In episode 201, we talk with Cassidy Reeser, who has a goal to build a strong YouTube channel in the next year.

We cover information about why creating videos specifically for YouTube is a lot more work than Tasty style videos, get started now and use the equipment you have and be sure to consider YouTube SEO!

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

Write Blog Posts that Rank on Google’s 1st Page

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Guest Details

Connect with Cozy Peach Kitchen
Website | Facebook | Instagram

Bio  Cassidy is a registered dietitian who started her vegetarian food and nutrition blog Cozy Peach Kitchen in 2018. Cassidy’s goal is to make eating plant-based easier for everyone by sharing simple recipes and evidence-based nutrition information. She lives in Georgia with her partner and two cats and weave a love for Southern cooking into all her recipes.

Takeaways

  • Get started with video even if everything isn’t perfect. They still add value to your blog for your audience.
  • Video really helps the visual learners in your audience.
  • Video adds a human connection to your audience when you’re out in front instead of just behind the words and pictures.
  • Remember, even the seasoned bloggers had to start with the first video and they weren’t professional then.
  • Watching a video explanation of a recipe can also help you see where your viewers might need more steps or tips to finesse the recipe.
  • You can get started with a camera with a zoom lens and artificial lighting. If you don’t have a lot of natural light available, there are courses on how to shoot in artificial light well.
  • Invest in a mic of some sort because sound quality is one of the most important parts of creating a video.
  • YouTube is its own search engine so its important to do your SEO research within YouTube to know what to focus on.
  • KeySearch has a YouTube specific function to take advantage of.
  • Be consistent with your creating content and publishing it. YouTube expects it and so does your audience.

Resources Mentioned

TubeBuddy for Youtube channel statistics
Keysearch for YouTube keyword research and blog keyword research
Canva for YouTube graphics

Keep Learning!

If you are over 40+ and are interested in starting a YouTube channel, listen to Jen Lefforge cheer you on and share some tips in episode 132.

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. And 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:

Hey food bloggers, are you guys looking for accountability and business growth on a whole new level? If so, you should totally join the new Eat Blog Talk Mastermind program that we are starting in May 2021. Spend time alongside like-minded peers who will hold you accountable so you actually achieve your weekly and quarterly and yearly goals. Masterminds hold massive power. Let’s grow together, learn from one another and stop allowing deadlines to slip through the cracks. Achieve big dreams this year. We are now accepting applications for the Mastermind program, and you can find the application at eatblogtalk.com.

What’s up food bloggers. Welcome to Eat Blog Talk. This podcast is for you, food bloggers wanting value and clarity to help you find greater success in your business. I am super excited. I have Cassidy Reeser today with me from Cozy Peach Kitchen, and we are going to have a chat about creating videos for YouTube. Cassidy is a registered dietician and she started her vegetarian food and nutrition blog, Cozy Peach Kitchen in 2018. Her goal is to make eating plant-based easier for everyone by sharing simple recipes and evidence-based nutrition information. She lives in Georgia with her partner and two cats, and she weaves her love for Southern cooking into her recipes. Love that Cassidy. We all want to hear your fun fact though, before we dive into the topic.

Cassidy:

Thank you so much for having me. So my fun fact is actually that in college, I was a radio DJ at our college radio station. So I had two shows. There were specialty shows and I would go on air for an hour a week. I was really nervous when I started, because I had to go on air and there’s this whole switchboard and you are on an actual radio station. So it’s not just online. Anyone could turn it on in their car. So I was so nervous when I started that, but I think that that whole experience, you have to go on every 15 minutes to say a weather update or here’s what I just played. That whole experience really helped me get more comfortable. When I got into YouTube videos of being in front of the camera. It was a little more nerve wracking because you can’t press pause and edit anything. But that was a really big part of my college time.

Megan:

Absolutely! Those little things seem little, but they really add up and they work together to kind of boost your confidence. Don’t they?

Cassidy:

Definitely. I was so nervous when I started and I even messed up when I first started. You have to be careful with not playing certain words on air. Even my very first song I messed up and everything was fine, but it’s just funny because it all worked out and it gave me that confidence to keep trying new things.

Megan:

Right. Absolutely. I love that. So today you’re like a pro, you’re not even nervous probably to be interviewed.

