Student Spotlight: From 30+ Years of Teaching In-Person to Going Online with Jill Nussinow
Imagine being able to teach what you love for over 3 decades.
…then, having to change it ALL within months.
That’s the story of our guest, Jill Nussinow. Known as The Veggie Queen, Jill is a celebrated cookbook author and culinary educator with over 30 years of teaching experience. She focuses primarily on whole foods and pressure cooking.
While her experience is rooted in in-person teaching, Jill has fearlessly brought her business online. She teaches virtual cooking classes, writes a popular email newsletter and also leads a 19,000-person Facebook group. Her ability to be nimble and pivot during the pandemic is remarkable.
In this episode, Jill shares:
How she got started with teaching cooking classes
How she made the transition from teaching in-person to going online
How she developed her niche (while avoiding boredom!)
Finally, Jill is going to share her experience as a student in my signature program, Cooking Class Business School.
You won’t want to miss this episode, so grab a cup of coffee or tea and enjoy!
Links from this episode
Follow Jill on Instagram
Visit Jill’s website: The Veggie Queen
Sign up for my FREE Culinary Roadmap and learn how to start a flexible and fulfilling online business.
Say hello to Cynthia on Instagram → @culinarycynthia!
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[00:00:00] Cynthia: Hi there, friends. Welcome to The Experiential Table. I'm Cynthia Samanian your host and creator of Cooking Class Business School. I absolutely love helping culinary pros like you build online businesses that give you more freedom and flexibility.
Now some of you may be back to teaching in-person cooking classes, and while it's so refreshing to get back in the kitchen with your students face-to-face, there's probably a little voice in your head saying, "Hmm, do you remember how exhausting this was?"
I have heard this from so many of you who have gone back to teaching in person and a lot of you are looking for an easier way to increase your revenue. Well that, my friends, is what I'm all about here. I want to help you diversify and grow your business through teaching online.
Now beyond growing your sales, teaching online also grows your reach and impact. That's right. Your ability to make an impact is so much greater online. Speaking of impact, I do want to take a minute and give you all an update on our #CookForUkraine Together fundraiser. So for those of you who don't know a few weeks ago, I put out a call on Instagram to see if my community, yes, that means you, would be interested in teaching online cooking classes to support Ukrainian families impacted by the war.
I was blown away by your responses. And before I knew it, we had a website up, a signup form ready to go and now we have over 40 donation-based online cooking classes. So if you're listening and you're teaching or you've already taught your class, or maybe you've signed up to attend a class, I want to thank you so, so deeply from the bottom of my heart. We've collectively raised over $20,000 and I know this number is going to keep on growing because we still have more than 20 online cooking classes ahead of us. If you want to teach or sign up for a class, it is not too late. Head on over to cookforukrainetogether.com.
Okay, now let's switch gears to today's conversation with our guest, Megan Porta, the founder of Eat Blog Talk. Megan is full of so much knowledge given her experience as a food blogger, podcaster, an online business owner. She's been a speaker at practically every food conference you can think of so I'm really delighted to have her here with us today. In this episode, Megan and I are going to talk about the power of your voice. Yes, voice like me on this podcast right now, and how you can use your voice as a tool to separate yourself from the competition. If you've ever toyed around with the idea of starting a podcast, or perhaps you love the idea, but find it really scary and intimidating, this show is going to be super valuable to you. So with that, let's dive right into our conversation with Megan.
[00:02:46] Megan: Hi, Cynthia. So happy to be here.
[00:02:49] Cynthia: Welcome. I am so glad to have you on this podcast, Megan. All right, so as I said, we are really lucky to have Megan here today. She has such a wide range of experience to share. First off, Megan is the food blogger behind Pip and Ebby, a popular gathering place for busy women seeking delicious dependable meals. Fascinated by the world of blogging and entrepreneurship, Megan went on to create, Eat Blog Talk. This podcast and community helps bloggers transform their business and increase their confidence. So definitely be sure to check out her podcast. You might even see a familiar face on there. Megan also likes to nerd out on her favorite passions of productivity, efficiency and time management. And when Megan isn't working and traveling to conferences, you will find her at home in Minnesota, where she lives with her husband and two sons.
Thank you so, so much for coming on the podcast before we move into voice and the future of audio and all of those juicy questions, I have to ask you a simple one. What is behind the name of your blog, Pip and Ebby?
[00:03:49] Megan: Ooh. I love when people ask me this, because it is kind of an unusual name and I started it with a friend. So our nicknames were PIP and Ebby she was actually a college friend and six months into our venture together, she decided to go another route and leave the blog. And I was kind of left wondering if I should keep it, if I should go a different way, but I really loved the sound of it. Just kind of the ring of the words together, Pip and Ebby. And I also found that it was a really good conversation starter. So people all the time were like, oh, that's interesting. It's not about food. You know, the title isn't about food. The blog is about food, but how did you come up with that name? So it's a point of conversation really, and it's a good way to incorporate my friend and our story and how we started it. And she and I are still really good friends. Okay. Good.
