It’s my 300th episode. When I started, I never imagined being where I’m at now. Having a podcast is like being on a roller-coaster. There are ups and downs, twists and turns, but it’s all exhilarating.
In this special episode, I’m sharing a look back on podcasting 300 episodes of the MILMO® Show, a behind-the-scenes look at what I do, lessons learned, and the questions and answers I’m asked about podcasting.
Episode Transcript
It can be tempting to look around at other podcasts and want what they have, like more downloads or a bigger social media following. It’s also tempting to compare myself or my content to theirs. But that’s a soul-sucking losing battle that will destroy my mindset. I consciously choose not to fight in the battle of comparison because it not only steals my joy. It also keeps me from being creative and bold.
The only podcast or person I’m battling is the MILMO® Show I put out last week or the person I was last week. I don’t think in terms of what I’m not or don’t have, but instead, I look at what I have and how far I’ve come. Which is a long way. What I have now, I could not even imagine as a possibility six years ago. I’ve learned so much about myself, business, people, and podcasting over the course of 300 episodes. To me, the way I’ve grown over the last six years is the magical part.
Lessons can be hard and sometimes humiliating to learn but I have found that each lesson is a gold bar that I get to secure in my personal vault. I don’t do it often, but there are moments when I pause and reflect on how far I’ve come. I think about the hard lessons and the gold bars I received each time I got back up and kept going. When I do open my vault and take a peek, after six years, it’s slowly filling up with gold bars. I see each of them as a blessing. Every day, I get up and get to be a podcaster, which I’m grateful for.
The reason I podcast is at the core, so it can be easy to lose sight of my “why” when I start to get surrounded by all the other things in podcasting trying to take me away from my purpose. There are a million things like getting guests, editing, emails, monetizing, and downloads, to name a few.
As a podcaster when you’re struggling to get good guests, downloads, or to make money as a podcaster, the quickest way to end that stress or pain is to quit and walk away. I’ve been tempted many times to take the exit door. It’s easy to think that once you’re out, the stress will stop, but I know it won’t for me. I will look back with regret that I gave up on who I serve.
I put out a show each week when I wasn’t making any money, no one was listening, and in the most stressful times of my life. Even if I go back there, I will still put out a podcast each week because I know in my heart why I’m doing this—for my community.
It can be tempting to steer off course, especially when someone is willing to pay you to go another way or when your ego wants more downloads, but keeping true to my audience is important to me and keeps me focused.
I see the MILMO® Show as my home and you and all the other listeners are my family. I don’t just let anyone into my home and around my family.
My days usually start with getting up by six or seven in the morning. If everything goes according to plan, I meditate and visualize. Yes, that one may sound weird, but I think about my goals and visualize what they’ll look like when I’ve achieved them. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s helpful to me. I also read a little news, but not too much. I’m not trying to depress myself before the day has begun. Then, I do my own little mix of stretching, pilates, and yoga. After that, I’ll make breakfast for my family and me. I get my boys off to school. On a perfect day, I go for a run right away, but on others, I fit getting outside in around my recordings, work, and meetings. If the weather is good, I try to get outside for at least 45 minutes 5 days a week. It’s good for my mental health and focus to get fresh air and sunshine frequently.
I’m usually working by 8 or 9 a.m. For days that I’m not recording, I usually have plenty of emails to take action on. I also do a lot of research on potential guests, which can mean getting lost in the internet and going down rabbit holes for a while. I usually set a timer when I’m doing that so I don’t lose my whole day to the depths of the internet. I also do guest outreach and follow-up. Other times, I do strategic long-term planning for the show. It can be a mixed bag of tasks I do. I may or may not do all of this work in pjs or workout clothes. It just depends if I have meetings.
For podcast recording days, I do my hair and makeup. My uniform of the day is a some top that is preferably ironed or unwrinkled and jeans. Also, socks because my desk is beside a vent and my feet get cold when I’m recording.
I do research on guests before they’re confirmed so I’ve already done a lot of my homework before we’re scheduled to meet. They submit their information to me through a form I use in my Airtable base. That way, I have everything I need from them to prepare for the show.
Usually, a day or two before we record, I create a show document that I have on hand for the interview. It’s an outline of the entire interview. It has the guest’s bio, the questions I want to ask them, and the game we’re going to play for Game Time. It helps me stay on track during the interview. So when it comes time to record, I sit down and get my show document pulled up and reviewed. It always helps me to review the bio and the first two questions I’m going to ask right before we start.
Next, I log into Riverside. That’s the platform I use to record on. For the sake of my editor, who is listening, I’d like to say I always check to make sure my mic and equipment are working properly before I record, but he would know I’m lying. Sorry, Steve.
I wait for the guests to sign on and welcome them to the show. We talk for a few minutes offline so I can explain my process. I also let them know my editor’s name is Steve and that sometimes, I mention him when I mess up during the recording. It may seem odd to introduce my editor when he is not on the call, but I do that because one time, a guest thought I didn’t know his name and was calling him Steve. After that, I added an intro to Steve during my orientation process.
When we’re done recording, I usually talk to the guest for a little longer. I appreciate the time each guest takes to be on the show and all the knowledge they share, so I want to make sure I express my gratitude before we say our goodbyes.
Then, If I’m doing what I’m supposed to, I email my editor to let him know the recording is in Riverside so he can start working on it when he is ready. I record the introduction and outro for each show after I’ve done the interview. In a perfect world, I would do it immediately after I record, but that doesn’t happen often. Sorry, again Steve. For some reason, a lot of recordings end up happening right around my lunch or snack time and then I make a beeline for the kitchen and quickly get distracted. I keep a strict feeding time for myself so I don’t get hangry. I can quickly turn into Joe Pesci from the Snickers commercials.
