If you want to stay connected with your target audience and maintain a positive online reputation, staying up-to-date with today’s media trends is essential. If you know what’s hip and hot in the world of digital marketing, you are setting yourself up for success. Juliet Clark leads a panel discussion to uncover the latest updates you should know about. Joining her are three amazing industry leaders and media experts: Tracy Hazzard of Podetize, Jackie Lapin of The Historic Traveler, and Joie Gharrity of Joie G 113. Together, they explore the impact of AI on content creation, the importance of creating long-form content, and the power of video production through YouTube. They also share valuable insights on how to adapt to the ever-changing social media climate and the rapid shifts in audience behavior.
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Media Trends Uncovered: AI, YouTube, And Podcasting Strategies From Industry Leaders
Media Industry Trends Discussion
I’m super excited. We’re going to have one of our panels with a bunch of great media experts. I’m going to tell you about Joie Gharrity. She’s a brand consultant, video podcast content creator, author, and international speaker. She has over fifteen years of experience in the Hollywood entertainment industry, which makes her valuable for something like this with media.
One of our other panelists is Jackie Lapin. Jackie is recovering from surgery. I thank you so much for coming on here. Over the years, Jackie Lapin’s Conscious Media Relations’ radio podcast tours have helped over 400 luminaries, leaders, filmmakers, and authors grow their businesses, sell more books, and create viewership.
You all know Tracy Hazzard, who practically has become the co-host of this show in the past couple of months. She is a seasoned media expert with over 2,600 interviews from articles in Authority Magazine, Buzzfeed, and her Inc. Magazine column, and from her multiple top-ranked videocasts and podcasts like The Binge Factor and Feed Your Brand.
Let’s get going. Other people are going to jump on as we go along here. The first thing I want to ask you guys is, what do you see as the most significant trend shaping the media industry? It seems like things are shifting rapidly. Who wants to go first?
Tracy, you go.
It’s getting, honestly, to me, very tiring to be talking about AI. USA Today put out the very first media-based search bot onto many of their publications, not just the USA Today. I think it is going to be a game-changer right there. If you are not thinking about long-form content, you’re making a mistake in the world of AI. You’re not having conversations that are long enough. It’s going to be a mistake. That search bot is counting on that. If more and more media are relying on that to disseminate their information, the more important it is for you to understand how you play with that.
That’s interesting, too. For those of you who don’t know, podcast radio is long-form. What you see on TV, those short clips, are short-form. You get a lot more information with that. Jackie, do you want to go ahead and answer that?
AI is having a significant impact. People’s attention spans are getting shorter. For example, when you do social media, if you use an AI tool to chop a podcast into individual little pieces, people are watching those things on their social media. They’re commenting. They’re responding. They get the highest ratings of all of the content on those, except for some viral videos. AI allows you to do things in chunks easily.
What is so amazing for us in the media and in podcasting is that it makes it easy to do your research. It doesn’t say that everything is accurate, but it certainly cuts down the research time. When I am writing articles for The Historic Traveler or researching an author for one of our podcast tours, it is so much easier to go to AI and pull the information rather than having to go and do individual research. It’s making a big difference.
On that AI factor as well, we’re running those books through it. We can get questions and do other things so much quicker than we used to before. Joie, how about you?
We saw what streaming did to the Hollywood entertainment industry. It changed everything, being consumable and being immediate. Where are the brands going to put their cash? We’re hearing about how the big channels are selling or closing at some point here, sooner than later. I’m a huge fan of YouTube. YouTube is the go-to channel for every generation. It was because we’re also getting into the demographic components, too. I see YouTube becoming a bigger giant out there.
That key demographic, that younger demographic, is going to YouTube versus ABC, NBC, and the bigger news media outlets. They’re consuming that way. What changes are you making in your social media that are breaking through the noise of the media?
Nothing has moved my influence faster than my video podcast on my YouTube channel. What I’m doing with it is I do interview formats. Juliet knows that. She has been on my show. I like that because what I’m doing is I’m taking my shows, and then I’m sharing them across my social media platforms and tagging my guests.
Another game-changer of growing my online net worth is getting into their backyards and spotlighting them. I’m huge into spotlights. In spotlighting others, a spotlight comes back on you. I’m a huge fan of cutting it up and making it into blogs and articles. I love all that, but what has been the game-changer for me is tagging my guest.
