Audio and Voice

Transcript

Hi, everyone, and welcome to this episode of so what’s up, I’m with our audio specialist today, Emma, and we’re gonna be talking about the importance of audio in your marketing strategy.
Hi, Emma, thanks for joining us today. Thank you. So Emma is our audio specialist as well as many other things here at SEO Marketing. She works as well on our copywriting and content creation services. But in the main ms specialises in all things audio, would you like to give a bit of background on your knowledge of audio? Emma?
Yes, so I started out as a sound engineer. So one of my initial jobs when I was a teenager was to create radio commercials and elearning content for customers all over the UK. And that’s where it kind of my love of audio started really, I started doing audio production, I’ve then got more experience in doing voiceovers, I then had a radio show. So I was a radio presenter for a little while. And yeah, it’s kind of grown from there really anything to do with audio, I’ve tried to you know, have a go out and get some experience in and develop my skills. So I’d like to think now, you know, I’ve got quite a good grasp on all these different areas of audio, and how it can help loads of different businesses, really.
So your voice is your greatest asset that you’re
having. So it’s weird, because my actual voice like my talking voice, now, people are probably thinking that’s not that good. What’s special about that, you know, especially with my accent, but it is a bit of a weird one. And when I was younger, you know, I grew up, I’m from Stoke, I grew up in leak. And I think you know, my accent was quite strong. And I think it was quite hard to imagine if I could ever do that type of work in a particular voiceover work that’s on television. And, you know, years ago, you could only really get voiceover work. If you were a Queen’s English RP, you know, it’s very different now. And if you want if you see, you know, commercials on telly, or you listen to the radio, and you know, there are all types of different voices out there. And I think it is quite interesting to see how you can use your voice. And I think that’s something I’ve learned in the last sort of 10 years or 14 years, whatever it however long it is, I’ve been doing it. And you can really change your voice depending on what you’re trying to sell or what you’re talking about. And actually, we all do that in our everyday life.
Telephone voice. Exactly. We’ve all got our
telephone voice, we like to think we don’t but we all do. And even in conversation, you know, if you’re talking to your mates, you talk very differently than if you’re talking to your boss, or you’re talking to a client. And how we use our voice is really, really important with marketing or when we’re in meetings with clients, particularly in a business sense. And I think it’s quite interesting when you actually take a listen and hear how people use their voices and how they articulate themselves in different situations.
Yeah, definitely. Like, I have no real background really in audio whatsoever, apart from doing these podcasts for so marketing, but I can really resonate with that. Because when I went to university and most of the people that surrounded me were like, middle class, they’d all gone to like boarding school and I was studying English literature like you could definitely like me and my friends at first, like all of us northerners really scared to talk in the seminars because of like how we sounded. And then really interestingly, what we noticed was our accent started changing because of the environment that we’re in. And yeah, like, I’m from Luke as well, you can probably hear like a northern twang in my accent, but it doesn’t necessarily I don’t sound Stokey like traditionally, but yeah, it’s really weird. Yeah,
no, it is really funny. And I think when I started work as well, I was working with voiceovers that were, you know, quite often quite, you know, posh, very, very well spoken. Obviously, their diction was very perfect. And I, you know, I’d work all week and I get to the end of the week, and my mom would be like, Oh, you sound different. You don’t sound like Malik anymore, ever what’s happened to you, and then I’d be at home all weekend, you know, with all my mates that were proper leak or Stokey and with my parents who are born and bred, you know, around Lake in the surrounding area. So I go back to work on a Monday I’m accent to be really strong again. So it’s really funny how you do, you do reflect that. And actually, that is, you know, that’s in our nature actually to do that to, you know, be liked by people and, and fit in, in a certain environment. And it’s the same when it comes to business as well. You know, you act in a certain way in front of clients or in front of potential customers, to get them to like you and get them to resonate with you and your situation. And how you use your voice in that way is is quite important without even realising it. You do it?
Yeah, I think when like kind of bringing this back to marketing then like I guess every brand has a voice really doesn’t it? So when you’re when you’re providing that audio and like kind of using it to increase like connectivity with people, how do you approach what sort of voice you should use? Like what like, is it tone? Is it accent like how much do you play around with it for each client?
