379 - Open AI Unveils Sora 2, Mel Robbins Tops Charts, & Celebrity vs. Indie Name Battle

0:05 Good morning Podcasting Morning Chat. Today is Wednesday, October 1st, 2025, and today we're diving into the latest podcasting news, from AI powered editing and naming tools to community debates, celebrity clashes, and the events and awards making industry headlines. So if you're listening live on Clubhouse, hit the share button, bottom left hand side of the screen and share it. However, Clubhouse lets you. And if you're listening via podcast 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 for being here. I am your host Mark Ronick, and on stage with me we have Nick Nolbach, producer Ashley Feller, Dr. Faye and Sid Meadows. And man does what a difference a day makes. We had people filing in first thing in the morning and then all of a sudden today it's a little quiet in here. But in typical fashion, the live audience usually files in in the first few minutes. So let's dig into it, shall we? Today, podcast data as of yesterday, September 30th. By the way, I can't believe it's already October 1st. I can't believe I'm done with Empowered podcasting too. It's pretty crazy how time flies and I just again, I remember like 2 months ago when I was really stressing and thinking how am I going to ever get through and get to the event and before you know it blink of an eye it's here and gone. OK, so for today, well, again, this is as of yesterday, the number of podcasts that updated over the past week 181,808 and I don't again as of I said the same thing last week, don't know how that compares to the previous week because there's something broken in the tool that I've been using. So, but I do know 181,000 plus

2:52 have updated over the past week, meaning at least one new episode was published. So I'll share another stat. Total podcasts updated in the last 30 days, 314,157. And by the way, shout out to Jeff Dwoskin, who has made it officially one person in the live audience. OK, so we know it's not clubhouse then? We can maybe assume that, but. Not to say that's sad if it's up. What a night and day difference from yesterday and today. And by the way, Jonathan Howard has joined us again on stage. Jonathan, I know you're in Florida right now. Thank you for being here.

3:35 I know that it is your vacation time, so I'm appreciate you being here. And I, I grabbed some social media news just in case. And if you have anything, you'll let us know when we get there. First, let me also share number one podcast on Apple. I always like to share the number ones on the big platforms. Again, the Charlie Kirk show, understandably so, I suppose being that is a hot topic for sure and I'm not making light of that. It is a but it is a hot topic for sure. So doesn't surprise me that that show has remained number one. I'm going to hold off on the number one from Spotify because Dr. is going to give us her top five. It's not really her top five.

4:18 It's the Spotify top five list. Go for it, Dr. So #5 crime, conspiracy, cults and murder #4 is the Tucker Carlson show. We haven't seen that in the top five in a while #3 is Matt and Shane's secret podcast #2 is the weekend with the Obama #1 is the Joe Rogan Experience. What a surprise. And I just have to stop and say, Sid, are you happy now? Because last week when I did it, you had to complain out loud to everybody that I did a poor job and you wanted Dr. back. Is it better now? That's certainly more in line with what we typically expect from the top five.

5:00 So yes, thank you, Mark. You're welcome, Sid. Good. Morning to you. Thank you. You make me feel so loved. I love that. Thank you. And the top five you have another list. I do and so this week's random chart is how to and. That's a category that we fall in. Yeah, OK. But not not in the top five, unfortunately. Right, not yet, not yet, not yet. So #5 is impact with Eddie Wilson #4 is Mick unplugged #3 is Jamie Curtin. OK #3 is Jamie Curtin Lima show #2 is the mid week rise up in #1 Sid are you listening the Mel Robbins podcast?

5:48 There it is, Mel Robbins, the number one show for the most commercials in a podcast. No, I I kid, I kid. Thank you, Dr. Getting aside, I think it might be, it could be. I mean, yes, there's some validity to that statement. And yeah, I I don't know that for sure. I forget who actually listens to the show. Yeah, you need to time how many commercials? Like how much time is commercials? Versus actual content. Well I can tell you the 1st 6 minutes is commercials and then there's at least 2 minutes of her reading the bio off of her guests.

6:29 So I've started just like fast forwarding through it. But I do see an option when I open or who I list on Apple. I do see an option to pay and listen without ads, so I'm not going to do that. But this is a trend I've seen across the board. Perhaps it'd be getting longer and longer. The one from this week is an hour and a half, and that's a big commitment. Probably. That's a big commitment. That's a trend I'm seeing. Content or is an hour cafe with you? Know what I mean Like. It's probably an hour and 15 minutes of content and 15 minutes of ads. I'm getting lost. I have never timed that, but each ad breaks about 3 minutes.