Long-Form Content Builds Lasting Success
Tracy, you’re the queen of breaking those up into different formats.
You should. If you don’t start with a long form first, it’s a mistake. All the little ones get out of date fast. It’s hard to categorize them. It’s hard to keep track of them. You don’t have a message. You don’t have a focus. You don’t have a plan with them. If you have a plan for some long-form thing, it’s going to be better for you in the long run.
You’re building an asset base that’s going to help your business, your message, your mission, your nonprofit, or whatever that might be. Start from that, whether that’s articles, books, podcasts, or video casts. It doesn’t matter what your long-form choice is as long as you take it and proliferate it into something more from there.
I disagree with Joie about short form. Short form is a temporary boost. It’s like when you join TikTok and they give you a bunch of followers because you put your first video up, and they wanted to bait you. YouTube is doing the same thing. What we’re not seeing on the other side is with the exception of celebrities, we are not seeing entrepreneurial podcasts and health and wellness podcasts. Videocast versions of them are doing significantly worse than their podcast counterparts. That’s in almost every category except for celebrity.
This is one of the things that I’ve been thinking about a lot. If the person you want to reach or your target audience needs a deep dive into something, those shorts are never going to get them there. Putting a match to what they need as the core of where you start and then making the shorts to capture those that maybe didn’t think that they needed a deep dive into those things is a better approach. That’s what I’m seeing going on here. I don’t see the short form doing the lead generation that the long form does.
Tracy, to your point, I don’t do short form. I only do long form.
I mean that I don’t think the short form is the way to go. Don’t do that first.
To be frank with you, I don’t care about clips or anything. I was saying that I care about the long-form video component. I also think that the interview format is better than the solo format. We see a lot of solo going on out there. First of all, you’re not going to get a more incredible business card than having your own shop. This is how you create these deep relationships with influencers out there and people you admire. Also, tagging them, sharing the shows, not clips, and sharing the actual link across your social media and tagging them there. It’s incredible to get into other people’s backyards and networks with people who already know, like, and trust them.
It is if that’s your model of business. It is if your relationship is the key reason you’re doing your show. I can tell you from the 800 podcasters that I have that interview shows are on the serious decline, and for good reasons. The solo shows mean you control your message. Meaning, it’s not getting muddied by somebody else.
Honestly, all of the authors out there, the people being interviewed, the guest placement agencies, and the publicists out there are doing a terrible job of promoting the shows. They don’t know how to promote. If you’re going to get on someone’s podcast or you’re going to get on somebody’s videocast and you do a terrible job of promoting it, then you haven’t helped yourself, and you haven’t helped them. That’s why it’s in decline.
I can do a better job promoting my own show than I can getting someone, nudging someone, nudging a PR firm, and getting them to do that for me when it has no redeemable value on the other side of it. That being said, there are cases. There are sections of people where their whole entire business relies around relationship-building and networking. They need an interview show.
We, who do the podcast tours, insist that our clients do the promotion when they’re on somebody’s show. It’s their responsibility and in their best interest to do the co-promotion so that everybody gets the response. I have another business, The Historic Traveler, which is for people who love history, travel, and historic novels. When I am on other people’s podcasts and I promote, they get the biggest number of clicks than almost any of the things that I post. You could do it yourself and have your own podcast or be on other people’s podcasts, but play full out.
I do both stuff, but I don’t like the solo episodes. I prefer, as Joie talks about, tagging other people and highlighting them because it is a real relationship-builder. It depends on your personality and which way you want to go with that. This is tough for a lot of people. What’s your approach to balancing authenticity with brand message in your content? I call them the invisible author. They’re like, “I want to be famous, but I don’t want anybody to see me.” How do you balance all that?
Ghost authors, not ghost writers.
Author Preparation: From Page To Stage
When they come to us, they’re ready to be seen. I believe that when people are putting out a book, which is when most people come to us, but not exclusively, they have a message to deliver, and they want to deliver it. Are they scared? Are they intimidated by the process? They may be. I write the media kit as well as the pitch letter. One of the things that they do is supply me with a list of twenty questions. Ninety percent of the hosts will use those twenty questions.
