Buzzwords and Keywords ft. Gayle Goodfriend

In today’s episode, Steve sits down with Gayle Goodfriend from Goodfriend Honey Co. to discuss the sweet journey from hobbyist beekeeper to entrepreneur. They delve into the importance of using the right keywords and buzzwords for SEO discoverability, especially for podcasters and small business owners. Gayle shares how she turned her passion for bees into a thriving business offering natural honey products and skincare solutions. Whether you're interested in beekeeping, natural skincare, or enhancing your online presence, this episode is packed with valuable insights.

Key Takeaways:

1. From Hobby to Business:
   • Gayle transitioned from a 40-year career as a mortgage broker to launching Goodfriend Honey Co.
   • She started beekeeping as a hobby ten years ago and turned it into a business in January.
   • The abundance of honey and beeswax led her to create natural skincare products.
2. The Power of In-Person Networking:
   • Local networking events have been instrumental in growing her business.
   • Word-of-mouth referrals have connected her with spas and repeat customers.
3. Embracing Social Media and Online Presence:
   • Despite initial hesitations, Gayle recognizes the need to enhance her online marketing.
   • Plans are underway to improve her website and social media engagement to reach a national audience.
4. Understanding Keywords vs. Buzzwords:
   • Steve explains how using specific keywords can improve SEO and help potential customers find you.
   • Buzzwords are memorable phrases that resonate with your audience but may not impact SEO directly.
   • Combining both can enhance online visibility and brand recognition.
5. Tailoring Content to Your Ideal Customer:
   • Gayle's products cater to individuals with skin issues like eczema and dermatitis.
   • Focusing on natural, chemical-free skincare solutions appeals to her target audience.
   • Using customer-focused keywords can attract those seeking natural remedies.
6. Exploring the Potential of Podcasting:
   • Gayle considers starting a podcast to educate others about beekeeping and natural skincare.
   • Sharing her expertise could position her as an authority and expand her customer base.

What's Next?

Visit www.goodfriendhoney.com to explore Gayle's natural honey products and skincare solutions. Keep an eye out for updates on her enhanced online store and potential podcast launch!

Stay Tuned:

Continue listening to Podcasting Badass for more expert insights on podcasting, branding, and growing your business. Don't forget to subscribe and leave a review!

Transcript

0:00

Hey there, it's sober. Steve, the podcast guy, and welcome to another episode of podcasting bad-ass. I am thrilled to share with you this amazing conversation that I had with my good friend, Gail, the other week. She is a local beekeeper and makes amazing honey products. And I had a great time getting a chance to talk with her about the difference between keywords. And buzzwords when talking about SEO discoverability. So this is a hugely important episode for podcast, or is not only so that you can make sure that you're including keywords into your episode. Titles and your show notes and your podcasts, name, and title extensions, but also that you're using these buzzwords effectively as well. It's really helped brand and market yourself as unique in your own environment as well, and not getting the two confused. So this is a great episode that I'm sure you'll find a lot of value in. So enjoy the episode and make sure you are following this podcast wherever you listen. So you can get new episodes when they come out every single Monday. Enjoy my conversation with Gale.

Steve: 1:05

Hey there, everyone. It is Sober Steve, the podcast guy here now with my new good friend, Gail Goodfriend. Welcome to the show.

Gayle: 1:13

Thank you. Wow. I've never heard that one before.

Steve: 1:17

Really? How is that even possible with a last name like that? It builds itself.

Gayle: 1:21

It's not possible.

Steve: 1:25

Welcome very much. Why don't you introduce what you do to everyone listening?

Gayle: 1:30

Yes. I am a beekeeper and the owner of Good Friend Honey Company. So I not only harvest honey from my bees, but I also use their beeswax in making solid lotion bars and other skin products that are all natural and good for the skin.

Steve: 1:55

Yeah, I love that. And one thing that I fell in love with you right away with, and I found it's like a kindred spirit is that I, as the podcast guy, kind of market myself as someone who does everything for someone, because there are oftentimes people that will be just one piece of the puzzle. They'll help with just producing or just editing or just images or just this. But I help with everything and I can imagine with beekeeping, there's people who just do the beekeeping, who just do the product creation or just do the selling of the products. But you do it all. You're also, while I'm the podcast guy you're the honey girl or the bee girl because you're going around doing it all. Would you agree?

