326 - Crafting Killer Podcast Intros & Celebrating Wins

0:05 Good morning, podcasting, morning chat. Today is Friday, June 20th, 2025, and today we're opening the virtual mailbag. We'll kick off with tips for creating a killer podcast intro. Then we'll wrap up the week celebrating your wins from this past week. So if you're listening live on Clubhouse, hit the share button, bottom left hand side of the screen and share it. However, Clubhouse lets you. And if you're listening via podcast, please share this episode with a fellow podcaster. And now give us about 30 seconds and we'll get things rolling. Thanks for being here. Good morning again, podcasting Morning Chat. Thank you for being here.

1:24 I am your host, Mark Ronick, and on stage with me currently we have Dr. Faye, Nick Nalbach, Amanda Sharp, Sid Meadows and producer Ashley Feller. And thank you to those of you who've made it bright and early here on Clubhouse. We yes, we are also live on YouTube. So if you are watching via YouTube and want to be a part of this conversation and join us on stage, I'll give you the link in the chat and you can come join us here. And also shout out to David Griffiths in the audience. He was a guest on the show at the very beginning of this year, I believe. Good to see you here in the audience, David. Appreciate you being here and today also. Yeah, it's the 20th.

2:12 So let me give a shout out to my parents, Marie and Lloyd. It is their 55th wedding anniversary today. Pretty crazy, 55 years with the same person. That's one thing I don't think I'll be able to say because I'm in my second marriage and we got married seven years ago, seven years ago. I just, I don't think it will be physically possible to make it to 55, but who knows? I'll stay optimistic about it. So congratulations to my parents for sticking it out this long and being great examples of what a marriage is all about. OK, so as I said at the top of the show, we're going to dig into the mailbag before we get into our wins from this past week.

3:02 So start thinking about it if you haven't already. What wins you're going to share with us? And a reminder, I don't care if you think your win isn't as big or as significant as someone else's, that's sharing on stage. Your wins are your wins, Your journey is your journey. And if it's significant to you, it's worth celebrating. So bring it this morning and we will be happy to celebrate that with you. All right, the first question I have here comes from Jeff. Jeff H says, hey, PMC gang, I've been thinking a lot about how first impressions matter more than ever in 2025. What do you think makes a podcast intro stand out? Is it the voice, The music?

3:58 Personal story? What really hooks you as a listener right out of the gate? Lots of questions in there. So I think maybe what I'll do is I'll try to get to as many of the elements of a podcast intro as possible with your help. And again, if you're in the audience and want to come up and share your experience with podcast intros, that's all we're looking for here. There's no right or wrong answers is what's working for you, what's not working for you. That alone I think will be helpful to Jeff and others who are working on their intros or maybe looking to change things up. So let's first start with length. How long is or if your podcast is maybe on hiatus, was your podcast intro?

4:48 How did you decide on that length? Do you have an intro? So let's start there. Dr. You have a you have a few different clients. I'm going to come to you first, if that's cool. I don't think, yeah, it's not egg making time. So what would you say on average with all your different clients? What would you say is the average length of the intros? You know, it's interesting because I inherited each one of my clients was not with them at the inception of the show, with the launch of the show. And so that was kind of already set. And you know, for me, for me, kind of the shorter the better. I do want to hear something that is familial every single start of the show.

5:37 Just like I love the theme music to this show. It gets me rolling. I think I have like 2 clients now that if I if I could have my way, I would definitely shorten their intros, that's for sure. But the music has to get me going. That's what really gets me in the mood to OK, I'm going to listen to her now. Here we go. Yeah, So let me ask you then about that. Let me ask you about the music for a second. And I appreciate that you called this music out. And you're not the only one. I hear that from people. I just got that recently. Somebody had messaged me, sent me an e-mail talking about, I don't know, just the show in general. And one of the things that they love is that intro music.

6:18 So I think that's so cool. I mean, that was just me picking something that I thought sounded cool. I had no idea how effective it would be, but let me ask you. So sometimes podcasts aren't quite the upbeat morning show like we are, right? Maybe they're talking about something way more serious, like maybe the topics on grief, for example. It does music still. Is that still important to you as the podcast starts? Are you looking for something like that? It is because it's something that is familiar every single time. I mean, all I have to say is, you know, here's the story. And everyone goes, oh, and in their head they're thinking of a lovely lady, so.