If somebody’s a little bit intimidated about getting on the air and what questions they might have, if the hosts are using their questions, by the time they’ve done 3 or 4 of them, they’re so practiced, they’ve got it down, and they know how to deliver the message that it gives a comfort level. It also makes them more speaker-ready when they’re ready to step onto the real stage, the physical stage, because they’ve done enough podcasts, and they know their stuff. I would highly recommend preparing the questions in advance and then dealing with a few outlanders who want to hit you with some unusual questions. By then, you’ve got your confidence up.
I agree. Practice, Jackie. Authenticity doesn’t come easy.
You panelists will get a kick out of this. I asked someone who’s going to be on my show a few questions so I knew where she wanted to take the conversation. She sent me an outline of questions and answers, like, “This is what you will say. This is what I will say.” I got on, and I was like, “I appreciate this, but I’m going to ask you what I want to ask you.” I don’t do scripts like that because I want us to all be natural and fun. Anybody else want to take a bite at that question?
I always encourage authors or anyone that’s about to launch something new, whether it be a product or service, to start sharing a year before it drops. Come up with clever ways to share about your journey. Share about the ups and the downs. I blog every single week. How I’ve launched two of my books is flushing out my ideas.
I talk about my up and downs. It’s the authenticity of letting other people know that they’re not alone, specifically for authors. When you put something down virtually or on paper, you are exposing your spirit and your soul. It can be intimidating. My second book was a big stretch for me because it was an inner game book. I was sharing about things that happened to me down in the Hollywood entertainment business. It took a lot of courage for me to drop that book. Do you know how I did it? I started marketing it and sharing about it a year before. It also made me accountable.
That platform-building is important. People don’t realize that until they release their book and they realize it’s not as easy as everyone makes it out to be in the ads. Tracy, you’re always authentic. Tell us about it.
Challenge Of Authentic Content Creation
It comes with the fact that you build a show and build a way. When I was writing for Inc. Magazine, I had to write six articles a month. It got to be a lot more than you think. It sounds like not a lot until you have to sit down and write 6 articles, research 6 articles, figure out the topics for 6 articles, and title 6 articles. It gets to be a whole lot after a while.
You get to the point where you say, “I cannot be inauthentic. I can’t be writing about something I don’t know about. I can’t be writing about people I don’t talk to.” When you get yourself into a place of whatever it is you’re going to produce, and you can do that in a way that doesn’t require loads of research and preparation, unlike writing a book, which is very different, then you don’t have a choice.
We get busy. We’re going to have to do some improv. When we do some improv, we live in our authenticity. There’s no other way for it. Every single week, I prepare our coaching call topic. I prepare it ahead of time. Sometimes, I prepare a month ahead of time. Now, I’m a day ahead of time. I don’t know what we’re going to talk about next until after we get done with this call, but I’ll figure it out. I prepare enough to know, “This is something we can talk about. It’s timely. It’s important.”
We don’t do anything else. Tom and I get on the air and talk to each other. Tom’s my partner and husband. We talk to each other because we know we can discuss this subject. We understand our clients. You understand your audience. You’re an expert in your topic, or you wouldn’t write a book about it. You need to give yourself a break and live in that authenticity. Not everything needs to be a perfectly crafted word. It is okay for you to have a viewpoint, for you to say, “I don’t know, but you’re giving me something to think about.” It’s okay to be unsure. It’s okay to be wrong. That’s something that we don’t always accept, but that’s part of authenticity.
Give yourself a break and live in authenticity. Not everything needs to be perfectly crafted. It is okay to be unsure. Share on XIt’s also okay to bear your failures. Share what you’ve gone through. People appreciate that. They see themselves in you.
There are so many charlatans out there who are like, “I’m going to build your audience to 100,000 in 90 days,” and then there are people who are truthful about it, like, “I’ve crashed and burned so many times that you wouldn’t even recognize my efforts.” That’s what most of us do. It’s not as easy as they make it out to be. Your authenticity depends on you telling the audience, “This is going to be hard for you to build on that.”
What challenges do you guys face in responding to the rapid changes in audience behavior? For the last couple of years, we have had marketing tactics that we use, and 9 to 18 months later, they don’t work anymore. With AI, it seems like it’s transitioning even more rapidly. What are you doing to overcome that?
