SHOW TRANSCRIPT

This transcript is automatically generated by Descript.  Any errors or omissions are unintentional.

[00:00:00]

[00:00:44] Jeff Sieh: Hello folks. Welcome to Creator News Live. I’m Jeff Sieh, and you’re not.

[00:00:48] Conor Brown: And I’m Conor Brown, and this is the show that keeps you up to date on what’s happening in the world of the creator economy and so much more.

[00:00:54] Jeff Sieh: If you ever wonder what it takes to turn your passion into a profitable business, maybe you’re trying to figure out [00:01:00] how some creators build loyal communities and consistent revenue at the same time. Or maybe you’re looking for a clear path from posting content to running a brand that actually lasts.

[00:01:11] Jeff Sieh: If that sounds like you, today’s episode is one you won’t want to miss.

[00:01:15] Conor Brown: We’re excited to welcome Lou Mongello, host and producer of the award-winning WDW Radio podcast, which has been named Best Travel Podcast nine years in a row. A former attorney who left the courtroom to pursue his passion. Lou has built a thriving business around podcasting, live events, books, tours, community cruising somehow as he is on a ship.

[00:01:38] Conor Brown: As a speaker and expert on building engaged audiences, he helps creators and organizations understand how to turn passion into purpose and purpose into revenue. Today he’s sharing what it really takes to monetize your content without losing the heart of what makes it special.

[00:01:57] Jeff Sieh: So sit back, clear your schedule, clear your mind, and get [00:02:00] ready for this week’s episode of Creator News Live.

[00:02:29] Jeff Sieh: There you go. Mr. Lou Mongello, thank you so much for being on the show again, my friend.

[00:02:34] Lou Mongello: Thank you for, uh, finding the grandchildren of the Andrew sisters and having them sing that little did.

[00:02:40] Jeff Sieh: We’ve got it dialed in. We have got it dialed in. we love doing the, the, uh, jingles for our guests. It’s pretty, pretty fun. So, I wanna ask the audience as we get started, we’re talking about monetization today. I wanna know how you’re currently monetizing your content. If you are, hopefully you are, are you using sponsorships, digital products, services, affiliate income, or you’re not [00:03:00] monetized yet?

[00:03:00] Jeff Sieh: Let us know down below how you’re. Monetizing your content. I know we got a lot of creators here watching. I would love to know, how you’re doing that.

[00:03:08] Jeff Sieh: So, while we get started, we’re gonna, go ahead and get our, our, sponsor, mention them, our friends over at Ecamm. You can find out more about them at Ecamm dot com slash jeff.

[00:03:16] Jeff Sieh: You can say 15% on the, your first purchase by using code. Jeff 15. Lou is a fan. Conor’s a fan. We’re all fans of Ecamm. It’s amazing program. They’ve got some amazing stuff coming up here. this year they got their creator camp. Not just in the US but it’s also in the UK That’s coming up, really shortly.

[00:03:32] Jeff Sieh: So make sure you guys go to Ecamm dot com and check that out. But camp’s coming up as well. I’m gonna be there. It’s gonna be amazing. So much fun. Lou was there last year. it’s just a bunch of creators having a good time learning things, so if you haven’t been there, you need to go right Conor?

[00:03:47] Conor Brown: It’s awesome. I went the year before last. It’s so cool to, to get away. You get those northeastern falls. leaves are changing. It’s neat to be with some, some really, really cool people, learning all about creatin’ And [00:04:00] it’s awesome.

[00:04:00] Jeff Sieh: So, let’s just jump right in, Lou, because, you actually have this slide when we go to your momentum conferences where you have, you know, all your different revenue streams.

[00:04:09] Jeff Sieh: But I want to know what, monetization strategies have consistently worked for you for over 20 years, building WDW Radio and your other businesses.

[00:04:18] Lou Mongello: So honestly, Jeff, it, sort of, the, the broad stroke of the answer is i, I like monetizing in ways and, and with things that I can control, right? I, I, would rather try and attract than Chase. Meeting. most of my revenue models and streams have not been on things like affiliate income and things like that. It’s either been creating products, creating services, working one-on-one with sponsors and sort of being able to

[00:04:41] Lou Mongello: manage what the different revenue looks like. But along the way, I’ve tried a little bit or a lot of, bit of almost everything. And I did, you know, speaking of the, of the slide and the presentation.

[00:04:53] Lou Mongello: The original slide, there was a lot of different spokes off, off that hub, and I’ve very much paired that down over the years.

[00:04:59] Jeff Sieh: [00:05:00] So. Let me let just do a follow up really quick. Conor, how did you decide what to quit? ’cause that’s a big thing for a lot of creators, like, you know, you said you just took some stuff off there. how did you decide what to take off?

[00:05:10] Lou Mongello: Yeah, man. Learning to say no, just in general is one of the, the best things I ever did and it’s, and it’s very difficult to do. It’s even more so when you have to learn to say no money. Money. But it is sort of like going back to the old adage of being able to say no to certain things so that you make the room for saying yes to the things that you need to do, you want to do So it really did. came down to not just what was greatest ROI for me. but it really, just comes down to what serve my audience and what serve me.

[00:05:42] Jeff Sieh: Very, very cool.

[00:05:43] Conor Brown: I love that. I think we have plenty of great comments here too about what people are currently monetizing. You know, Amy’s saying services, digital products, YouTube Ad revenue from from, but mostly Disney rich at addicted to Dirt PR services, digital products, and the [00:06:00] meta bonus program. That is good too.

[00:06:03] Conor Brown: We know plenty of people who are, are taking advantage of that right now, Lou, I feel like in today’s day and age. It’s not the creator economy, it’s the course building economy, right? It seems like so many people are saying, you know, the best way to monetize your worth, your value, your expertise is to create a course.

[00:06:24] Conor Brown: And I feel like. That’s good for some people, but probably a lot of other creators are feeling just pressured to launch a course. So how should someone, how should a creator, a solopreneur kind of decide when a course makes sense for their audience or, or if it makes sense for their audience to sell to at all?