[00:04:37] Cynthia: So it wasn't like this falling out or anything?
[00:04:39] Megan: No, no, nothing like that.
[00:04:40] Cynthia: Okay. So wait, which one are you? Are you Pip or Ebby?
[00:04:43] Megan: I'm Pip. Yes. So like I'm short. So pips squeak was my name in college.
[00:04:46] Cynthia: Got it. Okay. I figured there was a story behind it and I had looked on your site and I couldn't find it. And I'm like, okay, well this is going to drive me crazy. Like I have to know. Yeah. Has to be the first thing we just get out.
[00:04:59] Megan: I love it.
[00:04:59] Cynthia: The show.
[00:05:00] Megan: Yeah. I should put that in my about page. I think.
[00:05:04] Cynthia: So Pip and Ebby is a blog you've had for how long, when did you start it?
[00:05:07] Megan: Oh, gosh, summer of 2010. So it's been 11 and a half years. It's an old ancient blog with a ton of content, but it's been a really fun project.
[00:05:16] Cynthia: And do you still blog on PIP and EBI? Are you still posting new content?
[00:05:20] Megan: I do. I am currently doing a lot of non-recipe content. So a lot of like how-tos, informational content that supports all of my between 800 and a thousand recipes, I think I'm at now. And that's paired down from way more. So, yes, I still create new content.
[00:05:38] Cynthia: Oh, my goodness. 800 to a thousand recipes. That's so, so many. Wow. What's your most popular? Cause I know that like with some blogs, there are a handful that drive so much of the traffic because of SEO and getting, you know, pinned and, and that sort of thing. So do you have like a few all star recipes?
[00:05:56] Megan: I do.
[00:05:57] Cynthia: What are they?
[00:05:58] Megan: So back in the day when Pinterest was more of a thing, I know now it's kind of hard to get seen on Pinterest, but I really hit that sweet spot wave. I was super lucky. I got so much traffic from Pinterest and two of my most popular recipes back then were my mom's meatloaf recipe and my famous chili recipe and those absolutely blew up and they've remained consistent. They're still really popular. They're not as popular, but today I would say more organically, my most popular recipe is my candied lemon slices and I have no idea why, because I'm not a candied lemon expert. I'm not a lemon expert, but for some reason, Google just put me right up there at number one for candied lemon slices. So that is, has been number one for probably the last two or three years.
[00:06:46] Cynthia: That's so funny,
[00:06:47] Megan: So random. Very bizarre, but I'll take it.
[00:06:50] Cynthia: Right? And I'm sure, like, as you're creating content, you're thinking this could be the recipe. Like this could be a big one and then it ends up flopping or the one that you don't think is going to do well, takes off.
[00:07:01] Megan: Exactly. Right. You just never know. And that's kind of the fun thing about food blogging, but it's also frustrating at times because yeah, like the things you think will work don't and the things that you don't know will work do sometimes. It's very odd.
[00:07:15] Cynthia: Yeah. I feel like you could say that about anything in business.
[00:07:18] Megan: True. Yeah. Like good point.
[00:07:20] Cynthia: I'm nodding my head here. Like, yep. I, I feel like that every day. And by the way we, so randomly, we made chili last night for dinner, and I had no idea you were gonna talk about chili and I wish I knew this because I would've used your recipe.
[00:07:31] Megan: Oh, I have to say it's the best chili recipe. And I'm not just saying that it is just so delicious. So next time you make chili look for it's my slow cooker chili. So I have a handful of different ones on my blog, but the slow cooker chili is to die for.
[00:07:47] Cynthia: Awesome. Okay. We could really just keep talking about recipe and cooking.
[00:07:50] Megan: We could.
[00:07:50] Cynthia: Which is a challenge with this podcast. We actually never really talk about cooking at all. We talk about all the business stuff. So fast forward to when you started Eat Blog Talk, when was that? When did you start moving into podcasting?
[00:08:02] Megan: I started the podcast. I believe I launched in July of 2019. Yeah, it'll be three years this summer. So yeah, just been chugging along, producing tons of content, doing amazing interviews. It has been so much fun. I love this part of my business.
[00:08:19] Cynthia: And how did you get into it? Or, you know, at what point were you realizing," oh, I need to create a podcast."
[00:08:24] Megan: So in 2018, I started doing massive amounts of video for my blog. So I hired a person who came into my home and she did all the filming and we did like those hands and pans videos.
[00:08:36] Cynthia: Mm-hmm...
