367 - Declining YouTube Views and Remembering Todd Cochrane, CEO of Blubrry

0:05 Good morning podcasting Morning Chat. Today is Wednesday, September 10th, 2025, and today it's our news and common episode. And we're remembering a podcast Hall of Famer gone too soon, diving into Gemini's new AI features, Instagram big update and a breakup rocking a hit reality podcast. 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.

1:20 Good morning again, podcasting, Morning Chat. Thanks so much for being here. I am your host, Mark Ronik, and on stage with me we have producer Ashley Feller, Sid Meadows, Nick Naulback and Dr. Fay. Greg, thank you for being the first one here this morning in our audience. Glad to have you here and looking forward to seeing who else joins you in the audience this morning. As I said at the top of the show, we are covering all the news around the world of podcasting. We will comment, share our insights, share our thoughts on these stories, and I mean, might as well just dive right in. Oh, hello to Austin.

2:04 I was just calling out the audience. So since you just walked into the room. Good morning to you, Austin. So today the way I like to start is first with a little bit of podcast data. I'm skipping the number ones on Apple and Spotify because it's a little redundant. Because as some of you may know, Dr. Will follow up here in just a moment and share the top fives on Apple and Spotify. So why bother revealing why? Why give a spoiler when it's not necessary spoiler? Alert I know, OK. So let me share with you though what I do also like to share is over the past week, 470,928 podcasts published at least one new episode, which is up a whopping 12 1/2% from the week before publishing 418,600 new episodes. So with that, let's go to Dr.

3:05 for that top five I just teased. OK, so this is Spotify's top five and #5 is Crime junkie #4 is this past weekend with Theo von #3 is hot on the case, which is new. Number 2 is Huberman Lab and #1 The Joey Rogan Experience. What an amazing thing to hear. OK, so being that we do this overall top five, I know we also do a selected genre, that of your choice. So what's the top five and what's the genre? OK genre is podcasts on books.

3:47 OK, that's one that we haven't talked about before. So #5 is Catholic Bible studies #3 is classical stuff. You should know. That sounds interesting. I'm sorry. That was #4 #3 is Stephen J Klovic podcast #2 is the book review and #1 is Fresh Air, the famous Fresh air. That's right, fresh air. I guess they talk about books on that. Gosh, I I'm embarrassed. I don't think I've, well, I don't expect you to. Know and listen to every single episode in every top five category DRI think that's OK it's. Really super famous, so I should, I should have known that, but Oh well, OK.

4:37 There you go and let me give you all some events that are going on around the world of podcasting that may be of interest to you. Actually Dr., Do you want to take this first one 'cause I know you added this to our list? Yeah. OK. Podcasters Directory Virtual Network is Thursday 911 from 4:00 PM to 5:30 PM Eastern Standard Time. And this is a virtual networking. I believe it's going to be they're talking about entrepreneurship, AI and business. If my memory is correct. The link will be in the show notes. Thank you, Dr. Also, we have Houston podcasters meet up if you're in the Houston, TX area September 17th. We'll include a link in the show notes if that's of interest to you.

5:25 I've talked a little bit about here over the past several weeks, Pod Summit YYC 2025, that's a podcaster event happening in Calgary. And of course, the Empowered Podcasting Conference 2025 that starts September 26th. It ends the morning of the 28th. And last yesterday afternoon we had a speaker call. All of our speakers that were available, we all got together on a Zoom call and talked about the event which is now just 16 days away, which just blows my mind. And it was a fantastic call. I actually looking back now, I wish we did more of those speaker calls because they give me such a charge.

6:09 I get so energized and excited about it and I can't wait for those of you who are planning on attending to come. I think this is going to be a really. So wait a minute, can you, can you paint a picture for me? You were on the phone, on speakerphone with all of the speakers that will be talking. That was on Zoom, yes. You're on Zoom. OK, You're on Zoom and and you were just like gathering like getting the logistics for everyone. What was? Yeah, we were giving everyone basically an update. I liked our speakers to feel like they're just as much a part of the behind the scenes as I am. So I it's one thing to just get them all up to speed.

6:49 We officially last week released the speaker schedule and so we, but they hadn't all known that or seen that yet. So we went over that a little bit and yeah, a lot of logistics. And then of course we leave time. The big, big reason before it is we leave time for questions. It seems that speakers always have a lot of interesting and good questions. So we fielded a bunch of questions and yeah, now it's just game time. Now it's just time to go to get ready. Yeah, yeah. The biggest, that challenge for that, well, not the biggest challenge, a current challenge that I'm dealing with are the cost of T-shirts. Now I used to be and Billy, I know you used to be. I see Billy's in the audience, used to be in the screen printing business as well.

7:32 And prices have skyrocketed as far as custom T-shirts go, especially bulk. The shirts that I wanted to order specifically for our staff and I'll move quickly on this. There were, it was like 16 shirts, black shirts, few colors design on the front, one color design on the back. These were for the staff, the team that I was quoted anywhere from 25 to $35 per shirt. Per shirt. Yeah. And that's a bulk rate. And I mean, I, I know I used to get shirts like that. I just described, I used to get it be able to get them for at least half or at least when I was charging people I was able to charge them at least half that.