[00:06:44] Lou Mongello: So I, I’m partially laughing because I think for me, I think I have a, a, number of different feelings about this. ’cause one, look, depending on who you can talk to, they’re either gonna say, oh my God, you have got to do a course. Why haven’t you done a course yet. And you talk to somebody else and go, courses are dead. Right? There is this

[00:07:00] oversaturation of courses. People don’t have the time and or attention to sit down and take courses. The question you have to ask yourself is. Is building a course not just right for your audience, but isn’t right for you. And like for me, for years, friends of mine and I think Jeff was like, dude, you gotta build a course.

[00:07:16] Lou Mongello: You gotta build a course. How come you haven’t build a course? And I just couldn’t wrap my heart and head around it, whether it was the content, whether it was the messaging, and I just, it didn’t feel right for me. I eventually did it, but still to this day, it’s not the thing that. I think allows me to do what I do best. So the very long-winded answer is you’ve gotta decide if a course is right to, to serve your audience or is it something that they need, want, and are willing to pay for? And two, is it in your wheelhouse?

[00:07:47] Lou Mongello: Like I would rather do live video than do recorded video. I would rather speak at a conference, then record a course. That’s sort of the, the, the decision you have to make and, and determine if it’s right for you. ‘ cause two, building a course is [00:08:00] great, but the if you build it, they will come mentality doesn’t work anymore because that’s when the real work starts is the marketing

[00:08:05] Lou Mongello: of the course and trying to distinguish and differentiate what makes your course different and better and more valuable than the other courses that are out there.

[00:08:14] Jeff Sieh: So, let’s go down this a little bit. so let’s say a lot of people feel like you, I don’t know, courses aren’t really something I look forward to doing. It’s a drag to try to put one together. It’s it, the lift doesn’t seem like it’s gonna. Hit the ROI that I wanna do. So aside from courses and sponsorships, what like, underrated revenue streams, would you suggest to creators?

[00:08:36] Jeff Sieh: I know you have like masterminds and you teach this stuff at, at Momentum. like what are, what do you say, like to people like, okay, I don’t wanna do a course. What else is there?

[00:08:43] Lou Mongello: I’m gonna give you the recovering attorney answer because there’s a ton, man, and it goes from the simplest lifts, like having an affiliate program to things that are more community driven and community based, which is a lot of sort of the, the sandbox dialect to live and play in to monetizing

[00:09:00] yourself, monetizing your audience, like with sponsorships again. Great ROI, but it’s also a very heavy lift to sometimes find and work with and negotiate with sponsorships. But even there’s other things too, like maybe not creating a course, but maybe doing professional public speaking. But I think there’s also, you know, these are sometimes steps and not everybody’s staircase looks exactly the same.

[00:09:22] Jeff Sieh: So we got a great question from Scott Brown. He goes, uh, Lou, for you, has building community been more powerful than building courses?

[00:09:30] Lou Mongello: Unquestionably, community is the heart and soul of everything that I do. I would not be here metaphorically and physically if it wasn’t for community, because I think what happens is people sometimes focus and look, there’s no right or wrong. This is just the way i, I chose to do it rather than building a product and then trying to go and sell to everyone or trying to find the audience I wanted to sort of build. True, meaningful, authentic community first, and then creating things that serve them. Because when they know love and trust [00:10:00] you, as you build things that serves them and that, or that they’re asking for, not only do they want that product or service, but they also want to help you. So you sort of have this sort of built in way without having to start from zero. In terms of marketing, that’s just what has worked for me. Certainly there’s other business models that work very well for other people.

[00:10:18] Jeff Sieh: Got it.

[00:10:24] Jeff Sieh: So Lou’s not going down with the ship. right now there is, there is a, they’re doing a little warning there. So, by the way, if you guys are joining us right now, Lou is not on vacation. I didn’t pull him in on vacation. He’s actually doing work on a cruise ship. So, I know it looks like Lou’s living the high life on the high seas.

[00:10:43] Jeff Sieh: He’s not really. He’s, this is actually work for him right now. so, Okay, go ahead Conor.

[00:10:49] Conor Brown: I, I think one thing that Lou is. Great at doing is the simple fact that he gives, right? He gives, plenty of stuff for free. Right? And I think when you’re building [00:11:00] community, that’s super, super important, right? You, you want to still,give to your community without, you know, coming off a hundred percent as, hey, you gotta buy this, you gotta buy that, right?

[00:11:12] Conor Brown: that coupled with. But we want to create a business. So at the end of the day, we are gonna have to monetize in some way, and at some point things are gonna have to be given away, not for free. We’ve had Ali Bjork on before who talks about tiny offers, and she says, I don’t give anything away for free. I don’t do any lead magnets.

[00:11:31] Conor Brown: If you want any of my expertise, I, you know, you have to buy it. And I think Lou does a great job of balancing it. So there’s a million ways to do it, but, but Lou, how do you balance? Offering free content that can build trust with your community, which is so important. And then how do you balance that with actually offering a paid offer that doesn’t turn off your audience and your community that you’ve worked so hard to build?

[00:11:57] Lou Mongello: So my philosophy has always been to give with no [00:12:00] expectation of anything in return. Right. Look, and, and this started for me really as a passion project. I didn’t go down this, this Disney road of, creating content as a way to make money. Yes, I wrote a book, but that was really just a personal challenge. So I wanted to give, just ’cause I loved. Talking about it and engaging, and then eventually found that there was ways to monetize. So my philosophy has been if you give value consistently and authentically, when you do finally have an offer, people will be grateful for that and be willing to not only consume what else you have because you have this proven track record of giving value for free. Now, I’m willing to pay for whatever is next, but I think it’s also out of gratitude and appreciation.

[00:12:38] Lou Mongello: That being said, I do also think there is a, a, a very valid philosophy of when you first start, it’s okay to start trickling in a little bit of monetization. So if you start a podcast and have, an affiliate program for something that you use and maybe search your audience. It’s okay because it, it sets the audience expectations [00:13:00] right away that okay, there is going to be some sort of monetization aspect. There’s going to be ads. ’cause if you’ve been doing the show for five years and all of a sudden you start running ads, your audience might be like, whoa, wait a second. We haven’t had this before.

[00:13:12] Lou Mongello: But I think if they love you, man, they understand that it’s a business. You explain that to ’em and I think they’re willing to embrace it and more importantly, support you.

