How to Start a Video Podcast That Makes Money in 2026

[00:01] built a successful podcast. Starting your video podcast is easier than you think and you can start it this week with these five steps. Number one is doing? What's the point of the podcast? Number two is recording. How are you

[00:16] going to capture the episodes? Number three is editing and production and this hosting and distribution. How do you actually get the podcast out there? And then number five is also optional and advanced but it's repurposing. Zoom

[00:29] webcam on, decent USB microphone, press record. We'll be telling a story and example of literally that being the the workflow of an individual who's now making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year from their podcast.

[00:42] Welcome to the Think Media podcast, the number one show bringing you unfiltered channel. I'm Nathan S-Wine, one of the coaches here at Think Media and today Sean and I are handing you a complete video podcast launch framework. We're

[00:55] going to walk you through exactly how to start your video podcast this week with simple setups that will work for literally any budget. We've got some great case studies that we're going to go through today to prove it's possible

[01:07] full-time business recording in a spare bedroom using just her iPhone. Sean, I'm pumped. Let's jump into this launch framework. Yeah, I mean, I'm excited because starting your video podcast is easier than you think and you can start

[01:22] it this week with these five steps. So, what we're going to do is let me get we'll break each one down, then you're going to break down a case study, I'll break down and then stick around until the end because we have some details

[01:35] about about like what could this cost? I mean, you can start a video podcast with free stuff that's you have you know, your phone, your webcam. But like if you a very low amount of money, we'll hit that at the end. So, here's the video

[01:48] podcast launch framework. Five steps. Every step's important and most people actually miss a few of these. Number one is brand and strategy. Like what are you even doing? What's the point of the podcast? Number two is recording. How

[02:01] Number three is editing and production, and this is actually optional. If you don't want to edit the podcast, we have a case study of someone who has been very successful with a very simple workflow. However, if you want to clean

[02:16] could do there? Number four is hosting and distribution. How do you actually get the podcast out there? Not just on YouTube, but across Apple, Spotify, what are the different ways? And then number five is also optional and advanced, but

[02:29] it's repurposing. What else can you do once you've finished a video podcast episode? So, that's the five-step video podcast framework, and let's quickly go through this so you could start your video podcast in the next week. Number

[02:43] one, brand and strategy. Here's the big idea. You're going to decide what your show is about, who it's for, and how it's going to make money, and then also how it connects to your goals before you ever hit record. And Nathan, this is the

[02:57] They aren't going in really getting clear, man, what's your podcast about? Who Who exactly is it for? How's it going to make money? What are my goals with this podcast? And doing that in terms of a very strategic process. So,

[03:10] could ask. What What could people do to kind of get clear on this? 100% Yeah, I would say also this is a place where people definitely underthink, but this overthinking. Mhm.

[03:24] >> And tinkering, and twiddling, and just continuing to Oh, it's not quite What's the name? You know, like I just Should I have the in my channel title? You know, it. It's that granular. I was that I was that way, too. But, some good questions

[03:38] you can think through is what's your show name and your topic. Again, it's something that's worth considering. What Yeah, what am I doing? What's the topic? Okay, who's your target audience? Mission-critical question. This this

[03:51] whole podcast episode in itself, but who are you trying to reach? You have to know that especially in a platform like YouTube. What's your unique angle and positioning? Okay, have you done your research? Have you even thought about

[04:03] about them? What do I not? How am I different? What makes me unique? And then what format even works best? This is a big deal, too. Am I going solo? Is it mostly interviews? Am I co-host? Is there someone else who's kind of leading

[04:17] does this even serve your business or mission? Oh boy, we could spend a lot of time here. Because I do this video podcast, what changes in my, fill in the blank, bank account, impact, numbers? What are you solving for is a pretty big

[04:32] deal. And then also thinking through how you monetize to fill in those gaps. So, okay, for this podcast, I envision what you see. Sponsorships, affiliates, it's internal CTAs on this one. I'm going to make people aware of my products and

[04:46] questions to think through. The minimum requirement, I would say, is would say, to get at least 70% clear on all of these at step one. Yeah, and step number two is recording your podcast. So, if we're going to launch a podcast, next

[05:00] thing? And here's the goal. You're going to capture your episode on video and And it can be as simple as hitting record on your phone or your laptop. And so, if you keep this super basic, Shawn, Nathan, how am I going to start my

[05:15] podcast this week? Your phone and a decent mic, I mean, you don't even need mean, and there's some mics on Amazon for 20 bucks that can connect to your improvement. You get what you pay for. You step up to like $55 and you have a

[05:30] decent dynamic kind of USB or even USB-C or lightning cord plugs into your phone type of a mic. Let's Let actually Let's actually really challenge people. Let's go. No. No, you can't just use your phone. I actually

[05:44] phone as a microphone in your closet because it's a sound booth and you've cuz that can sound decent. Yep. This is a podcast. You are not allowed to have Like I was going to kind of let people off the hook. Nathan, I'm not letting

[05:58] them off the hook. It's a podcast. And and good audio is about $50 away. Great audio is like 100 bucks away. And so, here's the point though. Webcam or

