February 28, 2024 • 47 mins
Join the Small Business Startup School podcast as host Ola Williams engages with Colin Alexander, founder of Conduit Voice Media, in this insightful episode titled " Leveraging Voice and Media To Drive Customer Engagement".
In this digital era of accelerated content consumption, the episode brings to the forefront the importance of maintaining authenticity in voice media. From overcoming recording nerves to achieving a professional voice quality, Colin shares his industry expert tips and real-life success stories. Additionally, gain insights into the best tools in the field and how technology can add new depths to podcasting and voice media.
This enlightening discussion also navigates through the power of customer familiarity and comfort in the retail industry brought on by voice media. Discover the potential of word-of-mouth conversations driven by meaningful customer interactions and shared experiences.
Rounding up this episode is an encouraging message urging resilience and a continuous learning attitude among businesses. Learn how to leverage valuable technologies like AI and voice media to level up your business without fear. Remember, in the world of digital content, “done” is always better than “perfect”. Tune in now!
Do you have questions or comments? Your feedback ensures that we continue to give you content that adds value to you, fuelling our commitment to providing high-quality content and fostering a community of informed and successful entrepreneurs. Leave your voice note here
Connect with the guest, Colin Alexander:
LinkedIn: /Colinalexander
Facebook: Conduit Voice Media
Website: www.conduitvoice.com
Connect with the host, Ola Williams:
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Media, content, this whole game, this whole racket is a lot easier than it seems.
In the digital content world, whether you're doing audio, video,
blog, whatever, whatever efforts you're undertaking to support your business online,
(00:20):
done is a lot better than perfect.
Are you starting a small business or buying an existing business?
This podcast, Small Business Startup School, shares perspectives using the psychology
of retail and financial awareness, all with a reasonable dose of optimism.
(00:42):
The show promises to give startup solopreneurs insightful strategies and practical
solutions that support the mindset to execute business projects.
My name is Ola Williams, your host on the show.
I encourage you to join us to learn with positivity and great exchange of ideas.
(01:03):
Hi, everybody. My guest today is Colin Alexander.
Colin started Conduit Voice Media because he believes in the power of storytelling.
With decades of experience in digital media landscape, his team is dedicated
to bringing a business brand story to life.
From the bustling streets of Halifax to the serene landscapes of Atlantic Canada,
(01:27):
Colin and his team have helped businesses businesses connect with their audience
through compelling audio and video content.
Their mission is to create, engage, and connect people all over the digital
world. Welcome to the show, Colin.
Ola, thank you so much for having me this morning.
Right. So great to have you here. So first of all, Colin,
(01:52):
I would like you to explain the whole concept of
voice media what does it
mean it's a great question so when
i started this company conduit voice media the idea was that i wanted to help
nova scotia i wanted to help nova scotian business owners tell their story in
(02:15):
their voice and was something that i had noticed just growing up,
watching TV and noticing, you know, the,
the advertisements and the awareness pieces that spoke to me and the ones that didn't.
And the ones that always spoke to me were, they were always from the perspective
of the business or the operation.
(02:37):
And maybe it was the owner operator or one of their key staff members delivering the message.
Those were the messages that I listened to. And that was what I tried to channel
when I started this business.
And so the whole concept, so to speak, of voice media is really distilling and
(02:59):
articulating your voice into some media format,
whether that be audio, video, or even text. Right.
So it has to do with connecting, right?
Like the person telling the story or using the voice must be able to engage with people.
So I hear you say that the ones that connected with you were the ones that were
(03:24):
told by the business owner or the employee.
So I sense some originality there.
So that comes through the voice, right? right?
So what has been your experience? So would you say one could connect with audience
without a video content, just voice?
(03:48):
Certainly, certainly. And I think, well, heck, you and I are kind of in the
process of doing that right now.
And we're seeing and have seen over the course of the last 12 or 13 years,
like a large uptick in specifically audio content.
We see this within audio books and I'm not sure if you're a fan,
(04:09):
but myself, my wife and many others, that's how we engage with literature more
often than not now is through the use of audio books. And it's wonderful.
And podcasting, businesses, organizations, not-for-profits, social enterprises
are turning to podcasting to get their message out, to get their voice out.
(04:33):
And the reality is most people feel a lot more comfortable sitting in front
of a microphone than they do sitting in front of a camera.
And so they have a much more time being a much easier time, I should say,
being their authentic selves.
Right. Yeah. I mean, I'm a perfect example. I do that as well. Right.
Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. Yeah, so because our audience are small business owners,
(05:00):
why should somebody listening to the show today and thinking,
why should they care about this?
How does it impact their businesses?
Yeah, I know. I always love the bottom line conversation. And the reality is,
I mean, there's a few different ways that we can look at it.
The easiest and the most organic or the most wholesome way I like to think of
(05:24):
is that when you, when you were a small business owner or when you have a small business,
you have a pretty heavy communications need, right?
You're, you're, you're connecting with potential clients, active clients,
past clients all the time.
Like it's, it's, it's very, very much a, a daily task that you have to undergo. go.
(05:47):
With things like podcasting, there are certain elements to that communications
piece that you can somewhat remove from your day-to-day because you have a recording
of you saying something about a thing.
And so what we see happening more and more and more is businesses are engaging in podcasts.
(06:10):
They're being invited to be guests. They are starting podcasts.
And this as their, well, essentially as their digital content base.
And so, and we hear this all the time and I'm sure all of you out there in small
business land have been like, you got to rock social media. You got to have content.
(06:34):
Podcasting is one of the best ways to get authentic, organic,
and truthful content, truthful to, to your meaning, to your word, to your why.
And it's a great way to do that with virtually no barrier to entry.
All you need is a microphone and a computer.
Chances are you might already have those two things sitting on your desk right now.
(06:58):
Right. And so really the short answer is how does it impact small businesses?
It helps us get our messages out there more consistently and in a way that many
of the the online audience are engaging with through the use of digital content
like podcasting or video.
So if I were his small business owner, for example, and I'm listening to this
(07:21):
show right now, and I don't like the idea of podcasting, how can I,
how can I use the concept of voice media to,
you know, promote my business?
Great question. Something that I saw recently, and I really, really liked this.
It spoke to me me on a few different levels. I was on a website reading a blog,
(07:42):
an industry blog, kind of walking me through, uh, some, some steps of some advanced tasks, you know,
I noticed that they had included a voice recording with the blog.
So similar to that of an audio book, but for, from the perspective of somebody
who doesn't want to be on camera or somebody who doesn't want to have their
(08:04):
face attached to whatever's happening or whatever it is that they're saying,
this is a really, really good way for them to say, okay, well,
I can still be a little bit behind the scenes,
but we're still connecting.
With, with that human element. I'm not just getting you to read the page and
(08:25):
then hopefully you'll learn something and then move off.
And then maybe you'll come back to me when you need to help,
when you need a hand with something and we'll do some business.
The idea is that they're connecting with your voice. You're,
you're telling them this information.
Yeah. And now when they have a phone call with you and they call up and they
say, Hey, Colin, yeah, I was, I was on your website.
I saw your blog. You were talking about this. I'm really, really interested.
(08:46):
I'd like to know more. the voice that is, that is responding to them is the
same voice that they heard on the website telling them about the thing.
And that helps us build trust so much faster.
I agree. It helps, you know, I am a fan of audio book as well.
I, I am on Audible. So I read books.
(09:09):
Yeah. And then I connect with, especially when the authors are reading the books
themselves and then I connect with the hotels that way.
And sometimes I watch them maybe on YouTube and I'm like, okay,
I feel some, even though I haven't met them before, I feel the message is authentic.
So I really, really agree with that.
(09:32):
And to be honest, that's how I started my, I developed my podcast as well because
I started out blogging on my business website and my husband.
Told me one day he would prefer to read the audio version of
his blogs because he's always very busy and
he said he would like to maybe when he's coming back from work he would like
(09:55):
to just you know listen to the audio so I started kind of like like audio blog
like just reading verbatim what I put in the blog and then I started developing
it that way so I can resonate very well with what you're saying.
So, you know, the topic, by the way, guys, is using voice media to,
(10:17):
you know, leveraging it to connect with your customers.
So, so Colin, what do you, if I came to you today to say, oh,
Colin, I want you to help me with my business.
So I will be the one. So So does it have to be my voice, right,
to be able to make it authentic? So what would your company do?
(10:41):
Is there, you know, I just wanted to get those dynamics. So is there something
you would do that would make my voice sound better?
