David Shands, the Atlanta-based entrepreneur behind the Social Proof Podcast, says he has earned more than $10 million (£7.9 million) from podcasting over six years. He made the claim during a live recording of The Dept., a podcast hosted by fellow entrepreneur Omar, where he also argued that most people entering the space are approaching it the wrong way.
The remarks land against a backdrop of sustained industry growth. US podcast advertising revenue rose 17.6% in 2025 to reach $2.9 billion (£2.3 billion), up from $105.7 million (£83.5 million) a decade earlier, according to the IAB and PwC Internet Advertising Revenue Report published in April 2026. The figure represents actual reported revenue, not a projection, making it one of the most concrete measures of how the medium has scaled.
'Over $10 million for sure,' Shands said when asked directly. 'About six years.'
The global listener base underpinning that revenue growth is substantial. Podcast consumption now reaches 584.1 million people worldwide, with 55% of the US population - around 158 million people - tuning in each month, per Edison Research's Infinite Dial 2025 survey. Despite that scale, Shands insisted the window for new entrants is far from closed.
He placed the current moment alongside past media transitions. Radio, he noted, was declared oversaturated when only 25 stations existed. Television drew the same warnings before government regulators intervened, convinced the market was too crowded to sustain. The internet faced identical scepticism.
'Every single media platform was said to be oversaturated,' he said. 'The people who leaned into radio became the voices of the generation. The people who leaned into TV became multi-millionaires.'
'By the time I'm at a thousand episodes, you'll be at 500 episodes, and there's going to be somebody that's about to start that says, oh, I missed it,' Shands said. 'Let's just start now.'
How Shands Built Social Proof Podcast Into a $10M Business
Shands launched the Social Proof Podcast not as a media venture but as a ticket-selling tool for a conference he was organising. He began recording interviews with speakers ahead of the event, recognised the format as a marketing channel, and never stopped. The show, now co-hosted with Donni Wiggins, became the centrepiece of a broader content and coaching operation.
His core advice for anyone starting out is to define a product or service first and build the show around the audience most likely to buy it. He cited a candle seller who would be better served hosting a self-love or home interiors programme than a podcast about candles directly.
'It just has to be directly related to the audience of people who buy that type of product,' he said.
Shands self-sponsors the Social Proof Podcast to promote a paid community he runs. He described that structure as the mechanism that turned the show into a six-figure business in under a year, and recommended it as a model for entrepreneurs who cannot yet command third-party advertising rates.
Consistency, Clips, Tax Strategy Shands Says Podcasters Miss
Shands said traction took time. It was not until episode 54 that his channel generated meaningful traffic. An episode with a guest named Melvin Nunnery eventually reached 250,000 views but only surfaced in recommendations after that later episode pulled audiences back through older content.
'If I would have stopped after 45 episodes, I would have quit,' he said. 'But then 54 hits and people start watching everything else.'
He recommended extracting seven to 14 short clips from each full episode and distributing them across Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and YouTube Shorts. Social media feeds, he noted, now serve roughly half their content from accounts users do not follow, meaning consistent output raises the odds of reaching audiences beyond an existing subscriber base.
On the financial side, Shands said a certified public accountant had confirmed to him that using a podcast to market a business while travelling makes the associated trip a legitimate business deduction. 'Podcasting is the greatest business writeoff strategy right now,' he said, relaying the adviser's assessment.
He is preparing for the fourth annual Podcast Summit, scheduled for 2 and 3 July in Atlanta, Georgia. Speakers confirmed for the event include comedian Kev on Stage and content creator B Simone. Shands' full conversation with Omar is available on The Dept. YouTube channel.
