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Episode 234: Amplifying The Female Voice with Betsy Wallace

In episode 234, we chat with Betsy Wallace about how the world needs more female voices to be amplified and podcasting is a way for the world to hear your voice and your message.

We cover information about diminishing hang ups to getting started, what is needed from a technical standpoint, why your blog and brand will grow from having a podcast and how a podcast can be a funnel to products, services and other offerings for your audience.

Listen on the player below or on iTunes, TuneIn, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast player. Or scroll down to read a full transcript.

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Guest Details

Connect with Capsule Podcast
Website | Instagram

Bio Betsy is  the co-host and producer of the Dinner Sisters Podcast, which has been downloaded 250k+ times, and has 13K downloads/month. She recently launched Capsule Podcast, which helps brands create a Capsule Podcast to build their brand without the overwhelm and commitment of a weekly show. Capsule Podcasts are a great way to promote a cookbook, launch a meal plan service, use as a lead magnet to grow your list or provide special bonus content to your community.

Takeaways

  • If hearing the sound of your voice is a hang up, then remember, people hear your voice all day long. Voices can be a source of comfort to others.
  • As humans, we like that connection. We like hearing people’s voices. 
  • Simple programs make podcasting easy. You can use programs within a suite you already have or there are easy to use programs available to learn (see below).
  • Learning to edit audio can be overwhelming when you first glance at it, but it’s like video editing – you learn quick and it goes fast once you’re in the swing of it.
  • You need a good computer and a microphone for equipment. Everything else is online.
  • Ways you can include a podcast into your brand and it will help you grow – networking, exposure, building new skills and creating an extension for your brand, pairing it with other services you offer etc.
  • Podcasting is not set up to monetize like a blog is so you have to find other value in it for you.
  • Discoverability is a challenge that exists within the podcast community.
  • Podcasts can be created to be done as a mini series – just a handfull of episodes.
    • Pair with an upcoming event – episodes on what you’ll be teaching on. People will have the information front loaded to them so they are ready to dive into what you’re teaching.
    • A short podcast series as a follow up to a live event as a companion piece.
    • Offer a podcast series as an internal or external launch of a product like a cookbook or ebook.
    • A book club guide for people to study something they’ve just read through with the author giving them information to think through and discuss.

Resources Mentioned

Adobe Audition – recording/editing a podcast episode

Skype – recording interviews

Audacity – an open source, cross-platform audio software 

Auphonic – voice mastering and leveling program

Buzzsprout – podcast hosting

Miss The First Episode?

Betsy joined Megan in episode 221 discuss what a capsule podcast is and why you should be interested.

Transcript

Click for full text.

Intro: Welcome to Eat Blog Talk, where food bloggers come to get their fill of the latest tips, tricks, and insights into the world of food blogging. If you feel that hunger for information, we’ll provide you with the tools you need to add value to your blog. We’ll also ensure you’re taking care of yourself because food blogging is a demanding job. Now, please welcome your host, Megan Porta.

Megan: Bloggers. Hey, I want you to know that I myself am a food blogger, so I understand the need to find those connections and find the answers and create transformations in my business that are actually going to matter and help me grow and make more money and get more traffic and all of those good things.

If you are interested in this too, the new Eat Blog Talk mastermind groups might be a great fit for you. Go to eatblogtalk.com to find the application that you can fill out for consideration. As Napoleon Hill, the author of Think and Grow Rich says about the mastermind principle, two or more people actively engaged in the pursuit of a definite purpose with a positive mental attitude, constitute an unbeatable force.

Unbeatable force. I love that. You can’t argue with that. Inside the Eat Blog Talk mastermind groups, weekly zoom calls will have the format of peer to peer learning with members taking turns being in the hot seat. Once a month, guest experts join us and they will unleash their knowledge about very specific topics relating to food blogging and being a small business owner and relating to ways that you can grow your business.

We convene every week, we share our struggles, our wins, and we can shine and lift each other up and provide resources and input that will help the other members in the group to grow their businesses and grow as individuals as well. Again, go to eatblogtalk.com to fill out an application for consideration.

What is up, food bloggers. Welcome to another episode of Eat Blog Talk. Thank you so much for joining us today. I am super excited to have Betsy Wallace with me for the second time on Eat Blog Talk. She is from Capsule Podcast. This time we’re going to talk about the power of the female voice. Betsy is the co-host and producer of the Dinner Sisters podcast, which has been downloaded 250,000 times and has 13,000 downloads per month.

She recently launched Capsule Podcast, which helps brands create a capsule podcast to build their brand without the overwhelm and commitment of a weekly show. Capsule podcasts are a great way to promote a cookbook, launch a meal plan service, use it as a lead magnet to grow your list or provide special bonus content to your community.

Betsy, I am so grateful that you’re here for a second time and I’m totally going to put you on the spot here, but we want to hear a second fun fact for you. 

Betsy: Now that I’m here twice, two fun facts. I had to think about this one for a little bit, but my fun fact this time, I think will be that I am married to a veterinarian and I grew up with no pets. We had a Guinea pig at one point, but now I have two dogs, two bunnies, for fish tanks and we have had chickens and we’ve had all sorts of different things. So I am in my second half of my life here living a very full pet filled life. 

