SUMMARY BY CHATGPT

In this episode of Screw the Commute Podcast, Tom Antion explains why podcasting is a powerful business tool, how beginners can start quickly, common mistakes to avoid, and strategies for building an audience and making money.
Main Benefits of Podcasting
• Easy to start: A podcast can be launched within days if done thoughtfully.
• Global reach: Episodes are available worldwide 24/7.
• Builds authority and trust: Hearing someone’s voice creates stronger audience connection and credibility.
• Convenient consumption: Podcasts can be listened to in cars, smartphones, and smart speakers like Amazon Echo devices.
• Content repurposing: Podcast episodes can become YouTube Shorts, ebooks, courses, and other media.
Monetization Advice
Tom warns against expecting quick sponsorship income because podcast advertising typically pays only about $18–$25 per thousand downloads, and getting 1,000 downloads per episode is difficult for beginners.
He recommends:
• Selling your own products
• Coaching or consulting
• Creating ebooks
• Offering premium content
• Accepting donations from loyal listeners
He stresses that even a small audience can be profitable if you own the products or services being sold.
Niche Strategy
Tom says that if he were starting over, he would niche down further, such as:
• Entrepreneurship for seniors
• Retirement income ideas
• Fixed-income side hustles
His reasoning is that targeted audiences are easier to serve and monetize.
Audio vs. Video
He currently prefers audio-only podcasting because:
• It’s much easier and faster to produce
• Audio editing is simple
• Listeners can consume it while driving or multitasking
He notes that video creates deeper engagement but requires more editing effort.
Equipment Recommendations
Tom emphasizes that good audio quality is critical:
• Audiences tolerate mediocre video but not poor sound.
• He recommends using a dynamic microphone rather than a condenser mic because dynamic mics reject background noise better.
• He mentions the affordable Audio-Technica ATR2100 as a good starter mic.
He also suggests:
• Recording in a quiet room
• Reducing echo with wall hangings or soft surfaces
• Using simple webcams or smartphones for video
Hosting and Distribution
Tom strongly advises against hosting podcast audio directly on your website because media files can overload web hosting.
Instead, he recommends using a podcast distribution service like Libsyn to distribute episodes automatically to platforms such as:
• Spotify
• Apple Podcasts
• YouTube
• Rumble
Branding and Launch Tips
Key recommendations include:
• Create a clear, memorable title
• Use professional podcast artwork
• Prepare multiple episodes before launch (Tom created 50)
• Go on other podcasts to promote your own
He explains that podcast listeners already know how to consume podcasts, making them ideal prospects.
Advanced Audience Growth Strategy
Tom shares a tactic he believes he pioneered:
1. Find large Facebook groups related to your niche.
2. Contact the group admin.
3. Offer to interview them on your podcast.
4. The admin then shares the interview with their group audience.
He says this approach led to major opportunities for him, including:
• A White House invitation
• Speaking engagements outside his normal industry
Final Message
Tom encourages listeners to commit consistently rather than quitting after a few episodes. He emphasizes that podcasting works best when treated as a long-term authority-building and product-selling platform rather than a quick advertising revenue play.

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Episode 1116 – Podcasting
[00:00:08] Welcome to Screw the Commute. The entrepreneurial podcast dedicated to getting you out of the car and into the money, with your host, lifelong entrepreneur and multimillionaire, Tom Antion.
[00:00:24] Hey everybody, it's Tom here with episode 1116 of Screw the Commute podcast. That's 1116. Wow. And we just happen to be talking about podcasting today and the benefits to you and all the good things you could do if you decided to start a podcast. All right. I hope you didn't miss episode 1115. And you know, I talk about all kinds of stuff that help you in business. And this one was about utility trailers and how it can save you money and make you money. If you had a little trailer that you could, uh, grab stuff and get paid to haul stuff if you wanted to. But in most cases I use it to save money and time. So that's 1115. Anytime you want to get to a back episode, you go to the episode number. Utility trailers was 1115. All right. Pick up a copy of my automation book at screwthecommute.com/automatefree. Version 3.0 is the latest. However, something that I push really, really hard is short keys. And I've been using it for many, many years. But the thing is, is they discontinued it as a program and now it's a browser extension, so it's still great. And check out my mentor program at GreatInternetMarketingtraining.com and my school with IMTCVA.org, certified to operate by SCHEV.
