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Sept. 7, 2026

Intuition Over Imitation: Lessons from the Empowered Podcasting Conference

Key Takeaways

  • As a podcast host, you are the goalie of your show, which means it is your job to set boundaries and guide your guests to keep their answers focused on the audience.
  • Great podcast content combines the right information with your unique delivery, attitude, confidence, and life skills to make listeners laugh, cry, think, groan, educate, or entertain.
  • Relying too heavily on AI to rewrite transcripts and generate your content destroys your personal voice and leads to losing your intuition and gut instinct.
  • Your ability to listen to your audience and actually accept constructive feedback is one of the most underrated yet critical skills for growing a successful podcast.
  • Avoid renting your audience entirely from platforms with unpredictable algorithms by prioritizing direct channels like email newsletters where you own the subscriber relationship.

What I Learned (and Relearned) at Empowered Podcasting Conference

I got triggered at a podcasting conference last week, and honestly? I almost jumped out of my chair. Someone in the room said something that stopped me cold, and it's become one of the biggest lessons I'm bringing back to you this week — along with a story about a $230 million quarterback who won't take feedback, why "cheating off the smart kid" with AI is quietly ruining your podcast, and the subscription I found on my own bank statement that I'd been paying for and not even using. This episode is a mashup of my talk at Empowered Podcasting Conference 3 in Charlotte and everything I picked up just from being in the room. Let's get into it.

It's Your Show. Own It.

This is the one that made me want to stand up. Someone in a session said, "Well, I can't ask my guest to keep their answers short." Yes, you can. It's your show. If you're doing interviews, you're the goalie — it's your job to keep anything that doesn't serve your audience out of the episode. And if a guest rambles, that's usually on the host, not the guest. Give your guest a target before you hit record: who you're talking to, and whether you want short, medium, or long answers. A guest who doesn't get a target from the host should ask for one. Own your show. Set the boundaries. Your audience is who you're protecting.

What Actually Makes Content Remarkable

My talk was about what makes a podcast good, and I focused on what makes any content remarkable. I walked through a few movies to prove it:

Saving Private Ryan — that D-Day opening wasn't new information (we all knew WWII was brutal), it was a new way of presenting it. People talked about it because nobody had seen it shown like that.

The Sixth Sense — a tiny budget that beat big blockbusters like The Lone Ranger because of one twist: we don't find out Bruce Willis's character is dead until the end. People walked out of the theater and called a friend to say "you have to see this." That's the goal — content remarkable enough that it spreads on word of mouth alone.

Gone with the Wind — a 1939 movie with an actual intermission, and people still talk about the burning of Atlanta (a real fire on the studio backlot, no CGI) and that last line — "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn" — which had audiences clutching their pearls. Again, something people had not seen before.

Star Wars — I saw it eleven times as a kid, and even when half the theater had already seen it multiple times, everybody still cheered when the Death Star blew up. That's not just about the special effects. That's about how it made people feel.

A podcast episode is content plus delivery — and delivery is you: your attitude, your confidence, your life skills. My rule of thumb for what makes a good episode: laugh, cry, think, groan, educate, or entertain. Save them time or save them money. Try to hit more than one of those in every episode.

The Most Underrated Skill in Podcasting: Listening

Everyone assumes the top skill is a great voice or being funny. It's not. It's your ability to listen — to your audience, and to feedback.

Case in point: The Cleveland Brown's quarterback, the one we paid $230 million despite a stack of off-field allegations. He's not good at his job. When fans booed him, his response was basically "you guys don't like me" — not "I need to get better," not "tell me more." He made it personal instead of taking it as information. I hear the same thing constantly from podcasters. I'll offer to help someone grow their show, ask which episode they want me to listen to, and they'll say "oh, it's not the content." If you're not willing to actually hear feedback, don't be surprised when your show doesn't grow.

The AI Shortcut That's Quietly Killing Your Voice

This is the one I need you to sit with. There's a real strategy going around called the outlier strategy: if you and a competitor share an audience, and one of their episodes way outperforms their normal numbers, you make your own version of that topic. Legitimate strategy.

Here's where it goes sideways — people are grabbing the transcript of that outlier video, feeding it to AI, and saying "rewrite this in my voice." And the whole reason they're doing a podcast in the first place is to be seen as a thought leaderusing someone else's thoughts.

It might work about 80% of the time (I'm making that number up), and that missing 20% is the part that's actually, uniquely you. Mark Maron said it best: "You're not thinking your own thoughts. You're a hack with an excuse for why you're failing."

I'm not anti-AI — I use it to organize my own brain dumps into an outline. But when you let it write the content, you get exactly what everyone else already sounds like.

Led Zeppelin became Kingdom Come became Greta Van Fleet. Cinderella became Girl School. The copy is never as good as the original, and eventually the audience notices.

Which brings me to a phrase I have to credit to YouTuber Aprillynne Alter, because she said it better than I could: protect your intuition. When you let AI do all your thinking, you never actually process the information — and you lose your gut instinct for what your audience needs. That's exactly why I watched every single Dolly Parton video myself for last week's episode instead of asking AI to summarize them. I wanted that information in my head, not just in the output.

Cheating off the smart kid might get you the grade. It won't get you the understanding.

Own Your Audience — Don't Rent It From a Platform

I had a great conversation with email marketing expert Paul Gouder about this. I moved my main marketing list from Kit (formerly ConvertKit) over to Substack, and while my subscriber count is actually growing there, I can see in my stats that it's not driving nearly as much traffic to my website. Paul's question stopped me: "

What do platforms do once they get popular enough? They change the rules."

TikTok, Facebook, YouTube — every one of them eventually limits your reach to your own audience unless you pay up.

Email doesn't have an algorithm. Those are people who raised their hand and said "I want more." I'd rather have a 40% open rate on my newsletter than a meaningless "view" on YouTube.

