383 - Meet The Voices in Our Community of Creators

0:05 Good morning podcasting morning Chat. Today is Tuesday, October 7th, 2025 and today we're pulling back the curtain on us. Get to know the voices behind the mic as our Co host swap stories, share their journeys and reveal what keeps their podcasting fire lit. So if you're listening live on Clubhouse, hit the share button, bottom left hand side of the screen and share it. However, Clubhouse lets you. And if you're catching us via podcast or YouTube, please share this episode with a fellow podcaster. If I could speak. And now give us about 30 seconds and we'll get things rolling. Thanks for being here. Good morning again, podcasting, Morning Chat. Thanks so much for being here.

1:24 I am your host Mark Ronick, and currently on stage with me we have producer Ashley Feller, Nick Naulback, Dr. Faye and Sid Meadows. Before we get into everything this morning. Oh, and good morning to Roy Field, who's just joined us in the audience. Before we dive in, did want to share with you. I've been playing around. Nick knows this well, I've been playing around with Sora 2. I got access to it. I got an invite code from my friend Gil, some of you know, from Empowered Podcasting, our conference, and also he's joined us here a few times as well. He get got me a a code to get in and I've just been playing around with it right now trying to get to know it a little bit. And really it's no different than prompting ChatGPT, but I'm playing around with it.

2:17 I've done a few things I've shared online if you want to see it, mostly podcasting toys. I did an 80s commercial of a podcasting kit and that one I thought went really well. I thought it looked pretty realistic. And then I did one on podcasting action figures, the first one being Joe Podcaster and it was Joe Rogan and I thought it was great. Although they're not getting the the traction I thought they might on social media. But so be it. I enjoyed making the content. Dr. Did you want to say something? That was that was amazing. The resemblance to Rogan was just amazing. So I'm going to give everyone a tip. Thank you, Dr. I'm going to give you a tip. If you are playing with Sora, one of the things that that I don't like about it, it's somewhat limiting. They were boasting open AI was they were boasting about the fact that really you could pretty much create anything you wanted, even if it was something copywritten until the people that own the rights opt out.

3:25 So I thought for sure this would be for a little while anyway, we'd be able to kind of create really like I said, whatever we want and not the case anymore. I mean, it was less less than a week since that that new Sora 2 came out and already I noticed I was having trouble and somebody commented on my Joe Rogan action figure and said I've been I can't get it to make Joe Rogan to save those to save my life. And here's the trick. It's kind of meta, and I don't mean Facebook. So what I do and Nick this, you'll remember this from our next Gen. podcaster days when we were teaching podcasters how to do this. If ChatGPT or an AI model tells you they can't make something because of copyright issues, what I do is I describe what I want them to make without saying what it is. In other words, with Joe Rogan, I fed Chat GPTA picture of Joe Rogan, and I said, describe this person. I don't even think I hinted that it was Joe Rogan. I just said, describe this person as if you were describing him to an artist who was going to make some sort of recreation of this person 'cause I didn't want to get too specific about painting versus drawing, 'cause I thought it might cater to that specifically.

4:45 And sure enough, it gave me all the physical traits of Joe Rogan. And then what I did was I went, oh, then what I did is I told it to then make it an action figure. Make the Joe Rogan image that I've given you, the description I've given you, turn it into an action figure. And it did. And it looked a lot like Joe Rogan. Then I took that image and I uploaded it to Sora of the image of the action figure. And I said, make a commercial, a toy commercial about this fake action figure. And that's all it took. I mean, I know this sounds like a bunch of steps, but if you really want it to do something that it's telling you it can't, you just got to go back and have it describe the thing or the person without using the name.

5:34 And it seems to work almost every time. So there you go. There's a little tip for you, Nick. Have you started playing with it at all? Suratu, I know I I got you access to it. I started playing with it a little bit yesterday and my first prompt went through because I was pretty vague and I just wanted to see what I came up with. And then I tried to get a little bit more creative and fun with it and then I got hit with the this is against our guidelines. Yeah, I tweaked the prompt and then it was like, this is against our guidelines and I tweaked it again, This is against our guidelines. And then I was like, I'm probably going to get banned, but I just gave it a rest for a little bit and I'll probably play with it again today. But I I didn't want to press my luck. I've gotten some of those and I shared one with you this morning that I did of me dunking a basketball in an empty arena as if I'm practicing my dunking and I wanted it. I wanted to wear the Michael Jordan outfit 23 with the whole uniform, the Chicago Bulls thing. And I first tried it and it said Nope, no can do violation. So I then again had ChatGPT describe the uniform without mentioning Chicago Bulls, without mentioning Michael Jordan, and that when I fed Sora that description, it made me the Chicago Bulls uniform.

