378- Empowered Podcasting Conference 2025 Recap

0:05 Good morning, podcasting morning Chat. Today is Tuesday, September 30th, 2025, and today empowered podcasting takes center stage. We're unpacking the stories, the takeaways, and the breakthroughs that made this weekend unforgettable and what they mean for what comes next. So if you're listening live on Clubhouse, hit the share button, bottom left hand side of the screen and share it however Clubhouse or YouTube lets you. And if you're listening via podcaster or YouTube, 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.

1:21 Good morning again podcasting morning chat. Thank you so much for being here. I am your host Mark Ronic and we have such a full stage here today and we will have a more full stage here today in just a moment. First, let me introduce my Co hosts here today. We've got DRFA, Sid Meadows, Nick Nallback, Jason Sirkone, Jonathan Howard, Alex Baelish, producer Ashley Feller and also Dave Jackson is on stage with us. Great to see you Dave. And I see some people filing in the room this morning from the Empowered Podcasting conference. Yeah, actually all four, even though, yes, Yvonne is a regular here in the mornings, but I see the other people that have started filing, dialing in are in fact from the conference. Very cool to see.

2:10 And I expect to see and hear from a lot more people that were at the Empowered Podcasting conference. And man, what a weekend. And today's conversation, I think is going to be a really special one because yes, we're coming off an incredible weekend at Empowered Podcasting. And I want us to speak both from the stage and from our hearts. And it feels like the perfect time to do that because today also happens to be International Podcast Day, which makes this conversation about our podcasting journeys, our growth, our community feel even more meaningful to me. So happy International Podcast Day.

2:52 And I'll be honest, this weekend was deeply meaningful for me personally hosting this event more than putting on a conference, right? It's like it was, well, we'll get into it, but it well, it was about creating a space where people can come together and to learn from each other and feel like they belong. And I felt that myself this weekend. I had conversations that shifted the way I think about what we're building and I left with new ideas and really a a renewed energy for the future of this community. And that's an understatement considering where I was about a month ago.

3:35 So today I want us to unpack all of it. The strategies and the lessons that you took home, the moments that stuck with you, the connections that surprised you, and how those experiences are going to shape what you do next. So let's dig into those stories, those insights and takeaways and that made this conference, the Empowered Podcasting Conference, so special. And anybody I see a bunch of you here, like I said earlier that were at the conference, you don't have to wait for an invitation from me to come up and join. You are welcome to come up and be a part of the conversation if you'd like.

4:17 I'll start here actually. And then I'll ask some questions. I want to just acknowledge because I see Rich Perry is here. I see Jana Swan is here and I, I'm calling them out because this weekend was really, what's the word? Well, I'll just use the same word I used earlier. It was impactful to me partially because of those two people I just mentioned, Rich and Jana, and also Chris Lewis and Johnny G and Gregorio. These people were the ones that if you all remember few years ago I went away to Texas for a week and joined these fine people in a house.

5:01 We had only known each other for a month or two, joined them in a house for a week and we created our own creator's retreat and we all learned a ton from each other. But a bond was formed that week that was so incredibly strong. And we have all just been each other's support systems, collaborators, all the things through the years. And to have them there with me at this conference this year was, I mean, I'm getting a little choked up just talking about it. So I'm so thrilled that they were there and such big parts of the conference too. Rich, I told Rich this as we were leaving. And I want to share this with all of you too.

5:42 We all owe a big thank you to Rich because again, I've shared this at the conference. I, I've shared some of this with you all leading up to the conference. I struggled and I wasn't sure if I was going to get through this and get to the conference. And Rich happened to leave his job, his full time job. He quit to pursue his business and he came to me and said Mark, I've got like 6 weeks. We've we've got six weeks left and I've got a lot of free time. I want to jump in here and take over or help you as much as you want me to with the marketing and promotion efforts.

6:27 If it wasn't for that, I don't know what I, I feel like I may have canceled the conference. Being real with you and Rich stepped in and he did a fantastic job and motivated me re energized me. So Rich, I'm just going to I'll call on you first. Thank you my friend. I appreciate you so much. Thanks dude. That's a lot. I I and it's 7:00 in the morning. It's very heartfelt. Thank you so much, it means a lot to me. I appreciate you. Yeah, you're welcome. And of course, Jason Zerkone, Jonathan Howard, I mean, there's a lot of you here, right? And I don't, I guess I shouldn't do all the thank you's right now, or else we'll never get to the the meat of today's show. But I do want to stop and say, you know, Jason Zerkone, he's been with me the whole way through. And he's been, I don't want to say cheering me on, but but giving it to me straight, like, Mark, we're doing this, we're making this happen.

7:26 This is going to work out. You got to trust we're we're going to make this work. So and, and again, several times I was thinking I was going to quit and Jason refused to let me. So thank you to you too, Jason. I knew that was part of the job was pulling you back from the dark side, keeping the positive vibes flowing, and it was a pleasure to do it because we got to see why this past weekend. We sure did yes indeed. And we're, let's, we'll get into it and I, I will just quickly say thank you to Jonathan Howard as well, because Jonathan too was being a champion for me, making sure that I was doing OK and really doing a great job with the social media. And I will say, despite having his own personal stuff going on in his life, losing his dog who was sick leading up to that, obviously.

8:19 And so Jonathan has been a huge part as well. And I appreciate you too, Jonathan. And you kicked off the conference this weekend being our opening presentation. And I would didn't even, I told you this at the conference. I didn't even realize that I didn't put two and two together. I knew you were the first in the lineup and I didn't put two and two together that that may feel like a lot of responsibility for somebody. So how did it go for you personally? How did it feel being that kickoff presentation, that kickoff workshop? And then we'll dig more into all this. Please share. Jonathan, good morning. Yeah, it was.

