How We Started a Podcast (Accidentally) and Grew to 1.5 Million Plays

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0:41Guys, we're really excited today to take a little behind the scenes peek at what's going on with your girls, the budget besties. It's going to be a short and sweet episode. We have a couple of little fun things to tell you about and then we'll be done.

0:53Shana:We'll be in and out. Yeah. If you ever thought of, hey, how did they start a podcast and where did they come from? This is kind of the behind the scenes, like Shana said. How did I stumble on this podcast? Yeah. This is kind of the progress in our podcast journey.

1:25Shana:like you have your finances all together or you're not on the same page with your spouse when it comes to finances. We know what you're doing probably isn't working, but guess what? You're in the right place. We're Shana and Vanessa. We're best friends, business partners, and master financial coaches trained by Dave Ramsey. We've been in business since 2019, helping hundreds of amazing people like you create budgets, get out of debt, stop living paycheck to paycheck, and know exactly what to do with their money. In this podcast, we'll share with you everything we know plus everything we're working on with our clients so that you have the best chance at reaching your financial goals.

1:59Shana:We want to help you take the guesswork out of your budget, improve your marriages, and even bring your kids in on the conversation. We can help you no matter where you're at, whether you're the single mom who's never had$500 in her savings account or the millionaire who's paid off four real estate mortgages. And we're not going to shy away from the tough love. We'll tell you what you need to hear and encourage you at the same time. This is the Financial Coaching for Women podcast. Let's just say, Vanessa, how many people are like, I feel God led me to your podcast. I'm like, that's so good. I'm so glad.

2:29And also, if you knew what a train wreck at the beginning of this podcast was, you would know that it was only God. Not us that had anything to do with it. Because if you go back and listen to some of the beginning episodes of this podcast, Vanessa, you'll be like, huh? What were they doing? What were they doing? Who are they? What kind of business was this? Yes. Why are they? How are They just have a lot of questions is what we're saying.

2:49Shana:The other part of that I will say is if you knew how we were recording the episodes with yoga mats and blankets and towels and all this stuff wrapped around us so that way we could not have the echo. Yeah. Let me say that we have over 500 episodes. We're a top 1 % podcast. We are pretty high ranked in the charts and everything. We started this podcast on accident. I was doing a blog after – so it was a Saturday. I remember, Vanessa. We were on spring break. Like I was doing a blog post based on a coaching session I just had about a morning ritual, morning routine. And then there was this button that said, oh, do you want to make this a podcast?

3:22And we had vaguely talked about someday, maybe kind of sort of going to start a podcast. I was like, yeah, I do want to do that. Let me see what happens. Click. Because a lot of times when you click stuff, it's not instant. Right. It's not okay. And so I just kind of went through the motions. And before I knew it, we had an RSS feed. We had a first episode of our podcast. And I don't even know what we had, a name of a podcast. Anyway, so what did I do, Vanessa? I texted you a little bit. Or I told you a little bit. She texted me and she said, hey, I think I accidentally started a podcast.

3:48Shana:And I was like, accidentally. So you accidentally go to Target and spend$400. Yeah, how do you accidentally start a podcast? But anyways, that's how it started. And I remember her saying, oh my gosh, we have to record this. I just clicked the button. Now it needs words. So I'm pretty sure the next day or that Monday, we came together and recorded whatever this episode was that she had published. Super intentional podcast. And so then we started doing one whenever we felt it. and to Vanessa's point we were out in the garage with the yoga mats around us so that hopefully the echo you couldn't hear it or she loves it still your profile picture on my phone is you holding an umbrella my in my mind the sound waves can't bounce if they're if you're if they're under the umbrella with you yeah but that also might make it worse I really don't know but I thought it was a great idea the more I think about it there was no absorption there no no it's just literally you can't it can't go up it can't go up to the to the ceiling that was tile so if we had pictures we would show you.

4:39We do have pictures. We should show them. No, they're very embarrassing. I'm just kidding.