6:53 I mean, it even said Bulls on the uniform. I didn't tell it to say that. I think it just kind of intuitively picked it up. I wanted to ask you about that because I was listening to it through my car speaker, so I didn't have like super clear audio, but I mean, it sounded pretty close to your voice and I can't for Android users, since we don't have the Sora app yet, we actually can't clone ourselves. Like you can't do it on the desktop app, on the phone app. So what did you actually have to do to clone yourself? I know we we speculated on it the other day when we were talking about Sora too, but what was that process to actually get the clone of yourself?

7:37 It's so easy, Nick. It's, it's a little scary. So if you remember what we had heard and talked about last week, I think it was when we announced Surah 2 that it was available, All you have to do is read 3 numbers. They were all 2 digit numbers. So it was like 335289 or something like that. You just have to say 3 numbers looking straight ahead at the camera and then you had to look to the left and then it instructs you to look up and that's it. That was all it needed to recreate me and recreate my voice. And you're right, I thought it sounded pretty spot on.

8:18 That is mind blowing, especially where we were like I'll say a couple months ago with Hagen. I was looking into creating the clone of myself and it was like you have to be standing like full body of yourself with a very clear backdrop of the green screen type of thing if you have it. And it was like you should be talking at the camera for 10/20/30 minutes and with that information it can generate your AI clone. Now saying 3 words essentially is generating your clone. That's. Yeah, yeah, I do appreciate that.

8:58 Hey, Jen asks to do the full body shot because it's basically really trying to capture every, everything about you from head to toe, whereas this one, it's basically from my shoulders up. So yeah, that that's a cool feature, but way too many other things you have to do this makes it scary simple. And I do mean scary simple. So yeah, I just thought I'd share this because as content creators, I think there's probably some curiosity out there that you you may have come across it on your feeds, seeing all this AI generated content that looks really damn real. It's pretty crazy and I just suggest if you want, if you have it, access to it or maybe to a similar AI app, just have fun with it.

9:46 Just play with it to get to know it really, 'cause I found myself again getting a little intimidated to get started with it. I was looking at all the IT. It you can go through on the app, you can actually scroll and see other people's content much like you would on TikTok. You can just swipe and scroll and like and comment and all the things. And I was seeing all of that and I was starting to freeze like what can I create? What can I do? But then finally just something came to mind. I just got a random idea and just started playing around with it. So I encourage you, if it's of interest to you, just play with it. See, see what you can come up with. Don't put any pressure on yourself, But I will say the thing that I will absolutely use this for is B roll for my short form content, especially when I'm trying to keep people engaged on my tik Toks and reels. I'm going to absolutely use some of that in my content. One more question for you, I didn't see it yesterday when I was playing around with it, but did it specify in the app how many videos or credits or anything like that you get per day month?

10:56 Not at all. Yeah, I, I don't know of any limit. Of course, I haven't really tested it or pushed it the boundaries. I've probably done a handful of videos so far. But yeah, I, it does not say you have these many credits left or anything like that. So I say create freely until we hear otherwise. So today's topic really is all about the people you see here on this stage and if you have questions for them, I don't want to be the only one asking questions to our team. So if you have any questions that pop up throughout the morning and you're listening live, come up on stage and join us. And this will lead into something more down the road.

11:37 Nick actually suggested this when I let our team know we I was going to be interviewing our team today. Nick was saying it would probably be a good idea for us to do some one-on-one interviews to really get to know our hosts and also their philosophies, their podcasting tips, all the things about them. And we can have an ongoing series with one on ones with me and our different team members. So more to come on that. But this is going to be a group thing. And let's start with an icebreaker. If your younger self could see you creating now, what would they say to you about it? This one I love because I think my younger self, I won't take the whole answer up first. I'll I want to hear from others, but I will just say I think my younger self would be so thrilled and so proud to know that I was sitting right here.

12:30 I know I'm hijacking the answer already that I'm sitting right here, right now with a professional microphone in front of me, with a camera pointing at me and with a team of people all talking about something that I'm really passionate about and having fun doing. So my younger self would be over the moon because my younger self was all about, I'll just use a, a reference. It all about being on stage. And that stage could mean a variety of different things. But yes. And and then I steered away from that for a long time and came back to it with podcasting 20 some years ago. All right, I saw Dr. wanted to chime in. Dr. go for it.

13:13 If your younger self could see you creating now, what would they say? Well, I'm going to put a twist on that because when I talk to people that I have gone to school with high school, middle school, things like that, and I tell them what I do, they usually nod their head and have a big smile on their face and say something like, yeah, that tracks. Or yeah, I could have guessed that. Or Yep, that that fits. Or I knew that it was something like that in in that genre. So I, I knew from a young age I'd be doing something creative. And all through high school I was a performer and it was pretty evident to the high school class.