Once I finally do my intro recording. I put the audio file in Dropbox for my editor to access. Then I email Steve again to let him know it’s all complete and give him the show title and description. He takes it all and schedules it to go out every Monday morning.
Then there is social media. I create an image for each episode to share online. I also create video and audio clips to give everyone a sneak peek of what’s in the episode. I’ve recently hired a military spouse to help me with marketing the podcast. I’m excited to have her help with marketing and social media.
There are a lot of other things that go into my day, but those are the basics of my podcasting days.
How to Get Started Starting a podcast is the easy part. Many people start a podcast, but it’s the part about being consistent and keeping going that’s difficult. So, I tell everyone to start with a plan and a microphone.
For your plan, you have to figure out what your show is going to be about and the audience you want to reach. For example, you may want to create a show on state parks and the audience you want to speak to are people with families. You should also decide if you are doing solo or guest episodes or a combination.
Once you know what your show will be about and who it’s for, then it’s easy to create the recipe or outline of your podcast. This doesn’t have to be perfect because it will not be written in stone. You can change the flow of your show at any time. You just need a rough idea of how it will go so you can get it up and running.
For example, you may start your show with a funny outtake. Then, your intro music rolls in while you introduce yourself and the episode. After that, you can have an interview with a top state park ranger, followed by a discussion of a news topic, and then you can play music as the show ends. It’s your show. You can lay it out any way you want.
After that you just need a method to record, edit, and a hosting site. And to be honest, in the beginning, you don’t have to edit your show. The biggest part is getting started. I’ve met many people with amazing ideas for podcasts, and then they never start. Don’t just talk about your show idea. Take action and make it a reality. The sooner you get started, the sooner you can work out the kinks and build your podcast.
When you do start your show, record at least five or seven episodes and publish them all together. That way, people will be able to binge-listen to your show. If you put out one in the beginning, they have nothing to listen to after that first show to get to know your show better.
In a minute, I’m going to share all the tools I use in podcasting that can help you get started.
Getting Guests I love doing interviews with guests. It’s the fun part for me. Getting guests is another area I get asked about because some people get nervous about asking people to be on their show.
If you’re just starting out, I always recommend having the first one or two people you interview be someone you know, like and trust. It’s easier to get your interview legs when you know the person you’re interviewing supports you and is understanding. Or have the first couple of interviews be with fellow podcasters. They know what it’s like and are encouraging. Not to mention, you have a built-in podcast coach to help you through your first interviews.
I’ve been the first guest for many podcasts and I absolutely love it. It’s inspiring to witness the first steps of someone going after a dream or a goal.
Every podcaster is going to be different in their guest philosophy, but for me, I’m trying to find amazing people who have knowledge, passion, and inspiration to share. That is where I start. After that, I’m looking for guests to fill in topics I either want on the show or topics listeners have requested.
I have a list of show ideas in Airtable that I try to find guests for. I use things like social media, LinkedIn, news articles, friends, fellow podcasters, and the internet to find potential guests.
I’ve done a lot of guest outreach over the last six years. Many people turn me down or don’t even write back. So you will have people that say no and ignore you. It’s no big deal. Don’t let that be what holds you back from getting good guests.
I recommend always making the guest experience a priority, and that starts the moment you email them. Be polite, concise, clear in what you’re asking them for, and give them everything they need to make a decision. You don’t want to give them additional work or take a bunch of their time with back-and-forth emails.
I have a Google Doc I share with all potential guests that has more information about me and the recording process. That way, they know what to expect and have all everything they need to make a decision from one email.
How to Handle Editing Editing a podcast scares a lot of people, myself included. It’s definitely not my area of expertise or interest. When you’re starting out, I highly recommend trying to edit at least a few of your shows so you understand how it works. It doesn’t have to be complicated. You can do it in Garage Band. That comment is probably making my editor wince in pain. Sorry, Steve.
You might not want to edit it forever, but you can start to understand the basics of audio editing with the a little help from YouTube.
I think it’s good to have a basic understanding of how the whole process works. That said, if you don’t love editing, find the quickest way to offload the editing process. I’ll put a link in the show notes to my editor. He has more information on hiring an editor.
You can also use software like Descript, which I’ll tell you about in a minute.
How to Become a Guest on Podcasts Another frequently asked question is how to get on podcasts as a guest. I’m very blessed that I have a lot of people reaching out to me who want to be a guest on my show. So, I see the different ways people do outreach and what works and doesn’t work. The short answer is to make it extremely easy for the podcast host or producer to say yes. And the best way to do that is to do your homework on the podcasts you want to be on and know what you can talk about. Then pitch them an idea.
By doing your homework on a show, you see the past shows they’ve done and the guests they’ve had. You’re looking for what’s missing that you can cover.
For example, if you’re a physical therapist who’s trying to get on a fitness podcast, you want to look at the shows in the past 3 months and think about topics that aren’t there that you can cover.
Then you want to create a one sheet. A one-sheet is a document you can send to podcasters that’s basically a guest resume. It has your contact information, headshot, bio and then the most important part, a least four or five things you can talk about. And it’s even better if you can include example questions hosts can ask you.
For example, if I were pitching to be on a parenting podcast my one sheet might say something like: Interview topics Lacey can cover:
And be sure to address them by name. You would find it shocking how many people reach out to me about being a guest and don’t address me by my name in the email or don’t know that I have a military audience. Those two things can be found in two minutes.