[06:10] phone and a decent mic. Now, you could just capture and we'll tell some case studies and example. You you could just capture solo rounds like some of our students have done. Um and they are not using like virtual

[06:24] But a lot of podcasts are interview shows. But even if they're solo, you could use something like Riverside. Now, this video isn't sponsored, but we are sponsor a lot of our videos. We're in love with them though. And I actually,

[06:40] my personal workflow is I sit at this desk when you're not here and I'll record YouTube videos. Like, you know, what's the difference? Obviously, a video podcast or a video podcast is a YouTube video. True, but I mean like I

[06:52] YouTube video. True, but I mean like I will I will record scripted videos in 4K to Riverside because it just speeds up my whole workflow. You know, it's there's no SD card. There's So, bottom line is how are you

[07:05] use some kind of software for remote guests, even solo rounds? If you're little more complex. Camera or multiple cameras, a couple mics, a simple backdrop. But here's the thing. Even Zoom can work to get started. And

[07:21] everybody knows how to use Zoom. Zoom, webcam on, decent USB microphone, press record. We'll be telling a story and example of literally that being the the making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year from their podcast.

[07:35] So, simple is fine. Consistency beats perfection. But even though we prepared and wrote all these notes, I my my like passion asterisks is simple is fine, but you are not allowed to have crappy audio. It's a podcast. Um and then one

[07:50] cool resource, as we get ready for the next one, is we do actually have um a this down, but instead of you having to like search around and figure out where everything is, we put everything in one place for you for free at

[08:03] So, it's actually free training videos and a checklist that will walk you the gear you need for every budget, how to set it up, how to structure the episodes, how to grow your video podcast. Um obviously this episode

[08:17] covers a lot of this, but like free is a great price, and you can get it at uh And we'll put that in the description down below. That will specifically help you figure out that recording piece. And step number three,

[08:31] editing and production. Now, this is optional, but this is your goal here is to clean up your recording and turn it into a polished episode. Or skip this and upload it raw. So, some individuals will hit record,

[08:47] story an example, he's one such an individual, and then he just uploads that file. He He's actually not polishing the audio, not running it through any kind of processor, not cutting it out ums, and

[09:00] he's built a very successful channel. But, saying that, you know, shout out to Riverside again, is when you record into a software like that, then you can do like at the push of a button, it'll take out filler

[09:14] recommend things based off the transcript, it'll really clean it up. And there are other great softwares. We happen to be biased to Riverside, of description, but Descript is very popular. You can edit by transcript,

[09:28] it's beginner-friendly. It has a thing to remove ums, CapCut. Um if you're more advanced, you might be using Adobe Premiere or Final Cut. Um and again, you could do none of the above. And there's actually a free audio cleanup tool. It's

[09:42] actually a free audio cleanup tool. It's called the Adobe Podcast Enhance tool. And that might be a my exception, Nathan, is if you want to like really janky. I'm not saying you want to make it

[09:54] janky, but if you were to put your phone on a tripod at your desk, no mic, deliver 10, 15, 25 minutes of content, solo round, upload it as a podcast, Before you upload it, put that audio file into the Adobe Podcast Enhance.

[10:10] free. podcast.adobe.com/en/enhance, description. So, free tool. It's actually crazy. It'll make like low quality audio sound pretty impressive with AI. My advice for you is this.

[10:24] resourcefulness. Because if you put in the hustle, whatever you have, like just your smartphone or lower quality audio, and improve it. But my second-level advice is like, it's always smarter, in

[10:40] my opinion, to just spend a few dollars and set up a smart system. Don't even need to enhance your audio because you just got a decent USB microphone. Figure out your system so that you're capturing to something like Riverside, so that it

[10:53] audio, cut out the ums, get your final push of a button. Editing and production can be simple, and your two paths are you could just skip it like some of our students do, or

[11:06] the point here is to polish the episode. Before we hit number four, uh, Nathan, know we're going to get into your case study in a second. Yeah, of course, which I'm stoked about because I think this is going to demystify a lot of the

[11:18] trips people up. Okay, like after I record the thing, well, first off, how think when it comes to editing and production, I just totally agree. Simple double down on your challenge. I do think, hey, get care about audio. Let's

[11:32] what's cool is I love that you mentioned that tool. I completely forgot about that tool. And there's more of them, by the way, too. Inside Riverside, there's well, where it's like, you don't even have to go crazy with the microphone,

[11:44] enough microphone that a piece of software can take to the next level. Woo, that's a hack right there. So, I love it. Let's hit number four. It's about hosting and distribution. Okay, so I want to encourage listeners. We're

[11:56] talking about this video podcast launch framework. around because we're going to share two stories in just a second, and then like go through how different individuals apply this framework.

[12:08] playbook so you can launch your video podcast, but do it in your own way, schedule. Because these are like four big steps, but they can all be applied differently to you busy life, solo rounds, interviews. So, after editing

[12:22] number four is hosting and distribution. That's not optional. Obviously, you have what are you going to do? You got to upload your episode once, and then let it automatically go everywhere listeners and viewers watch and listen to

[12:36] podcasts. So, it's like, okay, Sean, Nathan, I've recorded my video. I've also then stripped out the audio file. And so, there's free software that'll help you do that, but like the big key is that YouTube wants a video

[12:50] file, and then the RSS feed wants an audio file. audio file. And the uh key on this workflow is YouTube manually. And that's your primary video home.