[00:08:37] Megan: That are really popular that many of you probably have seen and she would come over once a week and we would just film like crazy. We would batch from like, 8:00 AM until five or 6:00 PM and film and I would take photos and we'd eat the food and do the dishes and it was a lot of work, but it was also fun. And during those days we would turn on my speakers and we would turn on business podcasts and we would just cycle through all of these amazing entrepreneurial podcasts that we were just eating up the information from one of them in particular, talked a lot about the power of audio and how, if you really want to get your voice out there in a new way, you should start a podcast. And that kind of stuck in my brain. This went on for about nine months and it was early in 2019, I just had this thought, like, I need to start a podcast because I love helping entrepreneurs, I love helping food bloggers. I have this passion for helping people figure out what they need to do to grow and thrive as small business owners. So it was really scary for me because I was a super shy kid. I didn't talk to anyone as a kid. I avoided speech class. Like I avoided using my voice for most of my life. So the idea of starting a podcast was crazy, but I did it anyway. I just decided, you know what? This is scary, but I'm going to do it. So in May of 2019, I decided to get the ball rolling and started interviewing people and then launched in July.
[00:10:02] Cynthia: Wow. I think that's so refreshing to hear you say that you, you know, are probably like the least likely to start a podcast and you were able to do it and not only do it, but have a really high quality successful podcast, because I think the belief that a lot of people have is that it's for people who are extroverted and enjoy speaking on stages and, you know, enjoy hearing themselves talk and all of those things, but it sounds like that's not you at all.
[00:10:27] Megan: Not me. So my story has a few extra layers, I would say, because it was extra scary for me, but I just decided like, I'm gonna do this anyway and the first 50 interviews I did were, oh my gosh, they were terrifying. I was like, I don't know how interview. I've never interviewed anyone before, but just for those of you listening who maybe do wanna start a podcast, it does get easier. Even if it sounds really scary. And even if it is scary, when you dive into it, it does get easier.
[00:10:56] Cynthia: Yes. And I think we can say that about most things, but especially with podcasting, you know, when you go through the process, you start to kind of figure out your own voice. And you know, what your perspective is or how you interact with your guests and it evolves and changes and so just knowing and accepting that your early stuff is not going to be great because it's a process is just part of it, right?
[00:11:17] Megan: Oh gosh. It is so true. Yeah. It's bad. My first interviews were terrible, but it is it's part of the journey.
[00:11:24] Cynthia: Yeah. Okay so then you started Eat Blog Talk. It's a podcast and then you also have kind of a community element to it.
[00:11:31] Megan: Right. So we run currently a mastermind program, so it's very selective exclusive group of people. Right now we have 10 members at, sorry. I think we have nine right now. And we just spend an entire year together and we meet every week. We do intensive calls. We are really supportive of one another and encouraging, and we just bring like tons of value to this group so that is my focus right now. We do like in person retreats also, but I would say my mastermind program is the thing that I really put my focus on outside of the podcast.
[00:12:06] Cynthia: Yeah. I mean weekly calls. That's a lot of work.
[00:12:08] Megan: It is. Yeah. It's intense, but it's good intense.
[00:12:11] Cynthia: Yeah. I'm sure your members get a ton out of it. Just having that consistency.
Okay. So we are gonna move into all things, voice, all things, audio. And, you know, it's interesting because the topic that we're talking about today is how you can use your voice as a tool to separate yourself from the competition. And it's funny, I actually put this in front of my Cooking Class Business School students as one of several topics that you and I were potentially going to talk about, and this one was by far the most popular. I had them vote because I was thinking to myself, well, these all look like great topics to me, all the ones that you had sent over. But this one, again by far, people were really interested in.
[00:12:52] Megan: I love it. I love that so much.
[00:12:54] Cynthia: Right? So you said the reason why you started your podcast is you heard someone talk about how audio is really powerful. Can you share your thoughts on that?
[00:13:02] Megan: Yeah. So I kinda shared my story about being a really shy kid and not using my voice a lot in my life. And when I think back about it, I think the reason I was avoiding using my voice was because it was such an intimate way to share about myself and now having done my podcast for a few years, I totally get it now because it is such an intimate way to talk to your people and to find new people.
So if you imagine like writing up a blog post or a document and sharing a story or sharing something that you're passionate about and then handing it to somebody and having them read through it. That's doable and they can kind of get a sense of who you are and what you're feeling and some emotion, but it is nothing compared to if you took those same words and spoke those words to the same person, then they would get this feel like, oh, we are actually forming a relationship. This is an intimate way that this person is communicating with me. There's so much difference between written word and audio.
And then I like to say this also. Podcasting and audio are so unique because if you have a favorite podcast, I mean, your listeners, Cynthia, probably avid listeners, and they come and listen to you regularly. They willingly put you in their ears for up to 60 minutes and they listen to every single word you say. That is a lot of words, so think about blog posts. Do you ever go to somebody's blog, post their blog and read 60 minutes worth of material? Probably not. Do you ever go to YouTube and watch 60 minutes of consecutive video? Probably not, but for some reason, people are captivated by audio. Part of that is that you can carry audio around with you anywhere mm-hmm . You can drive and listen to audio. You can go for a walk, you can clean your home. You can do it while living life and doing other things simultaneously. So there's a lot of magic in audio because you don't need visuals and there's really so much power in it.
