Mastering the Podcaster Mindset

Did you know that you can set your podcast up as a corporation to give you maximum tax benefits? This week's podcast guest, Jeni Thomas is both a podcaster and a tax expert. She gives us some great tips for setting our podcast up as a business.

Episode takeaways:

• Know the endgame for your podcast- is it a hobby or business? The IRS frowns on hobbies- cannot deduct expenses. So set your podcast up as a business from day 1.
• LLC or Corp?-LLC is business entity... SCorp is a tax classification- layer on top of the LLC
• SCorp has stand alone 1120s all income and expenses go through 1120s- K1 (like a W2) split profit...K1 goes on 1040 and taxed at regular tax rate
• Save expenses, receipts, mileage logs. Jeni recommends the Stride App.
• SCorp takes deductions- any biz costs...ex: podcast host, online recording, equipment, software, travel to conference (hotel, airfare, mileage, meals)- Red flags - stay away from meals & entertainment unless at a conference, home office
• Sponsorships- any income over $600 reported to IRS (1099 from the company) Be sure to give biz EIN# (not SS#) to sponsors
• LLC protects from legal suits- cannot come after you personally
• Have a separate bank account for everything to do with podcast
• Ok to take biz expenses out of personal account in the beginning. However, income needs to go into a business account from ad rev or sponsorships.
• Any $$ personally invested in your biz/podcast is considered a “loan from the shareholder”
• Take list of expenses to accountant- loan from shareholder...K1 comes off your taxable income or adds to your taxable income
• Pay yourself through corp- deduction- will pay SS

“Our job is to inspire people to change their stories so that they can change their lives.” That story for the Podcaster and their listener is the transformational journey. David drew a small picture on our whiteboard with a stick figure (our listener), a bridge that is a fantastic blue line representation of the Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco (the journey), and a little house (where we want to take them).

Transformational- make a thorough or dramatic change

Listener transformational journey- imagine a path your listener is walking.... Where are they starting, where do you want them to end, what obstacles might they meet along the way?

Podcasting can be a very isolating activity. As the podcaster, we often sit alone in front of our computer - doing hours of research, staying on top of social media engagement, building our website, the list goes on. We sit alone behind our mic when we record hoping we are saying things in a way that will resonate with our audience. Often this process can make us feel alone, isolated, and unsure of what we are doing. These feelings of isolation can also build up to frustration- wondering if we are doing it all wrong. Imposter syndrome can kick in- is anyone even listening? Is my message resonating?

So how do we continue to do this thing we love- podcasting...without feeling isolated, frustrated, or confused? We found the best way to alleviate all of these issues is to be an active member of a community of individuals with similar goals. Being an active, engaged member of a community like this can turn an isolating activity like podcasting into a connected and exhilarating venture..

This week's expert podcast guest is Laura Powers. Laura is a celebrity psychic, author, public speaker, actress, singer and so much more. This phenomenal woman has 6 podcasts on different subjects from intuitive healing to music, to writing, and more. - Laura started podcasting 10 years ago.

Our Takeaways:

• Laura is savvy and uses the fact that podcasting is a form of media to submit for press access to conferences and festivals, learning & networking, getting interviews for her podcasts
• Laura has a unique vision of podcasting. She begins a podcast when she has an area she want to learn and grow in!
• Laura had mindset issues like the rest of us: What do I have to share? Who am I to...? She experienced imposter syndrome and got over it by thinking of podcasting as being a platform for these other people....presenting someone else’s knowledge helped to build her own confidence. By doing this she built her own knowledge
• Laura sees podcasting as something that opens up doors in other media- TV, celebrity podcasts, celebrity clients...books +podcast creates great marketing for yourself
• Go for it! Aim high...keep moving forward! You can do anything!

Connect with Laura:

The biggest mindset barrier for each of us as we embark on a new journey such as podcasting is, "Why Me?" Why do people want to hear from me? What are my credentials? What is my expertise?

Today you will get a sneak peek into a 1:1 coaching session with a very special client, Candice as we work together to smash through the "Why Me?" mindset barrier. The coaching session was more than 1 hour long, and you are getting a 13-minute powerful snippet of our session.

Our big lessons:

1. You have so much more knowledge and experience than you give yourself credit for. Taking the time to work with someone to break through those barriers is such a powerful way to realize your expertise.
2. The "Why Me?" Mindset Barrier is a barrier most of us encounter on every step of our transformation journey. "Why Me?" as an entrepreneur? "Why Me?" as a podcaster..."Why Me?" and to that we say, "Why NOT You?"

We would love to hear what your "Why Me?" Mindset barriers are. Did this episode help you to smash through any of those barriers?

Today we finish our deeper dive into the 10 Ways to Authentically Connect with Your Podcast Audience.

This episode is part 5 of 5. We discuss:

• Don't forget about your listener.
• Have a video feed to connect with your guest.

Other episodes in this series:

We continue our deep dive into 10 Ways to Authentically Connect with Your Podcast Audience.

Welcome to our podcast! We are so excited to have you here. Tiphany Kane & David Sais are co-hosts. David is a sound engineer with over 2 decades of experience with dialogue editing. He is also an avid collector of microphones. Can you guess how many mics are on our podcast cover?

Tiphany is the host of the podcast, Love & Life After Divorce. She is also a podcast host, public speaker, writer, and professional development expert. Launching Love & Life opened so many doors for us. One of those doors was a podcast coaching business and media management business, KaSa Media Productions. As we began coaching people to launch their podcast, we realized that mindset was the biggest barrier to launching, growing, and monetizing their podcasts. This realizations inspired us to start this podcast.

We take the "complicated" parts of podcasting and turn them into simple, actionable steps- and we have fun doing it! Listening to this podcast will help you to learn and grow in your skill as a storyteller, editor, content creator, interviewer, and podcast business person.

Today David & I sat down to batch record several podcast episodes and as soon as we started recording the following things happened:

• The community gardeners decided to trim the bushes right outside the window with very loud power tools
• The next door neighbors had workers on their balcony with jackhammers!
• The trash truck came by to collect trash

We quickly realized that all of our recording plans were now up in flames. Thankfully, David had gear to be able to record remotely. he gathered all the gear together and we walked down to the lake to record in the sunshine.

Our gear:

• Zoom F8N Field Recorder
• Shure beta57a supercardioid
• Neumann KMS-105 supercardioid