14:03 So that all kind of fits in. DRI think that some of my friends would say the same thing. They would or at least do react the same way as you described it where they would just kind of smile and nod like, Yep, I could see that. I get it. Who else? Or else I'm going to just have to go down the line if I don't have any volunteers. All right, then I'm coming. Let's go to Jonathan. Jonathan, good morning. What would your younger self say if they could see you creating now? Good morning. My younger self would be like who the hell is that? Why is that? Because I was never, ever. And I tell the story of my business all the time. I was never, ever in front of the camera. I was not the person that would be talking. I was always behind the camera, always, you know, creating in a different way.

14:49 But not in front of the camera and not yeah, it wasn't until about 6 years ago I actually would get in front of the camera. I love that. So what did get you in front of the camera? Jonathan? Why don't you share? And I know this may be a question that you've answered in the past, and it's been a long time since we've all gotten to know each other again and for our audience, especially new people. So yeah, please share what got you in front of the camera. What got me in front of the camera was the fact that he needed to be in front of the camera. In business. It started to become a necessary evil is how I viewed it, and I had to start to show up in front of the camera. I did not do it well. There was a ten, well it turned out to be 100 video challenge, but it was marketed as a 10 video challenge. And then we finished that challenge and I had to do 100 more videos straight and I did those. And that's what got me comfortable actually showing up on video, realizing that it could be done and that I wasn't going to die just because I was there. That challenge is what changed my business because before that I wasn't getting any traction and definitely started to feel it right after that challenge.

16:05 Interesting. Thank you, Jonathan. And yeah, I mean, I think I appreciate your answer in the sense that, you know, you felt like it was a necessary evil. Now I'm sure we could argue it isn't necessarily something you have to do in all of business, but I certainly know in a lot of areas of business getting on camera can only help what you're trying to promote, help you potentially grow, etcetera. But certainly not a not something you have to do. But I get what where you're going with that. Jonathan, thank you for answering. And Sid, I'm curious about you, if your younger self could see you creating now, see you podcasting now specifically, what do you think your younger self would say?

16:51 So I think my younger self would say it's about time. It's about time that you use your voice for good. It's about time that you come out then, you know, share all the thoughts you share privately with people and, you know, help help them in a public way rather than a private way. So I think that's what my younger self would say. It's about time. Sid, do you think your younger self would be surprised that you were doing it? I know it's about time kind of implies maybe not, but I mean, talk about Jonathan for a second. Like is that something similar where you'd be like you're younger self was like, what what are you doing? You're actually on camera, You're actually doing a podcast. Would it be surprised? So when I was a younger, I was thinking about this yesterday. Actually, when I was younger, like in elementary school and high school, we lived in the country. I mean, I grew up in, I grew up in Mississippi and everything's in the country and I was a member of the 4H club. My mom actually started a 4H club and I did a ton of public speaking.

17:52 That was one of the core things that I did when I was in 4H was public speaking. And then, you know, I get out of high school and I go off to college and I'm not really doing it, though my degree is in broadcasting and journalism and mass communications with my degrees in and I never ever actually thought I would use it. And until, you know, I started my business and you have to remember too, I was in my 50s when I started my business and I was 53 when I started my podcast. So when I actually grabbed the microphone and said, OK, let's do this thing, I was in my 50s. And you know, so many of you guys start a lot younger than that. So I mean, I started certainly later in life and, you know, in doing that and putting myself out there. And I remember somebody said to me one day too long after I started my business that I should make videos and put online.

18:43 I'm just at that point in time, it was at Facebook and I remember to my first video, it was just like God awful and holding the camera way up high. I had a T-shirt on and my hand was shaking. So the camera was shaking, right. So it just sometimes takes a while to put yourself out there. That's why I say it's about time, because I was a late starter, if you will, as it relates to being in the content creation. Love that. Thank you, Sid. Thank you for digging into that. And weird that you were just thinking about all that too. Thank you for sharing that, Sid. And I want to go to Rich because as I said, to kick things off on this particular part of the conversation, we have some new people here. Unfortunately, we don't have feel better here today, but we'll, we'll do a one-on-one with him for sure. And of course, we'll get to know him as the days go on as well. But Rich, I'm going to wrap up this question with you. So what would your younger self say to you if they could see you creating now?

19:39 Hey, good morning. My younger self very much like Dr. It was like a natural progression. So I think I would totally get it. I started always doing things in public, speaking with like the Boy Scouts and stuff like that. Kind of like what Sid was explaining what his 4H club. And then when I was doing when I was in college, I did college radio all four years and then some. I continued with it and then I was always very involved with like music and. Doing music related projects and things like that. So when I got onto social media it was just like, oh, you can create content, OK, that's awesome and this is what we have to do then. So it was kind of like a very natural progression for me. All life events leading up to it, where it was sort of just, yeah, just natural, I would say.

