Hey friends! Welcome back to the podcast. Today I wanted to share my journey from podcast manager to podcast agency.
I’m someone who always loves knowing exactly how someone else got to where they are now so I figured I would share my journey with you guys so you can get a peek into how things progressed for me.
So, I’m going to start at the very beginning. In 2016, I decided on a whim to start a Social Media Marketing + VA business called Confetti Social because I was feeling very unfulfilled by my low-paying corporate marketing job.
The first project I took on was a Pinterest setup for $50. I had been doing lifestyle blogging on the side since 2014 so I already had experience growing website traffic with Pinterest with my own blog.
Everything was going fine and I had some great clients, but I still didn’t feel like social media marketing was it for me. I wanted something that was more flexible since I knew I wanted to have kids in the future and felt like social media was not going to be as flexible as I initially thought.
So in January 2018, I started my own podcast which was then called the Savvy Social Hour Podcast, and absolutely fell in love with the medium. I did everything for my own podcast except for editing and got a really solid process down.
During the fall of 2018, I was approached by someone with a podcast who needed help with theirs so I took them on and then was fully convinced that my time with social media marketing was coming to a close and it was time for something new.
So early 2019, I switched from a Social Media Marketer + VA to a full-service podcast manager. Although I deemed myself an agency because I knew it was something I wanted to branch into in the future, at that point it was just me and an editor.
I still kept on my Social Media Marketing + VA clients for a while until I had enough podcast management clients to pay the bills and then slowly phased out my clientele for SMM/VA work one by one until all I had left were podcast clients.
2019 was all about building visibility as a podcast manager and becoming the go-to in the podcasting space. I was so passionate about podcasting and I really think it showed in how I was showing up.
But another big thing happened at the end of 2019…My husband and I found out that I was pregnant and due in June 2020 so my dreams of turning my business into a full-blown agency were going to need to happen a whole lot quicker than I was expecting.
So after taking a week to get my stuff together, I fully mapped out my upcoming plans with how I was going to grow the agency, my maternity leave situation, and more so that there would be no questions once our baby boy arrived.
By April 2020, my team of just me and my editor turned into me, my editor, a temporary Online Business Manager for while I was out on maternity leave, and two Podcast VAs.
Having this support for my clients allowed me to take a 3-month maternity leave and truly soak up my time with my newborn instead of stressing out about the business.
Once I came back from maternity leave in September 2020, I knew I didn’t want to go back to doing all the things that I was before so I fully embraced the CEO role and let my Podcast VAs continue supporting our clients while I focused on growing the agency.
In November one of our original Podcast VAs left us and then it was just me, my editor, and one Podcast VA for a while.
We continued to grow month after month but then in April 2021, I experienced a huge surge of clients that caused us to double our team and go from 3 (including myself) to 6 team members.
We brought on a shownotes writer, a graphic designer, and a Social Media Manager.
Then a month or so later, we brought on someone for PR outreach bringing our team to a total of 7 (including me).
In September 2021, we had another surge of clients and brought on a new editor.
And finally, our most recent team member, another Podcast VA, joined us in November 2021 bringing us to a total of 10 team members.
So we went from 3 team members at the start of 2021 to now 10 team members.
And I am now working less hours than ever before as my son is in daycare so I typically work around 25-30 hours per week or less. Before I became a mom I worked at least 40 hours a week if not more. The daycare plague is real, so a lot of weeks I work even less since my son has to be out of school for sometimes a week at a time.
I honestly could not have continued to grow this business if I didn’t go the agency route because I would’ve very quickly hit a cap on my time after my son was born since things with him are still so unpredictable these days so I am so thankful for my amazing team.
When it comes to podcast management, I always recommend going into it solo and then expanding as you grow because you want to make sure that you are bringing in enough income to support both yourself and your team. There’s nothing worse than having a team and not being able to afford to pay them.
So just know, everyone’s business journey looks different. This month is now my 6th year in business so my “success” didn’t happen overnight. In fact, I am still working to define my own version of success and that’s okay.
We don’t all need to be making $10K+ months right out the gate and if you don’t wanna make $10K months, that’s fine too. Do what feels right for you and you’ll be much happier that way.
So I would love to know, what are your goals with your podcast management business? Do you want to expand to an agency or be a solopreneur? DM me on Instagram @jenny.suneson – I’d love to hear from you.