7:09 There you go. And hey, by the way, can we just acknowledge that now the audience is starting to fill up again? Look, we're I don't really care, right? Like, I mean, of course I care. I love having people come in and join us. And if it was an empty room, other than all of us on stage, it's fine. The show goes on. I don't I don't mind. And it's always nice to see some familiar faces, some new faces. Hello to Tim. Tim from the Empowered Podcasting Conference community. He's back again. That's great to see. And of course, some old familiar as well here this morning. So thank you all for being here. And I did want to say this for a second. We're talking about this the, you know, the writ, the shows that are riddled with ads like Mel Robbins. And we often give advice saying don't put too many ads, maybe not even put them in the front of the show because you're going to turn people off.

8:01 And yes, of course, Mel Robbins is a big name, but she's got the number one show in the how to category right now, so people are still listening and it's not necessarily sending everyone away. But they could forward just like Sid does. She would still get on the charts right? Absolutely. And I think, and I, I'm guessing a lot of people do hit the skip button, but it doesn't send them away is my point. Just an interesting thing to think about, you know, and that so Nick, you just said she's in in the chat, she's an outlier and I'm curious if you would explain a little further. Just because of her name, just because of how big she is, people are willing to press the skip fund a couple times or endure the ads because of who she is.

8:50 I think just any independent podcaster that's trying to make a name for themselves, if they did the same thing, people would just turn it off because they've either, I'm guessing, read her books or seen her content or something that is built an immense amount of trust that they'll basically go through the thickened bit for her. And usually as independent podcasters, especially in the beginning, you don't have that trust with anybody. You don't have those ride or die people that are like I can endure this for you. So you think that there is a there's a factor here where if you know who the host is, if you they have that credibility, that clout, even if you've not never listened to an episode of their podcast, you'll be more tolerant of it because of who that person is. I hear you.

9:40 All right, Sid and Alex want to chime in. Let me go to Sid. Go ahead, Sid. Yeah, I think I do agree with Nick that she's an outlier, but I think for me, what resonates with her is her content is really great. It's really good content, even though some of it's really long. It takes me a couple of listens to listen to it. But I also think she's just so real and she's just like she's an in your face real person. She gets vulnerable and emotional on her show when things hit her. She doesn't hide that. She talks to you like your mom talks to you sometimes, which we all need occasionally. And I think that that just resonates with people. And I agree with what Ashley put in the chat. I do think she's emerging as the new Oprah Winfrey. She just an in your face kind of person. And I really enjoy her content.

10:30 So I tend to look past the ads. I'm a fan. I just the shows are a little bit long for me, but that's me personally. That didn't mean somebody else is not going to consume all hour and half in one listening. And the ads kind of are irritating, but because I want to get straight to the content, but that doesn't mean I'm going to stop listening. I'm just going to Fast forward through them. So I just think it's her approach to it because she's just, she's, she's identifiable and real in my opinion. I'm with you there, said I hear what you're saying. And this goes back to what we were talking about at the Empowered Podcasting weekend. A lot of conversation around being real, being emotional, sharing your personal stories. And she does that really well. And what it's sounding like, at least for Sid, is the commercials are annoying, but there's something he'll deal with because he does feel connected to this, this host, He does feel like she has valuable information and content to share. And so it's just a good lesson to pay attention to that. Yes, sometimes we can go against the grain of what all the gurus are telling us to do and still be a successful show because if the contents good.

11:40 If you're a trusted host, the rest of that stuff sometimes doesn't matter as much. So the other day she had, when I we were in Charlotte, she had a astronaut on a lady astronaut, I forget her name. She's Indian, I believe, and, or from Indian descent. She's an American. And the conversation was just fascinating about this lady and what she's been through balancing being an astronaut and being a mom. It just feels like a real conversation. So I mean, I enjoy it, but it's not for you. It's not for you. You don't have to listen to her podcast. Like Jonathan said that in the chat that he loves her books but doesn't really care for the podcast. That's great. You have that choice to hit play and to not hit play. So for me, I choose to.

12:23 I just say certain things about it I don't like, but it's not right now. It's not going to stop me from listening. Yeah, that's and that's a great point. What you just said said it's we talked about this before that when you have a podcast, it's not really just your podcast. You're really more of a multimedia platform if you really want to take advantage and and grow a community, right. So Mel Robbins does it in multiple ways, books, podcasts, etcetera. I think that's an important point. I see that Alex dropped off so DRI know you have some cooking. Do if you haven't already. Did you? I'm not in there, but I just yeah, I did. So the other thing that Sid brought up was that she does long intros of her guests and I used to have a client that used to do that. And I mean it used to go into and she likes to take long walks on the beach and she cooks, makes pickled, you know, pickled canning with her grandchildren.