Yeah, that's a great question. And I've always found it's funny,
and this is true in every industry.
You have the people who are so incredibly knowledgeable about the thing,
but my gosh, they don't know how to talk to people.
(11:03):
You know, they're very, they're technical or they're, you know, they're very, you.
They're very deep into the, you know, into the world or to their,
to their sphere. And it can be tough for them to connect outside of.
So one of the things that we do when we're working with clients on,
on podcasting is there's a little bit of coaching involved.
You know, what, what I prefer to do, and, and I appreciate, you know,
(11:26):
that we meet on online a lot and we meet on zoom and things like that. And that's wonderful.
But ideally when we're doing our first few podcast recording sessions,
we're together. together, we're in the room together.
You can see me, hear me, feel me and vice versa.
And what we do is just a couple of few like quick recordings.
(11:47):
We kind of get rolling on a topic and I kind of get a sense of how it goes and
I'm listening back to it and I'm making notes basically, as I'm listening to
the first little session and saying, okay, well, what do we,
do I need to move any microphones?
Do I need to coach this person to start or stop saying a thing or to carry themselves
(12:09):
a little bit differently?
The reality is, and this is sort of just what I've noticed over the course of time,
there are three things that are very, very common to folks who are just getting
into recording and who are just getting ready to do this whole podcasting thing
or this this whole audio book thing.
The first thing is microphone etiquette. And I can, I can kind of actually kind
(12:33):
of show you folks right here.
So if you put your thumb and your pinky finger full extension,
you should be exactly that far away from your microphone when speaking. Now that's give or take.
You'd be surprised at how much that one little trick helps a lot of people because
it gets them back as opposed to like crunched in leaning forward and talking
(12:57):
like this from the microphone,
it's not great for vocal quality the other thing that i notice is very very common,
is folks get nervous and i understand once that red light goes on it's it's
like you're in a different world it's a different game entirely so we do a couple
of things there one i hide the red I'd like, I'd like, I'd cover it,
(13:17):
but the other piece is, is to remind folks.
And, and, and this, and this works for any of you out there in radio land today,
you are recording to a malleable digital file, not a tape.
There's nothing you can say that we can't remove.
There is no mistake that you can make that we can't edit. Right.
(13:41):
There is literally no way you can fail. I won't let you.
Okay. That's interesting. But when most people realize like, oh, it doesn't matter.
I can just edit it. It's not a big deal. Then they relax a lot.
And the other thing, and this is funny. I brought this over to podcasting from
(14:04):
camera work, incidentally.
The other thing that I noticed is that as people are talking and they're getting
more You'll notice their shoulders slowly start to creep up and until they're
so excited or they're so nervous, they have no neck left.
And because their shoulders are up so high towards their ears.
(14:26):
And oftentimes it's just a general reminder like, hey, take a deep breath.
Take two or three. We're not in a rush for time.
Relax. Let's start again. Again, get those shoulders down.
And with those three things, you can go from zero to broadcast hero in less than a week. Wow.
(14:51):
Wow, Colin. I guess the red light is like, it makes people uncomfortable.
I'm just thinking, for me, maybe because you feel like the world is watching
you. And so when you hide it and people don't see it, then they get more comfortable, right?
You know, yeah, a lot of people get, including me.
(15:12):
So I haven't read of anybody that doesn't really get that anxiety from speaking to the public.
So I know that much that it's a really common thing to feel.
So if your job is to make someone feel more comfortable, then that's a great thing.
(15:35):
I was reading a book and the author was saying, two people can say the same
story and people can connect with one than another.
One can engage with millions of people and the other person may not engage with
one person just because of the way they say the story. Different,
(15:58):
same story, different narratives.
So I totally get what you're saying.
So I guess my next question to you, Colin, would be, are there free tools in this space at all?
You know, small business owners, I'm always looking for freebies if I can get
them because I'm trying to keep my costs low and, you know. Yeah, absolutely.
(16:23):
Let's talk really, really quickly, just about the voice media side of things,
just about, um, audio content, really.
So if you're doing things like podcasting, if you're doing things like audio
books or you're doing dictation of blogs, I think that's so wonderful to be able to do that.
So wonderful. I want to see more of that. But if these are the kinds of things
that you're engaging in, there are two or three tools that you absolutely must be aware of.
(16:47):
The first one is called Adobe podcast.
Adobe podcast is currently in its beta form.
It is free to use, but there is a premium service as well that allows you a
little bit more functionality,
a little bit more space, the idea behind Adobe podcast is is it has,
for lack of a better term, it's an AI tool, although loosely AI.
(17:11):
So I don't want people to get scared about that.
It's a logarithmic tool. It's highly sophisticated. And what it does is you
can send it a piece of recording through the web online.
And for completely zero cost to you, it will clean up that recording to almost
as good as what you could do in a studio.
(17:31):
Oh. I have used Adobe podcast. The function specific to the,
to the tool is called enhanced speech.
I've used this. Oh my gosh.
So much. If I've got a rough recording, something that didn't get captured well,
Adobe podcast has saved me.
But if you're somebody who's just starting in the space, you know,
(17:52):
nothing about audio editing, you know, nothing about audio processing.
You don't need to. You can use this tool and it will do a great job for you.
I cannot promote it enough.
I love it. So how do you spell that, Colin?
Adobe. A as in Apple, D as in Delta, O as in Oscar, B as in Bravo,
(18:13):
E as in Echo. Excellent. Excellent.
Wow. I didn't know that. Go check it out.
It's a wonderful tool. It's a really, really wonderful tool.
The other tool that I want to make folks aware of is Riverside.
Free to use, essentially a podcast studio.
(18:34):
You can invite folks in to do calls.
There's a maximum of guest limit for the free version.
And there's a time limit per month of how much you can record with the free
version. I think it's two hours.
But for most people, that's more than enough.
That's all we need. Yeah. And it's a free service in which they can capture
(18:55):
high quality audio and high quality video through the web.
It's it. And this isn't to knock Zoom. I know we're hanging out on Zoom today.
I think Zoom is great. It's done
wonderful things for us. And if you don't have it, y'all should get it.
But it's my reference when meeting online to use either Zoom or Riverside. I don't use any other.
(19:18):
I just don't find any other service has done what I needed to do.
To do. I've heard of Riverside. In fact, I've been as a guest on somebody's
podcast and Riverside was used.
So I don't know much about it, but at least that's all I know.
Yeah. You might want to go check it out. It could be something that you have
(19:39):
some interest in yourself considering what you're doing.
But it functions very, very much the same as Zoom for doing this kind of interaction.
So do they have better audio quality?
Oh, yeah. Yeah, they do. And, you know, it's a funny thing because I have,
and I have to check myself on this often.
For I am the person who sits here with, I'm surrounded by six different sets
(20:03):
of headphones right now, all with a very specific use and purpose.
So when I'm listening back to audio, we're hearing different things.
We're experiencing different things. The reality is Zoom's gotten a lot better.
Right. And it's gotten a lot better in the last couple of years.
Riverside's paid version, yes, does give you access to higher quality audio and video.
(20:28):
But if you're not paying for it, in my opinion, there's not really a whole heck of a lot of difference.
Right. That's useful to know, actually. I'm a big fan of Riverside. I like it quite a lot.
Interesting. Okay, so now as a small business,
(20:48):
if I'm considering using voice media, I would be thinking, okay,
what are examples of small businesses that have done this effectively?
Do you care to share any kind of stories or experiences you've had with small
(21:09):
businesses actually using voice media effectively?
I mean, we don't have to share anything confidential,
but just these folks out there can, you know, relate with us in stories of successes
of small businesses that have used voice media effectively.
Yeah, there's a couple that come to mind. The first one is a bit of a local
(21:34):
success story, and this is not my business.
But I want to give a huge, huge shout out and huge congratulations to both Reese
Waters and Jonathan Burns over at Podstarter.
They, what they were able to do in coming into this market and supporting small
businesses who have no idea,
no start point with this kind of audio content and absolutely no idea of where
(22:02):
they even want to take it.
John and Reese came up with, I don't even want to say a system,
but a way, an approach of dealing with these, these clients and dealing with these businesses.
And they, they have to date, I think, created like five top 10 podcasts out
(22:23):
of this region with constituents from Halifax businesses from Halifax,
Nova Scotia as a whole.
And they, they are in the business a little bit different than me.
They're in the business of creating monetized podcasts when appropriate,
but they are, they are doing such wonderful work with this medium.