7:03 Of a certain age group? Shut up. I just want that feeling, you know, I want, I want to be there for every, for every show. I want that feeling where everyone says, you know, they anticipate the next note. Yeah, I mean, I do think that for me, I think music is not essential, but I think it's it can be very effective for a podcast these days. I think that you can really get away with just starting your show without a lot of fanfare, without a lot of music, just getting right into it. When the person presses play and it's the host immediately welcoming them in and telling you about what this episode's going to be about. I think that that can work fine for a podcast in some cases. Maybe that's the tone.

7:52 That's the that's part of your branding is no music and just getting right to the point. But yeah, I think that music does set a tone. I I do think that also a lot of podcasters, especially if it's their first podcast, put a lot of pressure on themselves to about finding the right music. And I think it's really, it's a, it's a a lot of wasted energy. I think as long as you can find something that you feel like feels right, feels like it's the right pacing, the right tempo, the right style for your show, I think that's all that matters because you shouldn't be playing the music in my opinion that much anyway. It's just to kind of like, like you were saying, it's just to kind of set that tone, set the branding for for the audience and then get into the content.

8:44 It's not a music show. One of the suggestions that I want to make is that if you have a script that you open up the show with everyone. This is DRI. Just want to thank the phone to the show and blah, blah, blah. When you are presented with your choices of music, say you have say it's between a choice of five. Play it and read that script over every single choice to see what feels like it's the one you know. It's like the slipper on Cinderella. You know, so you're saying you record that intro, then play that, play the different songs that you've chosen and see which one really fits best. Or, or just play them and recite those words. You know, recite those words every single time that you listen to it and yeah, see what feels like it fits. Absolutely.

9:37 Yeah. I love that. Sid. I saw you had your pepper up for those of you on clubhouse and know what that is, go ahead. Good morning everybody. My second show that's good on hiatus now for what, two or three years? I've had music playing throughout the entire show and I really like that. Depends on the feel. I listened to a new show the other day. A friend of mine started a new show and he's got some, like, jazzy music in the front, and it fits perfectly with his branding and what he's doing. So I think that selection of music is, yeah, really important. And Sid, how long is your intro? And I'm curious also, what do you consider an intro? Because I think people have different opinions of what a podcast intro is.

10:25 So how long is it and what, where? What is it exactly? So my intro is relatively short, basically it's changed it just a little bit, but I'm testing a little bit. But basically I say, hey friend, welcome back or welcome to the trend report. I'm Sid Meadows, business strategist and coach and long time student of the office furniture industry. I'm excited you're joining me today for today's conversation and I'd like to welcome my guest, Mark Ronic. Mark, how are you today? And that's literally it. So what's that? A minute maybe? Yeah, maybe not even. And do you have a do you play also a recorded intro or does it literally start?

11:06 OK, so it's just your music and you come in with your custom episode intro? Correct. So I used to have a scripted intro and then lots of people's, the lots of shows I've listened to do have them. But one of the things you and I worked on a couple of years ago was like changing the intro a little bit. And I do like the shows that jump right in, but I also like this show. I do think it's important as a podcaster to introduce yourself somewhere in the first couple of minutes because you may have a new listener that discovered your show and if he just jump right in, they may not know you or get to know you. So I do think it's important to kind of introduce yourself. I am thinking of ways to rework this for season 7 as I am with a lot of things in the show season 7 and so I'm open to the to The idea is that'll be shared this morning, but it's pretty simple and quick because I want to get into the conversation as soon as possible because as a listener, that's one of the things that drives me crazy is when the setup is so long right in the very beginning.

12:10 Yep, Yep, I'm with you there. And as I tell a lot of people do as I say, not as I do because I think our intro is a little different because we are doing a live show and we're using that. You know, when I say give us 30 seconds, were you? I'm using that 30 seconds to get all the last second things ready to go before we officially kick off the show. Including things like, you know, making sure the YouTube is going, making sure that I'm inviting people into the room 'cause you can do that here on Clubhouse. So yeah, I'm doing things in the background live. If I was really doing this as a recorded show, I would just jump right into to it. And Mike is asking a good question in the chat here, asking what everyone's favorite source for music is. And he mentions he's only used Epidemic Sound. I've definitely used Epidemic Sound before. And Ashley, do you want to share your response to Mike that you had shared in the chat?

