[00:00:01] Speaker A: Want to protect your business. The time is near. You've given it heart. Now get it in gear. It's passage to profit with Richard and Elizabeth Gearhart.
[00:00:12] Speaker B: I'm Richard Gerhardt, founder of Gearhart Law, a full service intellectual property law firm specializing in patents, trademarks and copyrights.
[00:00:20] Speaker C: And I'm Elizabeth Gearhart. Not an attorney, but I work at Gearhart Law doing the marketing, and I have my own startups.
[00:00:25] Speaker B: Welcome to passage to profit, everyone. The road to entrepreneurship, where we talk with startups, small businesses, and discuss the intellectual property that helps them flourish.
[00:00:35] Speaker C: Now, this next person that is coming on, talk about the podcasting queen. Wow. And she's also a photographer, so if you do need your LinkedIn headshot, she is the person to go to. So Lee Wahara, who is a photographer, a serial entrepreneur, serial podcaster, she is a great catch for the show.
[00:00:56] Speaker D: Thank you so much for having me. I am a photographer who captures moments, people, and action. I'm here today to tell everyone that a photo, whether it's a profile photo or a photo of you in action, I think Julie mentioned that earlier, is so important. And if you cannot afford a photographer at the moment, you can clean off your phone's camera lens and take your own shots and then have them edited. You can even do that thing where you press down on your phone and it lifts your photo out of the background and you can place it in front of something else. But it's very important to have an updated photo. And I'm going to go there. People, if you've gained 1520 pounds, you need to update that photo, because you know what? First of all, self acceptance when you're an entrepreneur is so important. And then it doesn't matter because, you know you'll get back to down to the size you want when you're ready. But the thing is, when you have a photo of yourself that's supposed to be representative of you and your brand and your company, and it's from ten years old, it's from 20 pounds ago, it's like a bait and switch. When people get to you, there's no authenticity. And so the whole thing is to have people know, like and trust you, right? And so you've just got to be real. And there are ways to take photos to be more flattering. But ultimately, I'm here to say, please put yourself forth in a current photo. You've got to go with the flow, with who you are. And so having a current, accurate photo or you in action can also be flattering.
[00:02:44] Speaker B: Right. Well, I think my hair went from brown to gray over the summertime. I went to have my passport renewed and my assistant put in the hair color and she put gray. And I'm like, no, that's wrong. I have brown hair. And the guy at the post office just started laughing and he was gray, too. So anyway, I guess I always just use the excuse. I haven't gotten around to updating it. And that college picture, maybe it's not right for LinkedIn. I don't know.
[00:03:16] Speaker D: Not if college was more than five years ago.
[00:03:20] Speaker B: Maybe ten. My case.
[00:03:22] Speaker C: So do you have a studio in New York here?
[00:03:25] Speaker D: Yes. The city landscape is my studio. I prefer to stay outside of indoors. I can totally do the studio setup. I prefer to catch people in moments in action. I prefer that we do environmental portraits, catching you in your element. Because when folks are captured doing what they love to do, the demeanor on film in the digital shot is so much more powerful.
[00:03:54] Speaker C: Everybody needs a headshot and needs an action shot. I agree with you. But what I really want to find out is you are actually making money doing podcasts. How are you doing that?
[00:04:05] Speaker D: I liken having a podcast as having a ticket to the show. It's a ticket into the door. It's a doorway that you get to go through. It's a ticket to opportunity. And so I have one show where I have a local diner, paying advertising. Occasionally having a podcast opens the door to so many opportunities that you wouldn't even imagine. And only if you say yes. Podcasting allows one to monetize, and there's more than one way to monetize, and it also allows for exciting opportunities.
[00:04:40] Speaker C: So you have New York City podcasters, and that's a Monetization vehicle for you, is that correct?
[00:04:45] Speaker D: NYC Podcasters is an indie collective of shows here in town, and the showrunners and I get together. It's a way to connect and build community. And yes, there is a membership fee, but the money generally goes back into the programming, so to say.
[00:05:05] Speaker E: So you said you have two podcasts.
[00:05:06] Speaker D: Well, I have a couple more, and the struggle is always to keep them updated.
[00:05:13] Speaker E: I was going to say a podcast are a lot of work.
[00:05:15] Speaker D: You know what I figured out is one of them I do while I'm walking my dog. Literally, it's called Upper west side corner talk, and it's news that you'd get from a friend or a neighbor at the corner while walking your dog. And I literally do it when I'm walking my dog.
I believe that if you want to share whatever your message is or however you want to do it, always make it fit your flow and where you're at in life. And the other thing too, is carrying some portable gear that way. So, for example, let's say this show is over, and I can ask all of you, hey, do you want to be on my show? I can interview you in the hallway with my cell phone for like three minutes, and boom, that's an episode.
[00:06:01] Speaker B: So if somebody wants to start a podcast, where do they start?
