001 Starting Before You Are Ready + Podcasting Is Not Just For Celebrities
In this livestream, we explored how live streaming and podcasting can significantly amplify your business’s reach and personal brand. I discussed the "umbrella principle," where a single live event can be repurposed into multiple forms of content, from podcasts to marketing snippets, enhancing overall marketing efficiency. This approach not only maximizes content output but also ensures that your marketing efforts are streamlined and impactful.
-
00:00-05:00 - Introduction and challenges of setting up a live session.
05:01-10:00 - Benefits of regular live streaming for audience engagement and content creation.
10:01-15:00 - Discussing the umbrella principle of content marketing.
15:01-20:00 - The importance of marketing starting with your website and email lists.
20:01-25:00 - The impact of external challenges on business and strategies for resilience.
25:01-30:00 - Emphasizing proactive marketing and personal anecdotes of overcoming business hurdles.
30:01-35:00 - Leveraging government resources and training programs for business improvement.
35:01-40:00 - The pitfalls of shiny object syndrome and the need for consistent marketing efforts.
40:01-45:00 - Strategies for effective podcasting and the benefits of starting without being a celebrity.
45:01-50:00 - Continued discussion on podcasting strategies and personal experiences with networking.
Furthermore, I emphasized the importance of placing foundational marketing efforts on your website and building a robust email list before branching out to social media platforms. This strategy ensures that you maintain control over your content and audience interaction, which is critical in building a lasting digital presence.
-
zo Good day everyone, and welcome to Video, confidence. Connect with me, your host, Zoe the video confidence coach, I want to welcome everyone to today's live stream, and thank you so much for those who are joining us on the replay. So if you're watching us on hashtag replay, feel free to put in your comments, and I will respond when I do my daily social media checks. So why am I starting this live stream? And I do have a long list of things to get through today. I might do a bit of adjusting here and there, just FYI, because I've done a fair few tests, like I do with all my clients, to try and get them up to speed. But especially, there's only so many tests you can do, and when you're running things for the first time for real, there's going to be some hurdles and some challenges that come up. So say, for example, as what I'm looking at it right now. I tested all my colors, all my lighting, all my sound, everything before we began. And I look at myself in the camera right now, and I am orange. I am red. So I'm probably going to fix that a little bit by adjusting some of the lighting and seeing what I can doing, possibly in post. We'll see how I go with that. But ultimately, I just wanted to let you know that even professionals like myself or experts, I use very big air quotes there, like myself may or may not be show ready by the time we actually get started. But I wanted to stress that I plan to be doing these live streams every week on a Friday at 10am so if I see you, that is great. And if I don't, if I just see you on the replay, that is also okay. So before we begin, I'd like to do an acknowledgement to country. I would like to acknowledge and pay my respects to the water rung people of the Kulin nation, the traditional custodians and owners on the land on which I conduct my business. I pay my respects to the elders past and present, and I stand with the traditional custodians of these lands in working towards a more equal future. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people continue to face discrimination and disadvantage due to our country's colonial past. I stand with them in their fight for I stand with them in their fight against injustice. Always was, always will be Aboriginal land. So why am I doing these live streams? So wanted to give you a little bit of a showcase. I tested this a couple of times to see how it looks. And like I said, I said, I will probably pop around the camera before we begin, but I will quickly adjust the light, and I'll be back in a second. Like I said, if you have any comments or anything that you want to post, be it in the Be it in the replay or in the live, that is also okay. All right, I got two screens, but it's clearly not enough for me, so I'll be right back. Alright, I'm going to fix the light manually, because things all right. Now, am I too bright? Am I too white? That is the thing. So I'm looking at the camera now. I am blown out. So when the camera, when the camera is really bright, and like you can see the shininess of my forehead, because I am cracker white, we're going to turn that down again. Stick with me.
