How to Turn Simple Stories Into Addictive Short Podcasts

0:05 Good morning podcasting Morning Chat. Today is Thursday, December 18th, 2025. And today, a live podcast evaluation of short form storytelling as we review the Share Delights podcast and explore how pacing, intros and audio choices shape a podcast. So if you're listening live on Clubhouse, hit the share button on the left hand side of the screen and share it. However, Clubhouse lets you. And if you're catching us via podcast chatter, YouTube, Facebook, please share this episode with a fellow podcaster. And now give us about 30 seconds. 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 Ralph Estep, producer Ashley Feller, Sid Meadows, Phil Better, BC Babbles, Nick Nalback and Dr. Faye is with us this morning. Full house for sure. And yes, it's our evaluation episode today. Looking forward to digging into this one. I was telling the team as we were starting, one of the things I'm excited about is, well, first of all, all of these different evaluations we've done, there's always been something a little different. Which makes sense, right, 'cause these are all very different podcasts. But we seem to bring something a little different each week to these evaluations. And I think that I've done that for us this week. I've done a little producing and editing of my own to help illustrate my points that I want to make, so more to come on that.

2:18 I want to also remind you that before we dig into everything about the Empowered Podcasting on Demand video that's now available, and as I've been saying all week, you, our podcasting morning chat community, are the first to know. I haven't even made this public to the entire Empowered Podcasting Conference community yet, but yeah, we've officially released the full Empowered Podcasting Conference 2 Video Library. Every workshop and presentation from the conference is now available on demand. These are practical, real world podcasting sessions from podcasters that actually do the work. You can watch what you need, when you need it and come back anytime.

3:06 So if you're serious about starting or growing your podcast with intention and community at the center, this is definitely something for you. You'll find the EPC video library. You can actually, I think you can find it at empoweredpodcasting.com now as well. I'm not sure if we've officially linked that. So check the show notes here on today's episode and that'll take you to the exact link. And it is there is a price tag on it. It's just $47 on sale currently from 99. And we're doing this in part to collect some money as a thank you to Janaid Ahmed, who was so kind and came there with the full professional gear and we had multiple cameras there, audio running. It was really a fantastic event.

3:56 And he captured it all for us and did it all out of the kindness of his heart. So we want to repay him literally with a little bit of money. Dr. Did you want to say something? How many classes are there? There's probably a total of around 28 I think there. That includes maybe one or two, you know, intros like me introducing the event, etcetera. But overall, yeah, you're probably getting at least 25 different half hour courses. So I think that this could be really valuable for anybody, including somebody who's maybe thinking about starting a podcast in 2026. That is awesome. That sounds great. Thank you, Dr. for your question. And yeah, I guess I'll do that. To officially start, I guess we'll need a little, maybe some a Stinger or bumper specifically for this weekly series of podcast evaluations.

4:48 Today, as I said, we're going to break down shared delights or so sorry, shared. Yeah, shared delights, your true stories and my funniest memories. This is a short form reset style storytelling podcast. I say reset style. We'll explain a little more in the description of the show. The goal of the show is escapism, warmth, delight. It's not necessarily life lessons, right? You're not coming in here necessarily to learn. You're coming in here to escape. We're evaluating technically 2 episodes because these are all around 5 minutes long. And I know for me, some of the stuff that I told you I want to share with you later, some of the production work that I did that I'm mainly focused on one episode. So we'll talk about that.

5:43 Here is the original series description. Welcome to the Shared Delights community Rica. Your podcast host inspires listeners to find the delight in their own past by sharing funny and heartwarming memories, showing that our most absurd and embarrassing moments are often our most cherished. Followed shared delights Your true stories and my funniest memories on Spotify and your bi weekly dose of for your bi weekly dose of joy, personal and curated true stories with occasional educational pieces inspired by real events. We'll get into that specifically that description and see if it works for our panel or if there are any suggestions for you. First I want to ask everybody how do we feel as far as is this?

6:37 Did you listen to these episodes and say, yeah, this is a momentary escape and is that a valid goal on its own? Is that OK? You know, we 'cause we talk a lot about niching down and getting very specific, and this doesn't necessarily do that, right? I mean, it doesn't each down in the sense that it does have seem to have a clear focus, but the each episode is completely different one to the next. It's not promising A transformation like many podcasts maybe do. So it does this work. I'm going to go to BC 1st and then I'll check in with several other people who want to chime in. Go ahead BC.

7:17 Yeah, I think it's so far from the two episodes that we have so far, it's done a great job of providing what it promises. It's a nice little jump away from the heaviness of day-to-day life. I think it did a great job of providing context of and I think what really helps with that provision of that promise is that there's a nice kind of whimsical delivery that I mentioned I think in my notes from the narrator. And there's a nice, I think music bed that's happening as well, if I recall correctly. So overall, the package is nice. It's chill. Again, there's no aim to have a really huge life lesson. So therefore there's no like mental homework to take out of it. So it's really just a nice departure, reset, come back. OK, I got a bit more energy for whatever the heck else is going to happen today.