8:20 So anyway, so it's just crazy some of the expenses, yes, Sid. Most of the shirts are imported, so they're not actually there in the US. Yeah, that's why they're so expensive. I was thinking that as well. Yeah, I was thinking that too. Oh, Billy wants to. Come up. We'll entertain this since I opened that can of worms. Go ahead, Billy. Good morning. All right. Mark, just for the sake of the audience, learning 16 shirts is not bulk well. OK, you're. Right front and back. Then you're going to pay. There is a new newer technology. It's kind of funny. It's called DTF, but you can actually get like these rented transfers. I mean, they're not like I hate transfers. They're not like anyway, they're like just look it up. They're super nice.

9:09 I've used them. I'm actually have a couple shirts where I heat pressed myself and they've lasted for they do better on like cotton. So I wear comfort color shirts all the time and and this I've worn this one shirt forever and it's perfect. It stills like a screen brand shirt. So those are like pennies on the dollar. And I got a buddy in Tennessee who, if you need help, he does a variety of different things and I can probably get some contract pricing for you. Oh yeah, I would love to, Yeah, I, I've started talking to others. I haven't made any commitments yet. So yeah, I, I prefer to work with referrals in this particular area. And yeah, I know it's not technically bulk, but I do know that even when, when I was in this business, doing 16 shirts would usually cost less than if I were to just order one.

9:59 I, I expected something, I guess so back in my day. Yeah. Yeah. Some other events coming up, by the way, go to empoweredpodcasting.com and get your tickets. If Yeah, that's Empowered podcasting.com. You can get your tickets. You can see the schedule. You can see all of our list of awesome speakers. We would love to see you there. And then one other event, Speak Fest, Night of the Living Pod, also in Houston, TX. This is a basically an event hosted by some podcasters and it's a 2 day event. Workshops, keynotes, networking, games, fun. Obviously a Halloween theme.

10:40 Think I'm sure if Nick were in the Houston area he'd be there being that he and his wife are such big Halloween people. Halloweenies, I'll call you. Oh my Beavis and butt head just came out it was so good. All right, and Dr. You want to share about awards before you have to go make breakfast for the hubby? Yes, please. OK, so enter your podcast for the 2025 AMBI Awards. The AMBI Awards, hosted by the Podcast Academy, will return in February of 2026 in New York City, NY City to honor excellence in podcasting. Submissions for the 2025 awards run from August 4th to October 10th, with new honors including Best Emerging Podcast and Podcaster of the Year.

11:35 Shows released after October 10th can still submit, but late entries risk ineligibility and carry a $50 fee per submission. So check out episode 8 of the podcasting Morning Chat where 30 Plus time winner and community leader Dominic Lawson shares how he does it because he is our awards guy. He is and obviously with over 30 different awards for couple of different podcasts, he definitely knows a thing or two. And yes, it's episode 8. So that was a while back and it's all still relevant. It all still applies.

12:15 So you can look for episode 8 or you can go to podpage.com/PMC slash 8, the number 8 and you will go right to the page and you can start listening before you apply. I think it'll give it. It's that episode gave several people in this community the confidence to apply and win some awards. So check that out if you'd like to do it. Why? Because at the very least this gives you some marketing material. You can promote that you are an award winner or even an award nominee if you didn't end up winning. It's still a prestigious thing that not all of us can say and it looks good.

12:58 I love seeing that when I see it on people's profiles on social media and it says award-winning. It is a distinction and worth sharing. Do you have your win because you won an award? Do you have your win on your website? You know what on my website, I don't think I do. That's a really good question. I have it on a lot of my social media pages. I know it's on Instagram. I believe I have it on LinkedIn on my profile pages, but no, I haven't put it on my website and I should. So thank you for that, Dr. Appreciate that. I will have to go do that, and what I am also going to do is wait to do little things like that until this conference is over so I can keep my sanity.

13:39 I've got way too many balls that I'm juggling right now for my taste. All right, so let's keep it going. And you know what? Before we get to yeah, let's do it. I'm going to get to some news bites and then we'll get into some AI news. Nick shared something with me recently that I want to share with you all. We'll, we'll talk to Nick in a moment. First, some news bites that may be of interest to you. First, Spotify has reported that the sports genre is the fastest growing video podcast category on their platform. They report that consumption is up 53% from the last quarter.

14:20 So if you've got a sports podcast, you may be noticing, especially video, you may be noticing that it's doing better these days than previously. Also, a quick update for you on the whole Taylor Swift guest spot on the New Heights podcast. This is more recent. We've talked about the fact that it was pretty a pretty record-breaking appearance. Well, that single appearance sent their monthly downloads through the roof, obviously over six times higher than they usually have. According to Podscribe, it pushed the show into the top five for August. Still, when you look at the 60 day average downloads, The Diary of Aceo held the edge with 33 point.