It depends really what kind of business you’re dealing with. So what I always say to clients, one of my things I We say whether it’s writing or with audio is to imagine if your business was a person, so maybe a famous person or someone you know, or a particular type of person. And you know, whether that’s age or personality. And that really helps you to understand what kind of tone your business would have in writing and in audio as well. So if your business could actually speak out loud, how would it talk? Would it talk, you know, really chatty, and really girly, and really fun and wacky and really high energy really, really fast? Or would it be quite smooth and sophisticated and calm and warm, and really helps you relax when you listen to it? And that really helps you then to understand what kind of voice you need for your business? And how you can communicate communicate to those potential customers?
Yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense. And I really like how you how you use your voice. Just mesmerised me a little bit,
it is quite funny, because I think, you know, even if you’re, you know, looking at, let’s say, your voicemail system, you can have the same written content, you know, welcome to so marketing. Thanks for calling today. Or you can have a welcome to so marketing. Thank you for calling today. Welcome to so marketing, thank you for calling today, you can have the same content. But yeah, really deliver in a completely different way. And there are no bounds to that you can deliver any type of content in any type of way. But how you deliver it, it’s really important to get that potential consumer to kind of listen to and stay engaged throughout.
Yeah, and I think so a voicemail one is, I guess, an often overlooked one as well. Like, for example, before talking to you, like, I’d have thought to myself like, Well, why can’t I just do that, but now actually listening to you. It’s one of those where like, I could never, ever do anything like that, because I just be like, Hi, welcome to say marketing, if you’re new to Chelsea. Sorry, I couldn’t take your call today.
Yeah, and I think, I think it’s one of those things like, and it can be quite underestimated the complexity of doing voiceover work, or any type of audio work, because, you know, so many people come to me and say, Oh, I could be a voiceover, you know, which I’m sure many people can. But I think, again, it’s underestimated that the kind of work that goes into it, and what’s needed to do it. And I think, I always like to say to people, you know, you are an expert in your industry, you know, I have no idea how to be a lawyer. I don’t know how to fix a car, I don’t know how to provide insurance, whatever it might be that your business does, I hold my hands up. I don’t know how to do that. But I do know how to sell your business. And that’s where we work really well, particularly as a marketing agency as well. We, there’s an appreciation there for the expertise that everybody can bring to the party. And I think that’s where, again, like you say voicemail, things like that, like if you call a business, and they’re not available, and they’re closed, or you reach their menu options, that kind of thing. It’s really important to have a voice that sets the tone perfectly for your business, particularly if you are closed at that point, if they call you out of office hours, or you’re out of the office and on a bit unavailable to take the call, it’s really important to make sure that you’re, you know, you’re speaking to that potential customer in a perfect way, that makes sure that they still come back to you when you are open, because you’ve got a very short window of opportunity there to turn them away or keep them hooked. And using somebody professional to record that audio for you can be that difference.
Yeah, definitely. And I think it really adds a certain like, kind of panache to like your customer journey that you wouldn’t necessarily expect. And if I was like a marketing manager, and I was ringing around, or even a business owner, and I was ringing around like a load of different agencies on like, hi, so I’ve been on your website, it was really good. And I want to like kind of see how you can help me with content creation, the one that would stand out to me in the most creative ways, the one that has that like cool, quirky voiceover instead of just like marketing manager, Chelsea, like a well, how can I help? Exactly, yeah,
it’s all about appreciating those different touch points for potential consumer. You know, we talk a lot about social media, we talk a lot about the printed material you might do or your website. And I think audio can really be overlooked. So, so much by so many people. And voicemail is the one initial one that people kind of introduced themselves into audio when they’ve got a business. Because that is another touch point for your business. And if you’ve got quite an unprofessional voicemail, and this is sorry, I’m not around today, give me a call later, I’ll leave message I’ll call you back or something just quiet. Even if it’s not necessarily that blase. Even if you try and make it sound a lot more professional. If you’re not a voiceover, it just won’t sound the same. And it will just won’t come across the same as if you use a professional for that type of thing. And again, I think it comes back to that appreciating the expertise. You are the expert in whatever business you run. We are the experts who make you sound as good as possible at all. touchpoints Yeah, definitely.