[00:01:51] All right. Let's talk about podcasting and the benefits of having your own. And of course, I have a whole course on guesting, which you can start instantly, Yeah, but you want to learn how to be a super great guest.
[00:02:05] Email me at tom@screwthecommute.com and I'll send you details on that program. It's about 497 bucks, and it's one on one with me telling you how to be a great podcast guest. And that can put you in front of tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of people in the next 90 days or so. Okay. And on this one, we'll talk about the benefits, first of having a podcast and then some how to's and then some mistakes. All right. So some of the benefits of podcasting is it's fairly easy to start. You could really have one going in a few days if you really put your mind to it. Now, I'm not suggesting that you rush in and just put some slop out there, but it's easy to start. Now the next thing is you get a global audience. You can be heard anywhere around the world 24 seven. And it's. Another thing is it helps build your authority and credibility on your topic. And when they hear you in person, then you create a better audience connection. So people think they know you and they, they can learn to trust you and then they buy stuff from you. Another thing is they can listen any time. And the re one of the reasons I started this one, this Screw the Commute podcast was when cars, automobiles started to be able to play podcasts from the dashboard. And also, and that's, you know, how many multi gazillions of cars are there out there being made in all countries.
[00:03:50] And also you can listen on your smartphone, but even bigger was one of the reasons I started was in home devices like the Amazon Echo thing and the, the Google, whatever it's called, you know, can people can just say, hey, play screw the commute podcast. It starts playing while they're doing dishes or something else. So, so anyway, you can listen anytime and then you can make money with this and even with a small audience. And that's one of the mistakes people make. They shoot for. They think, oh, I'm going to get sponsorships and advertisements and all this stuff right off the bat. Well, that is just ridiculous. Unless you're a celebrity and you know, you're put on a super big network with a big marketing budget. No, your podcast is not going to get sponsorships. It's not going to get ad revenue. Because listen to this sobering statistic. Sponsorships and advertisers basically is, you know, it's an advertisement as your sponsor, you could call it, they pay between 18 and 20 5 or $6 per thousand downloads per episode. It is hard to get 1000 downloads per episode, right? Especially right off the bat. And so you make no money. And that's why most people do what they call pod fade. They do 6 or 7 episodes and then they quit because there's no money coming in. Now, other ways you can monetize and it's better is donations from your, you know, most your biggest friends that like you and start listening and you could have premium content.
[00:05:33] But again, you can't do that much until you get enough listeners. But the number one way to make money from virtually the first day is your own product sales. You say, well, I don't have any products. Well, you can have ebooks like before, you can blink an eye. Nowadays you can have consulting on your topic. And the nice thing is, is any topic on earth can be made into a podcast. You see some of the craziest stuff out there and it's got an audience. Now, if I had started this just now. Instead of being just entrepreneurship, I would have niched it down further to maybe entrepreneurship for seniors or retirees or something, because they're going to have money and they've got nothing to do. And so, so I would probably target them to say, hey, you know, and there's still a lot of them are very vibrant and want to make some extra money in retirement. And so, so I would do that. Or, you know, even if they're not retired, if they're just seniors and on a fixed income, this could be a great extra income for them and they would have probably an older audience. I mean, there are some older people that have really young audiences, you know, like grandmother types, you know, so so there's all kinds of stuff you can do out there. And you can also repurpose the content so you can make the content and then repurpose it into YouTube shorts and eBooks and all kinds of stuff.
