535. Using AI for Podcast Content Without Losing Your Voice

0:04 Ralph Estep Jr.: Well, good Today is Wednesday, june 10, 2026 and today we're going deep on the news. We're talking about what's happening in the world of podcasting and content creation that every indie creator needs to hear right now. So, if you listen to Clubhouse, hit the share button, top right-hand corner of your screen, and share how the Clubhouse let you. If you want to join us live on video, you can go to Podcasting Morning show.com/join us. And for catching us via podcast, else, please share this episode with a fellow podcaster. They'll thank you for it. Now, give me about 30 seconds, and we'll get things going. Thank you so much for being here today. Audio Clip: The podcasting morning show is powered by Ironick Media, helping podcasters launch, polish, and grow great shows, and by Content behind their content. Ralph Estep Jr.: Well, good morning again, everybody. Welcome to the podcasting morning show. Thank you so much for being here. As I continue leading the charge here with Mark away at camp, doing some volunteer work, and currently on stage for me right now we have DR. Fay

1:35 and Sid Meadows. We've also got Dan Schultz, and thank you for everybody putting, putting me up with the last couple days, as I was on the road, the technology became an interesting thing, but we got through it. So, today we're going to get into the news, but I want to start by talking about where podcasting stands right now. And because context matters, these numbers tell a story. So, let's take a look at where podcasting stands right now, and here are the numbers from podcast index this week. So, total podcast into episodes ever published. Listen to this number, I was amazed by this: 162,628,581 average episodes per show 34.6 Now let's talk about active podcasts.

2:25 This is your real competition. Now here's the numbers that actually matter to you. Updated in the last seven days was 199,805 podcast, that's down 1.6 from the previous week of 203,023 now update in the last 30 days was 360,100 That's actually down 3% from last month's 371,001 91 So, think about this: out of nearly 4.7 million podcasts, only about 200,000 published something in competition, not 4.7 million, number is actually going down.

3:10 you're already ahead of most So, let's get right. DR: Did you see this other stat where it says an average last month there was a new podcast episode posted every 0.9 seconds. Audio Clip: Wow, that's amazing. Ralph Estep Jr.: I wonder, how many of those are those AI things that are going out all the time? Audio Clip: That's a good question. Ralph Estep Jr.: That's a good question for sure. All right, DR. Well, let's get to our top five for today. Audio Clip: So, the first chart is Apple's top five for science fiction. Okay, science fiction.

3:52 number four is Welcome to Night Vale, number three is Last Resort, number two is the No one podcast is Old Gods of Ralph Estep Jr.: Well, that's Audio Clip: Yeah, Ralph Estep Jr.: now, DR. I think now they've got another one. Go ahead. Audio Clip: Yeah, the next one Good Pods, and it's the So, number five is, and this one is right in our wheelhouse here, it's the Profit Podcast, that's Crystal Profit. Okay, so she has a podcast about podcasting, same as we do.

4:35 Number four is the Mel Robbins podcast, number three is the stupid history minute and number two is that's instinctating as number one, like it all Ralph Estep Jr.: right. DR. Well, let's go on. DR had some news that she wanted to share, so we're going to go ahead and go to an announcement. Go ahead, DR. Audio Clip: Yeah, so as some of you Audacity users, the editing program. Audacity, as some of you know, there have been like update after update after update. They're really, really trying to make it a viable, editable DAW. So, if you would like, like a good look at what Audacity Four is like, then you want to tune in to Mike Teaches Audacity, it's a YouTube channel that's the actual name.

5:23 Mike teaches Audacity, and this is where he gives you Mike Adams gives you a step-by-step lesson on how to use this new version, which is still in beta, by the way. Mike Adams happens to be one of the nicest guys in podcasting that I personally know, he is my go-to for anything having to do with Audacity. By the way, this new Audacity four, it reminds me a little bit more of Hindenburg. Ralph Estep Jr.: Well, that's I never used either one. DR: Well, I'm a heavy Audacity user, and you know, change is hard, so I'm gonna have a hard time, but I know that I'm gonna go through Mike Adams' channel, and it's gonna make it a whole heck of a lot easier for me.

6:10 Ralph Estep Jr.: Well, that's Nothing wrong with that. All right. Well, let's get to the business bite for this week. Audio Clip: Quick tip: Smart bite, Ralph Estep Jr.: all right. Well, usually Mark introducing me, so I'm going to introduce myself and get right to the content today. So, I want to give you your business bite for the week, and this one hits close to home for a lot of indie podcasters. Here's the bite for today: podcast ad revenue is at 2.5 billion, it's a big number, so why is the average indie podcast? They're still making under $500 a month, and here's the number that should stop you cold. Like I said, podcast advertising 2.5 billion, that's in 2026 Now, the IAB projects another 9.6% growth on top of that this year.

