495. The 3 Things Every Growing Podcast Needs

0:05 Good morning podcasters. Today is Tuesday, April 14th, 2026, and today we're tackling clarity, consistency, and compelling content. What they really mean, which one matters most, and how to spot what's quietly holding your show back from actual growth. So if you're listening live on Clubhouse, hit the share button top right hand side of the screen and share it. However, Clubhouse lets you. And if you're catching us via podcast, YouTube, LinkedIn, etcetera, please share this episode with a fellow podcaster. And now give us about 30 seconds and we'll get things rolling. Thanks for being here. The Podcasting Morning Chat is powered by Ironic Media, helping podcasters launch, Polish and grow great shows, and by Content Creators Accountant, helping creators build real business behind their content.

1:20 Good morning again podcasting morning Chat. Thank you so much for being here. I am your host Mark Ronick and currently on stage with me we have Ralphie Steps, Sid Meadows, DRFA, Nick Naal back, Matthew Bliss, BC Babbles, and also Tide AKA Nikki from the audience has joined us as well and that's a good place to start. If you're listening live on Clubhouse, by all means, anyone is welcome to join us at any time and ask a question add to the conversation, even if it has nothing to do with the conversation, but you have a question that you'd like some advice or your opinions on. This is the right place to do it. And you can learn more about all these Co hosts of mine at Podcasting Morning chat.com/people. But I also want to remind you that if you are looking for some free podcast gear, you may want to pay attention because you could win Ralph E Steps Roadcaster Duo, plus a free monetization strategy session designed to help you make smarter moves with your show.

2:27 And the duo, I believe is a great piece of gear because it helps you sound polished, works really well with multiple audio sources, and gives you hands on control over your live production all in And you don't have to use it for live production, but it definitely is a nice piece of gear for live production. Ralph, would you give us 30 seconds and let us know what this strategy session is all about? Absolutely. Thank you and good morning everybody. So this this strategy session is all about helping you find new and creative ways to bring some money into your content creation. I'll look at your what you're doing now, make some suggestions.

3:15 You just have an overall discussion about where you're trying to go with your content. So make sure you go and do that at Podcasting Morning chat.com/duo. Thank you, Ralph. Yeah, do that. The entries are filling up fast, people. Not that we're going to run out of entries because we've given you unlimited chances to win, pretty much. So go check that out. Find all the ways that you can earn more entries at podcasting. Morning chat.com/duo. OK, before we get into the heart of today's conversation, I had to pause because I wanted to play a new Jingle for everybody courtesy of Ralph. And I know that the majority of you my Co hosts here, you've probably heard it if you've been a part of our little private DM group chat, but worth playing for our audience as well. Now, if you're you've been listening for any period of time, especially over let's say the last month or two, Dr. has every so often mentioned that she stumbles on her words and then she'll say I hate words in the morning. And Ralph got inspired.

4:23 So Ralph made a little Jingle for Dr. Maybe, maybe really this can be for anybody who blames trying to find their words in the morning. We can play this. Coffee's hot brain is not mouth, says glorning. Guess I forgot words are hard in the morning. So hard. Tongue still dreaming, thoughts just snoring. I mean well, but I'm still yawning. Words are hard in the morning. Did I say that out loud? I like that, especially because we all have those moments where we stumble. I know I do. And it's nice to have a little button to kind of have a little fun with that at the same time now. Yeah.

5:05 Dr. you're happy with that? Oh. So happy, I love that thank. You. Yeah, Ralph, now I'm guessing and I think actually you shared this with us. You made this in SUNO, the AI app. Yes, correct, Mark. Yeah. I put out music every week, actually. I write the Christian worship music and I've been working with SUNO now for, oh, I guess about 3 or 4 months. We've got 30 songs out that are on iTunes and Spotify and all that. So yeah, the other morning I was out walking on the farm and I was thinking about Dr. how sometimes she struggles at words in the morning. So I opened up the SUNO app and I said I want a bubbly kind of woman feel of somebody that just is struggling with the words first thing in the morning.

5:47 And I had to be honest, that was about the 7th time I put the prompt in. But when I finally got it, it was about 30 seconds. And I said, yeah, I like that, but we got to narrow it down something. So I said make it about 20 seconds. This one was 17. And as soon as I got done it, I had to send it to Dr. and I said, you got to to hear this. I I I just think it's perfect because it just encapsulate all of us struggle sometimes with things. And I just I love Dr. and I thought this would be a cool way to just give back to DRA little bit into the show. Oh. Thank you so much. It really, it hit home and it's all those words are so very, very true. Thank you so much. Yeah. Thank you, Ralph, for doing that. Yeah, it takes usually a few prompts. I would say it's probably, although I'm keeping it. I would say it's slightly long for my taste from when it comes to a Jingle.