And I think what we’ve seen as well initially over the last kind of two years is just this rise in appreciation really for audio and I think a lot of that is free podcast,
which I am absolutely loving. I feel so excited by I’m really sad. I get so excited by these things. But one of the reasons I fell in love with audio even before I started work was I loved radio. That was my first Love, I used to just really, really love the feeling of community. You know, I used to share a room with my little baby sister when I was younger, and I used to have my own little corner of the room, she go to bed and I put my headphones on and listen to the radio. And that evening show I listened to I was part of a club, I was sat on my own, but I felt like that presenter was talking to me and me only and we were in this little conversation together sharing our evening while I sat there and had my cup of tea or hot chocolate. And he was there talking to me only. And that connection is just something you just don’t get with any other form of media. It’s amazing. And you’ll notice that I think Terry Rogen used to say, you know, someone asked him, How many listeners do you have, and obviously, he had millions, but you’d always say one, I’ve got one listener. And that was always just the most amazing thing and, and really, really special. And I think anyone that’s working in audio has to remember that because you are, you know, when you’re listening to audio, like someone’s going to be listening to this now on their headphones, one person listening at one time, and you’re talking to that one person making them feel really special. And that’s where my love of radio sort of stemmed from really being able to feel part of something bigger, even when you’re on your own. And that’s where I think really, especially in the last year, this rise of podcasts has come in because this is just radio just on demand. And you feel like you’re part of a really, really exclusive club, especially with podcasts, because they’re quite specific genres. They’re very particular to what you’re interested in, whether that’s your work, or your hobbies, or particular music that you like listening to. And you really feel like you’re part of this community, even if you’re set on your own, you might not have seen anybody all week, you might be working at home, living at home, not going out much at all, but just listening to that podcast and having that connection with that presenter. And you know that lots of other people are also doing the same as you. There’s just a feeling among that, that you just just can’t get from anything else. And I just really, really love that.
Yeah, no, I guess it’s one of those really, isn’t it? Like, I guess you’ve touched on it already with like the loads of different genres that you can have, and like how you can use it for different things. So for example, podcast wise, like I really like Helen and Sarah is amazing if and like if I ever have like a career problem, or like a bit of a like, oh, what should I do with this situation, like I scroll through, like their 200 podcasts, and it’s like, oh, how to live your values in your career. And it’s like I have that it feels like I’m literally like on the call with them. And they’re like talking to me and everything resonates and like they give you actions like it’s basically like free career coaching. And then with like, the peloton app and things like whenever I go like on a run outside or do anything that’s just audio related, it’s still such an immersive experience. Like I think I I was talking to some friends the other day about it, and basically saying how like when you’re on there, it literally feels like you’ve got like a personal trainer in your ear. But it’s also like a life coach and a therapist, like you can’t back off those like runs feeling so exhilarated because of how you feel like you’ve connected with that person. And then they carry it through onto social media. And it’s just that immersive experience that you wouldn’t necessarily get from like, I guess not having them in the air, like in your in your ear, like kind of like egging you on. And like really pushing you forward to reach your goals.
And it’s really empowering as well. And I think that’s what you really need. But especially right now, you’re so many of us are quite isolated, we’re all feeling quite lonely, whether we want to admit that or not, we’re not getting the same social interaction or community feel that we’re so used to. And as human beings, we really, really crave on any level. We’ve not had that in the last 12 months. So having that connection with a community of like minded individuals just like you is so important. You know, I listen to podcasts, I listen to quite a lot of comedy podcasts. And listen, I’ve got a little toddler. So I listen to a few parenting podcasts and things like that, something like that, let’s say parenting, for instance. You know, especially with parents, I’ve got children that have been homeschooled in the last few months. And they feel very lonely, very on their own. And having that connection with and just feeling like you’re not on your own. We’re all in this together in some way or another. And everyone is experiencing it in a similar way to you. And we’re all having to go through this together. That connection is just so incredible. And it can’t be underestimated the power that’s got and the power that