[00:15:09] Cynthia: Yes. I love all the points that you brought up and I think one of the most powerful things that you mentioned is that length of time. And it's true, especially in this world where I feel like attention spans are getting shorter. That's at least what everyone is saying and you've gotta create the punchiest like 10, second reel or yes, you know, quick little snapshot. Well, actually in podcasting, it's not about that. You do have people listening for 30 minutes, 45 minutes, an hour, and that is unparalleled. Like there's nothing else like that. And I agree with you. I mean, it's so funny when I think about the podcasters, I listen to, I feel like I know them. I feel, I know, right? Like I feel like I could call them up and have a conversation with them. It's so strange how audio creates that intimacy that the written platforms, blog, posts, emails, et cetera, really can't quite capture in the same way.
[00:16:02] Megan: Oh, my gosh. That is so true. So I just went to a food blogging conference where I got to see all of these amazing friends that I had, you know, gotten to know online and through my podcast over the past few years. And so many people came up to me and they were like, Megan, and it was like, we were friends because of that, because they had been listening to my voice every single week. They kind of know my nuances and the weird quirks that I say. And they know me through that medium in a way that they never would know me through just reading a blog post. So it is, it is such a unique and cool format and medium. And I think we take it for granted. Like we know this, but we don't ever really think about it much. How cool and unique it is. But when we do, it's like, oh yeah, that's really powerful.
[00:16:49] Cynthia: Let's talk more about what you mean by using your voice as a tool. Are we talking podcasting? What are we talking about here in terms of the ways that people can use their voice?
[00:17:00] Megan: Yeah, I guess the main thing would be podcasting. The main way you can use your voice would be to put it out through a podcast, . But there are other ways to use it as well. So there are platforms such as Clubhouse. I don't know if you've heard of Clubhouse. Cynthia, have you heard of it?
[00:17:15] Cynthia: I have and I dipped my toes in it. And haven't really gone back since, so you can tell us more about that.
[00:17:21] Megan: Yeah, it's worthwhile. So if you are not familiar with Clubhouse, it is an audio based app. It used to be just iPhones, but now I think any smartphone has it. You need an invite, so find someone who has it and then get invited and you just go onto the app. I kind of like to describe it as being on an audio conference. So you are in a hallway and you can enter any room that you see that looks interesting. So there are many topics people talk about. I mean, really the spectrum is huge. A lot of it is entrepreneurial focused, so you could get really into like Pinterest room or we do food blogging rooms, anything. You hop into a room and you can just listen in and you all also have the opportunity to go up on stage it's called "stage" and speak and contribute to the conversation as well.
But it's a really good way to learn and grow from experts. I've found myself in rooms with people who are really well known in the entrepreneurial space that I never would have had the opportunity to talk with and collaborate with. It's a great way to put yourself out there and also get used to using your voice and speaking in kind of a group setting.
[00:18:27] Cynthia: Mm-hmm ...
[00:18:28] Megan: Even though people can't see you, it's still like kind of intimidating you, you have to speak up and be fluent, you know, in all of that and speak well, and clearly, so it's really good practice if you want to hone your speaking skills as well.
[00:18:41] Cynthia: Got it. Okay. Now do you think, I mean, podcasting has been around for a while. Do you think the market is saturated, crowded? Are people late to the game if they start a podcast today?
[00:18:54] Megan: Definitely not. I have numbers that I researched recently kind of talking through how many bloggers there are in existence, how many YouTubers there are versus how many podcasters. So, I don't have exact numbers because there's really no way to know exactly how many bloggers there are, but this is just a best guess. So 600 million blogs approximately are in existence, 6 million daily blog posts go up approximately, and then compare that to YouTube. So there are 51 million YouTube channels, 80 million videos uploaded every month and 500 hours of video uploaded every minute.
[00:19:34] Cynthia: Whoa.
[00:19:35] Megan: Yeah, that's insane. So if you compare it to podcasts, this is so. The most recent kind of pulling of material together through Apple's podcast library shows that it contains approximately 2 million shows, but of those 2 million shows only 26% have one episode published. So that's 520 K. 56% have only two to 49 episodes published. So that's another 1.12 million and only 18% have 50 or more episodes. So that's 360,000 podcasts compared to the millions.
[00:20:13] Cynthia: Millions.
[00:20:14] Megan: Yeah. So no, it is not saturated. Not at all. Actually. It's like really open and there's very, very little competition.
[00:20:23] Cynthia: Right. And that 300,000 number that you mentioned, that's podcasts across all industries, all topics. That's not just food.
[00:20:32] Megan: Right. Exactly. And of those, we don't know how active, so maybe they have 50 or more episodes, but we don't know, do they come on weekly? We don't know that even. And then if you pare it down even further, if you wanna talk about out food-themed podcasts, which is kind of my focus and the people in my niche, their focus as well. There are 4,879 food themed podcasts. And we don't know how many of those are actually active.
[00:20:56] Cynthia: This is really powerful. Not only is podcasting this intimate way to connect with your audience and your community, but the competition's really low. Why do you think that is? Why do you think there aren't a lot of podcasts in, let's just focus on the food space right now?
