How Do You Actually Make Money From a Podcast? | Don Vito

PROFITABLE TALKS...

On this episode of The Profitable Creative, host Christian Brim sits down with Don Vito—aka “The Podfather”—a two-time Grammy-nominated music producer turned podcasting pioneer, to break down what it really takes to turn a podcast into a profitable business.

Don shares his journey from the collapsing music industry to the rise of podcasting, revealing why most creators are focused on the wrong metrics—and what actually drives revenue. From his early days producing shows to discovering monetization the hard way (hint: it wasn’t through downloads), Don explains how creators can shift from chasing attention to building sustainable income streams.

This conversation dives deep into:

•  Why audience size is a vanity metric without a monetization strategy 
•  The real business model behind successful podcasts 
•  How to turn your content into recurring revenue 
•  Why paid communities are the future of creator monetization 
•  The shift from trading time for money to scaling expertise 

If you’re a creative professional trying to grow your business, this episode will challenge how you think about content, community, and cash flow—and give you a roadmap to start building a real business around your platform.

PROFITABLE TAKEAWAYS...

• Attention ≠ Income: A large audience means nothing without a clear offer and call to action. 
• Your Podcast Is the Platform—Not the Business: The real business is what you build around it. 
• Monetization Beats Metrics: Focus on revenue streams, not downloads or subscribers. 
• Community Is King: Paid membership communities create recurring revenue and deeper engagement. 
• One-to-Many Wins: Stop trading time for money—package your expertise to scale. 

Join our community of creative entrepreneurs and get a free copy of our No-BS Guide To Making Your Creative Business Actually Profitable delivered straight to your inbox. We’ll share smart, simple tips to help you keep more of what you earn—no boring accountant talk, we promise.  
https://bit.ly/4uCmlX2

Transcript

Christian Brim (00:01.074)
Welcome to another episode of the profitable creative the only place on the interwebs where you will learn how to turn your passion into profit I am your host Christian Brim special shout out to our one listener in landing at New Jersey Honestly, it just sounds like you mailed that one in guys, but in any case, thank you for Listening joining me today Don Vito the pod father Don welcome to the show

Don Vito (00:28.834)
Hey, happy to be here. So what do you want me to call you? Christian or Chris or CB?

Christian Brim (00:33.894)
As long as you, as long as you call me for dinner, you can call me whatever you want. But I do go by Christian. yes. Or CB that's fine. You know, that's yeah. I, I did get a lot of that when I was a kid, because back when I was a kid, that was when like smoking and the bandit came out and there were, you know, trucking truckers was kind of the cultural, phenomenon.

Don Vito (00:41.688)
All right, that works.

Don Vito (00:45.838)
10-4.

Christian Brim (01:02.718)
Smoky and the Bennett was a great film, by the way.

Don Vito (01:05.486)
Dirt Rentals, right?

Christian Brim (01:07.134)
Burt Reynolds and the Sheriff, what the heck was his name? He played in The Honeymooners. Jackie Gleason, thank you. It was just escaping me. He was fantastic in that film. So why did they call you the Podfather?

Don Vito (01:15.052)
Jackie Gleason.

Don Vito (01:26.094)
I'm becoming a pod father because that's the name I've adopted. I've been very instrumental in the podcast movement. I've been producing podcasts since 2008. Actually, my background story started in the music industry as a two-time Grammy nominated multi-platinum music producer. So over time, I transitioned into podcasting and digital media after helping launch a few shows like Candy Birds from the Real Housewives of Atlanta.

You know earn your leisure platform, which is inside the bubble as cash in the slew of others So I've been doing it podcasting since I'd say around 2009 and so I think the title is be fitting

Christian Brim (02:06.928)
I, you know what? No one else has claimed it. It's yours. so, so how, how do you go? So you were into, you were in music production and then you moved to podcast production, which isn't a, a big leap, but what, why, why that change?

Don Vito (02:10.251)
Yeah.

Don Vito (02:22.508)
Well, once the music industry tanked after like about 2008, the fees changed. And so what was getting 30 to $50,000 to go into produce a song, the labels, when I would have the conversations, they would say,

Christian Brim (02:28.595)
Mm-hmm.