Podcast Audience Reach And Compliance
From our standpoint, and when you’re doing podcast tours, deliverability is a big issue, like getting to your audience. Gmail, Yahoo, and all of these are making it harder. I heard that Infusionsoft says that if your own list hasn’t been active in the last eighteen months, they’re going to take them off your list. That is not fair to you. I had a client podcast tour come in from somebody who has been on my list for five years and I haven’t heard from until then.
You have to figure out a way to pair your list and make sure that your list gets to the right people. Do everything you have to do to clean up, comply, and make it work. We use GoHighLevel, which is helping a lot. It’s not so much the audience. It is getting to the people you need to get to to build your audience and attract the people that you need. That’s been our issue. People are interested in what is hot and new because they are searching for issues. They have got problems to solve because of the changing climate, so they’re always looking for new solutions.
I use GoHighLevel as well. Tracy and Joie, what do you guys use?
I use a combination of Rasa, which is our newsletter. It does it weekly. It’s a very low lift on my part. We have a 50% open rate regular, and that’s for our entire client base plus whoever signs up.
That’s an AI newsletter, correct?
It is. It’s an AI newsletter, but it’s carefully curated with real content. The AI doesn’t choose the content that it can serve up. If Juliet likes articles about authors, then it’s going to serve Juliet more authors. If Jackie likes articles about history, she’s going to get more articles about history. It only comes from the sources that you personally curate. We only curate podcast lists. We curate where we know the humans created the content. That makes a difference. We use that.
They have an email program that we’re in a beta on. It’s working very well. It’s action-based. In other words, if somebody opens something, and it shows that they’re very interested in learning about YouTube shorts, for instance, at this moment in time, we can serve them up something more long-form. If they go to that long form, then we can say, “Would you like to be introduced to our YouTube expert?” It can continue on from there. That’s Rasa.io. It’s a great company. The newsletter is so easy to set up. That keeps my list nurtured. I have never had a problem getting it delivered.
I was saying to Jackie before we started this panel that I have this incredibly hard time. I have clients who pay us thousands of dollars, and I can’t get them to open a single email. I can’t get them to help themselves. I can’t get any of that, so we look for ways to interrupt and get the captive audience we have. We have a portal. You have to sign in and submit your episodes. If we can interrupt them there and deliver them a message, a case study, or something of importance in a place where they’re a captive audience, where they must go to log in to do something and take action, that’s the best way. We’re always looking for those.
Podcast Client Acquisition Challenges
I find that list-building is falling off. While we do have that, we use a whole bunch of different tools for it. We have hundreds of thousands of podcasters on our list, but none of them lead us to the right clients for the long tail stuff we want to do. You can get short hits from them. You can get $20 or $7 from them, but to get them to become consistent and good podcasters long-term, that’s not the right format for it.
We’re always looking for something else where we can capture their attention for the right type of people. That involves a lot more nurturing and a much more lengthy process. You’ve got to have a system and process that will match that. It’s not the easiest thing. AI is easy, but there’s a reason its percentage and open rate is so low. That’s because us humans recognize that it’s not.
Joie, what about you?
I’ve never been a big fan of trends, so I follow my own gut. I’m in my business because I love people. I’m about community build-out. I launched a network here in the Bay Area with two other super connectors, but still, that one-to-one, the reach-out, and the emotional connection matter to me. I look for that all the time. I flew into Dallas for a big network. That emotional connection with people goes a long way.
I feel that a lot of the trends are smoke and mirrors. I feel like people have gotten sharp out there. It’s not easy to fool people. To your point earlier, Juliet, you were talking about people who are doing these vast, “I’ll fill your room with 100,000 people,” and all that crazy. I feel like we’re so far past that. I personally think if any trend that has been hot is going to stick, it’s going to be the niche.
Know your niche. Build that community out. Let them know that you’re integrity-based with who you are. Be authentic. Share your journey. Have touchpoints with them and connect with them like a human being, whether it’s picking up the phone, having a virtual coffee, or seeing each other in person, that kind of thing.