Megan: So that had to be quite a transition, especially going from no pets to, oh my gosh. That’s a lot. How was that transitioning? 

Betsy: You know, it happens slowly. I credit my husband for his approach here because we had one dog and then we had two dogs and he had always loved having fish tanks. We had one fish tank and now the kids love the fish tank. So we have four fish tanks because each one has a little bit of a different setup and a different ecosystem in there. It has sort of happened slowly. All of a sudden I find myself in this pet store. 

Megan: Oh my God, that’s hilarious. I love that you’re like, I credit him for his strategy because if he would’ve just onslaught, given you all the pets at once, you probably would’ve been like, no thank you. But he did it slowly. He gradually warmed you up to the pets. 

Betsy: So now we have a full house. 

Megan: What’s your favorite pet? 

Betsy: My dog. We have a three, four year old corgi, a German shepherd mix, who’s a rescue. Then a 13 year old pit bull who is a late in life rescue. We got her about a year ago. She needed to be rehomed and she’s just super sweet. She’s her first pit bull we’ve had. I had never experienced that. Everyone’s said they’re such kind, loving, loyal dogs. We have really found that to be true. I’ve got three kids and she is just everyone’s grandmother in the house and it’s really sweet.

Megan: I love that. I know pets are great. We love our dog. He’s the best. They’re just so awesome. So thank you for sharing that, Betsy. Sorry to put you on the spot with fun fact number two, but you pulled it out. Just so grateful to have you here again. I know you were here just a few months ago and we had talked about this topic as a secondary thing.

I think it was after we stopped recording. We were like, oh my gosh, I just feel so passionately about talking about women’s voices, female voices and amplifying them through a podcast. Obviously you are passionate about this because of your own podcast and capsule podcasts that you started. So just all of that to say, thank you so much for being here a second time. We really appreciate it. 

Betsy: I’m happy to be here and it is something I’m passionate about and it’s fun to talk to a like-minded woman in podcasting. 

Megan: Yes, it is an important medium, I believe. I feel just so strongly about women needing to speak up more just about the things that we feel the world needs to hear, and that can be different things from each of us, but I believe that our voices are so important and that we need to be heard. I know that previously the podcast world was a very male dominated place. It is becoming more women heavy. You sent me some stats actually that I was reading through and I was glad to see at least the numbers are rising, but with this being such a popular medium for delivering information and podcasting is not going anywhere, it’s getting more and more popular.

I just think what better way to share our voices than through podcasts. Because people like that audio and they like just going for a walk and putting in their earbuds and listening to audio. So take advantage of these women. You guys have something to say, you have a voice, so we need to deliver our passions and our information that we want to share through podcasting.

So we’re just going to have a discussion about that. Betsy, I know that a lot of women listening might have hang ups or objections to why they shouldn’t or can’t. They might believe they can’t start a podcast. So, what do you think some of those hang ups might be? Let’s just kill the hang ups so that people can be like, okay, well I clearly need to start a podcast. What are some of those? 

Betsy: I love this because it can be overwhelming to start something new. I currently have a hangup with doing Instagram reels and I know some people love that. I think anytime you try to do something new, it can just feel overwhelming, even if it feels simple to someone else.

So we had talked about this a little bit, and I think one of the first hangups I hear from a lot of people and always is a little bit difficult is maybe you’re worried about hearing your voice on a podcast. It’s so common. One thing I tell people who are producing or recording a podcast for the first time, is that people hear your voice all day long.

I mean, they hear your voice in telephone conversations. If you are on video, if you are doing reels, if you’re on Instagram live, if you’re talking to your clients. If your people hear your voice and they’re not shocked by it, it’s a normalized thing to everyone but you. So that makes me feel more comfortable. You know what? I talk to a lot of people every day and those people must like hearing my voice because I don’t have real time feedback where people are cringing when they hear it.

Megan: Right, every time you talk, they’re like, oh, Betsy’s talking. No, it doesn’t go like that. That’s such a great point because then when you hear someone else say it, even my boys, if they record their voices and they hear it back, they’re like, oh my gosh, that’s so bad. You guys, your voice is amazing. We hear the people’s voice that we like, and we think it’s great. I think all the voices of people who I love, there’s nothing grating about their voices. So yes, people hear us talk all the time, every day. So if they’re okay with it and they’re not falling on the ground and cringing, then we’re probably good. So we can check that one off the list. 

Betsy: Yeah. I have a friend who is a weaver and she was doing some Instagram videos where she was setting up her loom and it was her first time doing an Instagram video like that. The first time she recorded it with no voice and sent it. I said, do you know, why don’t you just talk through what you’re doing? Because people love to hear your voice. She made the video with the second one with her talking through and all of the comments were wow. It was so nice to put a voice to your work. I loved hearing this and it just affirmed everything that I know about podcasting and you know about podcasting and we know about voice, is that as humans, we just like that connection. We like hearing people’s voices. 