Cassidy:

No, it’s been awhile. It’s been about six years.

Megan:

Well, it still sticks with you. I think all of that stuff is solid groundwork for the things that you do in the future. So without it, you’d probably be way more nervous doing your YouTube videos and being here today.

Cassidy:

Definitely.

Megan:

Love it. Well, thank you for being here, Cassidy. I’m super excited to talk to you. Youtube is not something that every blogger dives into, but I do think that there can be a lot of value in giving YouTube our attention. If we have the bandwidth and time for it and space for it. So I’m excited to learn from you today. This is not something that I’ve really ever done. I could say most food bloggers are with me on that because it seems like a lot of work, honestly. So I’m excited to dive in. Will you tell us what your thoughts are just about creating videos in general?

Cassidy:

I started making videos for my blog probably about a year in. I knew that they would be really helpful for ad revenue when I eventually got to that point and they can be used on Facebook, they can be used on video pins, et cetera. So I just knew that was something I needed to start doing. When I started out, my videos were not great and my lighting wasn’t good, but they still added the benefit to my website that I had the video component for Google. So I had that added bonus, even if the video itself wasn’t amazing. I think that doing videos is always a great thing to do, even if you don’t love how they look when you start out. I will say that two years ago, I didn’t love them, but over time I just learned as I went on and got more comfortable making videos. Now for all of my posts, I’m actually trying to make a video if it’s pertinent and just make each post as high value as possible. I think that including that video is always a good step because some readers just learn better visually.

Megan:

I totally agree with that. Do you agree with this? Do them, especially if they’re bad, because then you have a benchmark, you can look back and say, Oh my goodness, I have gotten so much better. I’ve come so far because if you start off and you’re amazing, which nobody does PS, then you don’t have anywhere to go. But I say put your bad stuff out there with boldness, be proud of it.

Cassidy:

Oh, I 100% agree. I will say something that I do whenever I’m feeling a little down about the quality of something new, especially with YouTube. I’ll go back to one of my favorite bloggers or favorite YouTubers and go to their first video and watch it and say, okay, that looks like my video right now. They obviously grew over years and it’s better to start and have something that’s not the quality one than to just not do it because you’re afraid.

Megan:

So true. Honestly, some of my most well-performing videos are my first ones, which are my worst ones and it’s mind boggling, but it could be that that’s the case for most people. If you put your first ones out there, they’re going to be the ones that get a lot of traction for whatever reason. So just do it, just get started. I agree. I think videos are important, even if you’re not starting to put your face in front of it, just do something to kind of stir up the uniqueness maybe within your blog posts, because it can get a little boring reading the same words and seeing process shots. So I think videos are just a good way to add something different in the mix when people are reading through.

I think too, when you’re making videos, it can help you see it through the reader’s eyes. So I may realize that what I’m doing doesn’t really make sense. I may need to change the process a little because if the viewer was watching the video, it may not be as easy for them. So it kind of helps me look at my recipes through the viewer’s eyes too.

Megan:

That’s really interesting. I’ve never thought of it like that. So let’s talk about YouTube specifically because you’ve launched into creating YouTube videos and this takes a lot more time I think, than those hands and pans videos. Can you tell us how you got started with YouTube and how that journey has gone for you?

Cassidy:

I was working my full-time job up until about two and a half months ago. About a year ago I had decided I wanted to do YouTube videos. I’ve just always enjoyed being in front of the camera and it just feels like a different creative expression than blog posts. So I knew I wanted to try it out, if not to get more traffic and have another revenue stream, just for another form of creative expression. But I tried starting about a year ago and it just takes so much effort, like you said, to set all the equipment up and record the full video and I just didn’t have the bandwidth to do it with my full-time job. I also didn’t love the quality. Going back, I probably would have shared those videos anyway, but I didn’t like the quality enough to share them. So I decided that when I decided to go full time, that I would focus on YouTube and I would make one YouTube video a week and just try it for a year and see how it goes. I’ve been able to do that now because I do have that extra time and sometimes recording videos will take all day. So that’s how I decided to finally start consistently doing it about two months ago.