Okay, so we're eliminated. This will take time, so I thank you for everyone who is what. Doing the live and if you have any comments, feel free to label them below. But essentially, what I wanted to get into today. So Zo, why are you doing these weekly while live streams? So this is going to be called the confidence coach connect, where I will be available to be able to answer any of your questions in a live stream currently on YouTube and LinkedIn. But I do plan to branch out to further platforms once I start get when I start a better process going for myself, and ultimately, I want to spend an hour a week being available and publicly available to answer people's questions in a live format. The reason I mention this is because I've as a business owner, I'm sure you've possibly come across this yourself, is you have a habit of giving yourself out so much for clients, for so much for people who not necessarily deserve you. But the scratch that. Ultimately, what I'm saying is the reason I'm doing these live streams, and I want to be live from 10 to 11am Australian Easter standard time every Friday, is because I want to give myself an hour of time to work on whatever I need to work on, and to showcase people live streaming and as an accessible platform for them in their business if they choose to choose do so, because, again, I can always help out on the back end with live streams as part of the products and services I provide to clients. But ultimately, live streaming is a different beast when it comes to the focus and the attention that you need to give. You need to be alert, but it's also okay to stuff up, like, for example, just just there a minute ago, I had restarted what I was saying, and that is okay, because I intend to use this content that I am recording right now for all the people who are live and who are in the replay. I intend to use this in podcasts, in videos, in marketing materials, in shorter, sharper videos to be able to use for my ultimate marketing plan. So let me go into what that actually is. So my ultimate marketing plan for that I'm working for myself in my business, and at times I have worked some this, yeah, I have worked this kind of model with some clients of my business when they just need a holistic solution that they can run by themselves as a one woman or a one person show with maybe a virtual assistant off to the side. So what I mean by this is I use what I like to call an umbrella principle when it comes to marketing. I have one focus for me, that is this live stream, which then turns into my podcast, and then from the podcast, it gets turned into everything else, so starting at the top of the umbrella, comes down and then trickles into every other facet of my business. What I mean by that is that it fast that from a podcast. So from this live stream that I'm recording every single week, from 10am to 11am on a trainee September and Standard Time, I'm available live for anyone who wants to talk to me. But that isn't necessarily going to be something that's going to happen every week. I'm not necessarily have currently got the audience where I'm going to go live and everyone's going to scramble to talk to me. It's also, you know, during a work day. So I'm perfectly fine with people not interacting with me live. But the fact is that I'm still here. You're still seeing me, and you're still interacting with me, if you have the choice and and pleasure to do so, and if you do, I will also make sure to shout you out. And then from that live stream, I pull out sections of this live stream to then use in my podcast. The podcast is currently called the video confidence coach cast. I am looking at a different name, but for now, we are just going to roll with the name that I have at the moment, Zo. And then from that podcast, I am able to pull out sections of that podcast to use in social media. I'm able to use sections of that podcast into longer form videos on YouTube, on my website and on other platforms that are deemed so because, again, I'm helping my audience by only doing an hour a week of work, and then as we're going down the umbrella when they come on key with me, folks with the content that I'm producing, I can then help people, direct people to my resources or my offerings that can ultimately help them achieve what they need to achieve, be it on my website, be it lead magnets that I provide, be it events that I'm hosting, be it podcasts that I'm running myself, or that I'm guesting on again, this is all a marketing machine that is essentially self perpetuating, that again, I am doing as me. Zoe, honestly, an hour a week. Now, of course, that we're not talking about the back end here. That's what the processes, automations and a lot of other work is for. But ultimately, when it comes to. Able to output this work, this type of mentality and this type of marketing plan, I've worked with a few people now, some not successfully, some successfully, but it very much depends on the type of work ethic that you want to put out there. And also, when it comes to marketing your business, a lot of business owners have a tendency of putting it on the sideline, if it's not a hobby of theirs. What I mean by that is that a lot of business owners have a tendency when they look at their marketing, it's another thing to add on to the business that they need to do. They know they need to market because they need to tell people that they exist. They need to serve people and help people, be it online, be it through like physical marketing, however. They want to do it. They know they need to do it, but it's kind of a thing that's added on later, as opposed to incorporating it into the work that they do in their business. And there is also that aspect of what I what I ultimately mean by that is that there is just so much focus on doing the just getting the product out, getting the service out, that you don't tell people about it, and you're essentially putting in so much effort that ultimately goes out to the ether. Yes, you serve your clients, and hopefully you've served your clients well, but once they've done that, maybe there's a couple there's a little bit of word of mouth, but if there's no website that they can point to you, if there's no Facebook page, if there's no, you know, LinkedIn page, if there's no YouTube channel, that people can point to saying, hey, such and such, really helped me out, that I really enjoyed the service or product. They really helped me out. Really got me out of a bind. Check them out on YouTube. Check them out on Facebook. Because when it comes to word of mouth, it's no longer. People don't take your word for it anymore. They take your word and then they research it. They take your word and go, oh, this person called was it video conference coach? Okay, okay, I'll look that up. I'll look that up. And using SEO and Google, I have made sure that that word works for me. So when people you know come across me, I'm able to actually answer their questions, and I come across in that particular style, I must say, but looking at the time that I've spent already in just the introduction alone to this live stream. But essentially, the reason why I started this live stream was because I wanted to enact this marketing plan for myself, this one step approach that Dr that branches out into every other facet of the marketing that I do for myself in my business. I wanted something that I could do in my business, marketing wise, that was easy and consistent, which ultimately meant I had a longer longevity, so that when I consistently put out podcasts, that I consistently put out content, that I consistently help people with the words and the pointers and the guidance that I can give them, then hopefully they can come to me and my business and work with me, either In a service or a product that I provide. So ultimately, as I mentioned to you, and I would describe this full umbrella term, coming down, coming down, coming down. Now, this umbrella type marketing plan doesn't necessarily have to just focus on a live stream or a podcast. It can be something that you can do fairly consistently. Can you do a blog post, blog post fairly consistently well. Also, we can turn that pod, that blog post into different types of content that stretches, you know, different type all the different avenues that you're a part of. So you're consistently giving value with the one piece of content that you focused on to, you know, put the effort in to begin with. So is that one thing that can spur onto many things, is that a blog post is that, you know, a chat with one of your employees, like every week, in a podcast style. The reason I have a tendency of leaning on the tools that I provide, usually being live streams like podcasts, is because a lot of my clientele, we are yappers. We like to yap yap yap yap yap yap. And if we can do that on a, you know, regular basis. We are going to choose that option over, you know, stressing over a written blog post. That's just the clientele that I particularly work with. But if that doesn't work for you, that is okay. You can also choose other options out there for other types of content that you find that you can produce relatively consistently and easily for you. Then from there, you can then pull parts of that out to generate content for your website. So my philosophy when it comes to marketing yourself is to put yourself first. What I mean by that is when you market yourself, a lot of the clientele I work with, when they first start working with me, they think about social media first. They think I got to put this on my Instagram, I got to put this on my LinkedIn, I got to put this on my Youtube. They keep thinking about those type of end goal places as your first step, when ultimately that is not your first step. Your first step is to put it on your website, because you have full control over your. Website, you have full control over how your website looks, how you know everything that is on your website, you have control over that's where you've put it first. That's where you put your energies first, then the second one, that's usually the next step, is an email marketing list. You send it out to your email list, and if you don't have an email list, start getting one go it or, like myself, you have a few different ones depending on the type of need that you have to work with people. But again, the email list is something that you control, that you have access over.