6:38 It'd be cool to have something that goes that's just relatively shortened to the point. But I really enjoy that one. So we're going to keep it. Thank you for that one, Ralph. So I follow someone on Facebook. Seth Drums. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I know exactly who this is. Yeah. And he just came out with a new one where he said, you know, I've been fooling around with the new upgrade to is it called Sono Suno? Yeah, Suno. Yep, right Suno. So apparently they've just had a new upgrade that is amazing. Oh, interesting. OK, good to know. I I don't think I'm paying for Suno at the moment.

7:20 I every once in a while when I get inspiration, I'll go I'll pay for a month and I'll use it for a couple weeks and then I'll cancel it until I need it again. Let's BC you got something for us. Go ahead. Good morning, Sir. Yeah, I somehow missed this in the Top Gun chat. I don't don't know how I did, but I love the Jingle. And I got to say, I almost want to pair it with like 9 to 5 from Dolly Parton kind of, you know how a lot of like really cool, like opening songs in the theater have like a prelude. This shingle should be the prelude. And then we go into Dolly Parton 95 like the perfect morning duo song I think would. Be great. It's true, it's true. Good point it does fit for a morning show yeah, absolutely. Thank you BC well, keep that in mind, although can't really use that because then we'll get in trouble for using music.

8:05 And man, Spotify, YouTube, I mean, I think a lot of us know YouTube's really cracked down. Spotify really is cracking down. I saw that our friend Chris Vaglio, a long time member of this community, his show that does a lot, I think it's now called Vinyl Verdicts if I'm not mistaken, formerly Song Swap Showdown. I know that they recently made the announcement that they're done with their audio broadcast or their audio feed, if you will, because it gets taken down so many times. And YouTube, I guess he's figured out a way to make it all work. But Spotify, he can't, and they just keep taking down his content. So he's just decided, I ain't fighting this battle anymore. I'm just taking my content off the audio streams altogether and more power to him.

8:55 I get it. I get it if it's really that disruptive, disruptive to your flow, you got to sometimes makes the hard decisions and I can appreciate that he went ahead and did that. All right, let's get into this discussion last week, specifically last Tuesday, we had a really strong conversation about why a podcast may not be growing and we talked about things like strategy, content, consistency, and what growth even means in the 1st place. But the more I sat with that conversation afterward, the more I kept coming back to the three things that seemed to show up often when a show is either growing or maybe feeling stuck.

9:39 And to me, those three things, and they may be different, different to you, and that's fine. But for me, those three things usually are clarity, consistency, and compelling content, because I believe that most podcasters know that those things matters. But I'm not sure that we always stop to ask which one matters most, if any, or which one may be the real issue when momentum isn't really happening. So today I want to use basically last week's conversation as the jumping off point and then go a little deeper now. So for example, if a podcast wants stronger growth or stronger momentum, what matters most that that the clarity, the consistency, the compelling content. And when one of those is missing, how do you know? How can you tell specifically?

10:34 But before we decide which one matters most, let's make sure we're even talking about the same things here. So again, because clarity, consistency, content, they can all mean very different things depending on who you ask. So I think the way I want to do this first, which of those three things that I just mentioned feels easiest to define, to define, and which one feels a little more slippery to define because maybe it has multiple meanings. All right, so I'm going to let's see who is that? Let's go to let's see. Oh, we got multiple people here wanting to chime in. We'll go to Matt Bliss first.

11:15 Good morning, Matt. Good morning. I think compelling content, the content bit is probably the hardest to define or nail down, if only because there is a subjective element to it that something compelling to one person isn't as compelling to another person. And so trying to nail that down is probably the hardest and probably requires one of the other two to get to that point, I think. Yeah. I guess also you could make a case that compelling content is subjective. So maybe part of that definition is also compelling content for your audience, right. It's content that your audience finds compelling.

11:57 I mean, yeah, and we can talk about that. Is that the case or is it really compelling for to the podcaster? If the podcaster feels this is compelling, is that enough? I think it's an ABI. Think you've got to have both. Like if you don't, if you're not compelled by, I guess the usual test that I put out there is if you don't want to listen to what you're putting out there, then should you even be making it? So it's got to be compelling to you and try to make it as compelling to your ideal audience as possible. Fairpoint. Yeah. Let's go to BC and hear what BC has to say about this. Go ahead, my friend. Good morning. Right, good morning, right in light with you too. I want to say I want even stretch the definition of compelling just a bit and say that it's not just the AB thing, it's an ABC thing because there's the podcaster, the audience, but also how's your platform that your content is on going to carry your content? I forget who mentioned this, I think it was last week or the week before, but someone mentioned what they like to do is they like to take their podcast transcript and feed it and confirm what questions does this conversation answer? What solutions does this conversation provide? And then use that set of answers to then write out the description, the title, the subtitle to fit. Because all these platforms are query based, people are looking for a solution or they're asking the question. So I think when it comes to compelling content, if we hit what we like, what the audience