15:07 Sorry, let me say that again. With 3.4 million per episode, while New Heights landed at 3.2 million. Wow, Can you imagine your podcasts getting over 3,000,000 downloads? Wow. And one more note for from that report, Amazon has now taken the lead as the biggest advertiser in podcasting. So there, that was a big report, not just talking about new heights. So that was just an interesting tidbit I wanted to share with you. While Dr. continues to make eggs for her husband. I'll continue to share. Patreon just got a makeover. Here's what you need to know. They rolled out a sleek new update to its creator pages, giving you way more control over how your content is presented and how your fans interact with it. So think polished new layouts, customizable branding images, and tools that make it easier than ever to highlight your best work.

16:04 According to their blog, the goal is to help fans instantly grasp the value of your Patreon, so they're more likely to stick around, support you, and engage. One heads up, though, once you hit publish on the new design, there's no turning back. You're stuck with it. No undo button. It's a permanent switch, so you'll want to make that count. Anyone use Patreon that's currently listening here live, whether you're on stage or in the audience? I'm curious if you do. Hey, Alex. Hey everybody. I don't personally, but the network that I'm on uses Patreon and I'm actually a Patreon subscriber to a couple of things.

16:45 Have you noticed any changes yet to it? Came in. Like, yeah, just the aesthetics. You can. You can customize your Patreon page a lot more now. You knew you can pick from different layouts and customize different things about the page, but I guess you probably haven't noticed yet. I don't go on there a lot, but the one creator that I you follow she's she does a lot of art. It's it's a lot of pop culture art. So she did a lot already as much. So it doesn't surprise me. I'll have to check back on but obviously not. Yeah, no problem. I'm useless in that area. That's OK. And Patreon, just for those who may not know what Patreon is, it's basically a subscription membership type of service.

17:25 You, you can put, you can charge people whatever you want monthly fee and you can tier that. So if you want to make it more affordable, say a $5 a month fee, you offer certain perks for that 5 bucks if you up it, let's say to 15 bucks a month or additional perks, etcetera, etcetera. So it's a way to monetize content, digital content and beyond. And I saw Ashley, you had your hot pepper flash, so that means you wanted to say something. So yeah, go for it. Oh, I just wanted to say that I run a Patreon community for a singer-songwriter and I'm also about to start running one for a music venue and they are really rolling out some cool features. So, podcasters, there's some great things for y'all there, that's all.

18:13 OK, awesome. Thank you, Ashley. Appreciate that. So go check that out if you want to see these new updates or maybe start your own Patreon. Highly encouraged. It's something that's been on my list for a while that I again, we'll get to after the empowered podcasting conference at the end of this month in Charlotte, NC. Another item for you, a new tool promises to change how listeners navigate your podcast. Some of you may know this name Daniel J Lewis. He's the same guy behind other tools like my podcast reviews. He recently dropped a brand new tool called Pod Chapters. Think of it as your AI powered assistant for making podcast chapters.

18:57 So that is much like YouTube. If you've seen it before YouTube, you can just skip to a certain section of a video. It's got chapter titles. You click on it, it jumps you right to that chapter so you can upload your audio to this new service Pod Chapters, and it spits out a transcript plus suggested chapter markers with titles all neatly packaged right in your browser. No software installs, no hassle. It's designed to help your listeners jump straight to the moment they care about. So I, I mean, and I think that this is really handy. I mean, the plus is, is that, you know, Nick talks about this every so often that he likes to sometimes find a video, just go right to where he needs to go to answer that question and then move on.

19:45 It makes it very convenient for your audience and it definitely can hurt your listener retention rate, right? Because now they're just. It's in some cases hand plucking what they want out of it. So that's just something to think about, but I prefer to provide convenience to my audience, and I think that that will only strengthen the relationship between me and my audience and that they'll keep coming back for my content. Hey, Mark, I think a topic that we may want to explore is when it comes to chaptering, I think that's a, that's a a problem, not the chaptering part. I think a lot of times people may rely on AI, may not rely on, I don't know how really good AI is doing with that chaptering, but I think that if you look at it as segments instead of as a whole, it might be something that could help podcasters.

20:41 But again, I it's not for right now. I'm just saying it's something you might want to explore. Put on the list of stuff that we want to talk about. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you, Alex. That will absolutely go on the list of topics. I think you you make a good point. That would be a good conversation. And here's my question, Would you use this tool when there are when this kind of feature is already built into a lot of the tools that we use, right? Like Riverside does this automatically for you, Buzz Sprout does that automatically for you and a lot of their counterparts, their competitors do that for you. So my question really is, is what instances would a podcaster want to use something like this? Mark I I. Have a question about this and maybe for Nick too on the YouTube side, do you see the behavior in the back end dashboard on these platforms of like, OK, I had 100 views, but everyone went to minute 2 where I'm talking and such That's the case.

