374 - Seven Ways To Build An Obsession-Worthy Podcast

0:04 Good morning podcasting Morning chat. Today is Tuesday, September 23rd, 2025, my mom's birthday. And today it's a preview of the secret to getting your podcast seen and heard. Jonathan Howard's Empowered Podcasting talk that's all about building obsession worthy shows. So if you're listening live on Clubhouse, the share button, bottom left hand side of the screen and share it. However Clubhouse lets you. And if you're listening live on YouTube or 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 Ronick and on stage with me. Currently we have producer Ashley Feller, Jonathan Howard, Dr. Fey, Sid Meadows and Nick Nolback. And we are officially just three days away from the Empowered Podcasting Conference. 3 days. My mind is genuinely blown. I'm super excited and I can't say that I'm nervous, but there's certainly, I guess there is some anxiety just, you know, because it's a big deal. I've gone through quite the roller coaster ride to get us here and I couldn't be more excited about it.

2:04 I've been working on my opening remarks. I will on Saturday, even though we'll have already had Friday, but Saturday is the day that I'm going to actually give the opening remarks first thing in the morning, 9:00 AM. I've made, I've had a few drafts and I think I like where I'm going with it. And some of you may be thinking, but Mark, shouldn't you have done this already? Probably. But as the guy who's also putting this whole thing on, I had to prioritize. And I'm feeling OK I'm, I, it, it does feel a little bit like I'm in a crunch, but I've given myself enough time to play. So that's what I'm doing. I will be ready to go. 9:00 AM Eastern. I do.

2:47 Here's what we're going to do today. We are going to get to Jonathan Howard and his sneak peek at some of his workshop that he'll be doing on Friday 1st. I want to play a clip for no reason other than to maybe give you a smile this morning. And so let's do that. This is a clip I found. I just stumbled on it last night. I was on TikTok. The tik toker is Joey Mulinaro. Joey MULINARO. He is a comedian and impressionist. And yes, we'll probably show. Well, I am going to show my age here because this is a spoof of Seinfeld, the show, and he's specifically, he's doing a bit like it were from Seinfeld, as if it were maybe an episode from today.

3:41 And yes, they're talking about podcasting. Think you'd ever start a podcast? I don't think so. Why not? I think there's enough already. Yeah, but you're a comedian, supposed to have one. And you're a grown man. You're supposed to have a job. Don't you think it'd be beneficial to your career? I can't deal with the podcast invite. The podcast invite. Hey, come on my pod. Then I'll come on your pod. Then we'll do a pod together. Have a buddy. Maybe you go on his pod. I'll set you up. You'd love to have you on his pod. It's a never ending loop of conversations I didn't want to have in the 1st place. But what if we did one together?

4:27 Why would anyone listen to that? Come on, me and you. You're funny. Delusional. I was going to say interesting. Oh, you're interesting. All right. Ours will be different. How? We both know sports. We could talk about that, but it wouldn't just be a sports show. Oh no, you'd bring the comedy angle that I mean, we always go to the movies. We can talk about the movies. A one stop shop. So a podcast featuring two guys talking about sports movies with a little bit of pop culture.

5:07 Really groundbreaking stuff. Georgie boy, would you ever start a podcast? Already have one. What's it called? Creamer Ken. Ken what? Can't talk about anything. Sports, pop culture, relationships, politics. Need life advice. Go Graham again. I can't decide what's more concerning people listening to the show or actually taking advice from you. It's good stuff, Jerry. Oh, I've been meaning to ask, Can I get you on the bottom? And there you go, a little blast from the past, but in the present, if you will, wasn't that great. That was awesome.

5:55 And here's the irony of it. One of those voices was supposed to be George. Right. Right, Jason Alexander, who praised George. He now does with a very good friend of mine, Peter Tilden, in Los Angeles. It's just pop culture and they interview people and everything. Jason Alexander is doing a podcast now with somebody that you know. Yeah, and it's called. Really. No, really is what the show is called. Has that been on for a while? Have I just missed it? I think it's been on for maybe about a year. OK. All right, cool. I'll have to check that out. And I thought those impressions were great. And I thought the writing of the little bit, I thought that was really well done as well.

6:41 I really enjoyed that clip. I hope that those of you, those Seinfeld fans out there enjoyed it as well. Yeah, thank you, Dr. OK, so now I'm going to hand the baton over to Jonathan Howard. I'm going to encourage our team on stage here, hit the share button and ping some people into the room. I know we have a few here already. Thank you to Austin and Billy. Greg, thank you for being here bright and early this morning. I want to make sure a lot of people get to take advantage of this, especially if you can't make it to the Empowered Podcasting Conference. And maybe this will get others in the North Carolina area to get a little FOMO and want to come join us before it's too late.