Megan:

Depending on the recipe and depending on the style you’re doing, it really can take a long time in your head. You think, this should take two hours, but then you quickly realize that there are so many factors that can come to play while you’re producing while you’re creating. So you really do have to allow for an entire day. So is that what you would recommend to people if they decide to dive into YouTube videos to just kind of expect that?

Cassidy:

It depends on what kind of videos you end up making. I’ve been going back and forth. I’m kind of testing out different types of videos to see what works best for my audience because some YouTubers they’re more vloggers. So they sit and they talk in front of the camera and it’s more of a step into my life kind of video. Whereas I feel like with food blogging, it’s more here’s how I make the video. If it’s a cooking channel style video, then I do think you need to dedicate some time to it because you have those different shots and it’s a lot less edit editable because it is your whole self in there. But what I’ve actually landed on is doing videos, using some tasty style videos that I make over time. Then I record an intro and an outro and I can record those intros and outros three or four of them in just one and a half hours. Then I have that and I can make my videos over time.

Megan:

That’s such a great idea. And I actually considered doing that with a bunch of mine because I have this huge log of tasty style videos that I have. I feel like they’re just kind of sitting there doing nothing but collecting dust. So we experimented with that for a while, but then we stopped. But it is such a great idea and it’s a great way to reuse what you’ve got and give it a fresh new look. I don’t think anyone would know that you’re taking quote old videos and repurposing them, especially when you’re putting your face in there. You’re saying, I’m assuming you’re doing that. Like, Hey, this is Cassidy.

Cassidy:

I do an intro and I talk about it like I would in the blog post and then the outro and I might pop in halfway through the video. But I do a voiceover with my voice instead of speeding it up and doing the music, like you would with tasty. So it seems like a different video, even though it’s visually the same.

Megan:

I am all about repurposing because we spend so much time and energy and love on our content. So anytime that we can take our existing content and repurpose it and give it a facelift and turn it into something else, I am all for that. I love that you do that. So talk to us about your gear. What do you use to create your videos?

Cassidy:

I have two different cameras that I use. I have one that’s a lot older. For a while I was using that to have two different angles, but I decided that the older camera’s just not as high quality. So I’ve settled on using just one camera with a 24/70 camera. So it’s a lens. So it zooms. That one’s really great for video specifically. So I think that getting, you can start with just a 50 millimeter lens. It doesn’t really matter. But I did find that having a lens that zooms helps a lot. Then I also use artificial lighting because for some reason every house I’ve ever lived in has had just terrible natural lighting. A couple of years ago, I took Joanie Simon’s artificial lighting course, and I pretty much bought most of the entry-level gear that she recommends.

So I have a continuous lighting that I always set up in my kitchen. Thankfully my kitchen has white walls and everything, so I don’t need too much to bounce the light around. But having that continuous lighting, I think is one of the most important parts. But I would say that sound is actually the most important part of a video. Because I don’t know if you’ve ever turned on a YouTube video and the sound is just either really loud or scratchy and it kind of just makes you pull away and not want to watch it. So that’s one thing I’d say, if you can’t invest in a good camera or you can’t invest in good lighting, do the sound first because that’s,what’s gonna scare the viewers away is the poor quality.

Megan:

That’s a deal breaker. If you start watching a YouTube video that you think is going to be semi-professional and then you hear terrible audio, I turn it off right away. It’s so funny how that is, but it’s even more important than lighting in my opinion.

Cassidy:

Yeah. Completely agree. So I use a handy recorder, a zoom handy recorder, and then I have a mic that I plug into it and then I just put it on my shirt.

Megan:

So it’s a lapel mic?

Cassidy:

And the quality’s fine. Mm hmm. A lapel mic.

Megan:

Yeah. They are not very expensive. Lapel mics you can get for. I just got one last year. I think it was between 50 and a hundred dollars. I mean, it wasn’t a huge investment.

Cassidy:

Yeah. I think the combination of the recorder and the mic was only about a hundred dollars.

Megan:

Okay. Not bad at all. So really, if somebody wants to get started, get a good mic, invest $50 and a good mic, use natural lighting. Hopefully you have some in your kitchen. I have terrible lighting in my kitchen as well, but some kitchens have amazing lighting. So even if you don’t, just start there and use the camera that you have. I did my first few videos with my iPhone. At that time I had like an iPhone six. It was not the greatest quality, but it worked.