And then once you've worked on that, then you can start pulling out the content. When I say pulling out the content. I mean, taking smaller snippets of that content. Again, be it a podcast, be it a live stream, be it a blog post, be it again, whatever long form piece of content that you've used, start pulling sections out so then you can start using that for content on then your social medias, then other platforms like that, maybe even offering it to other platforms that would need your help, or say, for example, maybe your guest writing a blog post on someone else's platform, and you find that, hey, a couple of months ago, I did a live stream talking about this exact topic. Okay, I'm going to use smaller snippets of this video interlaced within this blog post to help re emphasize the point that I'm making here. 10 out of 10 you've made an ultimate blog post that with supporting evidence, so then people are more likely to follow you because you're giving them everything that they need. I forgotten which tangent I went down there for a second there, but ultimately what I'm saying is, and looking at the time now, this was not even supposed to be a full podcast episode, but I think this is what it's going to turn into. But the reason that I'm doing this is so that I can only put my focus into for my own business. I want to stress focus of making a live stream once a week that I can create multiple podcast episodes out of so that future me doesn't have to stress about producing a podcast every week. For the love of God. That's what that was. That is. What keeps happening to me, is that I keep stressing because and for those who are in the marketing profession themselves, you'll find yourself doing other people's work before your own, other people's marketing before your own, focusing on other people's business before your own, because they are your clients. They've come to you for help, and you want to serve them to the best of your ability. And of course, that takes energy and time away from what you would spend on yours despite your not ability, but your want and your wish to focus on your own business. And I'm saying that as if I'm saying it to you, but I'm ultimately saying it to me here. Zo is that this weekly live stream, even though I don't feel fully prepared, I ultimately feel very slapdash together, that I don't know what I'm doing, that I just feel wholly overwhelmed with something that I put myself in. Again, it is okay. I'm saying this to both you and me here. Listener, that is it. It is okay to feel overwhelmed, but if you need to action something like you, keep putting it off for whatever excuse, whatever thing comes to mind, whatever brick and I want to usually stress, a mental brick wall that you usually put in front of yourself, knock it down with something that you can do easily and consistently over a long period of time, that you can fortify for yourself. I know for a fact that I am very good at attending meetings. I have a lot of meetings that I run for clients, for potential leads, for everything that I do, and I never miss a meeting. I've only missed a meeting like I'd say, once or twice, and that wasn't even my fault. So a live stream is a meeting that I can meet consistently once a week, and I want to be here to help you and to serve you. So what does that mean? That means that I'm going to be here once a week, every week at the same time to be able to help and serve people how I choose, because I want to help and serve people, but I need to make sure that I don't burn out at the end of it, and ultimately, I'm still, you know, learning even though I help people and serve people, because there's that step connection that I am able to objectively look at their situation and their marketing and be able to provide them Tips. I do that. I try and do that for myself. But of course, when you look at your own face, you have a tendency of a little bit overwhelming yourself. I'm always open to feedback. So if you would like, feel free to email me on zo at Vcc dot training. If you want to ever email me, that's. Into my email address, or you can reach out to me via any of my social medias that you can find on the web that has a video confidence that'll definitely be me. If it's got my face, it's usually me, and if it's not me, then I'll kick them out, because they're definitely not me. Ultimately, I wouldn't try and sell you something like, Yes, I am a business, but I wouldn't try and, like, get you into like, a ticket or, you know, raffle or anything like that. I'm just, like, just come to my website and you buy services off me. Why would I ask you to do anything else? I might get you to download a lead magnet if it's going to help you. And what you need to do other than that, I'm not really going to push any of the scammy stuff. And if I do feel free to yell at me and use this against my will and say zo. But what I wanted to quickly touch on at the end of this podcast episode is I wanted to quickly show those who are watching on YouTube to watch this on screen, I've got my website that I am going to get live probably before the end of the month. I have a page where I have all my live streams located. So this is where there's going to be all the information regarding my live stream on the confidence coach connect part of my website. You can find that under Resources and follow the blogs and links there to a page that looks something like this, where it will say 001, and the name of this live stream episode, I should probably get going, because I am reaching the 20 minute mark of the live stream and I haven't touched on to either of the two subjects that I have mentioned In the live stream title episode that is probably amazing so but ultimately, my life, my call to action for those who are watching today is to start before you're ready, and I'm going to quickly turn on the title and go back to the next podcast episode, example,