these podcasts have to connect with people and really help them and mentally definitely. And I think that’s why I love audio because you can’t even though the written word can be really, really powerful and you can take people on a journey. Audio just takes you on a whole extra level. It’s a completely new dimension. And you feel like in a way you’ve had a conversation even though you listen to a podcast, it might be an hour long, you’ve not said anything. You feel like you’ve had a personal conversation with that presenter or with that with those people on that podcast. And that just even just that in itself just can give you a left in a boost. And I attribute that they you know, that’s where this, you know, lockdown and everything. That’s why the writer podcast has kind of come about even more so. Yeah, and
I think with that as well, like, you’d think really that video would have taken a lot more precedence. But I think what we’re starting to see as with the production costs, sometimes a video and if you’ve got a business and you want to make it look credible, you don’t really want to do kind of like low cost production. Like it doesn’t look great video because it can, it can, in some ways, cheapen your brand. And sometimes it can make you look more authentic, I guess it depends on how it’s done. But audio is one of those where like, it’s actually, if you do want to start your own podcast or something, there are cost effective ways and means of doing so. And the barrier to entry for a lot of companies is a lot lower than you think. Yeah,
definitely, I think it’s a bit of a kind of a little bit of a swings and roundabouts really, because whilst Yes, you don’t have to invest massively like you do with video, you do still need quality equipment, you know, it’s not just a case of recording this on your phone, you do want to make sure you’ve got a good mic setup and good software to edit with. And you know, that’s really, really important, because that does help. And that will certainly help the listener as well to enjoy that journey a lot more bought, relatively, like you say, compared to something like video if you’re going to do episodes or a series of videos, and the cost is a heck of a lot lower. And I think you know, if you’re if it’s a well thought out podcast, it’s a well thought out subject matter and conversation that you’re going to have, then, you know, there there are no limits to what you can achieve within is really, really interesting. And you’ll be surprised as well. What people are willing to listen to and what people find interesting what we want to engage with. You might think that you know, what you’ve got to say might not be that interesting, because you work with it everyday. Like I work with audio all day every day. And I don’t I mean, I obviously I love it. And I’m dead, passionate, passionate about it. But I don’t think it’s that interesting. But when I say to people, oh, I’m, I’m a voiceover they go. That’s so cool. You know, what you do every day? How? What’s your working day? Like? How’d you get into that? And it’s there’s quite a lot of intrigue in that. And I think that’s the same with every industry. And I’m always really interested in, you know, what the what the day to day job looks like for somebody else in an industry completely different to me. And so I think if you’re running a business and you think, you know, maybe, maybe I am going to start a podcast, and then I think you will actually be pleasantly surprised at what people are really want to know about you and how the inner workings of your industry work. And so I think that’s where, you know, a podcast can really blow wide open in terms of how you can communicate with your potential consumers.
Yeah, I think so as well. And I think as well, because it is kind of like on demand. And like it’s an opt in medium. Whoever actually comes on and listens to your podcast is super engaged with you already. Like they’re almost like they’re always wanting to be kind of not salty, but like they’re wanting to be entertained by you. And it’s a really good opportunity for you to like really nurture that relationship with them and in quite an intimate way.
Yeah, definitely. And you can really grow that relationship, like you say, they’re, they’ve already come to you the hardest parts over this now is about taking care of them bringing in the men looking at them, making sure that they stay with you and keeping that engagement going so that then they convert into a customer or they recommend you. Because again, that’s you know, a lot of this sort of stuff is word of mouth, people might listen to this podcast and think, Oh, I’m gonna recommend that to my peers, or my friend or my family. And that’s where it kind of grows from there. And I love the idea that you know, these people are, they feel connected with us, even though we can’t see whoever’s listening to this podcast right now. We can’t see them. We might not know their names might not know that even listened to this. But we’ve got a connection about you right now listening to this, we’ve got a connection with you. And I love that feeling that we’re in this little club together. And we’ve all been part of something really special. Yeah,
definitely. And I think it’s just one of those things really isn’t it where like, there’s not really many boundaries, I guess with audio, you can make people feel a lot closer to you.