13:30 likes, but also what the platform's going to be used to find, then those three elements can really play into it. Yeah. And what's interesting is, and it makes total sense when you're talking about the compelling content, it actually feels like it also applies to clarity for how you're describing it, right? Like being able to, you know, who is this helping? How is it helping them? You know, those are questions, yes, for compelling content, but it also then helps define the clarity component as well. Yeah. Ralph, did you want to chime in too? Yeah, I just wanted to chime in with this. A lot of people see the word consistency and they think, oh, that just means I'm posting every day. But actually, I'm going to take it a little deeper than that as I was thinking about today, consistency means a consistent message that's on point.

14:21 That's the same theme as what your audience is expecting. Because you hear a lot of people talk about, well, I'm just going to be consistently putting out content. Oh, I'm going to make sure I have an episode that comes out every Monday. But that's not what consistency is to me. Consistency to me is that you're delivering on a consistent message that your audience is expecting you to deliver to them. So I think it's easy to go past consistencies. Oh, that's just a, that's just a make sure I check the box that I do want every week. So I just wanted to chime in with that Mark. Ralph, do you feel like if you had to choose, and I'm kind of jumping ahead from my rundown here, but if you had to choose, which of those three CS do you feel is most important for a podcaster?

15:06 Specifically, I actually think it's consistency, and I'll tell you why, because, and we kind of had this discussion yesterday, Nick brought this up about, you know, he's always trying to get to that new thing, that new viral moment. And I think that's where the idea of compelling can get you in trouble because if you always feel like I got to deliver something that no one else is delivering, I don't know. That helps you grow your audience. I think what helps you grow your audience is developing that relationship with them. And you develop that relationship by being consistent. Consistent in the things you speak about, consistent in your tone of voice, consistent in the way that you treat the people who are guests on your show or the things you talk about.

15:46 South Mark, for me, honestly, I think the biggest thing is consistency. Secondly, by clarity, because I think you need to be abundantly clear in what you're trying to convey in your content. So for me, consistency, clarity, compelling, honestly, the truth is, like I listen to some podcasts that aren't terribly compelling, but I want to hear what the host is going to say next because I've developed a relationship with that person. And I don't know who said it, but I've heard it said people don't come back for content. They come back for you, they come back for that relationship. And, and honestly, I think that's why a lot of people join us in the morning. It's the relationships that we have with each other, and it's the relationships that the audience has developed with each one of us.

16:28 Yeah, they're not coming for our crappy content, that's for sure. That is not at all what I was saying, my friend. I know. And by the way, Ralph, since you brought up yesterday's show, it's a good moment to pause real quick and say not just thank you for holding down the Fort, but also really killing it yesterday on the fly, being able to run a whole show that you didn't even prepare. You ran the show that Jonathan prepared. But unfortunately, Jonathan was dealing with some health issues. He's fine, but but it did prevent him from taking control yesterday of the show and actually showing up at all for the show. So kudos to you, Ralph.

17:10 Thank you for doing what you did yesterday. Not easy, honest moment. I have to be honest, about two minutes before I'm thinking, is Jonathan going to make it? I hope he's OK. And then I'm saying, oh, I know he did a slide presentation. I looked at it a few minutes before the show, but honestly, I feel like I was juggling balls the whole time. But I just want to thank Nick. I want to thank Sid and everybody else that helped chime in yesterday because actually, I think it turned out to be a really cool episode. The only problem is Mark listening back to it. I wish I would have said take a bite out of crime. I think it would have been cooler if I just said that a few times. But thank you. Thank you, Mark. I appreciate that. Yeah, you're welcome, Ralph. Thank you. And looking here in the clubhouse chat, Jessica says these three things she's calling virtues, she says they aren't separate virtues.

17:59 They are spot. The spine, heart and voice of a podcast held together creates one body of work. Very well said. I mean, I think there is something to be said about that. All three components. Maybe 1 doesn't outweigh the the other. Maybe all are necessary. I know when I was listening to Ralph Scheer, I was thinking, wow, so compelling content he's holding till the last spot. But as he kept making his case for the other two, I was thinking, well, yeah, that makes sense. But. And then I was like, yeah, that makes but you know, it's, it's it's, yeah, there is a case here that all three may be important. BC did you want to add more to this?