Cassidy:

Right. I think that we are our own biggest critics and of course we’re doing this maybe because we enjoy creativity and the art of it, but our viewers are just looking for a recipe and they just want it to be helpful. So I think that they’re not looking and thinking, Oh, that kitchen’s kind of dark. Or why does it look like this? There’s going to be some critical viewers, but I think when you’re first starting out, it’s more about the quality of the content that you’re sharing.

Megan:

Absolutely. So you recently had an audit and you’ve been going through your old content updating since then. So how have you incorporated YouTube videos into that whole process?

Cassidy:

I had an audit with Casey Markee and I knew that I would be republishing a lot of older, lower quality content and most of that didn’t have videos. Do you know about the theory of content for Mediavine? They talk about silos or having content that goes into different silos. So for example, I have a bunch of recipes that were salad dressings and they’re all pretty low quality posts. I thought, okay, here’s three different salad dressing recipes. I could probably make a new one too, so that it’s at least interesting to have a new recipe on my website. But I can make a video for all four of those and then make a YouTube video that shows, here’s how to make creamy vegan salad dressings. I can also include an info post on it. So on my website, I have a step-by-step guide. Here’s how you make them. But then I can also interlink between all of those different kinds of dressings. So I’m basically going through things that I need to republish anyway, typing them into YouTube search and seeing what kind of videos come up. So for something like a salad dressing, it was never just one recipe. It was never just balsamic vinaigrette. It was always, here are four salad dressings you can make.

Megan:

As you create new content or are you not creating any new content at all?

Cassidy:

Well in February, so for most of January and February, I didn’t make any new content. But now probably about two thirds is old content.

Megan:

Are you creating new videos for all of your new content?

Cassidy:

Yeah. If it’s pertinent, if it makes sense I am.

Megan:

Okay. So how do you determine if it’s pertinent?

Cassidy:

Well, sometimes I feel like the recipe is also really difficult to record in a video and it’s a keyword that doesn’t have as much competition. So I’m not as concerned at that point about making the video. So I kind of weigh it personally on, is this going to be too much of a bother for me to make a video?

Megan:

So talk about YouTube SEO and how that works and why you think it’s important.

Cassidy:

So it’s a lot like Google SEO. YouTube is a search engine, so someone goes on there and they type how to make salad dressing, to use my example from before. The best quality content is ideally gonna pop up at the top. I’m not sure how the algorithm works as much as with Google SEO, but you can focus your videos around a keyword. I think that it even picks up on what you’re saying and your captions. So if you say the keyword in your caption, it gives the search engine more context on what you’re talking about.

Megan:

So give us an example. So if you wanted to create a video on a vegan salad dressing, but you didn’t know exactly which one, could you use YouTube search to figure it out?

Cassidy:

I think so. So one of the first things I do is I type into search and I see what YouTube thinks is most important for the user. I see what’s already ranking and then I say, okay, well vegan ranch dressing would be good. Then I look up and I see, Ooh, all of these are from really all the YouTubers who have thousands of views and it’s ranking really high. Maybe I should try something that has a smaller volume. Then I go from there. So maybe a tahini dressing would have a lower volume and not as many videos. So I might be able to rank for that.

Megan:

So really the same strategy as going to Google and seeing what is underrated and what is underutilized there. It’s the same thing. If there’s something that a bunch of people are doing, then maybe stay away from it, but it is worthwhile to go to YouTube search and just see. I mean, why not?

Cassidy:

Definitely. I also use Key Search. They have a YouTube function where you can look specifically for YouTube. So I use Key Search for my blog posts and then I also use their YouTube function. That just shows kind of the same stuff, like the difficulty, the number of views monthly and then extra keywords you can look at.

Megan:

That is awesome to know. I did not know that. So I will tell you one thing I get hung up on with YouTube is that it takes so long to get traction and I’ve heard other people express the same concern. So what are your thoughts on that? Do we just have to commit to it and stick with it for a while? Is it something that some people can tap into and find success in the short term? What do you think?