(22:45):
And I have to, have to, have to shout, shout out to them just because of what
they've been able to do for businesses in this space.
So folks, if you really have no
idea where to start, reach out to John and Reese, reach out to me. Sure.
But these guys are phenomenal in this space.
From my own perspective, I shot a series videos a couple of years ago for the
(23:11):
craft distillers association of, of Nova Scotia.
And this has been something that has been rippling back to me for two years
since completing those productions.
I have met with people just in conversation, just on the street.
(23:32):
And you know they've said oh we you know we saw this video that
a barreling tide down in the valley had put together and was just
and it was so lovely and it really really made us want to
go meet the owners because i had showcased the
owners in the uh in the video russell and colleen lovely human beings and this
kind of goes back to what we were talking about in the beginning is showing
our authentic selves and how that connects with people because like i said i'm
(23:57):
I'm standing in a grocery line with some random lady I've never met before in my life.
Turns out one of my videos connected with her and connected her with two really
awesome people who were doing great work down in the valley.
That's pretty powerful to me. That, like, to me, that's the point. Right. Right.
I agree. And thanks for sharing that. Yeah, that's very, very encouraging.
(24:22):
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Thanks very much. Yeah, it's all about authenticity, isn't it? It is, yeah.
(24:47):
How to connect with people in our true self, connecting with people.
And it's so encouraging to actually listen to you speak about those success
stories that this is working and this is something that should be paid attention to.
So I, you know, I always like to think about also, okay, we've talked about,
(25:08):
I like when you said there's no barrier to entry in podcasting.
So are there ethical considerations in this space that someone should be,
you know, looking out for?
Yeah, it's a great question. Ultimately, that's going to depend on your industry.
You're going to have different restrictions on public information sharing and
(25:31):
things like that if you're a doctor versus if you are somebody like me and you're in videography.
That being said, I kind of fly my ship by three solid rules when it comes to ethic.
One, don't say anything that your mother wouldn't want to hear you say.
(25:53):
Unless you're on one of those podcasts that's driving controversy,
the reality is we don't want to hear you be mean, nasty, rude,
or punching down on other people. people.
There's a time and a place for that. There's a format of podcast for that.
But if you're in the small business world, you might want to consider that this is your image.
(26:17):
And people are going to connect with this information and get a sense of who you really are.
And if you are on that recording and you're being a rude, nasty person,
people are going to get that impression of you.
So I always caution people, don't say anything that your mother wouldn't want to hear you say.
The other piece is be mindful of privacy. I mean, I know we're,
(26:38):
we're just speaking about a past client.
Now we're in the position right now that they are a public business.
So we can talk about that pretty, pretty safely, but I might have more questions
or I might have more qualms or hangups about maybe divulging personal information
about either of those two business owners or about myself or anybody in my life.
(27:01):
It's very important. That's kind of the point. Point two is to stay on topic as much as you can.
And when you stay on topic, you'll find that for the most part,
you're not finding yourself in the hot water of some of those maybe more controversial conversations.
Maybe there's controversy in your industry. Maybe there's controversy in your ecosphere.
(27:23):
Great to talk about that stuff, but remember to keep it respectful.
And, you know, it's important that we sort of.
That we keep an open mind, especially when we're doing something like what we're
doing this morning and you have a guest.
So that's the third thing. Always respect your guest.
And I've had guests in the past when in previous podcasts that I've run ask
(27:48):
like, hey, can you, can you not include that piece?
I'm not super comfortable with what I said there. I'm not sure if that's accurate.
You know, I'd have to go check that information.
And the reality is it is a very easy thing for us to say, no problem.
We can remove that one minute or 30 seconds or however long.
Don't put your clients into a position where they're going to come back at you
(28:09):
after you've released your episode and say, can you change that? Basically.
Right. Represent them well. Yeah, that's very good to know. Yeah.
So, you know, I think it's all about being respectful.
Yeah. That's why I work here over and over again. Be respectful and be kind.
Be kind. Yeah. Even if you don't agree, be kind.
(28:33):
Yeah. Yeah. Kind of like put yourself in the other person's position and not
just go be selfish about what you want to put out there. Are they comfortable
with what you're putting out there?
Yeah. And I like the way you said, don't say anything your mother wouldn't be proud of.
That's very good. Honestly, that's very good.
This is very good stuff, Colin. So, let's, you know, I know when you mentioned
(28:59):
AI there and you were, I sensed some kind of like you were being careful because
some people are like, oh, AI.
But I think it's the reality. And I use Podbean to host my podcast.
Oh, cool. Yeah, I use them. Yeah.
I mean, they had paid, but you know, I told you, I like keeping costs low.
(29:20):
So they had the free version and I started with that.
And anyway, they recently introduced AI and very beautiful because when you
load your podcast, then the AI can actually generate your show notes for you.
And the beautiful thing is I have tried using it and it's been very efficient
(29:41):
because you don't have to use it verbatim.
You just copy that and you could go through it you could edit it you could make
it more of yourself so what i and that's what i tell folks like a high i believe
so much in here high in terms of,
be letting me be more efficient in what i do i don't have to use everything
(30:02):
here i tells me like in the show notes i'm just saying i could just instead
of sitting down cracking how do i I put this show notes together.
They've put it for me and like beautifully, and then I can edit it. And yeah.
Anyway, so I wanted to, you know, know your thoughts about that in terms of,
(30:25):
you know, a business owner listening to us right now.
Even if they are a bit skeptical of AI, what are your thoughts? Yeah.
Yeah. I'm so glad you and I are having this conversation. I really, really am.
I, I have some very passionate thoughts and feelings around AI,
and this is a really, it's a good time to have the conversation.
(30:49):
Here's the short of it.
AI is such a powerful, powerful technology, and it's going to become and has
become, is becoming a very, very powerful tool for business.
Listen, I'm not going to lie.
Anybody who's been watching the news knows that Sports Illustrated just left,
(31:13):
laid off 10,000, I think, of their writer, basically their entire writing staff to replace with AI.
We're seeing these bubblings happening within Hollywood studios.
We're seeing this happening in a big way in the tech sector right now with jobs
being displaced or replaced by AI.
(31:36):
Guys, folks, friends, loved ones, humans, fellow human beings,
fellow denizens of this planet.
This is happening at the largest levels of business, like multi-billion dollar,
hundred billion dollar a year companies.
And it will happen at those levels. You will see people lose their jobs, but not.
(32:01):
What you're going to see as a result of that is a larger uptick of population
and of, of experts within the gig economy.
You're going to see more small businesses open. Some of these folks will go
and they will work for another company and doing what they had done before.
Yes. But the estimates on that right now are actually pretty low.
So we've got this problem or this, this looming beast of job displacement or
(32:28):
job replacement with AI. And I want to tell you folks this right now,
and I truly honestly believe this.
If you're in small business, this tool is a boon.
It is one of the most useful things that you can train yourself and your staff to use.
Because what we're seeing, and we've spent a lot of time looking at report after report after report.
(32:55):
In watching the small business CB or sorry, SBCE report,
25% of businesses that are using this AI technology are reinvesting directly
back into their businesses, back into their staff and back into themselves.
(33:16):
So like, and that means things like wage increases or salary maintaining while workload decreases.
Tell me, when was the last time in the last 40 years you've heard anything like
that happening in business?
That, hey, we've got this new tool. You can do a better job with it.
But now we're going to give you less to do as a result of that.
(33:40):
Now it's just going to simply make you more efficient.
And your reward for that is having more time on your hands, not more work.
The last 50, 40 years, I've never heard anything like that happening.
But 25% of these businesses in North America are doing exactly that with these tools.
So I guess that's my point with it. Folks, let's be part of that 25%.
(34:04):
Let's get that 25% up to 60%. So all of us here in the small business space are using these tools.
We're interacting with these tools. We're understanding these tools, but.
We're responsible with them. We use them in an ethical way.
And we use them in a way that truly enhances our businesses and our bottom lines.
(34:27):
Not replaces our people.
Not destroys everything that we have built when it comes to the authenticity of our brand voice.
Because that's what AI is never going to get right for you.
You are still going to have to be there behind that little robot telling it
what to say and what to do to sound just like you. So the human element hasn't been removed.
(34:49):
What we need to do as Nova Scotians is look at this as an opportunity to upskill, upskill ourselves,
upskill our workforces, upskill our small business ecosphere and create a much,
much, much stronger and harder to dislodge middle class in Nova Scotia.
