Episode
Owning Your Audience Is the Business Model with Michelle Jackson
- Published
- May 4, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 2578
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Summary
If you don’t own your audience, are you actually building a business? This week on PodBiz, Michelle Jackson, founder of Creators Getting Paid , breaks down why most creators struggle to monetize and what’s actually required to turn a podcast into something sustainable. Her work sits at the intersection of independent creators, community building, and revenue transparency, giving her a clear view into what’s working and where people get stuck. The throughline is simple: monetization isn’t about doing more content. It’s about building something around the content that converts. “There’s no one way to monetize a podcast… each podcast is completely different.” That flexibility is part of the opportunity, but also the problem. Without a defined structure, most creators default to focusing only on the show itself. “If you get nothing out of this whole conversation… you need to be collecting your audience.” Because the gap isn’t effort or even consistency. It’s ownership. This conversation looks at what actually needs to be in place beyond the podcast feed, and why building an audience you control is the difference between a project and a business. In this episode: Why there’s no single path to monetizing a podcast Why most podcasters struggle to believe they can make money The difference between building a show and building a business Audience ownership vs. platform dependency Email lists, newsletters, and what actually matters Why content alone doesn’t convert When to pause, pivot, or rebuild a podcast Crowdfunding and alternative funding models The tradeoffs of running multiple creative projects Episode Moments (01:13) Where the money in podcasting actually depends (02:58) Deciding to monetize your work (05:18) Why owning your audience is critical (10:29) Email lists vs. n…