98: That Time I Sold My Podcast

Written By Britany Felix
 
98 Podcasting for Coaches Britany Felix.png

What’s This Episode About?

Whenever people find out I sold my first podcast, they always have the same questions.

What?! How?!

I didn’t even know that was possible. Could I sell mine?

How many downloads were you getting?

How much did you sell it for?

After it happened again recently with an upcoming guest, I figured it was time to put the information in a nice, neat little podcast episode so I don't have to keep explaining it. ;)

Now, to be perfectly clear ... this is NOT an episode about how to sell a podcast. It's just the story of how I unexpectedly found myself selling mine back in 2018.

Transcript

Welcome to podcasting for coaches. I'm Britany Felix and I'm a podcast launch consultant who specializes in helping coaches and consultants utilize the power of podcasting as a way to build brand awareness and generate new leads for their business. I realize not every new coach or consultant can afford to hire someone to help launch their show. So I created this podcast as a way to guide you through the process of launching and utilizing your very own podcast to help you grow your business and reach a new audience of adoring followers and potential clients. If you're ready to get your voice and podcast out into the world, head over to podcasting for coaches.com to learn more. Welcome to Episode 98 of podcasting for coaches. Today, I'm going to talk about the time that I sold my very first podcast living unconventionally. I am bringing this up, because whenever people find out about it, they always want to know the details. And I know that this has a very, everyone's been asking me about my skincare routine, vibe. And I promise you that's not the case. Literally every time this comes up in a conversation that I mentioned, I sold a podcast, everyone is just like, wait, what, like I didn't know that was possible? I've never heard of anyone doing that. What did that look like? How much money did you make? Like they want to know all the details. So just in case, you didn't know that I actually sold a podcast, and you are curious about those details. I'm going to share them here. Now to be perfectly honest, this is not going to be a how to for selling your own podcast. This all happened completely. By accident. Basically, I had no intention of selling the show. But I did learn a few things along the way. So the story behind this as I started my very first podcast five years ago this month, actually, it launched on February 1 2016. It was called Living unconventionally. And I had the show for about two years. And I interviewed full time world travelers and digital nomads. And I documented my own journey out of the corporate world and into traveling and then settling down in Colorado. When we did settle down in Colorado, when I was able to put more focus into this business and really do it full time it started taking off. And I have the podcast for another year. And finally I just was too busy with the business and something needed to go. And it was just time to retire living and dimensionally as much as I absolutely loved the show and the conversations I was having and the people I was connecting with. So I put out a farewell episode announcing that I was retiring the show explained my reasons why I told them I would keep it up, you know, I would continue to have it hosted so that it was always accessible. And let people know where they could find me and continue to connect, you know, outside of the podcast if they wanted to stay in touch. And several of my listeners did, I'm still in touch with several of them today, which is awesome. But a few weeks after I put out and it may not even have been that long. That farewell episode. I had a listener reached out to me and asked if he could take over the show. And I was like, excuse me? What do you mean take over ratio. And he said that he was starting a business. And that his target audience were basically people who wanted to relocate and find jobs in other countries. And that he had been a longtime listener of my show. And he really loved it and believed in the mission. And the reason he found it and the reason he wanted it was because I was ranking fourth and all of Apple for the term digital nomads, which is a very popular term for the people he was looking to work with. And he loved that I already had this website established with SEO. And I had a platform already going you know, it had been around for two years, and I had a well established listener base. So I felt a little weird about it. At first I was like I don't know about this, this show is my baby, I have put so much time and effort and energy into this. I don't think I can just randomly hand it over to a stranger. But I agreed to hop on a phone call with him. And it was very apparent once we get on the phone call. But he actually had been a longtime listener. He was very passionate about the mission behind the show of you know, not settling for a life that you don't love and like living your life on your terms going against the status quo. All of those things he was very, very passionate about has I am and that was his whole mission behind the show. So that all lined up and he explained to me his business and it honestly sounded like a great service and a very valuable one that I Didn't think my audience would some of them at least would resonate with. And he, you know, promised to keep the overall mission of the show the same, he promised not to turn it into one giant sales pitch, he was going to basically carry on having the same conversations that I was having. And after a couple more conversations with him, I did agree to sell him the show. And I put some caveats on it, you know, we had some stipulations. And we worked this out, I did get a lawyer, and we actually had a sales agreement put together that had some of those stipulations in it. One of them being that I retained the rights and the ownership to all of the material, and the episodes and everything produced prior to him purchasing the show, and that he was not liable or taking over any ownership rights of any of that work. And then I would not be liable for anything going forward. He also did not to get the rights to my voice or likeness or name. So basically, moving forward, it had to be a completely separate entity, my entire identity needed to be scrubbed from the website from the podcast. And he, you know, he couldn't use any of my previous material going forward, he could only use the new things he created, he was fully on board with that. And then I also put a stipulation in that he needed to keep the feed active for at least two years after taking it over. And that's because I didn't want him to just make all of my hard work does disappear. You know, I had promised these listeners who were still making their way through some of these episodes, because, you know, a lot of new people would start at the beginning and I was on coming up, I think on like Episode 180 something. So a lot of the listeners of the show didn't know I had retired it yet, because they were making their way from the beginning. And I wanted to give them plenty of time, without it just you know, vanishing one day. And so yeah, he agreed to all of the terms that I offered up, we found a price that we both felt comfortable with, I legally cannot disclose what that price is that was part of our agreement was that the official sell