G'day, it's Zo, your Video confidence coach, connecting your dots between your personal brand. Personal brand and the power of video. I slightly stuffed that intro up, but that is okay. So today we are going to be discussing starting before you are ready. And for those who are watching on the live stream and who want to or are watching on the replay, feel free to tag and hashtag replay if you like. And for those who are listening to the podcast version of this, feel free to reach out to us on any of our social medias to say that you listen and enjoy the podcast. So ultimately, what I want to talk to you guys today about is business is about serving others to the best of your ability. That is something that I hold very true to my heart. And the reason that I start business, the reason that I wanted to start a business, was because I wanted to help and serve people in a way that I had power to that I couldn't when I was an employee of another business. And there's also my backstory of starting a business when I was 14 because no one would hire me, and then once I got to a level where people wanted to hire me, they didn't, they wanted to control me. So that is for another time. But focusing on the here and now, you want to as a business. You want to serve your others to the best of your ability, but imposter phenomenon can hit you like a ton of bricks. And for those who are interested, you probably have heard of imposter syndrome a lot. Syndrome is not the right terminology, because it is a permanent state of being where an imposter phenomenon comes and goes. It is very fleeting. And for those of us who feel imposter phenomenon and maybe feeling it in the grips right now, kind of like where I am right now, mentally, it is going to flee. It is going to leave. At some point, there is always going to be a feeling, but it ultimately will leave you at some point, once you expand outside your comfort zone, outside your comfort zone, and get to a state of practice and process that you feel comfortable with, that you can continue doing for your business, so that That phenomenon eventually dissipates. Ultimately, what you say, what I'm saying is, your girl likes processes, and I like having things in just a certain way, and over this past, ultimately, past, I want to say at least, past five years of my life and business, it has not been that way. Has
been very tumultuous, as you can imagine. Something happened in 2020 that didn't work with any of us,
ultimately. And for me, it kind of threw a spanner in a wrench. They kind of threw a wrench into the works that weren't even working well to begin with. And I think that happened for a lot of people, especially in my local business groups and a lot of communities. A lot of people were just struggling as is, and the start of 2020, did not help at all. Yay. Woo. Go us. But ultimately, I wanted to give you an opportunity to breathe and to remember that everyone, no matter how put together, no how professional, know how like awesome they look, especially online in the digital space. That's not necessarily true. It could be falling apart behind the scenes. But of course, they want to put up a front so that you can believe that they're professional and you can buy from them. And the reason I want to dispel that is because, you know, I worked for myself my entire life, and I thought honestly by now that I would have something put together, but I don't. But here we are. I digress. And I kept pushing the start date of this live stream and this podcast relaunch for over three years, I had this idea to streamline my marketing process for my business, because I kept putting clients and their tasks and their work ahead of my own business, even on days where I, you know, scheduled in my calendar to focus on my business and to work on my business and the work that I was doing, I was still put in client tasks, because all they need this, you know, they're hiring me, they're giving me money. I must, I must put them ahead of whatever I was trying to do. And here we are three years later, having done nothing and having nothing to show for it, because here we are again, in the same place that I was three years ago. And this can be chalked up to wanting to do the best in and keep my clients and, you know, trying to do the best I can for them, but it can also be job to just procrastination and sabotage, just self sabotage. Of I know that I can do these things, but I don't believe in myself that I can do these things. And when push comes to shove, for example, like this live stream, if you're watching live, or if you're watching the replay, feel free to comment, but here I am. I feel so slap dashed. I feel like that nothing is working as it should, but I'm still here supporting you and giving you the reality check, at least from my end, when it comes to the work that you want to do for your business and that is okay. I'm allowed to put myself first in my business. I'm allowed to spend time focusing on my own marketing and, you know, showing clients that I can actually walk the talk when it comes to enacting aspects into their own routines and their own marketing practices processes. I show them that I can do that myself and get the same results. Obviously, everything is different, not the like little bit down the bottom where it says, you know, terms and conditions may apply. Just want to stress that, but if I'm not willing to do something, I'm not going to ask you to do the same thing in your marketing, in your processes, whatever you need to do in your business. If I am not going to do it myself, I'm not going to ask you to do it. And ultimately, over the past five years, but especially in the past three years, I have not been in the right headspace. I've had very poor mental health, a little bit myself, but also a little bit outside, outward forces, and not having a lot to show for it, and just kind of holding on to, you know, being in a churning sea of chaos and mental breakage, I don't know ultimately what to call it, and then just holding onto a rock in the middle of the sea and just, you know, praying that everything will be fine as I hold on to the rock for dear life. And that's ultimately what the past three years of business has felt like for me. And if you have felt the same, feel free to reach out, and we can be condolences and have a little drink, cheers, clink and a little condolence session between the two of us, we can chat about everything that's gone wrong. You.
