3 Ways to Connect Without Cameras in Your Face | EP284

Unlock the secrets to amplifying your business without ever stepping in front of a camera! Discover how podcasting not only serves as a cost-effective alternative to video production but also creates a personal bond with your audience akin to a friendly chat. The podcasting realm is ripe with opportunity, waiting for dedicated creators to make their mark. Explore how this intimate medium can harness the power of the "know, like, and trust" factor, engaging listeners deeply even as they multitask. We promise you'll walk away understanding why podcasting is not just a trend, but a strategic move for any business owner keen to connect with their audience on a deeper level.

Shifting gears, we tackle the ever-evolving world of content creation, examining the perennial debate: blogging or podcasting? Both platforms offer unique growth opportunities, but how do you navigate them amidst the rise of AI tools like Google's Gemini? From the art of SEO in blogging to the ease of verbal storytelling in podcasting, you'll learn to leverage each medium strategically. Plus, we spotlight email marketing as a powerful, faceless tool to maintain engagement once you've captured your audience's attention. As we gear up for our new podcast program cohort starting in January, there's no better time to embrace these tactics and elevate your business game.

Episode 158- Jules White Boost Your Online Presence: Mastering SEO

Buzzsprout for Podcasting
My Resource Kit

The 5 Power Pillars of Podcasting 12th Dec 1pm UK register here > BOOK

www.donnaeade.com

Chapters

• 0:00 Growing Your Business Through Podcasting
• 15:50 Navigating Blogging vs Podcasting for Growth

Transcript

Donna Eade: 0:30

You're listening to the Mindset in Action podcast, the place to be to grow and streamline your business. I'm your host, donna Eade. Let's jump into the show. Sometimes, the bravest and most important thing you can do is just show up. Brené Brown, welcome back to the podcast.

Donna Eade: 0:57

Everybody, I'm so excited to have you here today for this episode where we are going to be talking about three ways you can show up in your business without having to be on camera. Can I get a sigh of relief, please? Okay, let's jump into it. So the first way, as you may have already guessed, is going to be my favourite way, which is the way you are consuming right now. It is a podcast. Podcasting is a great way to reach your audience and grow your business without having to be on camera. I have said before how much I love podcasting, so I don't need to go over that again. But what I will remind you of is the reasons why it is so important to consider podcasting as an option. So stats have changed recently and the podcast landscape has changed somewhat, but there is still very few podcasts that are actually considered active podcasts. I think it's at around 300,000 something, so maybe the mid 300,000s, and that has gone up by about 100,000. However, there are two million podcasts out there in the world, so that just kind of shows you how many podcasters are giving up or walking away or only making a season or two and calling it quits at that point. Maybe they only wanted to do that many, but there are a lot of podcasters out there that are not continuing with their podcast, which means that the landscape is really open. It is not a saturated industry at all. So if you can show up and be consistent, you have got much more chance of making a bigger impact in your specific area with podcasting than you potentially would on YouTube or with a blog. So that is a really important distinction.

Donna Eade: 2:55

The other thing that I really love podcasts for is that intimate factor. So I've talked about it before, but it's worth stating again that podcasting is one of the most intimate forms of communication you can have with your audience, and that is just because of the nature of it. Majority of people are listening with their headphones in or they are listening on their own in their house, so yours is the only other voice they're hearing other than their own, or the cats, the dogs, or they're in their car and they're probably the only person in the car as well, or if there are other people in the car, they've probably got headphones on. So it is quite an intimate experience between you and your podcast listener. So that amplifies your know, like and trust factor quite quickly. Because it's like when you talk to a friend on the phone like the more you talk to somebody on the phone, the more you get to know them, the more you're going to trust them, the more you're going to trust them, the more you're going to like them hopefully, because you keep coming back to listen to them. So it's the same with podcasts that the podcast host is getting that know, like and trust factor from the listener. Because of the fact that they keep coming back and they keep listening, they learn a little bit more about you, they learn a little bit about what it is that you do. They learn you know, hopefully, value from the episode itself. So they will keep coming back and the more they learn and the more they get to know you, the more that builds that know, like and trust factor.