[13:03] You can check a box in YouTube and add it you basically add it to a playlist, and you designate that playlist as a podcast, and that does the distribution of your video podcast on YouTube Music for you. Okay? So now, YouTube's

[13:17] handled. You're You have a YouTube video that's a video podcast. You've got YouTube Music getting your podcast because you've set it up on the back end of YouTube. And again, you might be like, "Sean, how exactly do I do that?"

[13:29] we'll get a little more technical for you there, but get take advantage of our free resource. Um at videopodcastguide.com you in email. Just follow the steps.

[13:43] give you. Okay, so that's YouTube. And then you're going to need to host it on audio, which is called an RSS feed. When you upload that, it'll push it to Apple, automatically. Now, as far as a tool we use to do this,

[14:01] and have never wanted to leave, Buzzsprout. It's paid, but if you're only doing a couple hours a month, which most podcasters are, let's say four, like one one-hour episode a week or eight 30-minute episodes, you know, I

[14:16] think it's it's like around 20 bucks. And it's it does a whole lot more than It just makes it super easy to upload your graphics, title it, description, get it to every place properly. But you can also do

[14:29] things like dynamic ads and it's very beginner-friendly. And to me, that's just one of the big things, like set things up in a smart way to reduce your stress. I would rather pay 20 bucks a month for less stress and like then try

[14:44] to duct tape together weak tools. However, on hosting and distribution, you can use Spotify for creators. That's completely free, but it's only can create an account, log in, it'll give you analytics, upload what you

[14:59] there. And I mean, I would say even at the in. That's that's that like to give you an idea of what we do, it's like we let Buzzsprout handle that distribution, but you could go do it like manually. You

[15:12] could do it to Spotify. Um Transistor is another one, great for growing shows. Libsyn is uh trusted professional grade for for this. RSS.com, PodBean, Captivate are all alternatives.

[15:24] So, you can look at all of those, but like again, one, you know, full trans- we're an affiliate. So, if you click our link, we earn a commission. But, from the very core of my being,

[15:38] I can recommend Buzzsprout and Riverside. We live this video podcasting Done over 500 episodes. We're obsessed with simple systems, smart workflows. And so, if those are like the >> two tools. We'll link those in the

[15:51] Riverside for step number three, editing and production, and recording, by the way, for step number two and three, recording, editing, and production is like all Riverside. And then, hosting and

[16:04] distribution is Buzzsprout. There's like our simple software stack for distributing a podcast. And then, lastly, Nathan, we don't even have to talk about this cuz I want you to get into Kayla's case study. Um but, then

[16:17] number five is like, "Okay, you can stop at step number four. You've uploaded it to YouTube. It's been distributed on audio. episode." But, smart video podcasters could could

[16:33] here? Well, now you're taking the episode you've uploaded and you multiply it into clips, shorts, posts, and more. And that's where real reach can happen. So, people are very familiar that you can cut a clip out of a podcast. It

[16:46] could be a YouTube short. There's also shorts, but clips are a little bit we'll cut a clip out of like an hour-long Think Media podcast. minutes. It's like a really good section. We

[16:59] optimize it well. We have clips that are 4 years old that are still getting four So, slowing down a little bit and realizing each video podcast is an asset that you can chop up and distribute, and they

[17:14] Reels, TikTok. And there's tools like Opus Clip that will do this for you. That's an AI tool. You know, my big thing is we've tried Opus, we love it as well, but Riverside does the same thing. It has the magic

[17:27] like it you can record it there, your content is all there, and then based off AI, based off your energy, based off the transcript, it will pull you and optimize those vertical clips for you with captions at the push of a button.

[17:40] So, you know, Descript is another tool. At at one point, I think it's important to like think less tools, not more. Pick something that is got all the features. posts. We don't write blog posts, but we pull

[17:55] transcripts out to optimize our YouTube descriptions. It helps us write emails. transcript from a video podcast you upload and running it through ChatGPT or Claude or your favorite AI. Spin it in different ways. You could make quote

[18:10] cards. That's kind of an outdated thing in terms of its effectiveness, but yeah, you could pull quotes that graphics that go on Instagram, email newsletters. So, one episode can easily become 10 plus pieces of content. If we're talking

[18:24] about the video podcast launch framework, repurpose is a key strategy because at some point, the cool thing is just your episode on YouTube can grow discovery engine. But those who really want to grow a podcast and how

[18:37] aggressive you want to be at it, this can be the key to getting discovery to transition because in a second, I'm going to break down a study of someone who doesn't even edit and has built a successful podcast.