But for myself, I wanted to make a change, and that change meant for me for actively sitting down and making decisions about my business. I currently am part of the C program, which used to be called the nice program back in the day, and essentially it's a government run training course, 12 months training course for small businesses. And when I first started, I thought, I'm not here. The imposter phenomenon was kicking in. Of like, all these people are very new to business. I shouldn't be here. I've been doing this since I was 14. What the hell am I doing? And then as we were going through the business plan, the financial plan, and all these aspects of business where it's not that I hadn't thought of it at the time, I was just more grommet in the wrong trousers, putting the train tracks as they're being pushed along just as fast as I possibly could, because that's how my life has always been. I've just been putting the train tracks, one clip in front of the other, and moving as fast as humanly possible. And now I'm taking that time, of course, still working with my current clients and still working with leads to try and get them into clients, but spending that time to actually focus on my own business so it can be ready to work with more clients, to be in a state where I don't hate my business. Because 2019 I hated my business, I was willing to drop it and just let it go because it wasn't serving me anymore. And since then, I have made it serve me, because I ultimately have control of my business and the work that I do with it. But procrastination is a huge thing for business owners in general. I'm going to stress that I'm not just talking about myself here. I'm saying that almost every client that I have worked with there's been some form of procrastination, because, especially when it comes to running your business, there are so many things to do that marketing, even though it is a very important part of your business. And I'm not just saying this because I am a marketer, and you, you know, hire me for marketing duties. I'm not just saying that. I'm saying it because you need to tell people what you do. You need to tell people, Hey, I am here. These are the services I provide. Here are the type of people I want to work with. Come, you know, come get your services. You know, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, dinner bell. Come get your dinner like you need to tell people what you do. And, of course, some businesses are a lot larger, and they have teams for that. But when you are a small business of yourself, or maybe yourself and a couple of stuff you're doing, everything you're doing, all the things you're trying to do, the things that run the business. So I can understand procrastinating on something as important as marketing, because it's not getting you money right here right now. Because why would it? It's just over there doing its thing in the corner. But when times are slow, or, for example, like right now, where the cost of living pressures, as we're calling it, marketing, then kicks in, especially long term marketing that you've been doing over time, which is why my philosophy when it comes to marketing is that it needs to be easy. It needs to be consistent, so you can have longevity of something that you can do over time. And if that means that you have to hire some other people and let them do the marketing for you, so be it just at the end of it, make sure you get your content and make sure you get your IP and the contract that actually says that, FYI, but going through my notes, Zo, because we only got less less than 10 minutes of this episode, a lot of business owners that I have worked with have a lot of SOS shiny object syndrome, where they just kind of follow from one thing to another that attaches their interest because marketing is such a pain, or they're trying to avoid the pain aspects of their business where they can just follow something shiny and new that captures their attention, it captures their interest enough so that can distract them from the worst parts of running a business. But when you're not doing the worst parts of your business, the business kind of collapses, and the machine starts getting a lot worse. And you can see, you can see what I'm getting there. You can see the picture I'm painting. And for those who are just listening to the podcast, I'm not painting a picture, but you can visually paint a picture in your head. Making direct money is more important at that moment, and for a lot of businesses, especially right now, making money and making direct money, as in providing a service, providing a product, and getting the money off the customer is more. Important right now than the theoretical money of putting it into marketing or investing or training your staff or yourself, or training, and, you know, investing and training for yourself, or spending time to develop processes, or all of these things where, for a lot of business owners that I work with that are inherently in the productivity space. I'm going to stress this now that a lot of people that I work with, when you when it comes to small business, there's just so much to do being productive, being being productive, I should say, just comes with part of the parcel. Just if you're a small business owner, you're going to, you're going to need to be productive because you don't have that much time. So I totally understand, you know, wanting to do what you need to do. But when it comes to when you're out of that specific moment of time for your business, or, say, for example, things are starting to working, and they're starting to pick up steam. The Snowball is getting bigger and bigger and bigger as it rolls down the hill, but then you hit a log or a tree as that snowball rolls down the hill, because you have never reached out to people. You don't have an email list of any kind. Your website is something that you know you got a friend in high school to make you know, a one page website that is very out of date, and people are not coming to you or wanting to use any of your products or services, because it's, it's very out of date. And again, I understand that it's another thing that you have to add on to the work that you're going to do of your business, because it's not a direct, again, like I said, it's not a direct money make. A direct money maker. I understand that when it comes to business, but business is a leap of faith, and unfortunately, not everything that you do in your business is going to result in direct money coming in you making your processes more efficient doesn't necessarily equate to getting more money in, but you know, you instinctively know that over time, as you make these processes easier for yourself and for your staff, if you have any, they're going to make it easier for you to do you can do them quicker and you can get more people in. Ta, da, and of course, marketing helps a lot with that awareness factor of your business. Have people seen you at networking events? Have people seen your face or your business or your logo out on the streets or out you know, at events? Or have they seen it pop up, because people are only going to pay attention once they know what you're about. I