Donna Eade: 4:27

And it's just different from a video in terms of the reduction of senses used and I've stated that before as well. But with podcasting the person is only using their ears to listen. They aren't using any of their other senses, so it's quite focused, whereas if it's a YouTube video, you know there's a background. There may be another person on the screen as well, so the attention is diverted and shared over senses, which dilutes it a little bit. There is still value in video for building that know, like and trust factor being able to see you but obviously with the podcast, you have a podcast graphic that hopefully has your face on it. I would 100% recommend having your face on your podcast graphic. Especially if you're a personal brand or you're a small business owner. You do need to have your voice attached to your face. That is one of those connections that people like to have. It's like oh, now I know who is talking to me, so they can really start to build that rapport with you. But you get that obviously on video as well.

Donna Eade: 5:37

However, it's just not as intimate because, generally speaking, people will watch videos out loud. They're not usually got the headphones on. It doesn't really matter who else is in the room. It could be buzzing. With lots of people around, they can listen to it at any time, whereas podcasting is something that people do generally in a more solid, solitary place, like going for a run, doing the gardening, doing the washing up. All of these kind of solo activities is when people tend to listen to podcasts most, so it tends to have a bit of an upper hand over video in that respect. It tends to have the bit of an upper hand over video in that respect.

Donna Eade: 6:18

The great thing about podcasting as well is that it has very little outlay to it, whereas with videos you're going to need some sort of video camera. You could use your phone, and a lot of the high quality mobile phones these days do have good quality video. But I would say that if you want to do a better podcast with better audio than it is to do a subpar video with not great visuals and I'm talking to the lot of you out there that don't want to be on video anyway. So it's not even a question of whether you want to go on video, it's I don't want to touch video with a barge pole. So the outlay for a podcast is you need to look at your audio equipment, you need to look at your software and you need to look at your hosting of your podcast now the editing side of things, the software that you need for it. You can get software for free or very low cost, and there are other things that you can buy that are more expensive.

Donna Eade: 7:39

Then, with the equipment, you really only need a plug and play microphone. So a USB microphone. You can start with your phone headphones. I've said that before. That's exactly how I started, with my Apple headphones plugged into my laptop, and that's how I started. Was it the best? No, was it good enough? Absolutely, and there are other things that you can do around that microphone that help to make the sound better. Then you've got your first plug and play microphone, which is what I upgraded to about 50 downloads in. I think it was. I treated myself to a microphone and I will link it in the show notes for you if you want to go and check it out. In fact, I will link my kit that has all of my podcasting equipment in. This is stuff that I have got over the last four years. This is stuff that you don't need, everything that is on there, and I think I do explain to you when and why I got certain things in that resource. So go over and check out my kit resource in the show notes and you'll be able to see that. Or if you go to my website, donateecom, there is a resources page which will have all of it on there as well. So with the microphone it is less than £100, which is great, and it is a really good quality microphone for podcasting.

Donna Eade: 9:10

There are a few things that I do to set up for the podcast. If you checked out my reel from yesterday, if you're listening to this on the day of release, then you'll know exactly what I am doing right now. But yeah, I set up my room for the podcast in a way that helps create a better sound quality for the podcast episode. But you can do that too, so that doesn't cost you anything. Podcast episode, but you can do that too, so that doesn't cost you anything. So then you have your hosting and you can get hosting for free. Again in my resource library. I share with you my host over there. If you go over there and use that, you can get 90 days free hosting and I also think you get if you use the link that's on my website. You get $20 off when you do start paying. So that's almost two months worth of podcasting on top of the three months for free. So do go and check that out. I absolutely love my host. Never had any issues with it. They've always been great, customer service wise as well, but they the reason they're great is because they give you that three months free, so you can actually start for free, get it up, see if it's something that you want to continue doing before you actually spend any money on it.

Donna Eade: 10:29

So that is what I did. I didn't didn't buy microphone, I didn't pay for hosting. I just started podcasting, put it out there, did the three months, decided I wanted to carry on, paid for the hosting, upgraded my microphone and that is basically where I stopped. I haven't really done anything else. I did try the video podcasting for a while because I'm not bothered about being on camera, but it was just too much to handle to edit the two, because I know how important sound quality is on podcasting. So I was editing the podcast separate to the video cast and that was just too much work. So I decided to stop doing that. It wasn't giving me the benefits that I had hoped it would, so it wasn't worth the time to do it.

