012 Who Is Video Confidence Coach + Got An Answer? Put It On The Website!
In this episode, we dive into the essentials of handling customer inquiries on your website and how to make your content work for you over the long term.
This week, we explore the power of using your website as a central hub for customer inquiries and FAQs. Discover tips on transforming frequent questions into valuable content that supports your brand and keeps clients coming back for more.
These topics highlight the importance of making your website the go-to source for frequently asked questions, saving you time and streamlining customer interactions. By providing answers in various formats—written, video, and audio—you can ensure clients find the information they need in a way that suits them, building trust and professionalism.
Listeners will find practical advice on using their website to create a more cohesive, accessible client experience while also strengthening their brand presence. If you’re ready to make the most of your digital assets, start putting your most common answers front and centre. Begin today, and turn those repeat questions into valuable content that positions you as a resource clients can rely on.
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00:00 – Introduction and overview of today’s topics
05:30 – Discussion on the importance of preparing for seasonal marketing
10:00 – The role of personal connections in building a small business
15:00 – Benefits of consolidating responses to FAQs on your website
20:00 – Strategies for sharing information in multiple formats
25:00 – Improving customer experience with well-organised content
30:00 – Optimising blog posts and video for SEO benefits
35:00 – Building trust and professionalism by anticipating client needs
40:00 – Common mistakes with website content and branding
45:00 – How consistency in responses reinforces brand image
50:00 – Practical tips for making your website more accessible to clients
55:00 – Final thoughts and a call to action
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5:30
Zo wood. Wood and welcome to the video, confidence connect this week with your host, Zoe wood, the video, confidence coach, as it is, every week, I don't know why I said that first part. Welcome everyone where a nice hourly Chat, where we have, oops, I've come in too strong, and I apologize for those who are watching us live, or who may be watching us on the replay. G'day, everyone, I am. Zo wood, the video confidence coach, I help build your personal brand with the power of video and you are watching or listening to us either on LinkedIn or YouTube, on either live streaming from 10am Australian Easter Standard Time, or you're watching us on the hashtag replay to check me out. Hi. So this is our hourly chance, once per week to have a chance to catch up on a few things, let you know what's going on in my business, and a chance to talk with people who maybe want a bit of help with their personal branding or expediting the growth of their small business with the power of video marketing. I am here to help you with that. Make sure if you have any questions about anything that we discussed today, make sure to put them in the comments, and I'll make sure to reply to them, either live, if we're able to, or I'll reply to them after the fact. Even if you have ideas for future live stream topics or future podcast topics that you want me to cover in the video confidence coach cast, then we can definitely do that in the future, because we will be here every week, gearing up to this time of year for those who may be watching us on the replay, it is currently November 8, 2024 I was about to say 2025 and I stopped myself. See, see, because the reason that I've stopped myself is because this, at this point of the year, to be honest, the work that we do with not necessarily marketers, but a lot of the work that we've done to prepare for Christmas has already been done. A lot of the campaigns that I've helped clients run regarding Christmas and Christmas sales and Black Friday sales have already been done. That happened in August. And do not worry if you're in the position where, oh no, you know Black Friday is coming at the end of this month, and I'm not prepared, don't worry, there's always opportunities. And if you need any help, you can always reach out, or if you just want some camaraderie in solidation, I'm also here for that too. And when it comes to this point in the year, there is a very, I would say overwhelming feeling of stress. But when it comes to the work that I do, it's more Same old, same old. My point of stress for the work that I do is around about the end of financial year, which is June and July of the year, mainly because, especially with a lot of my corporate clients, that's when they start, you know, plotting out investments for the new year, and my busiest month this year has been August. Time wise, payment wise, not so much. But I digress. When it comes to activities, August was very much the busiest month for us. What about yourself? Was it the which month this year has been the busiest for you? Or has this been a bit of a slowdown for you? And in that slowdown, it's not great, but there is always a chance to change tact, pivot and hopefully make some more gains for you and your business. If you want to find out more interesting facts, if you want to find more information about what we do at the video confidence coach, you can check us out at VCC, dot training our website. Yes, it is a website. The dot training bit is the.com bit. I just make it easier, because people know how to spell the when I say VCC, they know how to spell that. And training, when it comes into the circles that we work with at visit at the video confidence coach, you know how to spell training, and if you don't, I can spell it for you. I figured that part out before we continue on with today's session, I would like to acknowledge and pay my respects to the wadawurrung people of the Kulin nation, the traditional custodians of the land on which I conduct my business. Today, I pay my respects to the elders past and present. I stand with the traditional custodians in 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 a fight against injustice. Always was, always will be Aboriginal land