8:59 It was a big deal. You didn't realize it, but I realized it a little earlier than the. Conference, I'm sure you. Did I was like, all right, so I put a little extra pressure on myself, but I loved it. I thought I did probably one of my stronger jobs of delivering that particular experience, I guess I'll call it. I was so happy to be there and be able to support you and see the outcome of such an amazing weekend. Thank you, Jonathan. Yeah, and you've been great. And now the one thing that I will say that Jonathan did that was very unfortunate was he handed me his iPhone 17 to take some selfies on the very last day. And I, we've shared this, that the new front end camera is quite impressive and it, it knows how to adjust to fit everybody in the picture and it just does it automatically.

9:50 And when I was taking those selfies and that was happening, I was so envious of the phone that yes, yesterday I went and ordered myself an iPhone 17. So thanks for that, Jonathan my. Fault. No problem. OK, I'm going to ask the room. And for those of you who are newer to the room, the way there are two ways you can say, hey, mark me, me, I want to share. There are two ways you can do it. You can hit the unmute button for a moment or two. I try to do my best to look at the screen so I can see when that happens. So you just unmute for a moment or two and then go back on mute. Or else we may have a lot of echoing and weird stuff going on. Or if you tap, and if you just tap my face here on stage, I'm doing it to myself.

10:37 That doesn't work if I tap. If you tap my, yeah, see Jonathan's showing you, if you tap my face, you'll see a list of emojis going across the screen. You can tap that and you and then hit the plus button, choose the little chili pepper. That's how we say, hey, my turn, I want to share. So with that, let's start with this. What was your very first impression when you walked into the Empowered Podcasting Conference? And that can be what mean whatever you want it to. Maybe it was Thursday night when you first got there and a bunch of us were hanging out in the bar area, or it could be the moment that you walked in Friday to check in to the conference before the workshops began.

11:23 All right, Phil better is on stage. Yes, that's right, Phil Better is on stage. Phil definitely made himself known there. In the best of possible ways. Phil, you may be one of the, and again, in the best possible ways, one of the. At least you appear to be one of the most extroverted people I know. It was wonderful having you as a new addition to the family. Welcome and please share. Thank you. First of all, Mark, you made the event so friendly, so inviting, so intimate with the minute I stepped off the elevator on Thursday, you and Jason at the bar, you welcome you like old friends.

12:06 And that was true throughout the whole event. I found everybody was just so time, so willing to help everybody that I couldn't help but want to help more. I felt I didn't do enough. I was always trying to find that I could do more to make this event even like better because I was just getting so much out of it by connecting with everybody and should be told as extroverted as I was at the event. I got home and passed out, but there was just so much extrovertedness, if you will. But it, this was my first conference for podcasting and it was the best event I could have gone to to really reignite my passion for the podcasting space.

12:54 It was fantastic. I, I loved it. I can't wait to go back and help as much as I can, even if I'm just the attendee stuffing the names of everybody, the speakers and attendees in the little lanyards, because that was just worth it just to be there helping out and being somewhat part of creating the event for everybody else. It was just fantastic. Phil, thank you. I appreciate that. And would you mind sharing a little more because you, I think it was either in a post that you shared or a message to me, you you mentioned that whole thing about your passion being reignited. And I'm curious if if you'd be open to sharing what that really means. So I've been podcasting for about a decade now, the last five years more as a business oriented podcaster than hobbyist.

13:44 When I started and when I started podcasting, I was like really into it. I felt like an 18 year old kid who just discovered driving right you. I had so much fun. I had freedom because that's what podcasting gives you, the speed into Discover. And then my burnout kind of dipped it because going through life, you know, burnouts fucking suck. Excuse my language. And I dipped down. But when I discovered the entrepreneurship and boosted again, but it was on the downward trend because I didn't see the growth, didn't see the community that I needed. And just coming to this event and seeing how everybody was seated equally. No one was, even though they may have hundreds of thousands of downloads, no one felt out of touch. Like everybody could be talked to, all the speakers would be interacted with and it just lit a fire back up. The passengers blew up.

14:39 And last night I was literally when I was talking with you, Mark, or when you invited me, I was like, OK, I I need to redo my whole podcast. I need to think of the new strategy for my podcast, how I can give even more for back to the community for my podcast. You inspired me to do even more than I think I could. And it really just, I can't wait to get back podcasting again so I can give, give, give, give, just like you and your whole team did at this event. Thank you, Phil, and thank you for sharing that and digging into that. I appreciate it and more to come. Feel free to continue to chime in here as I ask more questions. I did see Jana had something and Dave Jackson, you're on deck. I want to ask you a question as well, and then we'll keep things moving.

15:24 Jana, good morning to you. What did you want to add? Good morning. I can add that when I came in the building originally, what I felt first, because I'm very kinesthetic, was the energy. I know that oftentimes going to events, there can be a lot of nervous energy or overwhelming and that tends to be excitement, just not bottled correctly. Here it was different. It was very much, for me, a grounded energy, almost felt like a family reunion. And maybe that's because I'm part of this foundational group that started things, but I really felt like I was just going to meet new family members that maybe are a little more extend, but I hadn't yet had an opportunity to have the depth of those relationships. And you've provided such a phenomenal environment for that. Like do not feel just as Phil was saying. Did not feel awkward at all.

16:18 Talking to anybody and I felt. There was just great energy put there and that that an expertise that you brought to it. That is not something that every event has. Just wanted to highlight that for you. Thank you, Jana, that means so much. And yes, I I realized I was when I try to respond to every post I've been seeing on social media about the event. And I noticed yesterday without even thinking that I was responding at the end of my replies. Welcome to the family. And I agree with you that it felt like family there. And what was so cool were people like Phil, who it did seem, it did feel like we all knew each other. We knew.