13:17 I'm like, what is she? This is going on too long. I mentioned it to her and she says, Oh, well, I just, I just thought it would be fun. And I'm like, no, no, it's not. It's not fun. So yeah, oh man. Let's let's see here and Renee in the chat. Thank you. Dr. Renee in the chat says people don't stay for the name. People stay because they are changing. Time is too important to listen if it's not worthwhile. It's an interesting point. I see Nick agrees in the chat. He says 100% she never could have built that trust without delivering. That's that. That's what has made her a big name. Yeah.

14:02 It's now I feel like we're almost getting into chicken or the egg kind of conversation here. All interesting points. Thank you all for diving into that. Let's keep things moving with some more news as I look to make sure I see. I did it. I was going to hit the wrong. I knew I was going to hit the wrong button. And I did it twice already on this show. I've hit the wrong button. So I'm I'm keeping up the streak and and then some. All right, some events going on around the world or, or awards for that matter. Let's start with awards. Rd. just opened entries for the 2025 Creator of the Year awards. This is a newer category or a newer award that came? I think it last year might have been the first year that they started that.

14:51 I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure I'm not. They're offering $200,000 in cash and prizes. Categories include creator of the year which can earn you 25 K People's Choice. You can get 10K out of that one. Emerging Creator of the Year 10K plus 15 Spotlight awards $5000 each. To enter, submit your channel, meaning your YouTube channel by October 30th, with community voting set for November 6th through the 19th and winners announced on November 20th. So just go to rode.com and you can find out more about it. They're heavily promoting this and I think, I think I may apply for it.

15:38 I don't know because I don't do enough of YouTube content, but why not? Maybe I'll throw my hat in the ring and let's keep it moving. The Black Podcasting Awards are going live for the first time, meaning they're doing it in person after five years of virtual ceremonies. This is the 6th annual event and it will be held on October 17th at the Motorhouse Black Box Theater in Baltimore, MD. 71 podcasts are nominated across 43 categories including the coveted podcaster of the year where our own podcasting morning chat community member Dominic Lawson is a finalist for Black is America. The ceremony is part of the Afrozen Audio Podcast Festival weekend hosted by the Black Podcast awards Co founder Georgie and Gettin.

16:35 Tickets are tickets and tables are available now at ceremony.blackpodawards.com and some events for you. I've been talking about this over the past few weeks are sharing it with you. I should say Speakfest, Night of the Living pod speak spelled Speke, that's on October 10th in Houston, TX and the Washington DC podcast Professionals Happy Hour on October 16th, obviously in Washington, DC. You can find all this at podnews.net/events or we'll put them in the show notes for you as well.

17:16 And of course, as I mentioned, the 7th annual Afrozen Audio Podcast Festival in Baltimore happens October 16th. Dr. Did you want to share something? Can you read that last one on? Meet up and match up event. This week's focus topics are health, fitness, purpose, life, religion, and spirituality. That sounds actually pretty interesting. I'm intrigued. And do you have any more info on this Dr. Yeah, PNC listeners can get in for free. So if you just go to the link and the link will be in the notes. I didn't have time to put the link in the rundown, but the link will be in the notes. If you go to, you pretend like you're going to pay $4.00. Click on $4.00 and then it'll say get tickets. Click on that.

17:59 The next screen is when you'll see the screen with the coupon. You can put the coupon in and the coupon code is PMC, the initials of the show PMC and you can get in for free. And I got to tell you the last week when I went, I met some of the most interesting people. I think I've and I've gone to a lot of these events for this and this was by far the best one. And it was just an amazing connection that I made. So I hope to see some people in there. Awesome. Thank you, Dr. Then that again that coupon code PMC podcasting, morning chat. All right, here's what I want to do. I'm going to jump ahead before we get to some of the news bites and talk a little AI with Nick and anyone else who's interested. We do have some AI news starting with ChatGPT, or I should say Open AI, making a pretty big announcement that people weren't necessarily prepared for.