Gayle: 2:32

I would. There's a lot to it. Bees are really an agricultural product. So it's just. Like any farmer, I have to worry about keeping them healthy, keeping them alive, worrying about what the weather's doing, worrying about what's in bloom because they'll forage for nectar three to five miles away. Yeah, so I'm always worried about everything.

Steve: 3:00

I can imagine that you've been learning about her and have known and had an interest in beast for some time, but how long has this been a professional business and focus of yours?

Gayle: 3:09

Oh gosh. It's only been a professional focus since January. So only about nine months now, before that it was a hobby for 10 years.

Steve: 3:19

Wow. Congratulations on taking that dive.'cause I similarly started around January, a switching from my hobby into a career. What inspired you to make that jump? Because I'm sure that there were fears with that as well.

Gayle: 3:31

Oh yeah, for sure. I have a 40 year career as a mortgage broker. So that's what I always did for a living. The last couple of years that's a very high stress business. I took up beekeeping about 10 years ago as a hobby when you start out, you lose a lot of bees. You don't get much honey, but as you get better at it, you make way more honey and I used to just give it away to friends for holidays and whenever I got together with girlfriends, they always would get honey or different bee products from me, but after a while you get more honey than you can even give away. Okay. And of course my freezer was then filled with beeswax as well, because you harvest beeswax along with the honey,'cause you have to uncap the honey, you have to take the wax off of the frames to get the honey out. I just had a freezer full of wax and thought, what am I going to do with this? So I started researching things to make with beeswax and that's how the whole thing started.

Steve: 4:37

Yeah, I love to see how it started to where it's grown today where people at our networking events clamor for your samples and your products. How successful has the in person networking and marketing been at growing your business?

Gayle: 4:52

It really has been surprising to me. It's, I had no idea how to go about this and, but I'm a salesperson at heart as a mortgage broker. That's pure sales. So I've been doing that for 40 years, but not selling a tangible product like honey or a lotion bar, it really, the in person selling has been the majority. Of how the word has spread about me.

Steve: 5:23

Yeah. I love to hear that. And I can imagine as well, because I, when I started off felt like, because podcasting is such a modern median and art form that I would find all of my clients and all of my business online. But I as well, I'm finding that I am also very successful, like almost more successful in ways connecting with people still in person with those networking events. So it just goes to show that there's nothing beats like in person networking connecting, but how else do you. Get new business, sir. How else do people find you?

Gayle: 5:54

I've gotten quite a few referrals. And again, this goes back to the people that I meet while I'm networking, they refer me to, for instance, spas that now want to use my products. I have one spa in Palmetto. I gave her a sample and she started using it when she was doing dermaplaning on her spa clients. And she said, Oh my gosh, this is the most amazing thing. Cause the blade. You're basically scraping somebody's face with a scalpel. She said the blade just glides along because of the beeswax and the oils and butters in the bar. People who are customers at other spas, are saying to them, you really should talk to a good friend honey company and take a look at their lotion bar. So yeah. So now I'm in a couple different spas. I just yesterday I got a new client with the salt cave spa in Lakewood ranch and she's going to be carrying my products. So I'm very excited about that. And that comes from a network, a friend who I network with, who went to the spa and said, you should try it out.

Steve: 7:11

Yeah, I love that. And so many people as I'm starting to work with them as clients with their podcast or with their business and branding are so hard on themselves for their lack of performance on social media compared to what they feel like it should be. But oftentimes, like I hear them talking about how their business is growing steadily through more traditional ways like that. How much has social media been part of your business plan currently? And what are your feelings about social media?