(35:11):
Because the more we use these tools, the greater value we can bring to our businesses,
the higher salary increases that we can pass on to our employees and to ourselves
and to our shareholders and, and, and certainly.
But if we lead this with a people first approach, my friends, we cannot lose.
I'm going to leave it there because I can talk about this all freaking day.
(35:33):
I want to say, and it's very comforting when I hear the message reinforced that
it is not going to replace people.
AI is not going to replace people because that's one of the most complaints
I hear people say to me when I talk about AI.
(35:54):
Even my staff in my business, they're thinking, oh, AI is going to replace people.
So I have to keep on, you know, teaching them to say, no, it's not going to replace people.
It's going to make... I had a guest on my show one time, and I like the way he put it. He said...
Before on your job, if you were zero with AI, you'll still be zero because zero
(36:19):
times whatever number is still zero. It's still zero.
Yep. But if you were, say, three with AI, then AI can multiply that for you. And you could be better.
Yep. Because three times whatever will always be more.
Three times two will always be six, right?
Right. So that's the same way, and that's part of what you said right there,
(36:42):
that AI is not going to replace people.
It's going to make us more efficient, and we should embrace it,
and it can only be better for we small business folks, right?
Yeah. Yeah, I'd like, you know, and I think it's really important to note,
like, I mean, if we could but see,
I'd love to see a show of hands from people in fields like,
(37:03):
like accounting or physicists or mathematicians show it, see a show of hands
from those folks who utilize their calculator every day,
you know, their graphing calculator or whatever for whatever function and how
much of a boon that was for those folks in that industry.
Now, the reality here is we, we, as the users do need to be careful,
(37:27):
you know, we need to define for ourselves and for our governments.
What, what does this look like? How do we move forward with this thing sustainably?
How do we move forward with this thing ethically responsibly?
And we don't have all of those answers yet. And that's part of the issue.
And I think that's what makes a lot of people kind of scared is that we don't
(37:48):
have policy in place for this yet. And I get it.
Everything in this world could change tomorrow, folks. It all could change tomorrow.
But the reality is this is here to stay.
Let's learn to work with it and we won't be swept away by it.
Now, that being said, you know, and I do, I sincerely feel anybody who is in
graphic arts, anybody who's in copywriting and things like that,
(38:12):
my friends, I do hear you.
I hear you loud and clear and your fear is not unfounded. it.
It is real. It comes from a real place and you should feel validated by that.
But I do want to let you know, I still work with copywriters.
I still hire them despite chat GPT, right?
(38:32):
I still work with graphic designers, despite things like Sora or mid journey
or anything like that. The reality is.
Where I'm at in my business, I still need these people around me and I still
need human beings making those decisions.
AI does a really, really great job of a lot of things, but what it doesn't do
(38:53):
a great job is hitting you in the heart.
And that's what I'm in the business of, right?
And so I still use my graphic designers. I still use my copywriters and I hope
that they use these tools tools to make their lives easier.
But the reality is, is that y'all aren't going anywhere.
Like, like in my industry, I still have need of you all. And there are other
(39:16):
industries that have need of you as well.
But as a small business, you're bootstrapping.
It's your first day boots on the ground. I've got an idea and a whole bunch
of motivation and that's it.
Learn these tools, use them, embrace them because they will get you to the level
that I am at and still utilizing and graphic designers and copywriters and all
(39:37):
these people much faster.
And there's nothing wrong with that. There is nothing wrong with having some help along the way.
Absolutely. So MySpace is a retail industry. Yeah.
I usually like to, because I have audience in the retail industry as well.
So voice media, how can somebody like me in the retail industry industry,
(40:02):
play competitively using voice media, if I could put it that way. Absolutely.
Sorry, I've seen it up at store. Right. Okay. Let me just restate the question,
make sure that I understand.
So how can yourself or somebody within the retail space start leveraging voice
(40:22):
and voice media to help your bottom line? Did I understand that correctly?
Perfectly. Like how can we compete better? How can you compete better?
There's a bunch of different ways.
I think the main way or one of the main ways is what you're doing right now.
Connecting with other businesses, having these conversations,
(40:45):
sharing insights, sharing experiences.
I don't think there's anything more powerful than shared experience.
And I think that within the retail space, it's something that at every level
from the small mom and pop shop to the huge department store,
there's the psychology of retail that plays a big part of that.
(41:11):
How you sell, what you sell, where you sell it from your store.
You know, there are all of these, these elements, but let me put it to you this way.
Somebody who was walking into your retail shop, who's listened to your podcast,
or perhaps they've seen a video that you put together.
Maybe it was like a little Facebook commercial or something,
something of that ilk either way, they have some familiarity with you when they're walking in the door.
(41:36):
Right. And I'm just going to to use a fashion apparel store as an example,
because that's something similar has happened to me at a fashion apparel store
where I've witnessed it.
And when the price, when somebody comes in and they're like,
oh, hey, I already know you, or at least I feel like I already know you.
They're a lot more relaxed. They're a lot more relaxed in your store.
(42:00):
They're a lot more open to like, if you have a suggestion, like say they're
browsing jackets And you're like, oh, you know, take a look over here.
We're just getting the new fall line in. Take a look at what we have.
They're going to be so much more, not just ready to buy, but so much more comfortable in your space.
(42:20):
And I think that that's one of the things that the folks in retail really try
and cultivate is that feeling of
comfort, that feeling of calmness or of invitation in their store. door.
There's no better way to feel invited in than to feel like I already have a relationship with you.
I feel like I already know you and that when you speak to me, I recognize your voice.
(42:42):
Or when I see you, I recognize your face.
Nothing is going to make me more comfortable. You could have all the soft,
warm lighting and warm mahogany all over the place, and that's going to look
nice, but it's not going to feel as good as me sitting with a trusted friend, you know, in a space.
And that is essentially what voice media is meant to do.
Its sole goal is to make you a trusted friend or a trusted supplier for whatever it is.
(43:10):
And if we do our jobs properly, that person walks in the store already feeling comfortable with you.
You can't put a price tag on that. It's not just that they're going to buy.
Chances are that they will be more likely to, but they might only buy a thing,
but they're going to tell everybody like, oh man, we were at all this store.
She's got so much cool stuff.
(43:30):
Like we just like, look, we, we picked up, we picked up this cool little thing.
And those are the conversations you can't buy, right?
There's no amount of marketing, paid marketing that can create that for you.
Not in my opinion, anyway, it feels so much more authentic and genuine walking
into the store and saying, Hey, I know you, you're going to sell me something today.
(43:54):
I'm going to buy something from you, but I know who you are.
You know, I have an investment in you as a person above and beyond you as a business.
That has happened to me on a level of occasion. So I totally resonate with that.
I feel so much connected with what I have previously heard or seen on a website of a small business.
(44:20):
And I just want to, I just want to tell everybody about it.
So I'm like, yeah. And they didn't pay me for that advertisement,
but I just, I just genuinely want to because I felt connected to that.
So, yeah, absolutely.
So those are practical steps.
(44:40):
And I do hope folks find all those useful.
I like to say I have this tradition on this show. I usually like to ask my guests,
like, what would you like to learn?
Because I'm all about, my podcast is all about learning. I so much believe in
continuous connecting, continuous learning.
That's we, we always improve when we do that.
(45:03):
So if I can ask you, Colin, what would you like to learn as a founder yourself?
As a founder? Oh, that's a long list.
So in terms of parity, what comes, you know, if you're given the chance today,
like, oh, Colleen, I can get you this resource.
(45:24):
What would that be? If you could get me results?
What would be the results that I want? Yeah. Wow. Geez.
That's a good question. I think I'm at a point right now in my business where
I'm learning more and more how to work on it as opposed to working in it.
And so that's a lot. Speaking of learning, that's really where a lot of my focus
(45:47):
has been in the last number of months.
I've been doing a lot of leadership training. I've been doing a lot more coaching.
Learning about like the operational tasks that I'm not really very good at and
that I know I'm going to need to bring somebody in for, but I've always just
kind of like swept under the rug just because it didn't matter.
(46:07):
Or, or at least I told myself it didn't matter. So, yeah, I think I would like
to learn more about how to be an effective leader.
Beautiful. So any last words for our audience that they could take away with them?
Sure. Don't be scared. Media,
content, this whole game, this whole racket is a lot easier than it seems.
(46:35):
And so I'll leave you with this.
In the digital content world, whether you're doing audio, video,
blog, whatever, whatever efforts you're undertaking to support your business online, line.
Done is a lot better than perfect.
