Learn How to Make A Living From Podcasting With Nicaila Matthews Okome of Side Hustle Pro
By now you’ve probably heard that the podcasting industry is projected to become a billion-dollar space in just a year. I don’t know about you, but when I first heard that, the first thing that came to mind was how in the world are some of my faves (The Read, Black Girl Podcast, Side Hustle Pro, and more) are making money and attributing to the scaling of the podcast industry.
Hearing about podcasting becoming a billion-dollar industry, I became really curious about how some of my favorite podcasters were making money – and I mean real money. I wanted to know things like, how were they monetizing well enough to pay everyday bills and a mortgage? How were they skillfully marketing their podcast? How did they go from their podcast being a side hustle to a full-time gig, and even for some podcasters, how did they gain enough interest to get backed by investors?
These were all valid questions, that deserved real answers.
In order to figure this all out, I knew I needed to speak with one of the leading podcasters out on the market. The first person that came to mind was Nicaila Matthews Okome.
Nicaila is the Creator and Host of the Side Hustle Pro podcast, which is the first and only podcast to spotlight bold, Black women entrepreneurs who have scaled from side hustle to profitable business. Launched in 2016, Nicaila’s podcast has been featured on the TODAY show, named “the perfect entrepreneurship podcast” by Mashable, has been highlighted on Auntie Oprah’s website, and has amassed over three million downloads and a loyal social media following of aspiring entrepreneurs.
Outside of hosting Black women entrepreneurs on her podcast, Nicaila is also the Founder of Podcast Moguls, a podcasting accelerator program that helps emerging podcasters create and launch their podcasts, grow their influence through targeted social media marketing, and build a profitable business from podcasting.
In our recent chat, Nicaila shared her top tips for marketing a podcast, and how to scale it from a revenue and listenership standpoint.
Keep reading to get all of the gems!
Started from an idea, now we’re here
When I first started the podcast, I was still working at NPR and it eventually transitioned. Originally, my idea had been to have a blog and the goal when I started the blog, was completely different. I wanted to work on my personal brand and position myself as a marketing expert to attract a job and show employers my expertise. Once I started doing that I realized I was kind of bored with it and I really was more into storytelling and sharing the stories of other people who I thought were doing amazing things in their industry. Slowly from there, I started gravitating to side hustlers because I saw myself going the side hustle route and that’s how the Side Hustle Pro podcast, eventually evolved into a podcast.