17:00 I felt like I told Phil this. I feel like I've known him forever. Yep. That was the very first time we met. We barely talked leading up to the event, other than maybe a couple of quick conversations about speaking, but even that probably was very brief. So, yeah, it, that happened throughout the weekend. I saw it with others. I I experienced it with myself. It she says he's from Canada, that's why that could be. That's a great point. Only reason. Speaking of Canada, I had a great conversation. Well, it was voice note conversation yesterday with our good friend, long time community member Simona Costantini. And she was saying basically how much FOMO she had and how she is definitely coming to the next one. And she did have a lot going on, to say the least. So no hard feelings there.

17:53 And we missed Simona there. Dave Jackson, good morning. I feel like it's appropriate to try to get to you earlier on since you were a big part of last week's show when we were live at the conference. And you have been in this game just as long, if not maybe even a little longer than I have. And you have definitely attended a lot more of these podcasting conferences and events than I have. I'm curious and I, and I genuinely mean this, please be honest. How did this experience compare to some of these other events that you've gone to? Well, first of all, the the first impression as he just said that great location. Like holy cow, great location.

18:37 Just the fact everything was in walking distance and the hotel was great. It was like a, you know, I know behind the scenes there's always things where you're freaking out, but you never would have known it from, you know, from my side of the conversation. And the fact that, again, the location made it super easy. Just go to the second floor, turn left from the elevator, and you're there. So everything was in one place. So that made things really easy. You didn't have to walk a mile to check in. It was right. There. You had a dog and how? I mean, you were the only then I've been to that had a dog that was the other cool thing. Mascot. Yeah. Yeah, and you know, there's always gonna be little bugs to work out and thankfully yours were in within like the first 3 minutes you had to. You had the and even that was handled so well because I think every battery in your microphones were going dead and you'd right talking to one for about 10 seconds, they'd hand you another one right there and then that one will last about 20 seconds and they'd hand you another one. But once that was done, everything had new batteries and we're good to go.

19:41 For only being the second year it was a well oiled machine. Thank you, Dave, appreciate that and thank you for really being a big participant with everything besides your awesome talk, which was a huge hit especially and not only but especially with the high school students. We had about a dozen high school students there who were by the way, eating this up. And when when they heard Dave's talk the very first one of Saturday morning, they were all in man. And I saw when that when that. Talk ended. They all flocked to Dave with a bunch of questions. It was really cool to see. OK, so now let me keep things moving. What's a moment from the weekend that really struck struck you something you know that's going to be sticking with you? You're going to be thinking about it weeks from now. Jana wants to chime in.

20:38 Go for it, Jana. This is an easy one for me, Mark on stage, I got to do a live demonstration of David shifting his limiting beliefs from I am not worthy to I am bloody worthy. And it wasn't exactly that shift. It was actually Tracy, his wife, coming up to me afterwards saying, Jana, you just gave me a new husband. Wow. And I'll tell you, I actually had a microphone on me and I have that video and I watched it yesterday and I cried like a baby. Because that is what I. Do It was not about me, it was about you guys. And to see that change and then continue to talk to people throughout the event and realize that they might not have been the one on the stage, but they too had a piece of that change.

21:23 And for me, that is something I will hold on to for the rest of my life, is the fact that everything that we are all doing each and every day do not take it for granted. We are changing lives through posting podcasts and sharing our stories and being vulnerable and showing up as 100% of who we are. So as my reminder, do not hold back, let go and trust and you can change a life in an instant. Thank you, Jana. Yeah, Jana's talk was the last of the Friday workshop. So we had an all afternoon workshop day and I'm telling you, it was a magical moment watching Jana. Well, first of all, just watching her killing it on stage again, just with the history I have with Jana and seeing her up there, just commanding the stage, commanding the room and then having a volunteer come up.

22:18 This gentleman David, not not our Dave Jackson here today, a different gentleman David, watching him literally transform on stage. I mean, it is what Jana did it. It feels and looks like magic. And the the bottom line is Jana proved that our brains can can be reprogrammed. She showed us that on stage. And the fact that the wife came up to you, Jana, and said that that's really powerful. That's very cool. And Phil, did you want to comment just so that our audience can hear it? Do you want to comment what you said in the audience or I'm sorry in the chat? Something that I know is when Dave was getting his mind just completely rewired by Jaina and Mark, you and Chris were saying it too.

23:05 You could physically see Dave change on stage. But then it didn't just last for like that whole evening. You could see him change the whole weekend, the way he was walking, the way the confidence he had throughout the whole event. Like I was talking to him before he went on stage and I talked to him after and he was like, like his wife said, it was a completely different person. He just felt a different energy and it was just so impressive, the work. And of course, Vagina's first whole thing was fantastic. Like each talk was fantastic. I just wish I could continue so I can just replay it over and over so I can listen to all the knowledge that was shared.

23:46 Well, thankfully you'll be able to do that. What a This was not a planned plug or anything, but and I. Don't. I'm very good at segues. Yeah. And I really, I, I don't have a lot to share yet, but I will say that the, you know, a big hero, a big MVP of the event was Janae. Because Janae, as I may have shared with you all, he came through literally like the week or two before and said, all right, Mark, we're going to do this. I'm going to make this happen. We're going to have video, we're going to have audio. We're going to do it right And he just kicked ass. He he rented the equipment he needed. He carried it from Virginia to Charlotte and set this up and took command the entire time.