18:57 They heard rumors of it, but they have a new product, if you will, or at least a big upgrade to one of their products. Nick, you want to share a little bit? Hello, Open AI surprisingly drops Sora 2, and I say drops kind of loosely because I don't think it's widely available to everybody yet, right? Is an invite only type of thing, But it sounds like creators are getting invite codes that they can dish out people. So keep your eyes and here's peeled for anyone that might have those. What is Sora 2? Sora, for anyone who's not familiar is Open a Eyes AI video generating model and Sora 2 brought a of upgrades. We've talked about Google's new AI model that can do sound and audio and all that kind of stuff. Sora is bringing that to the table and so much more. One of the big stand out things that I found seeing all the creators that actually have access to it is you can very quickly create your own avatar, like your own AI version, like AI clone of yourself.

20:08 And I believe all you have to do is literally record you saying a couple things and then turn your head a little bit so that the AI can like get a good idea for the full shape of your face and head and everything. Nick, I heard that the way that that works, the way that it tests is you, yeah, you turn your head different directions, but all you have to do is count, I think, like, count to 10. Like that. Literally all they want you to do is just say a, a series of numbers and it doesn't take long. It's certainly a lot different than the old days where you'd have to read, you know, 15 minutes worth of a script to really capture that voice. Go ahead. That's why I didn't realize it was just counting.

20:48 Yep. So with that once you have your the clone of yourself, you can choose the private or you can make it public to where other people can use your face in their content which at this point know who would want that but. It's an interesting thing, right? Like so you could literally say, yes, I give permission for people to use my likeness. That could be end up becoming I'm not necessarily with this platform specific, but there could be a content creator job, right? Or in other words, or an income stream is the more appropriate term. If you're OK with it, you could pimp your digital clone out. That was kind of what I was thinking as well, like that would be the direction. I know as of right now, they haven't announced any kind of kickback to the creators or anything, at least not that I've seen, right?

21:36 I feel like for most it's going to be a private deal, but some of the videos that I've seen these creators make with their clone, like it's scary good. Some of them that I like, one of them I watched it was a Sora video on TikTok and I was watching the guy talk about like the new Samsung S25 or whatever and I was waiting for it to cut to the part where he starts talking about Sora was the entire Sora video. He was doing a review. It was showing his face. He was talking about the phone. It flashed to the phone, he was doing something on it and then it cut back to his face like it was. It looked like a tech review video and it was all AI generated.

22:18 Yeah. So this is the real answer to Gemini's VO3 that we were talking about a few months ago, at least in my opinion, it sounds like it is. So it's much improved from their first model. And by the way, it's also free. And I think Nick may have mentioned that. But if not, just to be clear, it is free as it's rolling out here. And they've also come out with, sorry, Android users, they've come out with an iOS app as well that anyone with an iPhone can can download and use. But again, like you said, it is currently invite only. You need a special numeric code that you were given by another person in order to access it.

23:02 At least for now, I didn't look. Into it, but is there like a wait list or anything that we can sign up for? Yes, you can. And as a matter of fact, if you get it on the app, yeah, there's a place at the bottom that says to gives you the option to be notified. And I believe the same thing can be said if you go to open open AI website and dig into the SORA section. Renee, did you want to chime in? Go for it. Good morning. I did just showed up in the news this morning. I did not read the whole article. I read some of it. Now I have to go back because of what you guys were saying about sword 2 and the ability, you know, we've been using 11 labs to to do our avatars that and hey Jen to do our voices in.

23:45 But you know, sword 2 is getting up to that level. We don't have to pay for those those tools anymore to create, you know, our AI generated avatars. But today's news. It said. Tilly Norwood? Tilly Norwood. Not sure if anybody saw this in their news feed. But you did. So she, you know, she's an AI generated actress and multiple talent agencies are trying to hire this AI actress. So out in Lai, guess there's just being all this backlash from the human actors. Rightfully so, but this is where we are. So Tilly Norwood, Google it and let's see what we can learn about that. Not that that's really a podcast thing, but it is tangential. Well, it is a podcast thing in the sense, look, we're all content creators and this is a certainly it's an AI generated content creator.

24:38 I think this is very relevant to all of us. And yeah, it is making waves around Hollywood because there are talent agents that are seeking this AI generated person, quote UN quote out. And then there's another side of Hollywood that's saying no, no, we can't do this. I mean, they're even saying they want this character, this quote UN quote actor to be the next Scarlett Johansson, I think is what I read. And I know there are some actors saying we don't need another Scarlett Johansson. We have her already. So yeah, it is making waves and that is something really to pay attention to. But and it and it fits along the lines here of some of this stuff we're talking about with Sora. Speaking of which, let's see if there's anything else I can tell you about it.

