Fei Wu is the host of Fei’s World Podcast, the place her mission is to assist unbiased creatives to search out profession and monetary freedom. Throughout a 10-year profession in consulting and advertising and marketing, she constructed a thriving profession as a challenge supervisor at firms however yearned for a unique way of life, one free from company politics. “It was not the life I wished in any respect,” she says.
She began a podcast her podcast in 2014 in a quest to attach with attention-grabbing folks in inventive fields, educating herself audio engineering by watching YouTube movies. “I assumed if I don’t know one thing, I’ll determine it out,” Wu says. “I had no coaching in audio engineering. The good influencers confirmed me the way in which. I watched YouTube movies and downloaded Audacity,” referring to a free and open supply video enhancing platform. As she interviewed company on the present, she not solely realized audio engineering but additionally discovered what it took to turn out to be self-employed. “They confirmed me tips on how to begin by myself path,” she says.
Fei Wu realized tips on how to escape company life from her podcast guess, then adopted their recommendation to … [+]
In 2016, she made the leap and went full-time together with her enterprise, Feisworld Media, tapping her abilities as a model builder, challenge supervisor and digital producer and bringing in contractors to broaden her capability. She discovered that native company purchasers wanted her providers and shortly had a thriving enterprise. To maintain income flowing whereas elevating her visibility, she spent 50% of her time on that enterprise, and 50% on the podcast. She additionally runs Feisworld Academy, the place she affords programs on podcasting, YouTube and Zoom.
Between her companies, she now brings in income within the mid six figures and now has almost 20,000 followers on YouTube. Her company have included creator and podcaster Joanna Penn, course growth guru Jason van Orden, and copywriter and creator Helena Escalante.
Lately I had an opportunity to talk together with her about how she made the break from company and constructed her profitable podcast—and the way different professionals can attempt podcasting. Listed below are three methods she recommends.
Don’t be afraid to start out small. When Wu started podcasting, she began with zero followers, like all new podcasters. What she found was that even with a tiny platform, it was doable to draw company with a high quality program. “It doesn’t matter how small your platform is,” she says. “Individuals need to stand on it with you.”
Embrace expertise. Instruments to assist podcasters are proliferating. Taking a couple of minutes to discover ways to use them could make it a lot simpler to supply a podcast. Wu’s favorites embrace: Podcastle.ai, which payments itself as a one-stop store for broadcast storytelling; Descript, a instrument to create and edit podcasts; and Remaining Reduce Professional, a video enhancing software program. (You possibly can see a few of her different favorites right here). Having instruments that make manufacturing simpler will assist stop a widespread downside: podcast abandonment.
Take into account podcasting a part of your advertising and marketing. If you wish to appeal to sponsors, the variety of downloads of your podcast issues. “Roughly between 50-100,000 downloads monthly will begin to appeal to sponsors typically,” says Wu. “That variety of downloads have to be constant. It will probably’t simply be one month.”
Nevertheless, numbers like this are very exhausting to attain. Wu prefers to deal with the knock-on impact of podcasting—enterprise from folks the podcast brings into the podcaster’s orbit. Wu, as an illustration, discovered that her podcast was a robust catalyst in attracting work for her skilled providers enterprise. Usually, members of the viewers attain out and ask her to do work similar to moderating a Zoom occasion. “If folks don’t learn about you, they’ll’t purchase from you,” she says.
For a lot of of her purchasers, she has discovered {that a} podcast generally is a option to transfer previous income milestones. Most of the purchasers she works with are at about $500,000 in annual income and discover {that a} podcast generally is a option to increase their visibility, supplied they produce it constantly.
Along with her podcast rising, it continues to deliver rewards for Wu. Generally she marvels on the expertise of driving down the freeway and having the ability to hearken to her personal podcast, one thing she by no means imagined throughout the days she was attempting to flee company life. “I feel everybody ought to begin a podcast,” she says.