Ep. 66: Using Podcasting to Grow your Business and Positive Impact (guest Kathleen Gage from Vegan Visability Podcast)
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In this episode, you will learn how to grow your business through podcasting. These promotional opportunities can also be used to make a positive impact in the word. To discuss this topic we are joined by the talented powerhouse, Kathleen Gage. She is digital marketer, author and a relentless champion for the animals. In addition, Kathleen is a podcast marketing expert, who hosts two of her own, Plant Based Eating for Health and Vegan Visibility. If you’re a purpose driven entrepreneur or desire to be one, get ready to be inspired.
SHOW NOTES:
Contact or follow Kathleen Gage: Linkedin - Website - Twitter - Facebook
Vegan Visability: Podcast and Blog
Plant Based Eating for Health - Website - Podcast
Vegan Summit and Masterclass: Register
Podcast Appearance Checklist: Free
Podcast Rockstar Club: Website
Books Mentioned:
Power Up for Profits - Kathleen Gage
Diet for a New America - John Robbins
World Peace Diet - Will Tuttle
Eat to Live and other books by Dr. Fuhrman
Other Mentions:
Jane Unchained - Website
Orthorexia: WebMd
Heather’s Recommendations…
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From the Episode:
Heather: “Kathleen Gage! Welcome to Get the Balance Right Podcast.
Kathleen Gage: “Well, Heather, it is great to be here.”
Heather: “I am so excited that you're on my podcast. I get to be on your fabulous podcast. You actually have a couple of podcasts. Tell the audience what your podcasts are I would for them to know. Cause you've got two really great podcasts.”
Kathleen Gage: “I do. I do. Thank you for asking. I actually have plant-based eating for health, which has been going on now, coming up on two years and it's going extremely well. And the other one is Vegan visibility. That one, I started in 2014 before I was a vegan and I called it power up for profits. So it was a business podcast, but about three or four months ago, I rebranded to vegan visibility because that's the side of my business. That is all about teaching businesses within the vegan industry, how to market themselves.”
Heather: “That's fabulous. there's not enough vegan podcast out there, so you are doing great work. Now, this other version that you had this power up for profits, where's it based around podcasting? Cause when I listened to, it seemed like you were interviewing a lot of podcasters on there.”
Kathleen Gage: “I was because podcasters tend to know podcasters. It's just like vegans tend to know vegans and, gays and lesbians tend to know gays and lesbians. That's just kinda the way it is but actually what I started it, I was really immersed in the digital marketing space.
I've been in digital marketing since about 1997 and was one of the first ones. In digital marketing quite seriously, who was really visible. There were a handful of us and nowadays there's so many, which is great. It lends itself to more competition, but it also lends itself to more women having opportunity, but it started as a marketing podcast. I actually interviewed podcasters. I knew who did marketing and then I had an assistant who would go out and find business owners that had nothing to do with digital marketing, nothing to do with podcasting, but they have successful businesses. One of the most memorable is a gentleman that was in a family owned locksmith company, a multi-million dollar company that had been around for about a hundred years. And it was fascinating to hear how the family started the business and how it grew through the years and how he was actually pivoting according to new ways to market.”
Heather: “I know, isn't it interesting having a podcast, you get to pick someone's brain and find out about all these interesting things that you wouldn't normally like a window into things. I love being a podcaster. Now you made the, I hate the word pivot, but you pivoted you rebranded to vegan visibility. And you've drawn a line in the sand. Only vegans could be on this show. Tell us about that.”
Kathleen Gage: “Absolutely. I love that. How you said that word pivot. It's I'm an authentically pivoting with the abundance in life and not, there's so many buzzwords that we use, but yeah, actually, did draw a line in the sand As I've gone further and further into being a vegan. And initially I didn't start out as a vegan.