25:25 No, I think, I mean, I think Nick really covered it. This is something to OK, let's see. This is it'll create 10 second AI videos specifically of yours, yourself or your friends, but it is also creating audio as well. So if you've ever used VO3 on Google, when it generates a video for you, it will often or I think every time now, it'll add audio to it to a complement the video. What I'm curious with the Sora app because I haven't really seen the app in action and I have Android so I can't download it either. One of the cool things with VO3 that I really liked was there like storyboard feature because similar to Sora, you can only generate so much content in one video. But VO3, that's called flow.

26:20 It allows you to string together multiple videos and you can steal clips from previously generated videos to generate the next video kind of thing. So it does make the full, I'll call it short, feel very fluid compared to just like going to an AI model and saying, OK, generate a video of the sun setting and then having to generate another video of like a shooting star going like bad example. But you know what I'm saying, Like it, there's no real way to continue the movie without having some sort of frame of reference. And that's where VO really shined in my opinion. And I'm just curious if Sora is going to follow suit with a similar platform for generating a full view and not just one second.

27:07 Yeah, to be continued, I suppose. But yeah, that's a really good, good question. All right, so anyone else? I just want to make sure before we move on. I'm going to actually, not that you know this, but I'm going to go off script for a second and jump ahead because it is AI news. Riverside made a big announcement yesterday on International Podcast Day. Creators can now edit their podcasts and videos simply by chatting with the Riverside platform. So in other words, text based editing. Forget the edit timelines, the sliders, the endless cut and paste.

27:47 Instead you tell Riverside what you want. Like add jazzy music here. What was that Nick? Sorry. And they're calling it chat based editing as opposed to like. X. Space transcript editing. So yeah, now you just type in the chat what you want it to do and then it'll just do it for you, apparently. Right. Yeah. So like, you know, add this style music here, cut the part where I was rambling. Like this is stuff that they're suggesting you could try. Cut that part where I was rambling. Make me a YouTube thumbnail. Turn this into a 3 minute tutorial and just like that, the AI, at least they claim the AI does the heavy lifting. It's as they call it, editing by conversation.

28:30 So why, why does it matter? For podcasters, this is this potentially could save hours of your life. Editing is the single biggest bottleneck for most creators. Ashley, did you want to chime in on something? Yeah, I just wanted to say it sounds like they're trying to compete with the scripts operator. That's a feature that does the same thing. And as a person who has tried operator, they've got a long way to go. So it'll be interesting to see how Riverside's version of this will go. I'm tempted, Ashley, to give you access to my Riverside account. And just so you could experiment, since you have a little bit of, well, you have a lot of experience with Descript and a little bit with their operator feature.

29:15 I may want to ask you to play around with that. But I also know following you on social media that you are a busy lady editing lots of podcasts right now. So when you have time, maybe we'll experiment with that. Dr. Did you want to add something? I haven't graduated to the talking to the AI yet. It's just when I type, I think when I type so I'll type a phrase or something and then my fingers will just lay on the keyboard while I get my thoughts together. And I don't know that it just seems I just can't do it when I speak to to AI. Do you know what I'm saying? I do and I don't Here's why, because I think you're not alone, Dr. Let me make that very clear.

29:57 I think there are people out there that would feel the same way. And again, the difference is, is I think it's because we've not you personally, but I would imagine some people just feel intimidated and feel confused, like, how do I do this? How do I say this just right? And maybe the answer is, is to not say it just right and just treat it as if you are actually talking to an editor that's working on your project, kind of making some assumptions on how it works. So keep that in mind. But for example, you highlight a section and you say, you know, tighten this up because I'm babbling too much. I think that that's their claim, that we can be that conversational with it. Yeah. But did you hear what you just said to me?

30:40 Because you said I don't, well, I that kind of thing. And that that was very organic. It was very natural. And I'm not quite sure you don't. Know how it'll respond so that yeah, I mean, listen, if you've, I mean anybody, if you, you've used Chat GPTS feature where you can have that verbal conversation back and forth with ChatGPT, I'll have that and I'll speak to it quite naturally and I'll stumble and look for my words, etcetera. And it usually works really well. It understands what I'm doing. It seems to understand human conversation, at least enough. Do you speak the punctuation?