24:33 I told him this, the fact that Janae not only did the video and audio which will be released for attendees, we'll also make it available for non attendees as well. But the way that he owned it the whole weekend, he gave me the freedom to focus on the event and focus on the people of the event. I did not have to worry about the audio video. He took care of it. If there was a bump in the road, a hiccup, he took care of it. I didn't have to know about it. And occasionally he'd be like, hey, Mark, yeah, we're dealing with this, that and the other thing. And he was so calm about it. And I was like, OK, do you need help? He's like, no, no, we got it. We'll figure it out.

25:14 I mean, it was unbelievable. And so pro, I'm telling you, so pro. I mean, we had four. How many cameras did we have? Janae? I think it was 6. Thank you, Jana, 66 cameras. He had a monitor that had all the camera angles in it so you could see and make sure it was working. And then Alex jumped in and volunteered all Saturday manning one of the two rooms to make sure that we were still capturing that audio and video. And it was awesome to see. And I sometimes feel bad when the volunteers are pulled away to do, especially all day long. And so, Alex, I hope you still got stuff out of the event. That was great.

25:55 I. Think when you're with a bunch of content creators and you go to a conference, you're kind of like you don't know where to go and you're kind of like you're turning your head all the time like a squirrel. I think it was the best thing that I got, and I mean this with quotes stuck in a room because forced me to watch all the speakers and not try to have FOMO. And I didn't see the other half I knew was getting taped. So I'll see that hopefully later. But in terms of what I got out with those kids, I made sure that they talked to Dave and they talked to Jen, but it's not often that you get to talk to a YouTube star, so to speak.

26:37 It was just really neat that they were soaking it up. With all due respect to all the speakers, the best speaker, and I've said this, was Gil, the guy that did teaching you how to take a film and lighting from your iPhone. Which I know doesn't sound like it's the most sexy thing to do, but when you take a bad picture or you have bad lighting, it really sucks. And I say that because as poor Yvonne learned the hard way, what's the number one thing you want to do when you do a recording press play? And you know what, it happened, but we laughed about it and we moved on. And I think that that's what it's all about. As someone that's new to conferences in the podcast world, it was pretty, you know, you have these weird moments. And for the one day when we were all together without the wall, it was you and it was Chris, the founder of Pod Fest. And we're all moving chairs to make the room, right. And it was just the three of us.

27:44 And I'm like, holy cow. I got the guy that runs Pod Fest and I got Mark and myself. And we're just doing this. And it's just it. It was all hands on deck. And. And no matter what happened, it was going to be a success. Thank you, Alex. Yeah. Chris Krimnitzo. He was there the, like you said, the founder of Pod Fest, he was there. He we gave Pod Fest a table to promote their January event. And I got to say, Chris and I haven't had a lot of opportunities to really talk until this past weekend. And such a great, great guy and so supportive of what we're doing. Genuinely supportive. And he was feeling it.

28:26 He was feeling the energy. He was getting it. And it made it so special, especially for me. Yeah. So day one we're workshops, we had one big room with 10 tables or so, all of them mostly filled. And we, we did workshops and we'll get into that. And then the next day we had the the two different tracks and yeah, we were out. We were in there that first day, right before everybody. I'm sorry, The second day, right before everybody started to go on their two different tracks and the we had to arrange the chairs, right. And it was just the three of us there. And Chris started moving the chairs. I was like, Chris, come on, You're, you're a guest here. You're a partner of this event.

29:12 You don't have to do that. He's like, no, no, no. I like doing things. I like keeping busy and I like helping at these events. And yeah, he got his hands dirty too. And he was so gracious and a lot of fun too. He it was great to have him there. Thank you, Alex. Appreciate it. I do want to hear more about experiences and if anybody also has, I just want to put it out there. If there was any session, any talk and workshop panel that shifted the way you're thinking about your content creation, I want to hear about that. Maybe you had a big aha moment. I want to hear about that. So start thinking about that if you haven't already. Yvonne, I saw you wanted to add on to something that Alex was sharing, so go for it. Good morning to you.

29:57 And I do want to say to you another MVP of the event because Yvonne reached out to me several weeks before the event and offered to take photography. And Gil, who Alex had mentioned, who was also a speaker, Gil was also a partner in all this and he had committed to doing photography as well. So we had two pro photographers there and Yvonne was killing it. I asked Yvonne at one point, will you make sure to take as many pictures as you can of people in standing in front of that step and repeat. Let's get some people to pose and let's get a lot of pictures of that sign, that big sign with the empowered podcasting logo and of course, the podcasting morning chat ironic media logos all over it.

30:39 And Yvonne's like, Yep, I got you and she, I saw it. You must have spent a good two hours or so doing that, Yvonne and I can't wait to see all these pictures. Good morning to you. What do you want to add? Good morning. It was fabulous to put real people faces in front of me that are here every day. Just amazing. Awesome to to meet Alex who was continually giving me a hard time and the best of ways. And as you would expect, it was awesome. At one point I was getting myself a little coffee if I think it was right after Dave's thing. And Alex came and grabbed me and he's like photo op, photo op.

31:19 He he's talking to some of the kids. He got to come get this. And he says not that I'm bossing you around. And I said, no, of course you're bossing me around. Let's go, let's go get it. It was nice. I have to say, I'm so glad that I did volunteer to take photos because it gave me the opportunity to connect with people. My camera always does that for me when I'm in events. It's a way for me to connect with people in past my shyness at events like this. So it was a selfish move on my part. I'll say you asked what was our big take away? And I've been thinking about that, the community that you developed to pull this thing together that keeps striking me, like to see all hands on deck.