I didn't want to be a crazy vegan. And now I'm probably one of the craziest out there. And I use my podcast shows as a platform to get the message out, but I'm very clear on the fact that I only want to interview people who are living a vegan lifestyle. what I mean by that is they at least are at a place where they're not consuming any animal or. Now I know most of my listenership is not a hundred percent vegan and that's great because this allows me to bring people to my community and say, okay, here are men and women who are living very productive lives. I've got professional bodybuilders doctors. I've got accountants that have been on my show in every walk of life that you can think of to show people that it's a very diverse lifestyle and a very diverse community.
Yes, that is the line in the sand. And I've had people try to talk me out of that. That say I'm 95% there and it's like, what about those 5% of the animals that you've consumed? How do we explain it to them quite seriously? So I'm pretty adamant about that.”
Heather: “That's great; let's just go back on your journey. So you also are an author. You work in nutrition you're into health and wellness. tell us about where did all this start. I know you were digital marketer, but how did all of this lead up to this moment now cause you have the health and wellness vegan show, and then you have this business vegan.”
Kathleen Gage: “That's kind of a tricky question because although I did get my certification through Cornell university, I was 65 at the time and I just turned 67. I'm actually moving on this side of 68, which blows me away. Went I Started getting my certification. I really thought I was going to go into being a health coach.
And I realized I don't have the patience for that because I'm the kind of coach who will say, just don't eat it. It's real simple. I just don't have the patience for that. And that's why. My show, plant-based eating for health. I bring people on who are the experts I bring nutritionists on.
I bring coaches on and I will leave that to them. I did go through a period where I really thought that was supposed to be my life's work. And it reminds me of when I first started speaking professionally, this was in 1994 and I had a mentor who was just crushing it in the professional speaking world. And I said, I want to be an inspirational speaker.
And she goes on what? I don't know. I just want to inspire people. She goes, but about what? And I said, I don't know about life. And she goes, why don't you start with what you know, which is marketing, start with that. And then. Teach them something and you can inspire the whole way through. And it first, it was like, I resisted that.
And then it was like, oh, that makes sense. And it's the same thing in the vegan world. I'm a heck of a marketer. I'm a heck of a strategist. Actually, I'm a hell of a digital marketer It makes sense for me to use what is my wheelhouse to help raise awareness around the community. Actually there's an event that I'm working on.
It's called Vegan Visibility Summit, where I brought in 12 top marketers within the vegan and plant-based industry line in the sand on that one, they absolutely must be void of animal and dairy in their food consumption, which is so awesome because it's never been done before. We're, launching that in very short while.”
Heather: “That is very exciting. Okay. We'll have links in the show notes for the summit and all of that. Is it a virtual event or is it going to be in person?”
Kathleen Gage: “I wish it could be in person. It's going to be virtual. I miss being on the platform, I actually have been a professional speaker for well, over 25 years, I've spoken in front of groups as large as a thousand people in the audience. I've had groups as small as five people I miss that. I really missed that.
There's something about the energy of being in a room with people, but because of the pandemic, because the shutdowns it's too much of a risk right now to plan in advance. And then if it gets canceled, even if you get your money back from the hotel, even if even if there are safety nets in place, It's the emotional toll.
It takes on people to go through something planning, and then it's ripped away from you. And I think we're seeing a lot of that right now. So it is a virtual summit. there's going to be 12 modules. We have things leading up to it; very exciting what's going on.
Heather: “That sounds fabulous. And, Kathleen making it virtual a lot more people will be able to attend from all over the world, which is extremely exciting. So you're putting all this effort into it and you're actually going to have more people affected by it. So this is awesome. Okay. So let's go to podcasting now.
You've used podcasting as a way to promote your business, to promote yourself as an authority. are some ways that you would say that podcasts and can help a business owner?”