Cassidy:

So that that’s kind of where I’m at right now. It does feel like I’m a baby blogger again, when you start food blogging and oh, I only have 50 page views a week. I know what I’m putting out, people must want. I’m trying to think of it in that way. Then I’m trying something new and that if I’m putting out my best quality content, you can only hope that it will be found. But I do think there is another component of engagement that is not included on a.com. It’s like Instagram, where within your first 24 hours, you do want a lot of engagement on your video. So that’s why people always ask, leave a thumbs up or leave a comment because that’s telling the algorithm that people like your video. So there’s that added layer. It’s not just creating those good videos. So sometimes I do feel like it’s a little difficult and you keep making videos and why is no one engaging and why is no one finding it?

Megan:

Do you provide a call to action in your videos? Like, Hey, subscribe if you liked this or do you do anything like that?

Cassidy:

I do at the end. I do want to say, so I was feeling this way, what you just said, a couple of weeks ago. I’ve reached out to a few different YouTubers and just been, do you have any advice? Is it normal to be growing slowly and just to get their perspective? It’s just always funny to hear that people who have thousands of followers feel the exact same way. Because they’re growing slowly. So I think that it is just a long game and I heard multiple times, it’s a marathon, it’s not a sprint. It’s just constantly creating that good quality content. That’s why I gave myself a year to try it consistently. If it doesn’t work out in that year, maybe I’ll rethink it.

Megan:

Well, we are all food bloggers. So we know that whole concept of long game, because that is the story of our businesses and our lives with the exception of those few anomalies. But yeah, we get that. We know the whole game of playing that marathon, running the marathon and not the sprint. So if you have that concept down, then you should be able to launch into YouTube and maybe can set a consistent schedule like you are and just say, okay, I’m going to try it for a year and then reevaluate after that.

Cassidy:

I would say that’s another thing that I’ve learned, is that consistency is actually one of the most important parts. So when I posted two videos in a span of eight months, I didn’t grow at all. But when I started posting weekly, I started growing a lot more because YouTube expects you to be posting and your readers expect you to post at a certain time. So that’s one of the biggest pieces of advice I’ve received is to be consistent with your schedule, even if it’s only once a month, it’s better than three videos one month and zero for six months.

Megan:

So the YouTube algorithm likes that obviously and so do the people who are waiting, pining over here, content waiting for you to publish it. Oh, I heard someone recently, I can’t remember who it was. I think I was interviewing someone and they were talking about how YouTube has this whole new component of engagement as far as how people interact with the content. So back in the day, when I first started blogging, people used to come to my blog and engage with me all the time, they’d leave comments and they’d send messages. It was this huge party on the blog. Now it seems like that party is on YouTube. Do you agree with that? Do you find that a lot of people are going to your YouTube channel and commenting on your content and engaging there?

Cassidy:

That’s something that I’ve been trying to figure out recently actually, because I’m in some YouTube, Facebook channel groups and they do have those same engagement pods where they comment on each other and they’re very interactive and it’s a community kind of like Instagram, where every time you post a new video they’ll comment and they’ll say, I love your video. Come watch my video. I’m honestly trying to figure out, is it really worth it to spend all this time commenting on other people’s videos. I do love that community aspect of it, but you know, it can be a little tiring to constantly engage. So I’m currently in the mode of do I just not really interact with others. If someone comments on mine, I’m going to go comment on theirs as a nicety. But, do I spend an hour after each video commenting on other people’s videos?

Megan:

Oh, interesting. So it’s not an authentic thing. You guys are kind of supporting each other. That’s great, but it’s more like let’s do this for each other because that’s how it used to be in the blog world. We would go to other bloggers pages and comment like crazy on their newer posts, assuming that they were going to come back. And they would, I have so many comments. If I go back in my archives, there are posts that have, I mean, hundreds and hundreds of comments from fellow bloggers. That just doesn’t happen anymore. So it sounds like that’s what you guys are doing on YouTube.

Cassidy:

That’s what it does feel like it’s happening on YouTube. Right. With that whole engagement factor, ranking your posts, having that engagement. So someone coming over and leaving a comment and leaving a like is like a positive engagement factor. But I will say if they come over and they watch the first 30 seconds of your video and then leave, it looks like they’re not actually engaging very well because they watched 30 seconds and then they didn’t like your video. So I can see how it’d be beneficial, but it also may be detrimental by bringing down your watch time.

Megan:

Okay. That makes sense. Can you tell what YouTube Shorts are and do you use those?