32:07 And then Shay Sparks and Adam Bird's presentation about community building. It wasn't just them, it was a running theme throughout was this idea of how do you connect and, and turn your podcast into a community building opportunity. And it kind of kept going back to get in touch with them, ask what they need. So I'm going to be doubling down my efforts on figuring out what my audience needs and wants. And so that was a big inspiration for me. And I think the other running theme for me was, you know, moist storytelling besides our panel. It came up over and over.

32:53 Jonathan's presentation was about that, really. Shay Sparks and Adam Bird's presentation was about that. Jana's presentation was about that. It really was about like allowing yourself to be brave and vulnerable and put yourself out there so that you give other people permission to connect with you. Thank you, Yvonne. I have to 1st jump and say explain for anyone who was triggered with the word moist, sorry. And the reason behind it is during my opening remarks on Saturday, Saturday morning, I was talking about authenticity. It was a big theme for me to share. And I know that what I was saying in my remarks is that I know that the word authenticity is a buzzword buzzword. And it's nails on a chalkboard these days to a lot of people. I get it.

33:47 And so I said it's kind of become the moist of personal development words. It got a big laugh and it became a little bit of a running theme throughout the rest of the conference. Jason, I know you were using that theme a bit as the MC and sponsor of Track 1. And I, I feel like every time it was said, people got a good laugh out of it, right? Yeah, you're right. And I think I had a whole intro planned for presentation. And the second you said that, I'm like, well, Mark just rewrote my intro for me. That was perfect. So yeah. Thanks for the assess brother. You're. Welcome, Jason as one of the coordinators and speakers. MC attendee.

34:29 I mean, you really were wearing all the hats. I'm just curious if you want to share a big take away from this weekend, whether it was from a session or maybe it was a conversation you had or a panel, whatever it was, what what was a big take away or aha moment you had? Well, I'll tell you what, it's hard to pinpoint one in the short little window of time that I have available right now because my God, it was just non-stop. I'm going to do an episode of my podcast today and put it out tomorrow with a deeper recap. But I think for me, what I'm loving right now, and maybe it was like this last year, but I don't recall, I can't go online right now without seeing the posts about what people experienced while they were at this event this weekend. That to me makes every rough moment we had on our path to planning this worth it.

35:28 Just seeing that type of feedback and knowing that people were able to walk away from this thing with so much that they can apply to their podcast to their lives. That's freaking huge. So I know that anyone that's never done Event Planet fully appreciate what happens behind the scenes because there's just so many moving parts and so many hands involved that have to make it come together. And I know we were all, we all, we had those calls and we talked about those things and it was just such an unknown. What are we going to see? What's going to happen? It always feels like you're putting out a fire. But end of the day, to see that so many people made connections that are going to be with them going forward for life.

36:12 That's powerful. That's so cool. And I, I know today I haven't jumped on any of the online like LinkedIn, Instagram, that's usually where I spend my time. I haven't had a chance to get on there yet. Today I know I'm going to see more and then I'm going to add to the conversation as much as I can because I was driving all day yesterday. So I really couldn't participate. That to me is what really stands out. I, I'd love every second of that. And you want to talk about fuel that motivates you to do this all over again and make it even better. That is it. Hey, Mark, I think what really sums up what happened at the conference was there was a gentleman that has a history podcast. Here's a couple of different podcasts. And he wasn't getting that much engagement. And he had said something to one of the speakers and he's like, I tried everything kind of thing.

37:00 And we were talking to him and Phil and I are like, well, are you doing this? You doing that? And Phil went up to his room before that big dinner, got him on to YouTube and done a bunch of other stuff. And now it was almost like that gentleman that had talked to Gina. I mean, he was like a different guy. He's like, I don't know if it's going to work, but at least I have a game plan. And he was better than when he started. Wasn't so much he had things to do. It got done. And I think that's what's so awesome about events like this where you have the people right away. I mean, Megan Shields tried, which I give her the all the props in the world in the middle of the after party. She's trying to fix my Facebook.

37:46 We got like almost there, but we hit a brick wall. So at least, you know, there's things that actually happen at these, at these conferences and everybody from the top to the bottom was willing to do something. So I'd love to hear what Sid has to say because I finally got Sid and I was really, I was really happy to see him and meet him and I think we had a good conversation. So I don't know if he's walking or whatever. No, he, I know he had his hand up and yes, I want to get to him. I did want to just comment really quickly on something Yvonne said and then we'll go to Sid. Yvonne mentioned how she appreciates the photography aspect as far as when she is the photographer, it gives her the opportunity to connect with people. And I totally relate to that so much because one of the big reasons why I started this conference was so that I could have a reason to have conversations with people. Because when I go to these other events, I tend to get a little introverted and I just have a hard time. I push myself, don't get me wrong. And clearly, look, Jana and Rich and Johnny and Chris, all, all those people that I told you about earlier, I mean, obviously if I was being too introverted, I may not have ever come across their paths, right?

39:01 So there's something about one as I'm as the leader of the event, as the person, the face, everybody's happy to come up and talk to me. We instantly have something to talk about. And I think that's what Yvonne's saying it's, you know, she's got a reason to approach you and then you can, you can break the ice with that. So thank you for bringing that up, Yvonne. I think that's helpful. And obviously you may not go, go start an event now tomorrow, right? But thinking about it as a creator, you can bring things to an event that you attend a networking event or what have you, that that kind of helps you break the ice. All right, Sid, you're up. Good morning to you, Sir.

39:43 I was thinking about you and your role in all this, and I couldn't be happier that you were not a speaker and that you were not on the planning team. I looked at you as really the perfect representative of the podcasting morning chat community. You were that guy. Like I couldn't pick a better person. To go around and talk to people to represent us. So thank you for doing that and please share anything you'd like about your experience. Good morning, everybody. Thank you for those words, Mark. I appreciate them. So I have two little takeaways and I know you got a lot of people on stage that likely want to share too, Mark.