Kathleen Gage: “I love that question because one is podcasting is a great way to use OPM Other People's Markets, not other people's money, but other people's markets. The number one mistake that I see people with. Try to get on podcast shows. And I had this happen this morning. Somebody reached out to me and they said, oh, we have we're representing Dr. So-and-so And he'd be a great fit for your show. And he talks about fuel usage or something that has nothing to do with my show. And I wrote back and I said, is he a hundred percent vegan? Because if he's not, we don't need to go further with this conversation. The mistake that I see people make is they don't research the shows.
They don't know anything about the hosts. They don't know anything about the platform. And it's very easy to get that information. You can go to apple podcast and you can read the description and you can see what the show is about. But it's a really good way for people to really immerse themselves into a message to a market, to a movement and reach a lot of people.
I have one client that on her first podcast show, this absolutely blew me away. And you tell me if these numbers impress you. In 48 hours, she had 38,000 downloads, 38,000. And she said, is that good? And I'm like, oh my gosh, is that good? I would love to have those kinds of numbers. you know, Let's figure for somebody who is using podcasting as a way to reach their market.
And I'm talking about appearing on podcast shows, not starting your own podcast show. And let's say the average download is 500 per episode. We'll be conservative on that 500 is a decent number and you go on one show a week at the end of a year. You're the accountant. What's 500 times 52?”
Heather: “Oh, you're gonna make me do math?”
Kathleen Gage: “That would be 260,000. Wasn't it? Something like that.”
Heather: “I always use a calculator.”
Kathleen Gage: “I think it's like 260,000 potential people that you're going to be in front of. It's not that everybody's going to listen, but if you get those downloads, it means they did listen to an episode. It's a great way to market.”
Heather: “Okay. Let's keep on that track of talking about just guesting for right now on podcasts one of the greatest ways to promote your business is through public speaking. But a lot of people fear public speaking. So what would you say to those that are like, I don't know if I really want to appear on a podcast, what would be the benefits of them appearing on a podcast, if they could just get over that?”
Kathleen Gage: “Yeah, it's kind of like why I'm not a health coach, cause I'd say get over yourself and quit being so selfish. Quite seriously, because the fact is if, especially in a movement like the vegan movement where we're really looking at compassion to animals, if you've got something important to share and you're letting your fear hold you back from sharing that message, then you quite seriously are letting ego get in the way.
And you're being selfish. Because your message needs to fall on the ears of somebody that somebody needs to hear your message, or if somebody needs to see your message. I would say that really, you have to evaluate why you say a certain thing is important to you. Why you say your message is important to you and what is it that's holding you back?
Is it your third grade teacher who said, oh, you could never speak. Is that your mother and father? Is it an aunt? Is it a friend who teased you because you made a mistake in front of a group of people that you were doing a business presentation to we all make mistakes. I actually have done presentations on presentation skills.
And I said, number one, fear is that we're going to forget what we said. So I'd go through my presentation. I literally forgot what I was saying. I said, now remember that part where I said, you can forget what you were saying. And they're like, aha. I just forgot what I was saying. What did I say? And the audience is very forgiving.
They'll help you out. The main thing I would say to people is go and have fun. It's like having a conversation like right now, we're having a conversation. just so appreciate what you do. I had you on my show. We had a great time. It's like, let's continue this conversation. I think where people get caught up is they try to be perfect or they try to hide who they really are.
The more, and again, here's that buzzword authentic, just be yourself, the more people are going to resonate with you. Now, keeping in mind, you're always going to have people that don't like what you have to say. There's always going to be a different point of view and that's okay.
The more visible you are, the more that you have a target on your back. That's just a fact of life.”
Heather: “And for these business owners that are going to be on a show, now you alluded to maybe one a week? Should there be something that is in their marketing plan as far as what type of message they want to deliver, how that will align with whatever other kind of marketing that they're doing. Do you suggest having a set kind of spiel topic that they, I always say, spiel that's my east coastness, but a topic that they stick with.”