You can hire companies to help you get on podcasts. I get outreach from a lot of them. Some of them are good, some of them are bad. The bad ones are just blindly pitching their clients to thousands of podcasts. They don’t care what podcast. They just want to be able to tell their client how many shows they pitched them to.
One of the easiest ways to become a guest that most people overlook is by filling out the form on their website. Podcasters always need new guests, so filling out the form gets you on the list and right in front of the host or producer.
Monetizing a Podcast One of the most frequent questions I get is how to monetize a podcast. There is a lot of work that goes into putting out each episode, and people want to get paid for that work. There are different ways and combinations to make money off of your podcast. I get asked a lot about getting sponsorship but you can also make money on your podcast by starting a Patreon account, affiliate marketing, and selling your products or services to your audience.
I can’t speak to Patreon because I don’t have one, but you can create an account for your audience to support your show with donations.
Affiliate marketing is when you recommend a product or service, and if someone in your audience goes and buys it, you get a percentage or an amount for each person that buys. I use affiliate marketing but now very much. For example, in the show notes, I have my affiliate link for Airtable. I use and love Airtable and recommend it to people. If someone uses that link, I get a $10 credit on my Airtable bill. So I don’t get $10 sent to me. It just reduces the cost for me. I like ones like that because you really have to use it to get the affiliate income. There are a ton of affiliate programs where you can get money for recommendations. I put my Amazon link in for all of the books that are recommended on the show. I get like 20 cents if people use the link. But for my Bluehost affiliate link which is the host I use for my website, I get $65 for anyone that uses the link to get hosting with Bluehost. But I don’t talk about websites a lot. I have that affiliate link, but I’m not going to make a lot of money off of it because I’m not sharing it all the time. You can make money that way. You really have to promote those things to make money off of it. So it’s just, you know, you’re going to have to work to kind of understand that process.
I guess I’m not in a proactive affiliate income, but I do that. You could also sell products and services. A lot of people use a podcast as marketing tool for their business. So like if you’re a financial advisor and you have a podcast of, you know, talking and helping people with money that creates. A lead generation for people to find out about you and get to know you.
And then they may become a paying client. So that’s another way to make money off of a podcast. People ask me all the time, like, how do you get a sponsor for your show? I would say you have to do homework. I know people, that sounds really crazy to people sometimes, but you know, looking at companies that would be good for your audience.
That’s the way I look at it. There are people that have approached me about being sponsors of the show that are off topic or aren’t good for my audience, you know, so it’s not a good fit. Yeah, I could take the money, but it’s not authentic and I want to be authentic. So you really have to make some decisions in the beginning.
You know, when you’re starting, if you get one sponsor, you know, you’re probably, you know, even if it’s not a good fit, like it’s going to help cover the cost. So. I’m a little bit more blessed in being able to, um, pick a little bit more. But I would say if you want to get a sponsor is letting people know.
The easiest way I say, to start with sponsorship is to have a really good idea to pitch. For example, if you have a podcast, it is for families. You could start pitching companies at the beginning of the year and say, you have a travel bag or you have coolers or something like that, like a company that would be helpful to family when they travel.
And so you could pitch them and say, for the summer, I’m going to do a series on my show about summer travel, and I’m going to do four shows, and I want to know, would you sponsor these four shows? Giving them an idea, and it kind of goes back to what I said about getting podcast guests is you want to make a good first impression and you want to make it easy for somebody to say yes.
So being very clear about what you’re asking them for, you know, what your idea is, you want to tell them how much money you want because they might not have any idea. If you’re, I only want $50 an episode and they’re thinking, you’re going to ask for $10,000 an episode or something. They might not respond, but if they have all the information they need to decide or get on a call with you to talk to you more about it and ask specific questions.
But basically, when you’re pitching to get sponsorship, you want to make it easy for somebody to say yes to you. So think about those things when pitching ideas. I always point out that social media is a marketing tool for companies. They use marketing to help them reach their business goals.
So, if you reverse engineer everything, you can use social media to start to see what a company’s business goals are, and then you can better align the pitch that you make to them based on that research to help them reach their business goals. You’re, again, making it easier for them to say yes.
Or to start a relationship with you. Often, I’ve reached out to people, and it’s, it’s a no right now, but now I’ve established a relationship with them, and I can continue to share my ideas with them to see if they want to support that and sponsor it. Or now that we’ve established a relationship.
Maybe it’s not in their marketing budget right then, but the next year, they might have the budget for it. And since I’ve already pitched them, they got that information in and now are able to do sponsorship with me. I think it’s really important for you to establish relationships with companies that you would be proud to have on your show. It’s important.
And then, you know, finding the people to connect with, to talk to about sponsorship, that’s the next step of that. Establishing them, who they are, researching them online, finding the correct person, and then creating a pitch that makes it easy for people to say yes to you. That is the very, very short version of monetizing a podcast, my answer.
Those are some of the ways that you can make money off of a podcast. You just have to do the homework in any of those things and affiliate marketing. If you’re selling your products and your services, like a course of some sort to make money. So you just have to kind of figure out the one that you want to try first or a combination of those.
Google Docs First up is Google Docs. As I mentioned earlier, I use a Google Doc for every single show. Even the ones I record solo. I like to have a recipe to follow to keep things consistent.
I also use Google Docs for my “What to Expect” document. This is a doc I send to every confirmed guest. It explains in detail what guests can expect from me and the process of recording a podcast episode. I like everyone to feel welcome, comfortable and have a good experience as a guest on my show. The document helps answer almost every question they might have and helps make a good first impression.