21:38 If you can see that data, that'd be really awesome to go OK, this is what my audience is really interested about. In my next piece of content, it's going to be diving deeper into the subject. OK Full disclosure I was on the beta team for this and I have not used it yet. And I almost, I was started to DM Daniel and ask him about this and I gave the contrarian view and you know would anyone use this and why would anyone use this if there was Riverside and Buzzprat? And I thought better of it and I decided not to send it. But I do know Daniel J Lewis and he is a data guy and it would not surprise me if that wasn't the case. And as we speak I'm logging on to it trying to figure it out. One of his big claims is that it is very accurate. And I know Ashley and I can attest we've run our transcripts through different tools, Descript, Otter, etcetera. And the time codes can often be quite off. The chapter titles that it gives it, they work, but it's usually not terribly accurate and we often times have to go make some adjustments.

22:59 Billy, to your question, I'd have not seen that. I don't know, Nick, have you seen anything that in analytics that speaks to chapters and how people are interacting with it? The. Podcasting side, I'd be very surprised if there were any analytics on that, seeing that analytics are sparse the same thing. But how about YouTube specific? On the YouTube side, I have to look I've seen something like that. I know they, they have like the like most replayed in the, I don't know, you can see kind of the retention graph for the entire video. And I wonder if that has any correlation, like if you see a random spike in the middle of the video, if that could potentially be someone clicking on a specific chapter and jumping directly to that.

23:45 I'll have to look to see if there's any data or anything on the back end there that shows people clicking on specific chapters. Yeah, and it just. It just shows the most watched part of the video and where it was, but you kind of have to sit through it, the analytic because it'll show you exactly where people are stopping and starting. Yeah, that's true. So that that does kind of speak to what Billy's asking in some ways. I. Just don't know if it does it in the way that you may want to read it, but we'll show you exactly what you want just. Not the way you want it. Can I read a a fast list of what it includes? The smart pro ID 3 tags, legacy MP3 chapters, podcasting 2 point O chapters, pod love simple chapters. I don't know what that is.

24:37 Time stamped outline YouTube time stamps 1800 AI credits 30 hours of audio per month. Outline to chapters, AI suggested chapters. Upload your own transcript AI powered transcription and download generated VTT transcripts. I don't know what that means. Very robust. And yes, some of those things, I'm not sure what they mean either. Most of it I, I follow, but it sounds robust. And I mean, that does make it piques my interest a little more. And it's not to say I think that this is a terrible tool or a waste of time. It's just for me personally, if it's already built into a tool that I'm using a lot and I'm OK with the tool and what it does, I may not switch out. But like I said earlier, I haven't yet found a tool that really does a good job at doing chapters and some of these other features on top of it.

25:32 So that would that would cause me to pause and consider a tool like this. So we'll see. Maybe I'll test it out just for the sake of the show and let you know what I think. And if it works out well, then awesome. We have a poll, by the way, running right now here live on clubhouse. And the question is, would you use pod chapters specifically this tool when when there's automatic tools pre-existing and we have 23% say yes, they would, 78% no, they wouldn't. All right, let's get into some headlines. And I was about to hit the the news music, but not appropriate in my opinion for this first headline of the morning.

26:15 And we did break the news yesterday during the show when Pod News reported it. We lost a podcasting great on September 8th, Todd Cochran. He passed away suddenly at the age of just 61. It's a little eerie if you go to his Facebook page and look at his Last Post, which I believe was the day or two before the his passing where he had missed a flight or no, he was almost going to miss a flight at the Denver airport. It was a connection flight. And if you've been in that airport before, some of the gates are very far away from one another.

27:01 So if you're say an A gate and you need to go to the B gates, it can take you up to up to 1/2 hour sometimes to get to the next gate. And he was apparently in his post cutting it close and ran his tail off. And in his post and in the comments of his post, he kept talking about how he kept using thing references like oh, it almost gave me a heart attack. Get the heart attack paddles. And I don't know if he passed up a heart attack. And it was just very eerie to see and breaks my heart to have seen that. But I want to tell you some things about him, in case you don't know.

27:41 First and foremost, a lot of people nowadays know him as the CEO of Blueberry Podcasting, a podcast hosting platform, among other things. But he's been at it for a long time, as long as I've been at it. And he's been way more public about podcasting in the earlier years than I ever was, meaning I wasn't teaching people, educating people about podcasting. I was just going through my own podcast journey for at least the first decade of my career. And then some interesting stuff about him. He recovered from what's, I'll just say a life altering injury in 2004.

28:22 And that's how he discovered Adam Curry's daily source code. Adam Curry being considered the pod father of podcasting. So once he had this life altering injury, he turned to podcasting, which obviously was very new at the time. At the time, he became one of the earliest podcasters with Geek News Central, launching it in October of 2004 from a modest hotel room setup using a $15 mic from Walmart. And again, even finding a $15 mic anywhere for retail in 2004 was way more challenging than it is today.

29:06 That show became GoDaddy became the show's sponsor, I should say, in 2005 after Todd Todd's episodes generated 370 customers in the first month. And remarkably, that partnership lasted 20 years, making one of podcasting's longest known sponsorships. He founded the Tech Podcast Network, one of the earliest podcast networks, comprising of 12 different shows. He launched Raw Voice, which is the parent company of Blueberry, also in 2005. He built it organically without external funding, working alongside his naval career until fully transitioning into civilian life in 2019. He initiated podcast awards that same year. You heard me if you've been listening for a little bit a few months ago, asking you to help me get nominated for for a podcasting award.