Kathleen Gage: “I think that they need to be fluid in what they're doing and let it evolve as they go along. But to have an end in mind, like what is the reason you want to be on podcast show? So what's the end and then reverse engineer it. And if in fact, like with my. If I want to promote a summit and I want to get on a whole bunch of podcast shows to promote a summit in some ways, that's not a good idea because you want to make your content on podcast is evergreen as possible.
If you do a show today in five years, you want it to be relevant to whatever the topic is, as much as possible. However, podcasts can be a great way to promote an event. So you want to look at. End result, reverse engineer based on that. What types of shows would it be good for you to get on?
What's really nice is once you get comfortable with being in front of a microphone you can do Facebook lives, LinkedIn lives, Instagram lives, you can do virtually anything. And one of our experts in the summit, she is a Facebook live expert. We were pre-recording everything. And as I was watching the recording, I was like, oh my gosh, this woman's a rock star.
She was so comfortable in front of the microphone. And she'll be the first to tell you, there was a day that she wasn't comfortable in front of the microphone. It's like anything, the more you do it, the better off you're going to be. So yes, definitely have a plan and look at the way that you're going to market an episode.
Once you're on a show, something that hosts love to hear is may I promote my episode? Of course you can promote your episode. Can I give you anything to help you promote the episode? When somebody is on my show, I send them the artwork. I send them the links and I say, here's the information and I let them know what I really liked about there particular episode.
I think that's a lost art is the communication really making sure that people know we appreciate what they're doing. I think we need more appreciation in the world, but we could go on a whole show about that.”
Heather: “Yeah. Giving someone ratings and reviews following up like that also actually posting about the show that you are on. That's another way to give back. sometimes people don't bother to post or, maybe they've been on lots of podcasts and then they're just like not posting. So, really, if you're a guest, you really should be posting the shows that you are on.”
Kathleen Gage: “Yeah. And you just brought up a thought for me, a lot of people think well, if I get on a big name, podcast show, then I'm going to get so much visibility and sometimes getting on smaller shows with people who they're in it because they have a message to share. And they're spreading word all around.
I had a guest recently, this guy was phenomenal. Not only right after the episode, did he send me an audio message and said, thank you so much. I had such a great time. Let me know what I can do to help promote the episode he kept in touch throughout. And when the episode went live, he spread it all over the place.
And If you're on a show, do yourself in the host of favor and promote the episode. It's a really good idea. And I actually have a media page on my website and I advise my clients have a media page and I had done so many interviews. I've done well over a thousand on both sides of the mic. It's probably more like 2,000 by this point. I'm actually putting images of the show with the link directly to the episode that I'm on.”
Heather: “Nice. So these are other people's podcasts that you've appeared on?”
Kathleen Gage: “Yes.”
Heather: “Very cool. Yeah, that's great. And so you have that as just a separate page on your website.”
Kathleen Gage: “Yes. And it has my podcast, one sheet, it's got a short bio, it's got images, and then it's got links to different shows that I've been on. And that's what we call social proof. It's social proof for a host that they know that you're going to be a low risk to have them on the show. Now I'm not opposed to having somebody who's never been on a show before on my show, if they have a good message I've had people say well, I've never been on a show before.
And I find them maybe on LinkedIn or Facebook and I liked their story. So I reach out to them and I say, you've got a phenomenal story. I would love you to share it with my community. And sometimes they say yes, sometimes they say no, and it's. The ones that say no, because it's a great way to motivate and inspire others.”
Heather: “Now you use a buzzword that I'm familiar with, one sheet. Some people in the audience may not know what that is. So can you explain what a one sheet is and what you should put on a one sheet?”
Kathleen Gage: “Absolutely a one sheet basically is a one or two page document that has a short bio. It has some images of you. It might have a few testimonials. If you have been featured in some of the larger media, . , industry specific media, you can put logos of the media. You don't want to pay for those opportunities.