Donna Eade: 11:21

So that is why I love podcasting as a way to show up in your business without being on camera. It is a great way to really allow your potential clients and your audience to get to know you and to hear you and to get to like and trust you through podcasting. So it's a great option. Option two is going to video, because we all know that video is very, very popular right now. It is kind of the medium that everybody is leaning towards, and I understand it, because if you can create visually appealing videos that actually grab somebody's attention, then you're winning, because getting anybody's attention these days is really hard with the internet the way that it is, but you can show up on video without showing your face.

Donna Eade: 12:15

So there are a number of things you could do. I would highly highly recommend doing voiceover videos because that again allows them to hear you. So if they've seen photos of you elsewhere, they can put that face to the voice and they make that connection which just solidifies you as a human being in their head. So you can do that. You can do the voiceovers. You can do little behind the scenes.

Donna Eade: 12:43

If you're a product based business, you could do self packing an order. Just film you packing an order, so it's hands only doing the packing, and then you could do a voiceover for it and just explain what you're doing, what's in the order, etc. You could do that a day in the life of and you could just get film clips throughout the day again not with your face in, but you could then do a voice over to that. If you didn't want to do your voice, you can do the captions, but I would say that your voice is really important, that your voice should definitely be in there somewhere. You could could do slideshows so you could create graphics and create a slideshow as a video. So that's another way of you showing up and being there without having to actually be on camera. In those, if it's a slideshow that doesn't have your voice, so maybe you're putting some trending audio to it or music to it, then you could actually have your photograph in each of the graphics. So it'd be just sort of like branding, I suppose, with your, with your slides, and create a video that way.

Donna Eade: 13:53

There are a number of ways to use video without actually putting your face in front of the camera and talking to the camera. Obviously, if you're comfortable doing that, then that is a great option for you, but I specifically wanted to talk to those people that really don't want to put their face on camera right now don't want to be speaking directly to a camera in that kind of live environment. I think it is even if it's pre-recorded. People get nervous when the camera is in their face and they have to speak to it. So if you're doing a voiceover, you've already recorded it. You can do the voiceover. The camera's not pointing at you, you don't have to look at yourself talking. It just makes it a little bit more comfortable for some people. So that's a great way of getting your voice out there, getting what you do out there, but without having to put your face speaking to the camera out there.

Donna Eade: 14:46

And the third thing that I wanted to talk about was the classic blogging. So blogging and written content. So this doesn't just mean blogging on your website, but I would highly recommend blogging on your website if you're going to do written content, because the SEO purpose of that would be really good for your website. But you can do things like. Substack has become very, very popular lately. Medium is very similar to Substack is another one I did years and years ago, so you could do something like that. Linkedin articles is another great way to get written content out there, especially if your audience is on LinkedIn and that's where you hang out a lot. I would highly recommend you look at doing newsletters. Potentially a newsletter that is kind of a summary, a shorter version of a longer blog post that's on your website so you can send people to your website from that post, would be a good idea, so you can do a combination of both of them.

Donna Eade: 15:50

Now a lot of people would say, oh, should I even bother starting a blog Like it's 600 million blogs out there in the world, why? Why would anybody read what I've got to write? There is definitely something in that, in the fact that it is very competitive out there in the blogging sphere right now, compared to podcasting, for sure. However, you cannot underestimate the seo value of having those keywords on your website by writing blog posts and if you can get very, very specific and very, very niche and I'm not going to claim to be an seo expert, because I'm definitely not definitely go and check out my episode with jules white and connect with her if you want SEO help, but I would say that it is highly valuable if you can write good blogs that appeal to humans, that hit niche items, it is very much worth doing your research when it comes to what you're going to actually blog about, because that is what's going to make the difference If you can rank for a search term that isn't looked at very often but there's a good pool of people but there isn't much that's coming up in terms of it is going to be harder to get somewhere with blogging versus podcasting in the same sort of time frame, just because of the nature of it, and also you have to consider the AI factor in this.