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and to kick off for today's arrest of today's session. Question. I will let you know what we have done this week at the video confidence coach, to give you a chance to pop on board and to comment any of your thoughts or any questions that you have to then steer the rest of today's session. As you may have noticed from last session, if you are here on the video, confidence Connect. We had a little bit of a wild one where we ended up, we me, I'm in control here. We ended up going on a little bit of a tangent, and we ended up doing a much longer session, due to us discussing our 2030 predictions. And yes, that was very much dictated by some of the comments I received, but also a little bit of just me seeing something and running with it, because that's what this hour is for. This hour is an opportunity to connect and to be publicly available, to answer questions, and if say, for example, I've had a couple of people reach out to me via DMS or emails who have followed me up regarding these live streams, saying, hey, Zo I can't jump on for 10am Can you do it another time? And I thank you so much for wanting to be involved live. I understand the reason that I do this at 10am is because it is within my wheelhouse of availability, and it's okay if you can't make it live, you can always send me emails, and you can always send me questions, which I will then answer in this live stream, and then provide the answers in a nice, edited format for you. They said, Thank you so much, and I'll get me questions next week. So probably next week, we will have a crack to the questions which I will be answering and going through a methodology for you, I have been discussing with a couple of my other marketing friends about showcasing more case studies or being presented with someone's brand, and then how would you go about marketing them? How would you go about making these decisions? Because there is a lot of there's a lot to it when it comes to marketing. And the reason that I am in marketing is because I enjoy, you know, pushing people up and allowing them to shine and showcasing what they can do. And really a lot of people, especially in small business and in solo business and who own personal brands, there is a good message behind that you have. You are doing it for a good reason. You're not just doing it for the accolades and the awards and the Oh, me, now you're doing it for a good reason. So let's tell people that good reason. Let's show people that good reason. And probably I'd say, either by the end of this year or start of next year, I will probably allow some AI tools to maybe craft up a brand where I can start breaking down how I would go about marketing these regarding our marketing campaigns. So for those who may not be aware, I promise I will get to what we accomplished this week, what I have done so we're currently doing a little bit of rejigging regarding our services. So you always know that, as you can imagine, the video confidence coach, I am a speaker regarding marketing and video marketing, specifically and personal branding, as you've probably guessed already, I also provide mentoring and coaching services to small businesses or people who want to build their personal brands, and specifically marketing coaching. So as you can imagine, that's a service I provide. And then the other area of my business is a marketing campaign coordinator. So as you can imagine, with a title that long, essentially, I help you achieve what you need to achieve. Like most of the coaching and mentoring is a lot more providing you the framework for you to be able to do yourself. So you have that control over both the outcome and the process. But also, if you wish to delegate, you have the knowledge to be able to delegate, as opposed to, oh, I have no idea how this works, oh, I'm just going to send it off to someone and hope they do it well. Well, when it comes to delegation, we need to have an idea of what is a good result to then be able to judge whether or not someone has been able to achieve it, and bonus points be able to then help them achieve it on our behalf. So I can definitely do a more detailed podcast about that, if you want a little bit more breakdown of that in that methodology I have in my mind. But yes, so in regards to the services I provide. At the moment, I provide podcast producing. So I help you both either start a podcast from scratch and actually record episodes, or I help you manage a podcast that is already pre existing. And we can definitely zoo brand wise and allow you to make it a more consistent long term, you know, marketing thing for you. And then I've also got live stream producer. I help people conduct live streams like this or more complex ones, depending on their needs. And I'm also looking into starting, or beginning to start some more video centric packages. As you can imagine, the video confidence coach doesn't necessarily. Necessarily have video packages, mainly just because, when it comes to the work that I do, and I have communicated with this with my past clients and potential leads, is that I don't necessarily do the videoing, like the getting out my camera and filming myself. I used to, I used to run a videography company down here in zo long with Victoria, Australia, for about nine years, and then, due to physical disabilities and complications, I can no longer do that. I can no longer do a physical shoot day. Yes, I can do bits and pieces. I can live stream like this, but I can't say, for example, hold a camera steady to be able to get the shot. And I personally have gotten to the point of my career where I am now able to work on the strategy and the overall side of the video project, not just the outcome. So I now work with a bunch of video production companies and with some marketing production companies who, for example, do not have the time energy or ability to be able to coach the people that come to them wanting a wanting a video or wanting a video package, and they don't have the time to be able to get them ready, to be able to coach them to break down. Okay, where exactly are these videos going? So when you stand in front of that camera, you know, with everything else laid out in front of you, the set is in front of you. Everyone's ready. People have got, like, have been working for days, weeks, months, to get this ready for you. You're not standing there like a dead fish going, Ah, because you're not ready, because you're not prepared. That is the work that we do together. And also because having both the understanding of, hey, what you're filming now is going to be on your website. It's going to be in your emails, it's going to be in your social media. Something as easy as like, something as simple as that, has been able to turn people's absolute fear to relaxation, because they understand what is actually coming out of what they're doing. They're not just doing it and they're not just stressing because, oh, there's this. People are going to be angry at me. Why are they? Why are they going to be angry at you? Because they're not going to like what I have to say. I'm sure there are going to be a very minority, very small minority, of people who are going to be like that, especially with the clientele I work with who are usually women or non binary folk who have definitely faced those prejudices, prejudice, prejudice, prejudices in the past. So I don't want to downplay any of those fears because they are warranted. There is a reason that you have that fear in your chest. And I'm not saying that everything that we do, strategy, coaching, mentoring, wise, is going to immediately eliminate that entirely. But the work that I do, and the work that I've seen being able to play out for my clients is the confidence of being able to weather the storm, of being able to understand, hey, I can see the dots being connected. I can see where this is going, and I'm not overwhelmed by the potentiality of this thing, because I can see what it's going to do for me and my brand. And that's what I want to do. That's the reason why I do what I do at the video confidence coach. I want to give people that confidence to be on video and to market themselves, and the way that I do that is via coaching. The video confidence coach.
