We are all working to build our businesses and to be heard above all the other competitive noise. I have found that YouTube videos and podcasting were great tools that allowed me to reach more people, build my audience, share our knowledge and share my voice and personality.
I think that today with all the reality tv and craziness, people are craving real, honest people doing the real stuff.
Some people like to live vicariously through others and others like the inspiration to embrace things in life and just need that person to give them a nudge in the right direction. I feel we all have something to share – a God given gift if you will. By presenting ourselves in these lights and platforms we have the ability to reach so many more people and to get our message, inspiration, products, etc in front of the right people.
But how do you go about it? What if I am an introvert and I am scared to death to be in front of people?
One of the wonderful things about both videos and podcasts is that they do not need to be live, you can film & record them in your comfort spots and from the comforts of your own home. You also have the opportunity to edit them prior to them going live. It may take a little bit till you become comfortable in recording either one, but it is important that you don’t over think things and are not seeking total perfection. It is ok to want them to sound professional, but remember that you too are a real person and non of us are perfect! Keep it real!
“The Best Things In Life Happen On The Other Side Of Your Comfort Zone” ~ Tammy Trayer
Fear for many, can be debilitating and we are often afraid to take that first step. Once you step out of your comfort zone, doors will open and comfort will set in. You can do this!
What tools work best for the job?
I am a very frugal person and like to try to make due with what I have, but I also feel it is important to provide good quality materials. Because I wasn’t sure how things would go, I made due with what I had and found they were good tools and didn’t need to invest hundreds or thousands of dollars in equipment. I simply use my iPhone for recording my YouTube videos and for recording my podcasts as well. I have used an iPhone 4s and now have an iPhone 6s.
Let me break it down and share with you what I use for each to simplify things.
Podcasting
I have found the best tools for me are again my iPhone 6s and I use two different apps depending what I am doing. I use the app iSaidWhat?! if I am just recording myself. I have learned to pause for a couple of seconds in the middle of my recording in the event that I would like to add voiceover ads for my affiliates or sponsors. By doing so, it makes it much easier to edit my recording and find the break to simply add in my materials. I also invested no more than $21.00 for voiceovers on Fiver.com for the intro and extro of my show to make it more professional sounding.
I am a bit of an oxymoron, I live 100% off-grid in northern Idaho with solar power and our phones tend to be our biggest struggle so I have found for me that in order to interview a guest on my show, I need to call my guest using my iPad using either Skype or Google Hangouts because we do not have cell service or a land line out here and this works well. I then use my iPhone and place the microphone from my iPhone in front of the speaker of my iPad and simply record using the iSaidWhat?! App. If you need to worry about background noises in your environment and you intend to do interviews, you can purchase BossJock Studio app (At the time of writing this it was $9.99) and you will need to purchase something like the RecapMyCalls to allow your iPhone and iPad to be connected for flawless recording. The RecapMyCalls is $99.00 and I use my iPhone Apple Earpods with a mic versus spending several hundred dollars on a podcasting mic. I have had amazing results with this and if you would like to check out my shows you can find me on iTunes here or the archives on my website here.
The last phase of my podcast is editing and publishing. I use Audacity which is a free program to edit my podcasts and my website is running WordPress and I use the Blubrry PowerPress Podcasing plugin which automatically places my latest podcast automatically on iTunes. I also take my mp3 and import it into Camtasia which is my video editing software and create a video for YouTube. You can see an example of this here. So each podcast is on iTunes, archived on our website here and on our YouTube channel. I try to make the most of my time. Another tip for you is to turn your Facebook LIVE videos into an audio podcast! This is a fantastic way to use your time wisely and turn one thing into multiple resources!
If you do not happen to have an iPhone, these apps may be available for other smartphones. Additionally, Audacity can be used to also record in addition to editing and would also be a great way to get started with no extra costs until you are sure podcasting is for you.
Videoing
You will first need to setup a YouTube channel. I feel it is very important to brand yourself and use the same name across the board. For example our website is TrayerWilderness.com, our YouTube channel is TrayerWilderness and all social media accounts are the same as well. Again I use my iPhone 6s for my recording and I use my iPhone or iPad with the iMovie app or I use Camtasia on my laptop for my video editing. Honestly, most of my video editing is done using iMovie because of the simplicity of it. Again I created special intro and extro music and found my music at AudioJungle. I also try to create a special image to make my videos stand out versus allowing YouTube to pull one of my poor, very animated images from my video.
Because my videos tend to be longer and take longer to upload via my phone, I typically attach my phone to my laptop and pull the video off of my phone to upload to YouTube, but if you are doing short videos you should be ok with uploading from your phone. If you are on Instagram, you could also cut a 15 second clip as a teaser and upload it to Instagram or use the special image you created for your video on Instagram, either way be sure to include the link to your YouTube video.
Additionally, don’t forget to share your podcasts and video links on all social media and ask your friend’s and listener’s to share them as well. Also be sure to use good SEO keywords on both your video keywords on YouTube and in your title and in your podcast description and fields in Blubrry PowerPress.
This should give you a good place to start and I highly encourage you to step out of your comfort zone, you will surely reach more people and get your message in front of a lot more people!