understand wanting to put marketing on the back burner, but when the kitchen gets crazy, you're going to need to use the back burner for other things,
but it's already filled with marketing. So where is everything going to go? Oh, it's going to go on the floor. It's going to fall off and go on the floor, and there's going to be a mess on the floor, and everything is going to be even worse, because the back burner is already filled with marketing. So I digress, and I'm going to step back a little bit. So ultimately, starting before you're ready may seem incredibly daunting and incredibly overwhelming, but I am proof, as you are watching me, as you are listening to me right now, I am proof that you can start when you're ready, you can start when you're not ready to be able to achieve greater things. Just always think about what is easy for you to do, what is something that you can consistently do over time, and that will lead to longevity, not just for yourself, but for your business as well, and if that involves something as simple as going into your website, on the back end of your website, and updating things for half an hour a week, awesome. That is a good first step. There's something consistently that you can do every single week, for example, and for those who are ready to make that next step up in their marketing, or in the work that they're doing, to get more leads in, to get more awareness on your brand. And again, when it comes to that funnel, and I probably shouldn't be describing that too late in this podcast episode, Zo, but essentially, a marketing funnel is something that has a different a couple of different stages regarding, you know, the practices of marketing. You want to get people from an awareness stage of your business all the way down to wanting to eventually purchase from you, be it a product, be it a service, and you want to get them past that point to raving fans, to people who will, you know, word of mouth. You to the to the moon and back. You want those type of people on board. But how do you get them? Well, they have to know that you exist first, and that starts with consistent marketing practices that are easy enough for you to do that. Possibly you've seen other people do in adjacent industries to you, or maybe even competitors. Maybe you've seen them do it, and you're like, I can do that better, prove it. Prove that you could do it better. And as I finish up today's podcast episode, I want to stress for those of us who are listening to the podcast now, or those who are going to be listening into the future, I am running an event for the Geelong Small Business festival called podcast Power Hour, and ultimately it is going to be a full hour discussing podcasting for your business, as well as podcast guesting for your business, because I think that's something that a lot of lot of programs usually forget about, because podcasting is not Just about putting in the effort to generate your own it can be about the effort and time that it will take to generate content for other people, but using their audience and platform to build awareness. So for those of you, if you've missed the August 19 deadline for the virtual event, that is okay. I'm going to be running this on my website as part of the lead magnet that I will be providing people. I'll obviously be editing it down and making it all nice and swish for everyone, because, of course, that's we're talking about me here. I like everything to look very pretty. So in that case, you will be able to download that off my website, probably, I'd say, by middle of September 2024 and if you are listening in the future, then you can just go to the website and download it from there. So the podcast Power Hour will be available for those who want to start looking into podcasting for both generating your own podcast or guesting on other people's podcasts, and what that can do for your business, and also really easy first steps, because that's what I like to do on the video confidence coach, I like to make things easier so that you can do them. Because if it is overwhelming and it's too large and it's too big, you're not going to do it. But if you could do it, then you're going to be more likely to do it. I don't exactly know where I was going with that point. Zo, but that is okay.
So just going through and checking all my props, that is all awesome. So we are going to move on to the next episode of the podcast, discussing, what are we discussing? Podcasting is not just for celebrities, so I've got less than 20 minutes, so make sure I'll get that podcast episode out for you. So if you have any not questions, but if you're finding that any of this is useful for you, feel free to reach out or comment in below, either if you are live or in the replay, I will always respond to comments or do my best to respond to comments, and I will do my best to make sure this is nice and pretty for those who are listening to the podcast as well, all right. And also, I will also create some titles. So between these two sections that you know, there's a nice palette cleanser between each of these sections, because, of course, I'm using this as an opportunity to record my podcast, but I can also happy to let the live streams go where they may, because I will be here, available to answer people's questions, because that's what I've been doing, honestly over the past, however long, I've just been finding myself like prompting people being but hey, you know, if they want to spend some time with me, or if they want to pick my Brain, and they're not, and they don't have the funds to say, for example, actually purchase a pick my brain session from me. Then I enable them to go, Hey, I'm going to be live streaming from 10 to 11 on a Friday. If you have any questions, jump in on the chat, and I'll answer your questions on live. Cool. Win, win. All right, go Back to the screen.