Just do it. Put it out, put it up and learn.
(46:58):
Learn after each and every one that you do how to make it better and how to
drive closer and closer to that vision.
But done is better than perfect.
Thanks for listening. Hopefully that added value to you.
I do like to say that the show aims to highlight broad business patterns that
are considered same as ever.
(47:20):
However, I also acknowledge that personal circumstances may differ.
So please apply the lessons in line with your context and seek professional
guidance as may be applicable to your business.
Until next episode, please do share the show so value is added to others as
well. And remember, let's continue to learn together and be encouraged to keep on connecting.
Media, content, this whole game, this whole racket is a lot easier than it seems.
In the digital content world, whether you're doing audio, video,
blog, whatever, whatever efforts you're undertaking to support your business online,
(00:20):
done is a lot better than perfect.
Are you starting a small business or buying an existing business?
This podcast, Small Business Startup School, shares perspectives using the psychology
of retail and financial awareness, all with a reasonable dose of optimism.
(00:42):
The show promises to give startup solopreneurs insightful strategies and practical
solutions that support the mindset to execute business projects.
My name is Ola Williams, your host on the show.
I encourage you to join us to learn with positivity and great exchange of ideas.
(01:03):
Hi, everybody. My guest today is Colin Alexander.
Colin started Conduit Voice Media because he believes in the power of storytelling.
With decades of experience in digital media landscape, his team is dedicated
to bringing a business brand story to life.
From the bustling streets of Halifax to the serene landscapes of Atlantic Canada,
(01:27):
Colin and his team have helped businesses businesses connect with their audience
through compelling audio and video content.
Their mission is to create, engage, and connect people all over the digital
world. Welcome to the show, Colin.
Ola, thank you so much for having me this morning.
Right. So great to have you here. So first of all, Colin,
(01:52):
I would like you to explain the whole concept of
voice media what does it
mean it's a great question so when
i started this company conduit voice media the idea was that i wanted to help
nova scotia i wanted to help nova scotian business owners tell their story in
(02:15):
their voice and was something that i had noticed just growing up,
watching TV and noticing, you know, the,
the advertisements and the awareness pieces that spoke to me and the ones that didn't.
And the ones that always spoke to me were, they were always from the perspective
of the business or the operation.
(02:37):
And maybe it was the owner operator or one of their key staff members delivering the message.
Those were the messages that I listened to. And that was what I tried to channel
when I started this business.
And so the whole concept, so to speak, of voice media is really distilling and
(02:59):
articulating your voice into some media format,
whether that be audio, video, or even text. Right.
So it has to do with connecting, right?
Like the person telling the story or using the voice must be able to engage with people.
So I hear you say that the ones that connected with you were the ones that were
(03:24):
told by the business owner or the employee.
So I sense some originality there.
So that comes through the voice, right? right?
So what has been your experience? So would you say one could connect with audience
without a video content, just voice?
(03:48):
Certainly, certainly. And I think, well, heck, you and I are kind of in the
process of doing that right now.
And we're seeing and have seen over the course of the last 12 or 13 years,
like a large uptick in specifically audio content.
We see this within audio books and I'm not sure if you're a fan,
(04:09):
but myself, my wife and many others, that's how we engage with literature more
often than not now is through the use of audio books. And it's wonderful.
And podcasting, businesses, organizations, not-for-profits, social enterprises
are turning to podcasting to get their message out, to get their voice out.
(04:33):
And the reality is most people feel a lot more comfortable sitting in front
of a microphone than they do sitting in front of a camera.
And so they have a much more time being a much easier time, I should say,
being their authentic selves.
Right. Yeah. I mean, I'm a perfect example. I do that as well. Right.
Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. Yeah, so because our audience are small business owners,
(05:00):
why should somebody listening to the show today and thinking,
why should they care about this?
How does it impact their businesses?
Yeah, I know. I always love the bottom line conversation. And the reality is,
I mean, there's a few different ways that we can look at it.
The easiest and the most organic or the most wholesome way I like to think of
(05:24):
is that when you, when you were a small business owner or when you have a small business,
you have a pretty heavy communications need, right?
You're, you're, you're connecting with potential clients, active clients,
past clients all the time.
Like it's, it's, it's very, very much a, a daily task that you have to undergo. go.
(05:47):
With things like podcasting, there are certain elements to that communications
piece that you can somewhat remove from your day-to-day because you have a recording
of you saying something about a thing.
And so what we see happening more and more and more is businesses are engaging in podcasts.
(06:10):
They're being invited to be guests. They are starting podcasts.
And this as their, well, essentially as their digital content base.
And so, and we hear this all the time and I'm sure all of you out there in small
business land have been like, you got to rock social media. You got to have content.
(06:34):
Podcasting is one of the best ways to get authentic, organic,
and truthful content, truthful to, to your meaning, to your word, to your why.
And it's a great way to do that with virtually no barrier to entry.
All you need is a microphone and a computer.
Chances are you might already have those two things sitting on your desk right now.
(06:58):
Right. And so really the short answer is how does it impact small businesses?
It helps us get our messages out there more consistently and in a way that many
of the the online audience are engaging with through the use of digital content
like podcasting or video.
So if I were his small business owner, for example, and I'm listening to this
(07:21):
show right now, and I don't like the idea of podcasting, how can I,
how can I use the concept of voice media to,
you know, promote my business?
Great question. Something that I saw recently, and I really, really liked this.
It spoke to me me on a few different levels. I was on a website reading a blog,
(07:42):
an industry blog, kind of walking me through, uh, some, some steps of some advanced tasks, you know,
I noticed that they had included a voice recording with the blog.
So similar to that of an audio book, but for, from the perspective of somebody
who doesn't want to be on camera or somebody who doesn't want to have their
(08:04):
face attached to whatever's happening or whatever it is that they're saying,
this is a really, really good way for them to say, okay, well,
I can still be a little bit behind the scenes,
but we're still connecting.
With, with that human element. I'm not just getting you to read the page and
(08:25):
then hopefully you'll learn something and then move off.
And then maybe you'll come back to me when you need to help,
when you need a hand with something and we'll do some business.
The idea is that they're connecting with your voice. You're,
you're telling them this information.
Yeah. And now when they have a phone call with you and they call up and they
say, Hey, Colin, yeah, I was, I was on your website.
I saw your blog. You were talking about this. I'm really, really interested.
(08:46):
I'd like to know more. the voice that is, that is responding to them is the
same voice that they heard on the website telling them about the thing.
And that helps us build trust so much faster.
I agree. It helps, you know, I am a fan of audio book as well.
I, I am on Audible. So I read books.
(09:09):
Yeah. And then I connect with, especially when the authors are reading the books
themselves and then I connect with the hotels that way.
And sometimes I watch them maybe on YouTube and I'm like, okay,
I feel some, even though I haven't met them before, I feel the message is authentic.
So I really, really agree with that.
(09:32):
And to be honest, that's how I started my, I developed my podcast as well because
I started out blogging on my business website and my husband.
Told me one day he would prefer to read the audio version of
his blogs because he's always very busy and
he said he would like to maybe when he's coming back from work he would like
(09:55):
to just you know listen to the audio so I started kind of like like audio blog
like just reading verbatim what I put in the blog and then I started developing
it that way so I can resonate very well with what you're saying.
So, you know, the topic, by the way, guys, is using voice media to,
(10:17):
you know, leveraging it to connect with your customers.
So, so Colin, what do you, if I came to you today to say, oh,
Colin, I want you to help me with my business.
So I will be the one. So So does it have to be my voice, right,
to be able to make it authentic? So what would your company do?
(10:41):
Is there, you know, I just wanted to get those dynamics. So is there something
you would do that would make my voice sound better?
Yeah, that's a great question. And I've always found it's funny,
and this is true in every industry.
You have the people who are so incredibly knowledgeable about the thing,
but my gosh, they don't know how to talk to people.
(11:03):
You know, they're very, they're technical or they're, you know, they're very, you.
They're very deep into the, you know, into the world or to their,
to their sphere. And it can be tough for them to connect outside of.
So one of the things that we do when we're working with clients on,
on podcasting is there's a little bit of coaching involved.
You know, what, what I prefer to do, and, and I appreciate, you know,
(11:26):
that we meet on online a lot and we meet on zoom and things like that. And that's wonderful.
But ideally when we're doing our first few podcast recording sessions,
we're together. together, we're in the room together.
You can see me, hear me, feel me and vice versa.
And what we do is just a couple of few like quick recordings.
