Jaimie Abbott: Well, my guest today is one of my PR club members and I'm so excited because this is probably one of the number one asked questions, and that is how to start a podcast. And my guest today to tell us all about how to do that is Tracey Cook. And Tracey is actually a former radio announcer, a podcast host, of course, a bestselling author and global speaker, and has spent the last three years interviewing over 300 people, including international celebrities. And she's been a featured guest on over 200 virtual stages and podcasts. She's Managing Director of her own podcast consulting agency called the Podcast Empire and she's also an advocate for women finding and sharing their voices of impact to others. In 2020, Tracey partnered with a local TV station to launch a podcast, and she soon realised that many women had stories to share as a global movement was born. Tracey advocates for survivors of lived experiences to rise up, be seen and be heard, and become our visionaries of tomorrow. Now when Tracey is not podcasting, she is typically found volunteering in community activities for women of abuse, and she's also a Nana to nine beautiful grandchildren. Now Tracey supports purpose-driven women in business to launch a podcast, amplify their messages of impact, and claim their voices. The podcast launch strategy program shows entrepreneurs how to become more confident in sharing their stories by leveraging a video YouTube podcast and a signature podcast repurposing strategy to build their business brand and influence. She's about to tell us more.
Please welcome Tracey Cook.
Tracey Cook: Thank you so much, Jaimie, it is absolutely awesome to be here. I'm loving the podcast and all the wonderful guests you're having on so much of value out there. And whenever I hear my bio read back, I think wow. So much has happened since 2020. And even in the podcast landscape, so much has changed and shifted, and the way video, the way podcasting is going at the moment is into video podcasting is a huge trend and there is a lot of demand to build personal brands through that.
So does that mean we have to put makeup on and can't just do it with no makeup and in our pyjamas? Like a slob because that's what people love about podcasting they don't have to worry about how they look or looking at the camera. They can just literally do it in their lounge room in their pyjamas and Ugg boots. Does that mean we have to now start dressing up because it's all about the video? Oh, absolutely.
It does. Absolutely. You know, audio podcast is still rising. It is never going to go away. We can sit in our pyjamas with no makeup on in our closet and record our podcast and there's definitely a marketing strategy for people with their own businesses especially or messages of impact that they want to share, to actually leverage that. What we've actually seen in the last year especially is platforms like Spotify for podcasters and YouTube is a real surge of brands heading to video podcasting. The expectation, I really believe Jaimie is of the audience is now we're meeting the consumer and the listener where they're at. So if they're at the gym, if they're walking their dog, if they're commuting, they can either watch or listen, there's more options for the audience. And they can maybe consume half a podcast and if they like it, then maybe they're listening to it and then they want to switch over and think, Oh, I really want to see what this person looks like. It's just such a great platform to leverage because people get to see your expressions, people get to see how you interact with people. What your message is, who you are beyond the sale, and people really get to grasp what makes you happy, what makes you tick, and really authentically we can't fake that right? Sometimes we could do an audio podcast and we can kind of fake that voice sometimes, that voice comes out and we can kind of pretend almost, but with a video podcast, it's like a lens that our audiences are viewing us through. We can't be fake anymore. We've got to be authentic. We've got to be real, and it shows more human connection.
Jaimie: Okay, well that's a good answer because then I can see I want to be more real, I can just wear no makeup and I agree, it's what I'm doing. Especially my solo past episodes, you know, I just find beauty and just sitting back and relaxing. Let's take a step back because some people who are listening to these may not even be at that video podcasting stage, they may be starting from scratch. They have no idea how to start their own podcast. So how, what's the first step? What do we do in starting our own podcast? Where do we go and how do we do it?
Tracey Cook: Right question. The most common question that is asked as well as you'd need to know what your message is. What message do you want to put out to the world? Is it for information, entertainment, is a message of maybe you've got a nonprofit and you want to share that message. Maybe you've got a business and you want to share that message. Maybe you just want to entertain people with funny jokes or stories maybe want to interview people to make an impact and change people's perspective. So really getting crystal clear on what your messages would be tip number one tip number two is knowing who your audience is. If we speak to everyone, we speak to no one and we want to be able to deliver that message that's going to transform, entertain, change perspectives, generate leads, whatever it may be, because it will look different for everybody. We want to know who exactly we are speaking to now been challenging many conversations of you don't need to niche down, you don't need to funnel down. And my challenge in those kinds of conversations is but how do you deliver a message it's going to land you know in the ears and the eyes of your ideal audience. And they say I have to connect with this person. I have to collaborate, network, do business with this person. You know, we hear this our vibe attracts our tribe. It is the same with podcasting. Podcasting can be part of your marketing mix and should be, it's an extension of your brand. It is who you are. It is what you stand for, what you won't stand for, and it is your own authentic personality. It is Sonic branding with your voice. So they are the first two steps that I would take if I'm starting a podcast. Number one just to recap was know your message and know what message you want to get out to the world and number two is know who you want to deliver it to.