40:24 So I'll be really brief. I think it goes without saying that the number one take away on my list is I met my Internet friends in real life. And that's just so cool to be able to do that. And people you've been connected to for years, but you've never had the opportunity to meet like Yvonne and Jonathan and Chris are, just to name a few, Alex, right? Just so many people that you hang out with that you don't have never met in life. So I think that's a really important one for me. There are two other things that really stood out for me. One of them was something that Alex Santilippo said, and he used an acronym for the word focus. In his acronym, the meaning of the word focus was follow one course until successful. I think we all get trapped in the shiny object syndrome. And you know, I just thought that's really important and to stay the course and to follow it until you've seen it to the level of success you want.

41:23 And then the other thing that I was strictly fascinated with was Annika Jackson talking about how she's using Delphi AII. Was blown away by that and really looking forward to digging in to understand that specific tool and what that tool could potentially do for me as a business owner, me as a podcaster, content creator, things of that nature. But I will say this, and it might be a little bit contrary. I left with more questions, then I got answers. That's a really good thing for me because I'm in season of reflection. I'm in the season of really trying to figure out what 2026 is going to be like.

42:06 Most of you know that I'll turn 60 in February. And so I'm like really asking myself questions like what I want the next 10 years to be like, reflecting back on the past 10 years. And it gave me some more questions to dive into. I've a meet with my coach this week to restart from discovery on that. So I really appreciate the thought provoking questions that came out that are that'll be me reflect and figure out the next path it's going to be. So back to you, Mark. Thank you, Sid. Thank you so much for sharing. And yeah, that I must have missed that part of Alex's talk because I was, you know, bouncing around everywhere. And that's such a cool acronym. I love that focus.

42:46 Yeah. Thank you, Sid. And yeah, let's keep things moving, shall we? I see that there's several people that want to chime in. I'm going to go to Janae first. In fact, if you're paying attention in the chat, I'm going in the order that people have chimed in there. I've asked people to put a number one in the chat. If you'd like to share anything about your experience, something you learned, something meaningful, and let's go to Janae. And then we're going to go back to Dave Jackson. Go ahead, Janae. Good morning, everyone. Super excited to be here. I was like, I can't wait to talk with everyone go over again the weekend. I've been missing everyone. So super excited to be here.

43:27 And Mark, I was listening earlier. Thank you so much for, you know, giving me the opportunity to serve community and capturing that in the best way that I know that I can. Thank you so much. It it felt amazing and I can't wait to come back next year. You're welcome, Janae, and thank you again for everything that you did. Really, I'm, I just don't know that I can thank you enough. You were such a star at this event. Dave Jackson, the floor is yours. Yeah, this will be quick. And just realize that everybody has different needs. But for me, the one that stood out that I was like, oh, I got to go home and start doing that was Megan's talk on Facebook ads. I've I've played.

44:11 With them in the past, it was kind of like I should. Do something and I played with them a little bit and for me I was like, I need to go back and because they're I've. Heard they're super expensive and Megan's like showing like no, no, they're they're not as bad as you think they are. So that's the one that I become. Yeah, thank you for bringing Megan's talk up. Yeah, one was a popular one. And yeah, I can speak from experience. The Facebook ads were one of the big reasons that our ticket sales finally started to surge late in August, early September, we did a campaign there. I know it's a little different comparing an event to a podcast, but I can attest it does work. And I have some clients that we help with meta ads, and they're having a lot of success. In fact, I know somebody in this room is having success with the Facebook ads as well.

45:02 Let's keep going. Thank you, Dave. And I see Tim, Tim, Brian is on stage and he wants to chime in. And I just want to share. Tim is an OG. He joined us at the first one. Tim was, as we had called out spontaneously on stage when I was doing my keynote opening. Tim, I think was the first one to get a ticket. It's hard not to remember who the first person is to buy a ticket at an event like this. So he was the 1st to get a ticket. And Tim, you shared and I'm not going to share it here cuz I'll, it's your story to tell if you want to tell it. But you shared just how much the first conference from how much things have changed for you from the first conference to this year.

45:44 But whatever you'd like to share, please do. Good morning to you, Sir. Hey, good morning. And this is my first time on Clubhouse, so I'll try to be really short here. But what I learned and what I got out of the first out of last year was there was a session about the submitting for awards and I had never thought about that. So for one of the podcasts that I run, I'm trying to catch up with Dave Jackson for a number of podcasts that I run because it's only 15 right now. So I'm I'm working hard, Dave. But for one of the podcasts that I run, I work for the federal government and there's the National Government Communication Association and they have a Blue Pencil award is what they call it, and it's for podcasts. And because of last year, I submitted to that, we got nominated.

46:39 We got a lot of good feedback for what we can do for this year. We're going to resubmit for this year and we are going to win it. But that's one of the things that I did. And the other thing is, as I started up my own podcast consulting and production company, I have two clients. So I met my goal that I set for myself for 2025. My goal for next year is add two more clients to it, but that's all directly. I can attribute it directly to last year's conference, this year's conference. Two of them that stood out for me was Lloyd George's Practical Monetization Tactics for Podcasters. That was so packed with stuff that I was like, oh, that makes sense.

47:27 It's going to help my clients out. One of the podcasts I run is a art podcast. So stupid me. I should be talking to Michaels, Blake's, all these little, you know, craft stores and, you know, a commenting on their stuff and getting them to send me art supplies because Lord knows I don't have enough. And I've attended a number of conferences in the past, and usually I roll my eyes at the whole monetization thing. But now that I'm a business owner, I'm like, no, no, I would like to make some money with this podcast. It's my retirement plan. So that one I hadn't planned on attending, but I was glad I did. And Lloyd was very generous with that information. And then the other one that I think deserves a lot of special attention is David Griffiths.