[00:13:19] Jeff Sieh: So on that same note, because you mentioned, you know, you may wanna start early. So when should creators start? Thinking about monetization, like should they wait till they hit a certain growth metric, or should they even right outta the gate, let’s say they start a podcast, should they just like Audible is really easy to become an affiliate for.

[00:13:36] Jeff Sieh: Should they start with something like that? Like you said, to train their audience that there is gonna be monetization coming later, or should they wait till they hit a thousand subscribers? What are your, what’s your thoughts on waiting for that number?

[00:13:47] Lou Mongello: This is not gonna be helpful because the lawyer in me can argue both. Ways, right? I, there is, a sense of treat it like a business from day one, not just in terms of how you approach what you do and the, the, way you look at what you’re [00:14:00] creating, but from the audience perspective, understanding that there is a, a business of monetization side to it.

[00:14:04] Lou Mongello: I think if I’m starting out, I wanna focus more on. Creating valuable content, being the best at what you can possibly do. Figure out what your differentiator is and building that authentic and meaningful community, and then start to monetize because it is another sometimes difficult road to hoe, and I know this, you have to do what feels right for you guys. Like I, I. If it feels right for you to start monetizing day one and you feel like you’re good at it and you understand it, and you can weave that in, that’s great for me. I waited, a little while and I wanted to build the community first and then monetize on top of it.

[00:14:35] Jeff Sieh: Very cool.

[00:14:36] Lou Mongello: How you monetize is also going to be contingent on what you build first. Like if you’re starting a podcast and day one you’re like, i’m gonna start a Patreon, I wholeheartedly believe that is not the way to do it. Patreon is a way for you to, yes, super serve your audience, but for me, Patreon, which I had a very difficult time sort of wrapping my head around ’cause I don’t like asking for money, which I know does not make me a good businessman. It was a way for me to [00:15:00] give back to community. So before I had what I thought was going to be a big ask, I really needed to ensure that the community foundation was there first. So don’t start a Patreon on day one, but start it after you’ve built that level of community.

[00:15:13] Jeff Sieh: Yeah, I think it matters on what type of thing. Like I was able to start with ECAAM right out of the gate one because I had a relationship with him before I had talked to ’em, and I also used them like, so it made sense. And so they were a sponsor from day one. very blessed that that happened.

[00:15:27] Jeff Sieh: But I think if it makes sense for whatever content you’re doing, there’s a guy on Dave Jackson’s community who has very niche, he does a podcast about model trains. And so started out and, and like people went to him for that model train device. And so he has all these model train companies sponsored him, so it made sense for him to do it that way out of the gate.

[00:15:46] Jeff Sieh: So I think it really depends on your niche and the content that you’re creating.

[00:15:50] Conor Brown: Lou hates asking for money, but God knows Jeff has, has given him a lot of his own

[00:15:55] Jeff Sieh: That’s right. I don’t have, I’m missing a kidney. Yeah.

[00:15:57] Conor Brown: It works. You know. as we move on to our, our [00:16:00] next section, I want to ask the audience a, a quick question around this pricing structure, idea to the audience, listening or watching.

[00:16:08] Conor Brown: Have you ever underpriced something because you were afraid to charge more? That could be a product, it could be a service, it could be a course. Drop in the comments, let us know what did you underprice and what did the lessons learn, when you started to sell that thing or charge more for it. And as we move into our next section about, you know, community and mindset and, and long-term success, Lou, I wanted to ask you, you emphasize, you know.

[00:16:36] Conor Brown: Clarity and structure over chasing trends when it comes to monetization, right? We know in the solopreneur space, there’s always a new way to monetize, right? Every social media platform now you can monetize somewhere. So we see all these people going full in on creating content for that Amazon affiliate stuff, Amazon shoppable links, you know, years [00:17:00] ago.

[00:17:00] Conor Brown: Those were, were huge sorts of things, and it’s easy to kind of jump all in and put all your chips in, but then the rest of your business can kind of go to the wayside. So when we think of that, why do you think it’s so important for monetization purposes to really just focus on that clarity and the structure of what you’re monetizing versus just chasing the trends?

[00:17:22] Lou Mongello: Because not everything is for everybody. Conor, uh, you know, like live shopping, ridiculously hot right now, right? it, it’s super popular. People are doing very, very well. But if it’s not what you do and if it doesn’t serve you and your audience, then maybe that is not the thing that you should be chasing. So I am not a trend chaser. I’ll look to see what is, is, working for people, and maybe I can ideate from that. But I, I’m very much to a certain degree wearing blinders and doing the things that I want to do, and more importantly, I think are appropriate for my audience. I think if I started. Live selling on whatnot right now. My audience would be like, who are you and what have you done? with Lou [00:18:00] Mongello and his bowl of chicken tenderers.

[00:18:02] Jeff Sieh: Right. So there’s a great question here and this kind of ties into, you know, community versus size, but, Adam asks, WDW Radio has been around for quite a while now. I mean, it’s like, what, over 20 years old? Like, I mean, I. You just celebrated, I can’t remember what it was.

[00:18:17] Jeff Sieh: How many,

[00:18:18] Lou Mongello: Uh, yeah, we had 20.

[00:18:19] Jeff Sieh: Yeah. And he says, in a world where everybody seems to be a, Disney creator and a live streamer in the park, you know, what sets you apart from everybody else? So, you know. why are you still doing this stuff when there’s so many other people popping up and, you know, everybody seems to be going live.

[00:18:37] Jeff Sieh: And so I wanna know, and I know, Adam does too, like, what do you think sets you apart in that space?

[00:18:42] Lou Mongello: So, consistency, longevity,absolutely, I think is, is important. because if you’re not consistent. Especially, I think like as a, as a podcaster for example, you know, we are creatures of habit. If your show comes out on Monday, your audience looks for your show to come out on Monday.

[00:18:57] Lou Mongello: They certainly understand if you miss a week, if you miss time. But if not, [00:19:00] their attention’s gonna be drawn somewhere else. Right. And you don’t necessarily want that.