Don Vito (02:37.966)
All right, cool. Let's do it. And then we went from that to, why would we pay you that amount of money? We got Joe Blow who just mailed us him in some beats that he only wanted to charge $500. So I knew I couldn't make no living like that. So I had to pivot. And it just so happened around that time I was searching and a good friend of mine, Candy Burris, who also was a writing partner of mine in the music industry, she had started an online show called Candy Coated Nights.

Christian Brim (02:44.349)
Right?

Don Vito (03:06.766)
And so she called me one day and she's like, hey man, I got this idea. We've been doing a couple of episodes and you technical, you know how to do that. She was just stuff and all that. Once you come by and check it out, see if there's something you'd be interested in. I went by, saw it. I was like, oh, this is the future. I'm doing it. And so I committed to it and we were on off to the races from that point.

Christian Brim (03:27.036)
Well, it I mean, I haven't been in podcasting nearly that long. This is just coming up on my second year. But a lot has changed since 2009 or so. So how how is the business model for you changed in that time with podcasting?

Don Vito (03:40.428)
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

Don Vito (03:49.806)
So when I first started, it wasn't no business model. We were having fun. know, actually it a live show, but it was essentially a podcast we'd have guests on, come on every Wednesday. So it really wasn't no business model. And so the business model was bring people on the show and hopefully we'd get some ad sponsorships, right? And so had a bunch of roles that I had to fulfill at that point. It wasn't until 2020 when I started producing another show,

Christian Brim (04:09.586)
Mm-hmm.

Don Vito (04:19.253)
on a platform called Earn Your Leisure with Inside the Boat. We started producing the show and so my mind or our mindset was, man, they got a big platform. man, we about to kill the game with all these, you know, with the views from YouTube, the downloads from the audio. And so, you know, we producing shows, having these big guests on the show. And then the first check came a couple of months later, we like, we finna eat. And that check came.

Christian Brim (04:34.484)
Mm-hmm.

Don Vito (04:46.701)
Chris and when I tell you it was $800 and we were just looking at each other like, man, I can't, can't, I remember, I remember the host at Ash saying, man, I can't keep doing this for no $800. So I clicked in, I was like, I gotta figure out a way to figure out how to make money. So I identified a couple of revenue streams when it came to monetizing the podcast. So that was my mission. It was like,

Christian Brim (04:52.977)
How are we going to split this?

Don Vito (05:14.221)
I mean, most people are focusing on starting or growing the audience. My thing was, nah, I got to get to the money. And so once I did the money streams, the revenue streams, that's when I started actively going deep into just focusing my energy on that because you can have a podcast with a hundred thousand guests or a hundred thousand subs and I can have a podcast with a hundred subs. But if I have an offer,

Christian Brim (05:20.872)
Mm-hmm.

Don Vito (05:40.527)
And I'm making an offer to that hundred. I convert 10 % of that. That's 10 people. And let's say, for instance, my offer is $2,500. So that's $25,000 that I've made from that one offer. But you still have the followers in the subs, but you don't have an offer or a call to action at the end of the show. So therefore, does it really make sense to have those followers or subscribers? It's more of a vanity metrics, if anything, in my opinion.

Christian Brim (06:05.832)
No, I agree with that. know, just since I've gotten in and talked to folks that have been in the game longer than I have, and I guess 2020 was, you know, COVID was the boom, like the real boom of people launching podcasts. And, and since then, you know, it has, it has continued to grow, but you know, the number of ears hasn't grown. mean, maybe, maybe

some but like you're still chasing listeners if your intent is to replicate a radio show or you're trying to go on an ad sponsor money making model that doesn't work unless you're really really good and can attract a lot of people and to your point even then the money's been squeezed.

So then it's kind of like, okay, why do you have a podcast? What, what is it that, you're using it for? What's the business intent behind it? And that's frankly, something I still kind of, I'm trying to figure out, you know, like exactly what, what is the, the business purpose of having the podcast beyond just, you know, top of the funnel name recognition, credibility long.

form content. Yes, it does all of those things, but does it make you any money? So when you are looking at those situations, where do you start looking for money? Like what's the process you go through there?