18:41 Yeah, there's one clarifying question with Ralph's earlier point. Before the audience here when you mention that with consistency is about answering a expected question or message that your audience is expecting. I know what you're saying. And just before the audience, you're clarifying that it's about an overarching message that kind of goes across your entire show, as opposed to how your episodic topics might fluctuate, correct? Yeah, exactly. I think that you need to be addressing a pain point of your audience. It could be you want to entertain them, it could be you want to educate them, it could be you want to inform them, but you've always got to be doing it.

19:22 I think the trap is a lot of content creators go off on tangents and they have episodes that have nothing to do with the core reason that their audience is coming. And that is not consistency. To me, it's one thing to put out a show every day, every week that just because the sake you put something out, but I think you need to stay on message and you always have to say, OK, is this message delivering the core things that my audience is coming to me for. So. So BC I hope that addresses where I was going with that. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you both, appreciate that. And Jessica also put in the chat here. We return for the 4th C connection.

20:03 Yeah, I can't disagree with that either. If we're adding on to that those list of those top three, that at least the ones that I chose, connection I think is a really important one and worth part of a conversation, part of this conversation. And I want to jump back to Matt for a second because Matt, you put something in the chat that I think is worth a discussion around consistency. You said consistency is not frequency, and I feel like a lot of us make that jump, make that assumption that it is. Yeah. Why do you feel differently? Well, I think Ralph pretty much covered it, at least nestled away in all of those good bombs that he was dropping there.

20:43 But that doesn't work for everybody. And in all honesty, I was actually going to Chuck my hand up there and start to say things like, there's always an exception to what we're talking about here. Like, these aren't rules necessarily, but they're a good starting point. The good starting point is doing content every week. But as you continue to make the content and get clear and establish your connection with your audience and all of these other aspects, you may not have to do it every week. And that's the other trap for new podcasters and content creators too. You're not trapped in weekly, daily content. You can change it as long as you're clear and you know all of the other things we've been talking about.

21:27 So don't feel like you have to do weekly. Every, every time I hear someone who's new to the podcasting space give advice like that and say, you know what? If you want to be effective and make sure your audience knows where you are, show up every day, every time, exactly the same every week, and they will just appear that it's not the case. You don't have to be frequent, you just have to be consistent. So Matt, would you and I think you kind of said this, but just to be clear. So yeah, I'm with you that it does not have to be weekly. That does not define consistency. But my question then, do you believe that people should be, let's say they want to do it bi weekly, Do they want to show?

22:08 Is it important for them to show up on that same day, let's say every other Wednesday? That podcast comes out every other Wednesday. Is that important? Does that fall under the definition of consistency for you? I think so. I think the corollary to what I just said, if it's not frequency, then you just have to be clear with the expectations of your audience. So if they know to expect something from you once a month, then that's when to expect it. I think the expectation is even a bit of a Gray area because podcasts come out when they come out. I think we all want to think about what happens in the 1st 24 hours and that people show up as soon as the episode releases and consumes it straight away. But there have been episodes on this show that talk about that first 24 hours isn't necessarily the most valuable period unless you've got a sponsor or any kind of obligations and stuff like that.

23:04 So expectations and transparency that comes with clarity and connection with your audience. There's, there's a lot, a lot of rabbit holes we could jump down with that. So I'll be guarded by you when you want to keep going or not with that one. Yeah, I I do. But let's see what Ralph. Maybe he wants to add something to what you're saying. Go ahead, Ralph. Yeah. And I want to add to this what Matt is sort of alluding to, but I don't think said is this is where having an ecosystem for your content is so important. Because if you have an ecosystem of emails that are going out, YouTube Shorts and Reels, you're reinforcing that message and you're reinforcing that frequency.

23:44 And I have to trumpet what Matt said. It's not the sake of what I have to put something out every week. Because I think the problem with that thought is people put out mediocre mess stuff when that happens just because they see it on their calendar. I've got to do a show. And I found myself in that same trap doing a Daily Show. I had to take a step back at times and say, you know what, Ralph? This isn't great. This isn't delivering now. I've gotten to the point now where I've got to the point where I'm delivering on a daily basis. But it's a lot of methodology. There's a lot of intention to that, but if you're not meeting a weekly thing, connect with your audience, share with them. Here's what's going on. I think we got a delicate balance here. I think there definitely is value in being consistent as it relates to frequency because I think people do build it into their routine.

24:32 I'll give you a great example of that. Like I listen to Dave Jackson show every Monday morning when I'm lifting weights and I just know it's going to be there when I get up on Monday morning. I listen to James Credlin's Pod News Daily Show every morning. I listen to the show on Friday. So I think some of that is true. But if you're just putting content out for the sake of frequency, be careful with that because I don't think that's going to grow your audience. And that's really what we were talking about here at the beginning was what are the stumbling blocks to growing your audience? And if you're just putting out stuff in a frequency pattern, I don't know it's going to help you grow your audience. Yeah. And I want to add on to that too. Sometimes look, I think that there is a case for weekly content and being consistent in that way.