Donna Eade: 17:40

People are searching for things on Google now and the first thing that is now coming up is Gemini's answer to it, which is often pulling from different people's blogs. You know different resources and it links those resources, but if the answer is in what somebody is reading that Gemini has taken from that article, then they're likely not to go to the article and see where it was sourced, unless it was something that needed to be sourced. So, for example, if I was looking at what are the ingredients in a particular food item or a smoothie or something, and Gemini gives me the answer to those ingredients, I'll go oh, so it does contain that. Okay, that's fine If that's. All I was looking for was if it contained a specific ingredient that I was trying to avoid or wanted to make sure was in there because of the nutritional value or something. Then if Gemini has said, yes, that recipe contains that, then I'm like, okay, that's fine. I'm not necessarily unless it is an allergy thing, I'm not necessarily going to go and check the source of that, because I'm going to have the answer that I wanted without going and check. And that is where you know we've got this issue with AI writing things and taking over in that way.

Donna Eade: 19:02

So I would still urge on podcasting as the option. But if you are somebody who doesn't feel comfortable speaking you know I'm not going to sit here and say podcasting is right for everybody, because it is not right for everybody H does then it is definitely an option. And if you can share it in the right places and get it in front of the right people, then it's not even about how you're ranking in Google. It's about people that you want to read it, being able to find it, seeing it and digesting it. So sharing it with your social following, sharing it in groups that you're in, you know, getting it out there in that way is going to help you to connect with the people you want to connect with over connecting with the whole world, which is not what we all want to do. You know we need to. We all need a certain number of people to purchase from us in our businesses to make our businesses work. We need X number more than that to come into our business and be in our world so that we can get those clients from that group. And it is not a whole world thing. So you know, we don't need hundreds of thousands of people to see our stuff to actually be successful. So that's something to consider as well.

Donna Eade: 20:32

When you're thinking, oh well, I'm never going to rank, you know, maybe you're in the bridal industry and you want to start a blog and you think, well, I'm never going to be as big as Rock and Roll Bride. Well, maybe not, but maybe you will be. Who knows? It really doesn't matter, because it depends on what you want out of it. You know, rock and Roll Bride has a very specific niche to it and it has a specific audience. Maybe your audience is different to theirs, but it is important to get your content out there. It is important to show people who you are and what it is that you can do and the knowledge that you have, who you are and what it is that you can do and the knowledge that you have. So blogging is a great option for you there as well.

Donna Eade: 21:17

So that was the three blogging video without your face in it. So doing those voiceovers, especially, and podcasting my personal favourite favorite if you are interested in starting a podcast, then I do have a couple of classes coming up in December that you will be able to find on my socials coming very soon, and I will link them in the show notes as soon as the registration pages are up for them. But I am having a new cohort of my start a podcast program starting on the 6th of January. So if you are interested in that, then do drop me a DM on social and I will put you in the right place for you to access that. So that is coming. I have one little bonus one for you of ways you can show up without showing your face that I wanted to leave you with, and that is coming. I have one little bonus one for you of ways you can show up without showing your face that I wanted to leave you with, and that is email marketing.

Donna Eade: 22:17

So the reason that I didn't put this in the beginning is because for email marketing to work, you need people to give you their email address. For people to give you their email address, you need to have reached them in the first instance. So the other three were ways that you can actually reach out to people to get them to give you their email address. So sign up for my podcast notifications, sign up for my blog notifications, or you know in the videos sharing freebies that they can go and download, and give you their email address. So those are all ways you can collect in emails. Now, email is really powerful because so many people have inboxes that are exploding with stuff. If you can become one of the emails that they actually really enjoy reading and has something that is worthwhile them opening that email for, then you have you're already, you know, high above many other emails in their inbox and then you actually get to speak to them and have a conversation with them and they can reply to it and it becomes a relationship between the two of you.

Donna Eade: 23:22

Whereas social media, blogging, podcasting, everybody is aware that I'm not just speaking to the person who is listening to this right now, so that's you. You listening to this right now. You are aware that there are other people around the country and the world because I have been listened to on all seven continents that are listening to this exact episode. Maybe not at the exact same time as you, but you know there are other people that are listening to it. So, as much as we are having a dialogue right now, where I am talking to you and I am really appreciative for the time and space you give me in your ear rolls every week there is the fact that there are other people that are listening as well, whereas emails when you receive an email, you are aware that that email is likely to have gone to their entire list, but when you email back to them, you know that that email that comes back from them is a direct email from them to you.

