377 - Live from Empowered Podcasting Conference 2

0:04 Good morning Podcasting Morning Chat. Today is Friday, September 26th, 2025, and today we're streaming live from Empowered Podcasting in Charlotte, NC, bringing you behind the scenes moments, conference tips, and random chats with speakers and fellow podcasters. 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 catching us live on YouTube or 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. Thank you so much for being here. I am your host, Mark Ronick, and currently on stage with me we have Dr. Fay, producer Ashley Feller, Jonathan Howard, Sid Meadows, Chris Vaglio, and the one and only Dave Jackson is with us as well. And he's both virtually on stage, but he's also here, actually sitting right next to me at the Hyatt Centric here on our first day of the Empowered Podcasting Conference, our second annual conference. It's finally here. I cannot believe it and I am thrilled to be here. It's funny, all day yesterday I was super excited. Just, you know, getting my packing done, which I didn't do until yesterday, but also just the excitement, the enthusiasm of others.

2:12 I was getting so pumped up. And then by the time I got here, I sat down at the bar and I was wiped out. I think the adrenaline from the day just completely took me and I felt really bad cuz I was, you know, a lot of people were coming in and seeing me and so excited and I was just drained. So I finally decided I would go up to my room around 9930 and I just crashed so that I'll have more energy for today. So I am excited to be here and I know we're going to have some others joining us momentarily. But first I just wanted to jump in. And I mean, we can just go ahead and do it. Let's just go ahead and do the icebreaker. Actually, before we do, I'm just going to say Dr. You, did you have anything you wanted to ask?

3:03 I want to know about your anxiety level and where it's at now compared to where it was before you got there. My anxiety level actually, I was really, like I said earlier, I was so chill by the time I got here, it was almost to a fault. There was nothing really to do yesterday or last night. We didn't, you know, because the hotel was setting up the area for us and today is going to be the day that we have all the rest of our stuff to set up. And so yesterday my anxiety was really in check Today. I don't even think I've had a minute to think about it because all I've been focused on is setting up here for the podcasting morning chat.

3:43 So it's, you know, one step at a time is the way I'm trying to take all this. Exactly. Yeah, OK, cool. All right, so let's dive in and I think where I want to go first. Well, you know what, we have Dave here. So I think I'm going to ask Dave a couple questions first, Why not? It's bright and early in the morning. He'll have plenty to say this early in the morning, I'm sure. So Dave, you as most people know, you launched School of podcasting. That was in 2005 S 20 years ago. Yeah, back in 2005. So what was your original vision for it back then and how is that vision changed over time? It was AI didn't know what I was doing. I had no clue 0 So I was like, well, let's just try this. And nobody else was doing it.

4:35 So I was going to be like the place to learn how to podcast, not knowing that there would be a thing called John Lee Dumas and Cliff Ravenscraft and Daniel J Lewis and all the other guys. How has it changed? That's a good question in the early days and you need somebody to always give you good feedback. And they said, hey, Dave, here's the what we're hearing on the street. The good news is you have everything you need to learn how to podcast. The bad news is you have everything you need to know the podcast. So I had to kind of go through and figure out, OK, let's still haven't done this. I should have one way and I don't. I have the I have no budget kind of path. I have some budget kind of path and budget is not an issue path. And if I was coaching myself, I would say pick A. Lane.

5:24 Pick a lane, yeah? Yeah. What do you think that's really been? Do you think that's a problem? Do you think it's hurting your business? Like if that the fact that you do have these three different lanes, because I can imagine you can still make it work well. Yeah, it's a matter of my background's in teaching, so I think I can fix everything through education, which is not always true. So I have when you walk in, there's kind of a not so much a manual, but it's like, hey, there are three paths, this one, this one and this one. So as long as they know what it is, and then I'm always there to answer any questions. So yeah, it's it. And for me, what I didn't have back then, which I do now, is a community.

6:05 Because back then it was like, here's my courses and here's me. And then as I didn't have a way for people to really talk to each other. And so now use a thing called heartbeat. What's heartbeat? Heartbeat is think of it as circle light. Everybody knows circle. It was on Epsumo forever ago. And I was like, oh, this is just like circle. And then they added courses and I was like, oh wait a minute, there's a community and courses. And then I waited about a year and they finally got their courses to where I kind of wanted them to be. And then they updated their payment system and I was like, well, this is dumb because I was using a a company called Zendler for my courses.

6:46 And I was like, well, this is dumb. I've already paid once at Appsumo and so moving is never fun, but that's what I'm getting now for the school of podcasting is heartbeat. So I want to ask you, we're talking about these three different lanes, kind of the newbies, the middle of the road, and then these the experienced podcasters. And a common question that I know I get, and I'm sure you get is what's, what's a common mistake that new podcasters make? But I actually want to ask you what's what's a common challenge that you see the experienced podcasters deal with? The first one I actually saw yesterday at pod page, somebody was gonna, well, they're going to launch a show called together Marriage. And they spelled together TWO gather. And I said, look, I used to work at Libsyn, and every time I said that word, I had to spell it.

7:38 I said, you're going to hate yourself. And so I said, everybody's going to type in TOO, you know, TOG, etcetera for that. And then the experienced 1 is not talking to their audience enough. Oh, really? Yeah. And I don't know, I, I think sometimes we put it out there and we don't get much feedback. So we go, oh, well, I tried. You're right. And I'm like, no, you got to be maybe a little more specific, you know, give them a question to answer or one of the things I'm doing next month, I was like, well, I'm going to drink my own kool-aid as I just set up kind of a not so much a webinar, But I was like, hey, on October 16th, come let me know what I could do better with my show. Like, let me know what I'm doing.