Gayle: 7:39

Yeah, my feeling about social media is that I'm very envious of people who are very good at it. As I am not a pro at social media and I'm trying really hard to get

Steve: 7:53

The fact that you're trying is the number one thing because you get practice. I recently got like one of those Facebook memories that I got Facebook 10 years ago. I created an account and I remember the time like I got it because someone pressured me into and I was like, look at the monster that you've created now because now I'm Mr. Social Media, but I was late to the Facebook page. Because I didn't want to use it, but I've learned the power of using it professionally for people as like especially with my Podcasting because it reaches a wider audience But being that you have a product that people can buy people can also buy your product from anywhere if they were able to find you because can you ship your product? I'm guessing correct

Gayle: 8:29

That'll be coming online in about a month's time because I also have someone working on a more professional website. I do have a website right now. Good friend honey.com. It needs some tweaking for sure. It needs more added to it. Yeah the beauty one.

Steve: 8:46

Yeah I love that. And the beauty of podcasting magic is that even though we're recording this in early October, the episode is going to go live probably in November or like early to mid November. So chances are it might be up and running by the time that people listen to this. Who knows?

Gayle: 9:01

Oh my gosh, that would be amazing.

Steve: 9:04

Yeah, but that's my hope for sure. Yeah, it certainly will open up a whole new way of being able to reach people beyond just through your local efforts. When it comes to reaching a national audience, then that's like the perfect time to start thinking about podcasting because it reaches such a broad reach of people. Have you ever, before you met me and I put this little pod worm in your ear thought about doing something like this?

Gayle: 9:28

Steve, this is interesting. My friend Christina Barrett and I actually do have it's on YouTube. We call it a podcast, but I suppose it's not strictly a podcast. We have a little channel called crafty bees, Florida,

Steve: 9:43

where we

Gayle: 9:44

talk about knitting and crocheting, and then always beekeeping at the end.

Steve: 9:49

Experience and you have the personality for it. Yeah.

Gayle: 9:53

I don't know about that, but we do have a lot of fun with it.

Steve: 9:57

That's very bad ass as I would say, using my branding that it's great that you're able to put yourself out there like that, because even if you're doing it to tell my kids about that,

Gayle: 10:07

I'm going to tell my

Steve: 10:08

kids that you called me a bad ass and they will be very impressed. So many people have those interests of wanting to do that thing and they'll never do it because they're afraid of what one or two people might think about them if they put it out there. So the fact that you put it out there because you know that you're talking to the people who love knitting and bees and honey and you don't care about the people who are going to be trolls or hater that it's not for them, that's definitely a badass. So good on you for doing that. And so if you were to find a way to. business by beekeeping or honey podcasts. What do you think that might look like for you if we were to play protect?

Gayle: 10:45

Yeah, that's a good question. They do say that you have to be really careful when you start talking to a beekeeper because once they start talking about honey bees and beekeeping, you will never shut them up. There's so much education and I love to educate people on honey bees, on honey, on, the natural skin care that I offer. And I also would love to interview other beekeepers, other people who have a lot more experience than I do in the field. I'm in a program right now with the University of Florida. Florida that's been put together with a grant from the USDA and it's to help hobby beekeepers start businesses. So you probably don't know this but the University of Florida has a world renowned entomology department. So they have one of the top honeybee researchers in the world, a Dr. Jamie Ellis, who works there. He's an endowed professor there and he's involved with our program. So I'm really fortunate to be surrounded by a lot of very knowledgeable beekeepers and bee researchers.

Steve: 12:06

Yeah, and I see the possibilities are endless and with a market and target demographic like that I love when people know it is who that is that they're talking to So what I like to think about with a podcast now about who would your ideal listener be though? Would it be someone looking to learn and educate about bees themselves or the honey process or would it be a consumer looking to buy? Your products. I know that oftentimes like people oftentimes think of everyone or you know Is it my interest? But if you were to be talking like it's your ideal person who will help you grow, who do you think that would be or look like? Would it be a business connection or would it be a potential customer?

Gayle: 12:43

I think it would be more a potential customer if we're talking about me growing my business. So yeah, thank you for helping me narrow that down. But I think, yeah, probably educating people on natural skin care and, Keeping a lot of the chemicals off their skin. That's in everything we seem to put on our skin.

Steve: 13:04

Yeah. I would love

Gayle: 13:05

to educate people on that.