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It's a very literal name, but it also is a very straightforward name. So I do have a lot of people who come to me saying, hey, I need video work done. And I say, Cool, what's the strategy? They have no idea. We work with them. And then I'm able to work with a multitude of different video agencies that I work with, both down here and Geelong, up towards Melbourne and throughout Australia, to be able to work with them. And I also work both sides. So what I mean by that is that I work with both the client, so we work on the actual like strategy of what we're doing. We break down why you're doing it, and we're also able to break down who you're doing it for. So when you stand in front of that camera, you have the information to back it up. And also, what a lot of people, which I realized only recently, that I do this as part of my process, but I haven't actually told anyone that I do is we practice, we actively practice what is going to be discussed, what is going to be talked about. We don't necessarily rely on a script, and especially for most of my clients, I don't recommend relying on a script, mainly because that takes out that side of your brain where you're super stressed trying to get the words right while reading a teleprompter when most of the time, to be honest, you know what your message is. You know what you want to talk about. You know why you want to get people on board so to do so, being able to stand up straight, to look directly into the camera as if it was another human being, and being able to clearly articulate your thoughts. Your messages, and the reason why you do what you do that requires, yes and practice, but not as much practice as you think, to be perfectly honest. And for the couple of clients that I've had in the past, hi, who have needed scripts, we have definitely worked with them on being able to break that down in a easier format than just constantly going through lines, lines, lines, lines, lines, because that builds up your stress, and on the day, that stress can topple you. I have seen people in the past when I worked in the videography side of things where, to be honest, you're there to rock up, set up the shoot, film what you need to film, pack up, leave edit in like a week or two and get done like that is that is your goal. You're there to get done. Well, me, I am there because I am there for you. And the other side of what I do is to work with the video agencies directly themselves. As my experience with working in a videography company and working for other multi, other multitude of other video marketing companies, I am able to break down these and able to answer these questions really straightforwardly. For them, they know that, hey, we don't need to worry about the client and trying to get the best out of them, because that's what zo is. Job is. And on the day, of course, most of these providers, no matter what you're doing, there will be some sort of director, or in some agencies, they are either like the cameraman, the director and the audio are kind of the same person. That sometimes happens, depending on what you're wanting to get out of it and what kind of strategy you're putting together. And they have a lot of things to think about. They have a lot of things to think about and to be honest. When I've worked with multi a multitude of videography companies at the moment, they've definitely said to me, Zo, I didn't to be honest. I didn't think I needed you to be honest. I didn't see why you were here. I just felt you were a middleman. I thought you were just distracting us from getting what we needed to do. This has been the best shoot that I've done in the past 10 years. And I had this said to me, of course, I've been trying to get them to write it down and put a review on it, but we're working on that to be able to have someone worry about the client, or are usually the person who is going to be standing up there, delivering what's going to be happening on camera, that is a lot of work. I That's why, in my previous business, I was spending 80% of my time coaching people on these factors, and then I was only getting paid for the 20% work of actually filming and editing and producing the video and just handing it over. And that does, I want to stress that does not mean that I don't get out there and do some myself. I still record a lot of the videos, you know, produce and do a lot of the work for my own business. And make sure that I actively, uh, volunteer my time and my energies to make sure that I keep up to date with latest trends, latest technical specifications. And if I know, like at the end of the day, if I need to get there and do some technical troubleshooting and help with the camera, help with the audio, help with the lights, I can do that. If we need to. I can definitely do that. But like I said, on the day of the shoot, which is usually in regards to the client's point of view, the most stressful day. I am there for them. I am there for the you. I am there for the client. I am there to help you and help you succeed. The videographers are there to capture you succeeding, edit that you've succeeded, and then show that you've succeeded. That is their job. My job is to focus on you and make sure you get there. And then after that day, after the big, stressful day, then we can worry about the output. We can worry about, Okay, where is this? Where are these videos going? Now, of course, we've already talked about this all the way at the start of the process and breaking down the strategy, because video is not just a one and done thing. You know, filming a video, editing it together and then just slapping it on the YouTube channel is not the be all and end all this video, just to let mention a few things that could possibly be done. Needs to be everywhere, digitally, where you show up. It needs to be current enough to make sure that when people see the video and then come to you, that you're able to fulfill what you say you can. And also it enables to get people alongside your vision and your message of what you're wanting to achieve in your business. And you can do that by all of your forms of marketing, your website, very importantly, your email marketing, list, your social media platforms, billboards, if that is an option for your business, and there are plenty of other like marketing, the reason I mentioned those three or the fourth one was just kind of in there, for fun. Reason I mentioned those threes is because that's usually what people think about first. That's what usually springs to mind, and that. That is, you can use one video. And for example, I worked with a client around about two or three years ago, where they had filmed a video three years previous to that, where it had just been sitting on a web page. They spent around 10 to 15 grand. So like, 15000, grand on this video, and it was doing nothing, and it was objectively doing nothing, and they weren't happy with it. And the reason that they weren't doing anything with it was because they weren't proud of it, they weren't happy with it, and they were just upset that they had spent so much money on that, and they didn't