8:19 OK. But really, I'm there to find out how am I annoying you in any way? And to me, I always say if you can tell me the eye color of your audience, you're in the right place. OK. I like that. So then when we talk about the newer podcasters, what's what do you think is a big common mistake that they do make? The one they go, oh, I never thought of that is how are you going to measure your success? And they're like, what do you mean? I go, how are you going to measure your success? And they look at me like I've got 3 heads and they go, well, downloads. And I go, OK, so I'm going to wave my magic wand. Poof, you have 15,000 downloads now what are you going to do with them? And they go, I, I guess I'll get sponsors and I might. So that's the goal I said, because if you're selling your own stuff, like I'll give you an example, in January, my numbers go up because everybody and their brother is like, this is the year I'm going to do a podcast. And in February, much like gym memberships, my numbers go down a little, but my membership goes up because some of those people in January signed up.

9:25 So I measure my success by membership sign ups. So in February, if I was measuring my success by downloads, I'd be on the floor in the fetus position because they're nose diving. But I don't, I do it through membership. So you kind of have to know how am I going to measure my success? Whether it's, you know, through sponsorships or Patreon people or, or downloads or and then I'm like, OK, great. What are you going to do with those downloads? So that's the one they don't think about, because if you don't get your why, I always call it there's the why and The Who. If you don't get your why, you burn out. That's right. Yeah, I absolutely I want to pause and see does anybody have any questions for Dave Dr. See you're off mic.

10:08 I have two questions. 1 is a fun question and the other one is a little bit deeper. So the fun question is, Dave happens to be kind of a sumo Ling app. Sumo Ling the same as me and Dave. I want to know what your last app sumo purchase was. Promo amp or amp promo? It's some sort of contest thing. I've read so many different, you know, articles and things that any kind of contest is a way to grow your e-mail list. So I can't remember if it's amp promo or promo amp, but it's pretty neat. I've got a, a contest gunning right now where if you subscribe to the show, you get a point.

10:51 If you share the show, you get a point. If you subscribe to my YouTube, you get a point. And then I just was playing with it. So I was like, and you win a shout out, you know, on the show and a link in the show notes. So I'm just playing with it. But that's the last thing I've done. But yeah, I I am kind of purposely staying away from App Sumo 'cause it's not that they have bad software. In fact, I've got some really good deals. But when I get a new piece of software, that means I have a learning curve to go through. And I don't have the time right now to go through a learning curve. Understood. I bought humanize dot AI. That's the last thing I bought. I think I'm going to return it though because I have I discovered that I already have something that does the same thing so but my other.

11:36 Question, I have a better question for you. What app sumo app do you not have? I think that would be a better. One that. Was a good question was take too too much time to think about it. So, Dave, what is the lesson that you've learned from your like your biggest flop that you couldn't have learned from your big success? Oh yeah, this one's fun. This is probably 10. Whenever the remember there was a big giant tsunami in Oh yeah, forever. It was well, that happened the same week as my birthday.

12:17 And so I'd, I prerecorded this episode and at the time Kindles were really expensive and Dave really wanted a Kindle. And so I, you know, prerecorded this thing. Hey, it's my birthday. If you've gotten any kind of value out of the show, you know, here's a PayPal button. You know, it'd be great if you could help chime in because I really want to get this Kindle and then put it out. And then a tsunami hit and everybody else is like, hey, thousands of people have died and yeah, they need money. And then we need to help these people. And there's Little Dave out there going, I want a Kindle. You know, these people lost their life, but I want a Kindle. And there was a part of me that was like, you should probably not release that. And I'm like, that's already scheduled. I'm like, what's?

12:58 And I just, it's one of those looking back, I go, yeah, that that was a. Little bit of a mistake, yeah. Hey, Billy is on stage. Billy Thorpe, welcome to the stage. Did you have a question or are you just kind of joining in the conversation wherever you feel like it? I had a question for Dave. So Dave and I had the chance to meet and hang out at Ecam's Creator Camp last year. And Dave, you told me about this app called Volley. Where you do some asynchronous coaching and I'm just curious to how it's going. Because I just started a little. Community on there and a little test trial three month thing so far so good, but just want to get some your feedback when I left yesterday in heartbeat, which is my community. I'm like, hey, I'm going to be you know at this event. If you're there, I'd love to see you. I just saw Ralph shout out to Ralph from askralph.com and I said, but if you want questions and things like that, send them to me in volley.

13:56 The thing I love about volley is I can send a video answer, I can send an audio answer, I can send a text message or a screen share. So when you hear Dave talk about unlimited coaching, you know, when you somebody's in insert, you know, country, I can't pronounce. Now a lot of that they're like, I love you, Dave, but I want to get up at 4:00 in the morning to get on a Zoom call. So they'll just ask their questions via volley. And the minute I get up, I answer them back. So yeah, I love volley. Pretty cool. And you are also with pod page. You can't you briefly mentioned pod page there and I'm curious what your day-to-day looks like now that you've got this, you know, work with Pod page, you've got School of Podcasting and I'm sure several other projects.

14:38 So what's the day-to-day look like for Dave Jackson? The thing I love about it, if you hang around me, you will see where Dave's a little ADD. I'm a little all over the. Place Welcome to the club. The tangent here and there. So every day is a little different. It all starts off the same. I go in, I answer tickets, I go out to Facebook and see if anybody said pod page. I go out to Reddit and see if anybody said pod page. And then from there, it's wherever I want to go. So it's making videos for YouTube, it's writing help desk articles, it's, you know, just wherever you want to go. And so I love the fact that everyday is completely different. So yeah. And the fact that I get to work with new podcasters, I get to work with experienced podcasters, it's just fun hanging out that like who? I've never heard of a show like this. So that's the biggest thing that I like just seeing. It's just the wide, you know, everything from, you know, marriage counseling to, you know, fitness to it's a podcast. So it's always the ones where you go, wait, what's this show about that that always catch your? Eye yeah, so pod page we're big fans, the podcasting morning chat, we use pod page.