[00:06:05] Speaker D: They start with figuring out what their message is. It's as simple as what does one love to talk about? But if you have a business that you want to highlight and to have folks get to know, like and trust you right away, that's another way to do it. So really all you need is your voice, a recording mechanism, and an upload button with a podcast host. I do recommend.
I'm an audio snob, actually. And so a microphone like this is great. Having a good microphone, a dynamic cardioid microphone, is the best way to go. And you don't have to spend a lot of money to start properly right out of the gate.
[00:06:49] Speaker B: So do you recommend getting onto some of the podcast platforms like castos or Apple Podcasts, or do you recommend just putting it out on LinkedIn or Facebook? How do you go about distributing the podcast once you've started it?
[00:07:02] Speaker D: The main debate is, what is a podcast? And for us diehards, a podcast is truly a podcast. When you have an RSS feed and it is distributed through Apple podcasts, what.
[00:07:14] Speaker B: Is an RSS feed?
[00:07:16] Speaker D: Basically, it's your unique identifier for your show that carries the information. It's like a bus that carries your episodes, that Apple podcast always looks for new episodes and then distributes those automatically.
[00:07:31] Speaker B: Kenya.
[00:07:32] Speaker E: Now, YouTube has a podcast. If actually, Elizabeth is the one that introduced me to this. So YouTube actually has a podcast platform for your audio and your visual. So they're doing that, LinkedIn. You had mentioned earlier that LinkedIn has an audio component for podcasts.
[00:07:49] Speaker F: You can just do it on your phone. You can use LinkedIn audio. Now, you do have to switch on creator mode to use that feature, but it's a great way to get started in podcasting and just do the audio. Do it on your phone. Make sure you're in a quiet place.
[00:08:04] Speaker B: I'm in the process of trying to start another podcast myself. There's a lot to it. There's all of these different companies that have all this different kind of software. It's taken a lot of time just to kind of work through getting it out there.
[00:08:19] Speaker E: Well, you guys were ahead of the curve with passage to profit. This was one of this because it.
[00:08:23] Speaker B: Was your idea, Kenny.
[00:08:24] Speaker E: Well, I mean, initially we weren't thinking about doing a podcast, and the podcast, we treated it kind of second nature, but we're really way ahead of the game in terms of the broadcast to podcast strategy. So that was smart.
[00:08:35] Speaker D: Yes. I think getting your message out in any form via mp3 and uploading it anywhere is great. The reason you want to go through Apple podcasts for your distribution is because when you go to a podcast hosting platform specifically, for example, Libsyn, Podbean, Blueberry, they will then take your episodes and they'll upload them. And then when you have your Apple podcast feed, anyone can listen to your show anywhere through any listening app. And what you want is wide distribution. So, for example, there are some shows that only list on Spotify. But what happens if you don't have a Spotify account? I don't listen to Spotify. That's not where I get my audio and my music. And so the idea and the goal really is to spread your message as far and wide as possible. So if you are uploading only to YouTube's podcast platform, because they don't distribute through Apple, which Apple goes everywhere. So if you're going to do YouTube and LinkedIn, take that same mp3 file and upload it through a podcast hosting app, and then everyone can listen.
[00:09:52] Speaker C: Another thing to do is to have events and be associated with us. So, like, you hosted an event in New York for Podfest called Pod Tour New York City. Right.
[00:10:01] Speaker D: Podfest is the largest independent podcasters conference in Orlando in January. And I am also an event organizer and in collaboration with NYC podcasters, we had this meetup. Meeting people in a grassroots, one on one way is one of the number one methods to gaining more listeners, but also connecting and building all. Everyone in here now knows each other and we can now reach out to each other. And most of us have podcasts or thinking about them.
[00:10:36] Speaker C: What's the best way for people to find you?
[00:10:38] Speaker D: You can visit
[email protected] I'm sure it'll be in the show notes. And for anyone who visits and reaches out, I have a special photo checklist that people can have.
[00:10:50] Speaker C: It's Lee, and I spell your last name. It's Uehara photography. And she's here in New York City and just a lovely person. So reach out.
[00:11:02] Speaker B: Before we go, I'd like to thank the passage to profit team Noah Fleischmann, our producer Alicia Morrissey, our program director. Our podcast can be found tomorrow anywhere you find your podcast. Just look for the passage to profit.
[00:11:15] Speaker G: Show and you can find us on Instagram and threads at passage to profit show and Twitter. Or if you're even more up to date, X at passage to profit and on our YouTube channel. Please also join us on our new Facebook group search for passage to profit show. Listener community a new community space for our listeners and guests where you can post questions that you would like answered on the show and interact with the passage to profit team.
[00:11:41] Speaker B: And remember, while the information on this program is believed to be correct, never take a legal step without checking with your legal professional first. Gearhart Law is here for your patent, trademark and copyright needs. You can find
[email protected] and contact us for a free consultation. Take care, everybody. Thanks for listening and we'll be back next week.