want to show anyone because they were embarrassed. So I was able to work with them strategy wise of, okay, you've got the raw files, which thank thank the universe that they still had those raw files. And when I mean RAW files, I mean not just the edited output video, like the actual video files that were put into that end product, and we were able to create 45 different pieces of content from that one piece of content, from that one video that was around about four to five minutes long, we were able to create 45 unique pieces of content, not just for social media or Tiktok or all those, you know, reels, platforms and all those other things, but to use on other aspects of their website, and we were able to edit in a way where they no longer felt embarrassed about the final output, because there were other aspects in play. Now, of course, we had to re record some some things that were obviously out of date, because by the point that I had got to it, was about six years out of date in regards to the currency of that content. But from there, we were able to utilize that 15 grand. And at the time, I was charging that service for around about 450 500 which, of course, FYI, I'm not doing now. It was a lot of work, and it was very much a trial, just to see if that type of stuff will be useful for my clients. And it was, and I still see those videos to this day, and this was, you know, something that I did about two, three years ago, and they're so happy with the output now, of course, it would have been better if we were able to work together, to be able to have these things ahead of time so they don't feel embarrassed about the end product. But that's okay. We were able to fix mostly what we did in the past, and that is also okay when it comes to marketing. Marketing is telling your audience what you want them to know about your business so they can come to you and find a solution, hopefully pay you money and be able to get a good outcome, because that's what you want from the work that you do. If you sell products, if you sell services, if you do a combination of the two, you want your customers to have a good outcome, and you also want to survive on that, preferably. So to do so, you need to have a larger strategy in mind,
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and not just the, you know, one video in your mind, or the video that's going to sit on our home page of our website, the home page of your website, to be perfectly honest, is not going to be the most seen. Yes, some people are going to stumble upon it some of the time and but in all cases and statistics that I have seen and shown, of course, nothing no like names spring to mind. So apologies. So if I don't have those resources or sources in mind, most people go to your about page first, or maybe your services page. If you're a service provider, they usually go to your shop first, because if that's what you sell, you sell specific products. The home page is useful for you to get everything in a row to make sure that your marketing is consistent across all of your avenues. But it's not the be all and end all. So if you're focusing on just that one video, that soul line of focus, that you're just going to put it on your home page or your website and be done and walk away, I wouldn't not recommend it. I did have a client say to me last week, how zo you're not negative. I don't like it. You're never just negative. I'm like, Oh no, I worry currently in the lead stage, like I'm trying to be nice and get you on board to work with me. Of course, I'm going to be nice. I'm not going to say your mistakes were wrong, because mistakes happen. Mistakes are going to be consistent, and yes, it is a little bit on the annoying side of Yes, mistakes happen, and they can happen so often and sometimes the same mistake happens more than once, but the fact is that you learn from it, that you actively change your behaviors. You actively change your decisions to then not lead to that mistake again in the future, and if you've spent a lot of money on that mistake, to be able to get something out of it, something useful that you're at least proud of, that can then market and lead to getting more customers, getting more clients for your business, being able to build your personal brand, as opposed to detract and take it down. I think that's a better use of your energies, your monies, your time times, if we go along with the analogy so far. Because when it comes to working with any sort of marketing agency, be this, the video, the SEO, the you know, ads, the like, whatever area that you're working with regarding marketing, being able to have the confidence that Not just your money, because, of course, money is very important in these transactions, but the time and energy that you spend to get to this result is a result that you're happy with. I think that is the bare minimum when it comes to working with these companies. And these companies also include me, video confidence coach, we do our best to make sure that all of our clients leave happy, and if they are not, we make sure that we address that right away, and we make sure to provide a equal return on investment and time, because I am thankful enough to be able to be in a position of my business when, if something is not the right fit for me, I can turn you away. I can say you're not the right fit for me. Here are three other options that are the that are the right fit for you. I'll follow you up in a month. Let me know how you go. And that is something that I have been striving for in my business, because I don't see myself retiring. Maybe I might pivot to a new business. I might start a new one with a new passion of mine. I will always be a business owner. I will always be building my personal brand. I will always be doing what I want to do. But at the end of it, I still want to all I will want to do for the rest of my life is serve people, to help people, to help them achieve that confidence, not just in themselves, but in their personal brands, so that they know that they're growing something for themselves, for their families, for their legacy. If that's what they need, I want to help them achieve that, and that's what we do at the video confidence coach. Okay, again, I've gotten a little bit of spiral here. So apologies. Apologies, a tendency of doing that sometimes, and it's already half of the time that we've spent as per usual, I keep laying out things for those who are watching us and maybe who are listening to us. At the top, I have this little tick tape that, like the old school news people have, that explains what we're going to be discussing about. So for anyone who comes across the live stream, who may not be entirely clear of what's going on, they're able to clearly see what we're exactly talking about. And I apologize that that little rant there for a bit was very much explaining what I do with the video confidence coach, to be able to break down these not massive ideas. But for a lot of people that I work with, there is a little bit of skeptic, skeptic. Leanness, because when it comes to the work that I do, it's not exactly, you know, written in books. It's not exactly something