Yes, and this is where I get so excited when it comes to audio because when I used to work in radio, you know, we could get quite creative in terms of the audio we could create. And this is where I always say there are no boundaries to audio. So whereas with like you say if you’re going to make a video, you are quite limited with your budget as to what you can show on screen so you might not be able to show somebody climbing to the top of the mountain. However right now, we could put some sound effects in this podcast and make you think we’re sat at the top of a mountain. And that would then help the theatre of your mind think that we’re sat at the top of a mountain or we could put an effect on our voice to make it sound like we’re in space. And that would then help the theatre your mind make us think why we’re in space. And I love the idea there are no boundaries to it, because people can’t see what we’re doing. We can make them see something in their mind’s eye, you know, whatever we want. And I remember when you know I remember A few sound effects I had to make when I was in radio where somebody, I can’t remember what the, what the company was called, but they wanted a knight in shining armour reading their commercial chat reading it, and I strung up a load of kitchen pans from the studio on a load of string and walked up and down the corridor and recorded it. So the pans climbed together. And that sounded like his armour was he was clever. Yeah, so it was quite funny. And then I did a Christmas commercial where Santa Pop Tart of a chimney and I blew up a rubber glove, and kind of pulled it out of a cup to make it like pop out of a cup. And that was son to pop it out of a chimney. And then another client had, they wanted the sound of somebody just kind of chilling out with a cup of tea. So I actually took a kettle and cup into the studio made a cup of tea while I was reading the advert. And these sort of things there, you know, again, like with the knight in shining armour, that was nothing like a knight in shining armour. But when you listen to the commercial, you thought that’s what it was. And you could really see that night in your mind as to what he looked like, and how we how he was dressed, and that kind of thing. And that’s where there are no boundaries. So if you really want to get creative with a world podcast, you can make your sound like you’re on a beach, we could add some lapping waves in there now, which would sound lovely on a cold morning a cold winter’s morning. So there are no boundaries, you can really get creative. And I think once you understand that, and you see that actually, there are no limits to what we can do with audio, and where we can take people because we talk about the Theatre of the mind a lot in audio. And like I say, that’s where there are no limits, we can really similar to when you read a novel, and you can imagine that character and their situation, the audio is very similar as well, we can really guide people and how they can perceive the audio of that hearing and what that looks like visually. So we can Yeah, we can have a good luck. Have fun, I think with audio, and take people wherever you want.
Yeah, I think you kind of hit the nail on the head that with that, really so like, I’m just thinking in my head like the the various different audio books I’ve listened to over the past few years. So like Stephen Fry, with the Harry Potter ones are some of my all time favourites. And I remember reading this like self help book on by like some guy who he’d wrote the book. And he’d also done the same, his own voiceover. And his book is actually very interesting. I’ve read the book, but when I was listening to the audio version of it, it was so dry because of his voice that turned me off immediately. And also, he was so norvan that it was like a bit painful to listen to, you
know, don’t complain about Northern accents.
I think it was Scottish. Just opening myself up. But, uh, yeah, basically couldn’t understand it. He was very monotone. Like, it just wasn’t engaging. And also as well, I know, this is different, because it’s a YouTube video. But you know, like, when you go on there, because you want to learn how to do something like technical, like, how do I add sound effects to a poem? Yeah, exactly. And then you’ve got someone on the on there, like on the video where it’s like, so open up Adobe Audition, and then click this. And it’s so difficult. Like, I remember when I was working in recruitment, because a lot of that phone based and you had to try and like build rapport with people over the phone. And I was like, I think was like 21 just incredibly nervous, tried to talk to these people from like, multinational companies, and you could literally hear me shaking to them over the phone. And then like, my manager had to like, pull me aside and give me a bit of like a pep talk and like a bit of coaching on like the importance of like using your voice and like an engaging way. And it was just something that I’d never considered.
Yeah. And I think, you know, if you if you like to watch things like the X Factor or something like they have voice coaches on there, they train them how to use their voice for singing. So, and if you’re an actor, you’ll have coaching on how to project your voice in theatre and this sort of thing. But it goes, it doesn’t just have to be a massive profession like that it can be everyday life. So if you’re, you know, I read bedtime stories to my three year old every night, and I always treat it like work, like I try and put in a good performance. You know, I don’t think she appreciates what she gets, because my characters are brilliant. So I really try you know, and I think even just things like that if you if you are reading a bedtime story to your child, you don’t read it in a boring way you don’t read it like you’re reading a letter from your mortgage provider, you know, you really read it in an exciting way to keep them engaged because I want her to love reading and love the written word as much as I do and, and even just things like that. Or if you’re doing a best man speech at your best mates wedding, you’re not just going to sit there with the paper in front of your face and read it. You want people to laugh. You want people to engage in a speech and really enjoy it and remember it. So there are things in everyday life where we can use our voice and use audio in an amazing way to have a massive effect on people. And I think again, that can be really underestimate it. And once you understand the importance of really good diction, so making sure people can really understand your voice as well as possible, understanding light and shade. So making the inflections at the end of your sentences go up sometimes, but then so sometimes go down depending on what you’re saying, and how important that is. All these little things, they may seem like very small, sort of components to speech or to audio, but actually, when they’re all put together, they really do help you use your voice and use your audio in such an amazing way you’ll be you’ll be so surprised if you read a piece of let’s say, you’ve written yourself a voicemail for your for your phone system, if you just read it out loud, as you will just as a bit of a practice, let’s say, and then you kind of maybe market office to word you want to focus on where do you want to maybe go up at the end of that inflection or down or you even one of the things I always say to people as well as smile when you’re when you’re reading, because you can hear it in people’s voices, you know, even though no one can see us right now, if I read this, like this, you know, I’m not smiling. If I read it like this, you know, I’m smiling, you really hear it in that voice, you can hear that their cheeks are taut, and they’re using them their teeth and their lips and their tongue properly. And so even when you’re you know, whether you’re giving a presentation at work, or you know, you’re presenting to a client, just understanding these little elements that can really make a difference really helped to use the power of audio in a new way that you’ve probably not even considered before. Yeah, I
think coming back to you touching on like the power of voice coaches and how they’d like use and to like help with singing? Do you have any rituals that you use to kind of like get you into the mindset or like prepare your voice? And like I get well, maybe not even voice? I guess it’s more of like a physical lived experience, isn’t it when you’re delivering the service?