8:07 Thank you. BC and Nick says in the chat whimsical was a word that was coming to mind for him as well. Thanks BC and Sid, I'm going to come to you and I'm going to ask you specifically what you think is a is a momentary escape a valid goal on its own? Does it work for a podcast in your opinion? Good morning, everybody. Yeah, absolutely does, Mark. You don't always need to be educated. You don't always need to learn something. You don't always need to be coached. You always, you don't always need a transformation. Sometimes you just need to simply relax and be entertained and enjoy the moment that you're in. And so the podcast doesn't always have to be about learning and education and transformation. And I thoroughly enjoyed the stories. I mean, they're funny and the way she delivers them kind of brings you in and you laugh with her. She's laughing a couple of times in them. And so yes, you can just have a show that just entertains. And I think that's what her show is, is she's entertaining. Thank you, Sid.

9:08 I'll share some of my initial thoughts in a moment. Let me check in with Ralph first. Go ahead, Ralph. Good morning. Oh good morning, can I be the curmudgeon? You may. The idea of that I liked, but man, I struggled with this. And I don't mean this in a disparaging way, but the accent and the background music was so distracting to me that I had a hard time focusing on what she said. And that's not meant as a slight. Her energy was awesome, she seemed like a delightful person, but I had such a hard time trying to really understand what she was saying. And then couple of that with the background whimsical music behind it, I just got lost. OK, that's fair. And sometimes, obviously not every show is for every person.

9:48 I will say that I think there are solutions and this is part of the production I did that I'll share with you a little bit later, But I think there are ways that she can help with that for people who may be having a harder time understanding her. She is Hungarian, English is not her first language. She shared that with us and it's actually, I believe that what she shared specifically is it's also a very new language for her. So I was actually really impressed with her delivery considering that. But yet it is something to think about, right? If you do have a thicker accent and you are making a podcast for an audience that speaks another language, it's something you have to think about. And yeah, like Ralph said, this is not to discourage disparage. I want to find a solution for her. And I think I have at least one for her that we can get to in a few.

10:46 I'm actually really glad you brought that out up, Ralph, because I think it's important for us to establish early on here that English was not her first language. And I will say I I think that she has also, like you were saying, great energy, great storyteller. I like the details that she provides during the her storytelling. It really helps and we'll get to it, but it really helps paint the picture. And she's got that warm voice. She's really got a voice, an inviting voice. But Sid, I saw you wanted to comment when Ralph was sharing what? What are your thoughts? I listened to two episodes. I agree, Ralph, you're not being a curmudgeon by by any means.

11:28 So I love that word too. But I listened to episodes. In the first episode, I did not notice the background music at all. The second episode, I did notice the background music and I thought there might be an opportunity for her to phase down the music, the loudness of the music, whatever the appropriate technical term is for that. When she starts telling the story after her intro, she could soften the music a little bit so it's still playing. I did a show that had music in the background and I loved it. But there's an opportunity there, I think, for her to soften the music just a little bit. And I knew that English wasn't her first language. I didn't realize she was new to it. So somebody that has just learned English, Thanks. She's doing a really good job with it. So that's actually impressive that she's just learned English. And before we go further, and I'm going to go to you, Dr. Well, all right, here's what I'll do. I'll go to you, Dr. And then I want to just share a little bit more overall about the podcast itself and some things that we should be looking for today.

12:27 But yeah, Dr. go ahead. You and I talked backstage basically the other day, and I was telling you that I was also having a difficult time because of the language and understanding. But the fact that, number one, it's new to her. It's not her first language and it's new to her. And I would have put this in the in the chat, but I don't know how to spell this. So I admire her chutzpah. I don't know how to spell it. So I had to say it in doing this, but I got to say it was a little bit distracting. OK, we're going to get into that shortly. And by the way, a good morning to Matt Bliss who has joined us as well.

13:12 But before we go further, I want to share why I think today's evaluation's worth paying attention to, especially for anyone thinking about short form storytelling. So we've shared these are 5 to 6 minute episodes that are designed to be a quick reset light, warm and easy to listen to as we go. Notice how much of the listening experience is driven by the storytelling and her tone. I want to get into pacing. I think that is a keyword for today, especially again, for somebody that has a an accent that might be hard for the audience to understand and also want to share how it's set, how we shape the way those stories land for a listener. We'll also look at cover art.

14:02 And I want to be brief with that because I think we spend too much time on cover art sometimes. The descriptions, the intro, all of it, right? I want to figure out how clearly those, the different elements point to the experience that the show delivers. So by the end of the evaluation, you're going to hear a few ideas that translate beyond this podcast and into your own work, especially if you're aiming to create something that feels intentional, focused, memorable. I read you her description and I did want to share that. I'm cool with the short description of a podcast series. I actually think if they're too long, you're going to lose readers.

14:45 I think the advantage of doing longer ones is if you're strategic, you can get more keywords in there to help potentially with search optimization. I think that if we're really catering to our audience, I think short and sweet is appropriate, especially for a short and sweet podcast. I did think that you can tighten this up. I think that we want to lead with who this podcast is for and what they're going to get out of it, what they can expect, and I'm going to play the intro for you so that this way you can get a good taste of how these episodes work. This is from her episode Wedding Crasher. Have you ever been so desperate for cigarettes that you crashed the complete stranger's wedding?