[00:19:03] Lou Mongello: You want them to make sure that the attention stays focused on you. It goes back to what you said too, like what is your differentiator? What sets you apart from other shows? I, I don’t know. Right? You have to ask somebody who’s listening. Like, I, I think the question is unfair to ask me. You have to ask somebody else, like, why are you still listening to Lou Mongello after 20 years? But I think it, I think it is like, I don’t want you to stop listening, but why, you’ve gotta sort of figure out what your differentiator is in the type of content you create.

[00:19:30] Lou Mongello: And honestly, going back to this idea of blinders, I don’t pay attention to what anybody else is doing. I’m not distracted by new people coming in, what they’re doing? Oh, I see that a lot of people are talking about this thing. I honestly, I don’t listen to any other Disney podcasts. Not that there’s not great stuff by really good people, but one, I, I, don’t have a lot of time to listen to podcasts and usually when I do, it’s all Jeff Sieh all the time. And I don’t ever want somebody to accuse me of copying what somebody else is doing, and I don’t wanna be distracted by what somebody else is doing. I do the show [00:20:00] that I would wanna listen to, and I hope somebody else out there feels the same way.

[00:20:03] Conor Brown: I think a couple people wanna listen to the show you want to do, so you got that going for

[00:20:07] Jeff Sieh: Yeah.

[00:20:07] Conor Brown: which is nice. Amy has a great comment. She talks about, oh, yes, I, had a client tell slash yell at me in the first five years. Amy, you have got to raise your rates. Now I keep checking my competitors to help keep my pricing in check.

[00:20:21] Conor Brown: What I think is so important about that is the freeing aspect of just saying, this is the price, and this is the price, right? Not like. Going down because you’re nervous. Someone’s gonna say no verse, you should just accept it that somebody’s gonna say no, that’s fine. They’re not the client for you. It’s a very, very freeing thing, but it’s really hard to get to.

[00:20:42] Conor Brown: Right. So Lou, for the people that struggle asking for money like yourself, right, what can they do? What can. Creators do to kind of shift their mind to, to start asking for, for money and, and what separates them [00:21:00] from the people who are kind of, you know, they have no problem with it. How can they shift their mind to, to start actually monetizing effectively?

[00:21:08] Lou Mongello: It’s funny because when you posed the question to the audience, I was laughing because your, your question was, you know, how do you know, like. If you’re charging too little, and I laugh because I’m like, for me I know I have, and I’ve had friends tell me like, you’re charging too little you’re asking for way too little.

[00:21:23] Lou Mongello: I’m, I think I’m really good at giving advice to other people in terms of how much they should charge. I’m really bad at taking that advice myself. Right. So I find myself probably undercharging. It does go back to this idea of perceived value, but sometimes it’s difficult to ask for money, and more importantly, especially when you’re starting out, there is no sort of guidebook in terms of what you should charge as.

[00:21:45] Jeff Sieh: Is it, oh, is it doing a horn again? so, he’s muted himself. So one of the things, and, and we’ve talked about this in our mastermind a lot, And Conor knows this, and Amy as well we are always talking about you need to charge more. You need to charge more. ’cause we automatically, I think every creator I’ve known feels like they charge [00:22:00] what they think they’re worth, they’re gonna lose, clients or money or whatever. And most often that does not happen in my experience. So go ahead Lou, I think your, your horn is done.

[00:22:09] Lou Mongello: Yeah, so the, the formula that I use for other people and I’m bad at taking for myself is. Especially if you’re charging for a service and there is no sort of quote unquote industry standard. ’cause I don’t think for a lot, whether you are a speaker, whether you’re a coach, consultant, I don’t think that there is an industry standard. for sometimes what we do.

[00:22:24] Lou Mongello: I think the, the way that I tell people to do it is find the number. That you asked for that makes you uncomfortable and then double it. And that’s probably what your true value should be. There’s a whole conversation about perceived value and things like that as well in terms of pricing products and servers and things like that. But I think that’s how you get to the number. And look, man, you could always come down. You can’t go back up, right?

[00:22:46] Lou Mongello: So say for example, you’re a speaker and you’re like, I don’t know. Do I charge $500? Do I charge $5,000? Do I charge $15,000? Where is the number? You start to feel uncomfortable. Double that number because then you can always negotiate down if need be. You could never [00:23:00] negotiate back up.

[00:23:01] Jeff Sieh: Very, very cool. I wanna ask, this is a great question from Adam. he says, Lou. Did the coaching business launch, because Disney content has become difficult to monetize on its own. so for those who don’t know and are just joining it for the first time, and like, who is this Lou yellow Mongello guy?

[00:23:18] Jeff Sieh: what does he do? Why is he on a ship? so you, you started with Disney content, but then you also created momentum. And I kind of think of like the, the momentum track, your speaking track kind of on there. You talk about Disney principles in there a lot. But momentum is for you know, creators like small business people.

[00:23:35] Jeff Sieh: So this is a great question from Adam, like how did you decide to do that and why? And I really don’t think it was because of lack of revenue from the Disney stuff, but I think it’s more of the way you wanted to give back and tell me if I’m wrong.

[00:23:47] Lou Mongello: It was never part of the business plan, not that I’ve ever written down a business plan. So I I’ve sort of built everything that I’ve been doing on the Disney side of things. I was always going to conferences ’cause I’m just a sponge. I just wanted to learn. And as I was attending conferences, people were like, oh, [00:24:00] you should get up there and, and tell your story about going from lawyer to doing what you do.

[00:24:04] Lou Mongello: As I was doing it more and more often and people started to come to me and started asking me questions, I wanted to help them because especially when I first started, I didn’t have any help. but I know how lonely and scary and frustrating it can be, especially early on. So because I didn’t have that, because I didn’t have somewhere to go to and people were coming to me with questions. If somebody comes to you with the same question three times, it’s a common problem and the one that you can try and help solve. I wanted to find a way to give back by helping them in a way that I didn’t have.

[00:24:33] Lou Mongello: It started off with one-on-one coaching masterminds, and then I just built the event that I wanted to attend, which was not a 2000 person conference, it was a 50 person, one room conference. And it, from there, different iterations of ways that I’ve been able to try and help people, have come about. But again, it, it, didn’t come from, I think this is a really good way to make money. it came from just sort of this natural progression ways to help people [00:25:00] and then obviously being able to, to find out ways to monetize on top of that.