And I export my list every single month just in case, because platforms can turn on you fast — there was a parenting podcast that got pulled off YouTube with zero warning, appealed to an AI system, got denied by that same AI, and only got reinstated after Podnews' James Cridland made it a public story. You don't want your show's survival to depend on someone shaming a platform into doing the right thing.

Audit Your Subscriptions — You're Probably Bleeding Money

My buddy Ralph Eastep Jr. — "the content creator's accountant" — gave the keynote, and his advice was simple: go look at your podcast's checkbook.

So I did. In five minutes I found I'd been paying $57 a month for an SEO mastermind I hadn't attended in ages, plus $10 a month for an email address I don't even use anymore. Close to $100 a month, gone, just from things I forgot to cancel. This is exactly why you want a separate bank account for your podcast — every charge in there is tied to something you're using for the show, and it makes the leaks obvious. If you need a separate account I use both Sofi and Acorns.

Don't Copy the Gear. Be You.

One more story from my talk. We all think if we buy the same mic or use the same host as someone successful, we'll get their results. It's not the gear. The band Extreme had guitarist Nuno Bettencourt, who idolized Eddie Van Halen his whole career — and finally got to play Eddie's actual rig, in front of Eddie. He was sure he'd finally sound like his hero. Instead, he said it was "so horrible," because he just sounded like himself. Same thing happened in early podcasting — we all bought the same expensive mic because we wanted to sound like a famous podcaster. Lean into being you. You're already very good at it.

Bonus: Sometimes "Remarkable" Means Remarkably Bad

A tiny, ultra-low-budget Chinese film (reportedly made for around $200 by a mother and son on an iPhone) got pulled from theaters and mocked online as one of the worst movies ever. The memes were brutal. And because everyone was talking about it, curiosity took over — it ended up making an estimated $9.3 million. Remarkable works both ways.

Quick Update on Episode 1049

In episode 1049, I told you Spotify and YouTube signed onto a shared industry definition of what counts as a "view" or a "play." Well, weeks later, Spotify rolled out a button that lets listeners skip ads entirely, and YouTube quietly changed what counts as a view again — now just moving your mouse over a thumbnail can register as one.

Mark your calendar: in a month or two, expect YouTube to brag about some absurd new view count and hope everyone forgot they moved the goalposts. These are the partners we're all supposed to shake hands and build agreements with.

Thanks to Empowered Podcasting Conference

Big thanks to Mark Ronick, Rich, and Jason for putting on another great Empowered Podcasting Conference, and to everyone I got to hang out with in Charlotte.

Head to schoolofpodcasting.com and use the coupon code LISTENER for a monthly, quarterly, or yearly subscription — backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee. You'll get access to the courses, the community, and coaching. And if you want to catch every episode, follow the show at schoolofpodcasting.com/follow.

Research Links


Mentioned in this episode:

Question of the Month: Constructive and Deconstructive Feedback

This month we are talking feefdback. What is the most constructive or deconstructive (or both) piece of feedback you've received. If you haven't asked for feedback, why not? I need your answer by September 25th (late entries won't be accepted) go to www.schoolofpodcasting.com/question and be sure to mention your show and your website address so I can link to it in the show notes.

Question of the Month

Where Will I Be?

I love meeting you when I'm out at events. Here are some of my next events: Podcast Movement September 17-18 Podindy November 7th (use the coupon pacer at podindy.com)

Where Will I Be?

Podpage Email Alerts

Podpage just launched a feature called Episode Alerts. It automatically emails your subscribers the moment a new episode goes live — no third-party email tool needed. When you publish, Podpage sends the email, links listeners straight to the episode, routes replies to your own inbox, and handles unsubscribes automatically. They also run every email address through validation and monitor bounces/spam complaints to protect your sender reputation. It's not meant to replace a full newsletter platform — no drip campaigns or segmentation — just a simple "hey, new episode's up" notification. It's available for Pro and Elite users, with monthly sending caps of 500 emails on Pro and 5,000 on Elite. For more information see https://www.podpage.com/updates/introducing-episode-alerts/

Podpage

Get Some Feedback On Your Show

“Want honest, helpful feedback on your podcast? At the School of Podcasting, we host ‘Listening Parties’ where members share short clips and get constructive, encouraging critiques from fellow podcasters and myself. It’s a safe, supportive way to hear what’s working, fix what’s not, and make your show stronger fast.”

School of Podcasting

Free Podcast Tips

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Empowered Podcasting Conference?

The Empowered Podcasting Conference is an annual gathering where podcasters connect, share strategies, and learn about growing and improving their shows.

How can I handle rambling guests on my podcast?

You can manage long-winded guests by giving them a clear target before recording, specifying who the audience is, and letting them know whether you need short, medium, or long answers.

Why is the outlier strategy dangerous for podcast content creation?

While the outlier strategy involves covering popular topics from competitor shows, using AI to simply rewrite their transcripts makes you sound like a clone and strips away the unique perspective that makes your content yours.

What is the most important skill for a podcaster?

The most important skill in podcasting isn't having a great voice or being funny; it is your ability to listen to your audience and actually apply constructive feedback.

00:00 - Untitled

02:46 - It's Your Show

04:46 - What Makes Good Content

13:12 - The Most Important Skill a Podcaster Needs

14:15 - Accepting Feedback

17:25 - Outlyer Strategy

23:14 - You Intuition is at Risk

30:10 - Email Vs Platforms

33:22 - YouTube Booted Someone Off

35:13 - Check Your Bank Account

37:13 - Its not the Gear

41:40 - Update from Episode 1049

43:23 - Join the School of Podcasting

Unknown:

The School of Podcasting with Dave Jackson.