15:30 What happens when a university student in a wrinkle suit decides he belongs as someone else's reception? This is the story of how one man's nicotine craving turned into and all you can drink champagne heist. Welcome new listeners to Shared Daylights Community and welcome back amazing podcast followers you are listening to Shared delight, your true stories and my funniest memories. I'm your host Rica. In this episode you will hear a legendary story of audacity, bad decisions and excellent timing. Attila, a loyal podcast follower, was once a university student who turned a simple cigarette run into a full blown bedding infiltration. You will hear how he smooths dogged his way past suspicious guests that voluntarily handed the dance, partnered by the grandfather of the bride and left with pockets full of stolen cookies.

16:32 This is a master class in confidence, terrible judgement and somehow making it home alive. Let's get into it. I just want to play for you. I just did one small tweak and it's toward the end of her intro. I will say, I think the intro, even though relatively speaking it's short, when we talk about a 5 minute or so episode, it actually feels a little long to me. I think that one area that we could find to improve upon this or shorten it a little bit, I think she actually gave too many details. I think it was almost, almost a spoiler alert situation because she gave the main points of the plot away at the very beginning.

17:14 So I would actually leave that stuff out and maybe tease the big, the big plot point, if you will, or whatever you might consider as the storyteller the big plot point. Maybe tease that a little bit. But what I was going to suggest is, I think now keep in mind that we've talked about that there is music playing in the background. Keep in mind that I made a couple of little adjustments, some pacing adjustments that would have sounded better if I stripped the music. And later in some of the clips, I actually do strip the music. But you're going to hear a couple of little breaks in the music here. But the real thing I want you to listen to is. But what happens when you just add some sort of transition effect between when you wrap up your intro and get into the storytelling? This is a master class in confidence, terrible judgement, and somehow making it home alive. Let's get into it.

18:08 Picture this. University of Mischkoetz, Hungary is the weekend. It makes such a difference when you add a little sound effect. Now, maybe that's not the best one, right? I just used the whoosh that I use here just to explain my point. But I think that adding just a little something or even since she has music playing in the background, which by the way, I'm a fan of, what of that? It didn't distract me at all, but just leaving a couple of seconds, literally 2 to 3 seconds of that music playing before you get right into the story. That was one of my big suggestions. I think it's important to speak directly to your audience. Who are they?

18:50 Tell them that right out of the gate who this is for and what they can expect. And then you can mention who you are and maybe some additional details about the show, how often they can hear it, etcetera. So I wrote, if you love true stories that are funny, awkward, and unexpectedly heart warming, this show is for you. From a college student who crashed a wedding just to score a cigarette to someone sprinting naked through the streets, Cher Delight serves up unforgettable moments that reflect the lighter side of being human. Hosted by Rica. And since she used her first name only in her original description, I followed that. Each biweekly episode shares personal tales and listener submitted stories that remind us how our most ridiculous memories often become our most cherished.

19:42 You'll laugh, cringe, and maybe even see your own story in a new light. Follow Shared Delights, Your True Stories, and My Funniest Memories on Spotify for your dose of humor and humanity. That's my my series description. I think it just hits a little bit harder for me. It attracts me more to the show. I think you did a great job, Mark, and I'm loving on you today, buddy. You're going to make out fine. You did great. Thank you. I think does that encouragement for me. Feeling a little scattered and all over the place this morning, Ralph. Exactly. No, seriously, in all seriousness, I think what you just did there just took it up a notch and I think it's fantastic.

20:24 Thank you, Sir. I appreciate the feedback and I hope that's helpful to her too. And you, you can take that word for word if you want, Rica and you can adjust it however you see fit. I think it just that it just does you a little bit of more justice to your show, a little more justice the branding of this show and then we'll get into some of the meat of the show. But the branding of the show I think is important to get into as well. How do we feel about the title? Shared Delights specifically? And of course then that tagline that follows Your true stories and My funniest memories. Does this convey what the show is about? Normally I would have some alternative title to offer, but in this case I don't. All I know is that I think there's an opportunity here to get ECO.

21:12 I call it ECO eye-catching optimization. I don't think the title gives it justice to what it actually is. I think that that's fair. I mean, certainly the tagline helps tie it together. It helps, and I even think that that could be polished up a little bit as well. OK Cher delights. I will say my suspicion is is the that whole title was probably done AI generated she probably again totally It's just a suspicion of mine. I feel like it's probably something that she ran through a ChatGPT for ideas. It's not a bad title. It's not bad and also maybe she ran it through like a translation kind of application as well to give words to what she felt inside, you know what I mean?

22:03 Maybe she had as a translator app? That's fair. Let's go to Nick since we haven't heard from him yet this morning. We'll we'll start there. Go ahead, Nick. Good morning. Hey, good morning, everybody. I'm going to go against what the I was saying and I kind of like the title. And the reason being is when I was getting into it, like started listening to it, I wasn't sure. Like the first thought in my mind was like, are these first stories? Are these just stories that she's making up? Are these other people's stories? Like, so the title very much clarifies that for me that oh, we got stories from listeners and all that. But I'm going to go back to something that I mentioned a few weeks ago in one of the evals and that where I feel the title isn't being done enough justice is when you look at the cover art matching it. Because to me, the cover art feels very like autobiographical, like almost too professional, like cover or like headshot author type of thing. And I feel like if the cover art was a little bit more like in that whimsical nature that the podcast episodes are and it captures that, the title would fit a lot better with that. And Matt Bliss, he has once again come through and created another version of the art that I guess we'll say an improved upon version.