Don Vito (07:52.451)
Well, the one thing, first, let me rewind the tape a little bit and say that the fact that you've been doing your podcast for, you know, two years, which means you're probably right at, or a little over a hundred episodes, which is great.

You know, because I usually call it the pod grave. People go to the pod grave at around 12 episodes when they realize the intensity, the work that has to be done behind the scenes. Because at a glance, most people look at podcasts and they say, man, all I gotta do is sit in front of a mic. I know a lot of people want to hear what I got to say. So it's two people on the couch in front of a mic with an opinion. Well, that fizzles out after a while. So one of the things I mainly advise people to think about is

Christian Brim (08:28.713)
Right?

Don Vito (08:36.66)
what is the business of the podcast because really the podcast is the platform, right? You build business around and you leverage that platform around an expertise, right? So it's the business of what you're at, right? So like I said, I became obsessed with solving the problem of helping creators turn attention into revenue because, you know, creativity without a business model really is just a hobby in my opinion.

Christian Brim (08:42.11)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (09:02.836)
Yeah, no, agree with that.

Don Vito (09:05.516)
Yeah. so, you know, there's affiliate email lists, know, ads, but the most powerful way to monetize a podcast or really any business for that matter is to attach it to a paid membership community. So if that is the case, then your podcast is the platform where you establish yourself as an authority in a subject or a subject matter expert or a thought expert.

And, you know, people get used to you talking. That's where you spend time. You get to nurture your audience and then they want more of you. So where do they get more of you from? If you don't have like a call to action at the end of the show besides subscribe, which is a vanity metrics, you want to send them somewhere or have them purchase. So it's like, wow, Chris was really dropping some bombs on profitable creative. Man, I need to get more time with him. I need to get more. But if it stops after the podcast, then it stops after the podcast. But how about.

Rather than that, you say, hey, listen, if you want more information like this, you should join my paid membership community of like-minded people where we collaborate and share exchange ideas and inside of this, this, this. Hey, click the link and just go there because now you've got these people that are your tribe. And it's unlike social media in a sense because, you know, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, all those channels, you really don't own that media. So for any given reason, you could be shut down. And then how do you commit?

Christian Brim (10:27.796)
Mm-hmm.

Don Vito (10:28.75)
people at that point, right? Or maybe they think your language is offensive, but inside your community, that's your tribe and you can speak to them the way that you speak. so let's say for instance, you have, let's just start with a conservative number. Maybe your reach is 20,000 across all your channels. But if you converted that 20,000 to about 1%, what is that? 200, no, yeah, 200 people.

Imagine you had 200 people in a paid membership community paying you $47 a month. What does that money look like? And that's a recurring revenue every month, right? At the beginning of the calendar month. So most people, if you don't have a, if your business is not making money every month, you really don't have a business. You really have a promotion because each month you got to get out there and shake your ass or dance to bring in new customers. You know what saying?

Christian Brim (11:03.924)
Right.

Christian Brim (11:20.436)
You don't want to see that. I can promise you. No. So, OK, when you are talking about building a community, I find that very interesting because that's kind of a thread that I have been exploring. Paid or not paid, I don't care what how how do you connect people?

Don Vito (11:23.682)
Promise you I don't want to see it. You gotta hear about it.

Christian Brim (11:51.412)
You know that you've identified them as your tribe. They've raised their hand and say yes, I What you say resonates with me I find value in it Where do you gather like what does that look like?

Don Vito (12:05.305)
So there are different platforms where you, know, outside, well, actually YouTube has a community platform within itself, but I'm not sure I don't use that platform, but there are platforms outside of YouTube or other channels to use, right? So there's, you know, Kajabi, Mighty, Circle, School, and you get those platforms and then you want to really drive the traffic to one of those platforms where your community, where you build it out the way you want it to be, whether it's, you know, if it's paid courses or...

Christian Brim (12:21.47)
Mm-hmm.