[00:07:08] So. And courses. Now, one of the decisions you got to make is audio or video, audio only or video. Well, here's the thing. Mine is audio only. I may transition to video someday, but I can crank out so many episodes with just audio because it's way easier to do. Now, I'll say that with a caveat. I edit each episode, every episode you've heard. I personally edited it. Audio editing is very simple. I could probably teach you the basics in about 15 minutes. Okay, but video, if you mess up really bad, it's much more difficult to to edit, but it does seem to make a deeper connection. But it does cut out the audience. Unless you do both audio and video, it cuts out the audience that is, you know, kind of goes along with my theme of screwing the commute there in cars going to work every day. And I'm targeting those people that the wish they weren't. Okay. So let's say, how do you do this? I'm just going to give you the quick course. The first number one thing is you must have a good microphone because people will put up with poor video, but they will not put up with poor audio if they cannot hear what you're saying. It's no good. And you want a thing called a dynamic mic. And that's not a brand name.
[00:08:41] That's a type of microphone. You have condenser mics and dynamic mics, and condenser mics are more sensitive. And you say, well, Tom, that's good, right? There's more sensitive. No, it's only good if you are in a like a recording studio in a studio environment because it picks up everything. It picks up your neighbor cutting the lawn three, three doors down. Okay, so a dynamic microphone is the best for this for most of us that are going to do this in a little office or a bedroom or somewhere around home where there's these distracting noises. So and you can start as little. I had somebody buy a good microphone for 62 bucks, brand new, uh, I think it was an ATR 2100 or 2100 x. Either one of them is fine. Now I have a really fancy one here, but you know, I got the money to pay for it. You don't have to start with this super microphone, but you do need to have somewhat of a quiet atmosphere. Unless that is your shtick. Maybe you're a single mom and you're doing your podcast while the babies are, you know, in, in those little, I don't know, those little things with wheels on them that the kid, the little kid, I mean, babies like go around the floor. I don't know what they're called. Right. That could be your shtick. Or you could be a person that does live interviews on the street and that's your whole thing. So there's going to be background noise and everything.
[00:10:19] But if you're going to do it at home and you want it to be real clear, and that isn't your shtick, you want a relatively quiet atmosphere without all echoes in the room. And there's ways you can reduce that with, you know, wall hangings and, and break up. So you don't have any just walls that are just flat because the sound bounces all over the place and makes an echo. You don't want that. Um, and then if you're doing video, a simple, you know, any webcam right now is any modern webcam is good enough and sometimes better than your old cameras. Your people even do them on their cell phones. The problem with that is it ties up your cell phone. You got to put it in airplane mode, and you can't take a call or a text or anything while you're trying to do this podcast. Now, another problem that I won't call it a problem, it's a mistake people make is they try to take the audio file and put it on their website to be delivered to people. No, do not do that. The audio files are, you know, they're not as big as video files, but they're relatively big. And, and your website, if you had ten listeners is going to start bogging down. If you had 100, it's never going to work. It's just going to stutter and people are never going to come back. Because remember audio, they'll put up with poor video, but not poor audio.
[00:11:51] So how do you solve this and do it cheaply? Well, you get a distributor that's set up for this. And the gold standard is a company called Libsyn. Well, first of all, when you set this up, there's like 20, 30, 40 places that have, you know, just, you know, you can listen to podcasts, Spotify and iHeartRadio. I don't know if that's still around and Apple podcasts and Google and all that stuff. So what you do is you, you start an account one time at all these places, and then you put them into Libsyn. And then when you finish a podcast, you upload it, upload it to Libsyn, and then it gets distributed to all these places, you know. So that's all you got to do, see? So, um, so you just definitely don't try to do it on your website. And of course, if you're doing a video, probably you're going to be on YouTube. If you're really off the wall and going to get kicked off of YouTube because of your topic or your, your language or whatever, you're probably going to be on Rumble. Now, another thing to get started is you have to have decent graphics and Apple will, you know, if you just go by the Apple standard, it'll pretty much take care of the other places. But it's very exacting how they want your graphics to be. And when I first started, this was very difficult.