48:18 What are you waiting for? Oh, my goodness, that was powerful. You know, video replays or anything like that. If you've got to watch one, watch that one. Besides, the guy can sing. He sang for us at the end of his talk, yeah. I've never been to conference to a session where somebody sang at at the presentation and that was amazing. And just his message of, you know, what are you waiting for? You know, I'm not waiting. I'm walking. That's my next tattoo. That's, you know, I'm going to get that put on my chest and that's going to be my next monster. Tim, that's your next tattoo.

48:58 I was really hoping it was going to be something related to authenticity and moist. Well, you know what? Just for you, Just for you, I'll get moist on one of my hands. So yeah. Love it. Thank you, Tim, and congratulations on all the success. What a difference a year makes, right? Like it's so cool to hear the progress and I know we were connected after the conference talking a lot more about that too. I'm so glad to see the progress and so glad to see you back at Empowered Podcasting this year and hopefully I'm assuming next year as well. You've, you're a great part of this community. I appreciate you, Tim.

49:39 Thanks for being here. Well, thank you. And as soon as you put out the tickets, I'm going to be first in line again and I'm just going to put it out there to you here. I started planning a talk to submit. So as soon as you have all that opened up, you'll be seeing my name. Yeah, awesome. And I, that's one of the things I love about really a lot of conferences. I'm not saying it's unique to us, but I think when it you are attending a, a conference that's really motivating you, inspiring you, empowering you, It seems that people like to then, you know, get that bug to want to be a speaker too. I got several people coming up to me saying, Mark, I am applying to speak here next year. They were determined, confident, and I love that. It makes me so excited.

50:23 It to me it's a sign that things are going really well at the event. I'm going to check in with Chris, who I got to know pretty well this past weekend was good to to meet Chris and Chris. I know that we met in an unusual way as far as the conference goes, because you got there and realized, oops, I didn't order my ticket yet you got everything else but your ticket. Good morning to you, Sir. You know, Mark, there there's a synergy here. I didn't know you were having these. And, and I woke up an hour earlier than I was expecting to get up at about 5:50. You know, I'm on central time here. And then I checked my Facebook and I thought, Oh yeah, I better get on this for the end, Mark. I guess the one thing I was thinking to myself, but I wish we had another day and it's hard because we're running a con.

51:07 There are so many things you have to prepare for, so many things that can go wrong, and you still have to do all those things. It it was certainly personal and I didn't check out the South Park shuttle or whatever it was that like, I guess you can drive or get rides around that area for free too. I was using Ubers and Lyfts, but it looks like they're a South Park. South Park skipper, Yes. Yeah. And that area of Charlotte is, Yeah, it's called South Park, in case anybody's getting thrown off and thinking the TV show. Yeah. Yeah, Well, well, that's well there. There are lots of places called South Park, North Park, East Park, West Park. It's not pretty generic name, but it's so I think everybody and it seemed like everybody there was independent, you know, just I'm a one man show, you know, it's I mean, I'm not, you know, I I mean, you know, I'm not I'm not I'm not against having, you know, more corporate podcasters, but they don't have the same interests as we do. It's so that was good.

52:03 But who knows you'll as it grows, you might find it gets bigger. But I. To to answer your question, yes, we will be having another one and we'll do it next year. I am going to take the next week or two to work with the team and work with others to figure out when exactly we're going to do it. So to be continued on that Chris, I have to keep things moving because it is already top of the hour. So thank you. Thank you for coming. I'm glad it all worked out. I'm glad I got to know you better and glad to hear that it sounds like you'll probably be coming back the next year. Thank you. Yeah. And I mean, I don't know how many West Coast people you got here, but keep in mind, you know, this would be 4:00 AM for them, so you.

52:46 Know we hear that from the West Coasters quite a bit. I get it. And who knows, to be continued, we may at some point add an extra show at least once a week for a little bit later for people to be able to enjoy. Thank you, Chris, I see that and we're going to go just a little bit longer today. We just have so many people. I want to make sure that we hear from everybody. Rich, I see you want to chime in again. Yes, go for it. One of the things that's most important for me being an event planner, usually doing events in my local community is the experience. You know, our people, are they made to feel welcome when they, when they get there, do they feel like they belong?

53:28 And that was totally the vibe of EPC, you know, and even though it's a little bit different for me because I was on the event planning committee, like I still, there were still a lot of people that I just had never met before. And kind of going back to like what Phil was saying earlier is walking up to people and yeah, maybe you've had conversations with them on LinkedIn or Facebook or whatever, but we're really just meeting each other for the first time in person. And it was very much a feeling of I've known this person for years and years, when in reality, we kind of just met right then and there. We've exchanged some pleasantries on social media, but the vibe was there.

54:14 The vibe was, it was that sense of belonging, that sense of community, that sense of, like Jane had said, friends that I haven't met yet. So that for me is one of the most important takeaways and why I love the community so much. And I made so many great friends and I'm eternally grateful. And that's what I have. So thank you. Thank you, Rich. I think you hit the nail on the head. I think that was absolutely the vibe at the conference, just this feeling, like I said, the sense of belonging, which was the tone I tried to set at the very first one and I think succeeded. And I'd certainly set that tone again this week.