[18:51] I want to talk a little bit about the entire budget of what it could cost to do this at a beginner or advanced level. But I want to start now with we've gone through these five steps. Break down a case study. This is one of our Video

[19:03] I think she's upgraded and now has been in our coaching program as well. Been ripping with us for a couple years. Started totally from scratch and it has a video podcast. Walk us through this full story, Nathan, of like how this

[19:18] launch framework can work in real life. 100%. I'm so stoked about this. So, hang granular here about what a week looks like for someone named Kayla who owns the YouTube channel His Word, My Walk. All right? So, channel stats really

[19:33] she at? We're about 75,000 subscribers. which was kind of fun. Um and she's 2 years in on her YouTube journey. So, already, pretty cool. The momentum that's typical on her channel right now

[19:45] views every single month. She's getting about a million impressions every single month, by the way, too. And she actually got monetized in 60 days just using her started for her. And that was just her iPhone. That's no joke. So, how does she

[20:01] map to the framework? Here's how Kayla does a video podcast for each of these five steps. When it came to brand and strategy, what's she doing? Okay, she had a very clear niche. And I'm pretty familiar with Kayla, full disclosure. Uh

[20:15] coaching, and I got to coach her for all of last year. And she is inside of the faith niche. So, her strategy is actually genius. She did a daily Bible study. And she's going chapter by chapter. This

[20:32] means, because of what she's doing, the format was locked in early. She is doing five videos a week. Now, hang tight. I'm not even suggesting success requires you walking you through what she chose to do. And think about it. I mean, five

[20:48] days is a lot. That's like no joke. And she's held this uh this consistency ever since she started, by the way. But, she's just going chapter by chapter through a book of the Bible. And her plan is to do everything. So, five

[21:01] through a chapter in the Bible per video. It's a bit of a Bible study. So, loud, there's a little bit of prayer that's going on. And for her in the strategy for step number one, she was very clear and she said monetization was

[21:17] she's said this actually in an interview with Sean that like if the foot fungus guy would pay her to preach the gospel, she's all in. That just means like when she could turn on ads, she was monetizing 60 days, right? So like when

[21:31] seeing the kinds of ads that were on her videos, she's like, "Yeah, cool. Sweet. I'm on a mission." So she's very mission-driven. So step one for her came pretty naturally. But what's it look like for her to record, right? Five

[21:43] videos a week? Does she got a fancy setup? Not even. It's an iPhone, which by the way is a few generations old. It's plugged into her laptop and she actually uses the software that's called OBS Studio, which is a free software, by

[21:57] the way. Um it is nowhere near as intuitive as a lot of other softwares Riverside where it's really like one click and things just happen for you. OBS is a bit more of a manual setup, but once it's set up, it's dialed in. So she

[22:09] plugs her phone into her laptop and she uses the back camera. So the camera she uses the back camera for filming and she uh tries to look directly at the

[22:21] lens. So she isn't distracted by seeing herself. So by the way, if you're like do audio podcast and you're like, "Okay, the video part." Yeah, Kayla understands herself, so she gets her framing set, hits record, and then she goes for it.

[22:35] And the gear, actually, there's no lighting setup. There's no fancy gear. It's just her. It's a microphone, to be to be clear, got a microphone, she sounds good, but it's her Bible and her phone, y'all. And

[22:49] if you can you can go to her channel, His Word My Walk. Click on her most structure as when she started. She's sitting there, she's on mission, and recording process. Now, when it comes to production, she's evolved, but I think

[23:02] it's important to understand where she started. So, step number three, editing and production, she edited herself for over the first year. For the first 15 actually used a piece of software called CapCut, which we had mentioned earlier.

[23:16] So, that helped her in the beginning because it enabled her to do one click, and she was able to export her video and her audio at the same time, which as you can imagine is really helpful for a video podcast workflow. So, now she is

[23:29] batching her recordings, and she'll send five videos, the weekly videos, to her evolved, but in the very beginning, for well over a year, she's doing everything someone to help her

[23:42] with the video part now. So, the workflow trick here, when using CapCut, generates both things at the same time. That's a really big time-saver for her. She has two separate files, zero extra strep zero extra steps to strip the

[23:55] But with her and her process, her authenticity, I just want to mention really quick, is like a subtle power-up. Okay, it's a subtle power-up because when she's this this actually I goes back a step.

[24:08] Recording's easier, editing's easier, production's easier mission, and I'm not trying to get all Hallmark card here, this is a very tactical episode, but y'all, that's a powerful level-up because you'll see it

[24:21] when you clicking on a video. Kayla's on mission, man. Like she is dialed in, and a creator that's dialed in is dangerous when it comes to recording. Because guess what? There's barely any flubs. There's not really a lot of mess-ups.

[24:33] there's really nothing to really clean up there. Just it is what it is. So, for her, her approach is pretty raw, and it works. And she's also said too that um if if she sneezes in the video, she'll keep it in, and people will

[24:47] like she's like totally fine. She lets her hair down, she keeps it real. That's actually does it now. Okay, step number this so I could walk you through exactly what she does. When it comes to hosting

[25:02] and distributing things for her, the key part of her workflow is that she starts And I'd ask her about this. It was like, "Wait, what do you mean? Like, but you Buzzsprout, by the way. But she's like, "No, I start everything in YouTube

[25:14] because YouTube holds the bulk of the views and her growth right now because she's doing a video podcast, right?" The audio podcast is still a massive asset Bible studies on the way to work and on the way home. But she uploads the audio

[25:28] to Buzzsprout and to save time, she just copy and paste what she does from YouTube into Buzzsprout. So that means she starts in YouTube, she uploads the video file into the YouTube platform, does the whole designated as podcast

[25:41] means the episode will show up as a podcast on your podcast tab, and it will show up as a standalone video in your video section. But as she's uploading that, the title she's filled out, the description she already did, the tags.