7:25 Again, three days away. So with that, let me and good morning to Jen Dub who just walked into the room. Let me hand the baton over to Jonathan. Jonathan, thank you. I'm sure this is got to be a little helpful for you as well in the sense just to get another practice run out of some of your presentation and I think this will be great for all of us to get a little sneak peek. So thank you for doing it. Go for it, Jonathan. Good morning. Well. Thank you very much, Mark. Good morning, good morning. Hopefully you can hear me loud and clear. Three days away from the Empowered Podcasting Conference, which means I have exactly 3 more days to improve upon my presentation. So I'm going to take advantage of all of that and even, you know, throw some of it out this morning and see how it goes. Hey, by the way, Jonathan, how are you feeling? I'm feeling fantastic, actually great. I've no stomach issues for like the last 3-4 days. Awesome and puppy adoption moving along quite well. Now see, I knew this because you had mentioned it over on on Chatter when I joined you guys last week. So you're adopting a puppy?

8:31 I am adopting a puppy. I'm adopting. Well, I'm in the process of adopting a Husky at this point. So big a big puppy for me, yeah. Awesome, so you Oh, I see. And you've shared a picture here I. Did I shared a picture yesterday in the in the room? So it happened to be my picture when I showed up. And I was like, oh, I should probably change that to me because everybody's going to ask then. But yeah. Well, keep us posted. I'm that's exciting. I'm glad that you you're diving back into the dog world and bringing another one into the home. I got 1 here who's who's very lonely so we got to keep him company but. We're. Three days away and I've got this chunk of my presentation that I'm going to talk about. But the overall presentation is really learning how to be heard and seen. Get your podcast heard and seen.

9:18 But I'm going to talk today about obsession worthy content. So if you want your podcast to be one that people are absolutely obsessed over, these are some things that you need to take into account. So I got about 7 things. I know that's a lot, but we're going to fly through some of them. Some of them might need a little bit more explanation, but we will. We'll touch on those. And then if you guys have any questions at any point, feel free to ask me. But if we're looking for it to have an obsession worthy podcast, I'm going to tell you the first thing that we need to do is we need to stop being boring and predictable. Now, what do I mean by that? I mean, you've got to break away from the trends, separate yourself from the overdone best practices and do something in your own way.

10:05 Put your podcast out in a way that's unique to you. Put your content out in a way that resonates with you and your audience. Stop thinking that we have to do what everybody else is doing because everybody else is already doing that. And that's not a way to stand out. That's actually a way to blend in. So when you're following all the trends, when you're doing all the things, you're not going to get seen or heard if you're not doing something different. So what is a way that you can show up differently that represents your brand, that aligns with your content, that talks in a way that's purely you? So stop being boring, stop being predictable. I know it's a rough one, but you got to do that. And I love that Amanda Yellow is here because Amanda has this type of content. So you, number one, stop being boring and predictable. Number one, I'm sorry if I'm calling some of you out. Number two, embrace main character energy. What does this mean?

11:01 Well, nobody's going to tune into, you know, that wallflower that has no discernible POV. They're just kind of there. They don't really say anything that's controversial. They don't have anything that's interesting, that there's nothing unique about them. They're an everyday podcaster who's going to talk about entertainment and, you know, sports and whatever. That's boring. If you don't have APOV, nobody's going to listen to you. So embrace that main character energy. Build up a character around yourself, a presence around yourself that people will be able to obsess over. Because, you know, that wallflower with no discernible POV is not going to get anybody interesting.

11:45 But if that wallflower has, you know, they hate the world, that wallflower is going to have people that are interested because they've got an opinion that's really important. You have to have that. And your quirks are your currency. You've got to spend it loudly. If you want to be seen, you've got to spend that loudly. You've got your quirks, you've got your your ticks, you've got the things that you do that are just really interesting. You may not think they are, but they absolutely are. So make sure that you build that main character energy. It's OK to be the main character on your podcast. It's OK to be the main character in your content. You're the person that they're tuning in for.

12:26 So embrace that main character energy. All right, This is the one that I said I would soften for the show this morning. Oh, yes, yeah. I'll soften it by saying, say F off to the critics, the trolls, the naysayers, all the people that are telling you how to do something. You need to do it this way. You need to do it that way or this isn't the right thing for you or whatever it is. They have No there's, they got nothing in the game. Why are you listening to them? Listen to your audience, your community. The things that they want are the things that you should be putting out there. But the people that are hating on you, let them hate. It's actually a really beneficial thing. If you have haters, then somebody's paying attention. You're doing something right because those haters, they're jealous about something.

13:18 They wish they had something. They wish that you know you weren't doing what you were doing. They were. So they've got no skin in the game. Don't listen what they're saying or instead. Or they're having a bad day. They're just. So they're having a. Bad day and they really don't mean to be an ass, but they are. But they are exactly. And we've all had those days. But instead of paying attention to those people, because I know I'll come to you in a second, Sid, I know that we've all spent time like mulling over what a troll said about us. Instead of taking that time to worry about what the troll has to say, how about take that time, take that 15 minutes and speak to somebody who actually cares, who's actually listening to your podcast. Put a 15 minute appointment on your schedule every single week that you share with somebody in your audience and let them talk to them for 15 minutes instead of mulling over what the troll said.