(11:47):
We kind of get rolling on a topic and I kind of get a sense of how it goes and
I'm listening back to it and I'm making notes basically, as I'm listening to
the first little session and saying, okay, well, what do we,
do I need to move any microphones?
Do I need to coach this person to start or stop saying a thing or to carry themselves
(12:09):
a little bit differently?
The reality is, and this is sort of just what I've noticed over the course of time,
there are three things that are very, very common to folks who are just getting
into recording and who are just getting ready to do this whole podcasting thing
or this this whole audio book thing.
The first thing is microphone etiquette. And I can, I can kind of actually kind
(12:33):
of show you folks right here.
So if you put your thumb and your pinky finger full extension,
you should be exactly that far away from your microphone when speaking. Now that's give or take.
You'd be surprised at how much that one little trick helps a lot of people because
it gets them back as opposed to like crunched in leaning forward and talking
(12:57):
like this from the microphone,
it's not great for vocal quality the other thing that i notice is very very common,
is folks get nervous and i understand once that red light goes on it's it's
like you're in a different world it's a different game entirely so we do a couple
of things there one i hide the red I'd like, I'd like, I'd cover it,
(13:17):
but the other piece is, is to remind folks.
And, and, and this, and this works for any of you out there in radio land today,
you are recording to a malleable digital file, not a tape.
There's nothing you can say that we can't remove.
There is no mistake that you can make that we can't edit. Right.
(13:41):
There is literally no way you can fail. I won't let you.
Okay. That's interesting. But when most people realize like, oh, it doesn't matter.
I can just edit it. It's not a big deal. Then they relax a lot.
And the other thing, and this is funny. I brought this over to podcasting from
(14:04):
camera work, incidentally.
The other thing that I noticed is that as people are talking and they're getting
more You'll notice their shoulders slowly start to creep up and until they're
so excited or they're so nervous, they have no neck left.
And because their shoulders are up so high towards their ears.
(14:26):
And oftentimes it's just a general reminder like, hey, take a deep breath.
Take two or three. We're not in a rush for time.
Relax. Let's start again. Again, get those shoulders down.
And with those three things, you can go from zero to broadcast hero in less than a week. Wow.
(14:51):
Wow, Colin. I guess the red light is like, it makes people uncomfortable.
I'm just thinking, for me, maybe because you feel like the world is watching
you. And so when you hide it and people don't see it, then they get more comfortable, right?
You know, yeah, a lot of people get, including me.
(15:12):
So I haven't read of anybody that doesn't really get that anxiety from speaking to the public.
So I know that much that it's a really common thing to feel.
So if your job is to make someone feel more comfortable, then that's a great thing.
(15:35):
I was reading a book and the author was saying, two people can say the same
story and people can connect with one than another.
One can engage with millions of people and the other person may not engage with
one person just because of the way they say the story. Different,
(15:58):
same story, different narratives.
So I totally get what you're saying.
So I guess my next question to you, Colin, would be, are there free tools in this space at all?
You know, small business owners, I'm always looking for freebies if I can get
them because I'm trying to keep my costs low and, you know. Yeah, absolutely.
(16:23):
Let's talk really, really quickly, just about the voice media side of things,
just about, um, audio content, really.
So if you're doing things like podcasting, if you're doing things like audio
books or you're doing dictation of blogs, I think that's so wonderful to be able to do that.
So wonderful. I want to see more of that. But if these are the kinds of things
that you're engaging in, there are two or three tools that you absolutely must be aware of.
(16:47):
The first one is called Adobe podcast.
Adobe podcast is currently in its beta form.
It is free to use, but there is a premium service as well that allows you a
little bit more functionality,
a little bit more space, the idea behind Adobe podcast is is it has,
for lack of a better term, it's an AI tool, although loosely AI.
(17:11):
So I don't want people to get scared about that.
It's a logarithmic tool. It's highly sophisticated. And what it does is you
can send it a piece of recording through the web online.
And for completely zero cost to you, it will clean up that recording to almost
as good as what you could do in a studio.
(17:31):
Oh. I have used Adobe podcast. The function specific to the,
to the tool is called enhanced speech.
I've used this. Oh my gosh.
So much. If I've got a rough recording, something that didn't get captured well,
Adobe podcast has saved me.
But if you're somebody who's just starting in the space, you know,
(17:52):
nothing about audio editing, you know, nothing about audio processing.
You don't need to. You can use this tool and it will do a great job for you.
I cannot promote it enough.
I love it. So how do you spell that, Colin?
Adobe. A as in Apple, D as in Delta, O as in Oscar, B as in Bravo,
(18:13):
E as in Echo. Excellent. Excellent.
Wow. I didn't know that. Go check it out.
It's a wonderful tool. It's a really, really wonderful tool.
The other tool that I want to make folks aware of is Riverside.
Free to use, essentially a podcast studio.
(18:34):
You can invite folks in to do calls.
There's a maximum of guest limit for the free version.
And there's a time limit per month of how much you can record with the free
version. I think it's two hours.
But for most people, that's more than enough.
That's all we need. Yeah. And it's a free service in which they can capture
(18:55):
high quality audio and high quality video through the web.
It's it. And this isn't to knock Zoom. I know we're hanging out on Zoom today.
I think Zoom is great. It's done
wonderful things for us. And if you don't have it, y'all should get it.
But it's my reference when meeting online to use either Zoom or Riverside. I don't use any other.
(19:18):
I just don't find any other service has done what I needed to do.
To do. I've heard of Riverside. In fact, I've been as a guest on somebody's
podcast and Riverside was used.
So I don't know much about it, but at least that's all I know.
Yeah. You might want to go check it out. It could be something that you have
(19:39):
some interest in yourself considering what you're doing.
But it functions very, very much the same as Zoom for doing this kind of interaction.
So do they have better audio quality?
Oh, yeah. Yeah, they do. And, you know, it's a funny thing because I have,
and I have to check myself on this often.
For I am the person who sits here with, I'm surrounded by six different sets
(20:03):
of headphones right now, all with a very specific use and purpose.
So when I'm listening back to audio, we're hearing different things.
We're experiencing different things. The reality is Zoom's gotten a lot better.
Right. And it's gotten a lot better in the last couple of years.
Riverside's paid version, yes, does give you access to higher quality audio and video.
(20:28):
But if you're not paying for it, in my opinion, there's not really a whole heck of a lot of difference.
Right. That's useful to know, actually. I'm a big fan of Riverside. I like it quite a lot.
Interesting. Okay, so now as a small business,
(20:48):
if I'm considering using voice media, I would be thinking, okay,
what are examples of small businesses that have done this effectively?
Do you care to share any kind of stories or experiences you've had with small
(21:09):
businesses actually using voice media effectively?
I mean, we don't have to share anything confidential,
but just these folks out there can, you know, relate with us in stories of successes
of small businesses that have used voice media effectively.
Yeah, there's a couple that come to mind. The first one is a bit of a local
(21:34):
success story, and this is not my business.
But I want to give a huge, huge shout out and huge congratulations to both Reese
Waters and Jonathan Burns over at Podstarter.
They, what they were able to do in coming into this market and supporting small
businesses who have no idea,
no start point with this kind of audio content and absolutely no idea of where
(22:02):
they even want to take it.
John and Reese came up with, I don't even want to say a system,
but a way, an approach of dealing with these, these clients and dealing with these businesses.
And they, they have to date, I think, created like five top 10 podcasts out
(22:23):
of this region with constituents from Halifax businesses from Halifax,
Nova Scotia as a whole.
And they, they are in the business a little bit different than me.
They're in the business of creating monetized podcasts when appropriate,
but they are, they are doing such wonderful work with this medium.
(22:45):
And I have to, have to, have to shout, shout out to them just because of what
they've been able to do for businesses in this space.
So folks, if you really have no
idea where to start, reach out to John and Reese, reach out to me. Sure.
But these guys are phenomenal in this space.
From my own perspective, I shot a series videos a couple of years ago for the
(23:11):
craft distillers association of, of Nova Scotia.
And this has been something that has been rippling back to me for two years
since completing those productions.
I have met with people just in conversation, just on the street.
(23:32):
And you know they've said oh we you know we saw this video that
a barreling tide down in the valley had put together and was just
and it was so lovely and it really really made us want to
go meet the owners because i had showcased the
owners in the uh in the video russell and colleen lovely human beings and this
kind of goes back to what we were talking about in the beginning is showing
our authentic selves and how that connects with people because like i said i'm
(23:57):
I'm standing in a grocery line with some random lady I've never met before in my life.