Jaimie: Yeah, so when you've worked that out, what about the technical side because a lot of people get stuck but no, they want to put something out they might have their message down pat, the technical side of things, where, how do they do it physically, on technically how do they actually record it and get it out there into the world?
Tracey Cook: That is another popular question. A lot of people are like, Oh, I'm not techie. Oh, I couldn't do it. I'm a real advocate for outsourcing if you don't want to go and learn a new skill if you're time-poor, and if you want to if you're willing to invest into your podcast. Now there are lots of options. There are so many great recording platforms like Riverside, you can even record on Zoom if you want to. Smartphones are a great recording device. It is a very low-cost barrier to entry into the podcasting world. And as long as you have a great mic, I really believe in having a great mic. Whether that's a Blue Yeti, my favourite or any of all any of those. If you've got a great mic, if you've got a laptop and good Wi-Fi, you can definitely start a podcast. You grab your mic, you plug it into your laptop, you choose a recording platform like Riverside or Zoom or the Libsyn or there's a whole heap of them and then you record, you have a script. You know who your ideal audiences, you know what your message of impact is, and you press record, you fail forward imperfectly, and then you figure it out as you go along and have a tech side Jaimie? We don't need high tech, where the tech side comes in is the editing. And this is where podcasters will either give up, outsource, or figure it out. It'll be one of those three things. So if you're not interested in learning how to edit, go to Fiverr, go to Upwork, hire a freelance editor, the editor that's been with me for three years I've had them from Fiverr and now they personally work for me. I can just record my sessions, handed over and I get it back in a few days for a very low-cost fee. Now if that isn't feasible for somebody or people don't want to actually do that. There are so many platforms where you can record your podcast and edit it and upload it automatically. And it'll even repurpose the social media content and those can be Descript for editing. Audacity, very, very popular. So there are lots of very intuitive platforms where you can do your editing, even for the non-tech person. It is step by step. YouTube has lots of fantastic tutorials, or you can even hire a podcast management agency that will actually do the editing and uploading for you as well. It depends on what your needs are, what your budget is and what your time looks like in your day-to-day life.
Jaimie: Yeah, I love that message how you don't need to spend a lot of money and you could just do it on your smartphone. So I for those interested I use Kajabi to host my podcast now. And I record my solo episodes so this is not solo episodes. This is done on zoom right now. My solo episodes I use Camtasia and I just record straight into there, upload it to my Google Drive folder and my VA and we were talking inside PR Club in 2024 all about VAs my general BH does everything for me. She edits the podcast and then puts it onto Kajabi and then scheduled it and then it goes out to I think Google podcasts is still going on and they're about to not exist anymore, but then also Spotify and Apple podcasts as well. So that's a really great message. So with the videos, do you recommend this handing it all over to someone if you're starting out and don't want to learn or it's too high tech for you? Do you just hand it all over? I got, as a zoom. How do we record the video if you if that's kind of the way you're going to go with a video podcast.
Tracey: So with a video podcast, you could record on Zoom. There are certain settings you can set in Zoom so you reduce background noise. There's certain filters you can have backgrounds like the one I bought on here as well. There are a lot of benefits for Zoom and the great thing about Zoom is if you're doing an interview, you podcast a lot of people especially since the pandemic, are really familiar with Zoom. There is Streamyard there is Riverside, there are many, many there probably the top, top ones that are the most popular and the most used. You can record your Zoom, you upload it to your computer, or to an external hard drive or to a folder or to a Google Drive. And then like you said, if you've got a VA or you've got a management agency, they can actually extract that, edit it and return it to you.