15:45 So I wanted, I was first feel free to share anything, you know, a little overview of Pod Page for our audience, but also anything coming up that we should be excited about as far as Pod Page goes. The tagline is we make pretty websites for podcasters that don't want to learn how to code. And so, you know, that's what we do. We're in our lane. So many people want us to be a media host and they want us to host e-mail and like, look, we're not going to beat Buzz Brat or Captivate or MailChimp. Like we just tie into those things. As for what's going on right now, we're actually, instead of adding new features, we're making adjustments for just to make things prettier, you know, So that's kind of what's going on with that. Our next webinar, in fact, we're going through 'cause I see this a lot.

16:33 We are talking about how to make things pretty. Yeah. Like I saw someone yesterday that had a color scheme of blue and green and I don't know about you, I don't normally put those two colors together. Yeah, well, green I also avoid 'cause I'm color blind. Red green color blind. So we have a guy coming in, that's kind of that's his thing. He's got a book out which is escaping my brain because it's 7 in. The morning, if you think of it, we'll put it in the show notes. Yeah, we've got a webinar coming up where we're going to talk about just basic, like how do you make things look good and you know, some do's and don'ts of, of basic graphic design.

17:13 OK, cool. All right. Well, does anyone else have any questions for Dave before we continue on? Just want to make sure. OK, Dave, my last question to you and then you're welcome to hang. You're welcome to take off if you'd like. Can you tell us a little bit about your talk that's coming up here at Empowered Podcasting? Yeah, we actually stole one little bit of it, which is why isn't your show growing? And one of those things is you got cutesy with a name, and if they can't find you, they can't click you. If they don't click you, they don't listen. So Step 1, you got to be able to be found. It's all about low hanging fruit that I've seen through my years of podcasting.

17:56 I'm sure you've seen them too. Oh, yeah. There you go. Oh, you don't realize that's not a good idea yet. So yeah, we're talking about some of the low hanging fruit and just some other things that, you know, the phrase I hear that makes like a single tear will come out of my eye is when I hear people go find me wherever you find podcasts. Oh, you don't like that? No. How come? 'Cause I have a video on my YouTube channel where I put in the exact name of someone's show. And not only did it not come up, it wasn't even close in Spotify. Spotify is a little worse than Apple, Apple's a little better, but they're still, when I worked at Lipsonite, people like, hey, like I submitted my thing to Apple and I'm like, OK, well, how long ago was it thinking they're going to say 20 minutes or something? That was last week.

18:42 And I'd be like, so I'd have, I'd go over, I'd search for their show and then it wouldn't come up and I would go, OK, well, I see your Christopher. Are you Christopher? Are you Chris? And then their last name or whatever it was. And I'll have to type in the name of the podcaster to find their show. So when people go find me the number one, why is your show lost? Instead, go and put a page on your website, whether it's slash follow, slash subscribe, whatever you do and put the links there. Why a 'cause now I can reinforce my brand by saying my website. I give the audience an easier member link. So school at podcasting.com/follow or whatever you want and you get the audience to where you want them to go. So that's that's one tip.

19:25 Right. So I like that. So it's basically you're still giving them one place to go, but then you're when they get there, then they can choose from the different options, right? Yeah, I love that. And I it you can get as crazy as you want, whether it's, I always say if you have Apple and Spotify, you got about 80% of the market. But if you want to add, you know, overcast and Pocket Casts and yeah, you can put I heart, you know, whatever you want. Yeah, I like that. That's a good tip. I'm looking forward to your talk. Can I ask you please? Here's the fun thing I've noticed. I'm going to push you out of your comfort. Zone I, I like it. I'm, I've been used to that, putting this whole thing together. Number one, I've learned it's Ronic, not Ronic. Yes. And #2 you never plug your own site. I never plug my own site, you're right. I know you're a podcast consultant as well yeah and I at the end I expect and like hey and if you need help, you're right, you never.

20:17 So please promote yourself 'cause you've earned it My. Friend, thank you, I appreciate that. And you're totally right, I don't say that I'm I'm thinking about when I normally sign off and I don't recommend that people go to podpage.com/PMC. So I need to do that more. And there was my first one. Excellent, thank you, Dave, appreciate it. And here's you're welcome to join in on this because, and actually maybe I'll end it. My direct questions to you. You've been going to conferences for a while now and I know you're you're a fan of Pod Fest, especially the early days of Pod Fest. What's some advice you could give people? Yesterday we talked a little bit about or two days ago we talked a little bit about what you should make sure you bring to a conference. Right at this time.

21:05 I want to just ask you in general, like what's a big one big piece of advice you would give somebody attending a podcasting conference? You know what, what should they be looking for? What should they be doing here? Yeah, you get out of it what you put into it. So I laughed. I was at an event in Cleveland and I get my badge and the whole 9 yards and there's kind of people on the right hand side of the room and I went as far left as you could get and I just looked up and I'm like, what are you doing? Like what? I know I'm kind of shy underneath all this, but I was like, you know, you're not going to make new friends over here on the left hand side of the room. Everybody's over there. And I just kind of mentally grabbed myself by the collar and like, alright, you get get over here.

21:47 So there's that. I am old school. I got a pocket full of business cards and breath mints. It dawned on me my chapstick is upstairs because you're going to talk a lot and all that hot air come out of your mouth is going to just bake your lips. You know, I've got comfy shoes on and do your best to get some sleep. There's a lot of times we like to pretend we're, you know, still 23 and staying up till 3:00 and 4:00 in the morning. And I'm like, that's you're just going to end up sick by the time you get home. Yeah. So that's kind of just, that's what you need to bring. And just all you have to do is like, I could look at Jonathan here with his shiny blue hat on and go, So what brings you to the show? And he's like, oh, I'm a podcaster. I do whatever show is etcetera.