23:28 And he's just for it to paint the picture for our listening audience. The original cover art, it's a big shot of Rica. She is the primary focus of the cover art and the words shared delight appears just below her in what do you call it, like a with a with a block background. It does feel, I'll say the original does feel a little DIY to me. And looking at Matthew's version, he's blown up the letters a little bit. They're all white. So it's just it really pops out. And he added 2 little things to it in in the cover art, the words funny memories and the words true stories.

24:11 And I think that between the improved upon look of the art and adding just that. Nick, would you agree that this kind of speaks to what you were talking about? I honestly did not see the revised version of it yet. I'll have to go take a peek at that. OK, no problem. I think it does. I think it does. Matt, did you want to speak to it at all briefly? I think it described it well enough, Mark. Really it was. If I'm describing my rapid cover art revision process, Step 1 is just to try and refine some of those elements that are that are already present, but gives it a bit more context. I don't want to make this a thing, but that acronym that Dr.

24:54 likes to use, whatever it was eye-catching optimization or whatever, I think this this one just does it a little bit better and it includes aspects of the title that we know could probably be refined a little bit. Yeah, I'll keep going with it. Cool. Thank you, Matt. And we will put the link to the what Matt did here in the show notes for you. And Sid, did you want to share anything? Podcasters, we all struggle with the same thing with our shows, and that's discoverability and shared delight is not, in my opinion, words that people are going to type in the search bar to find a podcast. She's got to look at some keywords that will attract her people when they're searching.

25:36 What words are they searching? I like the use of stories I put in there just as an just as an idea was stories to brighten your day because that's part of her promises. She's going to lift you up. She's going to brighten your day. She's telling stories. People will search for words like stories. So when you're looking at a title, she should try to think about keywords that will help her show get discovered because it is something that we all struggle with on a regular basis. I like that, Yeah. And it feels a little too wordy. I was going to say, yeah, maybe even adding the word short to stories, right, Short stories to brighten your day. But it does feel a little a little wordy to me. I really like that direction. Sid I It's a little more literal and would draw me to it much quicker than a title like Cher Delights, just because I wouldn't know. And I think somebody put in the chat, it almost feels like it's maybe something bakery related when you think Shared Delights. So yeah, I could see that.

26:35 Yeah, and I agree with the Sid there. I was actually thinking about the word chronicles. I love the word chronicles, so if she were to rename it to something to something to the effect of like the women's chronicles or the feel good chronicles, I think that could be a lot more of an exciting potential title for the show for the artwork. I just feel like it was just too dark. You know, I think I mentioned in my my feedback for the show that the pacing, the delivery, the the music bed to me and this will tell you a little bit about me and what I grew up on is the kind of the Shelley Duvall bedtime stories, if anyone knows what I'm talking about. Shelley Duvall was of course the mom in the Shining, but she also did a little series in the early 90s called Bedtime Stories. And this kind of brought me the same whimsy that series did.

27:19 So I was almost thinking that it'd be cool to kind of carry that feeling. It's almost almost was like a stage. She's almost like welcoming, almost like a little play. I would have even like consider putting almost like stage curtains behind her with some kind of almost not avant-garde. When when tries to like like a movie theater, I'm going to blank. It doesn't matter. But but just to like bring that kind of like stagey. I'm going to just keep reusing the word whimsical. That's the only thing I got this morning. But but to bring that to the that same feeling to the artwork as because I just felt like it was way too dark to be honest. I'm with you. I could see maybe it's like her on a stage sitting on a stool holding a book open. An opened book, Yeah, With a spotlight on her or something like that.

28:07 I think short stories should be front and center in there instead of shared delights. I don't think that a picture of her is adding to the whole thing. And let's asterisk that and say Dr. isn't usually a fan of pictures people the the the post's picture. Yeah, because it doesn't mean anything to anyone. You know what I mean, a picture of myself on my cover art. It means nothing to anyone. And I totally agree with BC about it being too dark in my head. I imagine especially since he brought up the Shelley Duvall thing. I imagine a fairly light colored, maybe white, maybe a nice yellow or something like that. But a big illustration of an open book, maybe with a page starting to turn or something like that, and the word short stories for the I don't know, I don't know, but short stories should be somewhere in that title. Yeah.

29:13 And again, just because I think it's important to share everyone's opinions, I will share that I'm a I'm not on the same side of the fence as Dr. As far as including a picture, I think that adding the host picture in there in, in some cases, not every case, but in a lot of cases, I think that it's, it's more inviting to me. It's showing me this is the person I'm going to be spending the next however many minutes in this case, the next 5 minutes with. It's cool for me to be able to have a visual of that person. And that's really the only place I'm going to see that if I'm just staying within the podcast app and and have fallen and found this person. So that's just, again, that's my opinion and I think it can work. Your description of a different cover piece of cover art, I think that works just as well too. So it's it can be just a personal preference, I think. Ralph, did you want to add something? As we're sitting here talking, I just had a thought. Maybe the name of the show needs to be the experience that you have once you listen to it, something like whimsical experiences or the what is the, what is the take away? Because then I think her picture makes sense too, because you're building a relationship with her. Let's be honest, most of the time what we're doing is we're building a relationship with the host. And that's why, Mark, I tend to agree with you. That's why I like a picture on the cover, because I'm trying to build that relationship.