Megan: Oh, that is such a great point too. Because you can send out emails, you can send out years worth of emails that people read, but it’s not the same thing as when they hear your voice; when they hear the inflection and the sincerity and the warmth come through. So those elements are so important for people to actually connect with. And there might even be something about our voices that people are drawn to that we don’t even know about. I get that a lot. People will say, oh, I really like how your warmth comes through and I’m like, oh. I’m 46 years old. That was never something that I thought when I heard myself talk. So it’s really interesting to hear people tell me that. So now you get new news about what your voice says to people. If that makes sense. 

Betsy: I podcast with my sister and we have all the time, people saying, I just feel like I’m the third sister or I just feel like I know you all. It’s just a funny onnection when you use your voice. I’ll say I was not anyone who did anything voice related before this. So I don’t have a background in public speaking or even teaching or something where you’re really using your voice a lot like that.

The first couple of episodes, I edited my own podcast. It was a little bit disconcerting. To tell you the truth, because you just, it’s always a little bit surprising. Right? Now it’s just so normal to me that it doesn’t phase me. So I think if it does sound surprising to you the first time you hear your voice, that’s completely normal. It just kind of goes away.

Megan: You will get used to it. What you might think is like, Ooh, a little bit grating is actually probably endearing for other people. The more you put your voice out there, the more feedback you’re going to get. I love the fact that people tell you that they feel like the third sister, because that tells me that your voices are comforting to them. It’s a really comfortable, safe space for people. So they feel like they’re a part of your circle, which you couldn’t do that. You can not produce that same feel in an email. That is only because of your voices. 

Betsy: It’s pretty amazing. And it was, again, like you said about having feedback that you have a warm voice or a voice people. We were so surprised to hear that because we produced this podcast, which is where we try dinner recipes every week and talk about it. We just didn’t think it would have the effect that it does. I think it is because of the voice. 

Megan: Absolutely. I 100% think that that’s true. Okay. What are some other objections? I think maybe we could talk about things like tech, right? Because I know a lot of people are like, well, it just sounds so techie. I don’t have those tech skills. There’s no way I could figure it out. I just want to eliminate that issue too, because it is not so techie. So do you have anything to contribute to that Betsy?

Betsy: I do. I think it would be useful if you and I both talk about how we put our episodes together because I think it might be different. I mean, it’s a little bit different for everyone. Do you use an editor? 

Megan: I do, I use Adobe audition to record my track and also to do editing. 

Betsy: Okay. You don’t outsource editing, then. You do it yourself.

Megan: I do it myself and I can talk about why. So I did outsource for a little bit, and honestly it was more work for me to upload the audio and tell the editor what I wanted to change. If there was an issue or a mistake or too many ums or likes, like I’m saying right now, it just was so much work to do that. Then we would go back and forth a couple times. It is so much easier for me to just run back through it and do the editing. So I have a process where if I say something wrong, or if my guests says something wrong, I hit a hotkey on my keyboard to show me where that is, and then I just go back and I edit it immediately after I’m done. So when we’re done recording here, I will immediately go back and edit the episode in 10, 15 minutes. It takes me no time, kick it out, send it to my VA and she runs it through a transcript. She runs it through to get a transcript made and then it’s super simple. So what do you guys do for that? Do you use an editor? 

Betsy: We do not. We do editing in-house and sort of for the same reasons. I guess it just really depends on your style and what kind of show you’re producing in your comfort level, because I do edit podcasts for other people and I’ve had different levels of involvement.

Because some people are just happy to record the interview. Get a clean cut and send it back and they’re fine. It just depends on how much control you want over your episode. So I’ll speak to what we do for the Dinner Sisters, which is our weekly show, if we record on a squad cast. We’ve used a couple of different things. We are recording now on Skype. So I think either platform is great. I mix the tracks and then I put it in audacity, which is a free editor, digital audio workspace. I really tell people, once you have that downloaded and up, it looks a little bit intimidating. Seeing those audio files for the first time, all the waves. But if you can cut and paste, you can really do most podcast editing yourself because I will take out mistakes. Things that we don’t want in there. Then I run it through Auphonic, which is a voice leveling and mastering program; it’s online. So once I get everything cut out that I don’t want in there, and I get my clean episode and I’ve put a little bit of music in the front and a little bit of music in the back, then I put that through Auphonic and that you just buy hours.

So if I buy like 10 hours and my episodes 20 minutes, it’s really pretty cheap to do that. It comes out leveled, which means you’re not going to get that up and down where the volume isn’t great. I know that’s some people’s hesitancy because you listened to podcasts that are. Just the voice sound is all over the place and you’re turning the volume up and down and it’s just tinny and terrible sounding. There’s a lot of programs now that will get you to like a 90% really great podcast without hiring an audio engineer. So we use Auphonic and then we upload it into Buzzsprout, which is our podcast host. 

Megan: Nice. I’ve heard great things about Buzzsprout. Libsyn is what I use for hosting. I know they’ve been around for ages, so I think they’re no fail; you can count on them. It seems overwhelming. I agree seeing that audio file for the first time, it’s like, what, I don’t know anything about audio. As food bloggers, we’re used to video and photos and visual things. But audio might just seem overwhelming, but it’s really not. I will say that the first few times, the first 20 times at least, that I edited my own audio. It took me a long time. So there is a learning curve, but it goes fast. Once you get it down, it’s just like video editing. Kind of compare it to that.