[00:21:14] Megan: Yeah, I think a lot of people tend to think that it's hard to get a podcast up and running. They get hung up on the technical issues, the technical side, which as you know, Cynthia, it's really not a huge deal. And I am not a super techy person myself. But if you really wanna figure something out, you just do it, right. I mean, we all do that. We go onto YouTube, we Google how do you start a podcast? Do your research and you can figure it out. So the technical issues are not issues. In my opinion, it's really easy to figure it out. I think that is like number one, people just think, oh, it's too hard, I couldn't figure it out. And another issue I hear from people specifically in my audience is what would I talk about? I don't know what I would get on and talk about. I'm a recipe blogger. Why would I start a podcast and start talking about my recipes when recipes and food are really visual. And I have a counter to that if you wanna hear it, what I say?
[00:22:11] Cynthia: I do wanna hear it because that was actually something I jotted down. I was like, okay, Megan, I have a more business marketing focused podcast that I think lends itself well to conversation but you're getting exactly to my question around well food is really visual so yeah how does that work on an audio platform like a podcast?
[00:22:29] Megan: So I agree. Food is very visual. We will probably all agree with that. However, we all love talking about food right. How often do you get together with friends or family and you're talking about a meal that was amazing from years ago? Talking about food is fun and it lends to imagination too. You can start envisioning how you're going to put a dish together. There are so many different ways to bring food into an audio format, I believe. And there are a handful of people who actually do it really well. I'm gonna say a handful because literally I found six food blogger, specifically, podcasters. Two of them are no longer creating content. So really four food blogger podcasters that I know of that exist in this world, it's nuts. But they have found really creative ways to talk about food through their podcast. Some of them kind of marry their blog with the podcast so they really take the information from the blog and just talk about it creatively through an audio format.
One person I know hosts a conference within his niche of sous vide and he uses his podcast to get sponsors for the conference. My favorite way that exists is my friend, Christine. She's a blogger at Cook the Story and she created a three to five minute episode podcast that airs daily. So every single day she publishes between three and five minutes so really low barrier. I mean, it does not require much effort on her end at all. And she talks through recipes on her blog. So what she'll do, like let's say she has a recipe on her blog for ribs. She will kind of preface the recipe on her podcast by talking about it and saying, here's why you should make these ribs. Oh my gosh. They're so good when you smother your favorite barbecue sauce over the top. Three things to keep in mind, you're gonna need to remember A, B and C about these ribs. Okay. Now go dig in, go to CookTheStory.com/whatever to find the recipe. Get cooking! And people are loving this. She launched her podcast in 2021 in, I believe it was November, so only what is that? Four months ago. She already has around 25,000 downloads and she was named as a best cooking podcast by Pop Sugar, along with some really, really well known podcasts in the food space. So there are ways to do it. You just have to get a little bit creative and lean into the fact that people really, really do like talking about food.
[00:25:05] Cynthia: Oh, that's such a great example because I think oftentimes the belief out there is that a podcast has to be 60 minutes long. So actually it doesn't. In her example, she's getting me into her community's ears daily, which that's powerful. There's something to be said about hearing someone's voice every day, even if it's just three to five minutes. I mean, that's actually a lot of time that she's getting in front of her people.
[00:25:31] Megan: Yeah. That's why I love her story so much because I wouldn't have been able to predict that that format would work so well, but once she's talked through it, I was like, oh my gosh, 25,000 downloads by the way in four months is great. Yeah, that is so good so I think this works so people could take this as a template if you are in the food space and you are a content creator and wanna get into podcasting. Obviously don't like, copy exactly what she's doing, but you could use it as a template and do something like that and just see how it resonates with your audience.
[00:26:03] Cynthia: I know that, you know, not everyone listening here is a food blogger, but you are all content creators or potential content creators, because it is important to create content to attract your ideal students, your clients, that sort of community that you need. Because Megan works really closely with food bloggers we're using that as an example, but I want you to know if you don't consider yourself a food blogger, you are probably still a content creator or an aspiring content creator, and this strategy very much still applies to you.
[00:26:33] Megan: Yeah, definitely. I mean, it really can apply to any type of entrepreneur or content creator.
[00:26:40] Cynthia: Thank you for sharing that example. That's a very good one. And the other thing that as you were talking kind of came to my mind is storytelling. Sometimes I know that my students in Cooking Class Business School can get hung up on, well, I'm not creating recipes daily, I have nothing to offer or what can I post on Instagram? I'm not a recipe developer. And the truth is you could tell a story through so many different angles it doesn't have to be here's the recipe go cook it, right? It could be a grocery haul. It could be talking about your favorite ingredients in your pantry, your favorite spices, or even just like how you got started and why you got started and the story behind that. It doesn't have to be just walking someone through a recipe or talking specifically about something that is on a blog or on their Instagram.