David Jackson:

Podcasting Sense 2005. I'm your award-winning

David Jackson:

Hall of Fame podcast coach, Dave Jackson. Thanking you so much

David Jackson:

for tuning in. If you're new to the show, this is why I help you

David Jackson:

launch, grow, and monetize your podcast. The website School of

David Jackson:

podcasting.com, courtesy of podpage.com. Hey, look! Your

David Jackson:

podcast deserves a better home for your website. Check out

David Jackson:

podpage.com. And today, what I'm doing is I'm combining parts of

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my talk that I did at Empowered Podcasting Conference Three in

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Charlotte, North Carolina, along with some things that I actually

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learned at the event, and the first thing I should say is Mark

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Ronick and Rich and Jason, the three guys that help run it, did

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a great job as always. It's not easy, you know, especially when

David Jackson:

you get about a bunch of podcasters together. Keeping us

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on time is almost impossible because we like to talk. I'll be

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talking about that later in another episode about how to get

David Jackson:

speaking gigs and things of that nature. But all in all, my my

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favorite thing is like I don't know maybe three blocks from the

David Jackson:

hotel in this beautiful part of town. You go into the mall, and

David Jackson:

I think there was like a Gucci bag store, and then you walk a

David Jackson:

little further, and there's a Rolex store. And I'm thinking,

David Jackson:

you know, I don't think we're gonna find a Hot Topic or

David Jackson:

Spencer's Gifts store in this mall. But it was a great time

David Jackson:

and some some great eating and some great friends. I got to

David Jackson:

hang out with Ralph, the podcast creator's accountant. He's got a

David Jackson:

new show coming out about becoming financially confident.

David Jackson:

Actually, that's out now. He does it every day, daily shows.

David Jackson:

Ralph is a glutton for punishment, but he's got a new

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co-host, Juliet. Got to hang out with Mark and Krista from

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Practical Prepping and a whole bunch of other people. I

David Jackson:

shouldn't really name names. Those are people from the School

David Jackson:

of Podcasting, but it was a great time. Brad Miller, who is

David Jackson:

the man behind podindy.com, use the coupon code SOP for PodIndy.

David Jackson:

That's the next one coming up in November, along with Podcast

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Movement. I will be there in a couple weeks in New York City,

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so that's going to be fun, but the the thing I learned as and

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this one was something I learned from the conference, and it it

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made me almost jump out of my chair. I was like, wait, wait,

David Jackson:

hold hold on a second here. You got that wrong, and somebody

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said, well, the first thing is, it's your show. I cannot stress

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this enough. It's your show. It's your brand, and I've talked

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about this in the past, where you're the goalie. Again, if

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you're doing guests on your show and you're doing interviews, and

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somebody tries to put a kaka a poo poo towards your audience,

David Jackson:

it's your job to edit it out, and somebody was talking about

David Jackson:

when guests get a little long-winded, and they said,

David Jackson:

"Well, I can't ask my guests to keep their answers short, and I

David Jackson:

I just wanted to stand up and go, "Yeah, you can. It's your

David Jackson:

show, and really, it's one of those things where that, for me,

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in my opinion, it shows you didn't prep the guest to go

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look. Here's the deal. Here's who you are talking to. The

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interview should be somewhere between this many minutes and

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this many minutes. So if you have short, medium, and long

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answers, we're looking for medium here, like. Give your

David Jackson:

guest a target so they know how to answer. And a lot of times,

David Jackson:

if when I get interviewed, I will ask those. So if you're a

David Jackson:

guest and somebody didn't give you a clear target, look, your

David Jackson:

goal as a guest is to deliver value. And if you don't know

David Jackson:

where to shoot the target, ask. And if you are the host, give

David Jackson:

your guest a target to hit, because the whole goal is your

David Jackson:

audience. So when somebody says, "Well, I can't ask my guest,

David Jackson:

yeah, you can. Why? Because it's your show, and the more they

David Jackson:

just go on and on and on, the more time you're going to spend

David Jackson:

editing it. So it's your show. Own

Unknown:

it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

David Jackson:

So my talk was about what makes a good podcast,

David Jackson:

and I said, you know, let's take a second and take it away from

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podcasting. Let's look at what makes good content, what makes

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entertaining content, and and more importantly, what makes

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people remarkable. And we'll talk about both sides of

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remarkable. And I said, "Look, let's talk about the movie

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Saving Private Ryan. And a lot of people there had seen it. And

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I said, "What's the one thing that you know people were

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talking about about that movie? And it's the opening sequence

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where the the U.S. troops are you know invading D-Day, that

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whole nine yards, and it was absolutely gruesome in terms of

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being realistic. I remember there was one where kind of the

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the door drops down and and the young soldiers are supposed to

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run out, and you just watch four guys take a bullet to the head,

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and you're like, "Well, this isn't a comedy, and I remember

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them saying that if you were a a veteran, like you probably

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shouldn't go, or at least wait 30 minutes before you walk in.

David Jackson:

But nonetheless, it was information that we all knew,

David Jackson:

but we'd never seen it presented that way. So remember, great

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content an episode is made up of content and delivery, so that

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was the same old content. We all knew a bunch of guys stormed the

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beaches and died, and a bunch of you know that whole nine yards.

David Jackson:

But this was the presentation of it. What did it do? It had

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people making remarks about it. The Sixth Sense is a movie that

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if you've ever seen it once, you've seen it twice, and when

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you walked out of the movie, you called a friend and said you

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have to come watch this. Now I'm going to spoil this movie if

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you've never seen it. It is kind of an inverse Invisible Man, the

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Invisible Man movies. Back in the day, we knew who the

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Invisible Man was, and often the people in the movie did not, but

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we did. We knew where he was hiding in some cases. This was

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the inverse. We don't realize that Bruce Willis's character is

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dead for the movie, and when this little kid says, "I see

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dead people, we're like, sure, but he's talking to Bruce

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Willis. Bruce Willis doesn't know he's dead, and it was such

David Jackson:

a unique kind of concept. You kind of felt like you got

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punked. You're like, wait, what? Oh, and then you're like, wait,

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how did I miss this? I have to go watch it again. So you would

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call a friend and say, "Hey, come watch this movie with me.