Turns out one of my videos connected with her and connected her with two really
awesome people who were doing great work down in the valley.
That's pretty powerful to me. That, like, to me, that's the point. Right. Right.
I agree. And thanks for sharing that. Yeah, that's very, very encouraging.
(24:22):
If this show is helpful to you, please do subscribe and share with others.
That way we are supported to continue to bring you helpful content.
And please, we do like to hear from you. We encourage you to use the Voice Note
channel in the show notes to share your insights, comments or questions.
Thanks very much. Yeah, it's all about authenticity, isn't it? It is, yeah.
(24:47):
How to connect with people in our true self, connecting with people.
And it's so encouraging to actually listen to you speak about those success
stories that this is working and this is something that should be paid attention to.
So I, you know, I always like to think about also, okay, we've talked about,
(25:08):
I like when you said there's no barrier to entry in podcasting.
So are there ethical considerations in this space that someone should be,
you know, looking out for?
Yeah, it's a great question. Ultimately, that's going to depend on your industry.
You're going to have different restrictions on public information sharing and
(25:31):
things like that if you're a doctor versus if you are somebody like me and you're in videography.
That being said, I kind of fly my ship by three solid rules when it comes to ethic.
One, don't say anything that your mother wouldn't want to hear you say.
(25:53):
Unless you're on one of those podcasts that's driving controversy,
the reality is we don't want to hear you be mean, nasty, rude,
or punching down on other people. people.
There's a time and a place for that. There's a format of podcast for that.
But if you're in the small business world, you might want to consider that this is your image.
(26:17):
And people are going to connect with this information and get a sense of who you really are.
And if you are on that recording and you're being a rude, nasty person,
people are going to get that impression of you.
So I always caution people, don't say anything that your mother wouldn't want to hear you say.
The other piece is be mindful of privacy. I mean, I know we're,
(26:38):
we're just speaking about a past client.
Now we're in the position right now that they are a public business.
So we can talk about that pretty, pretty safely, but I might have more questions
or I might have more qualms or hangups about maybe divulging personal information
about either of those two business owners or about myself or anybody in my life.
(27:01):
It's very important. That's kind of the point. Point two is to stay on topic as much as you can.
And when you stay on topic, you'll find that for the most part,
you're not finding yourself in the hot water of some of those maybe more controversial conversations.
Maybe there's controversy in your industry. Maybe there's controversy in your ecosphere.
(27:23):
Great to talk about that stuff, but remember to keep it respectful.
And, you know, it's important that we sort of.
That we keep an open mind, especially when we're doing something like what we're
doing this morning and you have a guest.
So that's the third thing. Always respect your guest.
And I've had guests in the past when in previous podcasts that I've run ask
(27:48):
like, hey, can you, can you not include that piece?
I'm not super comfortable with what I said there. I'm not sure if that's accurate.
You know, I'd have to go check that information.
And the reality is it is a very easy thing for us to say, no problem.
We can remove that one minute or 30 seconds or however long.
Don't put your clients into a position where they're going to come back at you
(28:09):
after you've released your episode and say, can you change that? Basically.
Right. Represent them well. Yeah, that's very good to know. Yeah.
So, you know, I think it's all about being respectful.
Yeah. That's why I work here over and over again. Be respectful and be kind.
Be kind. Yeah. Even if you don't agree, be kind.
(28:33):
Yeah. Yeah. Kind of like put yourself in the other person's position and not
just go be selfish about what you want to put out there. Are they comfortable
with what you're putting out there?
Yeah. And I like the way you said, don't say anything your mother wouldn't be proud of.
That's very good. Honestly, that's very good.
This is very good stuff, Colin. So, let's, you know, I know when you mentioned
(28:59):
AI there and you were, I sensed some kind of like you were being careful because
some people are like, oh, AI.
But I think it's the reality. And I use Podbean to host my podcast.
Oh, cool. Yeah, I use them. Yeah.
I mean, they had paid, but you know, I told you, I like keeping costs low.
(29:20):
So they had the free version and I started with that.
And anyway, they recently introduced AI and very beautiful because when you
load your podcast, then the AI can actually generate your show notes for you.
And the beautiful thing is I have tried using it and it's been very efficient
(29:41):
because you don't have to use it verbatim.
You just copy that and you could go through it you could edit it you could make
it more of yourself so what i and that's what i tell folks like a high i believe
so much in here high in terms of,
be letting me be more efficient in what i do i don't have to use everything
(30:02):
here i tells me like in the show notes i'm just saying i could just instead
of sitting down cracking how do i I put this show notes together.
They've put it for me and like beautifully, and then I can edit it. And yeah.
Anyway, so I wanted to, you know, know your thoughts about that in terms of,
(30:25):
you know, a business owner listening to us right now.
Even if they are a bit skeptical of AI, what are your thoughts? Yeah.
Yeah. I'm so glad you and I are having this conversation. I really, really am.
I, I have some very passionate thoughts and feelings around AI,
and this is a really, it's a good time to have the conversation.
(30:49):
Here's the short of it.
AI is such a powerful, powerful technology, and it's going to become and has
become, is becoming a very, very powerful tool for business.
Listen, I'm not going to lie.
Anybody who's been watching the news knows that Sports Illustrated just left,
(31:13):
laid off 10,000, I think, of their writer, basically their entire writing staff to replace with AI.
We're seeing these bubblings happening within Hollywood studios.
We're seeing this happening in a big way in the tech sector right now with jobs
being displaced or replaced by AI.
(31:36):
Guys, folks, friends, loved ones, humans, fellow human beings,
fellow denizens of this planet.
This is happening at the largest levels of business, like multi-billion dollar,
hundred billion dollar a year companies.
And it will happen at those levels. You will see people lose their jobs, but not.
(32:01):
What you're going to see as a result of that is a larger uptick of population
and of, of experts within the gig economy.
You're going to see more small businesses open. Some of these folks will go
and they will work for another company and doing what they had done before.
Yes. But the estimates on that right now are actually pretty low.
So we've got this problem or this, this looming beast of job displacement or
(32:28):
job replacement with AI. And I want to tell you folks this right now,
and I truly honestly believe this.
If you're in small business, this tool is a boon.
It is one of the most useful things that you can train yourself and your staff to use.
Because what we're seeing, and we've spent a lot of time looking at report after report after report.
(32:55):
In watching the small business CB or sorry, SBCE report,
25% of businesses that are using this AI technology are reinvesting directly
back into their businesses, back into their staff and back into themselves.
(33:16):
So like, and that means things like wage increases or salary maintaining while workload decreases.
Tell me, when was the last time in the last 40 years you've heard anything like
that happening in business?
That, hey, we've got this new tool. You can do a better job with it.
But now we're going to give you less to do as a result of that.
(33:40):
Now it's just going to simply make you more efficient.
And your reward for that is having more time on your hands, not more work.
The last 50, 40 years, I've never heard anything like that happening.
But 25% of these businesses in North America are doing exactly that with these tools.
So I guess that's my point with it. Folks, let's be part of that 25%.
(34:04):
Let's get that 25% up to 60%. So all of us here in the small business space are using these tools.
We're interacting with these tools. We're understanding these tools, but.
We're responsible with them. We use them in an ethical way.
And we use them in a way that truly enhances our businesses and our bottom lines.
(34:27):
Not replaces our people.
Not destroys everything that we have built when it comes to the authenticity of our brand voice.
Because that's what AI is never going to get right for you.
You are still going to have to be there behind that little robot telling it
what to say and what to do to sound just like you. So the human element hasn't been removed.
(34:49):
What we need to do as Nova Scotians is look at this as an opportunity to upskill, upskill ourselves,
upskill our workforces, upskill our small business ecosphere and create a much,
much, much stronger and harder to dislodge middle class in Nova Scotia.
(35:11):
Because the more we use these tools, the greater value we can bring to our businesses,
the higher salary increases that we can pass on to our employees and to ourselves
and to our shareholders and, and, and certainly.
But if we lead this with a people first approach, my friends, we cannot lose.
I'm going to leave it there because I can talk about this all freaking day.
(35:33):
I want to say, and it's very comforting when I hear the message reinforced that
it is not going to replace people.
AI is not going to replace people because that's one of the most complaints
I hear people say to me when I talk about AI.
(35:54):
Even my staff in my business, they're thinking, oh, AI is going to replace people.
So I have to keep on, you know, teaching them to say, no, it's not going to replace people.