Donna Eade: 24:28

So if you were to reply to my weekly email and say, hey, donna, really enjoyed that episode, I would reply to you that's not going to everybody else, that is between me and you, and then that starts a personal conversation between the two of us, and that is really powerful, because that's when people really start to get to know who you are, the type of person that you are. You know how generous are you with the email. Is it a quick email that comes back? You are the type of person that you are. You know how generous are you with the email. Is it a quick email that comes back? You know, oh, thanks for that. And there's nothing else. You know, are you engaging with your audience in those messages and what value are you providing in the email? And if you can nurture those relationships in the inbox like that, then you are really going to have a great set of people who are ride or die hardcore fans of yours. That's what I was trying to say there Ride or die hardcore fans who will be there to support you, who you might even go out for coffee with, that you might meet at events that are excited to see you speaking somewhere.

Donna Eade: 25:41

You know, all of these things start to happen when you start having these personal conversations with the people who are coming into your world. And, you know, oftentimes I think we think, oh, my gosh, this is too overwhelming, there's going to be too many people to talk to. You know, I've got hundreds of people that follow me on Facebook. I've got, you know, hundreds of people on Instagram Like if they all try and start talking to me, I'm never going to have time for anything. The fact is that that doesn't happen. You know, it's a few people here, a few people there, and if you can nurture those relationships, what it does is create people who are actually willing to support you when you need that support.

Donna Eade: 26:20

So if you're promoting something and you send a message out and say, hey guys, I'm doing this, would love it if you would share it. You know, those ride or die people are much more likely to share it for you than somebody who is just on your Facebook. And that's great that they will do that, because they might not necessarily be people who are going to buy from you now or in the near future, but they could share it with somebody who might become a client now or in the near future. So never underestimate the power of relationship building. And that is what getting your voice heard is all about, and that is why I am so passionate about podcasting as a method of doing that, because if you can get your voice heard by the right people, then everything else falls into place. It is so, so important to amplify your message. Get it out there into the world because you're passionate about it. If you're passionate about it, if you can see that it can help people, then you need to share it. You need to share it. People need to listen to it. So that is it for this week, guys.

Donna Eade: 27:27

I hope that has helped you kind of take a bit of the fear away from actually producing content and feeling like you need to show up on camera face to face, because I know a lot of people promote that and I'm really against all of these gurus and you know business people telling you that it has to be done this way. It has to be done this way. It would be like me sitting here and saying podcasting is the only way to reach your audience these days. If you don't have a podcast, then you're not going to get anywhere. I'd never say that to you because it's not true. It's not true and there are a lot of people out there that will say these things to you because they want you to buy their thing.

Donna Eade: 28:07

Now, do I want people to buy my program? Of course I do. I want to have a successful business myself, but I want it for the right people, for the people who want to podcast, the people who enjoy talking, the people who want to amplify their message and share it with a wider audience and want to do it with podcasting. I don't want to try and convince everybody that podcasting is the only way you're going to ever have success. So you need to do a podcast, because then loads of people aren't going to create those podcasts. They might do my program but they're not going to actually produce a podcast at the end of it, and that would be really disappointing to me. So I would rather have the people that are really passionate about this as an opportunity for them and their business and a marketing tool that they decide. This is the one that I want to give a go to and go all in on and support those people. Then try and drag people to it, because I'm giving them false promises that it is the only way to succeed, because it's not. It's all about what you're comfortable doing and what you're passionate about doing and what you're going to put full effort into, because if you can put your effort into it and be consistent with it, then eventually it will pay off, because the people who want to find you will find you because you're always in the same place.

Donna Eade: 29:25

So that is it for this week, guys. I hope you enjoyed that. Please do give me your feedback this week, guys. I hope you enjoyed that. Please do give me your feedback. Underneath this episode you will see a text me button or a piece of text that says text me on my website. Just click on that, let me know what you thought and I will be sure to reply, or you can reply back to my weekly email if you get that. So that's it for this week. I will see you in the next one. Bye for now.