Cassidy:

So they are kind of the YouTube answer to TikTok and Reels. They have to be under 60 seconds and they show up on the homepage and they have a greater chance of being ranked more quickly than YouTube videos. So I’ve made about six of them. Within a day it’s usually 24 hours, they get about 600 views or more. The most I’ve had is 2,700 views. But I have a friend who did it and got 17,000 views in one day. So, you really get a lot of views, but it doesn’t count towards your watch time. So with YouTube, to monetize you need, I think it’s 4,000 watch hours and 1000 subscribers. So those shorts don’t count towards that watch time. But they do help you with subscribers a lot. So the one that had almost 3000 views brought in about 15 subscribers, which for me as a very small YouTuber was a lot. It’s more than a longer video that takes more time to gain traction.

Megan:

It seems like every single platform under the sun is trying to compete with Stories or at least provide something that aligns with Stories right now. That’s so funny. I didn’t know YouTube was doing the same.

Cassidy:

It’s an interesting thing as I’m doing YouTube and I want these longer videos that are five to 10 minutes. So if someone’s coming to my YouTube and subscribing, because I have a 60 second video, how true is that to my content? So I’m not entirely sure if I’m going to continue doing them because I think it’s a good maybe teaser for my channel, but if I have 50% of my channel is shorts, you know, 50% are 10 minute videos. I’m not really sure what that’s telling the reader or the viewer.

Megan:

That’s a good point. See, you touched on monetizing and you mentioned that you need a few kind of things under your wing before you can even monetize. So say what those are again. Then once you do get to that point, how do you monetize on YouTube?

Cassidy:

So you need 1000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours. I think those 4,000 watch hours have to be in a year. I think you just submit an application to YouTube and they approve it. I’m not at the monetizing point yet, but you can make a fair amount of money off of the ads. I think it’s lower than you would with an ad network on your blog, but it’s still a really good source of income, especially if you’re a very big YouTubeer that has a ton of views.

Megan:

Yeah, that’s a great option. I mean, I know a lot of food bloggers are trying to look outside of the ads and the ad networks and trying to find other ways. If YouTubing is your thing, if you love being in front of video, then that would be an option. Create a schedule, right. Cassidy, and just be consistent with, and don’t give up and keep at it.

Cassidy:

That’s definitely what my idea is. Just try something for a little while and if I don’t end up liking it, then at least I tried it and I gave it my all. But if YouTube is not something that interests you, you do not have to do it. I do think making videos is something that is going to be beneficial to every food blogger, but uploading them to YouTube. You know, I think it’s just another way of monetizing or another social media channel that you don’t have to stretch yourself in by doing it just because other people are doing it.

Megan:

Do you have any logistical tips for people, things that you’ve learned about maybe preparing for your videos or I don’t know, preparing a script or using a teleprompter or anything like that, that would help people?

Cassidy:

Yeah, I would say that batching my videos has been the most beneficial. So I set a day of the week and say, okay, I’m going to record these intros and these outros. On this day of the week, I’ll record a few of the different recipes. Then I try to record not necessarily a script, but some bullet points that I want to go over, that I need to include. A lot of the time I’ll use my blog posts as a reference and make sure to include a lot of those tips. I have seen the videos I go into and I kind of freestyle it, I have to record it six times. Whereas the one where I’ve just sat down before and like told myself what I’m going to say, I’m still able to freestyle a little bit, but I also have some points and it only takes one or two shots. So I would definitely say sitting down and planning your shots, planning what you’re going to say is always helpful.

Megan:

I worked best when I was doing some kind of in person videos with a teleprompter, but I feel like if I would’ve continued with it, I would have gotten much better at freestyle. I’m trying to think, I don’t think I was doing my podcasts back then. Maybe now I’d be fine because, now I feel like I can speak any time on anything after a couple of years of doing this and that has given me a lot of practice. So maybe now, if I went back to recording video, I would be better because I remember I would sit there and be super awkward. Like, this dish needs to go in the fridge and then I’d be like, Oh my gosh. Okay. So I would do it like 20 times and it was so awkward.