It's going to make... I had a guest on my show one time, and I like the way he put it. He said...
Before on your job, if you were zero with AI, you'll still be zero because zero
(36:19):
times whatever number is still zero. It's still zero.
Yep. But if you were, say, three with AI, then AI can multiply that for you. And you could be better.
Yep. Because three times whatever will always be more.
Three times two will always be six, right?
Right. So that's the same way, and that's part of what you said right there,
(36:42):
that AI is not going to replace people.
It's going to make us more efficient, and we should embrace it,
and it can only be better for we small business folks, right?
Yeah. Yeah, I'd like, you know, and I think it's really important to note,
like, I mean, if we could but see,
I'd love to see a show of hands from people in fields like,
(37:03):
like accounting or physicists or mathematicians show it, see a show of hands
from those folks who utilize their calculator every day,
you know, their graphing calculator or whatever for whatever function and how
much of a boon that was for those folks in that industry.
Now, the reality here is we, we, as the users do need to be careful,
(37:27):
you know, we need to define for ourselves and for our governments.
What, what does this look like? How do we move forward with this thing sustainably?
How do we move forward with this thing ethically responsibly?
And we don't have all of those answers yet. And that's part of the issue.
And I think that's what makes a lot of people kind of scared is that we don't
(37:48):
have policy in place for this yet. And I get it.
Everything in this world could change tomorrow, folks. It all could change tomorrow.
But the reality is this is here to stay.
Let's learn to work with it and we won't be swept away by it.
Now, that being said, you know, and I do, I sincerely feel anybody who is in
graphic arts, anybody who's in copywriting and things like that,
(38:12):
my friends, I do hear you.
I hear you loud and clear and your fear is not unfounded. it.
It is real. It comes from a real place and you should feel validated by that.
But I do want to let you know, I still work with copywriters.
I still hire them despite chat GPT, right?
(38:32):
I still work with graphic designers, despite things like Sora or mid journey
or anything like that. The reality is.
Where I'm at in my business, I still need these people around me and I still
need human beings making those decisions.
AI does a really, really great job of a lot of things, but what it doesn't do
(38:53):
a great job is hitting you in the heart.
And that's what I'm in the business of, right?
And so I still use my graphic designers. I still use my copywriters and I hope
that they use these tools tools to make their lives easier.
But the reality is, is that y'all aren't going anywhere.
Like, like in my industry, I still have need of you all. And there are other
(39:16):
industries that have need of you as well.
But as a small business, you're bootstrapping.
It's your first day boots on the ground. I've got an idea and a whole bunch
of motivation and that's it.
Learn these tools, use them, embrace them because they will get you to the level
that I am at and still utilizing and graphic designers and copywriters and all
(39:37):
these people much faster.
And there's nothing wrong with that. There is nothing wrong with having some help along the way.
Absolutely. So MySpace is a retail industry. Yeah.
I usually like to, because I have audience in the retail industry as well.
So voice media, how can somebody like me in the retail industry industry,
(40:02):
play competitively using voice media, if I could put it that way. Absolutely.
Sorry, I've seen it up at store. Right. Okay. Let me just restate the question,
make sure that I understand.
So how can yourself or somebody within the retail space start leveraging voice
(40:22):
and voice media to help your bottom line? Did I understand that correctly?
Perfectly. Like how can we compete better? How can you compete better?
There's a bunch of different ways.
I think the main way or one of the main ways is what you're doing right now.
Connecting with other businesses, having these conversations,
(40:45):
sharing insights, sharing experiences.
I don't think there's anything more powerful than shared experience.
And I think that within the retail space, it's something that at every level
from the small mom and pop shop to the huge department store,
there's the psychology of retail that plays a big part of that.
(41:11):
How you sell, what you sell, where you sell it from your store.
You know, there are all of these, these elements, but let me put it to you this way.
Somebody who was walking into your retail shop, who's listened to your podcast,
or perhaps they've seen a video that you put together.
Maybe it was like a little Facebook commercial or something,
something of that ilk either way, they have some familiarity with you when they're walking in the door.
(41:36):
Right. And I'm just going to to use a fashion apparel store as an example,
because that's something similar has happened to me at a fashion apparel store
where I've witnessed it.
And when the price, when somebody comes in and they're like,
oh, hey, I already know you, or at least I feel like I already know you.
They're a lot more relaxed. They're a lot more relaxed in your store.
(42:00):
They're a lot more open to like, if you have a suggestion, like say they're
browsing jackets And you're like, oh, you know, take a look over here.
We're just getting the new fall line in. Take a look at what we have.
They're going to be so much more, not just ready to buy, but so much more comfortable in your space.
(42:20):
And I think that that's one of the things that the folks in retail really try
and cultivate is that feeling of
comfort, that feeling of calmness or of invitation in their store. door.
There's no better way to feel invited in than to feel like I already have a relationship with you.
I feel like I already know you and that when you speak to me, I recognize your voice.
(42:42):
Or when I see you, I recognize your face.
Nothing is going to make me more comfortable. You could have all the soft,
warm lighting and warm mahogany all over the place, and that's going to look
nice, but it's not going to feel as good as me sitting with a trusted friend, you know, in a space.
And that is essentially what voice media is meant to do.
Its sole goal is to make you a trusted friend or a trusted supplier for whatever it is.
(43:10):
And if we do our jobs properly, that person walks in the store already feeling comfortable with you.
You can't put a price tag on that. It's not just that they're going to buy.
Chances are that they will be more likely to, but they might only buy a thing,
but they're going to tell everybody like, oh man, we were at all this store.
She's got so much cool stuff.
(43:30):
Like we just like, look, we, we picked up, we picked up this cool little thing.
And those are the conversations you can't buy, right?
There's no amount of marketing, paid marketing that can create that for you.
Not in my opinion, anyway, it feels so much more authentic and genuine walking
into the store and saying, Hey, I know you, you're going to sell me something today.
(43:54):
I'm going to buy something from you, but I know who you are.
You know, I have an investment in you as a person above and beyond you as a business.
That has happened to me on a level of occasion. So I totally resonate with that.
I feel so much connected with what I have previously heard or seen on a website of a small business.
(44:20):
And I just want to, I just want to tell everybody about it.
So I'm like, yeah. And they didn't pay me for that advertisement,
but I just, I just genuinely want to because I felt connected to that.
So, yeah, absolutely.
So those are practical steps.
(44:40):
And I do hope folks find all those useful.
I like to say I have this tradition on this show. I usually like to ask my guests,
like, what would you like to learn?
Because I'm all about, my podcast is all about learning. I so much believe in
continuous connecting, continuous learning.
That's we, we always improve when we do that.
(45:03):
So if I can ask you, Colin, what would you like to learn as a founder yourself?
As a founder? Oh, that's a long list.
So in terms of parity, what comes, you know, if you're given the chance today,
like, oh, Colleen, I can get you this resource.
(45:24):
What would that be? If you could get me results?
What would be the results that I want? Yeah. Wow. Geez.
That's a good question. I think I'm at a point right now in my business where
I'm learning more and more how to work on it as opposed to working in it.
And so that's a lot. Speaking of learning, that's really where a lot of my focus
(45:47):
has been in the last number of months.
I've been doing a lot of leadership training. I've been doing a lot more coaching.
Learning about like the operational tasks that I'm not really very good at and
that I know I'm going to need to bring somebody in for, but I've always just
kind of like swept under the rug just because it didn't matter.
(46:07):
Or, or at least I told myself it didn't matter. So, yeah, I think I would like
to learn more about how to be an effective leader.
Beautiful. So any last words for our audience that they could take away with them?
Sure. Don't be scared. Media,
content, this whole game, this whole racket is a lot easier than it seems.
(46:35):
And so I'll leave you with this.
In the digital content world, whether you're doing audio, video,
blog, whatever, whatever efforts you're undertaking to support your business online, line.
Done is a lot better than perfect.
Just do it. Put it out, put it up and learn.
(46:58):
Learn after each and every one that you do how to make it better and how to
drive closer and closer to that vision.
But done is better than perfect.
Thanks for listening. Hopefully that added value to you.
I do like to say that the show aims to highlight broad business patterns that
are considered same as ever.
(47:20):
However, I also acknowledge that personal circumstances may differ.
So please apply the lessons in line with your context and seek professional
guidance as may be applicable to your business.
Until next episode, please do share the show so value is added to others as
well. And remember, let's continue to learn together and be encouraged to keep on connecting.
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