14:12 All right, Sid. Good morning, everybody. John, can we go back to #1 for a second? Can you give an example of boring and predictable? Yeah, what I mean by boring and predictable is just doing any of the podcasting trends, any of the things that everybody else is doing. If your podcast looks like everybody else's, it's not going to get seen. So if I have a 45 minute interview podcast, am I boring and predictable? It depends. Are your questions boring and predictable? Do you have a point of view in there? I always have a point of view, Yeah, I just have real conversation with people. I don't have pre scripted questions and anything like that except for Mark and Nick sometime average had pre scripted questions.

14:58 Thanks. To me, thanks to me. And my anxiety. But I don't have pre scripted questions and I really enjoy it. But because it's a 45 minute interview format they're all over the place. This makes me wonder, is 45 minute interview boring and predictable? I think a 45 minute interview, we don't know if it's boring or not. The length doesn't make it boring or exciting. It's really the content that you're sharing. It's the questions that you're asking. To Jonathan's point, it's the answers that you're getting from those questions. And I think in the best example I can think of on the fly for this question that you had, Sid, it's really if you're one example would be are you following the exact same formula, the same cookie cutter formula as far as your format goes?

15:47 Are you starting with music playing? You give your intro, you play some more music, you go into the interview, you ask your questions, you play some music, at the end, you have an outro, you're out. Now that in itself is a good formula, right? We know it works, but it is also very cookie cutter. That's how most interviews are doing it. And to Jonathan's point, if you want to stand out, then maybe you want to try to do something a little different, something that shakes it up a little so that when that listener who's probably already a podcast listener, and chances are that listener is, well, now you've just kept them on their toes a little bit by changing up maybe the intro and how everyone else does it. You find a way to make it your own. Put a little stamp on it that makes it yours. That to me is what's is is a way to stand out and not be quote UN quote boring.

16:48 And Sid, I think, you know, if you have something that you do that's different that you start off your podcast interviews with or something that you end differently with or questions that you you wouldn't normally hear on a business podcast, then you're not being boring and predictable. Now, if you were to say, OK, Stephen Bartlett does this, I'm going to make sure that I do this exactly form this is what the formula he's using. I'm going to do this formula every single time I interview somebody. Then you're not putting your own spin on it. You're not being unique. You're not you're you're following best practices that are, yeah, they're great because they're best practices, but it doesn't let you stand out. It doesn't let you do what you want to do in your podcast and make it your own, hopefully. Yeah, thank you.

17:32 That was great. I appreciate it. I mean, I'm in the process of thinking about what is season 7 look like, What is my structure, my show look like? I'm rethinking everything. And so it's just an interesting question. Like, how can I improve it? Am I boring and predictable? Right. I mean, not that I'm saying that I am, but, you know, it's always good food for thought to figure out how to move forward and how to make the show better and how to make Season 7, you know, the best season ever. Absolutely. All right, so I'm glad you you got that question answered and said if there's anything, if you want to sit down, we'll we can talk about it. We'll see I'll see you in just a couple days. So #4 this one is an important one and a lot of people to say, oh, my life is boring.

18:20 I had nothing really interesting to talk about. Some of my content, it'll be boring, and that's not necessarily the case. Your life is full of drama. You just don't know how to frame it yet. You've got lots of interesting things that you can talk about and you have a ton of fun cliffhangers. You could even talk about your life is engaging for people, your things that are happening in your life on your podcast, all that. It can be very interesting. So instead of creating really boring like segments that don't really talk about anything, it's kind of like hanging with Cliff.

19:02 You know, you're just like, hey, here we are. Here's what we're doing. Use storytelling, use drama and use a little bit of that tension to create more dynasty worthy cliffhangers. Yes, I am really dating myself. If Seinfeld is dating him, dynasty is really. But you want to have interesting content and by using storytelling and some tension, you can actually, your life is full of drama. It really is. And people are interested in what you're talking about because it's real. So mix in some of that real content into your podcast. Mix up in some of the real life things that happen that real life drama with some storytelling and some, you know, Zhujing can be interesting.

19:49 It can also be a cliffhanger that brings people to the next episode. So keeping in mind that you can utilize some of this to bring people from one episode to the next and really use it to engage people because they want to. People want to know about you, believe it or not, and we actually care about your life. And I saw Nick had a question. Yeah, OK. We'll go to Nick and Jonathan. By the way, Zhujing a an official podcasting term that in case anybody didn't know, that is an official term in the world of podcasting. Zhujing. Zhujing. Yes, it is. OK, let's go to Nick. Alright everybody, I just wanted to add a little bit of perspective to that because everyone's taste for content is going to be different and what you might enjoy watching or not enjoy watching is going to be completely different than someone else's.