You G'day, you've reached the video confidence coach, cast is what I'm calling this podcast for now, until I come with a better answer. But today, I wanted to discuss with you the prompt that I've seen a couple of my lead groups and a couple of people that I are not necessarily my target market, but they come to me because they say, oh, Zo, you're a video confidence coach. You do all these things, right? Okay, I'm. Asking questions about this, even though it's not necessarily in my wheelhouse, I will obviously have opinions on things as they come up. But I did have someone reach out to me recently. I think it was a networking event that I went to. And Alright, I'm going to take off my glasses because I'm fogging them up like crazy. And for those who are watching, feel free to comment if you're watching live, or if you are just watching on the replay. Feel free to hashtag replay, and I'll answer your questions when we finish the live stream. So getting back to Zo, ultimately, the story that she had for me is that she we sat down during this networking event. So we had done a fairly intensive networking event where it was very regiment and very strict, as in, people had certain times to talk. And you know, you were there in a room with a whole bunch of other people, and they were talking about, hey, this is what I need. This is what I don't need. But then, you know, you didn't have a chance to mingle about. And of course, afterwards, they came up to me and said, hey, you know, I've seen you about, you know, you're very, you know, very unique is the term that she used. And I don't know if she was meaning that as a diss or not. I can't really tell I am very unique. I am big, I am blue, I am bright. Deal with it. And essentially, she came up to me and she wanted to talk about podcasting, because she says, you know, that was one of the things that you mentioned that you do. And I've talked to a couple of other people who you've done podcasts with and and, like, essentially she was, like, really beating around the bush. And I just said, what is it that you want to ask. And she says, Zo, I'm not a celebrity. And I said, Sure, do you need to be? And she carried on the conversation and talking about how she wanted to start a podcast specifically for a charity that she was working with in helming and that she wanted to start a podcast to interview people who that she was both serving and the people who are in charge of getting those services to the people that needed to be served at the charity. And she said that there were so many people have so many questions that I can answer through a podcast, and ultimately, the way that I needed to, you know, essentially, she realized that a podcast was the best way to get, you know, to get the answers out there. But she said that, you know, all the examples out there are podcasts are people who are celebrities, and the only people who listen and take notice of podcasts or when it's being helmed by a celebrity. And I'm not a celebrity Zo, and I don't know anyone who is willing to host the podcast who is a celebrity, so I put my did my hands. And for those who may not know me, I talk with my hands a lot. I am definitely not Italian, but I definitely talk with my hands a lot, and I just kept putting my hands up and just going, so it's okay. It's okay. I understand when you see an entire world of podcasting. The reason why podcasting is so ever present and feels like it is growing and growing and growing is because it is a really easy format to start. When it comes to reaching a lot of people in a really easy format, podcast is usually what people think of. Because, especially when it comes to audio podcasts, all you need, ultimately, is a mobile phone and a doona cover. What I mean by that is that you can start a podcast on your mobile phone. It is super easy to do now, of course, when it comes to video podcasts, there's probably a little bit more production value. And the reason why a lot of people focus on video podcasts is because you see it on social media. You see it on websites. You see you can see how people are talking on a website, and more people are more likely to click and find interest in it, because they can see who is talking. But when it comes to podcasts, you don't need to do a video podcast. Off the bat, you can start off with an audio podcast, and then once you've got a consistent routine for yourself, then you can move to a video podcast, I don't guess so, going back to the story, and we kept talking, kept talking, and eventually it just got to the point of, I just ultimately said, Do you need to? Do you need to be a celebrity? Because what you see out there in the podcasting space, sure, that's what gets the numbers, that's what gets the money when it comes to the money side of podcasting, but you want to get the message out there, you want to showcase to people that the people who are donating to your charity, they want proof that their money is going to the people that you say it is. Now, of course, there's the legal side of that, where you need to show your like, I think, tax returns and donation statuses and, you know, a credit. Applications and all that legal, legal stuff. Of course, that is not my wheelhouse, so I'm not gonna talk about that. But when it comes to showcasing proof, having an honest conversation with the people that you're helping through your charity, a podcast is the easiest way to do that. And you don't even need, and I want to stress now, you don't even need to do a lot of work to do it, if it is easier, just to have a time, you know, a series of maybe eight podcasts, maybe 10 of you know, like eight conversations that you can have with people who are related to the charity, again, being people who work for the charity or people who are served by the charity. Eight conversations seems really easy to do. And I mentioned this to her, and she says, Oh, Zo I have like, 10 conversations a day. And I said, What? How
many of them can be turned into a podcast? And she said, about, I'd say five to six. There you go. Like relatively easily. She's now, of course, I
want to stress there is a difference between a conversation that you have with one or more people in a private setting as opposed to a public, recorded setting. I want to stress that. But if you're having these conversations every day, regardless, a podcast does seem like the the mess next best thing for you to do, and I can understand the mentality of this person I was speaking to, how they felt like they needed the charisma to be able to host the podcast, and the reason that they have this charisma is because they're practiced. They are actors. They are people in the public eye or who have been in the public eye for a very long time. They have been practicing down to the T they've got media training, usually 1000s and 1000s of dollars worth of media training. But if you don't get started, you aren't going to try. You're going to keep finding more excuses to put in front of yourself, to stop yourself from doing what and to achieve what you ultimately want to achieve. I'm saying that both to you and to me, and as these actors use podcasting because, again, it's just conversations at the end of the day, something that a lot of these actors, and again, public figures, are having a lot of they're having a lot of conversations in general. So they are very practiced with those conversations, especially when they are recorded for public consumption, be it a podcast. But podcasting and producing a podcast is something that can be used as a bounce board to be able to generate more discussions, to generate more content, if that's what you want