It also includes links to my Airtable form to get their recording consent, information to prepare for the recording and things like social media handles promote their episode. It also has a link to my Calendly to schedule a recording time that works for them.
Airtable I’ve already mentioned I use Airtable to manage the intake of all my guests. I also use it to schedule out shows and to know where they’re in the production process like planned, recorded, edited and published. It’s also a database of all my guests and their bios, social media handles and headshots.
I know you have all heard me say a million times that I use Airtable to manage every part of my business but I really do. I recently created the info gathering survey for MILMO® Meet in Airtable. I would say it’s my favorite tool I use.
I also recently hired an Airtable expert on UpWork to help me maximize my bases with automation. I know I’m a dork but it’s very exciting to have it all tricked out with automation and interfaces. I could do a whole episode on Airtable and I may just do that one day.
Riverside Also mentioned already I use Riverside to record with guests. I’ve only been using it for about 6 months but I think it’s great. It not only records the audio of each show, it records video as well. Even better it records them on separat tracks for me and the guest so if my internet goes wonky and they are talking, it doesn’t mess up the recording on their end.
Another cool feature is that Riverside uses AI to create video clips of each recording. I can then go through and pick the ones I want and put them on social media. It even includes the caption which you can customize.
I’m sure there are other cool features I’m forgetting to mention or don’t even use but so far so good with Riverside.
Libysn I use Libsyn to host my podcast. That is the platform the audio recording is uploaded and published to all the podcast platforms with. I used this from day one and like it. I’m sure I should mention some of the more technical features but that really isn’t my department.
My Editor One of the most important resources that helps me put out a podcast every week is my editor, Steve Stewert. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. He is the best investment I every made in my podcast and business in general. I didn’t have the money in the beginning to pay him so I actually had a side hustle doing freelance writing to pay him. Then and now, I’m so happy I did it. Not only does Steve edit my podcast, he gives me amazing podcasting advice and keeps the MILMO® Show up-to-date and me in the know of the ever-changing world of podcasting.
Descript I also use Descript for some editing or clipping the podcast. I’ve also used in for MilMoneyCon to create video clips. If you haven’t heard of Descript, it’s awesome. You can take audio or video and put it into Descript and it turns it into a document. That isn’t the impressive part. You can then read the document and highlight sentences you don’t want and delete them. When it deletes the sentence, it also deletes it from the audio and video. It’s witchcraft.Ok it’s not witchcraft. I just don’t know how they do it. It’s an amazing editing tool you should check out.
Canva I use Canva for graphic design. Every graphic you see on @itsmilmo social accounts is created using Canva. I’ve used Canva for years and love it. They have lots of templates you can use. One of my favorite parts is being able to upload all of the logo, colors and graphics for the MILMO® and MilMoneyConTM brands to my account. It makes it easy to create graphics quickly. You can even use Canve to create your podcast guest one sheet.
Later To help with the scheduling of social media posta, I use Later. I used it in the past and then stop and used MeetEdgar for awhile and am now back to Later. It works well coordinating with others to get the posts out at the time you want.
I also use an Audio-Technica ATR 2100 mic which I don’t think they make anymore and a Zoom H6 for my solo recordings. Those are the tools I use for podcasting. I’m sure there’s one I’m forgetting but those are the basics.
The in-person shows will be recorded for video and shared on YouTube and X. I’ll be traveling the country doing these interviews and plan to hold meetups to connect with MILMO® listeners in those areas. So stayed tuned for more coming out about that.
If you missed last week’s episode 299, I announced I doing an in-person event in 2025 called MILMO® Meet. It will be centered around personal finance and entrepreneurship for the military community. If you’re willing, I would love your input to help me shape the event. I’m including a link in the show notes to hear what money and business topics you’re interested in, types of sessions you’d like and more. If you share your thoughts, I’ll send you a MILMO® Show t-shirt. The details are in the show notes.
Thank you to Navy Federal for providing support to the MILMO Show. You can also head over to milmo.co to get all of the resources and links from this episode, and while you’re there, be sure to sign up for the MILMO® Memo newsletter to get all my updates. I appreciate you listening. I’ll talk to you next week.
Podcasting Mindset
I want to start by saying I’m really nervous about doing this show because even though I’ve been podcasting for six years, I don’t have it all figured out or perfected. I still have so much to learn. I know I’m not the best podcaster or financial or business guru, but then again, I’m not trying to be perfect or pretend to be someone I’m not. Things are not perfect because if I waited for every episode to be perfect, I would never put them out. Sometimes, 80% has to be good enough.It can be tempting to look around at other podcasts and want what they have, like more downloads or a bigger social media following. It’s also tempting to compare myself or my content to theirs. But that’s a soul-sucking losing battle that will destroy my mindset. I consciously choose not to fight in the battle of comparison because it not only steals my joy. It also keeps me from being creative and bold.
The only podcast or person I’m battling is the MILMO® Show I put out last week or the person I was last week. I don’t think in terms of what I’m not or don’t have, but instead, I look at what I have and how far I’ve come. Which is a long way. What I have now, I could not even imagine as a possibility six years ago. I’ve learned so much about myself, business, people, and podcasting over the course of 300 episodes. To me, the way I’ve grown over the last six years is the magical part.