Cassidy:

I mean, I still even do that if I like to wake up and I’m not in the quite the right mood to record a video, I’ll just keep saying things and they just come out completely wrong. Or my partner might walk into the room and I’m like, you have to leave all of a sudden they get stage fright. It’s just funny, even though it’s just you and the camera, it still can be kind of nerve wracking.

Megan:

It is. I know, it’s so funny. It’s just a camera, right? Why are you nervous in front of this camera? That’s funny that you mentioned like other people coming into the room because I would do the same thing. If my family came in, I was like, you just walked in and in a very intimate situation. But this video is going to be played to the world for anyone to see and I’m worried about someone watching me recorded. So funny how that works.

Cassidy:

That’s the difference. You can edit the video for YouTube, but you can’t edit what you’re doing in the moment. That’s how I feel about it.

Megan:

That’s true. So if you had to give food bloggers one takeaway from our chat today to motivate them, inspire them to get on YouTube and to try this, if it’s on their mind, what would it be?

Cassidy:

I applied this to all aspects of blogging, but especially something that’s so different, like YouTube, is that it’s totally okay to feel like a brand new blogger again, and to not love what you’re putting out. I always want to love my content, but to not feel like it’s top of the line content, I think that it’s okay to just start, try something new and just have fun with it and always remember why you started doing it. That will always bring you back to why you’re making those videos or why you’re trying something new.

Megan:

Oh, I love that Cassidy. That’s such a great little piece of advice there. So thank you. Thank you for being here today. This was super fun. Kind of sparks my interest in YouTube again.

Cassidy:

I think you should try it out. I think you’d be great at it!

Megan:

Well, I did for a while and then the pandemic. I had a videographer come over a couple of times a month and she would do all of the recording, the filming, and then she would do the editing for me and talk me through what to do too. Because I was a little bit awkward. So she’d be like, no, you need to loosen up. I don’t know, she was just really great about telling me what to do. We landed on this one style that I loved. It was so fun. If you go to my channel, it’s the Pineapple BBQ Chicken. It was me, talking voiceover and we actually put me in the video, but it’s not, I don’t think I actually talked to the camera.

So it’s more like she took shots of me and my boys, my boys aren’t in that one. We did another one with my boys in it. But the voiceover was really cool. So it wasn’t like, step one, you put this in a baking dish. It was more talking about the recipe. This is why I love this recipe. It’s really easy. It has four ingredients and just the style of it. I loved it. Then a pandemic happened. So she stopped coming and she hasn’t been since. So I was like, dang it, we landed on that style, really rang true to who I was and my brand. Then, you know, everything fell apart, but maybe one day I’ll get back there.

Cassidy:

I love that. That sounds like a really great interactive. So you’re showing the video, but you’re also adding helpful information.

Megan:

Yes, exactly. She did this style that was not set on a tripod. So she did a tripod, she had a tripod set up, but she also had a second camera where she would walk around on and use one of those. I think it’s called a gimbal that your camera can, I don’t know the terms. I am not a videographer, but…

Cassidy:

It kinda moves around. Yeah, I’ve seen some videos like that and I’m always like, how do they do that? I would love to have someone else in their recording. It would be so helpful.

Megan:

Yes. Exactly. So she would cut back and forth between those two angles and it was just, it was great. I’m sad that we didn’t continue.

Cassidy:

I’ll have to go watch that. Definitely.

Megan:

Well, you’re inspiring. Thank you, Cassidy for sharing all of your knowledge today. Before you go, do you have either a favorite quote or words of inspiration to share?

Cassidy:

I don’t have a quote so much as inspiration just to always be okay with trying something new and starting from the beginning and that everyone started somewhere. So if you look back on others and maybe go back and look at their older content, it’s just a great way to draw inspiration and see how much your peers and your community has grown. And that YouTube can grow that much. Starting out as a new YouTube or a new blogger, you know, we all started there and we’re all learning.

Megan:

Love it. Cassidy, we’ll put together a show notes page for you. If anyone wants to go peek at those, you can find them at eatblogtalk.com/cozy at peach kitchen. Cassidy, tell everyone where they can find you online.

Cassidy:

You can find me at cozypeachkitchen.com and then I’m also on YouTube under CassidyReeser, or Cozy Peach Kitchen. I’m on all social media channels as well.

Megan:

Awesome. Well, thank you again so much for being here, Cassidy 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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