[25:55] She really cares about this because SEO is a really big level up for her. Obviously, she's doing books of the Bible that have names, characters in the scripture. She's very meticulous and methodical about that. And so she starts

[26:09] everything in YouTube and then gets the audio over to Buzzsprout. In Buzzsprout, she's going to paste the link that she uses for the video on YouTube. That's what she designates as the episode website. So again, we're getting pretty

[26:22] through. This is what she does every single week. This isn't This is just technology. This is just steps to figure out. This isn't actually moving mountains. Like, this is just, "Oh, okay. Everything's figureoutable. What

[26:35] click?" And you just jot it down, and you do it every week, right? Um when it comes to audience inclusion for her in this hosting and distribution section, go, which is why audio is a really big deal for her, people listening in the

[26:49] So she intentionally will say this in her videos. This is a big power up. I'm watching. And praying over is just contextual to her, but the listening or watching. Because she knows she's getting that one

[27:03] this is my video and it's my podcast all-in-one. Video goes here, audio goes they at? She's just aware of where people are. So, she calls people out so when it comes to repurposing and monetization, lead gen for her is

[27:21] ridiculous. And especially at this point, two years on YouTube, five Like her this this no wonder she has quarter million views on autopilot every single month. And you know what's in most of these videos? Is a call to

[27:34] something she's put together. It could be a prayers guide, it could be a Bible journaling starter kit. Her email list is growing daily from both the video that's on YouTube and on the audio side. Because she's also strategic

[27:48] about who she's talking to. So, that means if there's a URL, you've already if you're familiar with the way we do things at Think Media, like you're going to hear us there's all kinds of URLs. We love URLs, right? Like cuz we know

[28:00] people are listening in the car and if she put something together for people, she's going to actually articulate where to go, right? And she'll have a QR a QR code on her actual video, but she's still saying the link. And she's found

[28:16] listening. So, wow, okay. You're like, dude, Kayla's dialed in. Okay, Kayla is amazing. All right, she's a former elite what I'm saying? She also had coaching. She also had help along the whole way

[28:30] stuff. And so, for her, when it comes to this point. I'm going to kick it back to Sean here in a second so we can hear how What's their workflow look like? AdSense is a part of her video podcast revenue

[28:43] streams, sponsorships, she said at BetterHelp reach out to her. Amazon supplies. Oh my, it's just so much fun. She gets into it. Here here her email list is growing every day. Courses. She's a monthly membership. She actually

[28:56] there sitting on my shelves shelf. She gave it to me. Isn't that crazy? She's video format that's allowing her to reach people on YouTube and through audio. So, here's the encouraging thing

[29:08] her phone, and a microphone, and this piece of software for her, which was OBS. Okay? She published consistently, and she let the community pull her

[29:21] forward. She got help. She didn't do this alone. She did have coaching, but for her the tech was never the point. The mission was. And it still is, by the way. Like, it's just using the same phone. I love it. And for her, if you're

[29:34] in?" Yeah, we have coaching, we offer one-on-one coaching and group coaching. And hey, if you think it'd be a good fit, you can go to viralvideocoach.com. And it's just a free strategy call where you can hop on with someone on our team

[29:47] strategize next steps. You know what? You could even do this if you if you be like, "I just listened to this episode about video podcasting stuff, and they're going to know what you're talking about and we can help you. All

[30:02] right? That's at viralvideocoach.com. But man, Shawn, wow, we got in the weeds because this is what she's doing every single week. I'm going to kick it to you so we can hear about how someone else is doing this. Yeah, it's so inspiring to

[30:15] hear Kayla's story and and it's been amazing how inspirational she is in our community. And obviously, um you know, working with our coaches is a massive accelerator. But the point here is to also now share not just that story, but

[30:28] another story and loop through these five steps because you're listening to this and you're thinking about how do I launch my podcast? Now, of course, you we really believe in the next week because smartphone,

[30:43] you know, simple mic, uh press record. However, you know, the brand and strategy. And I think it is, you know, this is going to be a podcast series um here on the Think Media podcast. So, definitely subscribe cuz

[30:58] our students, in fact, a lot, and I know even in my own journey, sometimes there is like, man, start as fast as possible, and that's cool. But sometimes it's nice to sit down and really clarify your brand and strategy. And so, wherever you

[31:11] on the Think Media podcast. And I want to go through another example just to really inspire you to think about, man, what could you create and how simple could it be?

[31:24] So, another case study from one of our students and community members is He has a channel called One Rental at a Time. So, he's a real estate investor age 45 back in 2018. Real rough, honest phone.