20:38 And it kind of been a trap that I've thrown myself into is like, well, things I'm doing are boring. The things that I like to talk about are the things I like to do in my free time, no one else is going to care about. And that's not the case. Like maybe you're not your own target audience for your show, but everyone's got their own tastes. Everyone's got their own thing that they're into, and you can lean into that, even if you don't think that there's something that is like your most outstanding moment or story or whatever it is, that could be really fascinating and interesting to someone else. I just wanted to add that in there.

21:19 That is true. But since you called yourself out, I'll say, I mean, there are times that you'll text me and you'll send me a note and say, hey, look at this that I just did using AI as an example and I'll look at it. I'll be blown away. And I'll say, you know, you should make some content about that. And your response is usually, you know, I didn't even really think about that or, oh, that's true. I could be doing that, right? So yeah, it's sometimes it's, it's a matter of observing ourselves and noticing like what are these things that we're doing and that maybe we're enjoying behind the scenes that we could share as part of our content. You get so caught up in what you're doing like that exactly what you're talking about.

22:03 Like I'm playing with all these AI things. I'm finding stuff that I think they're interesting and I don't think like, oh, other people are going to find this interesting as well. So I can just. Keep in my own and keep doing the the things that I'm doing just I find it find it interesting without realizing, oh, there's other people out there that might also. Right, exactly. And that's in the world of podcasting content creation. Let's say you're a therapist, right? Well, what are some of the things that you're doing behind the scenes that you're really enjoying in the world of therapy and that you could bring into your content and share with your audience? That it's doesn't matter what the industry is. It's a matter of paying attention to those things that you're doing behind the scenes, those things that you're doing that you enjoy, that that you think is just maybe every day.

22:48 But to your audience, it's fresh, it's new, it's something potentially different that they're going to want to hear about. All right, I'm going to say absolutely to that. And also this is one of those things, and I know this isn't part of the presentation, but this is one of those times when you keep a notebook of your of things that people ask you as well. Because the things that people are asking you may happen in your everyday life may, but they make great content because people want to know that answer. And then I saw Sid throw a pepper. It's a interesting topic because so many times we don't know what we're saying or what we're doing right. And kind of the next point about AI and AI is like a new frontier.

23:28 So you've got you think about when the Internet came on board and when e-mail came on board, that's where AI is at the moment. And the other day I had a session with a client and we were going over their value proposition and just trying to like zone it in. And I was working with him through some of the how you do this and how you do that. And later I got a message from his boss saying, wow, he really enjoyed that session. It was really powerful and thank you. I thought to myself, what did I do? Like, what did I do that was so special? And is there content there? And so I grabbed the transcript from Otter and accented in the ChatGPT and said, this is a transcript from a session I had where I was helping a client discover what their value proposition was because what they sent me was a marketing statement and not a true value proposition. Is there a framework here that I could take and make repeatable and reusable?

24:30 And within a few seconds, it gave me a framework and I was like, wow, that's really cool. I knew there was something there. And now I have a framework that I can use and share. I'm going to turn it into an ebook and put it on my website for people to download. But I say all that to say is that what I did to Nick's point was figure out how to take something that I created in the private setting and turn it into framework that I can use in public setting. And could I share that? Yeah, I could share that, especially if I'm sharing AI news or AI best practices. I mean, that's something that everybody wants to learn about. What are practical ways to use AIAI? And all of us who create content, we create a lot of content and we don't understand how valuable that content is, even if it's in a private one-on-one setting. So I think it's very relevant to understand what you're creating and how you can reuse it.

25:23 I love that, Sid. Thank you. Yeah, what a great example. Thank you for sharing that. And yeah, I mean, those are the things to pay attention to when we are doing our our work, putting our doing our creative work, whatever work it is. But yeah, pay attention to those things and then think about afterwards. Is that something I could share with my audience? Hadn't I got any feedback, I wouldn't have thought twice about it, right? I got feedback that said that was really great, which led me to go, is there something here like what did I do and how did I create it? Because I was just doing my thing, right? And I didn't go in there with that framework.

26:03 I just went in there. Let's review this and figure it out. I was just going to say, Nick said in the chat. Not even what you're doing, but how you're doing it as well. And I was going to say, that's one of those reasons why having that 30 minutes instead of paying attention to the trolls and having that 30 minutes set aside to talk to your clients every week, your people that are in your audience, people that want to give you feedback. Having that 30 minutes will allow you to get this feedback so that you know there's something that you're doing that's actually resonating with your audience. So put that 30 minute appointment in the schedule, 15 minutes. If you can't do 30, whatever it is, just get some feedback from your audience. So thank you for that, Sid. All right, I'm going to go 5. I have 5-6 and seven. Number 5 is repeat for recognition. And this is 22 pronged 1 leverage visual triggers, not corporate branding to build up your identity. Now, if you're doing a podcast, you obviously can use audio triggers as well, but you want to have things that are going to be repeated in your that is going to be part of your branding.