6:59 Brands are spending more on podcast ads than ever before, but like I said, the average independent podcaster still earns under $500 a month. Now, if you like me, you're wondering, how's that possible? Well, let me break that down. Here's what the ad market actually looks like in 2026 mid-roll ad reads, those are the ones in the middle of your show, the gold standard, those run 25 to $40 CPM. Now, CPM is cost per 1000. Now, if you're lucky to be in finance and business shows, that can command anywhere from 50 to 100 CPM. Now, if you're thinking about that, you're like, that sounds great. It sounds great until you do the math. Think about this: a show with 10,000 downloads per episode at $30 CPM mid roll earns about $300 per episode.

7:45 That's from one time slot. Here's the issue: most indie podcasters aren't at 10,000 downloads, and most ad networks won't even look at you until you hit 5000 to 10,000 So then we pivot into these smaller shows can actually get. Here's the problem with those: the CPM for those are $3 to $15 not 30. So, here's the business lesson: the ad money is real, but it flows to shows with scale, not shows with passion. as an indie creator? It means that ads are probably not your first revenue stream, as we talked about on Monday. It means direct monetization, your own products, your own services, coaching, consulting, your memberships is where the real money is for shows at your stage.

8:34 A show with 500 loyal listeners and a $500 coaching officer offer can earn up to 550 1000 downloads, and programming ads can actually make money. If you think about it, the industry in general is chasing scale. Your edge as an indie depth. So, let's talk about it. Have you ever tried to land a sponsor and hit a download count about that in the chat? sponsor and hit that brick wall? Does anybody want to comment on that? Well, anyway, we can get right back into today's news. So that is your business bite for today, and DR. If you want to handle the next one, let me hit the news music here, I Audio Clip: Edison Research says showing up as podcast are still early and a little bit Now, in the first quarter of 2026 Edison added both the platforms to its podcast service tracking among weekly US podcast consumers age 13 and older. 14% said that they'd used Netflix to consume podcasts, while only 4% said the to be looking for podcasts, and I could not find them anywhere. I found.

9:59 All over the place on Netflix, Netflix couldn't find them on duty. Okay, those numbers are notable, but let's not start printing Netflix kill podcasting mugs just yet. YouTube and Spotify still dominate this space with 64% and 42% respectively saying that these used those platforms for podcast consumption. The bigger story is that video streamers are no longer just flirting with podcasts, they're buying it, making deals, and trying to turn podcast audiences into platform audiences. So, some of the highlighted points is Netflix has already made major podcast moves, including a deal tied to Jay Shetties on purpose. To be has lined up podcast content through deals with Audio Chuck and Sirius XM, and Edison says that the second quarter of 2026 results will show whether these early numbers grow as more platform deals roll out. I still couldn't find anything on Tubi. Have you, have you tried to look notes today. Audio Clip: Oh, I like tubi.. to Ralph Estep Jr.: No, I'm not Actually, Audio Clip: oh, I'm sorry.

11:23 There are free services that have a lot of shows on them, and Tubi has really updated itself from when it first started, and, but, like I said, I'm having a hard time finding podcasts on Tubi, and oh, oh, big news, everyone! I finally put down the money to make a paid version of YouTube. I finally did it. I took a look at some of my subscriptions, I let go of some, and I gained YouTube. Ralph Estep Jr.: Good job, DR. Well, let's go ahead and move into our next news segment. This one says podcast discovery is now a full time job, video podcasting is giving creators more places to be seen, but it's also making discovery more complicated.

12:11 Now, this is a Reuters Institute report, says publishers are moving more shows on the platforms like YouTube, Spotify, Apple, Netflix's audience spend more time watching podcasts, not The shift is opening new doors for reach and revenue, but it also means creators now have to think like podcasters, video producers, social teams, and once. Delightful. Another hat for the already exhausted creator closet. Now, why this matters. Podcast growth is no longer just about getting into Apple Podcast or Spotify. Discovering discovery is which means creators may need YouTube, for clips, for newsletters, and even search.