30:04 Unfortunately, that didn't pan out this time. He authored podcasting the Do It Yourself Guide in 2005, which is being reported as potentially one of the very first, if not the very first book dedicated to podcasting. And he was a was a vocal supporter of open RSS. He urged podcasters to host on their own websites using Powerpress WordPress plugin and championed live streaming of his show starting in 2009. And I think he he had a lot to do with that Powerpress, WordPress plugin, whether he might have even created it. And please forgive me, I don't recall for sure, But I know he was instrumental in getting that plug in on WordPress, which really changed the game for us as podcasters and the websites that we use, the website builders that we use. There's a lot more I could go into here. And DRI know you follow some of the people that knew him well. Anything stick out to you just as far as what people shared about Todd?

31:11 No, just that he was so incredibly generous with his time and his knowledge, his podcasting knowledge. And gosh, I don't know, there's something in the back of my mind, I thought I saw a video of him while he was in the Philippines. Something tells me that maybe he has a house in the Philippines or something because the video that I saw of him, it was not a hotel room. It looked very much like a Home Office. There was things, you know, stuck up on the wall. There was a cork board and things like that. And he was talking about, you know, that we have to be careful because there's a big storm coming in. So that makes me think, and I could be wrong, that makes me think that maybe he had a residence in the Philippines and which is always interesting to me, people who have a house in another country. But he was one of The Pioneers, you know, that came along. And it's just sad to see a pioneer go, that's all. Thank you, Dr. Yeah, And by the way, I've mentioned a few times that he was a podcast Hall of Famer. He was inducted in 2015.

32:19 He was also this is an interesting fact from Pod News. He was among the earliest financial supporters of pod news and why I say this is interesting. Sure, in itself that's interesting that he was one of the first, but he has a competing podcast news site to pod news. Yet he still was the early one of the earliest financial supporters and continued to this day. What is the site do you know? I don't know. They didn't. Todd News didn't actually name the site, so I didn't know what that site was. One thing I want to leave everybody with and then we can move on from the story. That I think is important. I saw my friend, colleague Anna Xavier had posted in her stories about the loss of Todd, and she pointed out that too often we wait until someone's gone to express how much they mean to us.

33:13 And if you look around at some of the more known podcasters, independent podcasters out there, you'll see some really powerful and kind things about Todd, how he personally helped people, touched people, etcetera. And unfortunately, it's all being said now that he's gone, unfortunately, I think to him in some ways. So whether it's respect for their work, admiration for how they carry themselves, or maybe it's just gratitude for the way that they've touched our lives, those words matter most when people can still hear them, in my opinion. So let this be a reminder to all of us, not just in podcasting, but in life, to tell the people you look up to, the people who inspire you, the people who you care about, how much they mean to you while you still can. There were definitely references of people just saying that they wish they had told him some of the things that they shared. So I will just ask if anyone wants to share. Who's that person for you that you're going to go out of your way and just let them know how much they mean to you? Who is that person in your life, podcasting and or beyond? Who would you reach out to and share? Are we all being shy?

34:34 I reached out to yesterday after I read his post and after I had had the the speaker meeting for Empowered Podcasting, another Hall of Famer, Dave Jackson. I reached out to Dave. This I never knew. I'll just admit I never knew what to really make of Dave until this conference where he and I have now had private conversations. We've had conversations in our group settings. He's a good guy and he's he genuinely cares about this conference. He genuinely wants to see it grow. And I just reached out to him to just tell him how much I appreciate his enthusiasm, appreciate that he's coming, how grateful I am that he's going to be a part of this event and pour into this event.

35:21 Like I said, he was one of the people I saw that had posted just saying that like he had wished he had taken more pictures of the two of them. And I think I'll loosely quote him. He said I didn't take those pictures because I just assumed I'll see him again soon. So reach out to somebody. And if you're feeling a little shy or that person hasn't come up in your mind yet, I encourage you to think about it and reach out to that person in your life that's still with us, that you can share your gratitude, share your appreciation. I think it'll go a long way for that person and for you. OK, let's keep things moving.

36:01 Let's get to some AI news. Nick. There's been an update to Google Gemini, which I've got to say I've been using a little bit more lately. And I think I've said this once or twice before, but I'll it goes. It's worth saying again. I can't believe how fast it is at generating high quality imaging when I ask ChatGPT to make cover art for an episode. It probably takes. And I'm not complaining, I'm just pointing out it probably can take anywhere from like 3 to 5 minutes for it to really spit it out and then I have to go back sometimes and make changes. I think that on average it's taken under a minute to do the same thing with Google Gemini.

36:46 It's really awesome now. Nick just disappeared, so I'm going to take this story for Nick. I think that, yeah. Is this the nano banana thing? No, this is not nano Banana. We did talk about nano banana last week, I believe, which is also pretty amazing Yes, and that's that is that does have to do with the graphics. So I understand why that triggered that in your mind, but no, this is something new. They just got some new upgrades Gemini did and it could streamline some podcast workflows once we fully understand how it works from transcribing and summarizing audio to repurposing content into various things, whether it's worksheets, quizzes, blogs, etcetera in over 80 different languages.