Lessons can be hard and sometimes humiliating to learn but I have found that each lesson is a gold bar that I get to secure in my personal vault. I don’t do it often, but there are moments when I pause and reflect on how far I’ve come. I think about the hard lessons and the gold bars I received each time I got back up and kept going. When I do open my vault and take a peek, after six years, it’s slowly filling up with gold bars. I see each of them as a blessing. Every day, I get up and get to be a podcaster, which I’m grateful for.
My Why
I do a podcast each week because I want to help and inspire members of the military community to reach their financial and business goals. In the beginning, I didn’t realize just how important it was for me to be clear about my “why” for podcasting. My podcasting purpose has kept me going and on track over the years.The reason I podcast is at the core, so it can be easy to lose sight of my “why” when I start to get surrounded by all the other things in podcasting trying to take me away from my purpose. There are a million things like getting guests, editing, emails, monetizing, and downloads, to name a few.
As a podcaster when you’re struggling to get good guests, downloads, or to make money as a podcaster, the quickest way to end that stress or pain is to quit and walk away. I’ve been tempted many times to take the exit door. It’s easy to think that once you’re out, the stress will stop, but I know it won’t for me. I will look back with regret that I gave up on who I serve.
I put out a show each week when I wasn’t making any money, no one was listening, and in the most stressful times of my life. Even if I go back there, I will still put out a podcast each week because I know in my heart why I’m doing this—for my community.
Who I Serve
In addition to my podcast purpose, knowing who I serve or who my audience or community is has been a lighthouse for me to always find my way. Knowing the military community is my audience helps me make decisions about everything from picking guests, to sponsors to show ideas. More importantly, knowing the community I serve helps me know when to say no to things that are not of value or benefit to my listeners.It can be tempting to steer off course, especially when someone is willing to pay you to go another way or when your ego wants more downloads, but keeping true to my audience is important to me and keeps me focused.
I see the MILMO® Show as my home and you and all the other listeners are my family. I don’t just let anyone into my home and around my family.
A Day in My Life
It’s funny because even though I have a podcast, online business, and a conference where I’m talking in front of people, I’m a pretty private person. It’s not that I mind sharing. It’s more because I’m not sure people will find it interesting. But I was recently asked to do a couple of interviews and there were questions about what my day looks like. Because of that and in theme with this episode, I thought I would tell you what a podcasting day looks like for me.My days usually start with getting up by six or seven in the morning. If everything goes according to plan, I meditate and visualize. Yes, that one may sound weird, but I think about my goals and visualize what they’ll look like when I’ve achieved them. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s helpful to me. I also read a little news, but not too much. I’m not trying to depress myself before the day has begun. Then, I do my own little mix of stretching, pilates, and yoga. After that, I’ll make breakfast for my family and me. I get my boys off to school. On a perfect day, I go for a run right away, but on others, I fit getting outside in around my recordings, work, and meetings. If the weather is good, I try to get outside for at least 45 minutes 5 days a week. It’s good for my mental health and focus to get fresh air and sunshine frequently.
I’m usually working by 8 or 9 a.m. For days that I’m not recording, I usually have plenty of emails to take action on. I also do a lot of research on potential guests, which can mean getting lost in the internet and going down rabbit holes for a while. I usually set a timer when I’m doing that so I don’t lose my whole day to the depths of the internet. I also do guest outreach and follow-up. Other times, I do strategic long-term planning for the show. It can be a mixed bag of tasks I do. I may or may not do all of this work in pjs or workout clothes. It just depends if I have meetings.
For podcast recording days, I do my hair and makeup. My uniform of the day is a some top that is preferably ironed or unwrinkled and jeans. Also, socks because my desk is beside a vent and my feet get cold when I’m recording.
I do research on guests before they’re confirmed so I’ve already done a lot of my homework before we’re scheduled to meet. They submit their information to me through a form I use in my Airtable base. That way, I have everything I need from them to prepare for the show.
Usually, a day or two before we record, I create a show document that I have on hand for the interview. It’s an outline of the entire interview. It has the guest’s bio, the questions I want to ask them, and the game we’re going to play for Game Time. It helps me stay on track during the interview. So when it comes time to record, I sit down and get my show document pulled up and reviewed. It always helps me to review the bio and the first two questions I’m going to ask right before we start.
Next, I log into Riverside. That’s the platform I use to record on. For the sake of my editor, who is listening, I’d like to say I always check to make sure my mic and equipment are working properly before I record, but he would know I’m lying. Sorry, Steve.
I wait for the guests to sign on and welcome them to the show. We talk for a few minutes offline so I can explain my process. I also let them know my editor’s name is Steve and that sometimes, I mention him when I mess up during the recording. It may seem odd to introduce my editor when he is not on the call, but I do that because one time, a guest thought I didn’t know his name and was calling him Steve. After that, I added an intro to Steve during my orientation process.
When we’re done recording, I usually talk to the guest for a little longer. I appreciate the time each guest takes to be on the show and all the knowledge they share, so I want to make sure I express my gratitude before we say our goodbyes.
Then, If I’m doing what I’m supposed to, I email my editor to let him know the recording is in Riverside so he can start working on it when he is ready. I record the introduction and outro for each show after I’ve done the interview. In a perfect world, I would do it immediately after I record, but that doesn’t happen often. Sorry, again Steve. For some reason, a lot of recordings end up happening right around my lunch or snack time and then I make a beeline for the kitchen and quickly get distracted. I keep a strict feeding time for myself so I don’t get hangry. I can quickly turn into Joe Pesci from the Snickers commercials.
Once I finally do my intro recording. I put the audio file in Dropbox for my editor to access. Then I email Steve again to let him know it’s all complete and give him the show title and description. He takes it all and schedules it to go out every Monday morning.