54:54 And we upped it a level or two or three. Yeah, it there was something really special in the air. And so listen, I want to see, does anybody else want to share anything? I will share quickly, and if you want to share, just put a one in the chat. Again, that's going to be the easiest for me to keep up with you, but I'll just share quickly. A surprise for me was how well the workshop that I hosted with Chris Lewis went. We hosted the improv workshop and why it was so surprising to me was that I just didn't. I knew it would be fun. It's not that I had low expectations, but I didn't expect it to kick the conference or the people at the conference to into a new gear.

55:46 You know, Jonathan shared a piece of his presentation and as we mentioned earlier, he was first and there and he shared on social media this piece where he at one point was really working hard to engage the audience. And he even commented, I get it that I'm the first, first one here. Let's get come on everyone, let's get your energy up. Let's get you participating, right? And the, I think the improv workshop really kicked that in, especially after Jonathan's presentation. I think it was I even turned to Chris at one point and I said, do you think we should have done the improv thing first? And he said no, because of Jonathan's presentation, because Jonathan did get the crowd warmed up and had because of his powerful presentation. But yeah, when we went on and did our thing and we had all the different tables playing improv games, the, the energy level changed.

56:41 People had what I'm the way I saw it, people had an opportunity to get to know each other in a fun and sometimes vulnerable way. Improv is does does create a bit of a vulnerable experience for a lot of people. And the other surprise, I guess, or maybe more just full circle moment about that workshop was again going back to Jana and Rich and and Chris who I did the workshop with and some others. We'd Chris hosted an improv workshop at our creator retreat. And we all joke now I was the probably the most uncomfortable at that particular workshop. I could not get out of my head.

57:24 And then Fast forward here I am now been taking lessons, improv lessons for over a year, hosting a workshop on improv and it becoming a big success of the event. So yeah, that was a big full circle moment, surprise moment for me. And I was just so proud of what we did up there on stage that morning. I'm going to give it to you, Phil. What? What did you say in the chat there? I was just saying in the chat that your workshop allowed us to break the ice so that everybody was equal and then go on to enjoy the rest of the event like you got out of your heads because you were trying to say big baby bottoms. Yeah.

58:04 And then a number. And try not to laugh at the same time as you see a whole bunch of, like, adults saying ridiculous things. And no one was like, oh, I have to be professional. I have to be this. I have to be that everybody threw it out the window and was like, we're all saying big baby bottoms for like 5 minutes and tongue twister because you're trying to say it faster, trying not to laugh, trying to pick a number that we had. It was phenomenal. And it lets you let go of all those like the worry if you will, and it really let everybody be themselves and activate the child inside of them. I feel to be in a wonder because that's what this about was. It was wonder because everybody was sharing so much knowledge. Thank you, Phil.

58:51 Appreciate you sharing that. Yeah, you said it better than I did. And yeah, and I'm seeing in the chat here a lot of people are saying, yeah, it was such a great icebreaker. I'm glad that it worked out so well. Does anybody else want to share anything before we wrap up? There's. I mean, I honestly think we could go for several hours. I will say that. Jason Circon, you just want to share what you had just texted me with the group. Chris had said. That kind of just instantly sparked an idea in my head about how cool would it be if we figure out a way to put together a behind the scenes documentary about the coming together of Empowered podcasting. We really don't have enough work on our plate when it comes to planning this thing, so let's do that.

59:33 Too. Yeah, but it's worth talking about. I think that sounds really cool. It really does. Yeah, that's to be continued. Maybe we'll have to get Janae in on that conversation as well. And you know what, Mark? That's the first person I thought about. And when I when I sent that text like that would be the guy to go to. Yeah, absolutely. I love it. OK, any final words? I'm going to give one more chance to everyone. Anyone want to say anything else? OK, well then as we wrap up, I just want to take a moment to say how grateful I am for this community. What we built together this past weekend was proof of what happens when we when passionate creators. Come together to share and support and learn from each other.

1:00:17 And hearing these stories and these takeaways reminded me why this conference, this community exists in the 1st place. It's all about the strategies and the skills that help us grow, yes, but it's also about the people. And if anything, maybe it's more about the people, the conversations that we had, the relationships that turn into collaborations, the sense of belonging that fuels us to keep going. My hope is that you leave this conversation with the same energy and the same clarity that you felt this weekend and that you carry it forward into whatever comes next. I think it's a huge win.

1:00:58 The fact that Dave has a take away from the conference because he's been the podcast teacher at School of Podcasting for decades, literally, right? So to hear that somebody like Dave has gotten the take away out of the meta ads, that's really cool to me. And I want to make sure I also mentioned the sense of belonging that fuels us to keep going. That is so huge with the community. When we feel like we belong, it does provide that fuel for us. And like I was saying, leave today with that energy, with that clarity and that you carry it forward. And whether it's launching something new, trying something different, showing up more for yourself, for your audience, remember that you're not doing it alone.

1:01:50 You've got a whole community right here. Doesn't mean you have to show up here every morning to be a part of it. And it would be awesome if you did. It doesn't mean that you have other ways to connect with this community in our Facebook group, the Empowered Podcasting Group. And even more importantly, reach out to those people that you've connected with, whether it was over the weekend, whether it's today. Like I said, you've got a whole community in your corner. So thank you for being a part of Empowered Podcasting. Thank you for being part of the Podcasting morning chat and this conversation today. I'm so excited to see where this momentum takes all of us and I really can't wait.

1:02:31 Now. I'm shocked to say it, but not shocked. I can't wait to start planning what comes next for Empowered Podcasting. So join us tomorrow if you can. 7:00 AM Eastern. We are back live here on Clubhouse, live on YouTube as well. We'd love to have you continue these conversations, continue to learn and grow with us, and to build this fine community. So until tomorrow, we'll be doing news and comment. Make it a great day everybody. Take care.