13:14 Oh. Sure, absolutely. Good morning. So I tend to think so if you're going to use music, think of the intent of the music that you're choosing in your intro. If you're playing it just because you like it and you think it's cool, that might not be the greatest reason. But if you're trying to create a vibe inside an emotion, punctuate something, it can be a really great tool. I have a tendency to think of music on podcast kind of like salt. Salt can be a really great thing that can flavor your food, but if everybody knows if you put too much salt, your food is no longer good. And I think that can be applicable to podcast too. I think that's a great analogy.

13:57 Thank you, Ashley, And please forgive me. I thought that Ashley was responding to Mike because she was the next next response in the chat, but in that was relevant but different to Mike's question. So yeah, Mike's using Epidemic Sound and yeah, that is a subscription based platform. So you pay a certain amount of money every month and you have access to a very large library of a variety of different types of music, types of genres, and it can be really handy. The only challenge that I have with Epidemic Sound is when you stop using their service and when you stop paying, you're technically not allowed to use that music anymore, at least the way I had interpreted how that works. If I'm wrong, Mike, please let me know. But so that can be a problem because, yeah, if you're ready to change up your music or change up your service, that where you get your music.

14:55 Well, if you've already put out 100 episodes with the music you were paying for on a subscription basis, well, now you've got to do something about that. You got to replace the music or take the episodes down technically. Let's see. So Mike says for new episodes, once published, you're good as long as you paid when published. OK, maybe that's changed because I'm pretty sure it used to be that way. Maybe they've since adjusted that. Dave Campbell puts Storyblocks as in in another example. And I also have used Storyblocks. I used to use them when I think they were called Audioblocks. And then they added more than just an audio library.

15:36 Same idea I believe, a subscription service with a huge variety and not just music. You can get sound effects and other types of audio from Storyblocks. And yes, Dr. says Audio Jungle is another great source. Billy is on stage. Good morning. Billy. Did you want to add to this? Well, I was. Going to clarify the epidemic sound that went down a deep rabbit hole to make sure when I cancelled my subscription I was still covered. And yeah, what what you, what you already read is correct. Anything previous is covered, obviously. So you don't you don't have to worry about it. Use it all and stop using it or whatever. OK, good. OK, cool, cool.

16:18 OK, so forget everything I said a moment ago. And if you are using their subscription service and cancel it at a later date, you can still use that music that you had that you had pulled down while you were a subscriber. So that makes sense. OK, cool. And then I saw we have upbeat dot IO as another suggestion where you can get your music. How about anyone else? How long is your intro for your podcast? Or if you had had a podcast and you're not currently doing it, how long is your current intro? How about you, Ashley? You just kind of brought back your show recently.

16:58 What are your intros like? I have a different answer every time, and I try to keep it as short and sweet as possible. I basically say where the podcast episode was recorded because that's a big part of the show is doing remote recording, and I say who the guest is. If they're in a band, I might give a little bit of information about their band, but I try to cut to the chase pretty quick. OK, cool. So there's another vote for super short one. I think that when all is said and done, you've got to be, if you're, let's say you do an interview podcast, when all is said and done, I think you've got to, you've got to get to the interview within 3 minutes of when that listener presses play.

17:41 And I think that's really honestly at these days, I think that's kind of the Max. I don't think a podcast needs a pre recorded generic intro for every episode. Something that really kind of sets up the whole vibe of the show. You know, think about like sitcoms and TV shows how especially back in the day, how they would have these long intros. Well, podcasts tend to have that too or used to have that. And I say get rid of that. You don't need the whole thing. If anything, do something. And I know I think we talked about this not too long ago. Mike Short can attest the POD.

18:21 Let's see Pat Flynn, he used to I don't know if he's still doing it, but he would just do a fun, silly 10 second intro. It would say the name of the show, it would say the name of the host. And in his case, it gave a little silly fun fact about him and then he would it would go to him quote UN quote live setting up the actual episode intro that to me, I like. I think that's and if you don't, maybe it's not your thing to do a silly fun fact about you. But you could do a quick one liner about what the show is about because I respect it. If you want new listeners to come to come in to get that feel for OK, what is this whole series about this show? Yes, I want the episode, but what am I getting into in general here?

19:14 Some people feel it's important to set that up as well. So just keep that short and sweet in, in my opinion. I'm curious if anybody and if you're listening live, want to put it in the chat. I'm curious if anybody does both a generic intro and then goes into an episode intro. Yeah, Nick, go ahead. Hey, good morning, everybody. Good morning. With the 95 podcast, I would do a combination of what you're talking about. I would start like as soon as you open the episode, it was usually leading off with some clip from the conversation that would be in had and then it would fade to me. I'd chime in about the intro a little bit with the guest was like what was to be expected in the episode.