That super connector thing, all four of us are super connectors. That’s exactly what we do to build audiences. The other thing I wanted to add about that was not only being a super connector, but avoiding those trends. Tracy and I were part of a summit in 2020. I remember Scott Carson. There was a woman on Sunday who did that whole webinar thing who said, “I’ve got this bonus. I’ve got that bonus. The whole package is $2,000, but it’s worth $40,000.” We were texting each other going, “Do people still do this? Does anybody believe this?”
We were like, “Does this work?”
We were like, “This is so 2017,” if we’re being snotty. We were texting each other about, “I can’t believe she’s doing that.”
Podcasting Critique And Longevity
Juliet and I are slightly snotty about it or a little snobbish. I agree with you, Joie. When somebody comes in, flash in the pan, does a bunch of stuff, and then says, “I’ve got the course for it,” and then they’re not using it anymore, they scammed you. It’s not real. It’s not sustainable. It’s not going to work. I love the fact that I came into podcasting in 2014. It wasn’t the earliest, but it was early enough that I could see the potential. I’ve been here long enough to be able to keep finding where its value is. It hasn’t disappointed me. It’s a sustainable media type. Writing hasn’t disappointed me. I still write articles. People are still reading out there.
I’m going to throw a curveball at you. What skills do you look for in new hires who want to succeed in media? I know all of us have staff. Who wants to go first on that? Jackie?
Writing, because it’s a talent that has diminished significantly in the years that I’ve been in the business. You need to have somebody that can write, especially in my end of the business. Communication is so critical. If you can do social media, that’s wonderful. That’s a great skill to have, but you still need to know how to write and communicate with people. That’s a vital piece of information when you’re looking for somebody. It also tells you how well they think. If they write well, they think well. That’s important.
Using social media efficiently is a great skill to have, but you still need to know how to write and communicate with people. Share on XI have to admit. I’m still old-school, but having a good social media skillset is important. You have to be able to deliver your content in multiple ways, whether it’s writing, podcasting, or some video-audio version, on social media. Social media is not an immediate sell as well in some ways as some of the other tools, but it still is critical in building your platform, your awareness, and connecting with the people that ultimately will buy from you at some point. Those are the skills that are most important there.
Tracy, do you have a team of 60?
50 full-time and then 25 freelancers. We bring them in for whatever projects we need. I’ve had as many as 100 at some point. We do a lot of hiring. The biggest thing that we look for, because most of the work that we have done is production work, which is delivery and on time stuff, is integrity. Can you do what you say you’re going to do, and can you do it on time? If you can’t, that’s when communication comes in.
Effective Communication And Accountability
The biggest problem that I see is an inability to communicate when you’re not going to meet your deadlines, when you don’t have it all together, or when you have a question and you have an inability to ask those questions. That’s the kind of communication we don’t get often. When I find someone who can communicate like that who says, “I’ve been working on this project you gave me. Now, I’ve hit a roadblock, and I don’t know what to do. Can we have a meeting?” I’m like, “I’m all there.”
The ones who sit back and say, “I can’t bother, Tracy. I’m going to pretend like this isn’t happening,” and then they miss their deadline, that’s a problem. I see that a lot with my interns when I bring in US interns. The big problem is they do not want to ask questions. If you’re not going to ask the questions, you are not going to be able to complete the jobs that are around. You can’t know everything. AI is usually wrong, so you’ve got to ask the good questions to someone. If you’re not willing to go out there and do that, that’s a skill set that you better strengthen if you want to keep the job.
You mentioned the US. Do you think our schools are not teaching people how to be proactive? That’s coming from somewhere. That’s probably the wrong question. We’re going to get into a huge debate here. Why are these kids not proactive?
Mock Trial And Forensic Learning
I don’t think it’s that at all. I think it’s a little bit of a social media thing. You’re sitting out there and presenting yourself as the expert in everything and the authority in everything, especially when you’re at short form and not long form, where the interviews happen and a lot of good questioning comes. I kicked my daughter into the mock trial group, and she’s loving it. It’s good because it’s teaching that interrogation model of things. She is also doing something called FORCE, which is forensic science. It goes across history, English, and science. It’s looking at it all from a psychological perspective, human behavior, and other things.