13:00 this story. The move towards video is strongest for conversational stories, and you think about it, that makes a lot of sense, especially personality-led formats. Those narrative and documentary podcasts are harder to translate into video without losing what makes them work. Now, video can help build stronger host-audience connection, but it also raises production costs, and publishers are looking beyond ads, including memberships, events, merchandise, and bonus content. any of these, please put a one will be happy to bring you up on comment. But here's my question for the room: Does video make you feel more connected to a host, or does it change the feel of the show?

13:43 I really think that's what we need to decide on today. So, go ahead, Dan. Dan: Yeah, you know, the thing about being connected to the host, I truly, honestly think audio is always going to be having the win when it comes to being connected, because it is just so intimate and video, it's couple days, because obviously we've been having some technical you and I could tell, like, oh, you know, Ralph is in the mode where he's juggling too many things here, trying to make the show work right, so you're not, and this is no cut to you, because this is literally how anyone, you know, the most famous newscaster in the world would be acting like that if during his live show things were not working and you couldn't hear people and there was an echo, and you know what I mean, like, but on audio you can't hear it, and it just.. that's where the intimacy, I think, happens with longer term audio.

14:49 about a little bit about you know, kind of connecting The one thing I wanted to kind of bring up about this whole thing about discovery being a full-time. Job, I'd say about three seasons ago, four seasons ago on our podcast, we had a smallish team, and one of the jobs - I wouldn't would end up having to work with her quite a bit, so it was like two of us doing it, and I noticed that our numbers kept going down and down and down, and I'm like, well, why are they going down, why aren't they going up, and finally I came to the realization that the more time I'm dicking around with discovery and her helping her do her thing, and me trying to figure out how the different, you know, channels work.

15:44 I was not spending time on the show, and as soon as we just did away with that, and we made our team smaller, and I just thought, well, me and my co-host can do all this stuff. Our numbers started to go up week after week after week, and then we just double down without, wow, if I can actually spend more time doing this, so I stopped doing a couple social media things, still focused primarily on one channel, one social media channel. Now our numbers are like drastically moving up, and you know, it's we are primarily an audio first podcast, but I do We're using our video for more get people into Patreon, but I it. What are your thoughts?

16:31 Ralph Estep Jr.: Thank you, Dan. Oh, I think that's a very good point, and I want to say something that Tim put in the chat. He says, first, he says Well, that's a very strong statement, but I think that's fine, John. I was listening to John's show this morning to record on Monday, and he was talking about interesting. And the other thing that Tim said is it changes the feel. Most of my podcast listening is audio only. A video makes me feel like the host is playing to the camera and not talking to me. I thought that was really interesting thought. Does anybody else want to comment on this particular news story? But Dan, I think you're right on point. I think there is an intimacy to the audio that it looks like John wants to join us on stage. Let me go ahead and John, did you want to go ahead and make a comment?

17:14 John: Yeah, so I have a love Video's harder. The reason that I do video is for the audience interaction, like right now. I wake up in the morning, I come listen to you guys. If I go back and I miss it in the morning, I listen to it as a podcast. I don't go watch the video, because I'm sorry, guys, video doesn't add anything to the program. Watching you two guys, or all you on the screen, doesn't add anything to it. It so to me, I listen to podcasts in the car, or while I'm doing something else, and I understand that people think that this is, and kids watch stuff today, but I still think they put it in their pocket and walk around, and the reason that they're watching or using YouTube is because it's the only thing they know, it like the olds with Facebook.

18:03 All the old people are on Facebook because they don't know how to go anywhere else. Ralph Estep Jr.: I think that's a very good point, my friend. Dan: Can I comment on that? Because I, John, it's really funny. DR: Did you just wait a minute? Did you just label us as the olds? John: I'm part of it. Yeah, I'm the olds too. And my podcast is my podcast is marketed to the olds and the problem is they're all over on Facebook. Audio Clip: I like the label, I think I don't mind boomer, but the old sure I like that. Dan: I was gonna say real quick what it's funny what John just said about like most people, he thinks I kind of think this too. People listening on YouTube or video are put the phone in their pocket and walk around and are listening to audio, because that's one of the true awesome things about podcasting, is that you can multitask, and with video you really can't multitask, you know, it's a design to sit there and keep your eyes on the screen, but so I actually do agree with you, John, about that, but I do think kind of thing that a noise, like a sweeper noise, that pops up and I get mad because it's like, let me stop, pull my phone out, and look at the screen, just in case somebody put a graphic or an overlay up that I'm supposed to pay attention to, and it's like you could have just done that audio wise