25:16 And to your point, Ralph, I also believe that sometimes, sometimes it's not our best day. Sometimes we don't have the best content to put forward for our audience, but maybe we have a single thought or we have a single tip that we do think would be valuable to our audience. There is nothing wrong with, and I encourage you then do a podcast episode on that one tip. If it takes you 5 minutes in order to both provide valuable content and that frequency, I won't call it consistency, but I do think frequency is important. So I would say go for it at that point. Put out that one tip, put out that 5 minute episode because at least you're still showing up and you're showing up in a way that's valuable to your community.

26:03 I'm going to let Matt respond to that because I'm thinking that's why he just raised his hand. And then I'm going to go to Nick, who has something to add to all this too. Go ahead, Matt. I think it is perfectly acceptable for someone starting a new podcast project or at the very beginning of their creation journey at all to have consistency B frequency, because showing up all the time means that you are putting the reps in to create that content. And you won't be clear and you won't have compelling content at the beginning, but that frequency builds the reps for you to then become clear and make the content compelling to be able to do it. So if you're at the start, don't listen to us and say showing up every week isn't important because sometimes for you it might be just to be there and start creating. Some people need that, you know.

26:52 Yep, Yep. Thank you, Matt. Real quick, let me pause here because I want to remind you that this Thursday, we're back with one of our podcast evaluation episodes on the podcasting morning chat. And that's where our team listens closely, shares thoughtful and honest feedback, and turns 1 podcast into a learning opportunity for everyone in the room. I feel like somebody's mic is off. Yeah, it's Jonathan's. Sorry. This week, we're evaluate evaluating. Let me do this. Coffee's hot brain is not mouth, says glorning. Guess I forgot words are hard in the morning. So hard.

27:33 Tongue still dreaming, thoughts just snoring. I mean well, but I'm still yawning. Words are hard in the morning. Did I say that out loud? This week we're evaluating Salvage, a narrative podcast focused on historic ocean events, survival, and fatal decisions. So join us live for a breakdown of the storytelling, pacing, audio delivery, and a whole lot more. You can get the link to hear the episode we'll be evaluating in our show notes today. And of course, we'll play lots of clips for you during throughout that episode on Thursday, so you can really get the context of what we're actually talking about when we're breaking down this episode.

28:16 He's he's excited about. Oh yeah, you talked to him. Yeah, he's very excited. He's really looking forward to it. Awesome, awesome. Glad to hear it. So let's make sure we give him a link. If he wants to join us live, he's welcome to do that too. So, and that's a fair reminder to our team. Please go check that out and evaluate, get your forms in so that we can have a healthy conversation around that. So thank you. OK, Nick, I wanted to come to you. You had something you wanted to add to this whole discussion around content clarity. What was my last one? Consistency. Go for it, Nick. Let's see if I can rein my thoughts in, similar to what Matt was saying, like compelling content, the clarity, like all that's going to become with repetition.

29:06 And I honestly think that information is king when it comes to all this. The data, all of that is extremely important and it is very difficult to put together great data points when the content is infrequent. So if you are starting out, I think there's some merit to starting out with a higher frequency to get the reps in, collect more data. And just I, I think about like back when I was before podcasting even, I was doing blog posts and I was analyzing analytics and looking at all the stuff, trying to figure out where my audience was and is.

29:49 And when I was putting out a blog post a week, it was like, I have to wait a whole week and then some just to see any kind of movement or anything going on. Where when I was putting out multiple blog posts a week, you start getting more consistent data coming in that can help shape and direct you. And you kind of lose that if you have a very infrequent or a less, Yeah, a less frequent. Show. But aside from the data point aspect of it, which I think is extremely important, you have to remember how fast content moves now, like if as a creator, and this is especially true on social media, I don't think it's as prevalent in podcasts, you know, like long form content.

30:29 But if you're not consistently putting out content, your audience is going to get the content from someone else. So if someone else is putting out content five times a week and you're doing once a week, whose content do you think they're going to see? So I do think that there is some merit to the frequency side of things. So, but at the beginning, I think the more content you can put out, the more information you're going to have, the more trust you're going to build with people and the more people are just going to recognize you. And if your content is clear and that message is clear and consistent, like it's just going to further reinforce you and your brand that that's what I wanted to add. Yeah. Thank you. And there was one other thing that you said earlier that I wanted to reiterate because you reiterated the other points that I think had a lot of merit.

31:13 But the idea that you're putting in the reps, especially early on, like there is a lot to be said about that. There's value there. The more you can get in, I think the quicker you'll get comfortable because it does take time. If this is new to you, if you haven't often pulled out a microphone and a camera and started recording content for other people to see, there is a learning curve for all of us if we're in the, that particular position. So I, I really appreciate that point because I don't think it's talked about enough when we talk about frequency. So thank you for that, Nick. I'm going to go to Dr. and then I'm going to go to BC.