Don Vito (12:34.127)
free courses or weekly events where they can do live Q and A's or you can bring in guests. But the main thing is it's your tribe and on that platform and you could do free. I wouldn't advise it. I mean, you're doing a YouTube show for free, so you're going to just take them off another time to give them some more free. You know what I mean? So, you know, you want to.

Christian Brim (12:51.806)
Yeah. I think the interesting thing about that is because I mean that I agree that that has been the model. You mentioned some of the giants. I was on a webinar about podcasts with Alex Sanfilippo's pod match. And one of the speakers that was on there was a guy that had sold his business to mighty and he stayed on with mighty.

And this is January of 2026. And he said, you know, online content sales, education sales, I don't remember exactly how he defined it. He said is actually shrinking like that. That market has peaked. And at mighty what they were really interested in is

creating communities where potentially you had the community creating the content, not just one person creating content for many, but more of a tribe where they're collaborating and sharing content together. Have you seen that trend?

Don Vito (13:52.047)
Mm.

Don Vito (14:11.991)
So are you asking me, the trend going to Mighty Networks or?

Christian Brim (14:20.068)
No, no, no, not mighty, but just the, you know, regardless of the platform, I think what they said really made sense to me in that, the whole, the whole by a course thing seems to me to have been played out. I mean, I'm not saying that you can't make money at it and

Don Vito (14:46.107)
It depends, Of course, if that's what you're leading with a main course, then yeah, absolutely, it's played out, right? Because a lot of times people don't know what they're talking about when they're doing those courses. Of course, it's really the companion to your subject, to what your superpower is, right? And so sometimes, you know, the course to me is if you're an expert in the music industry or podcasting, then the course is being able to answer some questions of you to take time.

Christian Brim (14:56.372)
Right.

Don Vito (15:16.015)
It's like on demand. So you can get or go through the course, you know, and raise some questions or get better understandings of the thing that you're trying to learn. And then through that course, it should answer some questions or raise some questions. So then when you inside the community, then you get on a call with the host of the community and then you'd be able to ask questions based on the course material. It's not just a sit in and forget it. Hey, it's a course. Go join it. Look at it. Hey.

Christian Brim (15:17.78)
Mmm.

Christian Brim (15:40.467)
Right.

Right. Right.

Don Vito (15:44.451)
Good luck. You know, it's companion to your subject.

Christian Brim (15:49.234)
Yeah, I guess that's what I'm saying is I think it's

more the conversation, right? Like the dialogue, not just the expert, but expert to the tribe, chief to the tribe, however you want to describe that, but the tribe themselves communicating, collaborating, commiserating, whatever, problem solving. Like that to me seems to be

a very powerful concept. For instance, let's say, okay, I'm assuming that people that tune into this podcast are doing it because well, the people that I want to tune in are going to be people that are creative professionals that own a business and they are trying to improve their business, make money with their business. You know, those those types of things.

And depending upon where they are in that journey, they're going to have sets of questions, right? Like, so, so at the beginning, it might be, okay, I have this idea. How do I test it? How do I do it while I still keep a nine to five job? How do I convert it from a side hustle to a full-time gig? Those types of questions. And then as they progress, they're going to have, you know, their, their business changes, their, questions change.

And getting getting those people in the same room, right? To help each other. You know, yeah, I can I can I have it. I have thoughts. I have advice on that. But it's also to me much more powerful to have someone, you know, that's that's walk that road and say, well, you know, this is how I did it. Like, you know, I and these are the challenges that I had. And this is what I would have done differently. That that's what I'm I'm I'm trying to.

Christian Brim (17:49.758)
trying to figure out how that community comes together, I guess.

Don Vito (17:56.241)
I think you answered your own question, right? Because again, inside of the community, it's like-minded people and you're collaborate, you're a tribe, right? And you'll find that inside of those communities, you know, they'll start answering each other's questions, especially when you have Q and A's, right? And you're facilitating the community as the host, right? Think of it as a party and you've got people coming into your party, gathering, and as the host, you're not.