37:32 So what am I talking about? Podcasters can upload up to 10 minutes of audio for free or three hours if you are a pro or ultra user for transcription, summarization, content generation, et cetera. It supports multiple files and zips, which is ideal if you are a batching kind of podcaster and Gemini it it has been Gemini's most requested feature from creators. So it's finally here. I get it that 10 minutes may not give you a ton to work with if you're only using the free, but if you're a short form content person, this could really be an interesting tool for you.

38:16 And I did mention about the 80 different languages, they added five new ones. It works with languages now in languages like Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, etcetera, and Portuguese, I think is the other one. And I see that Janae has joined us on stage. Janae, did you want to talk about any of this because you came up right when I brought it up. Good morning, everyone. Yes, that is something really amazing that I've seen with technology and and thank you for sharing that Gemini can do faster images of always testing new features. So Royal, really good to hear that we have that another tool in our tool belt to go to now.

38:59 What what's interesting is that you're saying, you know, 10 minutes of free audio up to three hours for pro and ultra. Now most of us who are already podcasting have, you know, systems in place. So this could be another add on to let's say do another workflow, but not have to do depend on the one tool to do all of the things. Also wanted to share about the earlier news that you shared about Todd Todd Grand really sad him go and he was just a really kind gentleman. Got to meet him over the past few years and always, always take some really good stuff from those conversations. Thanks for bringing that. And thank you for bringing it up. You're welcome. And I didn't get to know Todd very well. I knew of him.

39:44 I think we've said hello before, but really didn't get to know him well. And one of the things I've heard, Janae, and tell me if you agree that he was a big, he was very much a straight shooter. He didn't hold back in his opinions and he wasn't he wasn't mean about it. He was just very opinionated and really stuck to his guns. Is that something that you recall? That is very accurate. He is a straight shooter and somebody would that much of experience. It totally makes sense. You know, he's like, hey, this is how things work. This is how things are and fun fact and 2012 when I started my podcast, I used their software to, you know, do a self hosted podcast.

40:27 So really cool to, you know, follow the journey and and see where it took us. Yeah, I saw even there are some people in our community that were commenting on his passing as well. He's touched a lot of people and we wish his family all the best during this difficult time, I'm sure for them. Yeah. So that's Google's new Gemini feature. If you want to test it out. Let us know what you think. Alex, did you want to add something? I have a question because, and maybe this is another topic, sorry, but do you consider Gemini? I have Chachi PT, I'm trying to do stuff with it and I know there's not one solution for the smaller podcaster that wants to put some of their eggs in some basket.

41:17 Do we need to have both or is Gemini better? Honestly, Alex, I think the tools are they have their own features that some you know, works well with ChatGPT doesn't work well with Gemini. I think it's a matter of playing around with it. I still like using chat GB TI feel like I'm getting better answers when I'm using it to help me brainstorm and create content as far as like if I'm outlining an idea for a real or for a new episode. I still like using ChatGPT better. I think part of that's because it feels weird to say because it knows me so well and so I it, it just gets me now at least way more than Gemini does. So I think that could be a little bit of a bias there too. I, I suggest really playing with both. Both do a side by side.

42:08 You know, the way I discovered how much faster it was was that I was using ChatGPT to create episode art. It was taking a minute and I mean, maybe I was feeling a little impatient. So I had remembered that that Gemini came out with the Nano Banana feature, which is highly improved graphics. And so I was like, I'll try it out while I'm waiting. I'll give it the same prompt. And I did and it spit it out in like 30 seconds and it was really good. I think that was the one I I actually used that for a recent episode. Dumb question, does it? Did it give you the same exact image? I'm just curious. No. Or did. You give it the image or and it gave it something. Different. Yeah, I you mean same image in comparison to what ChatGPT spit out?

42:52 No, it did not. I mean, it would certainly captured the essence, the same essence, but they were two different images. Clearly. You could see it clearly. Yeah, OK, thanks. You're welcome. Yes, Sid, go ahead. Good morning. Good morning everybody. I saw this chart of and that Newton screenshot it. I don't remember where I saw it, but it showed all these AI tools and I was blown away at the icons on the screen. It's just so many tools. You talk about shiny object syndrome and you know, trying to figure out, go, let me try this, let me try this, let me try that one, right? So I say all this to say to Alex's point, my recommendation is absolutely, you should try new things.

43:35 You should not try everything. And if you've got something that's working for you and working well for you, and you're happy with it, you're happy with what you're paying for it, then stick with it. Just because somebody launches a new AI tool tomorrow doesn't mean you have to go jump on it and pay for it. Yeah, it's great to investigate it and to learn about it, but there's so many out there that it could stop you from forward progress because you're exploring so many options. So if you got something working for you, stick with it, especially if it works well for you. Yeah, I'm with you there, Sid. Thank you for saying that. And I think that's an advantage of listening to this show. And here's what I mean. You'll hear us talking about a lot of these different AI tools. But you, you know how much I'm a fan and Nick's a fan.