31:24 Like speak the punctuation question mark and period and all that? No. No, no. I mean, they have that dictation feature, but they also have that conversational feature. You know, the one where you may have seen it on TikTok and other places with the little glowing blue and white circle in the middle of the screen. That's just designed to for you to have a normal conversation with it as opposed to you adding punctuation like you would in say, using a dictation app. Let me go to Renee, Renee. Renee, you want to add on to this? Yeah. I wanted to say, DRI, totally get what you're saying. I totally understand that 100%. But what I want to give you the confidence is, is realize that these LLMS were trained on audio transcripts. They've been trained on possibly how we talk in clubhouse. So they totally have learned just like any human would learn. Well, they're not a human, but any brain that's trying to be humid would learn is these us and all these things don't have value.

32:25 So they figured it out just like regular. So just relax in that and realize as I'm stuttering to talk, you're figuring out you're figuring out what words matter. And it will also. That's a great point, Renee, Great point. I'm going to I'll, I'll try it. I'll try it. So let me see here. Anything else? Well, no, I think that's good. I think what I just wanted to make that clear. So if you're a Riverside user or you've been thinking about Riverside and maybe editing is a pain in the ass for you, that might be something you want to check out. We don't know yet how good or bad it is, but certainly worth checking out. We'll all report back as we're using it. I will certainly at least try to use it for some shorts, maybe even for this very episode.

33:11 I'll play around with some shorts from the episode and I'll let you know how it goes. All right, let's see here we have wow, we've done really well. I will admit to you guys, I was talking to Dr. before the show and I was saying how I don't feel like I was worried that it was just going to be kind of a volley back and forth between Dr. and I just swapping stories. And I was worried that we may not get a ton of engagement. And then of course, I reminded myself that of our little phrase, Dr. and I remind ourselves of trust the process. That's right. TTP Yep. So that's what I did. I decided not to worry about it. And thank you all for having such great conversations and let's keep it moving.

33:52 So the People's Choice Podcast awards, we talked a lot about that this past year. I know that we threw our hat in the ring and I think we made the first round, but not the second round of nominations. Well, they will not be holding their ceremony this year. The awards have always been led by Todd Cochran, who we talked about a few weeks ago. He sadly we we lost him earlier this month. For now, the team has shared that they'll pause and take time to regroup, with hopes to bring the event back down the road. It's a chance to reflect on Todd's incredible work and the community he built around podcasting.

34:36 And I know his name came up once or twice over the weekend at Empowered Podcasting. May he rest in peace and certainly understandable that they needed to put that on hold. I will say I can't help but to to think about because I know and I think we covered this article maybe last week, this idea of what do you do? Well, what do people do? Unfortunate circumstances where you go away for whatever reason, right? And that there were suggestions about making sure people have passwords and all the different things to protect all the things that you work on, the projects, the businesses, the podcasts, whatever that is.

35:17 And I can't help but to think maybe that's what's happening here with the People's Choice Awards. Maybe it was kind of under, not intentionally, but under Todd's lock and key. And unfortunately, now that he's gone, there may be some really important stuff that his team can't access. Again, I'm speculating, but I do know that that article I just referenced was written with the inspiration of the fact that we did lose Todd. And I know Pod news and I know the podcast lawyer, they, they did articles and videos all about what to do in those situations or how to prepare for those situations. Also inspired, I think, by the loss, unfortunately, of Todd.

36:00 Some other news Buzz Sprout just launched a free podcast name generator that helps creators come up with unique, searchable titles. The tool suggests a dozen names based on your show description, tone and format, then checks them against the podcast index to flag, which are in fact, quote UN quote unique and which are already in use. Each option is designed to pass the radio test, quote UN quote, easy to say spell search. After hearing once, I don't know. I feel like I knew that at some point that we call that the radio test. And I think I forgot that I didn't. I don't, I didn't remember that we had a name for that.

36:41 So again, radio test is defined as easy to say the name, easy to spell the name and search after hearing it just once. Once you pick a name, you can even launch your show on Buzz Sprout with that title prefilled. The General, the generator is live now at buzzsprout.com/podcast Dash Name, Dash Generator. And we'll put that in the show notes. So nice of them to make it so easy for U.S. business. That's a business decision. Well, I've got a story that's kind of in the same kind of in the same area. So there is a plot twist straight out of the influencer to podcaster pipeline. So I'm going to screw up these names. Shihada Meza.

37:31 Shihada a well known OK through sure a well known content creator with nearly 50,000 TikTok followers says she spent her life savings gearing up to launch her debut podcast rock bottom. That's the name of it rock bottom. But just weeks before the launch her ex try I guess his name is try Gary Ned Fulmer try Gary. I think it's. Ned Fulmer. OK, Ned Fulmer then what's the try guy there? I think try. Guy is like his nickname. All righty then, old try guy. The ones who disappeared from the Internet after a cheating scandal resurfaced with a brand new show called Rock Bottom with Ned Fullmer.