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The other beautiful thing about that movie, very low budget at

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the time, against these other big blockbusters like The Lone

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Ranger, which is a movie that had Johnny Depp in it, and that

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movie was just bad. And I mean bad. I saw that movie. I walked

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out of the theater telling people don't go see it; it's

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bad. So that's the other side of remarkable. Was I talking about

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it? Oh yeah, I was telling my friends don't waste your money

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on that. Another one is Gone with the Wind. Now this is an

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old movie, 1939, and what's really kind of upsetting about

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this is if you watch it on Netflix, they have this whole

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disclaimer how it's racist and blah blah blah, and yet the

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woman that the one black actress won an Oscar for her role in it,

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and I believe her character's name was Mammy or whatever. So

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we won't go there. But that movie I was dragged to as a

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little kid, it was my mom's favorite movie, and she said,

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"There's a now. I ask people, and again, even though it's a

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very old movie, it's a very, very long. Like there was

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actually an intermission, so let's all go to the lobby. Let's

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all go. Yeah, that that was definitely in play for that. But

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my mom said, "You have to see the burning of Atlanta. Now

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again, this is 1939, so there was no CGI, and I kind of looked

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into this, and whatever the movie studio was, MGM or Warner

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Brothers or whoever, it's on their back lot, and they have a

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bunch of old sets sitting there from other movies, and they

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needed the space, so they just moved.

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Moved all these old, you know, backlot movie stuff into one big

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pile and lit it on fire, and then put a you know they filmed

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the scene there, and that at the time got people talking. Nobody

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had ever seen that kind of film, you know, back in whenever my

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mom probably saw it in 1950, and the other thing, of course, the

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line that everybody remembered when I asked the class, when I

David Jackson:

asked the people there, and thank you to everyone who

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attended my session. They said, "Oh yeah, and frankly, my dear,

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I don't give a damn. It's the last line of the movie, and my

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mom said when she saw it, people, you know, clutch their

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pearls, and oh my, he said, "Damn! Oh, so that was something

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again that made people go, "What he said, damn! In a movie, so

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they went and saw the movie. Plus, they wanted to see the

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burning of Atlanta. One more here, that but that was

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remarkable, and it is a really good movie. It's it's just good,

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and the last one was Star Wars. Now I saw this movie back in the

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70s, whenever it came out, and I I believe I saw it 11 times

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because when you're I don't know 12 or 13 every weekend we went

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sometimes Friday and Saturday whatever we're you know just

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ODing on Coca Cola and popcorn, but at the time again, you had

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things that you had never seen before, which was the

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lightsabers, right? The whole thing going on, and the special

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effects at the time were above your typical cheesy kind of

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special effects were out, and when the Death Star blew up, I

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remember this, and again, I saw this movie a lot. Everybody

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cheered. Number one, the theater, the theater was filled

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with people, and when that thing blew up, everybody cheered, even

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though half the audience had already seen it four times, we

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all cheered. And when you walked out of the theater, it was the

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way you felt. You're like, "Yay, the good guys won! And so that's

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a thing that makes great content. How do you want your

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audience to feel? And so when we think about those right

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information, we've never information we may have known,

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but it was presented in a completely different way, a

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totally different spin on a movie like The Sixth Sense that

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had people again going, I got to tell somebody about this. Gone

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with the Wind, you know, great story presented in a way nobody

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had ever seen before, with the burning of Atlanta, and kind of

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a little bit of shocking with that last line. Star Wars, yes,

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great special effects for the time, but also the way it made

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people feel, and so all those things are tied into podcasting

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as content plus the delivery, also your your attitude, your

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confidence, and your life skills. We're going to talk

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about that as we get into the next point. Is this is all about

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you, and so that was part of my talk. And then I went into your

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typical Davisms. Right? If you haven't heard this before, this

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is what makes good content: laugh, cry, think, groan,

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educate, or entertain. Save them time or save them money. These

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are things that I quote all the time. What makes a good podcast?

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Try to do more than one of these in an episode. Laugh, cry,

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think, groan, educate, or entertain. Save them time. Save

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them money. And if you can do information that you can't get

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anyplace else, that's a an added bonus. So that's the second

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thing that happened at Empowered Podcasting Conference. Was in my

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talk, I got into and it was covering really the same topic I

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cover a lot, but in a completely different way, and that is what

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makes a podcast remarkable.

Unknown:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. The

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most important skill in being a great

David Jackson:

podcaster. Some people think you have to have great pipes, right?

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You have to have a great voice. You have to be funny, whatever

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it is. And Mark Maron said this. And the further I go into

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podcasting and just looking at entertainment, it's none of

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that. It's your ability to listen. And here's the thing: if

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you look at your childhood, if you look at your successes, your

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failures, your relationships, your location, your courage,

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your confidence, whatever it is-all those things-we could go

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on a whole lot longer than that. There are so many things that

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make you you, and those guys. Kind of get rolled up into, and

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again, we could make this a much longer list, but it's your

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attitude, it's your confidence, and then again, your listening

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skills. I'm going to give you a quick example. I live in Akron,

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Ohio. We're about an hour south of Cleveland. We have a football

David Jackson:

team where we paid a guy with 17 sexual. What's the word here?

David Jackson:

People accused him of doing naughty things at massage

David Jackson:

parlors, and we hired him anyway. And when we hired him,

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we gave him $230 million. The only problem is this guy didn't

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want to come here. That's why we had to give him $230 million,

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and he's awful. He's not a good at his job, which is throwing

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the ball. He's really good at throwing the ball towards

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someone and having it land about three feet in front of their

David Jackson:

actual, you know, person. And when he came out, because he's

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in general, you know, he's got a bit of a reputation. He got

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booed a lot. That is feedback right there, and his result was,

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"Well, you guys don't like me. Basically, in a nutshell, I'm

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paraphrasing. And so, did he say I'm going to get better? Did he

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say thank you for the feedback? Can you give me more detail on

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that? No, he simply said, "It's not my fault. It's not the

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performance. These people don't like me. And so this is where.