[00:27:27] Megan: Yes. Agreed. I mean, the world is your oyster. You just need to give it a little bit of thought. And I promise, you can come up with probably a hundred ideas. And I always say this to, for people who ask that question, where do I start? What do I talk about? Go to your favorite podcast player. So if that's Apple Podcasts, type in your keyword of choice. So if you are in the food space, I recommend just typing in food or recipes. Or if it's something else, then type that in and see what comes up. Those first things that come up, the first podcast you see are going to be popular. So click through them, read their descriptions, see what they're talking about and probably something is going to ring a bell or click in your head like, oh, I know a spin on that, that I could talk about. So that is kind of my first recommendation for people who say that, like, I don't know what to talk about.
[00:28:18] Cynthia: That's a great, great tip. And I think people will be surprised that there are so many gaps in the food space as we've pointed out before, like the things that you would assume, oh yeah, of course. There's a podcast around gluten free baking or you know, how to meal prep as you know, someone who has a vegan lifestyle. There are actually aren't that many that are
[00:28:42] Megan: Yeah...
[00:28:42] Cynthia: Active. Right? So if you see a bunch of results, you might get discouraged, but then click into them and you'll see that the most recent episode may be two years ago or a year ago. In which case you can just act like it didn't even exist, right?
[00:28:56] Megan: Right. Yeah. There really is so much opportunity. And the numbers that we talked through earlier, the fact that there's so little competition in the podcasting space right now, for me, that is like opportunity. There's so much opportunity. So get yourself onto the podcasting medium, onto the platform if you want to be more visible as a content creator and put your voice out there in new ways, if you want to reach your current audience in new ways, this is a really great way to do that. And it's also a great way to find a new audience and pull them into your world as well.
[00:29:31] Cynthia: Yeah. And I was gonna ask you about that because that's something that I've noticed with my podcast. People who have, you know, sent me a message on Instagram and I always ask them, well, how did you come across my account and my business? And more often than not, it's the podcast. And I'm thinking to myself, well, how do they find the podcast?
So how do you think people grow their, you know, especially considering that like they're reaching people outside of their existing community. Is it word of mouth? What have you seen.
[00:29:59] Megan: Definitely word of mouth, but I would say number one would be just creating really valuable quality content and making sure that you have those keywords that you want in your title and your description in there because people search podcast players, and that's mainly how.
If I think of myself as a user, and I wanna hear more about email marketing, I will just type in email marketing and whatever pops up. I'll start listening. Mm-hmm so make sure you are doing good SEO strategies and putting your keywords in there, and that your content is robust. That you are delivering something of high quality and value. That is number one, but also sharing it with your people so if you have a current audience, let them know it's there because if they think it's good quality, they're gonna share it with everyone else and it's going to be like this trickle effect.
[00:30:47] Cynthia: I will say the one thing that has helped our podcast is on our website, that's where we have our show notes. With every episode we have a page that has a quick summary, transcripts, links to our guest websites. And that gets searched by Google. That gets indexed. So we actually have noticed a lot of our traffic does come from a Google search when people want to learn how to start teaching online. Right. So it almost has the same power as a blog in terms of Google search and what you can do with SEO. One thing I'll add too is when you have an interview style podcast and you have guests that come on, they will share their episode with their audience
[00:31:25] Megan: mm-hmm
[00:31:25] Cynthia: And so if you're bringing on guests who are really aligned with you, so, you know, going back to my gluten-free baking example, if you teach gluten-free baking classes, and you want to bring on someone from the gluten-free community, maybe someone who's more focused on gluten-free meal prep. Well, there's a good chance that their audience would be interested in your classes too so having your guests share the episode can go a really long way and building your audience.
[00:31:53] Megan: Oh, I so agree with that. Yes, definitely. Utilizing those connections that you make through interviews to expand your network is huge because again, voice is so intimate that you create connections more quickly.
So if you were communicating the same things over email, you wouldn't make that connection as deeply. But when you're talking to someone and you say, Hey, would you mind sharing this with your audience? Of course, they're going to be willing to do that, especially if it aligns well and it just grows so much more quickly and naturally.
[00:32:24] Cynthia: We've made a strong case as to why, you know, everyone listening should consider creating their own podcast. But let's say there is just too much going on. It's not something that they can prioritize. How can they still leverage the power of their voice without creating a full blown new podcast?
[00:32:41] Megan: So if you're like, no, there's no way I have time for this. There are other ways to kind of prepare yourself for a podcast or just to dig into other ways, period. You don't have to do a podcast. So there's something called a Capsule Podcast. Have you heard of this, Cynthia?
[00:32:57] Cynthia: No.
[00:32:57] Megan: Okay. So Betsy Wallace, she is actually a podcaster herself at The Dinner Sisters. She is not a food blogger, so she's not technically in my space, but she and her sister, Kate host this amazing podcast. Speaking of interesting spins on food, they live separately and they live very different lives. Like one has a family, one is single. They make the same recipe every week and then they get together and they talk about it and they compare notes and it's a really cool idea. So Betsy just really loved this concept of using audio to grow your audience, to grow your brand, expand your brand, connect more deeply, all of the good things that we're talking about, but she realized that not everyone's going to want to launch into a full blown podcast.