Now you can actually choose a podcast host like Buzzsprout or Spotify for podcasters. There are many many, and you can upload that episode from your computer. So that is going to be distributed to all of the social or all of the podcast platforms. The most popular ones are apple and Spotify. Google podcasts. You're right Jaimie they're going away in 2024 YouTube music is going to his future prediction, right. YouTube music is going to be a hot trending platform. Especially for the surge in video podcast. And that is where we're going to see the biggest increase. So if you're developing a marketing strategy for 2024 and you're leveraging your new podcast as part of your marketing mix, I would definitely be promoting YouTube music for your podcast, along with Apple and Spotify. Once Google podcasts is removed, because we're going to see a lot of traffic going to those platforms and we're already starting to see that in the searches as well. What there is for those that like stats, there's 1.7 million podcasts globally 43 million Live episodes now are all of those active and active podcast means they've recorded more than 15 episodes because statistically, a lot of people will record episodes give up mainly because of the editing. That is the main reason why they give up that's why I’m advocate for outsourcing. And then we don't know how many of those are actually active and 70% of the latest stats of video marketers have a positive return on investment. And those stats come from video marketing stats guide, Motion Cue. So for those that are listening that like stats for their business, especially if you're thinking about starting a podcast once you know why you know who your ideal audience is, you're willing to outsourcing we're ready to learn that skill of editing because that's where most podcasters I don't like the word fail but they give up. Then this is where you need to be. This is a space where you can build your personal brand you can run your business, podcasting is is a business there is money to be made there. It can generate leads and sales you can sponsor your own shows, is great for connection. It's great for affiliate marketers you can share your link so you might do a video, podcast or audio podcast and you're talking about the latest gadget or software or microphone that you're using in your podcast episode. It may just be a mumble I use a Blue Yeti microphone. People will message you and say where do I get a Blue Yeti microphone and you can share your affiliate links. It is great for that you may talk about on your video podcast at Canva you might do a Canva tutorial just a short one. You can drop your Canva affiliate link in there. And there you go. You're earning commission from all of these different places affiliate commissions. And the great thing Jaimie about video podcasting is that once you actually upload it to YouTube, you can monetise that channel. And then you can take that video, podcast and repurpose the content to go out on all of the social media platforms. So you are omnipresent. So imagine this Imagine spending 15 minutes a week recording a podcast, uploading it to your audio podcast host upload it to YouTube. And then you can use tools like Munch or video vi d y o.ai. To drop that YouTube video link in there. And it will automatically repurpose your content with captions in your branding colors. Then you can put it on to your content scheduler and you're done. You're absolutely done. For the month for the week. Imagine the time you save imagine the amount of connection you can have. And then you're driving traffic with your product, your service, your opportunity your offer and that is literally how simple it is. You can extract that transcript from your episode, whether it's audio or video and you can tidy it up. You can have a blog from that there are over 15 ways that you can repurpose your podcast content. So we're not in this constant creator constant. What do I have to do? What content will I make today? You can do one podcast a week and you have got three months worth of repurpose content.
Jaimie: Yeah. Even better than that. You can batch it, you know having to do the 15 minutes every week. I like to batch I did 10 episodes this week alone. And that's kind of set and forget for almost three months. I love that.
Tracey: Absolutely and yeah, I'm a real batch person as well. I'd like to you know, especially for those that have got busy life because life happens and we get sick we go on holidays. We've got holidays, we've got things like that and you just dedicate an afternoon to just being laser focus, smash out your content and over to your VA or just sit there for a few hours and and edited or repurpose it pop it up onto your content scheduler I use Metricool which is fantastic. And you're done. You're just you can open you can relax because that content has been created. And then you can focus on just having those conversations. You can focus on, you know turning those conversations into conversions into your product, your service or your opportunity. And it all starts with knowing why you want to do a podcast, what your message is, and knowing who you want to listen to that message. Another great platform if your content if you're not sure what kind of content to create is a platform and Neil Patel's power platform. Answer the public.
Jaimie: Yeah.
Tracey: Go there to buy pen, start a podcast if that's what you want to create a podcast about and it will generate all of the all of the search term okay. Yeah searched word. I was looking for my second coffee for today. And all of these search terms that people are actually googling what if where can I find what do you recommend? And if you can download that as a CSV and you can have a whole year's worth of content, just from one end to the public search.
Jaimie: I love answer the public of course, you get three free searches a day. And I've used that since I've been an online business owner actually and you've just reminded me it's great. Sometimes you kind of get a little stuck for topics for your episodes, and including your blog post. It's always great to refer there and it's keyed into Google to so you can actually know live in the moment what people are typing into Google at that very time. So you know what's kind of trending search terms and everything.
So Tracey if people want to get in touch with you because they might want to better help better guidance on how to start a podcast and how they can really leverage their podcast remarketing perspective.
How do people get in touch with you?
Tracey: Head to my website traceyleecook.com
Jaimie: Easy as that thank you so much for coming under Pitch Perfect today and thank you. Again, I know you're in my world. You're a PR club member and it's great to see you every month and I'm really grateful for your time today.
Tracey: Thank you. Loving the podcast and loving absolutely everything that you're doing Jaimie and PR club is the best thing that I've ever done for my business. So thank you.
Jaimie: Thank you.