[00:25:02] Conor Brown: I think one of the scariest things for solopreneurs entrepreneurs is when you do start monetizing, it’s great and it’s awesome, but the scary part is when it plateaus, right? And, and you want to grow, or maybe even it starts to go down when it comes to your monetization and, and your revenue. So, Lou, when, when a creator, has a bunch of irons in the fire from the monetization standpoint, but all of a sudden they kind of hit this revenue plateau.

[00:25:30] Conor Brown: What’s the first few levers that they can pull, pull to kind of restart it or go down a different channel? Like how can they, they get back out of that plateau and, and continue to grow?

[00:25:41] Lou Mongello: I think it’s important to not let yourself get to. That plateau. And what I mean by that is you need to always be iterating. You always need to be looking to what’s next. You can keep spinning those plates or juggling those bowling balls, whatever sort of the euphemism is you want to use. But I’m always looking to do what’s next. It’s why I don’t sleep very much, but it’s also because I, I [00:26:00] love what I do.

[00:26:01] Lou Mongello: And you know, things like COVID taught us is if you put all of your eggs into one or sometimes two baskets, you can potentially be in trouble. If you put all of your eggs onto a single platform or a single group or whatever, you can potentially be in trouble. So it’s why that that graphic looks the way it does, because if one of those things goes away for one reason or another, I have other revenue streams.

[00:26:22] Lou Mongello: And plus for me, man, it, it’s. Always doing something new. Like that’s what continues to fuel my fire. It’s what I love doing. Like people are like, why are you adding this on? Why? Like, ‘ cause I love doing it and, and I love the pursuit of building something and finding new ways to reach and hopefully help people.

[00:26:38] Jeff Sieh: That’s awesome. That’s awesome. So, really quick ano, you know, another very smooth segue uh, helping people is what ECAMM does. So if you’re not a part of their community, make sure you check them out on a Facebook page. Their Discord server, they are doing so much cool stuff in there. they’ve got some awesome stuff coming down the road.

[00:26:55] Jeff Sieh: I have a little privilege information ’cause I’m in a certain little. Little group of people [00:27:00] and, um, there’s some awesome stuff, coming guys. So make sure you guys join their community. You find out more at Ecamm dot com slash Jeff. if you haven’t checked them out yet, you can use Code Jeff 15 to say 15% on your first purchase.

[00:27:10] Jeff Sieh: Love for you to be a part of the community. awesome support inside of Ecamm. So, as we go onto this next section, we want to talk about kind of this monetization blueprint that Lou has put together. He’s got a virtual course that’s coming up shortly, but I wanted to ask you guys. How many of you feel like you’re guessing when it comes to pricing and offers?

[00:27:30] Jeff Sieh: So let us know yes or no down in the comments, wherever you’re watching from. Do you feel like you’re guessing when it comes to pricing and offers? This is a big struggle for a lot of people and everybody. We’ve talked about it earlier in the show. Everybody seems to lowball it. So if you’re struggling with pricing, let us know, because I think that’s a big part of, the struggle for a lot of creators.

[00:27:48] Jeff Sieh: But as we talk about this monetization workshop, this is a kind of a framework and a blueprint you’re doing. I think it’s almost like a half a day virtual training Lou, that you’re putting together. And by the way, you can find out about that [00:28:00] blueprint. By going to Lou Mongello dot com slash virtual dash workshop.

[00:28:05] Jeff Sieh: So that’s Lou Mongello dot com slash virtual dash workshop to find out more about that because it’s gonna be amazing. this is one of Lou’s most popular sections of his talk when he talks at Momentum. This is one where all the phones come up and people are taking pictures of that monetization slide.

[00:28:21] Jeff Sieh: So, you recently launched this, Lou, so what gap are you trying to fill? Like. This seems like, you know, you mentioned not doing courses. This is more of kind of a cohort thing, so talk about why you decided to to do this workshop.

[00:28:35] Lou Mongello: So first of all, thank you for the plug, man. I, I, really appreciate it. Um. Again, I know that this is one of the biggest struggles that creators and solopreneurs and, and small businesses have. it’s something that I talk about at Momentum. It’s something that I talk about a lot at conferences, usually in a very restrictive amount of time. You’ve got a half hour, 45 minutes maybe to try and put all these things out there and also not be able to, to work with people individually.

[00:28:57] Lou Mongello: I also know that. My momentum [00:29:00] retreat or my momentum workshop in Walt Disney world is not accessible to everyone because of timing, because of finances, because of school, work, whatever it might be. So I wanted to find a way to help people. Again, this goes back to the idea of courses. I didn’t wanna create a course and just sort of put it out there and hope that people can figure out what applies to them, because you can’t ask a course a question. So rather than, I was going to do this as a one day in-person workshop. My timing has just been, spread thin because I’m, because I’m sometimes away.

[00:29:30] Lou Mongello: So I said, let me, what, what is the most accessible way I could reach them? It’s not the most amount of people, but at a small scale, but still be able to give what I want. So the way it, I have it, this one structured is it’s limited to 25 people. It’s half day I’m gonna teach all the different monetization principles and sort of the, the blueprint. In the morning, but I also want it to be something that’s interactive. So we’re gonna sort of have this combination of, you know, exercises and mastermind and [00:30:00] opportunity for people to get their questions answered.

[00:30:02] Lou Mongello: I think that’s the biggest challenge that people have is you can go to a session at a conference and you can take great notes and then you go home and you’re like, yeah, but how do I apply this to me? I can’t ask these notes, I can’t ask that speaker question. I wanna try and bridge that gap in a way that is. Accessible and easy and affordable for people too, because I understand, you know, going to a conference can be very, very expensive. Not just in terms of the conference itself, but in terms of travel and hotel and food and things like that.

[00:30:29] Conor Brown: You know, we got courses, we have products, we have services, we have sponsorships, we have, paid, you know, live streams, paid workshops. All of those things are ways you can monetize what you are doing online, what you are creating online, what. Today, Lou, how do you define monetization for creators? Is it simply products, services, or is it community or is it something else entirely?

[00:30:59] Conor Brown: Like how, how do [00:31:00] you define monetization

[00:31:02] Lou Mongello: You know Conor, hosting this one day live interactive workshop where I really could answer that question for you. Uh, so.