19:36 and like just be a better communicator and explain what the thing is that I'm supposed to look at, and then at that point I'm thinking, like, why are we spending so much time on video? Ralph Estep Jr.: I think that's a legitimate point. Dan, no, I think that's a legitimate point. know, because the truth is, morning, and I just have to find There Audio Clip: it is. Words are hard in the. Morning. Did I say that out loud? Ralph Estep Jr.: So I played it for myself. Well, DR. we're gonna go on to the next story, if you'd like. Audio Clip: Sure. Okay, I like this story. Okay, the new Coleman Insight Study, and that's an organization that I have not heard of before, but the new Coleman Insight study says that podcast trailers are more likely to make people listen when they sound clear, energetic, and authentic. The research tested different trailer versions from four shows, including Super Fan Diaries, Binge or cringe high rollers and better than yesterday with 500 US podcast listeners.

20:47 The big takeaway is not exactly shocking, but still useful. Listeners respond better when a trailer quickly explains what the show is, sounds like the actual host or show, and gives them a real reason to care. In other words, a trailer should not sound like a vague movie promo written by a committee tripped, trapped, sorry, trapped in a conference room. Now this matters, because for creators, trailers are not throwaway content, they are often a listener's first impression, and this study suggests that clarity and personality may matter more than the study compared multiple trailer styles across four different shows.

21:38 remembered, and whether they and authentic sounding trailers appeared to create stronger interest and clear topic framing the show faster. So, here's my question: When you hear a trailer, what makes you want to keep listening? Ralph Estep Jr.: I think that's a great question. What does everybody think? Does anyone a comment on DR. question? Because what makes a trailer effective for where you actually want to listen? I can speak for myself. engaging to me, if it's interest in, and to me I really need them to sort of set a table for something that I don't So I think that's something that works for me.

22:22 I know I see Yvonne put in the chat here. I really don't listen to trailers. It's interesting, DR. because I'm running an experiment right now on my daily show. I decided to do an ad buy on Player FM, and rather than posting a particular episode, I actually posted the trailer as the episode, and the people from nobody ever does this. I said, 'Well, let's try it out, because I think it would be really effective. And it has been amazing. I am going really.. Audio Clip: how long is it? Can I ask, how long is the length of it? Ralph Estep Jr.: Yeah, it's the trailer is about one minute 30 seconds, and it's what's interesting is I thought, well, this may just generate people listening to the trailer, but what it's actually done is it's taken my downloads and five times them in the last four within this is an ad by I did from june 1 to june 15, and the numbers have been amazing. A show that usually gets a small playing the trailer, then I would say, well, that shouldn't dictate to the rest of the show episodes, but it's not doing that, it's actually going out to other episodes, so that's where I think effectively your trailer works really well, and I see Yvonne put here as an ad, but I think the trailer makes great sense. Thank you, Yvonne.

23:40 Does anybody else want to comment on this news story before we move on to the next one? Audio Clip: Well, so the other should a creator update their the show changes? Ralph Estep Jr.: Another great question. Go ahead, Dan. Okay, Dan: so I know a ton about thing that I actively like changed my, you know, we don't everyone knows in podcasting, Discovery Funnel, as soon as I like literally the day I made moved up my intent to listen, or whatever the second part of the funnel, like the people who actually saw my branding and the listened and didn't bounce right away, was because I redid the trailer, number one, I do it for each season of our show, so whenever our show does a major change, I definitely change it, but ironically, it's mostly the same.

24:46 I just changed one minor thing. So, what the purpose of the trailer is, I mean, if you're a new show, it's how you set up your podcast to get found in the, you know, in the directories and everything you want to have, you're. Trailer, there, so the RSS feed is built, and it's just there, but when you have a running show, like our show just started season 11 yesterday, and what the trailer has to do, it's kind of a.. it's in advertising and marketing, it's all about congruency, so when you see an ad for something, you want to click the ad, and you don't want to freak people out. People click the ad, and when they land at your landing page, everything has to be congruent, or they're going to leave. It doesn't matter if you're selling t-shirts to grandmas or you're to the oldies, or, or if you have a podcast. If you have a, if you have a podcast, and the trailer sounds like x, and then they listen to the show, and the show sounds like Y.