38:18 So both shows center on interviewing people about their lowest moments and how they rebuilt their lives through Chihata. That's the female part of this. Insist their audiences don't overlap. After some initial panic, she decided to keep her title anyway, framing it as the universe winking at her. Meanwhile, Ned Fullmer says that he hadn't even heard of her project and encouraged people to check it out. I hadn't even heard of it. Are you kidding? She has only 50,000 on TikTok. So why does this matter? OK, so this is the wake up call for indie podcasters.

39:00 If you don't trademark or lock down your podcast name, you're rolling the dice. In a space as saturated as podcasting, overlapping names aren't just common, they can derail your launch momentum when a celebrity steps into the ring with more reach and more recognition. So here are my questions. Do you think celebrity podcasters should bear the responsibility for avoiding overlap and indie shows? I do think that they have everybody has a responsibility, much to the point of the last story that we shared, to do their homework and and research to see if other people are using the same title.

39:46 I think that's just smart practices. And it's I also wanted to point out, you know, you were saying it's kind of funny that he's saying he had never heard of this before. And yet this creator has 50,000 TikTok followers. And a marketing ploy here. Renee, are you with me? It could be a marketing ploy, but at the same time, you know, it's something so fascinating to me when or not fascinating. Just a really interesting point is at the Empowered Podcasting Conference, Dave Jackson was speaking and many of us here know who Dave Jackson is. And he actually said when he was asking his audience in that room on Saturday, how many people know who I am, how many people have heard of me before? And I don't know the context.

40:33 I don't know if that was planned or if something happened that prompted him to say that. And there was probably 7-8, nine people that raised their hand. In fact, he, he shared a picture on Facebook, I think, or some I think he did of that moment. I think it was him. It was a selfie. He took a selfie of the crowd behind him with their hands raised. And the point is, it's a big world out there, social media and beyond. It's a really big world. And we make a lot of assumptions that oh, well, this creator has a million followers. So everybody's got to know who that person is. And it's just not the case. But on the other hand, you know, when I go to a podcast platform and I want to know about a certain issue and I just put in a title or or like a keyword and both come up with both the same names.

41:27 I just don't want to confuse the audience and I don't want to have my audience go to the other show. And I mean, I would love it if the other show's audience came to my show. That would be awesome, but I don't want my audience to go to the other show. But this question also gets into something that we debated a couple weeks ago about what actually is an independent podcast. So it gets into that as well. The other question about this is if this happened to you, would you rebrand or hold your ground? OK, let's pin that one because I saw Sid wants to ask something to chime in, but that's yeah, I want to get back to that one. Go ahead, Sid.

42:11 Hey, good morning, everybody. So I'm all about protecting your intellectual property as much as you possibly can. And I do agree that trade marking is a really good thing, but there's only so many words in our language that can be used. And there's going to be a point in time that there's going to be crossover or versions of your name, whether my podcast is the Trend Report. There used to be a podcast called The Trend Reporter. It's no longer there, but really close, right? And there's going to come a point that, I mean, that the issue with trade marking is, yeah, it's a really good thing to do. And it cost you some money to do it. And it takes a little bit of a while to do it. But the real issue is defending it. If there's a trademark infringement, are you going to spend the money to defend your trademark, especially especially.

43:05 As an independent podcaster against a celebrity. Yeah, that's where the money comes in is defending it. So if we, if this, I don't know, this is really a problem, but we're going to, what we're going to end up with because of trademarks and names infringements and all this kind of stuff is we're going to end up with the trend report with Sid Meadows as the name of my podcast or the Sid Meadow show is the name of my podcast. Because again, there's just only so many combinations of words that we can put together to name a show. I like that. Thank you, Sid. That is something to consider and you know, listen, we the name of that show was rock bottom with and then the celebrity's name.

43:46 I don't have it now up in front of me, but so and maybe that's enough to for to create the differentiating factor. So she could put her name rock bottom with and, and that's all you need. I mean, again, I know we talked about this a few weeks ago and I still feel the same way. There are books out there with the same titles. I think it's OK if podcasts have the same titles as long as we're doing something to differentiate it. Like in this case you just put with in your name, and I think that's OK. So our subtitle is another big way too an. Extension, yeah. Except the subtitle just doesn't. It's not always displayed. When you're in a search, for example, you'll maybe only see the title.