[00:31:08] Conor Brown: a, it’s called a softball. All right.

[00:31:10] Lou Mongello: Yeah, no, look, you know, it’s funny ’cause as I’m, as I’m putting this together and I do have the, the freedom of time to really sort of go down a lot of the different pathways that I don’t get to do, especially in, content specific conferences like podcasting. I, I, have a finite amount of time and I finite an amount of time to talk about what I think are some of the broader strokes. Here. We can go down a little bit of deeper paths because I do almost want to give. You as a creator, a little bit of a menu.

[00:31:38] Lou Mongello: I want to give you that blueprint and then you can go from there and say, yeah, this works for me. This works for me. This is not something maybe that I’m comfortable doing. Maybe I don’t wanna record a course, I don’t wanna get up in front of people, but this is a great idea. And then you can sort of pick and choose a la carte. Off that menu to do what works for you, because I think one of those people don’t realize is there is, there are [00:32:00] so many different ways you can potentially monetize and possibly in ways that you’ve never even thought about before.

[00:32:06] Jeff Sieh: So one thing if you guys didn’t catch that, he’s limiting to this, to 25 people. So, if you’re interested in signing up, do sooner rather than later.

[00:32:15] Jeff Sieh: Once again, loumongello.com/virtual-workshop to go sign up for that. but Lou, I wanna know like, what are some of the core steps you’re gonna walk creators through to go from content to income now? I’m putting a caveat on that because there’s a, a lot of people think, oh, I can just do this, hit an easy button, and I start making money.

[00:32:33] Jeff Sieh: There is a process to this. It’s not a get rich quick scheme, but as if you’re a creator and you’re, you maybe wanna take your side hustle into a, a full-time gig or you’re, you’re even wanting to start a side hustle, like what are those core steps that you’re gonna walk creators through to go from content to income?

[00:32:49] Lou Mongello: It’s really about building your personal roadmap, right? We can sort of use that, that analogy too, because I think where you start and where you can eventually get to in terms of monetization. Are [00:33:00] sort of blocks that you can fill in. So I don’t think there’s any easy way, Jeff. I think there are simple ways to start. Affiliate programs are simple ways. To start monetizing. It’s a simple way for you to start making your audience understand that you are, this is a business and there are going to be ads. There are going to be offers.

[00:33:18] Lou Mongello: Then maybe there are things like, well, what can you build on your own? Is it a course? Is it a product? Is it a digital product? Is it a physical product? is it a book? Right? What are some of the things that you can offer that are your own, that you have complete control of, that you can sell? What are other ways that you could monetize your experience and expertise? Is it consulting? Is it coaching? Is it speaking?

[00:33:38] Lou Mongello: And there are sort of, you know, if you sort of look at it that way, you might not be able to do that one yet, or you might not be interested in doing speaking yet, but that might be something you wanna eventually get to if you’re comfortable doing it. Because the ROI of speaking I’ll put it in in very simple terms. You can make more from a day of speaking and it’s, it’s simpler than [00:34:00] trying to sell the equal amount of revenue affiliate income or from selling books, right? So what works for you along what stage of that roadmap,

[00:34:08] Jeff Sieh: Conor, you had Oh, you had something? Yeah.

[00:34:10] Conor Brown: I have something, but I, I’m gonna kind of riff off of what Paul says here. Paul is the king of monetization, all right? He, he thinks he is humble. He isn’t right. He is the king of monetization. Right here. There’s so many ways to monetize right now. I struggle with keeping focused on the main sources of revenue.

[00:34:28] Conor Brown: He has so much revenue is what he’s, he’s coming after, right? Of course. I’m kidding. But how do you prioritize revenue streams while trying, experimenting with new ways to monetize? So I wanna know your answer to that, Lou. Like how do you stay true to the core of your revenue while also experimenting with new ways to monetize?

[00:34:49] Conor Brown: And I also wanna know. What’s something that’s a monetization way that you’re interested in, but you’ve never tried before?

[00:34:58] Jeff Sieh: Ooh, that’s a good one.

[00:34:59] Lou Mongello: I’ll. [00:35:00] Answer in reverse. I, I, I’ve tried a lot. I, I’ve tried a lot because, and sometimes trying, it doesn’t mean necessarily fully executing on it. So courses are, are a great example. I, I wrestled with courses for years and I’ve had notes and stuff like, okay, I’ve got the framework of my course, now I have to go build it. And I’ll sit there and stare at the, at the at the camera. Like I’ve never talked to a camera before. It just didn’t feel right for me. So I would put it to the side. I’m like, I will come back to this. when it feels right. I’ll come back to it when I’ve sort of cracked the code for me personally,

[00:35:31] Lou Mongello: which eventually I did. Like I did a small email course and then I did a very small, like, I did a free course and then I did like a five day, $7 email course, which it scratched that itch for me in terms of building a course. But I also realized, hey, you know what, and I, and i, I still have a full outline and framework for a course I was going to build. It still doesn’t feel right for me because I would rather divert my attention to something like the one day workshop that is repeatable. It’s [00:36:00] sustainable. I can reach more people. I can iterate from it.

[00:36:02] Lou Mongello: So this first one is very much admittedly going to be an experiment. I’ll see what works. I’ll see what kind of. Questions people have, and with everything that I do, I hope to get better time over time, over time, so I can continue to do these virtually. And I also wanna do them in person. This originally started as an idea to do these in person, but I said, what’s the easiest lift, not just for me, but for attendees, was to do it virtually. I’ll iterate, I’ll get better and I’ll continue to expand on, you know, I already have my own roadmap of other ideas and other things I wanna execute on, going forward.

[00:36:33] Jeff Sieh: Yeah, so, um, I wanna pull up this comment from our friend Sean from, but mostly Disney. He says I should try speaking. I never shut up anyway. Way. Listen, Sean, you would be a great speaker. you really are. I mean, your live show is, is great training for that. I think you would do awesome at that. It’s just getting that first one.

[00:36:50] Jeff Sieh: I tell everybody whenever they’re speaking, always record it no matter what. Like if you’re speaking at your Chamber of Commerce, if you’re doing whatever, always record because you can repurpose that [00:37:00] into a course, a talk, a lead magnet, all sorts of stuff. We throw so much content out there and we just don’t.