Yeah, I think one of the things I always do, I mean, I try and look after my voice as much as possible, I try and avoid, you know, getting a sore throat or getting because if I get a cold, you know, if you have a blocked nose or something, then your voice sounds completely different. And so I think what I’ve always done to kind of coach my voice as much as possible is copy people, like I’ve never actually had any training. So that’s a professional training as such. And I’ve always just copied people. So like I say, I started work at 16. I used to look at these voiceovers and think, Wow, they’re so cool. I want to do that job. So when they when they performed, I would sort of sit muted on the mic copying them. And I’m one of those really annoying people that if you watch TV with me, and the adverts Come on, I’ll copy them to see if I can do it as good as or hopefully better than they do. It’s always really annoying, we will. But I would say to someone you know, if you do you want to try and poach your voice and improve the style of language or improve the style of, or tone that you’ve got. Just listen to those commercials on the TV, listen to rate or listen to a podcast and the kind of voice that you like, and just copy them. Just try and copy their style really take in how they’re using their voice. What are they focusing on? Where are they pushing, they’re kind of focus on different words or different areas. And you can really tell when you start looking into it, you can really notice a big difference. I think.
So do you do different accents and things? Is that how you play around with it? Or is it more different tones and like kind of evoking different emotions that you play around with?
Yeah, I mean, everyone’s different. I think every voiceover kind of has their own speciality. I suppose some voiceovers, I know are absolutely wonderful impressions. That’s not something I can do. But they’re fantastic. And some can really, you know, nail accents brilliantly. Whereas a lot of my kind of voiceover work especially comes from different styles. So I started out when I was quite young. So I maybe was 20, let’s say. So I did a lot of teenager kind of voiceover. So I did a lot of content for colleges, universities, schools, Sixth Form, open days, that kind of thing. And as I got I’m 30 now, so I’m not doing them. But you sort of notice, like I’m not doing as many of the teenager things as I used to do. I’m doing more of them mom stuff now. So it’s kind of creeped up a little bit on me. And I’ve started to notice a little bit has changed, but my voice. I’ve got quite a natural, deep voice for them. And so a lot of the stuff I do is kind of quite Husky stuff, I do a lot of DJ reads. So if I do a lot of these in Europe, so if your DJ does a live set, for instance, they have kind of what we call DJ drops, where their DJ name is mentioned. And it’ll say, DJ Chelsea in the house, that kind of stuff. And so those kind of DJ drops cuz I’ve got quite a natural deep voice. And I think that’s where everyone can kind of learn to focus on what they’re good at and not try and do something that you’re not like I know I’ve not got a really cute girly voice. I’ve got quite a husky deep voice for a woman. So that’s where I try and play to my strengths. And I think if you always say to people if you want to do your own podcast or you want to do your own voicemail, that fair enough, I would I would rather I recommend you use a professional for it. Because I think that’s the best way to get your business to promote to your potential customers in the best way possible. If you are going to do your own, really play to your strengths as much as possible, because it’s all about being authentic, and people will know if you’re not being yourself and your voice for sure.