Then there is social media. I create an image for each episode to share online. I also create video and audio clips to give everyone a sneak peek of what’s in the episode. I’ve recently hired a military spouse to help me with marketing the podcast. I’m excited to have her help with marketing and social media.
There are a lot of other things that go into my day, but those are the basics of my podcasting days.
Questions I Get Asked
Since I have a podcast, I do get questions from people interested in starting their own, or from fellow podcaster that want to learn how I operate or just people interested in learning about the world of podcasting. I thought I would share some of the frequently asked questions I get and my answers.How to Get Started Starting a podcast is the easy part. Many people start a podcast, but it’s the part about being consistent and keeping going that’s difficult. So, I tell everyone to start with a plan and a microphone.
For your plan, you have to figure out what your show is going to be about and the audience you want to reach. For example, you may want to create a show on state parks and the audience you want to speak to are people with families. You should also decide if you are doing solo or guest episodes or a combination.
Once you know what your show will be about and who it’s for, then it’s easy to create the recipe or outline of your podcast. This doesn’t have to be perfect because it will not be written in stone. You can change the flow of your show at any time. You just need a rough idea of how it will go so you can get it up and running.
For example, you may start your show with a funny outtake. Then, your intro music rolls in while you introduce yourself and the episode. After that, you can have an interview with a top state park ranger, followed by a discussion of a news topic, and then you can play music as the show ends. It’s your show. You can lay it out any way you want.
After that you just need a method to record, edit, and a hosting site. And to be honest, in the beginning, you don’t have to edit your show. The biggest part is getting started. I’ve met many people with amazing ideas for podcasts, and then they never start. Don’t just talk about your show idea. Take action and make it a reality. The sooner you get started, the sooner you can work out the kinks and build your podcast.
When you do start your show, record at least five or seven episodes and publish them all together. That way, people will be able to binge-listen to your show. If you put out one in the beginning, they have nothing to listen to after that first show to get to know your show better.
In a minute, I’m going to share all the tools I use in podcasting that can help you get started.
Getting Guests I love doing interviews with guests. It’s the fun part for me. Getting guests is another area I get asked about because some people get nervous about asking people to be on their show.
If you’re just starting out, I always recommend having the first one or two people you interview be someone you know, like and trust. It’s easier to get your interview legs when you know the person you’re interviewing supports you and is understanding. Or have the first couple of interviews be with fellow podcasters. They know what it’s like and are encouraging. Not to mention, you have a built-in podcast coach to help you through your first interviews.
I’ve been the first guest for many podcasts and I absolutely love it. It’s inspiring to witness the first steps of someone going after a dream or a goal.
Every podcaster is going to be different in their guest philosophy, but for me, I’m trying to find amazing people who have knowledge, passion, and inspiration to share. That is where I start. After that, I’m looking for guests to fill in topics I either want on the show or topics listeners have requested.
I have a list of show ideas in Airtable that I try to find guests for. I use things like social media, LinkedIn, news articles, friends, fellow podcasters, and the internet to find potential guests.
I’ve done a lot of guest outreach over the last six years. Many people turn me down or don’t even write back. So you will have people that say no and ignore you. It’s no big deal. Don’t let that be what holds you back from getting good guests.
I recommend always making the guest experience a priority, and that starts the moment you email them. Be polite, concise, clear in what you’re asking them for, and give them everything they need to make a decision. You don’t want to give them additional work or take a bunch of their time with back-and-forth emails.
I have a Google Doc I share with all potential guests that has more information about me and the recording process. That way, they know what to expect and have all everything they need to make a decision from one email.
How to Handle Editing Editing a podcast scares a lot of people, myself included. It’s definitely not my area of expertise or interest. When you’re starting out, I highly recommend trying to edit at least a few of your shows so you understand how it works. It doesn’t have to be complicated. You can do it in Garage Band. That comment is probably making my editor wince in pain. Sorry, Steve.
You might not want to edit it forever, but you can start to understand the basics of audio editing with the a little help from YouTube.
I think it’s good to have a basic understanding of how the whole process works. That said, if you don’t love editing, find the quickest way to offload the editing process. I’ll put a link in the show notes to my editor. He has more information on hiring an editor.
You can also use software like Descript, which I’ll tell you about in a minute.
How to Become a Guest on Podcasts Another frequently asked question is how to get on podcasts as a guest. I’m very blessed that I have a lot of people reaching out to me who want to be a guest on my show. So, I see the different ways people do outreach and what works and doesn’t work. The short answer is to make it extremely easy for the podcast host or producer to say yes. And the best way to do that is to do your homework on the podcasts you want to be on and know what you can talk about. Then pitch them an idea.
By doing your homework on a show, you see the past shows they’ve done and the guests they’ve had. You’re looking for what’s missing that you can cover.
For example, if you’re a physical therapist who’s trying to get on a fitness podcast, you want to look at the shows in the past 3 months and think about topics that aren’t there that you can cover.
Then you want to create a one sheet. A one-sheet is a document you can send to podcasters that’s basically a guest resume. It has your contact information, headshot, bio and then the most important part, a least four or five things you can talk about. And it’s even better if you can include example questions hosts can ask you.
For example, if I were pitching to be on a parenting podcast my one sheet might say something like: Interview topics Lacey can cover:
- Teaching your teenager to responsibility use a credit card
- Retirement savings for stay-at-home moms
- Saving and planning for youth sports spending
- Build a business during preschool hours
- What are some of the top financial struggles parents face?