[00:37:06] Jeff Sieh: Do anything with it so many times or repurpose it enough. Anyway, whole nother show. But Sean, I think it would be great. Adam says, he has a great question. He goes with affiliate programs. Do they mostly approach you at this point? Are you tracking them down yourself? Great question.

[00:37:20] Lou Mongello: So I think for the most part. It will start off with you, you seeking them out yourself, right? Amazon is a very easy one to do, but you also have to like, you gotta sell Amazon at scale. And if you are just starting out, you may not make a lot of revenue. I prefer to go and find products and services that you use that will serve your audience because it has to be. Authentic to you. Uh, I’m not going to sort of promote, Ecamm for example, which I have used for more than a decade. And, and love. I’m not gonna promote it unless I actually use it.

[00:37:50] Lou Mongello: So going out to some of those companies, finding out one’s first that have affiliate programs. If you’re a podcaster, go listen to other podcasts in your space. Find out [00:38:00] who’s already advertising, right? Because you know that’s easier and they’re already spending the money. They already understand the space. Start looking to them. A lot of the work is already being done for you because companies have affiliate programs built in. Sometimes they’re just very easy to sign up. You don’t even need to sort of be pre-approved. And then you can also find companies that are already sponsoring or have programs that are working well for other creators.

[00:38:23] Conor Brown: I think one thing that, you know, I would approach with trepidation certain affiliate programs because you wanna think like, is this a good fit? Like Lou was saying, Jeff brought it up. You know, you shouldn’t just sign up for Audible ’cause it’s easy to sign up for Audible ’cause it’s an easy affiliate program to get started with.

[00:38:42] Conor Brown: Right. I would, you know, struggle to find someone who’s never heard of Audible right now. Right. Everyone knows about Audible. Their business structure is just. Have as many people talk about it as possible. So when you do those big ones and you’re not gonna earn a whole lot from ’em, and people might not sign [00:39:00] up for ’em ’cause they already know what it is.

[00:39:02] Conor Brown: Caution yourself and set your expectations low because. What I would hate for someone to do is start on an affiliate program, realize no one’s buying this thing, and then just say, well, I can’t monetize whatever I’m doing the the content that I have. I think that that’s a really slippery slope that you can go down.

[00:39:20] Conor Brown: So with that being said, Lou, how do you know when to stop on a certain monetization trajectory? Stopping on a certain thing you’re selling or offer you’re doing? When do you determine, hey, you know what? The juice is not worth a squeeze here.

[00:39:35] Lou Mongello: Yeah, like I, I knew very quickly, like Jeff’s only feet affiliate program was not going to work for my audience. It just did not align with the Disney brand.

[00:39:46] Jeff Sieh: you would’ve been millionaire. A millionaire by now. But anyway.

[00:39:50] Lou Mongello: Oh God, I I can’t eat, eat anything else the rest of the day. what was the question? No, so how do you know if it, if it’s just not. Working for you. I, I think you, you hit the nail on the head, Conor, [00:40:00] about setting reasonable expectations for what you want this program to do. I, you know, if you are gonna do something like amazon, you have to understand you need a significant amount of not just traffic and community, but conversions in order for that to pay any kind of real dividends. You’re probably not gonna be able to pay off your mortgage. With, with Amazon affiliates right out of the gate, but they could be building blocks to something else.

[00:40:27] Lou Mongello: And if you’re going to take something away, just make sure you have something else to replace that gap with. But if you just find that something is not working, it’s not organic and authentic to you, whether it’s an affiliate program or even sponsorships, sometimes you have to sort of, you know, divorce the marriage. If, if it, if it’s not working out for the two of you, even sometimes before the end of maybe a, a contracted run.

[00:40:48] Jeff Sieh: Yeah. So I wanna talk real quick on this final question, like maybe some, misconceptions that people have about monetization. You know, we mentioned Audible. It’s an easy one. It’s an easy to sign up for Amazon as well. One of the things that [00:41:00] I see a lot of creators not do is, is they kind of, this was a great question by Adam, like, if they’re gonna approach you or do you go and track ’em down yourself?

[00:41:08] Jeff Sieh: I think a lot of people think there’s just gonna come to you, and a lot of times people just don’t ask. The reason I have Ecamm as a sponsor for my show is because I asked. That’s it. Like, and, and creators don’t ask. So if you have something that you love and you use and you wanna share with the world, ask, just go and ask that company and, and they may have an affiliate program they didn’t know.

[00:41:29] Jeff Sieh: They may wanna partner with you for three to six months. I just see a lot of creators don’t ask those questions. And the worst that they can do is say no. Get used to hearing. No, that’s fine. Because, you know, rejection’s just part of the game if you’re a, a creator out there. So, What, what else do you think that creators, when you, you know, you’ve done these workshops, you’ve led masterminds. What are some other big misconceptions, Lou, that you see creators having when it comes to monetization of their content?

[00:41:55] Lou Mongello: Jeff, you, you made a great point. Surprisingly, you made a great point [00:42:00] about if you were going reach out to a potential. Have to sort of maybe sometimes reframe your thinking. You’re like, you’ll reach out. Like, oh, you know, you should sponsor me. You have to sort of tell them like what’s in it for them? Why are you a good partner? What is something you can bring to the table that’s different? Have a conversation with them about what it is that you might be able to, to provide this sponsor that maybe somebody else doesn’t. Whether it is your audience, whether it is a creative idea, just saying, Hey, you know, I want to come out and sponsor me. It’s probably not going to get you the results that you want.

[00:42:33] Lou Mongello: And just a very quick story, like when I first started out looking for sponsors. Again, it was, you know, 20 years ago it was a very different time. Like I literally flew from New Jersey where I used to live to Florida and I went like door to door to third party operating participants and hotels and restaurants in and around Walt Disney World like saying. This is what I do. This is what I can offer. This is who my audience is. This is how I can demonstrate the trust that they have [00:43:00] with in and with me. Here’s what I can bring to the table for you. I literally and figuratively had the door slammed in my face many, many, many times, which is a very humbling, but I think important experience.