27:06 It's going to help instead of just having logos and, and you know, hat tag lines and all that, have some aspects of how you're showing up be repeated so it becomes part of your brand. An example of this for me is obviously my sequin hat, the blue that I use, the green that I use, all those things that are triggers. When people see it, they know it's me. But the other side of this is to actually repeat your message. Your message should be repeated because that's how you establish your expertise. You want to be known for something. Repeat what you want to repeat the things that you want to be known for. You don't have to create new content every day. And this applies to podcast episodes too. You can repurpose podcast episodes, podcast topics if you want to be known for something, what are those things you want to be known for and what are the topics that you cover underneath those main ideas?

27:59 You're not going to regurgitate and put out a the same exact, you know, podcast every three weeks, but you can take to put a different spin on the topic every few weeks and get people engaged in that way. So that is repeat for recognition number that was five number six well into the homestretch. Number six is the fun kind of FOMO. You want to create challenges, Easter eggs, make it feel fun, not frantic. Make it feel like you're creating insiders, not spectators. You want to have things that are interesting for people that are following you.

28:41 You want to have something that's fun for them to engage with. Because when you have that, whether it's you know something, you say something, you do a tease that you're for your next show, whatever it is, make it fun FOMO. And obviously we know the example of this is Taylor Swift. But The thing is, you can love Taylor Swift and follow all the Easter eggs and be that crazy person. Or you could just love Taylor Swift and not follow the Easter eggs. But you know, people are enjoying it and having fun. So it creates a culture around a person. And that's what you're looking to do with the fun kind of FOMO. What do you mean when you say Taylor Swift? So Taylor Swift is known by her audience for leaving little clues about upcoming things. Whatever it might be.

29:29 It might be, you know, a new album coming out. It may be on Friday she released that she's going to be doing a lot a movie like in theater movie for the release of her new album. And people have been picking at these little clues like why is she taking a picture in a movie theater for in her album information. Well, that's why she's doing it. So she's leaving clues in advance that her audience knows to follow. And it's creating that like if you didn't see it, you're like, Oh my God, I missed out on this. But it's also not necessarily necessary as part of the lore. Like you could be one of those person that's, I think they call it clowning over the Easter eggs, but you don't have to be to still enjoy the music.

30:15 So it creates a little bit of lore around the brand. And I knew that and completely forgot that about Taylor Swift just in the moment. You sharing it. But yeah, I'm sure not everybody listening to this knows some of Taylor Swift's little secrets and how she does things. So I'm glad you clarified. Thank. You four and five years in advance. It's crazy, all right, The last one, the last way to create obsession worthy content, things that people are going to obsess over is your unpolished content is your heart and soul of your brand. People don't care necessarily about all the scripted perfect things that you're putting out there. So limit those because people don't really care about them. What people want to see is the real human behind the brand, the real human that's creating content. Now, this doesn't mean that you just throw away all you know, I'm, I have my story podcast.

31:08 I'm not going to throw away all my lessons on storytelling and just wing it and, you know, get behind the scenes content and all that. But I will mix in behind the scenes content and stories that aren't, you know, fully developed and my messy desk and all of that will make an appearance in my content because that's what people actually care about. They want to see. That's what brings them back for more is all those things that you would not expect. All those things that make you human is what brings people back to see what's happening now. You can use this by just telling like stories of things that went wrong. My last podcast episode is about a presentation that I made that was really kind of a disaster, but it was also a great point of learning.

31:56 But that episode is kind of, you know, people are like, oh, oh, we can mess up. Oh, he messes up just like I mess up. That's the connection that you want to build with that unscripted content. And people are are all over that. The curated BS that, you know, some people are putting out there that it's like, you know, if you're have a morning banter over in your podcast and it's all very oh, what did you do today? Oh, I did this and this and nobody cares. They know it's scripted. Give them the real stuff. If you spill your coffee, run with spilling your coffee, whatever it is. They want to see the real thing. They want to see that you're a human and that will help you connect and be seen because not everybody can do what you're doing because you're you.

32:42 You're the best person to be you. I'm. Going to stop you there for a second because the whole what did you do thing like I totally connect with what you're saying. I get that, you know, if you're going to just have chit chat at the beginning of your show, that could cause people to leave depending on what the chit chat is, right? Because I'm saying all this because we do, at least I do encourage people to share bits and pieces about their lives as as comfortable as they are to share. So, you know, where is the line there, right? Like when it when is it just chit chat versus when should they be sharing a little bit more about themselves personally as the host?

33:23 That's a great question. And the line is where you draw the line for yourself. Now, what I think is important is that people before they go, and I'm doing a podcast, I'm going to just record a podcast. You have to decide what aspects of your life and the things that you do you're willing to share. And you should share those things always. And the things that you're not willing to share should be off limits always so that you don't get into this like, oh, do I share that? Do I not share that? Does it fit into, you know, one of the categories of things you said you would share about your life? Because we don't have to share everything about our lives. We don't have to be an open book. We can select certain things that we want to share, that we want to talk about, that we will always talk about in our content. But then there's things that are off limits. I don't talk.