20:33 Yeah, natural progression. Yep, that makes sense. Cool. OK, cool. I love that we have it seems like we have all every end of the spectrum here. And I didn't forget Ashley. So I'm going to come to you, producer. Ashley, good morning to you. Yeah. What would your younger self say about you as a creator now? I think she would say thank you for staying the course and staying true to yourself and very close to the original life projection. I remember being a little kid and they ask you in school, I'm sure everybody's done this, what do you want to be when you grow up? And they ask you to write a little paragraph and draw a picture. And I remember saying that I wanted to be a news anchor and also a musician.

21:15 So I would say this is pretty close. So I think my younger self would say thank you for staying the course. I love that. Thank you, Ashley. Yeah, I my guess was that your younger self would say something along those lines. Just knowing you as a as a musician. I imagine most musicians, and this is just my perspective, I imagine most musicians think about creating music and performing that music or putting that music out there for the world. So I podcasting certainly feels like a natural progression for a musician in in some regard. Thank you, Ashley for sharing. And since we have somebody from the audience joining us now, Janae, good morning.

21:57 Did you want to answer this question as well? Go for it. And if anybody else from the audience wants to come up and share, I'm cool with keeping this question going as well. Go ahead, Janae. Morning, everyone. Yes, this is a very fun question for me because I dropped out of theater class in college. I was like what I was doing in front of camera. I have to be in front of people. No, thank you. And even though I've been behind camera for 30 plus years, it was a really big change. And then it all progressed over time and I got comfortable with my own voice, with my own conversation with other people. And so my younger self would probably say, wow, that is a change.

22:39 You've come out to be somebody that I didn't think was possible, which is really funny because when I took a test like a long time ago, it said that I'm a, that I'm a communicator and I'm like, no, I'm not. I'm an introvert. I don't talk. I'll talk to people. So it would be a pretty interesting talking to that young me now. Thanks. Very interesting, Janae. Say that last thing that you just said again, because I had a thought and then it just escaped me. The younger me would say that's a very interesting route that you've taken and you know, be be really weird, like to see that art, like how did this even happen? Yeah, it's so funny how we change as we get older sometimes.

23:25 And it's also funny to hear, like with some people, it this was just rooted in us. We almost, even though we didn't know what maybe what podcasting was when we were kids, there was just something instinctively brewing inside us that we knew we were going to somehow put ourselves out there, share a message with the world. Right it. It's really cool to hear. OK, thank you, Janae. I'm going to keep things going in this conversation here. So let's talk a little bit about your early days of podcasting for a second. What's something that you've learned since you started podcasting that you wish you knew earlier? You know, think about those days when you were first getting ready to press record and put out your first podcast recording.

24:12 What didn't you know then that you wish you knew right now? Make sure my equipment was plugged in. Is that so? That's a thing, Jonathan. You actually didn't have any plugged in and you recorded an episode. Mine was mostly plugged in, but Mimi's was definitely not. Yeah, so. Perhaps a checklist would have been a good thing to know about ahead of time. I love that. And yeah, yeah. Sid, did you have something you wanted to share too? So a long time ago, somebody said something to me I was just blown away by, she said, you know, Sid done is better than perfect. And I think as podcasters, sometimes we strive for perfection and it doesn't have to be perfect.

24:55 I think the more raw and real that it can be, the more you will identify with your audience. That's definitely something that I learned. Like it? Yeah, you can script it, but you don't have to like read the big, be robotic and read the script, right? People want to see the real you. And so perfection is is going to be the enemy of success in this case, I believe. Oh, I like that a lot. And yeah, I've heard that one before and it really hits home when you stop and and think about that message. Yeah, thank you, Sid. I think that's a that's an important one to hold on to. And I see we've got some other people that have joined us and including Co host Matt Bliss. I'm going to go to Matt 1st and then we're going to keep going down the line. Matt, what about you?

25:37 What's one part of podcasting? What? I'm sorry, what's something that you've learned since you started podcasting that you wish you knew earlier? Good morning. Good morning everyone. I have been reflecting on this a little bit, been on a bit of a retrospective, trying to think about what podcasters should and shouldn't think about themselves over the last few weeks. So it's apartment that you asked this. One of the biggest things I think is that people have to stop thinking. And I would have liked to tell myself to not to think that the first podcast you do is going to be not perfect the same way that Sid said it. But I think everybody needs a practice podcast, being the first podcast. And that means doing a show, not letting the perfection stop you, but also, you know, greasing the wheels a little bit and finding where the the itchy points are for what you want to do. I think podcasting has become an optimization point for people because everybody is saying how easy it is and tech companies are selling products that say just buy this and you know it. It just becomes super easy.

26:49 The only thing left is for you to step up to the microphone. But invariably there, there is not a single client podcast that I've done where and even myself where the first one has been spot on, done the job, thousands and thousands of listeners and the host knows what they're doing and they just keep going. I think anyone who's doing it independently at least should have. So set aside a podcast that's just a silly topic or something focused, whatever, practice it. My first one was called the Lad Banter podcast, was with three mates or two mates and myself and we just talked about random topics and I learned so much from that first podcast.