Once you get down, it’s so fast and you get faster every time. So I don’t know. I used to go back and eliminate all of the ums. I would go through very nitpicky, going through each word. Now I’m like, you know what? Nobody cares. People want to hear a conversation. If I’m taking out every single bad word, that just makes it not as authentic.

So I just let the conversation flow. Yes, I say it too many times. There are things I say too much, but whatever, like just more grace with myself comes out too. What about you guys? Do you edit out the ums and the likes or do you just let it flow? 

Betsy: We mostly let it flow. We’re producing a weekly show. So a lot of the bulk of our work comes from making the recipes. So I can’t then go and spend another five hours editing this show. So we have found, we do a pretty set show flow every week. We use a script, we outline what we’re going to say beforehand.

So we have the recipe notes from the things we’ve cooked, and that helps us. Really, our show will come out almost exactly the same time. It’s about 25 minutes every week. We have an intro that we just read in. So the intro’s right into there. We go through our different sections that we like to hit. We read our outro and then the same with you. That takes me maybe 20, 30 minutes to edit because we want to keep it conversational. I did at first try to go in there and surgically take out every like, every every, I was so embarrassed that I wouldn’t sound professional and great and was really worried about little background noise, the nitpicky.

The more we do this and also in these editing groups and Facebook that I’m in, just all these podcasts editing groups, a lot of the talk in there is about how, as you progress and grow as an editor, you also do less editing because that authentic sounding conversation is more appealing in the end.

So that’s something I’ve learned. If I would go back and do it again from the beginning, I would definitely give myself advice to just relax and give myself a little bit more grace and just be more confident, that what we recorded is great. 

Megan: Oh, that was so well said. I love the fact that you used the word surgically to describe that, because that is exactly what I did too. I was cutting and clipping things out just here and there. It was ridiculous. If you listened to my first 10 or so episodes of Eat Blog Talk, you will hear that. I even cut out breaths, which is just ridiculous. I was taking so much time, like a surgeon, just cutting little pieces and you can tell, it sounds very weird and now I just, whatever, let it go.

So that would be one of my pieces of advice too. If you are starting a podcast, don’t worry about that because people know you were starting a podcast, you were probably a novice and it’s okay. Everyone is going to have grace with you, and they’re going to be with you on the journey and watch you evolve and grow. So it is okay to not be perfect.

Betsy: We always joke. We have our episode two. I tried to take those breaths out. It sounds crazy. 

Megan: I’m the same. I have this one episode that was really good. Alyssa Brantley, I think she’s episode number two or three. She had the best information to share about working with brands. So I’ve actually replayed it because she had such great information, but I sound like a complete idiot because I’m dumb, taking everything out and it is just stilted and weird. Every time I hear it, I think, oh gosh, I hope nobody notices that. But clearly they are. You can’t not notice it. So yeah, just let it go. Let it flow. A couple other things I wanted to mention are just equipment so that people aren’t overwhelmed. The equipment is so minimal. So I literally have this microphone that I invested in. Maybe $70 in, and it plugs directly into my computer. So it has a USB cord. Nothing fancy. That really is the extent of my hard equipment. That is all you need. Because when I got started, I was like, do I need a mixer? I didn’t know if I needed something fancy that I didn’t know anything about, but you don’t. You need a microphone, probably earbuds or headphones, which you probably already have. Then some way to record two tracks. So I use Audition. You use Audacity. I recorded my second track through Skype, which is super slick and easy. I did not need any training. I figured it out and that’s it. 

Betsy: One of my questions, I also just only have my USB plug in mic here that has been a workhorse, also spent 70 bucks on it or something. We’ve been doing this for three years now. I could probably upgrade my equipment. I am not sure that’s completely necessary. I know a lot of food bloggers feel the same way. You could have a really expensive camera, but if you don’t know how to use it, it’s not that valuable to you. So I would say start with just an entry-level mic, something that can plug in USB and then you’re good to go until you want to upgrade and figure that out. Using audition, is that part of the Adobe suite? Are you in Adobe for the rest of your work? 

Megan: Yes. Yes. So I use Adobe a lot and yes, it is part of the suite, the creative suite, if you like the package. I was very excited to see that because I didn’t know. I was like, oh, is this going to be extra? But no, it was a part of it. So it was really nice. It’s great. I mean, I’ve had no issues with it. 

I know a lot of people use it. I don’t use the rest of Adobe products, because I am just not in design or photography, but I know a lot of people in food are. So if it’s just right in there, that is really easy. 

Yeah, absolutely. So that’s a selling point too. Honestly, if anyone is listening and wants to start a podcast, if it’s been on your mind and the tech is a hangup for you, send me or Betsy an email and we can talk through anything. Because I know when I started, I was a little overwhelmed by that too. But once you get started, I promise you, it is not overwhelming. It’s super easy, especially for you amazing food bloggers who can figure anything out, like in 10 minutes. You’ve got this. Let’s talk about how this platform, having a podcast can build our brands and add such value to our businesses.

I think this is a really important point that people discount. I believe that starting a podcast can totally transform your business for the better. What do you think about that, Betsy? 

