It beats me that you want to stick with Podcasts - not that it is wrong - but why not expand into other media? Could be because of my background, but why not take up teaching? Get onto free to use Google Hangouts to run webcasts instead of your podcasts if that works for you. No need of big investments, huge reach on YouTube for your recorded sessions drive more users to signup for your Live webinars, that you could charge for. You could even increase your consulting revenue owing to the success of your recorded webinars.

There are many other ways to monetize your recorded sessions, so don't look at funding as your roadblock.