- How can you have hard conversations with kids about spending limits?
- What are the positive financial behaviors every parent should show their kids?
And be sure to address them by name. You would find it shocking how many people reach out to me about being a guest and don’t address me by my name in the email or don’t know that I have a military audience. Those two things can be found in two minutes.
You can hire companies to help you get on podcasts. I get outreach from a lot of them. Some of them are good, some of them are bad. The bad ones are just blindly pitching their clients to thousands of podcasts. They don’t care what podcast. They just want to be able to tell their client how many shows they pitched them to.
One of the easiest ways to become a guest that most people overlook is by filling out the form on their website. Podcasters always need new guests, so filling out the form gets you on the list and right in front of the host or producer.
Monetizing a Podcast One of the most frequent questions I get is how to monetize a podcast. There is a lot of work that goes into putting out each episode, and people want to get paid for that work. There are different ways and combinations to make money off of your podcast. I get asked a lot about getting sponsorship but you can also make money on your podcast by starting a Patreon account, affiliate marketing, and selling your products or services to your audience.
I can’t speak to Patreon because I don’t have one, but you can create an account for your audience to support your show with donations.
Affiliate marketing is when you recommend a product or service, and if someone in your audience goes and buys it, you get a percentage or an amount for each person that buys. I use affiliate marketing but now very much. For example, in the show notes, I have my affiliate link for Airtable. I use and love Airtable and recommend it to people. If someone uses that link, I get a $10 credit on my Airtable bill. So I don’t get $10 sent to me. It just reduces the cost for me. I like ones like that because you really have to use it to get the affiliate income. There are a ton of affiliate programs where you can get money for recommendations. I put my Amazon link in for all of the books that are recommended on the show. I get like 20 cents if people use the link. But for my Bluehost affiliate link which is the host I use for my website, I get $65 for anyone that uses the link to get hosting with Bluehost. But I don’t talk about websites a lot. I have that affiliate link, but I’m not going to make a lot of money off of it because I’m not sharing it all the time. You can make money that way. You really have to promote those things to make money off of it. So it’s just, you know, you’re going to have to work to kind of understand that process.
I guess I’m not in a proactive affiliate income, but I do that. You could also sell products and services. A lot of people use a podcast as marketing tool for their business. So like if you’re a financial advisor and you have a podcast of, you know, talking and helping people with money that creates. A lead generation for people to find out about you and get to know you.
And then they may become a paying client. So that’s another way to make money off of a podcast. People ask me all the time, like, how do you get a sponsor for your show? I would say you have to do homework. I know people, that sounds really crazy to people sometimes, but you know, looking at companies that would be good for your audience.
That’s the way I look at it. There are people that have approached me about being sponsors of the show that are off topic or aren’t good for my audience, you know, so it’s not a good fit. Yeah, I could take the money, but it’s not authentic and I want to be authentic. So you really have to make some decisions in the beginning.
You know, when you’re starting, if you get one sponsor, you know, you’re probably, you know, even if it’s not a good fit, like it’s going to help cover the cost. So. I’m a little bit more blessed in being able to, um, pick a little bit more. But I would say if you want to get a sponsor is letting people know.
The easiest way I say, to start with sponsorship is to have a really good idea to pitch. For example, if you have a podcast, it is for families. You could start pitching companies at the beginning of the year and say, you have a travel bag or you have coolers or something like that, like a company that would be helpful to family when they travel.
And so you could pitch them and say, for the summer, I’m going to do a series on my show about summer travel, and I’m going to do four shows, and I want to know, would you sponsor these four shows? Giving them an idea, and it kind of goes back to what I said about getting podcast guests is you want to make a good first impression and you want to make it easy for somebody to say yes.
So being very clear about what you’re asking them for, you know, what your idea is, you want to tell them how much money you want because they might not have any idea. If you’re, I only want $50 an episode and they’re thinking, you’re going to ask for $10,000 an episode or something. They might not respond, but if they have all the information they need to decide or get on a call with you to talk to you more about it and ask specific questions.
But basically, when you’re pitching to get sponsorship, you want to make it easy for somebody to say yes to you. So think about those things when pitching ideas. I always point out that social media is a marketing tool for companies. They use marketing to help them reach their business goals.
So, if you reverse engineer everything, you can use social media to start to see what a company’s business goals are, and then you can better align the pitch that you make to them based on that research to help them reach their business goals. You’re, again, making it easier for them to say yes.
Or to start a relationship with you. Often, I’ve reached out to people, and it’s, it’s a no right now, but now I’ve established a relationship with them, and I can continue to share my ideas with them to see if they want to support that and sponsor it. Or now that we’ve established a relationship.
Maybe it’s not in their marketing budget right then, but the next year, they might have the budget for it. And since I’ve already pitched them, they got that information in and now are able to do sponsorship with me. I think it’s really important for you to establish relationships with companies that you would be proud to have on your show. It’s important.
And then, you know, finding the people to connect with, to talk to about sponsorship, that’s the next step of that. Establishing them, who they are, researching them online, finding the correct person, and then creating a pitch that makes it easy for people to say yes to you. That is the very, very short version of monetizing a podcast, my answer.
Those are some of the ways that you can make money off of a podcast. You just have to do the homework in any of those things and affiliate marketing. If you’re selling your products and your services, like a course of some sort to make money. So you just have to kind of figure out the one that you want to try first or a combination of those.