[00:13:19] I had a professional catalog, graphic artist guy, very high level graphics guy, and it took three times to get our graphic accepted by Apple. All right. Nowadays you put it into AI, it thinks up the idea for you, puts the title on and and makes it exact how Apple wants you know. So it's much easier now. Another thing is you got to think up a catchy title. Screw the commute. Certainly tells the story like instantly in three words. Okay. So now if you have enough marketing budget and a way to push things into the marketplace and have enough marketing behind you, or maybe you're on a big network, which most of us aren't going to be when we start. Then you can have any kind of crazy name for your podcast. All right. But I chose for something extremely Clear and ended up um, I'm not going to say copyrighting it because, uh, um, trademarking it. Yeah, that's what we did. All right. And another tip that I have for people is to get a whole bunch of them done before you go live with it. And here's why I actually did 50, but I'm kind of an overachiever. All right. So the reason is because I want you to go on a podcast tour to help promote your podcast. So you have 50 ready to go. You go live, but you already have a bunch of podcast interviews lined up. And guess what? The people that hear you on somebody else's podcast, guess what they know how to do.
[00:14:58] They know how to listen to podcasts, okay? And they're more likely to go and sign up for yours if you do a good job guesting on somebody else's podcast, which again, like I said, I'll teach you how to do. And if you want me to teach all this other stuff on how to set up your podcast. They'll do that too. If you want. Okay. So anyway, get a whole bunch of them ready and then go on other people's shows and that'll start building your audience. And of course, you're going to tell all your friends and beg them to start listening and, and leaving you reviews and all that stuff. So, and then I'll give you one more high level thing that I pretty, I pretty much sure I invented because nobody was doing it until I came out with it that I could, that I can tell I'm not positive about that, but I've invented some things that nobody else was doing over the years. And this is how to get in front of enormous numbers of people. So what you do is you search out your topic on Facebook and find all the groups that have something to do with that topic. And then you and of course, you kind of see who has the most people in the group and how often they post and make sure it's a lively group. And then you contact the admin of the group and offer to interview them on your podcast.
[00:16:27] And hardly anybody will turn you down. And then guess what they're going to do with that podcast? They're going to put it in the group in front of their thousands of members. Okay, so you're going to get all that free publicity. See, I used to teach people in the old days. Well, you join the group and you be nice and don't promote yourself too hard and cross your fingers. And if you're lucky, they'll come over and, and, uh, listen, you know, see who you are and find out you have a podcast and all this stuff and not anymore. I go right to the top. In fact, that tip you may have heard on other things got me invited to the white House because of who was listening and was a member of that group when I interviewed the admin to the group. I even got a speaking engagement in a field that doesn't take people like me. Okay. And when I say that it was a veterans thing and I'm not a veteran, but they still had me speak because of the connections I made with their their group say. So I'm highly encouraging you to start a podcast. But, you know, don't don't get the idea. I'm going to try 1 or 2 episodes and see how it goes. No, consistency is what helps you build. And like I said, you don't have to have a big audience to make money if you have your own products.
[00:17:44] And when people say they don't have products, I say, well, you have a mouth, you have a product you can coach and consult on your topic, and that can make money right off the bat. But even with ebooks for 17 or $27, you're making more money than you would going for sponsorships, say. So anyway, good luck with that. If you need help with that, get me, get with me at tom@screwthecommute.com. And of course, if you you want to help with all the other million things you got to be to be successful online, check out my mentor program at GreatInternetMarketingtraining.com and my school at IMTCVA.org, certified to operate by SCHEV, and that's the State Council on Higher Education in Virginia. A lot of these places that say their schools or universities have no scrutiny whatsoever. I have to recertify every year where they look, you know, look at you with a fine tooth comb to make sure you're legit. There's no complaints about you. All this stuff before I can get my license every year. So? So this is the real deal, and it'll save you hundreds of thousands of dollars of going to one of these four year indoctrination camps where you learn how to protest. And I don't know, you compete for jobs in Starbucks, right? So, there you go. Check it out. And, um, let's let me know if you're starting a podcast. I'll take a listen. All right. Catch you later.