget, and video is now a real slice rather than a side channel.

Over half of podcast shows now post full video episodes to YouTube, up 130% since 2022. One in three weekly listeners name YouTube as where they prefer to listen. Source: Edison Research and Spotify data, 2026

Your brand and visual look are more important than you might realize.

There are more ways to get paid for one podcast episode than you think.

Here are some unusual but potentially effective methods…

To make your podcast successful, focus on distribution, having a solid plan (look above), and creating a high-quality show. It doesn't have to be in 4K, but it should be good. If you care about your podcast, build a community around it and stay consistent. That's a big part of the challenge.

See you next Saturday,

Brandon

Each week, I share content on social, branding, and growth strategies. Catch up in case you missed anything.

The tools, equipment, and systems that power my content.

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