There are good programs out there. It’s a matter of whether you set that tone of the value of what you expect. Think about most teenagers. What do they do? They go to Chipotle. They go to work at a job that says, “Here’s how you do it our way. Plug and play.” There’s no critical thinking in that process. When you throw them into a job that requires critical thinking, they flounder for a little while. You got to take them and grasp them. You’ve got to be willing to train that. I find that too often that somebody who wants to bring in an intern or bring in temporary workers doesn’t provide that environment to make that happen. It’s a mistake because they don’t come with it.
It’s something that you have to learn. Joie, how about you and your team?
I look for creative thinkers. I want people to think outside the box. I want people to stretch. People who are too rigid don’t work well for me because I feel like we go up against a wall a lot when it doesn’t have to be there. I like that flow. I honor that everyone respects each other.
Those are good traits. I’m working with a scaling coach. I will be on the next Frozen on Broadway because the constant from him is to let it go and let them do it their way. I’m experiencing how difficult that is.
Juliet, to flip the tables, because you know I always ask you questions, did he tell you to hire your weakness?
No, he didn’t.
That is one of the things that most people don’t do. You’re such a beautiful systems organization person. Maybe you need to hire a creative thinker. It will be difficult to manage because you won’t understand them. They add beauty to your business. They add things that you didn’t imagine. The reason why we’re such good friends is that we are very opposite thinkers. I appreciate the beauty in who you are, what you do, and what you bring to the conversation. If you can find that in someone, especially in your senior staff, as you get someone who’s collaborating with you and working with you, and they don’t think exactly like you, you’re going to have a better outcome.
Creative thinkers may be a bit difficult to manage, but they add beauty to your business. Share on XI’m seeing great outcomes from it. Every time, it’s like, “Do it your way.” It’s effective, but it’s not my way. I’m a control freak.
The other thing that’s important is that you need to hire people who are problem-solvers. You can’t be solving all of the problems. You need to have people that will take initiative, come to you, and say, “Can we do this? What if we did this?” or, “I’m stuck here. Is this a solution?” As you said, Tracy, they may come to you with a question, but a lot of times, they come to you with the answer, and they want your approval. That’s the kind of person that I want.
If any of you are looking for a VA career, take note of all of this because this could be pivotal in that. For you guys, what role do your podcast and audio content play in your overall media strategy? How are you using it?
Returning To Original Keyword Strategy
For us, it’s like the anchor. If we didn’t do what we were coaching our clients to do, it would be a huge mistake. There are a lot of producers and clients who don’t practice their own podcasts. They don’t produce their own show, and yet they have all these clients. It’s a mistake because it’s hard to understand what’s going on in the podcasting world, the video casting world, or the author world if you’re not out there being an author yourself or publishing every single day a new novel for a client. It’s not working if you’re not actively participating in the thing that you’re selling. For us, to make it the anchor is extremely important.
It’s time for a shift. We’re making a significant shift in the way that everything is playing. The interesting part is we’re going back to what we did at the very beginning, which is still the basis for everything that we do. We’re going back to the beginning, which is much more of that keyword strategy. That’s how we started our first podcast. It was with this keyword strategy. We’re coming back to that again. That has to do with the fact that we’re trying to fill in the gaps of what’s working in search engines, what’s working with the AI, and what’s giving it the basis in the way that people are asking for information.
It used to be a keyword phrase like podcast monetization tips. That would be what the keyword phrase is. It would be, “How do I monetize my podcast at five episodes?” That’s the difference now. It’s micro in terms of the focus of it, but it’s a question. That’s because that’s how we ask our AI or our voice bot. That’s how we ask questions, so the answers need to be readily and easily available.
Joie or Jackie?
I’m a very creative person. I’ve been building my brand to be its own studio so I can lend my influence to others. The way I’ve approached it is that everything is a waterfall into the other divisions so that there’s flow. My video podcasts lead the divisions. However, they help to waterfall everything back. I also use it 100% as a business card to create these relationships out there and this community-build out there.
At the heart of my brand, I feel strongly that everyone needs to build their own influence. We have a freedom flag. You don’t have to ask permission. Whether it’s the video podcast or becoming an author, which I highly recommend, there have been two tipping points in my career. One has been becoming a two-time author and then launching my YouTube channel and becoming a video podcast content creator.
Jackie?