Betsy: Yeah, I do too. For reasons that aren’t immediately obvious, we’ve talked about this a little bit and the power that comes with just being part of the podcast community and making connections and being able to network and have another platform for your voice. There are some really interesting ways you can include a podcast into your brand. One thing I would say is that all of those other ways that podcasting will help your brand grow, like networking and exposure and building new skills and creating an extension for your brand where people can come in and interact with you more, or go deeper with you in your community, I think that’s all really valuable right now. I think starting a podcast to monetize it the way you would monetize a food blog with advertisers, is pretty tough still. Would you agree with that? I

Megan: Yes. I agree. You can’t expect to come into podcasting and say, I’m gonna get sponsors. It doesn’t exactly work like that. I think once you’re in, you realize that there’s a much different kind of model and it’s more about just providing free value that’s super valuable and quality. That from there you start networking with people and like you said, Betsy, you become part of this amazing community and you monetize a little bit differently than what normal food bloggers would think through as far as monetizing. But my husband from an outside perspective is always like, why don’t you have sponsors? No. Once you’re in, you just see that it works so much differently. Don’t you think? 

Betsy: I think so. That was something that I had to learn, because I think there is a lot of noise out there, which kind of sells podcasting as growing your show into a Joe Rogan situation and then making a million dollars on your Spotify deal. That’s such an anomaly. Also, it’s just not the way most podcasters function and the value that comes from their show. I guess a few examples that I know off hand. There’s Didn’t I Just Feed You, which we’ve talked about before, it’s Megan Spline and Stacy Villas, and they are food writers and cookbook authors, and they have a podcast talking to families. They have a membership that goes along with that podcast with a couple of brand sponsorships, but that membership is one way that they’re supporting their podcast. There are people who offer services, who are using their podcasts as a platform to let people know what they do. I had been working with a woman who has a marketing and PR group, and she is doing six episode seasons.

In each season she is having one of her, I guess, subcontractors, for lack of a better word, but specialists within her business, talk about how they work together to help you build your book brand. So I did a season with her on podcasting and how that could build a book brand. I am producing and editing her second season, which is with her graphic designer. They are talking all about how they work together to develop a brand and all of your graphics and that thing for your book. So they’ll produce six episodes with the two of them. I think it’s just an amazingly strategic way to use the podcast because then I’ve now listened to six episodes and I really want to work with Stephanie and Madeline on my brand because they’ve shown me their expertise through these six episodes.

I get this front-loaded information about what it means to build out a book brand. Then I know these two are the people I want to hire to do that. So I think there’s just so many really cool, different ways you can use this, not necessarily just bring on a sponsor. 

Megan: Exactly. Coming into it, you don’t understand that until you start delivering the value, getting people to know, like, and trust you. It’s almost like the podcast becomes part of the funnel. So it leads people in and people start loving you. They get connected with your voice. They love you. Then you can start talking about all of these amazing things that you offer. Anything you have created as far as products or a service, like you mentioned that membership or mastermind groups, even affiliates. If you find an affiliate that really aligns with your audience. You can use that as kind of a quote sponsor or a next piece of your funnel. So there are so many different options for getting money, revenue, that don’t have to be getting sponsors. You’re right, like Joe Rogan. People assume that oh, Joe Rogan does this.

He gets these amazing deals. That is definitely an anomaly and not the structure that you probably will do starting a podcast. But yeah, I love talking through that. Just so people know that it’s not one size fits all either. You might get in and really dig into affiliates, or you might have a membership to offer right off the bat, but it really is about just getting in and getting your voice out there first and seeing what resonates with your audience.

Betsy: I will say to you that one of the issues, perennial issues that has not really been solved in podcasting, is discoverability. There is not a well played sort of blueprint or strategy for growing your podcast to a Joe Rogan size. So I know a lot of differences, the way people are doing websites or blogs and things like that. We know what Google looks for. We have all of these different metrics to grow our site, because we know XYZ works. If you are consistent and you excel at these things, then you will grow this site. Then you can get to this point and then you can work with these sponsors, and then you can sign on to this agency. There’s sort of this step-by-step that if you can execute, you have a high chance of success, not guaranteed obviously, but you have a higher chance of success. There’s sort of a path you can take. That just is not the case in podcasting. There is not an algorithm that we’re working with. There is not one way to sort of start from zero and just grow. I mean, would you agree with that? I mean, there’s not. 

Megan: Yeah, I totally agree. I kind of like that because our food blogging space is so filled with algorithms and what works and what doesn’t and what you should be doing. Here in the podcasting world, it’s so different. I like the change actually. It’s really nice but yeah, you said that really well. I totally agree with that. It is just a refreshing new platform. It’s a new medium to deliver value. I just love podcasting. Networking, in my opinion, is one of the biggest positive things that you can take away from podcasting; you will meet so many people.

So not only are you meeting guests, if you do an interview style podcast, you’re connecting with all of these guests. But then I always ask my guests, do you have anyone else who would like to be on my show? Do you think anyone else would be a good fit?Sometimes I get connected that way to other people. There are certain guests that you just really connect with and you work on with other projects. I know you guys do mostly just you and your sister. Do you ever interview other people? What do you feel about the networking aspect of it? 