Christian Brim (18:04.254)
Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (18:12.414)
Mm-hmm.

Don Vito (18:24.144)
talking to everybody, you're moving around the room and letting people know you can talk to each other. You may talk to them for a minute and go to the next person, so forth like that. And that is the power of the community, is the...

Christian Brim (18:26.323)
Right.

Don Vito (18:37.706)
is the collaboration because it's siloed, it's trust, right? Because, you know, I'm in here with Chris and me and Chris share the same thing and I'm not embarrassed to tell him where I'm making mistakes or where I could use help or maybe I'm helping Chris to grow. It's a give and take type of thing.

Christian Brim (18:40.083)
Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (18:50.014)
Right.

Christian Brim (18:57.3)
Yeah, and and I think I think for a long time Facebook groups provided that channel for people, you know

Don Vito (19:06.35)
Yeah, it did and it does. The thing with Facebook though, it's not paid. And the other thing is, the concept is there, is what I'm saying. But on your own...

Christian Brim (19:13.639)
No.

Christian Brim (19:17.684)
Right, right, right, right. And, and they kind of pivoted like Facebook kind of pivoted, like there was a time where they were really pushing and supporting that, but now they kind of have moved on to other things. And from people that have had Facebook groups, they, they said, you know, what I've heard, I never have curated one, but like they become a victim of their own success and, and they get very popular. And so you get,

too many people in there that aren't on the same page, that aren't having the same conversation. And so, you know, you have to be very careful about your curation of who's actually in the room.

Don Vito (19:59.835)
Correct. Yeah. And so as the facilitator of your own paid membership community, you can monitor that, right? You can have a community manager. And I don't think that someone that's paying you a monthly fee is going to join something, you know what saying, that they can't. In other words, if they're not like-minded, they're not going to be there anyway, right? And people who pay, pay attention. You know what I mean? So if they come over...

Christian Brim (20:24.274)
Yeah.

Christian Brim (20:29.074)
That's exactly right.

Don Vito (20:30.544)
So if they come over to that paid membership committee, I'm going to keep emphasizing paid, paid, paid. Because you've got to take into consideration your time, right? The fact that you curated the people, got them together, and now you're going to give them some information for free. Well, I mean, I don't know too many people that value free information. You have to be a person.

Christian Brim (20:50.578)
No, it could be brilliant. It could be brilliant advice, but if you don't pay for it, you're not gonna value it.

Don Vito (20:57.072)
who pay pay attention. I'm 100 % right so you know it's like attention is common but monetized attention is rare.

Christian Brim (20:59.444)
That's 100 % right.

Christian Brim (21:09.118)
So you mentioned in the green room digital citizens talk a little bit about that. What are you doing there?

Don Vito (21:16.56)
So Digital Citizens is a service company. so basically what we do at that company, and we're literally staring away from, but as a stance, it's a content marketing company, right? And so, Christian comes to me, he says he has an idea for a podcast. Vito, Don Vito, you're the expert. And so what we do is we work out something. And so what we do is help you to start your podcast, how to set it up, get distribution.

Christian Brim (21:30.203)
Okay.

Don Vito (21:46.469)
you know, if you're doing it from your home. Typically it was like a done for you service, right? And which means everything for you. But I'm only one person and you know, me, the days of me really trading my time for money is really not the move because it's expensive, right? So it's easier for me to show you how to do it, set you up, walk you through the steps.

Christian Brim (21:51.7)
Okay.

Christian Brim (22:03.741)
No.

Don Vito (22:10.724)
then give you the keys and let you drive it, manage it for a couple of months until you get the hang of it. Or you can join our community, which is the Podcast Money Academy. And that's for starters who don't know what equipment to get, how to set it up, how to get major distribution.

That's that. I don't really have time for that. I'll jump in that weekly to answer some Q &A's, but mainly I'm more focused on helping someone like you who has several episodes to get the concept of the podcasting, you know, know that it takes some work in the back end. then, so then we set you up as a media business to monetize.