So she created this thing called Capsule Podcast. And I believe it's just, if you go to capsulepodcast.com, it explains it more in depth, but it's bite-sized pieces of information that you create and you deliver to your audience. So if you just wanna talk about your brand as a whole, if you want to promote a cookbook, if you have a course that you could just created and you want to talk about that. Maybe just like a freebie or something really valuable that you wanna deliver to your audience. You create a six episode series that you deliver to your audience and that's it. So it's still audio, but it's like a really, bite-sized not overwhelming way to get your voice literally out to your people. So, so that is one way.
And by the way, we did record a podcast on Eat Blog Talk about Capsule Podcast. It goes way in depth to what it means and what it is and how you can get involved. I don't know if you wanna put that in the show notes, but I can give that to you. It's yes, it's a really great resource.
Some other ways are just going on to Clubhouse, like we talked about earlier, Cynthia, and one little tip that I tell people that is like really low barrier is to just record your voice so you can download a free app on your phone. I think it's called road rec. Have you heard of road rec?
[00:34:58] Cynthia: No, I haven't. I'm learning so many new things. I'm jotting all of this down.
[00:35:02] Megan: It's R O D E R E C. And there's a free version. You can put it on your phone. And the quality of the audio is actually really good. I used to use this before I started my podcast when I was just recording snippets for other things. Record your voice, 30 seconds talking to your audience. Deliver some value that maybe you would put inside of an email or something and record your voice saying those words so that you can connect on a different level. Take that snippet. So, you know, it would probably be an MP3, I think, and then embed it into an email and send that to your audience instead of your weekly email and just say, "hey, this week I thought that I would deliver my voice to you. And I have a 32-second snippet here. I would love if you listen to." And that is a really, really easy way to put your voice out there and to get people to connect with you more deeply.
[00:35:56] Cynthia: These are such great examples. Thank you again. I know that we are really selling the idea of starting a podcast. We're pushing it hard because you and I, as podcasters, clearly believe in this medium, but I do think it's great to just give our listeners some other ways that they can at least dip their toes in this pool of audio and the capsule podcast -I love that idea and that to me could be a very cool lead magnet. Like having people sign up and then you deliver a six episode series or four episode series, and that's part of them getting to know you and learn what you're all about.
[00:36:32] Megan: And it just deepens your brand a little bit too. It adds layers to your brand that most people are not doing. So it really makes you stand apart. It makes you unique in this really saturated space of just being a content creator. I think we can all relate to that feeling of literally being like a single head in a sea of so many people, and we're always asking ourselves, how do we stand apart from the rest? How do we make sure that we are being seen above other people when we're all kind of doing the same thing. This is a great way to do that. And a capsule podcast is a low barrier, easy way to just add that layer and depth to your brand.
[00:37:12] Cynthia: One thing I'll mention and this is not as sophisticated as some of the things that you mentioned, but I have to put it out there. So I run my own Instagram. I don't have anyone else doing it and so when I get DMS or messages, I am the one reading them and responding. And one of the things that I've done before is actually respond to using a voice message. Have you ever done that, Megan?
[00:37:37] Megan: I do . This all the time.
[00:37:38] Cynthia: Maybe I did that with you because
[00:37:40] Megan: I did it with you. Yeah.
[00:37:41] Cynthia: Oh yeah. That's right. I'm thinking to myself, like, I think we actually had a voice conversation on Instagram and for me nowadays, it's just because it's more practical. If I am holding my six month old and the toddler's running around, like just being able to type a coherent message doesn't always happen.
But what really was interesting is I was using it to talk to people who I, you know, have never met before. And you know, we didn't have a relationship like you and I have. And people were astounded that they were actually receiving a message from someone. It was personal. It wasn't some bot replying. It went a really long way. And it took me the same amount of time, or maybe even less time than it would to type up a response. So for those of you thing who, you know, are on Instagram and you post something and people message you and they are asking you questions, you can try out this audio strategy. And it's really fun because you're just talking to them like they're a friend and it really feels natural and you're gonna mess up and you might say something that, you know, sounds a little silly and you can delete it. But I think that's a really easy way to get started.
[00:38:45] Megan: I'm so glad you said that. I love doing that. And I just started doing that fairly recently because of every single point we've talked about the intimacy of using your voice, people feel like you're a good friend. Like you said, when you leave a recording like that, you have no idea how grateful people are when I record a 62nd audio message on Instagram, I get responses like, oh my gosh, that was so cool that you did that. And honestly, it was easier for me to...
[00:39:12] Cynthia: Right.
[00:39:12] Megan: I don't like typing with my fingers. I hate it. So for me, it's way easier. And people see it as being a really personal touch and they love it. So I'm really glad you mentioned that.
[00:39:24] Cynthia: Yeah, if you're on Instagram, which you should most likely be, you have access to this so give it a try. And that could be kind of the gateway to then moving into some of the other audio platforms and potentially podcasting. So I think we have a wide range of ways for people to get started. So thank you, Megan, for sharing your suggestions with us.