34:11 I mean, there's very few things I don't talk about, but I really don't talk about my divorce. That's something that I just kind of, it's off limits. It, you know, at the time was very painful. It's not something that I want to bring into my content. So I just never talk about my divorce. So finding the things that you do talk about and you don't want to talk about, and then when something falls into that category, feel free to share it and connect with your audience on that topic. Love that. Thank you. And here's what I'm going to do is I'm going to 1st let's recap the seven ways. Let's make sure I get your your thing. Right. Yeah, it's the it's how to build obsession worthy content. There it is. So OK and here are 7 things to consider when doing so right. The one was stop being predictable and boring. 2 Embrace your main character energy. I want to talk about that too a little bit. Three say 6-7 to trolls, right?

35:04 Isn't that what we discovered? 6-7 means OK or get lost or F off as Jonathan wanted to say #4 use storytelling to turn your life into exciting episodes #5 repeat for recognition. I really like that one. Number six, non-toxic, FOMO and #7 unpolished content is your brand's heart and soul. And #8 never say 6-7. Never. Oh, OK, sorry Alex. I'll I'll keep that up. Let me make that note. OK, Thank you. I was very proud to say 6-7. I felt like I was using it in context and everything. Why when it? Comes to the six seven thing. What is that? You said it wrong and it's just annoying.

35:46 Did anyone see the the viral clip of the kids that I feel like it was at Chick-fil-A or something, Or maybe it was Five guys and they had the video running because they were waiting for the server or the, you know, person behind the counter to say number 67, your order is ready and they say it and the crowd goes completely bonkers. Just crazy. So excited that the server said it. It was because they said order 66. It really had nothing to do with 6/7. No, it did. It really did. They said 6-7 and then the crowd went crazy. OK, let's talk a little bit about that FOMO for a second. The fun FOMO, the non-toxic FOMO. And 1st, you know the Empowered Podcasting Conference is an example of creating fun FOMO, right? We've been talking about it, we've been counting it down the last 10 days or so.

36:38 We've been talking about it all year long. And it doesn't have to be a full scale convention either. Let me be clear, right? This could be a meet up, whether it's online or in person, but you know, creating some sort of event that your audience will attend, but obviously not everyone will be able to. But that creates the fun FOMO. And then what did I write here? We wrote another note. This is why we encourage people to shout out their listeners by name. If I start shouting out people from our audience, people from our community, maybe even sharing a piece of a conversation that I had with them or just the fact that I had a conversation with them.

37:23 Calling out your audience in those sort of ways creates that fun FOMO. People will want to hear their name spoken on your show if you're doing that for others. I can tell you this, at least from my own experience, that's always been a thing. I've, oh, in 20 years of podcasting, that's always been a thing. Yeah. And the other thing is just giving your audience a name, a fun name, whatever it may be, that gives them a sense of belonging, which creates that insider feel. So even just that can be one way of creating a fun kind of FOMO. 100%, Yep. And does anyone have some questions other than me for Jonathan? Good morning, Amanda.

38:08 Good morning. I don't really have a question. I just kind of have something to add to the conversation what we were just talking about, about the FOMO. So I created a hotline where people can call in and it can be a story, it can be a rant, it can be a question, it can be if you're upset with something that I previously talked about and you want to tell me to go, you know where, feel free. Be a part of the conversation. I mean, you become my content. I do let you know that. But on the same token, it gives people that incentive to feel like a real part of the conversation in the community, which I love. So I just started doing that and somebody called in a hilarious story that I had on my podcast last week that ended up being, you know, just hysterical. So once you teach people and show people the type of content like you want them to call in with they the calls are now like rolling in.

39:02 So I'm in really enjoying that because a lot of my episodes are solo and it gets boring talking to myself, right. So I love being able to have my community call in and have that dialogue back and forth. And then another thing we mentioned earlier on when, when City asked this question about just being boring, when you have guest episodes, you kind of have to do your due diligence and do your homework. For me, you know, a lot of mine are solo, but things I like to touch on are maybe against the green or OK, what's the opinion that everybody's been giving on this? Let me see if there's something that I can align with that's a little bit against the green or different perspective.

39:43 So like having a guest as well, you have to do your homework and look and see like what questions are is this person asked a lot? You know, some people like showing up and having a script and having like, OK, I know I'm going to be asked this, this, this, this and this. But I'd like to look at it as like, what is my listeners or my viewers going to enjoy the most? And if they follow this person, they may have already heard, you know, the same questions over and over. So what can I give them that is different? That they haven't heard so that they can get that new and fresh content from this guest that I'm having on my show. So that's why I want to add to the conversation. Thank you. Lots of Nuggets there. Thank you, Amanda. And 1st, I'm going to ask you, what are you using? Can you remind us what, what do you use to that allows your audience to call in?