Christian Brim (22:50.804)
That's an interesting statement. I was doing some thought exercises last week and I'm going to tell you what I came up with and get your opinion on it. You have not prepped for this question except your lived experience. So I just want what comes off the top of your head. I see disruption.

where a lot of traditional models are shifting or have shifted entirely, such as advertising creative agencies. And I'm talking about larger ones, not small ones, where they used to have all the things in house, videographer, graphic designers.

web developers, know, copywriters, they had everything in house and then they would be a one stop shop. That model is really broken and going away. And what I came up with is, is that a lot of the people that were doing work for agencies subcontracted out,

are since those since those agencies are struggling or gone away, that they're becoming the they're becoming media companies, where they were they have to figure out the whole thing that where they only had to know one thing before. So what are your thoughts on?

Don Vito (24:23.108)
Right.

Don Vito (24:41.004)
I think that I wouldn't focus on building an audience. I'd be building assets. And so yeah, if you're looking at an agency, that model really, I mean, it still could work. But why? mean, it's like the internet has leveled the playing field. And so think about it. When we get through with this interview,

Christian Brim (24:50.493)
Hmm.

Christian Brim (25:03.273)
right?

Don Vito (25:10.256)
You're going to edit it and you're going to distribute that to the world. You know what mean? And so then the focus would be, OK, now that I create content, it's create content, market it, sale. That's the goal of the Pillars. Create content, market sale. Any business, really, that is the model for any business, right? Whether it's Coke. Coke is the content. The red and the thing, they...

Christian Brim (25:14.162)
Right, right.

Christian Brim (25:24.498)
Mm-hmm.

Don Vito (25:38.319)
pay ad agencies to create this marketing material, whether it's a flyer, whether it's a banner, whether it's a commercial, radio commercial, whatever, that is the content that they're creating to market to create more awareness around the product or the thing, the product being the thing or the content, and it's to generate sales.

Christian Brim (25:54.324)
Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (26:00.754)
Yes, I would agree with that. think, I think what you said is what I'm saying is that the, the, the game has changed and technology has collapsed everything where content creation, for a creative, unless you're doing a physical medium, like I'm making, you know,

stone sculptures or I'm painting paintings. Everything else in the digital world, world from audio to video to the written word, the cost of production of content has gone to zero. Like anybody can do it for nothing and and distribute it. The question is then what does that do for the people that that's how they make their living and

I contend what it's requiring people to do is become problem solvers. We had a client event a few weeks ago and one of them was a videographer by trade and training and he had a manufacturing client that came to him and said, look, we want to fire our agency. Can you do everything else for us?

And he's like, well, I don't know how to do all of those things. I know how to make video for you to sell your product. And they're like, that's fine. We understand you've never done it before, but we really hate the agency we've got. Would you, would you give it a try? And, and he described it. He's been doing this for like four or five years. He said he became a reluctant, agency owner. Like he didn't even really want to say he's an agency owner, but

because he was solving this problem for his customer, which was help me sell my product. He had to learn these other skills. And so no longer was he a videographer that just made product videos. He was now a solution provider to helping them sell their stuff.

Don Vito (28:14.958)
Yeah, I mean...

It's all solution, right? The, you know, the profitable creative is a solution based podcast. Somebody has a problem. You're speaking to an audience, a group of people who you identified as business owners who are looking to leverage their medium of whether it's podcasts or whatever to generate for a client acquisition. And so the podcast, what better way to do it than with a podcast.

Christian Brim (28:21.009)
Right, right.

Don Vito (28:47.724)
especially on YouTube, the video, right? It's the ultimate form of media, right? Because it's everything. It's video, audio, and text to graphics. And you're leveraging that platform for client acquisition because it gives you the opportunity to, you know, find your tribe, nurture your tribe, establish yourself as a thought leader, subject matter expert, authority in a field, and, you know, drive the traffic. Most people, problem is they fail because they don't have a money.

Christian Brim (28:50.484)
Mm-hmm.

Don Vito (29:17.206)
They don't approach it. They approach it with the mindset of it's a hobby or vanity metrics instead. Okay. What do I have to say? What is it that I can do that I can at the end of the day, do a call to action to say, Hey, and if you want more of this, do X, Y, et cetera. in terms of the agencies, mean, life is about pivoting. You have to pivot. I mean, because think about it when I was producing music.