44:31 But the search will bring up all the cover art and all the shows and that's when you scroll through and hopefully get some, I call it ECO, eye-catching optimization instead of SEOECO. And you know, first you get that ECO and then you look a little closer and then maybe you can see an extension on that title. I mean, that's where branding really comes in to play here on This is why it's important to to focus on your cover art and make sure that you're doing the things like making it eye-catching, using two or three colors and not, you know, every color under the rainbow. It's using big words for your title in that cover art. It's maybe including a picture of you in that cover art so that people can identify you quickly.

45:24 Those that these are a lot of the reasons why we we encourage those strategies. It's being different, right? So let me set the scene. Someone comes out with a show called Podcasting Morning Chat. What do you do? Do you rebrand or do you hold your ground? I get mad. No, I do get mad actually. But I would be annoyed and then I would actually consider rebranding. To me, it might be an opportunity to improve the name. I don't hate the name podcasting morning chat and it wasn't mine, right? We've shared some of you know, we've shared the history of this show. It it was originally just a clubhouse thing and then it went away after a couple years and then I brought it back and I adopted the name.

46:10 I'm not like I'd almost rather it be the podcast podcasting morning show or the podcast morning show. You're So it might for me. I might just look at it as an as an opportunity to make some branding changes and if it. That would be PMS, no? Oh, yes, Can't do that. Can't do that. Thank you, Jonathan. Yeah, probably not. That probably wouldn't work. Would you invite that other host onto the show to have a little discussion on the show? That might be good. I would certainly first reach out to that host and have a discussion and see if we could work it out. And if I felt like we were having constructive conversation, I might invite them to join us.

46:52 Yeah, absolutely. You. You and all your friends. Yeah, right. They they may not come join us and they may feel a little ganged up on with the whole team up here even. Offer you can't. That's right. That's so awesome. Listen, gang, I think that I'm going to give you a couple of minutes back this morning because if I bring up another, another story, it's going to create more conversation. We're going to go well over the hour. I do want to quickly share with you, I don't think this is going to be a big conversation starter, but I do want to share a YouTube update for you. We shared, I think it was last week that YouTube rolled out a bunch of big changes. And one of the things they launched, which just happened is their U2 Labs, a new hub for testing experimental AI features.

47:48 So the first feature that we can experiment with as creators is AI powered music hosts inside YouTube Music that brings stories, trivia and commentary to your listening experience. That to me, if you are familiar with Spotify's AI, that sounds very, very familiar. They have an AIDJ that you can tap on and then that DJ talks to you. He shares, you know, talks to you as if it's just you and him. It's like a radio show just for you. And the host will talk up the music, tell you the next set of music you're going to listen to based on your listening history.

48:32 And that's, that's what this sounds like. Labs will also house future experiments across the platform, giving users early access and a direct way to give feedback before features go wide. The music host pilot is currently limited to select US participants, but anyone can sign up to try it at youtube.com/new. And Janae in the audience says he also saw on YouTube Studio adding a new video. You can add. Oh yeah, you can add collaborators to your videos. Yeah, we talked about that one, Janae, last week. That one's probably the one I'm most excited about. I think that could be a real, sorry to use the AI cliche, a real game changer because I think it's going to really help creators get get their content pushed out to more people.

49:23 That way the big creators are using it with each other. So that can only help them, you know, that much more. But I think that small and medium sized creators, quote UN quote, I think that could really help them get the kind of exposure they're looking for. We now don't have to just hope that a guest, for example, shares the content. We can now literally share the content and what I'm sharing. I can add them as a collaborator and then they're sharing it on their YouTube channel automatically. So that again, much like Instagrams collab feature. So be on the lookout for that one too. All right, so we're back tomorrow at 7:00 AM Eastern Time. We'll get more into one or two specific topics, not all various topics like we do on Newsday.

50:11 So come join us and if you have questions, if you have things on your mind, challenges as a creator that you want to bounce around, some other creators, that's what we're here for. So bring any of your questions and we will do our best to answer them. And by the way, big shout out to Yvonne, who I see in the audience. She just sent me last night her set of pictures from the Empowered Podcasting Conference and they are beautiful. We have stepped it up this year with photography and I couldn't be more pleased. And I haven't even seen what Gil has provided yet. So between these two pro photographers, we're going to have some beautiful content to share with everybody soon. And thank you, Michonne.

50:54 I just saw in the chat Michonne congratulated me for on the conference and of course that's a shared congratulations for all the people that helped out. OK, so join us tomorrow, 7:00 AM Eastern. And until then, make it a great day. Everybody take care.