19:58 And then it would cut to my prerecorded intro that was music and kind of setting up the show that was same every episode. And then it would get right into the interview. So I did do a combination of that and I I never really paid attention to the length. I know my. Recorded piece from the episode itself, the clip that I pulled, I always try to keep that maybe around 10 to 15 seconds just to not let it drag out. And I always try to keep it shorter. But I never was like, oh, I have to get this all within 30 seconds to try to keep it to that It was it was going to be as long as it was going to be, but I tried to keep it short. OK, short and sweet for Nick as well. Thank you, Nick.

20:41 And yeah, for those of you watching on YouTube and also here on Clubhouse, you may know, have noticed that YouTube went down. I think that was an Internet problem. I'm bringing it back up here momentarily. So I know, for example, Mike is listening and watching as well and noticed it went down. So yeah, we're trying to bring it back up right now. OK. So with that, let's see if I have any other questions about your Yeah. Dr. had her hand up and then I raised mine too. Yeah. Well, thank you. Appreciate that. Let's go to Dr. and then Sid. So I hesitate to bring this up because I've gone into pod fade after 2-2 tiny little episodes, but the way that I'm planning for mine to open is the actual voice of the person who has the question. If there's a, the familiar sound is the ring, the old fashioned retro telephone ring every single time. And then the person's voice asking the question. And then you hear me say, hey, John or whoever, you know, whatever the name is, I think I have an answer for you. And then it goes into a tiny little musical, you know, just enough to transition to, you know, me talking about the thing.

22:03 And it tells people exactly what the show's going to be about because they hear the question so. Yeah, Yep. Love that strategy. Thank you, Dr. and Sid, you said you had something. Go. Go for it. Yeah, let's talk for a hot 2nd about what not to do. OK, So don't intro your show and like, hey, I'm Sid Meadows. Welcome to the trend report. I'm glad you're joining me for today's conversation. And then hit play on a pre recorded intro that says exactly the same thing. I listen to several podcasts that actually do that. I don't think it's intentional, but you're basically repeating yourself and you're taking very valuable second, sometimes minutes from me as the listener. So don't duplicate the intro by saying it naturally and then hitting a free recorded intro.

22:53 I like that, yeah. Does anyone else have any don'ts? Don't do this, I think for me. What about storytelling? Now, obviously that's not going to be a don't right, because at least I say it's obvious because we talk so much about how powerful storytelling is. But how do you feel about if, say, the host comes on and just starts telling a story before they even really explain what the episode is about? For me, I think that that is actually a great approach. If you're telling a story that's relevant to what you're going to get into, Maybe it's a personal story. If you have a business podcast and you're talking about the failures of business and you have a personal story about starting a business that failed, maybe you're setting the episode up that way by taking us through that failure and then leading into and something along the lines of, and that's what we're going to be discussing today on the podcast. And and then you talk about if you have a guest, and I brought in this guest who is an expert at success in business. I'm trying to be as generic as I can here, but that kind of approach I think could work really well. Let's see, Ashley, I saw you wanted to say something. Go ahead.

24:16 I think that storytelling can work really well if you have a narrative style podcast. For example, if your show might start with a Stinger, which is a poignant phrase said by either you or the guest at the very beginning of the show, and then you go into the intro. I used to do Sunshine State Showcase in more of a narrative style, and I would start the show with telling the story of arriving at wherever I was going to record in the context of the guest. But again, I kind of changed it because I felt it was long. But I do think that if you have a way of making it concise, it can work really well, especially if your show is narrative, because that expectation is kind of already there.

25:00 Yeah, I'm with you there, Ashley. Thank you. Well said. And go ahead, Sid. I agree with Ashley, but I also disagree with that. How come it's spicy? Just kidding, because I think that kind of storytelling can be done on any format of podcasting, right? So let me give you an example. So in today's conversation, we're having our today's episode, we're having a conversation with someone that I met the BIPMA 3360 conference and somebody that I've been following for a really long time. And I'm excited to bring you the story and the journey of Natalie Harkoff, the CEO of Hightower. That was a story, right? I said where I met them, what I was excited about and didn't we just launched right into the interview. So I think it can work if you do it right. It can work regardless of the type of show you. Yeah.