obvious to people who are not in the business area. And I've had to say with my various grandparents in my life, I've had to have a couple of guys at trying to explain to them what exactly is it that I do because I forge my own path, and there will be an inevitability where I will have to pivot again, and I'll have to go about explaining that to them in the future, but I am doing my best to be better and more succinct, to make it easier, not Just for SEO, but hopefully you who are watching us, who are watching right now, to be able to understand a bit clearer about what I do, because also, I'm trying to clarify what I do. All right, let's focus zo what we've accomplished this week, ending in November 8, 2024 it has been a very big week of personal celebrations. We have got a couple of birthdays, a couple of anniversaries, all kind of lumped into the very one time frame. So we've taken a couple of days off of the business. And we thank everyone for your patience during their time. If you were trying to get a hold of me, of course, I was being very clear. But just in case, I was, just in case we've fallen through the cracks, I want to make sure that we weren't. We are still gearing up for the last Geelong podcasters event for 2024 I was about to say for 2024 which will be at November 22 from one to 3pm at Cafe go on ballerina Street in the Geelong CBD. So if you are. A fellow podcaster who is based in Geelong and the bellerine, feel free to reach out, and we will see you there. And if not, do not worry. We are looking to expand the Geelong podcasters, both events in person and virtual next year, to be be able to provide more opportunities for podcasters in Geelong to have a community that they can call their own. And then the other things that I wanted to check on is I've got some really good feedback from some my one on one mentor clients. This is a little bit of a plug, of course, it's plug within my own plug, but it's been really nice to see, and especially for a couple of the mentor clients that I've only worked with for a couple of weeks now, to be able to see them really find their own selves when marketing their business or making these decisions to grow their business and to market their business differently, at first, they were very much skeptical of my ideas and breaking down and like processes that I put in front of them, and now they're flying through them because they've seen how well they've worked out. So I want to thank you so much for all of my men, my mentees, who are saying hello. I want to thank you so much. And it's been so great to see you all thrive so well, and some of them and some of you only just recently, so it's really great to see you all thrive so well. And in last news, in 2025 we are going to make some really big plans. I'm currently working on a lot of things regarding the video confidence coach, so you will definitely see more things from me at the video confidence coach, and a lot of changes that we are going to make. So yes, we are going to be making some really big changes, and I will let you know when I have them. And one thing I would like to showcase on live stream, and also I'm going to send this as a little bit of a review to this artist that I love following, and it was also one of my mentees, all right, so we'll record this, and I'll send it to you, and then you can post it wherever you want, Nadine, so a little bit of water before I begin.
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So this is a package that I got from the Dean Riley art, an Aboriginal artist based out in Fitzroy. And I have been loving her work and seeing it online, and she recently launched her website, and I thought it was a great opportunity, because I obviously do not get a chance to go to that side of Melbourne that often, to be able to see her in person during all of the markets that she does. So I was able to grab this guy, so gonna take her off, and then got a nice, beautiful box. And these are, and I'll see if I can show you. There we go. It's not really focusing, because it's kind of focusing on my face more. But these are beautiful gum leaf earrings, and these are hand painted, handcrafted. And of
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course, I have to make sure I take care of them, because they are hand painted. But So of course, can definitely see that's how it would look, and it's a beautiful Yeah, let me get my earrings, ear muffs back on. And
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this is the caliber of work that I love from Nadine. And is just feels good to you know, support a local, indigenous artist, and also just the the quality of work. So I've also gotten a card of one of her larger artworks, and as someone like myself who maybe doesn't have the funds or the ability to get those large, large pieces of artworks, because sometimes, some of us don't have the space for those larger artworks, to be able To have these smaller and more personable pieces of artwork that I am definitely going to be cherishing for as long as they last, because they will last a long time as because I'm going to take care of them. But thank you so much, Nadine. It was a pleasure going through your experience. Your website is beautiful, and I'm sure that it'll continue to grow. And if you are interested in checking out Nadine Riley, you can check it out on Nadine Riley art.com.au or you can check out her website, where she will have all her updates of markets that she's attending, as well as you know other her you know new forms of art that she is producing, because it's not just earrings. There's, I think there's a lot of things in the pipeline, and I look forward to seeing them all. Alright, so we're going to pull out those sections, and then I will make sure to send that with captions to get back in there, back to Nadine, so then she can use that for her social media as a testimonial. And that's why I also like these opportunities to be able to showcase what I love and what I love working with. All right, go in there, beautiful. Because that's what these opportunities are for. Because, not necessarily, that I will not take these opportunities to not, you know, promote the stuff that we do at the video confidence coach sometimes, and I've said this to a couple of clients this week, just to take the opportunity, just to do it, like having a hour a week that is set aside to Record podcasts, to live stream to answer people's questions. That has a strategy that I have used for a couple of clients now, both coaching and mentoring and one or two marketing campaign clients. These are like more extensive clients, where there's a lot more than just one aspect of what we do. And is awesome to see that this process that not necessarily that works just for me, but a process that I have seen work for a lot of other people. So you're not spending your time generating and crafting content. You're doing the work that you need to do where content is an output is a positive side effect of the work that you do. So I am going to get to today's podcast episode. Technically, I should have already recorded one by now, But I digress. We're here. Let's do this. You.