44:18 And we'll always update you on new tools. Take that as as your way of being introduced to it without the pressure of actually having to go get every tool that we talk about. You know, if something catches your ear and you are really interested and you think, Oh yeah, that tool might help me because the one I'm using now sucks and I don't like it, then sure, go jump on it. But otherwise, just consume the information we're providing you for now and don't feel like you have to go and get every single tool. It will slow you down. It will not speed things up for you if you're trying all the tools at especially all at the same time or roughly the same time. Thank you, Sid for saying that. I appreciate it. Real quick.

44:59 I want to give everyone an update also on Instagram and a new feature coming from Instagram. And Jonathan, you're welcome to chime in with any thoughts on this. They now have added the feature to allow you to pin your own comments to your own content. So if you weren't aware, you can pin up to, I believe, up to three comments. So you could highlight people's comments, especially if you feel like it adds value to the, the post that you're sharing. That's how I like to use pinned comments. Also, I like to use pinned comments because it helps with engagement. That's another episode we can talk about another time, but now, but it, the one thing you couldn't do was pin your own comments, which I had often wanted to do because I think it again, it adds another layer to the post and it's coming from you. So for example, I could post about episode 8 with Dominic Lawson talking about podcast awards, and I could reference where to find that episode in the comments and then pin it so it's the first comment everyone will see. I really like this feature.

46:08 I think it's really helpful. You can provide additional context. You can answer common questions and pin it without having to rewrite the caption every time. So if you've posted something and people seem to be asking the same question over and over, answer it and pin it. You can share updates quickly. So if you've, you know, posted about something going on in your life and then something has changed since then, you could do it in the comments and pin it there. There's all sorts of things you can do with that. Anything Jonathan, you want to add? And no pressure. I know you're also under the weather. I like you for some of the some of those use cases. And then there's the other use cases where people are just, yeah, this is a great post. Like there's no need for that stuff. So I think using it for a good purpose, it's useful. Other reasons, sometimes it gets a little annoying for the reader.

47:02 And I think it only allows you to post one of your comment, like pin one of your comments, which is a good thing because there are people that would pin multiple of their comments because I, I know people do it from their other accounts as well, like they'll pin a comment from another account. And yeah, it's a little bit much. Let let's see what the actual readers are are commenting. Yeah, agreed. Agreed. Thank you, Jonathan. All right, because we are running short on time, I want to move to the next story about YouTube Dr. Take it away. So something weird is happening over on YouTube. Multiple creators, from big players like Linus Media Group to cult favorites like Red Letter Media, are reporting that up to 25% of their views have suddenly vanished. The channels like Second Wind and Moon Channel are scratching their heads, wondering if they tripped an invisible wire. While speculation ranges from swearing penalties to mysterious algorithm tweaks, YouTube is of course silent, leaving creators in the dark while their traffic tanks. For podcasters running video shows on YouTube, this isn't just an inconvenience, it's a business killer. So if you're traffic nosedives without warning, your monetization, ad rates, and audience growth strategies are gone.

48:28 This underlines the fragility of building your empire on rented land. I love that phrase. I love that phrase. YouTube remains the biggest stage in town, but it also makes you dance to a tooth that you did not write. Now, some predict that YouTube will issue a bland little You know we're looking into its statement. Creators will scream, and then the algorithm will quickly adjust back. Or not, Maybe, but the trend is clear. The bigger YouTube gets, the less transparent it becomes. Smart podcasters should be using YouTube as a visibility fuel, not their only oxygen supply. I like it.

49:14 I'll tell you, Billy said it before during Twitter and our TikTok and everything else it more and more we should be hosting our stuff on our own websites because we are guests and it can be pulled at any time and it's getting scarier and scarier. Sorry, I jumped the line. Agreed. I agree totally. Yeah, the annoying thing is, is there's really no other option as far as video platforms, right? I mean, yes, there is Spotify, but as far as the way YouTube works, the way it's used, there are no real competitors to it. YouTube is the place. So we're kind of stuck if we want to do video content and get it out to the masses like that.

50:00 Yeah, Tiktok is short form. Instagrams got short form, but I'm talking about podcasts and long form content on the YouTube platform. Yeah, So not much we can do about that. And it just also reminds me of the days a few years ago with Instagram where I saw not just my own content, but everybody's content it looked like was getting way more attention than they do now. And you know, I I would get, I would post videos and they would on average get several 1000 views at a time. Now it's on average several 100. I can't break free of that and that's fine. I just accept it for what it is.