25:53 And I personally love that approach. I love it when you come on as the host and you share the story of how you connected with the guest. If you have a connection with them other than, you know, I found them through a service or they reached out to me. If there's not a big story, sure, you there's not a lot to say. But if you actually have a history where you, how you met this person, I love sharing that with my audience and I I think it helps bring them into it and it feels more personal. Their feel that more of a personal connection with the guest. Stacy Sherman is back. Good to see you Stacy. Thanks for being on stage with us. What did you want to add to the conversation?

26:33 I was just going to say my pet peeve and I would say that's why there's a choice is when you introduce your guest. If you're going to spend a lot of time on who they are and their background, then don't ask them to do the same. Like pick one in my case, I feel like my guests can describe themselves the best. So I'll just kind of set up who is here and I'm so excited to have them. And I begin with. So Joe, Joe Smith, tell us, who are you? What do you do for a living? You know, like something like that. But I don't repeat. I don't go deep or or you do, but then don't ask them to. That's all.

27:19 Yeah, I I like that. Yeah, pick one or the other. Even though I'm not a big fan of reading the bio, reading it off on a script, what this person does, that's just not my personal cup of tea. It bores me as a listener to just hear the host sit and tell me all about this guest coming on. I'd rather learn about it, learn about the guests. Can somebody send that message to Mel Robbins please? Yes, agreed. That's funny. But yeah, I really feel strong about this. If you know, make a choice. Yep, Yep yes and agreed Sid about Mel Robbins and I think I may have mentioned it not too long ago when I heard her have Jay Shetty on as a guest. She gave gives his whole resume it feels like. And I am certain that most people listening to her show probably already know who Jay Shetty is. And if they don't, they didn't need his whole resume. I was ready to hit in on that one. Yeah.

28:15 Yeah, I think that. I think that intro took 6 minutes. Yep, it was ridiculously long. Yes. All right, so here's what I want to do these This is, in my opinion, a formula for a successful podcast intro. If you're crafting your episode intros, I think first you want to start with a strong hook, right? Five, the first five to 10 seconds, you want to ask some or or say some kind of bold statement, ask a an interesting question of maybe share a surprising statistic. For example, what if I told you most podcasts lose their audience in the 1st 30 seconds of their podcast like that, that if you opened up with something like that, I think that will hook your audience in.

29:03 If your audience is an audience of podcasters, then I think your voice, the one thing we haven't really touched on, is the voice of the host. You want a voice that sounds confident, a voice that sounds natural and also passionate. Overly scripted robotic deliveries, I think is a quick way to send people off that your podcast and then have that clear set up maybe or maybe a concise set up, let the listeners know what the episodes about why it matters to them. I think you want to avoid any kind of vague teasing or like we we were saying earlier, the Super long intros.

29:46 You want this to be clear and concise. And then I think sound is important too, not just maybe adding music and or sound effects, but the quality itself. Clean pro sounding audio because audio quality is I think the first and most important area to focus on when it comes to production value because statistically speaking, people leave your podcast if they can't hear it or it's too jarring to listen to. So keep that in mind. And then again, I think when we're talking about your delivery as the host, be authentic, speak like you would normally speak. And like I was saying earlier, a quick personal story of relatable moment.

30:40 I think those are the things that can really draw people in, especially more so than just playing some kind of generic intro or tagline. Who? Who came off mic? Stacey. Yeah, go. Ahead, I just wanted to kind of spotlight something that you're talking about just now that people don't really think about in a tactical approach, but I recommend is literally mapping out the listener journey. I call them a customer, client, a listener, kind of all synonymous in this case. But what we're talking about here is onboarding. You're onboarding the listener. It's the first impressions. And I would say like really sit down with a piece of paper and design how every single piece of the experience for the listener. If you have a sponsor for the sponsor, like if you have a partner's, you know, same thing.

31:40 Don't leave it to chance, but rather actually map it out and and then validate like with real people that listen to your show or friends and say like, does this really meet your needs? Am I missing something? And you do that across the entire experience. So there's a real method to this and I just narrowing down to the first impressions on boarding per SE is really important. So. Yeah. Thank you, Stacey. I agree with you and I love the analogy that, yeah, consider this an onboarding process to some people. I think that might click even more because I know there are a lot of people out there who are podcasting in support of their business or their business endeavors.

32:25 And I think maybe connecting it that way. Yeah, this is your onboarding. This is like a client having a listener and you want to give them that that powerful experience. Yes. So if anybody is not clear what I'm saying, reach out to me 'cause this is what really drives loyalty and repeat business, and in this case, repeat listeners. Absolutely. And the last thing I would say about intros, at least for now in this conversation, is the consistency. And what do I mean by that? Having that familiar structure like our signature intro music that we play here right or it could be a signature line that you say so another example and somebody that same listener who reached out to me talking about how much they love the music.