25:45 That's a major problem. So our show, it's a banned book podcast where we actually read the banned books out loud, and then try to figure out why they were banned in the first place. So we have a lot of moving parts with our podcast. So what our trailer does is explain what they're gonna get, you know. We kind of explain it. It doesn't take all that long, but you just want to make sure that there's no, like, everything sounds the same. So this season we're reading The Handmaid's Tale. So the trailer that I'm just putting up today is going to be like, hey, we're Bandcamp, or a comedy podcast, where we read band books out loud, try to figure out why they were banned in the first place. This season, we're reading The Handmaid's Tale. It's a really dark book, and we're a comedy show. I'm not exactly sure how it's going to work out, but you're going to hear us bumbling through it, because we've never read the book before, find us, you know, at blah blah blah.com every Tuesday and Thursday, blah blah blah, you know, like you have, and then it sounds like our show, like we're kind of bumbling through the trailer too, in a way, Audio Clip: right, Dan: and it's all about congruency, and then the only thing we, you ask, like, should you change it every season or whenever your show changes, exactly, you know, next season or last season, it was basically the same thing with different music that matches our current theme, and we just said we're a comedy podcast where we read blah blah blah, this season we're reading The Catcher in the

27:18 different thing, but it's more works. Here's the kind of thing you're going to get out of it, and here is the audience that should be listening to it. Ralph Estep Jr.: So, let's go ahead and move on to our next story. Words are hard in the morning, aren't they? Don't play that one. All right, and our next story is podcast metrics are getting a reality check finally, and that is a story that we're going to skip, because we covered it last time. I told you I am off my game today. Well, let's get into this next story, and it is your great and that's actually good news.

27:59 says 65% of marketing work is Now, for podcasters and content creators, that's not a death sentence, it's actually a filter. The shows cutting through right now aren't the most polished or prolific, they're the ones only one specific person could make. opinion, your voice, your actual is actually moving towards answers. Click-through traffic is already shrinking. Content creators rank fifth on the list of jobs most exposed to AI automation. Large agencies are already losing clients because generic high-volume content stopped working, and the real audience building platforms, YouTube, Reddit, Discord, Patreon, not your website. So, let's talk about this.

28:47 Let me ask the room this question: If AI can handle 65% of your content tasks, what would you actually do with that freed up time? And we've talked a lot about AI here, so let's talk about what you would do with that content. Does anybody want to comment here? Go ahead, Knikki. I see you want to comment. Knikki: Yes, I was just going to say this the other day, they said that AI, when it first came out, that it made them 10 times more quote unquote productive, and I said to myself, "Wow, well, that sounds good on the surface, but for me, I tried to utilize AI to be super productive, super woman to generate this and that, and personally. Now, it may work for somebody else or for other people, so I'm not knocking it, but for me, it didn't produce like what I thought that it was going to do. I thought that if I could be in 50 different places at once and be posting all the time and generate all this content, then maybe something would catch, but that really was for me the exact wrong recipe to do, because it wasn't about the could produce a ton of volume.

30:00 it just became more senseless content that no one actually was actually exhausting me. It was exhausting me to the point where I had to completely stop, because I thought, well, if I go on Chat GPT and I say, okay, generate all my content for the next month, for LinkedIn, for Instagram, for Facebook, for Pinterest, for this, for that, that I was just going to become this auto machine and just be like super successful, but it absolutely wasn't that, it wasn't freeing up my time, it wasn't freeing up my energy, it wasn't liberating me in any sense at all, so I definitely had to change things, and now I really don't even use AI to post my content. What I will use AI for is if I am really busy, I will write out my own posts, but I will put it into AI, and I'm a good writer, so I don't need - I don't necessarily need a proof not 100% focused on what I am be a typo in there or something, ChatGPT, and I'll say, "Hey, just proofread this for me real quick, just to make sure that it's okay to post online, and it'll do that for me, and it and so that way it's a tool, it's not the worker, it's not the worker bee doing the things that I should be doing, aka exercising my own mind, and it's of burnout by looking at it that productivity, it was about quality.

31:26 Ralph Estep Jr.: I think that's a really good point. Because here's the next question I had to talk about, and Ty just goes along with what you're saying. If AI can handle 65% of your, excuse me, how much of your show That's the thing I think we're really battling against, and I think that's what we're, that's what we're feeling right now, is it in with using Chat GPT to write their content, to write their blog posts, and all that sort of thing, and I think we're Did anybody else want to story? It's really interesting thought, if you think about it. All right. Well, oh, go ahead. Ahmed Reza: hIt's Reza. Ralph Estep Jr.: Good morning, Thank you for joining us this morning.