[31:39] He used the plug-in white Apple headphones as his microphone as he was like walking to his job at the time before uh he, you know, started really channel's got 70,000 subscribers, 22 million views. Did not happen overnight.

[31:55] But you're going to be shocked by like how simple his workflow is that's produced those results. So, he's a solo operator. He has one part-time virtual assistant now. He hasn't always had that. And that person

[32:07] basically handles his YouTube thumbnails and does the uploading of the podcast uh audio episodes for him. He has 17 income streams, all powered from his YouTube channel and his audio podcast, and he works roughly

[32:20] 3 hours a day, 5 days a week, and he takes three cruises per year. So, quite the lifestyle. So, how's this framework work for him? Number one, brand and strategy. So, he figured out a clear niche. And you see a theme here. That's

[32:32] why sitting down and strategizing can be so helpful. His clear niche is wealth through real estate and daily financial news. His monetization was reverse engineered from day one. He actually wrote a book

[32:45] um in year one and that became something he could offer his audience and it became a very strong income stream even when his audience was very small and And so um he really also doesn't think of YouTube

[33:00] he really also doesn't think of YouTube as like a make money first opportunity. theme you'll see on the internet and in our community. Our community is like our community. Our community is like impact first, mission first. Like

[33:12] directly correlated to the amount of value you add to the marketplace. I It's not a bad goal, it's an important goal. I actually think it's an essential goal cuz if you run out of money, then you run out, period. Like you can't keep you

[33:25] It just shouldn't be your number one priority and that's really what he felt. out. I want to impact people. YouTube is a trust engine. It might not even be an income source. But as the years evolved, he realized,

[33:39] streams. So, he had a clear niche recording. He started with Zoom. Just Only Zoom. That might sound shocking. But literally Zoom. But literally Zoom. And he would press record on Zoom

[33:53] file. You want to talk about simple workflows? Press record on Zoom. Hey, welcome to today's daily financial news. Michael Zuber here. Let's get into it. Turn it off at the end. Didn't trim anything.

[34:05] Like just uploads that file and and then, you know, use simple software to turn that into an audio. Started uploading the video daily financial news onto audio platforms. Now, today he has graduated to a

[34:17] software called StreamYard. We're big fans. Um we actually still love StreamYard as one of our favorite tools for live streaming. It's the way we do our events like um just because of the UI UX, the interface. Um he still has no

[34:32] crew, no studio. Um, if you want to record and publish a podcast, we personally are bigger fans of Riverside. Um, so many tools are great, but um,

[34:44] anyways, just what we are personally doing over the years. So, for him, he's it's StreamYard. It's still no crew, it's still no studio, it's still no editing. And the Daily Financial News, which is his core video podcast, is 10

[34:58] to 18 minutes, five days a week straight to upload. And as Nathan said, It happens to be that he does five days and so does Kayla. But by the way, they selected formats that sustain it.

[35:11] He has There's always financial news. He wakes up, he studies it, drinks coffee, and then delivers the news. There's lots of chapters in the Bible, so she has a structure to say, "Okay, we're going through a book of the Bible." Her

[35:24] planned, Kayla's is. So, that's how he records. Still super simple. Editing production, he skips this entirely. Step He just doesn't do it. Zero editing, he hasn't edited in eight years. Raw

[35:37] recordings go straight to YouTube. And this is how he's actually uploaded a high volume of videos. Now, there is another format he does. He does the Daily Financial News, but what he also does is he interviews like real estate

[35:50] experts or financial experts. But his way of doing it, and I've been a is still like when I went on his show, he booked me for an hour, we got on He said, "Hey, there's three things I want to talk about for about 20 minutes

[36:03] each." I said, "Okay." He said, "Are you ready for the first one?" I said, record, we talked for about 20 minutes, he turned it off. Then he goes, "Hey, Yes, here's the big idea, here's the topic. He pressed record, kind of

[36:17] off. And then he just uploads those those files. So, again, his editing and production is nothing. And if you look at the math, he's built a multiple six-figure income stream from this video podcast now. He's

[36:32] you know, 70,000 subscribers. Of course, it depends on like the niche, the format, but yo, it's working. So, if you're listening to this making excuses, the whole title is like of this episode is you know, the fact that we can start

[36:47] simply. Like how could the easy way to start a video podcast or you could start a video podcast this week? Yeah, that's how Michael did it. It's like you know, strip all the steps out. Now, step four, hosting and distribution. YouTube is the

[37:00] primary home for video, of course. Now, at this point, a virtual assistant strips the audio and uploads to Spotify. Um Spotify once paid him 600 bucks out the money was coming from. It's like an afterthought, but that's it's kind of

[37:14] cool. Um and then again, one piece of content, multiple platforms, no extra work for him, which is an interesting idea that like if you want to keep things ultra simple, I still think it's worth investing in something like

[37:26] Buzzsprout and distributing everywhere cuz why not? But if you just did YouTube for like the first 6 months or the first year and then you get momentum going, less is more and you can always scale up over time. A huge key again, an

[37:39] affordable virtual assistant does all these like little detail details for him later, but he didn't do that at the start. And then lastly is repurposing is minimal. Uh he does have a newsletter that

[37:51] Uh he does have a newsletter that someone else helps him uh write because of the transcripts and the things that come out of his content. Um he has a into this interesting thing with this brand called Resi Club. They write it.