22:32 And the worst case scenario is about 15 seconds into talking to each other, Jonathan's going to go, yeah, we got nothing in common. Nothing. There's no networking opportunities here. There's nothing. And you just go, OK. And when he gets done talking and I do my little pitch, you just go, all right, we'll have a good show and see you later. No harm. No. Fun, right? Yeah. OK. I like that. So I'm going to ask all of you here on stage with us the same kind of question. If this is somebody's very first conference and there is somebody here that it's their very first conference sitting across the room that we're out over there, what's one piece of advice you'd give them besides items to bring? Because we talked about that the other day, Sid, if you don't mind, I'm going to come to you.

23:17 I think you're in route to the airport right now, if not already there, but I'm going to come to you again. As I said the other day, as somebody who attends different conferences, not a lot of podcasting ones, but you're working on that, what's a piece of advice that you'd give to a newbie? Good morning, everybody. Yes, I am on my way to the airport, probably about 25 minutes away. So yeah, I'm looking forward to seeing all of you guys. I get them out. I land around 12:30 so I should be at the hotel maybe by 1:00 or 1:30. So that means you're going to probably miss my workshop. That's fine, Sid. I'll, I'll, I'll be OK. Yeah. I'm going to miss. I'm going to miss Jonathan's too. Jonathan is rolling. He's rolling his eyes over across the room here.

23:59 Well. Had I checked the schedule before I booked my flights, which I did not do, I could have come yesterday and I didn't check the schedule. So you know, hey, formation, formation. So I mean, the case of advice that I would give to somebody that's coming for the first time is just meet as many people as you possibly can meet. You never know in meeting somebody what a connection might develop, not necessarily while you're there, but imagine what might happen three months or six months down the road and something comes up and you go, oh, I remember I needed help with this and I remember meeting somebody who does that and who was that that did that. And like, I would just meet as many people as you could possibly meet and make as many connections and, you know, build your own ecosystem, build your own community.

24:45 So I love to make the comments that somebody said about how to greet, you know, how to greet and meet somebody for the first time. But I mean, I think it's as meet as many people as you possibly can. Love that. Yeah. And I think a conference like this one makes that a lot easier to do right. We're going to have well over 100 people here. And I think that that is for me, that is such a sweet spot. Like this is the whole reason why I started a conference in the 1st place was to create a space where we could all really get to know each other, not just learn from each other, but also get to know each other. I think that, you know, as far as networking goes that it's so valuable to have a smaller group. So I think in what I would wanted to say also, and I, I hope more people who are here are hearing this.

25:33 If you are in that room and you see a guy on the left side of the room by themselves kind of looking around, please grab them, pull them over, wave them over. Hey, come on over, come talk with us. Let's, let's get to know each other. I think that is so important. And sometimes we do get so engrossed in our, our conversations with people that we aren't stopping to look around to see if anybody else could use another person to chat with. So I encourage that whether you're at this conference or any conference, if you see see somebody who's kind of looking a little lost, grab them and just say hello. And that that's going to make a huge difference in their experience at a conference. I'd add one more thing to that. So either before you go to bed at night or first thing in the morning, when you get up the next morning, right down, like the names of the people that you met and little keywords about that person. Like I met Dave, he's a podcasting coach. He lives in, I forget where Dave lives, but just little keywords like that to help you remember, you know, we talked yesterday about the business cards.

26:33 I mean, you can take a picture of the business cards. If they you can write notes on them, that's great. But grab your journal or grab your notes app in your phone and put the person's name down in a few little keywords so that'll help you remember who that person was and maybe even what you talked about. Especially if you meet a lot of people, you're going to get confused about who is who and that kind of stuff. So, you know, do something to write it down either the day after, like the end of the day or first thing the next morning. Because if you don't do it that soon, you're going to forget it. Yeah, and that's similar to a tip that Jonathan you shared the other day in the sense take, take a selfie with the people that you're meeting cuz then you got to face. And then as I was sharing the other day, when you take that picture, if you have an iPhone anyway, you can just tap and swipe up on the picture.

27:19 And then there's a little area where you can type a note. So you could put the person's name and something maybe about the conversation that you had with them so that when you follow up with them, you have a little chunk that you could reference, reference back to when you're making that not introduction, when you're making that reconnecting with them again. That's a great tip. Thank you, Sid. And we have Jason Zircon on stage and he's floating around here somewhere in in the facility. Jason, I wanted to go to you because Jason, I just want to make it very clear if I haven't before, Jason's been a huge part of this conference and making it happen, especially when it comes to the speakers.

28:01 I mean, not only has he been working with all the speakers, but he helped curate the speakers and the schedule, and he also helped keep me sane throughout a lot of this. And Jason, I was curious if you wouldn't mind sharing a little bit about your experience putting this together. And you are welcome to share what was the most challenging thing working with me. I am open and you are welcome to share whatever you'd like. Well, I think the first thing we need to address is where's my hazard pay? For all this. Because that was honestly, I think, you know, one of the reasons why, you know, having attended the event last year and seeing how everything unfolded.

28:42 I've done event planning in the past, not to a large degree, but to enough to enough to see that there was a couple things that I felt we could have done more efficiently, which was one of the big reasons I wanted to get involved and and help make #2 as successful as possible. So. I. Think the laxative would help with that? Maybe, maybe, I mean the was our official has gotten to the point where we might need those. So keep, you know, keep those on standby. Sorry, I try to avoid the bathroom humor, but when you say something like #2 it just makes me go there. Sorry your. Jacobson bed head is showing, I know. We, we have fun here, darling. But no, overall, I think that anybody that hasn't done anything of this magnitude, you just don't understand the work that goes into a behind the scenes.