31:53 First, I just wanted to read. I saw Jonathan had a point here. Jonathan, define your own consistency and then stick to that. Yes, totally with you there, Jonathan and Dr. what did you want to add? Well, the way the question was asked kind of insinuate insinuates is not the right word. But words are hard in the morning. OK, So kind of has this feeling of, you know, if you batch your episodes, you wouldn't really necessarily have to worry about those off days, those days that don't feel so good because you've got episodes in the bank that you can bring out.

32:37 And you know, in all transparency, Mark, you and I have talked about trying to bank some episodes for this show and we just haven't landed on on them yet. But it's definitely something that is still on the back burner for us. Yeah, well, one of the ways we're going to do that is we're going to do a spotlight series with the entire team and have individual interviews to get to know them better, their content creation journeys better. Because I think it's important for our audience, as we said earlier, right? We there's a trust that builds on a podcast between an audience and a host, and in our case, multiple hosts. Yeah.

33:19 So I'd like to put people in the spotlight and bank those episodes for those rainy days, for those days that like yesterday that we could have done that instead of putting Ralph on in the hot seat, running a whole show that he hadn't prepared. Right. Yeah. OK, cool. Yeah. Good point, Dr. Thank you for that. DC, did you want to chime in or did you take your hand down? Legacy Hand. Legacy Hand. Legacy hands. Gotcha. OK, cool. So there's one area I wanted to get into here. Where do you think podcasters are naturally stronger in one area, one of those areas, those three areas then the other? Like do we think that? Now I know that's, that can depend on where we are in our podcasting journey, but let's talk about early on 1st as early podcasters since we've all been there, where do you think podcasters are naturally stronger in those three CS? Or if maybe you think there's another area, where are they stronger than others?

34:20 Yeah, Ralph, go ahead. Well, I'll be honest with you. I'll talk about me. So when I relaunched my podcast in November of 2023, I made a commitment that day. I said I'm going to do a daily podcast for three years. I'm going to do it every day. I'm going to put content out every single day. O for me, the easiest thing to do, Mark, honestly, was be frequency consistent. I knew every day. Now I got to be honest with you. I sound like an air traffic controller. At first I was putting out hour long daily content. I put in the chat and I hope we want to go back to this, but could you actually be putting out too much information? And I, and I look back at it, I had a couple people say to me, I did an audience survey and they said, Ralph, man, we love you.

35:00 But dude, we can only take one bite at a time. And So what I've had to do is it was easy to put out more and more, man, Dude, I can dump about financial stuff for hours like you would. I could put you to sleep because I've seen it all. I've been doing this for 30 years. It's like old hat to me. But the thing that I said that you asked the question, I'm going to answer your question directly. For me, it was easy to put out frequency. It was like, OK, I'm going to make a commitment to do this every single day. But what I've learned is that I was putting out too much. I was overwhelming people. So as much as I wanted to grow my audience, they were like, yeah, I can listen to you once a week. But dude, when you go on for an hour every day, I can't make that commitment. Dude. That's way too much for me. That's totally fair.

35:43 Yeah. And I saw Jonathan wanted to chime in when you were sharing. So let me just jump right to Jonathan. Go ahead. Good morning, Sir. How are you feeling, by the way? Good morning. I am alive and downstairs. So that's a good thing. What I wanted to say was so there's right Nowadays information can be gotten everywhere. So information isn't what matters. I think what really matters, Ralph, is being out there and putting things out, whatever your frequency is, but so that people get to know you. It's not the information they're really showing up and ready for, because they can get that information anywhere. Yep, Fairpoint. Thank you.

36:24 Jonathan, I saw Ralph, you were nodding your head there. Did you want to chime? In I just wanted to say yes but. No, in my world it's yes and. OK, so yes and all right, fair enough. Yes, and you also can overwhelm them though too. And I just think we need to be very careful about information over though. But I agree with you, Jonathan. You're connecting to your audience, you're building and you know, I'm all about relationships. You're building that relationship when you're being consistent. So, Jonathan, you and I are very much on the same page. Thank you, Ralph. Thank you, Jonathan for that clarifying point. I appreciate it. Let's see. Let's go to Matt and then Janae is on stage as well. So we will hear from him too.