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And do I think he's going to change? No. His attitude just

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proved it. It's not the performance. He just said, "It's

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not the performance. And I hear this so often, where someone

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will hire me and go, Dave. Can you help me grow my show? And I

David Jackson:

will say, sure, great. Which episode do you want me to listen

David Jackson:

to? And they say, Oh no, no, it's not the content. Really?

David Jackson:

They're again not willing to listen to any feedback. So your

David Jackson:

attitude, your confidence, and your listening skills all make

David Jackson:

you, and then it's a matter of you listening to your audience

David Jackson:

give you feedback, and then implementing that when it's

David Jackson:

appropriate. Because there are those people that want you to do

David Jackson:

a completely different show that's not in your just business

David Jackson:

plan or whatever you want to call it, because it's you want

David Jackson:

to inspire, educate, entertain, whatever you want to call it,

David Jackson:

your audience in a way to where they cannot help but tell their

David Jackson:

audience. So we're trying to inspire our audience to grow,

David Jackson:

but also to tell them, their audience, about how great you

David Jackson:

are. That's the goal. And to make really good content, you

David Jackson:

got to be willing to listen. And I'm going to be honest with you:

David Jackson:

the last month or so, I've been working with different people,

David Jackson:

and I always kind of joked and go, "It's my art, man, right?

David Jackson:

And I understand that that could be the possibility. I'm not sure

David Jackson:

most podcasters are willing to go, "Oh, thank you for the

David Jackson:

feedback. I'm going to change that, and then they're going to

David Jackson:

wonder why their show isn't growing.

Unknown:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So this

David Jackson:

one. this one I kind of scraped up against

David Jackson:

because people are always asking how to grow my show, and I've

David Jackson:

been teaching weekly classes on growing your show. And here's

David Jackson:

the the scary part: this is kind of a YouTube thing, but people

David Jackson:

are also using the idea in audio, and it's called the

David Jackson:

outlier strategy. Let me explain it briefly to you. So, if you

David Jackson:

look at a YouTuber, and you and another YouTuber share the same

David Jackson:

audience, you're talking more or less about the same things. So,

David Jackson:

you look at your competition, and you see that wow, out of the

David Jackson:

last six six episodes, they all got 10,000. Except that one got

David Jackson:

70,000 views, and you're like, whoa, that did whole lot more.

David Jackson:

That's called an outlier. And the strategy is this: okay,

David Jackson:

since you both share an audience and it resonated with that

David Jackson:

audience. You should do a show on that topic, but from your

David Jackson:

perspective. And what again is kind of scary is there are

David Jackson:

people on YouTube having success with this, and so what happened

David Jackson:

is in some cases we're all looking for what's the least

David Jackson:

amount of work I can do to do this, and we tend to think that

David Jackson:

AI is kind of like Glinda the Good Witch's magic wand. She can

David Jackson:

just wave it, and views and downloads will fall from the

David Jackson:

sky. So instead of watching the video. And then going, ooh, I

David Jackson:

could spin this this way. They actually go to YouTube, where

David Jackson:

it's very easy to grab the transcript of a video. Then they

David Jackson:

go to their favorite AI tool of choice. They paste the

David Jackson:

transcript and say, rewrite this in my voice, and so it comes out

David Jackson:

kind of sounding like you. But here's my favorite part that I

David Jackson:

just smack my head and go, "Wait, what? And that is the

David Jackson:

reason they're doing a podcast is they want to be seen as a

David Jackson:

thought leader, using someone else's thoughts, I want to be a

David Jackson:

thought leader, and there are a couple things that we have seen

David Jackson:

with this, and that is just because it worked for them

David Jackson:

doesn't mean it will work for you. Well, why doesn't it?

David Jackson:

Because we share the same type of audience, and it's that type.

David Jackson:

It's that it's that it works 80% of the time, and I'm just

David Jackson:

pulling that stat out of my butt. But realize sometimes it's

David Jackson:

that extra 20% That extra 20% of you being you is what makes it

David Jackson:

work for you, and consequently, it worked for them. But you

David Jackson:

don't have that extra icing on the top that makes them them, so

David Jackson:

it doesn't work for you. And then you wonder why. Here's Mark

David Jackson:

Maron.

Unknown:

You're not thinking your own thoughts. You're a hack

Unknown:

with an excuse for why you're failing. Anyway, how's

Unknown:

everybody?

David Jackson:

And I, I totally understand why. Look, I get it.

David Jackson:

There's only so many hours in a day, and if we can take

David Jackson:

something that looks like a sure thing and do it, and save time

David Jackson:

and get the same results. Why wouldn't you do that? But here's

the thing:

if you go to YouTube, and if I don't, this probably

the thing:

happens no matter what your genre is. But like for me, I'm

the thing:

looking at you know YouTube about podcasting, about you know

the thing:

videos and cameras and all that kind of stuff, and after a

the thing:

while, you notice that we're all clones. And yes, there's always

the thing:

going to be overlap, but it seems like there's more overlap

the thing:

because somebody out there will do something original, and it'll

the thing:

stand out, and then everybody does the same standout to where

the thing:

it's not standing out anymore. My my young niece, who is now

the thing:

not young, she I remember when she was in high school, she

the thing:

decided she was going to be goth because she didn't want to be

the thing:

like everyone else. And then I thought it was hilarious because

the thing:

all of her friends were goth and she didn't stand out at all in

the thing:

the 80s. Back in the day-oh, I mean, in the '70s, there was Led

the thing:

Zeppelin, and then in the '80s, there was a band that sounded

the thing:

just like Led Zeppelin called Kingdom Come, and in the 2000s,

the thing:

probably there was a band called Greta Van Fleet, who also

the thing:

sounded like Led Zeppelin, and it's like a piece of scotch

the thing:

tape. You can only stick that thing on so many times till

the thing:

people go, yeah, this doesn't work anymore. There was a band

the thing:

in the '80s called Cinderella. They had a complete ripoff band

the thing:

called Girl School, and the derivative of something else is

the thing:

usually not as good. But this a and this makes me sound like I'm

the thing:

I'm anti AI. I'm absolutely not. There are things that I do, like

the thing:

I did a brain dump of the episode you're listening right

the thing:

now, and I said, "Can you pull out the main points and then

the thing:

arrange them in a way that might make a little more sense?

the thing:

Because I was all over the place, and so I am using a

the thing:

bullet points that I came up with, but arranged by my good

the thing:

friend Claude, which brings me speaking of AI to our next

the thing:

topic.

Unknown:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

David Jackson:

I love when have you ever had something you

David Jackson:

wanted to say and you couldn't figure out how to say it, and

David Jackson:

then somebody said it better than you could say it, and so I

David Jackson:

got to give credit to April and Alter. She is a huge YouTuber,

David Jackson:

and when she said this, I was like, "That's exactly what I'm

David Jackson:

trying to say. So kudos to her. But my next point here is,

David Jackson:

again, we have this AI shortcut, and really, what you're doing

David Jackson:

when you're using somebody else's transcript, it's like

David Jackson:

cheating off the smart kid, and I did that to be honest with you

David Jackson:

in college when I got my electronics degree. If I if it

David Jackson:

wasn't for Gary being my lab partner, I never would have had

David Jackson:

my degree, and so I would kind of just do what Gary did, not

David Jackson:

really on. Understanding why Gary did it, and so

David Jackson:

consequently, when I got my degree, if somebody had said,

David Jackson:

"Yeah, make a circuit like this, I would have been like, "What?

David Jackson:

Because I really didn't get it, and so when we're all grabbing,

David Jackson:

when we're trying to be a thought leader by grabbing

David Jackson:

somebody else's thoughts, you you are losing something. Then

David Jackson:

this is where April Lynn said this: your intuition. So why

David Jackson:

aren't people doing as much creative things that really rely

David Jackson:

on you being you? Is because when we rely too much on AI, to

David Jackson:

where we don't really understand what we're saying and why we're

David Jackson:

saying it and how it makes people feel. Your

David Jackson:

intuition-you're just being a parrot of somebody, and

David Jackson:

intuition was the word I was looking for. And how are you

David Jackson:

going to then, if you don't really understand this stuff,

David Jackson:

you're just mouthing the words, how are you going to be able to

David Jackson:

pick what resonates with your audience? You're just going to

David Jackson:

go by views and downloads and things like that. That's for me.

David Jackson:

I want to know my audience. That's why last week I did that

David Jackson:

episode about Dolly Parton. I could have gone to each video

David Jackson:

and just asked it to summarize it. Nope, I watched every video,

David Jackson:

granted it like two and 2.5 speed, but I wanted that

David Jackson:

information to be in my brain so that I have that information. So

David Jackson:

be very careful and protect your intuition. the The whole again,

David Jackson:

just cheating off the smart kid in the long run is not going to

David Jackson:

work, and she's the one that pointed out that this this whole

David Jackson:

strategy, the outlier strategy, she goes it it kind of works,

David Jackson:

and that's why a lot of people are teaching it, a lot of people

David Jackson:

are using it. To me, it's just turning into a giant podcast

David Jackson:

circle jerk because I have seen people use AI so much, and

David Jackson:

here's the thing you have to remember: you never hear AI say

David Jackson:

something in a somewhat confident manner. I've never

David Jackson:

seen it go. Well, Dave, you might want to try this. I'm not

David Jackson:

sure if it's going to work, but you could do blah blah blah. No,

David Jackson:

it always goes. Here's the next step you should do. Do this. Do

David Jackson:

that. Do that. It never. It always says it very confidently,

David Jackson:

and you're like, okay, so you do it. But realize I've seen AI

David Jackson:

completely scrub you out of your podcast to where it just sounds

David Jackson:

like everybody else, and that's the part that I think again is

David Jackson:

what separates us. Not that every podcast should be story

David Jackson:

time with Dave, but it is what separates you from everybody

David Jackson:

else's show. Nobody has your stories. Nobody has your

David Jackson:

insights. Again, all those things I mentioned, your your

David Jackson:

background, your your youth growing up, your parents,

David Jackson:

everything that makes your attitude, your courage, and your

David Jackson:

listening skills are the things. And if you scrub all of that

David Jackson:

out, well, then it's just typically surface level level

David Jackson:

information that you could probably just ask AI for. In

David Jackson:

which case, why do I need you? So be careful with that.

Unknown:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

David Jackson:

Some of my biggest takeaways are still on

David Jackson:

their way in just a few minutes. If you're liking this

David Jackson:

information, go over to schoolofpodcasting.com/follow.

David Jackson:

Follow the show and never miss an episode. And I'll get to

David Jackson:

those insights right after this.

Unknown:

One

David Jackson:

of the biggest, like all kind of moments. I was

David Jackson:

talking with Paul Gouder. He's been on this show. I'll put

David Jackson:

links in the show notes. He is an email guru. It was great to

David Jackson:

see Paul. Super nice guy. And if you want to learn email

David Jackson:

marketing, you can't really do much better than Paul Gouder.

David Jackson:

Really good guy. And I was telling him how when Pod Page

David Jackson:

merged with the School of Podcasting, we kind of had too

David Jackson:

many email lists, and so I had one that I really did for

David Jackson:

marketing in ConvertKit, which I know is Kit, but you know, old

David Jackson:

dog, new tricks. I was using Kit, and I was using Substack.