Yeah, definitely. I think I really resonate with that, because obviously, like, I’m not a voiceover person whatsoever. And it actually took me quite a lot of confidence really, to even start doing this podcast because I hate being on I hate being on film, I hate having my picture taken. And, but actually, like when you talk about playing to your strengths, and the reason I mentioned this is because of obviously like authenticity. And if you do own a business, like it is better if you can do your own podcast and be the face of your business. Like, the reason that I enjoy doing this is because I love asking people questions. Like I love finding those things. Just nosy just super curious. Like, I just want to know why, like you were saying earlier before we started recording that your daughter’s in a Wi Fi at the moment, I’ve never grown out of it, I get I get so excited when like I get to spend time with people and ask them about their expertise and like just chat about things and then use like little anecdotes about like peleton and like things like that, and like the different podcasts that I listened to you. So it really sticks in my mind.
I think one of the things I love though about that, like you say you might not be the most amazing, I’m not saying you’re not, but you might not be the most amazing voice, you might not sound the best. But one thing I always sort of love when it comes to the written word and audio is we talk a lot about authenticity, we want people to believe in what you’re saying, and believe in your personality and who you are. And the thing that comes across with you is, you know, you’re really passionate about it. And we believe that, and I think that’s what you know, we try and get people to do when they’re doing podcasts is, you know, be authentically you. Because you know if you whatever business, you run your run it for a reason, you must be really passionate about it, you must really truly believe in what you’re doing. Believe in the product you’re selling or believe in the service that you provide. And if you can really get that passion across. That’s what people love. Like I guess, as you can tell, now I’m bouncing around on my chair talking still about it because I get so excited. And I think that really comes across with audio as well. It’s one of those things you can really tell when someone’s truly passionate about what they’re talking about. And I think that’s rare. That’s something that you can you can do, whether you’re doing a podcast, or a voicemail or commercial, whatever it might be, you can really get that passion across if you truly believe in it. And you’re really passionate about what you provide, then go for it. Because people will buy into that and will sort of fall in line with your beliefs as well.
Yeah, and I think that’s like with our podcast strategy. Like, yes, I host it every week, and I get people on here. But ultimately, I don’t know everything about marketing, like I don’t even like I’m happy to admit that but the team that we have it so marketing and like some of our clients, some of the people that we work with, between all of us, there’s not much that we don’t actually know. So giving people the chance to shine and talk about things that really interest them and eat like some people will resonate way more with like Emma than they will with like Jim and his like print design thing over people will be so much more interested in that than they will be in like audio or things like that. It’s just this podcast is if you have any marketing questions, it’s to help you with that. And I think if you can incorporate something like that into your business, even if it’s like something as something as dry, I guess is like industrial paint, manufacturing, something like that. There’s people out there interested in it.
Yeah. And I think like you say that people will sort of connect with different people as well. So whatever business you run, you’ll have, you know, might have five employees, you might have 50 employees, or every one of those employees has got a story to tell you as to how they came to work for your business, why they came to your business, and why they enjoy doing what they do the challenges that they find in the business as well and where they where they can see it going. You know, everyone’s got such an interesting story in their life to tell that you can bring them into your podcast as well. So why do you work for us? You know, what, what do you love about the job? You know, what interesting things have you learned along the way, all these different things can really help people to resonate with your brand. So you’re not just a brand or a company name and a logo, you are people behind it. And I think that’s where people can really connect as well. And that’s what kind of goes back to what we said earlier with this connection and this community that people want people buy from people, you know, they really like and they can connect with and understand and feel like they’re on the same wavelength with so the more you can give your people have your business of voice, and the more people will kind of resonate with that and enjoy that connection beyond just the business card and the logo.
Yeah, definitely. Well, thank you you very much for that. I’ve really enjoyed this conversation and you’ve taught me a lot as well about the Theatre of the mind and using my voice. Different ways. I’m not going to try to do anything
on the phone I’m going to be, I’m going to be listening now to the inflections and the light and the shade
to give me a grade like you can have a B plus. But yeah, so one thing we do have at So marketing is an always on podcast, you do that as soon as COVID is out of the way and it’s buggered off. We’re gonna ask our clients to come in and do more of these webinars, you can actually rent out the podcast studio if you’re a local business as well and common, come down and record your own podcasts. I’ll be here pretty much all the time to talk you through it help you through anything as well. If you do want any kind of voice coaching or have any questions, we’ll get Emma damn to kind of help you as well with that. So yeah, if you’re interested in playing around with audio if you want to, if you want to professional voiceover for your voicemail, or if you want to start your own podcast as well just get in touch with us at Hello at so marketing.com