to do, ultimately. And for example, what I'm doing in the video confidence coaches, I'm using a live stream, the video confidence connect, that I do once a week to generate podcast episode, the video confidence coach cast to generate consistent content. And all I'm doing is having a conversation with you once a week, and I'm generating content from that. I'm generating smaller snippets to then use on my website, on my email list and blogs, as well as social media, if I so choose. You're using it as a jumping off point to get started. The transcriptions from your podcast episodes can be turned into blog posts. The words that you're using can help dictate and help you have better messaging for your ultimate press releases that you are releasing out into the world, if that is what you need for, especially for charities. So many press releases are ridiculous about a press releases, and if you've got the wording and the content that people use to speak about their own experiences, it's already there. It's already captured because you did it and you started doing the process. Now, again, at the end of this conversation, it was about a 20 minute conversation with this person, we ultimately got to the point of, she's going to do it. We just needed to figure out the next clear, one step. And that's usually what I like to do with conversations that I have with people, be it at networking events, be it, you know, 15 minute grabs that I have with people, you always want to leave with the easy next step. And the next step that I had for her was something just as simple as, okay, write a list of 10 people you could have a conversation with on a podcast who would pretty much be up for being on a podcast. You don't have to label the subject, you don't have to label the topic. You don't even have to start naming the podcast. Just. Start off with list of 10 people who think will be willing to be on the podcast, done. And I reached out to her, mentioning that I was going to mention her as an example. And she said, Yeah, fine, go ahead, Zo. And I reached out to her, not again. She's not even a client of mine. She's possibly a lead we'll see. And I reached out to her, I think, earlier this week, and I just said, how are you going? And she says, Oh, we've already recorded the first 10 podcasts. And I said, woo, well done. How did you do that? She said, Oh, I just let them know. And then I just press record on the zoo meetings we're already having, and it's already done. It's already done. So podcasting ultimately, is not just for celebrities. Podcasting is a tool that you can use to build up your business, your charity, your group, or to promote your hobby to people who need to hear from you and making sure that, again, you're doing this for the right reasons, of doing it for your audience first, not just your own ego, and not just your own you know, oh, I'm gonna be so I'm gonna look so great after heading down a podcast. No, that's not how it's going to work. I'm just sorry to burst your bubble there. That's not how it's going to work. If your audience needs the message, if your audience needs to understand of what's going on, and the easiest way for you to do that is to have a conversation with them. Done, absolutely done. So I'm going to finish off today's podcast episode by letting people know that I have an event for the Geelong Small Business festival for the podcast Power Hour. Now, there's a good chance for those who are watching right now, who are either watching the podcast or who are listening that the event the podcast Power Hour has already come and gone, and that is okay. I am re editing it and making it available on my website for free, for you to be able to consume, to be able to get really clear ideas on how to start a podcast, some really easy steps, as well as how to guest on other people's podcasts, because it's not just about creating your own. It's about using the atmosphere the universe of podcasts to help you grow your own personal brand, to grow your own business, to grow your own charity, whatever you need to do. You can use podcast, guessing on other people's podcasts and helping their audience grow.
You can, then, in turn, grow your own brand. I think we did okay today, everyone, I'm gonna check and just make sure that I'm not missing out
on anyone's comments. Oh, I think I missed one right here. Got a comment from Port Mr. Porch the second saying, What is this? This is a live stream that we're running once a week to help people answer their questions regarding personal branding with the power of video. So I like to talk about podcasting. I like to talk about live streams, but essentially, this is a public opportunity to answer any of your questions that you have around those particular subjects. I'll be working on my website and getting that live, hopefully by the end of the month, by September 2024 for those who are watching in the future, and my website should help lay out all the people that need any help with their marketing campaigns. Any help with on camera confidence, as you can probably imagine, video confidence coach comes with on camera, confidence, yes, yes, you're definitely right there. And also coming with all the work that I do to help my clients grow their small business. I'm based in Geelong and bellerine in Victoria, Australia, but I do have a couple of clients that are international or who move her a little bit around here and there to be able to get them up to speed for again, their podcasting, their live streaming, their marketing campaigns, or just coaching them in their marketing opportunities for their business in general. So going to make sure that I'm not missing out on any other questions live and thank you again to Mr. Porch the second for your comment there. I hope you've answered that, and I will probably finish off today's live stream. I thanks so much for you for being able to listen again. Feel free to comment. I know this is probably going to be after the live but if you're watching on the replay, feel free to reach out and comment. I will make sure I do my best to respond to you. But this is the first and the end of the first live stream. We've been able to record three podcast episodes. I didn't think I would, but here we are. I'm definitely going to spend time editing them and making sure that they're all ready to put on a website, onto the email list, and to make sure that we ultimately. Share them around to people who need to hear the messages. So I hope I was nice and clear for you, and if I wasn't, feel free to reach out and give me some feedback that would be very helpful. Hope you have a wonderful time and see you next week on video, confidence. Connect you.
If you're looking to harness the power of live streaming and podcasting for your business, don't wait for the perfect moment. Start simple, use what you have, and grow from there. Feel free to dive deeper into these strategies by visiting my website for more resources and upcoming events designed to boost your digital confidence and marketing prowess. Let's take this journey together, and transform your business with the power of video and voice!
The above livestream episode description and transcript were generated with ai.
Listen to the edited livestream in a podcast episode
Who is your host?
Zoë Wood, your Video Confidence Coach connects the dots between personal branding and video marketing. Helping women and non-binary folk in small business, find their way in the world of marketing their passion without the energy drain.
Find out more about how to grow your personal brand with the power of video right here on vcc.training
Other related livestreams