4:43Shana:We have so much. It's fun. That is where we started. It was a very humble beginnings. We are so blessed and thankful to be here now. And again, we hear time and time again, we're so thankful God literally led us to your podcast. And we wouldn't be here if it wasn't for awesome listeners. And so we just wanted to say thank you. Yeah. And so round about April, 2023, which was a nice, what, three-year anniversary for our business, we decided, oh, we shouldn't do all the things. We're just going to do financial coaching. We finally came to that conclusion, even though that's really what we were supposed to be doing all along, but it's fine.

5:14Everybody learns the hard way. And that's what we did. God had us slam some doors on our faces. That's okay. And so once we figured that out, we were like, oh, this podcast thing, we should do something about this. It might be a thing. It might be an avenue here. Yeah. And so then we jumped into this coaching program for podcasting. And you guys, before we – we were just saying earlier on a podcast, Vanessa, that when we started, we were not bougie. We were bougie curious. But when we first started our business together, we were, yeah, I would say bougie curious.

5:44Shana:Like our Pinterest was bougie. Yeah, yeah. It's very inspirational. And our revenue for our business matched that. It's not bougie. We were working, I mean, probably more than 40 hours a week. I can't even imagine. 50, 60 hours. And we were bringing in for our entire business$6 ,000 a month. I think that's great. Like barely enough to pay the bills. Yeah. And what I'll say about that is, listen, we didn't have a plan B. We didn't want a plan B. We wanted a plan A to work. And we were all in. And we were very motivated. We were very excited. We had a lot of goals for this business. And so, yes, that 6 ,000 was very humbling.

6:18Shana:Yeah. Right. But we knew. Hey, but it took us three years to get to this. It did. It did. But we knew the only way to go from there was up, right? We want to tell you about our friend, our mentor, our coach, Steph Gass. So we joined this podcast coaching program and she was wonderful. She was another fellow mom, Christian entrepreneur who was trying to figure it all out. And she had. She was several steps ahead of us. So we joined that program. It was a six-month program. It was a big investment. Guys, if you ever – we believe – we understand that there's a little hesitation there when you're investing in coaching for yourself, whether it's with us, coaching 101 or professional development, personal development.

6:53We get that. But it was totally worth it for us.

6:57Shana:We had paid thousands of dollars for other coaching programs, and none of them equated to this program. Once we were through it, once we saw it, once we saw it working, we were so excited and blessed to be in it and to be the best students. I think that that was also something. And I think that's when you're going into a coaching program, whether it's with us or somebody else, when you're investing in that, be the best student so you can get the most results from it. Yeah. So fast forward, we did the program. She teaches you how to set up a podcast, how to monetize a podcast, how to figure out what you're doing, who you're doing it for, all of that kind of stuff.

7:28And she taught us, which we're, if you're like us, we like specific steps, details, tactical, tactical, do this, then this, then this. And she did do all of that along with coaching.

7:38Shana:Why, hello there. My name is Steph and I am Shana and Vanessa's business and podcast coach. And they're going to be sharing all about their experience of working with me to increase their business, to launch a podcast, and to really start attracting the right kind of leads into their business. And I know that they are going to be so incredibly detailed as they share their testimony with you. But to give you a spoiler, just in the time that they were in my group coaching program, the girls were able to double their monthly revenue to almost$15 ,000. And that income was passive from a new course that we created together.

8:21Shana:Their podcast is also one of the top shows in their category today with hundreds of thousands of downloads. So they invited me on to kind of share with you a little bit about that and to personally invite you to a profitable podcast bootcamp that I'm hosting over the course of five days. It's completely free. Monday, February 23rd through Friday, February 27th. And this is going to go through the exact framework, step by step, that Shana and Vanessa followed to create a profitable podcast that really exploded their clients, their leads, and allowed them to work less in their business than ever before.

9:02Shana:So this is a fun event for you if you're thinking about how could podcasting work for me? What would my podcast be about? I have the dream to start a business, but I don't know what it would be. This is the perfect first step for you. So you can come on down and save your spot at stephaniegass.com slash budgetbesties. Be sure you use the code at checkout, budgetbesties, all one word. That's stephaniegass.com slash budgetbesties with the code budgetbesties because I'm going to upgrade you to VIP for free. You're going to be able to save the VIP costs, come in totally free and be able to get that enriched experience at the bootcamp where you will be invited into the post-session Q &A calls, can ask questions, can really do a deeper dive into this bootcamp experience.