32:07 Ahmed Reza: Yeah, no, thanks for I wouldn't be able to do a lot of things with, with AI, to be honest. Like, I just want to say, like, for me it's more than productivity. Like, for my daytime job, I work in tech, and for that, like, I don't even know how people used to do the reporting that that I can do with Claude, so that's I'm just saying I wouldn't be without AI. I'm just very dependent on AI, Ralph Estep Jr.: and Reza, let there with you, my friend. AI is a main part of the content that I do, because I do so many things, I can't even imagine trying to do that if I wasn't using AI to help me. That said, I think that what this story is really bringing out is it's all about our experiences, the things that we've, the stories that we've had, the things that we've lived, because if we don't lean into that as content creators, then I think we're going to lose our place, and I think that's the big concern, is if we don't lean into that, and we just let AI dictate it, then you're going to get to a point where 100% of your content is going to be AI.

33:11 Well, let's go ahead and move on to our next new story. DR. I'm gonna have you read this next one. Audio Clip: Sure. Okay. So, video podcasting has officially hit peak parody, and that changes everything. Now, the source for this is Edison Research, which is the gold standard when it comes to podcast research. And here's the headline: for the first time ever, as many people watch podcasts as listen now. We just had a conversation about this, about people tuning into YouTube and putting the phone in their pocket. About 82% of weekly podcast listeners now watch the video, 78% listen to audio only, basically, you know, a tie, and it happened all in under three years. The audio versus video debate is over. Your audience isn't picking a side, they're doing both. Daily podcast listeners average five hours and 11 minutes of audio per day.

34:18 Podcasts are 36% of that. 76% of weekly listeners took action after hearing a podcast ad shifting ad budget to podcasts lifted reach podcast sorry words are hard in the morning. Okay, shifting ad budgets to podcast lifted reach among 18 to 54 year olds by 41% with no extra spend, and 62% of listeners say AI threatens credibility. 59% worry that it kills creativity. So, let's talk about a little bit. Do you actually know how your audience is watching or listening or.

34:59 Are you just guessing about the whole thing? Ralph Estep Jr.: No, that's a Does anybody else want to that we've reached this level of Audio Clip: And let me ask, if there anyone here not doing And why aren't you doing video? Ralph Estep Jr.: I think that's a real good question, because I switched to, I switched to video for me. Now I'm still.. it's interesting, you want to talk Captivate, and I'm not throwing Captivate under the bus, but I have three shows, four shows on Captivate, and for some reason on my one weekly show they work. It's working on my daily show, it's working on the content creator show, but they cannot seem to get this thing to work on one of my shows.

35:49 We've been battling back and forth with Apple. This stuff is so new, I think they're still struggling both on the Apple side and on the hosting side to make it work. It is really, really interesting. Audio Clip: Interesting, Ralph Estep Jr.: I would agree. Well, let's go ahead. If no one else, you Audio Clip: got for the next, yeah, what you got for the next story? Ralph Estep Jr.: And let me hit the music stinger, because we got to play the music stingers, right? We got to do that. Audio Clip: That's right. Ralph Estep Jr.: Okay, so we're going to move on to story number three in our list here. AI content flooded the internet, but expertise didn't come along for the ride. Here's the headline, and this is from Forbes, and something called Elevate IT. Now it says 86.5% of top ranking pages now involved AI-generated content, and we just got to park there for a second.

36:37 Just think about what I just said there. 86.5% of top ranking pages now involved it's telling us is that than ever, but the problem with it is it all sounds the same. The issue isn't that AI writes using it. The average became the floor, not an edge. Here's some more stats from this particular story. 84% of companies using AI in content don't disclose it, but here's the problem: audiences are already suspicious about that. 87% of AI content goes into blog posts. The top complaint there is generic and flat output. Creators winning use AI for research and ideation is kind of what Knikki talked about a few minutes ago. Then they add their actual perspective on top of that, but brands pairing AI with genuine human insight consistently outperform pure automation.

37:31 So, let's talk about this. When you use AI for your content, how much of the final result is actually you? Does anyone want to comment on that? Knikki, I know you had made a little bit of a comment about that, so go ahead. Knikki: Yeah, I was gonna say that for me, the blogs are where I draw the line. I draw the line at the blogs, and I also draw the line at my podcast, and what that means is that I don't use AI for these things. Now, when I say I don't use AI, what I mean specifically by that is, I do not use AI to write scripts. I do not use AI to write the blogs, and then I just post the blogs, and then I tweak it a little bit to meet my, you know, meet my standards, or put my personality or spin on it. I do not use AI for any of those Now, will I have proofread something just to make sure that there's no typos or or missed? Yes, I will do that, because my brain is operating on all cylinders all the time, and so sometimes a little mistake like that, I just need a little bit of assistance to catch that. So, before I go out and post, because I tend to be kind of impetuous, a little bit like I want to get it out, I want to get the content out, and if you, you're sending an email and you hit send, and then you reread the email that you sent, and you're like, "Damn it, like, why Why did I say like this?