Christian Brim (29:40.468)
Mmm.

Don Vito (29:45.957)
I wasn't producing music on a computer. I was producing music on a drum machine and a keyboard. And so those who were complaining about, know, man, when, you know, when Pro Tools or Logic first came out or whatever those music platforms were, they were complaining, but guess what? They got left in the dust. And for those who were complaining about music, I mean, the video where I, man, I got a...

the red camera, this, that, that. Well, guess what? You got left in the dust. But the principles are the same. Create content to market and sell. And so each one of those buckets have something. There's a science to creating content, right? First, you have to identify who your audience is. Most often, I see not just people in the podcast, but just in business. You'd be amazed if you asked them.

Christian Brim (30:18.888)
You're 100 % right.

Don Vito (30:39.29)
who their audience is or their avatar or who they're talking to, either they're gonna answer one or two questions. I mean, they're gonna answer the question in one or two ways. Either it's, I don't know, or everybody. Well, if you're talking to everybody, you're really not talking to nobody, right?

Christian Brim (30:57.054)
That's a hundred percent right. No, you're no, you're exactly right. And I guess, you know, the way I would describe what's changed from, from what you experienced in audio to what's happened recently with everything else is that the people that had a skill that, that, you know, they had a creative skill. They were good at video, video editing, audio, audio recording, writing, design, whatever they had a skill.

And they could trade that time for money, right? And, and, and, and make a business out of it. And that to me is no different than if you're a plumber, right? Like you've got a skill, you're going to go do something and you're to trade, you know, money for your time. But now that paradigm has shifted. And if you're still, if you're still trying to chase time for money, uh, as a creative professional, you're doomed.

because the cost is low and it's getting lower.

Don Vito (32:04.322)
Absolutely. But the key word is skill, but it's a transferable skill. Some people stuck in the ways like, it's like, man, back in the day when I, well, that's back in the day, it's today. How about that? You know what I mean? And so there's, editors still exist. It's just, you have to, listen, if you're an editor, if you're a videographer, if you're a, I don't know, a musician,

Christian Brim (32:10.313)
Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (32:18.366)
Yeah. Yeah.

Don Vito (32:33.456)
The smartest thing to do, in my opinion, the smartest thing to do is we're talking about trading time for money. We're trading time for money as an editor, videographer, or musician is, hey, I need you to come and play this keyboard or lead guitar or whatever that is, right? Or as a videographer, come to this said location and...

Christian Brim (32:52.276)
Mm-hmm.

Don Vito (32:57.124)
film or the editor, I need to send you this footage so that you can create a long form video, right? But that's one person and you're still trading your time for money. The mindset needs to shift. So does you have a skill, whether it's videographer or editor or musician? Well, you can package that up into.

Christian Brim (33:07.508)
100 %

Don Vito (33:18.944)
something and then say, look, my name is Don Vito. My name is Chris. And a lot of times people are always asking me, you know, how do you start a podcast? What do I do? Where do I start? Who do I do? What kind of cameras? Well, look, I want to show you that along with Sony X, X, Y, et cetera. So if you're interested in learning how to start a podcast, how to make money, how to grow your audience, click the link below, join my community. And I'm going to show you that what the course is already created. You've already done the head with it. Right. So

Christian Brim (33:44.54)
Right. Right.

Don Vito (33:46.801)
So me charging, let's say for instance, if I charge a fee of $5,000, mean, you know, hourly rate, project rate, or, you know, a day rate, whatever that is, right? Well, as a musician, videographer, or editor, I'm trading my time for money. And let's say for instance, I get $5,000 and that's for...

Christian Brim (33:59.614)
Mm-hmm.

Don Vito (34:14.576)
two days or, you know, as an editor, whatever that number is. That seems like a lot of money until you let's put it in perspective. I can charge one person $5,000 for eight hours worth of work. If that's what it costs or as that is how long it takes. Or I can charge 10 people $2,000 for less time. And that's $20,000. 10 people at $2,000.