Multi-Platform Media And Publishing Strategy
I have two brands. When I am talking about Conscious Media Relations on our podcast tour and I do those interviews, I share bits and pieces from those interviews with our community on a regular basis with the permission of the podcaster. That gets a lot of attention. We are on multiple platforms. With The Historic Traveler, I write articles. We do a magazine. We do a Hot 25 Historic Novelist every month.
We’ve always got stuff going on, and we’re turning that into constant social media, whether that’s reels on all the different platforms. Our YouTube is expanding massively. My beautiful still photos get a lot of attention. It’s also when we talk about the reviews on the New Historic Novels. We are constantly going out. We put out something about 4 to 5 times a week, so that we’re constantly telling people.
Social Media Strategy Success
I have two separate groups of social media. I have social media for The Historic Traveler. I have social media for me personally on LinkedIn and Facebook. We split the messages. We are very busy delivering that. We’re using the content that we create to be the basis of what we’re telling people about, and then bringing them back to the site to see or explore the bigger, fuller content that gets their attention. I’ve never been this active on social media before. We’re seeing the results of the attention. We’re up to about 2,000 people a week at The Historic Traveler.
You’re human on social media, which is so few. I’ve checked yours out, Jackie. You did a great job. You’re real, where everything else still feels very fake out there. It feels forced. I’m all for having a team do stuff, but when it starts from what you think and how you care, the passion is showing through The Historic Traveler.
One of the fun things that we’ve done and that people are loving, because it gets our highest rating, is that I went and put my photo using AI into the pictures of 30 of the top women in history. Every Friday, we have a little, “Who am I this time?” It’s a little video reel. People love it. They’re guessing who I am. There I am, with the face of Madame Curie or Marie Antoinette. It’s been a lot of fun. It’s right. That’s me. That’s what I love. I love history
That’s great. Do you guys have any questions for these guys? We can probably take about five minutes of questions, and then we need to wrap it up because they have other calls. Anybody? Nobody?
I do.
That’s Cynthia. Hi.
I know you’re talking about YouTube quite a bit. I had seen an article about YouTube and the format of video where you’re editing to make things succinct and beautiful versus a talk or a real chat where you’re talking to the camera, and there are no edits. I forgot the term for that. I wanted to get your opinion of whether you’ve seen that or not, the difference in reviews, and the acceptability and the likability of either of those two platforms.
Test Audience Engagement Before Editing
I was a big fan of trying to do the YouTube livestream model at first because it gives you a sense of how YouTube works. It’s all off the cuff, so there’s no editing. There’s nothing new to learn if you’re doing it yourself and nothing complicated to pay for. It is what it is. You went live. If you made a mistake on air, it’s more acceptable. You let yourself off the hook, but your audience does, too.
The more important thing is, can you get somebody to watch your video? If you’re going to spend the time, spend the effort, and spend the money to edit, you better drive an audience to it. Try that first. Try the lowest lift thing that you can do to see if YouTube has the people that you want to reach on it. Can you get them to come to those live streams, even if it’s after the fact and watch them already recorded? It doesn’t matter.
If you spend time, effort, and money on your product, you better drive an audience to it. Share on XIf you can get them to come to your channel, subscribe to your channel, and watch those videos, then you’re onto something. You can then decide, “Would my audience want it if I did more editing?” Go to Fiverr. Have a couple of videos edited that you already created, re-air them, and see what happens with that. My model is that if you can’t get them there, then don’t spend the time and money.
The experience that I’m seeing the most success with is doing short reels. Here’s what I heard from one of the fellows who interviewed me. He does the full interview, and then he cuts down little pieces of it and offers it as reels. The reels drive people back to the bigger interview. You could see the numbers because this interview that I did has the biggest response that I’ve ever done. It was one of my first. They had 12,000 people that watched this video because he was promoting it using the short reels and then boosting the reels that drove people back to the full-length interview. I would recommend that if you want to have the full content, you also cut it down. I’m trying to think of the AI program.
We use Opus.pro.
Opus will cut it down to short clips. Use that for the reel to promote the longer ones.
That’s exactly what I do. That’s my strategy that we do every week. We take the episode that goes up into Podetize for that long form, and then we cut it down into short reels and make those into social media posts that connect back to the bigger one.