9:56Shana:And because you're part of the girls' family, I wanted to gift that to all of you. So I can't wait to see you there. And I hope that this will really open your eyes to what is possible as it pertains to building a business that is really rich in SEO, really low time, but high revenue potential, and help you get clarity on how you want to grow your business this year, the type of core offer that you need or need to optimize with, and then really how to scale and sell. So I hope that this is going to be a great fit for you. I will see you there. And it was just a really wonderful program, a wonderful community.

10:33If you guys are in our Facebook, you'll find it kind of similar, are very supportive, very encouraging. People are in there trying to do the work. And that was really wonderful.

10:40Shana:Yeah. So before we started the program, we had a measly 3 ,000 plays on our podcast. And then now we are in 2026. So three years, a little less than three years later, but we're at 1.5 million plays. And so everything else, so the plays kind of speak for itself. We've, we, everything has exponentially grown our revenue, our Facebook lists, our group, our, our email lists, everything has just really gotten a lot better. And it was because of this program that showed us exactly what to do. And we believe the reason that happened was because her program, Shannon was saying, it is detailed. It was so tactical.

11:13Shana:It was very high class, very professional. She had a team helping you through the whole program. So it wasn't just her. You did get coaching time with her, but we also got coaching with other people and you never felt you were doing anything by yourself. Yeah. And I just think one of the things that she will repeat is podcasting. We have video, but we are not really on YouTube yet. It's such an easy funnel to build a business. I shouldn't say easy. It takes a lot of work, but it is, you don't have to have makeup on, you guys. You can be in your jammies and record it. And as long as you're doing a good job creating content that people care about, you can build an entire business.

11:45We've built an entire business. And I said before, our bougie-ness has grown a little bit because our business has allowed for our bougie-ness to grow, right? So we have just gotten a little bit more bougie as we go. And so, and that is all thanks to you guys and your support and us showing up diligently doing all the things that she taught us three times a week for podcast episodes.

12:04Shana:So just like you joined us for our bootcamp, we got our idea for our bootcamp from Steph. She was amazing. So she has one happening in February. We're so excited to see you over there. We're going to be there. We're going to be involved. Yeah. So like you said, Vanessa, we model our bootcamp after what she does, but she has a bootcamp coming up that's going to teach you how to figure out anything about starting a business that you want really God to be the center of. That's kind of her thing is a Christian entrepreneur. So if that's you, then she's going to teach you a lot in this five-day bootcamp.

12:34There will be replays. There's all kinds of stuff. So we know you can listen to it on two-point speed if you need to because you're a busy lady. And we actually have a special deal they gave us if you want to go sign up. It's at stephaniegass.com forward slash budget besties. And that's Stephanie with an F. By the way, that's important. So S T E F A N I E gas G A S S.com forward slash budget besties. And you can find out about the bootcamp and see if it's a free option for you to go check out and learn.

13:01Shana:Yeah. And the bootcamp is going to be February 23rd through the 27th. And again, if you can't make it live every single day, there will be recordings, but it is such a wonderful bootcamp. We've gone through it many times. Plus we've been there just as guests and it's been awesome. She really does over deliver every single time when she does a live bootcamp. And again, when she's in their program. So we highly suggest that you check it out. Yeah. And we want to just, we want to see you there. It's actually starting on Monday. So you're hearing this on a Wednesday in February. And so it's starting Monday, February 23rd, and we'll be there.

13:29So we'll love to see you there.

13:30Shana:If you're tired of feeling like your finances are all over the place and you're ready for a simple set it and forget it way to budget, we have something special for you. Watch our automate your budget masterclass at budgetbesties.com forward slash automate. We'll show you step-by-step how to finally organize your money, how to set up your accounts and put your budget on autopilot. So your bills, saving, and spending run like clockwork. Imagine less stress, more savings, and the freedom to spend money without having to track every dollar or babysit your bank account. Go to budgetbesties.com forward slash automate to start today.