42:44
Imagine this. It is late night on a Tuesday night. It's still the start of the week, but you are so tired and overwhelmed, you find yourself going through your email inbox again with more and more questions from clients, from potential clients, from people who may, I don't know they may be competitors, who knows at this point, but the fact is, you have all of these questions, of which you have already provided answers over and over and over again, and you're just so tired, so overwhelmed, and you're feeling that there is no end in sight to answer all of these questions, not just in your email box, mind you, but in your DMS on all of your social media platforms, on your website, you're just so bogged down with answering these same questions over and over again, about your business, about your industry, about your opinions on things. What do you do? Well, if there, if this resonates with you, I have an answer for you, because, of course, I do. Welcome to the video, confidence coach, cast with your host. Video, confidence coach, Zoe wood, and as you can probably guess by the title of this podcast episode, got an answer to these questions, put it on your website. So now what I'm going to describe to you as the remedy to this scenario that I just pitched to you at the start of this episode is going to require a little bit of work. And when I say a little bit of work, I mean is going to require a little bit of strategy and planning and forethought and a little bit of action taking on your behalf. But if you put this work in now, you are going to reap the rewards for years to come. You are not going to constantly feel bogged down by answering these same questions over and over again, because and listen to me now you are going to put these answers on your website. You are going to answer these questions as succinctly, as quickly as you can either, well, not in either, but in all of these formats. You are going to answer these questions in a blog post, so a longer version of how to answer. This particular question, you are going to provide a video minimum 30 seconds, probably a lot longer, to be honest, depending on the type of question that you're answering. And then from there, you are going to create an audio only version, possibly in a podcast, if you've already got one, or to be able to then use that audio in the future, when you do have a podcast or an audio only format. The reason that you cover these different areas of providing answers to these questions is because some people may not have the opportunity to be able to read a full blog post. Some people may not have the opportunity to listen to a full podcast, but to watch a two to three minute video answering their questions. That's what they're going to need. And people research your customers, whether you want to admit it or not, are researching they're researching you. They're researching your collaborators. They're researching your competitors. They are researching because they want to answer. They want a solution to their problem, and you, with the work that you do, either in your business or your personal brand, are providing that solution, so to make sure that you can provide the answers to their problems in a very easy, succinct, and fully controllable environment for you. What fits all that criteria, it is your website. Now, for some people that I've worked with in the past, and actually quite recently, to be honest, a couple of people, they've update they like made their website five years ago, have not updated it since, and have no interest in updating it. And I'm going to tell you now I don't think that's going to work for you. With the amount of effort and time that you put into marketing yourself, marketing your brand, marketing your the work that you do, if your website is not up to date, that is a big detraction from you, but also just your website is a place that you can fully control. Yes, you may have a lot of eyeballs and a lot of interest via social media channels, but that's not going to stay the same, because the owners of those social media platforms own the content that you put on there. They control who gets to see them, and if you do not pay them money, either now or later, they're going to reduce that reach, what we call organic reach, to lower and lower and lower, for example, that is definitely seen by a lot of my clients on Facebook, for example, that the posts that they were able to put up five years ago are getting next to no traction. Now, why? Because they want you to pay money. They need to make money, and these platforms need to grow in order to, you know, pay off their stockholders and pay off their investors. They've been doing it for a while, and they're going to continue to do so. So if that money is going to be better spent somewhere, it's better to spend it on your website. Now I'm not saying that you need to avoid advertising altogether. When it comes to thinking about, Oh, I should run some ads. Where are those ads running to? Are those ads running to your website? That website that you have not invested more time and money in Did you see where I'm going with this? So back to the question at hand, Zo, when it comes to websites, and specifically blog post now, I've recently been researching a little bit into this method myself. A lot of people think that blog posts, which are essentially long form written content regarding a specific topic or answer to a specific question, people think that that is very passe, that that's very old hat, mainly just because blogs have been around since, I don't want to say, the start of the internet, but Since the internet has been, you know, publicly available, and blogs have been used as a way of, you know, curating information and showcasing your knowledge on the subject, and that is still the case. Now, of course, there are other elements outside of that, regarding AI Search and Google and Microsoft doing their best not to allow people to actually go to your website to find this information. But that's not what we're covering today. What we're covering today is to fix that great overwhelm pain point for you regarding and say it with me now answering the same questions over and over again. Usually you are providing the same answer to those questions. Sometimes it's a little bit more detail, depending on the problem they've actually presented it to you, but to be able to put those answers that you are giving into the three formats that I mentioned before, so a long form written post for the machine, so for SEO, and also for the people that really want a definitive. A long form answer, and when I say long form, I mean more than say, I'd say 800 words, 800 to 1200 words. Now, of course, this very much varies on different industries, but these words allow people to gain insight into the way that you do business, and also get the questions answered. Being able to provide this answer in both the written format as well as a video format allows the different types of people who learn best. Some people learn best by hearing some people learn best by seeing some people learn best by actually doing the things in front of them. And if that is possible. Video kind of covers all of those elements of a way of someone learns more. And the way that this works in practice is by when someone asks you this question, or asks you question that is relevant to this particular topic, all you need to do is send them a link to that page of your website and say, Hey, I've answered your question here. Here it is. They will then click that link. They will read that information. And if say, for example, they don't have a specific, you know, they don't get the exact piece of information that they want from you, which, of course, we highly doubt, because you're providing the answer to this, you know, answer