40:28 Because I know there are some podcasters out there that hear that and they think, well, how, how the heck does that work? Yeah, Google Voice, it is FREA. If it's free, it's for me. So yeah, Google Voice. And I even got a Philadelphia area code, which I loved. You could pick your number and have people calling for free. Yeah, that's a great one. I I know speak pipe is another one, but yeah, free, you can't really beat it. And I I use Google Voice for my business phone number and it works great. So yeah, I would absolutely recommend that. And Amanda, I have a question for you. Do you ever now Pam is your big character?

41:11 I know it's doing really well over on Instagram. It I shouldn't call Pam an it the content is what I meant is doing really well. And Pam being the Philly mom character. Do you ever, have you ever thought about doing a segment where people call in to Pam specifically and she gives advice or responds to the the voicemail? I did think of that. I, I'm throwing around ideas for Pam and how we can collaborate her into the into the podcast. I did set up a Cameo account, so I have to start marketing that. And I think that might be the missing piece there for her because I've gotten a lot of requests to have her attend parties and upcoming Halloween events and birthdays and girls nights out.

42:01 So, you know, I thought, let me set up a Cameo account and see where this goes. So I think that might be the avenue that I may take for that. You know, it just reminded me it it's like your Pam character is the younger Philly mom version of Mama from Mama's family. Anyone remember that show? Yes. That's kind of what it reminds me of. I was raised by my grandparents essentially, so I have a lot of older generational influences and she may or may not be one of them. I love it. OK, cool. Now, Jonathan, I think you wanted to respond to Amanda before we get to some of the others. Really simple. I think one of the things that Amanda does really well is she actually takes, she has kind of an extension of her podcast that she does on the other app and she holds really great rooms about the topics that she's thinking about or has covered in her podcast.

42:52 So that's a way to get some ideas and some feedback from, you know, actual people about topics that are important. So trying to make some of that into your podcast as a process will help you be less boring and predictable. Awesome. Go ahead, Dr. Good morning. Hey, good morning, great presentation, Jonathan. So I want to know about mistakes because you were talking about mistakes can be a great learning, you know, vessel. So what is the biggest mistakes that you see podcasters make when it when they just assume this content is great, it's good enough. I think one of the mistakes that podcasters make, and this is it's kind of ties into what we talked about last week, is they think that just because it's being done that way, that's the way it needs to be done.

43:45 They follow the formulas and the best practices and all those things because, OK, everybody else is doing that. So this is how I have to set up my podcast. And that's not how you have to set up your podcast. You can do whatever you want. You can do it completely opposite. Now, does the content have to be good? Yeah, but it has to be you. It has to be something that's going to engage people. But you don't have to do specific. First I do my music, then I do my intro, then I do this, then I do that. That's not how you have to assemble your podcast. So I think one of the biggest mistakes people make is they just assume that it has to be a certain way and it doesn't. I love that.

44:25 Thank you. Jonathan and Alex, did you want to chime in? Just check out other podcasts and and YouTube channels because we're kind of in our own world here. If you just kind of stay within that one segment of the podcasting world, there's a lot, I mean, every topic under the sun is doing so many different things. And I think that's where you can probably get a lot of your creativity is by seeing what other people are doing and kind of adapting it to what you do. And I'm not saying be them, but at the same time just get ideas. And I'm going to go the other way with being boring, so to speak. Yes, you don't want to be too traditional, you want to be edgy, but sometimes you as the host is what people want to listen to and that's what they come for. So if you have a quote UN quote boring format, I mean, maybe we can, maybe Jonathan thinks I'm wrong, but if you have a boring format, but it works, you know, I look at what Sid does. The reason why people listen is because you ask awesome questions, they listen to you.

45:30 And I think that that's the thing that people left. Sometimes you don't have to fix it, sometimes you do. That was my point. Alex, just quickly, the whole idea here is for you to embrace all the things that you do that you do well, that you do differently than others that you are actually doing because what we want to see you. And that's why I tell people not to follow everything, all the other podcasts. That's why I tell people, you know, say, hey, you've over consumed. It's time for you to create because people over consume and they try to make themselves somebody that they're not. And that's where they get lost, when they're creating this whole persona that isn't them, that doesn't represent them, and they're creating this podcast that doesn't represent them.

46:11 That's where they get lost. And I just want to throw an asterisk to all this. In my opinion, it's OK to work from a formula initially if that's if that's what it takes to get your podcast going and that's what you feel comfortable doing. To get started, by all means follow the formulas. But if something doesn't feel right to you or you're called to do something different than the formula, I encourage you to try it. So maybe your first handful of episodes is following the exact formula. Awesome. Congratulations, you launched a podcast. And as you go, if there's something that you want to try or something that you're doing that just doesn't feel right to you, then try something different.