Steve: 13:07

Yeah. That it's a huge topic, skincare, health, and wellness, and coming at it from the bee and the honey angle is just. It's like the cherry on top because oftentimes people have the insecurity that there's too much of an already type of podcast or there's too much of this and I always argue it's not like there's never going to be enough music or TV. Why is there going to be too many podcasts, but having a special angle where you're not just talking about anything skin care related or health related. Like related, but saying that's like skincare products, health products like that from bees, from honey, it just provides like such that unique double niche, so to speak, that I think would really create a powerful message. So these people who are interested in your products, the ideal people who will want to buy every single one, tell me about their interests and habits, what they want to learn about whenever they are talking to you about your product and coming back to buy more, what types of questions do they ask you?

Gayle: 14:03

My ideal customer seems to be someone with issues with their skin. So the people who have come back to buy many different bars are people with eczema. Extremely dry, itchy skin, contact dermatitis. I have one lady who has bought so many bars. She comes and buys three and four bars at a time because she cleans houses and something in the chemicals that she uses makes her hands just unbearably itchy it's not eczema, it's some kind of contact dermatitis, and as long as she has the bars on, I think it's the beeswax that, protects her skin. Yeah, so I'm finding that while they feel really nice they also really help people with serious skin issues. And this is with nothing artificial, no medications. I have one girl who I'm developing something that is more of a facial balm because she's been putting the solid lotion bar, which is meant for the body, she has severe eczema on her face and she's been using the bar on her face. I'm trying to develop something that will be a little better for the face, yeah. I love that. And the other thing, yeah, the other I forgot to mention the bug bar. Okay. I'm sure you've heard people in our groups talk about the bug bar that I developed by accident because somebody asked me, we live in Florida and of course right at dusk there are so many mosquitoes, so many bugs, and I don't think, that's not just in Florida. That's everywhere. But I developed a bar that's got all kinds of natural essential oils in it that repel insects. I just did research on what essential oils repel insects. And yeah, so people have been buying, now that we're in the fall season, there's lots of sporting events, lots of, kids playing football and Yeah. So parents have been buying a lot of those for their kids and for themselves as they're sitting out in the stands, watching their kids play sports.

Steve: 16:18

Yeah, hearing all of that, it sounds obviously the best customer is a repeat customer. And so it sounds like that, at this point, a lot of products that you offer addressing is like a need to take care of your skin, to keep your skin healthy. I'm already seeing like images of a B instead of pollinating a flower. It's like pollinating a skin with like healing. Honey, like I'm already seeing like the visuals and what you can do with some of that. But one thing I like, I think that will be really helpful for you, whether you end up podcasting or not, while also helping my listeners go over what I always differentiate between when we're talking about our business and brand, especially online. Every post that we make on the internet, every single word on our website, every single thing like that. The words that we use matter because they play a role in search engine optimization. So it is always playing this game of making sure that using keywords that are going to show up and help make you show up higher in the search bar for the internet when people are searching those important keywords. But also I'm sure that you've read some content before where it feels like they were just throwing important words together to make it. You click on it, but you read it and you're like, this doesn't really sound like a love or human either. So I think it's helpful to not only have that list of like keywords of words that you want to be using intentionally. For your search engine, but also have intentional for your business. I would call them buzzwords of words that you use that people won't necessarily search, but people will like them. They'll hear them oftentimes, like with buzz, things like buzzwords, like it can be punny. I'm very big with my pod puns whenever I go out to events, because those are the words or the phrases that I use that people remember me. So I think that for you having a list of like keywords that you'll use for the business y words, skin care, skin issues, eczema, dry skin, bees, honey, you using all the business related words and then also mixing them with some words that are going to be more like ear candy for the humans that are reading it. That won't necessarily help with search engine, but the humans will love hearing them and reading them. I think that will be helpful as you're doing any sort of writing about what you do.

Gayle: 18:27

Great. Thank you. I'm going to write that down.