to this question as generic enough as possible. So of course, you don't get sued, and of course you're not you're not providing falsehood information, but you're providing this information in a format that is able to answer people's questions. And again, like I said, those questions that you answer over and over and over again to be able to provide it in a nice, clear, concise format, and if they have questions after that, because again, you've provided the answer, that's this. These next few steps can be at your discretion. If you have time and energy to be able to respond, you can continue the conversation if, like a lot of small business owners and personal brand builders, you do not have time and or energy to be able to do this, you can make that quite clear without being rude. I want to stress that without being rude, you can communicate and say, Hey, I don't have time. Sorry. Hey, thank you so much for your questions. Again, if they've read the information and they have not got what they wanted out of it at the end of each of your blog posts, and you can prompt people quite easily by using a message that you can copy and paste over and over again that essentially says, if you're interested in wanting to discuss more about your business, I have a 15 minute free consultation time. Just book in a time to chat
52:46
done. Now this may seem, for a couple of the people that I've worked with, this issue has particularly come up where they think, Oh, they they just think, I'm palming them off. They just think, I'm just ignoring them. They just I'm pushing them away because I'm not answering their questions here and them in the platform that they choose. And I'm going to stress to this now that is not what's happening. What is happening is that people want an answer to their problem. They want to find a solution. And if they've gotten to the point where they've reached out to you. They are very hot as elite, they are someone who is genuinely interested in you because they've researched you. They're not contacting you if they haven't researched you. And this is becoming more and more apparent over time, as more people who like don't really want to make calls my generation, essentially, they're going to do more research about you and your company and the work that you do. So if they're reaching out to you, that is a very good sign. But for those of us who get a lot of people who reach out to them, or, for example, one of the people that I've worked with in the past who a lot of their clientele are in that older demographic where they're quite happy to pick up a phone and give you a call and have a bit of a chat about whatever their problem is. And sometimes, if you've got the time and energy, you can just answer those questions. But if it's becoming quite a pain for you, like again, again, if that pain is coming up for you repeatedly, to be able to have a process where you ask people that, oh, I've already like, thank you so much for your question. It's, you know, thank you so much for your question. Here is an answer. I've answered it in this blog post. Check it out on the link, and they will follow it, read up, and they will get their answer. They will get their answer of what they want need to know, and they will take the next step. They will then buy a product from you. They will then secure a service from you. And if there is more questions, they will then ask you, or they will, as I recommend, especially with blog posts and again, your website, you have full control over this, prompting people to book in a. Time to chat with you, especially if you're a service provider, is absolute gold, because, again, these people who are booking times with you are hot leads. Are people who have researched you. They've interacted with you and you've been nice and polite, answered all of their questions, they are more likely to buy from you. Sign up with you ongoing purchases from you because you provided the answers, yes, you weren't able to sit with them at nine o'clock at night to be able to answer their questions as they came up. But you don't have time and energy for that. You are focusing on your family. You are focusing on your friends. You're focusing on yourself for downtime in say, a moment like that. And when you're providing those answers, and you're linking people to information that you already have, you're providing them that answer, that's what they want, that's what they need. And for those very rare instances, now, I've worked with a couple of people now who have gone through this particular process, and they, every now and again, you have a couple of people who just won't. It's not exactly take no from an answer, but it's more that they're just they want you to spoon feed it to them. And of course, you do the whole airplane spoon thing by giving them the website link. And of course, sometimes these people would just be like, Oh, I read that. It didn't answer my question. Here's my question. And what you can do from there is then specifically point out, oh, no, we did answer it. It's in, you know, the heading, you know, it's in chapter number it's no, it's no, it's in heading number two, right here. It's right there. It's called, like, maybe you use a different word, or you do use a different phrase, you can then point it out to them. And of course, some people are just determined to not listen to you, to not engage with you. And of course, now you have the power to be able to decide whether or not, of course, with your energy and your discretion to be able to say, hey, it seems like you really, you know, really, need particular answers to your specific case. Please book in a time to chat with me, and I'll be happy. I'll be happy to answer you and answer all your questions. Then you've given them an out. You've given them a clear sense of direction. And if they don't take that opportunity, it's clear that they don't really want to work with they don't really want to work with you or find the solution to their problem, because maybe they don't want to pay you money. And if that's the case, sure you don't need your time. And if they are in that position where, and of course, not all of us have cash for everything that we want to do at every any given time. In those positions, you have been nothing but cordial. You have been nothing but nice. And in those positions, you they need to work within your time frame because you are busy. So they need to work in time that you have, and say, for example, with a lot of services providers that I work with to be able to provide a 15 minute 30 minute is probably the stretch I would recommend for people to get a hold of you and secure your time for 15 minutes and then they can answer all of their questions. Then there you are. You have they have your attention for those 15 minutes. Once those 15 minutes are up, then they have to start paying for that attention. And I'm not saying that to be mean. I'm not saying that to be crass. I'm saying that because your time is money, you are running this business by yourself, or you're running this business on behalf of your employees, you need to make sure that your time is used effectively. And for that time to be used effectively, you need to be able to reduce the amount of times where you are doing things over and over and over again, being able to build processes so at the point where you can delegate it to other people, they know what they need to do. They have a clear step they have a clear step breakdown, and they don't need to ask you too many questions to get the outcome that you need. And that is the same thing for your clients, and specifically your potential clients. They just want to have the answers to their problems, and if you can provide that in a really clear and succinct way, they're going to like you. They're