27:34 I think get the first one out the way or first season if you want to work the idea. And maybe the short answer there is accept what you'll fail at at the start by chucking the training wheels on and just preparing yourself to learn what you're going to take into the next show. And look, Janae's jumped into the chat and said, mind blowing. I'm still on my first podcast. There's always exceptions to the rule, you know, some people can just get it locked in. But yeah, practice podcast for your first one. That would be my advice to myself. Thank you, Matt. And kind of ironic because you've said something that I've been thinking about lately in the sense that, you know, I'm feeling with my social media that it's just a little stale. The content I'm putting out, I feel like it's not hitting. And I have been thinking a lot about like, well, what do I want to do with my social media?

28:31 And what keeps coming back to me when I ask that question is, is to start another account and make it whatever the heck I want to make it talk about whatever I want to talk about. Make any kind of content, not pigeon hole myself just in the podcasting content creator space. And I think the best way for me to do that, to feel the most free, is to just start a new social media account, not try to change what I'm doing already on my social media account and just start a new one that gives me the freedom to explore and experiment. And it's so it feels similar to what you're saying, but in the podcasting space. Create that first podcast. Don't put the pressure on yourself that it has to be a certain way, and instead put the pressure on yourself to find your way.

29:20 Thank you, Matt, I appreciate that. Janae, did you want to comment on that? I do because you know, social media is so much though about being social and not a lot about teaching other people. So just be yourself and the social media, like who is it for? Is it for you? Is it for people that you're trying to enroll into something that you're doing something you're putting together, right? Who is the social media for? So think about those things rather than, you know, gaining more followership because when you dial into who you really are and show off that side of you on social, you will find the people just like you found all the people over here. Yeah, I'm with you there.

30:07 Thank you, Janae. Great point. And I see Matt wanted to chime in as well. Go ahead, Matt. I did, but I saw Jonathan's little spicy pepper go up there. I might step aside and let the. Exit jump in. And for those of you listening at home, not live here, the spicy pepper that Matt's referring to. That's the little emoji we flash when we want to add to the conversation. So let's go to Jonathan and his spicy pepper. Good, good morning. My spicy pepper wanted to say that, you know, I have a a really close friend, Brittany, who runs a conference actually in in Texas. And she does what I do. She helps people with social media, but what she posts on her on her social media is videos of her dancing on her treadmill and singing songs from back when we were kids. And she has established probably one of the most productive and interesting businesses in Texas.

31:06 And she's helping the Speakfest people put on their conference. She doesn't post anything about social media. She doesn't teach anybody about social media. She actually just posts her treadmill dancing videos and, you know, videos of her lip syncing to songs she remembers. So you can create your own business, you know, profile out of anything. It's about building that connection with your audience. That's really an interesting tip. Thank you, Jonathan. It Yeah, that it makes sense. I often think about that. I see some of these creators out there just making whatever the heck they want to create, and they're getting tons of followers and more importantly, tons of business as well.

31:52 Actually, one person that I know that's doing really well, who helps podcasters does similar to what I do. His name is Dylan Schmidt, and he lately has been making all sorts of content about AI and really how it's affecting society positively and negatively. And his and he made that shift recently and he's killing it right now. And it's because in some ways people see what he's doing and they're saying, I want to do that. I want to know how I can do that. And so they'll reach out to him and ask him, hey, how'd you do that? And it opens up the door to conversation and potentially new business. Sid, did you want to chime in?

32:33 And then we're going to check in with Roy Field, who's joined us on stage. I do real quickly. So Mark, you as in you are rarely in your social media content. What's in your social media content is your videos, your comic characters and things of that nature. Mark, to Janae's point, Mark is rarely in your social media contents. I think if you lean into like what Jonathan talked about and put more Mark into your social media content, you might see some of the growth that you're looking for. I appreciate that, Sid. I would challenge that. I do think that I put myself in a lot of my content. I think like the cover images and things like that. Yeah, those are, I usually like to do the cartoony type things.

33:16 But I do, with the exception of maybe the past week or so, I do tend to put myself, it's usually content from this very show and it's me either having a conversation with one of you or it's me responding to one of you. But I feel like I do. But I do think I'm not putting enough variety of myself out there. I'm only focusing on the content that I that I spit out from this show and I'm not doing stuff outside of that. And I think that that's also hurting me. Thank you for that, Sid. I appreciate that. Let's check in with Roy Field. Roy Field, did you want to be the last one to answer this particular question we're asking right now, which is ma'am, what was?

33:56 Oh, yeah. What's something you've learned since you started podcasting that you wish you knew earlier? I overproduced, so it's very similar to what Sid said about. Perfection being the enemy. Of good or I feel exactly what he said, but it's fundamentally that point. And I over produced until until quite recently and. I always wanted to make some kind of audio documentary, but I used too much music. I used it too loudly in in the levels, etcetera. But fundamentally overproducing. And what it did also is to take away that level of authenticity of intimacy. What people were listening to was a production as opposed to somebody's vision, somebody's voice, somebody's kind of point of view.