33:16 They also called out that they love my my sign offline make it a great day. And I say that at the end of every episode, and clearly people are catching on to that and listening for it now. So I think having something, whether it's the music, if it's a signature line, something like that helps loyal listeners feel at home and it sets expectations, I think, for new ones. So there you go. I hope that that helped anybody really looking for help on an intro and this particularly for Jeff H, who sent in that question.

33:56 Thank you, Jeff. And with that, we are going to share our wins from this past week. And I see we've got an audience here on Clubhouse. Come up and share what's going on in your world that you feel is worth celebrating today. And if that's that you've had a hard couple of weeks and you got through this next this past week, we want to hear that too. So come up and be a part of it. This is a community thing and it doesn't work as well without your participation. So I'm asking everybody here, I'm literally inviting people up manually here on Clubhouse. All right, so in the meantime, then we will go through our moderators. I'm going to actually see if Nick wants to start because I think Nick has to usually has to bolt here soon around this time of the morning.

34:49 So Nick, we're going to go to you and if you wanted to say anything because I see something, you popped up something in the chat. If you want to share what you shared there and then share any wins, you are more than welcome. Go for it, Nick. Thank you. I put in the chat, I said I think the intro like kind of rounding out the whole conversation. It really depends on your show and your content because as we were having the discussion and I was was thinking about some of the stuff said like oh this would be good for an intro for a podcast. And I feel like it wouldn't work for certain shows like a storytelling or maybe you have a season that is telling a story throughout the entire season.

35:32 I don't see an intro being as crucial or may even be annoying if every time you come into the episode, there's like this drawn out intro leading you in. You're like, just get me back into the story. I just want to continue the story versus like a business podcast where I feel like a lot of what we were talking about here today would very much play into a business or an interview show or something where the topics might be changing from episode to episode. But for the most part, like people are there for a specific reason. They want to learn something or I don't know. I I was just thinking like it. A lot of the stuff that we talked about today, I feel like it really does depend on your show, which is feels like a cop out answer, but that that's just my thought.

36:20 No, I agree. I agree with you. I mean, I think it does. Everybody's show is unique in some way and what might work for some may not work for others. I think that's fair. And yeah, I mean, the best we can do is give advice that is as applicable to most podcasters as possible. But yes, it's not going to be applicable to every podcast for sure. 100% for a win for a couple wins. We finally got the hole in our ceiling covered. It happened a couple nights ago, finally. My wife Emily and I, we tried doing it a couple different times and could not get it to fit for the life of us. So we tried a couple times.

37:01 Finally, we called a friend, they helped get us set up and we got a ceiling. So that's nice. And then another win. I went and I purchased a new backpack this past week that I'm, it sounds silly, but I'm pretty excited about I've been running with the same bag for several years and I never really cared for it. And this time actually took time to find one that suited my needs. And yeah, that's over my wins. Nice. Congratulations. I love it. And yeah, I've been looking into bags again. I have a a backpack that I use often when I'm traveling, throw my laptop in and stuff. And lately, I don't know why, but I have this itch to get one of those basically a satchel, like a man purse, if you will.

37:50 I feel like that would be so convenient to have because I I usually carry more than really should fit in my pants or shorts pockets so I feel like a. Fanny pack. Yeah, you know the Fanny pack. I just, it makes me a little nervous. Yes. Sir Dr. Don't Judge Dr. Are you a Fanny pack person, Sir? Yeah, I have two and my wife just ordered me another one. Wow, so. No. Judgement. I was just asking for you to Fanny pack. Fanny pack. Yeah, she ordered us both new ones to take with us on our trip later this summer because of in Barcelona and Rome, you know, the pickpockets are really big and they try to take your RFI, they try to steal your through RFID.

38:37 And so the bag sheet purchased has an RFID blocker in it, so you can't steal your data and stuff. So yeah, she ordered one for a trip. Oh that's cool, that's cool. I just don't know if I can do it. My wife does Fanny packs. I just don't know if I can do a Fanny pack. It would be really convenient, but I, I feel like I'm more of like a satchel kind of guy. We'll see. All right. Thank you, Nick. Appreciate you sharing your wins. I know we don't always get to you on Fridays. So glad we got you in today. Sid, you want to share some wins with us? Yeah, the one win that I'll share is this week on my morning walk. I have walked over 4 miles every day this week, which is a great stretch, especially how hot it is.