[00:43:10] Lou Mongello: You certain to to a certain degree. You have to do that. literally, you know, now doing it electronically, you don’t get that physical door slammed in your face the way I did, but. you have to sort of do that proactive outreach, but position it as, what can I bring to the table that maybe somebody else can’t?

[00:43:27] Jeff Sieh: Yeah. And so, we had him on our show, last year. Justin Moore has written. A great book called Sponsor Magnet, and it’s all about getting these sponsors. And one of the things is just what Lou said is that, you know, you want to make sure that you don’t say, Hey, I have this audience. You should, you should come to me.

[00:43:42] Jeff Sieh: He’s like, here’s what I can give you. Like, they’re, they don’t, they get those pitches all the time. And so like, if you can go and like, Hey, I would love to do this because of this, and I share about this and make it very specific about don’t just come to me because I’m. So good. And I talk about Disney all the time.

[00:43:56] Jeff Sieh: No, I can offer you this because this is what I’m doing right [00:44:00] now and I would love to work together with you instead of just, you know, read that book and watch how you word things, because it does make a huge difference on how people,look at you. So we have one more question, from, Adam.

[00:44:11] Jeff Sieh: Great questions. Adam, thank you so much for, all your questions today. He says, Lou, have you worked with monetizing content? For a younger demographic, that always seems to be a difficult path. I mean, Disney makes sense because I, I think that’s kind of the, you know, it seems like it’d be a younger demo for you.

[00:44:26] Lou Mongello: you know, it’s funny because. Again, and you know me, you know about not being a numbers guy. I’m not a stats guy. But when I do go in and look to see different demographics, whether it’s in, you know, digital downloadable statistics, or if I just look around the room when I do a cruise or I do a meet of the month. I see such a wide spectrum of people. It can be young solo people or young solo couples up into, you know, grandmothers and and grandfathers.

[00:44:52] Lou Mongello: So I have to keep that in mind in terms of the products and sponsors and things that I offer because I know that it is reaching a [00:45:00] pretty wide spectrum. I don’t necessarily think about. Well, hey, how can I target the 18 to 24 year olds? ’cause one, maybe that’s not who my audience predominantly is. maybe those are not the people that are necessarily going to come on a cruise or go on adventures by Disney or even come to some of my events. But on the momentum side, it’s different ’cause I reach creators that are younger to really, really old people like Jeff.

[00:45:24] Jeff Sieh: Yeah, let’s talk

[00:45:25] Jeff Sieh: about age.

[00:45:25] Conor Brown: I know how you can start really going after the younger audience. Here’s a product for you, a Labu Booo. We call it a Lou Labu Booo, and looks just like you. I think we’re, it’s the same size, if you think about it.

[00:45:39] Jeff Sieh: is, just put it on your lap.

[00:45:41] Jeff Sieh: Yeah.

[00:45:42] Conor Brown: Yeah. A Lbu Booo.

[00:45:45] Jeff Sieh: Laboo. this has been great. Uh, I want to, the last couple minutes we have, Lou, I want you to have let you have the floor and you tell everybody why they should go to this, monetization workshop you have when it is, how to sign up, all that stuff. The floor is now yours, [00:46:00] my friend.

[00:46:00] Lou Mongello: So first, thank you again for inviting me to come on. I love what you guys are doing and I love that, that you guys are helping so many people, again, at scale and in so many different ways and bringing on so many different, smart, creative people. And it’s an honor, seriously to, to be part of this.

[00:46:13] Lou Mongello: the virtual workshop is on. Friday, March 20th from 9:00 AM to 12:30 PM Again, we’ll gonna be teaching in the morning, but it’s gonna be conversational. And then we’ll do some exercises and, have some sort of workshop and q and a time in the afternoon. I believe there’s only six spots left. but you can go at the link is there, lou mongello com slash virtual workshop. And it’ll take you right there.

[00:46:36] Lou Mongello: And you can also find out some of the other ways that I can help you either with. My free course, uh, a $7 course, one-on-one coaching, and then my momentum workshop is in Walt Disney World in the fall, and I have a Momentum six person Mastermind retreat, uh, also in Orlando, coming up, early summer.

[00:46:51] Jeff Sieh: Very, very cool. As you know, Conor and I, and a lot of people in the audience right now are big fans of Momentum. A lot of us met there for the first time. I think I’ve been going for now. five [00:47:00] years now. I think I’ve been going. Lou still hasn’t locked me out. that could, that could change.

[00:47:03] Jeff Sieh: That could change. So, thank you guys so much for watching Conor Brown. Where could people find out about the amazing unsinkable Conor Brown?

[00:47:10] Conor Brown: You can find out more@vacationkingdoms.com and at Vacation Kingdoms across social media. Let’s get you booked for your. Next adventure. Maybe summer, maybe spring break. You can see how well the WiFi’s working on a cruise. If you wanna work from a cruise, let me know. We can work. Get you all booked there

[00:47:27] Jeff Sieh: I wish I was working for a cruise. Uh, by the way, Conor is actually, he’s the guy who set me up. I’m going to Disneyland. So he doesn’t just do Disney World, he does all sorts of vacation packages. He set me up. I’m going to, and Lou will be there as well at Social Media Marketing World.

[00:47:41] Jeff Sieh: Coming up at the end of April. I’m gonna spend about three days with my daughter at Disneyland ’cause she’s never been there. And Conor set us all up, uh, gave us his good, great advice. He’s got an amazing email sequence when you sign up for any of his packages that are, is top-notch helping you. Plan your trip.

[00:47:55] Jeff Sieh: So if you haven’t gone to Vacation Kingdoms in a while, you need to go there and check it out. [00:48:00] Thank you guys. Thank you, to Adam for all the great questions. Paul Gowder, is in the comments. Michelle O’Conor, everybody who stopped by asked the great, great, great questions. Thank you for Lou for being on the ship and then.

[00:48:11] Jeff Sieh: Dialing in for us, during the show today. we’ve actually had somebody, I think it was, who was it who said, uh, love hearing all the Disney, music in the background. Hopefully we won’t get kicked off of any platform because of that Disney comes after us. But anyway, thank you guys so much for watching.

[00:48:26] Jeff Sieh: This has been a great show. Thank you, Lou. Thank you Conor. And we’ll see you guys next time. Bye everybody.