34:44 So overproduction is is what I did. That's what I wanted to chime in. Thank you for saying that, Ray Field, I appreciate that and I'm with you there. I think that look and the times could change again, right? But right now I think the times have shifted to more to less produced content, whether it's social media and in some cases podcasting. And please hear me, I'm not suggesting that people should now throw away their microphones, throw away their good cameras, etcetera. But I do believe that a lot of us tend to over produce the content we make because it goes back to what Sid was saying earlier about trying to be perfect. And I think that nowadays an audience, audiences are appreciating the more raw side of things. They don't want all of that.

35:29 In fact, I believe it's just, again, there's, I have no real solid research to prove it, but I believe that audiences avoid or get turned off from produced and overproduced content because they look at it as, uh oh, what is this person going to sell me or what, what is the, what's this person's mission, right? I think when they see raw, raw, more raw content, I think that they stop because they're more curious. They want to know what this everyday person is going to talk about or what they're digging into. I think there is something to that Roy field. And again, that's don't quote me on that. Don't take it as the gospel because they're I don't have solid research behind it, but it's it's my impression spending so much time interacting with podcasting content, social media content, etcetera. Dr. Would you like to ask a question to the gang? I would thank you.

36:25 So what I want to know is, and we'll go around the horn here, what's one part of podcasting that you absolutely love and one part that still challenges you, or in other words, that you hate? So Mark, what's what's up with you? What do I love? I love about podcasting. I love being able to connect with people. I think first and foremost, that's got to be a big reason why I do it, and it's why I do this particular kind of show, is because I liked connecting with different people and getting their insights, their opinions. Even if they're not like the same as mine, I still like having conversations and doing something like this allows me to connect with so many different types of people.

37:13 I think what I don't like about podcasting, that's a really tough question for me because I even to be honest with you, and I know I've shared this with you all before, I enjoy editing. I don't like how much time editing can take, but I do actually enjoy editing. It is like a game to me. It's like putting a puzzle together. I guess what it is is that I, I don't like producing it because I just wish I could get to the finished product and get it out there. And it does take time to craft what you're doing and putting out there. Even if it's not over producing it, there's still a lot of thought and energy I believe that I have to put into it. And because I'm not the most patient of people, I don't like that part because I don't like waiting.

37:59 I want to just get it out there. And that's, you know, testament to what we do here in the morning. Granted, Ashley does clean up every episode for us before we put it out there as a podcast, but for the most part, this is pretty raw what we put out there. Again, that's not to knock anything about what Ashley does, because she does make this sound even better once it's a podcast and she is cleaning up certain elements of it. But overall the conversation is natural and it's not right. Forced. So with me, I like the strategy part. I like the poll promotion stuff. And I got to say, I really like editing.

38:40 I really like editing. That's good because my boss is here, you know? Yes, and for those that don't know, Dr. is an editor on the Ironic Media team. And of course, we produce and edit podcasts for podcasters all the time. Right. So the thing that I don't like about it is the fact that I have to be so cognizant of SEO, of what's going to grab people's attention. And sometimes that takes precedent over the actual meat of the subject.

39:21 You know, diving into really good content. Well, it's really good content, but what is it about that's going to get everyone's attention? That's what I got to concentrate on. No, I don't want to do that. I just want to concentrate on the really good content. And I think too much time is spent on trying to find the right keywords and the right this and the right that. That's going to grab everyone's attention. So that's the part that I hate. On my old show, Dr. Whenever somebody said something that I really agreed with or thought they were spot on, I would give them a Ding. So I'm giving that to you because I that would be my answer.

40:04 Now that you've said it, because I know I've thought it even recently, whatever the content is that I'm making, I catch myself getting too caught up in the strategy part in In other words, are they going to? You know, are they going to keep listening? Are they going to or are they going to skip or keep scrolling? Did I give a strong enough hook? And oh, that's not good enough. Maybe I need to find something different. And I get so caught up in that. And and it reminds me, I saw Dominic in an interview on social media talking about that in in the sense of he was saying, I just make content that I want to make. If you don't like it, if it doesn't keep your attention, so be it. I'm creating content for me.

40:48 And if you're on board with that, welcome aboard, right? And I think I love that too, because it's gives us that freedom. And creativity is all about freedom. It's all about having that freedom to just do what you want to do and see where it goes. And it's to me, in my opinion, it's the people that think outside the box. Those are the ones that get the most traction. Those are the ones that have the biggest potential to go viral, even in some cases, more so than following all this formulas, the strategies to get all the attention to keep people on your content. I think that the creativity wins every time. I really do. Sid, did you want to add something? I want to say something to what Dr. just talked about. So most of you know that I've on this research initiative to figure out what season 7 of my podcast is going to be like and how I want to change it in a podcast movement. I heard Courtney Elmer speak and I don't know if any of you know her, she has a podcast, but she's got a podcast called Insider Secrets to a Top 100 Podcast in the last three episodes that she's done Dr. are all about PEO, which is podcast search optimization, not search option optimization, not SEO. She go listen to that.