30:33 But I'm thinking, why don't we go to what you're going to feel or what she wants you to feel as you're listening to the episode and make that the show name or the show title. I think that draws you in a little bit more. I don't know if there's copyright infringement with this idea, but what if the title was something like Short Stories for the Soul? I feel like that really conveys it all right, because it's something that kind of soothes the soul. Exactly. That's the take away from when you listen to it. That's the take away the experience. I just feel like if we named our shows a little bit more about what the experiences for the listener, I think that it's more enticing. Oh yeah, I want an escape. Oh yeah, I want some, some soup for the soul. I want whatever that is. I just think that's a much more enticing. Yeah.

31:16 And I will say, by the way, no offense to BC, but I think I don't love the idea of using the word chronicles. Again, only because of search engine optimization. I don't think people are searching for chronicles that'll make me feel good, right? They'll probably search for stories or short stories that'll make me feel better. So that's just one thing to consider when you're coming up with a show title. Hey, Mark, that goes along with what I said. I think you're going to search for what you're looking for. I'm looking for an escape. I'm looking for a release. I'm looking for what is that? Yeah, fair enough. Let's talk a little bit about the episodes themselves. And I think, yeah, we've certainly shared that we all have agreed that Rica's is a natural storyteller. Her warmth and joy and emotional engagement come through clearly. I see Sid had to leave I guess, but Sid was pointing out and I agree with him.

32:16 I liked it when she would start to laugh as she was telling the story, a giggle or there is I think one point in the Wedding Crasher episode she she really chuckles and I like that. It helped draw me closer to her as she's telling that story, and we've also established her confidence in a second language is really impressive. With all that, I'll play a piece for you, a short piece, like a minute long as a part of the Wedding Crasher story. And this is where I think we can also talk a little bit about why pacing is so important, especially in my opinion, if you have a thicker accent, pacing.

32:57 And because if we are too quick when we're speaking, whether we have an accent or not, words can get swallowed, words can get lost, which just makes it even more dramatic when it's a little harder for somebody else who's trying to understand what you have to say. All right, here is the original clip from Wedding Crasher. But now he has got a new problem. He's hungry. Attila scans the room. The food is on the other side of the dance floor. He has to cross enemy territory, so he goes for it. Halfway through the crowd, he runs into the grandfather again, who is dancing with someone.

33:38 The grandpa, in the burst of enthusiasm, literally hands his dance partner to Attila. So now Attila is dancing with this woman who immediately starts gossiping about the grandfather. So Attuna just nods, smiles, maybe, throws in totally here and there. When the song ends, he thanks her and continues his mission. The cookies. He finally reaches the dessert table and start to eat, grabs A handful, stuffs them in his pockets like he's robbing a bakery, and decides it's time to make his exit. The journey home is unclear.

34:18 What is clear based on the grass stains covering his pants the next morning, is that he fell multiple times. We are talking full and crawling through dirt, dragging himself to the dorm like wounded soldier. OK, We're going to do pacing first, then I want to talk if anybody wants to comment on storytelling, sound design, although I think we'll get into some sound design here as well. So what I did is took that same clip, maybe shortened it at the end a little bit, but I took that same clip. I stripped the music using aphonic just so that the music would now become really distracting in the sense that you'll hear it kind of disappear and come back.

35:00 So I just said let's just eliminate it all together. And I added some pauses, some space between some of the things she had to say. And please keep in mind, I did this. I didn't spend the same amount of time I might spend on this for, say, a client. So I might have made some additional adjustments. But I think this will give you some idea of what I mean by when you add a little bit of space that you can understand the person a lot better. It gives your mind some time to process. But now he has got a new problem. He's hungry. Matila scans the room. The food is on the other side of the dance floor. He has to cross enemy territory, so he goes for it. Halfway through the crowd, he runs into the grandfather again, who is dancing with someone.

35:51 The grandpa, in the burst of enthusiasm, literally hands his dance part near to Atilba. So now Atila is dancing with this woman who immediately starts gossiping about the grandfather. So Artuna just nods, smiles, maybe throws in it totally here and there. When the song ends, he thanks her and continues his mission. The cookies. He finally reaches the dessert table and start to eat, grabs A handful, stuffs them in his pockets like he's robbing a bakery and decides it's time to make his exit. The journey home is unclear.

36:35 So what I I might have even given it more pacing, but I, for sake of time and interest, I wanted to keep it moving a little bit quicker. I probably would have let it breathe in some places a little bit more. And I have one more clip for you that might have a little bit more of that pacing, a little more of those pauses here and there. But I also took the liberty to add sound design. I think that this show could benefit the story, could benefit that the different ones that she tells, if she added some sound effects, some things that help move the story along even more. I'll play it for you in a second. I see BC wanted to say something. Go ahead BC.

37:20 And my one thing about the quality was, and I don't know if anyone else kind of picked this up, I felt like either there was some maybe like overdoing of noise reduction or maybe that she was, I don't know. There's there's something about like just some kind of like accent sounds around her voice that made it seem like there was maybe a bit of an overproduction that I noticed more than really her delivery or her accent that at times I'm like, what is that like imperfection in the quality? I agree with you, I wrote that down as well. It sounds to me like there was some AI or some over processing done in spots. And let's keep in mind also that the second clip that I played with a little more pacing I had, I ran it through an AI processor to strip the music out. So it might have even sounded a little more dramatic in that second clip, But I'll play this next clip for you. This is the same clip with a maybe a little bit more pacing and some added sound effects, music, etcetera. But now he has got a new problem. He's hungry.