Like I know people that they've paid to say that they've been on, let's say USA today. I'm just using that as an example they'll put it on their one sheet and it's like, no, put real information on there. Your contact information is very important. And then yeah. Put it in PDF format so that you can hyperlink your social media platforms and your web address. So that's in a nutshell, some of what you want to put on there and then topics you can speak on.”
Heather: “And then when you go to pitch someone to be on their podcast and you send them the one sheet along with your pitch?”
Kathleen Gage: “You can. The one thing you want to be careful of is to overwhelm somebody with so much information. Like you send them all these links and these attachments, they're probably not going to open it. You may want to get their attention first and say, “hey, I've been listening to your podcast show. I really loved the episode where you were talking to Heather about accounting and being vegan. That was a great episode. She is such a spitfire and love that east coast energy.” Okay. I know that they've listened to the show, so they've gotten my attention and they can say, “I am a hundred percent vegan. I would love to be on your show.” From there we're going to have a conversation. The number one way to get my attention, and if anybody's thinking about this, if you start out with, “I was listening to your show, and I know that you only interview people who are a hundred percent void of animal and dairy products, I qualify.” Boom! They've got my attention, instead of giving me all their credentials and then I have to write them and say, “are you a hundred percent void of animal and dairy?” - “No, I'm not.” Okay. You just wasted your time and you wasted my time!”
Heather: “Yeah, so really know the host, know the show before you apply to be on that show. I get people contacting me all the time and clearly they haven't listened based on the letter that they send to me. I get so many of these things that it's really hard to even respond to some of these people, because if they didn't take the time to actually listen to my show, should I be taking the time to even respond to them.”
Kathleen Gage: “Yeah, and here's another one, Heather, that I just had this happen where somebody wanted to be on my show and they said you can buy my book on Amazon wait a minute, wait a minute. You want to be on my show and you want me to buy your book? And I was like no. What I do actually in the information that gets sent out to the potential guests, it says, if you have a book, you can send me a PDF copy. And if they even suggest that I should buy it, they're missing an opportunity because this is marketing for them. And it's not that I'm opposed to buying books because I buy a boatload of books. But imagine if you go through, let's say you're on a roll with doing interviews and you're interviewing 20 people in a week. We'll just use that as a number and every single one expects you to buy their book that can get costly for you as a host and as a guest. Again, this is your promotions.
This is your marketing. And when I coach clients, I say, one of the things you want to do is send a signed copy of your book to the host, take the extra time to put some effort into what you're doing and really make it a personal experience. I have one client Lana from Montana. She wrote a book called the food codes she was on a roll of doing interviews. She did probably about 50 interviews in a three-month period. Every single host got a signed copy of her book. A lot of them held it up during the interview. A lot of them talked about it during the interview if you're promoting a book, definitely make sure they get a hard copy.”
Heather: “And I think that also gets the host attention too. If they get a book in the mail or a PDF emailed to them. All right. Let's move to the other side of the mic now. People that are thinking about starting a podcast to promote their business, it's not something to go in lightly. This is a lot of work!”
Kathleen Gage: “Having a podcast, for people listening to this, I just cringed because the reason I cringed is a lot of people think all you have to do is get on the mic, you record a show and that's it. Now, if you have a full support team, that might be it for you. a full support team can be a hefty investment. If you're doing your flying solo, you're doing it by yourself.
There's a lot of time that's involved in the whole process before you start your own show. I usually recommend to my clients get on at least 50 podcasts, you know, really find out what the whole process is like. Talk to some hosts and find out, what do they most enjoy about having a show?
What has been the greatest obstacle? Because not only do you have to find the right guests, you have to record the episode. It has to be edited, whether you're editing or somebody else's editing, you have to have your intro material, your outro material, you like myself. I do a blog post on them and I enjoy writing.
I actually listened to the episode again, I make sure that I'm pulling out the juicy information. A half hour episode can actually run you three, four or five hours of time. The biggest challenge that we see within the industry are people that do what's called pod fading. It's like ghosting on a date.