price could not be publicly announced anywhere. However, I can tell you, it was more than nothing, I guess. But I certainly didn't get rich off of it by any stretch of the imagination, I'm pretty sure that I can legally say it was under 10 grand. So somewhere in that range of zero to 10 grand is what I sold the podcast for. Again, I did not get rich off of it by any means that was not the objective of doing it. I honestly was just really excited to have someone keep this mission going and keep the show going. Because I truly truly did love it and still do. And if you're curious about whether or not he kept up with everything, not as much as I had hoped, it's technically still there as of when I'm recording this, which is literally about three hours before it goes live, because that's just how I roll with my own podcast. But he is not consistently putting out episodes. He's put out a few in the past two years, but we're beyond the two years in our contracts. So he could technically cancel the feed at any time. But he's still keeping it up and going, which I do really appreciate. And so yeah, if you want to check out that show, the first 190 something, are me. And then he takes over after that. And then I think he's in the low to hundreds now. But yeah, that's really all there is to selling my podcast. I know. People are like mystified whenever they hear that I sold my podcast, but it's really honestly not anything crazy or amazing. I did not reach out to someone and try to sell this thing. I will say what was important to him was that I was ranking for the keywords for his particular audience. And then I had a well established website that was getting some traffic and had some some good SEO on it as well for those same keywords. So yeah, that's a story of that one time that I sold my podcast. Now, before I wrap up this episode, I do want to let you know about something completely unrelated but incredibly important. And that is that the pod fest global summit is coming up starting on March 1, they actually have some pre event thing is going on starting on February 22, I believe. And pod fest global summit is literally the pod fest conference that you may have heard me talk about in the fall that I've attended in person in Orlando. It was actually the last conference and event that I attended. I came home from that conference with COVID last year. They did everything that they could I actually believe I got it from the airport because as soon as I got back I did find out that one of the TSA officers in the Orlando airport tested positive for COVID which is where I had just been through twice. So yeah, that was at the very beginning of March 2020. We came home. I was very very sick for a week and by the time I was starting to feel almost sort of better. We were in straight up lockdown. But they have now since switched to these virtual summits, which I know are so exhausting and like overplayed with everything going on with the pandemic right now. But they have really, really tried to keep up as much of a conference like atmosphere as they can. They have an app where you can engage with other people, they set up meetups outside of the group, I'm actually hosting what's called a micro con. So the first day of the conference, I and some other amazing women have put together like a little mini conference, a four hour conference for women in podcasting services, because I want to get back to you know, those following in my footsteps. But the fantastic thing is, if you want a free ticket to pod fest global, which by the way is going for a world record, and if you attend, you can say you are a world record holder, if they break it, the record they are breaking is actually their own from their last event last fall. But if you would like to attend the conference, and get a free entry level pass, just use the code, just busters. That's j u, STB, u s t e r s, and that will give you a free pass for every single event that's happening all the micro cons, the main event where they're going to be tons of keynote speakers, if you're into Hamilton, this is another completely unrelated. I know, there is a Broadway micro con and the cast of Hamilton is actually going to be doing a reunion at that. Lin Manuel Miranda will not be involved, but I believe most of the other cast members will be. So like I'm telling you there is so much happening at this thing. Like there's YouTube presentations, there's marketing presentations, and all of it has a spin around podcasting, basically. So I promise you, there will be something for you something that you can learn. So go grab that free entry level ticket, if you decide you want to upgrade your ticket, I am not an affiliate, I don't get anything for it. I just really, you know, like this event and think it's really important and going to be really helpful for you. But if you want to upgrade your ticket to like a VIP once you can get all the recordings, then that just busters code will give you a $49 discount off of that ticket. So if you want to get access to that ticket, just go to the shownotes on my website, podcasting for coaches. com, click on the episodes tab in the main menu and go to episode number 98. And if you want to stay in the know about events like this, and you're worried that you might not catch it on the podcast, then you definitely want to check out my podcasting insiders club. It is a once a month email newsletter, where I take all of the latest industry news updates on what new platforms there are that you can submit your show to new products or services or platforms that can help you with different aspects of your show policy changes for some of the main platforms. Anything that I think is relevant for you, as someone who has podcasting as part of a coaching or consulting business. I do all of the work all throughout the month. And then compile it into one nice little neat email for you. So if you don't feel like doing hours of reading for blog posts and articles, having conversations with people in the podcasting industry, listening to podcasts about podcasting, other than this one, of course, and just generally being immersed in this world, then check out the podcasting insiders club is only five bucks a month. And we'll save you so so much time and make sure that you don't fall behind with your show by missing out on all of the latest updates and new platforms. Again to find more about that just go to podcasting for coaches.com. Alright, that wraps up this episode. I will see you back here next week, where I'm actually going to have one of those amazing women I mentioned earlier who's helping me hosts that micro con on the show to talk about her advice for maintaining your show. So basically keeping it going on an ongoing basis consistently over time because we can all definitely reach some burnout and we want to avoid that. Alright, that wraps things up, have a fantastic week. And that wraps up another episode of podcasting for coaches. If you'd like to connect with me further, you can do so on Instagram at podcasting for coaches. If you know it's time to finally get serious about starting your podcast, go to podcasting for coaches comm and click on the work with me tab in the main menu to learn more about my one on one launch consultation packages or my self paced online course. And I look forward to seeing the podcasts that you create and put out into the world.

 
Britany Felix
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