38:26 Atila scans the room. The food is on the other side of the dance floor. He has to cross enemy territory, so he goes for it. Halfway through the crowd, he runs into the grandfather again, who is dancing with someone. The grandpa, in the burst of enthusiasm, literally hands his dance part near to Atila. So now Atila is dancing with this woman who immediately starts gossiping about the grandfather, just nods, smiles, maybe, throws in totally here and there. When the song ends, he thanks her and continues his mission. The cookies.

39:07 He finally reaches the dessert table and start to eat, grabs A handful, stabs them in his pockets like he's robbing a bakery, and decides it's time to make his exit. The journey home is unclear. What is clear based on the gross things covering his pants? So I'm curious and I am fine with it if you didn't like that, right? Like feel free to chime in with any thoughts or opinions. But I really felt like it added something. And I will say I might have been a little generous with the sound effects. I might have added more than I would normally, but I did want to try to convey or illustrate what I'm getting at in a very short clip, like a minute or so long. I loved it.

40:00 It carried the story forward, that's for sure. Probably I would turn them down just a little bit in volume, but I think I realized one of the things that is distracting for me because she's so new to the language, her emphasis on syllables are misplaced. And that's distracting to me. And because it's distracting, I lose track of what she just said because I'm concentrating on what she meant before, you know? So it's not. So without the sound effects, it's not going forward for me. I see what you're saying.

40:43 So you're feeling, you're feeling like the sound effects, the different yeah, that are kind of going along with the story. It helps take you off of the accent and helps you focus more on the story itself. If she walks away with any of these suggestions #1 the more immersive and #2 I think she needs to study up on where those syllables are for because that's what's truly distracting to me is, you know, the emphasis on the different syllables. Her inflections yeah, I heard that too. And that is very common when somebody is speaking another language because the way their native language, the inflections may happen in different spots, right.

41:28 So I think right so that. Exactly. That's just. Something I think with time that she'll she'll get better at. But you know what, this is an audio first podcast. If this was if we could see what's going on, then that doesn't even apply. What I just said doesn't even apply because we could actually see what's happening and that will move us forward. If this is an audio first podcast, I think that's what she she needs to probably pay a little bit of attention to. Yeah, and kudos to her for doing. This. Anyway, right, Like. My God, that's what we talk about is amazing.

42:10 Yeah, I mean. Amazing this. Is what we talk about is do it anyway and you know, figure out where you can improve over time and make the proper adjustments. Maybe this is because I grew up with half of my family having pretty thick French accents, my mom's side of the family that maybe it's not, even though it's a different language, a different accent. Maybe I'm just more accustomed to it and used to the fact that maybe the inflections are being used in different spots than I would typically hear them being used. So maybe that's part of it too, is that I'm a little more tolerant of that. But I think again, and you know, let's also keep in mind, I don't know this 100%, but she'd, I'm assuming this is all scripted and she does a fantastic job of reading naturally.

42:57 Really. Well, yeah, I think she does. A really good job of that. Does anyone else want to comment and I will. I will also say, by the way, I intentionally made those background sounds, the music, this foots, the footsteps, all that stuff. I intentionally made those louder for demonstration purposes so that we could hear them very clearly in this exercise. But yeah, I agree with you. Normal, normally I would say I'd, I'd be adjusting the sound and to maybe a little lower in spots, maybe a little higher in spots, all depending. But yeah, that's a very key element to consider. Anyone else want to comment on anything about the storytelling, the host presence, the scripting? Matthew, go ahead.

43:42 I just had a quick look and it looks like Wedding Crasher is 123406, the 6th episode. I think a bit of the slack can be cut there as well. I don't think any podcaster doing it fresh has it down pat. And I'm just saying this in response to Dave Campbell mentioning in in the Clubhouse chat that if she could afford an editor to do the mock stuff, that it might be worth doing. My response to that would be that I think she would still be in the process of discovering what kind of podcaster she wants to be and what interests her most about creating the podcast. Because the only reason that I got into the Marks stuff with the sound design things is because I was curious, like, how do I recreate this voice?

44:31 How do I make a voice kind of like this video game that sounds like a big echoey sky based presence called Elohim in the the Telus principle. If anyone knows that video game, you kind of play around with stuff a little bit and some people not necessarily have the chops for it, but some people have the interest for it and some don't. And I think it will serve the podcast to explore those things or they'll decide it's not really for them. But I think all of this, the stuff that we're pointing out being at the beginning of your English journey as well as your podcast journey. I think if we came back to visit what she's doing, perhaps after this, the feedback in this episode, in six months, it could be a completely different podcast all over again. So just for that context, I think that that just came to my mind a little bit we've been talking about. I think that's a great point.

45:25 Thank you for bringing that up. Yeah, any podcaster, she's just, she's brand new to this. So on top of the usual hiccups that come along the way in the learnings that we, you know, get from those hiccups, she's also got a new language she's working with too. So again, considering all of that, big props to her. And, and Michelle in the chat here says the accent doesn't bother her. However, she is suggesting that Rica slows down a bit and she also gives kudos to Rica. And that's again, that goes back to the pacing thing, right? You don't have to actually edit in the pacing. This is a matter potentially of slowing things down. And I I can't help but to wonder if she's intentionally rushing through it, for lack of better word, because she's trying to keep this within the 5 minutes you know that she's promised to her audience.