50:43 But it you can clearly see that these platforms do adjust things like your view count, not not actually going in and manually changing it, but adjust the throttle, right? How many people they're going to allow to see it and how many they're not? So when you were getting all those views, was this not that time when there was like bot gate that it was? Certainly possible, but it but that content also would get a lot of engagement from real people. So I think it would might have been a combination, but still, I do believe that had a lot to do with Instagram changing an algorithm at some point at you know, between 2020 and I'd say 2022, it was the view counts and engagement was way higher for me and what I see others as it is today. And I think that that was just Instagram changing some things. I saw Sid and Janae wanted to say something. Go ahead, Sid, and then we'll check in with Janae. I just would like to say that this story also highlights why you need a monetization strategy that is beyond the stupid CPM rates and clicks and views and listens. You need a monetization strategy that involves sponsorships and people that are, you know, supporting your show and not necessarily we're concerned with how many downloads you get, but more concerned about who your community is and how you can impact them with your reach.

52:11 So you got to go beyond that stupid CPM rate. It's kind of the same thing, right? It's really own your own stuff and have your own plan strategies, including monetization on your own platforms as best you can. Janae, did you want to say something? Absolutely excellent points. Rented land, use your own place is very important, but sometimes you're living in an apartment and you get an eviction and you go go find another apartment. This is similar to that, but you also want to see YouTube ad announced earlier this year that any content that was created using AI is not going to be monetized and they're probably going to pull back views on that. So it might be that time has come and they are not implementing that.

53:04 So could be one of those things. So again, I don't know who these channels are. I don't know if they were created AI content and which videos specifically were affected because that's something that YouTube is focusing on. They want to highlight the creators that are actually creating content, putting the time in, as opposed to channels that are just propped up to push AI content. That's a really good point. It's an interesting point, Janae, because I remember we reported on that not too long ago about YouTube cracking down on AI generated content and maybe this is a result. It very well could be. Alex, did you want to say something? This is that a different topic but I just was watching on my shorts or whatever Stacy came up on there. Stacy started from not wanting to open the box and she has a podcast.

53:58 She does all this other stuff. If you go on to her, her stories, she's a giant stadium today talking in front of a whole bunch of people. And she makes me so jealous, proud and angry all at the same time. Because not the angry because she's doing exactly what we're supposed to be doing and I need to be working harder and at this game. And it's just a testament of consistency and making it work. And she's busted her butt watching her little journey because nobody knew what CX was in this room before this. It's amazing because it just popped up and I was like, wow, that's really cool.

54:39 Thank you, Alex. Thanks for shouting Stacy out. Long time community member of the podcasting morning chat. Yeah, I saw that too and thought that was very cool. It must have been a little uncomfortable for her walking around a losing stadium though. Alex, I know that Washington handed it to your Giants this past weekend, and I can't say that I'm upset about that. It's. Honey, that it's time for this show to end. I don't know what that's all about. If we scored touchdowns instead of field goals, we would have beat. You. I hear you, but that's the name of the game. Can I jump in real quick? Go for it, Sid. Not about football, but about Stacy. So Stacy was quoted in a research article of our by Verizon and that research went out to lots of people in Verizon. And then Verizon invited Stacy to come speak on a panel at MetLife Stadium.

55:28 So that's why she's there. She's speaking on a panel and she's got another engagement she's doing tomorrow too. I'm not just speaking engagement, but you mentioned earlier about sharing gratitude to people that are important to your life. I will share those flowers to Stacy today. She's really pushing me to do some things that I've been putting off doing. She and I have become accountability partners in a topic. I talked to Stacy almost daily and we talked the other day, Alex, about her journey about from being in this room, not wanting to open the box to where she is today, what she's doing. And there's a lot to certainly be said for Stacy and how far she's come. But she's an inspiration. But she's also an amazing person to push you to continue to do great things.

56:12 And so I really appreciate her and what she's doing to help me get to the next level in certain aspects of my business. So Stacy, you know how much I think about you and how much I care about you, and thank you for what you're doing to help me. Oh, that's awesome. Thank you, Sid, and thanks for really highlighting Stacey and her journey both to you and Alex. And yeah, it's always a bittersweet thing for me because clearly we don't see Stacey here as much anymore. And that's because of exactly what Sid just said. It's because of all that growth, because she's out there doing all the things. And it all started for her here on the podcasting morning chat years ago, several years ago, being afraid to open up that box to take out that microphone and press record on her first podcast.

56:59 Look at how far that journey has come for her and for others. You know, we, we have had people. That's why I say it's bittersweet. We've had people come into this room, stay, stay with this community on a daily basis and then had had to walk away from it at least a lot more than they were attending. And that's because they've just moved into bigger things that has taken up their time and they can't commit to coming here in the mornings. Doesn't mean they've left the community. They're still a part of it. And then some cases, a lot of them have become leaders of this community and the podcasting community as a whole. So it's very cool to see. And I miss those voices and those people. But Stacey joins us from time to time. I think she was here just last week. Cool to hear, Sid.

57:43 Thank you for sharing that. And thank you all for a great conversation today. Lots of headlines we didn't get to. I'll go through them with Dr. and Ashley. We'll see if there's any we want to get to tomorrow. And we'll have a full show of podcasting talk tomorrow, 7:00 AM Eastern, as we do every Tuesday through Friday. We'll get back to Mondays here after the conference. I'll keep you posted there and until tomorrow, make it a great day everybody, take care.