Betsy: We do interview people. We also have a segment called pro tips where it’s a shorter five minutes episode. A lot of our listeners will send in little voice messages. Yes. It’s amazing. There’ll be things like I always use a shower cap to raise my bread because it keeps the moisture in and this is just something my mother-in-law taught me and they will send us a little voicemail and we’ll put a little intro on it and outro on it. Then we’ll have a five minute episode. Also, that’s been a really fantastic way for us to connect with authors or bloggers or people who want to get a little bit more exposure, but maybe don’t want to deal with the hassle of scheduling something. So we’ll just say, send us a tip, like a three to five minute tip about your book you have out or something like that. We’ll put it together in an episode. That way they only have to send us a voice memo from their phone, which is a super easy way to connect to a network with people because they’re grateful for allowing them to get on the air, get a little bit more exposure. It’s just a nice way to be able to be a part of this community that we’re in.

For us, that’s the food world. So the guests that we get, which has been a really interesting journey here, is that they’re authors that are out on cookbook tours, mostly. We now have a good relationship with the publishers. The publicists at 10 Speed and at Clarkson, Potter and Penguin, and we’re just on their list of people. We’ve made these really great relationships with these publicists and we’re getting amazing interviews and really great people on our podcast because we have just an easy structure to work with and we are professional and are able to host these people and get them on the show and provide them the exposure that they’re wanting for their book. Then it also provides our audience a ton of value. So we’re pretty streamlined that way. I would say 95% of our interviews come from publicists from the publishing houses. 

Megan: I just think, tell me if you agree with this Betsy, but I feel like relationships and people are everything and not just in the podcasting world, but if you are really wanting to grow your business in a big way, relationships are everything. What do you think about that? 

Betsy: Oh, definitely. Having a podcast is a really great way to build relationships because as you know, Megan, people want to get on podcasts. So it is something that you can do for people, especially if like us, we love our show. We love our community and we love our audience. So having someone on there, who’s going to bring value. It’s just a delight and a joy and it helps them out. We have been able to now forge this larger network in a way that doesn’t feel forced. It feels like we’re able to give a lot of value and it just feels good. We have these great relationships with people because of the value we’re able to bring to the table. 

Megan: Relationships lead to opportunity, not just for us, but for them as well. It’s a win-win situation. We are helping them. Any guests that I have on, I am happy to share about their products or any services, and that is a win for them, but it’s a win for me because my audience gets to hear all of the amazing value that they have to share.

Down the road, they might be like, oh yeah, I remember Megan talked about this and they might have an opportunity for me, or I might have an opportunity for them. So it’s like those relationships that we build through our podcast, are opportunities waiting to happen. I mean, I could probably make a total separate episode just for this. I feel so strongly about just the more people you can get into your circle, the better off your business is going to be. 

Betsy: Podcasting is a great way to do it. It’s just easy. It feels creative and completely different from working on a website.

Megan: I agree. We get in our ruts, the food bloggers are just in this groove and it’s great. We get a variety of things, but we do look at our websites quite a bit, and social media. So just to have a little bit of a break from that.

I have to talk about this too, Betsy. Women have messages to share. We’ve got things to say. I love the topic of just the female voice, putting your voice out there into the world. How long ago was it that women weren’t even allowed to do much of anything, be in a workplace. Now here we are in 2021, we can put our voices out into the world through a podcast, and it is important for us to speak.

We have things to say and to share with people. I love just that topic in itself. We’ve kind of taken care of hangups you might have, and hopefully you checked all of those worries off your list. Now, you have something to say. So what are some of the things that food bloggers could deliver to their audiences or maybe even a new audience? Do you have any ideas for food bloggers, Betsy? 

Betsy: I do. I have a list of ideas here in buckets, because I had mentioned before that I’m working with a woman, Stephanie Fager, who has the Empower PR group. We have been helping authors develop podcasts to go with their books or their book journey. So I’m going to send Megan that link to those episodes. There’s six episodes on how you can use the podcast to support a book launch, and you can listen to those. But also we’re going to go over a couple of ideas here and then maybe you can tell me, cause you’re so much more familiar with the food world, maybe if it sparks anything with you. All right. So one thing we’re seeing a lot of is using a podcast, like a short mini series. That’s one thing I specifically feel passionate about because Capsule podcast is my editing business. We do six episode mini series so that you set yourself up to succeed by trying a limited edition mini series first. So these fall in that bucket as a way to get started. So one thing we’re seeing is people who have an event, like a cooking class, or maybe even we had talked about in-person things. If you’re going to a library to do a cooking demonstration, or you’re doing something locally, you can use a podcast to either front-load people with information, which means have them listen beforehand so that when they come to your event, they’re hearing things again for the second time, which is something we use in education and is really effective.

You have a way to process the information first, and then when you get there, you’re having the experience. Then maybe you can go back and listen again. Similarly also to leave behind. So it’s just kind of a companion piece to a live event or training. That doesn’t have to go on every week. It can just be something to experiment with. Here are a couple of episodes that go along with this specific training. To me, this feels like something that’d be really useful. I’ve had a couple of relatives that have had to change their diet for whatever reason and that can be overwhelming. If you have diabetes or you have a cancer diagnosis or something like that.