There are some new tools in beta on YouTube to be able to do it directly from YouTube. You can share a section, but it’s limited in what you can do. Opus does an easy job of finding the clip for you and presenting your options. All you have to do is fix the caption and you’re done. You can even share straight to YouTube or straight to TikTok. Whatever you have connected up, you can share straight from Opus.
Opus has the script on it while you’re speaking it. If they’re not listening to it and they’re scrolling, the content may bring them in as opposed to seeing you there.
We use Castmagic as well. We use Opus and Castmagic. Castmagic helps us write our headlines, our newsletters, and all that sort of thing. We can take that right off of the transcription. Anybody else with a question? Joie, did you want to share something?
I personally don’t believe in editing the videos.
I don’t either.
I feel that we’re the new reality stars out there.
I like that.
It’s part of my system and my teaching.
It’s less work, and it’s better.
Bumper Videos Enhance Podcasts
What I realized when I first jumped into this arena was that it was burning people out. They weren’t getting their videos out fast enough. We’re talking about how content is fast and furious. What I teach in my system to my video podcast content creators is that we do bumper videos. That way, you have your intro and your exit, and then it doubles at your podcast right off the bat when you download it. That’s what’s worked for us. I do feel like we have to be real. I tell people all the time, “If an airplane lands on your home, don’t cut it up.” Making mistakes on your show will do better for you. People want real. They don’t want the newscaster approach. That’s over and done.
Any more questions before we bug out here? Thank you guys for showing up. I appreciate it. Thank you to Jackie, Tracy, and Joie. We’ll see you in the next episode.
Bye.
Thank you.
Bye, everyone. Thank you.
Important Links
About Tracy Hazzard
Tracy Hazzard is a seasoned media expert with over 2600 interviews from articles in Authority Magazine, BuzzFeed, and her Inc. Magazine column; and from her multiple top-ranked videocasts and podcasts like The Binge Factor and Feed Your Brand – one of CIO’s Top 26 Entrepreneur Podcasts. Tracy brings diverse views from what works and what doesn’t work in marketing, branding and media from thought leaders and industry icons redefining success around the globe. Tracy’s unique gift to the podcasting, marketing, and branding world is being able to identify that unique binge-able factor – the thing that makes people come back again and again, listen actively, share as raving fans, and buy everything you have to sell.
About Jackie Lapin
For the past 15 years, Jackie Lapin’s Conscious Media Relations’ Radio/Podcast Tours have helped nearly 400 luminaries, leaders, filmmakers and authors grow their businesses, sell more books, create viewership and change more lives by introducing them to up to 9000 radio shows and podcasts, including such clients as Don Miguel Ruiz, Dr. Joe Vitale, Marie Diamond, James Twyman, Arielle Ford, Hay House and more. She’s booked for than 10,000 interviews and for her clients.
About Joie Gharrity
Joie Gharrity is a Brand Consultant, Video Podcast Content Creator, Author, and International Speaker. With over fifteen years of experience in the Hollywood entertainment industry, she has worked at top companies in film, television, original web content, and branded entertainment. Joie was hand-picked by the ABC Studio President to launch the first multimedia startup business for The Walt Disney Company.
Upon returning to the Bay Area, Joie was inspired to create Joie G 113, where she empowers entrepreneurs to become their own superstars. Through her unique and proven Red Carpet Guide to Superstar Branding and Digital Marketing System, she shines a spotlight on their company brands in the marketplace. Her system includes inner game tools, such as “The Love Capacity Daily Habits,” enabling entrepreneurs to embrace next-level success.
As the Founder of Superstar Women Entrepreneurs Digital, Joie specializes in training women entrepreneurs to become influential video podcast content creators. She provides a distinctive platform by hosting their shows on her YouTube channel, which boasts a premium real estate of 1.6K subscribers. This exposure grants them significant influence and visibility. Additionally, Joie offers cover features and full-page articles in her digital magazine, empowering women entrepreneurs to showcase their expertise. Leveraging her substantial online reach of 1.1M, she ensures that women entrepreneurs gain the visibility and influence they deserve.
Joie is also an author of two books. The Red Carpet Guide to Visibility and Influence shares her Hollywood journey, along with branding and marketing techniques to amplify personal and professional brands, increasing visibility, influence, and earning power. Her second book, Being Your Own Superstar: How to Expand Your Love Capacity, guides readers toward the big screen of their lives.
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