David Jackson:

Substack for me is kind of where ex reporters go to pontificate

David Jackson:

about my thoughts on the current situation, kind of not really a

David Jackson:

marketing tool, and we decided to use Substack, and it's it's

David Jackson:

working okay, right? But it's I can see in my stats where I'm

David Jackson:

not driving as much traffic to my website as I used to when I

David Jackson:

was using Kit. And so I was talking to Paul. I said it is

David Jackson:

weird because my list is growing at Substack. Probably, you know,

David Jackson:

a handful of people a week, even if I'm doing nothing, are

David Jackson:

finding my newsletter@podcastingobservations.com.

David Jackson:

And I was like, it's you know, and they're adding all these new

David Jackson:

features. You can now comment, and there's this, and you can do

David Jackson:

video. It slices, it dices, it even juliennes. And Paul said,

David Jackson:

"Yeah, it's almost like it's becoming a platform. And I go,

David Jackson:

"Yep. And he goes, "And what do platforms do? And I go, "Where

David Jackson:

are you going with this, Paul? You know. And he goes, "Well,

David Jackson:

don't most platforms change the rules once they get to a certain

David Jackson:

level of popularity, and I went, yeah, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube,

David Jackson:

all of these places. At times, you don't have direct connection

David Jackson:

to your audience, right? Facebook, even if you pay them,

David Jackson:

it's not going to go to all of your friends. TikTok has an

David Jackson:

algorithm. YouTube has an algorithm. You know it doesn't

David Jackson:

have an algorithm. Email lists. Those are people who have said,

David Jackson:

"I like your stuff. I would like more, please, more, please. Can

David Jackson:

I get more? There's no algorithm in an email list, and I went,

David Jackson:

"Dang, that's a really good point. So as much as we go, oh

David Jackson:

look at me, I've got eight quadrillion views on YouTube

David Jackson:

because now it's a millisecond as a view. Okay, hope your ego

David Jackson:

enjoys that. A much better stat is I have a 40% open rate on my

David Jackson:

newsletter. That was one. Thank you, Paul Gouder. That really

David Jackson:

made me. If you can make me think, I am your friend for

David Jackson:

life, and so I will continue to ride the wave that is Substack.

David Jackson:

But I always export my list every month just in case,

David Jackson:

because you know, big four, big platforms tend to do wonky

David Jackson:

things like just oh sorry we're not doing that anymore. There

David Jackson:

was a parenting podcast on YouTube that got pulled off of

David Jackson:

YouTube with no kind of like warning shot. They're just like

David Jackson:

nope, you're gone. No explanation as to why. And when

David Jackson:

he went over and said hey can I get a reprieve on this. The the

David Jackson:

again the the same automation that turned off his show, the

David Jackson:

same automation denied his request for hey can we get a

David Jackson:

reprieve on that, and for him and this see this doesn't work.

David Jackson:

He went to James Gridlin at Podnews.net, an absolutely

David Jackson:

amazing resource about podcasting, and James made it a

David Jackson:

story because it's a big deal. But here's the thing: YouTube,

David Jackson:

Spotify, all these big platforms are removing people for no

David Jackson:

reason because they're using again our good friend AI, and

David Jackson:

when you go to Appeal the decision. Yeah, you're in front

David Jackson:

of another AI judge that puts it down. And after James is able to

David Jackson:

kind of publicly shame YouTube, they put that show back. But

David Jackson:

James can't spend every day saying shame on you, YouTube.

David Jackson:

You shut another person down.

David Jackson:

So that's one when we talk about email versus platform. I think

David Jackson:

I'm going, you know, email, and like I said, right now I am. I

David Jackson:

understand that Substack could be, again, could be a platform

David Jackson:

that doesn't do nice things, but I'm going to ride that for a

David Jackson:

little bit, and I've already got some systems in place to replace

David Jackson:

some of my automation that I got from my email list in another

David Jackson:

system that I'll be talking about in the future.

Unknown:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

David Jackson:

And this last one was a big surprise to me. But

David Jackson:

here's the thing: if you want to build your authority, tell some.

David Jackson:

to do something, and when they do it, and it works, they will

David Jackson:

believe everything you say. So in this case, I'm talking about

David Jackson:

my buddy Ralph Eastep Jr. He was the grand poobah sponsor. I

David Jackson:

don't think that was the official title, but he was the

David Jackson:

big sponsor. He's the content creator's accountant. He's got

David Jackson:

his new show now daily, the becomingfinanciallyconfident.com,

David Jackson:

and Ralph did a keynote, and he said, when you go home, look at

David Jackson:

your checkbook for your podcast. Now I do. There are two banks

David Jackson:

that I really love. One is SoFi because you can earn interest on

David Jackson:

your money in there, and I also use Acorns for my business.

David Jackson:

Again, Acorns is really cool because when I buy something for

David Jackson:

$1.75, they round it up to two bucks and put that into an

David Jackson:

investment account. Really cool. Links to both those in the show

David Jackson:

notes because they do have an affiliate program. And again,

David Jackson:

I'm not recommending them because of the affiliate.

David Jackson:

Program. I'm recommending them because I use them. So I go in

David Jackson:

and I look at my business checking account, and the first

David Jackson:

thing that really pops off is I've been paying $57 a month for

David Jackson:

an SEO mastermind that I haven't been attending, and I could go

David Jackson:

into the rest because one was $10 for an email address that I

David Jackson:

don't use anymore. Long story short, close to $100 a month,

David Jackson:

and that's just looking at it for five minutes. And this is

David Jackson:

really why you want to have your own bank account for your

David Jackson:

podcast because everything in there is a payment for something

David Jackson:

you use your podcast for. But that was one that Ralph said,

David Jackson:

"Go home and try this. I did it and was like, holy cow! And so

David Jackson:

now, when Ralph tells me to do something, I'm gonna be like, I

David Jackson:

I gotta go check that out. But that was a quick one. But that

David Jackson:

was one that was very powerful.