29:29 There's so many moving parts and there's so many people that need to contribute to make things come together. So there are times for all of us that things get a little bit stressful and we question what the hell are we doing? Why are we even doing this? Because it sometimes seems like there's never going to be light at the end of that tunnel. But I think it and at those times, that's where it requires somebody else to step in and say, look, we're going to be all right, here's what we need to do. We're going to keep this on track back and then he can bring that person back from the darkness. And I think we were all there at some point in the planning of this. But now as we got to the last couple of weeks, pretty much like we had talked about but just weren't seeing come to fruition, it was all starting to click. People are starting to really get pumped up. We had our all of our great speakers starting to share more about the event and behind the scenes. We were able to see the ticket sales start to come in and we're looking at a great event ahead.

30:20 So I would say, Mark, it's not that it was anything negative in in working with you. Like I said, just planning events is huge and there's so much to it. But at the end of the day, when you get to see it all unfold, it makes it all worth it. Yeah, I literally think I've gone through every emotion possible while planning this event and Jason has definitely has kept me sane throughout it. And Full disclosure, I mean, there had been a couple of times where I went to Jason and I said, listen, if things don't turn around and I had specific things, but if things don't turn around, I don't think we're going to do this. Like I was ready to cancel or postpone a couple of times because, you know, being again completely transparent, I think maybe about, I'd say six weeks ago, 6 to 8 weeks ago, I mean, we probably only had 20 ticket sales.

31:14 And that was where I was like, OK, I think we got to cut this off because I was totally nervous. Like, what if that's all we end up with? And I have all these speakers and all these people flying in and there's 20 people, which again, those 20 people are valuable and great to have here. But the expectation, I think, of others was a lot bigger than that. So I was really worried about it. And of course, like everyone told me and like last year, we had a huge surge come end of August and then into September, everything fell into place, you know, And so all this Gray hair that I got was for nothing because it all ended up working out. And now we're, like I said earlier, we're going to have well over 100 people here.

31:56 And it it all does work out. It's just, unfortunately, people are very last minute. I'm convinced there's not much I can do about that. Yeah. Yeah. So thank you for keeping me sane, Jason. I appreciate you. Appreciate the even the opportunity just to be a part of this. I think it's going to be 1 hell of a weekend. And for those that are already here, I think they've already experienced that somewhat. We had some people already gathered in networking last night. Yep. And that's just going to continue to roll this weekend. So I'm really looking forward to what we have in store. And Jason, you are the owner of Bomb Track Media and I wanted to to see anything exciting coming up on the horizon for you. Bomb Track Media your podcast. You have, there's actually a couple big things in the works that at this early juncture of those endeavors, I can't fully talk about them because honestly, I've been in Charlotte all week and I think that's probably the bigger piece of news.

32:53 And I guess this will be the first time I've really gone fully public with this news that I've been contemplating A relocation to Charlotte pretty much since last year's conference. Just being down here and feeling the vibe of the city. And I've got some good friends down here, Megan Shields being one of them. Her husband Matt, have been very adamant about me moving down here. And I used this week to really try to push me in the right direction. And I took some meetings and just got to explore some of the city. And I think it's going to happen. I'm looking at early 2026, probably getting my ass out. So I'm bringing my talents to Charlotte, as they say. That's probably the bigger piece of news within Bomb Track Media, though. I've got a couple new directions that I want to go with things.

33:35 I've actually been plotting a new podcast that I'm very, very excited to bring about. It's I can get, I don't want to get too much into the details of it, but you'll have to bring me back when the stuff's ready to go because I've talked to a few people about what this show's going to be and they're like, whoa, yeah, you got to do that. So there's that. And then I'm going to start working on a project where I can train others to be podcast managers. So if they want to make some extra money making podcasts, then I'll give them the tools that I've used and they could build a little business of their own. So a lot of moving parts there and a lot to that out before I fully dive in. But that's pretty much State of the Union for what's happening right now. I love it. We'll come back when you can tell us more. And yeah, we we'd love to talk about it and hear more about that.

34:18 And again, thank you, Jason, for everything. I appreciate you very much and all that you did. So thank you, I'm happy to help and looking forward to what we got in store my friend. Yes, indeed. And Jonathan Howard, another big help for all of this, making all of this happen. Thank you Jonathan, and good to have you here in person as well. Anything. How was your evening last night? I know you called it an earlier evening 'cause you wanted to go practice your presentation, your workshop. So how did everything go last night? Everything went well last night. I'm happy to be here and good to drop in last night, see people coming in already. Although for me that was already a lot of people. So I'll be hiding in the corner crying somewhere. But you know, it'll be good.

35:05 But I know it was good and I got to go do my presentation like four more times because I'm that crazy. And yeah, enjoying enjoying Charlotte already. Have you been here before to Charlotte? A long, long time ago. OK, yeah, cool. Well, maybe you'll get the bug too. Jason, I know has been, like he said, it's ever since he was here last year. He was like, hmm, this place is pretty nice. I could see living here. And I guess that sealed the deal this past week for Jason. Well, Jonathan, it's great to have you here. And I see Janae is on stage. Janae, have you arrived? Are you in town? Good morning. Yes, I have arrived. I am in town. I got in at 1:00 AM last night. Oh, but excited for this.

35:48 Yes. And Janae that you got a hotel room. Janae texted me. He texted me last night and said on his way here and said, oh you know what? I think I forgot to get a room. But it all worked out. They made it pretty easy. Yes, they made it pretty easy. Good, good. And Janaid is also just for people to know he's a huge, been a huge help here trying to help us with everything from finding sponsors to recruiting attendees. And maybe one of the biggest things he's doing is he is donating his time, he's setting up all the video audio for all the different presentations and workshops. And so we were, we'll be capturing everything that's going on here. And then we will have that available for attendees and non attendees.

36:36 People who couldn't be here will have that content available for them shortly after this is all over. So Janae, that was such a huge help. I appreciate you. And how much equipment do you have? What did you get? We've got about 6 cameras, couple of microphones, some lights, lots of support equipment, that whole trunk full of stuff. Are you even? Did you get a Rd. caster pro for this too? I can't. We don't need to. OK. Yeah, we don't need to because all the audio and everything is getting recorded on the A10. OK, wow. So this will be a really professional setup. Thanks to Janae and Janae that that was one other question for you.