37:05 Go for it, Matt. I had a follow up but I got a few things from what about random my brain at the moment. So what I will say is that we don't also have AC that I think new podcasters have in abundance at the beginning. We have an E. Which is enthusiasm. And I think there's like a almost a linear curve of enthusiasm dipping over time as podcasters get more and more overwhelmed. I think if we were going to frame it right, Ralph's enthusiasm led to his commitment, which led to consistency, which allowed him to get clear on all of the things we're talking about that are great. But I think bridling that enthusiasm and having the journey be clear enough to any podcaster starting ensures that all of these things are possible. Like you're doing the Nic, you're getting your data to become clearer after the frequency to become consistent, building your connection with your audience and that feedback loop recurring, you know, or a Boris of information that helps you even if you are over informative at the start and don't focus on the trust and connection that Jonathan's talking about, you'll get there.

38:14 Like it just takes a little bit of time to get there and a little bit of practice. So enthusiasm CCCCE we. Need one more vowel? I feel like we could start making this into an acronym, but yeah we'll we'll see. Go ahead BC You got to come off mute though. Yes, I do. I'm really happy that Matt brought up the thought about enthusiasm because I had a point. I wasn't sure how to make it work. Then he mentioned enthusiasm because I think another area that early on podcasters have really strong engagement with is clarity, initial clarity of what they want their show to be about. And I think they come in, they maintain that more simplistic view of a podcasting is they can maintain that initial clarity.

39:00 But I think what happens is that they get introduced to the world of podcasting. They see all the nuances, all the ways in which they're show can pivot which way or what. And then the clarity becomes less and less. And then they start to question where do we want the show to go? And I think when that happens, both the clarity and the enthusiasm begin to plateau or dip down. So that's my little to take there. I love that. And I know I keep saying we're coming to you, Janae, to stand by, but I see Matt wanted to respond. So go ahead, Matt. Getting too focused on pulling that hand down before I even unmute the microphone. I don't want these people on the screen. The way the thing that I forgot about before that I was going to mention ties directly into what BC is talking about there. And to keep in mind, it's the Dunning Kruger effect. It's a cognitive bias whereby we think we know everything we need to know, but we actually know less than we think. We feel like we have mastery, but there's still quite a journey to go.

39:59 So an enthusiastic podcaster feels like they have clarity. And I think the important thing to know is that you're at the beginning of that Dunning Kruger curve. The journey isn't as clear to you, but being enthusiastic and clear about what you're doing will push you into those spaces to test things. But just make sure that you're open. To change and adapting as things don't happen the way you expect. Because we all fall in the Dunning Kruger trap. And I'm very deliberately not trying to explain it because it'll take a while to explain, but Google it if you want to find out more. Thank you, Matt. Dave in the chat said. I think we need a quote UN quote wheel of Matt.

40:39 He's an amazing linguistics toolbox. Maybe I need a penalty box or something that you guys can just Chuck me in when you know that you're running out of time. Right, well Matt, I gotta say your answers have been very concise and to the point today. And to Daves point, yeah, you are a plethora of knowledge when it comes to words and linguistics. Yes, I agree with him wholeheartedly. It's our version of the Naughty Chair, the podcasting version of the Naughty Chair. Yes, and it defies the whole words in the morning Jingle that we've just adopted because Matt seems to do very well, but he's also several hours ahead of us, so it's not the morning anymore. Currently my afternoon, I've been awake for several hours already. Hey, Mark.

41:24 Mark, can I just interject something for those of us who are doing this live? You've got to read what Matt has as his subtitle under his name today because I see he's intentionally changed that. And Matt, I want you to share that because I just think it's perfect. Yeah. So for the listeners, it says my name, and underneath it says freshly apocalyptimistic. Now to shove those two things together, it's an interesting paradoxical term, but it's actually related to a film that's currently only coming out in the US It's a film about the future of AI, made in, I think, in consultation with the Center for Humane Technology. But it's the directors and producers of, I think they called them the Dan's Everywhere All at Once. Fill that in for me.

42:14 They directed it, interviewed all of the the bigwigs, the massive people in AI and they're trying to find the human element in AI progression out of the Duma kind of mentality alongside the tech optimist mentality. So there's an apocalypse, some people are optimistic. And so it's the AI doc, how I became an apocalyptimist. So I've stolen it from somewhere, but you should look it up. The AI doc. Very important thing to watch I think. OK, OK, cool. But Mark, Mark, I wanted, I wanted to interject that because, and I know you want to go to Janae, but I just want to throw something out there because Matt just keyed into something we hadn't thought about. A lot of people have built their content around AI and this is where a time when we talk about consistency and clarity and all that, think about, are you speaking from the heart?

43:05 Are you speaking from the AI chat bot? I just want to throw that out there because I've seen a lot of that lately. This is a good time. As we're talking about growing your show, are you growing it based on things that you've experienced, your takeaways from those things? Are you growing it from what AI is spitting out for you? Yeah, it's been really driving me crazy, all the AI written content lately. I mean, I do it too. Again, I'm not ashamed to admit it, but I do really try to go through it with a fine tooth comb and ask myself, does this really sound like me or does it sound like AI? And if it sounds like AI, I'm changing it up. But yeah, I made AI, did a Instagram story the other day, calling out when people, when I know, and how I know when people are using AI.