39:18 But I get back to my house and my baseball cap is needs to be wrung out. It's so wet with sweat, but it feels really good to get the sweat on right. And so for the next couple of months, I'll be walking while we're doing our rooms because it's gets so hot so early. So anyways, yes, for over 4 miles every day this week, which feels really good. That's awesome. Congratulations, Sid. And walking is definitely the new cardio. And I say that because I'm hearing and reading more and more how effective walking can be for your health, for weight loss, etcetera, just walking as opposed to jogging, running, other cardio.

39:59 And I'm not trying to say other cardio isn't good. I'm just saying that walking has become more of a thing these days and more of an effective thing these days. And yeah, I've been doing that more as well. Said not 4 miles every day. So kudos to you. And I got myself one of those walking pads. And I'm just trying to get used to it. It's not as easy as it looks, working and walking at the same time. And so far haven't fallen, but have come a little close. So I'm easing into it. All right, let's go to Ashley. Ashley, good morning again to you. Please share any wins from this past week. So my wins for this week. I know I mentioned last week I put out a new episode of my podcast, Sunshine State Showcase with the Ain't Sisters, and it was my first video podcast. Well, it means so much to me this week because one of the artists in that interview, her name is Ari, she's also a video editor.

40:56 She actually cut her own clips of moments that she thought was important from that episode and published them on social media. So you think about sometimes how hard it is to get guests to share the episode. It really meant that she actually took the raw file and cut these clips herself and put them out. So I just thought that was really awesome. And my second win is that I'm playing with my band tonight. We haven't played together in a month. That's going to be fun. And then tomorrow I'm playing an all woman music festival that is indoors. So those are my wins for the week. That's awesome. Congratulations, and very cool. If I understood that correctly, a guest took the episode and chopped it up themselves and put out content themselves. That's very cool.

41:40 That's a good guest right there. That's going the extra mile because I know a lot of us struggle to get guests to even share the content that that we make. So the fact that that one made it for you, that's pretty cool. Congratulations and break a leg today and tomorrow, one of these days. I can't wait to see you play in person. Jonathan, welcome to the stage this morning. Good to have you back here. And would you be so kind and share any wins from your week? Sure, I will make it an easy one. This week we published episode 50 of Coffee Social Which? I don't know how. Quickly, that happened. But yeah, episode 50 we published yesterday.

42:22 So that's a win. Yeah. Congratulations. Very cool, Jonathan. And maybe even a win in itself because last, I don't know, a few months ago we were talking to you and your show was potentially going to be on hold. So it's cool that you guys are still cranking out episodes. Ed, welcome to the stage. Thank you for taking the invitation. And what would you like to share? Any wins from your week? Yes, a matter of fact, I have a very exciting week or or month I should say, because I used to be pretty active at clubhouse and then I had to kind of refrain myself to getting in because I I had a lot of work to do.

43:03 So I recently came back. And one of the things I've been struggling is with time and I've been trying to wake up early and that, that's been a really struggle, you know, not being consistent. So I, I decided to start a, a live podcast here at Clubhouse at 3:00 in the morning every day so I can push myself into do it, you know? Yeah. So I can, I can, you know, fix my hours, that kind of thing. So, yeah, today was day 29 and I'm very happy I'm done. On Monday, I speak about something in particular. Then let's say Tuesday I talk about technology and so on and so forth.

43:47 So it's been, it's been nice. Of course, my audience is, is sleeping at that time, but it's OK. I and and I'm not doing it, you know. Professionally or anything, I just have my, my iPhone and you know, one of those wireless microphones and, and that's it pretty much make it as easy as possible. No intro. I, I got a teaser and that's about it. And then just keep at it and keep consistency most likely. I mean, the main thing is consistency, but that's it. Thank you. Congratulations, Ed, and thank you for sharing that with us. I appreciate it. And I'm curious why you chose 3:00 AM for this challenge, especially for somebody, as you explained, who is having trouble getting up in the morning.

44:32 Why challenge yourself to get up so early in the morning? Well, because I my goal is to start working as early as possible. If I can start working around 4, but let's say 5 because I do a little bit of editing, not much, just enough. So because I'm transitioning into running a project, but I can find the time to do it. So if I start working early, I probably can, you know, make myself some extra at least one hour a day to work on my pray. That's why I decided to start so early, so stinky early.