37:19 I didn't know which company name to promote for you here because I know you have humble zone. You have a couple others. What which let's give you a plug, an official plug. Please share your business name and what you do. Home studio masters, What I've been doing with helping others set up studios stuff. I do a video camera, you know, all the things that make you look beautiful on video. And I was looking at your post yesterday on LinkedIn about how podcasts are still Audi first, right? So I made a comment that video is great to attract new audiences to your podcast and that's where it helped.

38:02 That's awesome. Yeah. And I, you know, obviously I am a big fan of video. I I go live on YouTube in the mornings and I do believe there's a place for it. And I think really what I was saying there was from some of a conversation that we had, which is I, I don't ever think video will go get ahead of audio until it's easier for people to do and it's as affordable as audio to do. So yes, of course it's on the rise. And as far in this space, it's on the rise and you can't deny it. But I just went it, it's almost nails on a chalkboard for me. When I hear people saying, you know, video first, you have to have video, video first. It it's just, I think it's really an agenda. Yeah.

38:49 Dave is showing me the nails on the chalkboard gesture. Yeah, it's it's frustrating. Dave, any thoughts you want to add to that? Yeah. Oh, good. I'm unmuted. Yeah. Here's you Ready for a story. Yeah, I'll do it quick. Bill Maher launches Club Random. He's at Libsyn. We have to twist his arm. Bill, you got to do audio. Don't want to do audio. Long story short, Bill hires APR person only promotes the video. The audio outperforms the video 15 to one. Wow, yeah. How long ago was this? Just curious. Year and a half ago, something like that, yeah. And so when I hear people, same thing, you have to do video, I go, not every book needs to be a movie. And it just drives me nuts when I find somebody with a great idea and I go, well, what's stopping you from doing that podcast?

39:42 And they go, I don't want to do video. And I go, you don't have to do video. And they go, no, everybody says I have to do video. And I go, everybody has a name, it's called YouTube. And of course they want you to do. Video and Spotify. And Spotify, yeah. So that's I'm with you when I hear the whole it has to be video go. No, no it doesn't. Do you agree with me that if video becomes as affordable, easier entry, do you think it could take over audio in podcasting? No. It's theatre of the mind. No, I don't care if it's in 8K16 K. Nothing beats theatre of the mind. Yeah, I'm with you there. I'm with you. There, so we'll please prove me wrong. But if that's the case, why is there still radio you know? Yeah, and television, We could make an argument. Television's more popular than radio these days, right? But.

40:35 I mean, it could, but right now I'm like, I love the fact that I, I don't have to shave that I can, you know, be in buying pyjamas and all that stuff. There's and like you said in the cost and the price. And I always say, look, I'm not anti YouTube. If you've got the budget and the time and the need, 'cause when you, when you make a YouTube channel, you're starting YouTube and congratulations, you're now going to the University of algorithm. And in the same way, when you build a website, you're also going to the University of SEO. So it's always another thing. And a lot of people like, oh, it's the same thing. I just, you know, talking to the camera and I'm done. And I'm like no. Yeah, Thank you, Dave.

41:16 And all right, look, we have about 15 minutes left. Oh, Dr. Did you want to ask something? I did so Dave, when you tell them that, you know, audio is is really a great choice and they come back at you with but discovery day discovery, what is it that you come back and tell them? I say, well, tell me about this algorithm and they go, well, it's, it knows everything about you. It you know, it's Google, so it follows you and and then it recommends things you like. And I go, oh, I have one of those. His name is Doug and he's my older brother. And if my older brother says, oh, this is right up your alley, you got to watch this out. And he recommended, it's something in Bash, it's on Netflix, it's a it's a lawyer show, but they're really sarcastic and blah, blah, blah.

42:08 And I absolutely love it. So 70% of podcasts are discovered via word of mouth via Jacobs Media. That's about 6 years old at this point. But we have an algorithm. You just have to ask your audience to share it. And when you do that again, we're doing part of my presentation. That's OK. I hear people and they go, hey, you know, if you want to kind of like, maybe, I don't know, kind of maybe whatever my website is.com and I'm like, what was that versus Hey, if you like the show today and you know somebody else who loves to talk about podcasting, could you do Mark a favor? He would just love it.

42:51 It would be so great if you go to your phone, click that share button, maybe even send somebody a text or just tell them to go to podcastmorningchat.com, which I own by the way, and I need to give to you because you didn't have it. And I was like, wait a minute, somebody's going to steal that. Why does every Youtubers say like subscribe and ring the bell? We know where the subscribe button is. We know what it does, but you have to ask them. So that's that's what I say. It really is true. And it's amazing when when you talk, when I talk to some podcasters and they aren't saying the things that they should say to, you know, ask their audience to do. And it's so funny because nine times out of 10, when once they start doing it, all of a sudden they're like, oh, Mark, that actually worked.

43:35 People are now emailing me. People are actually asking me questions. Yeah. What's that, Jonathan? Humans are lazy. Unless you ask them to do something, they're not going to do it. Exactly, exactly. And in the as far as this conference goes, even asking people to buy tickets didn't matter until September 1st. So it's very challenging to get people to do things. But yes, with your podcast, you ask them to go and subscribe, follow your podcast, you got it. You got to ask them and you'll people will respond. Absolutely. All right. So what I want to do is normally this is a Friday and at the end, toward the end of the show, we share any wins from our week. And I and I see we've got a live audience here and I am going to encourage you, please come up and share any wins from your week.