[38:04] They actually sell ads and then he gets 50% but they said, "We'll do the heavy your intellectual property in this partnership, we'll write it, distribute it, etc. based on your voice. We'll sell ads into it and then we'll

[38:19] just cut you checks." He was like, "All right, sounds cool." So, that literally right, sounds cool." So, that literally in 2024 made him $15,000. It's projected to make 30,000 or made 30,000 in 2025, and it basically

[38:31] is passive as an extension. And so, numbers he shared with us. From doing this very simple podcast that definitely takes some sweat equity, in 2019 it just AdSense paid 1,500 bucks, 2020 14,000,

[38:47] AdSense paid 1,500 bucks, 2020 14,000, 2021 38,000, 2022 78,000, and that is YouTube paying him for running ads on the videos. Now, he has 17 income streams, and AdSense is actually near the bottom of the list as

[39:02] Now, you have the benefit of being a Think Media Podcast listener. If you're new here, I encourage you to subscribe, but we'll make sure to link in the show notes my interview with Michael Zuber, where he in detail breaks down all 17 of

[39:17] those episodes. So, we're stacking value for you, but that will help you get educated there. But, when you add up all his income streams, he's clearing 400, 500, and and even years of like 700k when you add it all together.

[39:31] estate investor as well, and that was sort of the original thing he was doing while he was house hacking, and his whole brand is one rental at a time, and how everyday consumers could very slowly set aside

[39:43] some money from their W-2 job, start a real estate thing. Now, that's what he's teaching people and helping people while he still does it. So, it's pretty wild, and he's developed a whole system for it. As we zoom out, um Nathan, I'm

[39:57] curious before we hit the final section, which is a proposed basic podcast budget. Like, Sean, I know I could just do this with my phone, and like free tools like OBS, and like really duct tape this together, but if I wanted to

[40:10] a budget. I'm curious if you see any common themes though between these two case studies as we continue to like cycle through these five steps to really podcast launch framework. >> 100% I think the word of the episode for

[40:26] through Kayla's story, through Michael's story, it's like these are just two people and by the way, just a couple people of like so many other examples of people who are doing this each and every single week. But nonetheless, leverage.

[40:39] everything's figureoutable, right? And so thinking through, okay, what do I can I make this better? What is the workflow? And so the common thing that I'm thinking through is these are two people who are approaching

[40:54] which is kind of funny, but approaching their week in a way that like everything they're they know what they're doing in advance. They're not showing up and just winging it. And there's no way you could just wing it for over a year or whatever

[41:08] thinking through and I would challenge you if you're listening, okay, you want actually do this next week, but I would also challenge you to think through that very first step is also important. Brand and strategy. Like what are you inspired

[41:23] could just record in Zoom. Honestly, dude, if you're listening to this and you're like, oh, I could just record in Zoom, freaking start. Like we have some Yes, you go further faster with some tools. If you're able to swing it, you

[41:35] should get the tools, let's be clear. But like you can just start with what you have. Kayla's using a several-year-old iPhone, right? So I Sean, is leverage is possible and with

[41:47] just keep it real, the barrier to entry for tech to just get something that's for tech to just get something that's like good out the door every single week that budget for people. Absolutely. So, okay, Sean, Nathan, how

[42:03] much is this going to cost if you had a proposed basic podcast budget? So here's what we recommend at Think Media. These are the tools we love and use for a living. We test all kinds of tools. We love I mean I mean I would I'd put this

[42:17] out there like, you know, it's like every tool is good, you know, like these years if it's been getting updates there's a lot of good tools. We've picked out our favorites. And so to run the full podcast operation from a

[42:30] software standpoint, we recommend Riverside and Buzzsprout. So Riverside, your video and it will also do editing for you. It gives you do based editing.

[42:42] It has a button to just pull out your ums, edit on the transcript, and it does like that full that it covers the recording aspect and then the editing helping you with time codes chapters so even some distribution aspect when it

[42:57] That's going to run you about 20 to 30 bucks a month. And then Buzzsprout is the distribution tool that Kayla mentioned she was using. That's going to be about $19 to $39 a month. The point of the range is like

[43:11] most listening would probably be at the lower end of even cost because you're maybe not going to be doing, you know, hundreds of hours of podcast but like a once a week episode or something. So if you add that up, that is $500 to

[43:24] $1,000 per year in software. And that gives you like a professional simplified easy to use software system

[43:36] to do a world-class podcast. Pretty cool. Now, what about the cameras professional podcast studio for a few dollars depending on the gear. So if you were to get a pro webcam and so there's

[43:51] been some incredible webcams coming out lately for about a hundred to 150 bucks. assuming you have a computer. You buy a USB microphone for around $75. have a light and by the way her phone looks good. She just uses her phone as a

[44:05] camera. But if you get like a desk light, I have a desk light here in the recording of this video podcast, then for around 250 bucks, assuming you have a computer, you can get a very pro video podcast going with

[44:19] high-quality audio. And you can do it virtually from anywhere. So now, you know, Nathan's in um Nashville, I'm in Seattle, and we're recording this video different guests, you know, that come on. I'm using Riverside right now.