46:19 That could be. I wanted to make it clear, especially for the newer podcasters that are listening, you know these sound effects are available. It's not like Mark is paying $1000 for these sound effects. They these are all available on a lot of different platforms. So I wanted to make sure to let Rica know that these are all accessible. She has access to all of these sound effects and more. I got actually all of the sound effects that I played in that clip from the YouTube free, royalty free license, free music and sound library. And that's totally free to use. Oh, you just got to go to it and pick and choose from their library has a search bar, everything. And yeah, I just what I do is I sit and listen to the story and I ask myself, like, what does this need? I get very literal when she says the part about the main character of the story getting hungry. She added that dramatic spot where, you know, then all of a sudden I forget exactly the wording, but then all of a sudden he realized.

47:27 And then I added a pause. He's hungry. And then then I added the dramatic, you know, and then it trailing that Stinger just kind of trailing in the background, you know, while he's thinking about what do I do now? And then she says he's walking, he walks over to the desert area. And so, OK, let's add some footsteps to that. And then he's at the dessert area. OK, So what happens at the dessert area? What would I hear in a dessert area? I'd probably hear a lot of conversation going on while people are picking and choosing what they want to eat, right? So just think about sound wise, what might be occurring when you're describing that part of the story. And then try it out, see if it works. Matt, did you want to add something else? I did, but I completely forgotten it because I had another idea for the cover.

48:13 I'd say sorry. No problem. If you think of it, let me know. And I do also want to address something you had shared. This was what David put in the chat about could Rica afford to hire an editor to add the sound effects and music that I added? And he says not sure that most podcasters have the editing chops or the funds to create what we've addressed. The fact that you don't necessarily need the funds, you just need a little bit of time maybe to learn what I did. I did that in Audacity with multi tracking and it's really relatively easy, right? You have the your main track of the for my case, I took her main track. It was on in the the DAW in on the screen with the little wave format.

48:57 And then I would just grab sounds and drop it in and they appear right under it. And then you can just click and drag the sound effects to put it in the exact place. It's really pretty easy. It just takes a little bit of practice and know how you can find that on any, you know, you can find that on YouTube easily. I think as far as how to do what I just described, and maybe I'll put something out like that too and show somebody how to do show you how to do that. Dave says funds to hire an editor, not necessarily funds for the effects. Yeah. I mean, there is a cost to doing that for sure. OK. The last area I want to talk about is discoverability. Since Matt brought up the fact that this is a new podcaster, a new podcast, I think it's important to talk about what she's doing for discoverability.

49:45 And she has shared with me she is only on Spotify. And when I say only, I mean only like no website, no other platform. She says that she's doing this intentionally. The show's growth, this is a summary of some things she shared with me. The show's growth is 100% organic. She says they get she gets solid early engagement. She gives me some statistics so far, 664 total plays, 421 streams, downloads, 30 hours of consumption, A5 point O rating with 16 reviews. I think that she's pulling some of this from her recent Spotify Wrapped, which is awesome and I shouldn't say, but and she says she's been getting lots of great listener feedback. But I think so, you know, we it's like on one side of our mouth, we talk about just start however you feel comfortable. And I still stand by that, right? And so maybe this is a case of Rico feeling comfortable just going the easiest possible route to get this show out there. And often times that is through Spotify because you use Spotify for creators, which is free, it will automatically add it to Spotify.

50:58 No extra steps involved to get it on other platforms. So I do respect if that's the case, that's what she's doing. But I do feel like as a podcast, if you're really taking this seriously, if it's a more than just a hobby, I think you got to have at least a web page, maybe not a full blown website, but I think it's important for you to have a web page, a place that you can send people to connect with them, give them a little bit more, show them where they can listen, listen straight from the website. Like I think that's really important. And I know that she told me she has plans in 2026 to do more like that. Does anyone have any thoughts? Is it really, is she shooting herself in the foot here or are we cool with with her approach with this new podcast? Let's go to Ashley first since we haven't talked to Ashley much yet this morning.

51:49 And then we'll hear from Ralph and Matthew. Go ahead, Ashley. I was going to ask, do we know if she has pod page? She has no website at all, so she's not using pod page. I think isn't there a free tier of pod page if you don't have your domain and then you can get your domain later that might help her. Yeah, I think that is the case and that's why for the longest time I didn't go with podcastingmorningchat.com. I was and it still works this way too. Podpage.com/PMCI do that really to give other podcasters permission to do it. That's what's it's going to take to get that pod page or any web page up there. If you have to use a URL that's not most ideal, I'd rather you have one with that doesn't, isn't ideally, doesn't have an ideal URL than not having a website at all.

52:37 That's what I'm trying to say. Ralph, did you want to chime in? Yeah. I just want to say this. I think it depends on what her goals are. If her goals are this is just a hobby and she doesn't really, she's not thinking about any kind of monetization strategy or growing it, then I don't know that that's necessary, Mark. But if she's trying to build a brand, if she's trying to take this to something that she can monetize or grow with, I think she absolutely needs to have a website. Thank you, Ralph. And again, I do know she has said she's looking to expand and, and in 2026, and I'll say she also does rely on a Facebook page. That's where she often sends people in addition to her Spotify page. That's what she's using basically as a pseudo website for the time being.