I guess I've been in a 32 year relationships. So I really, shouldn't know about that kind of stuff, but I've heard, people start a podcast. They're really excited. and After about seven or eight episodes, they stop because they didn't realize it was going to take that much time so you want to schedule it out. You want to make sure that it becomes a part of your business and marketing model.”
Heather: “Kathleen I want to get to this question before we wrap up. How did you become vegan? What made you become vegan? You're very passionate about it. I guess you weren't always vegan. So tell us about that journey.”
Kathleen Gage: “I was a huge carnivore. I actually grew up with a European mother that on Sundays, we had a big roast dinner and we all fought over who got to seriously, this is going to sound gross, but who got to drink the blood of the meat? And I mean, that's the kind of family I came from and we were like vampires and we joked about it.
Actually I got involved in animal rescue many years ago, I didn't connect the dots of rescuing animals and eating animals. I started nearly three years ago due to inflammation. I didn't want to call myself a vegan when I first started. I started because I was getting inflammation.
I was 64 at the time everything I read indicated if I got rid of meat and dairy, that would probably fix the problem. Sure enough. It did. Within a few days, it completely went away and has not returned. then I started doing a lot of research. I started watching the documentaries, reading the books and just digging deep I found out what the truth is and the truth is, factory farming, eating animals is horrendous. It's absolutely horrendous. And I actually went through a period about six months ago that I had to forgive myself for all the animals I ate. Truly it hit me to my core into my soul and I, would just be sitting there, start crying and thinking about all these animals.
I thought, what can I do to really. Have the forgiveness. The thing that I'm doing is anything I can to raise awareness. So it started out as plant-based and it has become a vegan lifestyle, and it happened really six months into my journey. I was at the grocery store and walking by the meat department and I literally stopped in my tracks and I felt all this pain and anguish and I could feel the animals.
And it was like, in that moment, I said, I am a vegan. And was just something that I just had this awakening, if you will.”
Heather: “I've talked about this on the show. Once all the meat gets out of your body, your mind shifts in a way that I can't even. Describe that you just see things in a different way. You have more of a compassionate lens that you look through and you can't even imagine eating meat again. It seems disgusting. It's seems horrible for the environment, but most of all, it just seems like murder. It just feels like murder to me.”
Kathleen Gage: “Yeah.”
Heather: “Murder and suffering.”
Kathleen Gage: “It is. And I just started just this morning, reading the book, a diet for a new America by I believe ocean Robins. And he is of the family that started Baskin Robbins. And he stood to inherit the business and be a multi-multi multimillionaire, even, possibly on his way to being a billionaire.
And he walked away from that and because he's a vegan and he said, I can't do that. And now he's a real influencer within the community, but this book was written in. I think 1996 or 97 and way ahead of his time. And it really talks about the pain and anguish the animals go through and what happens to our psyche, if you will, because imagine it, so many people say they believe in energy and they believe we're all connected.
And if that's true, Why are they put being death into their body? Because what we consume is what comes out. I truly believe that one of the reasons there's so much anger, hate and violence is because of the fear that we put in our body through animal consumption.”
Heather: “Yeah, I believe that too. Now, Kathleen, I'm not sure if you've heard of this, there is the psychological I'm putting in , air quotes, psychological term that they say that healthy eating is a disorder and it's called Orthorexia . It's an eating disorder that involves. Unhealthy obsession with healthy eating.
Now I don't understand how you can have an unhealthy obsession with eating healthy to me. This psychological term seems like something that is maybe concocted by McDonald's and Kellogg's and all of these people to come up with this term. Have you heard of this?”
Kathleen Gage: “No, it's the first time I've heard of it. And as you were sharing that, my thought was, it's probably the meat manufacturers and the factory farms that have pumped money into it. And what's really sad is that our government puts money, they subsidized factory farms. They don't subsidize the farms where plants are being grown.