[44:34] I've got a microphone, I've got a computer. and you start getting, you know, fancier, that's I think important to note that both Michael and Kayla, this is These are at-home businesses. These

[44:47] road. And the Think Think Media podcast is interesting because we've developed expertise. We shoot podcasts on the show floor of events. We set up We have a fancier studio in Vegas with like, I mean, we we have really high-end stuff

[45:02] mean, we we have really high-end stuff as well. But here we are, Nathan family, kids, logistics, and whatnot, like we're more based up in Seattle right now. You you like Here we are using our home offices. So we we're kind

[45:15] of we've developed expertise in all of the different formats. So yeah, if you want to build like that A1 in-purpose, you could spend five grand, 10 grand, $25,000. But if I'd say around three grand to get

[45:30] But if I'd say around three grand to get super crispy in-person gives you a range. Now, that was some overwhelming numbers. Let's synthesize resource. We have actually covered all different

[45:44] different softwares, etc. We've simplified it all. We've given you a And a couple emails, you know, make sure you're getting the emails on the other side of videopodcastguide.com.

[45:57] If you've got a sec to share your email, go to videopodcastguide.com, enter your name and email, and we'll send you just really cool resources and help you figure all this

[46:10] stuff out and a few videos to walk you through the tech, how to set up the tech, and a checklist for getting your podcast started, entirely free. But what's really cool, Nathan, is this is more accessible than ever, more

[46:23] affordable than ever, there's better tools than ever. Um again, not just this every link in the description is probably an affiliate link. Uh we wanted to do an episode because again, Descript is cool, you know, you

[46:39] of features. We love Riverside and they do sponsor link down there. And because these days, they have just made that tool so everything you need for podcasting. They just keep making it better. It'll cut

[46:53] clips for you. It has AI built into it. So again, don't overthink it too much, but get the right stack. It's the tool stack, it's the tech stack, and it's what Nathan just said. It's it's a system. It's a schedule.

[47:06] It's a routine routine. You get the right habits, the right system, the those things in place, this thing is sustainable. And then as a final resources for you, this is a part of our video podcasting

[47:19] series that we're doing here on the Think Media podcast. In episode one, if you missed it, we talked about 12 reasons why now's a good time to the very important episode to listen to behind this. Like Sean, why am I putting

[47:34] investing this money? Why would I be doing this? There's a lot of benefits and a lot of reasons people don't even realize, like side benefits to starting that. So, we'll link to the playlist and

[47:48] episode one in this series, you could check out videopodcastguide.com, plane, If you want help going faster, um both Kayla and Michael have been a part of our coaching. They've also been

[48:04] a part of our in-person mastermind. In fact, you know, two masterminds ago, Kayla was just at this last one. She comes to like all of them. Because when

[48:16] she gets in the room with other video podcasters, other YouTube creators, they just realize when you're networking, connecting with Nathan, with myself, inspired, and also having these unlocks. Like I I just remember specifically

[48:29] talking to Michael Zuber, you know, he sits down, he brings a journal, he's taking notes at our event, and he's like, "Bro, I just got one idea that earned me an extra 25 grand." And he's now been tracking with our

[48:43] community for years. We've actually been a part of both of their journeys. Like, and sometimes growth can be slow at the start. But what's what's waiting for you on the other side of not just starting, but doing it in a smart way, and the

[48:57] scaling financial opportunities and impact opportunities. So, if you are impact opportunities. So, if you are interested in talking to a um our team, event. We actually have an event coming up in Vegas.

[49:10] It's It's at thinkmediamastermind.com, and it's two days. Um we talk about all How do you And you know, here at Think Media, we're YouTube experts, and video podcasting is not the only thing, but we're pretty obsessed with

[49:25] it. Because you listen you I mean, it's just so leveraged. And so, when we look at stories, so many of our students are choosing this format. You want to master doing it? You want to get inspired? You want some good food, good networking,

[49:39] good coffee from the coffee cart. It's It's quite an experience um to come out That's something that Michael did, and something Kayla did. And we would love to have you as well. If you want to apply and connect with us and see if you

[49:53] qualify, you could go to thinkmediamastermind.com Um if you're thinking about starting or wanting to grow your video podcast or

[50:05] your YouTube channel in general. Nathan, we've covered a lot. this. If you're listening, what does your next week look like? One week from right now, have you published

[50:18] your podcast episode? And it's a video, not just audio, because you took action serious about it, what are you going to do? Do you need a resource that's in the mastermind link? Do you need to apply for some coaching? Decide, right here,

[50:32] right now, whether you're watching or whether you're listening, and let us know. Like, rate, share, review, wherever you're watching or listening. This is the Think Media Podcast. I'm Nathan Eswine, and I can't wait to

[50:44] Nathan Eswine, and I can't wait to connect with you in a future episode.