Steve: 18:29

Yeah. We have some time. Let's talk it out. Cause I know that some of the, I'll give basic examples of keywords and you'll have access to this recording as well, Gail, for you to write this down as well or refer to later with the video if you'd like. Yeah. So as we go into talking about keywords, some of the more popular ones across like all industries that would relate to yours would be things like health, Wellness. Those are very broad keywords that you don't want to use them on their own. And it wouldn't be great to have that be like the first word or second word of a podcast or a post because they're so overused, but they're used because they also work. So I wouldn't have those be your first or second words. Do you consider your primary words to use for a search engine? But think about if someone were to be searching in the search bar for your products. We talked about the idea or I think that the idea of someone with search skin issues Possibly the person has eczema. So they're searching for eczema cures eczema relief other what other things might they search for if they don't know you but they're looking for what you offer.

Gayle: 19:39

Natural skincare

Steve: 19:41

Natural skincare, okay

Gayle: 19:44

I might use some of the ingredients that are in my bars cocoa butter skincare, shea butter for skin. I would say for

Steve: 19:54

sure, you should have like honey beeswax, yeah. All the the major ingredients and the also one or two of the, not necessarily brand names of your popular products, but what those popular products are like, what would you say is your number one seller?

Gayle: 20:10

The bug bar.

Steve: 20:11

So putting something like solid lotion bar on there or, insect repellent would be like a keyword that you can use, natural insect repellent, odor free or honey based or whatever. But having like keywords that people will be searching because that's oftentimes what you want to put your mind in is of the potential customer who doesn't know that they need good friend honey company, but they know that they need something for their eczema, something for their dry skin, something for their insect bites. So trying to put yourself in their mind of kind of figuring out what they're going to type into a search bar. Those are the words that I consider keywords that you'll really want to make sure you're using very regularly and very strategically in your posts. Because if you can narrow it down to maybe 10, eight to 10 keywords that you use, where those are the words that are going to be on your website in your mission statement. And if this was a podcast in your episode title, in your episode descriptions, in your show notes, but even on your website, when you do social media posts, if you're doing a post, make sure you're including words like skincare, dermatitis, turn them into hashtags so that you're using those hashtags. If you're posting content on social media so that these are just more ways that people can find you without you having to find them. Because having those keywords and knowing these relate to 10 to 12 words that I use, that people I know will be searching for is really important. And then I love also, as I mentioned earlier, having about three to five words that are words that only like Gail, good friend and honey co are going to be using, or that rarer that are more like your personal love words that you'll include in your branding as well.

Gayle: 21:52

Great. That's really helpful. Thank you.

Steve: 21:54

Yeah. Cause like when you have a mix of that transition to a podcast title, if I was to try and think of turning a podcast about skincare and eczema that features what you do with your products, I can imagine it having something along the lines of be beautiful, healthy skincare from bees and, or honey products, or use something along the lines where you're including at the point where it's like you're using the words. skincare, bees, beeswax, honey, using the names of like the keywords that you're using, but include something where it's Be beautiful or be you tiful, something like that, I can imagine, but including something. The first word is always important. So many people want to say the block, blah, blah, blah, podcast. And you can talk about it saying, this, the, blah, podcast, but when you write it out, I always say just have it be like, the first word should be a keyword, something people will search. Having the first word of your podcast be something about either something, Skincare or having a bee about honey or bee or beeswax. I think will be really important when we're taking all those keywords along with the one or two love words that you love to use and like putting them all together for branding, I think would be like a way to really make a strong one that feels good for you.

Gayle: 23:07

Great. Yeah. I haven't thought of it in those terms. So yeah, I have a lot of learning to do on social media and I

Steve: 23:23

mean, I completely even forgot about including your name in the pun, which also it can also help then, but it can also be just to give us something just like honey and healthy skin tips on overcoming eczema and another keyword like eczema and dermatitis from your good friend. Gail, good friend or something like that. But there's ways that you can include that into it as well to take advantage of it because it's just gold. So doing something like that would I think be great as well. Great. So going into this, what would you say are your biggest thoughts or takeaways on the keywords and branding?

Gayle: 24:03

That I still have a lot to learn, it's exciting because I don't know, it feels like the sky's the limit here. I'm very excited about that.