46:54 It's a good thing you said that because I just cancelled my sequence order for Empower Podcast, all the sequence that I was going to wear, and I just decided not to do it. But I just wanted to be myself. My my my sequence I. Was going to say Jonathan, you could pull from your closet if he needed to borrow any. Yeah. Yeah, I'm good. Yes. And I just wanted to say quickly, this is just my way of doing things, and if it doesn't resonate with you, that's fine. Then I'm not your person and that's cool. Obviously, if you think I'm completely wrong, there's a lot of people out there that do, so it's fine. Go go with them. All right, let's check in with Sid. Sid, you have something. Go for it. So I'm going to echo what Amanda you always said first, which is Jonathan, great content.

47:38 Thank you for sharing. Always something to think about, whether or not you try to incorporate every aspect of the seven. But I mean, it's something to think about and I appreciate you sharing your perspective. Always, right. And there's something that Alex said. I mean, I'm a, I'm a regular consumer of podcast and I have my regular playlist that I listen to everyday. I probably listen to three or four different podcasts each day. And I also have, because I'm in this mode of how can I improve? I have a calendar block on my calendar to listen to research shows, type in a topic that I'm interested in.

48:20 I just want to see what they're doing. Like I'm that's my research time. Like my not necessarily interested in following the show. If it's really good, I might follow it, but I'm doing my own research just to figure out what I want to do next. So I think it's OK to research and to look for best practices and then do them your way. Right? And the third thing to what Jonathan said and #7 is how I show up on my podcast is the real Sid. And it's the same person you're going to get if you schedule a virtual coffee with me. It's the same person you're going to get if you run into me in a hallway. Same person you're going to get if you meet me for coffee somewhere.

49:03 Because it's just too damn hard to be somebody else. And it's just too hard to put on a persona for the podcast and then be normal when you're having coffee. So the person you get, you're going to get every time that you engage with me. And I think that's part of my brand is that authenticity. I don't really care for that word very much. I think it's way over used. But you're going to get the real Sid. Whether you like my opinions or not, I do take positions on things and I say this in my show. If I share a thought or an idea and whether you disagree with me or not, but it made you stop. It made you think and it made you go and do something in your business that moved your business forward. Then I'm doing my job as a podcaster. You don't have to agree with me, but at least listen to my side of the conversation and let's figure out together how to grow your business.

49:53 It's just too hard not to be neat. Yeah, be yourself. Everyone else has taken one of my favorite quotes. And Sid, that thing that you just mentioned, the thing that you look at something differently and share your opinion on that is that part of every single episode. It is not. It's only when it relevant to the conversation, right? So depending on who I'm talking to, like yesterday I had an an amazing interview with the business owner and as part of my CEO chat series and she reminded me how much I love podcasting. But there was nothing in that conversation yesterday for me to take an opinion on or position on. And but the one before it, yeah, there was.

50:35 So it just, I mean, I just depends on the conversation, how the conversation goes. So no, it is not part of every show, only when it's relevant. Well, maybe even a Sid take away every show or something along those lines that people can bite into and and it, it becomes warm, like part of the format that you're using that's unique to you. Like the hot take? Like Sid's hot take? Yep, that's really interesting. One of my favorite shows does there shows launches on Thursday, but on Monday he does three more questions where he has his assistant ask him three questions from the show earlier in the week and he responds basically establishing his leadership, his thought leadership, his authority, he's responding to the question she's asking. So I mean, that's another really great perspective of like do hot take.

51:23 Well, yeah, actually, it's a great way again to do something a little different than the norm. Sure. He puts out his sounds like interview podcast weekly and then that follow up show is really what helps him stand out, in my opinion, based on what you're sharing anyway. Yeah, he's now digging deeper. He's establishing more of his authority from that conversation. So he put that guest in the spotlight and then he takes time of of his own to put himself in the spotlight talking about those same things. I think that's really valuable and I'm curious if anybody here comes close to Sid on listening to three to four podcasts a day, does Sid win that title as the most the biggest podcast?

52:10 Listener, it's not really, it's not really a prize to celebrate, by the way. So let's be clear. Because there is such a thing as over contenting. So yeah. Yeah, I think though you take the cake, good, bad, indifferent. You definitely I think are the leader here as far as most podcasts listen to in a week on average. All right, listen, Jonathan, I will also echo what everybody's saying. Great job. I am really curious and interested to hear the whole workshop. Thank you for for digging into part of it here. I'm glad that we were able to provide you with a practice ground for the big talk, the big workshop coming up in just three days.

52:53 Thank you Jonathan, job well done. I see you getting some applause from the audience and your fellow Co hosts alike. So kudos to you, Sir, and thank you for for for taking the lead for most of this conversation today. We're back tomorrow doing all the headlines around the world of podcasting and content creation. Join us at 7:00 AM Eastern live here on Clubhouse or live on YouTube as well if whatever floats your boat. And if neither float your boat, you can always catch the podcast just a few hours later. So until tomorrow, make it a great day everybody take care.