I know there are a lot of people who are working through nutrition and food spaces in that and doing training and classes and things. I think it would be really valuable to have a companion podcast to go along with those training sessions. 

Megan: You said so many great things. So I love your idea about doing a mini series to start, just to test the waters. I love that because people think, oh, I got to go all in and do episodes forever, but it doesn’t have to be like that. By the way, you can start like 10 different podcasts. It’s super easy to do a bunch. You don’t even have to stick to one. You don’t have to find the perfect name and perfect logo, test it out. Test a handful of them out just to see. Betsy’s mini series idea is a great way to do that. Front-loading oh my gosh. I love that. What a great idea, because people devour information in different ways. So if you’re giving them audio about something that maybe you’re going to do on video. So they have to listen and then they come to your video already prepared. They’ve already heard you talk through something; they’re going to be even more excited to see you in person. So I absolutely love that idea. I’ve never thought of that before, but I love it. Then the diet thing too. That’s great because so many people right now are having to go gluten-free or dairy-free or whatever it might be.

So you could do a mini series just on that; talking to people about diet changes and how to work through that. Possible food and recipe ideas, maybe the emotional part of it too. Here’s what I experienced. This was really hard going to family gatherings. Here’s how you navigate Thanksgiving dinner, things like that. These are all great ideas that I had not thought about. These are amazing ways for food bloggers to get into the world of podcasting. Is there anything else you have? I love your idea, you and your sister. I actually use your example. I talk in Clubhouse rooms every Friday with food bloggers. I talked about you guys a few weeks ago. 

Betsy: If you haven’t listened to the previous episode, my sister and I cook three dinners a week from popular food blogs. We always use recipes we like, we know will work. If we come across something that doesn’t, we just don’t use it because we don’t want to drag people out on the podcast airwaves. My sister is single and cooks for herself and I cook for a family of five. So we have two different perspectives. We make those three recipes and then we share the links to them in the show notes. Then at the end, we chit chat. We talk about tips. What’s going on in our life, more personal information. It usually revolves around something that we did in the episode. So if we’re making soups, we’ll share our favorite soup tips or things like that, or some listener tips that have come in. I think it’s funny because this came up when we were talking beforehand, but a lot of people will say food doesn’t translate to the podcast space because it is so visually heavy. I have a funny story about this. So when we first thought that we were going to Joe Rogan this show and just blow it up and get all the downloads and then monetize with a sponsor. That was what we thought podcasting was when we first started, which I think is super common. 

I was pitching people, sponsorship packages, and I took Jenny Melrose’s course, which is great for food bloggers and thought, okay, I’m going to translate it to the podcast space. This will not be that difficult. It did not exactly translate as you can imagine. A wonderful, really great information, but people were not ready for this, in the podcasting space. This was probably two years ago now also. So it has changed a little bit, but I had got on the phone with a tofu company and the person on the other end was saying he had an assistant who was younger and knew more about podcasts. It was a more seasoned salesperson executive on the other end, brand manager. I love podcasts. I absolutely love podcasts. I’m all about podcasts. I think we should get into podcasts. I think this is amazing. I don’t think it’s going to work for food. We have 10, 13,000 downloads a month. People who are listening to this podcast for a half an hour.

I mean, it’s not like they see an Instagram post in 15 seconds and scroll by it. I mean they are in it for a half an hour, listening to us talk about food. That’s a lot of people who tune in to listen to what I had for dinner this week. Clearly these are not small numbers. This is working. He said, well, I hear what you’re saying, but do you think we can send you a t-shirt with our logo on it? You could take a picture and put it on your Instagram. I was like, what? That meeting was sort of pivotal for us because we thought we’ve got to find a different way to do this.

I know and believe that food translates in the podcasting space. It does because there are a lot of food shows out there. But I think that speaks to maybe, let’s get creative and use some of these other ideas rather than talking to the tofu company who just wants me on Instagram with the t-shirt.

Megan: Oh my goodness. That is a great story. 

Betsy: Getting back to other ideas here. One of the things that we had talked about, which I think is really great, I hadn’t thought of, is if you have self published a cookbook, if you have a cookbook, if you have an ebook, you can do both an internal and external launch of that book. So an internal launch would be, if you could make a podcast and say, the cookbook is coming out soon. If you want to sign up for my special preview, launch team early release, you can release recipes, behind the scenes stories, chapters from your book, just interesting special information to those people so that when you’re ready to launch it to the world, your super fans have all of this great background information, and they’re really excited to tell people more about your book. That makes them feel special.

It’s on a different medium, and it’s just a really cool way to connect with people before as a pre launch to a book or really to any product. Then your external launch, kind of the same thing. If you’re planning on doing a podcast tour for your book launch, which a lot of people do, you’re going to go out there and get on all the podcasts. You can have just a little mini series for people to come back to, to listen to more about your cookbook. Whether it’s traditionally published, self published or an ebook, you can use a mini series to create a lot of extra buzz around that.