Resources and Tools
One question I get asked a lot has to do with the tools I use to put out a podcast from start to finish. I’m going to share things I use, from guest coordination to putting out social media posts. I’m going to put a link to all of them in the show notes if you want them.Google Docs First up is Google Docs. As I mentioned earlier, I use a Google Doc for every single show. Even the ones I record solo. I like to have a recipe to follow to keep things consistent.
I also use Google Docs for my “What to Expect” document. This is a doc I send to every confirmed guest. It explains in detail what guests can expect from me and the process of recording a podcast episode. I like everyone to feel welcome, comfortable and have a good experience as a guest on my show. The document helps answer almost every question they might have and helps make a good first impression.
It also includes links to my Airtable form to get their recording consent, information to prepare for the recording and things like social media handles promote their episode. It also has a link to my Calendly to schedule a recording time that works for them.
Airtable I’ve already mentioned I use Airtable to manage the intake of all my guests. I also use it to schedule out shows and to know where they’re in the production process like planned, recorded, edited and published. It’s also a database of all my guests and their bios, social media handles and headshots.
I know you have all heard me say a million times that I use Airtable to manage every part of my business but I really do. I recently created the info gathering survey for MILMO® Meet in Airtable. I would say it’s my favorite tool I use.
I also recently hired an Airtable expert on UpWork to help me maximize my bases with automation. I know I’m a dork but it’s very exciting to have it all tricked out with automation and interfaces. I could do a whole episode on Airtable and I may just do that one day.
Riverside Also mentioned already I use Riverside to record with guests. I’ve only been using it for about 6 months but I think it’s great. It not only records the audio of each show, it records video as well. Even better it records them on separat tracks for me and the guest so if my internet goes wonky and they are talking, it doesn’t mess up the recording on their end.
Another cool feature is that Riverside uses AI to create video clips of each recording. I can then go through and pick the ones I want and put them on social media. It even includes the caption which you can customize.
I’m sure there are other cool features I’m forgetting to mention or don’t even use but so far so good with Riverside.
Libysn I use Libsyn to host my podcast. That is the platform the audio recording is uploaded and published to all the podcast platforms with. I used this from day one and like it. I’m sure I should mention some of the more technical features but that really isn’t my department.
My Editor One of the most important resources that helps me put out a podcast every week is my editor, Steve Stewert. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. He is the best investment I every made in my podcast and business in general. I didn’t have the money in the beginning to pay him so I actually had a side hustle doing freelance writing to pay him. Then and now, I’m so happy I did it. Not only does Steve edit my podcast, he gives me amazing podcasting advice and keeps the MILMO® Show up-to-date and me in the know of the ever-changing world of podcasting.
Descript I also use Descript for some editing or clipping the podcast. I’ve also used in for MilMoneyCon to create video clips. If you haven’t heard of Descript, it’s awesome. You can take audio or video and put it into Descript and it turns it into a document. That isn’t the impressive part. You can then read the document and highlight sentences you don’t want and delete them. When it deletes the sentence, it also deletes it from the audio and video. It’s witchcraft.Ok it’s not witchcraft. I just don’t know how they do it. It’s an amazing editing tool you should check out.
Canva I use Canva for graphic design. Every graphic you see on @itsmilmo social accounts is created using Canva. I’ve used Canva for years and love it. They have lots of templates you can use. One of my favorite parts is being able to upload all of the logo, colors and graphics for the MILMO® and MilMoneyConTM brands to my account. It makes it easy to create graphics quickly. You can even use Canve to create your podcast guest one sheet.
Later To help with the scheduling of social media posta, I use Later. I used it in the past and then stop and used MeetEdgar for awhile and am now back to Later. It works well coordinating with others to get the posts out at the time you want.
I also use an Audio-Technica ATR 2100 mic which I don’t think they make anymore and a Zoom H6 for my solo recordings. Those are the tools I use for podcasting. I’m sure there’s one I’m forgetting but those are the basics.
Change is Coming
Now for some news on the future of the podcast. Change is coming. There will be new shows in a new way. I’m excited to share with you, that I will soon switch to doing interviews with guests in person. I enjoy getting to have conversations with other people online but I know it will make the conversations more authentic and impactful by getting to sit down in person with people. Which will make for even better episodes to share with you.The in-person shows will be recorded for video and shared on YouTube and X. I’ll be traveling the country doing these interviews and plan to hold meetups to connect with MILMO® listeners in those areas. So stayed tuned for more coming out about that.
Wrapping Up My 300th Episode
Now for the wrap-up. Hitting my 300th episode is hard to believe. I couldn’t have known just how positively starting a podcast would impact my life. It’s been nice to reflect on some of those things. I appreciate you being a listener of my show. It means the world to me that you’re here my 300th episode.If you missed last week’s episode 299, I announced I doing an in-person event in 2025 called MILMO® Meet. It will be centered around personal finance and entrepreneurship for the military community. If you’re willing, I would love your input to help me shape the event. I’m including a link in the show notes to hear what money and business topics you’re interested in, types of sessions you’d like and more. If you share your thoughts, I’ll send you a MILMO® Show t-shirt. The details are in the show notes.
Thank you to Navy Federal for providing support to the MILMO Show. You can also head over to milmo.co to get all of the resources and links from this episode, and while you’re there, be sure to sign up for the MILMO® Memo newsletter to get all my updates. I appreciate you listening. I’ll talk to you next week.
Episode Resources
- Patreon
- Dropbox
- Airtable
- Bluehost
- Riverside
- Libsyn
- Steve Stewert (my editor)
- Descript
- Canva
- Later
- MILMO Meet Info Gathering form
MILMO Show Sponsor
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