And, you know, maybe less than 1% of government subsidization goes into that. What's so sad is people don't really know that. And the truth is that there's so many big companies and corporations that are in bed together. The factory farms, the healthcare industry, large corporations. It's a nightmare when you pull back the cover and I don't want to get into conspiracy theories, but I do recommend that people actually do some research.
There's a really good book by Dr. Will Tuttle called the, World Peace Diet, and it talks about the energy of food. But as far as coming up with a disorder around healthy eating, truly healthy eating that's crazy. And I think it's just another way for. Books to sell. I think it's another way for podcast to sell.
It's crazy. I think people need to use rational thinking and common sense with a lot of what's going on because you don't know what's true when you see it on the internet, you really don't know what's true. Large media. Platforms, they are restricted in some of what they can talk about.
I interviewed Jane Velez, Mitchell, who has Jane Unchained. And I got booted off of YouTube for a little while because she said something about the media is bought and sold by large corporations. Apparently they didn't like that. The next day I got booted off of Facebook for saying when you eat healthy, you minimize your risk for certain viruses and epidemics, I got booted off of Facebook for going against policy. And I'm like, are you flipping kidding me? And so I think people need to use some common sense, but unfortunately if you've got a bunch of depth in your body, if you've got a bunch of meat in your body, this is true.
Think about it. If you've got that in your body, you're not thinking straight. What I invite people to do is give yourself a 30 day period being completely meat and dairy free. I mean, Honest to goodness and don't eat a bunch of processed foods. Eat whole food. Get the book, eat to live by Dr. Joel Fuhrman Try it for 30 days, you will be pleasantly shocked at the results, pleasantly shocked, but don't go into it fighting tooth and nail don't say, oh, I can't believe I'm doing this.
Go in with joy, with happiness, with embracing and say, I'm going to give this a try and see if it'll turn my life around. You will be amazed.”
Heather: “Kathleen this is a financial show. So think about budgets. Now, the people that say, oh, I would eat vegan, but it's too expensive. I would eat organic, but it's too expensive. My answer to that is one. You need to cook your own food to stop buying processed food and three, it's way cheaper to eat vegan and you can eat organic plus you'll be healthier. So you'll reduce your health costs. So what are your thoughts on that?”
Kathleen Gage: “You just said exactly what I would've said. Don't eat the processed food, buy in the bulk department, cook fresh, and I love my Crock-Pot. I can make a big crock Pot and it probably serves about six or seven meals in the total cost for everything that's in there is going to be well under $10.
maybe a buck and a half a meal. And so for people to say, it's too expensive, it's because they're looking at the processed vegan food that's a gateway into the vegan lifestyle. And if that's what people choose to do, and most people that eat, that kind of stuff are not vegans, but they're at least trying to minimize their footprint. If you get some good books on eating whole food, plant-based vegan, you will find that your food budget actually goes down.”
Heather: “Yeah, I could go to Trader Joe's and just stay in the veg section, load up my cart and it's really doesn't cost that much. And then I've got all these meals from it. All right, you've also written books. So what are the books?”
Kathleen Gage: “Oh, I have written so many books that I forgot. I actually had to ask Alexa who I was and she said, Kathleen gage is an author of 20 books. Yeah, get out. I wrote 20 books that a lot of those are Kindle books right now, I'm working on a book called vegan visibility and it's about marketing vegan businesses.
So this whole thing with the summit, we've integrated everything and it's all being rolled out, but I've written power up for profits. The smart woman's guide to online marketing. It's a really good book about digital marketing. It was written in 2013, written evergreen. So it still fits. I've written a book on virtual podcast tours.
I've written books on how to become a number one, Amazon bestseller. I've written, mostly marketing books. I've written a few spiritual books and now I'm leaning into the genre of plant-based.”
Heather: “Wow. Kathleen, you're a little bit older. I'm a little bit older…”
Kathleen Gage: “I think I could almost be your grandmother, I think.”