45:14 Yeah, I get up at 4:30 and I can definitely attest to having more time in your day when you get up early. And I know that might sound very simple and logical, but once you can experience it, at least from my experience, man, it makes all the difference in the world. Getting up early, getting the first couple hours of other stuff that you want to get done out of the way and then you have this full day ahead of you. It's it's nice to be feel ahead of the game every morning. So I can attest to that and I applaud you. That's a big challenge and it sounds like you said it was a 30 day challenge and you're almost done with it. So kudos to you Ed, and thank you for sharing that.

45:57 Please keep coming back anytime you'd like to join us. And I'm going to share my win in a second, but I want to 1st go to some baza. Some baza. Welcome to the stage. Would you like to share any wins from your week? Hi guys. Back I had a three-week vacation in Kenya. Wow. So that's why I haven't been around to listen in. But just a short thing. It was a great trip and with family, we got to enjoy so many things. I'm vlogging about it on my some other podcast. However, the win that I have for this week is, and I want to thank Jen for doing this. I didn't think I was going to be able to get around to doing the show for Juneteenth. That was on Wednesday.

46:44 Well, Juneteenth was yesterday, but we did our show on Wednesday, you know, jet lag and everything. But she got me out there and we were able to do a show where we highlighted Opal Lee. And if you don't know who Opal Lee is, she is the grandmother of Juneteenth, right around the neck of your woods, Sid. So one thing I'd like to ask of you guys is to say a prayer for her. She wasn't able to get to the celebration yesterday because she had like a hospital visit. So just keep eye in your prayers. And that's all I had for you guys. Nice to be back and I'm hoping for more engagement. Thank you, guys. Congratulations on those wins. Really cool to hear you got to spend some time in Kenya and with family.

47:30 I'm sure that was special. And yeah, looking forward to hearing more about it through your vlogs some baza. Thank you for sharing. 01 more thing. Go for it. I have a surprise for you. You'll see it in a couple of days. A surprise for me? Yeah. Noel. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Part of the whole team. OK. All right. Cool. Awesome. Yeah. Keep me posted. Very cool. All right, so here are my wins this week. I actually closed 2 new sales after what I'll call a bit of a drought. 1 Sale is a consulting job helping somebody actually locally from my improv class start his podcast.

48:10 He approached me at the end of our improv One O 1 classes and said, you know, he knew I was, I'm a podcaster, he knew I help people. And he said he's been thinking about podcasting and really didn't know where to begin. And once he heard that I do it, he was he intended to reach out and he did. And now he's a client. So we will be getting started next week. And then also the other sale was from an existing client that took advantage of Ironic Media's add on services for Meta ads. And that's Tyler Perry, who was a guest and now also part of my company, Ironic Media. And he and I help our clients and new clients with paid advertising on Facebook and Instagram. We've been doing it and testing it a lot with me and the Podcasting morning chat and have had some good success with that and this was our first customer first client taking advantage of these services.

49:08 So we will keep you posted and let you know how that's going 'cause I think it's important for us to share these successes and challenges with paid advertising. Another win. We have signed on 2 official partners of the Empowered Podcasting Conference, Pod News and Pod Match both are on board as official partners. So we're looking forward to these collaborations and appreciate their support and also looking forward to it because as partners, they're going to also help promote the event as well. And we are grateful to have as many people, as many companies as possible spreading the word for Charlotte at the end of September.

49:52 empoweredpodcasting.com. If you want to be a part of this awesome conference, the second one in two years. OK. And then the last one, working on the details of a new opportunity that I'll be announcing publicly next week. This is going to be a rare opportunity, in my opinion, for any content creator or entrepreneur looking to improve their branding game by a few of some big players in the space. So more to come on that and I'm really excited about it. It kind of injected some new life into me. I'm I'm really excited about doing something like this and another in person thing, smaller group looking to fill 5 to 10 slots and it's going to be something that we're going to be doing in New York City.

50:43 More to come on that. I know a couple of you are that I've talked to privately are interested and going to be joining us and couldn't be more excited about that. OK, so with that, we will be back on Tuesday, 7:00 AM Eastern Time honoring our summer schedule of Tuesday through Friday, 7:00 AM Eastern. So please come join us on Tuesday. We'll be talking all things podcasting. If you have your own personal questions around podcasting, content creation, social media, etcetera, bring it any day of the week, Tuesday through Friday. And especially if you've got one pressing, bring it on Tuesday. We'd love to answer your question. So until then, make it a great weekend. Everybody, take care.