44:23 This is your time to do so. And it wouldn't be it wouldn't be much of A share if we don't have anybody coming up to share. So please come on up and participate. I and I'm going to call some of you out. Renee, come up, you're always you're always sharing lots of good stuff with us. Come up and share some wins with us. Janae, come back up. Mike Love would love to hear from you hear how you're feeling. I know you were you were a little under the weather recently. I will kick things off and share my win for the week is that I made it is that I'm here, that maybe a few more Gray hairs, but I am still alive and kicking and we did it. We put this thing together and there are no more words.

45:05 I I'm just thrilled that we did it and just so honored to see people here from all areas of my podcasting world, from Co hosts like Jonathan. I have Rick here who is a client who I I work with consulting on his show, the loud quiet. We've got new faces that I've met. I mean, it's just mind blowing to to see it all come together. Even though we've done it once before, it's still mind blowing and I am just so grateful for all of this. So that's my win for the week and I'm going to go first to some guests who are up here on stage. Janaid, would you like to share any wins from your week?

45:46 Wins for the week. I'm here. We did. Yeah, I did. Event That's exciting for me. So yeah, let's do this. There you go. Thank you, Janae and Renee. Good morning. Thank you for for coming up when I called you out. I appreciate it and please share some wins with us. It's almost a presumptive win because you called me out. I had to come up with something. So the big highlight of my day is that my business partner and I, Mark, we are going to present to a client we've had for three years and they have we've increasingly needed to give them more and more hours. We act as fractional CM OS for our clients and so we do all of their marketing.

46:32 And so we built, we did a whole bunch of building out their video channel. And so we had to present to them that we are to do what we need to do for you is way too many hours. So a few weeks ago we said you need to buy more hours, you need to go up, like basically double it, right? That's a lot of money. But we said if you want growth as your strategy, we need more time. We've been doing growth. We've been eating a lot of it. We've thrown our whole video department because of you. We're fine eating that, but it ends now. And they came back and said no. So here's the presumptive win. But I want this win to be for everybody. That's why I'm sharing it is the win is we got another meeting with them and so they want to hear more. And so that's today.

47:16 So the win is it may not be, you know, a pure wind. I think they'll probably add more hours. I don't think they're going to double it. I think that's asking a lot. But we've helped them grow so much and they know it. There was a meeting in between where my business partner lives down in Hilton Head. One of the owners of that company was down there on vacation. They met for lunch. And so that's where we got the set. The second meeting is because he shared there and he's like here, if you want to, you know, there's a difference between doing somebody's marketing for maintenance and then there's a difference for growth. And that's what we're presenting. But I guess what I want to share with everybody in this podcast space is sometimes you're presenting to someone and you you get a no, but it's not really a no. And so that's, I think what I'm trying to share is it was a no. The conversation kept go.

48:05 We stood our ground and part of us felt bad. You know, we felt bad because it's like we can't do this anymore. We need more money. So that's hard to say. And so it's a the win today is that we got another meeting and I hope it goes well because we want the best for them. But, you know, sometimes you just have to draw a line. There's scope creep, right? We were guilty of letting scope creep happen and it went out of the scope of the project. That was our fault, we've learned. But we had to draw the line and, and we showed them why. Hey, you got all of this for free. You got a whole YouTube channel built for free. We built our YouTube department. So the win is sometimes. No, isn't.

48:46 No, that's the win. Yeah. Sometimes it's not now. Yeah, sometimes it's not now. Yeah, absolutely. And you know what, I can so relate to that because one of the sponsors that I was convinced was going to be a no brainer because it worked well last year when they did this with us, Riverside and I was going back and forth, not in a not in a negative way, just a lot of back and forth with Riverside about sponsoring again. And it got to a point a couple months a go and where they just said, yeah, we can't do it. And I was kind of bummed at 1st and just took it as a no. But then I started thinking more about it and got creative and reached out to somebody different at Riverside.

49:28 A lot of people know Kendall. And I asked Kendall, would you be interested in sponsoring the happy hour that we're doing tonight? And because I know that Riverside does meetups and and I figured we could kind of, you know, put this, these those two things together and make it happen. And she said, yeah, absolutely. We'll pay for the first round of drinks. They sent us a bunch of swag that I think is waiting for me right now to give out at the thing. So, yeah, you know, what might at first appear as a no, if you can get creative or maybe stay persistent or a little of both, you can turn that around. So let's keep it moving.

50:09 Thank you, Renee, and congratulations on that, that follow up meeting, let us know how it goes. And actually before I do move on, I just wanted to say, you know we talk a lot about you and your business, but we don't talk about what your business is. Do you want to share that real quick? We have two divisions. We have winning team marketing and team wedding marketing and the team wedding marketing is 50% of our clients are in the wedding vertical, mainly wedding venues, but wedding professionals. And then the other part of our business is just outside of the wedding vertical. And what we do is a somebody, their pain point is I can't keep up with my marketing. I used to do a good job or I did a subpar job or we just lost our marketing director.

50:50 We don't have anybody to run the ship. Please come in and either set up a marketing department for us, take over our marketing or run our marketing department until you can help us. That's the fractional CMO part. So till we can find somebody to take over or maybe train the person from within to take over this department. So it's really marketing anything from buying radio ads to doing your over the top marketing digitally. It's the whole we bring the whole spectrum of experience and design. And we have we don't care what platform the marketing's on. We're platform agnostic. You know our trick to marketing and I'll share it here, you guys. I'll share our secret to marketing, which makes us good more.

51:34 I'm going to get your pencil out. You ready? It's this is how why we're good marketers. We find out what's working and we do more of it. Brilliant. I know, I know it's, but you got to be data-driven marketers. You got to look at the data and then you do more of it and sometimes you have to add a little bit to the data because you have to interpret it, but that's what we do. So guys, I know that was worth the price of admission. Like right there. There you go, there's a secret. Renee, I'm actually in North Carolina. I'm getting on a plane right now since I learned that secret. I'm going to go home now. Forget the conference. But that's the conference. I got it all. I forget. Dave and everybody else, thank you, Alex, and thank you, Renee. And coming soon, a podcast from Renee and her business partner. We're working that through right now. Really just now it's a matter of finding the time because the two of them are so busy.