43:53 And surprisingly, it was a more popular story than I thought it would be. But a lot of people I guess resonated with it especially. It's that term that I've called out here before. When you're writing and you say multiple times in one piece of writing, whether it's a script, A blog, or whatever, when you're doing the whole, it's not this, it's that nonsense. If you do that multiple times in one sitting, I know you've had AI write it right like it. So I get it that because there are times that I naturally might use that kind of phrasing, but I'm not using it multiple times in one sitting. We'll need to take a deep dive into this captivating subject matter.

44:37 Are you being AI right now? Yeah. We need to delve deeper. I think you mean Dr. The delve stuff has gotten better, I think most people have gotten rid of using that for the most part nowadays and when they use it I feel like now it's more natural. But I remember when ChatGPT really made it onto the scene and everyone started using it, there was some report that showed it might have been like a Webster's report, dictionary report or something, that the word Delve had been used an unimaginable amount of times compared to prior to AI. It was fascinating. I can't remember the actual stats. Anyway, let's finally get to Jinnade. Who? Yes, Jonathan, deep dive is another one. I agree.

45:20 Jinnade, please share. What did you want to add to this conversation, if you can remember at this point? Good morning everyone. Thank you for inviting me to the stage while I asked to come here. And I was going to share about where consistency and growth are interconnected. And if you cut down on one of them, you're going to be hemorrhaging your growth. It's almost like you've planted the seeds and then you're watering daily, but then eventually you only water weekly. But then that also depends on how big that tree has grown and what fruits are you seeing. So again, you got a private conversation in in a way on a podcast where not only are you sharing what you're going through and then and then think you can talk for hours on the struggles you're going on and people will stick with it because they relate with what you're going through.

46:18 And an hour long of that kind of conversation could survive. But if proofread information, information, information that might be like, OK, I've had enough information. I want to know about what's actually happening in your life. Are you lifing or are you just, you know, are you laughing like I am? And when you share that, people feel a lot more connected than if you just shared them about, hey, the latest industry report said that the SU instability came out to 300% because of the AI growth spot. Like if you're just sharing information or sharing knowledge base, people can take only so much as opposed to if you're talking about life in general, because that's going to attract more people from the general audience.

47:08 Was that general enough? I don't know. Matt, I think wanted to respond. Go ahead, Matt. Yeah, I like this analogy that you used, watering a plant in order to grow a tree that bears fruit. But I think we can extend that further because a tree doesn't just need water, it needs fertilizer. And there are going to be some trees that grow better even without watering it yourself. Sometimes they just need a bit of fertilizer and the right environment and they grow. So the podcasts that are information based, perhaps news shows where commentary isn't the important thing, just details about the world. They're the succulents that really you just put out there in the world, a bit of dirt and a bit of fertilizer and they grow. Or they just sustain themselves without you having to do much work.

47:56 But the other trees that do require water, that is that audience connection where you can share a little bit more of yourself that yeah, I think that analogy sticks. I think it's a good one. Yeah, Janae is putting in the chat and emphatic yes, so I think he's on the same. Page woo Hoo and my brain is awoke today. The words are working. Oh, wrong one. Coffee's hot braining. The words are working, it says. Glorning. Guess I forgot words are hard in the morning. So hard. Tongue still dreaming. That's just snoring. I mean well, but I'm still yawning. Words are hard in the morning. Did I say that out loud?

48:36 And Dolly? No. OK. And Dolly, that's right. Listen gang, I think what I like about this conversation is that it takes growth out of the vague, frustrating category and gives us something a little more concrete to look at. Because if a show isn't growing the way you want, or if momentum feels slower than maybe you would expect it, it may come back to one of those three things, those three CS that we're talking about, and maybe some of the others that we've talked about as well. Maybe the show isn't clear enough, or maybe the consistency isn't strong enough, or maybe the content just isn't compelling enough yet for people to come back or share it. And maybe the real challenge is being honest enough to just figure out which one or multiple of those things you're you need to pay attention to most.

49:31 So thank you all for a great conversation this morning. And a reminder that tomorrow we're back with all things podcasting news. So we'll talk about the things that we believe may be important for you as a content creator to stay in the know about. And we'll talk about those things as well. And a reminder if you want to see, we had at least, Yeah, five of us from the stage on video today. And if you want to join the five of us, sometimes more on on the video streams, just go to podcastingmorningchat.com/join us and you can learn all the different ways that you can catch us live audio or video. So until tomorrow, make it a great day everybody take care.