Heather: “I'm in my fifties.”
Kathleen Gage: “It must be all those plants.”
Heather: “You look fabulous. You look very young for your age and besides the fact that veganism is great for keeping your looks and all that kind of stuff.
All right well, women that are older, sometimes they feel like I can't start a business, I'm too old. What are your thoughts on that?”
Kathleen Gage: “I would say that you have to be careful what you tell yourself and start surrounding yourself with people who will lift you up. Because I'm trying to think who the person was that first said, we're the average of the five people we hang out the most with. And it's true around our health.
It's true around our finances. It's true around. People in relationships. And so I would encourage you to look at who you're surrounding yourself with and to look to role models. I have a friend who just turned 70 years old and she is crushing it with her health. We met actually through a business mastermind and we've known each other for many years.
She has probably dropped about 60 or 70 pounds and she's maybe five foot one. That was a substantial amount of weight for her. And now , her focus is all about health and nutrition. I would say that if you believe that to be true, you might want to consider where that belief came from because there's plenty of examples.
Myself included, Heather included where we are out there just kicking butt and taking names quite seriously. And we're reinventing ourselves as it's appropriate. Like during this whole pandemic pre pandemic, most of my revenue came from me being on the platform. When the pandemic hit conferences were shut down.
What do you think that ditch my business? It's the same thing that happened to me when nine 11 hit it's the same thing that happened in 2008. Literally the bottom fell out. I could sit there and say, how did it happen? Or I could give myself time to grief. Step back. reinvent myself and put myself out in a new way to my market.
And that's exactly what I've done since the pandemic.”
Heather: “That is so fabulous. Okay, Kathleen, we've been chatting for a long time and I want to make sure that people know how to get in touch with you.”
Kathleen Gage: “Well, on the socials, my name, Kathleen gage, check it out. I'm on Birch. I just started Tik tok I'm loving that one. You can go to my website, which is a vegan visibility.com. That's vegan visibility.com. We have information on upcoming events and books and all of that. So that's the best way to find me. “
Heather: “Wonderful. And what are some of the things that you offer that if someone wanted to hire you or would you consider yourself a coach or a consultant, how do people work?”
Kathleen Gage: “I would say more of a consultant. I usually don't work with brand new startup businesses because like people being established. But if clients want to get on podcast shows, we do have a program where we will actually book them on podcast shows and we help them put their one sheet together. I do coaching with them but I am more of a consultant.
If a company wants to put strategies in place , on how to really get visibility within their market. I can work with them on that, I do have some info products. I have a membership program called the rockstar podcast club where it's a self-paced program, but the best way for somebody who wants to work one-on-one with me is to reach out to me.
And you can find me on any of the socials, private message me. Just because somebody has a credit card and they say, I want to hire you. It doesn't mean that I want to work with them. I'm pretty particular about who I work one-on-one with. And the main reason I want people who are serious about what they're doing, and they don't think they're going to buy their way into success, but they're going to actually strategize their way into success.”
Heather: “You are a woman on a mission and you have a plan. So this is awesome. Kathleen gage, thank you so much for being on Get the Balance Right Podcast.”
Kathleen Gage: “It has been delightful, Heather. I so appreciate all you're doing. And I'm so glad that we connected this has been awesome. I just want to say, for people to go out and just rock it and make a difference with every action that you take in life. Be conscious about what you're doing from day to day, because there's plenty of evidence of how unconscious people are. And if you go to virtually any grocery store and just sit there and watch people as they're shopping, you can see that level of unconsciousness and you can actually see a connection between what's in their cart on there. And I look forward to the day that you and I can meet face to face. Cause we're not too far from each other.”
Heather: “Definitely. Maybe at a vegan event or something when we get to have VegFest, once again.”
Kathleen Gage: “Absolutely. Absolutely. Thank you so much.”