39:01 avoided, like that's that's me, I do that all the time, and so now I just will, I'll type out I do write my own emails, and I'll type out my email. I'll say, "Hey, ChatGPT, can you, can you either clean this up for me or can you proofread this, just to make sure there's no mistakes? And then I hit send, and then I'm much more confident with the with the message that I am sending, and that's, that's, that's a good thing, but I do not use ChatGPT to write any or create any of the content, so particularly for blogs. If you go to my site, Turning the Tide tutoring.com and you click blogs, all of those blogs were written 100% by me, 110% I do not use AI to write those blogs, because number one, I have better ideas than than AI does, because I'm coming up with real personal experiences that I have lived, real stories, real real moments, and that's what is going to resonate with people.

39:55 So, as an example, I just posted day, and the outreach of it, the 451 Impressions, which for me 451 impressions on one post is And I also got a comment from a lady who, you know, had a response, she had a reaction and a response to the blog herself. I'm looking for that reactions. I'm not looking to post a blog just for the sake of doing it. Now, I do understand why someone might use AI to write a blog that comes from a podcast. So, as an example to that, for some people, they'll put - they'll film a podcast, and then they'll go on Chat GPT, or whatever AI they use, and they'll utilize AI to write the blog that's inspired by their podcast. I personally don't do that.

40:44 I have nothing against it at all, because at least you took the time to make the podcast, and the podcast was you, and all you're doing essentially is synthesizing and condensing the information into a very readable format for the reader, so ChatGPT isn't creating the information and the blogs, where I will use AI for the posting aspect is like specifically for LinkedIn.What I will do is I have my own LinkedIn newsletter now, and I will write my own blog. I'll post the blog into Chat GPT, and I'll say, "Hey, can you write an announcement letter for my LinkedIn newsletter based on this blog, and then I'll post that on LinkedIn, so that part is written by AI on the LinkedIn newsletter, but the blog itself is written by me, so I just draw the line completely on my podcast on my blog.

41:38 Ralph Estep Jr.: Thank you, Go ahead, DR. Audio Clip: Do you put any kind of disclaimer - is not the right word, but claimer that this is written by a human, no AI used or anything like that? Do you do like a little something like that? Knikki: I have done that before, when ChatGPT was when it first came out, and I was like super anti AI at that time, and I was like, oh, not written by AI, not it written by AI, and I kind of wanted to be, to be proud of that, but when I started to stance on AI certainly softened, lot of people too. So I don't put that on the, the, the stuff now, because the reason why I don't put the disclaimer on there now that this is written by AI, or this is written by me, is because you can totally tell it's not hard, you can totally tell. So, like, if you look at my, my blog, you can 100% tell that it was written by a human being. Number one, I would say, because of the language, it sounds like me, it, it, it just has sentences and syntax and human and very real. I also have my own little quirks and stuff when it comes to using ellipses and different grammatical structures and in ways that I personally write that are just very human. And then the other piece is that there's one of the ways that you can tell that something is written by AI is when somebody uses the word matters, like this matters. You can always tell when somebody uses AI because they said this matters, because, or whatever.

43:09 thing. You can always tell someone utilized AI when there's a what's it called, a contrast statement. So, a contrast statement might be it's not this, it's that. You can always tell there that they used AI for that, you can sniff it out pretty, pretty quickly, and like I have a friend who he's a huge, huge novel reader, pretty huge novel like a week, and I'm novel every week. Well, anyway, there's this sort of controversy about this one book that he's reading, he was telling me about where they think that the author may have utilized AI to generate at least some parts of the book, maybe a chapter or two, or maybe half of the book, we don't know, and he said, "I'm going to read this book because I want to be able to snuff out the AI usage if there is any, and I will be able to tell if, if that's the case, and you can always tell, because the same phraseology, it's not about the em dash.

44:03 A lot of people talk about the m dash, but it's not about the em dash or a grammatical structure specifically. It's more about the language patterns. AI has very distinct language patterns, and when you hear people using it or talk, you can tell when someone's reading something that's AI created. You can tell when somebody's writing it. It has very distinct patterns that you can follow and predict. You can predict these patterns, and so then you know it's AI. But with my blog, there's nothing like that. There's no predictive language, there's no hypnotic language, there's no contrast statements, there's no nothing like that, so I don't put the disclaimer on there for that reason, because I don't, I don't need to. When somebody reads it, they know that it's me, and I don't try to sound like AI.