Steve: 24:12

Yeah, I know there's always going to be more to learn no matter what, because if we're not learning we're going backwards and who wants to do that? But anything I say stick with you in a way that you're going to keep it and hold on to it.

Gayle: 24:25

Yeah, just all the talk about the key words. And the love words, that that's really important for me to know because I haven't been paying attention to that at all. I feel like my kids and younger people are so good at social media because they've grown up with it. So they know, I tend to be too wordy in my social

Steve: 24:48

media. That is mine as well. Let me tell you though, age has nothing to do with it. And I live in Florida, so I'm considered young, depending on where you are, a middle aged, but like in Florida, I'm considered young enough where people assume that I know my social media inside out and that I was a prodigy and a natural from the moment that I first picked up my phone or my app, but my podcast for the first year and a half. about my sobriety that eventually ended up becoming my big break was called Gay A because I thought that it was funny punny because of the 12 step program AA. It was a pun on words. I couldn't understand why no one was finding my show unless I told them about the show or unless I posted about the show, but I was always having to find people. I had to pay someone a lot of money for them to point out and teach me about search engine optimization and keywords and branding who pointed out that when you search gay a in your search bar for my show, it's the same thing as searching the words a gay because it doesn't do it in an order and any podcast that has the word a in the search bar. In any of their title, which is like every podcast or any podcast that mentions the word gay, which is also a lot of podcasts, they couldn't find me. And even if you search for gay, I'm not the first one to show up because all these other podcasts have more downloads and numbers that have those two words. Cause I picked two very common words that didn't explain what my podcast was.

Gayle: 26:07

Oh, interesting.

Steve: 26:08

At that time, I had already had over a hundred episodes. And so what I had done was instead of changing the name, because I also still think it's clever and I'm really cute for it. But what I added was the colon and I like call it title extension where I called it then gay A. The queer sober hero show and having the words queer and sober as two separate words that now that people search the words queer or sober, it shows up right away, right? Top thing, because now talk about in all my posts and all my content, I always use the words queer and sober together. And I use that consistently across all my branding. Because now those are two words that I can say. You search that and I show up right away. So even if podcasts might have a lot of keywords that are very easy to find, but also hard to compete against like health or even bees, I'm sure there's a lot of podcasts with bees because you can go in so many directions with that, but when you think about it. of having bees, skincare, bees, dermatitis, or whenever you figure out what two words are in your title that you want to keep on using that are like your magic ones together that makes you so much more easy to find for people when they're using those words to find you that my downloads when I added queer and sober to my show doubled like within a week. Oh my goodness. You just need to make sure that I didn't realize before, even with knowing how to make a post, I didn't know how to make a good post. It took me a lot of posting before I learned the difference between a good post and a bad post. And it really is just knowing how you're going to talk about yourself because you have a very firm idea of who you are and who you can help and what your products can do and how your products work. So if you're able to tailor that into a message. Not only will you add like the people that you're already wowing in person, but that will make it so that the people on the internet who don't know you yet can find you because you're using the words that they need to hear.

Gayle: 28:01

Yeah, that's what I really need to work on.

Steve: 28:05

Everyone always loves getting business in their sleep. There's nothing like waking up to a checkout of a person you never even had to talk to.

Gayle: 28:10

Oh my gosh, for sure.

Steve: 28:12

So I'm sure that starts happening. I'm confident if you work on a strong keyword bank, plus a couple love words or buzzwords or whatever, you end up wanting to call them for you. Like when you start using those all together on a regular basis on the internet, the going to learn who you are and what you're doing. And it's going to be really easy for them to introduce you to other people.

Gayle: 28:33

Great. Thank you so much.

Steve: 28:35

Thank

Gayle: 28:35

you.

Steve: 28:36

Thank you so much. And if people wanted to find you knowing that by now ish, whenever people are listening, they can probably get your products on your website. What was that website? One more time. It's

Gayle: 28:46

good friend, honey. com.

Steve: 28:49

Excellent. And I'll include that into the show notes so people can find you. Thank you so much, Gail, for coming on. It was a pleasure talking bees and podcasting with you.

Gayle: 28:57

Thank you so much, Steve. I've enjoyed it.