Building a Strong Brand Through Podcasting Featuring My Podcast Manager, Elisa Dyer
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Rebranding a business is never easy, especially when you're caught in the whirlwind of internal struggles and realizations. In today’s episode, Victoria chats with The Branding Business School’s Podcast manager, Elisa Dyer, all about her transformative journey of rebranding her business from a virtual assistant brand to Zealcast Studios—a name that perfectly encapsulates her mission and aspirations. Inspired by a pivotal module on The Art Of Naming at The Branding Business School, Elisa reveals how she overcame the hurdles of merging different aspects of her personality into a cohesive brand. Learn how strategic branding and planning played crucial roles in creating an energetic yet approachable vibe that resonates with her ideal clients.
Victoria and Elisa also explore the multifaceted benefits of podcasting for entrepreneurs, from building credibility and community to creating networking opportunities. They discuss the nuances of monetizing a podcast, emphasizing the distinction between direct and indirect methods. Lastly, you’ll hear personal experiences and success stories that illustrate how podcasting can enhance trust, attract valuable leads, and foster meaningful connections. If you’re in a similar place that Elisa was with considering a rebrand OR if you’re considering starting your very own podcast, this episode is packed with actionable insights that underscore the necessity of strategy in your brand as well as the transformative impact of podcasting on business growth and personal connections.
Where it all started [01:57]
In April of 2022, Elisa met Victoria at The Heart Conference in Nashville. While they only chatted for a little while during the first ice breaker, two years later they have now been working together and using each other's services time and time again.
Elisa’s Growth Journey, both personally and brand-wise [07:31]
Since 2022, Elisa has grown so much personally. Something that people don’t realize when jumping into entrepreneurship is that it is a mental journey as far as mental growth and really learning who you are as a person. Even though it’s been difficult at times, Elisa shares that it’s been so worth it because the work she’s put in has really changed her business and brand. In 2022, Elisa started as a virtual assistant that worked with podcasters for podcast management, but she wasn’t all in on podcasting yet. After taking The Branding Business School course (TBBS), she changed her mindset, focus, and thoughts on branding and how she could create a new brand to send it forward.
Reason for a Rebrand [09:31]
A few months before taking The Branding Business School, Elisa was feeling disconnected with her initial business name because it was branded as a Virtual Assistant and there was more of a desire to lean all-in to podcasting. On top of that, she also wanted to remove her name from the brand so that she could focus on growing the business and transition to building an agency model. There was internal conflict with this decision because of the thought, ‘How does one keep the brand personal without having your face and name be everywhere your brand is?’. After listening to module 3, The Art of Naming Your Business, the decision to rebrand was solidified. She had realized that her previous name was no longer serving her. Since Elisa’s name is not spelt the traditional way, it could be a problem if someone were to try and look her up but didn’t know that her name was really spelt with an E instead of an A. On top of that, the previous business name had nothing to do with what she was going to offer anymore. It didn’t say anything about her business personality, values, or service that she was going to offer. It was because of these two realizations that ultimately led to redefining everything.
The Journey to ZealCast Studios [16:48]
At the start, it felt like a bit of a brand identity crisis, but slowly it became easier to map it all out thanks to TBBS for basically giving a checklist for what you need to have in order before starting the rebrand process. When it came to finding a name, Elisa went to ChatGPT to help craft inspiration. Truthfully, she hated every option that it gave, but she did appreciate the structure it offered. What she did know at the time was that she wanted to work with passionate creatives, so she began looking for synonyms to ‘passion’ and found the word ‘zeal’. Right away she loved that word, but it wasn’t until she read what the difference was between zeal and passion that really confirmed that this was what it should be. Passion is an emotional word, it’s an emotional response, something that you feel, a deep love for something. Zeal is an action word, it’s taking action on your passion, and that’s exactly what Elisa believes creatives are doing when they share their passion through podcasting.
The Biggest Challenge to Rebrand [20:07]
The biggest challenge Elisa shared was having internal conflicts throughout the process. Wanting to express who you are and keep the brand personal, but still make it relatable to the client who is going to see it. One of the things Elisa learned from The Branding Business School is that it’s important to craft our brand strategically so that it relates and resonates with the person who’s going to view it. For Elisa, it was difficult to do that because she found herself being pulled in two different directions when it came to overall ‘vibes’ that the brand could give off. She’s bubbly, energetic and passionate, but she’s also down to earth, easy-going, and more cottage core. Thankfully, Aviana, one of BrandWell’s designers, helped Elisa strategically combine the vibes to create a jaw-dropping visual for the brand.
(P.S. Elisa Here – If you haven’t listened to Episode 138 yet, I highly recommend it because it articulates exactly what I was trying to say in this section! Especially Mistake #2!)
Why Should You Start a Podcast? [28:18]
Podcasting is such a valuable opportunity for entrepreneurs. It gives you a platform to establish your credibility and position yourself as the expert in your space. It gives you the opportunity to build a community around you and your brand. It gives you an area to serve your audience with marketing your service or products. And it also gives you amazing networking opportunities. In the world that we live in today with fast content, it’s also nice to have this type of platform that allows for connection in a long form way.
Monetizing Your Podcast [33:01]
Indirect monetization is when you share about your own services, your own products, and including affiliate links. Direct monetization is when you have paid ads or working with different networks to share their ads. (Think of when you hear an ad for a local business, even though the podcast is based in California) Elisa recommends doing indirect monetization before direct monetization because indirect relates to who you are and why your listeners are probably there in the first place– they want to support you, they like what you have to offer, or they trust you. If you’re using an affiliate link, that’s still an ad, but because you’re vouching for it they will go longer and further than paid ads. If you’re wanting to start monetizing your podcast, start by sharing your own services first, organically. Then, if you have an affiliate link to something that you use on the daily and it aligns with your brand, you can start including those in pre-roll ads.
Is it Worth Starting a Podcast in 2024? [38:36]
There are like 3 million podcasts out there, but only 13.4% of them are producing episodes week after week. So when it comes down to it, it’s really not that saturated because it breaks down even more depending on the niche you’re in. Plus, podcasts are reaching 53% of Americans over 18 years old, each month, and 90 million Americans are weekly listeners. So this is a huge percentage of people that could potentially hear about your brand, hear about your business, and hear about your mission. There’s plenty of room for opportunity.
Get Your Passion Into Action [40:35]
If you’re wanting to start a podcast or take yours to the next level, then check out ZealCast Studios on their website, Instagram, and Facebook Page!
P.S. Did you know that The Branding Business School Podcast is a Top 2.5% Podcast?!
Key Quotes
“Podcasting is really about connection and those who take it to focus on the monetization side are missing a huge piece of it.”
Elisa Dyer
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