Less time, it's compressed into a community, right? And so this one hour could have been me on a group call, coaching call, or mentorship call, or whatever that is, with those 10 people that paid me $2,000 in the comfort of my home and asking questions about the video that I made that they liked.

Christian Brim (34:51.049)
Yes.

Don Vito (35:09.456)
and that helped them to start the podcast or learn how to edit or learn how to play the keyboard. I mean, everything is a subscription model. mean, Riverside, what we're on is a subscription model, right? Your power bill is a subscription model. Your utilities is a subscription model. Your phone bill is a subscription model. Netflix is a subscription model. It is. And so just get with it or get left behind.

Christian Brim (35:21.662)
Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (35:38.174)
Well, I mean, I use this analogy. And I think it's it's a great illustration. So you need a ditch dug in your backyard. Maybe you got to lay a new sewer line. I don't know. But you need a you need a ditch. And you hire a guy and he shows up with a crew of three people and some shovels. Right.

or you hire a guy and he shows up with a backhoe, right? One's going to take a lot longer. Going to involve more people, setting aside, say they cost the same. They're not going to take the same amount of time. Do you care? No, I don't care how you do the ditch digging. I just need the ditch. That's the outcome. That's the thing. I need that thing. Right.

And I don't really care how long it took you to learn how to run the backhoe or what you had to do to go find the other three guys to help you dig the ditch or have to go to Home Depot to get the show. I don't give a shit about any of that stuff, right? I just want the ditch, right? And we as business owners get get focused on like our skill. Well, like I'm really good with a shovel. I'm really good with a backhoe. What happens when someone can come in and do it with a robot like

I mean, that's my point is, we're focusing on the wrong things. You got to focus on the outcome that people are willing to pay for. That's what you're selling.

Don Vito (37:14.062)
Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, and to your point, you could show up with a backhoe or a crew, right? But I think when it's just one person, I think you're doing the world a disservice, right? Because you have this accumulated skill through time, right? And experience.

Christian Brim (37:24.82)
Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (37:31.732)
Mmm.

Mm-hmm.

Don Vito (37:36.465)
And so now you're serving one person at a time. Well, that's a disservice because if someone in Montana, Utah, Wyoming, or another part of the country, they can use that skill. So package it into some kind of teaching, right? And let them be able to ask questions and put it in a group setting. That is, I don't see no other way. Like, you know, even if it's ditch digging, right? Well, that's a skill. You've been doing it a long time. Maybe you could teach some other people, but

Christian Brim (37:48.34)
Mm.

Mm-hmm.

Don Vito (38:06.2)
You can't just, if it's just you showing up to the location and you're locked in digging that ditch for however, how long it takes, whether it's a three man crew or however long, it's just one thing. But there are ditches that need to be dug across the world. And if you have that skill and if you are as good as you say you are, then you should strongly consider a paid membership community teaching people how to dig ditches.

Christian Brim (38:35.506)
Yeah, I mean it's a one to one or one to many. mean that that Yeah Don how do people find out more about you the pod father if they want to work with you?

Don Vito (38:38.618)
Hey, I like the one from Mini.

Don Vito (38:47.6)
Well, they can go to my IG, is DonvitoXL. That's on my IG. That's D-O-N-V-I-T-O. Or they can join the podcast Money Academy. I'll share the link with you and you can post it. for those who are interested in, know, for those business owners who really want to just get the feet wet and just see what it's like before they jump all the way in and commit.

Then they can join the Podcast Money Academy where you'll have courses and be able to meet with me once a week in a group setting. That's the operative word. And ask questions based on the course material. We have experts that come in there once a month to ask a question to talk about how they were successful as well. And there's just so many resources inside of the Podcast Money Academy.

Christian Brim (39:20.67)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (39:37.908)
I love it. Listeners will have those links in the show notes. If you like what you've heard, please rate the podcast, share the podcast, subscribe to the podcast. If you don't like what you've heard, hit the little message button and tell us what you'd like to hear and I'll get rid of Dawn. Until next time, ta-ta for now.