44:49 Like, if I post on LinkedIn, for example, this will be the last thing I'll say, but if I post something on LinkedIn, I'll say, guys know that. This is what we're doing today, and blah blah blah, 1215 you know, and it's just it's me, it's very informal, it's very casual, that's how that's how people can tell, and my impressions on these posts go from like five impressions from the AI-generated ones to the ones that I write to 60 impressions to 115 impressions, now to 405 100 impressions, because of the way that I write that immediately resonates with someone, so I don't need to put the disclaimer on there anymore, because you just know. Ralph Estep Jr.: Thank you, I want to go to Dan, because Dan wanted to make a comment as well, but that's a very good point, Knikki.

45:33 Dan: Yeah, I ain't gonna top was a master class in, you know, I will add on one thing, just like Knikki just said, that she doesn't have to use a read her stuff, you know, well, Google knows everything, and back before AI was a thing, and it's just how SEO works is different now. It seems that Google is looking more for real people, and if everyone is writing content based on what AI tells them, it's all - it's like you said earlier, Ralph - it's all going to be the same, because nobody actually delves for a deeper dive into the stuff they're asking AI, like if you're asking a question or you want to answer a question like how to blah blah blah blah, 90% of the people are going to go to Chat GPT and say how do you blah blah blah, okay, well, turn that into an article for me, that's just duplicate different forms of duplicate content, when the reality is you know the answer, you can use AI maybe to find the different topics or questions you want to talk about, or that maybe people might be looking for, but if somebody asks me how to blah blah blah, I'm just going to say here's how I do it, and I just do my own version, and I'm not trying to impress are. I always try to talk like just a normal guy, because I'm a normal guy, and I'm going to

47:05 use, you know, this old instead of this will, you know, like just contrite, like I'm just.. does it sound like a normal person? And as soon as you do that, it just makes everything better, and Google, you stand out to Google, because well, here's somebody who's actually answering a question that isn't like everyone else. You can use AI, then maybe if you want to clean it up a little bit, but because they are also using AI, their own version of AI, to, you know, rank everyone. But I'm just, and the other thing, just because Dave mentioned, you know, responsibility on creator to disclose. I just literally wrote AI policy for our business and our podcast.

47:47 I didn't put it up yet. I just literally did it last night in bed. I was thinking about it. We use AI, and I just basically say something like this, you know, look, we use AI because we're a very small podcast. We've been doing it for 11 seasons. We don't have the, you know, staff to do this. We primarily use what little AI we use, we use it behind the scenes, like for marketing or outreach or things like that. And because we do use that, and we're trying to be responsible, we've made groups. One is, believe it or not, I mean, it's weird. Greenpeace is one of the leading They have an entire division, and it's like, if you - I use perplexity, ironically, to look it up - like, they're like the best at that. And then we also make a donation to this thing called the, this sounds really funny, the Algorithmic League of Justice, no, the League of Algorithmic Justice, we're a superhero movie, but they are fighting, they're just making sure things are in place to not let people say they're doctors know, not let big companies come into everything and start making just say, look, we're doing that our smallish footprint that I don't know if that helps anyone, but I think you want

49:18 to be out front with that, you know, so because people are going to have comments on it, so you might as well address it in the beginning. Ralph Estep Jr.: And absolutely, together. There's some observations I had about all three of these last three stories. And here's the thing, I, here's my takeaway on this: the stuff AI can do at scale is becoming worthless, the stuff that only humans can do, real expertise, genuine opinion, authentic connection. That's where we're starting to see value. And if you're already working in the only format where that translates, you're already doing that: audio, real real stakes. Stop trying to be better.

49:59 Better at what AI does, and get better at being you, and I really think that's the way that we want to end this today. I just want to remind everybody to make sure you join us tomorrow. We are going to have second Hall of Famer of the week on the show tomorrow. Dave Jackson's going to join us tomorrow from the School of Podcasting, and I've asked them to come on to talk to us about how to prepare as a host to make sure you join us tomorrow. I promise you, the technology, I think we finally figured out what was causing some of that echo and bleed through on the live stream. So, make sure you come back and join us tomorrow. encourage everybody to have a Thank you, everybody, for being here today.