42:08 And then I bought her course for 150 bucks and I went through the course and I spent a good part of the weekend going through all this research and doing the things that she said about Podcast STO. And we came up with 15 new keywords. I was able to go get the metadata from the 10 other shows that are not necessarily my direct competitor, but people that are in my space and really lean into how to do this so that I show up better in search. And it's fascinating. It's called Insider Secrets to a Top 100 Podcast. If you're interested in learning about podcast SEO, then you should go listen to the last three episodes from her. Oh I love her show.

42:53 Yeah, I know Courtney. I've gotten to know her a little bit over time at the different podcasting conferences and yeah, she's super smart and really knows her stuff. I absolutely, I sign off on that one. Check out her podcast as well. Thank you for that. Sid, anyone else want to answer this question as far as what are the, what do you love about podcasting? What do you hate about podcasting? Well, I'll answer it and then you can go to Ashley. So what I love about podcasting is talking to people. I love having a conversation with people. I love getting to know people. That's why my podcast is set up the way it is. I just love talking to people. What I hate is editing, which is why I outsource it to someone else. But the part that I struggle the most with is the marketing part of it.

43:39 I haven't paid attention to the marketing part of it. Admittedly. I'm not doing what I need to do to help my show grow, which is what part of this reset is all about. So that's what I struggle with the most is marketing and getting the reach that I know that my show can have. So I'm learning how to lean into some of that and maybe do things differently. Thank you, Sid. I'm going to keep it moving for the interest of time. Ashley, please share. Yeah, so something I love about podcasting is doing it differently. With my show. I do all my interviews or most of them outside in nature, under the trees. I've also done shows in restaurants. I've done them sitting at bars. So I love doing it differently. The thing I dislike, which is such a necessary thing, it has to be done and that's archival.

44:29 After I get get done doing all this recording, I've got, you know, a couple of cameras, I've got multiple audio sources. It's putting them all in the folders and backing them up on all the hard drives that I don't love, but you got to do it. Yep. Thank you, Ashley. Appreciate that one and again, interest of time. I'm going to keep things moving and I want to go to Rich for a second. Rich, now I know you've brought your podcast back recently. You're and or you're, I know you're bringing it back. And please share what that podcast is. Again, as one of our newer cast members, if listeners could take away one thing from your work behind the microphone, what would it be?

45:12 What would you want them to take away? Go for it. Oh man, you stopped me with the with the new question. And if you have the old, if you'd rather you, I guess you can answer the old one, but I'd like to hear what you'd have to say about this one. And again, what's your podcast name? Yes. So I am relaunching my podcast. It is 10 minute mentor with Rich. So mine is a solo podcast where I'm just educating the audience, giving them actionable tips in like marketing communications within that 10 minute span. Remind me of the question again. If your listeners could take away one thing from from your work on your podcast, what would you want it to be? One thing, Well, I hope they take more than one thing away.

45:53 Yeah, basically, I'm sharing what I've learned so that they don't have to keep hitting their head against the wall like I did for the longest time. That that's all I got in mind. Sorry, that's OK. I I stumped you and that's fine. I know I threw out a new question without a big set up, so I get it. And definitely check out Rich's show though, because if you're looking for quick advice on marketing and communication and you want it in 10 minutes or less, Rich has got you covered there and he's always given good insights there. So check out 10 minute mentor as well. And all right, here's here's what I'm going to do. Let's do a rapid fire round.

46:37 OK, so here's I'm going to start with Sid, if you don't mind Sid, I'm just going to throw out a bunch of questions. I just want your quick answers and I'll just keep going from there. Sound good, Sid? Let's go. All right, here we go editing. Love it or dread it? Ate it. Long episodes were short and punchy. Short and punchy go. I don't do them short and punchy, OK? Coffee or tea before you hit record or another beverage. The only answer to this question is coffee. All right. And as far as your podcast goes, notes or no notes?

47:18 Meaning I'm taking notes or we're putting notes out for people to read like show. Notes notes for notes. As far as prep, like preparing. No, I haven't. I haven't. I have a notes page. I have a notes page as the script on it, the intro script, it has some ideas of leading questions that I want to ask and just to guide me so I make sure I don't miss anything. But yeah, notes. One fun fact about you that we may not know. Oh. My gosh, so I may have mentioned this once before, this is a silly fact, but when I was in college I danced on ATV show called The Hour of the 50s. Wow, we didn't know that. What kind of dance? The hour of the 50s.