going to like you more, they're going to trust you more, and they're going to purchase from you. Now, of course, some people want something for nothing, but in my experience, that isn't everyone that is as very select few. Sometimes they show their colors a lot more earlier than you would expect. But in situations like that, you would learn and you would be able to see the signs, and again, be able to provide really clear next steps of, hey, don't have time to chat right now. I'm currently at a conference, or it was nice to see you at the conference. I'm answering. Here is an answer to you, a couple of your questions that you asked. If you want you know, if you have any more questions, feel free to book in a time with me to chat again. Okay. You're not brushing them off, you're not telling them to f off. You're giving them really clear next steps, and if they don't take it, that is okay. For a couple of clients I worked with, they did feel a little bit hurt that they went through this whole process and then people didn't book with them, and that's okay because they're not always going to book with you, like that's just the case when it comes to the people that you get in as leads. So leads are people that you bring into your business. Not everyone is going to be the right fit for you, and that is a good thing, because if everyone was the right fit for you, you would be wasting a whole lot of time, whole lot of money and a whole lot of energy. The people who are able to get through that process come out the other end and say, hey, it was really nice. Thank you for answering all my questions. You know, answering it in both all the formats that I need to be able to learn and grow regarding solving this problem for me and my 15 minutes with you were awesome. I want to book in more time with you. I'm going to go to the top of your products or services, because I have seen the value that you've given me. I want to spend my money with you. That's who you are, baby, that's the energy that you need, and especially with the work that we do with the video confidence coach, it's not just a I will do everything for you. Here is everything goodbye like it's a relationship. And I don't know about you, but I'm fairly picky with my relationships, so I want them to work as well as they can. I want to communicate easily and simply as I can with my my clients. So for someone to become my client, they need to be doing good job. I love you. Last thing I will touch on regarding website specifically. Now, of course, if, like I said, if you are someone who has not updated your website and has not even logged into your website in the past 356, years,
1:01:51
I would say that's a priority for you. In regards to, like I said, your website is your platform that you have full control over things to keep in mind when making these answers to these questions in these either blog posts or web page formats, I highly recommend it making really easy to share and reference. So that's why it's easier to use a blog, because you can search blogs, as opposed to searching your entire website. You can use search in a certain blog to be able to find particular categories or answers to things being able to use so the web address, so when you type in something, so say, for example, if you're typing in VCC, dot training, slash, whatever you want to try and find that is what is known as a URL slug. So that last part after the slash. So you've come to my website, and then at the top of the domain, it'll say, you know, VCC, dot training slash. And I have multiple of different areas of my website that relate to different answers to be able to provide people answers to their questions, usually in the form of podcasts or live streams like or you possibly are listening or watching now. Or if you're listening on the podcast or watching on the podcast, I should say you'll find them in my podcast areas. To be able to do that. Then I make sure that that slug is really nice and clear, making sure that I answer people's questions with that URL slug of like, what does Vcc do? Like, really simple things like that, like so that when people search it up on Google, on Bing, or whatever search platform they use, I will then show up because the URL slug matches what they're looking for. And making sure that when you write these answers, both in written form and video and podcast form to make sure that you speak in a way that your clients understand, to make sure that you're using the same language, and making sure that you are clear, so that they are understanding of where you're coming from. I work specifically. I work with women and non binary folk who are usually around the 40 to 60 age range, people who have had a career and a life before they start building their personal brand, before they started their personal business. Or maybe someone that they're maybe a business that they've been running for a very long time, and they want to make a pivot regarding their marketing. That is who I work with. And these people are intelligent, these people are articulate, but still, if I use a lot of acronyms and a lot of really long words, that is going to overwhelm them, especially when they just want a simple answer to their problem. So to do that, I change the way that I speak, which is a little harder, so you don't have to do that yourself. But when it comes to the written work that I do, I make sure it is incredibly clear. I make sure that it is very straightforward and has a step by step process so that I don't overwhelm the people that I work with or potentially want to work with. And this is also helpful, not just for your customers or your potential customers, but also for the robots who are crawling the into. Net, like Google, Bing, all those other search platforms and other places, to be able to get an idea of what you do, to know that you are a credible source of information because the work that you do, to be able to feed these robots and make it easier for them to understand that what you're saying is true, what you're saying is relevant to the work that you do. They they're going to then feed more information and more people to you, because you are a credible source of information. That, of course, is a, definitely another podcast episode that we can talk about. But in that meantime, I want to thank you so much for listening or watching the video confidence coach cast. By now, I may have changed the biz the name of this podcast. I'm still, honestly, at the time of recording, still figuring out what I want to actually change the podcast name to. I'm thinking of something alliterative and something that relates to the personal branding, video marketing side of what I do, but that is for future zoo to figure out and confirm later on. So thank you again, and I look forward to seeing you or hearing from you at the next podcast. Bye. You.
1:06:23
Thank you everyone who has joined us in today's video, confidence connect we have done. I'm gonna get this down so we can stop the glare that's on my face. Thank you so much for everyone who has joined us today, who have left any comments, or who have emailed me or DM to me any comments or any of the ideas that they want to have. Next week, we will definitely get into answering our podcast question around strong personal brand. What exactly does that mean? Zo, you talk about it a lot. I'm going to provide I'm going to walk the talk and make sure that I actually provide answers to people's questions. And I'm also going to touch on with a couple of things that we've got going on next week. So I look forward to seeing or hearing from you then. And I forgot my sign off. Bye.
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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
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