53:27 I have some takeaways I want to share with you before we get to Matthew. So actually not before. I will do that after we get to Matthew and Dr. Go ahead, Matthew. Sneak in the final word mark. I like it. This smacks a lot of beginning of podcasters journey and looking to do things one thing at a time. And I think she's not necessarily shooting herself in the foot. She might have just picked up the gun and it's starting to move towards her toes. If again, if we give her six months, she's going to find out about all these things like, oh man, I could go to Apple podcast as well. And you know, I suspect it could be a relationship with Riverside. That means her edits get a bit of background music from Creative Commons licensing provided by Riverside. Because if it's distributed by Spotify for creators, then it's likely she's using that.

54:18 In which case the move to Audacity will be another step, another big transitional movement that takes a bit of time. And I've got a feeling that she'll start to pick up on those things that all the things that we've mentioned today. So this could be the fortune telling for six months down the track when she's got that stuff rolling properly. Agreed. Thank you, Matthew. I appreciate you saying that. And I'm actually going to call an audible here because Michelle has joined us on stage from the audience and I've totally, I brought her up and then totally forgot to go to her. So please forgive me, Michelle. And what did you want to add to any of this conversation? Are you able to come off Mike? Let's give her one second, OK? Michelle says.

54:58 If Rica wants to stick to a time limit, she needs to cut out some filler and rewrite some to tighten it. Time is less important than a good story that engages. Yeah, I'm with you there. And I think there are other opportunities. She can cut things down. I think her outro, which we haven't even played, and I think her intro could both be tightened up. I shared at the very beginning when we played her intro. I think she gives too many details away. She basically spoils the the story in many ways 'cause she's telling us the main plot points to expect. I think that will shave off a good 30 seconds or so and I think there are opportunities in the outro where she could do the same. Is this an episode a week or every two weeks? I think it's every two weeks.

55:46 OK, my thought is that maybe she can start threading these episodes together. So for instance, if it was at a wedding, who else in that wedding party has a story that can make an appearance in the next story? And you know, you know what I mean, just to maybe every quarter, maybe she can change the location, maybe it's going to be an apartment house the next quarter, in the next three months about all the different people that live in the the building. And the next quarter could be like a family reunion, all the stories in the family reunion. So that could it's a continuing saga.

56:27 I don't know what you call it, but it's like a soap opera where it gets people hooked on it. I love threading the stories together. Thank you. That's an awesome idea. I saw several people agreeing with you on that. I think, you know, it's going to. It would take a little more work for Rica, but the payoff could really be worth it, you know? So in this case of the Wedding Crasher episode, yeah, she could reach out to that listener who submitted that story and ask if there are other people from that wedding. Although, you know, he didn't know a lot of people from the wedding, but he he does. There is a part toward the end of the episode where he's sharing his story of his, of his wedding crashing with his buddies that he goes to college with. So maybe some of the buddies we could reach out to and get a story from them.

57:14 Yeah, I think that would be really clever. But also, this is where her creativity comes into play. So just because someone doesn't have a suggestion for other people at the wedding, this is where she needs to create something for, you know, maybe they give her a situation and she applies it to someone who is at that wedding. Do you know what I'm saying? This is where she has to work on her creative, not work on she has to add more, add, add more creativity, right? I agree with you. Thank you, DRI think that's a great final suggestion and I'll I'll land this with a couple of well, I'll say 3 takeaways.

57:59 First, the heart of this show works Rica. You're a genuine strong storyteller. Your warmth, your joy and the way that you emotionally connect with these stories all come through clearly. It delivers exactly, in my opinion, what's promised, a short uplifting reset. And that's not easy to do consistently, especially when you are relying on other people's stories. Second, the pacing and clarity are your biggest levers for growth. Slowing down just a little bit. Like I think it was Michelle who suggested that, especially in the memorable moments like I had shared there when that that moment when he realized he was hungry, right? We made that.

58:50 We turned that into a memorable moment with adding that suspense. Music. These are the things that'll let the stories breathe and help more listeners fully follow along. Small changes here. Pacing, pauses. How you add music under your voice could significantly improve the comprehension without losing your voice or personality. And 3rd alignment matters. There's a maybe a slight mismatch between how, What's the word delightful the show sounds and how it presents itself visually and structurally. So the cover art to descriptions to how much you reveal upfront, tightening that alignment will help new listeners understand the experience that you're offering before they ever press play.

59:40 So overall, I think that this is a strong creative foundation. Maybe you want to get a little more creative considering some ideas like the sound treatment like Dr. had suggested. You don't need to reinvent the show. I don't think that's what we're saying. You just maybe want to consider refining it in ways that let's what's already working shine even more. Thank you to Rica for being our final 2025 evaluation. We'll do this again in 2026 with more applicants. We have plenty more to get through and if you want your podcast to be evaluated. Just check the link in our show notes, you can apply there. And thanks to the whole team, the whole crew for playing along today and offering your insight, your opinions to Rica. So until tomorrow for our final show of 2025, make it a great day everybody, Take care.