[00:39:45] Megan: Oh, you're so welcome. I love this topic so, so much. It makes me happy to talk about it.
[00:39:51] Cynthia: I think you mentioned to me that you have a free resource for people who want to get started with podcasting and wanna keep it simple. Can you share that?
[00:39:58] Megan: Yeah. So there is a way to start a full blown podcast on a really simple scale. And I have not personally used this method, but I've heard about it from a really trusted source. And it's called Anchor FM. So if you want to go to my website, I will send you an email with instructions. There's five steps that you go through. So if you go to eatblogtalk.com/podcasting, you will get access to that email. It will be sent directly to your inbox and. Anchor FM, if you're not familiar is kind of a new up and coming way to organize all of your podcast content. And the cool thing is that I believe you can edit right inside of Anchor FM, you upload your logo, you upload your description and it's like a one stop shop to just get your podcast out there really easily. So definitely check that out if that sounds intriguing.
[00:40:52] Cynthia: That's a great suggestion. It's so funny I think I heard about anchor after I started my podcast and I did it kind of the long, more hands on way. Right. And then anchor came out and I was like, wait, what? From what I understand too, it is the easiest way to get a podcast out there and you can do it all from your phone.
Okay. So I'm going to ask our golden question here on the show and for you, it's going to be audio focused. So I wanna know from you, Megan, what is the single most important element of an incredible voice experience?
[00:41:22] Megan: Really being authentic to who you are. I get that comment a lot from my listeners on my podcast. And it's just that I appreciate that you show up the same consistently every time and that you're authentic and that is how people get to know me because I'm not showing up as someone different every time. I'm not trying to say things that other podcasters are saying, just because it's cool or trendy. I show up as me and I embrace that completely. And I know that other people appreciate that. So yeah, just authenticity, being yourself and letting that shine.
[00:41:58] Cynthia: That's just the key to everything. And I think in audio, really great that you called out because I'm sure people are like, well, what if you stutter? What if you mess up? And what if you say, um, and like, and it's like, guess what? That's just being human. Right? That's just who you are.
[00:42:13] Megan: I'm the queen of saying the weirdest things and I don't edit them out anymore because I want to be authentic. I used to edit out everything. The first 50 episodes were super weird, but now I'm just like, you know what I do say um and I do say like, and that's okay. I think people are okay with that because that's how humans speak. Right.
[00:42:33] Cynthia: Exactly. I used to do the same. I used to just edit every single filler word. And then I was like, wait a minute, I sound like a robot.
[00:42:42] Megan: I know. Okay. I edited out breaths, Cynthia. I used to edit out all of the breathing. So it was like, okay, now we're so perfect we're not breathing. That is the weirdest thing ever.
[00:42:52] Cynthia: Okay. I admit I definitely did that when I was very pregnant for some of the interviews. Because you know, like pregnancy breath is different than normal breathing. Like it sounded like a tornado over here.
[00:43:04] Megan: You have a pass on that. I completely understand that.
[00:43:07] Cynthia: Yeah. Thank you so much, Megan, I would love for you to share where people can learn more about you.
[00:43:12] Megan: Yes. Go to eatblogtalk.com. If you want to learn more about Eat Blog Talk or listen to podcasts. I have, I think we're up to almost 300 episodes now so a lot to look through. If you have a question about podcasting and want to get into it and just need a little bit of support from a human that's not like a YouTube video. Email me at Megan@eatblogtalk.com. I am so happy to have a conversation with you and help you talk through any obstacles or problems that are keeping you from starting because I do think if it's on your heart to start you need to do it. You need to create a podcast now because the popularity is just going to go up. So if it's there, I would say do it in the next 90 days.
[00:43:57] Cynthia: 90 days, I like it.
[00:43:58] Megan: Yes. 90 days is doable more than doable. And you wanna get ahead of this trend for sure. And then I'm also on Instagram at eatblogtalk so you can find me there. I will send you an audio message if you send me a message and say, "Hey, I heard you on Cynthia's podcast", I will send you an audio message back and we can have an audio conversation. So that would be super fun too.
[00:44:20] Cynthia: Perfect. Yes. We've gotta practice what we preach here: audio messages only.
[00:44:24] Megan: Yes!
[00:44:25] Cynthia: Well, thanks so much, Megan. We are gonna include the links to your site and all I could stuff on our website, theexperientialtable.com as well as the show notes.
Alright, friends. Before we sign off, I do want to share some exciting news. I am teaching a free live masterclass called How to Make Money Teaching Online. I'm gonna be sharing the dates and the masterclass signup form via email. Remember, this is a live training, so if you aren't on my email list, now is the time to join.
The easiest way to get on my email list is to sign up for my free Business Cookbook by going to hiddenrhythm.com/cookbook. Inside the cookbook, you will get an outline of the six key steps to creating and marketing profitable online classes and the three most common mistakes I see culinary pros make when they teach online. So be sure to sign up now and stay tuned for my live masterclass announcement. It is coming soon.
All right, everyone. Thanks again for tuning in and until next week, get excited to get experiential.