Megan: What a fantastic idea. I absolutely love that. I love it. Because we deliver visually. We are so used to that. We’ve got to put amazing graphics together in Canva for Instagram and spread the word visually in an email in our newsletter. But how about delivering that through audio. I loved your idea of behind the scenes. Maybe giving a glimpse of what actually goes into the cookbook fails. Oh my gosh, you’re not going to believe what happened to these cookies today or whatever. Hearing that through an audio platform with somebody’s voice saying it is so unique. You do not have to settle on one thing. There’s a big podcaster who I love, Cliff Ravenscraft. I don’t know if you’re familiar with him, but he’s a mindset coach, podcast guru.

He is amazing. He uses these little, what you call mini series, to deliver everybody back to his main podcast. He creates so many. He has one in Lord of the Rings. He has one on the Twilight saga, different TV shows and that he watches and books that he reads. , he’ll mention his main podcast and he’ll say, if you’ve enjoyed this, if you like the way we deliver and you want to hear more business information, go to my main show, Cliff Ravenscraft show. That is such a smart way to talk about the things you want to talk about and talk about your products, but then maybe use them as a funnel to get people back to whatever you’re wanting them to go to. 

Betsy: I have one more good one and I think that’s so smart, but the mini series funneling back to a main podcast. We keep going back to this, but what I really love about this is that there’s so much room for creativity and so much room for growth in this space. Where you might run into people who just don’t get it, like the sushi person, but if you get it, it’s just magic and it just takes a little bit of experimenting. It’s really fun and refreshing to be in a medium where you can experiment a little bit.

So I have one more here that I think is just so exciting and I think would translate to the food writer world. But we had talked about making a book club guide. So you can put a QR code to your podcast, right? The same way we scan a QR code on restaurant menus, people are getting a lot more familiar with QR codes now than they were even pre pandemic. So QR codes are becoming a thing. So we talked about working with authors to put a QR code on their book jacket. That led to a miniseries or six episodes, and it could be a guide for a book club. Stephanie with the Empower PR group works with non-fiction authors. So a lot of things may work through these key concepts. It would be a guide for a mastermind or a book club or someone who wants to work through your book and the concepts in it. You can lead that conversation through your mini podcast series. So I know there’s so many Instagram cookbook clubs because I love them.

I love that they’re all doing new cookbooks every month and they’re cooking together and sharing their food. I thought, man, I wonder if this could translate somehow to have an audio part, podcasting part for some of these cookbook clubs. What do you think about that? 

Megan: Another idea that I would never have thought of, and I think that’s brilliant and this just shows that there are so many ideas. You can run with so many different things. To put the QR code leading to an audio guide or a podcast mini series maybe, love it. What a great idea.

Betsy: Once you start thinking outside of the box, it makes you realize how much potential there is. This is where I feel so passionately about women getting into this space. These are four or five things that I came up with, with Stephanie, when we were going through this for non-fiction book authors, but those are our two points of view and the expertise that we bring to the table. We came up with these really unique ways to do this. It really takes having more people in this space with all of your own unique perspectives and your background to unlock all of these innovative ideas. I am excited for more people to get into this space so we can just see what comes from these conversations and what really cool things are just unlocked, just am excited about that. 

Megan: I think that it was so well said. I got goosebumps a little bit there when you were talking because I feel so passionately about this as well. I love men. Men, I love you. You’re amazing. But there are so many male voices in the world and especially in the podcasting space. I love the idea of just filling the space with women’s voices, because we have important messages.

We have things we need to say, people need to hear our voices more. So if you take the initiative and step out and start a podcast and say the things that you know people need to hear, that is important. So you are important, your voice is important. I love this message. So thank you so much, Betsy, for all of this. This is amazing. I could go on and on, but I suppose an hour in, we should probably say goodbye. I’m so grateful for the time that you’ve given us today. 

Betsy: I am so grateful that you had me back on because as you can tell, this is something I like to talk about and I will just echo what you said before. My inbox is open. So please, if you are a woman in podcasting or someone who would like to be, email me and I am happy to give you any advice, everything I know, happy to share. Also if you decide to start a podcast, let me know that because I’m always looking for new things to listen to.

Megan: Same. Email me as well. Thank you for that. That was super generous of you. If you are interested, take Betsy up on that because as you can hear, she is so supportive and encouraging. So thank you again, Betsy, we will put together a show notes page for you. The resource you mentioned earlier, we’ll put that in there. We’ll also just put like the takeaways and everything that we’ve talked about today. So you can find that at eatblogtalk.com/capsule podcast2. Betsy, remind everyone where they can find you online.

Betsy: So you can find me on capsulepodcast.com is the website, and I’m also an Instagram under capsule podcast. Megan, I’ll tell you. I like podcasting. Instagram is really, whoof needs some work there. Then also The Dinner Sisters is the name of my food podcast and that is the same everywhere.

Megan: Awesome. Well, thank you again so much for your time today, Betsy, and thank you for listening today, food bloggers. I will see you next time. 

Outro: We’re glad you could join us on this episode of Eat Blog Talk. For more resources based on today’s discussion, as well as show notes and an opportunity to be on a future episode of the show be sure to head to eatblogtalk.com. If you feel that hunger for information, we’ll be here to feed you on Eat Blog Talk.


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Megan
Megan

Megan started her food blog Pip and Ebby in 2010 and food blogging has been her full-time career since 2013. Her passion for blogging has grown into an intense desire to help fellow food bloggers find the information, insight, and community they need in order to find success.

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