52:27 So looking forward to getting started with you, Renee and Mark, and congratulations again on your win. Let's finish up with a rapid fire round of sharing wins. So Dr. I'm going to hand it to you and please hand it to Ashley, etcetera, etcetera. Go for it, Dr. Yeah, so last Sunday Amazon was delivering across the street and they backed up and completely wiped out our mailbox. And we just got our mailbox built yesterday, rebuilt yesterday. So yay, we're going to be receiving mails today. Yay, Ashley, go ahead. Thanks Dia. So my two wins for the week is I made it to 40I celebrated my 40th birthday this week and that was great. And my other win is this is my fifth year podcasting anniversary.

53:14 I started podcasting on my birthday, like releasing my first episode in 2020. Congratulations, Ashley, awesome, happy anniversary. And Jonathan, go for it. I will say I made it here to Charlotte. My presentation is done and rehearsed and I'm about to go live on the other platform with some behind the scenes from the podcast conference. So. Jonathan, I have congratulations and I officially want you to start saying the name of the other app. I don't care that it's chatter. I'll be over on Chatter in about a minute, all right? I'm going live behind the scenes. I might pop in with you and say hello over there too. Congratulations, Jonathan and Chris, good morning to you. Do you want to share any wins?

53:58 Good morning everybody. I'm looking forward to seeing everybody. I am here in Charlotte and I'm at my actually staying at my aunt's house for the next two days. So but I will be seeing everybody pretty soon. Quick win 2 quick wins. Actually, my wife and I are moving, unfortunately not to Charlotte or Wilmington like I'd like to be. But we are just literally moving up the street now that we're empty nesters. We decided to downsize, so we are moving up the street to apartments on November 1st and also the virtual mini con that I do with my friend Anne who owns Social Squib. Humanize Your Brand is back. We're doing 2 days again. October 21st, October 24th.

54:38 So it's a completely free conference we've got. 5 great speakers on each day and it's yeah, it's always great. And this is our fifth year doing it, so you could sign up for free over at Humanize your brand.com so. Super pumped that we are back doing this again for year #5 so appreciate it if anybody is interested in that. Sign up humans your brand.com. Thanks guys. Congratulations, Chris, and good luck on the big move. I was going to say, now that you're empty nesters, you can go check out Rick's podcast, who I mentioned earlier, The Loud Quiet that is specifically for empty nesters. So go check out the Loud quiet. It's it's a client of mine. So I got it. I got to say it. I mean, it's a great podcast and let's keep it moving and go to Jason. Jason, you want to share a win with us? I think that I need to echo what you said earlier. We're here, we made it.

55:28 It's been a lot of work behind the scenes and now we're in Charlotte and we're going to watch it all come together. I do want to use this opportunity as well. I don't know if she's going to hear this because she has her headphones on, but Andrea played a huge role in helping this all come together. She's already here busting her ass getting the getting the outside stuff set up, so I want to use this time to thank her for all of her efforts. She didn't hear me. She's got her headphones on. I thought maybe she looked over. She didn't hear me at all. So she'll have to listen to the podcast to know that I gave her a shout out. Andrea is the operations manager at Ironic Media and she has been a huge part. She has kept me as sane as possible as well by actually getting the big details taken care of and she's been such a great help. Yes, thank you for mentioning her Jason. I appreciate that.

56:18 Good. Thing. And congratulations to you on Empowered podcasting too. All right, Alex coming to you. It'll be great to see some old friends actually get to see people in real life, which will be fun. And in terms of wins, I landed a a job. On a personal front. And just finished working at the Edison Historical site where he created some of his greatest inventions. And I'm going to be able to get a private tour with the the deputy chief going down the road. So I'm pretty excited about that. Yeah. That would meet everybody in person. That's awesome. Congratulations, Alex. I had no idea you were doing that. That's very, very cool.

57:02 All right, we're going to go to Dave. Dave, you got a win to share with us. I got to meet a member of the School of podcasting. That was cool. And I've got about four here. That's awesome. And I got a new one. I just, when I woke up this morning, it's like you have a new member And I was like, so that's cool. And I'm at the Empowered Podcasting Conference. So that's the beautiful thing that's I'm really looking forward to. Yeah, Thank you, Dave. And I was actually talking with Ralph that you were referring to, and he was saying how how many kind things you've been mentioning about the conference and how excited you've been and sharing that with your audience. And so I am grateful for that. Thank you for being such a champion of what I'm doing. It means a lot. Thanks, man. Yeah. Yeah. All right. And let's keep it going.

57:44 Oh, we lost Mashawn. I was, I saw Mashawn was with us, but she probably had to jet 'cause we are past time. So thank you all for being here this morning and thank you all for being with me through this whole journey getting to the Empowered Podcasting to conference. It means the world to me. All of your support Dr. and Ashley thank you for helping keep the show going and keeping me sane while I was stressing about Empowered Podcasting and preparing for this show every day. You guys have been such a great help and appreciate all of you really. Thank you. It was a heavy lift. It was a. Heavy lift maybe, maybe. So thank you all, really appreciate it. And we will be back Tuesday for an all new episode of the Podcasting Morning Chat.

58:28 And remember Mondays, we're still taking off for the time being. I'll let everybody know what's going on there, but we'll have a full recap on Tuesday of everything, the good, the bad, the ugly here at Empowered Podcasting 2. And let me remind you, if you're interested in learning more about the podcasting Morning Chat, go to podpage.com/PMC and you can find out where you can listen to us or you could even just listen to us right there. So thank you in advance and thank you to Dave for that reminder. So until Tuesday, make it a great weekend. Everybody take care.