48:00 So you were just doing like 50s dudes? Dances. It was. Yeah. Yeah, it was. It was set up in a soda shop and there were like 10 of us and we danced to 50s music every Saturday morning and most Saturday mornings. It was live, actually. I would have paid you good money if you had said interpretive dancing. Sid, are you a good dancer? Now I have 3 left feet, but I did it because the friend asked me to do it and I learned how to 50s dance and all that kind of. It was fun. I had a good time doing it and then the show ended. And so anyways, yeah, it was fun. It was. You can't find it anywhere though. I've searched all over YouTube for it and there's not even a YouTube video about it. So I'm sure I've got or my mom's in her attic somewhere. He's got tapes of it.

48:48 We dressed up in 50s outfits and you know, all that kind of stuff. T-shirts and rolled up jeans and you name it. The whole deal. What I would pay for those old tapes I would love to see. That grab grateful they're not available. Let me ask you 2 personal questions. One beach day or mountain trip. Beach day 100% used to be a mountain but I absolutely love the beach, especially this time of year. I'm so jealous of Ashley living at the beach this time of the year, it's that stunning. Beautiful. I got to tell you, I might be able to sway you to come here to the Appalachian Mountains in this time of year when the leaves start changing.

49:29 They're just now starting to you can tell they're the green is starting to fade and the colors are going to come shortly behind. I cannot wait for that. It is magical. And one more question for you, Sid. Dogs or cats? We have both, well we have an adopted cat because my daughter left hers here. But I'm a dog person so love my dogs, especially labs some dogs. OK. All right, cool. All right. I'm going to go to Jonathan. Jonathan, can I do a quick speed round with you? Yep, dogs. OK, that I knew. When it comes to podcasting habits and preferences, are you a one take guy or multiple takes? 1 take.

50:17 One take OK favorite mic or gear brand? I like. Road stuff. OK, yeah, Yep, I'm with you on road stuff for sure, although my favorite mic would be sure. Let's see, who do you usually bounce ideas off of? Still, Mimi. Even on my solo podcast, Mimi. OK so your your Co host got it. And favorite way to brainstorm new episode ideas? I do my whole research for a while and then and then create. So I come up with the ideas in the research phase. OK, cool. And then morning person or night owl. Night Owl.

50:59 Well then, I really appreciate you joining us in the morning. Texting or voice messages. Texting. What's one thing you never say on the air? Well, it's not curse words because I definitely say those on the air. I would never say, well, I try to never say authentic on the air. So you have you replaced it with my word. I haven't, but I I I might have to. You'll have to go listen to our Empowered Podcasting recap from last Tuesday if you want to understand what that meant. All right, thank you, Jonathan. And Rich, I'm coming back to you because I want to redeem, redeem you since I caught you off guard. If you weren't podcasting, creating content, talking about marketing, what would you be doing instead? Like.

51:52 Professionally. Whatever however you want to answer it. If you weren't podcasting, creating content, talking about marketing, what would you be doing instead? I keep stumping you. I know probably like, well, I would say music promotions, but that would be marketing. Well, that's promotion, so I'll I'll give it. That's fine. You can do that. Yes, you did. And Rick Rich, what's what's one thing? A hobby. What's one thing about you that maybe the rest of us don't know, or I might know it just because I know you better than most of us here on stage. But what's one thing the group doesn't know about you? Definitely like my runs. I mean, it's that's, you know, a lame answer, but I enjoy running.

52:37 It's very therapeutic for me and it allows me the opportunity to both clear my head. But also I think some of my best ideas come during my run because I just get in that zone. And I've had some really good ideas in the past during my runs. And I'm like, Oh yeah, thank God I went for that run today. I love that. And not a lame answer. You're not allowed to say that. That's a great answer. Thank you for sharing that, Rich. And by the way, shout out to to Travis in the audience because I haven't seen Travis here. Oh, did he just leave? Darn it, I was just going to say hello to him because we haven't seen him here in a while. Oh well, Dr. go ahead. Rich said that he gets creative on his runs. And I get my most creative ideas in water, whether it's a shower or the pool or something.

53:26 There's something about water where I get ideas for recipes, I get ideas for content, I get ideas for song lyrics. Who I live in Nashville, so I mean, it's just really weird how water brings that on for me. That's really cool. And so now I know Dr. when we're struggling for content ideas, planning for this show, I'm just going to encourage you to go go take a shower. Don't be offended when I say that. Right time for a shower, Dr. All right, well, listen gang, it is 8:00 AM, so it's time to wrap up in a reminder that tomorrow, 7:00 AM Eastern, we are back live on Clubhouse, live on YouTube, and we're going to be covering all the headlines around the world of podcasting and content creation, the things that will affect you, things that will be of interest to you as a content creator.

54:17 So come join us tomorrow. We have lots of good conversations on Wednesdays around all the ongoings around the world of podcasting. Looking forward to that. And until then, make it a great day. Everybody, take care.