Unknown:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

David Jackson:

And one more quick story. This was in my

David Jackson:

presentation. We all think if I get the equipment from this

David Jackson:

person and host where they host, and you know, just reproduce

David Jackson:

everything they do. That we will be just as successful as they

David Jackson:

are. And I've always said it's not the gear. And so there are

David Jackson:

two things. There's the band Extreme. You might remember them

David Jackson:

from I believe it was the '90s when they hit with More Than

David Jackson:

Words, a very mellow song. They sounded like the Everly Brothers

David Jackson:

from the '50s, and yet they're really a hard rock funk band,

David Jackson:

and so they got famous for doing the wrong type of song, which is

David Jackson:

a lot like if you do that outlier strategy they were

David Jackson:

talking about, and you end up talking about something that

David Jackson:

you're really not that passionate about. If that hits,

David Jackson:

you're going to be stuck talking about stuff that you don't

David Jackson:

really like, but Nuno is their guitarist, Nuno Bettencourt, and

David Jackson:

he got to actually play Eddie Van Halen's rig. And as a guitar

David Jackson:

player, we all wanted to sound like Eddie. And well, here's

David Jackson:

Nuno telling that story.

Unknown:

Actually, got to play Eddie's rig in front of Eddie

Unknown:

like I did, and he's asking me to play his rig. I'm gonna

Unknown:

finally, after decades of a being VH1 and VH2 to my sound on

Unknown:

porn graffiti, I'm finally gonna sound like Edward. And I was so

Unknown:

disappointed. I sounded just like me. It was so horrible. It

Unknown:

was like a horrible nightmare.

David Jackson:

And in the early days of podcasting, we all

David Jackson:

bought high LPR40 microphones because we wanted to be Leo

David Jackson:

Laporte, and it's not the gear. So don't try to be somebody

David Jackson:

else. Lean into being you. You're very good at being you.

David Jackson:

So be you. Find out what your audience wants. Give it to them

David Jackson:

in a fun and educational way, an inspirational way. Whatever

David Jackson:

you're trying to do to your audience, have a website and do

David Jackson:

something that's remarkable, and that's the last little lesson

David Jackson:

that I just discovered today. I started this episode on

David Jackson:

Thursday. It's now Saturday night, and I want to share this

David Jackson:

story because it's the other side of being remarkable.

Unknown:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

David Jackson:

Because we're trying to get people to talk

David Jackson:

about our stuff, and there was a movie in the box office growth

David Jackson:

in China. It was called, I believe, it's pronounced New

David Jackson:

Lie. And the first week when this movie opened, it was made

David Jackson:

on a very small budget. Different reports say it might

David Jackson:

be as small as $200. It was done by a mother and her son using an

David Jackson:

iPhone, and it came out and it actually lost money. And they

David Jackson:

started pulling it from all the movie different theaters and the

David Jackson:

talk about it online. There were so many memes about this, and

David Jackson:

people just called it the worst movie ever. So they were talking

David Jackson:

about it, and I believe they're going to have the last laugh

David Jackson:

because it was so bad. How bad was it that people started going

David Jackson:

to see it? And reports are now saying that it made around $9.3

David Jackson:

million. So be be remarkable in one way or another.

Unknown:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

David Jackson:

Quick update on episode 1049. I was talking

David Jackson:

about YouTube changing their monetization criteria, and I

David Jackson:

made a children's story about all the different ways I hate

David Jackson:

Spotify for creators as a media host. I love them as a music

David Jackson:

service, but I hate them as a media host. And since then,

David Jackson:

those two big companies that were in the Amp Accords, which

David Jackson:

was where these all these big companies got together to come

David Jackson:

up with a definite definition of what a podcast is, and in weeks

David Jackson:

of that coming out, Spotify came out with a button to skip

David Jackson:

advertising. Which, if you're an advertiser, that hurts a little.

David Jackson:

That's got a little bit of a sting. And after going through

David Jackson:

all the hassle of having everyone agree that a play or a

David Jackson:

view, whatever you want to call it, would be 30 seconds, and

David Jackson:

YouTube. Has come out and said, "Nope, a view is now zero. Yep,

David Jackson:

if you mouse over a thumbnail on YouTube, that counts as a view,

David Jackson:

and they've mu. They've moved to what a what the previous view

David Jackson:

number is now has a new name. But I'm just pointing this out

David Jackson:

because mark your calendars, give them a month or two.

David Jackson:

Somewhere YouTube is going to come out and talk about how they

David Jackson:

did however many trillion, whatever bazillion quadrillion

David Jackson:

views in a day, and they're going to assume we all forgot

David Jackson:

that they changed the definition of views because they did that

David Jackson:

with Shorts. So I'm just again saying, are we really? These are

David Jackson:

the people we want to partner with. That we come up and we all

David Jackson:

shake hands and we agree on something, and then weeks later

David Jackson:

they just kind of shoot us in the back. I'm just saying.

Unknown:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

David Jackson:

schoolofpodcasting.com is the website listener. That

David Jackson:

word L I S T E N E R is the coupon you can use when you sign

David Jackson:

up for either a monthly, quarterly, or yearly

David Jackson:

subscription, and do not forget that that comes with a 30-day

David Jackson:

money-back guarantee. Get access to our courses, our community,

David Jackson:

and our coaching. It's all there. schoolofpodcasting.com.

David Jackson:

Thanks so much for listening. I'm Dave Jackson. I help

David Jackson:

podcasters. It's what I do. Been doing it for over 20 years, and

David Jackson:

I can't wait to see what we're gonna do together. So until next

David Jackson:

week, take care. God bless. Class is dismissed.

Unknown:

If you like the show, please share it with a friend.

Unknown:

If you like the show, pretty pretty, please share it with a

Unknown:

friend right now.

Unknown:

Yeah.

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